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By all accounts, Sebastian Forza, 34, was an ambitious and dexterous deal-maker with ample contacts in the Argentine pharmaceutical world. He left law school to set up a medical supply firm, which appeared to be thriving. He owned no fewer than six cars and a pair of high-powered motorcycles. He lived with his wife and son in a gated community. He was tall, slim, broad-shouldered and an impeccable dresser.

"Baby-faced, with blond hair and blue eyes," is how his wife, Solange Bellone, described him to the Argentine daily Clarin. "He cared a lot about how he looked."

There was a dark side, however. Forza was deeply in debt. He was a serial check bouncer. At one point he was investigated for illegal trafficking in prescription drugs. He complained of threats from ex-associates.

And now he's dead, along with the two partners with whom he met at the Wal-Mart.

A phalanx of investigators is trying to untangle Forza's possible dealings with the ephedrine trade. One line of inquiry: Whether he was an intermediary in the purchase of failing Argentine drug concerns whose names and import licenses could then be used to order ephedrine from Asia.

Police are also focusing on Forza's relationship with another Argentine pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Luis Marcelo Tarzia, who is in custody here.

Tarzia, 61, was arrested July 18 along with nine Mexican suspects at a suburban estate that police say was a clandestine methamphetamine lab. The lab, officials say, was a wholly owned subsidiary of Mexican gangs. The Mexican suspects were all reportedly linked to the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

In statements to police, Tarzia has acknowledged knowing Forza but denied any links to the ephedrine commerce. He said he believed the Mexicans were in the leather-curing business.

On Aug. 7, Forza, along with partners Damian Ferron and Leopoldo Bina, met with two men and a woman, as yet unidentified, in a cafe outside the Wal-Mart, police say. The victims apparently believed that a new deal had been struck. They drove off to celebrate.

"They left with the illusion that something was promised to them," Forza's widow said on Argentine television. "They were with the wrong people at the wrong time."

Six days later, their bullet-riddled bodies were found in a ditch along a highway. Forza had been shot seven times. Another victim's ear had been cut off -- an apparent message, its exact meaning unclear.