Author's Note: This story is completely fictional and did not happen. All characters and names are fictional and were made up. I do not make money from these stories. Please do not copy and plagiarize my work.
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Miami, Florida
The morning hours had come through, washing away the darkness of another night deep within the downtown area of the city. Sitting across the river in town was a white painted large building, bearing the words 'Gold Coast Shipping Co.' in a block Art Deco font on the sign above the entrance doors. The parking lot in the back often contained the same cars. A sleek white Ferrari, sometimes another luxury vehicle but mostly the usual black and silver painted sedans. From the outside, the building easily blended in with the rest of the city as just another business in Miami. Behind the entrance doors and up the stairs to the first level told a completely different story, as this was the undercover headquarters of the Organized Crime Bureau division to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Vice was the simple one word term involving the organized crime branch of the city police. Beyond the front door entrance and up the stairs sat the personal offices divided across a large room. Off in the corner on the far east side of the room sat one desk belonging to detective Miguel Martinez. He had checked in to work earlier in the morning, now sitting down and sipping a cup of coffee while gazing down at various documents spread out across the surface of his desk. Directly across his desk was another belonging to his partner, Floyd Bates whom had not arrived at work yet. Martinez and Bates were the lead investigators of the Vice unit with Miami-Date. The undercover duo had made a name for themselves early on just three years prior when they led a major bust on a local drug baron.
Narcotics was the primary set of cases the two were often assigned to. Sometimes they worked alongside the robbery division, but those days had become rare in the past year. Drug related crimes often involving homicide cases and other connections of organized crime were what the OCB specialized in at their best. Martinez and Bates had been involved in a sting operation four months prior when they took down the local 'Diaz Brothers' as the media had referred to them. Carlos and Ramón Diaz made for easy prey with setting up a raid, but the situation had gone sour when Carlos escaped in a shoot out that left Ramón and other officers killed. The case had begun with a simple bait and switch for supply demand with new players in town.
Unknowing at the time that an investigation on the Diaz duo would open the doors to old cold cases in the past when furthering the investigation. After raiding Carlos' Fontainebleau hotel room, the detectives had something of a star witness in Vida Guerra. The woman made wild claims that she knew various details about the Diaz family and their old links to organized crime. A month later when Carlos Diaz was found shot to death in a Fort Lauderdale hotel room while on the run, Vida swore that she could point the detectives in the path of the killer. Steven Diaz had been her man, fingered as she pleaded that it was a revenge killing within the family. While one of the detectives felt it was a waste of time, with Carlos dead and a closed case, Miguel Martinez completely disagreed.
With no leads on the case, Miguel pulled files and began his own investigation within old databases and looking at crime reports. Vida had whispered into his ear that Steven Diaz was once a 'big time player' within the drug game and underworld of Miami, as she described. His brother Tony Diaz was a local Miami celebrity, but with no links to any organized crime. It seemed every link always came up with Steven in his bloody past. With some digging through time, Miguel had uncovered old cases from the past, dating back decades ago as he turned his eye to the father of Steven and Tony. Rafael Diaz had become a ghost lost in history. A legendary figure among the old cocaine cowboys of an era that had long past.
Miguel was fascinated to learn about Rafael Diaz. A Colombian immigrant who had settled in Miami during the 1970s and became a club mogul across town. At one point he had owned a chain of six different clubs, all financed with paid cash suspected to be from drug trafficking connected to other players who had once been players across town. Among the clubs included the crown jewel of the family name: Disco Fever. Rafael had links to the Medellín cartel, but seemed to have avoided detection from law enforcement throughout the entire decade of the eighties when he ruled his club empire. Rafael had married a woman back in his home country and then had two sons; Tony and Steven. His wife was killed in a car accident in 1989 that had left him severely injured from the driver's side.
Rafael's crime files were hit and miss for the most part, with two of his clubs getting shut down for drug raids and another that involved a murder case. He had been questioned multiple times by police, whom were often stonewalled behind his multiple lawyers at hand. Only once was he properly booked and faced charges for for battery and assault, but the case was dismissed. It had been long suspected by detectives from decades ago that he was involved in money laundering alongside a key partner who also had connections to the Medellín cartel. The nickname "Cowboy Neil" had been given to an American man hailing from Texas. Neil Richards was a convicted drug smuggler with a much longer record than Rafael Diaz. Widely suspected to be his partner in crime, the two had financed a club together as early as 1982.
