Moon Curser

1 Hidden Rise

The Maite’s cleaning van slowly approached the US- Mexican border crossing. Six people were laying in a false bottom chamber below the cleaning van bed.

They were scared, silent and praying.

The driver and her partner sitting on the other side shared a chocolate filled basket that lay between them.

The guards approached the familiar van and chatted with each of them.

They handed each of the guards a small box of Swiss chocolate.

This was an almost normal daily interaction that made it possible for the van to smuggle goods both ways.

It smuggled a variety of goods or as in this case people got smuggled into the US. On the reverse trip it was beauty care products and other goods that got smuggled into Mexico.

The company was named after its founder Maite Manuela Flores who had single handedly started the company using an old car that she owned.

Now, many years later and many such trips she was a person of tremendous wealth.

Maite was looking to buy another home. She had come to look at this home because it was only a short distance from Merida in the Yucatan where she had been born.

Her parents had both been working class people. They had legally emigrated to the United States when she was twelve and settled in Laredo, Texas.

Her mother had worked a variety of jobs and spent most of her working life as a cleaning lady in a large hotel.

Her father had gone through a series of jobs and felt lucky when he got a machinist job on the airbase because it provided him and the family with great benefits.

The two of them had been good parents. They supported her in school and as she neared high school graduation, they had encouraged her to go to college.

She had taken courses in business management, then toward the end she realized that she disliked but gritted her teeth and got her degree. She graduated near the bottom of her class. She had found most of the course work to be tedious and boring.

She found partying with her college friends much more to her liking.

She also found out that she had little tolerance for the young men who were constantly trying to get her out on dates.

Her opinion of the young women on the college campus was not much higher.

This made her a loner that attended many parties as a single person.

Once she graduated, she took an office job but found it exceedingly dull and soon she was ready for something else.

She was well versed in what her mother did because she had often accompanied her when she was younger.

She decided that she would open a cleaning service.

She started the business using her old car.

The business soon grew, and she moved the business into a small secondhand van.

Her approach of keeping the cost low and the cleaning approach efficient paid off and soon she was expanding her business.

She named it Maite’s Cleaners and had a smiling young woman painted on each side of her new larger white van.

Things seemed to dramatically improve when she expanded her business across the border into Nuevo Laredo.

Business there was much better than she had expected.

She was able to buy a larger full-sized step van as her second vehicle.

She could not remember exactly how she started smuggling but she put the start when she bought several pairs of jeans for herself and then sold a few to some acquaintances at a significant profit.

This experience opened a new way of thinking about how to run her business.

Cleaning provided a legitimate reason for her trucks entering Mexico and returning to the US.

Smuggling soon provided the main income for the business.

She had personally installed a false bottom in the cleaning van. She had to learn to cut metal, to weld and then to raise the bed of her van so she could position and bolts in the false bottom.

The process had been something that had her learning new skills and one that she had enjoyed doing. It was such an easy modification and worked so well that she then envisioned having a fleet of cleaning trucks with the same alteration.

She made friends with the border guards on both sides of the border and provided them with small personal treats and gifts. They would see her, greet her, accept their gifts that was usually candy but if she knew of a birthday, she would add some small personal gift.

They always then waved for her to pass.

She thought of the story of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov the Russian experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs.

She found that his theory worked exceedingly well with the border guards on both sides of the border.

The smuggling went very well and soon she expanded her operation. She grew by about one van every six months.

During the expansion period she seemed to spend most of her time bending metal, raising truck beds, and installing false bottoms.

She made a point of traveling with each of her new cleaning women or men long enough that they were all known to the guards on both sides of the boarder.

She introduced them to the border guards and instructed her new hires to make sure to have treats and small gifts for the border guards each time they crossed.

Her crews were all selected based on their willingness to participate in the smuggling operation. They all eagerly went along when she offered ten percent of the money made which they would then split evenly.

She limited human smuggling driving to a few very trusted cleaning crews. They each received ten percent of a much higher dollar value, and they were very loyal to her.

Maite knew that ten percent did not sound like much but for most of her workers, what they made working for her was about ten times more than they could make working anywhere else.

