Speaker 1: They offered me to live for Venezuela. There were good
Speaker 1: relations there, there were people there, so they needed my
Speaker 1: help and hand again, so I did. I went to
Speaker 1: Venezuela and indeed the connections went to the highest levels
Speaker 1: there in Venezuela. Fernando blank Hills s s says that
Speaker 1: his longtime employers in Sinaloa, the executives of a massive
Speaker 1: multinational corporation, the contracts with thousands of people from all
Speaker 1: walks of life, including both elected and appointed, the government
Speaker 1: officials and states across the globe, brought him out of
Speaker 1: his semi retirement in England and sent him to Venezuela
Speaker 1: to oversee airshipping logistics for their company. Blank Hill says
Speaker 1: that his friends in Sinaloa successfully negotiated a lucrative business
Speaker 1: partnership with the Fox administration of Mexico and the javism
Speaker 1: and Station Minezuela to move industrial quantities of cocaine and
Speaker 1: other illicit commodities in Venezuela to Mexico. But before he
Speaker 1: could make his move, however, he'd need a new identity.
Speaker 1: Fernando Blankio Sisna had been compromised after the arrest and
Speaker 1: collaboration of his former business partner and kidnapper Steve so
Speaker 1: Blankio decided to make a trip to Vinda, Can and
Speaker 1: purchase a new identity. I had to plan that gives
Speaker 1: me peace of mind. In this case, I had to
Speaker 1: meet Can. I have good friends there Chavinda. I use
Speaker 1: it as a place of birth, and I produce a
Speaker 1: birth certificate. Well I asked for it, but an authentic one,
Speaker 1: a legally valid document. So I have a mnis Alfaro
Speaker 1: born in Charinda. Blankio refers to Tavinda as a tiny
Speaker 1: little town where the civil registry has not yet been digitized,
Speaker 1: and thus a place where he can oversee that his
Speaker 1: new birth certificate is properly deposited in the original files.
Speaker 1: I think he used the story of rural undocumented migrants
Speaker 1: dying tragically in the US to explain rules, lack of
Speaker 1: living relatives and his parents lack of documentation. I also
Speaker 1: gather an old register to vote and obtain his boting license,
Speaker 1: which is used as an official idea in Mexico. What's
Speaker 1: the story, Well, the story is that he's the son
Speaker 1: of undocommented immigrants who die on the side of the border.
Speaker 1: He becomes an orphan. The little learns, He learns to fly,
Speaker 1: he learns English, he learns everything there is to know
Speaker 1: about aviation. Thank you. Also purchased Roles pilot's license, his
Speaker 1: duly registered bank accounts, and set up his airplane business,
Speaker 1: first thing Lada and later in the coastal resort town
Speaker 1: of Watulco raoul Hi Minnsalfaro then began to make his
Speaker 1: first business trips. Setting up by business, I began to
Speaker 1: take my first trips to Venezuela to build relationships with
Speaker 1: the individuals could being recommended to me. They make my ablutions,
Speaker 1: study the area, the possibilities, and begin my first job.
Speaker 1: He says that he went to meet his Colombian suppliers
Speaker 1: and his Venezuelan business partners, whom he described as the
Speaker 1: national Guard, politicians, et cetera. His job was, he said,
Speaker 1: to check things out, organized and set everything up and
Speaker 1: get to work coordinating two weekly drug flights from mike
Speaker 1: Ata International Airport in Caracas to Toluca International Airport in Mexico.
Speaker 1: The first and you did a new plane. We am
Speaker 1: a link to c which is a plane that has
Speaker 1: the self sufficiency to make the Venezuela Mexico root without layovers.
Speaker 1: A Turbo brown and then they got to work. During
Speaker 1: his interviews with Fernando blank and Sisena, reporter Manuelarius asked
Speaker 1: him point blank, do you consider yourself a pilot or
Speaker 1: a drug trafficker? Blank You responded Plotoolo alas Alasia mentally
Speaker 1: transport vista belopo blansport Vista, which loosely translated me, I'm
Speaker 1: a professional pilot. I leave drug trafficking to the government fallacies.
