High Stakes | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

in las vegas an ex-convict is back to his old ways big money cons low-level burglary [Music] local police track him but he's gone the fbi joins the case and the violence to escalates the desperate fugitive authorities need to anticipate his next move [Applause] [Music] [Music] women are most often assaulted by someone they know but sometimes they stranger attacks near las vegas in december of 2000 a young woman became the latest victim of a violent sex offender before authorities could locate him he would add murder to his list of crimes i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office fbi agents tracked the armed fugitive across the country and as they closed in the gunman was determined to avoid capture at any cost [Music] las vegas nevada beneath the bright lights are thousands of workers keeping the town running and criminals ready to take whatever they can early on the morning of december 11 2000 in the las vegas suburb of henderson the 17 year old waitress was on her way to work [Music] in a parking lot a man offered her a ride to work [Music] she declined [Music] his gun stopped you from crying out [Music] he drove her to a secluded area where he sexually assaulted her as soon as she could she took her only chance and fled running to a nearby restaurant to call 911 henderson police took the call were you injured do you need an ambulance ma'am the girl gave a description of her attacker and his vehicle [Music] the patrol officer headed to the restaurant to interview the young woman and take her to a nearby medical center enroute he spotted a red sports car that matched the description given by the victim [Music] when the officer approached [Music] the driver sped away as they neared the city and busier streets the suspects driving became more erratic [Music] the officer decided the risk to civilians was too great and pulled back [Music] but police now had the vehicle's license anderson pd ran the tags and traced the vehicle to a las vegas address las vegas detective barry jensen contacted the owner who explained he had given the car to his daughter to use the owner said he and his daughter rachel mills would meet detective jensen at her apartment she had just gotten off work from a local casino when the detective arrived he told them about the car eluding police who reported sexual assault rachel said that her husband had the car that morning he had dropped her off at work at 5am and she had not seen him since she hoped there had been some mistake she knew that he'd been arrested for sexual assault in the past she knew that he had been in prison but she didn't believe any of that was true or she didn't want to believe that any of that was true rachel had noticed their car had been parked across the lot jensen asked her to check the apartment and see if her husband returned [Music] and her father would check out the car looking around the apartment she realized that her husband had taken most of his belongings [Music] it appeared as if he had left her [Music] the father owned the car but since rachel and her husband were the regular drivers only they could consent to a search [Music] did you find anything his stuff is gone his clothes that the drawers isn't all the stuff he keeps on the dresser photos i don't know how everything seems it's gone would you give me your verbal consent to search the car without getting a search warrant oh okay okay though shaken by what was happening rachel gave jensen permission to search the vehicle the detective believed the placement of the car far from the apartment was telling in my opinion it was hidden in the parking lot i think he knew the police were going to find his apartment if his car wasn't parked right out front i think he felt that he had more time he was creating more distance between law enforcement and himself inside the car jensen noticed that the few personal effects matched what the assault victim described pointing more suspicion toward rachel's husband she said he didn't have a regular job but beyond that rachel and her father were unable to give the detective much more information all they were able to tell us was that he loved to play blackjack and craps they had no idea where he was getting the money to do that jensen called for crime scene technicians to process the car in case there was unseen evidence inside 15 minutes he had to tell rachel that her husband was a strong suspect in the assault of a 17-year-old girl and his request she gave jensen a photo of her husband mag4 mansoor if mansoor was the assailant jensen hoped the victim could id him based on the i photo you to look at every picture at the police station detective jensen interviewed the young woman she identified magpur mansour as her attacker nevada police charged him with kidnapping and sexual assault jensen found that mansour had an extensive rap sheet he'd been arrested several times for sexual related offenses sexual assault open and gross lewdness he'd also been arrested for burglaries credit card fraud and weapons violations while in prison mansoor had been diagnosed with a severe personality disorder that bordered on sociopathic he was a sophisticated con artist he could make people do things that they wouldn't normally do he was a serial rapist and a career criminal for several days police had no good leads on the case [Music] then jensen got a tip from a new ally sexual fault mansour's father richard he'd been digging around talking to family friends and he knew that monsoor was a big gambler at one of the local hotels and he felt that he would have a room there i found that he did have a room that was comped because he was a large money player since hotel security had cameras in the hallways the detective asked them to watch and call police if anyone entered mansour's room they weren't set up to make an arrest or to grab monster i didn't feel comfortable asking them to because i believed that he was dangerous that night a security officer