Business Overview (Tampico)

Step 1: About five of us chip in money and/or labor in equal value to repair and refurbish a 35-40' Bone Yard sailboat. This sailboat is owned in five 20% shares.

Step 2: Blackhearted Pirate Lee gets her 6-pak license.

Step 3: Pirate Ronald designs and builds a torpedo-shaped underwater metal detector.

Step 4: One Neo-Swashbuckler develops a relationship with a small village in Mexico on the Gulf coast between Tampico and Veracruz. We find a safe place to dock a sailboat at this village and also find a trustworthy local that will carry out activities for us in exchange for fees. Among the activities will be that this person will find a source for Macaws and Parrots that can be purchased inexpensively.

Step 5: We offer "adventure and diving sails" for small groups in two-week sails to and from our village in Mexico from either Corpus Christi or Galveston. These trips will include stops at places where the metal detector indicates the location of metal. When getting a license for this activity we claim that we are not treasure hunters,but are supporting adventure diving and tourism. We develop a brochure for these adventure/diving/sailing expeditions and distribute the brochures to travel agents. We require bookings to be at least one month in advance.

Step 6: Customers on the adventure sail are made aware of the metal detector, diving and stop in Mexico, but are told nothing about the birds.

Step 7: The Swashbucklers who own the refurbished wooden boat create a partial false floor in the cabin which includes several shoe-box sized compartments that could house unconcious birds.

Step 8: We identify one Neo-Swashbuckler who becomes an expert on Mayan relics. We use our connection in Mexico to look for Mayan relics for sale (in addition to finding the source for birds). We provide a digital camera and internet access to the Mexican connection. He or she sends us pictures of the relics and we make business decisions based on the picture and the knowledge of the swashbuckling Mayan relic expert.

Step 9: When we start out with the group of customers we get to know them and inform them that we will not squeal if they keep anything they find along the way. Once we get them to agree we know they are corrupt so we can inform them about our bird smuggling.

Step 10: We commission Frank to create an alcohol concoction that can be used as a spray mist that will render the birds unconcious.

Revenue: Revenue from the adventure sailors will divided as follows:

Blackhearted Pirate Lee: 30%
Boat owners: 25%
Pirate Ronald (metal detector rental): 10%
Crew #1 (most experienced:(15%)
Crew #2: 10%
Crew #3: 10%

Revenue on birds will be divided fairly between the investors,sellers, the boat owners, Frank and crew of the vessel after theMexican connection is paid and the cost of the birds is subtracted. Revenue from the Mayan relics will be divided between the investors,the Mayan expert, the seller, boat owners and the crew off the vessel.

Step 11: Once a regular revenue stream is established, we will begin to take some of the profits to create a fund to be used to purchase some minor acreage near the Mexican village and build an aviary.

PLEASE GIVE ME INPUT ABOUT THIS PLAN. IT CAN AND WILL BE MODIFIED.

One piratical aspect to this devious plan is that we will secretly monitor the sites where the divers have finds. We will act uninterested when they bring up a few pieces of eight, but we will record the GPS location so that we can return later.We can take turns being crew under Blackhearted Pirate Lee as we have time or vacation.

The birds would only be rendered unconcious for the time that we arewithin a few miles of the Texas-Mexico border. Possessing the birds off the coast of Mexico is not illegal. The bird cages could be faked as "crab traps" if we are stopped while the birds are asleep.