“All right folks, I’ve been working on planning for this
operation. At any time feel free to throw out ideas,” said Dix. He paid close attention to what Kovach was doing because he was concerned with how he had been acting lately. Dix knew Kovach was not telling them everything and it bothered him.
Dix explained the single most important part of the mission was not actually protecting the money or preventing Jose Calderon or his men from getting it, but rather it was to allow them to take the money, but make it difficult. Resistance was needed to sell the ruse. The money had to make it into the hands of Jose Calderon. Once he finished, Dix noticed Romero seemed perplexed.
“What do you think Romero, this not adding up for you?”
Romero was a little embarrassed and felt his face get flush and warm. He didn’t want to say anything, but Dix had called him out so he had to say something.
“So, we put up a ton of resistance, then let cartel hired hit men walk away with millions of dollars, placing staff at risk, just to catch Jose Calderon in possession of the money?”
Petersen jumped in. “That’s about the gist of it. You got a better idea to hammer Calderon?” The room was quite and all eyes were on Romero. Dix studied him trying to get a read. He had detected there was something not right with him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it…not yet anyway.
Romero said, “I don’t like letting cartel members storm the warehouse where someone may get hurt or killed, and then letting them just walk away. These guys are ruthless. They need to be held accountable for all the killings. Is one arrest of a top cartel member worth the risk?”
Dix replied, “Romero I like how you’re looking at the whole situation and I also believe someone needs to pay for the loss of the agents and deputies,” he looked steely-eyed at the whole team and continued, “Rest assured, someone will pay. But, we only have one play here if we want to pin something on Jose Calderon.
Locating the stolen money from the warehouse in his possession will tie him to this whole conspiracy and the murders. The risk is high, but we do this right and we can take this Calderon cartel down.”
Romero nodded. “Ok, I’m in, but I’m just skeptic that Jose’s going to take the bait and be dumb enough to get caught with the money. He may do one or the other, but not both.”
Petersen said, “Good point, but a guy like Calderon has a boss. That boss is going to want the money.” Petersen had read numerous books about cartels from people who had infiltrated them or studied them over the last thirty years. He was confident Calderon was not the main boss because he was sloppy and emotional.
The team circled around the table and each member pointed out problems or weaknesses with the plan while trying to finish off sandwiches. They considered several points of attack on the warehouse and identified escape routes.
Dix had been going back and forth with a thought in his head that had bothered him for several days. He struggled with how much of the plan he wanted to share with members of the team excluding Petersen, and how much of the plan he wanted to share with warehouse staff and assisting law enforcement officers and agents. Ultimately, he decided sharing the entire plan with everyone was the best decision because it would allow the people involved to be prepared for any possible scenario. Preparedness normally leads to less injuries or deaths, thought Dix.
He spent almost a solid hour explaining what the other participating agencies in the operation would have to do to sell the theft. Once he felt comfortable with the plan, he went around the room asking anyone if they had any questions or other ideas on how to improve it.
Dix got to Sullivan, who had been quiet during the entire brief, and asked her what she thought.
Sullivan replied, “I think for the most part the plan is solid, but we may have underestimated how many men Calderon will send. He sent two teams to the safe house to try to kill Pedro. I think he may send a lot more men to the warehouse. Plus the men he will send are not going to be rookies. They’ll probably be the best mercenaries money can buy. With all due respect to your plan, I think we should use SWAT and other tactically trained people to take off Calderon once we’re sure he has the money.”
As Sullivan was explaining her thought process, Dix nodded validating her opinion.
Dix looked around the room. “I completely agree, and unless anyone here has a better idea, I think Sullivan should coordinate the tactical response.” It was agreed that she was the right person for the assignment.
Sullivan watched the reactions of the people in the room and felt a sense of relief and pride. “Ok, I’ll work up the operation plan for the tactical guys.” She was maturing as an agent and she was hopeful Kovach was taking notice. She also hoped Petersen was taking notice.
She wasn’t quite sure why, but she’d been thinking about him all day. She was attracted to him and hoped she’d get a chance to spend some time alone with him before he returned to Florida.
Dix said, “Ok, we know this is going down tomorrow,” he looked at his watch, did the math, and said, “We need to get sleep tonight so we’re sharp. This is going to test everyone’s ability. We’ll only have one shot at this. Let’s try not to screw it up.”
Dix heard the door to the conference room open and saw the junior agent from before enter the room and walk directly over to Kovach. It appeared the junior agent updated Kovach verbally and handed him a manila file folder. Kovach opened the folder and read the contents quickly.
He dismissed the junior agent and addressed the group, “Sullivan nailed it earlier when she said the men Calderon would send would be highly skilled. We just got proof of that. Earlier I noticed a man in a car adjacent to the warehouse that didn’t seem to fit in. As I watched him, I noticed he was surveilling the warehouse. The license plate of the vehicle came back to a rental car.
The rental car transaction video included two men FBI has been trying to track down for three years. As the FBI agent described them to me, they are stone cold killers with Green Beret training. Calderon has brought the best of the best for this one.”
