Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty six, musician miguelan Qui Villavicencio was sitting
Speaker 1: with his friends at a restaurant in a small town
Speaker 1: in Anjapari, Bolivia's tropical region. At the time, this place
Speaker 1: was also an epicenter for cocaine production. The owner of
Speaker 1: the restaurant interrupts his conversation and tells miguelankle that someone
Speaker 1: at the door is looking for him. He gets up slowly.
Speaker 1: He starts walking toward the door, and the first bullet
Speaker 1: went through his jaw before he even hit the ground.
Speaker 1: The second bullet hit his spine. He lay stunned on
Speaker 1: the ground, and when he tried getting up, he noticed
Speaker 1: that his legs weren't responding. To make sure that he
Speaker 1: was dead, the gunman fired two more times.
Speaker 2: From Futromedia and PRX, It's Latino Usa, I'm Marieo Fosa,
Speaker 2: a Bolivian drug smuggler and his long road to redemption.
Speaker 2: Producer Andres Cabiro brings us the story of Bige lange
Speaker 2: Via Vicencio, whose dreams of becoming the next Juliueglesias turned
Speaker 2: into a personal battle for forgiveness and survival. Here's andres
Speaker 2: with our story. It first aired in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: His friends immediately threw him in the back of a
Speaker 1: pickup and rushed him through the jungle to the nearest hospital.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we hired an actor to translate
Speaker 1: Migilanko's words.
Speaker 3: Romo the Sangrado.
Speaker 4: The most likely scenario was bleeding to death on the
Speaker 4: way to the hospital. So when I realized that I
Speaker 4: was about to die, I decided to have a conversation
Speaker 4: with God. Imagine a drug smuggler speaking with God. But
Speaker 4: that's what happens. The way I saw it, drug smuggling
Speaker 4: was just the business. It wasn't a crime.
Speaker 3: Escamo trafic.
Speaker 1: And while he was bleeding to death, he managed to pray, money.
Speaker 5: Don't let me die. You have to.
Speaker 4: If you let me live, I promise I will dedicate
Speaker 4: what's left in my life to serving you.
Speaker 5: Forgive me.
Speaker 1: Three decades later, Miguelankl is certain that the reason he's
Speaker 1: even alive today is because of that prayer on the.
Speaker 5: Way to the hospital.
Speaker 1: He's convinced that that day God had mercy on him,
Speaker 1: but the damage from the bullets that ripped through his
Speaker 1: body left him without the use of his legs and
Speaker 1: in a wheelchair permanently. These days, he visits churches all
Speaker 1: over southern California, singing original songs about his spiritual awakening.
Speaker 1: Migulankolis sits in an suv worked in front of a
Speaker 1: church where he's often invited to sing. He's wearing a
Speaker 1: button up shirt and a dark blazer, and he's waiting
Speaker 1: for his son Louis to bring his wheelchair.
Speaker 6: In.
Speaker 1: The pastor greets him and takes him in front of
Speaker 1: a congregation of about one hundred. Mighelanka scoots his wheelchair
Speaker 1: up to the podium, puts on a pre recorded backing track,
Speaker 1: and begins to sing. This song is called I'm Not Dead.
Speaker 1: The lyrics talk about how God completely transformed him from
Speaker 1: his old sinful ways in the drug business, that before
Speaker 1: he was spiritually dead, but that now he's alive. When
Speaker 1: Miguelan Hill was growing up in Bolivia, before he got
Speaker 1: involved in the drug trade, he had always wanted to
Speaker 1: be a singer, but back then he wasn't interested in
Speaker 1: Christian music.
Speaker 3: The Joe Abbia Gusta.
Speaker 4: Ever since I was a kid, I've loved singing. I
Speaker 4: always dreamed of becoming.
Speaker 1: Famous Miguelankill was raised by his grandmother in LAPAs, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest cities in Bolivia. When he was seventeen,
Speaker 1: he started a band with his friends, and when that
Speaker 1: group dissolved, he auditioned solo at Restaurante Losculos, which was
Speaker 1: apparently the place to be for live music in LAPAs.
