Cracking The Cartel | The FBI Files | Retold

there's a way to make an entrance my destiny it was now a conspiracy of witches download veli today [Music] a nightmare strikes [Music] ripping a dallas family apart a father makes a desperate escape while his wife and child are taken by a drug deal fbi agents race against time to find the hostages and they're abducted a trail of bodies litters the path to gina camacho [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a mother and child are kidnapped a bystander is murdered violence such as this shattered a quiet texas neighborhood and exposed a drug cartel that flourished where it was least expected i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office fbi field agents work to penetrate the secret of drug underworld expose those involved and crush the cartel [Music] in the spring of 1988 narcotics had infiltrated the working-class communities of dallas texas [Music] a rise in robberies and break-ins followed the drug trade some families retreated from the higher crime areas to the neighborhood of pleasant grove sam wright his three-year-old son andre and his wife evelyn banks found refuge among the porch line streets here residents looked out for one another then early on may 20th 1988 a gunshot shattered the morning silence through the shock of one onlooker four armed men merged from the right house dragging the family to a car sam wright managed to break free from the abductors and escaped the neighbor who witnessed the incident ran to alert the authorities while wright dashed behind houses to avoid the gang but help could not arrive before the gang stuffed wright's family into the car and disappeared [Music] strangely detectives had still not heard from wright and the mystery of the morning's events deepened as detectives entered inside the kidnapping investigation expanded to include a murder investigation as well the police found the body of a young man lying face down in a pool of blood a driver's license identified the victim as 25 year old david wilburn investigators were thorough and collected anything that seemed promising but there was little evidence to collect they also dusted for fingerprints but retrieved none foreign to the residence detectives spoke to the neighbor who called 9-1-1 hoping she could provide some answers the interview revealed that wilburn the dead man found at the scene was sam wright's nephew but she didn't know why anyone would want wilbur executed [Music] detectives also learned that the latino man who drove the lincoln had visited sam wright on previous occasions but no one recognized the for others larger questions remained where was sam wright and why hadn't he contacted authorities about his family's abduction just one disturbing fact was clear a mother and her three-year-old son were in the hands of killers given the urgency the dallas police called in the fbi special agent jose figueroa was assigned to the case every time we receive information about kidnappings that's that's a priority case uh in in our standards uh especially when when a kid is involved and we don't we don't wait 24 hours to respond to a kidnapping figueroa began by searching for sam wright the man who would escape from the gang the fbi learned that wright was a fugitive on the run for three years after fleeing a drug conviction this explained why wright the distraught father had kept on running and not turned to the police but the fbi agents needed him if they were going to move forward and help the wife and child they had to talk to wright suspecting that wright was hiding in the area agents canvassed the pleasant grove neighborhood talking to neighbors that's what we did at the beginning we inundated the whole area with our business cards and interview everybody just asking for somebody to get in touch with samurai for him to contact the fbi office as hoped one of figueroa's business cards found its way into wright's hands the panic-stricken father risked capture by calling the fbi [Music] he asked for the only person who could help his family agent figueroa tas bailly worked with jose figueroa in the fbi violent crimes in dallas sam told jose that the individual who committed this offense was a guy named geno and that was all that sam knew by was geno but that he had been arrested several months before by the mesquite police department for a murder committed down in the valley the rio grande valley sam wright refused to come to the fbi office but promised to call again until then the agents had one lead the name gino we went out to the mesquite police department and met with captain larry sprague larry told us he said i know exactly who you're talking about you're talking about geno camacho thirty-three-year-old geno camacho was a known drug runner whose large shipments of marijuana were distributed and protected by a small gang of thugs he was also known to have a girlfriend named wanda jackson on sunday may 22nd just two days after the abduction agents tracked down wanda jackson they asked her about gino camacho's whereabouts but she denied having any knowledge of where the suspect was [Music] she claimed that she hadn't seen geno in weeks the agents left with the suspicion that she was lying if the fbi had right in custody perhaps they could have negotiated a deal with wanda as a go-between letting camacho believe he would be