James Barnard was the perfect partner for Pepe Chavez. He had moxie, and he was relatively unknown by police. The partnership was good for James Barnard, too. He had simple interests. His first interest—his passion—was drag racing in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). His second interest was the business of cocaine. In reality, the two interests were one. He was in the NHRA to be the world champion, and he was in the cocaine business for the same reason—to be the world champion. Through 1980, Barnard worked his business all over the NHRA circuit. “Auto parts,” he called the product, when boxed and delivered. Racing colleagues Michael Palmer and Michael Gogan lived in the Tacoma area. Palmer and Gogan, together, had a drag car that they raced on tracks in the smaller northwest circuit. They hadn’t hit the big time, like Barnard, but they hoped to soon—with cocaine sales. In 1981, Barnard picked up another distributor. He was Jerry “the King” Ruth a former national champion.

…business for the enterprise was up to a load a month—two kilos per delivery. It was smuggled in at $62,000 per kilo, then—diluted, cut again, and repackaged—it went and out for sale. It went out, cut by forty percent—priced by the ounce, and sold by the gram—for a return of $160,000 to $200,000.