Blitzed at the Border (Full Episode) | To Catch a Smuggler

[♪ suspenseful music playing] -Okay. -The shipment's coming in from deep inside of Mexico. Not, not from the border. And it's going, I think it's going all the way to Miami. He was surprised that I was sending him to X-ray. Like he has never gone or, he wasn't expecting to be sent to X-ray. [siren] -There's only a few boxes on the front, and by "a few," I mean like two, maybe three. Why would you have just a couple of small boxes at the front of a, of a trailer? A full-sized trailer. That's gonna have to go in and be looked at. [♪ theme music playing] -We have a suspicious package. Please do not allow traffic until we call you back. Thank you. -10-4. You got it. [honking] [sirens] -At this point, as you can see, this whole area is cordoned off. The fire department has an Incident Commander on site. The bomb squad, they'll make an assessment and then we'll take it from there. -Yeah. Thank you. -That officer that's walking up there right now, he's gonna take some images using an X-ray system that they have. And once they get that, they're gonna have to bring it back and get it developed inside their mobile, mobile unit. So it does have a battery in it. -It's got a signature in the back? Okay, hold on. Let's do this. -Which way? -Yeah. Yeah. -It's all clear. -We really appreciate you guys coming out here. So the art, it turned out to be nothing. But, uh, it can be a little scary. Yeah, we're all clear. We can open up again. All right? Yes, ma'am. Now that the bomb squad has given us an all-clear, this shipment is gonna be ready to be released here pretty soon. We'll have some conversations with the importer of how he can assist us in the future if he continues to import this type of material. Our job as frontline officers is we need to make sure that everything is coming into the country and it's safe. -Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. Where are you guys coming from? -Atlanta's one of the biggest transit hubs of the United States. What'd you guys do while you were there? -Sightseeing. -A lot of pyramids. A lot of museums. - Went sightseeing? All right, have a good day. -Thank you. 65% of the passengers that come in here internationally, go somewhere else. Sir. [in Spanish] Passport? You live here? - Okay. Do you have another flight going there? -Okay, all right. Have a good day. Go straight down this way. [Officer Pacheco] Most of the drugs that are here in Atlanta, they're distributed throughout the United States. So we look at good routes. Usually, we're not busting down the big cartels. We're looking at single passengers. These are my, my last few days actually working here at the port. I'm kind of like taking the step to another direction, going to a field office. The equivalent to a civilian where it'll be corporate. Where you're running more programs that influence the ports. So I wanna work a little extra hard to be more successful, to go out with a bang. Young lady, can I see your passport, please? You're going to Virginia? -Who lives there? -Okay. How long are you gonna be staying for? -You've been here before? -First time? -Yeah. [Officer Pacheco] All right. Come with me this way. We're gonna go through your bags real quick, okay? I'll take this one for you. So there's two reasons why I like her. One, said she was coming for her first time and I can see that she actually was here last trip. And then, also her bag. Bright purple. I tell you how many times we hit on purple bags? That's the ones I like more. -Because it's the cheapest thing in the store. Nobody wants a purple bag. So they buy ten of them, load 'em up, and say, "Oh, you're going? Here, take this bag." More than you, more than you know. Okay, all of these bags are yours? [Officer Pacheco] Everything inside belongs to you? So you said you're coming to stay with your nephew? -Godson. How old's your godson? -How long has he lived here? -Oh, yeah? Who paid for your trip to come? -I smell it. -Food items is a, is a big concealment. We've seen stuff hidden in a lot of places. Anything with powder, any kind of canned goods, any kind of food item, any kind of perishables. If you think about it, it's been done. Who's doing the cooking? -Ah. You come to visit and you gotta cook? When my mom comes to visit, she don't wanna cook. -Ah. What's your favorite dish to make with curry? -Yeah? You're gonna make some while you're here? Ah, you're gonna spoil everybody. Everything seem legit. Can you close it up for me, please, sir? Thank you. You have kids? [Officer Pacheco] Where are your kids? -So I went to Chicago. -You went to Chicago? -Yes. So it's not your first time? Okay. Okay. She kinda like, told me why she was here last time. I guess it kinda slipped her mind. Here's your passport. [Officer Pacheco] Okay. -Stay warm. We didn't find any contraband, nothing that wasn't allowed, so we let her go. That's it. On to the next flight. [Agent Nick] We're going out to the City Heights area. Do a little bit of a directed patrol, right? Under Operation Fastball. We looked at some of the overdose data. It looks like that area has a fair amount of overdoses going on, so I think it's a good place to do a little bit of surveillance. Getting the word out that there's resources and then also trying to stop some criminal