paid for his hostages [Music] but the agents lacked the leverage that may have encouraged her to work with him they needed to bring in sam wright when wright called the next day they were ready with a tap and tricks on the phone okay an arrest team had already been dispatched to the downtown area what does he look like [Music] you know his name when the pay phone address came through it was radioed to the field [Music] the agents found wright still using the phone but they did not move in immediately though desperate to find his family sam wright was a convicted drug dealer a fugitive from the law the fbi didn't know how far he might go to avoid capturing agents spotted one man waiting in the car for the fugitive wright could have had others posted nearby the agents wanted to reduce the risk of violent resistance by wright and any of his associates okay here we go they were confident that wright and his driver had no other accomplices the agent struck fbi out of the car [Music] wright was arrested without incident on his outstanding warrant and taken into custody that's right agents bailey and figueroa began the interrogation of the captured fugitive on that day wright kept his young son andre entertained [Music] his wife evelyn sat alone downstairs they were in mourning wright's mother had recently passed away in louisiana he was expecting his nephew david wilbur to arrive shortly and drive the family to the funeral wright watched for wilbur's arrival since visitors did not have access to the front door as a fugitive wright had installed burglar bars around the porch thinking it would protect his family both from the law and from his violent associates but the bars could not withstand gino camacho's anger without warning four men burst into the house brandishing automatic weapons sam wright's past had caught up with him the one he knew was gina screamed that he wanted money that was owed at that moment wright's nephew david wilburn arrived he could not have come at a worse time though he was a large man geno's men quickly subdued him wright described his nephew as a gentle soul who never hurt anyone gino yelled that he meant business to prove his point he placed the muzzle of a 357 revolver to the back of wilburn's head a second later a single shot brought instant death wright watched helplessly as the lifeless body of his nephew collapsed a few feet sam wright desperately wanted to help authorities but he swore he didn't have any more information that could assist the investigators in locating his family while wright remained in custody the clock continued ticking for his wife and son to expedite leads dallas police and the fbi orchestrated a media campaign [Music] area newspapers and television stations featured pictures of camacho's face the authorities requested that citizens come forward with any information as to the suspect's whereabouts [Music] this campaign yielded a tip from an unsavory source another drug dealer david munoz a small time dealer called the fbi and was connected to agent bailey munoz claimed that he recognized the kidnapper in a television news story he said he had information that might be useful to the investigation munoz arranged to meet bailey on his dallas motel late at night he told bayley that he knew who camacho's accomplices were he even offered to turn kamachi over to the fbi as part of an unorthodox deal what munoz planned on doing was kind of taking over the collection of camacho's drug debts and business dealings and wanted us to kind of turn a blind eye towards this we basically told him no deal because there was only a weak connection to the case bailly did not arrest munoz nevertheless the fbi agent managed to extract one key name from the opportunist eddie blaine cummings on the street cummings was known as fast eddie a background check revealed he had a criminal record and had spent time in jail with geno camacho cummings was currently on parole for possession of illegal weapons special agent figueroa now had two names gino camacho and fast eddie as he canvassed area nightclubs armed with photos of camacho and fast eddie figueroa found a bar patron who had recently seen the pair come in the patron had heard fast eddie talk about a lunch appointment the next day up in lawton oklahoma a three-hour drive northwest of dallas an arrest team assembled in the parking lot of the oklahoma restaurant on the morning of august 12 1988. the plan was to wait until fast eddie exited the crowded restaurant to isolate him from bystanders investigators were poised to strike fast eddie was their closest link to camacho so far when the door opened the arrest team descended nabbing fast eddie before he could flee one associate of camacho's gang was now in custody agents hoped fast eddie could lead them closer to the missing mother and son man in the summer of 1988 dallas fbi agents searched for a missing mother and child abducted at gunpoint by a drug king fast eddie an associate of the gang was now in custody under interrogation fast eddie denied having anything to do with the kidnapping in dallas but eventually he did tell them what he knew of the crime this was the first time we had actually learned who all was involved and the names of the individuals the morning of the abduction fast eddie fingered camacho and two other gang members juan jackson and david cook he and david cook had grown up together in stephenville texas a two-hour drive from dallas as far as fast eddie knew cook was probably back in their hometown bailey and figueroa needed to get cook trusting that the lead might take them one step closer to camacho and the missing child they sought a contact in stephenville and found the name of detective don miller on august 15 1988 detective don miller called back agent bailey miller had found the suspect working at his family's convenience store the detective would hold him until the agents arrived [Music] miller warned cook that if he knew something it would be best to cooperate with the fbi yeah one member of the gang that kidnapped evelyn and andre banks was now in custody the fbi was a step closer to camacho and the missing pair agents rushed to stephenville hoping david cook may lead them to camacho and his hostages before time ran out for the mother and son he had decided to help investigators with the case in the hopes of a lighter sentence over two days of interrogation cook detailed his version of the events of may 20th 1988. on the morning of the assault camacho picked up cook and two more associates he said they were going to collect the debt camacho had given sam wright twenty thousand dollars worth of marijuana to deal but wright had claimed it was stolen camacho swore he'd get his money back member juan jackson opened up a bag and started passing out guns the arsenal included sub machine guns and the 357 pistol camacho sent another gang member larry merrill around back to cut the phone line noah was going to call for help [Music] juan jackson cut through the padlock burglar bombs while david cook and camacho kept watch they burst in the front door and found evelyn banks in the living room camacho had his men sweep the house one story where's my money where's my money plans [Music] the gang corralled the terrified family into the living room as camacho's fury rules he said that if the family didn't cooperate they would die camacho told him to put the baby on the sofa next to his mother and that if the baby moved or caused any problems to shoot him geno started screaming how they had ripped him off how they had not treated him with respect and he wanted his money and he wanted it now amid all the shouting there came a knock at the door the assailant's first thought was that the neighbors had summoned the police camacho and jackson moved into position prepared to fire on the police they thought were on the other side of the door come in when david wilburn walked through the front door he was surrounded by the armed gang the gunman threw him to the ground without a struggle [Music] camacho ordered jackson to shoot him but when he hesitated camacho turned to cook but when cook refused camacho grabbed the gun from his hand and showed everyone just how serious he was [Music] camacho yelled that no one was going to show him disrespect anymore grab my gun he just blowed the guy away under intense questioning cook never wavered on the facts including that camacho was the shooter his story matched sam wright's version [Applause] after they left the house camacho remained furious that wright had escaped but the gang didn't give chase they knew the police would soon be summoned in force to the pleasant grove neighborhood instead camacho ordered them all to cook's apartment where he could decide their next move camacho figured they could lay low there with the hostages paul macalusa was the assistant u.s attorney who tracked the case they were concerned about damage control they had two witnesses to a murder to a capital murder and what to do about that cook told agents that a new gang member spencer stanley was called to the apartment to guard the hostages while he and camacho were away dealing drugs at a nearby hotel juan jackson didn't stay much longer fearing the heat from the authorities he cleaned the guns took some getaway cash and left the gang for good boy [Music] while stanley kept watch over the hostages cook and camacho drove to the hotel to make the drug deal [Music] there just two days after the abduction camacho got a call from his girlfriend wanda jackson she had a cryptic message for him hey your big brother was just here yeah big brother of course referring to the federal authorities the fbi had been to the house the same girlfriend that had sworn to the fbi that she had no idea of camacho's whereabouts reached him moments after the agents left her in trouble her warning gave the gang a head start on the pursuing agents camacho returned to cook's apartment [Music] he told evelyn that he wasn't angry with her only with her husband over the money i'm not after you he said he would release her and andre if she promised not to go to the authorities with that pledge camacho said he would take them to a private airstrip in oklahoma for a flight to california there they would remain safe until camacho settled up with wright at the end of a grueling interrogation session cook told agents that evelyn and andre never made it to california there was no plan for them to board cook knew where they were left across the texas state line near ardmore oklahoma turn around hands right here in august of 1988 special agents from dallas violent crimes unit had arrested one member of a texas gang responsible for one murder and the abduction of a mother and child while in custody cook pointed special agents jose figueroa and tas bailey north to oklahoma it was the next stepping stone towards their ultimate goal finding evelyn and andre banks and their abductor gino camacho according to cook camacho had driven evelyn and andre banks to a remote area across state lines the gang leader had promised to fly the mother and child to her relatives in california from an airstrip that was concealed behind the trees they pulled the car off the side of the road and together headed into the woods spencer stanley led the way carrying three-year-old andre in a few hours she thought she would be on the west coast where she would remain until her husband paid the drug debt he owed camacho but as they walked deeper into the woods evelyn found no clearing for a plane to land then she saw the hole no in an instant she realized what it meant she fainted from the shop there was no airstrip no flight to freedom she and her son had been brought here to die spencer stanley dropped her child into the open grave camacho fired four times they threw evelyn in on top of her son and shot her as well evelyn banks and her three-year-old son andre died on may 23 1988. this was the grisly scene that david cook told agents he was leading them to the agents had just about reached their frustration point when cook at last recognized the area the search for camacho's victims began in the punishing heat of late summer the federal kidnapping case had escalated into a homicide case as well camacho had now killed three people but if the agents wanted to prove their case against the killer they had to find the bodies to pinpoint the burial site the agents began a line search through the trees and as we walked in behind those cedar trees you could see a depression in the ground where someone had dug all the sod had been torn off when investigators reached the site three months had passed since the murders they began the painstaking excavations they removed small loads and sifted through the dirt careful not to miss or destroy any evidence near the surface agents found shell casings from a 380 caliber weapon yeah got a bag that fit with cook's account that camacho had fired a small semi-automatic pistol right there the digging continued at a painfully slow like they've all been here you got to remember this is the end of august it was about 95 degrees about 90 humidity we were in that area of the trees so there was no no air movement i mean we were just stuck in there we've been digging for about two hours then one of the agents struck something hard it sounded hollow another blow broke through the shell-like crust a foul stench suddenly overwhelmed the agents and the god-awful smell of decaying uh human body came out of the hole and we both we both jumped out of the hole and went over in the bushes and got sick and then had to go back into it again before burying evelyn and andre camacho and his men covered the bodies with cat litter to help hide the odor but the clay in the cat litter absorbed moisture from the bodies then hardened into an airtight shell reducing the rate of decomposition and preserving the bodies for autopsy despite the nauseating stench the agents pressed on they put vick's vaporwub under their noses to suppress the odor and continued working they were determined to construct an impenetrable case against camacho and his gang cook then led agents to nearby lake texoma where he said the gang had disposed of the weapons after the killing a dive team from the oklahoma state bureau of investigation combed the lake bomb they came up with more casings from the 380 and then they found the handgun the physical evidence against gino camacho was now summoned corroborating eyewitness testimony the federal agents were confident they could secure a conviction on two counts of kidnapping and three of murder but camacho remained at large and agents learned he had killed again cook told the fbi he could lead them to that body as well in late august of 1988 the fbi in dallas had captured david cook a member of a violent texas drug gang the gang's leader gino camacho wanted for kidnapping and three murders was still at large cook was cooperating with agents in the hunt for camacho he had led investigators to the burial site of camacho's most recent murder victims but during the two-day trip to recover the bodies of evelyn and andre banks in oklahoma cook surprised agents with another tale of camacho's terror this time camacho had released his rage on a woman named pamela miller agents now turned their focus to her whereabouts agents learned that pam miller worked as an exotic dancer in a dallas strip club she met camacho and started hanging out with his gang crook told agents that he and miller joined camacho one night in june of 1988. we're all set and still looking forward it had been just three weeks since camacho had shot and killed three people but he had risked a trip to dallas to arrange another drug deal only about five minutes all right the buyer showed up at a hotel bar and began negotiating but pam interrupted the transaction pam miller recognized the purchaser as somebody who came into the club where she had danced and she recognized him and she told him so i know you you came into the club well not surprisingly this had a chilling effect on the transaction the buyer skipped out the deal was dead you have the idea what you just did i know i'm from where i dance at you camacho became furious at pam for messing up the drug deal and cook and pam and camacho walked out of the hotel as soon as they got in the car camacho started beating pamela pamela then made some comments to camacho attacking his manhood which only infuriated him more [Music] as they drove camacho's rage boiled over cook and stanley had seen the results of his temper before they knew where it could lead yet they were too intimidated to speak up camacho's brutal beating didn't stop until miller had lost consciousness still enraged camacho ordered cook to stop the car [Music] he dragged miller onto the road laid her limp body behind the right rear tire and yelled for cook to back up the car now cook obeyed they drove down to stephenville they went to an apartment that was rented by david cook and they took pamela's body and put it in a 55-gallon drum stuck it out on the patio stuck a bag of trash on top of it so no one would see there was a body in it they stayed there for the weekend camacho stanley cook they sat around drinking beer and partying until camacho decided to dispose of the body so we asked david well where will we find pamela's body and he said you won't and we said why not he said well we chopped her up and put her in a tree mulcher while i was driving the car jose was in the front seat i looked at jose he looked at me our mouths dropped open and i almost ran off the highway i couldn't believe what i just heard cook led fbi agents to the wooded site on the ranch where they had pulverized the body it seemed impossible that they would find any remains not only would the shredder have pulped the body but it was now some two months after the insidious act it was likely that the hot texas sun had decayed the remains even further despite the odds agents set out to recover what they could from cook's account the agents figured out the shredder's discharge path they set up a grid system and began meticulously scouring the scene the process took hours but the hard work yielded dividends from the ground agents recovered bone shards and tissue [Music] in the tree branches above they found more tissue dried by the sun each item was bagged and labeled based on its location the agents also recovered teeth a check with pamela miller's dental records allowed a positive identification of the victim 23 year old pamela miller had been camacho's fourth murder in as many weeks yet her murderer was still at large and every day he remained free camacho posed a threat to anyone that crossed his path but a major break in the case soon followed when the family of spencer stanley the gang member who had helped camacho kill three victims contacted the fbi they tipped the agents off that stanley was hiding in a trailer park in huntsville alabama stanley told investigators that he had thrown the 357 camacho used to kill david wilburn into lake ray hubbard near dallas an fbi dive team searched the bottom of the texas lake they never found a gun but they did find a casing from a 357 in several live rounds the recovered bullets were taken to the fbi's materials and devices unit in washington dc for neutron activation analysis agents hoped that the bullets from lake ray hubbard could be matched to the bullet that killed camacho's first victim david wilbur neutron activation analysis is based on the fact that lead bullets are created in batches and each batch of lead is unique the fbi examiners needed to prepare the bullets for the test by removing the slugs from the shells readying them for transportation to a nuclear reactor [Music] lead samples from each bullet were lowered into the reactor's core samples absorbed neutrons and became radioactive the radioactivity was measured and gave a precise reading of the chemical elements found in the lead a radioactive signature examiners concluded that the signatures from each bullet were identical the bullets from lake ray hubbard and wilburn's body had come from the same batch of ammunition [Music] though the physical evidence against camacho continued to build it didn't put the authorities any closer to locating the fugitive through an informant the fbi learned that camacho had escaped to mexico and was hiding in a small town just south of the texas border u.s authorities sought to have him arrested and extradited but mexican authorities were unable to cooperate they claimed that the town where camacho stayed was controlled by drug kingpins who were heavily armed if the mexican police attempted an arrest there would be heavy casualties the fbi would need another plan to bring the gang leader to justice after four murders in the u.s drug dealer gino camacho had escaped to mexico out of reach of the fbi but without his gang or the drug trade that had supported them his money began to run out by the spring of 1989 camacho was in desperate need of cash he still had suppliers in mexico if he could locate a buyer in the states because he feared crossing back into the u.s he searched for a middleman with narcotics distribution contacts north of the border the low-level go between camacho stumbled upon worked as an informant for the u.s drug enforcement agency my family [Music] the informant reported to his dea handler that a man named gino wanted to set up a drug deal dea agent john lund was based in fort worth texas he was aware that gino camacho was wanted by the fbi suspecting that this genome was gino camacho told his informant that he wanted to go ahead with the deal [Music] lund then called fbi agent tas bailey with good news john told me that it sounded like this was gino camacho i then provided john with a photograph of camacho which he showed to his informant and the informant confirmed that that in fact was the individual with whom he had met [Music] to get the fugitive across the border the fbi offered camacho a deal he couldn't refuse their informant told camacho that an american distributor wanted to buy a million dollars worth of marijuana but the distributor needed to finalize the deal in person he wasn't comfortable doing such a large deal with someone he'd never met to calm camacho's fears about entering the u.s the informant told camacho the distributor would advance gina 100 000 when they met in the border town of mcallen texas but there was one problem with this thing field agents needed a means of visually identifying the fugitive amongst other border processes to make the matches stand out the informant sent plates and said would enable the distributor to identify the arrest team committed the clothing to memory hawaiian shirt blue shorts and a green brimmed baseball cap camacho got the package of clothes at a friend's apartment where he often hung out but no one could be sure an experienced smuggler like camacho would not be too suspicious to wear the outfit we knew that this was going to be our only shot at him that once he figured he'd been set up that the informant would be burned and he would be even more cautious than before in doing any type of transaction that would afford us an opportunity to arrest him so we set up very elaborate arrest plans on the day of the deal agents scanned the border crossing for camacho they hoped they could find him in the crowd by the telltale clothes that the smuggler had been sent then the arrest team spotted him in the outfit camacho didn't realize the place was swarming with federal agents dressed as patrol guards tourists and passers-by they all had memorized the outfit and his picture calmly posing as a tourist he started across the bridge that spanned the border fbi agents dressed as border patrol guards approached camacho the fugitive played it cool and gave a false name to hamas sanchez and the agents asked for identification he claimed he didn't have any he was simply an american tourist returning from a day trip to mexico the agents coolly told him to come inside for questioning he went without a fight believing this minor misunderstanding would soon be cleared the gang leader was already in fbi custody and he didn't even know it camacha was taken to the border patrol office and fingerprinted bailey let him stew in the cell for over two hours while agents waited for a computer match on the prince [Music] camacho didn't break his silence i addressed him as tomas sanchez and and he acknowledged that and i says well we have taken your fingerprints we have run them through the computer at the fbi in washington dc and the computer says that you're not tomas sanchez you're in fact gino camacho and he said well if that's what the computer says it must be so but camacho denied knowing anything about the murders to the end he never admitted any involvement in the kidnapping and murders he claimed the fbi had framed him for the crimes the arrest of gino camacho made page one news across the southwest from the border he was moved to a cell in dallas county and charged with firearms violations kidnapping conspiracy and capital murder camacho and the rest of his gang were prosecuted by the authorities david cook received 24 years for his part in the murders and kidnapping spencer stanley got a life sentence for the three murders he helped carry out juan jackson earned a life sentence for his involvement fast eddie cummings and larry merrill got eight years each sam wright had to serve his prior drug sentence as well as additional time for fugitive flight but for camacho himself state prosecutors sought the death penalty for the state of texas to put a man to death the prosecution was proved more than premeditation it must show the accused remains a threat to society for this reason camacho was tried on the state murder charge first otherwise a conviction on the federal charges would have sent kamachi to prison where any threat he posed to society would have been removed in separate trials gino camacho was found guilty for murder and kidnapping the sentence was carried out 10 years after the deaths of andre and evelyn banks and pamela miller on august 26 1998 the state of texas executed gino camacho by lethal injection [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Retold - Documentaries & Reconstructions

Views: 127,756

Keywords: American Justice System, Crime Analysis Techniques, Crime History Channel, Crime Investigation Series, Crime Resolution, Crime TV Series, Criminal Investigation, Criminal Justice Procedures, Criminal Organizations, FBI, Investigative Techniques, Law and Order, Legal Process Documentary, Organized Crime, Retold - Documentaries & Reconstructions, True Crime Documentary, True Crime Investigations, True Crime Stories

Id: Kc56QknxtMk

Length: 45min 50sec (2750 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 05 2022