In nineteen eighty six, musician miguelan Qui Villavicencio was sitting with his friends at a restaurant in a small town in Anjapari, Bolivia's tropical region. At the time, this place was also an epicenter for cocaine production. The owner of the restaurant interrupts his conversation and tells miguelankle that someone at the door is looking for him. He gets up slowly. He starts walking toward the door, and the first bullet went through his jaw before he even hit the ground.
The second bullet hit his spine. He lay stunned on the ground, and when he tried getting up, he noticed that his legs weren't responding. To make sure that he was dead, the gunman fired two more times.
From Futromedia and PRX, It's Latino Usa, I'm Marieo Fosa, a Bolivian drug smuggler and his long road to redemption. Producer Andres Cabiro brings us the story of Bige lange Via Vicencio, whose dreams of becoming the next Juliueglesias turned into a personal battle for forgiveness and survival. Here's andres with our story. It first aired in twenty nineteen.
His friends immediately threw him in the back of a pickup and rushed him through the jungle to the nearest hospital. And by the way, we hired an actor to translate Migilanko's words.
Romo the Sangrado.
The most likely scenario was bleeding to death on the way to the hospital. So when I realized that I was about to die, I decided to have a conversation with God. Imagine a drug smuggler speaking with God. But that's what happens. The way I saw it, drug smuggling was just the business. It wasn't a crime.
Escamo trafic.
And while he was bleeding to death, he managed to pray, money.
Don't let me die. You have to.
If you let me live, I promise I will dedicate what's left in my life to serving you.
Forgive me.
Three decades later, Miguelankl is certain that the reason he's even alive today is because of that prayer on the.
Way to the hospital.
He's convinced that that day God had mercy on him, but the damage from the bullets that ripped through his body left him without the use of his legs and in a wheelchair permanently. These days, he visits churches all over southern California, singing original songs about his spiritual awakening. Migulankolis sits in an suv worked in front of a church where he's often invited to sing. He's wearing a button up shirt and a dark blazer, and he's waiting for his son Louis to bring his wheelchair.
In.
The pastor greets him and takes him in front of a congregation of about one hundred. Mighelanka scoots his wheelchair up to the podium, puts on a pre recorded backing track, and begins to sing. This song is called I'm Not Dead. The lyrics talk about how God completely transformed him from his old sinful ways in the drug business, that before
he was spiritually dead, but that now he's alive. When Miguelan Hill was growing up in Bolivia, before he got involved in the drug trade, he had always wanted to be a singer, but back then he wasn't interested in Christian music.
The Joe Abbia Gusta.
Ever since I was a kid, I've loved singing. I always dreamed of becoming.
Famous Miguelankill was raised by his grandmother in LAPAs, one of the biggest cities in Bolivia. When he was seventeen, he started a band with his friends, and when that group dissolved, he auditioned solo at Restaurante Losculos, which was apparently the place to be for live music in LAPAs. His first time singing at Lossculos, he recalls the presenter going up on stage and saying, Mason estrada, ladies.
And gentlemen, Tonight at Restaurants Esculos, a new Bolivian star is born.
With you, Miguel.
That night, Miguelankill took the stage wearing a flowered button down a dark blazer in Photus from the time. He has brown, wavy hair with sideburns that reached down to his lower jaw.
And that night I sang Call.
People started clapping halfway through the song, and in that moment, I knew that I would be a singer for the rest of my days.
It's not hard to hear the roots of Migilanka's style. Sandro the Latin American loved songs from the eighties and nineties where a hair deeled Latin heart throw would work the stage with those central performances unbuton shirts and so on, and Migilanka starts doing really well as a singer. A few years later, his songs were being played on the radio, and then he even gets invited to the Francisco's saw Hiante, a legendary Saturday night variety show in Latin America, which
was still based in Chile at the time. And even though migue Lankill was on his way to national stardom, Bolivia's music industry wasn't big enough to make him the international sensation that he wanted to become. For that, he needed to be in Mexico, Spain, the US and to go to these places and to market himself. He needed money, so he spoke to a friend whose family was in the drug business.
By then, cocaine had become a thing in the US, so I came to the conclusion that if I got into drug trafficking, I could easily make a fortune.
