the California Mexico border 200 pounds of cocaine discovered in a car's gas tank JFK International Airport in New York 1 million dollars of laundered drug money found in a suitcase Miami Florida 240 pounds of cocaine with a street value of more than two million dollars stashed in the wheel of a 747 every year billions of dollars worth of illegal drugs weapons and counterfeit merchandise flood our nation's borders tonight we go behind closed doors and onto the front lines but the US Customs Service in a war that is being fought every day at every land air and sea port in the United States we were given unprecedented access to their hottest points of operation from New York's JFK International Airport to the California Mexico border to the Port of Miami to see just how massive the customs mission has become we have about a 5,000 mile border with Canada 2,200 mile border with Mexico and of course we have about 10,000 miles of coastline the borders present huge challenges to us the scope of their challenge could never have been imagined when US Customs was established in 1789 in fact it's the oldest federal law enforcement agency as part of the Treasury Department its primary mission is to collect duty and taxes on imported goods ranging from Japanese cars to electronics to German beer last year alone they brought in twenty four billion dollars to the US Treasury second only to the IRS but is catching smugglers and the illegal items they attempt to sneak in or out of the country that takes up the majority of time and effort for the 20,000 people who work for the agency Washington DC two blocks from the White House is ground zero u.s. customs headquarters where I met with Commissioner Ray Kelly people think of contraband they pretty much just think of drugs but what else are you looking for well we look for for anything that is against the law - to bring in and that can be anything from weapons of mass destruction - unfortunately cigars Cuban cigars inspectors also target counterfeit goods small weapons and child pornography but it's drugs that make up nearly half of all custom seizures well we see it's about a million and a half pounds of drugs last year that's up almost 10% from the year before so and it seems to keep going up every year you obviously need a certain amount of secrecy within this department in order to be able to do your job effectively but why don't you let us behind your closed doors I don't think America knows enough about the customer service knows enough about 20,000 dedicated employees that work 24 hours a day that do work in pretty risky and demanding situations and do a very good job behind this nondescript closed door from deep inside the headquarters is the Situation Room and here agents monitor US Customs operations worldwide inside computerized display screens track all customs airplanes and boats up on the screen you'll see some blue indicators those are customs aircraft that are there are guys those are the good guys okay the smugglers or bad guys as customs calls them are in yellow and right now they're being pursued off the coast of Miami okay Pingo the target is your entertainer for at four mile they'll follow that that aircraft in when it lands on the ground they'll land as well they'll make the rest confiscate drugs this is a fairly constant event looking around the situation room I realized that America's war on drugs has literally become a high-tech game of cat and mouse Riverside California this is Amick the air and marine interdiction Coordination Center here Customs uses some of its most sophisticated technology to catch the smugglers trying to penetrate our borders by air every day more than 2,600 aircraft land in the u.s. from abroad commercial airliners personal jets and small planes legal or illegal customs tracks them all their most sophisticated weapon the Orion p3 a four-engine turboprop equipped with specially designed early warning radar that covers nearly 200,000 square miles this gives customs the ability to locate suspected smugglers long before they reach the US they fly over the Caribbean and fly over South America they are capable of staying in the air up to 12 hours and they are a primary identifier you might say of boats and airplanes bringing drugs into the country flying at 20 to 25,000 feet they even track drug shipments before they leave the ground here customs is watching a shipment being loaded onto a plane in South America the p3 is part of a vast web of radar surveillance which includes military and domestic air traffic information and data from these giant tethered radar balloons called aerostats they're about twice the size of the Goodyear blimp and eleven are stationed along the border all of this information is instantly relayed to the specialist at Amick who are in constant communication with 11 air and marine branches located across the country this is where information turns into action this is customs radar and Riverside calling when we come back I join one of the busiest customs teams on the front lines in Miami Florida behind closed doors will continue in a moment here on Amy behind closed doors with Joe London continues here on AME from small amounts of marijuana to large bales of cocaine customs seizes billions of dollars worth of drugs every year from illegal flights coming into the u.s. much of the traffic flows through Florida but it takes a coordinated effort from customs officials across the country to stem the tide 20,000 beat in the skies over the Caribbean specialist aboard of p3 the high-tech surveillance plane spot a suspicious aircraft Riverside California