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    Politics Money and Drugs
    Politics Money and Drugs
    Politics Money and Drugs
    Ebook232 pages3 hours

    Politics Money and Drugs

    By Jerry Sokolosky

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    “Politics Money and Drugs,” hooks the reader through its rich development of characters and plot twists.
    The story revolves around Al Moreno, a U.S. Senator from New Mexico. Moreno and his beautiful wife, Angie, are popular in their home state where they’re known as philanthropists who give generously to good causes. In fact, Al financed his own campaign. While Angie runs the couple’s successful corporation in Santa Fe, Al has made a name for himself in DC. But when Brady Calrton, Al’s Chief of Staff, starts snooping into their background, he finds little information. Who are the Morenos and where did they come from?
    Also on the Washington scene is Congressman Randy Taubman from Texas, a former drug force officer who witnessed drug corruption first-hand in Houston. Taubman believes America has lost the war on drugs, leaving jails and prisons full of drug offenders and addicts. He’s proposed a constitutional amendment to legalize drugs in the United States. After three days of floor debate, eloquently argued by Taub, the resolution passes.
    As the amendment heads to the Senate, Moreno begins spending millions of his own money to defeat it, and calling in favors from his old friend Tony Amato.
    As you come to know the two Washington politicians, Sokolosky introduces another character, Frankie Sanchez, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration working in Bogota, Columbia. Just as the reader begins to wonder where the story is headed, Sokolosky begins putting the pieces together.
    Interspersed throughout the book is information on government civics, drug trafficking and politics.
    Whether you’re for or against the legalization of drugs, this book is a must read. Sokolosky has done his research and drawn on his experiences as an attorney and former member of the House of Representatives to pen a novel worth reading.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJerry Sokolosky
    Release dateDec 3, 2011
    ISBN9781452405568
    Politics Money and Drugs
    Author

    Jerry Sokolosky

    Sokolosky has practiced law in Oklahoma City since 1962 and is a former Member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He is a former State Chairman of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve on a Judicial Selection Committee. He serves as a Municipal Attorney, Prosecutor, Hearing Examiner and is General Counsel for a health insurance Trust.

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      Book preview

      Politics Money and Drugs - Jerry Sokolosky

      POLITICS MONEY AND DRUGS

      The Clerk Will Call the Roll

      A Novel By

      Jerry D. Sokolosky

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      My thanks and appreciation to my proficient Editor, Jennifer Gilliland. And a special thanks to Eddie Jackson, Jamie Garrett, Jim Bowles, David Kisner, Amanda Bittle, Ben Blackstock, Marsha Strong and Jarrod Lucero for their help and encouragement.

      This is a work of fiction. The events and characters depicted and described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific persons, living or dead. The opinions expressed are solely the opinions of the author. The author represents and warrants full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in the book. This work is copyrighted under Federal Law.

      www.PoliticsMoneyandDrugs.com

      Politics Money and Drugs

      The Clerk Will Call the Roll

      Jerry D. Sokolosky

      Copyright 2010 by Jerry D. Sokolosky

      Smashwords Edition

      ISBN 978-1-4507-5550-4

      Published by Jerry D. Sokolosky, Oklahoma City, OK

      Library of Congress Control Number 2010919569

      Graphic design of front and back covers by MLS Communications, Inc., Guymon, OK

      www.PoliticsMoneyandDrugs.com

      Chapter One

      United States Senator Al Moreno was on the phone in his office in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. with Senator Jim McCaffrey from Ohio. Brady Carlton, Moreno’s Chief of Staff , entered the office after knocking lightly on the sill of the partly open door.

      Tony Amato is on line two and wants to talk to you, Carlton said.

      Tell him I’m on the phone with Jim McCaffrey about that Medicaid bill and I’ll call him on my cell like I always do, said Moreno.

      "I told him that but he said he wanted to talk to you now and if I didn’t get you on the phone immediately he was going to come up here and stick a phone up my butt."

      Sounds like Tony… okay. Moreno promised to call Senator McCaffrey back and picked up line two. What’s up Tony?