Speaker 1: His first time singing at Lossculos, he recalls the presenter
Speaker 1: going up on stage and saying, Mason estrada, ladies.
Speaker 4: And gentlemen, Tonight at Restaurants Esculos, a new Bolivian star
Speaker 4: is born.
Speaker 5: With you, Miguel.
Speaker 1: That night, Miguelankill took the stage wearing a flowered button
Speaker 1: down a dark blazer in Photus from the time. He
Speaker 1: has brown, wavy hair with sideburns that reached down to
Speaker 1: his lower jaw.
Speaker 5: And that night I sang Call.
Speaker 4: People started clapping halfway through the song, and in that moment,
Speaker 4: I knew that I would be a singer for the
Speaker 4: rest of my days.
Speaker 1: It's not hard to hear the roots of Migilanka's style.
Speaker 1: Sandro the Latin American loved songs from the eighties and
Speaker 1: nineties where a hair deeled Latin heart throw would work
Speaker 1: the stage with those central performances unbuton shirts and so on,
Speaker 1: and Migilanka starts doing really well as a singer. A
Speaker 1: few years later, his songs were being played on the radio,
Speaker 1: and then he even gets invited to the Francisco's saw Hiante,
Speaker 1: a legendary Saturday night variety show in Latin America, which
Speaker 1: was still based in Chile at the time. And even
Speaker 1: though migue Lankill was on his way to national stardom,
Speaker 1: Bolivia's music industry wasn't big enough to make him the
Speaker 1: international sensation that he wanted to become. For that, he
Speaker 1: needed to be in Mexico, Spain, the US and to
Speaker 1: go to these places and to market himself. He needed money,
Speaker 1: so he spoke to a friend whose family was in
Speaker 1: the drug business.
Speaker 4: By then, cocaine had become a thing in the US,
Speaker 4: so I came to the conclusion that if I got
Speaker 4: into drug trafficking, I could easily make a fortune.
Speaker 1: His friend introduced him to Bolivia's most powerful drug cartel,
Speaker 1: headed by Roberto Saris Gomez, also known as the Cocaine King.
Speaker 1: Swatis came from a family of cattle ranchers, but when
Speaker 1: the drug became popular in the US, he invested in
Speaker 1: coca plants and started producing cocaine. As consumer demand grew,
Speaker 1: tons of cocaine were being produced in Bolivia. Roberto eventually
Speaker 1: retired and handed control of the business to his nephew, Rocasuadres.
Speaker 1: Remember that name, because it's going to be important.
Speaker 4: Coombia and this man, Rge Rocasuadis became the main player
Speaker 4: and business partner of Escobars made yin Cartel.
Speaker 1: The coca leaf is everywhere in Bolivia. It's been used
Speaker 1: for thousands of years by the Aimata in Quechua for
Speaker 1: ceremonial purposes, and many people chew it daily to stay
Speaker 1: awake or to get an energy kick. It's also good
Speaker 1: for altitude sickness and to stay off hunger. At any
Speaker 1: market in the cities, you'll likely see giant bushels of
Speaker 1: coca leaves, and the countryside is filled with coca fields.
Speaker 1: It's also, of course, the key ingredient in cocaine. Bolivia
Speaker 1: quickly became one of the biggest suppliers of califs to
Speaker 1: Columbia's cocaine labs, as well as a major producer of
Speaker 1: cocaine itself. Migalankin remembers seeing the cocaine King's ranch for
Speaker 1: the first time.
Speaker 5: It was an incredible amount of drugs. I'd never seen
Speaker 5: anything like it, he said.
Speaker 1: The house was filled with piles of bags of cocaine base.
