Chapter 362
Luke contacted the judge, submitted evidence, and formally requested a warrant for UPs courier Brando Salvatore.
The LAPD might not be able to arrest all the members of the smuggling organization, but anyone who dared to commit a crime in Los Angeles would be brought to justice.
At two o’clock in the afternoon, FBI Agent Alfie Ima arrived at the Robbery and Murder Division.
Luke invited her into his office and joked, “Agent Irma, you’re right on time.”
“Sorry to keep you waiting.
That kid is going to be a lot tougher on the mouth than we thought, and we had to put in a little extra effort.”
Luke made a gesture of invitation, signaling for the other man to sit down, “I hope the wait was worth it.”
“Of course, after some patient and friendly exchanges, Carlos agreed to work with the FBI and also told me what he knew.
If Captain Lee has any questions, he can ask me directly.”
Luke said, “Did he kill Natasha.”
“No.”
“What exactly is he?”
“He belongs to a Mexican gang called ‘Posta’, a gang that engages in human smuggling, smuggling and other criminal activities.
Although he’s not very old, he’s one of the gang’s key prospects and has a group of henchmen to assist in the mission.”
Luke asked, “Why is he lurking around Natasha?”
“Because the Posta gangs, no, rather many of the gangs that engage in criminal smuggling activities hate Natasha with a passion.
Natasha’s main profession is a jiu-jitsu instructor, not exactly an intelligence expert, maybe not even some journalistic specialty.
But the big difference between her and a journalist is that journalists want news, and only news.
After broadcasting one stowaway story, it’s likely that she’ll focus on others and won’t stay dead set on these stowaway gangs.” Alfie Imma paused and continued.
“But Natasha is different, at the age of 12 she was smuggled to Los Angeles with her parents, but during the smuggling process her parents had an accident and she was the only one who made it to Los Angeles.
It hit her hard, and at 18 she began to investigate the truth of her parents’ murder, and with her memories and a few investigative clues, she learned the truth about how her parents were killed during the smuggling process.”
“How were they killed and why did she survive?”
“Halfway through the smuggling, a gang member tried to take her mother away, her father was killed to protect his wife, and she was lucky to survive.
The organizers of the smuggling are all gang members, and they’ll do anything to get the most out of it.
Some beautiful young girls are taken to sell silver, the better off are extorted money, and some are coerced into transporting drugs.
Even if all these gang members were killed, none of them would be wrongly accused.”
Alfie Ima once again returned to the topic, “Although Natasha is not a professional intelligence officer, she has been persistently investigating the smuggling organization for over ten years, visiting orphanages, aid stations, and Latin communities to investigate clues about the smuggling organization and people who have been persecuted by them.
For more than ten years, she has not given up.
It was like a marathon course, there were many people faster than her, but they would leave the course for various reasons.
Only Natasha insisted on running long on this track, not fast, but her goal never changed.
She provided a lot of information and evidence of smuggling organizations, and it was for this reason that many of them targeted her.
The Posta organization was just one of them.
These stowaway organizations also had rivalries, and the reason why Carlos was lurking around Natasha was not just to spy on her.
It was also because he hoped to use her to provide information to the FBI to crack down on the other smuggling organizations, thus achieving the goal of monopolizing the smuggling industry.”
Luke was a bit surprised, “Is the competition that fierce?”
“It’s more brutal than expected.”
“Since the FBI has been investigating smuggling organizations, which organization do you think killed Natasha?”
“The Gonzade Gang, the founder of this gang is called Manu Gonzade, he was originally a wanted Mexican criminal, then he smuggled himself into the United States, and joined a small smuggling gang here, responsible for receiving and resettling smugglers.
He was a ruthless man who quickly made a name for himself and gathered a group of henchmen.
During an FBI and Border Patrol operation against criminal smuggling, his gang was hit hard, and he used the opportunity to start his own gang.
The newly formed Gangside Gang is even greedier than the previous smuggling gangs, and is no longer limited to just smuggling itself, they will milk every smuggler for all they are worth, with scams and extortion at the bottom of the list.
Beautiful young girls would be trafficked, others coerced into drug trafficking, and at one point it was even rumored that they smuggled organs as well.
Our FBI joined with the Border Patrol on several occasions to crack down on the gang, and Gunther himself fled back to Mexico, but continues to direct all sorts of criminal behavior remotely.”
Luke pressed, “How are you sure it was the Gunside gang that killed Natasha?”
“According to our investigation, the Gunside Gang has been smuggling drugs and has its own sales channels.
Their sales channels are different from ordinary drug sales channels and are more hidden.
Our guess is that they are likely to utilize courier delivery to hand over the drugs to the buyers.
The detailed pattern is still unclear, but the couriers are most likely Gonzade gang members, and it would be easy for them to use the courier to blow up Natasha.”
Listening to Alfie Imma, Luke was half convinced, but it did answer one of his doubts as to why someone would stop a police car while they were apprehending the courier.
It would make sense if the courier was a gang member himself, killing people at the gang’s request.
Luke asked, “Did the Gunside gang have a motive to kill?”
“Yes. Natasha has been investigating the Gunside Gang lately, and we’ve identified a Gunside Gang stronghold, just before we could sweep the stronghold, something happened to Natasha.
If we could have acted one step ahead of time, we might have been able to avoid this tragedy ……,” Alfie Ima sighed.
Luke asked, “When are you guys going to do it?”
Alfie Yima said, “The sooner the better, otherwise, the people involved will probably flee to Mexico, and it will be difficult to capture them once they are out of the border.”
“Is Brando Salvatore, the courier who delivered the bomb, at the stronghold?”
“That we’ll have to go and find out, are you guys in?”
