Disruption

1 The Call

It’s a bit unusual for a young daughter to narrate what her mother is doing. However, I am ten years old going on eighty and figured it was better to know what my mother was doing then naively sit by and act like a ninny.

I am Alex’s adopted daughter, Aurea. I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil to two wonderful parents. However, my wonderful father was a drug distributor.

Yea I know that is horrible but he was a great father.

When he fled and came to the United States, he thought that he had escaped to a new honest life but…he had not.

I learned that to protect me from the drug dealer that had traveled to the US to kill him, he and my mother left me on a stranger’s porch. She was a stranger to them but they both knew her by the reputation she had earned as the leading police detective in Cincinnati. They never missed her reports when she made the news.

It was the only place they could think of where they could leave me and know that I would be safe.

They were running from the man sent to get them and had not been sure they would escape and…. they did not. They were killed but it would take months for me to find out.

They had not randomly picked any porch; they had picked the porch of a person they were sure would be able to protect me. It was Alex Evercrest’s Price Hill home. Not only did she protect me, but she also dealt with the Brazilian drug lord and the person who had killed my parents.

Then in a move that forever changed my life as well as hers, she and her husband Matt adopted me.

I know now that they both love me.

My mother left a very successful career as the lead Detective in the Cincinnati Police Detective Unit so she could raise me in the house where she had grown up. She was able to set up her new detective service in Evanston, Illinois, which was within walking distance of the marina where her father had kept the boat that she and he had used to go out on Lake Michigan every Saturday morning. She bought the marina and the boat, the “Golden Goose.”

We moved into the house that she had grown up in.

She, Matt, and I live on the second floor.

Her parents, Rose-Anne a very successful lawyer her father, Russel, a distinguished professor at Northwestern University live in one wing on the first floor.

We all share the great room, the kitchen, and the swimming pool.

It is such a great place. I can swim in the pool every day and there is also a hot tub that is great to just sit in.

I thought of her as rich when I was put on the porch in Cincinnati.

When I saw the house she had grown up in I knew she had grown up rich.

When she solved her first case from her Evanston office and the business made close to a billion dollars.

I knew she was rich.

I am narrating this because I am an old child who is a mulatto girl born in Brazil, adopted by a family that is black but rich and go to an all-white school in Evanston, Illinois where I am determined to follow in my adopted mother’s footsteps.

Let me say that I don’t discriminate based on a person’s skin color but see if they follow my mother’s guidance of “treat others as you wish to be treated.” And that means there are lots of people that I discriminate against.

So now you know a little about me.

I would like to focus on the impossible case that, Jane Stradford, the Illinois Lieutenant governor, the person that my mother considered an “Aunt,” who also had my mother on retainer called to ask her to take on.

It was an impossible case, but my mother accepted the challenge of reducing the drug flow coming into the Chicago Area.

As was her habit she always followed the money and in this case the money flow was huge, and it was the most critical element.

It was also the element that would draw the most reaction from the four major Mexican drug cartels operating in Chicago.

So, you are going to be listening to this eighty-year-old, pre-teen as I narrate a story that blows my mind and pulled me in as if I was a fish that had taken the bait, hook line and sinker.

This case was a pivotal moment in my life!!!

* * * * * * *

The exchange of money for drugs along Independence Boulevard was on full display as Jane walked by with Police Chief, Jesse Franklin. He was informing her that more than one million one hundred thousand persons twelve or older had used illicit drugs in the Chicago area in the past year.

She learned that the primary drug markets were located on the South and West sides of the city in areas controlled by violent street gangs and what she was observing was just the tip of the iceberg. He let her know that the common drugs being sold were cocaine, marijuana, opioids, and methamphetamines. He added that marijuana followed by heroin were the two drugs sold in the highest volume.

She had requested the on the street tour , was shocked by the openness of the drug transactions and wanted to know why the police department was not out in full force arresting everyone that they were walking by.

The Chief shook his head and replied that he had tried that and then it became obvious that the bottleneck was that he had overloaded the judiciary and those arrested never got to court but had to be released. So now he had his men arrest pushers but only at the rate that the courts could process them.

