Perua made his day-job wage in an armored car factory owned by the Cartel. The smuggling was his own private enterprise and no one knew of his relationship with Martine, which made it so easy it almost seemed legal.
Perua's reasoning was that his efforts were small tortillas compared to the drugs and sex-slaves that were flowing across the border daily. The sex-slaves, as an example, were bringing $20 thousand each as a standard rate and they were being delivered all over the U.S. and Canada. As fast as the tall, blue-eyed blondes flew into Mexico from the eastern block countries, they were moved "Norte." After, of course, a short period of orientation, or maybe better said, reorientation. No, they weren't going to be models after all.
So, who really cared about a few undocumented workers who just wanted a farm or ranch job and some money to send home? Perua and Martine were just meeting a small niche demand outside of the Cartel business. But, Perua knew that his head would go if the Cartel found out.
Martine had to share his take with a few other agents and it was no big deal. He was careful and the U.S. agents new how to split a take, equally divided by those involved, sometimes as many as ten agents for an evening, split like waiters pooling tips. They would stay away from the drug trafficking though; you had to draw the line of morality somewhere, a small piece wouldn?t hurt anyone. Perua, on the other hand, received $12 thousand per worker, netting him two for expenses after the U.S. toll charge.
Perua's call reached Martine in San Diego, where he was shopping for groceries at the local Costco. Martine was standing in front of a Sony big screen TV, eating a free pizza roll, when he answered his phone. "Hola."
"Coyote?"
"Si."
"Esta?"
"Si. Seis."
The call ended and both knew what to do, simple as playground thought. Perua would drive to Gate Six of the Otay POE with six undocumented workers at 6:00 p.m. that night - with six sandwich bags. Martine would make sure he was at Gate Six at the correct time. Then, Iowa's work force would grow by six new employees, all ready to work at the Sanderson Ranch. The ounce of cocaine in Perua's pocket would merely be an oversight on Martine's part.
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