DRESSED in an Italian silk shirt, polished leather shoes and wearing a diamond studded Rolex as he sailed into the Bahamas on a high-powered boat, Martin Suarez was “hooked” on smuggling drugs for Pablo Escobar.
The same was true when he drove a golden sports car around the streets of Puerto Rico, collecting up to two million dollars a day for cocaine cartels.
Undercover cop Martin Suarez helped the FBI capture over a billion dollars of cocaine and break up one of South America’s biggest money laundering operations[/caption]
Martin became Manny, a fruit and veg importer in Miami driving a black Porsche 911, who had a hi-tech fast boat and drank Johnnie Walker Black Label whiskey on ice[/caption]
Martin (pictured centre) with fellow FBI agents after he went undercover and smuggled $500million worth of cocaine into Miami for the Medellín Cartel, around 1990[/caption]
Until now Martin, 70, has kept the details of his undercover operations secret[/caption]
But the reason Martin was so into it was not because he was a criminal – it was because he was an undercover cop.
By living and breathing the life of the world’s most dangerous drug gangs, he was able to help the FBI capture over a billion dollars of cocaine and break up one of South America’s biggest money laundering operations.
The risks were immense; Special Agent Suarez fought off a hitman sent to kill him in his home, and a gangster gathering information for him ended up in a wood chipper.
Until now Martin, 70, has kept the details of his undercover operations secret.
But having been diagnosed with the incurable motor neurone disease four years ago, the retired officer has decided to reveal the incredible lengths the FBI goes to in order to smash the cartels.
Only Special Agent Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco, had gone deep undercover for the FBI before Martin started out in 1988.
In his new book, Inside the Cartel, Martin tells how he disrupted Escobar’s notorious Medellin operation and Colombia’s North Coast Cartel’s leader ‘The Snail’.
Their ruthless associates in Miami, Florida or Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan would think little of blow-torching the tips of someone’s fingers or cutting off their tongue before chopping them up with a chainsaw.
Martin tells The Sun: “When I received the one or two million dollars in the trunk of my car, possibly a competing faction of the people that I was working against might be alerted that I had money in the car, so whenever I had money the chop shop was a thought.
“San Juan and Miami both had kill houses, and I knew of them through sources, and whenever I passed by that house, that building just sent shivers up my spine.”
‘Hooked’
Born in New York, Martin grew up in Puerto Rico and served in the US Navy for a decade, before joining the FBI aged 33 in 1988.
Martin became Manny, a fruit and veg importer in Miami driving a black Porsche 911, who had a hi-tech fast boat and drank Johnnie Walker Black Label whiskey on ice.
It was a thrill playing the part. He says: “The first time when I got to my squad I was asked if I could take a fast boat to the Bahamas for an operation.
“And then I took the boat out there and started dealing with the bad guys and I was hooked.”
By December 1989, three women working for one of Escobar’s right hand men, Tigre Valencia, had delivered a huge amount of cash to Martin.
I took the boat out there and started dealing with the bad guys and I was hooked
Martin Suarez
After meeting 75 gangsters he was finally to be trusted to collect 3,000 kilos of 95 per cent pure Colombian cocaine, worth half a billion dollars on the street.
In the dead of night, off the coast of Cuba, his hired 36ft Mako fishing vessel suddenly started rocking as 45kg bales of cocaine landed in the sea from a plane above.
They were so close that Martin feared one of them would sink his boat.
Over the next six hours he collected the loads, lit up by glow sticks – an exhausting task that “took so much out of me, physically and emotionally”.
Martin delivered them as promised to the cartel in Miami, but none of the killer drugs ended up on the street because the FBI raided the warehouse the following day.
Suspicious
After meeting 75 gangsters he was finally to be trusted to collect 3,000 kilos of 95 per cent pure Colombian cocaine, worth half a billion dollars on the street[/caption]
When several other smuggling operations involving ‘Manny’ ended with the illicit cargo in the hands of the authorities, Tigre, known as El Viejo (The Old Man) grew suspicious. Escobar was losing too much money.
Rather than go on the defensive, Martin blamed the cartel’s men for bungling the operations.
It didn’t convince El Viejo, who demanded to meet him in Colombia.
As far as the FBI were concerned that was too risky, because they couldn’t provide back-up teams in what was then an often lawless country.
Martin knew all too well what could happen to someone who was no longer trusted.
A stick was driven through his heart, and then they put him to a wood chipper
Martin Suarez
He explains: “There was a good source of ours in South America, and he got word that he was cooperating with us, and we warned him not to go back to his hometown.
“He went back, he had an army with him, but it was a member of his army that set him up, and he got shot first.
“A stick was driven through his heart, and then they put him to a wood chipper.”
After stopping a billion dollars of cocaine getting into the United States, Martin decided it was time to end his career as a smuggler in 1991.
At risk
After stopping a billion dollars of cocaine getting into the United States, Martin decided it was time to end his career as a smuggler in 1991[/caption]
Although the father-of-two, who is married to his childhood sweetheart, Maria, enjoyed spending more time with his family, the lure of catching the bad guys was strong[/caption]
One time Martin came across the dead bodies of other delivery men who’d been ambushed by rivals[/caption]
By August 1992 he was Manny the money launderer, operating in Puerto Rico for El Toro Negro, who was the money boss of the North Coast Cartel, which operated in Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and the Caribbean[/caption]
His break from undercover work wasn’t going to last long.
