Cracking Down on Illegal Operations | To Catch a Smuggler S7 MEGA Episode

[♪ suspenseful music] [Officer Van Bever] Hola, Señor. All the stuff in the vehicle, who's it for? [Officer Van Bever] Okay. [Officer Van Bever] Uh-huh. [Officer Van Bever] So Mexico wouldn't let the car in, but they let him in? [Officer Van Bever] Yeah, and the problem is, is if he has anything illegal in it, it's on you. All right, so just come on out. -I got... -Which bag is yours? [clanking] [Officer Van Bever] He's claimed the two bags. Everything else is, including the vehicle, is the other guy's, who was in Mexico. Right now we're just trying to determine if there's anything illicit in the car. Is that your bag? [Officer Ziemba] Everything inside this bag belongs to you? [Ziemba] Are you carrying anything for anybody else? Any drugs, narcotics? Now's the opportunity to tell me, man. [theme music plays]. [Officer Ziemba] I'm serious. [Traveler] No, I'm serious too. [Officer Ziemba] Do you have any drugs or narcotics or paraphernalia inside this bag? [Traveler] In, in the bag? No. I'm telling you, all I have is my clothes. [Officer Ziemba] If I find anything I will assess you a $500 penalty, do you understand? [Traveler] Well, yeah. I mean, I don't have anything that's like. [Officer Ziemba] Okay, sir. [Officer Van Bever] So everything else, which one is, oh, that is yours? -Yep. -Okay. [Officer Ziemba] Paraphernalia. Just come with me. I just asked you if everything inside this bag belonged to you and this was your bag. [Officer Ziemba] It was right here. I asked you several times. [Officer Ziemba] Well, this is what I found. [Officer Van Bever] Who put your bag in the car? You or him? [Officer Ziemba] All right, so I'm gonna have you place your hands behind your back. [seagulls cawing] [Agent Gutierrez] Okay, Sosa. [Agent Sosa] What up? -Emora. -Yup. [Agent Gutierrez] You guys are gonna be the agents. We are the Fajardo Marine Unit. We'll be conducting some training for, uh, some new agents. We're gonna go through the tactics, okay? [Agent] Uh-huh. [Agent Gutierrez] Systematically work through a problem. The most important thing first and then we start moving to the other things. If mistakes are done, that's what we're here for, okay? Just let the training flow. It's important because when you have a situation where it's hasty, you don't have a whole lot of time to react or think. The training should take over. [Agent] Coming up. Coming up. [engines rumbling] [sirens] [Agent] Let me see your hands. Let me see your hands. [Agent] Put your hands up. [Agent] Keep walking. Keep walking. [Agent Gutierrez] Air and Marine Operations is a branch of Customs and Border Protection. [Agent] Keep turning. Keep turning. Keep turning. [Agent Gutierrez] Our job is to prevent drug trafficking into the United States or its territories. We patrol the skies. We patrol the maritime border. [Agent] Sit down on your ankle. [Agent] Move it forward. [Agent] Go, go, go. I said, "Go." [Agent] I got him. [Agent Gutierrez] There's a lot of information shared between us and Homeland Security Investigations. They help us gain intel on possible loads coming towards Puerto Rico. [Agent] Ready? Go. [Agent] Vessel clear. [Agent Gutierrez] Okay, out of role. Let's rewind. [Agent] Hands. [Agent] Move. [Agent] Okay, don't move. [Agent Gutierrez] Out of role. Out of role. [Agent] You guys did a much better job commanding. These searches were great. [Agent Gutierrez] Being a marine agent here in the Caribbean, it takes a certain kind of work ethic. There's always something going on. We could be patrolling and out of the blink of an eye, we might be en route to interdict a vessel loaded with narcotics. That's why we train the way we do, because any little mistake could be fatal. [Agent Gutierrez] Yup. Coming up. Coming up. [engine rumbling] [airport announcements] [Chief Augustino] Can I check your passport? Are you coming from Portugal? [Chief Augustino] Playing ball? [Chief Augustino] Dulles is a unique environment, because we have a wide range of different cultures and people arriving from all sorts of different areas of the world. We also are a big airport in the national capital region for dignitaries, diplomats, and other high-profile individuals. [Chief Officer Singh] Can I see your passport, please? [Traveler] Sure. [Chief Officer Singh] Which country are you traveling from? [Chief Officer Singh] How long were you in Nepal? [Chief Officer Singh] Okay. [Chief Augustino] That really doesn't change the way we inspect people. Everyone's a subject to the same laws and I'm gonna treat a high-ranking diplomat the same as any other passenger coming off a flight. [Chief Augustino] Can I see your passport? Where are you coming from? [Traveler] From Morocco. [Chief Augustino] Morocco. All right, how long were you gone? [Traveler] Like a month and five days. [Chief Augustino] What was the purpose for your trip? [Traveler] Vacation, see my family. [Chief Augustino] I've been with CBP for the past 15 years. For the past four years I've been a chief. I can sit behind a desk and do my job, but I like to get out, actually do the roving, do the enforcement operations, and lead by example. I don't like to ask officers to do anything that I'm not willing to do myself. [Officer Epstein] Colombia is pretty much done already. [Chief Augustino] Oh, really? [Officer Epstein] Yeah. Today, I'm roving with Chief Augustino. [Chief Augustino] Grab them. [Officer Epstein] Hey, how are you? Where are you traveling from? [Officer Epstein] Bolivia, all right. How long were you there? [Officer Epstein] It helps knowing that we have chiefs that have the officers' backs and are always watching us to make sure things are being done safely. Make sure that we're being safe when it comes to handling possible narcotics. Any fruits or vegetables? What about coca leaf? [Officer Epstein] That's what I figured, you wouldn't. But I still, I still gotta ask, all right? Thank you for your service. Have a good day, okay? [Officer Epstein] All right, how long were you in Bolivia? [Officer Epstein] Ten days in Bolivia? Okay. What do you have in your bags with you today? any coca leaf? [Officer Epstein] I'm gonna take a quick look at that, okay? So come and bring your bags with me. [Chief Augustino] Coca leaves are a common item coming from Bolivia and Peru. It's generally used as a medicinal item in their culture. Where they come from, it, it's not a big deal. Unfortunately, in the U.S. it is prohibited. [Officer Epstein] All right. [zipper] Take one step back for me, okay? What's this? [Officer Epstein] Some plant? [Officer Epstein] What do you use the plant for? [Epstein] For some friend. So you don't know what it is? [Officer Epstein] I'm gonna check with our agriculture specialists. Can you just come look at something for me really quick? [Agriculture Specialist] This is okay for me. -That's okay? -Yeah. [Chief Augustino] People like to bring different items and, and things from their culture, from their countries. This woman was bringing another plant. Agriculture said that it was fine. It has to be cleared so they can understand what's allowed and what isn't. Let's see what's in here. Aha. Coca leaf. You can't bring this. [Officer Epstein] They told you two pounds? [Officer Epstein] Yeah, so you still can't bring it in. It is a prohibited item here in the U.S., so I legally have to take it. Do you have any more? Am I gonna find any more? [Officer Epstein] That's it? Okay. So, this is coca leaf and it has a very distinct smell to it. They usually brew it for teas. It's very traditional. Here, for U.S. purposes, it's considered a Schedule II analogue. 'Cause technically, you would need a lot of it, but this could technically make cocaine. Can't bring that. [Chief Augustino] You're not in trouble. Yeah, that's what I... [Chief Augustino] But unfortunately, it is an item that's not allowed in the United States. [Chief Augustino] Who did you, who did you ask? [Officer Epstein] The airline? [Chief Augustino] Yeah, the airline's not a great source for U.S. laws, unfortunately. There is available, uh, information on our website though. [Officer Epstein] Oh, energy. [Officer Epstein] I'm gonna give you everything back, okay? So you know not to bring it next time, right? [Officer Epstein] It's okay. Now you know for next trip. She declared it to me and because she declared it we're not gonna charge her a penalty. All right, you have a good day, all right? But now she knows not to bring this even though the airline told her. So maybe she can tell her friends and family, "Don't listen to the airlines. Listen to CBP." [honking] [Officer Van Bever] He's claiming that the guy that he was taking back slipped two pipes in his bag, and went through Mexico Customs. Don't know if it's true or not, but now I'm searching all the bags to make sure there's no drugs elsewhere. When you have this stuff on you, it's yours, unfortunately. Whether it is or not, that's the way it looks. And he's the only one here. Oh. These are little baggies. These baggies usually are used to sell drugs in. I was going through this pencil case and at the bottom it had these. [Officer Ziemba] That goes with the rocks I found on him in the cell. Inside the cell we did a personal search. We did find a baggie with paper. It looked like a white rocky substance. Until it's tested, we're unable to clarify what that is. [K9 Officer] All clear. [Officer Keefe] Any other narcotics? [Officer Van Bever] Nope. [Officer Keefe] That doesn't look like just paper to me. I'm pretty sure that's gonna end up being coke. Nope. Oh, it's meth. I was wrong. Oh, yeah, that's a meth rock. We'll charge him a $500 fine. We'll seize the narcotics and then he will be released. But that lookout will follow him for at least a year, if not, longer. The other individual involved, we're going to attempt to use his information to place a lookout on him as well. [Agent Lebron] Today should be a heavy day for boating activity on the east side of Puerto Rico. So we'll go out there and see if we encounter anything that looks out of place. Do some checks on random boats. And see what we encounter tonight. 