His friend introduced him to Bolivia's most powerful drug cartel, headed by Roberto Saris Gomez, also known as the Cocaine King. Swatis came from a family of cattle ranchers, but when the drug became popular in the US, he invested in coca plants and started producing cocaine. As consumer demand grew, tons of cocaine were being produced in Bolivia. Roberto eventually retired and handed control of the business to his nephew, Rocasuadres. Remember that name, because it's going to be important.
Coombia and this man, Rge Rocasuadis became the main player and business partner of Escobars made yin Cartel.
The coca leaf is everywhere in Bolivia. It's been used for thousands of years by the Aimata in Quechua for ceremonial purposes, and many people chew it daily to stay awake or to get an energy kick. It's also good for altitude sickness and to stay off hunger. At any market in the cities, you'll likely see giant bushels of coca leaves, and the countryside is filled with coca fields.
It's also, of course, the key ingredient in cocaine. Bolivia quickly became one of the biggest suppliers of califs to Columbia's cocaine labs, as well as a major producer of cocaine itself. Migalankin remembers seeing the cocaine King's ranch for the first time.
It was an incredible amount of drugs. I'd never seen anything like it, he said.
The house was filled with piles of bags of cocaine base. Back then, the cartel would sell it to the Colombians for about nine thousand dollars per kilo. The Colombians would then smuggle it and sell it in the US for many times more. And so in the early eighties, Megelanki started off by helping transport the merchandise by land or by air, and later he became the guy who coordinated bribes to local officials.
On people as an outsider.
Going by what you see on TV, the perception is that smugglers are bad, violent men who are always talking about killing and so on Bolivia and Colombian drug traffickers, At least in those days, we're easy going guys who were nice to talk to.
A few times Meguelankill came faith to face with Pablo.
Escobar Puantas Vesisi Sario, and.
Whenever he saw it necessary, he would get on one of his private jets and go check on his business associate in Bolivia.
On three occasions, I arrived to the ranch and there he was. I would just say hi, shake his hands, and that was it.
I see that he stands. Mister John demnos perrode none.
Of us.
To believe in smugglers. Escobar's business brought more than just enormous wealth. It also brought scrutiny from the US Drug Enforcement Agency or DEA. The DEA had been operating in Bolivia since the nineteen seventies, and they often worked with the government to crack down on illicit coca plantations and trade, but in the eighties and nineties, the u I started
going after the cartels more aggressively. To do that, they had to work closely with local law enforcement, but sometimes the cartels were also working with the police Guando.
When I arrived to work, there was already a special anti drug trafficking force called the Leopards.
The Leopards were Bolivia's elite anti drug force, but they were also known to take bribes, so we.
Started bribing the commander so that he would allow the drugs.
One day, Trocasuadis, the drug lord, asked Migilankill to deliver a bribe to a commander. But according to Miguelankell, there was a misunderstanding with grave consequences. He says he never received the money to pay the commander off, so he never ended up going through with the bribe. When the police commander didn't get the money he was promised, he got angry and retaliated with arrests and.
Academy.
I never had a chance to communicate with Guess what is to tell him that I never received the money? He assumed I stole, and without thinking twice, he sent his own criminals to kill. They were criminals, but they were also my friends. But that's how the drug business works. You have no friends. You just have accomplices who at any moment will turn on you after a simple order from.
The boss' contract.
Which brings us back to the day at the roadside restaurant when a gunman walked in the door and fired at him. That day, a bullet had shattered his teeth and broken his jaw in two. While dying on the way to the hospital, the first question that came to his mind was.
Why I was a man who was doing things right. I was an honest drug smuggler if the word honest even fits in this type of activity.
Dentro demento Miguelankill made it to the hospital alive, but he woke up without the use of his legs. He was paralyzed from the waist down and he would have to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Fearing that Rocasuarees would send more hitman to finish the job, Miguelankeell fled the country for several months. When he returned to Bolivia, he was a changed man. He had found
God and now he was focused on two things. Number one, writing gospel songs with lyrics that talked about peace and love, and number two, fixing his wrongdoings and seeing if he could help the authorities bring down the cartel. So he decides to get in touch with Frank mccoliney, then the head of the DEA in Bolivia.
Espanol concerto aso at I'm.
Speaking with a Gringo accent. He tells me that I'm a criminal, So I replied, my dear friend, I was once a criminal, but I am no longer, and that's exactly why I want to work with you.
