The Colombian Cocaine Story
1995
A true story
involving one of my Colombian customers
Written 4/2010 and Rr-written 05/10/2016
Howard Yasgar
During the 1980’s to the 1990’s our company
was very busy exporting automotive parts to Central and South America.
Our being located in Miami, was the
perfect location as we had importers and automotive parts dealers from South
America coming in to see us all the time
South American dealers would fly into
Miami and rent a car, then they would stop in to see what we had for them
before they headed up to Atlanta and New York.
We
would usually see them again when they returned to Miami, as Miami was their last stop before flying back to
their home countries.
Some days we had so many of these people
visiting us, we didn’t have enough offices and chairs to accommodate them all.
All these businessmen coming to do
business in the States had one thing in common, they had their attaché cases
filled with U.S. currency.
It was extremely difficult for South
American businessmen to obtain U.S. dollars in their own countries, they had to
buy them from street corner money dealers and they had to pay a premium of up
to 20% to buy dollars, depending on the market.
When they arrived at our office and opened
their attaché cases, they were all the same, the cases were filled with stacks
of wrinkled U.S. $1.00, $5.00, $10.00
and $20.00 bills.
So to
get enough U.S. Currency to make a trip to Miami it was always a real problem
for them, and it was a costly problem as they had to pay so much profit to the
money brokers.
Now, traveling
to the U.S. with an attaché case full of U.S. currency was legal, but was also a
big risk, as there were criminals just looking for South American and Central
Americans that they knew were carrying money
in their attache cases.
So to solve all these problems, the
Colombian drug dealers came up with a solution.
They had lots of U.S. currency that was already
in the United States, and as drug dealers they ran a big risk when sending the U.S.
currency back to South America, the money could be detected and confiscated by
U.S. government.
So the Colombian drug dealers devised a
scheme that was perfect for the Latin American
businessmen that needed U.S. Currency.
You would
simply call a telephone number in Colombia and tell them how much money you
needed in U.S. currency.
Then you told them where they could find
you in the States.
The
Colombian businessmen would then pay the drug dealers only a 10% premium in
Colombia and they could pay it in their local currency.
This money exchange business was good for
the drug dealers, especially in Colombia, as they didn’t have to ship the U.S.
currency back to Colombia, and they made an additional 10% profit.
This system was also good for our Colombian
customers as they knew their exact cost of money was going to be 10%, and they no
longer had to shop the streets for money.
The best part was they no longer had to
carry large sums of money when traveling to the States and run the risk of
having it stolen from them.
By 1995, the export parts business was
starting to slow down, it was due to several factors.
One reason being that the Japanese automobiles
were now replacing the American cars in the Caribbean, Central and South
America, and another reason was that the local currency in many South American
Countries had been devalued, making many formerly wealthy businessmen into poor
people.
The currency devaluations became so bad, most
of our long time South American customers couldn’t even afford to fly to the
U.S. anymore.
One
day, we were surprised to see that one of our regular customers from Colombia
had come to see us.
His name was Omar and I always remembered
Omar because he carried an attaché case with all sorts of colorful automotive decals
plastered all over it.
That
morning, Omar arrived at our office with a friend, and we all sat down in our
office talking over old times and how the automotive business was now changing.
Neither Omar nor his friend spoke a word
of English, but they told us they had made arrangements to receive $35,000.00
in U.S. currency when they arrived at their hotel in New York City.
Omar said that he wanted to look over our stock
of parts that we had for sale, and then he was driving up to New York City.
He said
that it was in his regular hotel room in New York City where he arranged to pick
up the $35,000.00 in U.S. currency that he had purchased from the drug dealers
back in Colombia.
He
said that he would pay us for what he bought from us on his return trip from
New York when he had his dollars.
About a week passed and I received a distressing
call from Omar, he said he was in New York City, and he asked if I would please
send him $300.00 by Western Union just as soon as possible. He said he needed the
money for food and gasoline to get to Miami. He said he would explain
everything when he got to Miami and saw me.
Omar and his friend arrived at my office a
couple of days later, and he told me the following story.
When they arrived in New York City, they
headed to their regular hotel, where they always stayed.
Omar
said he always reserved the same room, and it was that room where he was
supposed to receive the $35,000.00 in U.S. currency that he had paid for in
Colombia.
The hotel clerk said that Omar’s regular
room was under renovation, but they could have the room next to it.
Omar said he thought it strange, as he
wasn’t told about any of this when he had called in his reservation a week
earlier.
So Omar told the desk clerk to be sure and
advise the delivery boy when he came, that there had been a room change, the
desk clerk assured him that it would be taken care of.
The next morning there was a knock on their
hotel room door, it was a delivery boy carrying a bowling ball bag.
Omar knew his money was in it, so he
invited the boy into the room and they opened the bag on the bed to count the
money.
As expected, in the bag were bundles of
U.S. $20.00 bills, which Omar then spread out on the bed to count, he wanted to
make sure it was all there.
That’s when their hotel room door came
crashing open and a Police swat team with guns drawn stormed into the room.
Omar, his friend, and the delivery boy, were
thrown on the floor and handcuffed, and while this was going on a huge German
Shepard dog jumped on the bed and chewed on the bag and the money.
Omar
said he was so scared, he thought he was having a heart attack right there on
the floor.
They
were all placed under arrest and taken to the police station, and as Omar and
his friend spoke no English, an interpreter was called in to translate for them.
The
Interpreter explained to Omar that the money was confiscated as it had traces
of cocaine on it, and they were to
appear before a Magistrate in New York City that very evening.
That evening, they explained to the
Magistrate through the interpreter, that they had bought and paid for the money
in Colombia, and Omar explained that they were in the auto parts business, not
the cocaine business.
The Judge appeared very sympathetic to
their story, and told them that they would be released but the drug money was
to be held as evidence.
They would be informed when there would be
a hearing, to set a trial date, and Omar could then hire an attorney if he
wanted to.
Omar said he was in a state of shock, the
money was all his working capital, and he really didn’t fully understand what
was going on.
That’s when he called for me to send the
$300.00.
Omar said he didn’t know what happened to
the courier, but he did know he couldn’t afford to hire an attorney, and he
couldn’t afford to return to New York for a trial.
Omar
was afraid that if they found him guilty, he could end up going to prison.
He
said that he also knew he couldn’t complain to the drug dealers in Colombia as
that could be worse than the Police in New York.
Omar
said, all he wanted to do now was get on the next flight home to Colombia.
Omar never mentioned the $300.00 I had lent
them, and I have never seen Omar again.
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