Speaker 1: Back then, the cartel would sell it to the Colombians
Speaker 1: for about nine thousand dollars per kilo. The Colombians would
Speaker 1: then smuggle it and sell it in the US for
Speaker 1: many times more. And so in the early eighties, Megelanki
Speaker 1: started off by helping transport the merchandise by land or
Speaker 1: by air, and later he became the guy who coordinated
Speaker 1: bribes to local officials.
Speaker 5: On people as an outsider.
Speaker 4: Going by what you see on TV, the perception is
Speaker 4: that smugglers are bad, violent men who are always talking
Speaker 4: about killing and so on Bolivia and Colombian drug traffickers,
Speaker 4: At least in those days, we're easy going guys who
Speaker 4: were nice to talk to.
Speaker 1: A few times Meguelankill came faith to face with Pablo.
Speaker 3: Escobar Puantas Vesisi Sario, and.
Speaker 4: Whenever he saw it necessary, he would get on one
Speaker 4: of his private jets and go check on his business
Speaker 4: associate in Bolivia.
Speaker 5: On three occasions, I arrived to the ranch and there
Speaker 5: he was. I would just say hi, shake his hands,
Speaker 5: and that was it.
Speaker 3: I see that he stands. Mister John demnos perrode none.
Speaker 2: Of us.
Speaker 1: To believe in smugglers. Escobar's business brought more than just
Speaker 1: enormous wealth. It also brought scrutiny from the US Drug
Speaker 1: Enforcement Agency or DEA. The DEA had been operating in
Speaker 1: Bolivia since the nineteen seventies, and they often worked with
Speaker 1: the government to crack down on illicit coca plantations and trade,
Speaker 1: but in the eighties and nineties, the u I started
Speaker 1: going after the cartels more aggressively. To do that, they
Speaker 1: had to work closely with local law enforcement, but sometimes
Speaker 1: the cartels were also working with the police Guando.
Speaker 4: When I arrived to work, there was already a special
Speaker 4: anti drug trafficking force called the Leopards.
Speaker 1: The Leopards were Bolivia's elite anti drug force, but they
Speaker 1: were also known to take bribes, so we.
Speaker 5: Started bribing the commander so that he would allow the drugs.
Speaker 1: One day, Trocasuadis, the drug lord, asked Migilankill to deliver
Speaker 1: a bribe to a commander. But according to Miguelankell, there
Speaker 1: was a misunderstanding with grave consequences. He says he never
Speaker 1: received the money to pay the commander off, so he
Speaker 1: never ended up going through with the bribe. When the
Speaker 1: police commander didn't get the money he was promised, he
Speaker 1: got angry and retaliated with arrests and.
Speaker 3: Academy.
Speaker 4: I never had a chance to communicate with Guess what
Speaker 4: is to tell him that I never received the money?
Speaker 4: He assumed I stole, and without thinking twice, he sent
Speaker 4: his own criminals to kill. They were criminals, but they
Speaker 4: were also my friends. But that's how the drug business works.
Speaker 4: You have no friends. You just have accomplices who at
Speaker 4: any moment will turn on you after a simple order from.
Speaker 3: The boss' contract.
Speaker 1: Which brings us back to the day at the roadside
Speaker 1: restaurant when a gunman walked in the door and fired
Speaker 1: at him. That day, a bullet had shattered his teeth
Speaker 1: and broken his jaw in two. While dying on the
Speaker 1: way to the hospital, the first question that came to
Speaker 1: his mind was.
Speaker 4: Why I was a man who was doing things right.
Speaker 4: I was an honest drug smuggler if the word honest
Speaker 4: even fits in this type of activity.
Speaker 1: Dentro demento Miguelankill made it to the hospital alive, but
Speaker 1: he woke up without the use of his legs. He
Speaker 1: was paralyzed from the waist down and he would have
Speaker 1: to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: Fearing that Rocasuarees would send more hitman to finish the job,
Speaker 1: Miguelankeell fled the country for several months. When he returned
Speaker 1: to Bolivia, he was a changed man. He had found
Speaker 1: God and now he was focused on two things. Number one,
Speaker 1: writing gospel songs with lyrics that talked about peace and love,
Speaker 1: and number two, fixing his wrongdoings and seeing if he
Speaker 1: could help the authorities bring down the cartel. So he
Speaker 1: decides to get in touch with Frank mccoliney, then the
Speaker 1: head of the DEA in Bolivia.