After the exchange, Mighilankle agreed to provide information about cartel operations and to help build a case against strugg lords. Eventually, Megilanki would have to testify against them at a US court. In exchange, the DA would give him a cash salary, find him a home, a car, and eventually they would
help him get situated in the US. According to Miguelankill, he and his family were offered to be put on the US government's Witness Security program, meaning they would be relocated to an unknown place with a new identity for their own safety. The offer, he says, was verbal, it was never put down on paper.
It would help me find a job so I can work like everyone else, and then I would completely disappear.
Once the DEA built a case against Rocasuadis, Mighilankill was asked to help find out his location and tip off the DEA with information on his whereabouts. Through his contacts in the drug world, Miguelankill managed to track down a flight that Rocasuadis would soon be boarding in Miami. He then trace his movements all the way to the nineteen bedroom mansion that he owned in Los Angeles.
They arrested him, and that's when I had to immediately.
Leave Oblivia.
Migailankin recalls quickly packing things up getting into a car with his family and being escorted to the airport by four DEA agents Losno.
One was less than five and the others round seven. They didn't really know what was happening.
Luis, who is now in his thirties, was that five year old.
I remember having to go from like one house to the the other with my dad and my brothers days before leaving Bolivia to come to the US. When you're that small, and you think that's how the world functions, and that's what I thought was normal.
And when the plane took off, I could finally breathe peacefully because I knew that I was heading towards. But I didn't know was that once I helped him put this guy away, the DEA would eventually betray me.
Coming up on Latino, USA, the DEA sends me and his family to the US, where he would testify against the drug lord Ros in exchange for a better, safer life with his family, or so he thought. Stay with us, not bays. Hey, we're back and we're going to continue now with the story of Migelanghill, the Bolivian drug smuggler turned religious singer. And when we left off, the DA had taken Mielanghill to the US to seek protection and to testify against his former boss, the drug lord Jorge Drocasuirez.
Producer Andres Cavaliro picks up the story now.
When Miguelankill and his family got to California in January of nineteen ninety two, they started living in a hotel.
There was always agents around. They were pretty fun too.
Luis Milanka's youngest son, says that DEA agents would show up to give his dad surveillance equipment for monitoring drug activity along the US Mexico border. They would also bring big statues of cash for him.
To my understanding, I was part of my dad's job, and I knew I couldn't say anything about anything. Our neighbors, the kids would like talk about their parents and what they did and stuff, and like I knew that I couldn't mention anything about what my dad did.
The DEA finally got to my house while Miguelankill waited to testify against Prokasuadis. By then he had been passed on to another supervisor, which worried him because Frank, his original contact in Bolivia, had his back. This new guy, he didn't really get along with as much. By the end of the year, it was time for Miguelankill to finally testify against Jorge Ross, and there he was in the same courtroom, waiting for the hearing to begin.
And let me off him.
He looked me straight in the eyes, almost in disbelief that I was there testifying against him. Of course, there was the feeling of vengeance after someone orders he killed, but those feelings went away after I became a Christian, so in the end I just felt victory over him.
It was an act of justice. The Hostisia.
Miglankill didn't only talk about Rokasuaris. He also outed other drug dealers in Bolivia.
Olivia frankament, if.
I had to go back to Bolivia, I honestly don't know from which direction the bullet would come from.
