LogCartel: La Vida Coca-Jason-2

Five years ago

We begin play five years before the start of our first session. You're sitting at home, in a bar, somewhere you hope to relax, when some asshole turns the TV channel to one of the news stations. A perky light-skinned latina reads off a teleprompter:

"The turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels continues to spill blood in our sister city across the border. Ciudad Juarez recorded its eighth murder this week with the gangland-style slaying of Reginaldo Guzman, a high ranking member of the Juarez cartel. Mr. Guzman was specifically involved in smuggling people across the border, what is called a 'copperhead' in the trade."

An older, WASP-ish guy continues:

"This war over smuggling routes has been going on for months and the body count continues to rise..." Pictures of a shot up pickup, a corpse on the street, and a masked police officer play in the background as the Walter Cronkite-wannabe talking head editorializes over the drug war.

Within the next six hours, each of you receives a message from your contacts across the border.

Guzman was trying to escape. He was bringing his 12 year old son across with a body guard. Now the son is missing.

The contact indicates that there is a substantial reward for finding and delivering the son (to either cartel.)

The contact also indicates that any news of the son is appreciated and that your help in locating him is expected, reward or no...

Marc has changed characters and is playing a corrupt detective in Juarez named Eduardo.

Session

The detective has heard that little Guzman is in the Gema industrial park north of the airport. He calls Santiago, local boss, and tells him that the Juarez cartel has the kid. Since there's no proof of a crime, the detective can't do anything, but maybe Santiago can.

Diego hears the same rumor, and Santiago sends him to check it out. He sees guys from Sinaloa and Juarez hanging around the industrial park, all trying to look casual. The vibe feels like there's a truce, not even a standoff. He calls in and tells Santiago that the place is buttoned up.

Eduardo talks to Paco, his Sinaloa informant, and Paco says he was approached by a Juarez guy named Ignacio, who offered better money than Sinaloa for Guzman. He calls Santiago and passes the news of Paco's betrayal on, but says that he has the Guzman boy, and then patches in the mic so Santiago can hear Paco and Ignacio talking. Eduardo also tells the Narco that Paco has little Guzman. Santiago tasks Maria to get the kid and eliminate Paco, and sends Yolanda and his enforcers to create a violent and distracting incident elsewhere.

Maria calls Diego to get a ride and a second set of eyes.

Eduardo gets eyes on the kid and calls in to central to get a patrol car to drive by an area a couple blocks over, to try to temporarily immobilize illegal activity in the area. The cartel's plan is to put the kid in a hidden compartment in a furniture truck and smuggle him across the border.

Maria hears Eduardo call the cops in, and tells Diego how to avoid the patrol.

Yolanda heads out with the enforcers. An enforcer named Delgado has decided to make Yolanda his special friend, to whom he will explain everything. Delgado picks a spot on the highwy to El Paso to make his statement, and does a drive-by on a bodega in a Juarez-controlled area. Then they sort of get carried away and decide not to come home with any bullets left, and the only thing that keeps it from being an utter bloadbath is the nun who gets the kids back into the school. Luckily Yolanda is there to try to quiet the situation down. She offers a drinks back at the house if Delgado will cut this shit out and not walk into the bodega to complete the massacre. He goes for it, stealing an extra bottle of tequila as he departs.

Maria's scanner lights up like a Christmas tree, and the nearby cop hits the lights and heads toward the shooting. She gets out of the car, asks Diego to keep the car running, and goes in with her SMG in her hands and her shotgun slung. Diego tries to help out by jumping a possible sentry, but it goes horribly awry. He runs into (now former) Sinaloa guys, who aren't happy to see loyal cartel members there, and the fight breaks out on the street. Diego takes a bullet but he'll be OK. On the downside, Maria's cover is pretty well blown, and when she goes in, they're ready for her, but she's trained and armored, and she can handle it. Once the initial shock of the ambush wears off, she marches right through into the distribution area, killing every shitty little Juarez lackey she sees. Diego takes his gang in to support Maria's play. Nobody's paying any attention to collateral damage at this point - the Sinaloa troops are blasting everything that looks like it might usefully take a bullet. As they march in, Diego notices a guy he knows named Felix, a former Sinaloa guy. Oh well, too late to chicken out now.

Yolanda leaves the crime scene, not realizing that her face might have been recorded by the surveillance cameras.

Eduardo decides to hang back and play it cool.

For Maria, things have gotten quiet, so she sets about methodically clearing the warehouse, eliminating anyone with a weapon visible. She recognizes a lot of the people she's killing. She eventually finds Paco, who's trying to make a stand with Ignacio and a couple Juarez guys, and she kills Ignacio first.

Once the shooting dies down, Eduardo calls Santiago and tells him to rush his poeple out of there. Santiago tells Maria to get out but that Diego is a managable loss and they must have the boy. Maria figures out where the kid is but she doesn't have him yet. At that point, Eduardo arrives, just a few minutes before the federales, and gets to where the kid is before Maria does, trailing a couple of his team behind him. The shooting stops as the cops arrive and arrest everyone who was guarding Guzman. Diego and his guys go after the cops, with more enthusiasm than skill, spraying bullets everywhere. Eduardo takes a minor but bloody wound. Guzman catches a stray round in the head. Maria bails the hell out of there. Eduardo tears into Diego, verbally abusing him. Diego responds angrily, punching Eduardo and igniting a general melee that ends with the crew getting away.

