CARTAGENA COLOMBIA

Richard Williams arrived at the bar in the El Convento hotel at 6:00 p.m. about fifteen minutes early. He had flown in from New York on a morning flight, checked into the hotel, enjoyed a leisurely lunch of arroz con coco washed down by a Cerveza Aguilla. At about four he went to his room, took a nap, showered, and changed his clothes in preparation for the meeting. At the bar, he ordered a mojito.

At 6:15 sharp, Ernesto Diaz-Granados entered the bar and shouted across the room "Reechard!" Williams turned around and warmly greeted the rotund drug lord from Medellin as if they were long lost brothers. Diaz-Granados was a firm believer in being so outgoing and garrolous that no one would suspect what he was really up to. He often said he never understood why the Sicilians were so furtive when they did business, and he firmly believed one of the reasons his operations in New York were so succesful was that what is obvious is oftern harder to see than what is hidden. His only quirk, it seemed was that he never used telephones, and would only discuss business, even in the most oblique terms one on one. He sat down next to Williams and ordered a mojito.

Williams got to the point immediately. "The business in New York is completed as planned," and our friends in Grand Cayman say everything was wired after things were confirmed. Pulling two Cuban cigars from his guyabera pocket he offered one to WIlliams and simply said, "Bueno." They both lit up and enjoued a few more mojitos, never discussing any more business. They didn't have to. Vincent Corleone, who'd managed through sheer toughness and cunning had not only kept them out of Brooklyn, he managed to comromise their operations throughout New York using contacts in the police department, and, they suspected well placed spies who would now have to be dealt with.

They left the hotel around eight and took a cab to the Club de Pesca for dinner. At an outdoor table off to the corner, they resumed talking business, but in a way no one, not even a DEA aganet would suspect a thing. Diaz-Granados first asked about "the cousin." "We arranged for him to call the uncle's lawyer, so the uncle and the aunt must know by know
he was involved.
So far the plan was working. With Vincent out of the way Diaz-Granados and his partner Williams could now move in on the territory. Neither of them believed Michael Corleone would
lend his support to his sister's son, given the elder's well known desire to keep himself out of street business, and by having him call Harrison to tell him he had been deeply involved in Vincent's operation they knew the messages they wanted to be delivered had reached the top of the food chain. of course what Harrison could not have known was that Victor was reading from a script Williams had given him, and that while he was talking he had a gun pointed to his head.

"When do you go back to New York, my friend?" I'll stay here in town through the weekend, do some diving in the Rosario Islands, see the fort and do all the tourist things in the old city. This pleased Diaz-Granados because he thought it gave Williams more cover to appear as an American tourist
and not what he really was.

"And you Ernesto?" "I'm at the Hilton. Flying back tomorrow. There's no need for us to talk untill I see you in New York next month when we can take the next step. "Which day?" "The fifteenth. Same time. I think I'd like something to go with my cocktails at the oyster bar at The Plaza."
They shared a cab that took Williams back to El Convento and Diaz-Granados to the Hilton, on the other side of town.