      You know god-damn good and well what’s up. It’s that fucking drug bill. You told me it would never pass the House, said Tony.

      Hey, hey, watch your language. You know I record my phone calls, Moreno said.

      "I don’t care if you record Lindsay Lohan taking a shower. You’ve got to kill that bill or we’re out of business. And if you can’t kill it, you’ve got to get your President to veto it," Tony responded.

      "First of all, it’s not a bill. It’s a joint resolution calling for a constitutional amendment. The President can’t veto it. And secondly, he’s not my President."

      Well he damn well should be. He’s a Republican and we gave him a shit load of money and raised another five million for him.

      Now Tony, you know that’s peanuts in a presidential campaign. The two million we gave him and the five we raised for him won’t even get us an invitation to a state dinner. Didn’t you get a Christmas card from him?

      Yeah, but I had it checked and it was signed by a machine. For seven million the son of a bitch wouldn’t even take the time to personally sign a lousy Christmas card. By the way, why in the hell were you out of town when the fu... damn bill passed the House?

      Angie told me that she was working too hard and hadn’t seen me in a month and that if I didn’t take her to the south of France for two weeks for the Cannes Film Festival, she was going to divorce me. She’s been reading the papers and has the idea that all politicians have girlfriends and she’s beginning to wonder about me.

      Yeah, but what she doesn’t know can’t hurt us. On second thought, it can. You need to be very careful up there and on your tax-paid junkets, or ‘fact finding missions’ as you bastards like to call them. Now, what about the bill, can you kill it?

      I’m doing everything I can.

      You better. You know the consequences, Tony said and then hung up abruptly.

      United States Senator Alphonso Al Moreno was a Republican from New Mexico. He was serving the second year of his second six year term. He was about six feet tall, with very black, obviously dyed, hair with sideburns graying appropriately. Ruddy complexion, which was attributed to his Hispanic heritage. Middle aged, but with a remarkable physique. He worked out in the Senate gym religiously on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Friday through Sunday evenings he often spent in his state doing constituent business with his senate staffs in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Rio Rancho, which were the population centers.

      An informal poll by Senate Monthly, taken of the female staffers in the Senate, determined Moreno to be one of the ten most handsome senators.

      His four state offices, staffed with very competent personnel, were provided by the government. Brady Carlton saw to that. He researched each new hire carefully and interviewed them personally. Their politics didn’t matter but their research, writing and communication skills did. The staff was very familiar with veterans’ affairs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid rules and regulations. They also had contacts in almost all of the government agencies. In solving a problem for a constituent knowing the first name of a faceless agency bureaucrat deep in the bowels of Washington usually got immediate results, even if it was unfavorable.

      Carlton was often quoted as saying: It doesn’t matter how my senator votes up here. It’s whether he can solve a problem for a constituent in a local office. That’s where the rubber meets the road. If you help a voter with a request – or at least try very hard to do so – he or she never forgets it, and they tell everyone what the senator did for them personally. Ignore a request and they never forget that either.

      Carlton prided himself in making sure voter requests were handled timely and properly. Each office manager was required to list when the request was received and when the results were obtained. A longer than two weeks response was not acceptable. Even with his office in D.C., Carlton traveled the state much more than the Senator.

      It was common knowledge that besides serving in the Senate, Moreno was the majority owner of Del Gado Incorporated, a privately held corporation based in Santa Fe. Del Gado originated, maintained and operated 92 Del Gado restaurants and 112 SmartShop convenience stores in the seven states surrounding New Mexico. The restaurants and convenience stores were known in their respective industries as high cash flow and maximum profits, if properly managed. Moreno often said that he and Angie, his wife, started the company with $30,000 cash and a lot of guts. He often stated publicly that if he knew then what he knows now, they would never have started the company.

      Since being elected to the Senate, Moreno always maintained that Angie runs the show, and I only advise her.

