Fighting Back
Fighting Back
Wayne Bosak
Fighting Back
Drug Runners Cause Death and Destruction
Wayne Bosak
Copyright 2020 by Wayne Bosak
ISBN:9798643259855
Cover design: Tatiana Villa
Viladesign.net
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events described in this novel are imaginary, and all character names and description are fictional. In all cases, any resemblance between the characters in this book and real people is purely coincidental.
Real public figures, products, places, businesses, government agencies, or other entities are depicted fictitiously in this book for purposes of entertainment and comment only. No affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement is claimed or suggested.
Other books by Wayne Bosak
The Bunker
The Survival Compound
Stranded
© 2020 by Wayne Bosak
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The book is dedicated to the hard working, dedicated professionals in the United States Border Patrol.
Chapter 1
Washington, DC
Arnold Stillwell walked into Senator Joseph Freeman’s office and said, “Hello, Joe, it’s been a while.”
“Yes, it has, Arnold, too long. What brings you all the way to Washington?”
“I have a few meetings set up, but I wanted to stop and see you first. I understand that you’re going to retire at the end of this term.”
“I don’t know where you heard that, because I don’t have any plans on retiring. I enjoy what I’m doing and plan on continuing.”
“Joe, you need to reconsider. You’re not going to have the support that you had in the past. There are a lot of your former supporters that aren’t happy with your performance, and they want to replace you.”
“I don’t understand why. I’ve done a good job here in Washington and made a lot of valuable friends. I’m in line to chair one of the committees in my next term, and that gives me more power to get things done.”
“Well, that’s the problem. You haven’t done what you were sent here to do. Me and my fellow ranchers got you elected in the first place to get something done about changing our immigration laws. The problems along the border are getting worse all the time. You made us a promise that you would fight to get things changed, and from where we stand, you haven’t kept that promise.”
“That’s bullshit, Arnold. I’ve worked my ass off on immigration. I cosponsored the bill to get the Texas border reinforced.”
“Yes, you did, but it was a bad bill and never passed the Senate—and that was six years ago. Since then you haven’t done anything. The first two years you were here, you introduced two pieces of legislation, one of which never got out of committee, and the other never passed in the Senate. You haven’t been successful in getting anything passed. Out of the ten years you’ve been here, your party has had control of the Senate and House six of those eleven years, and nothing was done.
“Since your reelection four years ago, you’ve introduced nothing, you’ve sponsored nothing. Nothing has been done on immigration reform. You joined the Washington elite and become one of those politicians that talk but do nothing to help your state.”
“Arnold, you don’t understand how difficult it is to get anything done around here. The old-timers in the Senate control everything, and in order for me to get anything done, I have to kowtow to the leaders. It’s just not that simple.”
“Joe, I’m not going to argue with you. You haven’t lived up to your promise to us ranchers that are living with this nightmare. That’s the bottom line. In the last eleven years, things have gotten worse along the border. I have illegal’s crossing my ranch on a weekly basis. They leave their trash, cut my fences, and recently they have started killing my cows for food. The worst ones are the smugglers, bringing their drugs into the country. Most of them are armed, and they think it’s all right to shoot my cattle. This year already we’ve had ten head of cattle killed.
“The group of ranchers that backed you with time and money has decided that we need someone else in your position. If you insist on running again, we’ll fight you in the primary.”
“Well, fine. If you want a fight, you’ll get one. I plan to stay in office, and I have plenty of support from Texans.”
“You forget, Joe, you now have a record to run on, and that record will defeat you in the primary. For the things that matter most to all Texans, your record is dismal. You haven’t done anything about immigration, you voted for two gun control bills, and you supported abortion. These are on your record, and when people find out what your voting record is, you won’t have any support.
“I suggest that you seriously consider announcing your retirement. That way you can leave office and collect your pension and keep your dignity. After people find out what your record is, you won’t be able to get elected dog catcher. I was hoping you would see the light and understand, but you’re being pigheaded. You enjoy the prestige and the power, but you don’t really care about those that got you elected.”
Arnold turned around and left Senator Freeman’s office.
***
Arnold was the owner of the vast Stillwell ranch along the Texas hill country border. This was one of the very few privately owned ranches that dated back to the 1836 Texas land grant program. Arnold’s ancestor had been granted 4605.5 acres of land as head of household and by meeting certain other requirements.
Over the generations, surrounding ranches had been bought up, and the original ranch grew in size. The family now owned a ranch that consisted of 23,500 acres (thirty-six square miles). The main house and headquarters for the ranch were located on the original land grant property, and the living room was now what had originally been the family home.
