Dangerous Company: The Last Days Of An International Trafficker (True Crime Story) | Real Stories

[Music] the body falls from the night sky to understand this tragic death police must follow a winding trail of ruins they struggled to learn whether it was merely an accident or something far more sinister each menacing clue heightens the mystery as police seek to uncover the identity of a man who kept dangerous company [Music] in this program some of the names have been changed September 10th 1985 midnight the plane flies under the radar [Music] two men prepared to bail out it was a desperate act but they were out of options they put the plane on autopilot uncertain of the dangers that awaited them they left into the vast night sky [Music] the next morning in Knoxville Tennessee Sam Reid and his daughter went about their morning routine nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Sam's daughter headed outside for the morning paper dad a man sprawled on their driveway yeah he didn't appear to be breathing Sam's daughter called 9-1-1 [Music] not Knoxville Police Lieutenant Jerry day was alerted the dispatcher called us and said we have a dead body and has parachute attached to it and it appears this individual has died from a fall [Music] cart 3210 worked around the house [Applause] [Music] police and paramedics arrived two minutes paramedics confirmed the man who's dead no one in the neighborhood had seen anything suspicious [Music] the man must have fallen in the middle of the night it appeared he had been dead for some time his primary shoot had not deployed although his hand clutched the ripcord it appeared the emergency chute opened on its own we have someone who is skydiving in the middle of the night which is very unusual if you do have skydivers they are usually out in open areas in daylight time so we knew immediately that we had something that was going to be very unique nothing about the situation was what the officers expected including the condition of the body what we were expecting problem was to find an individual who had massive wound from impacting the ground what we found was what appeared to be very minor superficial injuries we weren't sure why was such a small amount of injuries in this individual the officers expected to see a much greater amount of blood his wounds didn't seem consistent with a violent fall to the ground there was a cut underneath the chin the mouth was bleeding the nose have been bleeding and the teeth were rearranged as if that Joe had been impacted with something very hard but beyond that there were no other outside physical injuries the officers suspected the victim wasn't from Knoxville he was wearing very expensive jump clothing appeared to be things that we would say were high-dollar but you don't only find on most area skydivers he was carrying several thousand dollars in cash we started looking for ID we found his wallet and inside the wallet we found a driver's license to an Andrew Thornton out of Kentucky but only to find behind that another Kentucky driver's license with his picture but with another name the other name was Andrew bourbon officers had no way of knowing which name if either is real but it was the next discovery that stunned Knoxville police inside a large black duffel bag strapped to the victim investigators found small parcels each containing what appeared to be a kilo of unprocessed cocaine from the markings on the drugs investigators deduce they were packaged outside the US neighbors were drawn to the scene but couldn't give the officers any information no one had seen or heard anything suspicious that morning of the night before [Music] the officers took the evidence found on the body back to headquarters to examine it they were looking for additional clues to the parachutists identity the man was carrying various handgun we start through the backpack to find a fully loaded semi-automatic 9-millimeter plus the derringer which is the type of a weapon that's going to be used by someone who is either working in a deep-cover operation or is they is a survivalist someone who's going to have a backup weapon which a lot of police officers carry the guns were sent to the lab for testing night-vision goggles were even more puzzling they were only available to the military there was no serial number to use to trace the goggles origin he had all kinds of evidence that showed that this was a really bad actor someone who meant to survive whatever situation he found himself in a notebook contained names and on groupings of numbers it appeared to be some kind of numeric code the detective des was unsure of its meaning inside the bag investigators also found South African Gold Krugerrands they suspected the man carried gold so he could flee to another country and easily convert the untraceable Krugerrands to local currency most disturbing to the officers however was the discovery of Teflon coated bullets ammunition that is Teflon coated and is only used to penetrate body armor which normally is worn by law-enforcement officers these bullets are normally called cop killers and individuals who are dead set on not being captured we use that type of ammunition detectives scrutinized the two kentucky licenses they place calls to authorities there to determine if either was legitimate there was no idea by anyone in the investigative area as to who even really was once we found the passport driver's license we started trying to pull everything together to make a positive identification they also found a membership card to an exclusive resort in Miami in the dead man's pocket investigators found a key with some strange numbers on it yeah that's so that's an N number two that's a tail number off of an aircraft that's an aircraft key detectives weighed the stash of cocaine we don't normally come in contact with 34 kilos of coke over 80 pounds at one time occasionally we would get involved with cases with pounds but nothing of this magnitude the street value of the cocaine was almost twenty million dollars too much for a small Police Department to protect fearing their precinct could be targeted by criminals desperate to get their hands on that much cocaine they called for help we contact the Drug Enforcement Administration and told them what we had we tell them we had a large quantity of over 70 pounds of cocaine and that we didn't want to keep it in our facility the DEA had a vault that could secure it [Music] the victims main parachute hadn't been deployed but his backup chute was open forensic technicians examine the dead man's equipment they were looking for signs of sabotage but the equipment appeared to be in perfect working order it was unclear why the victims primary shoot had been deployed he appeared to be an individual who knew exactly what he was doing which made the the parachute accident seemed a somewhat strange to us the officers would have to rely on other evidence to determine how and why the man died technicians examine the gun that found no fingerprints and gun metal residue tests came back negative it had not been fired recently the county medical examiner began conducting an autopsy later that day he hoped to find tattoos or other identifying marks there were none the medical examiner did find various injuries on the man's body that did not make sense bruises and contusions appeared inconsistent with a fall to the ground they could find no external injuries or no bullet wounds or stab wounds than anything of that nature and it appeared the man had been dead for several hours perhaps even before he struck the ground according to the preliminary autopsy report something or someone and hit this man before his fall or in midair it was looking less and less like an accident and more like murder while investigators grappled with the puzzling clues