She returned to her office and went to a meeting that was digging into the drug problem. Those present at the meeting were from the city and the communities in the surrounding area.

She knew that as long as there were customers there would be drugs flowing.

She had suggested a balanced program that arrested the buyers and the pushers and charged one for illegally buying and the other for selling. That had been a lead balloon that hit the floor as soon as she launched it.

She felt like she was getting an education on the drug business that she had thought she was on top of but in fact had learned facts and seen activity that made her realize that she needed to change the approach versus continue to sit in meetings and listening to complaints that seemed to have no solutions or suggestions that got no support.

In the meeting she learned that the drug traffickers were operating on the Dark web that is primarily used for illegal activities like selling stolen personal information, paying for an assassination, and trafficking in weapons and drugs. This she learned was a part of the internet that is hidden from the normal search engines and used to circumvent law enforcement.

She was introduced to the Tor and I2P browsers that was capable of browsing the Dark web and the use of Onion routing techniques that protected a user’s identity by routing their information through many layers of relay points.

She also learned that intelligence agencies were active on the Dark web. She was introduced to the concept of the Clearnet that is comprised of most of the public websites that get visited during normal browsing of the internet and the concept of the Deep web also referred to as the Invisible web hidden from searches by the common commercial search engines.

She had learned a lot but had no idea of how to make a dent in the drug situation in the Chicago area.

During the meeting it was clear to her that continuing the effort to reduce the quantity of drugs being distributed in the Chicago area needed a fresh approach and an approach that would be able to follow the trail in the various realms of technology that enabled closer and secret communications such as the Activate My Line of Site (ALMOs) and the use of the Dark Web by the drug pushers.

She needed someone who could interact in the current challenging environment and do something concrete to change it.

She knew it was time to call her very capable “niece,” Alex who had relocated to Evanston and had opened her own detective agency.

She remembered well that Alex had taken on an investigation that had stumped both the Canadian and US top police agencies.

That was the case that was referred to as “The Sins of the Daughter,” where Alex had worked across international boundaries to solve the case of a female serial killer. Alex had solved that case in record time after the other agencies had work for two years and had come up cold.

She figured that at a minimum the drug trade would take her to both the Canadian and Mexican border. She had confidence that Alex would figure out some sort of action that would be felt by the drug distribution community. She had no idea of how to provide any guidance but she did have Alex on retainer and she was going to ask her to do something.

In her office, Alex was sitting and reviewing the last few cases that Evercrest, McGregor, Smith and Obrien Partners, LLC had just closed. It had been a slow few months but she had enjoyed that time because it allowed her to be the “mother” to Aurea in a manner that let the two of them bond in the same way she had bonded with her parents.

When school was over the two of them would sit on the deck of the Golden Goose, sip on a root beer or orange soda, talk and do homework. If the Golden Goose was out on charter they would eat at the newly opened Golden Goose Restaurant, afterwards walk to the office, and do homework in one of the meeting rooms. She smiled as she thought that it was great that business was slow.

The call from Jane came somewhat of a surprise. From the tone of Jane’s voice Alex knew that she was about to get activated. She was on a retainer with the state of Illinois via Jane’s office.

She listened as Jane outlined the situation that she was facing with the flow of drugs into Chicago. She asked if Alex would take on the task of reducing the flow.

Alex was quiet for a moment. She was not contemplating rejecting the request but she was thinking about what she could do to make even a dent in the drug flow. She asked Jane how they would measure success of such an effort.

She pointed out that as long as there were people wanting to buy drugs, the flow would continue. She said that she wanted to engage her team and arranged a meeting with them for the following day to get their read on taking on such a case.

After the call she asked Marisa to set up a meeting with Trey, Johnnie, Linda, and Lorie with the objective to discuss a new case.

When the meeting started, Lorie said that she hoped that they would finally get a case with some challenge.

Linda laughed and reminded her that she might regret getting what she wished for. She reminded Lorie that she had asked for action on their first case and had been shot by the person they were tracking.

