by Doug Houser
“OK, shoot.”
“Remember that I had concerns about Sturgeon being successful in planting someone undercover inside the gang in Columbus or flipping a gang member?”
“Sure. You were going to call me before the takedown to make sure that that hadn’t happened.”
“Right. But we just completed our planning for the first phase of that operation and I’ve gotta tell you, to find out that someone is actually undercover at the last minute would foil a whole lot of planning and preparation, not to mention hundreds of man-hours of training time. It would be disastrous for us to have to abort the operation at the last minute. This thing isn’t simple and just beginning the planning phase is going to cause serious disruption to my organization, scheduling-wise. If we do all the planning, then the training and implement the plan right up to final takedown and then were to have to stop because someone was undercover, it would be a major setback for us. Somehow, I need to be able to know, right now, that no one will be undercover in that gang. Any suggestions?”
“Well, one thing that comes to mind, right off the bat, is that I could warn Fishy off.”
“Yeah, I thought about that. But I’ve got problems with it. First, what if Fishy gets territorial about his jurisdiction and refuses to cooperate? And I think that is definitely a big possibility. Second, that exposes you as someone who knew what was going to happen. Maybe things don’t go just right and one of the gang members gets badly hurt or worse. You don’t need that kind of grief.”
“You’re right. Give me a little time to work on this. I’ll call you back later this morning.”
“Ok, but first, a couple of other things. What do you think are the normal hours of operation for drug corners?”
“I’ll ask my guys in narcotics and let you know when I call back on that other thing.”
“Ok, one more thing. How do we narrow down where to look for the locations these guys are working?”
“I think I can get some ideas without tipping Sturgeon off. I’ll call you back.”
“Ok, later.”
KC turned his attention to some more mundane tasks. He approved payment of routine bills, reviewed his companies’ P& L statements, and went over the proposed expansion plans for Home and Office Security. He wondered if they would have to delay those plans due to a shortage of personnel. It crossed his mind that the security and monitoring company could most likely continue to function properly if they would lower the hiring standards. But as quickly as that thought entered his mind, he dismissed it. Altering standards for the sake of more rapid expansion was not an option that he could reasonably consider. KC, Top and Peeps had built the companies on the principle of hiring only the best people and then train them to provide the best service in the industry. Those standards had to remain in place, no matter what. Additionally, most of the people hired into security monitoring developed a desire to move into other, more demanding jobs. This could only occur if they continued to hire top quality people. KC realized that he never should have considered the option of lowing hiring standards, not even for an instant. He knew he never would again. KC was proud of his employees and what they accomplish. He was also proud and excited for the new Special Operations they were conducting.
KC then decided that he should begin to outline a rough timeline for the upcoming Columbus project. One of the first tasks that needed to be addressed was selecting the first four guys for surveillance of the corner that would be picked to watch. Top and Nellie were supposed to approve Cedric’s choices. KC picked up the phone and punched the button for the gym. Surprisingly, Nellie answered on the first ring. KC said, “Wow, if you’re answering the phone, it must indicate a slow day.”
“No such thing around here. I just hung up from another call. What’s up?”
“Have you and Top had a chance to go over Cedric’s recommendations for the first four?”
“Top gave me those names and I asked Jasmine to go over their records. She said that all four were ready to go. I had just gotten off the phone with Top telling him that when you called.”
“All four, huh? Makes me wonder if Cedric had already checked with Jasmine before he picked them.”
“Funny, I had the same thought, but he didn’t.”
“Oh, you asked Jasmine?”
“No, Cedric was here working out when I came in this morning. I asked him if he had talked with Jasmine about the readiness of his first four picks. He said that he was pretty sure that the four he had selected would be ready and that was part of the reason he had selected them. I thought, wow, this guy’s on top of this from the start.”
“Wow is right. I’m really glad to hear that. I always thought highly of Cedric. Now I’m starting to remember why.”
“People are arriving for a class. I’ve got to get busy.”
“OK, bye.”
After he hung up, KC wondered why he had called Nellie instead of Top. Was it that he wanted to talk with her? He admitted to himself that most likely was the case. He had not missed the rather dreamy look in her eyes when she had asked about seeing the rest of his living quarters. Fortunately, Cheryl had called just when he was going to have to answer Nellie’s question. She was an employee and he was the boss. That made the answer simple. He had been able to avoid answering her because of a timely phone call. But that didn’t change how he had really wanted to answer. He quickly realized that he was daydreaming and getting absolutely nothing done. KC returned to preparing his timeline.
Almost immediately, KC thought of another question that they had not addressed: How many Latino gang members, management and security, were there in Columbus? His team should obtain an accurate estimate before they determined how many to select for the final breach of the gang headquarters. That was a question he’d ask Stone when he called back.
He continued his preparation of a preliminary time line for the operation and was just about done with his conclusion when the phone rang. “KC here, may I help you?”
