Drugs were a cash business, and the problem for foreign drug suppliers was getting their cash out of the country. Experienced cops had told him it was far easier for suppliers to get their drugs in than to get their cash out. They couldn’t deposit it in banks or transfer it in meaningful amounts because banks were watched by the government, and transferring a few thousand here and there was useless to an organization that generated hundreds of millions in cash.

Cole said, “Smuggling cash doesn’t rate a sealed file.”

“That was the DEA. They broke him, then cut a deal with him for info about the cartel’s business.”

“He was an informant.”

“Yeah, for a couple of years, and maybe that’s why he did what he did. Rainey and the woman disappeared two weeks before Katrina with twelve million dollars of Bolivian money. They’ve been on the run ever since.”

Cole leaned back.

“Twelve million. Get out.”

Lucy said, “Cash.”

“The cartel boys put a million dollar reward on Rainey’s head and sent up a specialist to find him.”

“Specialist as in a killer?”

“Specialist as in finding people the Bolivians want found, and doing whatever it is they want done. Over at the DOJ, they called him the executioner. That’s who you have runnin’ around out there.”

Cole felt a second chill, and listened as Terry continued.

According to Terry’s contact, William Allan Rainey had spent his life jumping between small-time criminal activity and questionable business ventures. Rainey opened several restaurants and bars that failed, but eventually created a stable business for himself as a wholesale seafood supplier, buying shrimp and fish from local fishermen to sell to other people’s restaurants. The fishermen Rainey dealt with were one-boat operators who fished the Gulf from pinprick towns in the bayous along the Louisiana coast. Investigators believed it was during this period that Rainey became involved with people who were in business with the Bolivian cartel, and Rainey, who had always been attracted to easy money, saw a way to cut himself in on the partnership. The Bolivians needed a way to sneak their cash out of the country, and Rainey provided the method. His daily contact with fishermen allowed him to recruit people who were open to carrying questionable cargo. Especially if they were behind on their rent and needed the money.

Cole stopped him.

“Did these people know what they were carrying?”

“The deal was, no questions asked, but Rainey told at least two fishermen they were carrying pot on its way to Miami. That’s the way it was packaged, in black, waterproof bales. How it worked was, Rainey and a couple of guards would hand off the bales to a fisherman on his way out, along with waypoint coordinates to meet up with a vessel out past the rigs. All they had to do was hand over the bales, then get on with their fishing.”