Speaker 3: Espanol concerto aso at I'm.
Speaker 4: Speaking with a Gringo accent. He tells me that I'm
Speaker 4: a criminal, So I replied, my dear friend, I was
Speaker 4: once a criminal, but I am no longer, and that's
Speaker 4: exactly why I want to work with you.
Speaker 1: After the exchange, Mighilankle agreed to provide information about cartel
Speaker 1: operations and to help build a case against strugg lords. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Megilanki would have to testify against them at a US court.
Speaker 1: In exchange, the DA would give him a cash salary,
Speaker 1: find him a home, a car, and eventually they would
Speaker 1: help him get situated in the US. According to Miguelankill,
Speaker 1: he and his family were offered to be put on
Speaker 1: the US government's Witness Security program, meaning they would be
Speaker 1: relocated to an unknown place with a new identity for
Speaker 1: their own safety. The offer, he says, was verbal, it
Speaker 1: was never put down on paper.
Speaker 4: It would help me find a job so I can
Speaker 4: work like everyone else, and then I would completely disappear.
Speaker 1: Once the DEA built a case against Rocasuadis, Mighilankill was
Speaker 1: asked to help find out his location and tip off
Speaker 1: the DEA with information on his whereabouts. Through his contacts
Speaker 1: in the drug world, Miguelankill managed to track down a
Speaker 1: flight that Rocasuadis would soon be boarding in Miami. He
Speaker 1: then trace his movements all the way to the nineteen
Speaker 1: bedroom mansion that he owned in Los Angeles.
Speaker 4: They arrested him, and that's when I had to immediately.
Speaker 5: Leave Oblivia.
Speaker 1: Migailankin recalls quickly packing things up getting into a car
Speaker 1: with his family and being escorted to the airport by
Speaker 1: four DEA agents Losno.
Speaker 4: One was less than five and the others round seven.
Speaker 4: They didn't really know what was happening.
Speaker 1: Luis, who is now in his thirties, was that five
Speaker 1: year old.
Speaker 6: I remember having to go from like one house to
Speaker 6: the the other with my dad and my brothers days
Speaker 6: before leaving Bolivia to come to the US. When you're
Speaker 6: that small, and you think that's how the world functions,
Speaker 6: and that's what I thought was normal.
Speaker 4: And when the plane took off, I could finally breathe
Speaker 4: peacefully because I knew that I was heading towards. But
Speaker 4: I didn't know was that once I helped him put
Speaker 4: this guy away, the DEA would eventually betray me.
Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino, USA, the DEA sends me and
Speaker 2: his family to the US, where he would testify against
Speaker 2: the drug lord Ros in exchange for a better, safer
Speaker 2: life with his family, or so he thought. Stay with us,
Speaker 2: not bays. Hey, we're back and we're going to continue
Speaker 2: now with the story of Migelanghill, the Bolivian drug smuggler
Speaker 2: turned religious singer. And when we left off, the DA
Speaker 2: had taken Mielanghill to the US to seek protection and
Speaker 2: to testify against his former boss, the drug lord Jorge Drocasuirez.
Speaker 2: Producer Andres Cavaliro picks up the story now.
Speaker 1: When Miguelankill and his family got to California in January
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety two, they started living in a hotel.
Speaker 6: There was always agents around. They were pretty fun too.
Speaker 1: Luis Milanka's youngest son, says that DEA agents would show
Speaker 1: up to give his dad surveillance equipment for monitoring drug
Speaker 1: activity along the US Mexico border. They would also bring
Speaker 1: big statues of cash for him.
