The Threat

His first meeting the next morning was at the New Treasury Building, south of the Mall, listening to a senior Treasury investigator touting a new weapon against trafficking. So sensitive he didn’t even want to describe it over the “high-side,” or classified, government Internet. The theory sounded good: a cell that traced money.

The investigator said the U.S. twenty-dollar bill was the currency of choice for drug dealers from Oakland to Karachi. Every Andy Jackson not fresh from the presses carried traces of coke from being on the same tables with it. The Federal Reserve had maintained records of bills’ movements to their first destination. The Secret Service had traced them to defeat counterfeiters. The FBI and DEA had recorded the serial numbers of seized currency to frustrate diversion. And the Argonne National Laboratory had used gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy to identify finely milled organic substances on permeable substrates. Not just cocaine, but precursor and process chemicals.

Now Treasury was bumping all the databases together, and a subterranean river was rising into view.

“We see drug-related movement in three directions.” The investigator slid a graphic in front of him. It was marked “Top Secret LIMDIS” and looked like a chart of ocean currents. Only this ocean was the world economy and its currents were cash flows. “The first goes from refiners and distributors in Colombia to Peru and Bolivia. Not well known, but very little coke’s actually grown in Colombia. It comes from farther south, via the Cali and Medellín networks. They pay the growers and paste manufacturers in U.S. dollars, because that’s what the farmers demand. The scale’s consistent with that interpretation.”

“Okay,” Dan said.

“The second movement’s out of the U.S. to Central America, as payment back to the cartel. Again, consistent with our model. There’s also what we call the peso exchange system. They buy luxury goods here and smuggle them into the receiving country. But most of that goes as cash too.”

Dan nodded again. The Treasury agent leaned to place a pencil point on a smaller arrow angled northeast. “The third’s unexpected. This vector into Europe. We don’t have full cooperation there. Also, most of the capital shifts to Western Europe are handled by electronic funds transfer. That makes it harder to trace. Though not impossible.”

“Investments? Escobar and Gasca and Nuñez’s retirement fund?”

“We thought so at first. We’ve been trying to make the financial system more transparent. If we can confiscate their profits, that’ll get their attention. Give us more resources to prosecute the war with too.”

Dan didn’t know if he cared for the sound of this. Governments raiding drug cartels for their profits? But the investigator was still going. “However, when we checked with Swiss authorities they were firm in their denials. What we came up with is purchases from France and the former Warsaw Pact countries. Given that those are not major drug-producing areas, we’re tabbing it as arms and equipment buys.”

“Big ones,” Dan said. If he was reading it right, they were talking sixteen billion a year.

“Significant links between the cartels and arms dealers in Europe.” The investigator paused, then said with a satisfied air, “But that’s not really news, is it? What I wanted you to see is this.” He slid another graphic and sat back.

It looked like a who’s who of the European defense industry. Major producers of jet aircraft, advanced avionics, small arms, artillery. One he recognized as a French company that produced some of the most advanced electronics in existence. The Navy was evaluating its masking equipment, designed to conceal ships and aircraft from hostile radar.

He rubbed his mouth. “You got all this from tracing dollar bills?”

“It’s more complicated than that. And as you can imagine, some governments don’t want us looking into their financial systems. I have to say, the president’s economic adviser could be more helpful in pressuring international banks to open their books.” He paused, as if waiting for Dan to defend another part of the executive staff. When he didn’t, the investigator sniffed and continued. “But we’re reaching a point where we can trace some payments direct from the cartel to its suppliers.”

* * *

His second appointment was at Foggy Bottom. The State Department.

He’d realized by now the government didn’t work like the military. Agencies didn’t respond to orders. They were separate circles of power. He was used to having everyone work together. The machinist’s mates didn’t have a different policy from the fire control technicians. But this was the opposite of a ship. Even a presidential directive might not mean much would happen. To get anything done, you had to work through persuasion. That meant meeting people, finding out what they wanted, what their agency’s interest was, then crafting an approach that benefited everyone.