Johnnie joined in on the banter and said that he had a very lucky day when he had stopped the boss on her way to work. He had been wishing someone would listen to him. He paused for a moment and then in a sad voice said…“she did and look what had happened to him.”

Lorie laughed and said that yes look at him now, one of the richest, black Vietnam veterans in the country.

Trey as always was the quiet one but he added that Alex had positively impacted all of them. He said he wanted to know what the case they were about to hear was all about.

Alex described the case they were being asked to handle as a case that had no long term solution.

As it became clear that they were being asked to disrupt the flow of drugs and confiscate as much of the cash flowing back to the suppliers of the drugs, Johnnie said that once he had the names of the individuals involved he would see if he could hack his way into their computers. He smiled and said that he would set up the door leading to the disruption of the cash flow and he would leave the shooting part for the rest of the team to enjoy because the voice of the drug cartels was usually heard as big bangs.

Alex nodded and agreed that the internet was going to be a key part of their investigation. She asked Lorie, who had also become an excellent hacker to partner with Johnnie. She then said that she, Linda, and Trey were going to keep their boots on the ground. They would investigate how the drugs were flowing in and how cash might be flowing out of the country. She added that she wanted the three of them to disappoint Johnnie and not do any shooting.

She asked Marisa to be their communications coordinator and keep everyone working together even when she and her team were out in the field.

Marisa smiled and said that she was being given the most difficult job and would be eating a lot of ice cream to keep down her stress.

She just loved working with everyone and felt great about being included in the planning.

Johnnie asked Lorie if she wanted to sit in his office and get set up to hack into bank accounts and other personal computer systems.

Alex asked Marisa to contact Jane’s office and get the names of the most prolific Chicago area drug distributors. She was not looking for anyone distributing on the streets but was looking for the persons providing the drugs to the distributors. She wanted to take action against the top leaders.

Immediately after the team meeting she called Jane to let her know that her team had all agreed to take on the case and that she would be getting a call from her support for names and any other information that would help.

Harold was sitting in his office thinking about what he needed to have his team do next to at least slow the drug flow into the Chicago area including the vicinity around it when he got a call from Alex. His association with her had started long ago on the day he had watched a coal barge light the sky out over Lake Michigan and the person he met returning from a fishing trip in an small open fishing boat that she had rented to go out in. Since that day, every additional meeting seemed to be associated with the cases that got tougher but all that she eventually solved.

This time when she let him know that she had been requested to take some sort of action to reduce the flow of drugs into the Chicago area, a smile spread across his face.

He asked how he and his team might be of help. She also let him know that she had her whole team sitting with her to listen to their discussion. He greeted everyone and asked what kind of fun were they all going get into together.

Alex knew that Harold would be one of the people that would provide some details that would help her team get a foothold on what she saw as an ocean of drugs whose tidal surge made the shore hard to stand on. She asked if he would help her and the team by sharing some of the key people importing drugs into Chicago.

Harold said that he was sending the information of four top people as they talked who were doing the distribution and he also had several names of the people that were handling the money. That money went mostly back to Mexico but he also had two additional contacts that spirited the money through Canada and through China. He said that much of the Mexican cartel money flow was a physical transport of cash that they had always practiced and it took three forms.

He said that a common form was for a well-paid courier, usually a Latin American woman who boarded a plane with a prepared carryon suitcase or backpack packed with cash in the form of one hundred dollar bills.

This was hard to intercept because their carry on were packed so they would not trigger an inspection when they went through customs.

He added that his team was currently watching two women of Columbian and Mexican heritage who had made frequent trips in the last year and were suspected of transporting cash back to Mexico and to Columbia. He said that he had that covered and didn’t need help there.

He then said that a good percentage of the money was distributed to different small companies. He provided the names of second hand car dealers that his group suspected. He added that many were relatives or friends of the drug distributors. They conducted their business in a cash only approach and simply overstated the number of cars sold and were thus able to put money into their bank accounts.

He added that he felt that a good hacker could deal effectively with those people and he did not want to know anything about how Johnnie might handle that area.