activity, stop some drug smuggling activity. Any questions? All right. We're probably one of the largest task forces in San Diego County. We're made up of a handful of different agencies. We target areas throughout the county that, essentially, there's either like a lot of drug activity going on. And we're just trying to see if we can make something happen. In San Diego, it is fairly simple for people to come by illicit fentanyl. We have a very strong, steady supply of it from Mexico. -Oh, jackpot. -It's fentanyl. -Our goal is to limit the number of fentanyl overdoses And we see something that a lot of places don't see. What we see is we see a lot of people who are, essentially, smuggling for themselves. If I'm a drug user, I can purchase fentanyl in Mexico. So I think that is accelerating the fentanyl problem, specifically in San Diego. And the end result is, is overdose deaths. Sometimes with these street operations, it's just kind of the nature of, of the beast, right? Just sitting out here, seeing what people are up to. [♪ suspicious music playing] I kinda just wanna see what this dude in the gray sweater is up to, 'cause he definitely handed that, that guy in the jacket there something. We'll see where gray sweater guy goes, what he's doing. [Agent Nick] What's up, man? You got that foil in your hand. What are you doing? [Agent Nick] You dropped it right there, dude. [Agent Nick] Well, I didn't say fentanyl. Okay, do me a favor. Just turn around real quick. Can you put your hands behind your back? -Okay, you're not under arrest. I'm just gonna check for any weapons, okay? -Okay, relax, dude. Relax. [Agent Nick] All right. Well, you can have that. It's California, man. All right. Thank you, sir. So, do me a favor. Have a seat. Before you go, we work for a team called the Fentanyl Abatement and Suppression Team. So our job is to try and, and stop fentanyl problems This right here is, is an outreach card. If you or anybody you know has a problem with fentanyl, all of this stuff over here is resources. It's phone numbers you can call, it's websites you can go to. And they can do things like get people housing, temporary housing. They can do things like harm reduction, stuff like Naloxone, fentanyl test strips, stuff like that, okay? So hang on to this, and you are free to go. Thanks for being cool with us for a little bit. -All right? And no more burnt tinfoil, dude. [Agent Nick] All right? We took the opportunity to give him a little bit of resources and that's it. So, he's free to go. -Oh, yeah, absolutely. -It looks like there's three people just kinda sitting here in front of the store. They're just kinda digging around in their stuff and talking to each other. And it looks like one of the guys is maybe handing a piece of paper over to the female there on the left. Hey, I just saw a hand-to-hand. Okay, guys, we got IDs? -You don't have one? Okay. Can you hand me that little piece of paper, my dude? [Agent Nick] You said there's a little bit of meth in there? -All right. And is this what you handed him? [Agent Nick] Yeah? Okay. And the rest of the meth is in your purse? -Yeah? Okay. I saw you take it out, that's why I'm asking, you know? Is there anything else in your purse that you shouldn't have? -Okay. Is it okay if I look and make sure? [Agent Nick] Okay. [Agent Nick] It looks like methamphetamine. [Agent Nick] Have you guys been arrested before? -Okay, you do have a warrant? Can you stand up real quick for me? Can you put your hands behind your back? Just 'til we figure out what's going on. So far, we have a little bit of the, what I'm fairly certain is meth. I saw her hand that to him. And then we also have the ball of methamphetamine in her wallet there, so. We'll do some records checks. [radio beeps] Go ahead. -10-4. Thanks. I'll be back on primary. Black sweater has a armed-and-dangerous parole warrant. He's taking a ride to central. The female here, she's gonna end up taking a ride to jail for the furnishing of meth. That gentleman there, the one that we saw her hand the meth to, it's a user amount, so he'll end up just getting a citation. When it comes to F.A.S.T. and how we attack fentanyl kind of on this full spectrum, some days we go after the, large bulk vehicle loads of, you know, thousands of pills, hundreds of pounds. And some days, we're out here chasing, you know, grams. Now that drug use is what's causing people to die. So they're all kinda equally important, um, when it comes to trying to stop overdose deaths, when it comes to trying to stop, uh, this cycle of addiction and drug use in our communities. So, successful so far. -How are you doing? -You two together? -Family? [Officer Pacheco] Here you go. All right. Just go straight down. You're fine. This flight just came from Kingston, Jamaica. Jamaica is a hotbed for narcotics. Come through. I'm looking for people who either have unexplained travel, uh, short trips, a lot of trips. If we see anything that stands out for us, we're gonna be taking them, we're gonna be escorting them down, and we're gonna be going through their bags downstairs. Hello. How are you? -You live here or are you coming for a visit? -How long will you be staying? -Where are you gonna be staying? -And how long are you gonna stay with her? -How long are you -How long did you stay the last time you were