Speaker 6: To my understanding, I was part of my dad's job,
Speaker 6: and I knew I couldn't say anything about anything. Our neighbors,
Speaker 6: the kids would like talk about their parents and what
Speaker 6: they did and stuff, and like I knew that I
Speaker 6: couldn't mention anything about what my dad did.
Speaker 1: The DEA finally got to my house while Miguelankill waited
Speaker 1: to testify against Prokasuadis. By then he had been passed
Speaker 1: on to another supervisor, which worried him because Frank, his
Speaker 1: original contact in Bolivia, had his back. This new guy,
Speaker 1: he didn't really get along with as much. By the
Speaker 1: end of the year, it was time for Miguelankill to
Speaker 1: finally testify against Jorge Ross, and there he was in
Speaker 1: the same courtroom, waiting for the hearing to begin.
Speaker 5: And let me off him.
Speaker 4: He looked me straight in the eyes, almost in disbelief
Speaker 4: that I was there testifying against him. Of course, there
Speaker 4: was the feeling of vengeance after someone orders he killed,
Speaker 4: but those feelings went away after I became a Christian,
Speaker 4: so in the end I just felt victory over him.
Speaker 5: It was an act of justice. The Hostisia.
Speaker 1: Miglankill didn't only talk about Rokasuaris. He also outed other
Speaker 1: drug dealers in Bolivia.
Speaker 3: Olivia frankament, if.
Speaker 4: I had to go back to Bolivia, I honestly don't
Speaker 4: know from which direction the bullet would come from.
Speaker 1: In part because of Mielanka's testimonys, was eventually sentenced to
Speaker 1: thirty five years in prison. In the eight months that followed,
Speaker 1: communication with the DA started to slow down. Mighielanka started
Speaker 1: to worry. They stopped responding to his calls his messages.
Speaker 1: He helped the DA catch the big fish and they
Speaker 1: disappeared on him. One day, two men showed up at
Speaker 1: his house to pick up the surveillance equipment. They also
Speaker 1: gave him the official notice that he no longer worked
Speaker 1: for the DEA. After several weeks, Mighelanki says, the DEA
Speaker 1: informed them that in the end, he would not be
Speaker 1: referred to the witness Protection program. Miguelankhill was floored. Not
Speaker 1: being placed in witness protection meant that after testifying for
Speaker 1: the DEA, he was now on his own. Not only
Speaker 1: would he have to hide out from the drug lords
Speaker 1: who wanted him dead, he also had to avoid being
Speaker 1: deported back to Bolivia because now that his job with
Speaker 1: the da was over, his permission to be in the
Speaker 1: United States would vanish as well. And it wasn't going
Speaker 1: to be easy. We called the DEA and they declined
Speaker 1: to comment on why Mighelankhill was discharged or about whether
Speaker 1: or not he was promised witness protection in the first place.
Speaker 1: The Witness Protection program is officially called WITSEC, and the
Speaker 1: way it works is the DEA refers candidates for the
Speaker 1: program to the US Department of Justice. It's the Attorney
Speaker 1: General's office that makes the final decision to approve it
Speaker 1: or not, so the DEA on their own doesn't have
Speaker 1: the power to guarantee that somebody will make it into
Speaker 1: the program. In two thousand and three, a professor at
Speaker 1: the University of Nebraska did a study looking at cases
Speaker 1: of foreign informants in the witness Security program. He found
Speaker 1: a number of instances of informants who said the DEA
Speaker 1: did not keep verbal promises to place them in the program.
