Crackdown | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

a contract killing a brutal murder a neighborhood in chaos for the new york city police department and the fbi new york city becomes the front lines in a relentless battle the enemy powerful drug dealers who will stop at nothing to protect their profits [Music] [Music] [Music] in the 1980s the drug trade in new york city was a nightmare dealers made millions street violence was out of control the nypd battled the drug gangs only to become their target i'm jim kelstrom former head of the fbi's new york office hundreds of fbi agents and police officers launched a bold plan to stop the violence and shut down the gang's deadly business in new york city in the 1980s the nypd was fighting a losing battle against the drug lords nypd detective sergeant mike mcginnis worked narcotics in the borough of queens there were several major organizations selling cocaine and heroin in southeast queens and one of them was lorenzo fatcat nichols organization 26 year old queen's native lorenzo fat cat nichols is a drug wholesaler he distributes cocaine and heroin to mid-level dealers his price for a kilo of coke is fifty thousand dollars he's worth millions [Music] nichols protects his operation by surrounding himself with a tight group of loyal associates many are family members for police in queens cracking nichols operation will not be easy his headquarters is at a deli at 107th avenue and 150th street in jamaica queens [Music] we conducted surveillances there we had talked to many informants there we had done a lot of buy and bust operations there where we'd send out undercovers and buy drugs and it was a continuing problem in the area but we couldn't really make a case at that point against fat cat or any of the principals in his organization that all changed in july 1985. one of our units was doing a buy and bust operation and developed some information that led us to get a search warrant for fat cats grocery store and for an apartment above the grocery store the informant told us that there was weapons cash and numerous drugs stored there myself and two detectives went into the grocery store i went behind the counter and i walked towards the rear of the counter and uh i saw there was a light on in the back room so i went into the back room there were three men behind a big desk and i realized one of them was fat cat nickels [Music] put your hands up on the wall put your hands up on the wall put your hands up on the police order the men up against the wall put your hands on the wall nichols reaches down for detectives find a loaded automatic and a revolver police search the room and find heroin cocaine and thirty thousand dollars in cash several ounces of marijuana is on nickel's desk the raiding party that went to the second floor apartment found a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash in boxes [Music] hundreds of perhaps thousands of pieces of cocaine street cocaine wrapped in tin foil and glass scenes of heroin and additional weapons nichols is arrested on drugs and weapons charges 24 hours later he's free on 70 000 bail at the time of his arrest nichols was already on parole he reports to his parole officer to see if the arrest violated the terms of his parole he tells his parole officer brian rooney that he was only in the grocery to order a sandwich all right we need to take care of it all right thank you just cut a seat right here okay all right thanks [Music] rooney calls mcginnis to check his story out so i told him what had happened that we had arrested nichols in the grocery store that he had a number of weapons but unfortunately he made bail and i'm sure he's gone and rooney said to me no he's not he says he's sitting outside my office here [Music] rooney re-arrests nichols on the spot for violating his parole now for nichols what that meant was even though he had made bail on the case where we got him he was in on the parole violation and there's no way around that you can't get bail on it so not counting the trouble that he was in with me he owed 14 years to the state so he was in big trouble a week later mcginnis and rooney testify at nichols parole hearing i briefly described what had happened that night and the adjudicator immediately continued his violation of parole which meant he was in he was entitled to one more hearing like that and then he would go back in for the remainder of those 14 years but the drug dealer has no intention of letting that happen two months after the hearing nichols parole officer brian rooney gives a co-worker a ride home from work he drives through south jamaica the neighborhood in queens he knows this section of queens is dangerous but he has no idea he's being followed suddenly a car pulls up beside him brian rooney is shot once in the arm and once in the back he dies instantly his killers disappear into the night police arrive quickly but there is nothing they can do they process the scene and find little evidence no shell casings were left behind no one saw the shooting news of the murder quickly reaches detective sergeant mike mcginnis sergeant who worked in my office called me up and told me about it said they just killed a parole officer up on on something boulevard and it was brian rooney he was a very fine guy and a good parole officer he was just a real good combination of social worker police officer that's necessary to be a good parole officer police hit the streets to gather intelligence and find the killer [Music] rooney's