Her fortune seemed to grow exponentially. She made sure that the money that she accumulated was managed by professional money managers and that they designed an aggressive investment portfolio.

She was willing to take a high monetary risk.

She was already taking high risk with her business.

She had opened four offshore bank accounts on four different Caribbean islands.

It was a great way to vacation and to expand her money empire. She learned to move her money in small increments into the banks. She paid no taxes on the money that went to these banks. She figured she was making some thirty percent more on each dollar she put into those accounts then the dollars that were on her business ledgers.

She had become a Cayote by accident. One day she was at a party in Nuevo Laredo, where she was approached by the wife of one of the cartel leaders and was asked to meet with her husband. She was led to a private room where she was asked if she could transport six people into the US.

She was surprised at the invitation and the thoughtful approach that was taken in making the request. It was clear to her that this person knew about her smuggling business.

She was impressed by the sum of money that was to be paid to her.

She decided to try it and agreed to do it.

On the first trip she personally drove the cleaning van. She had made sure that the false bottom was clean and that the people she was transporting would be comfortable. She had provided each with a blanket to lay on and a pillow to rest their heads.

She then checked when the inspection agents that she felt would be the easiest to interact with were on duty and picked that day to make her first trip.

She instructed the six people she was transporting to be very quiet during the trip.

She had been very nervous on that first trip. She had her small gifts that she gave to the border guards, and she crossed over successfully. The trip went off with great success and the money she made convinced her that it was a business that was very worthwhile getting into.

At the next party where she had been approached with the request to take people across the border, she brought some very expensive cosmetics for the wife and a personalized wallet for her husband. These small gifts resulted in her getting invitations from several of the other major cartel leaders.

She made friends with many of the wives she met and always made the point that she was not in competition with any of the husbands but that she offered them a service that they could take advantage of when they needed it.

Her coyote business just kept growing. She got the people who were the cream of the Cayote traffic. These were people that had money up front to pay for the trip.

She recognized that she was prospering in the shadows of powerful cartels by being friendly and not personally seeking out people to smuggle.

She had built a very successful smuggling business empire. She was not into drugs and operated a low-key smuggling operation in the shadow of the drug cartels. Her main operation consisted of moving a significant quantity of blue jeans, furniture and periodically people across the border from Mexico into the US.

She realized it was significant for her but almost insignificant to the amounts that the cartels smuggled into the US.

She was on good terms with several of the drug cartels because she knew the wives and the daughters of many of the cartel leaders. She supplied them with clothes and beauty products, and they influenced their husbands.

She had also buttered up several of the border guard teams on both sides of the border and she scheduled the crossing of her cleaning and laundry vehicles to coincide with their schedules.

Each of her trucks had a false bottom that could hold up to six people in a prone position. She most often used it to move clothing and furniture from Mexico into the US.

Periodically she would smuggle people, but she preferred not to do it too often, so she charged a very high price.

It seemed that this high price made her business more attractive to those that had more money.

She had started with one cleaning truck and had done all the work herself. She now had more than a dozen trucks, drivers and helpers.

She was not into gun play, but she now had two bodyguards that accompanied her almost everywhere.

She focused on managing the cash flow and expanding her holdings to include the legitimate making of the furniture and the making of the blue jeans. She had just acquired three furniture production and two blue jean production facilities. The cash flow from them was almost as significant as the smuggling side of the business because she was shipping goods south into south America, to the Asian market as well as into the US. The legal flow of goods was lucrative because her factory workers earned so little.

The smuggling side was still very attractive because though the amount was significantly less than the legitimate businesses, the margin on the smuggled goods was very high.

She had now been in business for many years. She had accumulated a very large sum of money, and she was no longer doing any hands-on work.

She was now looking at retiring and had found a potential house near her birthplace on the Yucatan peninsula.

She was now there and had walked through the three-story mansion during the day and was now making sure she liked it at night.

Her realtor had been surprised at her request for a night walk through. He had smiled and said that it would be no problem and had asked what time she wanted to do the night walk through.