Speaker 1: And because of the language of the Witness Security law,
Speaker 1: US agents can make promises to potential witnesses without any
Speaker 1: legal obligations to follow through. And even if agents aren't
Speaker 1: purposefully trying to deceive witnesses, given the complexity of the process,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of room for misunderstandings. Miglanka said he
Speaker 1: would have never worked with the Americans unless they offer
Speaker 1: for him and his family protection once it was all over,
Speaker 1: and even though he didn't have it in writing, he
Speaker 1: just went with it, trust him that in the end
Speaker 1: the DEA would take care of him. Frank, the former
Speaker 1: agent in Bolivia, is the only person who can verify
Speaker 1: Migilankil's claim that the DEA promised him witness protection. We
Speaker 1: try to contact Frank multiple times. We even try to
Speaker 1: relay a message through a family member, but he never
Speaker 1: got back to US. Now out of a job and
Speaker 1: without legal status in the US, Miguelankl had to figure
Speaker 1: out what to do next. He and his wife were
Speaker 1: already having marital problems, and they eventually split up. She
Speaker 1: took the older kids and he left with his youngest son, Luis,
Speaker 1: to Virginia.
Speaker 4: De kekomer I had to figure out how to start
Speaker 4: a new life.
Speaker 5: How was that going to eat?
Speaker 4: Me on a wheelchair being pushed by a seven year
Speaker 4: old child to help me get to the nearest food
Speaker 4: bank translating for me forget about it.
Speaker 1: Once Mighilankill used up all of his savings, he and
Speaker 1: Louise went on the lamb. They started sleeping in people's
Speaker 1: garages at churches. They eventually rented a room where they
Speaker 1: ended up staying more permanently. One afternoon, someone showed up
Speaker 1: at their door. Louise had just gotten home from school.
Speaker 1: He goes to the door and sees two men dressed
Speaker 1: up as plumbers.
Speaker 6: They knock on the door and I'm like hi, and
Speaker 6: they're like, oh, we're plumbers. The owner sent us, dude,
Speaker 6: I'm a kid. There's no way I'm letting you in
Speaker 6: my house because you said the owner said, even if
Speaker 6: the owner came, there's no way you're coming in, you know.
Speaker 6: So I was like till I'll be right back, you know.
Speaker 6: I locked the door. I go upstairs to my dad
Speaker 6: and I'm like, hey, plumbers are here, but my dad
Speaker 6: was like, yeah, let them in.
Speaker 1: According to Louise, the men look at his dad and
Speaker 1: ask him if his name was mighe lan xel Vievi
Speaker 1: sents you yea.
Speaker 5: I told him yes.
Speaker 1: They were I INS agents in disguise. Today they're known
Speaker 1: as Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE agents.
Speaker 5: We're here to detain you after getting work, that you
Speaker 5: are a dangerous criminal.
Speaker 6: And that's when my dad tells the agent, if you
Speaker 6: arrest me and you deport me, then they're going to
Speaker 6: kill me in my country for serving your nation. And
Speaker 6: that kind of shocked the agent a little.
Speaker 1: The officer asks if he had any proof of what
Speaker 1: he was saying. Megilankle brings his passport and he shows
Speaker 1: them the special visa that DA had issued years earlier
Speaker 1: when they brought him to the US.
Speaker 4: This isn't a regular visa, it's one that you get
Speaker 4: when you work for the government. The man looked at
Speaker 4: me and said, yes, that's what it looks like.
Speaker 1: Megilankin says that the immigration officers decided not to detain
Speaker 1: him that afternoon, but they said that he would have
Speaker 1: to fight his deportation in court. According to court documents,
Speaker 1: Megailankel was charged for being an alien who is not
Speaker 1: in possession of an entry document. The charges also stated
Speaker 1: that the government had reason to believe he had been
Speaker 1: an illicit trafficker or assisted illicit trafficking of a controlled substance.
Speaker 1: To Mighi Lanki, it looked like he was being double
Speaker 1: crossed by the DEA. They were the only ones who
Speaker 1: knew about his history in the drug trade. On the
Speaker 1: day of the hearing at immigration court, Mighi Lanka says
Speaker 1: that the government's attorney claimed to have spoken with the
Speaker 1: DEA about their relationship.
Speaker 6: With him, and.
Speaker 3: No loco, no semos.