Maria's escape goes awry, as she encounters a roadblock. She tosses her duffle bag full of guns before the cops see her, and plays the damsel in distress. Once clear, she calls Santiago and tells him the bad news. Santiago sends minions to pick her up.

Back at the house, Delgado starts the party. Yolanda tries to slip away and manages to duck away while the party starts to get out of hand.

Diego hustles back to safe territory.

Santiago makes a deal with the cops to report that Juarez kills little Guzman. Unfortunately the Cartel senior management wonder why Santiago just spent a fortune on cop bribes to meet Eduardo's price. They summon him to account for the situation, at the country club. Santiago approaches Senor Ortiz, and the other people around give us the room. Santiago makes a good try at justifying his behavior, and while Ortiz has reservations, he decides to try Santiago out as warehouse boss.

W00t.

Yolanda wakes up at daylight and goes back to her uncle's house, hoping to slip past Delgado and play it like she was there the whole time. Diego and his crew get hammered to celebrate their survival.

Eduardo goes to interogate one of the arrestees and get the truth out of him, hoping to uncover more about the copperhead trade. He gets details about methods and locations.

Santiago orders Maria to supervise Paco's crew in chastising Diego's minions for their mistake. She decides to leave Paco's jerkoffs at home, and finds the Halcon and friends at a bar, drunk as skunks, just as Santiago said they might be. She takes the drink Diego offers her, sits on his lap, and tells him how impressive he was yesterday. Then she tells him that she wants to give him something, and leads him into the parking lot. Once they're outside, she tases him right in the gonadal region. Owie! He's writing in pain right in front of the bar door, and now Diego realizes that he may have made some mistakes yesterday. She straddles him and says, "This isn't me doing this to you. This is Santiago doing this to you." As she does so, the crew appears, having heard some odd noises, and she tells them that this is a lesson from Santiago, and that if they screw up again, they will not like seeing her again.

Santiago runs into Yolanda, with people carrying her bags out. He sees Delgado and his team all hung over and reams them out.

Yolanda returns to El Paso, with a small donation from Santiago in her purse.

Eduarco Cortez goes to meet with Senor Ortiz. His new partner is also an Ortiz, the nephew of the big man. Ortiz is happy with the value for money he gets from his detectives. Senor Ortiz asks what happened, and Eduardo tells him, with emphasis on how badly Diego fucked up. Eduardo opts not to try to enrich himself further, and Ortiz leaves him there.

Back in the present day

Daryl's house has exploded. He goes to Juarez to appeal to Senor Ortiz, giving him a free unit of drug to demonstrate the quality of his product and the importance of preserving his value to the cartel. The coke he gave Ortiz? He cut it with PCP.

Yolanda begins looking for a temporary living solution in El Paso, starting with a police report and insurance claim.

Diego doesn't get us away from the cook house quickly enough to completely escape the cops, and it's hard to evade when you're in a suburban area, trapped in a web of windy streets. Finally Maria hoses down a cop car with her SMG, which buys us time. We meet up with members of la plaza, who get us across the border into Juarez.

Daryl goes back to America, where he plans to lie low and wait for things to quiet down. Yolanda finds an affordable temporary housing situation for them.

Ortiz tells Santiago that he must lay off of Daryl, and that he wants to see Santiago's plaza execute a new deal where we swap coke for 2 M2 MGs and a shitton of ammunition. Santiago is not amused that he has to accept this, but Ortiz is the boss. He calls Yolanda to arrange the new op, and they agree to meet in a park outside of town, where it's open and there's low possibility of being overheard.

At Daryl's request, Santiago talks to him alone. Daryl suggests that he can clear it with Ortiz for Santiago to give him a beating, and then provokes Santiago until Santiago calls Ortiz and tells him that he wants permission to give Daryl a beating, with Daryl's consent. Ortiz refuses to give it and expresses disapproval at being asked. Santiago, outraged at being made a fool of again, punches Daryl and then screams at him until he's frothing at the mouth. Daryl ends up doing some coke to deaded the pain. What a wonderful ending for everyone!

Obviously we can't all ride together, so Daryl and Yolanda are heading north in a beater woodie wagon, and Diego is driving Maria and Santiago in a panel van. The AC in Daryl's car breaks down. They overnight in Las Vegas, NM. Santiago calls Augusto in Denver to make the arrangements. Augusto will introduce us to Chet when we meet in Fairfield Cemetary. We meet there the next day, after two days on the road.

We drive up to a mausoleum. Chet drives up in a golf kart. He greets Augusto as though they're good friends. The deal will take place inside the mausoleum, so Daryl, Santiago, Diego, Augusto, and Chet all go in there. Daryl tests the cook and shows that it's clean. Santiago has Daryl change places with Maria, who can properly inspect the guns. Diego gets the drugs while Chet disassembles the wall panels to create a hiding spot. Maria inspects the M2s and decides they look good. Santiago and Augusto watch the minions load the M2s, with a little help from Chet, while Daryl and Yolanda act as lookouts. Once the van is loaded, Chet gets on his golf cart and takes off. We do likewise.