Chapter 856 - 800: Big Business
Daria faced Kate's question, only giving a mysterious smile...
Not to mention she didn't know what the boss's intentions were, even if she did, she wouldn't tell Kate.
The plan they've formulated sounds highly feasible, but in reality, executing it is fraught with difficulty.
Particularly with detailed aspects, Kate needs to assist her in comprehensive planning.
Daria knew very well that when Kate came knocking and Tiago became a pawn, the subsequent battle between the boss and the Sinaloa Group would take a different form.
The best way for the boss to reap the most benefit is to push Tiago to take over a larger territory and secure a foothold in Mexico.
As for how the boss will ultimately use this foothold, it's not Daria's concern. Her current task is to conduct the most detailed negotiation and deliberation on the attack plan with Kate, General Sid, and Tiago himself.
Tiago's identity must be solidified, so many details need to withstand scrutiny, at the very least, to avoid clear evidence linking him to the boss.
She knew very well that the boss didn't really care if others knew about Tiago's connection with him...
The crux of the matter is that to maximize Tiago's value, he needs to establish a firm footing.
And those collaborating with outsiders can't secure stable territory in Mexico; when things stabilize, everyone will come after you.
So Tiago must be 'clean'!
Only with Kate's cooperation, by completing this critical step, can subsequent issues be resolved incrementally.
As a key pawn, Tiago has no basic say at this point!
But he's no fool. The previous friction with General Sid was due to a mismatch in approach, not ignorance.
Even a fool would realize he's playing a crucial role in this plan now.
No matter how Daria and the others negotiate and arrange things, entering Mexico and confronting the Sinaloa Group will require not just support, but Tiago showing his face and rallying his brothers, leveraging his hometown advantage, and raising a team with the appropriated funds.
He is the local strongman, without him, this plan won't work!
Understanding his usefulness, Tiago became quiet...
He knew he had no other option, so now the only thing to do is fully cooperate, aiming to do well, raise his importance, and maybe live longer.
Moreover, the guy suddenly had a strange thought...
If it's really like what Daria says, he feels he maybe can establish a stronghold in Mexico.
Daria saw through Tiago's thoughts at a glance. Instead of exposing him, she glanced at the Mountain Eagle, who was on the terrace in the cold wind looking at documents. After some hesitation, she closed the notebook on the table and said to Kate and General Sid: "This is the boss's house, if you have no objections to our plan, let's move to another place to discuss the details."
Kate turned to look out the window following Daria's gaze, frowning, she asked: "Your boss won't participate?"
Daria shook her head resolutely: "My boss has more important things to do...
If you think the Sinaloa Group is the boss's main target, then you're mistaken!
Our boss has significant matters and more dangerous enemies!"
Kate sighed, saying: "I need to know what exactly your boss wants to get from Mexico?
You should understand, I'm just the one doing the work...
I need to produce a convincing report to get support from the United States, otherwise just suppressing the Mexican government's backlash is already a huge problem!"
Daria pondered for a moment, and simply said: "The treasury!
The money in the La Cruz treasury must be dispersed in La Cruz to help Tiago quickly gain control.
But the Sinaloa's treasury isn't just one location, their biggest one is in Cancun, which is a money laundering haven for drug cartels.
We'll take advantage of Tiago attracting the Sinaloa Group's attention to raid the Cancun treasury. If you're interested, you can join in.
This might solve the 'Bangkok Group's' funding for ten years in one go!"
"Cancun?"
Kate suddenly widened her eyes and looked outside the window...
......
In fact, while Mountain Eagle was looking at documents, he was also distractedly using Golden Cicada to monitor the situation in the cabin meeting...
Daria's performance made him very satisfied. The 'Cancun' she finally mentioned was actually just a pretext for appeasing Kate, but what she said wasn't wrong.
If Tiago needs 'innocence', then for Mountain Eagle, simply fighting a proxy war would be contrary to his needs.
So he needs to keep bleeding Sinaloa in his own way!
When killing becomes not so easy, hitting their money vaults must cause them pain, plus it serves other wonderful purposes.
Tiago disclosed the locations of four Sinaloa Group money vaults, and these vaults belong to different factions within the group...
Most people only know 'Guzman', but they don't know the founders of the Sinaloa Group were three people...
