America's Most Dangerous Gang Bosses (True Crime Documentary) | Real Stories

[Music] they rule the underworld and their power seems endless gang bosses in Colombia Pablo Escobar his illegal drug dealings terrorize an entire country I'm sure that he believed that he was somehow semi Divine in Canada Maurice bushe the boss of the Hell's Angels wages a brutal gang war car bombs jail fights a drug trade worth millions they're all part of a vicious war and in Italy Salvatore Reena the head of kostra kills everyone who gets in his way Reena makes the mafia a terrorist organization how do investigators get them behind bars the most powerful gang bosses of all [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] time New York in the 1980s the mafia controls large parts of the city and he wants to rise to the very top John Gotti a thug from the Bronx his speciality robberies and drug trafficking the FBI uses all its power to crush the Mafia One of the lead investigators special agent George Gabriel well the only way you're going to put the mafia in jail is you've got to catch them committing their crime and a big part of their crime especially when you're the boss of the family is conversations it's meeting with people giving orders um and in order to do that you either have to get their conversations or you have to put them together and the meetings are very important to cover what FBI agent Gabriel does not suspect at the time in December 1985 an assassination will upset the balance of power in the New York Underworld the victim Paul Castellano head of the Gambino family and mafia boss number one shot on the street in plain sight the way he was killed there was no doubt in anyone's mind who did it we knew John Gotti was responsible we also knew that was a big challenge how we were going to be able to prove that those guys did it so it's frustrating when you know who did it and you can't prove that they did it witness testimony provides only vague information about 11 alleged culprits wearing Russian hats otherwise nothing why did gotic K his on Own Boss the his own boss had become distant from the family and become um greedy and so was asking for a lot of money uh from the members of the family and wasn't sharing as much and um and so there was a lot of uneasiness castellano's mistake was that he didn't understand the extent of Gotti's ambition after the attack in front of spark Steakhouse John Gotti takes power in New York and completely shakes up the mafia's organization his goal to make as much money as possible in the waste management and the construction industry with drug trafficking and racketeering FBI agents are presented with a challenge to find out who works for Gotti and how his newly structured Mafia functions the mafia is well connected and knows exactly who works for the FBI and that is what the agents are using to their advant AG we wanted to get in their face but also we could put pressure on because if we went and talked to a wise guy at any time they're supposed to go back and report that to their boss we'd wait till we saw them on the street and then pull over get out of the car go talk to them they hated it absolutely drove them crazy the FBI keeps gotty under surveillance but he doesn't let it get to him he presents himself as a man of the people and sell it liberates himself as New York's open-handed good-looking Robin Hood so one of the key features of of John Gotti is that he cared very much about his his appearance and so he used to go to the barber every day he was dressed in a very fashionable way Gotti's nickname the Dapper Dawn tailored suits expensive cars gotty makes about 50 Millions a year at the same time the boss mocks the FBI he bribes juwes and hands out death sentences at will one of the problems when you bring people like John to trial is they do everything they can to compromise the trial they try to buy the jurors they try to intimidate their Witnesses he was very good at being at being acquitted at at trials he threatened Witnesses he threatened judges he threatened prosecutors time and again the FBI tries to take gotty down but Witnesses all suffer from Sudden memory loss he thought he was Untouchable and so he continued to commit serious crime thinking he would never be arrested in 5 years Gotti stands trial three times for drug trafficking and murder each time he goes free then the presumed big chance the state of New York itself indicts the gang boss for murdering a union official but once again the evidence is spotty when John got acquitted on that case when the jury came back not guilty the pressure really mounted because now John went from the daeron to the Teflon Dawn John gotty gets overconfident his new mafia headquarters in the middle of downtown New York City in plain sight of the FBI I think it was probably a complacency which is something that comes with power people believe that they're Untouchable they're unassailable and Gotti certainly had such an elevated sense of himself agent George Gabriel smells his chance using a special Naza camera his team films the ravenite social club day and