Speaker 5: What did the agents say from the start, He never
Speaker 5: worked for us, We don't know him.
Speaker 6: And my dad and I were just like, what these
Speaker 6: agents that would go to my house they don't know him.
Speaker 6: In my head, I was you're kidding, right, this is
Speaker 6: a joke. No, he never worked for the DEA.
Speaker 1: Mighlankil then gives the judge a copy of a document
Speaker 1: he held onto an informal contract signed by he and
Speaker 1: the DEA for his work with them. The contract refers
Speaker 1: to him as a quote DEA cooperating individual, but the
Speaker 1: second line from the top reads quote I have no
Speaker 1: official status implied or otherwise as agent or employee of
Speaker 1: the DEA. This meant that he was with them, but
Speaker 1: that he wasn't really one of them. It was also
Speaker 1: the reason he was getting paid in cash. Eventually, Frank,
Speaker 1: now retired from the DEA, agreed to testify in Mighlankil's
Speaker 1: favor via telephone. We got a copy of Frank Saffa David,
Speaker 1: where he confirmed that Mighlankil helped the US capture Rocasuades
Speaker 1: and that his life would be in danger were he
Speaker 1: to be deported back to Bolivia. According to court documents,
Speaker 1: the government did not provide any evidence for the smuggling allegations,
Speaker 1: so the judge eventually dropped those charges, and years after
Speaker 1: the immigration charges were settled as well. It took four
Speaker 1: and a half years from the start of the case
Speaker 1: for the official ruling to come in the mail in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two.
Speaker 6: We were sitting outside on stairs when we got the mail.
Speaker 6: I opened this envelope and there it was, and I
Speaker 6: was a ruling in our favor, and that was it.
Speaker 6: That was over.
Speaker 1: Louise was also protected from deportation along with his dad.
Speaker 1: I asked Louise, looking back at everything that happened to them,
Speaker 1: if he felt that they had found justice.
Speaker 6: When the drug lord decided that he was going to
Speaker 6: end my dad's life, he didn't end it, Thank God
Speaker 6: for that. He just didn't know that he was condemning
Speaker 6: his children to live in a certain lifestyle. You determine
Speaker 6: how they're going to live for the rest of their lives,
Speaker 6: and I think that is not fair.
Speaker 1: On one end, there was Rocasuaires, the bad guy who
Speaker 1: tried to kill his dad but instead let him confine
Speaker 1: to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. And
Speaker 1: on the other end, there were the Dea, people who
Speaker 1: were supposed to be the good.
Speaker 6: Guys, a group of men that work to make things right,
Speaker 6: come into your life and they tell you we're going
Speaker 6: to make things right, and they paint you a picture
Speaker 6: of how they're going to fix everything as long as
Speaker 6: your dad works for them. And then at the end
Speaker 6: of the day they bail, Then what do you turn to?
Speaker 6: What do you look for?
Speaker 1: We should mention here that despite the murky nature of
Speaker 1: the world of drug smugglers and informants, we have been
Speaker 1: able to corroborate many of the elements of Megailanki's life story.
Speaker 1: We have court documents from his immigration trial, court transcripts
Speaker 1: of the case when he testified against Rokaswaidis, and then
Speaker 1: we found a ton of Bolivian newspaper articles ranging from
Speaker 1: the eighties unto the late nineties that confirm his accounts.
Speaker 1: It's hard to say how common stories like meghelankiins are.
Speaker 1: There aren't exactly a lot of hard numbers available on
Speaker 1: people who feel betrayed by the DEA, But we do
Speaker 1: know that US law enforcement and military so often rely
Speaker 1: on foreigners like Megaelankil to risk their lives in order
Speaker 1: to complete their missions. Think of the Iraqi and Afghan
Speaker 1: translators who work with the army, for example. These people
Speaker 1: are vulnerable. Often they have little to lose, and it's
Speaker 1: worth it for them to make a bet on the
Speaker 1: US government and hope everything works out for the best.