the remarkable tale quickly became the media's lead story in Knoxville and across the South these are still investigating the circumstances surrounding this bizarre death officials and anyone with any information about the publicity paid off a ranger with the u.s. Forest Service in Georgia made a puzzling discovery a black duffel bag identical to the ones found near the parachute victim was snagged in a tree another one lay on the ground the bags contained another 150 kilos of cocaine several more duffel bags were found strewn in the Chattahoochee National Forest and in Cherokee County Georgia just south of Knoxville [Music] from the location of the drop sites in the amount of cocaine authorities speculated the drugs had come from somewhere south of the u.s. perhaps Central or South America media coverage of the event led investigators to their next big lead back in Tennessee an employee at a small Knoxville Airport contacted authorities [Music] he'd seen the news and it found something he thought was perhaps linked to their case one of the maintenance men from the airport had discovered a parachute and reserves you and a green jumpsuit the gear had been hidden behind a building investigators suspected the gear could have belonged to a second parachutist he probably survived to jump and hid the chute before he made his getaway the detectives soon received yet another call this time from officials in North Carolina the Drug Enforcement investigators on a call and stated that the remains of a plane had been recovered on North Carolina and that it might be associated with the parachutist that had landed an auction Lake County North Carolina late due east of Knoxville detective day had no idea what he might find at the crash site they hope that somewhere in the twisted wreckage lay the clue to the identity of the mysterious dead man in late summer 1985 officers in Tennessee were investigating the mysterious death of a parachutist they suspected he had a partner but had no leads as to his identity on the dead man's body investigators found weapons cash and millions of dollars worth of pure cocaine they got a break when a fisherman in North Carolina contacted the local sheriff to report a plane crash the accident occurred on September 11th at around 1:00 a.m. a local fisherman who was night fishing on a lake near the Cherokee National Forest heard a low-flying aircraft approaching his location and then it flew over him which kept his attention and then the next thing he notices is the flames from the impact of the aircraft hitting the mountain [Music] it took five hours for detective day and federal agents to hike to the crash site it was a very devastating crash like you had trees which had been sheared off 3-4 feet above the ground and there were probably five to ten of those which told me that there was a major impact when we when we got to the aircraft one of the main things we were looking for was there were any other bodies the plane was destroyed but didn't have much burn damage apparently there had been little fuel left when it crashed there was no luggage no flight documents and no bodies there were even few seats most have been ripped out leaving the cabin hollow a standard procedure and drug runners the end number on the aircraft matched the end number on the key that we found on the body in Knoxville that was the connection for us between this aircraft and our skydiver like the odd clues found on the body in Knoxville the plane crash didn't seem logical of course we had no other bodies no other drugs and within the aircraft we were still very perplexed on wow he was jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft and putting it on automatic pilot which was very evident from the wreckage and the levers and things in the wreckage the wreckage offered no new clues as to the reason why the man jumped from the plane they were also no closer to finding the identity of his accomplice the trip to North Carolina left authorities with even more questions but the biggest question was finally about to be answered word had come from Lexington Kentucky on the identity of the dead man one of the man's IDs was a fake the other legitimate fingerprints confirmed it their victim's name was Andrew Carter Thornton the second he was a former lexington police officer and was known to Kentucky State Police detective Don Powers when I first met Drew Thornton I was impressed that he was a go-getter hard worker a good officer years earlier drew had been a member of the police department's first narcotic squad squad found early success cleaning up Lexington's streets but they soon began to gather some unwanted attention their drug busts had become marred by a string of complaints from defendants about their treatment at the hands of the police I was aware in the mid-seventies of certain problems that were occurring within the Lexington bleep Police Department there had began to be all kinds of rumors about how their drug unit was operating some of the strong-arm tactics growing allegations against the narc squad also attracted the attention of the FBI special agent Jim Huggins they were kind of a roll good group that pretty much skirted the law and did a lot of questionable things in enforcing drug laws around the University of Kentucky campus and the Lexington community they were allegedly involved in planting drugs on suspects stealing drugs out of evidence lockers and reselling them and this sorta activity Thornton and his crew were moved to other positions the FBI learned it came too late drew thornton and his friends had made many contacts within the drug world the more we got into it the more people started to surface and then it was almost like a web it started expanding out into different crimes different people different states different countries the Kentucky State Police in the FBI opened investigations into the activities of Drude former they learned he had partnered with a friend of his Frank Barclay and opened a security business Barclays was another drew Thornton type guy very smart very impressive and if these guys at Thornton and Berkeley had put all those talents to good use there's no telling what they could have done but unfortunately they decided to go the other way the men ran with a rich crowd wherever Drew and Frank were money was always being thrown around the word on the street was their security business was an alleged front for the sale and distribution of marijuana we were mainly gathering intelligence reports and formulating a plan and trying to somehow verify some of these allegations Berkeley was the money man the two were known simply as the company Dru Thornton handled the supply side acquiring weapons vehicles and drugs the dual had a reputation of doing anything for a buck I think that Thornton prided himself on living on the edge on being a soldier of fortune type person on being almost invincible that he could do anything because of his dangerous lifestyle lieutenant Jerry day in the Knoxville Police were beginning to suspect that their skydiver had not died from a mere accident [Music] forty-eight hours after the skydiving death of ex-cop through foreman the FBI took over the case newspapers shouted the mysterious details of his death and Kentucky residents were shocked Lexington Herald reporter Valerie Honeycutt he came from a very well-respected family and there was a lot of people in Lexington who just had a hard time believing that he was involved in drug smuggling Lexington Kentucky is surrounded by beautiful country and lavish horse farms were some of the world's best thoroughbreds are raised Dru Thornton was well known to the region's wealthiest families the day after Drew's death federal agents armed with a search warrant entered the exclusive Lexington home a Thornton live at the