Snowblind by Robert Sabbag

Author:Robert Sabbag
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 2010-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

Because of the weight, density and desiccated condition of the wood involved, loading a store-bought rolling pin with cocaine was impractical. What Angel would do was fashion a duplicate out of fresh Madeira wood, saw it longitudinally down the middle, hollow it out, line it with plastic, fill it, close it with glue and clamps, then paint and finish it. In New York, Swan would find that the rolling pins Angel made were about as hard to open as they were to build. But the manufacture of any item was child’s play compared with what went into the compressing and packing of the cocaine – when Armando finally came through, Swan took a kilo y medio, 1,500 grams, and he, Angel and Rudolpho went to work.

Working in the glass-enclosed room on Rudolpho’s roof was like working in a greenhouse. Though high in the mountains, Bogotáis less than five degrees north of the Equator, and when the sun was high, it was directly overhead. Compressing the kilo y medio took hours – in the months to come, three kilos would be the minimum load. When the sweat was running and the coke was flying off the press under the drop of the impression plate, the three bandits looked like snowmen, soaking the powder up through the pores of their skin. Wearing gloves to keep fingerprints off the merchandise, they plastic-wrapped the cocaine before filling the souvenirs. They worked stoned most of the time, and drank beer to fight the heat. The impression levers on the press were always breaking, and the three men spent a good amount of their time just sitting with the coke – under the sun, gloved and sweating and drinking beer – while they waited for the broken parts to come back from the machine shop. When the job was done and the souvenirs packed, a package was made. It had to be addressed in block lettering to disguise the handwriting – the address was often printed by all three men, one man taking every third letter – then tied with string and kept clean of prints. In the case of the Lothario’s packages, love letters had to be enclosed. Rudolpho handled those. And each package had to be mailed separately to account for the odds against more than one’s going through.

It would work like this on all subsequent trips but two – Angel and Rudolpho would be as essential to the South American operation as the ounce-dealers were to the New York network. And Armando would continue to deliver pure. In the months to come, Canadian Jack and Black Dan would avail themselves of Swan’s equipment and imagination. Raoul would begin to offer kilos on his own and other cocaine dealers would emerge. And Vincent van Klee, a good friend, would be consulted on every sample that came Swan’s way. Before a year was out, Michel Bernier would return, Juan Carlos Ramirez’s parentage would yield secrets, and René Day, the prince of players, would rejoin Swan to participate in what would be known as the Boat Move.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.