Speaker 1: I am a cargo shipper, That's what I am. A
Speaker 1: cargo pilot. Man. You took Blankio's adam and self identification
Speaker 1: here as a transportista or cargo pilot as the title
Speaker 1: of the podcast that he and that the Diva produced,
Speaker 1: and there really is no doubt that Fernando blank Insig
Speaker 1: is in fact a transportista, a professional cargo pilot with
Speaker 1: decades of experience lying both lissit and illicit cargo. That said,
Speaker 1: Blankio wasn't just a pilot. During the next part of
Speaker 1: his story, In fact, blenk You himself supplies the testimony
Speaker 1: to his participation in what we might call his side hustles.
Speaker 1: My name somehow is still John Gibbler in this in
Speaker 1: a sense is Transportista episode eight Traffic. Once he was
Speaker 1: set up with a new plane, blank you, acting as Raoul,
Speaker 1: him and Selfaro started dabbling in both drug trafficking and
Speaker 1: human smuggling in Venezuela to Mexico. With that plane, I
Speaker 1: start to get a little mischievous, so to say the
Speaker 1: sparking Chinese people. I would get paid twelve thousand dollars
Speaker 1: per handing, and I would pay, if my memory serves me, well,
Speaker 1: four thousand per heading with everything fixed on the Mexican airport.
Speaker 1: He paid another one thousand five per person two authorities
Speaker 1: at the Venezuelan airport and thus, but not exactly precise math,
Speaker 1: he said, if I handless to get out, so at
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars of net profit were left for me,
Speaker 1: You've toast me six thousand and I kept six thousand.
Speaker 1: So it was a providable business. Right If link you
Speaker 1: paid twelve tho dollars per migrant, justify them from Venezuela
Speaker 1: to Mexico. Imagine what each person would have had to
Speaker 1: pay for their entire trip. This is, of course, assuming
Speaker 1: that these were in fact undocumented migrants and not victims
Speaker 1: of human trafficking, but that wasn't all that link you
Speaker 1: took on those flights, and the police knows. I would
Speaker 1: staff two hundred killos of drugs, which I discretely loaded,
Speaker 1: so to say, and when I arrived said to him Coom,
Speaker 1: I would end my international flight plan. They were happy
Speaker 1: with the undercommented immigrant business, and I would embark on
Speaker 1: a domestic flight from Cancuntaha to my hangers and calmly
Speaker 1: unload my two hundred kills which was extremely providable. Thank
Speaker 1: You says here that the two kilos were his. They,
Speaker 1: along with the human smuggling activities, were side hustles, it seems,
Speaker 1: and thus, in addition to being a transportista, it seems
Speaker 1: he was also a bit of a traffic county. According
Speaker 1: to his own telling, he was able to keep this
Speaker 1: up and profit handsomely for some three years, from two
Speaker 1: thousand three to two thousand six. Thank You described this
Speaker 1: time wistfully. By that time in Venezuela, I had control,
Speaker 1: so to say, with successfully completed severnal will do as
Speaker 1: in the lead. Yet I have both three of them
Speaker 1: at the time, even a Leerd threty six, the most
Speaker 1: capable one, which I used as a personal plane. I
Speaker 1: would come down with our own money stuffed up to
Speaker 1: ten million dollars in a secret compartment. The National Guard
Speaker 1: was our personal guard. We had all the comforts and
Speaker 1: conveniences we had the world other feet. We were working
Speaker 1: more than ever with unexpected conveniences in every sense of
Speaker 1: the world, both in Mexico and in Venezuela. We had
Speaker 1: projects in Nicaragua, business in Panama, our company in El Salvador,
Speaker 1: we were expanding. Those were at the best moments in
Speaker 1: their transport. For what he means, because he was the businessman,
Speaker 1: is final the throes of such fond nostalgia. Here, once
Speaker 1: again he refers to his relationships with women as if
Speaker 1: they were just one more luxury commodity available to him
Speaker 1: through his money and power. He says that after living
Speaker 1: in England with his wife, when he returned to his