murder is the latest in a string of homicides in south jamaica rival drug gangs battle each other for territory and control of the prophets the homicide rate in that part of the city where the drugs were being sold was skyrocketing shootings were commonplace citizens were terrified to come out of their houses and for that reason we knew that we had no choice but to go after these drug gangs the nypd steps up their efforts in operation cleanup a major long-term anti-drug operation they bring in hundreds of officers from precincts all over the city the operation targets drug dealers in the jamaica queens area where rooney was murdered detectives also canvassed the neighborhood near sutfin boulevard where the shooting occurred they interviewed locals hoping that somebody saw something out of the ordinary the day rooney was what killed want to know i know you heard about the parole officer that got shot right yeah man i heard about scroll down it got shot what you want to know about that you got any names you heard anything on the street that's all you can tell me two dudes learned that two men associated with lorenzo fat cat nichols were both seen in the area howard mason and perry bellamy nichols had a strong motivation for killing rooney investigators suspect he may have ordered mason and bellamy to kill his parole officer [Music] in 1985 parole officer brian rooney is shot to death on a street in south jamaica queens [Applause] police suspect that one of his parolees cat nichols ordered the hit [Music] mike mcginnis former detective sergeant with the nypd we were all astounded with what happened to brian rooney that they would have the audacity to uh to kill him but i think their thinking was if they got rooney out of the way nichols would be able to make the street and where they got that from i don't know but that was their thinking as the detective who arrested nichols mcginnis knows he could be next on the hit list i looked over my shoulder i was careful but i never let it stop me from what i was doing to have it happen where somebody actually says i'm going to kill this officer to get a benefit and to maybe get myself out of jail that was very unusual and i think people in law enforcement and the citizens in general found it kind of unnerving police know that howard pappy mason a lieutenant in the nichols organization and perry bellamy a mason associate were seen in the neighborhood the night when he was murdered an anonymous caller claims bellamy was outside the car when rooney was shot the next day another informant tells detectives where to find bellamy the tip leads investigators right to it stick your hands up bellamy is picked up on the street in his neighborhood and brought in for questions you understand me [Music] i got my right [Music] he admits he saw rooney just hours before he was murdered in the car with rooney he claims he knew about the hit and tried to warn rooney that's why he was seen in the area that night he set him up i think i know something happened to a cop after hours of questioning detectives learn he did more than warn rooney look so that's who did bellamy reveals he was in the car with rooney the night he was killed he says howard mason shot rooney bellamy was in jail weeks before the murder he claims to have overheard nichols telling another inmate that his parole officer was going to get what's coming to him authorities charged bellamy with aiding and abetting the murder of officer rooney next detectives tracked down howard pappy mason [Music] what's up officer what's your name stick your hands up against the wall [ __ ] off your hands on the wall in the suspect's boot they find a fully loaded 22 derringer mason is charged with murder and weapons possession investigators have put the conspirators behind bars but they can't prove fat cat nichols ordered mason and bellamy to kill his parole officer [Music] while police tried to build a case against nichols who was still in jail his organization continues to grow in 1987 the illegal drug crisis in new york goes from bad to worse a new drug explodes onto the scene the crack cocaine swept over the community i've never seen anything like it fbi special agent david higgins worked drug cases in new york okay basically what happens in the preparation of crack you can take a relatively small amount of cocaine and combining it with other ingredients you you stretch it tremendously so that something that might have been sold previously as a gram amount for a hundred dollars could turn around and make the drug trafficker a thousand dollars the drug sells cheap as little as two dollars a vial and it's highly addictive for a working class neighborhood like south jamaica crack cocaine is the perfect storm because of the high level of addiction the drug users were repeatedly looking to get high and therefore they were out trying to find sources of income anywhere they could naturally they turned to crimes such as burglary and robbery and of course the general level of crime in these neighborhoods increased as a result the nypd steps up its efforts they rename operation cleanup operation queens in the early 80s a federal organized crime drug enforcement task force was formed in new york city to go after the drug dealers and the major distributors special agent richard martinez was assigned to the task force it was set up as an organization that utilized fbi new york city police department drug enforcement administration and other agencies to coordinate a direct attack against