“It’s Frank. I’ve got a question. How long do you think it will be before you’re ready to conduct your takedown of the gang headquarters?”
“Interesting that you’d ask as I just was working on a preliminary timeline. At this point, my best estimate is that we’ll be ready for that final phase of the operation between thirty to forty days from now.”
“Ok, good to know. I’ll be back to you soon.”
The line went dead and KC wondered what that was about. Plus, the call was ended so quickly that KC hadn’t had a chance to ask about the number of gang members to expect. He hit redial and before a single ring was completed, “Lt. Stone”, rang out in a hurried and gruff tone.
“Flint, KC. I’ve got a question for you. Best estimate, how many gang members, management and security, would you expect us to find in the early morning hours at their headquarters?”
“I’ll see what I can find out and let you know when I call back. Talk with you later.”
KC pulled out the firms’ financial statements again and stared at the bottom lines for a while. The numbers confirmed the idea that was percolating in his mind. Financially, he knew it would work.
If Nellie’s salary were removed from the expense line, the resulting addition to the bottom line profit would definitely create room to compensate an additional general partner. Her work ethic and the significance of the impact she had on the organization created definite justification for her promotion to partner. KC imagined that in most cases, the partner’s share of bonuses would then be split four ways instead of the current three. He wondered what Top and Peeps would think of that. KC decided that after the current Columbus operation was over, he’d suggest the possibility to those two and gauge their reaction. Hopefully, there would be some cash recovered during the takedown of the gang headquarters. If there were, that would be a perfect time to approach Top and Peeps on the potential reduction of management bonus pe
rcentages from thirty-three percent to twenty-five percent. But of more importance to KC was their thinking on Nellie’s deservedness of becoming a partner. Actually, both of those guys had more detailed interaction with her in their daily activities than KC did, and they in fact, probably knew her better than KC did. That was something he wanted to change.
Chapter 40
Selection of team members and training progressed according to schedule. FBI Agent Colby Peters had told KC that Cedric’s team had been spotted the first two times they had tried to follow his FBI agents but that on all subsequent occasions, Cedric’s teams had been successful. Peters told KC that, in his opinion, if Cedric and his men could be that effective when following his men, they would have no trouble following anybody undetected.
Rehearsals of the breach had been straightforward and totally successful, as KC had expected. All of the men had previous training and many of them had performed this maneuver in live combat situations so it wasn’t of any surprise that they had no problems executing that part of the operation rather easily. Top, Peeps and KC had reviewed and approved all of the equipment purchased, the motel reservations, car rentals and other travel plans. As far as they could determine, this Special Operations team was ready to go, both tactically and logistically. The four men of the observation team were sent on their way to Columbus.
At three o’clock on the first afternoon of observing their selected corner in Columbus, former Sergeant Bobby Oakley and former Staff Sergeant Jerry Brown were on watch. Peeps had rented a small office in a mostly unoccupied building, on the third floor, overlooking a corner that former Lieutenant Wally Sturgeon had told Frank Stone was an active drug corner. The office was small, drab and furnished only with two chairs and a desk. It had one naked light bulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling. Bobby Oakley was on watch while Jerry Brown ate lunch at the desk. Bobby said, “Hey Jerry, take a look at this.”
Jerry said, “Looks like they’ve got a couple of customers.”
“And it looks like rich white kids borrowed Daddy’s car for a drug buy or so it appears.”
“Yup, white kids and new BMWs aren’t common in this part of town.”
“I’d like to see the look on Daddy’s face if he found out where his car is.”
“Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s practice our drill. Let’s follow them home and have a chat with Daddy.”
“That would be fun, but that’s not what we’re here to do. Look, one of the corner kids is approaching the car. And here it is. The passenger passed something to the kid. And there they go.”
The BMW took off down the street then stopped at the next corner. Another kid came out from a building that looked like it was abandoned and handed something to the passenger. Then the BMW took off again, this time turning down the street that led to a freeway onramp.
Jerry said, “I figured that’s how they’d do it. On the first corner are the dealmakers who take the money. On the next block corner are the dudes with the drugs. The drugs are only on the street for a brief moment when they’re passed to the buyers. Until then, they are hidden somewhere nearby until the call comes from the dealmakers telling them what to provide to what car.”
Bobby nodded. “So, nobody on the street gets busted by drug enforcement or ripped off by opposing gangs while having anything significant in their possession. Pretty slick. Oh, well. Now we got action in this location. Let’s sit back and wait for our friends to show up.”
It didn’t take long. About twenty minutes later, a white Escalade pulled up to the corner. Bobby said, “Hey, KC was right. It looks like management might drive a white SUV. One just pulled up. Here comes the corner kid. Looks like the kid and a rear seat passenger are having a chat. And that’s it, just a chat. Nothing passed between them. There they go. They keep it quick. You already text the guys?’
“Yup, they’re on it.”
