Jose Fernandez monitored his men as they loaded the cartons of hard drugs between the cartons of sugar. In two hours, the drugs would get to the bar of one of the men who had sworn their allegiance to him. There, the man would pass it out to people who needed the drugs in pieces. He also had a coffee house his men supplied the drugs to. The coffee house was located at a place so rounded by offices and computer centers. He also had other locations he supplied to and some prominent people who bought directly from him. So far, the coffee house and the bar were the best selling points of his drugs.
Today, he decided to go to the bar and see which drug market moves faster. He also wanted to see how the transaction of the drugs was made. He waited until the truck with the drugs had left, got into the car with Robert, and followed at a close distance. He watched as the truck stopped at a checkpoint and how the driver let his men go after the driver had handed a paper to him. The paper had the signature of the commissioner of police and was an automatic pass for whoever had it. Even if the policemen had insisted on checking, they would never have been able to get the drugs because of the way they had packaged it.
He had trained his men how to package the drugs securely himself. It was the same method he had learned from Tata that he had employed too. Tata would have them package the hard drugs into a crystal clear bag that was the same shade as sugar. Then they would package some real sugar, drop the packaged drugs into the bag of sugar before they sealed it away. No matter how hard anyone looked into the sugar, they would never be able to get the drugs. At least, not until they tore off the bag of sugar and poured its content out.
The man also made sure those who knew about his operation location, which was his workers, never left the place. The suppliers and drivers who distributed the drugs picked them up at another location. Only Jose and Dagger knew both the operation ground and the location of the trucks since they were the ones who drove the trucks from the production ground to the pickup locations. Jose also had another location for meetings. It was where he met with the other drug lords and his workers if the needs had arisen. That was how Tata had escaped from the police forces in Mexico City. They had never been able to tag him with any hard drugs even when everyone knew that he was the biggest drug lord in the city.
Which was the same method Jose had employed. He had an underground location for location and he made sure his employees never left the venue. He also had a different location for the pickup points of the trucks and goods. Then he made sure he had another location for meetings and all that. He made sure that only Robert and his three major suppliers knew about the three locations. What he didn't let them know however was the fact that he doesn't live in the underground palace as they all thought. He had gotten a house in the neighborhood with a fake name and hired men to pave an underground tunnel that leads to his house. When they were done with the task, he had killed all the men he employed and dumped their bodies somewhere far away no one would find them. He had done everything without letting even Robert find out about it. He wasn't going to trust anyone completely again, no matter how loyal they seemed.
Robert drove into the driveway of the high bar, parked, and turned off the ignition key. Together, they walked into the bar casually as any other regular customer would. Jose sat at a far corner, shielded from the light through the walls of the corners. He wanted to avoid being in the open light where it was easy to spot him. He knew that anyone who saw him would remember his face because of the scar he had on his cheek. Robert on the other hand sat down at the most populated area in the bar. They waited until they saw the barman bring in three cartons of their sugar-branded drugs. Jose put on his earpiece and he instructed Robert to switch on the listening device with him.
For almost thirty minutes, Jose only saw and heard people get their normal drink and left. He began to think that business might be slow for that night. As he was about to get up and leave, he heard a man ask the barman if he had coke which was the code word for cocaine. The barman poured the man a drink, then gave him a bag of sugar as a compliment for buying a drink from their store. And on and on it went until Jose got tired of listening and got the earpiece off his ear. He signaled to Robert and they drove away from the bar.
When they got back to his underground palace, he met a man waiting for his arrival and Jose asked him what he wanted. The man explained to Jose that he needed him to kill a man for him that very night. Jose had been about to reject the man when he mentioned an amount that sparked Jose's curiosity. The money offered was enough for Jose to expand his underground location for the production of ecstasy and mushrooms. The two most sought after hard drugs in the bar and Los Angeles as a whole. If he could start their production, he would be set apart from the other unknown gang names and his Vermin Cartel would be closer in rank with the Sanchez Cartel. Jose accepted the offer at once.
He soon knew the reason for the large sum of money the man had been willing to pay. The man he was to assassinate was a man running for the governor's office of Los Angeles and his employer was his rival. From the look of things though, it seemed like the other man would be winning the contest. And that was why his employer needed to make sure that the man was no longer breathing. Once the biggest rival was gone, the office would belong to his employer automatically since the other candidates didn't stand a chance against him. Jose thought that it would be good for him also if he could have the support of a governor backing him.
That night, he had gotten into the man's house and assassinated the man himself. He had made sure he dropped clues to let the police and reporter be able to figure out that he had killed the man and not Dominic. The next morning, the news of the man's death had featured on every communicating means available. Along with the news of the dead man had been the name of the Vermin cartel and the fear that Los Angeles people might now have not only the Sanchez cartel to be afraid of but also the Vermin Cartel. Jose smiled as he realized that he had just succeeded in his first attempt at making the Vermin Cartel known to the people. Also, he had just let Dominic know that he had a new rival who was ready to do anything to rule the drug market.
