by Bart Key
Starting from the time the three of us attended classes together in San Francisco, Jeremy and I had clicked with Gustav. Ward had asked us earlier whether either of us had any concerns with his being gay. Jeremy and I could give a shit less about someone’s sexual preference. One of the best and meanest soldiers in my Vietnam unit was gay. Gustav was a cool young man to be around and his relative youth would be welcomed.
Our first assignment was to gather evidence exposing a child prostitution ring in Berlin. We learned from Ward that the authorities there had already made several attempts to identify and apprehend the ring’s top brass but with no success. Most of the prostitutes were undocumented younger teenagers from Eastern Europe, usually girls. In many cases, the kids were now addicted to drugs and their pimps controlled them by keeping them supplied. Gustav was invaluable when we scouted the area where the kids were known to hang out. Because of his own experiences as a street kid, he could spot a pimp a mile away. Both Jeremy and I had with us telephoto lens cameras and took pictures of pimps he pointed out to us. We even captured a few photos of the kids passing cash on to them. Unfortunately, we were unable to tail any of the pimps long enough to determine who they worked for. Finally one day we hit pay dirt. After shadowing one of the pimps to a bar, we observed him meeting with an older man who was well dressed and wore a lot of expensive-looking jewelry. We were able to get several good photos of him and returned to our headquarters where Jeremy with Gustav at his side went to work on the the squad’s computer trying to get a positive ID on the guy.
After a few hours, they both gave out a shout as they had been able to match the man we photographed with the picture of a known German felon who had served time in prison and been released a couple of years ago. Further research lead to an address for the guy when he was released. It was worth checking out, so we returned to Berlin and staked it out. Sure enough, we saw him leaving the house about midmorning. Observing no other activity within the house, we decided to plant both video and audio bugs inside. Using one of our new tools, I was able to unlock the front door, quickly check to see no one else was inside and then carefully install the devices in the home’s small makeshift office. I then quickly left relocking the front door behind me.
For the next several days, we monitored the devices from our rented van parked close by. Our video bug picked up photos of three more principals in the ring and our audio bug confirmed their roles as the ring’s leaders. We returned to our headquarters and put together a dossier of our evidence. Per Ward’s advice, we mailed a copy showing no return address to the head of the Berlin Police Department’s vice unit and flew back to our homes. About a week later, Gustav learned through the media that multiple arrests had been made and that the ring had been smashed. Ward was ecstatic with the news and immediately arranged for CHOW to provide free counseling and repatriation assistance for the affected kids. Jeremy and I had worked very closely with Gustav on our mission and were quite impressed with his ingenuity and problem-solving skills. He became our younger good buddy.
From that point forward, the squad undertook perhaps a half dozen assignments a year. Each time, our objective was to gather evidence of a crime such as child prostitution, abuse of kids by gangs or illegal drug marketing to school kids. One of our more unusual and most satisfying missions was when we gathered evidence exposing an organization which illegally shipped military arms from North Korea to Iran.
CHOW’s peace division had become aware of the smuggling operation but could not follow up due to its strict policy against becoming involved in law enforcement matters. Ward asked the squad to see what it could find out about the operation. To start, Jeremy put on his research cap, got on his computer and learned all he could about modern-day weapons smuggling. One frequently used method was to pack the weapons and munitions inside large containers which were then transported by container ships to their destination. The ship manifests typically would show the containers as holding standard goods or equipment of one kind or another. Usually, the practice was to transfer the containers holding the contraband from one containership to another along the way. Such transfers generally required docking at ports with special heavy lifting machinery. This might entail having to clear customs which could include inspection of the delivering ship and its cargo. In order to avoid discovery of the contraband, the ports visited would need to those where inspections could be avoided, typically by the payment of bribes to customs authorities.
When researching matters on the internet, Jeremy had learned over time that sometimes one had to think outside the box. So leaving aside for the moment the question of the how to avoid discovery of illegal cargo, he turned his attention to possible shipping routes from North Korea to Iran. His research indicated a high probability that the arms initially would be loaded onto a containership in Nampo, a major North Korean port. As the Chinese had a long established trade relationship with North Korea, Jeremy made the educated guess that the weapons containers initially would be loaded onto a Chinese ship. The Chinese no doubt would be extra careful about being found complicit in the smuggling operation and almost certainly would go to great extremes so as to be able to deny their involvement. Logically, they would begin by transferring the weapons containers onto a second Chinese containership in China. This ship then would be tasked with unloading the containers at some point far away for pickup by a non-Chinese carrier.
Jeremy wondered if the Chinese might even want to go a step further and develop some sort of an alibi which they could use to deny any implication of their involvement should the arms be intercepted before reaching Iran. One way might be for the carrying containership to dock first at a reputable port like Singapore where it would offload and take on containers as usual and undergo a routine inspection by port authorities. Should the contraband onboard not be discovered, the Chinese would be in the position to assert their innocence on the basis that their ship, which later would deliver the contraband at another port for pickup by a non-Chinese ship, had passed inspection after being searched in Singapore.