2100. 2100. Let us know if you have anything. [Agent Nieves] We're good. [Agent Lebron] 10-4. 10-4. You see lights? [Agent Lebron] I've got it, yeah. I see it right there. We've got a visual contact. [Agent Lebron] Want to check it out? [Agent Berger] We got a contact. They went around the east side of Vieques. Coming from St. Croix. Now we're gonna run and intercept them. [Agent] Light them up? [siren] [Agent Lebron] St. Croix. [Agent Lebron] Okay. [Agent Nieves] That boat came close to St. Croix. Doing about 28 knots, three P.O.B.'s, so we checked the boat since that route is very, uh, common for drug smuggling. This vessel's pretty big. You can fit at least, maybe, two or three persons on this vessel, so we have to check all the compartments. Could be possible contraband, possible human smuggling too, or just illegal fishing. [Agent Lebron] We've conducted a full inspection of the vessel. Subjects were clear and we let them go on their way. [Chief Officer Singh] How are you? Can I see your passport? I've been a CBP officer for about ten and a half years. And nine months ago I became a chief over here at Washington Dulles International Airport. Did you go to India? For one week? What was the purpose? Oh, okay. My style is I lead from the front. Most of the time I'm working with the frontline officers trying to rove. I do not like to sit behind a desk. Any gold products? [Chief Officer Singh] It gives me an opportunity to teach them, uh, how to do the things the right way. And it allows me to polish my previous skills and to, I come and see what the trends are as well. Excuse me, ma'am. Step over here for me. [Chief Officer Singh] Are you bringing any fresh fruits, vegetables, alcohol, tobacco with you? [Traveler] No. Any silver products? Any jewelry? [Chief Officer Singh] No, you're wearing it, but did you buy this over there? [Chief Officer Singh] Nothing? Are you sure? [Singh] Okay, I'm gonna take a look inside your bags, okay? All right, follow me. When they go to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, they bring traditional gold, silver jewelry from there. If you purchase jewelry, you need to declare it and there might be some duty associated with it. So before we start, any money? -Not at all. Any, uh, purchases that you made over there which of the value of those are... -No, no. -Listen to me first. The value of this is more than $800? -No. What is that? Right here. [Traveler] A gift from my, one of my friends. much was it? Do you know? [Traveler] I don't know. Gifts don't have the price. What about this? [Traveler] These are my jewelry that I wear. You took it from here? [Traveler] Yes. Yes. I'm gonna take a quick look inside this purse, okay? [Traveler] Okay. Thank you. So you have some money over here. -Yes. -How much is this? [Traveler] It's, uh, 8,000. 8,000 USD. [Traveler] Yeah. [Chief Officer Singh] You told me you didn't have any money. [Officer Sanchez] Hello. What were you guys doing in Mexico? [Officer Sanchez] Working at a land border, you get to interact with people that live here and there. And you get to hear their stories. And you get to protect your own, like, city. [Officer Whitman] You're such a good officer. Officer Sanchez is very nice. We usually work together a lot. He's more of like my Spanish translator, 'cause I don't really speak Spanish that well. So I use him as, like, I call him my personal Google. [laughing] How long were they in Mexico? [Officer Whitman] Three hours? I walked into his booth one day and he was listening to country music and I was like, "Oh, you listen to country music?" He's like. "Oh, what? Because I'm from down South?" Why are you standing there like a weirdo? Well, that's kind of how we started talking. And then we started hanging out more and more. So we'll see what happens. [Officer Sanchez] What days off do you have next week? Sunday and Friday. [Officer Sanchez] Meeting someone that's another officer? I love it, 'cause I could just vent out to her and she understands me. She understands what I went through and she could help me with any troubles that I have. And also make me a better officer. [Officer Whitman] Huh? What's that? They're his wife's friends? [Officer Whitman] He's going to a party, but it's his friends, wife's friends from work? [Officer Sanchez] His wife's friends from work, yup. Where's his wife? [Officer Whitman] Ask him where in his phone. [Officer Whitman] Yeah, do you see his hands? [Officer Sanchez] Can you run it real quick? [K9 Officer] You want me to run it? [Officer Whitman] Yeah, can you? [K9 Officer] Yeah, send it in. [Officer Whitman] Escort lane one. Escort lane one. [Officer Whitman] His story is really, really shady and he's super, super nervous. [Officer Whitman] Follow him. He couldn't tell me where the party was. Nor on his phone could he pull up like, "This is where we're gonna meet at this time." So I decided to send him to secondary for further inspection. [Officer Diaz] He buys clothes, bundles, used at secondhand shops or at a warehouse and then he takes it back and he sells it in Mexico. That's a normal thing for people coming through here. A lot of people have second hand stores. They come and they buy clothes cheap 'cause it's all used and beat up. And they'll go sell it for money, come back. So there's no suspicion as to where his money came from. [clattering] Hangers? Doesn't look like anything has been tampered with. It's all covered in dust. [K9 Officer] Hup!! [radio chatter] [K9 Officer] Good girl. Come on. Hup! Nothing that time, so it happens. [Officer Diaz] Señor! Nothing was found during the search of the vehicle, so now it'll go through our X-ray here. 2011 Chevy Equinox. [Traveler] Gracias. [Officer] Gracias. [Officer Diaz] Nothing was found during the X-ray or the search. People do get nervous when they talk to us. You don't know what the police in their country do. Sometimes they can be nervous in primary and not be nervous up here in secondary. Sometimes it's the other way around. You have to look at the whole picture of what's in front of you. And I didn't feel there was anything suspicious with that individual. Any other currency? I told them that I... Who, who did you tell? [Traveler] When, when they asked me over there. [Chief Officer Singh] No, no. What about me? When I asked you, what did you tell me? [Traveler] You said that I, did you ask me about the money? -I'm sorry. [Chief Officer Singh] Now, do you know the currency reporting requirements? [Traveler] Yes. If it is over 10,000, then we have to do it. -Exactly. -Yeah, I know that. What is this about? What, what's this receipt? [Traveler] I got a coffee. A cup of coffee, maybe that's the receipt. $19,000 for a cup of coffee? [Traveler] $19,000. It says, "City Bancharampur, and its, no. Taka. [Chief Officer Singh] Taka. [Traveler] I exchanged my ticket for... [Chief Officer Singh] Oh. Okay. [Traveler] It's a taka. It's 107. -It's taka. -Taka. [Chief Officer Singh] All right, so, just letting you know, you were too quick in giving me the answers. That means that you're either not even listening to me or there's something to hide, okay? But the money is okay, everything is okay. You're good to go. So nothing derogatory was found. She knew that she had to report the currency. In all, it was a very good inspection I can say, but I just wanted to make sure that when she was rushing through the exit process that, you know, I'm not missing anything. [Traveler] I'm really trying to be... No, you were fine. [Traveler] Be a very good citizen. [Officer] Thank you. -Thank you. [Agent Lebron] Si, si, si. We'll be safe. We're on the east side of the island and I just got a call from, uh, the west side. They have a possible loaded vessel. [Agent Martinez] Okay. [Agent Martinez] It's gonna be his first