MEMOIRS OF A DRUG LORD (PART 1)

I was awoken by the loud music coming off my neighbour’s speakers, barking of dogs and the loud chatter of some idiots gossiping outside my window. Checked the time on my phone, and it was 1pm already.
Damn this life mehn, I couldn’t have slept for that long?
I gave out a loud yawn, did a bit of stretching, picked up a tee shirt and short knickers from the heap of cloths by the side of the bed, slipped into my rubber slippers and headed out of the room to the front yard of my face-me-I-face-you house.
The stench of urine, clothes soaked in water for days and spoilt food circulated through the walkway, with dirty pots and waste materials littering the whole floor but I had been living here for a while so I was used to it.
I got out, finding my neighbour beating his wife up because he suspected her of cheating on him. Some neighbours tried to separate them, while others just stood there feeding their eyes and passing comments.

Yoruba people love fighting at any given chance.

I went through the crowd that was already gathering, and crossed over to the other side of the road to urinate. When I was done, I looked in the direction of my house and saw the couple still fighting so I opted to go on with my business for that day instead of going back inside.

I walked around for a while, turning into four streets before coming to a dusty path that housed an uncompleted building.

After looking around to confirm I wasn’t followed, I entered the house through the back, got one of the tables left by the former builders, and dragged it to section of what was supposed to be the sitting room. I climbed on it and pulled out a nylon bag from the ceiling. I poured the content out on the table and was pleased to find out that every wrap of marijuana and the other hallucinates I placed there were intact. I packed everything back into the nylon, dragged the table to its former position and then set out to deal.

I had been dealing drugs for some years now, say five years and I had turned out to be the neighbourhood’s favourite dealer. It didn’t take long before people from other parts of town started patronizing me as my clientele ranged from young to old, men and women and often times members of the police area command would come around to smoke some jumbo sticks and id give them for free - at least for the sake of protection. I wasn’t making much off it but I was making enough to pay my rent, cloth myself and put food on my table.

Anyway, I headed to my usual spot – a bar that’s ten minutes walking distance from the uncompleted building where I usually stashed my stuff. The manager there allowed me sell my stuff, on the condition that he got a cut from my earnings anytime I came around and my clients don’t smoke around the premises.

I got down to drinking a bottle of star lager beer as I anticipated making good sales that day when Lateef one of my loyal customers came in.

"Baba owfar you now, I don dey find you since reach wey be sei I find you go house, I get package for you ooo" he said as he shook my outstretched hand and sat down
"You of all people suppose know sei I no dey sell dope for house now. How many you want?"
"No be that one I find come, I get package for you. E get one chairman wey ready sponsor you go abroad and you go make big money ontop am"
"Hahaha- I laughed out loud. You funny ooo, person wey never see me before wan send me go abroad, why you yourself never go?"
"Who tell you sei I never go shey na all my movement you sabi nii? Listen na coco parole and na me be link between the chairmen and boys wey dey carry am travel and I dey see my own cut for there. Believe me money dey this level"
"Hmmm coco abi cocaine?. Break the whole thing down for me and if I gree how much I go dey see ontop am?"
"Now you are talking, na like dis e be, after you gree sei you go do the level, we go go see chairman. He go run your visa for you then give you upfront money and when you carry the package reach that side, you go collect the balance"
"Security nko"
"No worry about that one, my chairman get that one on check your own na make you just carry the package deliver am to our contact for that side"
This is an opportunity for me to get something going and start living that life I've always dreamed of
"Ok I go do am"
"Good. For night I go track you come meet me for ikeja then we go go see chairman"
"Oshee baba mii, nice one. Take this five wraps make you use am hold body till we see for night"
He collected them from me and took a gulp of my beer before hurrying out of the bar.

O boy, if this thing clicks I might just become a millionaire sooner that I thought.

Made good sales that day but most of them were on credit basis as all I could think of was the conversation I had with Lateef.

Lateefs call came in a few minutes past 10pm and he requested I meet him in front of Tasty Fried Chicken in Ogba. I immediately stopped dealing for the day and rushed home to freshen up and change clothes. I hit the road from Ketu to Ikeja using Okadaas my mode of transport and arrived there at 11pm.

There was a car waiting already so as soon as I got there, I got in and we headed straight to a strip club on Allen Avenue.

We were quickly ushered into the VIP section by the bouncers who were familiar with Lateef as soon as we got to the club. The setting portrayed the biblical description of Sodom and Gomorrah and being my first time at a strip club, I was amazed at the amount of sexual perversion that prevailed around the room with loud music and cigarette smoke lighting up the place.