In part because of Mielanka's testimonys, was eventually sentenced to thirty five years in prison. In the eight months that followed, communication with the DA started to slow down. Mighielanka started to worry. They stopped responding to his calls his messages. He helped the DA catch the big fish and they disappeared on him. One day, two men showed up at his house to pick up the surveillance equipment. They also gave him the official notice that he no longer worked
for the DEA. After several weeks, Mighelanki says, the DEA informed them that in the end, he would not be referred to the witness Protection program. Miguelankhill was floored. Not being placed in witness protection meant that after testifying for the DEA, he was now on his own. Not only would he have to hide out from the drug lords who wanted him dead, he also had to avoid being deported back to Bolivia because now that his job with the da was over, his permission to be in the
United States would vanish as well. And it wasn't going to be easy. We called the DEA and they declined to comment on why Mighelankhill was discharged or about whether or not he was promised witness protection in the first place. The Witness Protection program is officially called WITSEC, and the way it works is the DEA refers candidates for the
program to the US Department of Justice. It's the Attorney General's office that makes the final decision to approve it or not, so the DEA on their own doesn't have the power to guarantee that somebody will make it into the program. In two thousand and three, a professor at the University of Nebraska did a study looking at cases
of foreign informants in the witness Security program. He found a number of instances of informants who said the DEA did not keep verbal promises to place them in the program. And because of the language of the Witness Security law, US agents can make promises to potential witnesses without any legal obligations to follow through. And even if agents aren't purposefully trying to deceive witnesses, given the complexity of the process,
there's a lot of room for misunderstandings. Miglanka said he would have never worked with the Americans unless they offer for him and his family protection once it was all over, and even though he didn't have it in writing, he just went with it, trust him that in the end the DEA would take care of him. Frank, the former agent in Bolivia, is the only person who can verify Migilankil's claim that the DEA promised him witness protection. We
try to contact Frank multiple times. We even try to relay a message through a family member, but he never got back to US. Now out of a job and without legal status in the US, Miguelankl had to figure out what to do next. He and his wife were already having marital problems, and they eventually split up. She took the older kids and he left with his youngest son, Luis, to Virginia.
De kekomer I had to figure out how to start a new life.
How was that going to eat?
Me on a wheelchair being pushed by a seven year old child to help me get to the nearest food bank translating for me forget about it.
Once Mighilankill used up all of his savings, he and Louise went on the lamb. They started sleeping in people's garages at churches. They eventually rented a room where they ended up staying more permanently. One afternoon, someone showed up at their door. Louise had just gotten home from school. He goes to the door and sees two men dressed up as plumbers.
They knock on the door and I'm like hi, and they're like, oh, we're plumbers. The owner sent us, dude, I'm a kid. There's no way I'm letting you in my house because you said the owner said, even if the owner came, there's no way you're coming in, you know. So I was like till I'll be right back, you know. I locked the door. I go upstairs to my dad and I'm like, hey, plumbers are here, but my dad was like, yeah, let them in.
According to Louise, the men look at his dad and ask him if his name was mighe lan xel Vievi sents you yea.
I told him yes.
They were I INS agents in disguise. Today they're known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE agents.
We're here to detain you after getting work, that you are a dangerous criminal.
And that's when my dad tells the agent, if you arrest me and you deport me, then they're going to kill me in my country for serving your nation. And that kind of shocked the agent a little.
The officer asks if he had any proof of what he was saying. Megilankle brings his passport and he shows them the special visa that DA had issued years earlier when they brought him to the US.
This isn't a regular visa, it's one that you get when you work for the government. The man looked at me and said, yes, that's what it looks like.
Megilankin says that the immigration officers decided not to detain him that afternoon, but they said that he would have to fight his deportation in court. According to court documents, Megailankel was charged for being an alien who is not in possession of an entry document. The charges also stated that the government had reason to believe he had been an illicit trafficker or assisted illicit trafficking of a controlled substance. To Mighi Lanki, it looked like he was being double
crossed by the DEA. They were the only ones who knew about his history in the drug trade. On the day of the hearing at immigration court, Mighi Lanka says that the government's attorney claimed to have spoken with the DEA about their relationship.
With him, and.
No loco, no semos.
What did the agents say from the start, He never worked for us, We don't know him.
And my dad and I were just like, what these agents that would go to my house they don't know him. In my head, I was you're kidding, right, this is a joke. No, he never worked for the DEA.
Mighlankil then gives the judge a copy of a document he held onto an informal contract signed by he and the DEA for his work with them. The contract refers to him as a quote DEA cooperating individual, but the second line from the top reads quote I have no official status implied or otherwise as agent or employee of the DEA. This meant that he was with them, but that he wasn't really one of them. It was also
the reason he was getting paid in cash. Eventually, Frank, now retired from the DEA, agreed to testify in Mighlankil's favor via telephone. We got a copy of Frank Saffa David, where he confirmed that Mighlankil helped the US capture Rocasuades and that his life would be in danger were he to be deported back to Bolivia. According to court documents, the government did not provide any evidence for the smuggling allegations, so the judge eventually dropped those charges, and years after
the immigration charges were settled as well. It took four and a half years from the start of the case for the official ruling to come in the mail in two thousand and two.