Arnold had turned the operation of the ranch over to his eldest son, David. David was forty-three years old but had spent all of his life on the ranch, other than time taken out to get his degree in business management and serve in the military. After college he had joined the marines as a second lieutenant and served six years before returning.
Over the years Arnold had faced many problems with illegal aliens crossing his property, causing damage and in some cases destruction. There had been times when cattle had been slaughtered by the illegals. Every year the problems got worse.
Ranch hands had encountered illegal aliens carrying drugs on their backs. The drug cartels used people that wanted to enter the United States as mules to carry the drugs. Over the last twenty years, they had found numerous bodies of illegals. In one such case, they found a group of four that appeared to be Muslims that had died from the extreme heat and dehydration. Among their possessions they found prayer rugs and copies of the Koran.
Arnold worked hand in hand with the border patrol and local law enforcement. He would notify the proper authorities when groups of people were found or when bodies were discovered. He had a very good relationship with the border patrol and sheriff’s department; he was on a first-name basis with some of them.
He had turned the ranch operation over to his sons, David and Alan, so that he could increase his involvement as a behind-the-scenes political operative. He was working hard to get people elected to office who would strengthen immigration laws on both the state and federal level. He donated money and time to this project.
Politicians spent years debating border security and illegal immigration. But that was all they seemed to do—debate. No meaningful progress had been made in over thirty years. Arnold’s goal in li
fe was to get that changed. He knew firsthand the problems illegal immigration caused, and he wanted them corrected.
David, with the help of his younger brother, Alan, worked hard to run the ranch. It was a large operation with a large number of ranch hands to oversee. There were four different line camps on the huge ranch. Maintenance was an ongoing project, with miles and miles of fencing to maintain and various windmills and ponds to look after. Water was the most important element in maintaining their large herd of cattle.
Chapter 2
Stillwell Ranch
David and Alan Stillwell were meeting at the ranch headquarters discussing the damage done to one of the line camps. Alan had just returned from the camp.
Alan said, “While me and the men from camp three were out checking and repairing fencing on their sector, a group of migrants broke into the bunkhouse at the camp. They stole all the food and some of the men’s clothing and did considerable damage inside. The SOBs smashed the radio and stole some of the men’s personal belongings. I’m so damn mad that I could just go out and hunt the bastards down and shoot every damn one of them. This crap has got to stop. The only thing I can come up with is hiring some more men and never leaving the camps empty.”
David asked, “Do you know when this happened?”
“It was this morning. Yesterday we were at the camp, and we left early this morning. I was with the group all day, when we returned to camp, we found the damage. I sent the men over to camp four so they could get something to eat and get some rest. I rode directly here.”
David said, “Get John to take one of the spare radios and food over to the camp first thing in the morning. You can call the men that went to camp four on the radio and have them go back to the cabin and make a list of what else they need. When they get the radio set up, they can call and give us a list of what else they need.
“I’ll call the sheriff’s office and the border patrol and let them know what happened. If you know what direction the group was heading, I’ll take the plane first thing in the morning and see if I can spot them. Maybe we can get lucky and find them. Between the sheriff and border patrol, maybe we can get the thieving bastards.”
“You know, Dave, it’d be nice to capture this group. Too many times they get away with this crap. This is the fourth time this year this has happened, and I’m getting tired of it.”
David got on the phone and called Sheriff Mendoza to report what happened. Then he called his buddy at the border patrol, Luke Green, to see if they were in a position to help if the group could be located. He told Luke what had happened and asked if they were in a position to go after this group when they were found.
Luke relied, “Dave, I’m not sure. We’ve been so damn busy lately. The amount of illegal traffic has increased dramatically over the past few months. Yesterday we had a big raid over at the Lewis ranch and were able to round up a bunch of drug runners.
“This is really a case for the sheriff’s department. They usually handle cases like this. We’ll help if we can, but you need to work with them. Call me in the morning if you spot the group, and we’ll see if we can help.”
David replied, “As soon as it gets light, I’ll get the plane in the air and call you if I find them. One way or the other, I’ll call you in the morning.”
***
Over the years Sherriff Mendoza and the border patrol had developed a good working relationship. The sheriff’s department generally worked on cases of property damage caused by illegals. They would investigate, and if they arrested someone, the offender was prosecuted by the county prosecutor and sentenced, and the information was passed to ICE, which would place a detainer on the convicted alien. ICE would work to get the alien deported upon completion of their sentence.
People picked up by the sheriff’s department for crossing the border illegally were turned over to the border patrol immediately, because they had committed a federal crime. There was no way the sheriff’s department could handle the large numbers of illegals caught crossing the border.