'Joaquin Guzman' 'Ismael Zambada Garcia' 'Hector Luis Palma Salazar'
'Shorty Guzman' is the current leader, while the Zambada Family is the second force within the Sinaloa Group, and Hector Salazar is the de facto manager of the Michoacan State area which supplies drugs' raw materials for the Sinaloa Group.
The vault located in La Cruz does not belong to 'Shorty Guzman', but to the number two figure, the Zambada Family.
Among the four vault locations Tiago revealed, one is located in 'Cancun', proposed by Daria, which is an asset of the Sinaloa Group...
The other two, one belongs to the third figure 'Hector Salazar', located in Michoacan State.
The last, and the largest vault is located in Los Mochis City, Sinaloa State, where 'Shorty Guzman's' stronghold is, and where he hides.
Tiago's target is La Cruces City, while Mountain Eagle's targets are Cancun and Michoacan State...
Besides Cancun, the vaults in La Cruces City and Michoacan State don't store an extraordinary amount of money.
However, those are the private assets of the number two and number three figures of the Sinaloa Group, and losing hundreds of millions of US dollars won't cripple such level of drug lords, but it will cause them pain, prompting them to apply pressure within the group and shift their attitude toward Mountain Eagle.
These 'shoed people' cannot stand such meaningless entanglement!
Once 'Shorty Guzman' is captured, internal instability in the Sinaloa Group will lead them to quickly choose to capitulate and cease fire!
From the beginning, Mountain Eagle never thought he could completely dismantle the Sinaloa Group, not even that he hated Sinaloa the most. They just happened to be the biggest target, and hitting them would best serve to make a name for himself, which is why Mexico is currently so lively.
Even using Tiago to fight a proxy war was just an idea that came to Mountain Eagle's mind suddenly after Kate got involved...
His original target was 'Cancun', and the other three vaults were initially meant to be set ablaze...
The situation has now changed, but 'Cancun' still needs to be captured.
Because Mountain Eagle's Shadow Fleet plan for the future needs a lot of money, and he doesn't want to spend too much of his own money on the revenge issue, using Sinaloa's treasury to pay for 'revenge funds' better meets his needs.
Those untraceable cash are actually more convenient to use!
Because whether it's hiring people or using various weird organizations in the Underworld, cash is the best means of payment.
The so-called 'plot' worried by Kate is not quite as she imagined, at least Mountain Eagle does not intend to control the Mexican drug cartel through Tiago.
In Mountain Eagle's concept, if Tiago, this proxy, can really stand firmly and take control of a coastal region, it could complete the puzzle of the Venezuela transaction he previously planned.
Mexico is an oil-producing country, and their oil and petroleum products exported to the United States annually amount to about 250 billion US dollars, and the crude oil they produce happens to be the same quality as the heavy crude from Venezuela.
Los Zetas annually profits about 1.5 billion US dollars just by stealing pipeline crude oil for export.
This shows that there is a huge black market for crude oil in Mexico...
This black market, frankly, consists of agents of energy companies within the United States, buying illegal crude oil at low prices to evade tax and reduce company costs.
If Mountain Eagle wants to do business with Venezuela's crude oil, he needs a big client, and there is no better target than companies in the United States' energy sector.
The high cost of domestic crude oil in the United States causes these companies not to have an easy time there.
Not all energy companies are giants like Mei Fu or Gulf Oil, there are many small to medium-sized refineries in the United States Midwest.
These small to medium-sized enterprises need to find a stable low-cost raw oil source to avoid acquisition during drastic oil price fluctuations.
If Mountain Eagle could let Venezuela's crude oil go through a round in Mexico, it would help them avoid the risk of being investigated by the United States Treasury.
As for how they subsequently utilize other means to reasonably incorporate the cheap crude oil into their books, that's their own business.
This is actually not difficult, because the quantity of crude oil imported by refineries is very hard to verify...
The unit price per barrel of oil in the transaction must be guaranteed to be close to the international oil price, but adjustments can be made in the quantity.
As long as Tiago can stand firm, with the level of corruption in the Mexican Government, these are small problems!
Mountain Eagle is at heart a businessman, and once his thinking opened up, he found that developing a proxy not only could deal a heavy blow to Sinaloa, but could further enhance his own trade route...
Both attacking the enemy and developing markets to make money, where else to find such a good thing?