May/June 1996
Michael Levine, Prison Life
For eight months Snakeface stalls the California agents by reporting that Chama is in the process of putting together a major shipment of cocaine, and the agents continue to pay him. In all, he receives another $29,000 in informant fees, plus expenses, which included periodic trips to California to be debriefed on his progress. For eight months the agents nag Snakeface into trying to get Miguel to deliver a sample of cocaine to prove he is really in the business.
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The sample never comes. Miguel didn't even know anyone who could sell him a small amount. And if he did, he didn't have the money. Snakeface was afraid that if he paid for the sample himself, the California agents might get wise to him. So he came up with a clever solution: He tells the agents that Class One dealers don't give samples; only small dealers give samples. When, to his astonishment, they believe him, he takes it one step further: He tells them Miguel will not make the deal unless the agents put part of the money--$310,000--out front, and says this is another sign that Miguel is a true Class One dealer.
Snakeface had enough experience selling cases to the feds to know they would never front that kind of money. He also knew that the feds' indecision and the slow-moving bureaucracy could give him quite a few months of salary--which is exactly what happened.
After eight months, the California agents finally decide that if Chama won't deliver drugs to them without front money, they'll get him on videotape promising them cocaine and accepting the money--all they'd need to prove him guilty of conspiracy to possess and distribute--and then bust his ass. Miguel would face enough charges to make him a guest of the American taxpayers for more years than he had left on this earth. The no-dope conspiracy arrest would also give the agents their Class One stat and maybe a headline from the ever gullible press.
By this time Snakeface not only had received $30,000 in rat fees, but all charges against him in Argentina had disappeared, and Snakeface had taken up residency in the United States to avoid going to jail in Bolivia.
Now Snakeface had two final duties to perform for his masters: bring Miguel to California for his arrest and then testify in court. More money was promised to come after Miguel's conviction. How much, we'll never know.
The stage was now set for the final act--the videotaping of the crime. Only there was one remaining snag. Miguel didn't have the money to come to California for his own arrest. In a final irony, the DEA had to pay for his trip.
At last, dressed in his best Sears casuals and prepared to play the role of a Class One cocaine dealer for what he thought was a live audience of Mafia retards, Miguel was on his way to California, like a big Bolivian turkey on his way to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner.
It was close to midnight when I keyed the videotape of the climactic undercover meeting between Chama King of Cocaine and Tony Capo of the Three Stooges Mafia Family.
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