spotted a man entering mansur's room he immediately contacted las vegas police yes hotel security he has returned to the hotel detectives were on their way but the man exited the room less than a minute after he went in and casually slipped away when the vice squad detectives arrived they checked his room we found a suitcase and some family pictures nothing else that would help or further our investigation they searched the entire hotel casino but there was no sign of mansoor they realized in order to find him they needed more resources and turned the case over to special agent scott bakken and detective brian dunaway of the las vegas fbi's criminal apprehension team a multi-agency squad responsible for tracking down fugitives in the las vegas area [Music] the squad's first step was to distribute informational sheets about mansoor to area hotels when we have someone that we're looking for and we believe that he's gone to a hotel or something we have a system called traxx trax which is a it's a fancy fax machine it allows us to send digital color digital photos to large groups of people simultaneously to alert them those people that don't have tracks alerts we went to old-fashioned police work we were knocking on doors and delivering these things and conducting interviews and making sure that everyone knew about him looking for this guy right here he comes on a few different aliases investigators checked registers for known aliases of mansur they found nothing these two gentlemen are from the fbi but some security personnel recognize mansur as a suspect in a string of room burglaries plaguing the vegas strip [Music] they described his frequent cons [Music] he would often pose as a translator or as a tour guide and he would do this in order to gain the confidence of people that were in town who had money after gaining their confidence he would use this information to usually enter their rooms because he was able to contact the hotel staff and and pose as these people when the tourists returned to their rooms they found them ransacked over several days mansour had stolen more than a quarter of a million dollars in cash we have been completely robbed [Music] agent bakken believed the suspect would use the money to flee nevada we obtained an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant which is a federal warrant charging him with fleeing one state going to another to avoid prosecution for the underlying charge which was sexual assault with the federal warrant it allowed us to engage other fbi officers around the country in searching for monsoor they tried to narrow the scope of the nationwide search by reviewing any piece of information they could find regarding the suspect we were able to uh gather ins records immigration records that type of stuff and we found that he had been in their custody for for a great deal of time and and he was here citing some sort of religious persecution and then we were able to pull in the records from new jersey and the the other places that he had been at we found that he had been involved in gambling fraud generally property crimes types of things mansur's wife gave them long-distance phone records which showed many calls to casinos around the country we began developing a profile of them as as a gambler and once we did that we focused our our investigation on the gambling establishments one of the gambling communities they notified was new orleans casinos there should look out for it on the morning of january 9 2001 29 days after the las vegas sexual assault and kidnapping a man in an obvious wig appeared at the new orleans airport paying cash he booked a flight to las vegas under the name francis gabriel in the middle of the transaction he changed his destination to los there you angeles thank you ticket agents are trained to spot suspicious activity security please yes she notified airport police [Music] the whig cash and odd behavior was enough probable cause for the undercover officer to question the man [Music] he followed him outside like i'm asking you guys soon new orleans authorities would learn the identity of the carjacker and join the hunt for an elusive fugitive yeah i'm at door 6a i ran up on the roof in january 2001 las vegas authorities hunted fugitive mag four mansur suspected of robbery kidnapping and sexual assault a month later at the new orleans airport a man in a disguise assaulted a police officer then escaped in a carjacked pickup truck undercover jefferson parish police assigned to the airport reported the incident and an apb for the truck and its driver went out to police in nearby parishes 30 minutes later the saint charles parish deputy spotted the pickup truck 10 miles from the airport he called in the plates confirming it was the stolen truck but the deputy knew there was construction ahead so he did not pursue at high speed [Music] the truck entered the road construction zone but the driver was not going to stop and swim toward a highway [Music] the st charles parish deputy arrived seconds later [Music] [Applause] seeing the worker down he called for an ambulance then went to check the truck the carjacker was gone at the airport police searched a piece of luggage the fugitive had dropped since it was left unattended on airport property lieutenant gwen toca did not need a warrant we found some identification with a photograph of the suspect an italian passport when we checked that it was found to have been a stolen passport which the suspect had obviously placed his photograph on police also found a list of stolen credit card numbers players cards from casinos throughout the united states and multiple social security numbers because of possible interstate fraud jefferson parish police called the new orleans fbi they forwarded the photo and name used on the stolen passport to special agent sandra zully we immediately started running that name through our system to try to identify photographs of anyone that would that use that name the photo of fugitive mag four mansour wanted out