Petersen and Dix exchanged looks of concern. It was the first time both of them began to consider they may be overmatched. As they considered revamping the plan, a man in a Sheriff’s Office uniform with captain’s bars entered the room looking upset.
He walked over to the group and said, “I’m looking for Dix and Kovach.”
Dix and Kovach raised their hands.
Dix said, “I’m Dix” and as he pointed to Kovach he said, “And he’s Kovach.”
“Gentlemen, my name’s Captain Thomas. I just met with the Sheriff and we may have a problem. He’s decided he doesn’t want to let the money walk.”
“What!” said Kovach, “This was all squared away from the top, what changed his mind?”
“He doesn’t feel the reward is worth the potential cost in this case. Losing lives to protect money does not appeal to him, especially since he is running for re-election in a month,” replied the captain.
Dix noticed Romero had a smug look on his face. The rest of the team was dumbfounded. Dix quickly realized the Sheriff was planning to catch Calderon and his men when they hit the warehouse. Problem was Jose Calderon would not enter the warehouse. He immediately began trying to figure out where to get thirty million dollars and someone willing to let it walk away… temporarily. He noticed Kovach was frantically talking on his cell phone as the buzz of the news spread around the room.
Dix said to the captain, “Well, it’s the S.O.’s money so they can do what they wish with it. Is the Sheriff still okay with using the warehouse as the trap location?”
“He is, but none of the regular civilian staff will be there. He wants them replaced with deputies.”
Dix could feel himself getting upset and was pretty sure his face was flush, but wanting to remain professional, calmly questioned, “Has the Sheriff planned an operation like this before? Does he know these last minute changes will get sniffed out by Calderon and this whole thing is
a bust? These guys probably won’t even show up.”
The captain got a smirk on his face and replied, “I’m sure he does. Sounds like shutting this operation down is his plan.”
Dix was about to implode as Kovach waved him off. The captain left and Kovach waved everyone over to him.
“Okay, the operation is still a go. HSI will front the money. We lose the money, and Sullivan and I won’t have jobs after this.”
Dix was still fired-up and replied, “We don’t have a place to put the money. The captain said the Sheriff basically changed his mind about the whole operation. It doesn’t look like the warehouse is an option at this point either.”
Kovach looked concerned but said, “Relax Bill. I’m sure the Sheriff will change his mind. We’ll have the brass give him a call and settle him down.”
Petersen said, “That seems unlikely based on the fact the captain said the Sheriff is running for re-election in a month. He doesn’t want an international incident to erupt weeks before he tries to run again.”
Kovach thought long and hard. He was aware that several politically connected people were interested in keeping the current Sheriff in power. He knew exactly who to call to put serious pressure on the Sheriff. He chuckled while realizing politics and narcotics were equally dirty and financially driven.
“I’ll try playing nice first, but if the Sheriff sticks to his guns, I’ll call a few of his financial backers and have them pull out. Dix, get the team prepared and continue with the process. The warehouse and the money will be there.” He left while everyone else remained behind.
Dix, Sullivan, Romero, and Petersen remained.
Romero addressed them, “Well that went well.”
Sullivan laughed out loud. “I had no idea you had a sense of humor.”
The group shared a laugh and finished eating their sandwiches. Chewing became labored and each of them yearned for sleep. The silence was disturbed by the ringing of Sullivan’s phone. She answered it and after a brief conversation she hung up.
Sullivan shared the information she received as soon as the call ended. “Okay, I got an update from the two surveillance teams. Sergio left in the Cadillac and was seen going back to the house he left from earlier today. Jose Calderon was followed to his house. The surveillance team noticed a rental car entering the driveway to his place. They’re not sure how the car is involved.”
Romero asked, “Didn’t Kovach just tell us about a rental car he’d spotted and some really bad dudes related to it?”
Petersen walked over to the table where Kovach had been standing and noticed a printout of a vehicle registration. It was registered owner information for the rental car. The group compared the license plates from both incidents; it was the same car. This confirmed Calderon had men watching the warehouse. It was a small piece coming together for the team.
Petersen looked at Sullivan. “Let’s make sure anything significant seen by the surveillance team goes through you. Even if it’s late. You good with that?”
“Absolutely,” She replied as she smiled at him. She was a light sleeper and the rest of the group would likely sleep hard and not hear a thing.
Dix said as he realized day light was long gone, “Ok guys, it’s ten thirty, let’s meet back here at six A.M.” A few grunts and small whines were their responses, but they knew the importance of the operation. If everything was done precisely right, they believed they just may apprehend Jose Calderon. With any luck, he would stand trial and be looking at life in a federal prison.
Chapter 33
* * *
Jose Calderon spent the last two hours talking to people associated to the Sheriff’s Office and the San Diego Police Department that were on his payroll looking for information. It seemed there was more police activity than usual at the Sheriff’s Office warehouse he planned to hit. However, based on all that had happened over the last week, he dismissed the activity and continued as planned.
