Secret life of an American teen working as an assassin
GABRIEL Cardona was just a regular American kid, until a brush with the law propelled him into the service of a notorious drug lord.
GABRIEL Cardona was just a regular kid in south Texas, until a brush with the law propelled him into petty crime — and the service of a notorious drug lord.
In Wolf Boys, Dan Slater traces the extraordinary true story of teenage assassins who find themselves embroiled in Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartel, Los Zetas.
The following extract details Gabriel’s meeting with Miguel Trevino, once one of Mexico’s most wanted drug lords until his arrest in 2013.
***
IN NUEVO Laredo, during Gabriel’s first months of membership in the Company, he didn’t perceive much of a war. The Company appeared to control the area. But the following year, in the spring of 2005, as the Company and the Sinaloans expanded their ranks, more intense conflict visited the border, and the Company’s grip on Nuevo Laredo was no longer assured. Gabriel discovered that the impunity he’d once enjoyed diminished a little. In April, after being picked up for driving a stolen car and possessing cocaine, he landed in a Nuevo Laredo jail for 10 days.
A month later, Meme — a man he took orders from — had a request.
“Call Wences,” he said, referring to Los Zetas member Wences Tovar, also an American citizen.
“Tell him to come across.”
Though Wences had not been considered for training camp, by this time he had become a low-level Company man in his own right.
“I don’t want to come,” said Wences when Gabriel called his phone.
“Why not? You don’t have a choice.”
A load of weapons he was supposed to cross to Mexico had gone missing, Wences explained, and he feared the consequences.
“Don’t worry,” Gabriel said. “I’ll be there.”
Later, as the two drove with Meme toward the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo, Meme explained that they were going to meet “the men of Nuevo Laredo”.
Be serious, he said. There was a mission to do, money to make.
“Take advantage of this. Ask for everything you want: ARs, vests, cash, cars. They’ll give it to you.”
Ten minutes later, Gabriel and Wences stood on a patio behind a nice house. A black Suburban backed into the driveway and parked, nose out. Two men got out; one faced the road, the other circled the car. Two others emerged from the truck and walked to the patio. They wore military fatigues and camouflage hats. Gabriel was impressed: the all-black look had become a trend around the hood, but these guys were soldiers.
As the men approached, Gabriel recognised “Comandante Cuarenta” Miguel Treviño. Gabriel had known that he worked for Miguel, even if orders came from Meme. But he’d hardly seen the man since that night when he and Wences had tried to sell the Jeep Cherokee to the wrong cop.
“Saludos, señor,” the boys said.
“¡Mis gabachos!” Miguel said, using his slang for Americans.
He threw his head back and sighted the boys down his nose. “No me llamen ‘señor.’ Señor is for the one in heaven. Call me comandante.” He asked which of them would be his “man”.
When Wences was silent, Gabriel jumped in and said, “Yo mero.” I’m the true one.
Miguel touched Gabriel’s chest and smiled. “Eres como yo, güey. Tú sí eres frío.” You’re just as cold as me, dude. Then he touched Wences’s chest. “¿Tienes miedo?” You scared?
“Me acabo de echar un pase,” Wences stuttered, explaining that he’d snorted a line of coke on the drive over. He confessed that he thought he was going to get smoked for the load of lost weapons.
“¿Cómo crees, güey?” Miguel said and laughed. “Eso pasa siempre.” Don’t worry, dude. Shit happens all the time. Miguel turned to Gabriel. “So, you think you’re a badass?”
“Yes, Comandante.”
“How many people have you killed?”
“I don’t know.”
“So many that you don’t know? Do you know how many I’ve killed?”
“No, Comandante.”
“I’ve killed more than 800 people.”
Gabriel and Wences followed Miguel and Meme into the house for a meeting of Zeta comandantes.
After some talk, the men agreed that the war with their Sinaloa rivals needed to be fought in the States as well as Mexico. Sinaloan contras were jacking Company loads in Mexico, sneaking across the border, and establishing themselves in Texas, where they assumed that the law-and-order culture of America would protect them, or at least make retribution less attractive. And by flooding South Texas with money, the Sinaloans were getting Company smugglers to flip sides.
All contras and defectors in Texas had to be eliminated, the group decided. And it could be done only with a strong presence on the US side.
The comandantes looked at Gabriel and Wences and asked them to find eight gabachos de huevos, Americans with balls, who could attend a training camp and then join them in the plaza, or turf.
Which plaza? Gabriel wondered. Until now, the only plaza he’d known was Nuevo Laredo. He and Wences just nodded. But as the boys walked out, the meaning grew clear. Miguel gave them $10,000, told them to buy a couple of used cars, and assigned them two commission jobs for $10,000 apiece — in Laredo.
Laredo? As in Texas?
Doing missions in a place where the authorities took homicide seriously was not the most appealing prospect. But it was Forty asking, and Gabriel understood the implication. To climb the ladder, he had to work in the States.
They would do it, Gabriel told Miguel. They would do the two jobs.
This is an edited extract from Wolf Boys by Dan Slater, published by Allen & Unwin, RRP $29.99, in stores Wednesday 28 September. Visit Allen & Unwin for more info.
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