Standing and looking out of the second-floor veranda at the bright full moon’s glittering reflection off the dark waters of the Gulf of Mexico convinced her that this would be her retirement home. It was not her home yet but soon would be. She had loved the view out to the gulf during the day and now she knew that it was even more to her liking at night.

She had been surprised when they had driven in for the night viewing. The lighted grounds were too ostentatious. They had put her off as they drove up the long lane to the house. She would have much lower-level lighting replace the glaring ones that made the area seem brighter than in the day. She certainly would not have them mounted in the trees and the palms.

She felt that the lighting was offensive.

She reacted to the furniture in the house that she found offensive as well. She wondered about the people who had lived in the place.

She hoped they planned to take the furniture with them.

The Kitchen area was another place that disappointed her. It was a well-planned kitchen layout but except for the hooded gas stove the rest of the appliances would all need to be replaced.

All these factors affected what she was willing to offer for the house. She felt the asking price was just too high.

The realtor must not know the market or perhaps the people that could afford a multi-million-dollar waterfront home did not pay attention to the market.

She offered seventy percent of the asking price with a certainty that she would end up getting it at about the eighty percent of the asking price.

When she gave her offer to the realtor, he shook his head and said that his client would not accept such a low offer. He had suggested an offer around ninety-five percent of the asking price.

She responded that she knew that the property had already been on the market for six months and had not sold. She commented that the payment could be arranged to be in cash if that would make the sale more attractive.

He responded that cash might be of interest.

Maite liked the possibility of paying in cash because it would help her move her money in a manner that allowed her to mix the profits from her legitimate businesses with the cash from her smuggling business.

Two days later when he came with the counter offer, the realtor found her lazing on the beach in front of the home that she planned to buy.

Her two bodyguards were sitting under umbrellas located about fifty feet to each side of where she was laying. They both came over and checked the realtor out before letting him approach her.

The realtor shared the owner’s counter offer of seventy five percent of the asking price if the payment was in cash.

She arranged to have all the paperwork sent to her lawyer and when he cleared the property, the cash would be transferred to the bank of the seller’s choosing.

Not long after the sellers responded that they would like the cash to be personally given to them versus going to a bank and they wanted it in US dollars.

Maite knew then that the sellers were trying to get their hands on the cash and never be held accountable to pay any taxes. She responded that they would need to personally pick up the cash at her Mexican lawyer’s office in Mexico City. She figured they would most likely leave Mexico on a private boat and take the money to one of the islands.

She let them know that they would need to personally pick up the money at her lawyer’s office. She made the point that the amount that they were requesting would take a truck to transport and they needed to arrange for that to happen.

The realtor asked if he could get his commission separately.

Maite replied that he should work that out with his client. She smiled and added that he should make sure he got his money before the money was loaded into the truck that was to transport his clients’ money.

After the realtor left, she placed a call to her lawyer and explained what was happening and that he should arrange for the money to be brought to his office. This was money that Maite had that was being held in various personal vaults and had not seen the inside of a bank for some time.

Now she would not have to move it into various offshore accounts to launder it. It would allow for new money to fill those various vaults.

She called each of the people that held the cash to let them know to send it to the lawyer. The five legal businesses held much of the cash but by moving it, the accountants could take a series of losses, and the money would disappear from the books. That represented a significant gain.

The smuggling business had cash held in a variety of safes that would benefit by having them emptied so they could be refilled. That cash coming from all locations slowly filled the entire lawyers’ meeting room.

The cash for the house was a significant transaction that would be a bump in the cash flow and would take a few months to level out. It might mean that she would take on smuggling more people for a short period of time.

She would work that out once she was back at her condominium in the US. She decided it was time to return to the where she owned an entire floor of a Beach Front condominium on Mustang Island. She was not planning to move out of the condominium and would retain it for the times she would be in the US.

Before she could move into her new home, she needed some time to buy the furniture, appliances, and light fixtures for the house.

She had taken the time to walk through her new home and had taken a picture of each room so she could work with her decorator to modernize the decor.