There was a moment of silence then he went on and said that the third area was the transporting the money via truck. The trucks that had delivered the drugs went back to Mexico loaded with cash. That was the way eighty percent of the money currently returned to Mexico.

Most of the other twenty percent went to Canada where it was then distributed through a series of small companies and eventually returned to the US as laundered money.

He added that in both cases, he, his team, and other law enforcement personnel were hampered by many of the laws that kept them from legally stopping the suspected trucks doing the transporting.

They could only stop a truck if they had direct evidence of smuggling that was in progress and that was a very hard criteria to meet.

He added that the reason that cash went back to the kingpin sending the drugs to the US was usually that it was needed to pay for the next shipment of drugs. Or in the case of the more old fashioned organizations, the leader wanted to have the money close at hand for any personal or organizational emergencies.

Harold then shared the fact that one of the cartels that had come to Alex’s defense a couple of years ago against the Mafia was one of the top distributors of cocaine. He asked if that would be a problem for her.

Alex made a point that she had shot and killed the leader of that cartel.

She paused for a moment to take in everything that Harold had shared, then asked the team if they had any questions.

Johnnie shook his head, then asked who the IT contact was on Harold’s team.

Harold said he would have him contact Johnnie, chuckled, and said that he wanted his IT not to break any laws.

No one else had any questions, so Alex closed the meeting by inviting Harold and his team to a fishing trip on the Golden Goose she said that a date would be set by Marisa.

After the call Alex looked around and asked if everyone had what they needed to start.

Johnnie and Laurie said that they were set and would be getting into the bank accounts of the people that Harold had identified. It might take them a few days but they agreed that they would be able to set up a door to those accounts and monitor from where money came and where it was sent. They would also get into the car dealer accounts and see if they were being used to launder the money coming from the drug business.

Linda nodded and said that it seemed that a few trips to the local car dealers would allow them to get a handle on what was happening there and that after that they could give Johnnie and Laurie the green light to get into their banking systems and take the actions that would divert the dirty money.

Trey suggested that they ask Harold for the names of the enforcers that the people they would be investigating used. Getting their pictures and information about their habits was important so the three who were going out in the field were prepared for potential confrontations.

Alex nodded and then reminded everyone to wear their Kevlar suits. They had not been doing so for most of their recent business but they were stepping back into the realm where the gun was often the primary communication protocol that was practiced. She then said that the meeting was over.

She asked Marisa to set up daily morning progress meetings then returned to her office.

2 Finding the Trail

My mother is a person who always wants to feel the fabric of the clothes she is about to buy. Getting into a case always followed a series of activities that was like feeling the fabric.

Her actions were simple. She went to where the action was visible or could be detected. The drug use on the streets were so open that she wondered if the police were being bribed to look the other way. The cash flow was a matter that required the sophisticated and probably illegal actions that Johnnie the oldest person on the team, and Laurie the youngest person on the team were into.

Johnnie is an interesting old black Marine Vietnam vet who my mother rescued from the streets of Cincinnati. He is one of my mother’s most ardent supporters though it is hard for me to discern differences in the support my mother has from any of the team that is with her.

Lorie is the youngest daughter of Annie who my mother rescued after her fifteen years of being chained in the forest of Pennsylvania. She was kidnapped by a neighbor who chained her in a cabin in the woods. The kidnapper was the father of both Linda and Lorie. Linda is the older sister and was named after Annie’s mother. Both of them have always called my mother their “Aunt.” They were my age when my mother was shot in the chest and neck by the man who had chained their mother in the woods. He did not survive my mother's reaction to being shot.

It really is a struggle for me to keep my focus on the case. You have to give me a break, after all, though I claim to be an old girl of eighty but I am biologically only ten and learning about the loyal people that surround my mother has been a challenge.

On this case Harold, the Chicago DEA Chief turned out to provide key drug dealer names, an education on the current types of drugs that were hitting the street and providing direct support. He and my mother have a long history of working together and for this case he was to have more impact than on most of her other cases.

