Cocaine Confidential by Wensley Clarkson Page B

‘career’, Chris reckons he has piloted more than thirty different types of planes, and found himself in some pretty hairy situations. ‘Listen, over the years I been in this business, I’ve done some high-risk stuff like flying into northern Mexico, landing on ramshackle runways withoutany lights to guide me. Then there were flights through the Sierra Madre, where trigger-happy farmers galloped alongside my plane on horseback, shooting their pistols into the air. It sure is a wacky world out there.’
    Chris denies being addicted to danger, but he definitely has a taste for the better things in life. ‘Look, I got a lifestyle to maintain here. That means taking a few risks. So what?’
    Chris openly relishes the challenges of aerial smuggling and down the years has even devised ingenious ways to avoid detection: ‘Mostly it’s about flying as low as you dare to evade the radar, and then not worrying about where you put your wheels down. It’s all part of the job as far as I am concerned.’
    Chris’s connections to the Mexican and Colombian cartels make him a highly trusted person within a very deadly environment. He says he’s seen one double-dealing villain shot dead in front of his very eyes after daring to steal a million dollars’ worth of coke from underneath the noses of the Colombians.
    Chris flies anything up to 250 pounds of cocaine on most flights. He charges $400 per pound, which adds up to more than a $100,000 per trip, plus $5,000 expenses. Like all those involved in the cocaine game, Chris often worries that others will talk. But he admits it’s hard to resist the pull of yet another big payday. ‘I pride myself on my professionalism,’ says Chris. ‘This is my career and I don’t really want it all to end with me being put in prison.’
    Chris is realistic enough to accept that for all the care hetakes to avoid detection he’s been under close surveillance by the authorities and is fully aware that he’d be pressured to cooperate with the Feds if caught. ‘I know I’d have no choice but to refuse to disclose anything about the cartels because they would almost certainly retaliate against my family.’
    Chris also realises that anything he’s told other traffickers is sure to be used against him by the Feds if they manage to ‘turn’ anyone in Chris’s ‘team’. He explains: ‘My biggest fear is that I’ll be sacrificed by an informant who knows only too well I won’t go after them in the same way that the cartels would.’
    Chris was once arrested by the Feds, who wanted him to provide evidence against his cocaine bosses. ‘I strung them along for a while by feeding them with small bits of information which they thought was great but I knew would not help them prove anything against my people,’ he recalls. ‘Then they cut me loose without any explanation after the Twin Towers attack. It seemed they were told to drop all the less important drug investigations and prioritise terrorism. I understood why they did that but there was a period of time after that when I was very vulnerable. If any of my bosses had heard I’d even been talking to the Feds I would have been killed.’
    Chris continues: ‘Luckily, it never slipped out and I just carried on flying as if nothing had happened but I still fear the day when someone hears that I was helping the Feds all those years ago.’
    He knows only too well that if he was ever caught again, he’d also lose his house and his cash, as well as any aircraft registered in his name. ‘I’ll never make that mistake again. I’m gettin’ real close to the time when I can retire … I’ll miss the buzz but if I can get there without serving a prison sentence it will be the best result of all.’
    But the Caribbean isn’t just a staging post in cocaine’s deadly journey around the