RELEVANT PASSAGES IN BOOK ONE:

“…In one instance, Barnard neglected to tell Pepe Chavez of a special meeting he had with Alfredo Garcia following the Thunder Valley Nationals races in Bristol, Tennessee. Barnard received two suitcases of cocaine from Garcia. Chavez would not learn about the delivery until later. Much later, after Barnard sold all of it for his own profit. Chavez heard about the incident through Barnard’s less-than-discreet traveling partner, Becky. Becky told Chavez about the delivery of cocaine from Garcia in Tennessee; that Barnard had a premonition about the police, so he sent the product from Tennessee to Portland via Federal Express; and that, coincidentally, airport police stopped the travelers shortly after deplaning in Portland, when they arrived from races in Tennessee. Barnard and his traveling partner were searched but released when the search proved negative.” [Chapter 8, page 71]

“Bristol, Tennessee: May 1982. DEA agents in Tennessee, acting on a tip from an informant, conducted surveillance of James Barnard and female companion Rebecca Ann Basler, who had just boarded a flight to Portland from Bristol. Agents in Portland picked up the surveillance at the PDX airport. The investigators observed suspicious behavior and believed the two subjects were making an effort to conceal their relationship. As Basler picked up luggage, Portland Airport Narcotics Interdiction Task Force (PAINT) investigators confronted her and stopped her. The officers conducted a preliminary investigation of the unopened bags with a trained, drug-sensitive canine. Their drug “sniffer” dog hit on Basler’s bags, providing probable cause to conduct visual search of the luggage. In subsequent search, however, officers found nothing. Without visual evidence, the suspect was released. Nevertheless, the canine master noted that he remains convinced by the dog’s strong reaction, that the luggage did, in fact, contain—or recently had contained—drugs.”[Chapter 10, page 92] 

Joe, take a look at the slideshow visuals on my “Home” page. There you will find a relevant investigative summary. You will also see court transcriptions of the grand jury testimony of Lee Beard, and a drug courier named Paul. As you will find, Barnard’s strategy to foil the searches of investigators, did indeed succeed. Let me know if you have more questions.

Relevant passage in book one [Chapter 6, page 51]:

            “…Maltais’s end of the business was good. Good enough to keep several street dealers busy—dealers who were in for peanuts and some free product. But, there was this setback, when a kilo deal went bad, a total loss. Pepe held Maltais accountable, raised the price on Maltais, and put his two henchmen, Michael Wright and John King (both convicted murderers), in the middle of each future transaction with Maltais.”

ANSWER: On my “Home” page, scroll down to the revolving document window. You will see three pages of excerpts describing the event, pages from an investigative report (some of which has been redacted). You will also find several pages from transcripts of Mardy Maltais’ testimony before the secret federal grand jury. Hope this quells your curiousity on this issue, Joe. Thanks for the feedback!

1. Mardy Maltais: It says he blew a kilo early in his dealings with Chavez, if I understand it right, resulting in future transactions being backstopped by Chavez’s hardheads. Could you expand on this a bit?
2. When Barnard sent the cocaine from Bristol, Tennessee, to Portland, then flew in after and was detained at the airport, did the investigators match the cocaine arriving through Fed Ex or even know [at the time] that it had been sent? Barnard just went and picked it and whistled on his way?