In the private room of Cedar Restaurant at the Beverly Hill Hotel in Los Angeles, Kayla stepped forward and shook Schiller's hand. Behind him stood another man, a Black man in uniform, powerfully built and nearly as large as Arthur.
"Professor Schiller, this is DEA agent Lila. The moment we heard about the lead you provided, the two of us rushed to Los Angeles without stopping."
"Please, sit." Schiller pointed to the chairs across from him, then went to the door and told the waiter, "You can serve the food now. Thank you."
DEA agent Lila looked extremely serious. Before the dishes had even arrived, he said to Schiller, "The Guadalajara Cartel has resumed its activities at sea. That is not good news for us."
"About five years ago, one of our agents met a gruesome end. The case shocked the world, and Congress and the President were furious. Yet in only five years, Mexico's drug production and trafficking industry has risen again. Now they even want to invade the West Coast once more. We have to make them pay."
What Lila was referring to was a notorious tragedy in the history of the global drug war. The perpetrator was Gallardo, leader of the Guadalajara Cartel.
In November 1984, an anti-drug operation launched by the Mexican Government was underway across Mexico. At the same time, an agent codenamed Kiki had infiltrated the management ranks of the Guadalajara Cartel's cultivation chain.
The DEA agent, whose real name was Camarena Salazar, obtained intelligence related to the plantations and guided the Mexican Government to destroy a plantation covering roughly 15,000 mu.
Gallardo, the owner of that plantation, flew into a rage. They captured the agent and tortured him for at least thirty hours. By the time his body was found, he was almost