night it's a popular venue for mafoi and in the first floor got his headquarters for all underworld bosses have to visit the mafia Dawn once a week when we first started surveilling this club we didn't know who almost half the people were because we'd never seen them before he brought them right into view so we could take beautiful pictures of them beautiful video of them identifying but what so what he did was he identified who and what the Gambino family was and that's something that could take years to do he did it for us in months a great Boom for investigators but knowing who works for Gotti is not enough they have to know what happens behind closed doors at number 247 they use highly sensible directional microphones hidden in the bumper and wheel cases of a car what the FBI need is proof that he is associated with criminal conspiracies that are carrying out crimes that they have been able to identify after 3 months the Breakthrough the FBI manages to get into the club unnoticed and uses its chance from now on they won't miss a single word because we knew this is where John was conducting his more serious business we put a bug in the club which was on the first floor then we found out he was using the hallway so that back door down that hallway he'd come out from behind the club we put a bug there we were getting good conversations but then we found out the secret hiding spot was in one of the apartments two stories up so he put a bug there the FBI gathers crucial evidence from the bugs about drug deals blackmailing and contract killings they arrest gotty and that was the basis of the trial and that was how the main evidence was collected over several months of of the uh orders he was giving to the to the crew 14 months later the trial begins and investigators now have yet another Ace of their sleeve people decided to go to the police and squeal on him and in Gotti's case this is very famous because it's a man named Sammy the bull graan at that point Sam the bull decided to become a a whistleblower a witness for the prosecution and was the key witness that that confirmed what the police had overheard in his club and that led to his downfall and his conviction for Life Johnny gravano Long Gotti's closest Ally now he is a crucial principal witness when you walk into a courtroom it's 50 50 it's like theater both sides put on their little movie and it's kind of a scary feeling that you still have to recognize as good as it is you could still lose but this time the Teflon dong was played out the witness confirms 19 murders ordered by gotty the sentence life in prison the gang boss is finally under lock and key for FBI agent George Gabriel got's conviction is the greatest success of his career so far it was very rewarding at the end to put John Gotti away to win that trial and put him away for life after that while it was a case of a lifetime and I knew that there wasn't going to be anybody to chase like John Gotti again it was going to be boring and it was Gotti dies in prison of throat cancer at the age of 61 and thus is finally history I think that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription required but there are more of these gang bosses he and his group massacred over a thousand people in the space of two or three years drugs blackmail murder gang bosses are addicted to power their deeds are among the worst crimes of all time Canada in the 1990s a war between biker gangs is Raging in monreal it's over money and narcotics a multi-million dollar business Hell's Angel boss Maurice bue uses every means available he wanted his gang the house angels to become the only people involved in selling drugs in the area investigator Andre bshar hunts down the gang boss mbushi was a ruthless killer a protracted battle begins that will cost many lives Maurice bu's rise begins in 1987 at this time the Hell's Angels control 75% of the drug trade a war looms between two motorcycle clubs in Montreal car bombs jail fights a drug trade worth millions they're all part of a vicious War being fought in and around Montreal between biker gangs a war over dominance in the cocaine and heroin business hell's Angel's boss vé also wants to bring the red light district under his control to do so he must eliminate the competition The Rock Machine biker gang Andre Bush's job stop the murderous rocker war of Quebec and protect the populace from Maurice mom bu he was a greedy person he had no morals at all and uh in instead of accepting to share he wanted everything mbushi at the end was was making $6 million a month but he didn't want to share he was too greedy and that's what started the war violence in Montreal escalates in 1994 bushe issues an ultimatum for the drug dealers they either work for him or for nobody else the result biker gangs duwel in the streets time and again bombings terrify the city dozens of people in and around Montreal died during the biker War people fear for their lives the moment you want to become the only one in that market I think you you go one step further One Step Above ordinary criminal and you become what I would call a mafia