The border patrol worked closely with the sheriff, and whenever possible they lent a helping hand to the sheriff when it came to illegal aliens.
When it came drug runners or human traffickers, the border patrol took the lead. With all of the problems on the border, they could not always respond or there would have been a long delay in their response.
With the drug smugglers, the FBI and the DEA were usually brought into the event. The DEA would take charge of the confiscated drugs and hold them for prosecution. The FBI wanted the drug smugglers so they could develop leads to work with the DEA in trying to stop the flow of drugs.
In the event of border patrol agents being attacked, the FBI would always be brought in. The border patrol were federal agents.
***
Alan was two years younger than David. He spent most of his time traveling the ranch, overseeing the ranch hands working with the various herds. It was not unusual for him to be away from headquarters for weeks at a time. The only communication between Alan and David was by the radio system set up at the ranch and the four different line camps.
All of the line camps were set up with living quarters for the ranch hands. Alan would stay in one of the camps as he worked and toured the ranch. There was one truck at each camp to haul necessary equipment and supplies, but most travel was by horseback and four-wheelers. Water was supplied by wells equipped with windmills to pump the water for the camps and water tanks for the cattle.
The men worked seven days a week, but each ranch hand was given six days off each month to go to the nearest town of Del Rio. Because David and Alan paid their men well and tried to provide good working and living conditions, they had a very low turnover. Most of the ranch hands had worked at the Stillwell ranch for over ten years, and a few were pushing twenty years.
First thing the next morning, David climbed into the Piper Super Cub kept at the ranch headquarters and started his search for the illegals. Alan was waiting at the headquarters to lead the sheriff’s men to the location of the illegals if they were spotted.
David spotted the group just three miles from the camp. He radioed the location to Alan. It was just six thirty in the morning when he called the sheriff’s department.
He told the dispatcher that he’d found the group of raiders that hit the line camp. “It looks like there are six of them. All appear to be young men. Can you get someone out here? Alan will be waiting at the gate to guide your men to the location.”
The dispatcher said, “I’ll send a couple of trucks and five deputies out right away.”
David replied, “I’ll have a couple of men to provide backup if necessary.”
Alan was waiting at the gate with three men armed with their hunting rifles. David was still flying and watching the group of intruders. Fifteen minutes later the deputies caught up with the intruders.
The intruders knew they were caught, and all raised their hands and waited to be arrested. In fifteen minutes they had been handcuffed and searched.
David called his younger brother and said, “Now that the sheriff’s department picked up the guys that raided the camp, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going back to the camp and help gets things cleaned up. I’ll be back at the house tonight with a list of needed supplies. John has taken the radio and food to the camp, and I’m taking some other supplies. I’ll see you tonight, little brother.”
“Little brother, my ass. I’m still bigger than you are.”
David called off his friend Luke at the border patrol and invited him and his wife over for a barbecue on Saturday.
The following weekend Luke and his wife, Sally, came to the ranch. Luke was six foot four and weighed in at 140 pounds. Sally told her husband that he was so skinny, he could change his pants in a gun barrel. Sally, on the other hand, stood at five foot four and 120 pounds. They made quite a pair.
Arnold was back home for the weekend and had joined the party. He’d invited his neighbor
Bill Kelly, his wife, Verna, and their daughter, Andye, to the barbecue.
Andye was David’s longtime girlfriend. They had been dating for a number of years and enjoyed each other’s company.
Arnold was telling everyone about his meeting with the senator. “It didn’t go well. Freeman says he’s not going to resign and plans on running for reelection next fall. So I guess we are going to have a primary fight. He’s become one of the so-called elite and thinks he knows what he’s doing.”
Bill asked, “Are you still planning on putting Emilio Rodriquez up in the primary? From what I understand, he could be a good man to have in office. He seems to be sharp and projects himself well.”
“Yes, I am. He’s a third-generation American. His grandparents on both sides immigrated here legally and became US citizens as soon as they could. They were hardworking people, and they passed that down to their children and grandchildren. He’s had a great career as a lawyer, and his wife is a college professor.
“More importantly he is dead set against illegal immigration. He has told me on more than one occasion that allowing all of these illegals in to the country is wrong. Every one of them hurts those that have come here legally. He has no problems with those that do things the right way.”
Bill and Arnold continued talking politics, while David and Luke spoke about the guys that had been captured at the ranch a few days ago.
“Luke, you said that you had been very busy. How bad are things along the border?”
“Well, the number of people we have been catching has increased 75 percent over last year. In our sector alone, we have detained over six thousand in just four months. We don’t have enough resources to handle that many people. We need more men and equipment, as well as more detention facilities.”