of las vegas matched the one on the passport calling vegas to learn more details zuli confirmed it was him [Music] despite the best efforts of the emergency personnel the highway worker died of his injuries authorities began their search for mansur at the truck and worked outward from there lieutenant toca joined the search near the mississippi river [Music] we did about a mile radius uh search plus the state police helped us on the perimeters that were doing the search we had a helicopter up plus we had tracking dogs in the location the area's landscape made it difficult there are buildings tug boats walls it's a working area and there's a lot of abandoned warehouses there derelict barges up on the ground and everything they search for more than 24 hours checking every conceivable hiding place we theorized that he had either gone into the river and drowned or that he had made his way out of the uh security envelope still authorities had to assume that mansour was alive they hoped to determine where the fugitive had been while in new orleans perhaps he would go back there they reviewed airline passenger lists and surveillance tapes to reconstruct the fugitives movements [Music] the day before he had come down from connecticut into new orleans and we were able to track him to some local casinos that he was at that night and then the next day he was supposed to be flying out that's when he was confronted by the officer mansour's behavior pattern was clear we felt that eventually he would show up at a casino and that's why we focused on the casino security departments to make sure they were alerted to look for him on in in possibly a disguise authorities also broadcast his photo and the aliases he used hoping the public could help find him anyone with information was asked to call a dedicated tip line police immediately began receiving sightings one came from a motorist who thought he had seen man sewer the night the highway worker was killed the motorist said that night he'd been driving behind a taxi on a road near the airport he saw a man come out of the woods and hail the taxi it looked like mansoor [Music] but police could not find the taxi driver and the trail went cold we were receiving numerous reports of of individuals who they felt looked like like this individual walking down the road sitting at a bar at a casino when all of these were checked out yet none of the sightings led to men's sewer the next lead came from officers patrolling the nearby mississippi river shortly after the disappearance we received the call of a body that they located floating at the bank of the river and we knew that in the file from the las vegas division that we had dental records of mag full mansuel who had dental work done while in prison so we obtained the dental records and had a comparison done the records did not match mansur's whereabouts were still unknown and now that he was wanted for killing a man he'd be more desperate than ever to avoid them wanted on a charge of sexual assault and kidnapping fugitive mag four-man sewer disappeared from las vegas weeks later he resurfaced in new orleans where he carjacked a truck [Music] and killed a highway worker only was he moving quickly across jurisdictions he was also using multiple identities according to fbi special agent sandra zuley magfulman soy utilized so many different aliases we determined that he was stealing identification cards on a regular basis while he was staying in the casino area the players cards that we located in the luggage were determined to be stolen from casinos some of those players cards were from casinos in atlantic city to follow up on them louisiana agents contacted the fbi's newark field office special agent joseph fury checked on a casino players card mansour used under the name yasser hamad [Music] i called the hotel casino and talked to the senior vice president in charge of security and he advised me that mr hamed had in fact been a player at the casino and on january 3rd of 2001 had played and won approximately fifty thousand dollars that was six days before the airport incident in new orleans but considering mansur's lavish gambling lifestyle the money probably would not last long if he was desperate for money we thought he might come back to atlantic city to gamble again agent fury learned a new jersey phone number had been found in mansour's luggage we didn't know the reason he had the number whether or not he had ever called the number or who was on the receiving end of that call okay authorities traced the number to a house in the atlantic city suburb of brigantine and set up surveillance on it they knew the house belonged to a local cab driver but little else agents watched on the slim chance the house might be connected to mansoor other teams of agents also searched the gambling community of atlantic city we distributed wanted posters to all of the hotel casinos in atlantic city as well as atlantic city police department and new jersey state police someone somewhere was bound to run into the elusive killer yet months went by with no sign of him then at an atlantic city hotel on the night of may 4th 2001 a vacationing pennsylvania state trooper and his wife returned to their room and discovered they weren't alone the trooper recognized mansur from wanted posters he knew the man had killed before but for some reason mansoor left without harming the couple taking any money [Music] the state trooper notified the hotel about mansoor and asked them to call the fbi as the case progressed i knew he was a desperate man living a life of luxury which he didn't earn and he was desperate to avoid law enforcement contact two days later at 6 30 in the morning a casino atm alerted hotel security of someone attempting to use a stolen credit card to obtain a cash advance come here a second let me show you something check this guy out here on the atm machine here why don't you go check that out for me one of the hotel security officers confronted the cardholder who calmly explained the card