The problem with this scenario is how could the Chinese successfully hide the weapons on their ship so as not to be discovered during such a search. So Jeremy dug deeper and learned that there had been a few cases where illegal goods had been hidden at the bottom of large grain bins on container ships. Was it possible that the arms could be successfully hidden in this manner on the Chinese containership?
Leaving that thought aside for the time being, Jeremy then turned his attention to other ports in the South Asia area where the Chinese might unload the weapons for reloading onto a non-Chinese vessel. After considering a number of possibilities, Jeremy became intrigued with Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. It was far removed from the busy trade routes of the area and its port authorities were well known for being corrupt and bribable. Curiously, it imported large volumes of wheat from China.
With Port Moresby being little more than an stab in the dark, the squad decided to check it out anyway. So Gustav and I flew there and very quickly learned it was not place for the faint-hearted. The city could best be described as a dirty, swampy pit hole. Fortunately, creole-style English was widely spoken there so we were able to communicate fairly easily. For four days we just hung around the wharf district but learned nothing useful. On the fifth day though, we learned the name of a customs agent who had a reputation for being on the take. Eventually we tracked him down and, after a little monetary persuasion, he told us that about every two or three months a smaller Chinese containership would pull in. It generally offloaded wheat in bulk together with some containers. The agent recalled that there was always a time lag between the unloading of the wheat and the unloading of its containers which was somewhat unusual. He remembered that whenever the Chinese ship arrived, a representative of the ship’s owner was always present to monitor the offloading of containers which were usually listed as containing agricultural equipment bound for Egypt. While he didn’t know the repre
sentative’s name, he knew a bar where he hung out a lot. After greasing his palm again, he led us to the bar and pointed out the guy he was talking about who happened to be sitting at the bar. Talk about luck.
Gustav quietly sat down next to the guy and ordered a beer. I sat at the end of the bar, ordered my own beer and watched them out of the corner of my eye. After a second beer, Gustav nonchalantly started up a conversation and the two appeared to have a short chat. After another beer, the guy left and Gustav filled me in on what he had learned. The man worked for Dragon Shipping Company which had its head office in Cairo. It owned several small containerships which carried goods back and forth between South Asia and the Middle East. His job was to closely monitor the unloading of containers from other ships onto his company’s ships. He inadvertently let it slip out that sometimes he could arrange for the skipping of the inspection process in order to speed things along. We interpreted this to mean that he probably bribed the customs official in charge. Later that afternoon we caught up with our customs guy again and, after passing on yet more cash, he looked up the names of both the Chinese ship that recently unloaded the agricultural machinery containers and the name of the ship owned by Dragon Shipping Company that had taken them on board. We then called Jeremy and told him everything we had learned. It was decided he would get started on learning everything he could about the Egyptian company’s ship and we would head to Singapore where we hoped to learn more about the Chinese container ship.
Talk about a difference in cities. Singapore was maybe the cleanest city in the world. With the name of the Chinese containership in hand, we were able to find out when it had last docked in Singapore. We also learned that the ship’s manifest had not listed agricultural machinery as being part of its cargo but did list wheat as being stored in its large grain bins. Jeremy’s hunch that the arms were buried at the bottom of grain bins when the Chinese ship was inspected in Singapore now seemed very plausible. This was further supported by the time lag at Port Moresby between the time when the wheat was unloaded and the time when the ship began unloading containers. It made sense that, during this window of time, the weapons at the bottom of the wheat bins had been retrieved and placed in empty containers now designated on a doctored manifest as containing agricultural machinery.
Knowing that we might finally be on to something, the three of us all flew to Cairo. After renting a van, we drove to the Dragon offices which were located in a small office building in a less busy part of the city. For the next couple of days we watched from a distance to get an idea of the office’s layout and when it was occupied. One morning early before anyone had arrived for work, Gustav jimmied open a window and installed a hidden audio bug inside. Ward had provided us with the name of a reliable and cooperative Arabic interpreter whom we engaged to listen in from our van. Everything he heard indicated a busy office with everyone working hard to coordinate the various issues connected to the company’s shipping business. But on the third day our interpreter heard a comment from one of the employees to another that tomorrow the bosses would be visiting. With our telephoto cameras at the ready, the next day we took shots of three well-dressed men entering and then later leaving. The discussion in the office while they were there centered on one of their ships with the same name as the one which had picked up the containers in Port Moresby. The ship had just recently refueled in the Indian Port of Cochin and was headed for the Persian Gulf.