Speaker 1: drug trafficking activities in Minezuela, inherent to them, he said,
Speaker 1: quote are the ladies in the quote. He then proceeds
Speaker 1: to brag about how literally quote barbarous end quote it
Speaker 1: was to be quote in the thick of so many
Speaker 1: Venezuelan and so many Colombian women in the quote. Here's
Speaker 1: what he said. Ms. Raina that is a graphico was
Speaker 1: in the area bush the Columbiana I will seeks see,
Speaker 1: visited the Manawa. I include this year because I think
Speaker 1: it is essential to notice how a lifelong mid level
Speaker 1: male participant in the business described so proudly systematic exploitation
Speaker 1: of women as an inherent feature of the global drug
Speaker 1: trafficking and drug war industries. Blinkio describes his happy memories
Speaker 1: of driving around Caracas in a luxury BMW with the
Speaker 1: Venezuela National Guard as his personal security detail, sporting collector's
Speaker 1: edition jeweled watches, and he says quote being with so
Speaker 1: many women. In the quote, he brags about being with
Speaker 1: Miss Venezuela and Miss Germany, all his wife and child
Speaker 1: wait for him in England. Miss Germany in fact plays
Speaker 1: a part and how he tells the story of the
Speaker 1: infamous Cocaine one I King of the World and a
Speaker 1: huge sucker. Fun was in the process of buying a
Speaker 1: Falcon fifty to flight didically to Germany and enjoy the
Speaker 1: World Cup with my friends. A Falcon fifty capable of
Speaker 1: crossing the Atlantic on direct flights was then valued at
Speaker 1: around fifteen million dollars blank, he says with business booming
Speaker 1: and feeling himself to be king of the world. Blink,
Speaker 1: you wanted to take a vacation, having a German girlfriend
Speaker 1: and miss Germany and the World Cup just around the corner.
Speaker 1: I decided to see his operagons starting February two thousand
Speaker 1: and six so that nothing could get in the way
Speaker 1: of my World Cup dream. So, in his own telling,
Speaker 1: blink he was getting everything ready to go on vacation
Speaker 1: in Germany for the two thousand six World Couple. Then
Speaker 1: one of his Colombian business partners, he says, started pasting
Speaker 1: him to make one more little trip for closing a show.
Speaker 1: One of the partners, Frank Negro col call me Chuki
Speaker 1: or insisted on doing abuilta. We have merchandise lying around ready,
Speaker 1: little Chuki U Luise Franco Candello, and Blaki refers to
Speaker 1: as El Negro Francs, a Colombian drive trafficker with whom
Speaker 1: Blas he says he worked during his self described golden
Speaker 1: years in Venezuela, that he was now in prison in
Speaker 1: the United States. Blinkio says that that you kept after him,
Speaker 1: so he keeps his assisting on talks me into it,
Speaker 1: and I decided to send that plane to go on
Speaker 1: with high tons. That plane, of course, is the DC
Speaker 1: nine busted and Campechy the worst mistake in my life
Speaker 1: not being faithful to my plans to the first choice,
Speaker 1: that was not doing anything until after the World Cup,
Speaker 1: and that's how we all ended up in the worst
Speaker 1: catastrophe in the history of my arial operations Next Time.
Speaker 1: Transportista is a detective at production with Exile Content Studio
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Radios Michael Tura podcast Network. Directed
Speaker 1: narrated by John Gibler, Transportista's voice by Jaquen Cosio, Editing
Speaker 1: and sound design by Ferdandeli La Rossa and Pedro Garcia.
Speaker 1: Reporting by John Gibler Emanuel Adios produced by Juliguans List
Speaker 1: voice recording by Ugo Merino and Rene Garcia. Transports interviews
Speaker 1: translated by Carla ries Arguys. Production supervision by Nanda Wila
Speaker 1: and Alder Roses. Associate producers Alonso Hilar and Alejandro Duran
Speaker 1: Diego and Driquez Orro is the creator and executive producer,
Speaker 1: along with Daniel Eilenberg and Eakley. Executive producers for I
Speaker 1: Heeart Media are Conald Byrne and just tell Bunces. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from My Heart, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.