She arranged to have her decorator that had done her condominium travel to her new home in the Yucatan and get a firsthand look at the house and then manage the transformation.

She planned to follow her old formula of a slow and steady approach that had served her well. She planned to continue doing what had worked for her over many years.

Other than causing a slight disruption in the cash flow, the cost of the house that she was now buying was insignificant compared to the money she held in various offshore accounts.

She smiled as she thought how lucrative her smuggling shadow business continued to be. She had risen from a one-person operation to the point that she was now worth more than three billion dollars.

She laughed when she realized that she was not sure what her true wealth was.

She would have been surprised to have known that there was someone finding out what that true wealth happened to be and where it was being held. In fact, she would be shocked when her wealth put her in the bull’s eye of a person who would pursue her for the illicit way, she had accumulated her money.

She had no way of knowing that she would be answering for all her past actions that she had taken in the shadows of the society that she had flourished in as she took advantage of her ability to skirt the law.

2 Shadow Hunters

Brian and Kekoa were sitting side by side in their common first floor veranda work area that was used more often than the more formal second floor office.

The panoramic view across the waters to Lanai’s mixed green and tan landscape, the mountain top wind turbines on the ridge to the west, the view of Kahoolawe that had once been used as a target range by the US Navy and the small Molokini Crater that looked like a broke tooth sticking up above the water was augmented by the warm sun and a pleasant breeze that was wafting across the veranda.

Each of them was nursing a lemonade and talking back and forth. They agreed that work didn’t get any better than what they were doing. Together they were studying the number of billionaires that existed just in the US. Most of these billionaires were above-board individuals that seemed to populate every profession. Kekoa commented that he had never imagined so many people having so much money.

Brian said that he too was surprised at the number of billionaires but added that they represented less than one per cent of the population. He then made the point that they were looking for the ones that were hiding in the shadows at the edge of or on the other side of the law.

He shared how he had proceeded with the two billionaires that he had successfully put behind bars. Those individuals had operated on the edge of the law with one foot on each side of the line.

Kekoa shook his head and said that he needed to figure out what he personally had been doing wrong because it seemed that some of the billionaires had stumbled into their extreme wealth. He wanted to figure out how to stumble in the same way.

Brian nodded and added that the entertainment industry seemed to be churning out most of the new billionaires and many of the others had inherited their wealth and were from older money lines.

He added that they needed to find someone who was complaining about bad treatment from some wealthy individuals or who felt wronged by one.

The ones in the shadows would most likely be the ones that did not make the news and who were quietly going about making their illicit money by taking advantage of someone or some group of less wealthy people.

He suggested they look at the news reporting on local issues along the Mexican-US border and along the Canadian-US border. Other places might be in the housing markets around the larger cities.

Kekoa made a list of the cities they should check. The list included, San Diego-Tijuana, El Paso-Ciudad Juarez, Laredo-Nuevo Laredo, Hidalgo-Reynosa, Brownsville-Matamoros.

He pointed out that the five paired cities were cities on each side of the border across from each other.

Brian commented that he thought they would be working for a while through news reports trying to find the billionaire needle in the haystack. He wondered if there was a way to speed up the process.

Kekoa suggested putting together a computer driven routine based on key words to filter the news reports and get the number of reports reduced to a handful for each city pair. He said he had an idea how to do that, and it would only take a few moments. He suggested that the two of them work together to make a list of key search words.

A week later Brian commented that the routine had reduced the number, but his estimate of a week was going to go longer than he had expected. He added that there was more misery to sort through than he had anticipated.

Kekoa commented that he had found an interesting and peculiar court case where a young illegal Mexican migrant claimed to have been smuggled in by a cleaning company and then abandoned when she complained about having spent so much time confined in the dark compartment of a truck and getting her only outfit covered in grease. She had paid her family’s life savings to make the trip and had expected better treatment. She however did not give any specific details and was scheduled to be sent back to Mexico.

Brian asked where she was currently being held.

Kekoa said that currently she was being held in Laredo.

Brian said he thought that it was a case they should examine more closely. He said that he was going to see if he could meet in person with her and find out about the smuggling operation.