customs Coordination Center Amick tracks the plane heading toward Florida Bay alert their Miami branch now it's up to their air branch to get airborne and intercept it behind this closed door as the Miami Customs Air Arsenal here flight crews and Special Response Teams are on 24-hour call so they can be in the air at a moment's notice putting this camel citation they call it scrambling when the orders come in the flight crew kicks into high gear when I hear the alarm I get a media Drennen rush and the first thing I want to know is word that they want me to go and where's my equipment that's all I'm thinking just grab the equipment gut we're mandated to be in the air in eight minutes from the time the call comes into the office that means information is passed to our pilots they grab their equipment they go to the aircraft and launch and that eight minutes is actually being in the air at taxing down in breaking ground within eight minutes all right you're safe we have a primary target hitting three one five and 175 coming from NASA I think it's gonna go to Palm Beach there's a pending three zero five zero Bango rudder when US Customs goes in to scramble mode they first send up a high-performance citationjet to get a close look at the aircraft we got a target about five degrees less than those heading 1-0-0 and a three point one that's your right angle take it Judy you never taught me to take a plane up in the sky it's dangerous and our mission profile is all high risk using FLIR a forward-looking infrared camera the citation covertly investigates the suspicious plane the crew relays the aircraft's tail number back to Riverside where they pull records on the owner and the pilot if the plane doesn't check out orders are given to launch a second aircraft the Black Hawk helicopter inside the bus team this heavily armed assault team is customs most elite and highly trained when you see the pictures all these guys coming out with our guns up and chasing the people down that's us we're cops we're cops that fly the pilots challenge to sneak right up on the suspected bad guy without being seen to do that then Blackhawk must stay behind and slightly below in the planes blind spot all players all players from one for November target has started a slow left orbit in this area anticipating just set right now holding level 4.5 once the Black Hawk arrives on the scene the citation takes on a secondary role they now become the videographers with their infrared cameras aimed at the target they record everything that happens 600 dots hang about 0 to 5 they are collecting evidence to use against the bad guys sometimes if the smugglers discovered that authorities are on to them they try to dump the cargo this is footage recorded by a US Customs citationjet we try to put as many people into this chase because the more force you show up with the more likely somebody is to give up rather than to fight we're the final stage of the game once the aircraft land we land in front of a crab and we jump out and everybody standing hit the ground hit the ground no question we ask questions later the worst thing anybody could do would be to try to oppose us or fight us because we're so highly trained that I would be their worst mistake once everyone aboard the target plane is on the ground and safely cuff the bust team searches the plane for contraband and if they find it the whole area where we're at turns into a crime scene we'll take fingerprints we document everything everything becomes evidence and then a court trial starts to find out what it's like to be part of an elite custom SWAT team I was allowed to take part in one of their simulation exercises my role to provide cover for the team and to subdue and handcuff the suspected smuggler and that's gonna come right up to your hand go grab the cuff over here in the back okay well watch it's gonna come up can't you there you go all right I reviewed the weapons I'd be carrying a heavy steyr odd machine gun and a 9-millimeter Glock sidearm they issued me a three pound military-style helmet that's linked with the helicopters communication system and walkie-talkies this is for our protection definitely in this of course is from the Sun and it's also an intimidation factor whenever we use these helmets and with the dark shield down and you come out it almost looks like the Star Wars attack alright look her best it's not one of these you certainly do it's required on that every apprehension we practice deploying from the helicopter several times the equipment I wore weighed 40 pounds with all that weight and fighting fierce winds kicked up by the blades it was difficult to get out of the Blackhawk quickly once our instructor was satisfied with the deployment we returned to the Blackhawk and strapped in as the helicopter took flight the adrenaline kicked in this was it no one on board knew exactly what we would have to deal with in this scenario all I knew was that out there somewhere was a bad guy plane we would follow until it landed and then make the bus coming up right there at 11:00 the bus team strike Oh behind-closed-doors will continue in a moment here on Andy behind closed doors with Joan Lunden continues here on Andy US Customs allowed me to join an elite bus team on a training mission at the air Marine base in Homestead Florida once the scramble alarm sounded we had eight minutes to be airborne we were flying at 5,000 feet aboard a Black Hawk attack helicopter our mission to follow a suspected smugglers plane and after a touchdown move in and make the bust but we weren't alone ahead and above us was the citationjet with