North America Gunman Detective

Chapter 1505 - 808: Underground Factory (Part 2)

Jimmy indeed stopped tailing Jesse, but it's not because he ruled out Jesse's involvement in the case. There is just currently a higher priority lead to handle, so he only had the surveillance team install a hidden camera outside Jesse's home. They are remotely monitoring for the time being, while the focus is placed on the Quiet Home Nursing Home.

Hector rarely has visitors, and being in a state of paralysis due to a stroke, he simply can't independently make phone calls or send emails to communicate with outsiders. Right now, all communication depends on the bell on his wheelchair. Staff use an alphabet puzzle board to try piecing letter by letter, and he confirms by ringing the bell with a "ding" when selecting the correct letter. This method of communication makes it impossible to convey complex text content.

Once Jimmy and his team confirmed these circumstances, they set up a plan for surveillance and tracking. Someone must be acting as an intermediary communicating with Hector, enabling him to find those two brothers to attack Hank. Moreover, he couldn't personally arrange for intelligence-related tasks like tracking, so as long as the intermediary is found, they can continue to locate who is supporting them.

"Officer Yang, the target has left his home, picked up by an unlicensed car."

Jimmy received a call from the DEA surveillance team in the Quiet Home Nursing Home parking lot. This was remotely viewed by the headquarters surveillance team. The surveillance camera is quite concealed, at least Jesse and the opposing surveillance point did not notice it.

"Contact the police, investigate the road surveillance, see where they are heading. I'm setting out now. Report their location at any time."

Jimmy immediately started his car, called the surveillance team to continue the stakeout here, and departed to trace Jesse's whereabouts.

Jesse has his own car, but after driving away previously, he didn't return with it. The location of that car is currently unknown, and now Jesse was picked up by an unlicensed vehicle, which is evidently suspicious. Moreover, an unlicensed vehicle can easily attach a license plate in an area without surveillance, requiring no time, easily evading surveillance or tracking, further indicating their suspiciousness.

As to why they didn't switch the license plate after picking up Jesse, it's evident they didn't want to expose their track while coming to pick up Jesse.

New Mexico follows a single license plate system, only hanging the rear license plate, so if they pretend to grab luggage from the trunk, there's generally enough time to hang the plate.

Jimmy has memorized most of Albuquerque's roads, and quickly catches up to the section of the road where Jesse's vehicle passed, according to the surveillance team's road information. Yet, the previous problem remains — inadequate road surveillance coverage.

Jimmy looked around at the intersection where the vehicle disappeared, then took out a map from the glove compartment, observing the marked locations. These marks are Gus's stores and his owned properties: dozens of fried chicken shops, an industrial laundry, two poultry farms, and a food processing factory.

Several factories lie in suburbia away from the city. The fried chicken shops are all in the city, and just a few blocks away from Jimmy's position, there happens to be a fried chicken shop. If he continues moving to the suburbs, it would lead him to the laundry factory.

Jimmy thought about it, first headed to the fried chicken shop to buy some fried chicken and cola, and looked around the shop and vicinity, at least confirming the previous vehicle was not here.

Gus's properties are under DEA investigation, as he owns numerous stores. The DEA personnel are sufficient to conduct a scattered investigation, while Jimmy previously personally investigated only the location of Gus's first fried chicken shop, the place where Gus typically spent time working. Now, based on the locations, maybe he needs to head to the laundry factory.

With the location confirmed, Jimmy quickly drove to the suburbs, where a huge laundry factory appeared in his sight. "Laundry Paradise" factory — it's Gus's newest property bought roughly four years ago, now operating normally with its gates wide open and vehicles going in and out, evidently catering to many customers.

Jimmy observed from afar, smoked a cigarette, tossed the butt out the car window, started approaching the laundry factory, but soon discovered a problem. The laundry factory has a large basement, housing seemingly many facilities, and two people are actively inside.

Does a laundry factory need underground equipment? Jimmy has never dealt with industrial laundries and is unfamiliar with their handling processes, but such a vast underground space undoubtedly wasn't silently carved out, perhaps excavated during the factory's construction.

However, this isn't the issue. Jimmy didn't park; he drove past in front of the laundry factory, turned at the next intersection, and rushed back to the DEA office.

Every factory establishment requires registering with the municipal government, including plant design and factory architecture plans. For an ordinary person, these might be hard to obtain, but surely not for the FBI. Jimmy firstly had DEA apply under their name, the process took too long, so he directly contacted them.

The facts proved Jimmy's suspicion was right. Apart from having a standard wastewater disposal program beside it, there wasn't any registered underground space for the laundry factory, thus making the space he discovered intriguing.

Nonetheless, a problem remains. It's a legitimate laundry factory and entering to investigate might be fine for Jimmy's skills, but anything discovered this way would be voided as evidence, which is tricky.

Jimmy sat in the meeting room, with a map from his car in front of him, the marked locations becoming more glaring. That laundry factory is problematic, with such a large underground space filled with pipelines and equipment, it apparently serves as a small factory-level den. If it's a manufacturing hub for drugs, then what are the trafficking routes?

Daily, many vehicles come and go at the laundry factory, delivering clothes while also hauling out laundered ones, along with detergents and other industrial supplies. Finding a drug-trafficking vehicle among many is challenging.

Additionally, only two were observed underground, whereas dozens are working within the factory. They only need to blend in with the worker crowd to leave freely, raising no suspicion, complicating the investigation further. It's New Mexico; there are too many illegal immigrants working here. Coupled with factory customers entering and exiting, relying on surveillance for facial recognition is practically impossible.

Gus indeed created a dilemma for Jimmy; the laundry factory now resembles a coiled-up hedgehog, hard to tackle.

Jimmy looked at other locations on the map. Now presuming Gus is a local drug lord, could these city shops be his blue ice drug trade points?

With the fried chicken shops bustling with people from all walks of life, nobody can spot anything amiss in such an environment; no one can monitor every customer dining here.

So how to transport blue ice drugs into fried chicken shops? It could only be through food storage transport vehicles, especially with the Fried Chicken Brothers being a full-chain proprietary brand located nearby in Albuquerque, featuring Gus's poultry farms and slaughterhouse processing plants. Calculating this way, the entire chain is controllable without outsiders detecting, cleverly arranged, indeed.

The more Jimmy thought, the more suspicious it felt, the more reasonable it seemed. Now, he just needs evidence to link these aspects together. So where to acquire evidence?

Sitting in the office wouldn't resolve investigations, but employing DEA's surveillance squad might not suffice either. Otherwise, they wouldn't return saying everything's fine with the laundry and poultry farms. Looks like self-action is necessary.

Jimmy called Hank and Gomez, arranged a meeting with them at the office the next day, then headed downstairs, started his car and left to first check out some fried chicken shops, then embark on perimeter reconnaissance in the suburbs.