Calderon had spoken to El Hefe. It was clear he was getting impatient. Calderon explained to him that he had already moved the job up a day sooner so if something went wrong, he would have an extra day to make another attempt. El Hefe flatly reminded him that if he was not successful during the first attempt, he would not live long enough to try again. Instead of getting upset, Calderon accepted this and moved on. He also decided he would be more involved with the theft to ensure it was successful. This included taking the risk of personally delivering the money to El Hefe.
He smirked at the thought of killing El Hefe during the exchange and taking over the cartel. Nine years I’ve waited, I will wait no more, he thought.
Chapter 34
* * *
Smith finished his reconnaissance of the Sheriff’s Office warehouse and was not impressed. He saw a minimum of three entry points, the roof, the roll-up doors, and of course, the front door. He noticed there were four cameras covering the corners of the structure and assumed there would be a silent alarm to the Sheriff’s Office main building a few miles away. Disabling the cameras and the alarm were his first concern because he did not want a shootout with law enforcement. There’s no need for anyone to die here.
Smith next considered whether he and the men would attempt some sort of a ruse to get inside or just go straight tactical and storm the building dynamically. Calderon had wanted to go in with full force, but Smith felt he may be able to convince him less force was necessary to accomplish the same thing. Although the building was quite large in square footage, it also had three floors. Nevertheless, he was confident there were enough bodies for the job to be successful. He assumed the money would be stored in a more secure vault inside the warehouse on the first floor. He figured a minimum of two armed men would be watching the money and determined non-lethal force, such as a bean bag shotgun or flash bangs, would disable them long enough to be safely disarmed and unharmed. He considered whether or not both of the guards would have access cards or require palm scans to actually get inside the vault. He’d asked Calderon to use some of his informants to try to discern if his hunch about the card readers or palm scans was right. It was important, because if the guards did not have access, he and the men would need to find another way in.
Once inside the vault, the money would be retrieved and loaded into the waiting armored vehicles. Men would appear to load two bags of money into three separate armored vehicles staged outside the warehouse. This would confuse anyone who may witness the robbery and prevent law enforcement from knowing which armored vehicle to try to take off first. Regardless of the charades, Smith knew at some point live rounds would be fired. He was hopeful simple suppression fire would keep most of the law enforcement officials at bay.
As this was all happening, Smith and two other men would be preparing the concrete floor to blow a hole in it large enough to get to the tunnels underneath the city and drop the sacks of money below. Calderon had told him that he had sent men to work beneath the warehouse round the clock to get access since he learned the money was at the warehouse. According to Calderon, a small c4 charge would be sufficient. Calderon estimated five to six feet of foundation were between the warehouse and the tunnels. He was hopeful the blast would not be so loud that it alerted law enforcement officials of where the real money was headed. From there, he would retrieve the money and drive through the tunnels until he found the subtle mark he had placed underneath a pipe indicating where to turn to reach the recently completed tunnel to Tijuana, Mexico.
Smith did not like using c4. It was unpredictable and inevitably someone would get hurt. He decided some of the men would have to create an explosion at the same time he blew the floor out of the warehouse in another location in an effort to confuse law enforcement.
He chuckled to himself as he thought about the chaos they would bring to the ill-prepared warehouse. He reminisced how he, many lifetimes ago, constantly tried to get the Sheriff’s Office to listen to his concerns about lack of preparedness and the growing threat of cartel violence spilling into the Uni
ted States. No one listened, but he continued to complain.
Smith left the area and called Calderon.
“We need to meet,” Smith said.
“Why is that, I’m busy preparing for the benefit.”
“You’re paying me to run this side of the operation. We need to discuss what I’ve discovered while doing surveillance on the warehouse. Your benefit planning should not be more important to you than what you want me to do for you.”
“Dammit, I thought you were going to get some rest. Instead, you went to the warehouse. Very well, meet me at my house in an hour. Don’t you ever sleep?”
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Your house in two hours, I’ve got one more thing to do at the warehouse.”
Before Calderon could say another word Smith hung up. He liked Smith’s tenacity. He was not sure exactly what Smith’s role would be after this was all over; however, they would either work together for awhile until he had no further use of him, or he thought, I may need to kill him after he gets the money. He decided he wouldn’t make a decision on Smith’s fate until he saw the man in action.
Chapter 35
* * *
A federal undercover officer dialed the number to his boss. He finally had a decent update to share with him, and he was excited to talk to someone since he had not done so for three weeks. He’d been inserted into Tijuana several weeks prior as it was anticipated the cartels in the area would be looking for hired shooters based on the turf war along the U.S. border.
The supervisor answered and said, “Well, what do you got?”
“You called it boss. Calderon will use the tunnels to get away with the money. Supposedly there’s a tunnel that was recently completed that opens up to Mexico and connects to the existing tunnels beneath the city.”
“Did he go as far as telling you how he knows which way to go, it’s like a bowl of spaghetti down there.”
The Cartel Enforcers (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 2) Page 14