The followers consisted of four vehicles, all ordinary sedans. Each one carried two members of the Special Ops group. The procedure was for the driver to watch the objective vehicle, reporting its progress to the passenger who then voice texted the status to the other three vehicles. One of those vehicles established position about a block behind and a block to the left. A second was positioned the same way except to the right. The third vehicle followed the first, about two blocks behind. If the object vehicle maintained a straight path for more than a mile, the first follower and his trailer would exchange places. If there were no change in direction for another mile, one of the flank vehicles and the then current trail vehicle would change places.
If the object vehicle turned, the flank vehicle in the direction of the turn would take over as lead follower, the trail vehicle would take its place on flank, the former lead vehicle would take up the opposite flank and the former opposite flank vehicle would become the trailer. This was all easy to do when there was no traffic. But in any kind of slow-and-go situation, these maneuvers became rather tricky. However, the more traffic, the less likely they were to be spotted, so there was a trade-off. There were a couple of other factors with regard to this operation that created another trade-off. The first was that this was not a training exercise wherein they were following a car driven by FBI agents, where, if they were spotted, there were no real consequences, only an indication that more training was needed. The second was that the big white SUV was easier to pick out from the rest of the traffic and could be followed at a greater distance than the nondescript FBI cars, thus making the tail harder to spot.
After ten or twelve blocks, the SUV stopped at another corner. The lead tail vehicle proceeded on, with the driver and passenger looking straight ahead, ignoring the SUV and the passengers who were hidden behind darkly tinted windows. The trail vehicle parallel parked across the entrance to an alley and waited. The two flank vehicles found places to wait also. The lead vehicle made a right turn at the next intersection, then took the next right and proceeded three blocks, took another two right turns and found a place to wait, about two blocks behind, until the new lead vehicle was able to follow when the SUV proceeded on its way. Had someone had an aerial view of these proceedings, they would have been truly impressed with how seamless all of the required moves were. After less than a minute, the SUV proceeded ahead for a few blocks before turning left on a major traffic artery and picking up speed. Tailing the SUV from that point on was routine and rather easy for the well-trained teams.
After a few miles, the white Escalade turned right onto a residential street and headed straight for a few blocks then it began to slow. Almost all the houses on the block were painted white, were of medium size and were well maintained with lush landscaping and generous front yards. Cars were parked randomly along both sides of the street, leaving one traffic lane in each direction. The Escalade turned left into a driveway. It drove forward on the driveway and stopped at the side of the house and in front of the garage that was in the back. The lead trail vehicle proceeded ahead without slowing while its passenger notified the other teams as to the situation. As they neared the end of the block, both driver and passenger saw someone that appeared to be a lookout. They alerted the trail vehicle to watch for a lookout at the entrance to the block and then picked out an intersection about five blocks ahead and two blocks to the right for a rendezvous with all parties.
When all four teams had assembled at the rendezvous, Cedric Washington gave the entire team his sincere congratulations on what, so far, seemed to be a successful beginning to their mission. The trail vehicle confirmed that there was a lookout at the other end of the block. Cedric instructed that the next task was to verify that the house where the Escalade had parked was, indeed, the gang’s headquarters. Cedric informed them that they would use the drones with high definition cameras to monitor the house and he made assignments for shifts of drone operators. It would be the drone operator’s responsibility to record pictures of any gang members that the drones obtained and to look for other local secu
rity, including any guard dogs, on the property. With that settled, three of the cars left to return to the motel and the fourth team went to find a secure location within the drone’s range of the house.
As of 11 PM, it was concluded that the house was, in fact, the gang’s headquarters. People had come and gone during the late afternoon and throughout most of the evening. The Escalade had remained in place. It was unknown as to how many gang members were in the house when the SUV had arrived but with the goings and comings, the team estimated that if there had been four people in the Escalade, then there were now about ten to twelve people in the house. The drones had also spotted two dogs in the backyard. Cedric decided that when things seemed settled for the night they would redirect the drones to study the activities of the lookouts and to search the surrounding area for any additional security.
The following morning, KC arrived in his office at the usual time, 7 AM and was reading his emails and overnight messages from overseas when the phone rang.
“KC, it’s Cedric. I wanted to bring you up to date on the operation and ask for your approval to conduct the takedown.”
“Ok, give me your status and assessment of the situation.”
“We’ve located the gang headquarters and have had continuous eyes on it with the drones since late yesterday afternoon. We think that there are about ten guys staying there. They have a lookout posted at each end of the block around the clock. We monitored their activity last night and determined that they call in a situation report every thirty minutes, on the hour and half-hour. There are two guard dogs that are posted in the backyard. The dogs went into the house a few times while we were watching them but after 2 A.M. they remained outside and are still out there now. We haven’t found any other external security and at this point, we have no reason to think that any other security exists. We plan to use the drones all day and into the evening to see if anything different from what we’ve already seen occurs. If nothing changes, we plan to take out the lookouts right after they call in at 3 A.M tomorrow morning. We’ll neutralize the dogs at about 2:45 A.M.”