He commented that whoever was running the operation stood to make a lot of money. He just hoped that the smuggler that had brought her across was not directly connected to one of the cartels.

He let out a groan when he realized that it was more than an eight-hour trip with one stop and layover on the way. In addition to flying, he would have to drive from San Antonio to Laredo. That was the best flight, and a seat was available that evening. He decided to book the flight and make it as quick a trip as possible.

He let Kekoa know that they should stay connected even as he flew and that he should continue to find out more if he could.

The flight turned out to be just as grueling as he had anticipated. He got some sleep along the way and after arriving in Houston he went out for a good breakfast and several cups of coffee. He then made the three-hour drive from San Antonio to Laredo.

Kekoa had provided him the address where the young lady was still being held. He decided to go straight there when he drove into Laredo.

He figured that he was cutting it really close since her deportation hearing was to take place the next day.

Once he was in the building where she was being held, he inquired if there was any other alternative to her deportation. He was informed that a US citizen would need to step forward to sponsor her and that so far none had done that.

He thanked the receptionist for the information and arranged for the interview.

She was twenty-two years old, five foot two inches tall and petite. Her name was Carmen Torres. She was wearing an orange jump suit when she was escorted into the interview room with a confused look on her face.

She started to speak in Spanish, so Brian smiled and answered her in his native Hawaiian.

She smiled and in English asked what language he had been speaking.

He let her know that he was raised as a Hawaiian and that he knew the native Hawaiian, English, and only knew how to order a beer in Spanish.

She grinned and said how to order a beer were the first words she had learned in English.

Brian liked her attitude. It was clear to him that she was confused and scared but she was resilient.

He then let her know that he was interested in her case and what she knew about the group or persons that had smuggled her into the US. He let her know that he had all the information that had been taken by the border agents. He added that what he was interested in was for her to describe how she had gotten connected to the smuggling group, what she had experienced, who and what she had seen. Perhaps she might remember something that she had so far not thought of as important.

Carmen closed her eyes, was silent for a long time then she said that the only thing that came to mind that she had not already shared with the people that had interrogated her was that she had been introduced to the smuggler leader through a friend that was the daughter of one of the cartel minor chiefs. The smuggler was wearing a cleaning lady’s outfit with the name Maite’s Cleaners on the shoulder of her blouse.

Brian knew that he had just hit pay dirt.

He raised his hand and stopped her for a moment. He then made a call to Kekoa and asked him to dig into Maite’s Cleaners and see what he could learn.

He then turned his attention back to Carmen and asked her to share her personal background and experience. He found out that she had attended a hotel management and catering school in Nuevo Loredo and had hoped to make the US her home, get a job, and send money home to help her family. She gave a small laugh and said she could have crossed as a tourist and have never gone back but decided to get into the country via being smuggled so that she would not be searched for.

He asked her if she were willing to work for one of the Hotels in Hawaii.

Carmen teared up and began crying.

Brian knew he had hit a nerve and was silent for a moment. He handed her his clean handkerchief.

She took it and asked if he could possibly arrange such a thing.

He asked the attending border control officer and asked what he had to do to sponsor Carmen.

After a call, another person entered the room and asked for his passport, his job status, and if he would cover Carmen’s living expenses. He would also need to show that he had sufficient funds in his bank to do so.

He provided her with the information.

She said that she would process the paperwork but that it would take the rest of the afternoon. She would make a copy of his credentials and return them in a few moments but then the rest of the paperwork would not be ready until the morning.

She said she was aware that they were cutting it very close because Carmen’s case was scheduled just before lunch.

He asked whether Carmen would be able to leave with him and was told that if Carmen agreed then the two of them could leave but she had to return the next morning with him to sign some papers as well.

He then asked if she had more than the orange jumpsuit and learned that her clothes had been ruined by grease. They had been washed but would have stains on them.

Carmen said that an orange jump suit was not very practical out in public and that she would prefer to wear her grease-covered clothes.

The guard suggested they return to her holding cell, and she would bring her clothes to her.

He looked at Carmen and in Hawaiian said, “E ʻike iā ʻoe i hoʻokahi minute.”