a three-man crew equipped with radar and cameras hot on the trail of the target aircraft hammer 76 is ready it's a little like looking for a needle in a haystack tracking the smugglers and thousands of square miles of open sky but we had radar information from Amick customs air interdiction Coordination Center in California helping us to hone in on the suspect okay radar once the crew of the citation confirmed the identity of the target aircraft the Blackhawk was guided into position okay eleven o'clock got up right there at eleven yeah flying at a speed of a hundred and seventy knots we zeroed in on the small Cessna slipping into a blind spot behind the suspected smugglers airplane they had no idea we were there flying so close made me just a little bit nervous a lot of our pilots are prior military pilots and we're used to flying close formation however now we're flying formation with a person that doesn't know we're in formation with them so it has another level of risk to it but we can get right up there underneath them where you can't see us and we follow them right to wherever he's going at that point you guys are following them usually not because they'll come up right behind we're close visually identify the L numbers and back off about half a mile right behind us on our scale behind a plane like that I'll notify the number they're not in there big so they can be seen that's right when I first started to do this I would get a lump in my throat experience a certain amount of fear and anticipation along with that and after a while I learned to relax and call on that adrenaline when I need it after we entailed it for several minutes the plane began to descend it was apparently landing at a local airstrip alanda what we thought one destined airport some airport out here that doesn't have any control tower anybody working on the field the target plane lowered its landing gear it was going in with the Blackhawk right on its tail even though this was just a training scenario I could feel the tension as the bust was about to go down when US customs agents go out for real lives are on the line in route you think anyone in your mind you rehearsing what you need to do what steps you gonna take once the aircraft hit the ground everything goes out the window and from the training and the procedures that we have you just react the suspects plane landed they tacks it over to rendezvous with their accomplices waiting in a white van at that point they got several opportunities one they can give up or two they can run our third one they can fight and over the thirty years that I've been in customs we've encountered every one of them I've been involved with shootouts with them I've involved people that just you know throw their hands up and give themselves up the mice were in the trap and it was time to spring it at this point speed and precision are critical customs needs to catch the smugglers before they have a chance to unload the cargo and drive off with the drugs the black hawk must land in front of the suspects plane to prevent it from taking off with a jolt we were suddenly on the ground we quickly deployed from the helicopter and moved into our positions two officers went for the suspects in the van while the rest of us surrounded the airplane my job was to provide cover as another team member got the pilot out of the plane I then had to handcuff the pilot give me your right hand thumbs up the Blackhawk had lifted off to hover nearby for observation and communication back to the airbase soon all the smugglers were handcuffed and lying face down on the ground a quick search of the van revealed the stash how similar was this to when you really do it it's very similar most of the time we're doing this at night when he's pitch black so that changed things quite a bit it's a little bit more exciting adrenaline is going like how two miles an hour what's the best part of the job for you the camaraderie the sense of doing something that's honorable and for the country and the teamwork that we all have what about the fare well training overcomes that it's all that right that's right training and planning training planning how do I plan we don't do anything that's extremely dangerous because we're so well trained seems to me that it's all extremely danger thank you very much for letting our call me next we go to the busiest International Airport in the country where high-tech tools are stripping away smugglers defenses oh my god you see through their clothes correct behind closed doors we'll continue in a moment here on Andy behind closed doors with Joan Lunden continues here on Andy one of the most common places for snugglers to sneak drugs currency or weapons in or out of this country is also one of the most public last year 80 million people came through customs at US airports 10 million of them came through right here at New York's JFK it is the busiest International Airport in the country if you've traveled internationally you know the drill passengers get their luggage and then wait in lines for inspectors customs can legally open and inspect the passengers luggage at any time for any reason Vince de Giulio has been a customs inspector for 18 years are you looking at the person wore the bag we're looking mostly at the story that a person is giving us sometimes people will claim to be of a certain profession and we'll ask them a few general questions sometimes in that area and you find out a lot of times they have absolutely no knowledge in that area again it's just opens up a little door that you need to ask a few more questions maybe to bring you