The Torres brothers, towering [[Nicaragua|Nicaraguan]] men known to [[Ricky Ross]] and his crew as "the Greens", were initially introduced to Ross through [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]. Ross assumed from their size that they were Blandón's bodyguards. They also delivered cocaine and picked up money for Blandón on occasion. One day, as most of Blandón's assistants eventually did, they slipped Ross their phone number in case he ever needed something extra.[^1] Jacinto Torres, the most prominent of the brothers, lived with his wife Margarita until they quarreled and he moved out, renting a room at his friend Robert Joseph Andreas's new four-bedroom house in Burbank.[^1] ### Becoming Independent Suppliers When Danilo Blandón became increasingly unreliable, drinking heavily and reluctant to leave his home in Rialto, Ross decided to diversify his supply chain. Since Blandón trusted the Greens enough to employ them, Ross reasoned that was a good recommendation, and one particularly busy day he called the brothers to discuss business. Their prices were comparable to Blandón's.[^1] Ross used the Torres brothers to whipsaw Blandón on prices, telling each supplier that the other was offering lower prices. Blandón acknowledged that Ross began obtaining cocaine from "another two suppliers...they were my friends...He got the coke from me, from Torres, from - see, not only from me. I got a piece of the apple."[^1] ### Burbank Arrest On April 6, 1984, shortly before 9:00 P.M., Burbank narcotics detectives acting on an anonymous tip raided Andreas's house. They found Nicaraguan women in the kitchen and Jacinto Torres on his bed. In his dresser police discovered a half-ounce of cocaine, a .38-caliber pistol, $3,700 in cash, and "large men's clothing." Torres and Andreas were arrested.[^1] Unaware that the police cruiser was equipped with a secret taping system, Torres and Andreas cursed their predicament in Spanish. Torres said: "Stupid. My money, my ledger, my clients, all the names. They are going to find a house I have got rented and if they get there, the whores, I don't want to think about it." Torres suspected Ross had tipped off police: "Rick is the one who fingered us." Andreas replied: "No, I have known him for a long time." Torres responded: "They came looking for him. Don't say nothing."[^1] During the preliminary hearing, a peculiar exchange occurred regarding a search of Torres's Mercedes Benz. When asked if he found contraband, Burbank police officer James Bonar answered: "No contraband. Just some property of the United States Customs. No contraband." The judge struck the answer. What [[U.S. Customs]] property was found remains unknown, as all police files from the case were later destroyed.[^1] Torres pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of cocaine possession four months later and was fined $500 with no jail time. His probation officer was displeased, calling him "that big guy who always comes in here in short pants" and telling Torres's attorney: "You know your client's guilty. All we want is for him to serve some time. . .. This guy was a troublemaker as far back as 1970." Despite violating probation several times, no action was ever taken against Torres.[^1] ### Rivalry with Blandón The competition for Ross's business turned the longtime friends into bitter rivals. Ross eventually turned Blandón and the Torres brothers against each other, a situation that would have dire consequences for Blandón in later years.[^1] One night, while Ross was twitting a drunken Blandón about how low the brothers' cocaine prices had fallen, Blandón announced that "[[Chepita Blandon|Chepita]] was fucking one of them" and said he wanted to even things up. Blandón suggested Ross set up a cocaine buy with the adulterous brother at a designated location where Blandón would have men waiting to kill him. Ross laughed off the idea, figuring it was the liquor talking.[^1] The brothers confirmed the story and took it further. In an interview with police, they explained that Blandón's wife had told him about the affair in a fit of anger. Blandón became enraged and hired a former military officer of the Nicaraguan army to carry out the killing, but "apparently realized his wife had lied to him about the affair and called off the hit man."[^1] ### Volume and Scale Blandón estimated the Torres brothers' volume rose to a level comparable to his own. "If I sell a week to him, a hundred, maybe they go buy 50 or something like that. If I didn't sell him 100, they will sell him like, like 100 to him, you know? It was all the competition." The brothers admitted to police they were selling "large amounts of cocaine to Ross on some occasions."[^1] If Ross was moving 150 kilos per week, Blandón and the Torres brothers were sometimes sharing approximately $5.7 million weekly from Ross alone.[^1] ### Flipped by Law Enforcement In summer 1986, IRS and U.S. Customs agents tracking suspicious bank transactions identified the Torres brothers, who had over $1 million in bank accounts with no visible means of support. Bell PD detective [[Jerry Guzzetta]] conducted surveillance and on August 11, 1986, the team raided them, finding $400,000 in a closet but no drugs. Guzzetta and federal agents flipped the brothers by threatening to prosecute their live-in girlfriends, who were close relatives of [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín cartel]] boss Pablo Escobar. [[Norwin Meneses]] later confirmed the relationship.[^2] The brothers pleaded guilty under false names, received suspended sentences, and became confidential informants. During debriefings beginning August 22, 1986, they revealed the full scope of the operation: they had "admitted laundering approximately $100 million since Jan. 1986" and had "approximately 1,000 kilos of cocaine currently stored in the Los Angeles area as well as between $250,000,000 and $500,000,000 secreted in various locations locally." They identified Blandón as extremely dangerous because of "his access to information" about law enforcement activity and warned about Contra-connected airfields in [[New Orleans]] and Brownsville, Texas. Their information became the basis for Jerry Guzzetta's "Project Sahara" reports and was turned over to the [[LASD Major Violators]] squad.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it" [^2]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 14: "It's bigger than I can handle"