The Evening News (12 page)

First he went to St. Catherine's House, at the junction of Kingsway and Aldwych, where births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales are
recorded There Miguel applied
for three birth certificates
.”
ose birth certificates? Those of anyone whose date of birth was the same
as, or close to, his own
.
Without speaking to anyone or being questioned, he picked up
five blank
birth certificate applications, then walked to where a series of large
volumes were on shelves, identified under various years. Miguel-chose 1951
.
The volumes were divided into quarters of the year. He selected M to R
,
October-December
.
His own birth date was November 14 that year. Leafing through pages, he
came across the name "Dudley Martin
”
who had been born in Keighley
,
Yorkshire, on November 13. The name seemed suitable; it was neither too
distinctive nor as obvi
ously common as Smith.
Perfecto! Miguel copied the details onto one of the red-printed application forms
.
Now he needed two other names. It was his intention to apply for three
passports; the second and third applications would be backups in case
anything went wrong with the
first. It was always possible that a current
passport had already been issued to the same Dudley Martin. In that case
a new one would be refused
He copied the remaining names onto two more
forms. Deliberately, he had
selected surnames whose initial letters were widely
spaced f
rom the "M
”
of Martin; one began with "B,
“
the other "Y
“
That was because, at the
Passport Office, different clerks handled different letter groups of
applications. The spread ensured that the three applications would be
dealt with by separate persons, so any similarity would not be noticed
At all
points Miguel was careful not to touch any of theforms on which he
wrote. That was why he had picked up five forms, the two outside ones
were to protect the others from his fingerprints and he would destroy
those later. He had learned since Berkeley that nothing could take away
fingerprints totally, not even careful wiping-new high-tech fingerprint
tests the Ninhydrin and ion-argon laser, would reveal them
.
Next was a short walk to a cashier's window. There he presented the three
applications, still managing not to touch any of those he would leave
.
A male cashier asked him for a fee of
five pounds for each certificate
,
which he paid in cash. He was told the birth certificates would be ready
in two days' time
.

During those intervening days he arranged to use three accommodation
addresses
.
From Kelly's London Business Directory he noted several secretarial
agencies to whose unembellished street addresses mail could be sent and
then collected Going to one of the agencies, he pa id a fee of
fifty pounds, again cash. He had a cover story ready -that he was starting a small
business but could not yet afford an office or secretary. As it turned
out, no questions were asked He repeated the process at two other
agencies which were equally incurious. He now had three separate
addresses for the trio of passport applications, none of them traceable
to himself
.
Then, making use of automatic photography machines, he
obtained three sets ofpassport photographs, each time varying his appearance. For one picture he applied a neat mustache and beard, in another he was clean-shaven and changed his hair parting, for the third he wore heavy, distinctive glasses
.
Next day he collected the three birth certificates from St. Catherine's
House. As before, no one was in the least interested as to why he wanted
them
.
He had already obtained passport applications from a post office, again
being careful not to touch them. Now, wearing disposable plastic gloves
,
he completed the forms.

On each, as the applicant's address he used one of
the accommodation addresses already arranged
.
Two photographs had to accompany each passport application. One photo was
required to have on it a s
tatement by a “P
rofessionally qualified person
,
“
such as a doctor, engineer or lawyer, identifying the applicant; also the
same person affirmed that he or she had known the applicant for at least
two years. Based on advice he had received, Miguel wrote and signed the
statements himself
, disguising his handwriting and using names and
addresses selected at random from a phone book. He had also bought a rubber
stamp set which he used to make the names and addresses more convincing
.
Despite a warning on the passport
form that checks of support signatories
were made, in fact they rarely were, and the chance of a false statement's
being discovered was extremely remote.

There were simply too many
applications and too small a staff
.
Finally, Miguel dealt with the three "identified
”
photos
those that had
writing on them and therefore would not appear in any of the passports he
was applying
for, but were destined
for Passport Office file
& Using a soft
sponge, he applied a weak solution of Domestos, a household bleach similar
to the North American product Clorox. This ensured that within two or three
months the photographs on file wouldfade and blur, and thus no picture
would exist of Miguel, alias Dudley Martin or the other names
.
Now Miguel mailed the three applications, each with a postal order for
fifteen pounds, knowing it would take at least four
weeks for the passports to be processed and sent back. It was a tedious wait but, for safety's sake, worthwhile
.