here? -All right. Just do me a favor, come this way. She seemed super nervous, snapping her lip a lot. Every question I asked her, she was pausing, couldn't have good, direct eye contact. So we're about to grab her bags and see if there's anything interesting. All right. Okay. You have no other bags? That's it? -Oh, okay. Short trip. -You stayed in Atlanta? [Officer Pacheco] And how long did you stay for? -How long ago? -Two years ago? -Only two weeks? And you stayed for how long? -The last time you were here. -Now and then, you know, we come into people who are coming to visit the U.S. and sometimes their intentions aren't just to visit. They may be coming here to work. Okay. So was it two weeks or was it more than two weeks? As long as you're honest, you'll be fine. -About, about how long? -A month? Or like three months? -Are you sure? She had traveled here before, and she had, uh, a little bit of a lengthy stay. She wasn't really forthcoming with it right off the bat. Okay. Here's your purse. He's gonna take you over to another room real quick, all right? Some other officers are gonna have a conversation with you, all right? My main mission is looking for narcotics, looking for bad players and so, we'll have the guys over there talk to her. And if all she did was come to visit, she's gonna be good to go. But if she came here and she was, she was working, then it's probably gonna be a problem. Her visa will probably be canceled and she'll be sent back to her country. So the next load is the next passenger, you know, so. We're gonna move on and just keep on working our other flights. [thunder] [Officer Torres] Hello, sir. -When it comes to processing the buses, as soon as they arrive here at the port of entry, every single traveler exits the bus. And once their bus is examined, they go ahead and wait in a waiting area. Z-portal, are you up? [officer] 10-4. [Officer Torres] We have a bus heading your way. Every single bus that passes through this port of entry is scanned by the X-ray machine. That side... I see, uh, some square objects, uh, located from the middle of the, the bus floorboard area, all the way towards the end of the bus. And that's definitely not supposed to be there. [Officer Dierlam] There seems to be, like, some anomalies underneath the seats, so we're just right now, at this point, accessing areas that we can access without damaging the vehicle. [Officer Torres] Let's look in there. We've actually had several buses that have had narcotics. Ranges from cocaine to meth. We've found them in the floorboards, on the side of the buses, within the walls. If anything, we're looking up higher, right? [Officer Dierlam] Yeah. -So I just wanna get a better check underneath. [Officer Torres] Now I'm trying to get these screws to get loosened up, but they're pretty tight on here. -It's the support where the, where the, where the seats go. [Officer Solis] Yeah. Here's your anomaly. -So, the anomaly is the actual support on the seats, that are made differently than we're used to. -Oh, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. -You have it here. You have it here. There's nothing here, here, here, and here. It's only there. So we're good to go. We're done. The bus will get all the passengers in and get it down the road, so they don't have to wait anymore. -You can't get them all, right? So, you just keep trying until a narcotic seizure pops up on you. [Officer Pacheco] My last day coming to work here at the airport. I'm not going that far away. -We've been together for a few years, before this port. Talking about in New York. He got stuck between two pillars, and that was the funniest day. -Oh, she's taken... She's still gonna bring that up. -I have a picture. So funny. -Seven years ago, she still talks about it to this day. [Officer Evans] Yes. It's so funny. -♪ Memories ♪ -Hopefully, today is the day we, uh, get a load. We're waiting on a flight coming from Ethiopia that actually stops in Dublin. It's a good flight for us. It's a big transit route for a lot of the other, Middle East and all the other countries over there. The main thing we're looking for is we're looking for narcotics. Most likely, we're looking for heroin. How are you? How are you doing today? -Traveling by yourself? All right, there you go. How are you doing, young man? -Traveling alone? -Okay. What countries did you visit on this trip? -Any other countries? -You traveled. -On this trip? -So how long were you gone from the United States altogether? -Oh, okay. Okay. Just do me a favor. Just hang out over here for me, please? Thank you. We have six people up here. So we're about to head down for further examination. Follow. This one guy, he went, like, all the way to China. There's a hot route from Ethiopia going to China for drugs. Also, they are producers of fentanyl too, right? So if he was in China, what was he doing in China? Right over here, sir. Put your bags right up here for me, please. Okay. All of these bags are yours, right? So you said you were in China. How long were you there? [Officer Pacheco] 12 days. What were you doing in China? -The World Expo? Okay. So which part of China did you go to? -What kind of expo was it? -The Canton Fair? What's this? -What kind of powder? [Agent Matt] We're scheduled to meet with a, uh, known area drug trafficker, who's