scene of his death agents had been left some enticing clues cocaine guns and ammunition and the parachute of an unknown accomplice who had escaped they hoped that somewhere on his property they would find a clue to explain the bizarre circumstances surrounding his death and lead them to his accomplice but a search of Thornton's house turned up no new evidence FBI Special Agent Jim Huggins someone had already been there and taken whatever incriminating information there might have been investigators turn to Thornton's former employer for help [Music] lexington police detective John Beck we're asked if there are people who could identify not only his body but certain things that they'd found on his person we recognized telephone numbers and names in the address book we of course there were several names and telephone numbers which we were familiar with one of the names in the phone book was Wes Trotter he was a close friend of thornless and both men had been questioned in an unsolved missing persons case years earlier [Music] and socialite Amanda Finley left her parents home on January 25th 1977 for a routine appointment about 5:15 in the afternoon and she turned left traveled south in her car heading to a doctor's appointment and was never seen again she had talked to her father earlier in the afternoon said that she would be home for supper her parents called police after not hearing from Amanda in four days the Finley's told police it wasn't unusual for their daughter to take off but she would always call when her boss confirmed she hadn't shown up for work the family knew something was wrong here a week after her disappearance Amanda's car was found abandoned in the local parking lot a storekeeper said the car had been parked there for several days her coat and other belongings were found in the vehicle but her car keys in her purse were gone forensic evidence technicians combed her car looking for fingerprints blood or any signs of foul play they found nothing [Music] months past the Finley case turned cold the press however did not forget her reporter Valerie Honeycutt Amanda Finley was a beautiful young woman from a well-known family what police knew from the onset was she had had some connection to Drew Thornton and West Trotter exactly what that connection was has never really been clear Amanda had been dating West Trotter a member of Lexington's narcotics squad at the time of her disappearance her parents feared he knew something about their daughter's whereabouts Trotter and Thornton were interviewed very early in the investigation about their knowledge of Finley and what information he had as to when they saw her last Trotter claimed that he used her as an informant on drug investigations off and on but other than that had no relationship with her he also claimed he hadn't seen her for weeks there were allegations that came from personal friends a family that she had told them she was involved in with Trotter but Thornton claimed he only knew Finley through Trotter and had no idea where she might be then detective Bizet got a lead on the missing girl we had telephone records from Finley that showed she had placed some calls to Florida prior to her disappearance we also had information that a person who appeared to be her had been sighted in Daytona Beach Florida that was certainly enough to warrant a trip to Florida to determine if it could be any other eyewitnesses or any evidence that she was in fact there the phone calls had come from a restaurant there detective biz act met witnesses who identified Amanda from photos lexington police believed their victim was in fact a runaway more than six months after Amanda Finley vanished a man came upon an unusual find that made detectives question their conclusion a purse floating near the banks of the Kentucky River by analyzing the contents the person was identified as a man to Finley's fearing the missing-persons case could possibly be a homicide investigation the river was dragged the DA clay just a short distance from Drew Thornton's property 70 acres of land he co-owned with West Trotter Kentucky State Police Lieutenant Don Powers as a result of that purse being found we then did become involved in some aspects of that investigation and so much as trying to to see if we could locate Amanda it seemed that Drew Thornton was constantly surrounded by mystery and possibly murder the list of those who could have wanted Drew killed was growing on September 10th 1985 drew Thornton who jumped from an airplane into the night sky above Knoxville Tennessee it was the last jump Thornton ever made he was found the next morning dead in a man's driveway while police were still trying to determine what caused his death drew Thornton was buried in a Lexington Kentucky Cemetery Dru's body was found with nearly 80 pounds of cocaine strapped to it the FBI was trying to find out where he got the drugs his funeral drew dozens of Lexington's elite politicians police officers and local aristocrats investigators kept a close watch on all his associates they hoped one of them held the key to the mystery many of Drew's friends couldn't accept the rumors generated by his death reporter Valerie Honeycutt there was a great deal of mystery as surrounding drew Thorne's death there was a lot of people in Lexington who just had a hard time believing that he was involved in drug smuggling but the FBI knew differently they had been watching Drew's friends very closely agent Jim Huggins well this group is kind of unique from other drug organizations because of their social status in the Lexington community and a lot of people in high places gave them some oral respectability which they certainly shouldn't be entitled to but they were [Music] sorting along with his friend Frank Barclay ran a business they called the company [Music] the FBI believed it was a front for a drug smuggling operation men had connections in Las Vegas with a notorious pair of drug smugglers Jimmy and Lee chakra were believed to be two of the biggest and most dangerous drug traffickers in the country the shaggers are extremely fearless and desperate individuals and they were heavily involved in some serious drug smuggling Lee nicknamed F Lee in his hometown of El Paso was an infamous Texas attorney known for his successful defense of drug dealers his brother Jimmy was also well known to law enforcement currently out on bail he was waiting to stand trial for drug trafficking there was a pretty intense investigation going on in Las Vegas from the US Attorney's Office and DEA and to their activities the Sagra brothers made millions running drugs from the largest suppliers of Colombia's infamous medellin cartel well the company wanted a piece of their action Berkeley was the one that ingratiated himself with the shagger organization and had a lot of connections people in Las Vegas the feds had never been able to successfully try the chakra brothers despite their reputed ties to the mob Mideast terrorists and Colombian drug lords there were separate operations the the shaggers operation and the company's operation and they it's kind of like a merger Berkeley took all his assets and teamed up with shagger and then they really became involved some big-time smuggling it appeared to investigators the heads of the company were stepping up to the big time federal prosecutor Brian Layton Berkeley wanted the highlife in the biggest way the quickest way to get to the high life is to run drugs agents began hearing from informants that Frank and drew were going to start running drugs for the chakras and they were looking to expand their gang they began scouring small and rural airports for pilots who could meet their criteria to fly they had to be good pilots they had to be able to fly without lights without instruments land get off the