“Sure, but Brando Salvatore is to be turned over to the LAPD.”
Alfie Imma smiled, “Whoever catches it is the one who gets it.”
Inside Ginobee’s Bar.
The bar was open near the Latino neighborhood and many people came here after a long day of work to have a drink and relax after work.
It was now four in the afternoon and the neighborhood around the bar was cold, it would be another two hours before the customers would arrive.
Inside a commercial vehicle, Luke sat in the back of the car and looked through the window in the direction of the bar, “Are you sure this is the stronghold of the Gunsed gang?”
Alfie Ima replied, “Yes, don’t underestimate this bar, it’s most likely a stronghold for drug possession.
A lot of UPS couriers come here for a drink after work, and most of those couriers are are all Latino, do you think it could be a coincidence?”
Luke surveyed the bar, it was a relatively isolated street and the bar was large with two floors, “Got a topographical map of the inside of the bar?”
Alfie Imma laid out the map of the bar building, “The bar has two floors, plus a basement wine cellar.
I suspect that the wine cellar is likely to be the hiding place for the drugs, the Gonzadez gang transported the drugs from Mexico, and this place is equivalent to a transit point.”
Luke scrutinized the structure of the bar and said, “The bar is rather mixed, how are you going to arrest people?”
Alfie Yima said, “Do it now.”
“At this time of the day, I guess there aren’t many people in the bar, and the other accomplices have all run away when they heard the news, don’t you think it’s a bit of a loss?”
Alfie Ima said, “That’s something I’ve taken into consideration as well, arresting now would likely miss a lot of gang members.
If the arrests are made at night, the bar is too crowded with both gang members and drinking guests, which will likely result in injuries by mistake.
So, my idea is to take control of the bar while it’s less crowded and wait for the rest of the gang’s associates to throw themselves into the net.”
Luke said, “Good idea, but it’s likely to leak out.”
Alfie Yima said, “You’re right, so the arrest operation in a while should not make too much noise, but also be fast and accurate to subdue the suspects in the bar at the first time, without giving them a chance to inform their accomplices.”
Luke thought about it and nodded, “OK, then let’s study the specific course of action.”
Half an hour later.
Inside the Genovese bar.
A thirty-ish Latino bar was polishing glasses.
Not far away, there were three Latino men sitting at a round table, playing cards, drinking and chatting.
“Cluck ……”
The door to the bar pushed open from the outside and in walked two men and a woman, of which the black man was also carrying a large, old-fashioned tape recorder with its own two large stereos on the left and right sides.
These three people were none other than Luke, Alfie Imma and Blackie.
The bartender looked at the three men and said indifferently, “It’s not business hours yet today, so you guys can come back later.”
Blacky walked over to the bar and placed the recorder on the bar, “I remember it used to be open at this time.”
“Sorry for the delay today.” The bartender shrugged and made a show of sending off his guests, “Don’t forget to take your recorder with you.”
Instead of leaving, Blackie just turned on the recorder and a powerful rock music blared.
The Latino man playing cards off to the side stood up and chided, “FUCK, turn that damn thing off, it’s loud.”
Alfie Imma pulled out his pistol with a silencer, “Shut up, I can smell your bad breath just standing here.”
“Shit!” The Latino man reached into his shirt.
“Bang! Bang!”
Alfie Imma fired two shots in quick succession, directly knocking the Latino man to the ground.
At the same time, a younger Latino man turned and ran.
Luke also took out his pistol and fired two shots into his legs, “Bang Bang!”
“Ah ……”
The young man let out a scream and fell to the ground as he was shot in the leg.
At this moment, the rock music played by the tape recorder served its purpose, masking the discordant sound.
The moment the music started, several people rushed in the doorway of the bar, plainclothes officers and FBI agents.
With ample preparation, the police and FBI quickly took control of the scene.
Luke turned to Alfie Yma and said, “I’m going to the wine cellar.”
Alfie Ima replied, “I’ll take the second floor.”
After leaving enough men to control the first floor of the bar, the two split up.
Inside the wine cellar, a white man in his twenties stood up with some anxiety, a little disturbed by the noisy sounds coming from upstairs.
“Cackle ……”
The door of the wine cellar opened from outside.
The white man hurriedly pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the door of the wine cellar, “Who’s there?”
“It’s me.” The bartender’s voice rang out.
The white man glanced in the direction of the door, and after confirming that it was the bartender he breathed a sigh of relief and put his pistol away.
Just then, Blackie flashed out from beside the door, raised his pistol and said, “LAPD, freeze!”
The white man didn’t listen to Blackie and turned to run, the cellar was filled with shelves and his view was easily obscured.
“FUCK!
You can’t get away, the bar is surrounded.” Xiao Hei led the men to rush inside the wine cellar, but considering that the other party had a gun, he didn’t rush over the first time, but used the wine racks as a cover and shouted at the other party.
“I see you, drop your weapon and raise your hands!”
The white man was more familiar with the terrain of the wine cellar, and seeing that the police were outnumbered, he didn’t fight hard or respond, and ran directly to the back of the cellar, where there was another door, which had been blocked by the shelves where the wine was placed, and which was normally not used.
The white man pushed down the shelves, unlocked the back door on the inside, stepped over the shelves, and escaped through the back door.
He had just stepped out of the wine cellar with one foot when he squinted to see a silhouette next to him, and his right hand instinctively felt for the pistol at his waist.
However, the silhouette was too close, and without waiting for him to pick up the pistol, his eyes wavered, and he felt a sharp gust of wind coming at him, followed by a swift punch to the head.
“Bang!”
The white man felt like he was hit by a car, his body was thrown out by the huge inertia, his head was directly confused, and he fell softly to the ground.