load as a supervisor. So, congratulations Ivan. -Good job, man. [Supervisory Agent Pineiro] Early morning, we received a call from our aircraft about a possible target of interest, uh, located close to Mona Island. About 40 miles west of Puerto Rico. We responded. And as soon as the subjects noticed that we were there, they began to flee. It was a brief pursuit and ended up in disabling fire. When we have vessels that don't obey our commands, we deploy warning shots. If they don't stop to the warning shots, then we shoot at the engines with our shotgun and we, we disable them. Anyone give you anything to bring in the bags? [Traveler] No, nothing. [Chief Augustino] Can you open this one real quick? Just, just the top of it. As a chief, we need to know a little bit about everything. We're overseeing an entire operation. So, one minute we may need to be overseeing a case in immigration, the next we may be seeing different agriculture items coming in. [Supervisory Officer Hundal] How are you doing today? How long you was in Ghana? All right. What do we have here? What are you bringing in these bags here? All right, so that, you're only bringing dry fish? Cassava? Okay, any bushmeat? Anything like that? So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a quick look at the, at the food items that you're bringing in, okay? She reported that she has dry fish only. But I got this very distinct smell from the boxes, so there is a high possibility of meat products in it. I'm gonna need some help examining those, uh, food items. There's, like, a very distinct smell coming from the bags. [Hundal] Tell me which one to open, I'll pull it. All of them? Miss, while we're doing the exam can you please not on the phone and stand here. Which items are not good, you can pull them to the side. This is the same thing here. I can smell this one. [groaning] [sighing] [speaking Spanish] Good afternoon. [Officer] Okay. Gracias. [Officer Sanchez] Escort lane nine. [Officer Sanchez] A car came up. When I asked their story, what they were doing in Mexico, she said that she went to the optometrist and then to go eat. And she was like, "But it was nothing bad." I thought it was a little peculiar that she had to state that it was nothing bad. So, I send it to secondary, so they can look more into it. [tapping] [Officer Papa] You can kind of feel a little more solid. [Officer Zubia] Can they get K9 running it? [K9 commands] [Officer Dusharm] Good boy. Ohh! Good boy. Good boy. He alerted to the passenger seat and also the driver seat of the, of the vehicle here. [Officer Zubia] As I'm looking at the vehicle, I can see that there's, uh, anomalies in both driver side and passenger backrest. We'll know once we get the anomalies out and we get everything tested. [Officer Zubia] So, this is something that we've seen quite often out here. Uh, they use kids as a distraction. A lot of people think that we're not gonna search a vehicle because they have minors in the vehicle. We'll go ahead and find out exactly what's in those seats to clear the anomalies that we were seeing on, uh, on the Z-Portal. [Officer Papa] So, it is a female with her two little kids. There was actually a little girl sitting here and then her, I think she was about nine years old, sitting in the far seat. Everything looks like a normal, normal person's car. Um, loaded with personal belongings. So we'll, we'll further inspect the vehicle and see if we can find what those anomalies were. It's right there. You can see the two black bundles? And there's possibly more in there. [Officer Papa] So, here, there's two black bundles with, uh, looks like black electrical tape. So, obviously, that shouldn't be in this backseat here. You can feel there's some more up top. We're gonna test what's in this bundle. And that way we can contact the Homeland Security Investigators. And to see if they want to do what's known as a controlled delivery. So, this would be the NIK kit. If it's a positive reaction for cocaine, it'll turn blue, a pink, or a blue on the bottom and pink floating. They usually pack these in many layers, so it's kind of hard to get in there. So you can see, it looks like it's a white powdery substance. If you see it change blue almost immediately? Cocaine. Now that we have a positive test for properties of cocaine in this bundle, we know that we're gonna seize the vehicle. So, now we're gonna take everything apart. Check the door panels. We're gonna take out the seats. Basically, everything in this vehicle. We're gonna take it apart and make sure we're not missing any contraband. [Officer] There we go. [tearing] [Officer Papa] Pass me those, I'll put them in. We were able to extract, uh, six total bundles from the, from the vehicle. HSI's currently interviewing the subject to see if they're gonna pursue federal prosecution. And her two younger daughters are being picked up by a family member. It feels great to get narcotics off the street. You do feel bad for the kids. They have to see their parents in handcuffs. But, yeah, any time we get one over on the cartels, it's, it's a win for us. It's a win for the public. [cart rattling] [♪ anticipatory music] Here you go. Ma'am, just, just wait right there. We'll give you a chance to repack your bags, okay? It does become a very challenging task touching meat that's packed for a couple of days before it arrives here. And when you open that, with the heat from outside, it built up a different texture and a, and a smell to it. Ma'am is this cooked or uncooked? What kind of meat is this? [Officer Islam] These are cow skin. Cow skin. And these are cow feet. Cow, beef... not allowed. -Okay? You did your part today, you declared. So there is no penalty for you today. But next time, before bringing all this in, go onto the website. We have all the information on there. Where you can see what items you can bring in, what items you cannot. It's called, "Know Before You Go." She's not a habitual offender, so that's why, um, there is no action taken on her. However, the food will be seized and will be, uh, sent for destruction. All right, well, welcome back. [Traveler] Thank you. The favorite part about my job I love is when we open the bags we don't know what's in it. It could be, you know, some nice, fancy clothes. Or it could be like today's exam where we have some meat that's almost rotten and everything and bugs coming out and all. You have to change, you have to adapt, given the situation at that time. So, that's the favorite part. Always active, always on your toes. [Chief Augustino] In 15 years, it never ceases to surprise me the different things we see. And that's why here, at Dulles Airport, we're all one team. We wear the same uniform. We all try to keep an eye on each other and get each other's back. [Agent] They had a lot of different bricks packed together. And these bales are really big. I believe that we have, like, 35 bricks each. So, we're talking about 300 kilograms of cocaine on this load. [Special Agent Luis] I'm taking a little sample from one of the bricks. Putting them into the, uh, narc test pouch. Make sure the powder's all the way at the bottom. Break the first one. Shake it off and it turns blue. [Agent Martinez] 317 bricks. Today was a great, great day. We were able to take out of the street 317 bricks of cocaine. Little by little, we're winning this war. We're here to do whatever we need to do in order to keep the streets safe. That's our main goal and today, this is a good victory for us, for law enforcement. [beeping, honking] [shouting, honking] [CBP Officer] Huh. There are some pots in the back. It's from the Dominican Republic. We'll do an X-ray on it. [CBP Officer] Okay. [CBP Officer] It just looks funky. [CBP Officer] All right. There we go. [Officer Jovani] Our X-ray operator might have spotted an anomaly in flower pots. So we're gonna break down this pallet here to see if we can spot what he saw. [drilling] All right. White powder. [♪ theme music plays] Trying to get it into the test kit. This'll let us know if the substance that we got tests positive for any type of narcotic. We want to see a blue and then a pink over blue. All right, it's positive for cocaine. Awesome. Now that we have our initial testing positive for cocaine, we're gonna go ahead and contact HSI. They'll continue on the investigation and possibly get some arrests. [CBP Officer] We've got 12 pallets. They all have at least one of those large pots in it. Some of them have two. It's a great find. Good work, guys. [CBP Officer] How are you doing, sir? [CBP Officer] How was your trip? Where'd you end up going? [Supervisory Officer O'Neil] We're at the Philadelphia On a daily basis, we can see anywhere between 3,000 and 6,000 passengers. Whether they're a U.S. citizen returning from a trip or somebody coming for business or pleasure. [Officer De La Cruz] Four flights came in. That's a lot of, uh, flights. On each side. Keep your head on a swivel. That's why I like to stay in a choke