Carmen smiled and replied, “Estoy deseando que llegue, (I am looking forward to it), Estoy tan emocionada, (I am so excited.)” She did not know exactly what he had said but figured it was something like, “see you in a few.

Carmen was taken back to the holding area and allowed to change. She was led out to the lobby where Bryan was sitting.

Brian took in the pair of jeans that had a black streak across the legs, and a similar streak went across the front of her light blue blouse.

He asked her if she had all her personal possessions and she said that she originally had one hundred dollars in cash and a bracelet in a small black leather belt pouch.

Brian asked the escort where they could retrieve the rest of Carmen’s possessions. She led them to a person sitting behind a caged in area. There Carmen gave her name and described the pouch and its contents.

The attendant went to a back room and came out with the pouch, opened it, and displayed the money and the bracelet.

Carmen picked up the pouch, put her bracelet on, and put the money back into the pouch. She thanked the attendant and turned and followed Brian.

He led the way out of the building and after getting oriented led the way to his rental car.

He let her know that he was first going to get her registered in the same hotel that he was in and then they would go shopping for several sets of clothes for her.

On the way to the Hotel, he received a call from Kekoa. He answered briefly but said he would call him back in a few.

The hotel had only one deluxe room with a king-sized bed left. Brian said he would take it.

He handed the key cards to Carmen and suggested that they first go shopping and afterwards get lunch and then return to the hotel.

Carmen pointed out that she did not have much money and that shopping would need to be minimal.

Brian smiled and said that he was going to show Carmen a way to stretch her money while she still got all of what she needed. He took a moment, located a used clothes store, and drove there.

He watched as Carmen went slowly looking through a series of clothes.

He sat down in one of the chairs that were for sale and made a call to Kekoa.

He listened as his excited partner said that they had hit pay dirt. He said that Maite’s Cleaners was owned by one Maite Manuela Flores who had a large sum of money in a bank in Corpus Christy, Texas and offshore accounts in Haiti, St. Lucia, Barbados, and Jamaica.

The total amount in those banks exceeded three billion and Maite also owned several factories in Mexico that would add to her total wealth.

So, Carmen’s simple recollection had opened the door to the pursuit of the next billionaire.

He added that Maite seemed to be operating with the consent of various cartels.

Brian decided that Carmen would begin her new life journey with a part of any reward that he and Kekoa received.

He and Kekoa had recently agreed to a fifty, fifty split. He would take five percent of his split and give it to Carmen.

He figured that it would change her life when she came into a few million dollars. He figured that he would wait until that money was truly in hand before saying anything.

Carmen had selected a black pant suit, a lavender pant suit, a pair of jeans, a sport blouse, a pair of black flat shoes, a pair of high-heeled shoes and a black leather purse. When they got to the check out the final bill came to seventy-two dollars and sixty-five cents.

Carmen was beaming as she held up her purchase. She had tears in her eyes and gave Brian a hug.

She asked if they could stop at a Target or similar store so she could spend her last few dollars on some additional things that she wanted to buy.

A short drive later, Brian handed her five twenties as they walked in and said that it was a loan until she had a job.

She gave him another hug and thanked him.

On the way to lunch Carmen asked what kind of job he was in that allowed him to sponsor her, had the money to put her up in a top-end hotel, pay for her airfare to Hawaii and give her money to spend.

Brian smiled and said that he was not sure what his work title should be, but he was in the business of putting cheating billionaires in front of a judge and jury. And then hope to see a verdict that corresponded to their cheating behavior.

Carmen was silent for a moment and asked who paid him to do that.

He smiled, shook his head, and said the billionaires paid him royally. He had only had two previous experiences in dealing with wayward billionaires.

He added that he was still waiting for the reward money from the IRS for the second billionaire he had fingered for them. His first billionaire had put nineteen million dollars into his pocket. The reward for the second billionaire would be likely be close to ninety million dollars.

The billionaire that Carmen had surfaced would most likely be significantly more.

Carmen shook her head and said that she had never thought about a bounty hunter that went after billionaires.