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13
THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COCAINE

Once I was friends with the governor, I managed to get the FELCN police to return my possessions. A taxista called me to the front gate where several boxes were waiting for me. When I sorted through the boxes, I noticed that most of the valuable items were missing: my money, my best clothes and my gold jewellery, including my good luck ring. Surprisingly, however, they gave me back my industrial hair dryer and steamer, which were worth over a thousand dollars each. They probably didn't know what they were.

My machines were still in pieces from when the colonel's men had dismantled them at the airport. I reassembled them but, unfortunately, I didn't have them for very long. Ricardo had told me about surprise raids the police sometimes conducted, known as requisas. He told me to be careful when they searched my room, because they often planted drugs, then asked for a bribe to make them disappear, especially with foreigners and new prisoners. The best way to avoid this was to demand that a witness be present during the search.

The first time the police performed a requisa in my room, I didn't have time to call a witness. Immediately, four policemen crowded around my steamer, blocking my view.

'Stand still. Right there!' they ordered me when I tried to get closer to make sure they couldn't plant anything.

I stood by helplessly as, one by one, they inspected inside the head mechanism while the others stood back, nodding and whispering to each other. Any second, I was expecting one of them to produce a bag of cocaine. But they didn't. They continued pointing and whispering