scheduling to meet with an undercover. And do a deal for fentanyl pills. We're, uh, getting ready to go get set up. In today's specific operation, this particular offender has reached out to an undercover agent who is posing as a significant drug trafficker. The undercover agent will actually be the one who's furnishing the pills to this individual, who is supposed to show up with a large amount of cash. This type of reverse operation is one of the more dangerous that law enforcement and HSI use. But sometimes the only way to lure out those most prolific drug traffickers is to insert themselves into their supply chain at a relatively high level. We have this particular individual identified and engaged in undercover communications to meet at a parking lot. Hey, Jim. Go ahead and radio in when you guys are set. -Once the undercovers have heard from the subject that he's on his way and he's agreed to the meeting location, we anticipate he'll arrive here in a white Alfa Romeo with possibly one other individual. And we will take it from there. [Agent Matt] 10-4. All right, location is hot and the subject is en route. There's a white Alfa Romeo. It's occupied with two adult males. Looks like it's backing in. [agent] The driver looks like S1. The U.C. said they're in two cars with one other individual in a Mercedes. [agent] Looks like it's occupied by one. [agent] Yeah, that's it. [agent] All right, it just, it looks like they're parking. [Agent Matt] Driver from the Alfa Romeo is out, walking towards the direction of the U.C. wearing a black hoodie with, it looks like, a white hat. [Agent Matt] The passenger from the Alfa Romeo is stationary for now. So there's one individual in the Mercedes now, one individual in the Alfa Romeo, and one individual's interacting with the U.C. Let's just hold and see what unfolds. The U.C. negotiated a price and we're looking at, approximately a 50,000-pill deal. [Agent Matt] Door of the Alfa Romeo is open. The passenger is out. They're staring right at us. Hold on a second. Break, break, break. Put all the cameras down. Here. [radio chatter] -He's coming around your side. -Did he? [Agent Matt] S3 is getting in the Alfa Romeo. S2 is in the Mercedes. [Agent Matt] Looks like S1 is back, looking down at his phone. Possibly texting. -They, uh, burned surveillance. [Agent Matt] We're gonna move just so we're outta here. So the U.C.'s gonna depart the scene and reestablish communications with the, uh, subjects in the hopes that we can get a, uh, another location for a meet. As with anything, with these undercover operations, things change and what you plan for to happen doesn't always happen. So we just gotta be flexible. [Agent Matt] That sounds like both vehicles have met back up in the, in roughly in the similar area. -Our undercover was able to make communications with the main subject. And seems like they've made an agreement to move forward with the drug exchange. [Agent Matt] So the U.C.'s discussing the drug exchange. -That's bowling balls. We normally process anywhere between 2,200 to 2,600 trucks a day from any part of Mexico. -They usually bring produce, automotive parts, and parts for appliances. [Officer Marroquin] What do you have? -The tractor looks good, the floor and the trailer, but when we come over here to the reefer we have this anomaly here. -Yeah, send it into a dock, you know? -Have it looked at. -'Cause I'd like to do a better close inspection. -Okay. Find out what's really there. Give me one minute. I'm gonna use our Gemini equipment. I just wanna see what this stuff is. This guy has got a bunch of stuff that looks kinda suspicious, so we're gonna run some tests to, to see if any of this stuff comes back positive for narcotics. It's starch. [Officer Pacheco] Okay, you can pack that up. All right, sir. -Why are you so nervous? No need to be nervous. We're just checking your bags. -So this was a package that someone gave him there. -Oh. -To ship to someone here. That's, like, his whole story and I'm just, like. -It's a suspect thing. It could be meth. I mean, they're making meth over there now. -We're gonna be testing it to see what it is. [Officer Pacheco] Even though all the stuff that we tested in his bag is coming back negative, we have to follow our instincts and what we're seeing in front of us. This guy is really nervous. He really doesn't have good, explained reasons for why he's traveling with this stuff. He doesn't know where it's going to. -We're gonna be conducting a pat-down to make sure you have nothing concealed on your body, okay? [Officer Pacheco] The story is not making much sense to us, so we're gonna take him inside, we're gonna search his body and talk to him a little more in-depth to find out what's going on with him. -They're just searching his body to make sure there's nothing dangerous or anything hidden on his body, real quick. -All right. How are you doing? -You're doing okay. You live here in the U.S., right? Tell me about your trip. How long have you been gone from the U.S.? -How long have you been outside of the United States? -So your family lives in Chad? -But you're not from Chad? -You're from, originally, from where? -Sudan? -Okay. And why is your family in Chad? Did they leave? [Officer Pacheco] Refugees? How many years in Chad? Oh, so a long time? -So you went back