Los Carnales

Chapter 24: Buena Suerte, Veneno

August 19th, 2006
Sunday, 10:24am - Estrabao Cartel Church

Dinah Jane. That's who everyone knew her as. Seventeen years old, best friend of Karla Estrabao for over two years, loyal and dedicated member of Estrabao Cartel for four years, one of the people Luca trusted dearly with serious operations and with his sister. She was smart, clever, determined, hilarious, free-spirited, and protective. No one in Estrabao Cartel knew who she really was, but those parts of her personality were real. Dinah Jane was actually Milika Ilaisaane; a twenty-eight year old married woman (also a mother of three) working as an undercover cop for the main Miami-Dade police department, looking to be promoted and rewarded as the hero for putting an end to Estrabao Cartel and Los Carnales once and for all. It was a task no one at the department wanted to take on, as the gang life was too risky and posing as a member for a cartel like EC came with serious danger/threats and consequences. But Dinah stepped up and she did well until blowing her own cover.

Working as an undercover cop was really hard. To form a meaningful friendship with people she got to know and grew to genuinely care about, but can't because it's supposed to be a lie and they're criminals, took a toll on her. Sometimes it was hard to ignore the humanity in the criminals she was surrounded by—to ignore their lives outside of the gang and what drove them in the first place, to ignore their struggle and desire to morally do good but not having the luxury to. Her colleagues/superiors reminded Dinah to see these people as uncaged beasts needing to be locked up and tamed for life, and that they didn't deserve to live a good life because they've broken many laws and caused terror in neighbourhoods. Not all of them were bad people—some were but not all—they've just had a bad life and bad luck.

At times, Dinah would find herself loving the lifestyle and rolling with her crew. She enjoyed it too much one day that she ended up having an affair and sleeping with Emiliano, a rival member. That wasn't in the job description, nobody told her to do that nor was she required to. But it was fun and released her tension and stress. The Polynesian native wasn't perfect, she was a hot mess all around. Corrupt on and off. And other times, she didn't see much of a difference between the gangs she infiltrated and the police department. They both wore their symbols, their colours, surveillanced the hoods, shot someone whenever they had to, handled drugs and took it for themselves sometimes, reported to a boss, asserted their power and used it as an excuse to harass and manipulate others for personal gain, had rankings, accepted dirty money, did dealings with crooked people working for the government, had people to protect and did whatever meant necessary to protect them.

Really, the biggest thing that separated a street gang or cartel from police officers was that one was accepted in society and "morally right" while the other was the exact opposite. At the end of the day, worse crimes have been committed by men and women in suits, but they seldom got the same treatment as the groups of people they punish, demean, and execute. Dinah knew that. There were good and bad people on both sides. Regardless of this knowledge or the inner turmoil that tormented her daily, she had a job to do and she was going to carry out her mission successfully by any means necessary.

Blackmailing Chris was Dinah being desperate to take both gangs down and put an end to her everyday suffering as quickly as possible. She couldn't take the charades and the negative mental and emotional impact her job had on her. Perhaps if she had been attending more therapy (and trusting in its effectiveness) and acquired more patience, she would have found a better way to put an end to Los Carnales and Estrabao Cartel at the same time without blackmailing the wrong person. She was lazy. She wanted Chris to do her job for her for a while until she found a way to take down Luca just like how Lauren went, then handle every other member after that. And if she did it right, she'd be able to use Candy the same way she used Chris, as Luca being gone would make things a whole lot easier.