plane take off and allow somebody else to to unload the dope and then they would later get paid I think most of the people that got involved in this they got involved for the thrill of it it was thrilling you go out and buy airplanes just smuggle dope you know you toss that airplane go buy another one the men developed a routine for their drug smuggling operation count it he felt it was a sure way to stay ahead of the police the team would buy used aircraft for cash they would equip them with extra-large gas tanks they take the seats out so they could carry large loads and started flying to South America and back and forth and recruiting pilots bodyguards and it was very sophisticated drug smuggling operation by the late 1970s the company's drug running operations were in full swing with each rung they got better and we're able to smuggle larger and larger amounts of contraband for Berkeley this meant more money and more power drew and Frank wasted no time in using the chakras connections they began buying as many drugs as they could afford in Columbia and shipping them to the US when they landed in the u.s. unloading was done in record time by trained ground crews they knew any delays could mean getting arrested within minutes we begin to have some airplanes that were abandoned at various airports that were searched and had marijuana residue and and we began to get information that Thornton was involved in these on one occasion they landed in a small Lexington Airport with a massive 20,000 pounds of illegal cargo authorities found the planes afterward empty and scrubbed clean with disinfectant but had never caught the men in the act in one of the planes the occupants had left behind a clue a magazine addressed to mr. Andrew Foreman in my view that was the first clue to a lot of people here in central Kentucky that some of their local sons were involved in a major drug running smuggling operation it seemed there was no limit to what the company and the Shockers could achieve [Music] but only a few months after the two groups teamed up tragedy struck police in El Paso Texas got a report that Lee chakra was found shot to death in his office [Music] Jimmy called Berkeley for help unsure who had executed his brother and fearing for his own life Agra had nowhere else to turn Jimmy chakra needed protection he called in a favor from Frank Bartley he asked the company to protect him I'm gonna be three plane tickets to Las Vegas Wesleyan true seeing this is a possible opening to move in on the chakras empire Frank agreed he started making plans to beef up security in chakras Las Vegas home drew however was wary all I'm asking for is a couple of working this closely with the chakras meant more power and more risk wait a minute come on any shake-up in the chakra Empire would inevitably cause trouble for the company Frank was determined not to let Jimmy chakra down but Jimmy was in trouble he was arrested in San Antonio Texas charged with importing marijuana and cocaine from Colombia [Music] the prosecution had been gearing up for this case for months judge we're here bail was set at 1 million dollars and I'm out shakras attorney argued was excessive my client first of all his known prior no US District Judge Robert Drew's agreed with the defense and lowered the bail he found that if Sagar was convicted he would not get off easy Jimmy had a long run just out of reach of the law but this judge was known for being tough on drug dealers Georgia who was trying the shaggers case was known throughout that area as extremely harsh judge and drug cases at this time the ties that bound Jimmy Chhabra and the company were tighter than ever before they were extremely fearless and desperate individuals and they were heavily involved in some serious drug smuggling and they saw I think their empire getting ready to come down May 29th 1979 it was the first day of Jimmy shaggers trial and judge Drew's had no idea what awaited him when he stepped from his home that morning his wife heard the shot but did not see the sniper paramedics responded quickly to see the judge had lost a considerable amount of blood it would be a race against time to save him when drug smuggler Drew Thornton was found dead on a driveway in Knoxville Tennessee with 80 pounds of cocaine strapped to his body local law enforcement was baffled the FBI had been tracking Thornton for years that's life they took over the investigation hoping to learn more about the events leading up to his death and find out who he was working for when he died the more they looked into Drew Thornton's death and the more difficult it became to try and piece together his life years before Drew's death he and his partner Frank Barkley had become linked with notorious drug smugglers Jimmy and Leigh chakra Lee had been murdered and Thornton's company was now providing protection to Jimmy chakra FBI agent James Hagen ISM the shaggers are extremely fearless and desperate individuals and they were heavily involved in some serious drug smuggling and they saw I think their empire getting ready to come down Jimmy chakra was in serious trouble he was up on drug charges and the judge presiding over his case was notoriously tough on drug smugglers on May 29th 1979 judge Drew's was walking out of his house when he was shining paramedics arrived within minutes and we're now working to save his life it was a losing battle the judge had lost a lot of blood [Music] despite all their efforts they couldn't save him judge Drew's was pronounced dead on arrival [Music] news of the assassination of a federal judge referre berated in FBI offices across the US including Lexington FBI agent Jim Huggins it just shows how dangerous these individuals were and if they would stop at nothing to keep their operation going the sniper was captured and prosecuted and Jimmy chakra was convicted of drug charges but escaped the country before he was sentenced although the FBI suspected the company might somehow be involved they like the Texas police had no proof they maintained surveillance for members of the company but they found nothing to incriminate them with the Shah gross out of the way where the company showed no signs of slowing their business dealings they were looking to intensify their drug runs to Colombia the good pressure from investigators concerned Bartley he brought in a new member to the gang to help solve his problem Mike Kelley was a licensed gun dealer in Lexington federal agents suspected he was the alleged go-to man for anyone looking for illegal weapons Mike Kelley was an electronics expert had a small company in Lexington supplied radios alarms and this kind of equipment according to federal surveillance reports Kelley was in contact with Frank Barclay and drew Thornton on a frequent basis yes we had heard some rumors that they were getting ready to do a big drug deal but we had no specifics the company was so effective at moving in the shadows that law enforcement seemed powerless to bring their illegal dealings into the light investigators continued pressuring anyone who was associated with the company and some of them started to talk yes Danny Yates had been hired by Berkeley as a pilot he was implicated on smuggling charges and was issued an ultimatum by prosecutor Brian Laettner cooperator go to prison for a long time none of these people had ever been in prison before and they didn't like the prospects of it we needed their cooperation to go after Barclay and some of the big boys and so we struck deals in exchange for immunity Yates confirmed the company was looking to increase their drug running activity Yates said that Columbia had become a regular destination at Frank Berkeley and his business associates the death of Lee chakra had left a void that Berkeley was only too willing to fill Berkeley had long