We kept bumping into naked girls and drunken men as we walked around until we arrived at a table in the corner of the room. There were four, hefty mean looking men standing around the table with loads of naked girls dancing around. Lateef whispered into the ears of one of the men who shoved some of the girls away revealing who would later be Chairmanand then relayed what Lateef had said to him. He then signaled the man now revealed to be one of his bodyguards to allow us sit at his table.
The Chairmanlooked younger that I thought, give or take he couldn't be older than thirty-five, but he had been able to carve a niche for himself in the drug trade in Nigeria at least according to what Lateef had told me during our ride to the club..
The ladies were ordered to leave the table after which we got down to business.
"Chairman gbogbo boys, Baba Agbalagba, Baba Ara, Oosha lomo – Lateef hailed Chairman- this is the guy I told you about. Very smart and articulate, I think he can help bridge the gap between us and other cartels"

"Have you done this before? I mean travel with drugs". Chairman asked me as he puffed his expensive cigar.

"No sir"

"And do you think you are capable of pulling it off seeing you've never done it before?"

"Yes sir. Everything in life entails risk and as much as I'm scared to do it, I need to do it to be able to live the life I desire"

"Brilliant, brilliant. Your first trip would be to South Africa in ten days, get your passport across to Lateef and he would do the necessary things to be done including giving you all the info you would need concerning the client over there. Ok"

"Alright Chairman"

"Good...can we get back to the party now? Doggy- referring to one of his bodyguards - get those big booty girls back here and order more drinks"

We partied till the wee hours of the morning before everybody went their separate ways.

Five days later I got a call from Lateef to meet him at a hotel in G.R.A, Ikeja. I dashed down there as fast as I could.

He was there with Chairman, his bodyguards and some other guys. My flight documents were ready and my flight was scheduled for two days later. I was going to travel with 10kg of cocaine and get $1000 upfront and the other $1500 after delivering the package to the client in Pretoria. Everything seemed Ok with me except the fact that I would have the parcel concealed in my box instead of swallowing them but Lateef and Chairman assured me that they had security at both ends sorted out so I didn't have to worry about anything.

I arrived at the airport early enough for check in, went past immigration without a hitch and words can’t explain how happy I was when the flight attendant came on the microphone with this announcement-
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome on board Flight 204 with service from Lagos to Johannesburg. We are in line for take-off and are expected to be in the air in approximately three minutes time. We ask that you please fasten your seatbelts at this time and secure all baggage underneath your seat or in the overhead compartments....."
I heaved a big sigh as I fastened my seatbelt and anticipated take-off.
It was a six hour flight and we didn't touchdown at the O.R Thabo airport in Johannesburg until 5pm that evening.
I was tired, fidgety and then my sweat pores started to give way. While going through immigration, one of the officials came to my side, checked my passport and pulled me out of the queue.
God what sort of rubbish is this?
He walked me into an office, locked the door and after a brief talk I found out he was Chairmanslink. He made sure he cleared me himself and had his eye on me till I left the airport.
As I stepped out of the airport, a man dressed in a well cut black suit, wearing a plain white shirt to match and dark glasses approached me. He enquired about my name and when I confirmed it to him; asked that I follow him to his car as he was directed to chauffeur me to my hotel.
It was a long drive from the airport to the hotel that was booked on my behalf in Pretoria and as I struggled to sleep, I couldn't help but notice the well structured buildings and streetlights that adorned the streets.
We got to the City Lodge hotel on Hatfield road, Pretoria at about 8pm and I checked in immediately. A few minutes later there was someone at the door, I opened it and it was Subusiso the client Lateef had told to me about. He examined the parcel, confirmed it was of good quality and then handed an envelope to me. We shook hands as he left the room but not without inviting a lady in and according to him, “that was his way of saying thank you”.
She walked in, went straight for the perfectly laid king-sized bed and sat. She introduced herself as Lerato after which we got into a bit of chit chat. I could see it in her eyes that she wasn't too interested in the conversation as it was burning with lust but I didn't want to give into sex easily. I got up from her side, stripped to my boxer shorts and went into the bathroom to shower. I heard the radio come on and it was Boys2mens I’ll make love to you record playing. I ignored it and continued bathing, facing the shower pump when the door opened. I knew it was Lerato but I didn't turn around because I wanted to know what she was on about.
She grabbed me from behind and I felt her warm breasts push hard against my back. My penis immediately got an erection.
As much as I wanted to put up a front, no man dare reject this kind of opportunity.
I turned around; with my hands now wrapped around her waist and hers around my neck I kissed her. I held her tight and I could feel the warmth inside of her and I could tell she was very horny. She dashed out of the bathroom and returned seconds later with a condom, I took it tore the wrapper off and slid it on my bulging penis. With the water pouring down on us, I kissed her deeply, spun her around, placed her hands on the shower door, kicked her legs into position and with one thrust I was inside her. I grabbed her breasts and with more thrusts she was moaning hard. I turned her to face me, lifted her right leg for deeper penetration and slid my penis into her wet vagina.
Come harder, come harder, come harder - she screamed-and with a loud shout and scratch at my back she came and I soon followed suit. We laughed at each other’s dirty jokes as we washed up. We ordered some food and a few hours later we fell asleep in each other’s arms. I woke up the next day to find out she had gone but she left a note on the side table with her number on it.

“Smiles” This is the life I want, and this is the beginning of many good deals.