      Over the years Angie had received much recognition as a female entrepreneur and was often called upon for speaking engagements to industry managers in both the restaurant and convenience store businesses. She was known for her expertise in choosing locations, increasing cash flow and hands-on management. She attributed the success of the Del Gado restaurants to ample parking, good food and excellent service at an affordable price. The success of the SmartShops was attributed to location, location, location and the computer program developed early on by Al Moreno for being an absentee owner. If the gross sales less the cost of goods sold and operating costs did not produce a 37 percent profit, someone was stealing.

      Every restaurant and convenience store was equipped with a transmitting satellite dish received by the company dishes on the company building in Santa Fe. Every time a hamburger or toothbrush was sold, the transaction was transmitted within three minutes to Santa Fe. The main office computers then removed the item from inventory, determined if it was a cash or credit card sale, analyzed the profit and placed the item on a Replenish Inventory list that was transmitted to the Del Gado Distribution Center in Dallas. At the appropriate time Del Gado trucks would distribute the needed inventory to the seven states.

      Al Moreno readily admitted that he stole the idea from Wal-Mart and Target and hired some young computer nerds to write the program.

      The most recent annual United States Senate Financial Disclosure Report showed Moreno to be the eighth richest member of Congress. He often said to political reporters: Those other guys inherited family money. I made mine the hard way.

      The report indicated that after deducting a $25 million contingent liability to Allied National Bank, Moreno had net assets of $451 million. He listed $92 million in cash and CDs, $112 million in Publicly Traded Assets (stocks and mutual funds that were detailed), $260 million in Non-Publicly Traded Assets (listed as 60 percent of the outstanding shares of Del Gado Incorporated), and $12 million in personal assets including his $525,000 home in the outskirts of Santa Fe, three luxury cars, a Cessna Citation II jet airplane and various real estate holdings in three states.

      When asked by a Senate Quarterly reporter why he had a contingent liability to Allied National Bank, Moreno explained, That’s a line of credit Del Gado has with the bank to provide real estate and construction loans to build new restaurants and convenience stores. If the bank does not think the new location will properly cash flow or make enough profit to repay the construction loan, they ask me to personally guarantee the loan. I’ve only been asked to do that 12 times, mostly early on. The new locations have always been successful with good cash flow. Every loan has been re-paid, usually early. If a location won’t cash flow, we don’t open it.

      In the income portion of the annual report, the senator listed his income as $24.5 million. His Senate salary of $174,000 was donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs of New Mexico. The $326,000 he received from real estate investments was donated equally to the New Mexico Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the New Mexico Fraternal Order of Police. Every law enforcement officer in New Mexico felt a personal connection with Moreno.

      He further listed $1.3 million in interest received and $22.7 million in qualified and non-qualified dividends from his 60 percent ownership of the outstanding common stock in Del Gado Incorporated. No one knew who owned the other 40 percent. Most assumed that his wife did. Others conjectured that it was divided between his wife and three children. A New Mexico reporter once tried to find the documentation but learned that since Del Gado was a privately held corporation, the information was not available. The tax return would show to whom dividend distributions were made, but of course the returns were not public record. Del Gado had been sued a few times but the cases were either dismissed or settled quickly and quietly.

      On the Financial Disclosure Report the highest reporting category was Over $50 Million. Strangely, Moreno always listed his net worth in actual figures, even though it was well over the required disclosure amount. Other senators often said that this was just a subtle way to flaunt his wealth.

      The records at the Federal Aviation Agency in Oklahoma City showed that the Cessna Citation II, model 550, was purchased new by Southwestern Bell and then sold to Del Gado Incorporated. The tail number was then changed to N677DGI. Later it was transferred to Alphonso Moreno, an individual.

      The Citation seats five passengers comfortably with two pilots. It cruises at 464 miles per hour and as high as 43,000 feet and is pressurized, allowing it to fly well above any weather. It is certified for only one pilot, but Moreno directed that there should always be two qualified pilots on board as a safety factor.

      The drive from Washington to Santa Fe was 28 hours. This was not an option. A commercial flight including driving to the airport, clearing security, changing planes in Dallas and taking a small prop jet to Santa Fe, took the most of a day; same for the return. Moreno could leave Washington early in the morning in the Citation, conduct business for Del Gado, make a speech or check on his local offices and be back in Washington late that evening.