these elements here it is reagan south jamaica okay the ocean of task force was divided up into squads and each squad had its own mission to accomplish our particular mission happened to be the cocaine crack cocaine and heroin dealers operating in the city the task force is investigating several drug gangs in jamaica queens we thought that was the best thing we could do for the citizens in our community was to get as much power into this group as that was going to go after these guys as much power as possible dealing drugs in south jamaica queens is a lucrative business the high profits lead to more competition and more violence nearly half the serious crimes in new york city are crack related in october 1987 a taxi dispatcher is murdered for testifying about a gun battle she witnessed a month later a guyanese immigrant complains to police that drug dealers have been selling crack on his street the next evening someone fire bombs his home [Music] nypd officers from the 103rd precinct in south jamaica are assigned to protect the witness and his family but the threats continue thomas godbolt a member of lorenzo fat cat nichols organization approaches the witness on the street godbolt says he has three weeks to leave the neighborhood or his entire family will die [Music] in 1987 drug dealers rule south jamaica queens [Music] citizens brave enough to stand up to the dealers are intimidated and murdered [Music] the new york city police department and the federal task force turn up the heat on all the drug organizations in jamaica queens they make over 2 000 arrests for the sale and possession of drugs in the four months between october 1987 and january 1988. in late january 1988 one of lorenzo nichols lieutenants thomas mustafa godbolt is sent to rikers island for threatening the guyanese witness on february 24th howard pappy mason suspected of shooting parole officer brian rooney is convicted on a weapons possession charge the next day lorenzo nichols is sentenced to 25 years to life on 11 counts of drugs and weapons possession we had cut off the head of the snake and caught a couple of his top people with him and had a great case and and so we really felt we had put that organization uh pretty much on the sidelines the nypd and the fbi are making headway in the battle to take back the streets of south jamaica from the drug dealers but the war is about to take a dark turn february 26 1988 just days after nichols and mason were convicted officer edward byrne is guarding the guyanese witness even with the man who threatened his family in jail the witness continues to receive threats burn is a rookie just 22 years old this is just another routine night at 3 a.m a car drives past officer byrne's position there are four men inside the sedan drives around the block and out of sight [Music] twenty minutes later three men sneak up behind officer burns car [Music] the witness hears the gunshots at 3 28 am dispatch sends out the call officer down in jamaica queens [Music] police arrive at the scene minutes later both front windows of officer burns police cruiser have been shot out the rookie cop is dead every police officer responds to that every police officer takes that personal when a police officer is murdered the witness officer burn was protecting tells police he heard the shots and saw several men get in a tan colored car and speed away investigators find an abandoned 1976 tan olds cutlass parked about two miles from where burns was shot they find nothing in the car linking it to the murder after the murder of officer byrne the new york city police department started cracking down on all the drug dealers a tremendous amount of heat was put on all the drug dealers in jamaica queens they wanted the murders of officer burn hundreds of police officers working 12-hour shifts blanket three precincts the 103rd 105th and 113th in southeastern queens [Music] they raid nearly 200 locations and questioned more than 300 suspected drug dealers investigators believe lorenzo nichols ordered the murder of his parole officer from jail and the man who threatened the witness officer byrne was protecting had ties to nichols organization nichols is a natural suspect at the time of officer burns murder several members of the fbi task force are investigating a queen's drug dealer with ties to the nichols organization what we did was we simply shifted focus we were looking at something called the smith organization who had dealings with a number of nichols associates we simply moved full power we looked right at the nichols organization because we were gaining intelligence from the same informants they were telling us about the smith organization they had intelligence on the nichols organization we targeted the members of the organization who were still on the street operating his drug conspiracy group to get inside the organization investigators use a variety of weapons they set up undercover drug buys [Music] and use telephone wiretaps if nichols was involved in the murder of officer byrne he's just made the biggest mistake of his life now the resources of the fbi the nypd and the dea are focused on bringing down his operation a rookie cop is killed shot to death on a street in new york city 22 year old officer eddie byrne gave his life protecting a witness from a deadly drug gang [Music] on february 29th officer eddie byrne is laid to rest [Music] ten thousand police officers attend the funeral [Music] you can't kill a police officer and get away with it special agent richard martinez that's why police react so quickly you can't kill a police officer and get away with it new york city mayor ed koch vows to find those responsible the city offers a ten thousand dollar reward for information leading to the conviction of burns killers the community is outraged after years of being intimidated they are fed up with the drug dealers special agent david higgins shootings would take place at any time of day many times bystanders innocent bystanders in the neighborhood would be caught in the crossfire and there were a number of notorious cases in which children were killed as a result of these shootings police set up a hotline to field tips they answered 400 calls every eight hours within days the reward money climbs to a hundred thirty thousand dollars three days after the shooting an anonymous caller says he knows who shot the cop the detective convinces the caller to meet him the tipster tells police the shooter was todd scott police are familiar with scott he's a suspect in the murder of a prostitute detectives go looking for scott at the apartment of a relative they find a witness who is willing to talk he tells detectives he knows the men who carried out the shooting he was present when the hit was planned and he knows who ordered it on february 24th only hours after his conviction on a gun charge howard mason called one of his dealers philip copeland from a pay phone at rikers island the next day copeland met with fellow gang members todd scott david mcclary and scott cobb in an apartment 10 blocks from the murder scene just got back talking to you man copeland told them the boss is mad he ordered them to hit a cop any cop we gotta take out a cup the price of the contract was eight thousand dollars according to the informant the men drew straws to choose the shooter [Music] todd scott would pull the trigger [Music] what you [Music] the officer's fate was sealed the next morning scott came back to the apartment bragging about what they had done they only collected a few hundred dollars of the 8 000 they'd been promised that individual told how the murder actually went down who they chose that it wasn't officer byrne chosen as an individual but they chose the police officer that was guarding the cooperating witnesses house that he was a target of opportunity howard mason wanted byrne's murder to send a chilling message to law enforcement your reputation is everything on the street if you're a drug trafficker if it's uh known in your neighborhood that you are unwilling to take violent retribution for acts against you or your organization you're not going to last very long as a drug trafficker this was a killing that really galvanized law enforcement in new york city the execution of a uniformed police officer who's targeted not because of any particular act or case but because he was a police officer in and of itself the nypd finally have names to link to the shooting they issue warrants for philip copeland todd scott scott cobb and david mcclary copeland is already in jail on another charge police go looking for the other three men later that same afternoon scott cobb's mother calls police she wants to arrange her son's surrender he never shows up investigators believe cobb will eventually contact his mother they install a trap on her telephone line to catch the numbers of all incoming calls [Music] the shooting continues to dominate the news and police keep up the pressure on the street [Laughter] it's not long before another important witness comes forward a young woman tells detectives she witnessed the shooting of officer byrne the woman said she was on the street when she heard his shot and saw men around the police car she hid behind a car until the men left she doesn't think they saw her [Music] investigators show the witness photo lineups she confirms todd scott as the man she saw at the passenger window of the patrol car she also identifies david mcclary as the man standing by the driver's side window and copeland is the man she saw standing behind mcclary police now have a witness to the shooting they need to find the three suspects still at large [Music] the day after the trap on scott cobb's mother's phone is set up police get a hit an incoming call is traced to an address in queens village it's one of several safe houses owned by howard mason on march 3rd less than a week after the burn shooting detectives spot scott cobb hey man step down [Music] he is quickly taken into custody [Music] police searched the safe house in the basement they find todd scott [Music] at noon the next day david mcclary surrenders to police he's accompanied by his mother of the four men accused of burns death mcclary is the only one who doesn't have a criminal record todd scott and david mcclary give conflicting statements each accused the other of actually pulling the trigger all versions of the events placed scott cobb behind the wheel of the getaway car police and prosecutors are eventually able to piece together this version of events at 3 25 a.m todd scott distracted officer byrne by tapping on the window on the passenger side of the patrol car david mcclary shot officer burned five times through the driver's side window philip copeland was just behind mcclary all four men are charged with second-degree murder but for the agents and police larger questions loom did howard pappy mason act on his own was fat cat nichols involved in the murder and can they prove it police and fbi agents suspect one of two men is responsible for ordering the murder of a new york city police officer drug wholesaler lorenzo fat cat nichols or his former employee pappy mason special agent david higgins the murder of police officer byrne was a state investigation it was conducted by the new york city police department and while they conducted their homicide investigation the federal authorities and the local members of the federal task force conducted a parallel investigation targeting the nichols organization as a whole investigators realize that it's not enough to put the organization's leaders and their lieutenants in jail if they hope to stop the violence they must destroy the gangs fat cat nichols drug operation is huge it brings in over 20 million dollars a year we had already established through informant information that the nicholls organization nerve center was the big mac delhi located in the laurelton section of queens new york we immediately obtained subpoenas to examine the telephone toll records for that location to investigate this large and dangerous organization the fbi turns to wire taps special agent richard martinez is the assigned case agent only that type of investigation can collect information on major conspiracies uh when an undercover officer deals with one person buying drugs he's dealt with one or two people to get an enterprise or an organization you need the ability to wiretap agents wiretap nichols headquarters but they immediately run into a problem the suspects involved in the nichols organization were so paranoid about the attention of law enforcement in the neighborhood which had occurred as a result of the burn shooting they became convinced that they were the target of a wiretap so they immediately shifted their operation to a new location the agents target nichols family a week after the shooting the fbi begins wiretapping lorenzo nichols sister we knew that a lot of mid-level distributors were dealing with her so hers was a ideal phone to get into she was talking to lorenzo nichols she was talking to about 12 mid-level distributors that she was begging for she was passing on instructions or conversations from the drug dealers to lorenzo nicholls she was in the middle of this whole organization and that was the beauty of it she liked to talk nicole's sister is paranoid someone is spying on her every day she was saying my phone's tapped don't talk but then she would turn around and talk but one day at times she would leave the phone off the hook which is basically a bug into her house and you could hear have conversations with these guys when they would pick up the drugs hurry up over the wiretap the fbi intercepts a key call between nichols and his sister they're talking about pappy mason in one particular conversation she discussed why pappy mason had done that thing a reference to the actual murder of officer byrd and lorenzo responded that he didn't know why he did it pappy mason had a reputation of being a kind of violent guy and lorenzo near the end was kind of pushing him away not really wanting to directly deal with him because he drew too much pressure from law enforcement all indications prior to that that lorenzo nichols was involved in this but through that conversation which was later backed up with debriefing of cooperating witnesses howard mason reported the execution murder of police officer byrne pappy mason thought that the police department disrespected him so therefore he ordered he ordered his contemporaries to go out and to kill any police officer nichols was not involved in the murder of officer byrne but his operation still continues to grow and to supply very dangerous street gangs with product we were able to establish from listening on the telephone that in fact lorenzo fat cat nichols was communicating with core members of the conspiracy every week or two weeks a group of individuals would go up and have meetings with him and receive orders from him in person as to how the the operation was to be managed agents place a microphone in the visiting room at rikers island they try to listen in on lorenzo nichols meetings with his lieutenants unfortunately the sound quality is too poor to hear anything agents and police continue to build a case we learned their methods of distribution we learned their methods of drug preparation we were able to identify some of their sources of supply who was communicating with who how it was done what the level of their trafficking was who some of their customers were as a result and it established a hierarchy of the organization for us yes we continued to conduct surveillances related to the information that we received from the wiretap but surveillance is difficult [Music] most successful drug dealers are savvy and know how law enforcement gathers information the drug traffickers employ counter surveillance techniques they actually pay people on the street for a radius of several blocks to maintain a lookout for police authorities in the area when agents get enough information from the wiretap they make arrests if at a time say for example we intercepted the call in which there was a a drug transaction occurring or a transport of drugs from one location to another location i could say to the investigators working the case we need to take this load off after five long months agents meet with the prosecutor it was time to put some charges on some subjects to get some cooperators and to execute the search warrants to get the guns to get the drugs that'll confirm the conversations that you have martinez