I think the most interesting thing about his relationship with my mother was his naming a money sniffing dog Cathy which is my mother’s middle name. The whole team loved it. It was a way that they all could periodically poke fun at her by poking fun at Cathy. I fell in love with Cathy because she was a fun dog and in the course of this case she ended up saving my mother’s life.

But I am getting ahead in the order that I am explaining the case and will focus on the key points that I learned. The learning was not all linear, so I apologize if sometimes I get confused and lead you astray.

* * * * * * *

As was her habit, she decided to start the investigation on the streets of Chicago. Early in the morning she drove down to the lake front with three bikes on the back of her black antique Jaguar. She led the procession of three riders and rode the downtown streets. Her goal was to get a feel for the drug distribution activity. What she found let her know that a number of the police walking the streets must have been paid to look the other way or the number of arrests were so high that they had been told to reduce the arrest rate. In either case the distributors were openly plying their trade and the customers seemed relaxed at getting their supply.

She decided that she would need to have a meeting with the Chicago Police Commissioner and get an understanding of what the police were doing about the tremendous and open distribution of drugs. Her position within Jane’s department was one rung higher than the Police Commissioner so she knew she would be able to schedule a timely meeting.

When they got back to the Jag, Trey commented that it seemed that the drug activity had increased since the last time they had taken a similar ride just a couple of years ago. He smiled and asked if they could have lunch at Harold’s Aunt’s restaurant.

Alex said that sounded like a great idea. She called ahead to see if they would need a reservation. She was greeted like she was the most favored of customers and was assured there would be a table for the three of them.

When they arrived, she was surprised to see Harold waiting at the door. He gave her a hug, shook hands with everyone, and said that he was not going to miss hearing how her new business ventures were both going. He said that he was called by his Aunt as soon as she had hung up. He smiled and said that his Aunt had a menu item that was named after Alex.

Linda shook her head and said that as always, her aunt was known and admired everywhere.

When Rachel, Harold’s aunt came to their table she made a point of giving Alex a hug and welcoming her back. She added that Alex’s fame and recent social work had a positive impact on her business and the Evercrest special was one of the top selling items on the menu. She added that her new customers had picked up her menu at the Evercrest Legal Office and told Alex to thank her mother.

Alex smiled and said that she surely could not order anything else. She asked what came with the Evercrest Special.

Rachel smiled and said that the special was an eight ounce porterhouse smothered in a blue cheese sauce, asparagus on the side and a small baked potato smothered in butter and for desert it was crème de Brulé.

She then added that all the iced tea they might drink was included and if they wanted non-alcoholic wine she had Lambrusco to go with the special.

She then laughed and added that some of the customers had asked why the wine was non-alcoholic and she always replied because the person that the special was named after was a non-alcoholic person.

Trey, Linda, and Harold all said that they were ordering the Evercrest Special and like her they would take the iced tea.

While they were waiting for the special Alex asked about the Police Commissioner.

Harold said that Jesse Franklin had been promoted to that position and was trying to have an impact on the drug use. He was after the users with as much effort as he was in trying to reduce the distribution but was facing a budget crunch issue and a court system that was overloaded. He was also facing some political resistance about arresting the users.

Alex then asked for more detail on how the cash flow was being handled.

Harold pointed out that the US had a highly sophisticated financial sector with rigorous oversight. This created a “push” factor that influenced the cash flow back out of the country. The money was regularly loaded onto trucks heading for the Mexican border and then across where it could more easily be banked and then put through a series of bank transfers that allowed the final account to be “clean.”

It was a money laundering scheme that involved several off shore accounts and then when it got back into a US bank it was available to purchase stock on the stock market.

He then added that Myanmar, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, Guinea-Bissau, and Laos were the top ten countries where the money from the Mexican cartels were headed and were considered primary “pull” countries because of their weak financial controls. He added that Venezuela and Laos seemed to be the two that were used the most by the Chicago drug distributors. He added that many countries that are primarily cash based could also be places that were being used. He highlighted the fact that Peru was another country in the Americas that qualified. He then shared the fact that the cash flow was a multibillion dollar affair.