A week after that, Jose heard the news that a famous man's house had been robbed by the Sanchez Cartel and got jealous of the fact that the man was still at the top of the game no matter what he did. He assembled his trusted men together and they planned an attack on one of the banks in Los Angeles. He mapped out plans for the planned attack. They made plan A and plan B and an alternative plan C if all else failed. Jose made a plan D for himself, just in case any of his men tried to betray him. He wasn't about to drop dead unaware like Tata had done. Full trust just doesn't exist in his dictionary anymore. He loved his live far more than living on blind trust and
On the day of the robbery, Jose walked in with a large briefcase like he had wanted to deposit some money into an account. On his way into the bank, however, he had stolen a key bunch from the security outside the bank. Next, Robert walked in using a fake identity, made such a large fuss, and demanded to see the manager concerning his account. He made such a fuss one of the cashiers took him into the manager's office. The plan had been for Robert to seduce the manager who was a woman and get her assessment card. Then, when the robbery attack started, Robert was to make sure that the woman didn't make any call at all. Jose glanced around and saw four of his men acting like cleaners hanging around. He was sure they were waiting for the signal. Another one walked in under the fake identity of a worker in the bank whom they had stolen his access card without him realizing so. Everyone working on the robbery with him was in one disguise or the other. Only Jose had his real look about him. He wanted people to recognize him and tremble at the mention of his name.
His man pretending to be a worker had only one job and that was to find a way into the vault of the bank and get some money out with him without alerting anyone. Jose talked about the account details with another female cashier who was attending to him. Every time the woman asked him if he was ready to open the account, he would wink at her and ask her if she could come over to his house later that night. The woman would blush and go over the details of the account opening to him. Jose thought it was a pity that such a beautiful woman slipped out of his reach. Otherwise, he would have truly loved to get her begging for mercy under him. He would have rode her hard, she wouldn't have been able to get up the next day. Twenty minutes later, the man pretending to be a worker signaled to him and walked away.
Two among his men who were pretending to be the cleaners nodded at him and went out. They were to take care of the security by the door. One of the other two with him in the bank was to make sure no one called the police or sounded the alarm. The remaining one was to assist with terrifying the people. Josh opened the briefcase with him and heard the cashier sighed, thinking that he was finally ready to open the account. He brought out his gun and pointed it at the woman who screamed. The scream roused the attention of everyone in the bank and Jose fired three shots in the air to warn them of the situation at hand. Everyone in the room screamed and fell to the ground. Jose nodded at the two men and they swung into positions. He turned back to the cashiers and spoke.
"I need you guys to fill this briefcase with money now." He commanded them. They all rushed up and began to fill the briefcase as instructed. Jose stole a quick glance back and saw that the guards had been taken down and his men now occupied their space. Twenty minutes later, the briefcase was filled with money to the brim. The loud horn that sounded outside the bank announced the presence of their rides.
"Let's go." He rang out an order.
He saw Robert appear out of the manager's office, took the briefcase, and walked away. The two men in the bank also followed after Robert. When he saw that they were safely out, Jose rang two shots in the air before he followed after his men. They all got into the van and it zoomed off. When they got into a lonely place, they all got out of the car. Josh took the briefcases with the money and drove off alone. The others shed their disguise and left in groups of twos and threes. By midnight, they all assembled back at the underground palace. The next day, his face was plastered over every newspaper and TV news.
Four more days after that, they had gone on to rob an influential man. The moment the man saw Jose, he had become scared and gave them all the money he had in the house with him. Jose and his men were almost done when they heard the loud wailing of the siren of the police. In anger, he shot the man. Before the police could surround them on all sides, they had disappeared from the house using the emergency escape route they had mapped out the night before. And because Jose had adrenaline rushing through him, he had turned the next route to where the police had parked their cars. When he got to where the card was, there was no one around and he had tampered with two of the cars.
With the money he got from the two robberies, Jose expanded his business not just to the corners of Los Angeles, but to the whole of America, making his Vermin Cartel the second largest drug dealing center in Los Angeles. His cartel became a famous name that brought tremor to the heart of the people anywhere it was mentioned. The police began to plot ways to nab him in crime but failed. Sometimes, he and his men got involved with the police force and exchanged bullets. Yet, they never caught him. His hard drugs began to sell like water that was necessary to live. Every other gang in Los Angeles began to tremble at the mention of his name. Some of them had even sworn allegiance to him just so he wouldn't destroy them.
The only problem he still had despite all his success was the fact that Sanchez Cartel still remained the most feared gang in Los Angeles. Everywhere his cartel's name and the Sanchez Cartel were mentioned, the fear of the latter had quickly reflected in the people. At that moment, the people forgot about him and his cartel. Even at the drug market, suppliers and buyers still prefer getting the Sanchez Cartel goods instead of his. But, at least, he was close to taking over from Dominic Sanchez. He was grateful for the fact that he had no other rival to be worried about, except for Sanchez himself. His aim was to make sure he pulled the man down the ladder of success completely. Enough to make sure the man didn't make a comeback ever again.