I called Ward immediately with the news and he in turn contacted someone he knew at Interpol. The three of us returned to Luxembourg to wait and, several days later, learned that the ship had been intercepted and forced to pull into the nearest large port. Following a thorough search, the containers with the weapons were found. The captain and crew denied having any knowledge of knowing they were in the containers. Knowing now that we had found the complicit ship, Jeremy got on his computer to see if he could identify any of the three men we had photographed. Several hours later, he jumped up from his chair announcing he had been able to identify one of the them who it turned out was a well-known Saudi businessman. Ward passed this information on to Interpol as well. About a month later, Ward called me at the ranch with the news that the Saudi had disappeared from view and that Dragon Shipping Company had gone out of business. He suspected that the Saudi was quietly dispatched as soon as the Saudi government learned about his involvement in arming Iran, its hated enemy. The news got even better when various sources reported that weapons shipments from North Korea to Iran seemed to have stopped though we had no doubt that probably would be only temporary. We also learned that the Chinese now had a blackeye because of the information we had furnished indicating its carrier ship had been linked to the illegal operation. As we suspected, they vehemently denied any involvement contending that the inspection of their ship in Singapore absolved them from any such involvement. Nonetheless, the customs authorities in Singapore had recently updated their inspection procedures so that, in the future, grain bins, especially those on Chinese ships, would be meticulously searched. In addition, port authorities across Asia and the Middle East became more vigilant in inspecting cargoes arriving on ships whose stops included Port Moresby.
Chapter 30
One Big Family
I had just returned to my office after a meeting when Sur called to tell me about his newly-formed foundation which was to be supported by the bulk of his fortune. I had always wondered whether Sur had some kind of long-range plan in mind for disposing of his great wealth. I was especially pleased when he told me he would be asking Chen to be on the foundation’s board. Chen had known about my connection to Sur for some time now and Sur knew or at least highly suspected that Chen and his father had assisted in moving things along when the application for the Jade Palace’s gambling concession had been under consideration.
Chen was now a leading and highly respected member of Hong Kong’s Chinese elite and unquestionably would make an ideal trustee. I would assist him in any way I could to promote the foundation’s causes. When his appointment became official, I invited him to lunch to congratulate him and told him he could expect a nice initial continuing pledge from me. When I named the annual figure, he whistled and responded that he would match it. I wasn’t at all concerned that Sur had not asked me to be on his board. He knew my plate was more than full in overseeing management of the resort, his ferry company and the development of the remaining vacant lands adjoining the Macau terminal. Sur also knew full well of my preference for privacy and being able to live a quiet life with my family.
One job I no longer had was to invest on behalf of Sur’s investment company. After the opening of the Jade Palace, Sur instructed me to sell its remaining assets and transfer the funds to his Singapore banking account after which he arranged for full ownership in the company to be transferred to me. From that point forward, investments made by the company would be for my own account using my own funds. Over the years, I had saved up a hefty sum thanks to generous yearly bonuses from Sur. I was now in the position to start building a portfolio of my own. David graciously offered to continue sending me coded recommendations through Daniel which I gratefully accepted. I would have to be crazy not to at least take into account recommendations generated by what I thought to be the premier investment house in the world.
My permanent home now would always be Hong Kong although I would always have a soft spot in my heart for Colorado. Fairly recently Lan, the kids and I had flown to Denver and I showed them the house where I lived growing up. Our son and daughter had never known their grandmother as she had passed away before they were born. From Denver we drove to Yellowstone Park and then on to the Bar 7 in Idaho where we met up with Chen, Ting and their two kids, also a son and a daughter. Each family stayed in one of Sur’s two beautiful guest lodges. Sur was away on business in Europe at the time and Cory was with him.
Each day our families would gather at the horse barn where Roberto, the ranch’s guest manager, and his teenage s
on Juan would greet us and help us saddle up for a long ride. Both of them accompanied us and the kids would ask Juan countless questions which he was only too glad to answer. One afternoon, Juan showed us how to fly fish at one of the ranch’s streams. Among us, we caught enough trout for that night’s dinner.
One evening, Elizabeth and Luke invited all of us over to dinner at their home. Their kids were older than ours but that didn’t stop all of them from quickly making friends and starting up an American football game in the yard. Our kids had never played this kind of football before. In Hong Kong, the favorite kid’s sport was soccer. After dinner, Luke took me and Chen on a tour of his barn where his family’s personal horses were stabled. He happened to mention in passing that, besides the Bar 7, he managed three other large ranches owned by Sur, one in Australia and two in South America. I didn’t fully realize that Sur had amassed such a large ranch empire but it didn’t surprise me in the least. While walking back to the house, Luke mentioned that the New South Wales ranch had incredible guest facilities too and that anytime we wanted to take a vacation there, he would arrange it.
On our last day, we all saddled up for a ride inside the bison enclosure. Roberto and Juan came along as usual and Luke’s son Josh came along too. As a precautionary measure, Roberto had a rifle strapped to his saddle as bison sometimes can be unpredictable and dangerous. We purposely stayed well away from the herd during our ride and they seemed to hardly notice our presence. The kids idolized Juan and Josh whom we learned were best friends.
After returning to Hong Kong, the kids could hardly wait to tell their friends about their cowboy experiences. I and the other adults were not silent ourselves in boasting about riding in the wide open spaces where the bison roam at will.