mafia boss then Maurice bushe crosses the line the Hell's Angel set off another car bomb in front of a rock machine hang out one of the victims is is an 11-year-old child Danielle de Roi they saw the children playing across the street the guy who pushed the bomb he knew that that jeep would blow up and that the kids were in danger and yet he still pushed the bomb so to me that uh that's a heartless act and an act of a coward even and it showed to us that the the Hell's Angels didn't care and it was time to take them off the killing of an 11-year-old boy a middleclass kid brings public appr probium with it and pressure on the police and politicians to do something about it and that killing was the Turning Point immediately Montreal forms a 100 man special task force the socalled Wolverines the bushe strikes back he kills Dean Lavine the correctional officer a randomly chosen victim they are not Psychopaths at least in my opinion they are certainly not sensitive to the damage they they inflict on the people but what they do is part of their strategy to pursue their empire building Bush's goal with the murders is to frighten the police and undermine their Authority but there is no solid evidence that the gang boss is behind it nobody knew at that time uh what had happened because she was a a mother of two children uh not a guard who was known to be an aggressive guard at all uh there was no reason for it you know and everybody was looking for a reason and they investigated and interrogated and everybody checked but uh no no reason was found at the beginning a short time later hell's Angel's boss bue has another correctional officer killed the Assassin shoot Pierre Rondo a prison bus driver meanwhile investigators are certain the boss of the Hell's Angels is behind everything they decide to take action now it was a confirmation now they came at us now it was sure that they were trying to get the system the justice system they were trying to frighten them we were 100% sure it was the Hell's Angels that for us was a turning point because that gave us uh the goal to hit and hit and hit and hit and we had to bring the war to them and as of September we brought the war to them whether Rock machine or Hell's Angels the task force seizes weapons and arrests more and more gang members B can no longer protect his people people with whom he had worked had decided that they had been betrayed and went to the police one of them Stefan G one of Bush's closest confidence he confirms that the gang boss is behind the murders investigators strike immediately and arrest the leader of the Hell's Angels Maurice bushe is indicted for Multiple homicide the public and investigators tensely await his conviction but then something incredible happens the court acquits bushe for lack of evidence it's a slap in the face for busha to see him walk out uh you can't understand how you feel inside you know you feel empty uh one of the the worst days of our life because all the work that we put in hundreds and thousands of hours of work to get him we had him poof and it was gone the acquittal is an unparalleled defeat for police bue the boss of the Hell's Angels is in fact released it's never no one's really understood why he was let off in that original trial it could be that he was intimidating Witnesses or intimidating the jury one doesn't know but investigators and the prosecutor appeal the case at this time the court appears to be neither biased nor bribed bushe is guilty the sentence life in prison my police officer was at the scene when he arrested him said to Mom look outside it's the last time you're going to see this b a man who makes millions a year with blackmail and drugs Behind Bars the biker War is Over leaving behind an estimated death toll of over 160 mbushi was a ruthless killer he killed children he killed a woman he prayed on the most vulnerable people here in Montreal he is presently in jail I think he'll stay in jail I think he'll die in jail and that's what he [Music] deserves bshe is still in a high security prison the fate of this once's Mighty Hell's Angels boss seems forever sealed although rumor has it up to this day that bushe and his former gang members are still right in control gang bosses they commit Terror attacks and kill the innocent bribery drugs contract killings their greed Knows No Limits he believed that he was somehow semi- Divine Sicily home to the legendary Mafia Clan kostra for a good 20 years one underworld boss rules the Italian island Salvatore Reena a ruthless killer everyone who gets in his way must reckon with [Applause] death he and his group massacred over a thousand people in the space of two or three years the gang boss wages a war against all of Italy the mafia was always brutal and shrewd but Reena makes it a terrorist organization how can investigators stop the brutal mafioso palmo Sicily's Capital since the early 19th century the idilic Mediterranean island has been home to the most notorious Mafia clan of all its name name kostra in English our thing its most brutal leader ever Salvatore Arena the Press also calls him laela the Beast Pierre Georgio morosini devotes just about his entire career to fighting the gang boss he's one of Italy's most famous Mafia Hunters without the mafia I probably wouldn't be here today it's a criminal organization it always stands opposed to Justice and is terribly brutal I simply can't accept that fighting the mafia was always unbelievably important for our country it is a defense of democracy the history between morosini the mafia Hunter and Ena the gang boss has been tightly interwoven for [Music] decades it all begins in 1930 Salvatore arena is Born the son of humble farmers in the Sicilian town of coron at the age of 12 he unexpectedly loses his father to a World War II bomb Reena must feed his family and finds a new role model the mafia boss Stefano liio bontate the organization and the Kao the big boss uh becomes a substitute a substitute father and Mentor for the for the young man and so Reena would do anything for for liio and very quickly made his way up the hierarchy to become a member of the mafia Reena must first earn the organization's trust the rules are St WEA must commit a murder such an important job such as murdering somebody is a way to to give your credentials to the family that you can be trusted in the future at the age of 19 Reena kills for the first time in the name of the mafia and goes to prison for it with this killing the future gang boss embarks on a path that that will soon cost hundreds of people in Sicily their lives certainly going to prison is seen as part of the part of the game you learn a great deal in prison you gain respect in the outside world when you're in prison Reena is released after 7even years and continues killing for the mafia his goal to get all the way to the top in Sicily's Capital palmo he kills about 50 people who are standing in the way of kostra and of his own rise to power Reena pursues a bloody power struggle and comes to the attention of investigators for the first time Reena came at them unexpectedly because the authority ities were actually not policing Sicily but at first everyone thinks the gang boss is small fry that changes in December of 69 Reena gathers allies and storms the house of a rival mafia boss a war between the Clans ensues not all the mafia families accepted this hit many opposed it it was a fullscale assault with WIA in the lead the gang boss stages a massacre the investigation shows the hit squad fires 108 shots at its foes the upshot was that liio the most important rival boss handed over power to tooren this was the crucial moment at the time morosini is part of the anti-mafia unit and wants to take down the gang boss but Reena infiltrates the police bribes investigators and expands his extortion and drug business the the Sicilian Mafia is a Federation of crime families he wanted to become the boss of all of them that was his goal ultimately for nearly 20 years Reno wages a war against other Mafia Clans and the Italian [Music] State at first morosini hands are tied he doesn't know who we can trust and who we can't and not even one photograph of Reena exists no one knows who he is a nightmare for investigators it was very hard to find Reena in polaro he was invisible and had a large Network helping him including the police gangos Reena uses this impotence becomes more brutal than before in 1983 he eliminates the leaders of the last big rival Mafia Family and definitively takes power in poo violence didn't really a affect him emotionally he and his group uh massacred over a thousand people in the space of two or three years the few investigators Reena can't bribe try to find out where the gang boss is hiding but even the people protect and respect Reena I mean the mafa is not just an ordinary criminal he's not just a robber or a thief or a rapist he's somebody who has a standing in the community and the community recognizes Authority and so that's why it's much harder to catch this Mafia bosses morosi's combined efforts to track down the boss of the bosses go up in smoke the situation was very hard for us Reno was invisible but was still committing brutal killings achieving our goal required a lot of patience instigators develop a plan largely unnoticed by the mafia they managed to expand the anti-mafia unit with people they trust they monitor bank accounts spy on reena's confidence and try to win over the people it has taken a long time for the police to be trusted so that people could inform on on Mafia bosses and then reena's cruelty itself provokes The crucial turning point for years we fought the mafia we remained very patient surveilled all reena's contexts all the people in his Circle and the biggest contribution came from the mafiosi themselves when the Mafia bosses working for Reena decided to talk to us after 10 years of extremely brutal violence even the mafosi themselves fear the boss of the bosses and Spill the Beans their offer mild prison sentences in return for information the result is the so-called Maxi trials imagine if you have 500 uh defendants imagine each of them has got a a team of lawyers imagine how many thousands of people left