prices. Levine told Ibanez that he and mineral-rich Andean range. Suarez would be shown the $9 milli on on Since 1977, cocaine has brought the OCAINE their visit to Miami , well before·the delivery neglected northern and eastern part of INUED FROM PAGE 7 4 of the drugs . Bolivia into the economic and political :. half a dozen Colombian syndicates, . The only hitch in the negotiations in Bue- mainstream . All of the country's endemic :: d now he wanted to simplify his oper- nos Aires was the fai lure of Suarez to meet disad vantages- its land locked borders, :=: ons by finding two main bu yers-one of with Levine.lt was to be a sign of the Boliv- inaccessible interior. wretched rural pov- -em Colombian and the other an Ameri- ian 's caution in all stages of the deal. erty, political instability. ingrained govern- :::n. The Bolivian suggested that Suarez " Suarez never exposed himself- we nev- ment corruption. and long-standing tradi- : Jld sell Levine about 1,000 kilos of co- er saw him, or even talked to him directly," tion of contraband-emerged as pillars of :.?: i e base a month. said a OEA agent in Washington . "He strength for the cocaine industry. is was a tar larger amount than the sends everybody, even his own family, out The Chapare. the godforsaken trop1cal had ever thought of handling . A sin- like he does to test the waters. And he re- highland of east-central Bolivia, has ; -e monthly shipment would have sur- mains out of sight. " proved a natural greenhouse for new coca :::ssed the total seizures made in Miami Ibanez returned to Bolivia to consult fur- plantations. The leaves that grow there are :_ •ing all of the previous year. More to the ther with Suarez. Meanwhile, Levine flew too bitterly acid to chew but produce a :::Jint, the agency would have been unable back to Miami to mull over the mind-bog- high-quality base. The dearth of roads -:: ::ome up with the $18 to $20 million nec- gling quantities of cocaine he was being poses no real economic hardship and en- s:sary to show Suarez that it could pur- offered , and to set the stin g operation in sures priv acy. Brigades of machete-wie ld- : ase that much cocaine. Making some motion. ing peasants cut hundreds of miles of : _i ck mental calculations, Levine coun- Until the Buenos Aires meeting, the DEA footpaths. An even larger army of campe- s·ed Ibanez with an offer to initially buy was uncertain just how much cocaine sinos carry fif!y-pound loads of coca = 0 kilos of cocaine base. If that deal went base was be ing smuggled out of Bo livia. leaves along the paths to clandestine lab- -·ough smoothly, he would be ready to As late as 1977, the agency was divided oratories. In fact, the only asphalted high- :::sorb 1,000 kilos a month. In the mean- on whether Peru or Bolivia was the larger way in the Chapare is used by the coca e. Levine invited Ibanez, Suarez. and producer. It now became evident that the growers. mainly to dry their leaves in the - .s son, Roberto Jr., up to Miami to inspect Bolivians had spurted ahead, and that sun before compressing them into bun- - .s organization. his laboratories, even Suarez was the single biggest cocaine dles for the pack carriers. On an average ::>end some time at his home. where they merchant in the world. · day during the harvest season, a four-mile :nuld meet his family and associates. In a very few years, th e cocaine boom stretch of the highway- roughly the dis- ith little haggling. Levine agreed to has radically reshaped the political and tance along Broadway from the edge of _ay $18,000 a kilo , or $9 million fo r the economic geography of Bolivia. For most Harlem to Times Square-is blanketed on :: 0 kilos. Once refined and then sold on of this century- and hundreds of years one side with dehydrating coca leaves -e streets, the shipment would have be!Gre- the nation's meager fortunes and while traffic is diverted to a single lane. .:·ought more than $200 million in 1980 the bulk of its population were linked to the Most of the clandestine cocaine labora- tories are now installed in the Beni, the jungle-and-savanna province of northern Bolivia, which is even more isolated and inaccessible than the Chapare. As big as Kansas. the Beni has only about 300,000 inhabitants. There are no paved highways and few roads of any kind. The only eco- nomic activity. besides cocaine , is catlle. The livestock, introduced into the province three centuries ago by Jesuit missionar- ies , multiplied into large, wild herds. like Texas longhorns Only in recent years have ranchers built dirt airstrips to trans- port the butchered