What If We Had It All

Fraud

"Fraud"

|04|

Javier

The life I lead now isn't necessarily the life I chose, it's the one I was given.

My younger days were spent hoping that I would be one of those 'big shots', I'd be somewhere beyond the confiding of my violent upbringing.Though, it's the very one I now find comfort in today.
Somewhere I wouldn't have to constantly worry about my next meal, or wonder if mommy would be alright.

Inna the garrison it nuh pretty.

Mi nah seh every ghetto youth turn out bad, but if we a be realistic you can tell those who are a product of the ghetto. We strive off of hard times and through an even harder environment.

In life the first thing we learnt was to be the predator or be prey; and in a life like ours? Yuh cya afford fi fuck up.

Mi did affi find a way out and mi never ave nobody fi show mi.

Suh when mi tek up eh banger mi never put it back dung. Wah the saying seh? When life give yuh a banger, chop? Or whatever dem seh.

I observe the numerous computers that each had their individual desk and set up.

We took lottery scamming from a little scheme to a multi-million dollar operation.

When the lead sheets are wired and my workers begin dialing? We earn a minimum of a couple million US dollars daily.

The system is wired in such a way to protect the database from being accessed by the authorities. From encryption to firewalls, you name it.
We took every precaution there was.

If a worker get greedy we drop him, and mi nah talk fire. . .there's only one way out of the game.

I didn't stop with lottery scamming, I just wanted to make highlight of it first.

Never forget your roots, right?

Growing up in the ghetto, another thing I was exposed to, was both substance use and abuse. Weed was minor, everyone had a spliff or two. It was a known coping mechanism. Ms. Matty corner shop see mi everyday fi two 50 bag.

But cocaine? It wasn't any less common but it was either the drug that many feared or overused.

The 'cokehead' dem were known examples.

I saw a way to capitalize on this.

Over the years I've made a few connections, so when it came to shipping things through Jamaica's boarders it was truly child's play at best.

Experiencing violence above anything else—specifically gun violence was inevitable, especially in the murder capital of Monetgo Bay, St. James.

By the age of 13 I had already been entrusted with a gun of my own. My uncle had no longer looked at as 'likkle Javi' anymore.

He regarded me as a man who needed to keep myself and his younger sister safe.

From that moment on I always felt the need to have one on me.