belonged to him he claimed he had reported it stolen but found it again that morning and forgot to cancel the hold on it asked for identification the man handed the security officer an indian passport that had been obviously altered when the security officer tried to bring the man in for questioning he pulled a gun don't follow me then fled all through the spot though the officer didn't know it yet the man he was trying to take into custody was mag four mansur the suspect jumped into a nearby taxi and forced the driver to help him escape hotel security called the incident in to atlantic city police several units mobilized to find the carjack taxi [Music] but once again mansour is one step ahead when he got distracted the driver took a chance [Music] minutes later witnesses outside the taj mahal casino saw a well-dressed man leave a taxi idling at the curb and disappear atlantic city police believed mansoor must be involved authorities immediately responded to the taj mahal witnesses descriptions match the fugitive and detectives found an altered indian passport the one from the atm incident the photo was of mag4 mansoor the cab driver stated that mansoor told him he would shoot and kill him as well as any police officer who stopped him and he would not go back to jail that point we kind of stepped up the investigation knowing that it wasn't a one-time incident it was an individual who was on a crime spree and seem to be on a downward spiral mag for mansoor had eluded authorities for months now as agents surrounded the massive taj mahal casino they hoped they finally had him cornered the fbi sought mag four mansur for kidnapping sexual assault carjacking and second-degree murder he had eluded them in las vegas and new orleans in may of 2001 he surfaced in atlantic city hoping finally to stop him fbi special agent joseph fury organized a search of the hotel casino mansoor was seen entering we established a command post at the taj mahal with the atlantic city police department the new jersey state police as well as security personnel from the taj mahal in an effort to locate mansoor thinking that he may be in the hotel somewhere but mansoor wouldn't be easy to find the 1200 room hotel boasts a 135 000 square foot casino and is often filled with thousands of guests and in service areas there are dozens of hallways with plenty of offices and storage rooms to hide in investigators had to clear each one clear coming out authorities feared mansour had escaped again they broadened the search area new jersey state police and atlantic city police canvassed the entire hotel casino as well as every hotel casino in atlantic city they found nothing somehow mansur had slipped away [Music] investigators requested security tapes from all atlantic city hotel casinos hoping to find a lead [Music] after reviewing hundreds of hours of tapes they finally spotted mansoor he was getting out of a cab checking the taxi's identification number state police learned it was owned by an independent operator living outside of atlantic city in brigantine i asked what the cab driver's name was in the location where they were going and they told me a name which came back to the individual who i had been surveilling in anticipation of mansour returning to the atlantic city area authorities returned to the brigantine house with a search warrant and a swat team [Music] the swat team moved into position [Music] to get the cab driver out of the house an agent called inside posing as a dispatcher he told the driver that one of his regular fares needed a ride we felt that if mansoor was inside it might be a hostage type situation [Music] the driver emerged alone and they pulled him away so they could talk to him safely [Music] the driver said no one else was in the house but the arrest team had to be sure all clear it was another disappointment [Music] authorities returned to the state police barracks to interview the cab driver he said he had driven mansur around the atlantic city area several times in recent years they had become friends but now he was more than willing to cooperate he immediately told us that mansour had been at his house that morning had pulled a gun on him and had ordered him to drive him towards philadelphia which was approximately an hour drive from atlantic city he actually drove mansour into philadelphia and dropped him off the driver hadn't called police because mansoor knew where he lived and he was afraid he would come back to get him [Music] fury notified the fbi's philadelphia field office that mansour might be there [Music] i then drove from atlantic city to philadelphia with pictures of mansoor and assisted the philadelphia division sir fbi the agents went to a bus station near where mansur was dropped off looking for anyone who had seen him we showed the picture to several counter attendants one who recognized the picture and said that mansoor had purchased a bus ticket to new york yes it seemed mansour had gone to philadelphia only to make his trail more difficult to follow on may 9th 2001 the fbi added mag four mansur to its 10 most wanted fugitives list this made him a top priority for every fbi agent in the nation according to task force member brian dunaway him being on the fbi's most wanted does a few things it it allocates a great deal more resources to the investigation and it places a 50 000 reward for his capture the following day security at atlantic city's taj mahal resort reported that a gunman matching mansur's description had robbed the hotel jewelry store of 300 000 worth of watches [Music] surveillance video captured the plate number of the limo mansur used to escape at the newark field office the fbi questioned the limousine driver [Music] he said he had picked mansour up in new york city earlier that day when mansoor had called for the limo he asked to be picked up on a certain street corner the driver didn't know where he was [Music] staying he said mansoor seemed like any other high-stakes gambler but around 8 o'clock he heard security then mansoor jumped in and ordered him to speed away [Music] the driver followed orders mansur had a gun the fugitive got out of the limousine five blocks from the robbed hotel and hopped into another cab a white crown victoria with new jersey plates the fbi asked local police to issue an all points bulletin for white crown victoria cabs in atlantic city that night police stopped every taxi matching the description he reported that he had taken the man to philadelphia and dropped him off at the airport the fbi learned that only two flights had departed philadelphia late enough for mansur to have boarded both were bound for las vegas manifests did not show mansour's name but he might be flying under an alias they did not know yet if mansour were on either flight authorities in las vegas would be ready for him [Music] in the pre-dawn hours of may 11 2001 the fbi believed deadly fugitive mag four mansur might be aboard one of two flights to las vegas [Music] new jersey fbi special agent joseph fury kept working as the planes traveled cross-country i contacted the las vegas division to advise them that mansoor had committed the armed robbery in atlantic city and he may in fact be enroute back to las vegas the las vegas police department as well as the fbi were at the airport waiting for both planes to arrive vegas detective brian dunaway had been tracking mansur from the beginning he knew how dangerous and desperate the fugitive was everyone that we talked to everyone that knew anything about him knew that he wasn't going to go back to jail he had made those statements and his actions were just of such desperation that that he wasn't a person that wasn't going to face these charges and his previous incarcerations and the records that they kept on him there there was just no way he was going back so he he was going to go out in the blaze of glory mansoor frequently used disguises and false ids to travel but he wasn't on the first flight when the second plane landed agents cleared it too [Music] from the limo driver they'd interviewed they knew he had last stayed in new york city at that point i contacted special agent ted miller of the new york division to advise him that mansoor was not on either flight that went to las vegas and it would be more likely that he would be in new york city reviewing mansour's phone records from las vegas agents interviewed mansoor's associates in new york reminding them of the 50 000 reward eventually they tracked down mansour's regular limo driver in the city in new york it's very hard to get a taxi cab and you have several private limos that will be at your beck and call and this limo driver was willing to drive mansoor because he seemed to have quite a bit of money he said he hadn't seen mansur recently but on previous trips he always picked mansour up from the same midtown so please please give hotel a call the limo driver was cooperative and was going to take them to an area where he thought mansoor was staying approximately six in the morning when agent miller advised me they had located the hotel fbi agents new york city police and u.s marshals headed to the hotel special agent timothy le turner was part of the arrest team we got a call from special agent miller saying the subject mansour committed an armed robbery last night at the taj mahal casino in atlantic city and we believe he retreated to new york and we think we have good leads that he may be at the hotel located at west 47th street the investigators set up on surveillance outside before the stakeout they had been briefed on the case and warned of the danger we talked about how he brandished a handgun doing several crimes he committed we talked about the armed rape of a 17 year old girl and a murdery committed in louisiana so we knew about his propensity to violence several investigators went to check with the front desk the clerk was able to confirm that mansour had used one of his aliases to check in he gave them mansur's room number but didn't know if he was there our plan at that time was we were going to make a ruse phone call into the room we believed mansour might be staying in we had agents outside the room we had agents in the lobby what we decided to do was a wake-up call if he answered or we heard staring in the room we would know he'd be in there or someone would be in there we made several calls we got no response telephonically we heard nothing in the room mansur must have gone out they hoped he would return hours later they spotted he was alone and heading back into the hotel this time they wouldn't let you slip away [Music] mansoor had long vowed not to be taken alive [Music] he went for a gun from the time i saw the gun to the time my weapon was fired you're talking about two or three seconds well not a whole lot of time to think about it you have innocent civilians in the lobby missing isn't an option even with three nine millimeter rounds in him mansour continued to struggle as they took him into custody because of their training the arrest team was unharmed things had to be instinctive things had to be committed to muscle memory and those reactions that occurred that morning were reactions based on excellent training they were the byproduct of great training so um my recommendation to other agents would be receive as much training as you can try and get the uh get get it to the point where it's instinctive the pursuit of mansoor had lasted five months involving more than a dozen law enforcement agencies new york city emergency personnel tried to stabilize man sewer but he died enough his rampage was finally over not any one law enforcement agency can handle an investigation of this magnitude by themselves and without the cooperation and efforts of all the law enforcement agencies i don't think mansoor would have been caught without causing harm to someone else [Music] you

Channel: The FBI Files

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

Id: 8wZwG1d_ogU

Length: 49min 23sec (2963 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2021