The Kings Of Cool

76

Yeah, they might try to slug it out with him.

In which case he’s dead.

More likely they’re just going to bolt

In which case most of them will make it

But it’s Worth the Risk.

Nailing Filipo Sanchez? Come on.

So Dennis charges down there in his Jeep like a movie cowboy on his horse. There’s no fence, no gate, because the narcos don’t want to call attention to the house and Dennis just drives right up, slams the brakes, and jumps out, badge in one hand, pistol in the other, and announces, “DEA! This is a raid! Nobody fucking move!”

Dennis has balls.

Three gunmen are just standing there, open-mouthed, staring at him, clearly trying to figure out what to do. And this is the moment when, if they were going to shoot him, they would.

In the Jerry Bruckheimer version they do just that-they whip out the weaponry and let fly, missing almost every shot while Dennis guns them all down and-hit in the shoulder-bursts into the house and has a shoot-out with Filipo.

Roll credits, sweep up the popcorn.

Except a multi-billion-dollar poly-drug cartel doesn’t get to be a multi-billion-dollar poly-drug cartel because they have a lot of stupid people working for them. And while this isn’t your typical DEA raid with the typical cast of characters, it’s still a DEA raid and these guys know that killing a federal agent on American soil — is going to cost a lot more money in the long run than is in the house

— subjects them to the needle instead of fifteen to thirty, and — even Filipo Sanchez is expendable.

That’s just the truth, that’s just life in the vida narco. Money is just money-they lose it all the time. Same with people-they go to jail, they come out-it’s the chance you take. That even applies to Filipo-royal family or no royal family-it happens and the family goes on.

So what happens is they do freeze, and Dennis strides right past them into the house, where Filipo Sanchez looks up from a folding table stacked with cash and looks mildly surprised. And calmly says, “There’s five hundred and fifty thousand dollars on this table for you if I go out that door.”