to a cafe around the corner and had our first meeting. He knew I was a Deacon and had spent time at Garvin. He knew all about my criminal record. I was a bit rattled by this and so I started asking him a bunch of questions. He said he was a security consultant. I asked what the hell that means, and he said he worked for various clients primarily in the Caribbean and so on and he was pretty vague. I asked him how I could be sure he wasn’t some kind of cop or agent or some such prick who was trying to suck me into a trap. I asked if he was wearing a wire. He laughed and assured me he was not. Anyway, we swapped phone numbers and he invited me to visit his office, see his operation. He swore he was legit. A few days later, I drove to downtown Miami, went up about 35 floors, and met him in his office. Nice view of the water. Has a secretary and some staff. No name on the door, though. We had a cup of coffee, talked for an hour. He asked if I still had contacts inside Garvin. I said yes. He asked how difficult it would be to take out another prisoner in Garvin. I asked if he was talking about a contract. He said yes, or something like that. Said there was an inmate who needed to be “extinguished” because of some vague bad deal with a client of Mercado’s. He did not give me a name and I did not say yes to the contract. I left and drove home. In the meantime, I dug through the internet and found very little about Mercado. But I was almost convinced he was not a cop. Our third meeting took place in a bar in Boca. That’s where we cut the deal. He asked how much it would cost. I said $50,000, which was a big rip-off since you can get a guy rubbed out in prison for much less. But he didn’t seem to mind. He told me the target was Quincy Miller, a lifer. I didn’t ask what Miller had done and Mercado didn’t offer. It was just a business deal as far as I was concerned. I called Jon Drummik, the leader of the Dekes at Garvin, and he arranged it all. He would use Robert Earl Lane, probably the most dangerous man there, black or white. They would get $5000 each up front, another $5000 when the job was finished. I planned to pocket the rest and screw them. You can’t take cash to prison, so I had to arrange payment in cash to Drummik’s son and Lane’s brother. At our fourth meeting, Mercado gave me $25,000 in cash. I doubted I would ever see the other half, regardless of what happened to Quincy Miller. But I didn’t care. $25,000 is gravy for a prison murder. I then met with Adam Stone, our mule, and planned the killing. He delivered messages to Drummik and Lane. The attack was well done but they didn’t finish the job. Stone said another guard got in the way or something. Mercado was furious at the bad result and refused to pay the rest of the money. I kept $15,000 cash.
Mercado never mentioned his client’s name. He was my sole contact. Frankly, I didn’t inquire since I figured it’s best to know as little as possible in a deal like that. If I had asked, I’m sure Mercado would have ducked the question.
A friend of mine in Miami, a former trafficker, says Mercado is sort of a semi-legit operator who is often hired by traffickers to fix problems. I have met with him twice since the attack on Miller but both meetings were not productive. He asked if I thought it might be possible to get to Miller in the hospital. I went there and looked around but didn’t like what I saw. Mercado wants me to monitor Miller’s recovery and find a way to finish the job.
Skip DiLuca
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WITH THE CONSPIRACY to kill Quincy still active, the FBI must make a decision. It prefers to watch Mercado and hope he leads to bigger fish, perhaps even using DiLuca as bait. However, as long as Mercado is on the loose and planning to finish off Quincy, the danger is real. The safest route is to arrest Mercado and apply pressure, though no one