to go spend time with your wife? [Officer Pacheco] Are you trying to get her to come here? -Okay. Let's talk. I think he's good to go. He's not, like, usually they're gonna look away or they're gonna, like, like, I think he looked pretty chill. -Looks pretty chill. As long as you're good with it, I'm good with it. Everything that he's telling me seemed, you know, pretty straightforward. As far as narcotics go, he's clear for us. We, we have, we have no other interest in him. [Officer Laska] Are you good? [Officer Evans] Uh-hmm. [Officer Pacheco] This is my last interview inside the room. Starting Monday, I mean, I'm moving on to another position. -You can pick up all your stuff and I'll show you now the exit, how to exit out. [Officer Pacheco] Always a good day when my guys are all working together. Everybody's working for the same common goal, right? We're all here trying to, trying to find something, find the next smuggler. I'm one of those guys who's been doing it the longest here. So I think it's, it's good to have someone to lean on to, right? Whether I'm here or not, they can always lean on me. It's not a problem. [Agent Matt] Block traffic, please. Let's just get these cars parked on the side and then we'll get them out. We'll get towing arranged. All right. Pat these guys down and get them cleaned up. So, both cars were stopped. The white Mercedes and the white Alfa Romeo. Both cars have evidence within them, so we're gonna arrange for tow for the two vehicles. As you can see down here, we have the proceeds from the uh, drug transaction on the floorboard here of the Mercedes, in this kinda zipper bag. The drugs are at a separate, secure location and those are gonna be transported down for processing. Go ahead and pull up the transport vehicle and we'll walk 'em both up to you. The suspects in custody here are gonna be taken for interviews, processing, and eventual booking into jail. We're headed to the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The plan is to start gathering and processing all of the evidence so we can make sure that the U.S. Attorney's Office gets everything they need to prosecute these offenders. -Right now let me check, uh, the reefer unit. Just to see if there's any tampering. If it's loaded, they might add like a GPS tracking device on the, on the unit itself. But in this case, everything looks normal. There's no tampering, no GPSs around. The anomalies are in this specific area. So I'm just gonna make some holes just to see if, if we hit something. [drilling] There's a crystalized powder. I don't know if it's a, a part of the, the Styrofoam. But we need to remove the paneling so we can inspect the actual unit from the inside. Oh, yeah. It's loaded. [Officer Martinez] Turns out it's quite a load, huh? [Officer Marroquin] Yes. This is the last, the last one. -We think, because of the makeup of the packages, might be cocaine, but we're not sure. So we have to verify what we have here. So we've got the narcotic in a secured container for our own protection. It takes very little for this Gemini to detect. It doesn't have to put just a few grains on there really and this thing will... analysis in progress. Cocaine. It's positive for cocaine. -Weighing 28.88 kilos. The subject was escorted to Hidalgo Port of Entry for our withdrawal. We're gonna be seizing his tractor, the trailer, and he's gonna be sent back to Mexico. For us, doing our job is a feeling of, um, of safety for the kids. To get those drugs off the street, it feels really good. [Agent Matt] These are the fentanyl pills that the defendant took possession of. Now, they're needed for evidence to show that in fact during this law enforcement operation, the defendant took possession of these specific uh, pills and he intended to take them and distribute them. These particular drugs were previously seized during a separate law enforcement operation and we're repurposing them for use to get more criminals. We find that using real drugs with real markings, real packaging, uh, saves us the, you know, the need to doctor up something fake uh, when we can use the bona fide thing during undercover operations. This was the bag that was recovered from the vehicle. We're gonna go ahead and remove the funds that were recovered. Ultimately, money that's seized during the, the process of a criminal investigation is held by Customs and Border Protection. And then it goes through an administrative judicial process to determine whether the money will ultimately be forfeited after the investigation is over. I counted $13,040. Through asset forfeiture, we were able to seize vehicles. The value of the cars is still yet to be determined but we're looking at over a six-figure seizure today alone. Today, we were fortunate to be able to take significant drug traffickers off the streets who traffic fentanyl pills in at least the tens of thousands. Our unique location here on the southern border, and one of the busiest drug trafficking corridors in the world, means that some of the most significant players operate here. Those significant offenders are really the reason why fentanyl is as pervasive as it is. So by taking out that critical link in the chain, we're able to hopefully have an impact. Not only just locally, but nationally on this crisis. Captioned by Cotter Media Group.