to be accommodated the mafia insiders give everything away about the structure of reena's organization his Hitmen and much more this was a serious blow to him in terms of of human resources for his organization each mafosi who comes clean brings investigator morosini and his team closer to the boss of the bosses the mafia kingpin's reaction is surprising after so many killings so much Bloodshed there is actually a respite but it was a column based on fear Reena still controlled everything but he was out of sight untraceable in hiding this was possible because hundreds of people were still protecting him people who owed him something Reena secretly plans his revenge a brutal assassination follows the gang boss sets off a car bomb its goal to kill Pao Borsalino high ranking judge and sworn enemy of the mafia Borsalino and five others [Music] die he this decision was to to kill the prosecutors and the police officers that were investigating the mafia and that was just a step too much but Reena goes even further a little later he kills a magistrate Italy's number one Mafia Hunter for Italians the Kachi Massacre is like the murder of the Kennedy Brothers it was terrible like Bobby and John Kennedy or even like Martin Luther King Martin Luther King in May of 92 an assassin plants 400 kg of TNT under the highway the target magistrate Giovani Falcone the explosion kills him his wife and three bodyguards investigator morosini still Mourns a loss of the mafia Hunter one of his best friends I remember it very well these images are burnt into the memory of thousands of Italians there was a huge hole the Earth opened up it was dramatic the whole highway destroyed it looked like pictures after a bombing the assassination rocks all of Italy The public's mood shifts they fear the terrorism gripping their home no one forgives Reena for the murder of Falcone and his [Music] wife they were finally all United in their opposition to Reena and the mafia organization which was destroying their lives lives and this was enough to destroy Reena and all of his people it was game over for the Sicilian Mafia for the foreseeable future and eventually somebody within his own team informed the authorities of where he was what the anonymous witness reveals sounds unbelievable to investigators after a good 20 years of Bloodshed they realize Reena has lived the whole time in palmo protected by mafosi and corrupt police January of 93 investigators arrest Italy's most brutal mafia boss in his Hideout the trial lasts a whole 3 years the verdict 13 life sentences the fight is over like a reena's arrest was a big win for the state it Avenged the sacrifice of so many Italians and where salvator Reena used to live is now a symbol of Italy a police station it is the proof that Italy stood up toos and of course we will continue to fight Salvatore Arena has been behind bars for about 30 years waiting to Die the drug lord of Colombia Pablo Escobar for power and wealth he even risks peace in his own country his crimes made him the mightiest boss of all for decades he's always a step ahead of his Hunters we had to wait for Escobar to make his first ever mistake burnt out drug Huts in the jungle soldiers in the streets a war is Raging in Colombia how does Escobar manage to bring an entire country to its knees car theft kidnapping even in his youth Escobar had one goal in particular to make as much money as possible it's only with drugs that the amount of profit you make is just skyrocketing at the age of only 26 Escobar begins smuggling hard drugs on a large scale his drug Farms quickly produce an unbelievable 300 tons of cocaine per year Colombia is marked by corruption and poverty in this period Escobar does what all gang bosses do he bribes everyone who can help him or who could become dangerous General Octavio varas Silva's task to hunt Escobar and put him and his men under lock and key in 1989 we started investigating the medine cartel the state court put me personally in charge of and made me responsible for investigating the cartel's criminal activities vargas's approach is to catch the little fish first above all dealers and Hitmen from whom he hopes to get more information investigators arrest cocaine dealers conduct raids seiz Millions without making the crucial breakthrough the problem Escobar uses his drug money in part to build hospitals social housing and schools he's considered a kind of Good Samaritan Styles himself a pop star of the people he used that reputation to be protected by the community as soon as anything suspicious from the outside was going on in medin bublo would know about it straight away the homeless poor families even children work for Escobar they spy everywhere and warm the gang boss Vargas and Escobar are often only a few hundred meters apart but every time the drug lord manages to give the blood hounds the slip then Escobar has had enough of playing cat and mouse and sets an example a gorilla Force occupies Colombia's Palace of Justice the assault was fierce and cruel an assault on Democracy it's still difficult to talk about it hurts The Intruders take 