feels they have enough probable cause to issue arrest and search warrants you've got to know when it's time to bring the case down and that's when we brought this case down in august the prosecutor agrees it's time to take down the nichols organization after five months of investigation special agent richard martinez plans a complex and potentially dangerous arrest operation the goal is to completely dismantle the nichols drug organization the jury needs to hear three things to prove guilt uh beyond a doubt one they want the testimony of somebody inside a cooperator as an investigator i want to provide tapes of the participants in the organization in their day-to-day activities and lastly physical evidence the arrest operation will hit over 20 locations agents believe the search warrants will give them the physical evidence they need guns drugs and money they also have arrest warrants for 38 members of nichols organization they hope a few of these people will turn and become cooperators when a jury looks at a cooperator the conversations that have been either intercepted through title iii or consensually recording and physical evidence and they all say the same thing there's only one verdict that a jury can come back with and that's guilty agents prepare affidavits and coordinate the 400 bodies needed to execute the operation everyone involved understands the risks there's always danger when you're executing an arrest warrants and search warrants you never know how a person's going to react that's why you go well armed and well-equipped and with enough people to control the scenario to minimize that potential violence august 11 1988 the affidavits have been written the arrest and search warrants have been issued the arrest teams are prepared everything is in place everybody knows what they're going to do who knows who they're going to pick up knows where they have to go and it's just time to execute several of the targeted locations are very dangerous in this case we deployed three swat teams in three locations in which we thought we might have a potential violent reaction the teams hit locations where drugs are being stored and sold fortunately we never tipped our hand in this investigation so none of the defendants knew we were coming when we decided to come for them [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] nicole's sister is surprised by the arrest team she reacts with anger this was a unique investigation that mothers of the main subjects of this case were involved lorenzo's nicole's mom was involved howard mason's mother was involved howard mason's bomb we arrested with uh cuba's crack cocaine and a handgun in residence all over the jamaica section of queens one by one members of the nichols organization are arrested and evidence is collected [Music] during the execution search warrants we found guns we found a substantial amount of packaging material a substantial amount of crack cocaine and numerous individuals with cash money and seize all those items lorenzo fat cat nichols and howard pappy mason are both arrested in prison on drug charges that will keep them behind bars forever by the end of the day 30 people are arrested five pieces of property are seized nicole's sister and other key players in the organization decide to become cooperators the multi-million dollar violent drug operation is effectively destroyed for lorenzo nichols it was the murder of officer edward byrne a murder he had nothing to do with that finally brought down his drug empire this case dismantled the lorenzo nicholls organization lorenzo was convicted and went to trial every member of this organization that was charged was convicted and went diverse in 1992 lorenzo nichols also pleads guilty to ordering the murder of parole officer brian rooney later that same year there is a surprising development in the rooney murder case randolph lucas is arrested on an unrelated charge and confesses his involvement in the crime he claims his brother eric drove the car and that he shot and killed brian rooney [Music] they were hired by a nichols associate to hurt rooney but they panicked and fatally shot the parole officer no one knows why perry bellamy claimed to have been at the scene that night and why he said he witnessed howard mason shoot brian rooney the nypd anti-drug operation in the federal task force targeting queen's drug dealers had a decided effect on drug related crime in new york city fbi special agent david higgins the task force cases in new york sent the message to the streets eventually that crime doesn't pay that if you're going to be involved in violent drug trafficking in new york city you're ultimately going to face justice in a federal court i believe that that message resounded on the streets because the crime rate in new york city and made other major u.s cities the violent crime rate dropped significantly in the 1990s and it's my belief that it dropped because of all these successful prosecutions brian rooney's name was placed on the memorial for parole officers killed in the line of duty the foundation was created in officer edward byrne's name their legacy is the destruction of a deadly organization that threatened the neighborhoods they had sworn to protect you

Channel: The FBI Files

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Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail, crackdown fbi files, fbi crackdown

Id: Pu8FjhCClx8

Length: 49min 25sec (2965 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 04 2021