      He also used the plane extensively to lobby and ingratiate himself with other influential senators. If a senator had an unexpected death of a family member or a supporter, Moreno would have the pilot fly them home and return the same day. He made it a point to fly committee chairmen of the committees in which he had an interest. Every year he would fly at least 10 key committee chairmen and ranking members to the Annual Quail Hunt in Enid, Oklahoma. Ethics rules required the passengers to reimburse Moreno at the commercial coach rate, which they did for the record, but Moreno would always quietly give back the money in cash. No one knew, but no one really cared.

      After finding a Twin Comanche too slow and small, Del Gado purchased the Citation to scout new restaurant and convenience store locations and fly management executives around existing locations in the various states. They could handle problems and always be home at night. This was very important in recruiting and keeping top management talent. The plane was very useful in establishing and maintaining the satellite reporting system. In the beginning, there were many problems which had to be corrected immediately.

      After being elected to the Senate, Moreno used the plane as if it were his own. To and from Santa Fe, vacation trips to Mexico and Canada and favors for key congressmen and their staffs.

      Two years into his first term, the Chairman of the Ethics Committee counseled him that he could not fly in a corporate plane without reporting each trip and reimbursing the corporation with proof of payments, including cancelled checks, if a complaint was filed. He was also required to state the nature of the trip, the destination and reason for the trip. The corporation also was required to keep specific logs of the trips. Moreno argued that he owned the company that owned the plane and it was no one’s business where he went. The chairman wasn’t impressed and indicated a complaint would be forthcoming.

      Moreno gave in and registered the plane in his name personally. The plane was usually based in Santa Fe so the company could use it for its business. The pilot was a full-time employee of Del Gado. When the pilot flew for the Senator, he took leave from the company and Moreno paid him in cash.

      Moreno was a licensed private pilot and was type rated in the Citation. He was legal to fly the plane solo in good weather. He never did. There was a reason.

      Early in the building of Del Gado, Moreno decided that it would be a lot easier if he could fly to find new locations and take care of the business more efficiently. He studied for, and easily passed, the FAA Private Pilot’s Test and took his actual flying lessons in a Cessna 175 owned by a Fixed Base Operator at the Santa Fe airport. The Cessna was a high wing, tricycle fixed gear, six cylinder aircraft with a cruise speed of 110 miles per hour and a never exceed speed of 160. It had a very good safety record and was fairly easy to land with a ground speed of only 62 miles per hour.

      Moreno took his check ride with a FAA designated examiner who complimented him on the check ride and issued him his Private Pilot’s License. Moreno bragged to his wife that he was the best pilot in New Mexico, but she still refused to fly with him.

      After flying the Cessna a few more hours, Moreno decided it was time to buy an airplane for the company. He read an ad in Trade a Plane for a Mooney Mark 21. It was a four passenger, retractable gear smaller plane with a cruise speed of 180 miles per hour. That was perfect. The plane was located in Tucumcari, only about 160 miles from Santa Fe. He also had an employee problem in Tucumcari so he could see the plane and handle the problem the next day.

      After arriving at the airport, he called weather. The briefer advised him Ceiling and visibility unlimited, wind 20 from 330 degrees, winds aloft about the same, scattered thunder showers with lowering ceilings in eastern New Mexico late this afternoon. No problem, he’d be back before then.

      He had a rental agreement with the flight school for the Cessna, which he was very familiar with by now. He started the engine and called Ground Control.

      Ground Control this is Cessna 45537 Papa for taxi instructions.

      Cessna 45537 Papa taxi to runway 33 and hold short.

      Roger, Cessna 45537 Papa.

      As he was taxiing to the runway he smiled as he remembered some of the stories he heard during his flight lessons from the older pilots drinking coffee every morning in the hangar. Hangar flying, they called it.

      Ground Control advised the student pilot that as he approached taxiway 12, bear to the right. Roger, he replied. I have it in sight.

      "Every landing you can walk away from, is a

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