someplace else we would check the things such as the lining of the suitcase to see whether or not some type of narcotic has been incorporated in your pocket any part any part of the bag it might be here home on these shoulder straps here can be used within the bag we found contraband within frame of pictures oh really they hide stuff in between hide stuff in any cavity okay Smuggler's have been known to stash drugs inside of shampoo bottles cans of shaving cream even roll-on deodorants others replace the contents of ordinary bottles of liquor with drugs in liquid form and a way for testing that is that the bubbles inside a bottle of rum rise at a certain degree to the top when they put liquid cocaine in there they rise much slower I remember when I first started as an inspector and I was out on the line you would see a seizure once in a while a narcotic seizure and it was a big event and everyone talked about it for a while but today if I don't see a seizure every day I'm asking why not behind the scenes inspectors have canine assistants trained narcotics dogs who work the baggage areas sniffing out drugs that may be hidden in suitcases the dogs have been trained to scrapped at the luggage to alert the handler that there's something inside when the dog responds to them I've got a coda we give the dog reward which is at 7 foot tower where we play tug-of-war with the dog the dog works for the tower and the dog we always try to let the dog win out in public areas customs uses dogs like PD chosen for his personality that's a springer spaniel and everybody likes this kind of dogs and we don't want to put on an appearance of being aggressive because 99.9% of the passengers are just coming through and we're looking at that small amount and we want a dog in here that's not have not intimidating to the public dogs like PD have been trained to sit and wag their tails when they smell drugs PD uncovered bags of ecstasy made in Europe it's the fastest-growing drug in the US last year customs seized nine point three million tablets that sell for about $30 apiece if the dog indicates that drugs are present but nothing is found in the luggage or if the inspectors are suspicious based on questioning a passenger they have the authority to order a body search passengers can't refuse but they have a choice either submit to a traditional pat-down or a new high-tech body scanner this machine allows inspectors to see right through clothing protocol requires that male inspectors scan male passengers while female inspectors do the same for women there are only ten body scanners in the country and customs gave me a rare demonstration we're looking for in this images anything that seems to go out of the natural contour lines of the body well what if that there seems to be two packages that the persons carrying on their calves that don't belong there can you see through their clothes but you don't only in their body with two within their body if nothing shows up on the scanner but the inspectors still believe the passenger is carrying drugs they have the authority to take them to a medical facility for x-rays virtually every day we have internal carriers coming in people with drugs inside their bodies they've swallowed a certain amount of drugs and this is very commonplace in this video recorded by customs officials one smuggler describes how she wrapped drugs in plastic and then in the tip of a surgical glove before swallowing her deadly cargo before you start swallowing they give you a liquid that normos your throat so that when you're swallowing and the peles check your throat and it bleeds you won't feel it this is a dangerous practice the packages are often filled with cocaine or heroin if one were to rupture the carrier would overdose almost immediately but even customs inspectors many of whom say they've seen it all were unprepared for this shocking bust San Juan Puerto Rico a smuggler had four quarter pound bricks of cocaine surgically implanted in his thighs I must warn you the footage is graphic it was shot by customs when doctors removed the drugs but individuals carry drugs into the country are just the tip of the iceberg behind closed doors the four member contraband enforcement team scours the plane from cockpit to tail looking for drugs that in some cases are placed by someone working for the airline if an airline person is involved rather than put the cocaine or the heroin on a passenger or in a bag they'll conceal it someplace in a plane there's a lot of hitting compartments on planes a favorite spot to stash drugs the bathroom this is one of the more distasteful parts of searching an airplane lavatory smugglers know that and they think that I guess we'll have a natural aversion to going into where we think the load may be if they put it in the probably the dirtiest we're in the spot there is but we don't care in a dramatic bust in Miami Customs intercepted a commercial cargo flight from Bogota Colombia a k-9 unit sniffed out 240 pounds of cocaine street value more than two million dollars hidden inside one of the jets spare tires what gets real scary about that is the smugglers don't really care about the air worthiness of the plane we found cocaine in the flight control system where if it could really bring a plane down customs is not only concerned about what people are trying to sneak into this country but what they're trying to sneak out of it it may surprise you to learn that the most common item smuggled out of the u.s. is money it's perfectly legal to leave the country with cash even huge amounts you just have to declare it often the cash is