area, where everybody kind of filters to me. You get a feel for the floor, like the-the type of traveler that's coming in. How are you guys doing today? Good, good, good. [Officer De La Cruz] Yeah, you just exit and stay to the right. -All right. One of the things that we do is to scrub all flights that are coming into the United States via computer. Look at their backgrounds, where they're coming from, travel patterns, to see if there's any red flags. are you doing today? [Traveler] Good. [CBP Officer] Where are you coming from? [Traveler] Barcelona. [Officer De La Cruz] The corporations that's smuggling the-the drugs, they usually pick people that don't have backgrounds, that don't have any red flags. So one of the biggest things that we do is rove. [CBP Officer] You made any purchases abroad? No food items or anything that you're bringing back? [CBP Officer] Are you traveling with anything over $10,000? [Officer De La Cruz] We're looking for different behavior. So if it's a walk, if it's different bags, people that walk around me, look away from me. [CBP Officer] You travel anywhere else? Well, welcome back. You'll definitely, 100%, be able to detect if something's off. How are you doing, sir? Do you have your passport, please? Where are you coming from today? [Officer De La Cruz] Are you bringing back any cash today? [Officer De La Cruz] Any food in the bags? Any groceries? [Officer De La Cruz] Anything? Okay. No problem. You take care, all right? This guy's just been around the carousel looking around. Every time somebody looks at them, they'll turn their face or they'll turn around. He did it again. He just turned his back to me. It's just not a natural habit for somebody to just be standing there, looking around awkwardly. A lot of people have tics, or it could be something. So we're definitely gonna check his bag to see what's, what's happening there. How you doing, sir? heading to today? [Traveler] Philly. I live here. You live here in Philly? And where are you [Traveler] Georgia. just gonna do a quick bag inspection, all right? Come with me. You can slow down. Slow down a little bit. Talk to me. Talk to me. You went to Georgia? [De La Cruz] Okay, and how long were you in Georgia for? Two months, wow. That's a long time, man. We're gonna go this way. Okay, we're gonna put all your bags up here. Two months with just these bags? [Officer De La Cruz] You don't wear a lot of clothes? What? What happened? Okay. And what do you do for work here? -I am a truck driver. -A truck driver? And who lives in Georgia? [Traveler] My family. Like, who, who's your family? [Traveler] Uh, parents. Parents? Okay. Are you, are you married here in the United States? [Officer De La Cruz] Okay, so that's why you were able to go? Now, when did you plan the trip? [Officer De La Cruz] Two months ago you planned it? So you planned it right before you left? [Officer De La Cruz] Okay, all right. Now, today are you bringing back any food, alcohol, or tobacco in the bags? [Officer De La Cruz] Okay. Did you pack the bags yourself? [Officer De La Cruz] And these are all your bags? 'Cause this bag is heavy. [Officer De La Cruz] No. What is it? What is in here? No, no. What is it? 'Cause it's heavy. It's really heavy. Like, you have, like, weights in here or something. You have weights in here? What's in this bag? I don't want to open it if something pops in my face. Go ahead and take a step back for me. I'm gonna go ahead and review your bags here, okay? What, what is this? [CBP Officer] Hello, hello. [CBP Officer] Good, good. Purpose of going to Mexico? [CBP Officer] All right, you have a good day. Thank you. [Officer Ruiz] We know drugs is coming from Mexico to the United States. And money, weapons, ammunition, goes outbound to Mexico. So this morning we are doing some operations for outbound before you leave the United States. [K9 Officer] We got the currency firearms detector dog right now. [Officer Ybarra] Outbound's a bit more of a challenge than, than inbound. Here, our top priority is illegal proceeds from narcotics smuggling or, uh, alien smuggling. We also look for firearms and ammo. [K9 Officer] Pull this red one in. Any firearms. Pistolas? [K9 Officer] All right, come on. [Officer Ybarra] Here, it's hit or miss. We only have two lanes. Once they see that the traffic is backed up, they'll get out of the line or they'll send a guide first to make sure we're not here. To make sure it's clear. And then they'll send someone. [K9 Officer] It's good to go. [Officer Ybarra] So the timing has to be perfect. And that's the hard part about outbound. [K9 Officer] All right, adios! [Officer Ybarra] Did you run this one, bro? [Officer Granados] The vehicle's been taken to our inspection area in the back. We're gonna do a more thorough inspection. What is this? [Officer Granados] There we go. We opened it up, and there was. Uh, boxes of ammo in there. [CBP Officer] Turn around and put your hands behind your back. [Officer Granados] On the bottom of the purse, there's a, a cutout. And that's where they stuffed the ammo. [CBP Officer] Come on this way, okay? [Officer Granados] The couple is traveling with their juvenile son. It's not rare to see that. Um, I think they use that to blend in more and not be subject to inspection. [Officer Granados] Where was it on her person? [Granados] They found two more boxes of nine millimeter. In the bra area. So we're gonna add this to what we found in the purse. Nine millimeter rounds are usually used in handguns. The cartels use ammo and the weapons that people transport into Mexico. So this is a big business for the cartels, so they try and bring it in any way they possibly can. It's a small amount of ammo, but any ammo or weapon that we take of the, the streets from the cartels is, is a win. [Officer Granados] They contacted the juvenile's aunt, so she is on her way to pick up the juvenile. [Officer Keltner] Okay. [Officer Granados] An HSI agent or ATF agent, they're gonna come in and see if they get anymore in, information from them or maybe it'll break into a bigger investigation down the road. [Officer Granados] The agent will determine whether they have enough to charge the subject for smuggling ammo into Mexico. [keys rattle] [jet engine] this is what you're bringing in? -Homemade wine? [Officer De La Cruz] Okay. That's why it was so heavy. More in... [Officer De La Cruz] What. [Officer De La Cruz] So these are all homemade wines? [CBP Officer] You might want to drop test some of this stuff. [Officer De La Cruz] Yeah, I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna do that. Make sure that everything's copacetic and it is wine. Imma use a Gemini for these. There you go. This is water and ethanol which is what makes the, uh, the wine itself. To me that's perfectly fine. There's no other signs of anything else. You know, it is a lot, but at the end of the day, you know, you are allowed to bring wine. All right, brother. You can pack all this up. It was a large amount. So it alarmed me right away. So when I took all that out, I didn't know what I was, what I was, uh, looking at. But what I do know is kind of looking at the person's, uh, attitude and the way that he was acting. Um, when I took it out it was normal to him. He said, "Yeah, those are mine. I made them homemade." He didn't stutter. He was straightforward with me. So maybe I don't know much about what's in front of me, but I do know how to read a person. You're good, brother. [Agent Osten] So just a little background on the case. CBP discovered flower pots that are loaded with cocaine. In total, we're looking at 18 of these flower pots that we believe to be loaded. [Agent Jay] The shipment is sitting in the warehouse being monitored. We're gonna be waiting to see who comes to pick it up. Where it's going is unknown to us. But wherever this goes, we're gonna be with it. And we're going to keep moving up the food chain. We have our air branch and we're gonna utilize them once somebody comes to pick it up from the facility. Do you have any questions? Then everybody stay safe. Let's try and identify who's behind this and make a good case. We're hearing reports that there are large stashes of cocaine and contraband in Caribbean Islands waiting to come in. We believe that we're gonna see a significant rise in the shipments of cocaine, heroin, and other illicit contraband. This load, approximately 140 kilograms of cocaine, is the largest shipment we've seen in the last, at least, year and a half, maybe two years. The shipment is sitting in a warehouse across the street. The owners of the shipment are gonna send a trucking company to pick this up. We got to follow it to where it's going and wait and see who shows up to remove the cocaine. We really want to know who's behind this and identify the members of the organization and see how far we can take it up. So the part of this delivery is allowing it to go into the street and see what happens. [Agent Jay] Okay, copy. We have a perimeter set up. They'll have a constant visual on this cargo. Now we just wait. [Agent Jay] The shipment of cocaine is at bay six. The truck will be picking up from bay six. So we're still on surveillance here for the container with the shipment of the flower pots. We're waiting for them to come and get their stuff and so that we can figure out where they're going and develop our breaching plan. [Agent Jay] That's it. That's gonna be our truck. And just like that, we have it. It's a black one. Bay six. [Agent Jay] We're talking about a very significant amount of cocaine. So the number one objective at this point is, we cannot lose the cocaine. Everything else becomes superfluous to that. [Agent Jay] We don't know where exactly it's gonna be going to. So we're just gonna follow and see where it goes. [Agent Jay] Right down there. The trailer is at this warehouse. You have a good visual on the unloading when they start? [Agent Jay] They're making delivery right now. It's likely that this is where they are going to break down the pallets to get to the cocaine. [Agent Jay] It looks like our tractor trailer clipped the other truck. Wow. This driver's checking right now to look at the damage. He's going to make a call, so probably gonna call the police. Unbelievable. [Agent Jay] When the police come, that could spook the bad guys. [CBP Officer] Hola. [K9 Officer] Negative. [CBP Officer] All good? 10-4. Okay. So now it's time to get another one. [Officer Ruiz] During outbound, or also coming in, we try to target people that they don't fit to the vehicle. [CBP Officer] Si? Okay. [Officer Ruiz] This kid is 18 years old driving a nice car, a luxury car. He was not working. So, how do you support yourself? Uh, how pay this car? Engine looks normal. Dusty. That's the way it should look. Check under the driver's seat. [CBP Officer] What is that? It's a black bag. [CBP Officer] Oh, yeah. [CBP Officer] The subject declared only $100. If you're carrying a large amount of cash like that, going into Mexico, then you're probably not doing something that you should be doing. [Officer Ruiz] It's not illegal to carry over $10,000, you just need to declare. If it's over $10,000 you just need to fill out a form and you're good to go. Usually when they don't tell us it's because they're hiding the money because it's coming from illicit places. I think this one is related to smuggling people because usually when it's from narcotics they try to hide it, like, in the same spot where they hide the narcotics coming into the United States. He only had it right there, so it was something quick. Probably he moved somebody inside of the United States. He got paid and he was going back to Mexico. [Officer Orona Rincon] So 13,247 is the final count. We seize the money and we submit our findings to whatever HSI agent's on duty and then they come and speak to the individual, if he'll speak. And then, uh, they go from there. May I please see your passport real quick? [Officer De La Cruz] Italy. Oh, let me see if I remember this. [Officer De La Cruz] There we go. That's all I know, okay? going to today, sir? Business? Okay. I'm just gonna do a bag exam. Come with me. Right this way. Put your bags right over here, okay? Are these all your clothes? Let's talk a little bit about why are you coming. So what is your position within your company? Technician? Okay. [Officer De La Cruz] So you're the, sort of, like, overseeing. Seeing what's the problem and fixing it 'cause it's an Italian machine? [Officer De La Cruz] All right. Do you have any letters? Like, telling me what you're doing or anything like that? [Officer De La Cruz] Okay, that makes sense. Okay. You're all good, man. I'ma close you out, okay? You want to close that out? All right. Take care. He confirmed everything and he was able to come forward with everything that I needed, whether it being that paperwork... [Officer Sajib] Why are you shaking so much? What's wrong? -You're tired? [Sajib] People don't shake like that when they're tired. [Officer Dunlap] We have a guy coming here from Spain. And he was stopped on primary. He was shaking. Very nervous behavior. We're trying to figure out why he's shaking so much. [Officer Dunlap] He only has maybe one set of clothes. He's coming here for a couple weeks. Listen. Something isn't right. Your body is telling us that you are hiding something. [Officer Dunlap] Yes. Hold your hands out again. We're thinking this guy is an internal carrier. We think that possibly he may have either swallowed, you know, narcotics or put them inside him. [Officer Sajib] Let's go. Follow me. [Officer Sajib] Come on. We'll go back over there. [Officer Dunlap] We haven't found anything on him. We don't have enough to go on as far as possible internal or, you know, drugs. It's just his behavior. He's shaking, trembling. And we're still trying to figure out even what's, what's his intent here He is not telling us something. [Officer Sajib] You printed out your application to enter For a job. You didn't write anything down. So this tells us that you don't have a job. [Officer Dunlap] You need to tell us the truth. [Officer Dunlap] Sir, we're gonna go through your phone. That's our authority to do so. [Officer Dunlap] So we're gonna do electronic media review. We're gonna look in his phone to see if there's anything in there that shows if he's coming to do anything illegal. [Officer Dunlap] It's questionable. [Officer Sajib] You're not going anywhere unless you tell us the truth. [Officer Dunlap] You're being paid to come into the United States and work. [Agent Jay] So the police, uh, responded and they are clearing the scene. [Agent Jay] Whatever needed to be done was done. I do not believe that the shipment has been compromised. [Agent Jay] We wanna see if this is where they're gonna unload the whole truck. If it is meant to stay here, they would start to break it down and access the actual cocaine. So we just got notified that a moving truck showed up to our target location. They have begun unloading the pallets right now. Looks like we're gonna be on the move yet again. Okay. I'm gonna vector in air. [Agent Jay] Omaha, I read you. Uh, five-five. You're looking for a rental truck. [Agent Jay] Occupied one time. Occupied one time. [Agent Jay] Hey, how are we looking? [Agent Jay] Copy. We're mobile. [Agent Jay] He's gonna come out here. He's in a long line. The turnpike is the only thing ahead of him. We have a number of units that are in front and behind him. [Agent Jay] Put a lot of time and effort into this, so we want to make sure they don't spot us. But the most important thing obviously is we cannot let the truck get out of our sight. [Agent Jay] Heat run is when they're trying to smoke us out and make sure that law enforcement is not attached to the shipment. There's a lot at stake here. We're talking about 140 kilograms of cocaine. They don't wanna go to jail. They don't wanna lose the shipment. And we wanna catch them. [Agent Jay] Yup. We're going right back to exactly where we just started. That was a heat run, guys. He's going right back to where we just started. [Officer Rodriguez] Oh, okay. [Officer Rodriguez] Vehicle going into lane four. DNF. [Officer Rodriguez] She seemed a little fidgety, nervous, when I was asking her questions. -Hello. -Hi. -How you doing? -Good. [Officer Newman] Where [Traveler] Uh, we're going to home. We're staying with our mom. She lives in Juarez. [Officer Newman] Okay. You have currency over $10,000? -Five and five? -Uh-hmm. [Officer Newman] So that'd be yes. It could be that they're just trying to separate it so they don't have to declare the 10,000 in total. All right, come on out for me. [Officer Ramos] A lot of times, the drug organizations, they take humans. They cross them through a border. Then their families have to send the money inbound with a mule, basically, to pay the cartels. [Officer Newman] Okay. Is it all together? [CBP Officer] Yeah. [Officer Newman] They should have them individually. Not just in one bundle. [Officer Papa] I want to talk to you over here, okay? [Officer Papa] The report requirements, if they're bringing $10,000 or more, then they need to report it to us. So we're gonna verify their story, verify the currency count, and then we'll go from there. [Officer Papa] Okay? [CBP Officer] Let's see how much we have. [money rustling] [Officer Papa] It's 5,000. So it's a total of 11,700. So that's an inaccurate report of $10,000 or more. [CBP Officer] Yup. [Officer Papa] We're gonna do a basic search on the phone... And go from there. Just looking for anything out of the ordinary as far as where this money came from. Whether she's, whether she's moving money. Whether she's involved in human smuggling, narcotics. So I'm just gonna see if we can either validate her story or find anything that could possibly be incriminating that shows her intent to violate the law. So personally, I like to go through the recent stuff. What they, what they were doing right before. [Officer Papa] There it is. -There's the money. [Officer Papa] She stated to me that she doesn't have more than $10,000 versus the messages that she sent herself was asking for this exact amount that she has, which is well over 10,000. This shows the intent. It does show her knowledge of what she's doing. So that's an admission right there. [Officer Dunlap] He'd actually requested $5,000 for the guy, for him to come to why was he paid to come [CBP Officer] No? [Officer Sajib] Okay. [Officer Dunlap] He's shaking. We don't know if it's a medical issue, if he risks having a heart attack or stroke. So we contacted EMS. [puffing] [Medic] Heart rate's a little high too. [Officer Dunlap] That's his resting heart rate? That's heart attack range. [Officer Dunlap] He fully understood. And decided that he was gonna get to the hospital with the Philadelphia Fire Department. Go get healthy, okay? -Hmm? -Go get healthy. I think possibly we may have just saved this guy's life from having a stroke or heart attack on his next flight. [Agent Jay] Now we're in a real cat and mouse type situation at this point. They made a perfect square box. We went east. We went north. We went west. And now we're headed back south. Whoever it is that is responsible for this, they are definitely engaged in this game. But we have the tenacity and we'll see this through. [Agent Jay] All right. Crossing my fingers. [Agent Jay] Yup. 10-4. They abandoned the truck. Yeah, Omaha stay with the driver. [Agent Jay] We gotta get that load. Copy, anybody copy? The driver, he's just walking, and the truck's on the side of the road. We're gonna take this down. Arrest the driver. wearing a blue shirt, walking fast in the opposite direction. [dog barking] [Agent Jay] Just took the subject into custody. Subject's in custody. Go back for the vehicle, copy. Go back for the vehicle. We're gonna go get the truck. All right. There's our truck. Omaha, we have this secure. Much appreciated. [HSI Agent] Yeah. [Agent Jay] Looks like all 12? [Agent Jay] So we have one in custody. We're gonna bring the individual in for further questioning and process him. Then we're going to proceed to the CBP warehouse where we are going to break apart the shipment and find out exactly how much we've been sitting on. [mumbling] [Officer Papa] So this was yesterday, before she went over there. She messaged her mom yesterday, asking her if she's gonna go to El Paso. Because her, her, her father needs money. Versus the story she was telling me that she's, she's gonna use the money to pay off her car. So she's already, there's already some conflicting issues in the story. [Traveler] Uh-hmm. [Officer Papa] She does have the opportunity to present to our F.P. and F. officers. If she's able to provide proof of where the money came from, she has a possibility to get the money back. She could have avoided all this trouble if she just simply declared the money that she had. But unfortunately today, she's gonna have to go through extra steps to get her money back and, and she'll be issued a penalty for that. [Agent Jay] CBP is extracting the kilograms of cocaine from the shells of the pots on the shipment that we had delivered. We are going to find out exactly how much cocaine we've been sitting on. [shattering] Most of the cocaine is marked. So that way, when they get the shipment apart, they'll know who it was intended to. What we're gonna be doing in the follow-up investigation is finding who this was exactly intended to and paying them a visit in the not-too-distant future. What's the total? [CBP Officer] 162 bricks. [Agent Jay] 162 bricks, man. [CBP Officer] Great work. [Agent Jay] Great work by you guys as well. This is what it's all about. Teamwork. Getting the job done. We have identified a number of people in the organization performing different roles in this shipment. We're probably looking at eventually getting half a dozen to a dozen indictments on this. This is just the beginning of this investigation. Drugs are a plague on our society. If we can interdict these drugs and then find the people that are trying to exploit other people's problems for profit, then we're gonna be here every hour of every day. Doing our part to get people off of these drugs. [♪ suspenseful music plays] [Officer Johnson] We have a shipment here that manifested as toy paper. [Officer Pirollo] It originated in Turkey. Turkey is a high volume exporter to the U.S. of counterfeit designer items. We've had counterfeit passports from Turkey. -Medications. -Counterfeit medications. [Officer Johnson] So we, we kind of look at what it's described as. This was, this was toy paper it was, it was shipped as. So automatically, like, let's take a look at it. Oh, wow. That's a lot of money. [♪ theme music plays]. [Officer Johnson] They're big numbers. They have money rings around them, the hundreds. It has all the colors. [Officer Pirollo] It doesn't meet the guidelines for play money. It can't be the same size as U.S. currency. It has to be significantly larger or significantly smaller, like Monopoly money. [Officer Johnson] This will be counterfeit currency. They have serial numbers on them. All the markings. They don't feel like a bill, but visually they look very good. [Officer Pirollo] This is probably the best we've seen. The color for the $10 bills is spot on. It's the same exact size, same exact dimensions, of actual U.S. currency. This looks good too. Here is a real five, and the counterfeit five. [Officer Johnson] Really good. An innocent person could get a hold of this. It could be used at a grocery store and you could be given 20s as change, and they're not even real. [Officer Pirollo] These are full 16 stacks, these are 160. Are those full 160s? [Officer Johnson] 16s. Yeah. [Officer Pirollo] 16s? So it's one, two, three, four. Where's the fifth box? Is that all 16s? That's 16s, yes. There's a total of $2,962,880 worth of counterfeit money. So the easiest way to make money is to make it yourself. Print it yourself. Just make it yourself. And apparently that's what they're doing. This isn't something we see every day. What we will do is it will be seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and then it will be turned over to the Secret Service for them to conduct any type of investigation that they need to do. Along with protecting the president, Secret Service also deals with counterfeit money. This is their area of expertise. Just about anything you can imagine will be smuggled. And, uh, this, this proves it. This is a good day. [horns blaring] [Officer Chapa] Monterrey. Okay. [Officer] Today is a Friday afternoon, usually that's where our traffic picks up. [Officer] We get, of course, our daily crossers that live in Mexico and work in the U.S. The weekend's approaching, so we get our tourists. [Officer Rojas] Obviously our priority is narcotics. [Officer Rojas] We see a lot of seizures of hard narcotics, uh, methamphetamine, cocaine. [Officer Chapa] Purpose in Mexico? [Officer Chapa] A doctor? [Officer Chapa] Okay. For you? [Officer Chapa] Okay. [Officer Rojas] However, uh, during searches you can always find, uh, prohibited items. Such as, meats, fruits, or even sometimes, uh, controlled medication. [Officer Chapa] Uh, anything we're bringing back today? No medicines or anything like that? [Officer Chapa] Medicine. Can I take a look at it real quick? Since it's close by, since it's a, a border town, they usually go and get their, their medications, doctor visits. If they don't have insurance they usually come out here. And this is for what, miss? [Officer Chapa] It's just way cheaper in Mexico versus, uh, what's over here on this side. All righty, y'all have a good day. -Mm-hmm. [Officer Rojas] We will encounter medication that is controlled and the persons will not have a, a, a prescription to, to have it. [Officer Mendoza] She did declare this. It's tramadol. Tramadol is a controlled substance. Well, on that side, maybe. -Take care. [Officer Mendoza] Thank you. [Officer McAnally] All right. [Officer McAnally] All right. Did you have them shipped to you or? [squawking] [Agent Connor] Let's go. We just got some information about a car that's made it into the United States, that we think is So we are gonna get out there and, uh, see if we can pick it up and intercept it. Once we, uh, latch onto it we'll hope that deliver it to wherever it intends to go. And identify anybody else who tries to come pick it up. For right now, we gotta get out there and find it. [radio beeps] I'm on the 805 now. Should be set, two to three minutes. [Agent Connor] Over the last several years, the predominant smuggled drug was methamphetamine. But we've seen a sharp increase in fentanyl, so much that, uh, we've created our own task force just to help tackle that. The rise in fentanyl has been devastating to a number of communities. We're no exception to that. Fentanyl has been a game changer. Um, you know, these aren't party drugs anymore. People are dying from them. [Agent Connor] One of our guys found the car. And now we're just trying to move into position to support. Thankfully, we have an airship. [Agent Connor] Likely gonna lead us to the unload location. We've experienced unload locations, or stash houses, all up and down California. As far north as San Jose and as close as here, in San Diego County. You never know what, or what the day is gonna bring. So he's two blocks down that way. We'll be able to catch up to him on this route. [Agent Connor] Yeah, he will be coming this way. That's him right there. Ten-four. [Agent Connor] He's going back the way we came. He is running some counter surveillance. He's making frequent turns, pulling U-turns. [Agent Connor] Looks like he's going straight across into a fast food restaurant over here. I'm making the left. Do you have the eye? [Agent Connor] Parking lots like these are a common tactic or technique. For a lack of better terms, the smuggler tries to hide in plain sight with the hustle and bustle of, you know, a major commerce area. Cars coming and going, people walking around. [Agent Connor] It's not uncommon for us to see what we call, "A driver swap," which means the first person to bring, bring the car into the country, um, leaves the vehicle and a new driver, uh, will get in the vehicle and then drive it away. We're gonna let this play out as long as we can. And hope that this leads us to a new location or more people. [Agent Connor] We have a bird overhead that aids us immensely. Uh, it gives us some breathing room with the ground surveillance. We believe, with high confidence that, that vehicle is loaded with drugs. So we want to make sure that if we have an opportunity to seize them, uh, that we're gonna take that opportunity. [Agent Connor] Perfect. [Agent Connor] Our current driver just met up with someone else at a business here. So now the new driver dropped off our original driver and is alone in the car. And they are already mobile again and, uh, driving away. vehicle is now being followed by another vehicle, like a Dodge Challenger or Charger. Anybody associated with this, or that interacts with our new driver, is gonna be of interest to us. [Agent Connor] The area that he's headed in now is more residential. [Agent Connor] Bingo. [Agent Connor] The new driver is now parked at a residence. This is likely going to be the unload location. [Agent Connor] That's, they're gonna unload into that car. [Child] Run! [Agent Connor] FYI, the school just let out about two blocks away. We got kids headed your way. [sighs] That complicates things. -It's vitamins. -Vitamins. [Officer McAnally] Well, you know what it looks like, right? Well, we've got some, uh, medicine that's wrapped pretty, uh, pretty weird. I'm looking at it thinking, "Are they handing me a package of dope?" [Officer McAnally] Oh, is it? [Officer McAnally] Uh, steroids are prohibited from, uh, coming into the United States. [Officer Peralta] It's either a Schedule One or Schedule Two drug. [Officer McAnally] Some of these medications cause, uh, heart problems. [Traveler 2] They sent them from Tampico, Mexico. They're for your heart. -[in Spanish] Only for you? [Officer McAnally] You, you said that they're vitamins. -They're vitamins. -They're not vitamins. [Officer McAnally] I don't think she's being honest about what they are or even if they are most likely they're probably not for her. That's just me speculating at this point. [Officer] This doesn't happen often as far as, uh, we, uh, catching the steroids. It's really we find more hard narcotics like cocaine, marijuana, meth. The steroids is something that doesn't happen often at this bridge. [Officer] The law is the law. I mean, we have to obey by it. I mean, no one's exempt from the law. And sometimes they don't know the consequences as far as bringing something. three hours and then they have to go back. Once we see that she returns back the merchandise, she'll be able to, to be admitted into the United States. [Officer] If you can follow me. [Officer Keller] All right, let's see what we have today. Express consignment is companies that transports small packages into and out the United States. So it's a high volume of packages that come in. Approximately, let's say, 15,000 packages. So it does get pretty busy here. [Officer Pirollo] I've worked in the consignment environment for about three years now. Everything's different every day. You never know what's gonna come in. This one was manifested as a toy. I don't know what it is. It looks good. I don't think there's anything in it. [Officer Keller] A lot of these exams we place on hold based on country of origin. This one here is the, the Netherlands, a big country for narcotics; mushrooms and marijuana. You can see it's kind of rusty, right? So, it could be nothing, but we'll just open it up. Take a look inside. Just from taking a look inside it looks like more engine within an engine, so nothing concealed. I think this is probably good to go here. These are hand bags. Those are coming from Turkey. Sometimes we get the narcotics hidden in the bags. So I'll just take these over, we'll X-ray it. [Officer Keller] We're gonna take that stuff over to the X-ray. [Officer Pirollo] So. [beeping] Yeah, that one's, that one's fine. Oh, wait. What is that, that's weird looking. [Officer Keller] Yeah. Something concealed inside. [Officer Keller] There's an anomaly within the small packages. [Officer Pirollo] It looks like it's different kinds of pills. [Officer Keller] Yeah, so this is the same thing. The bag, the anomaly inside. This is definitely a concealment. Obviously it's wrapped pretty tight within the hand bags. [Officer Pirollo] Tiromel. T-I-R-O-M-E-L. They could be a Scheduled pill. [Officer Keller] It didn't really come up as anything. [Officer Pirollo] It could be counterfeit prescription pills. It could be the drug, it could not be the drug. But taking these prescription drugs from another country you don't know what it is. They're coming from non-FDA approved facilities. They could be putting anything in it. It's scary. We're gonna detain the shipments with the purses and submit these samples to our lab for analysis. Once we get the analysis back, we'll contact HSI. And see if the HSI agent would want to take the package for a controlled delivery or investigation. So that's the next step. [Officer Woodruff] At the Hidalgo Bridge, we're getting, uh, all sorts of contraband. [Officer Mondesir] [in Spanish] Hello. [Officer Woodruff] We've, uh, found cocaine, pain pills, IPR violations, cargo violations. So there's not really one set of, uh, illicit activities coming through. Seems to be a lot of everything. Here it could be, you know, no documents or a crazy story. Or just checking the compartments of cars and stuff like that. [Officer Ebertowski] Casa in Reynosa or U.S.? [Officer Mondesir] You never know what you're gonna get with each passenger. Is this your vehicle, sir? Refer to secondary. [Officer] Can you step out right now? [Officer] Stand over there. [Officer] All that talking. -Legitimately. -Can you wait over there please? [Officer Pinkerton] All right. [Traveler] It gets old after a while. They do this, like, every time. [Officer Pinkerton] They told me he was falling asleep at the lane. And so enforcement, um, check right now of his vehicle. [Officer] Medication. Medicines? Okay. [Officer Rojas] They're not restricted. It's over the counter. That should be all right. Is it already unlocked? What is here? [Traveler] The last time I went through Nuevo Progreso, you guys tore all the panels down and didn't replace none of it. I had to go back and re-put all the patches back. [Officer Pinkerton] Sir. [Traveler] So if you guys do move it, please replace it. If you can, okay. If you can wait over there. I'm not doing that. I did not feel intimidated at all by his behavior. I mean, he just talks a lot of talk, but nobody really intimidates us here. He could have items in here, so the best way to check it is Z-Portal. [Agent Connor] We have to make sure those kids are out of the area to move in, to keep them out of harm's way. We're two and a half residential blocks away from an elementary school. And the kids are walking towards our house. Air is about to run out of fuel. It's kind of at a critical moment, which is just Murphy's Law. They're about to unload drugs from the primary vehicle that we were initially following into this secondary vehicle. [Agent Connor] Public safety is paramount. We don't want anyone to get hurt and we definitely don't want kids to get hurt. We have to take that into consideration, um, when we go to take enforcement action or freeze a location. [Agent Connor] Want me to try to inch forward and just see if I can get a, a, any kind of angle on the ground? [Agent Connor] Air, I'm coming from the east in my, um, black Tundra. They're still fuddling around with the car. But looks like all the kids are clear from the sidewalks. [Agent] That's a go. Go, go, go. [sirens blaring] -Police! Hands up! -Police. -Hands! -Go! [bleep]. [Agent Connor] Running. We got runners. Go! Let's go! [Agent Connor] Go. Clear in the car. Clear. Go. [Agent] Go! Let's go! [Agent Connor] Let's start setting up a perimeter. [Agent Connor] We had two run out the back. So we're setting up a perimeter. We got one covering the house, one covering the alley. Yup. I'm with you. [Agent] Police. Come to the door. It's the police. Come to the front door now with your hands up. [Agent Connor] Dave, just to confirm. Two in custody? [Agent] Our team on the back side of the house was able to catch the two as they tried to depart once we, uh, descended on the scene here. The original driver was apprehended down the street at a local restaurant. [Agent Connor] Yeah, loose, loose packages. We want to secure loose packages in the back. They were in the process of unloading, moving them into a duffle bag. One, two, three, four. One, two, three. I'm gonna keep these separate 'cause that's how they were. [Agent] What's the total? Do you know what the count is? Nice even number; 20. [Agent] We found 20 packages of bricks. It's still undetermined of essentially what it is, but, uh, there were four different markers on the packages. So these packages were essentially destined to be distributed to four different drug trafficking organizations. [Agent Connor] Do we just want to put them back and then we'll transport it back all as one? [Agent Connor] We are gonna head down to the port of entry and take the car back with us. We'll inspect it with more detail. Get it X-rayed. We'll run a dog by it, make sure we didn't miss anything. And then it'll be impounded as, as evidence. [Officer Rojas] This, this, and whatever that is. Let's go check that one out. I saw a couple of anomalies in the vehicle. I want to check them out and make sure it's nothing prohibited or maybe even illegal. There's nothing in here. [Officer Rojas] In the backseat was a cooler and in the trunk it was just a, a part for the vehicle where the wheel goes. It's for 18-wheelers. That's, that was all. [Traveler] Oh, yeah. I got, I understand that. I understand that. And that's why, like, the first couple times. [Traveler] Well, I appreciate your time. You have a good rest of your day. [Officer Keller] This is coming from Belgium. And it's an ottoman. Which in the past is a common concealment method for narcotics. [Officer Keller] Let's bring this over to the X-ray. could have something in it. The color of the commodity inside it just seems not right. It's more consistent with narcotics. So I would definitely open this up. In the past year or so, we've been seeing a lot of ottomans which have narcotics concealed in them. [Officer Cisneros] Looks like a footrest. For you to sit and you storage things. So let's see what we have here. And bingo. [Officer Keller] Powder. -You think it's... -It's in the middle, right? Let's, let's cut it open. [Officer Pirollo] Oh, look. A little bit more inside this center. middle portion was confirmed on a X-ray. So we gonna test it. And try to scoop some of this powder. We can just kind of use the laser right there on it. The Gemini identified it as ketamine hydrochloride, which is a Schedule Three narcotic. We'll try to get the weight as best as we can. The exact amount of ketamine is really hard to determine, because it's concealed in and glued in this cardboard. So we just kind of weigh it all together. [Officer Pirollo] We'll contact the duty agent with HSI and see if they want to take the package for a controlled delivery or investigation. [Officer Keller] You never get tired of it. You never get tired of trying to stop anything from hitting the streets. Um, any narcotics, any counterfeit items. We enjoy every day what we do and the team is really, really successful. What's going on, bud? [Officer McAnally] Where are you guys going today? [Officer McAnally] And what kind of work do you do? [Officer McAnally] A.C. Oh, okay. So hard work, huh? Anything in the vehicle? Any fruits, meats, vegetables? -Nothing. -Alcohol, tobacco? -Nothing like that? -No, nothing. All right, do me a favor. Go on and open up your hood. Go on hop out for me, bud. All right. Just go and hangout over by that table over there. We'll get you out of here, okay? Well, this isn't coming in. Freon. Freon's prohibited to come through here. Freon in general has to go through a commercial facility, regardless if it's personal or, uh, commercial. For the passenger's occupation with working on the A.C., I mean this is, uh, most likely meant for commercial purposes. Not for, uh, personal. Hey guys, you're not gonna be able to bring the, uh, the gas in. [Officer McAnally] Not even one. We're going to have you guys go back, take it back to Mexico. Drop them off. [speaking Spanish]. [Officer McAnally] They seemed a little, a little upset. A little perturbed. It should only be a minor inconvenience. The hardest part is gonna be figuring out what to do with it in Mexico. -Over here! -What is it? [Officer Rojas] We have a traveler who's bringing a large quantity of shoes. The issue here is it's a trademark shoe. The brand is Nike. Okay, uh... [Officer Rojas] In a lot of the cases here, people will go to Mexico and bring, or buy, large amounts of popular brands from the U.S. Such as in this case, Nike. But they get it at a outrageously discounted price, which makes us believe that it actually might be counterfeit. They might bring it and try to sell it in the U.S. and people in the U.S., they're buying it thinking it's a, a legit item. [Agent Connor] Look at that. So we interrupted them mid-unload. It, I think its coke. Normally when it taps that hard its cocaine. Just check for additional voids or trap compartments. [Agent Connor] Just 'cause you find the obvious one doesn't mean that there isn't more. [Officer 2] Yeah. He's gonna do it now. [Agent Connor] Yeah, oh, yeah. That's a, that's a good hit. Good boy, Goose. [Officer] All right. We'll see. Yeah. Good boy, Goose. Look at that. The CBP officer's inspecting the trap compartment in the floor to confirm and, uh, double, triple-check. [Agent Connor] There's at least one package in the trap. And it's one of the reasons we bring it back here for a, a much more thorough inspection in an area where we control. We're not out on the street. It's safer for us, it's safer for everybody. -All clear. -All good? [Officer] All clear. [Agent Connor] We're gonna get a, uh, field test to determine what the actual narcotic is. [Officer Rojas] What they decided to do is just the passenger's gonna get down and take this stuff back to Mexico on foot. [Officer Rojas] It's very unfortunate that we had to return the merchandise, however, we do have to enforce the laws no matter how, how bad we might feel or, or what we think of it. Uh, the, the laws are there to protect, uh, American consumers or, uh, companies. This is one of our, uh, Gemini devices, which basically, um, projects a laser into, uh, any substance that you put it in, it'll be able to tell you exactly what the substance is. [Officer] Yup. Cocaine. [Agent Connor] That'll work. We're gonna get a weight. 26.82 kilograms. Given San Diego's proximity to the border, uh, we know that drug loads come across in, what we call, "Bulk loads." When drugs, like cocaine, get broken down into the user level, sometimes it's as low as, uh, one gram that might get sold. So we're looking at 26,000 grams, uh, that were prevented just by this one stop. [Officer] Hey! [Agent Connor] That's a microphone to the tracker? [Officer] Yes. And then the relay switch is here. I'm trying to get in, in the dash. To be able to reach the actual tracker. But I can't get in there. It's just the, uh, components of a GPS tracking device, uh, that's used by the drug trafficking organizations. We have a microphone that was discovered up on the headliner. [Agent Connor] That would allow someone to remote in and be able to hear anything inside the car. [Officer] And then we have a relay that generally is attached to a pretty sophisticated tracking device with listening capabilities. And very commonly used. [Agent Connor] Sometimes they can also do things like tell how fast the car is going or even, um, stall the car out or turn the power off to the car. To the drug trafficking organization, these loads are very, very valuable to them, so they want to know where their product is and how their smuggling attempt is going. But at this point, they figured out who has their dope. The significance of our patience and strategies are that that first driver may know very little about the organization, but the second person who comes to pick it up, or the person that helps unload it, knows even more and more. So that person is a value add to us. Good night. Good job, guys. It helps build that investigation and then even further disrupt and dismantle the next level of the narcotics smuggling organization. And then affect those arrests as well.