May/June 1996
Michael Levine, Prison Life
The CI (I'll call him 'Snakeface'), on the other hand, was wanted in both Bolivia and Argentina for bad checks, petty theft, and every kind of scam imaginable. He had a total of 17 charges outstanding against him. His favorite scam was selling cars he didn't own. His other part-time source of income during the past four years was selling drug cases to the DEA.
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Snakeface first comes to Washington, D.C., from Bolivia with a wife and two kids whom he promptly abandons, returning alone to South America. Things don't go too well, and in a short time he's back in the United States, on the lam from police and scam victims in two countries. Miguel, a family friend and fellow Bolivian, tries to help out by giving Snakeface part of his lunch delivery business.
In the meantime, Snakeface's wife suffers a cerebral hemorrhage and falls into a coma. While she lies dying, her grieving husband tries to sell her vital organs. When the sale of his dying wife's heart, lungs, and kidneys doesn't work out, Snakeface decides to sell Miguel--organs and all--to the DEA as a Class One cocaine dealer.
Snakeface's first move showed me that he was no novice in playing the federal rat system. Instead of calling the local Washington, D.C., office of the DEA, or the FBI, he calls the DEA in California. He describes Miguel as 'Chama,' the 'East Coast distributor for a huge South American cartel dealing in shipments of thousands of kilos of cocaine into the U.S.' and 'the head of his own criminal organization'--a description that just happened to fit the criteria for a DEA Class One violator.
The reason Snakeface approached a DEA office in Southern California, as far away from Washington, D.C., as possible, was a move of sheer con man beauty. His experience as a professional federal rat had taught him about the insane competition for headlines, budget, and glory among the myriad American federal enforcement, spy, and military agencies--53 at last count--involved in some form of narcotic enforcement. He knew that the California agents, afraid that the East Coast agents or some other agency would steal their case, would keep Chama King of Cocaine a secret.
California DEA officials react exactly as Snakeface had predicted. Instead of calling the Washington, D.C., office and asking them to check out the information, they send Snakeface airline tickets and money to come to California so they can get their first evidence--a recorded telephone conversation--and lock the case in as their own.
Next Snakeface tells Miguel, 'Look, I've got this American mafioso in California who is dumber than a guava. The guy's so dumb he's even sent me airplane tickets to fly out there and set up a cocaine deal. I'll tell him you're the capo de tutti frutti of all Bolivian drug dealers. You tell this boludo that you can deliver all the cocaine he wants. He'll give you a couple hundred thousand dollars out front. Then you and me take off back to Bolivia rich men and open up a chain of drive-in theaters.'
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