Although the father-of-two, who is married to his childhood sweetheart, Maria, enjoyed spending more time with his family, the lure of catching the bad guys was too great.
Martin smiles: “I enjoyed it because at the end of the case, when we took people down on large loads, you got your 45 minutes of fame.
“But then the bosses were asking, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ and you have to jump in another case.”
By August 1992 he was Manny the money launderer, operating in Puerto Rico for El Toro Negro, who was the money boss of the North Coast Cartel, which operated in Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and the Caribbean.
I enjoyed it because at the end of the case, when we took people down on large loads, you got your 45 minutes of fame. But then the bosses were asking, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ and you have to jump in another case
Martin Suarez
Driving around with two million dollars collected from drug dealers put him at risk.
One time he came across the dead bodies of other delivery men who’d been ambushed by rivals.
Martin says: “I can’t remember much of it because I kind of blanked some of it out, and that’s how I survived, just not acknowledging all the dangers.”
Another time his instinct that something was amiss saved his life, because he took off his wire prior to one of the heavily-armed gangsters patting him down.
He recalls: “It was a dangerous situation, where the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I knew that I had to adjust before I got to the meeting, and there was something horrible going on.”
Assassin drama
Martin, pictured middle, with his former FBI colleagues[/caption]
Martin (far right, back) pictured with 200 kilos of seized drugs along with his fellow officers in 1998[/caption]
Driving around with two million dollars collected from drug dealers put Martin at risk[/caption]
But it was clear to his bosses that the undercover work needed to end when a car blew up across the street from his family’s house and a man made a threat to his life.
Just as he was relaxing at home in August 1994 with the job done, he came face-to-face with an assassin pointing a gun in his direction.
Fast-thinking Martin tried to convince the hitman that he was just visiting the property.
He says: “I told him, ‘I’m not going to get a shot for somebody I barely knew, let me go’, but he wouldn’t buy it.”
I can’t remember much of it because I kind of blanked some of it out, and that’s how I survived, just not acknowledging all the dangers
Martin Suarez
As the hired killer walked Martin from the patio up some steps into the house, the special agent shoved him backwards and jumped onto the floor of the house.
The hitman fired but missed, and a neighbour called the police.
By the time Martin had collected his shotgun from the shed to chase his assailant down, back up had arrived.
He never found out who was behind the attempt on his life. By this time Escobar was dead, so El Toro Negro was the most likely culprit.
Extract from Inside the Cartel by Martin Suarez
IT was clear by now that the ‘owner’ of the house was not going to show up, and the hitman knew it.
He muttered to himself, running through the facts at hand, trying to convince himself I was the man he had come for.
“He has the same eyes,” he whispered. “He has the same eyes.”
At that point I knew that he knew I was the owner of the house – that I was the man he had been hired to kill.
“You piece-of-s*** liar,” he said. “Get in the f***ing house!”
I knew what he wanted to do: he wanted to take me into the house so his gunshot would be muffled, so my neighbour wouldn’t hear, so my family would come home and find my body lying in a pool of blood.
I slowly walked toward the gate. I knew that this would be the only chance I had at putting some distance between us, so I could run into the house, grab one of my guns and defend myself.
A small, three-step staircase separated the landing between the patio floor and the gate. I took each step slowly, the sicario close behind me, his gun shoved into the small of my back.
I threaded the key into the lock. I felt his body against mine. I could smell his breath. The gate swung out, toward us, and as I slowly opened it, my body leaned back to give the gate room.
I was pressed against him now, and then I went for it: I let go of the gate and tried to grab his gun. He moved his hand, I missed his weapon, and then I shoved him. He lost his balance and stumbled backward down the steps.
I immediately flung open the gate, ran to my front door, threw it open and dove onto the floor. And then his gun went off.
My back seized up and I felt blood on my face. I thought I was shot, but when I ran my hands over my face and skull, all I felt was the cool slick of blood from when we scuffled and he busted my nose.
He missed. I wasn’t dead yet.
“This motherf****r,” I said under my breath. “I got this guy now.”
A couple of weeks later all the taped conversations and surveilled meetings led to 52 cartel members being charged with money laundering and smuggling offences.
After that Martin returned to the US, carrying out more undercover operations including some that took him to Europe, before retiring in 2011.
Having been his drug smuggling alter ego for so long, it was hard to let him go.
He says: “I felt sad for leaving Manny behind because I created Manny.”
And it was being Manny, completely, that kept him alive.
Martin concludes: “You never know what you’re projecting to these people, unless you’re disciplined. And that entails leaving your police mind behind.
“You can’t think you’re a cop, otherwise you will project that insecurity.”
Inside the Cartel: How an Undercover FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash and Dismantled a Colombian Narco-Empire by Martin Suarez (HarperCollins) is out September 25.
Martin pictured with Louie Freeh, Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, following the Golden Trash investigation[/caption]
Martin, pictured now, has been diagnosed with MND[/caption]
Inside the Cartel: How an Undercover FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash and Dismantled a Colombian Narco-Empire by Martin Suarez is out now[/caption]
