Traga—Balayag

The story of a high-level Cartagena Colombian, who did his dope dealing for a wheelchair. The translation of this name means the bullet swallower.

Traga Balla

The Bullet Swallower In Tampa there was a Colombian from Cartagena, an illegal alien, who was a high level captain inside the Colombian organization. He made his bones killing Cubans, taking power and thus moved to the top with the cartel. His business model was basically taking large kilo deals of 100 kilos or more and breaking them up into single kilos for the lower level dealers. His influence and power was great because he was willing to use violence. He called the shots and his group of assassins enforced his business deals. The crazy thing was he did this all from a wheelchair. He'd been shot in the throat and in the back and was paralyzed from the waist down. They called him Tragaballa, “The Bullet Swallower.” At his level he didn't handle anything. He was orchestrating everything by sending his gophers. Tragaballa was a thorn in our side for many years. My group of customs agents and I would often eat at Colombian and Cuban restaurants in Tampa and we'd often see narcos we were surveilling. We'd all acknowledge each other with cordial looks. They knew that we knew. One time we walked into a Colombian restaurant and there was Tragaballa with some of his men. I was young and a smart ass so I went up to him and asked if his dick still worked and how does he keep all those beautiful women I see him with. I'm fluent so this was all in Spanish. He replied, “Oh my Gringo, I love you so much. You know I have the coke and I have my tongue and that's how I get my pussy.” Everyone laughed out loud and then back at the office I didn't hear the end of it for a week. “I think Tragaballa loves you, Chris.” As often happens he was assassinated one night. This gave us an opportunity. We attended his funeral and identified more of his organization. I still remember the looks on their faces when they saw us there paying our respects. Not long after the funeral the guy who shot him was found dead and had been tortured for hours. They left his body to be found to send a message.