Speaker 1: For some, it does, others aren't as lucky, and if
Speaker 1: the US loses the trust of people like Miguelankil is
Speaker 1: going to be a lot harder to put people like
Speaker 1: Rogasus what is in prison. In two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: after more than three decades operating in Bolivia, prison Evo
Speaker 1: Morales gave the de eight three months to leave the country,
Speaker 1: accusing them of espionage and of fomenting violence.
Speaker 5: Territory.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Trocasuaitis was extradited from the US to Bolivia. In
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, mighlankly texted me a picture showing the former
Speaker 1: drug lord walking freely on the airport tarmac, wearing plain clothes,
Speaker 1: being escorted by three men.
Speaker 5: We'll see how much he suffered in prison.
Speaker 4: Soon he will be free, but I will still be
Speaker 4: on my wheelchair, suffering the consequences from being on a wheelchair.
Speaker 1: After arriving in Bolivia, Rocasuetis claimed to have health problems
Speaker 1: while in prison. Last month, soon after being relocated to
Speaker 1: a local hospital, trocaso Is escaped. The believing authorities are
Speaker 1: still looking for his whereabouts. One local newspaper released a
Speaker 1: video that allegedly showed now in his late sixties, peacefully
Speaker 1: eating at a restaurant in Santana Yakuma. Let's back in
Speaker 1: the California church where Mighelankil is invited to sing, he
Speaker 1: finishes up his last song. Afterwards, people from the congregation
Speaker 1: come up to him to take pictures with them or
Speaker 1: buy a copy of his CD.
Speaker 6: Yoh.
Speaker 1: Migilankill isn't afraid to confront the mistake he has made
Speaker 1: in his life. They come up again and again when
Speaker 1: he shares his testimony at church. Talking about those mistakes
Speaker 1: and repenting for them have given him a purpose. It's
Speaker 1: a a near death experience to inspire Mi Lankin to
Speaker 1: do what he thought was right and help the Dea.
Speaker 1: In turn, he put his faith in the Dea to
Speaker 1: do right by him, but he now realizes that he
Speaker 1: put that faith in the wrong place and that at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, the only one he can
Speaker 1: really trust is God alone.
Speaker 2: And here's a little update on the story you just heard.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, Rocas Souadrees began operating from Peru forming
Speaker 2: a new organization that Chipco came to the US. He
Speaker 2: was arrested in Lima in March of twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: and in March of twenty twenty four, he was extradited
Speaker 2: to the United States. This episode was produced by Andres
Speaker 2: Caballero and edited by Marlon Bishop. He was mixed by
Speaker 2: Stephanie Lebau. Special thanks to voice actor Raul Castillo, who
Speaker 2: you heard as Migue Langhill is known for his work
Speaker 2: in the TV series Seven Seconds and a Typical and
Speaker 2: the Sun Dance Award winning film with the Animals, Gracias Raoul.
Speaker 2: The Latino USA team includes Roxanna Guire, Julia Caruso, Felicia
Speaker 2: do Minuez, Fernando Charvari, Jessica Elis Victoria Strada, Dominique Inestrosa,
Speaker 2: Renaldo Leanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Brussado, Luis Luna, Marta Martinez,
Speaker 2: Monica Morales, Garcia, j j Carubin, Tasha Sandoval, Nursaudi and
Speaker 2: Nancy Trujillo Penilerami. It is Marlon Bishop, Marie Garcia myself
Speaker 2: are co executive producers and I'm your host Bydiannie Prossac.
Speaker 2: Join us again on our next episode. In the meantime,
Speaker 2: I'll see you on social media and remember not by
Speaker 2: yes By.
Speaker 7: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation,
Speaker 7: working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide,
Speaker 7: The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for more than fifty years,
Speaker 7: advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world
Speaker 7: at Hewlett dot org, and the John D. And Catherine T.
Speaker 7: MacArthur Foundation