cattle to markets 1n La Paz and the Andean tin mines several hun- dred mi le s southeast . And many of these same tiny airfields now serve as staging points for the sophisticated network that ferries processed and semiprocessed co- caine through Bolivia. across Brazil. into Colombia. and then to Flo rida. The bus iness and banking capital of th1s cocaine trade is Santa Cruz. the main city of eastern Bolivia. It is the gathering place of Colombian and American buyers. and the garrison fo r the army and air-force contingents who offer cocaine smugglers protection and secure contraband routes. Oil , natural gas . and agriculture gave th1s once wild frontier town its first taste of prosperity a decade ago. Cocaine has swathed Santa Cruz wi th a flashy veneer of wealth that se ts it aparl from the rest o! the country_The city's understated Span- · ish colonial downtown d1strict of low-slung white-stucco and red-tile buildings has been encircled With suburban man sio ns evoking Southern Califo rn1a and Palm 64 PENTHOUS£ Beach architecture. The shops are He just looked at me kind of strangely, stocked with the latest stereo and video closed the luggage, and walked back to equipment, most of it contraband financed the plane. " by coca-dollars. Santa Cruz probably has Suarez's bodyguards are mostly Ar- more BMWs and Mercedes per capita gentine, Swiss, Austrian , and South Afri- than any other Latin Amer ican city. Some can nee-fascists. They were trained and policemen patrol in Datsun sports cars, recruited by Klaus Altmann, a former Nazi marred only by sirens on their roofs. SS colonel who found refuge in Bolivia Like virtually all other Bolivian cocaine more than thirty years ago from charges barons, Roberto Suarez is a man of these that he had slaughtered hundreds of hinterlands. From his family, who con- French Resistance members and deport- trolled the country's rubber trade at the ed thousands of Jews while he was Gesta- turn of the century, Suarez inherited some po chief in the French city of Lyons. modest cattle ranches in the Beni, the The guards are spread over a dozen dif- Chapare. and Santa Cruz. He was not ferent locations in northern and eastern much of a cattleman, but sen t his son. Ro- Bolivia because Suarez rarely spends berto Jr ., to Texas A & Min the hopes that more than two days in any one place. He he would improve the family ranching op- does sit still in Santa Cruz whenever a erations. The father's limited farming acu- large deal is in the offing. And it was there, men was further hampered by his in one of his large mansions, that he field- weakness for gambling. A cousin remem- ed phone calls from Marcelo Ibanez dur- bers him losing $60,000 in one night at a ing the negotiations with Levine in Buenos La Paz casino eight years ago. Aires and Miami. Suarez was, however, an accom- After being briefed by Levine on his re- plished pilot of small planes, and devel- turn to Florida, the DEA decided to finance oped a profound knowledge of the one of its most expensive undercover op- geography of the Bolivian interior. By the erations. A three-bedroom house was early 1970s, he was flying contraband rented during May 1980 in Fort Laud er- goods into the country from Brazil and Ar- dale, just across from the beach, and was gentina. He also began selling small quan- stocked with Johnny Walker and Tan- tities of cocaine base abroad, usually no queray gin, and wired with a stereo for the more than ten or twenty kilos at a time. salsa music that Suarez supposedly en- When the boom came after 1977, Suarez joyed. Two Lincoln Continental limousines was far better positioned than most of the were leased. Women agents were other small smugglers. He had contacts in brought over to Miami to act as maids and customs, the police, and the armed escorts for the Bolivians . A warehouse in forces. Rather than simply expand his co- Miami was outfitted as a cocaine laborato- caine production, he hit upon the notion of ry with funnels, cookers, and an agent. acting as a middleman between the many Paul Sennett, as its chief chemist. Final ly, small Bolivian smugglers and the big Co- $9 million in hundred-dollar bill s was bor- lombian buyers. The idea appealed to cor- rowed from the Federal Reserve, and de- rupt military and police officials because it posited in six giant safety-deposit boxes at made the cocaine trade more manage- a Miami suburban bank to impress upon able. And it made sense to the smaller traf- the Bolivians that the Levine organization fickers because the arrangement relieved was prepared to pay cash on delivery.