During this hiatus he mailed several letters to himself at the
accommodation addresses. In each instance, after waiting a day or two he
telephoned to inquire whether mail was there, and when the answer was
'y
es
”
stated that a messenger would make the collection. He then used
unknown youths
from the street
for the pickups, paying them a few pounds
and, before revealing himself afterward, watching carefully to ensure
that none was followed. It was Miguel's intention to collect the
passports when delivered, in the same way
.
All three passports arrived within a few days of each other during
the
fifth week and were collected without a hitch. When the third was in
his ha
nds, Miguel smiled to himself.
Excelente! He would use the Dudley
Martin passport now, retaining the other twoforfuture use
.

One final step remained-to buy a round trip ticket to the United States
.
Miguel did so that same day
.
Before 1988, all holders of British passports required a visa to enter
the U.S. Now a visa was not needed, provided the intended visit would not
exceed ninety days and the traveler possessed a return ticket. Though
Miguel had no intention of using his return portion and later would
destroy it, its cost was trifling compared with the risk of another sally
through bureaucracy. As to the ninety-day rule, it made no difference to
him either way. While he did not expect to stay that long in the U.S.
,
when he left it would be either secretly or with another identity, the
Dudley Martin passport having been discarded
America's rule change about visas had delighted Miguel. Once more those
convenient open systems were being helpful to his kind!
The next morning he flew to New York and, at John F Kennedy Airport, was
admitted without hindrance.

After reaching New York, Miguel went immediately to where a sizable
Colombian community lived in the borough of Queens and where a safe house
had been arranged by a Medellin cartel agent.

"Little Colombia
”
in Jackson Heights extended from Sixtyninth to
Eighty-ninth streets. A thriving narcotics center, it was one of New
York's most dangerous high-crime areas where violence was a hiccup and
murder commonplace. Uniformed police officers seldom ventured there
alone, and even in pairs did not move around on foot at night
.
The district's reputation did not bother Miguel at all; in fact, he
thought of it as protection while he began his planning, drew on money
made secretly available, and assembled the small force he would lead
.
That force's seven members, including Miguel, had been selected in
BogotA
.
Julio, at this moment on surveillance duty, and Socorro, the only woman
in the group, were Colombians who had been 4.sleeping agents
”
of
Medellin. Several years ago both were sent to the United States
,
ostensibly as immigrants, their only instructions to establish themselves
and wait until such time as their services were needed for drug-related
activity or some other criminal purpose. That time had now arrived
.
Julio was a communications specialist. Socorro, during her waiting
period, had trained and qualified as a nursing aide
.
Socorro had an additional affiliation. Through friends in Peru she had
become a sympathizer and part-time U.S. agent for the revolutionary
Sendero Luminoso. Among Latin Americans such crossovers between
politically motivated and profitmotivated crime were common and now
,
because of her dual connection, Socorro held a watching role also on
Sendero's behalf
.
Of the remaining four, three others were Colombians, who had been
assigned the code names Rafael, Luis and Carlos. Rafael was a mechanic
and general handyman. Luis had been chosen for his driving skills; he was
expert at eluding pursuit, especially from crime scenes. Carlos was
young, quick-witted and had organized the surveillance of the past four
weeks. All three spoke English fluently and had been in the U.S. several
times before. On this occasion they had come in unknown to each other and
using forged passports with false names. Their instructions were to make
themselves known to the same Medellin agent who arranged Miguel's safe house, after which they received orders directly from Miguel
.
The final member of the group was an American, his name for this
operation, Baudelio. Miguel mistrusted Baudelio totally, yet this man's
knowledge and skills were essential to the mission's chances of success.

Now, in Hackensack at the Colombian group's temporary operating center
,
thinking about the renegade American, Baudelio, Miguel felt a surge of
frustration. It compounded his anger with Julio for the careless lapse
into plain language during the telephoned report from outside the Sloane
house in Larchmont. Still holding the telephone, disciplining himself to
subdue personal feelings, Miguel considered his reply
.
The surveillance report had referred to a man aged about seventy-five
,
who arrived at the Sloane house a few minutes earlier with a suitcase he
had carried inside-in Julio's careless words, "like he plans to stay
.”

Before leaving Bogoti, Miguel had received extensive intelligence, not
all of which he had shared with the others under his command. Included
in this dossier was the fact that Crawford Sloane had a father who fitted
the description of the new arrival. Miguel reasoned: Well, if the old man
had joined his son, expecting to see him for a while, it constituted a
nuisance but nothing more. The father would almost certainly have to be
killed later that day, but that presented no problem
.
Depressing the telephone transmitter, Miguel ordered, "Take no action
about the blue package. Report new billing only
.”