laundered drug money and just like the drugs will be stashed almost anywhere from suitcases to toy boxes so how do inspectors catch people sneaking out with undeclared money with currency dogs like Kelly in this training exercise Kelly quickly singled out a woman carrying a large amount of cash in a money belt hidden under her sweater good girl okay this is Kelly right yes and you're Tony yes all right you really went for this money here that has got what currency yes we have currency on there we have set her up with a training aid so there's a set to money yes the money is comes out from the US Mint and the mint actually has a control on the ink that they make so it's infused with the send yes now obviously Kelly's not gonna react to a couple 20s in somebody's pocket in a lot but only not yes we're looking for at least $10,000 or more at JFK it's not just passenger flights that are targeted all mail coming into the u.s. is also inspected in 1999 alone they handled over 5.7 million pieces of mail but cargo shipments are an even bigger concern I was taken inside JFK's massive warehouse with inspector William Bowe part of the US Customs outbound enforcement team try to look at who is shipping the merchandise the address violations mobile x-ray vans allow them to check boxes for drugs or weapons without opening them those like hangars or something if there's some hangers okay this looks like there's a weapon this is an example of what a firearm would look like in the x-ray screen you see it exactly that's amazing opening the box confirmed what the x-ray had detected it looks like it was ammunition concealed in this box and it looks like there's also a handgun somebody just think that they can send all these clothes and in one of the boxes is dropping a gun and it won't get caught so you start looking for who's been in this box and who's supposed to be receiving the box absolutely as we follow up on its try to find out who was involved even more amazing than the x-ray machines are the atomizers handheld electronic vacuums that can pick up trace cents of drugs weapons or explosives from outside the box a computer identifies the specific type of contraband now over time we've put down how to finding here explosives detected yes it is telogen right it's it's very very precise yes we're opening that one too besides weapons drugs and money here in the cargo area inspectors are also on the lookout for counterfeit merchandised being smuggled into the country anything from fake designer clothing to computer parts to watches what happens to all the contraband after it's been seized it's locked up and secured evidence vaults across the country we try to hold on to it only as long as we need the evidence because that becomes a vulnerability for us we're now responsible for ensuring no one breaks into our vault that we suddenly becoming the source when the court case is over the hall is brought to a secret location and burned it's a very controlled situation we have to escort it to the location witnessed the burning we weigh things on their way in the cars it has to be escorts we try to do it in a way that the public doesn't even know we're out on the roads the contraband seized at international airports is just a portion of the illegal goods coming into our country every year when we come back we go to the busiest land crossing in the world at the California Mexico border and then the waters off Miami where I go on a high-speed training mission with the marine and air branch of the US Customs those doors will continue in a moment here on Andy behind closed doors with Joan Lunden continues here on Andy with nearly 17,000 miles of air land and sea borders to protect Customs has assembled an army of people and an arsenal of weapons for the ongoing battle everyday US customs checks nearly 350,000 private vehicles and more than 60,000 commercial trucks coming into the country by land land border crossings range from small two lane roads to a 24 lane superhighway at the California Mexico border the busiest in the world San Ysidro California inspectors here rely on a combination of trained narcotics dogs and high-tech snooping devices they use fiber-optic cameras to peer into a gas tank which can hold up to 200 pounds of cocaine or heroin it's a favorite hiding place because gasoline helps mask the smell of drugs to search large trucks they employ an arsenal of tools we have x-ray machines now that entire tractor-trailer can be rolled into and we can look at what's inside that tractor-trailer without even taking any frayed out of it handheld devices called Buster's look for any irregularities which could be hidden compartments laser rangefinders check the dimensions of trucks searching for false walls where drugs could be stashed every year custom seizes millions of dollars worth of contraband here in San Ysidro one of their toughest battlefronts 3,000 miles away the battle is just as fierce but it takes place on the open ocean this is the Port of Miami as the Gateway to South America it is the prime point of entry for smugglers of all kinds via drugs guns money and even people here US Customs has a thriving Marines and air enforcement division we dispatch boats and aircraft to go out and look for illegal traffic anything that has to do with smuggling very few people even realize that we exist the only people that really know us well are the people that are spoiling their cops with very fast and very expensive boats worth more than a quarter of a million dollars they're designed to literally catch the smugglers at their own game they can go up to 70 miles an hour