Remanzo: El Gato

An irrigation farming province where Santa Blanca is packaging and hiding cocaine before shipping.

• Operation: Smuggling
• Chief: El Gato
• Ecosystem: Arid Mountains

This province is located in the mountain chain near the Altiplano. It’s a very dry and poor region. The principal resources are sheep breeding and potato cultures. The potato was the main food resource of indigenous people living on the Altiplano and the mountains. Remanzo benefitted from a national program that gave this province an irrigation network. It increased the farmable surface and peasants’ revenue.

The small town of Marcavi is the capital of the province; its activity is focused on potato farming. The small village of Poco is home to potters that specialized in the production of pottery for tourists.

The Santa Blanca has given El Gato the mission to package the cocaine in Remanzo before its shipment. This mission does not only consist of imposing the cartel brand or the destination of the drug on the cocaine bricks, but also hiding them in order to avoid possible controls.

El Gato took advantage of local resources. He convinced a boss of a company that produces quinoa boxes intended for export (QUCAM, Quinoa Cultivadores Asociación de Mojocoyo) to aid his cause. Each box, on the top of 500 grams of quinoa, benefits from a complement of cocaine.

Another company (Eléctro : bebida energética) that produces an energy drink to export to Brazil has an important portion of its bottles filled with liquid cocaine. The potters of Poco also work for the cartel. Their statuettes are filled with cocaine bags.

Finally, the clinic of Marcavi was also infiltrated by El Gato. A doctor of the cartel receives each week dozens of Bolivian “volunteers”. Each one has to swallow several kilos of cocaine. They are then sent to the airport of Barvechos, to fly to La Paz and then to Brazil.

El Gato has built a base near the quinoa factory near the new district at Marcavi to accommodate his men. The factory, the clinic, and potters receive cocaine from the stocks of Mojocoyo. These places are monitored by cartel men. The cocaine is packaged and shipped to Koani province.

Ricardo Godinez del Toro, aka El Gato (The Cat)

BORN: 09/02/1979 in Monterrey, Mexico

CARTEL POSITION: Manager of Packaging

Son of a famous plastic surgeon that worked for the stars and the narcos, he grew up surrounded by these people. He started to work for the Santa Blanca when he was 16 years old. A big buchon died from a complication in a surgery his father was performing, and they both knew the consequences. The cartel was going after his father, and the widow of the buchon wanted revenge. This meant torture and lots of pain before dying. So El Gato made a decision. He killed his father. One bullet in the head in the name of the cartel.

His nickname comes from his supposed numerous lives. El Gato has been wounded many times, many different ways. He has also been captured by police and enemies and he always comes out all right.