Chapter 12: First Fishing Trip

Friday, July 20^th, 2012

Today started like yesterday with more lovemaking until Carin fell asleep. I puttered around the house then went and bought some fishing gear, some drinks, and snacks for on the lake tonight. Carin had a nice cooler, so that was taken care of. I talked with Alan and he said he would release Christine to Jesus if my insurance agent released it too. I negotiated a price that I thought was fair for the vehicle and they sold it to Jesus for $900.00. That was about all it was worth because there was not much that could be salvaged. The engine was ok, but the transmission was toast. Other than a few parts here and there, it was only worth scrap price.

Jesus was very glad to get it for that price and he said he would have something drawn out for my stash boxes by Monday. He thought that he could work something up that would work even better but would have to see once he got a very good look at what I had.

The rest of the day was kind of quiet and I did get some snuggling time in with Carin before Hector arrived. We ate supper a little early. We had the steaks we were supposed to have last night but without the interruptions.

I heard a horn and knew Hector was here. I kissed Carin good-bye and told her I would see her in the morning. "It might be late as we need to drop Sam off at home first. And yes I promise not to get into any trouble."

"You better make sure you don't. I don't want to have to bail you out in the morning. It wouldn't look too good for me if I finally get a real man and he ends up in jail."

I kissed her again and said, "I love you too Honey, I'll see you in the morning," as I walked out the door. I was dressed in some old faded fatigues and had a jacket just in case it got cold during the night on the water.

Hector was in the old beater truck and had a nice 24' bass boat on a trailer with a huge 125 horse Mercury motor on the back and two small trolling motors up front. There were three swivel chairs mounted and a rack along one side for the fishing rods. It was a really nice setup. I jumped into the cab, after putting my gear and the cooler in the boat, and we were off to pick up Sam. We stopped and got gas for both vehicles while I got ice and some more snacks. Then we were off again.

We picked up Sam at the dealership and we looked like three grunts all in our fatigues. We talked some more about all of our military escapades and some about what we hoped to find out tonight. Next it was time to launch and get down to some spy fishing. We motored out into the lake and then into the lower lake area as well looking over the lay of the land and trying to see where would be the optimum place to spy from. We eventually thought the lower lake near where the two lakes joined would be the ideal place. So we dropped anchor and started fishing. We figured that they were probably using Hubbard Lake # 5 as a landing area because it was long and narrow. Number 4 was the largest by far, but there was too much chance of being discovered there because it was so open. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 were very close to the highway and a farm right there. Number 4 had a narrow arm that went southwest from the main part of it and could in addition be a possibility, but it was shallow, very narrow, and twisty.

We found a nice cove area where the lake hooked from the north to the west. We settled down to wait and fish. We found that the fishing was pretty good. By midnight, we caught five small mouth bass in the three to five-pound range and three stripers (Striped Bass) of about four pounds each. They stopped biting about then so we motored back down the twisty arm to see if maybe someone was watching us. Because it was so late, we used the trolling motors so we were kind of silent. If anyone was watching they could see we were moving away by our running lights and our large battery-powered spotlight.

Once we were down around a hook of land that came out from the west bank, we stopped and just waited and talked. Sam took a short nap on the live well and Hector and I talked about what I wanted on my new truck. Then we heard it. It sounded like another boat, but much stronger. Sam was awake in nothing flat. We turned off our running lights and slowly trolled back into the big part of the lake. We were just entering the large part of the lake when we saw a light from the sky blink on and off twice. Then the roar was a lot louder, but still somewhat subdued as though they had muffled the exhaust some.

We moved silently over to the area where we could see the Number 5 Lake pretty good. There was a non-descript white box truck on the road by the retention tanks for the old water treatment facility. The truck must have come in when we were motoring into the other part of the lake. We could also hear some muffled ATV's in the trees. I did spot a light sport plane with pontoons on the water up toward the end of Lake 5 and some lights shining out of the trees. I slipped out of the boat and checked the box truck. There was no one guarding it and there was a ramp for the ATVs to go up inside. I could see that there were a lot of places inside to be able to tie down a load. I did find some loose powder and I pinched a bit and put it in a plastic baggy. I hot footed it out of there and back to the boat. We took off for the west area again with both trolling motors running.

I was right. They were running drugs or something and this lake was where it was coming in from somewhere south of here. Some of these LSAs have a range of six to seven hundred miles. I would imagine if they stripped most of the avionics gear out of it and had waterproof storage in the pontoons, then they could carry probably four to five hundred pounds or say two hundred kilos per trip. That's a lot of dope coming in the country. I don't suppose they run every night, but if they did, that is an awful lot of drugs coming into the country. I was going to have to come back here later and see about setting up some surveillance equipment. I still had access to some people that I could get some night-vision surveillance gear and maybe even some help in this. However, for right now, I think we keep a low profile and see what I can find out on my own or with Hector and Sam's help.

A little while later we heard the aircraft take off, and then the ATVs came back and afterwards it was all quiet until daybreak. I thought about all the small lakes and reservoirs around this area and realized that if the cartels had even a dozen planes, they could be bringing in almost 2,500 kilos a night. This had to be stopped now. We waited until first light, then we motored over to where we had parked the truck and trailer by a farmer's storage barn. It appeared that several people used that as a launching site due to the slope there. There was another one over by the old tank farm, but I'm glad we didn't use that one. They might not have come at all last night if our truck was there.

Anyway, we dropped Sam at his house; Hector dropped me off and I crawled into bed with Carin and slept until about four.

I called Alan and explained what we found last night. I asked him to let me handle finding out what and the schedule of runs before he tried to make a bust. Alan explained that it was out of his jurisdiction and as of right now he knew nothing about this. He did say that once we knew more information then he could go to his supervision, move this info up the chain of command, and get DEA involved. In other words, he was going to let me do a lot of the leg work until I knew what and who and where they were coming from and how extensive it was, so he would stay out of it. He knew that this was personal with me. I agreed that until we knew the whole operation, there was no need to break it up there and have them move somewhere else we didn't know about. I think he was giving me a free hand with this because I could get more information on the whole operation than he could because my hands weren't tied by all the rules and regulations of law enforcement. Besides I think he was going to allow a little payback on my part because of my direct involvement and my prior experience. That was fine by me. I could always call in a few favors from some old friends and some other friends in very low places.