had his eye on the chakras drug empire Yates told investigators Berkeley was particularly seduced by this new world it seemed a prime business opportunity right here we'll be combining assets weights chakras and given them access to aircraft brokers and weapons experts and working directly with Columbia's top suppliers meant they no longer had to deal with the middleman but Frank Berkeley had a problem he needed to come up with the cash to buy the drugs and he didn't have any but Berkeley was ruthless and running his drug business Tom Burke one of the men accompanying Berkeley would learn that the hard way Frank decided to leave Burke behind that person was left with the Colombians as collateral for payment for the dope because Barclay would not pay for the dope up front the Colombians didn't trust him and they said well if you don't pay us with in so many days this guy dies so they kept him captive down in Colombia until the dope got into the end of the country and Barkley paid for it for Berkeley it was a small price to pay to keep his drug Lawrence satisfied he was looking to make money no matter who got hurt had to find a better way to pay for the drugs Berkeley came up with another plan [Music] investigators learned he found a source of drug money thousands of miles away at a Naval Station in California the man taking inventory of specialized radio and guidance equipment noticed that some items were missing when the man called his supervisor they checked the requisition orders and couldn't find any record that the items had been removed the man's supervisor contacted the FBI special agent Mike debit I was notified by the naval Investigative Service agent at the base that a an individual there had apparently requisitioned some equipment that he apparently had no need for and that when they confronted him he had some very elusive answers as to what happened to the equipment they questioned the man who had taken the goods he told them two men approached him and asked him to help them obtain some radar and guidance devices we interviewed this individual he was pretty vague initially as to what it was used for because he had been told by the into individuals that had approached him in order to obtain this information to just be on the lookout for certain types of equipment Lamarque the man went on to say that he had several meetings with John Barclay his name was familiar to investigators he was Frank Barclays cousin agents set their sights on John Barkley they pressured his suspected accomplice he basically realized we had him in a pretty hard spot we obtained permission from the United States Attorney's Office to actually tape recording his phone calls their witness got in touch with John Barkley but as federal authorities listened to his phone conversations it became clear that John wasn't the brains of the operation it appeared Frank Barclay was in charge Barkley was in charge who weren't any question about that agents set up surveillance at John Barclays home we'd conducted surveillance we'd seen him move in some of this equipment we knew for a fact we had him cold on the set on the theft of the government property in the fall of 1979 John Barkley was seen in possession of the stolen military equipment but the FBI didn't arrest him they continued to watch John Berkeley hoping he would implicate his cousin in the thefts from talking with informants investigators pieced together Barclays plan to take the equipment he was an electronics technician who worked for the US Air Force because of his work on classified radar systems John Bartley would have had security clearance in the summer of 1979 with the aid of insiders on the base he asked his friend to help him steal ten sets of Starlite night-vision goggles and a variety of technical equipment which could be used to outfit small planes to avoid detection I had some instruments installed in some of the planes so they could pick up when radar beams were being directed their way so they take a drop or do whatever they had to take action Berkeley must have counted on the fact that the equipment was older ignored and the checkpoint guards only stopped vehicles on their way in not on their way out he thought this equipment would never be missed he was wrong investigators had recovered most of the stolen equipment but three sets of the night-vision goggles were still missing a federal prosecutor Brian Layton had a theory on where the missing equipment might have gone Barclay thought it was a very good idea if he could get military equipment because he found that it was cheaper to steal military equipment and trade it to the Colombians for drugs than it is to pay him cash it was the strategy of a consummate businessman lower costs and up the profit margin Colombians have a lot of money they like gadgets and so they just love these little gadgets Layton knew and company was still in action and he was determined to bring them down we knew we had a huge operation on her hand very well-organized operation on her and a bunch of dangerous people FBI special agent Mike Devon we started tying it together building upon what we had developed initially and now all of it was mushrooming into a full-blown narcotics investigation Yates went on to tell them that with the AR is coming in from China Lake Barkley could finally get his man out of Colombia he hatched a plan that would serve to purses Barkley was angry with an associate named ray Deming he asked him to join Yates in a quick London Columbia Berkeley told Deming he had to leave a man behind on his last run and hope to win his freedom with an extra shipment of arms within minutes Yates fired up the engine and the plane was headed down the runway they flew south southeast over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean headed for the northern coast of Colombia Deming soon Lewis was not a typical trip you know we're gonna be eights had a confession to make his marching orders were at the time that the trip was initiated were that when he got over the Caribbean he was to put the plane on automatic pilot and throw over a Deming out the door he threw the plane into a dive the Caribbean Sea rushed closer it was a controlled ditching as it turned out Danny eights was a very accomplished pilot he just put it down the waves Yates knew there was an unspoken code among drug smugglers an uncompleted mission would be forgiven if you have to ditch your plane either by accident or to avoid capture by police Danny Yates that was the first time that he really realized what he was into he he was just a good old country boy and there wasn't any way he was going to get involved in a murder yeah and that's where one of our night-vision devices got away from as a result of that crash and they had done this just to throw off Berkeley the plan seemed to work the Colombians Burt was released and Deming was alive to tell investigators that on returning to the US the three went into hiding [Music] Yates also told them the tensions among members of the company were running high the company was in danger if the pilot reported out investigators hoped these tensions would prompt the men to make a mistake that would lead to their capture [Music] on September 10th 1985 a low-flying plane raced across the night sky inside two men put on skydiving gear they put the plane on automatic pilot when everything was ready they jumped into the night the next morning one of the parachutists was found dead on a driveway in Knoxville Tennessee on his body police found over 20 million dollars worth of cocaine the mysterious man was identified as drew Thornton a former narcotics officer from Lexington Kentucky the FBI and local law enforcement had been watching Fortin and his close friend Frank Barkley the men were living a lavish lifestyle and investigators suspected they were involved in a drug smuggling operation they called it the company law enforcement agencies had been trailing the company for years but the two men always seemed one step ahead of them [Music] after Drew's death agents were scrambling to try and uncover what may have happened to him and if anyone would have wanted him dead investigators looked into a piece of rural wooded property he owned called triad lexington police detective John vizak this property is down on the Kentucky River and it was alleged to belong to Trotter Thornton and some other folks there were accusations that there was a soldier of fortune type training going on at that facility neighbors in the area reported sighting strange men in camouflage gear and hearing the sound of gunshots [Music] Don powers of the Kentucky State Police the Triad was somewhat always a mystery we had information that it was an encampment and a training ground probably for terrorists or something of that nature by 1980 as they got bigger they needed more land more security the group had become a strange meld of socialites and social misfits including smugglers Gun Runners and mercenaries profits were at an all-time high but tensions were splintering the barclays relentless pursuit of the chaga empire infuriated fortín de berkeley his partner seemed short-sighted and disloyal word on the street was that their partnership finally cracked under the strain without Thorton and Barkley severed their ties drue Thornton and Frank Bartley went from partners to competitors after they had a falling-out and broke up their drug smuggling ring in January 1980 ATF agents heard that Frank and his cousin John were staying at a hotel in Philadelphia John was under investigation for stealing arms from the China Lake naval facility ATF Special Agent Frank Eddie they were you know tipping big tips to the maids the maids were told at times to stay all the rooms that not to make up the beds not to do anything their behavior made the staff suspicious at certain times the maids did see firearms guns in the rooms they notified to Philadelphia please On January 4th 1980 the thorah T's raided the motel they arrested John Park charging him with firearms violations but detectives had been told two men occupied the law John Barkley told the cops where to find his cousin he wasn't far at the time of the raid frank berkeley was at a local airport officials caught up within minutes before he boarded his plane he was found to be carrying semi-automatic weapons commando daggers several fraudulent IDs and more than twenty-two thousand dollars in cash first we really became involved in this was after they were arrested in Philadelphia the Philadelphia police contacted lexington police and ATF and you know asking for information on who these guys are what they're doing you know anything about them they have criminal record the Philadelphia authorities learned that John Barclay was under suspicion for the alleged theft of military hardware from a secret testing site in California right [Music] the Philadelphia police found Frank Berkeley had no arrest record were outstanding warrants he seemed the picture of a typical upscale businessman but federal authorities revealed that he too was being investigated for his role in the thefts and his links to drugs guns and organized crime Philadelphia police soon recognized that they had inadvertently busted members of a large-scale weapons network they uncovered a small cache of weapons silencers and telephone scramblers when they raided the room they found guns certain other River eavesdropping equipment there was also as some documents one was a receipt for a storage facility in Lexington Kentucky and of course that piqued everybody's interest agents had been tipped off that the door of the storage facility was booby-trapped the door wasn't booby-trapped we thought well you know maybe something else is booby trap time here's all these weapons there's boxes and cartons of ammunition and all kinds of stuff so we had to be really careful about going through the individual items about you know when does this blow up and is this gonna blow up in your face or what's in this box the assortment of weapons and military gear stunned the officers much of it consisted of items stolen from China Lake the Starlight nightscope Soviet made machine guns with anti-aircraft mounts Taser stun guns and anti-tank gun even semi-automatic m2 carbines the Arsenal was estimated to be worth a quarter of a million dollars I was very much surprised to find some of the type of weapons that they had just isn't something that the average person is gonna have in their gun collection you know this of course indicated to us that these people are involved in some other type of activity we started tracing the guns one of the weapons a 22 caliber survival rifle was registered in the name of Andrew Thornton and had been purchased from local gun dealer by the name of Mike Kelly it seemed an open-and-shut case investigators hoped the legal pressure on Bartley would push him to testify against Thornton and other members of the company but Frank Barclay had other plans [Music] after years of tracking members of the company a drug and gun running ring based in Lexington Kentucky federal officials finally caught a break for the first time members of the company were being brought to trial frank berkeley was arrested and tried in lexington kentucky his cousin John and Philadelphia both on weapons charges the media was fascinated by the unusual case the details of it like something from a spy novel [Music] in addition to weapons officers found in the motel roam a listing of top secret radio frequencies of the US government radar jamming equipment and memos on the proper use of disguises and wigs [Music] it seems certain Frank Barclay would go to jail but as Lexington Herald reporter Valerie Honeycutt recalls the citizens of Lexington did not all agree we've got letters to the editor from people from from ministers and from people saying that it just couldn't be true of these of these fine men and that it was all allegation and we were just trying to sell papers by netting these these folks names a lot of a lot of community outrage that we were that we were continuing to write about this but it would be difficult to stop the members of the company both Frank and John Barkley were found not guilty ATF agent Frank Eddie see when you find these type of devices the machine guns with anti-aircraft mount they had two tank guns radar jamming equipment yeah makes you think of me and what what a lawful purpose could these individuals have with that there's no no civilian use for this type of weapon dream was despite their good fortune members of the company could not exactly breathe easy by 1981 the gang had splintered apart many were in the hiding were the targets of indictments from prosecutors in other states Mike Kelley and his wife Bonnie had been close friends Drew and Frank's mic who supplied the two with electronics and guns soon found himself entangled in a florida drug case agent Jim Huggins Mike Kelly was employed by some drug smugglers in South Florida to supply electronic equipment to a boat they were equipping for a shipment of marijuana being smuggled into Punta Gorda and the process of this operation Mike went to Florida and when he was down there an informant blew the whistle on the whole operation he was arrested Kelley denied any knowledge of the drug deal but the ploy didn't work he was found guilty of drug conspiracy charges the first alleged member of the company was behind bars Mike Kelley was arrested in in South Florida on the drug smuggling operation then the prosecutor was pressuring him very hard to get his cooperation that sent shockwaves throughout the group in Lexington Charlotte Harbor Florida January 16 1982 shortly before 7 p.m. the doorbell rang at the home of district attorney Larry Noland [Music] it happened in seconds no yes how can I help da Noland was shot in the heart at point-blank range he was declared dead at the scene detectives knew the victim Nolan was a criminal prosecutor known to be tough on drug runners he was the same prosecutor pressuring Mike Kelly to name his criminal associates when the prosecutor was killed his wife had overheard some conversation in indicating that possibly he knew who the person was and then she heard the shots rang out and some indication that that the killer was known to her husband according to an autopsy report the assailant had used wad-cutters bullets most bullets have a rounded rounded edge these are flat with a hole in the center and what it does when it enters the body it rips and tears more than a straight bullet that would go straight through it makes more does more damage officers canvassed the quiet and affluent neighborhood a witness recalled seeing a woman with blond hair and a blue jogging suit she'd gotten into a car based on witness descriptions the composite sketch of the woman was developed a rental car agent identified Bonnie Kelly Mike Kelly's wife from the composite sketch of the alleged shooter no one was surprised among the Kentucky State Police well it was everyone's suspicion that Bonnie killed the prosecutor he had quite a reputation of being hard on drugs people people involved in drug trafficking and I guess they thought they would take it better to have a better chance for someone else things were really beginning to hot things were beginning to come together information was coming fast and furious and the heat was on the group I'm sure knew it Bonnie however had a solid alibi Harley nawaki a post friend of Drew in Frank's step forward claiming that he and Bonnie had been in a business meeting on the night in question they were stonewalled by Walker he refused to talk to him they didn't really have a lot of direct evidence no one would cooperate FBI agent Jim Huggins near they do someone only insomnia a your less allegiance to the group someone war easily manipulated than Harvey Walker and Ruth Ortman he set his sights on Bonnie's sister she had lived with Mike and Bonnie Kelly off and on for years she was privy to their conversations and the activities of their friends fearing she would be indicted as an accomplice she confessed what she knew and Raijin Huggins she told Huggins that after Mike's arrest the group was nervous they needed a plan Harvey Walker was concerned that if Mike Kelley had agreed to cooperate with the prosecutor than all their activities illegal activities had been committing over the years would all become to the forefront and they'd all be in a lot of trouble the group had an idea it was a chance for Bonnie Kelley to reveal her loyalty to the company [Music] Bonnie's sisters information broke the case wide open after the murder Bonnie returned to Fort Myers checked in a motel with Stephen Taylor and her getaway driver and they called made a phone call to her sister in Lexington Bonnie told her sister to give Harvey Walker a message it's been done in exchange for immunity she agreed to testify against her sister at trial but Mike Kelly's wife Bonnie wouldn't take the fall alone Mike's wife had never involved in a crime in her entire life Harvey Walker had given her the weapon Harvey Walker told her that she should use wadcutter ammunition and she and her sister went to a Kmart in Lexington and purchased a box of wad-cutters and he told her the reason for that that they would do more damage and would be would kill someone easier than a regular round three again agents broaden the net and began bringing in anyone they could find and was connected to the company it was a lengthy investigation because of the number of places that we had to go to the amount of confirmations that we had to do the amount of grand jury subpoenas that had to go out but the more things we corroborated the more we said geez we got a tiger by the tail here in January 1982 assistant US attorney Brian Layton indicted Frank and John Barkley drew Thornton Mike Kelley and 21 other company members the seven counts ranged from drug trafficking to stealing and receiving government property Berkeley was arrested outside Chicago [Music] frank berkeley was sentenced to 20 years for the china lake case as well as an additional four and a half years on out-of-state drug charges 20 years is probably the maximum we could get so is it just sentence at the time did you deserve life if there are any killings yeah you deserve life we just could never pin any killings on him Thornton was harder to catch the news of the indictments broke he fled Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] US Customs caught a lucky break when they intercepted a radio transmission from a plane bearing photos call letters Thornton logged a flight plan indicating he was headed to a North Carolina Airport for repairs police were waiting for him when he landed he was arrested and held on 1 million dollars bail when he was arraigned in court he was extremely arrogant it's like oh you have no case against me oh this is BS because there was little evidence linking Thornton to the events at China Lake Zhu served only a few months for his part of the operation he would be released in the fall of 1982 and promptly disappear when a suspected drug smuggler named Ruth Thornton died in a fall from an airplane police in Knoxville Tennessee began trying to understand what could have caused his death the Knoxville police called upon the FBI and the DEA fraile at the time of his death the DEA had an open case file on Thornton it appeared that after the China Lake case had put many of his friends behind bars he was now working alone the DEA had followed him to Miami agents had been keeping a close watch on Drew Thornton in August drew made contact with an aircraft broker named Levi Sherman well he was unaware of the aircraft broker was also a DEA informant assessment as a DEA agent Ciaran Cobell well Levi Ullman was brokering aircraft to groups that he knew were involved in transporting cocaine up from South America into South Florida and he had a history with these people agent Karen Cobell observed from a distance three meetings that were being conducted and he would tell us about that and we would cover those we would conduct surveillance of those meetings Schulman was a career criminal and had been known to work deals on the side and past bad information I had been down that road with informants before and I know the game that he was playing Florida was a major port of entry for drugs the DEA worked to stem the flow but to do that they had to know when the drugs were moving I had every hope that we would know when Thornton would be taking off and Shulman knew that we wanted that information Schulman had orchestrated hundreds if not thousands of deals like this before but to Cobell just seemed different Schulman seemed genuinely fond of the stranger from Kentucky I think he liked him I think he trusted him and I think the proof of that to me he is the fact that Thornton actually stayed with Schulman in his townhouse or his condominium at the Jockey Club because Shulman couldn't be trusted agent Cobell and his partner kept close tabs on truth Thornton the Cobell knew the former police officer might quickly pick up a surveillance [Music] needed to be careful Thornton had pulled onto Miami's Palmetto Expressway headed north her bail and his partner split up they kept in contact about Thornton's location via a DEA radio feeds My partner and I were communicating on a radio write that Thornton's headed to down to the next exit because somebody's in the lead and then somebody stays behind on surveillance so it becomes pretty clear that as we're communicating Thornton begins rubbernecking more than just casual looking around he's looking in the rearview mirror in in the passenger compartment he's looking in the side rear view mirrors he's he's looking for something it's almost like as we're talking he's listening to us Thornton gets off at the next exit and I communicate with my partner I said I don't think he's made us but no something's going on let's get off AG cabel's fears about tracking Thornton were justified Schulman later told him Fortin had a scanner and had picked up Co bells communications with his partner Thornton disappeared that day it's really much more difficult to conduct an investigation of people that type because they know the logical investigative steps that you're going to undertake the next time agent Cobell heard about drew Thornton he was dead Cobell was expecting his informant to tell him about Thornton's next drug run but that information never came agent Coble went to talk with Sherman to try and determine what had happened Shulman admitted he'd provided Thorton with the plane for his last flight the plan was to pick up some 800 pounds of cocaine in Colombia the information was new Raijin Cobell Schulman had not given me the call that I needed to have so that I could be on alert so that I could alert customs there's a there's a whole team of law enforcement people who needed to be put on alert when when an aircraft launches on a smuggling trip like this one did go bail was furious as informative held out on him he says well I was contacted by so-and-so in Colombia and I got to go up to Kentucky to find out what happened and I said and I'm going with you and then he was oh no you can't do that and it's like well I'm not really asking you the only logical plan was to go up to Kentucky and try and track down through different various points of contact up there who had the cocaine where it was and try and find out who else was involved agent Cobell headed to Kentucky to try and find the rest of Drew's stash of cocaine and possibly find his murderer [Music] when truth Thornton was found dead with millions of dollars worth of cocaine strapped to his body DEA agent Kieran Cobell and his informant Levi Schulman went to find out who had the rest of the drugs the two men started with a woman closest to Drew Levi shortly promised Cobell that he would lead him to Thornton's girlfriend and Rachael Gant she had agreed to Rachel he can't admitted being in a hotel the night that Thornton died waiting for him Gant admitted that Thornton had not showed up but his accomplice on the aircraft had showed up and they had Gant in the accomplice had waited until sometime early in the morning for Thornton to come the Thornton never came now that Thornton was dead Gant knew his drug business partners would come after her the Colombians would be looking for their cocaine and so she knew that she was in a bit of a hard spot Gant said that she was going to be going into hiding and that any further contact could be made through the attorney with that Rachel Gant disappeared and the rest of the drugs and the money were never recovered the investigators brought together all the information they gathered on drew Thornton and pieced together the events leading up to his final flight on September 10th 1985 drew Thornton and a co-pilot arrived in Colombia ready to pick up a substantial load 800 pounds of cocaine packed in a series of large black duffel bags the deal was going down but the DEA had no idea Schulman had held out on [Music] several hours into the flight is somewhere over the southern US drew noticed it a plane in the distance he was convinced they were being followed Thornton ordered his pilot to lose the plane but the aircraft in pursuit was larger gaining fast in Knoxville Tennessee police detective Jerry day we surmised that Andrew and his accomplice had thought they had picked up an air tail either from the Drug Enforcement Administration the FBI or customs he had become very paranoid we know that later on and through the investigation he was a very paranoid individual and he thought he was probably thought he was being followed for Thornton there was no choice he couldn't afford to be caught he radioed Rachel who was awaiting his arrival in Knoxville Rachel when interviewed by the DEA Rachel refused to identify fortin's accomplice or divulge many details we're going but she confirmed that Thornton's sounded panicked here's going to chase plane what about our cargo you need to bail out then he signed off for the last time Rachel Ganz never gave investigators any more information Rachel Gant was a very loyal uh protecting him right up to the end and refused to testify for grand jury Knox well which resulted in her indictment but to this day I don't think she's ever betrayed his confidence pretty hardcore individual in my opinion the men jumped at night a dangerous prospect even for someone as seasoned as thorn according to Gant the pilot had never jumped before his was a leap of faith the Thornton welcomed the danger some said he thought he was invincible but Thornton was not in ansible in fact none of the gang escaped capture or prosecution they were a tight close-knit group of friends and I think that they fed on each other's adventures and in misdeeds in fact I think they kind of fed on each other's crimes the fact that in that they were all connected with each other that they were somehow involved in the assassinations of both the federal judge and a federal prosecutor I think speaks volumes about the fact that they thought that they were untouchable they thought that they were capable of doing anything and trying anything and getting away with anything and they did but when indictments in various trials were finally handed down the company turned on its own friend testifying against friend Frank and John Bartley Mike and Bonnie Kelly and Harvey Walker were all found guilty on a variety of charges from murder to conspiracy only Mike Kelly's drug conviction was reversed on appeal what happened to truth Fortin however is still not entirely clear the Knoxville Tennessee medical examiner eventually declared his death an accident the mysterious injuries most likely caused by a duffel bag battering him all the way down or he may have struck the wing of his own plane when he jumped but how such an experienced jumper could make such a mistake is unclear he impacted something as he was exiting the aircraft the wound to the bottom of his chin made it very evident that something had impacted his head what we surmised was that it rendered him unconscious to the point that he was falling and then once he regained consciousness he immediately pulled his emergency chute because he wasn't sure how far from the ground he was but it was too late the emergency chute jerked Thornton onto his back everyone that that knew drew liked him personally but there was always his dark side it was that dark side that drove Thornton into a world of crime drugs and guns and it was that dark side that ultimately killed him [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

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Rating: 4.4575438 out of 5

Keywords: Real Stories, Real Stories Full Documentary, Real Stories Documentary, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, crime documentary, true crime, documentary crime, full documentary, crime reenactment, crime mystery, john doe, dead parachuter, parachuter mystery, mysteries mob crime, mob crime families, the company crimes, the company syndicate, american mafia today, corrupt police, corrupt narcotics agent, mafia today, mysteries solved

Id: liTbvJCbYMs

Length: 93min 55sec (5635 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2020