There is widespread disagreement on how and when drag racing got its start. Some credit the year 1913 with being one of the early historical moments in drag racing. That was when Wally Parks, future founder of the National Hot Rod Association, met his mother for the first time, right after getting his backside slapped by the doctor. Others trace the birth of the sport to the 1930s, when California's hot rodders found a new use for dried lakebeds in the Mojave Desert.
Meanwhile, at around the same time as the birth of the NHRA was the birth of Jose Carlos "Pepe" Chavez Venaza in the South American country of Peru. Chavez grew up to be a major cocaine runner and subject of an historical drug investigation in Portland, Oregon. His sidekick, James Francis Barnard, was a passionate drag racer and a passionate cocaine distributor. One passion fueled the other in more than one sense of the word. Their mothers must have been so proud of their sons' achievements.
Ray Tercek was the FBI Special Agent charged with the task of closing down the operation. Sensing that traditional methods would not be up to the task, Tercek knew that nothing short of a federal prosecution would bring them down. Tercek opted to use a strategy known as historical drug investigation. Using this technique, he and his team indicted, prosecuted and locked up the major players in the Chavez-Barnard operation.
Federal grand juries have the capability to force testimony in exchange for immunity. It's what gives historical drug investigations their teeth. Provided the bureaucrats higher up the food chain can refrain from sticking their oars in and let law enforcement do their job, this technique is frequently successful.
Drugs and drag racing make a lethal combination. The drugs give the drivers the edge they need to take the high risks they need to get ahead. Racing attracts betting, big business with all that drug money floating around the track. Such is the seedier side of motor racing.
One way Portland drug investigators acquire intelligence about drug deals is to infiltrate the race scene. Tercek wrote a book about what turned out to be the nation's largest drug conspiracy investigation. He may have written about it there. One thing was certain. Once it became clear that the investigation into Chavez' activities cleared the way for a larger investigation, traditional means of policing weren't going to work.
In total, the Tercek team accumulated 200 names of conspirators in five separate countries. There were distributors, street dealers, packagers and smugglers, chemists, couriers and bookkeepers. That translated into a half ton pile of snow, the wholesale value of which was 15 million US dollars. Don't forget, that was 1980s money and it was only the wholesale, not the street value.
Barnard's trial lasted a week, the last three hours of which the jury spent deliberating. They sent him down. He was sentenced to five years in prison. An historical moment for drag racing and for Barnard. As for Jose Carlos "Pepe" Chavez Vernaza, he flew the coop, slipped the leash, evaded capture.
Don't miss the historical moments in drag racing by visiting our library of books online. Get the latest news on drug investigation Portland authors have written about at http://www.raytercekbooks.net/library.