and you'll feel the tremendous pressure and and force as they hit the water the dark of night going 65 or 70 miles an hour in a in a boat is quite an experience there isn't really any way you can prepare for the danger because you don't know what's going to happen if once we you know go vessel the vessel and we've decided that a person isn't going to stop from there on it's pretty much anybody's guess their boats can chase suspects for more than 300 miles on the open ocean once near the shore they call in the Black Hawk helicopter on board a bus team keeps their guns trained on the boat together the marine and air officers bring the chase to a halt helicopter is one of the best boat chases we got we can you know stop them and hold them and that big black piece of machinery is a very intimidating factor when it's five feet from your face you're getting blasted with salt water that's going hundreds of miles an hour in your face you're not gonna be able to function and it does that very well you can just hold him and spin him around the water you can do anything you want it's it's it's like a cat-and-mouse the Marine officers board the boat confiscate any contraband and arrest the bad guys a customs helicopter shot this dramatic video of a night chase off the coast of Florida most of our activity happens probably after midnight maybe even well into the morning after that 2 3 4 a.m. when the prudent-man are the normal person's home in bed or is operating with plenty of lights in the proper channel in the proper method not going too fast if you will so we're looking for that guy who's running lights out in excess of sometimes 6070 miles an hour so this is very dangerous yes how hard is it to drive the boat like that it's it's an intensely difficult because you have floating things in the water boats there's freighters and you're going 60 miles an hour yes in order to prepare for high-speed chases on the high seas they schedule regular training exercises where agents collar the smugglers I joined the marine enforcement team to take part in a high-speed drug bust scenario we have a bad guy boat setup which is another one of our high speed interceptors and we're going to initiate contact and what we call engage the target and we're going to effect a felony arrest a felony hardstyle I was familiar with the weapons from the helicopter exercise but being on water posed a different set of challenges let's pretend the boat is out this way okay we're gonna we're gonna get yourself nice and tight in the sink okay because you remember if you're shooting if you're going to address a target okay see how the boats moving like this right you really do okay so you have to find a spot on the boat kind of train on it and let your let your body kind of get solutely after a few minutes of checking our weapons and equipment we were ready to go as the boat reached 70 miles per hour the vibration and wind made it difficult to maintain my position at the front soon our target was in sight okay now at this point right now we're at our most vulnerable so now is when you really want to keep an eye out and we have our blue light gauge so they know we're here and then it's up to Eddie to do the good driving to get us up there and hopefully he stops give them good good good loud directions hands up turn the boat off my role would be to fold once again I would provide cover from my teammate and I would order the smugglers to surrender and now after all that chasing and running now everything comes to a stop now you have to just kind of shift from a driving mode to a tactical mode we have to make sure it's a safe passage for us to jump over we have all kinds of threats here and these the very environment there weren't as a threat hands up US Customs step away from that wheel we're coming on board step away from the wheel catch hands off the wheel all right turn your boat off while I had the task of keeping my gun trained on the suspects my partners would have to jump between two moving boats to arrest them whole string coming over about 75% of the assaults on officers happen after the first handcuff is applied then they want to fight and now we're in this little area maybe 20 30 miles offshore we have no backup just around the corner so you know this is all we have that's where it gets dangerous okay got him both check the boat folks clear guys are clear search for weapons we have contraband we're clear this scenario was over the bad guys were cuffed the drugs confiscated and we were on our way back to the dock as night fell on Miami as it gets darker and it's more beautiful to us what does that represent to you a threat bad guys use the cover of darkness to infiltrate our country well there's certainly a lot of excitement in the job do you think it's cool job it's an extremely cool job it's it's very satisfying you get to drive these you know half-million-dollar boats and flying the helicopter but bet that loses its luster after a while and what really makes the job is put somebody in jail protecting the borders you're a dad with a little girl so you know we have a lot to protect yes ma'am I think that's why we all do it time to go to work from Miami to New York to the California border every day US Customs is at the front line of a war that never ends to feel were getting anywhere and fighting that battle are we winning that battle I don't know that we're winning it but it's a battle that needs to be fought we can't give up because if we give up then there's no other line of defense we are the line of defense behind closed doors of the US Customs Service for A&E I'm Joan Lunden
