Getting Away Clean
Getting Away Clean
The Life and Times of a Transformed Cocaine Kingpin
Jeff Peck
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In the middle of a Sunday night last March, Jorge Valdés found himself pumping sewage out of a home that had a broken pipe. In a protective suit and gloves, this hardworking Cuban immigrant was earning a living for his family honestly, without a lot of glamour—a sharp contrast to his millionaire drug cartel days.
He started honestly enough when his parents fled Castro’s dictatorship and landed in Miami along with Jorge and his brother and sister. The family slept on the floor of a one-bedroom apartment they shared with six other relatives. Driven by poverty and a solid work ethic, Jorge quickly earned promotions at various jobs he held growing up. Eventually he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank while taking classes at the University of Miami, convinced he’d become a tax lawyer.
“I was obsessed with being the best student in my classes,” Jorge remembers. “I refused to settle for second place in anything.” That early success got him noticed by businessmen in need of his bilingual and accounting skills.
It was not very long before he noticed that those businesses were drug fronts. He also noticed the wealth of the Colombian owners, most of whom were far less educated than Jorge. “I had sacrificed money, sleep, and my social life to attend school,” Jorge explained. “Yet they absolutely reeked of money.” Half-jokingly, Manny Garces, his Colombian employer, asked if he wished to sell cocaine in California. At $70,000 per kilo, Jorge could not resist.
