Noriega was sentenced in July. By September, Bolo was back in Panama. Téo, true to his word, was not accessible for business concerns. I was the man in charge. To a degree, at least. Substantial behind-the-scenes meddling was still a factor- Bolo couldn’t control himself on that front.
From what I could gather, Bolo had found great success upon his return- mid-point shipping operation was facing a boon market, politicians were clamoring for start-up capital and he was also keeping himself busy scooping up vast swathes of undeveloped land with an eye to entering the luxury real estate market.
But even with all of that activity, Bolo still found time to request thrice-weekly check-ins - supply, sales and outstanding red flags were high priority items on our permanent agenda. I was willing to indulge him for the time being- I needed him as comfortable as possible before I implemented any updates to our backend fulfillment process and it gave me the time to pick his brain about the situation in Panama and how it might affect our New York operations. Fairly quickly, it became obvious to both of us that I’d need to make regular trips out to Bolo’s, so we could sit down and conduct face to face strategy and planning.
The remainder of that year was spent solidifying these plans and making sure every link between the shipping point in Panama City and all distribution endpoints across the tri-state area were secure.
Tight, tight security for your assurity.
My inaugural visit to Panama City was planned for the first week of January 1993. Bolo sent me a first-class ticket on American Airlines. I was interested in seeing what was waiting for me out there. It was the first time in my life I was being sent for on my own terms, and not just shuttled around as if I were an inconvenience needing management.