Page after page of Rafael's rap sheets had documented an undercover investigation into what was believed back in the day to be an unnamed drug cartel operating in Miami. Previous detectives working alongside the DEA had given it the nickname of "Caro Organization" in reference to Frank Caro whom was widely suspected to the boss in charge. Caro was another prominent figure among suspects who had been known as the cocaine cowboys throughout the eighties. Rafael Diaz had many connections to Caro, but it seemed investigators believed he was a lower member of this cartel organization based on the family tree they had connected. As of current era, many of the names on the old diagram were either deceased or convicted long ago and that included Rafael Diaz. A heart attack had proven fatal to him in 1996, taking along with him all his life secrets to the grave.
The documents for the Caro Organization had extended over decade, nearly pushing into the new century. Records had contained so many pages, almost as thick as hardcover books. The investigation would continue after convictions for Frank Caro and a family member of his who had become a government witness. Neil Richards' name had come up in records of the Caro organization's first year ending in his death. After an arrest for smuggling charges, Richards was killed in county jail in what was widely believed to be an assassination. Rafael Diaz's name had come up many times through surveillance operations documented from the past. Photos had been captured across all of his nightclubs with members of cartel associating there.
Sometime in the nineties, Rafael had sold most of his clubs to corporate chains, keeping only one name registered under ownership. The more Miguel read into the old case files and noted history of the man, he attempted to piece a puzzle together in his mind and a few theories. It seemed that he had mentored his eldest son to take over the club business in the future. Tony had certainly learned after his father when it came to club management and avoiding his old man's mistakes in the past. The younger son on the other hand, may have been his pick for a protégé down the line in his life of crime. It didn't seem investigators of the past believed Rafael Diaz's earnings and finances to be of much importance. After the eighties, they had fingered him solely as a club manager. The 'middle man' involving dealers meeting up and giving them places to socialize.
After Frank Caro's conviction, his organization had shifted into a smaller set of organized crime activity. Still involving drug trafficking across state lines but also money laundering. The names had branched off into smaller sects, but from there Miguel had found evidence that Steven Diaz had long been suspected in the previous decade. It seemed Vida had told him something of truth, that he had his hands caught up in various criminal activity. Despite these findings, it still didn't make sense to Miguel that this man would murder his own cousin, but Vida swore they hated one another. Through the past two months, Miguel had constructed a case and pushed to his lieutenant in charge to further an investigation that had stalled cold. With Disco Fever re-opening and Steven out of town, Miguel turned all his attention to Tony.
Vida had proven herself more than useful for the past month apart from her hunger for sex. As she met with Tony and Jennifer on his yacht, Miguel had given her instructions. Armed with various tools, the detective gave her the details needed to properly bug rooms for audio surveillance. Doing so without permission from his lieutenant, Miguel was certain that the bugs would record some conversations that would give whereabouts for Steven Diaz's location. Vida had managed to plant over twenty bugs aboard the yacht; wiring the bedroom, office, main cabin and another in a separate room. Before their lustful threesome together, Jennifer had caught Vida wandering the yacht, but she had convinced the other woman that she had become lost among the halls.
For two solid weeks, Miguel had another detective in charge of surveillance monitor the audio recordings on the bugs while they had batteries for them. Matt was a trustable guy for him when it came to under the table operations without the backing of their lieutenant. They had captured hundreds of hours of audio, some of it in poor quality and others capturing clear conversations. One of the bugs in the office was powerful enough to capture the receiving end of his telephone, tapping the back and forth chats. The bedroom bugs had caught audio of passionate love making between Tony and his famed girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. It wasn't hard for Miguel to picture Matt in his head, sitting with headphones on and sweating it out while listening to moans and various noises of sex. So far nothing had come up of suspicious activity. No recorded audio detailing crime or any discussions relating to Steven.
Only one piece of recording had come up with any possibility whatsoever to link Tony to someone involved in criminal activity. A discussion had unfolded one evening between Tony and Jennifer where she spoken the name Dimitri Belov aloud. The Russian real estate mogul currently had an active case in Vice for fraud and money laundering charges. Jennifer had said she received an invitation to another party of his, but Tony was heard clearly shooting down the idea of attending another event at the Belov estate. This was still some kind of evidence to go by, at least in Miguel's mind. At this point he had become obsessed chasing for any kind of lead to justify his extensive investigation. One way or another, he was going to take down a Diaz man for murder charges relating to Carlos or else find something.