We were sitting outside on stairs when we got the mail. I opened this envelope and there it was, and I was a ruling in our favor, and that was it. That was over.
Louise was also protected from deportation along with his dad. I asked Louise, looking back at everything that happened to them, if he felt that they had found justice.
When the drug lord decided that he was going to end my dad's life, he didn't end it, Thank God for that. He just didn't know that he was condemning his children to live in a certain lifestyle. You determine how they're going to live for the rest of their lives, and I think that is not fair.
On one end, there was Rocasuaires, the bad guy who tried to kill his dad but instead let him confine to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. And on the other end, there were the Dea, people who were supposed to be the good.
Guys, a group of men that work to make things right, come into your life and they tell you we're going to make things right, and they paint you a picture of how they're going to fix everything as long as your dad works for them. And then at the end of the day they bail, Then what do you turn to? What do you look for?
We should mention here that despite the murky nature of the world of drug smugglers and informants, we have been able to corroborate many of the elements of Megailanki's life story. We have court documents from his immigration trial, court transcripts of the case when he testified against Rokaswaidis, and then we found a ton of Bolivian newspaper articles ranging from the eighties unto the late nineties that confirm his accounts. It's hard to say how common stories like meghelankiins are.
There aren't exactly a lot of hard numbers available on people who feel betrayed by the DEA, But we do know that US law enforcement and military so often rely on foreigners like Megaelankil to risk their lives in order to complete their missions. Think of the Iraqi and Afghan translators who work with the army, for example. These people are vulnerable. Often they have little to lose, and it's worth it for them to make a bet on the US government and hope everything works out for the best.
For some, it does, others aren't as lucky, and if the US loses the trust of people like Miguelankil is going to be a lot harder to put people like Rogasus what is in prison. In two thousand and eight, after more than three decades operating in Bolivia, prison Evo Morales gave the de eight three months to leave the country, accusing them of espionage and of fomenting violence.
Territory.
Meanwhile, Trocasuaitis was extradited from the US to Bolivia. In twenty eighteen, mighlankly texted me a picture showing the former drug lord walking freely on the airport tarmac, wearing plain clothes, being escorted by three men.
We'll see how much he suffered in prison.
Soon he will be free, but I will still be on my wheelchair, suffering the consequences from being on a wheelchair.
After arriving in Bolivia, Rocasuetis claimed to have health problems while in prison. Last month, soon after being relocated to a local hospital, trocaso Is escaped. The believing authorities are still looking for his whereabouts. One local newspaper released a video that allegedly showed now in his late sixties, peacefully eating at a restaurant in Santana Yakuma. Let's back in the California church where Mighelankil is invited to sing, he
finishes up his last song. Afterwards, people from the congregation come up to him to take pictures with them or buy a copy of his CD.
Yoh.
Migilankill isn't afraid to confront the mistake he has made in his life. They come up again and again when he shares his testimony at church. Talking about those mistakes and repenting for them have given him a purpose. It's a a near death experience to inspire Mi Lankin to do what he thought was right and help the Dea.
In turn, he put his faith in the Dea to do right by him, but he now realizes that he put that faith in the wrong place and that at the end of the day, the only one he can really trust is God alone.
And here's a little update on the story you just heard. In twenty twenty, Rocas Souadrees began operating from Peru forming a new organization that Chipco came to the US. He was arrested in Lima in March of twenty twenty one, and in March of twenty twenty four, he was extradited to the United States. This episode was produced by Andres Caballero and edited by Marlon Bishop. He was mixed by
Stephanie Lebau. Special thanks to voice actor Raul Castillo, who you heard as Migue Langhill is known for his work in the TV series Seven Seconds and a Typical and the Sun Dance Award winning film with the Animals, Gracias Raoul.
The Latino USA team includes Roxanna Guire, Julia Caruso, Felicia do Minuez, Fernando Charvari, Jessica Elis Victoria Strada, Dominique Inestrosa, Renaldo Leanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Brussado, Luis Luna, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales, Garcia, j j Carubin, Tasha Sandoval, Nursaudi and Nancy Trujillo Penilerami. It is Marlon Bishop, Marie Garcia myself are co executive producers and I'm your host Bydiannie Prossac.
Join us again on our next episode. In the meantime, I'll see you on social media and remember not by yes By.
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for more than fifty years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at Hewlett dot org, and the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation