RUFFBO DOG COMMANDO: TROUBLE AT HOME

 by  Barry Rodriguez

Ruffbo was fast asleep on a sofa in the house he shared with Rihanna , located in a San Diego suburb , when his cell phone received a text message from his Team bud Frank. He was in the middle of an afternoon nap , one that had been facilitated by the consumption of many Fighto beers. As his cell phone kept buzzing Rihanna couldn't help but notice. She picked up the phone and read the message on the display . It read , " Yo Ruff ! I got a situation ! Give me a shout . Frank 911 ! "




Rihanna knew better than to meddle in Ruffbo's official business but this seemed to be a call for help that was personal in nature. She tugged on his brawny shoulder , calling to him , " Ruff honey , wake up ! " The she barked loudly in his ear. He woke up with a start immediately in combat mode. Looking around the room he saw no tangos only Rihanna , so he relaxed.

When Ruffbo read the text message from Frank he was filled with dread . Something heavy must have gone down ! It could be anything ! He called Frank on a land line and was given the 411 in coded language. There was no easy way to explain it to Rihanna. The trouble had to do with something from long ago in Frank's life.





Ten years ago , while Frank was in the San Francisco Bay area on a training exercise he had met a sultry Latin lady named Ramona Guadalupe Luna. She had a rocking body and a face that Cupid would love. It was lust at first sight ! They got married but it only lasted two years. This union produced a young son named Rubin. He was now nine years old. Now Ramona and Frank's son lived in Oakland , California with her new boyfriend , an Afro-American man named Dre. They resided in the Fruitvale section of town , a rough area.

Not long ago , Frank had received a desperate phone call from his ex Mother in-law Carmen. When she had the occasion to babysit for Rubin , she had noticed that the boy had bruises all over his young body. That is how it was discovered that Dre was beating up Rubin on a regular basis. Ramona and her Mother were afraid to contact the authorities because Dre was a thug with a posse of gangsters that hung around all the time. Carmen was fearful of possible retaliation on the part of Dre. She didn't want her precious Grandson and daughter to be harmed. What could she do ?

Rihanna felt bad for Frank. He was a Ruff's best bud and she knew him well. " Ruff honey what are you guys going to do ? " She asked. " Rubin is just a little boy ! his Mom can't protect him ! " For Ruffbo this was a new and unwanted experience. His Team had battled terrorists in Botswanna , Libya , Iraq and too many other places to mention. This was trouble on the home front ! The Team had to help Frank take care of this problem for the sake of little Rubin !

Ruffbo spent the rest of the afternoon contacting his other close team mates. The situation called for an off the books operations. One that was the specialty of Team Six , a snatch job ! This thug Dre had to be removed from the scene ASAP !

Malcom Luther Brooks AKA " Dre " , was a stone cold gangster who had done hard time at San Quentin for armed robbery. Recently  in the East Bay, powder cocaine had made a big comeback in popularity. Dre moved heavy quanities of the drug every month , besides his sideline of selling illegal guns. A crew of homeboys had his back but his main man was a Vado named Manuel RoJas AKA " Los Locos " who he had befriended while at Q .

Rojas was a brutal enforcer whose tool of choice was an aluminum baseball bat. If that didn't work he had his trusty sawed off Colt Defender shotgun to provide the final solution. More than a few unsolved homicides were the work of Los Locos. He was had connections with the Mexican Mafia and some outlaw bikers. This helped with the drug and gun rackets that Dre dealt in. It was Dre though who  had a pipeline to high grade coke from a major supplier in Southern California.

To Dre it was nothing unusual for him to beat up his old lady Ramona. The little boy was a brat and weekly beat downs kept them both in line. There was no way Ramona was going to drop a dime on him ! She had turned some tricks on the side and in the eyes of the law she was an unfit mother ! That was Dre 's trump card in controlling her. They lived on Nevil , a short block that dead ended in a small park where crack addicts and small time dealers hung out. Violence was commonplace in the area and nobody called the police for anything. The neighbors feared Dre and his crew. It was strictly hear no evil see no evil and mind your own business !

Oscar Grant

Frank had briefed Team leader Ringo , Ruffbo , Tiko and other team members on the situation. They had all come up to Oak town from San Diego . As a group they all endured many tough operations and this was not a time to leave a Seal brother to fend for himself in a time of need. Having the Oakland Police involved was out of the question. The " Black Lives Matter " group would turn the situation around and paint Dre as a victim of Police brutality , another potential Oscar Grant ! Then the usual group of publicity whores , like the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would produce a Media circus ! Not this time !

Rev. Jesse Jackson

Al Sharpton

 

 

Ruffbo and the boys got a hold of two beat up old Ford Aero Star vans with side loading doors and a 1976 Chevy Impala with tinted windows , a regular G ride ! Six operators were manning the three vehicles. Ruffbo, Ringo , Frank , Tiko and two other team members , Big Mike and Tony they were all armed or in the vernacular of the hood , " strapped " . Ringo and Tiko took along shotguns, the rest of the crew carried Glocks and bladed weapons. They dressed up biker style ; greasy Levis ,cutoff jean jackets and heavy motorcycle boots. They all had beards and long hair. Modified grooming standards were allowed in Team Six , that was what was required when operating in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The operation would go down when Ramona and Rubin were visiting Carmen. Grandma would keep them at her house until she got the " all clear " from Frank. They would be kept in the dark about what was going down. The Team assembled in the parking lot of the Bayfair shopping center. Then drove in the three vehicles onto Interstate 580 , exiting at 35th avenue. Nevil was a cross street located a couple of blocks off of 35th avenue. 

It was 8:00 pm and inside the house on Nevil street Dre was sitting down at a kitchen table counting out money. RoJas and two homeboys were in another room snorting lines of coke off the glass top of a low living room table. The house was a split level , two bedroom affair. The upstairs floor plan consisted of a small living room in front with an a short hall adjacent to that , with the bedrooms and bathroom off the hall. In back was the kitchen and a small dining room.

There was a downstairs basement that led to a small fenced in backyard. Rex a young Pit bull was chained up in the yard. It was a quiet Sunday evening on a quiet street. The two Aero Star Vans and the Chevy Impala carrying the Team  exited the freeway , proceeded down 35th avenue , then the two vans turned left onto Nevil while the Chevy Impala headed for a parallel street. The lead van with Big Mike and Tony slowly cruised until they reached the end of the short block where it dead ended in a small park. They would wait until the action started.

Frank and Ruffbo parked their van close by Dre's crib. They strolled down the block towards the target house. Frank was playing like he was taking out his pooch for a bathroom break. Ruffbo playing the part to the hilt went up to a light pole near the house and pissed on it. Then he use his suppressed paw gun to shoot out the street light , plunging the area in front of the house into complete darkness.

Meanwhile Ringo and Tiko had parked the Chevy Impala  and walked across from the other side of the park to Nevil street. Rex the Pit bull pup was just about to start a ruckus when a chunk of New York steak came flying over the backyard fence , landing with a thud at his feet. One bite of the drug laced meat and Rex passed out. Ringo and Tiko then hopped over the fence into the yard. Frank and Ruff positioned themselves near the front door , which had been reinforced.  

In the backyard Ringo got to work picking the lock of the door to the downstairs basement. Moments later he and Tiko made entry and stealthily ascended the short set of steps that exited into the Kitchen at the back of the house where Dre was still counting money . Frank went to work picking the lock of the  front door. The timing between everyone had to be perfect. When Ringo entered the kitchen from the downstairs steps he got the drop on a stunned Dre . He was sitting down wearing a dirty wife beater T-shirt and military cammo pants . There was no weapon within arms reach and Ringo had his shotgun leveled at his face. Then Tiko took a step forward and smashed Dre in the face  with the stock of the shotgun he was carrying. Dre dropped to the floor  like a rock. This noise alerted the others in the living room. 

In the living room Los Locos , stood up from where had been sitting on a couch , reaching for the pistol in the waistband of his trousers. The two homeboys jumped to their feet. Everyone's attention was directed to the back of the house. Frank and Ruffbo , now made entry through the front door and caught them off guard. Ruffbo immediately launched himself across the room , locking his powerful combat tested jaws on the gun hand of Rojas AKA " Los Locos ", which almost severed the thug's arm. The two homeboys were still too doped up to offer any resistance. They still had cocaine residue coming from their noses. Frank covered the two homeboys with his Glock while Ruffbo bandaged the wrist of Los Locos , which started to profusely bleed.

Tiko came forward to the living room and duct taped up the two homeboys. In the kitchen Ringo had ducted taped up Dre , who he then dragged forward to the living room , putting him down on the carpeted floor alongside the prostate homeboys. By this time Big Mike and Tony had brought the second van up the block , parking it in the driveway of the house. They manhandled the unconscious and duct taped Dre and Rojas down the short front steps  into their van. The two homeboys were placed in the van that Frank and Ruffbo were using. From start to finish the assault had only taken two minutes !

The neighbors didn't pose a problem. They were accustomed to seeing many nasty characters hanging out at Dre's crib. If  a deal with some bikers had gone sideways it wasn't a concern of theirs. Knee deep in their own scams they had little interest in contacting the police ! 

later Frank and Ruffbo dumped off the duct taped homeboys at an empty parking lot off of East fourteenth street nearby. After Ringo contacted an agent friend at the Oakland DEA office , they dropped off an unconscious Dre at the Oakland airport. They left him sitting in the front seat of a Cadillac Escalade , that was stuffed full of coke ! His coke supplier would mostly like put out a contract on him for non payment for the last big shipment sent to him. That just too bad ! When he woke from his slumber Oakland PD and the DEA were on site to greet him.

Manuel Rojas AKA " Los Locos " was wanted by the Mexican Federal Police in connection with the murder of a Mexican politician . It was arranged for him to be covertly slipped over the San Diego - Mexican border and into the custody of the Federales ! He never made it to the jail. His decapitated corpse was found alongside a dirt country road , just another victim of the war between the drug cartels.

As was expected , Romona moved back in with her Mom . Carmen would keep a close watch on her beloved Grandson , Frank's boy Rubin. There was family fences to be mended . That was something for Frank ,Ramona and Grandma to work out for themselves. The Team had taken care of business for a brother. The aftermath of the operation found Team leader Ringo owing his law enforcement buddies big time . That was okay because sometimes they needed the help of the Teams. 

Of course the happy turn of events were a good reason to have a celebration once they were back in San Diego. Ruffbo put down a whole case of Fighto beer and passed out on his living room sofa. The boys were over his house partying with him. Rihanna looked at the sleeping Ruffbo with a mixture of love and disgust in her eyes. Yet she was proud of what he and his team had done for his best bud Frank. She said to the group " at least he isn't chasing the bitches anymore ! Yea he still gets drunk but one out of two ain't bad ! " At this Ringo , Tiko , Big Mike , Tony and even Frank had a big laugh.

In life of everyone even Navy Seals, trouble can come to the home front , wars aren't just in other countries. Sometimes they can happen within your own family. Ruffbo , a true dog warrior , once again stood up for his best bud !

barryrodriguez (c) 2015. all rights reserved.

layout by magic merlin paul malolot.