300 hostages over 100 of them die the rebels also destroy all the documents he loved the power he loved the money he loved everything that went that went with it the control over people I'm sure that he believed that he was somehow semi Divine and this is only the beginning Escobar's next step is to have himself elected to Parliament [Music] Escobar's motive for going into politics was primarily immunity and thus to remain unpunished for his crimes vas does not seize his investigations with the support of Colombia's Justice Minister he manages to destroy numerous drug labs but escapar doesn't dither for long he simply has the Justice Minister killed Colombia sinks into chaos this is not just a police investigation this is a war next Escobar's assassins kill presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan an avowed enemy of the drug Mafia the government responds by setting a bounty $2 million us for Escobar's capture and investigators change their [Music] tactics now all it was was an intelligence operation Vargas needs Insider information and indeed an informant reveals where Escobar is hiding but the gang boss is clever there are also numerous children in the house the police can't risk their death mission aborted Escobar escapes and continues with his War Of Terror first he blows up the Colombian intelligence headquarters in mí then he blows up the fully booked aanka flight 203 all those on board die Escobar overstepped the boundaries and that's when the state had to react and it was the full frontal fight once again investigator Vargas must change his tactics he starts the elite unit search block it is Colombia's last hope in the fight against Escobar search Block's goal was first to discover who belong to the cartel secondly to disarm them and thirdly to arrest their leaders and all others this actually seems to scare the powerful drug lord he fears getting caught and extradited to the US Escobar turns himself in but the gangster boss has demands he wants a private prison built according to his own design what he saw in that was a recognition from the Colombian state that he is an equal actor and player in the mountains of the city of medin the gangos builds his own prison the so-called Cathedral the prison is like a palace luxury kitchen roulette table and a prison bed that Escobar from time to time shares with prostitutes all included for Vargas it is a bitter setback the gang boss is playing games with the entire country it was never a prison it is a disgrace to the murdered and to the victims that Pablo Escobar has on his conscience es Mak exactly the same drug deals as before just using his own prison as a base the Colombian government permits it in a sense the the government is not as strong as as we might think of other governments so it is better to try to find a way to accommodate or to discuss or to reduce some of his activities as opposed to try to make him pay for the crimes he committed a good year later things change Vargas convinces the government to put Escobar in a real prison the gang boss flees his downfall Escobar has a satellite telephone with him the police know it and hope to locate him we knew we were close the the drug lord moves around aimlessly trying to hide his tracks but the Noose around Escobar's neck continues to tighten we had to wait for Escobar to make his first ever mistake and then it happens Escobar uses the telephone repeatedly calls his family again and again he wants to know if his wife and children are okay investigators locate the signal and find the house where the drug lord is hiding Pablo Escobar was here the special unit storms the house a wild firefight breaks out Escobar tries to escape from the roof they had very little Scruples about whether they got him alive or dead and they were as happy to see him dead as they were alive famously said it's better to die in Colombia than in an American jail and eventually that's what happened to him vargas's special unit shoots Escobar during his attempted Escape his body riddled with bullets Escobar's death means the end of General vargas's gruelling hunt for the perhaps mightiest drug boss in history it was all finally over on December 2nd 1993 investigators and all of Colombia can finally breathe a sigh of relief the longlasting Dr drug war that the gang boss waged against his own country is over gang bosses all crave power money and control these criminals will stop at absolutely nothing until investigators catch them or they suffer the same fate as their victims

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 26,070

Keywords: Real Stories, cartel leaders, crime case studies, crime psychology, crime rings, criminal code of conduct, criminal justice system, criminal kingpins, criminal masterminds, criminal profiling, criminal underworld wars, dangerous criminals, gang activities, gang violence, infamous crimes, masterminds of crime, money laundering, notorious fugitives, organized crime, street gangs, true crime investigation

Id: ik5A8s1-nwQ

Length: 48min 45sec (2925 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 23 2024