He went on to describe how various cartels, “stored” the funds in what they considered safe locations. He added that safe simply meant beyond the reach of the law or their drug cartel competitors. It also depended greatly if the cash was needed to pay for a further consignment of drugs. Often a cartel was being so successful that their ability to launder the money exceeded their laundering capacity or the laundering organizations could not serve the competing cartels. He made the point that the individuals involved with money laundering had skills that allowed them to migrated from one cartel to another which meant that a cartel might be caught with extra cash on hand because they were short of launders.

He then highlighted the fact that the cartels often branched out into other businesses where a different currency was not the dollar, and they needed access to a currency exchange facility. An example of that was the fact that Columbia operated on the Peso and paying for the cocaine that was sent north meant needing to change the US dollar into the Columbian Peso. This was often a money laundering bottleneck.

He made the point that purchasing property in the US was one of the reasons to support the money launders that existed in every state of the union. These money launders were often related to members of the various drug distribution networks or had been in one of their organizations and as they moved up in the organization they often went into the money laundering end of the business. This got them into safer positions and allowed them to raise a family.

Harold then smiled and said that he had a new member of his team, that he had named Cathy, she was trained as a cash and drug detection dog and was currently the top contributor to the recovery of illegal money. He had promoted her to the rank of Special Money Recovery Agent in Charge and made sure she had the best food to eat.

He shared a most recent confiscation of money that Cathy had been able to sniff out at a truck inspection station run by the Illinois Department of Transportation. They had called him and shared that they had a truck they suspected of smuggling but they did not have the authority for that kind of an inspection.

He and the team took Cathy out to the station, and she participated in a truck “safety” inspection. She was able to detect the money that was surrounded by one ton super bags containing ammonium sulfate. A physical examination of the forty supper bags revealed six block shaped packages. A total amount of eleven million dollars were found in the two trailers that semi was pulling. The truck was scheduled to head to San Diego where super bags were to head to Columbia.

Alex laughed and asked about the sniffer’s name.

Harold smiled and said that Cathy’s attitude and mannerism reminded him of a friend that he was very fond of.

Trey chuckled because he knew that Alex’s middle name was Cathy. He added that he was looking forward to meeting Cathy.

Lunch arrived and the conversation turned to how good the food tasted. The blue cheese melted over the steak was one feature that elevated the taste to a very interesting and delicious flavor.

Alex complimented Rachel on the meal and said that she loved the porterhouse and the crème de Brulé would have her coming back as often as possible.

On the drive back to the office, Linda asked what approach they were going to take.

Alex replied that she wanted to get the entire team together and figure out what their end goal was going to be for the case. She then said that what the team decided was what she would share with Jane to see if it was sufficient for what she wanted to accomplish.

After that they would work together to develop a plan that would deliver the goal they set together as a team. She added that Johnnie’s and Lorie’s hacking skills would be a key element of any plan and physically disrupting the flow of cash would be another. She added that she didn’t think they would have much of a direct impact on the flow of drugs unless the loss of money disrupted it.

Trey shook his head and said that if one cartel was coming up short on importing drugs because their competition was short of cash they would almost instantly increase their flow. The demand was the key driver and the demand so far had never gone down.

Linda nodded and said that she was going to concentrate on how they might disrupt the cash flow. She chuckled and said that she had an idea on how to leverage using Cathy.

It was almost two when they got back to the office. Alex asked Marisa to schedule a meeting at eight the following morning. She then asked Trey and Linda to meet with her so they would be ready for the morning meeting. An hour later the three of them were clear on three objectives.

First, they would have Johnnie and Lorie disrupt cash flow via making it disappear from the bank and then get into the bank accounts of all the business’s being locally operated to launder money.

Second they would disrupt cash being transported by tagging trucks being loaded with the cash and then creating the situation where the illegal money could be confiscated.

Third they would enlist Brian and Kekoa to make money disappear from the personal accounts of the drug kingpins in Chicago.

Thank you for reading this far.