Operation Seaload | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

robbery torture murder a drug cartel will do anything to protect their business no matter who's caught in the crossfire the fbi and nypd work together to fight back risking their own lives by going undercover to unlock the secrets of deadly drug gangs to bring them down from the inside [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] when the streets of new york flooded with crack cocaine in the 1980s a wave of violence threatened to drown the city colombian cartels brought the coke in and ran their operations with an iron fist i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office agents somehow had to infiltrate a complex crime ring protected by a code of silence going head-to-head with killers any misstep would be fatal [Music] crack cocaine cheap easy to make and highly addictive when it hits the streets violent crime follows most of the bloodshed occurs at the street level among users and dealers but innocent people suffer too nypd detective richard eppolito worked narcotics this one gentleman that owned a chinese restaurant came out one night and there was a couple of uh individuals involved in drugs and they'll do anything they can do to get their next fix well this particular gentleman had gold teeth and they thought nothing of killing him they just shot him dead and while he's down on the ground they pulled out their switchblades and they start prying his teeth down in new york the crack epidemic began in the late 80s nypd lieutenant mike garrity it was an extremely violent time you had turf wars you had people who just controlled a certain corner if you set up to make a sale on that corner there'd be a drive-by shooting we were losing our youth we were losing innocent bystanders to drive-bys every one of the index crimes went up it was out of control back then but arresting users and dealers individually does little to slow the onslaught you know it's never-ending uh it's just a constant flow for every one of two guys you take down there's others to replace them the only way to stem the flow of narcotics is to find the organizations that import the drugs and dismantle them to do this the department of justice creates the organized crime drug enforcement task force known as c13 the task force is made up of nypd detectives and fbi agents they know exactly who they're up against according to supervisory special agent fernando janos in new york in the early 90s the situation was that you had colombians in control of the drug trade the two main drug gangs are colombia's medellin and kali cartels when the cartels ship drugs into the country they smuggle them in by packing them among valid cargo according to u.s customs special agent phil spinelli with containerized cargo you can conceal the narcotics and just about any type of cargo that you ship into the united states they've liquefied narcotics and tried to put it into bottles they've uh disguised it as dominoes they've put it into cans of guava paste and cans of peaches where the peaches were completely sealed and they ship it in through new york city one of the busiest ports in the world in the new york area we receive approximately 000 containers a day each of those containers probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of about 18 20 maybe 30 000 pounds of cargo so it's extremely difficult it's like finding a needle in a haystack when the drugs hit new york they are distributed across the country the task force is determined to shut off this supply of drugs and break the backs of the cartels our purpose in the task force was to build cases try to monitor these individuals try to infiltrate them and take them down to do so detective epilito immerses himself undercover in the shadowy world of drug traffickers and he needs help the most productive cases involve confidential informants because they know what's going on they're already on the inside once the detective develops trust with an informant doors begin to open i had one particular confidential uh informant that was extremely reliable in december 1991 the informant tells eppolito about a man named eduardo he says eduardo deals in clone cell phones and might be connected to the medellin cartel he knows the colombian cartels desperately want to do business with the american mafia they felt judicial organized crime was here a long time they know the ins and outs all the tricks they have all the contacts and that's basically what they were looking for this could be the opportunity epilido's been looking for to get inside the cartel he decides to go undercover posing as a member of the mafia in an effort to orchestrate a large-scale drug purchase from the cartel the detective asks the informant to set up a meeting with eduardo and introduce him as tony romano his undercover identity the informant goes to eduardo and tells him about tony romano eduardo seems interested in a mafia connection and agrees to meet but he warns the informant if it's a setup there'll be hell to pay undercover work is among the most dangerous assignments an officer takes up if he's identified as a cop he and his informant will likely be killed [Music] every meeting is scripted so the undercover knows what to say and what to avoid an undercover operation is a carefully orchestrated deal we just don't send the undercover out there he doesn't operate in a vacuum uh what we do we have pre-meets before we go out we have tech plans we go over them things we try to cover every scenario that possibly could happen and when we decide to go out the safety of the undercover is paramount we have people that are assigned strictly to watch the undercover provide security for them to try to control the meat location you're going to pick a location that you're somewhat familiar with c13 decides to have epilito meet eduardo in a local bar we set up outside we surveilled you know them arriving and going in but we also sent agents and detectives you know inside the key is never appearing too anxious [Music] it was best not to jump right into the drugs because a lot of times when you do that they raise up on you and they think you're the cops or the feds and they back off so i figured i'd start off small start off low and try to do some cellular fraud business with this guy epilito suggests a deal for clone cell phones reprogrammed phones that use an unwitting customer's service for free he says he needs them for his mob activities and i also told him that i don't want to jump right into the drug aspect because i don't know who you are you know so let's do this and if we both come out of it okay we can move on so a little bit of psychology there eduardo agrees to clone the phones for a price [Music] after the meet empolito debriefs the task force by now intelligence agents have uncovered more details about the drug dealer eduardo was considered like a street dealer or a mule he uh he wasn't well placed within any organization he's a guy that would broker deals try to hook you up with somebody you know stuff like that he he definitely wasn't our main focus in his whole investigation and we wanted to use him as a stepping stone to go higher up or go up the ladder claiming he's satisfied with the clone phone deal epilito takes the case to the next level he sets up another deal with eduardo this time for drugs the detective has to maintain his mobster image you basically have to show credibility you have to be able to convince the people uh that you're who you say you are in doing so it means you have to walk the walk talk to talk authorities need to play it cool they don't want to order too much cocaine right away which could tip eduardo off in fact that's a red flag so what we decided to do is just order a small amount so one kilogram of cocaine is what we ordered from eduardo eduardo comes through with a single kilo a good sign he may be connected to a cartel undercover officers follow eduardo after the deal they need to determine if the man's really connected to a cartel someone who can lead them up the chain of command or just another small time dealer who cannot help further the investigation nobody knows first of all if in fact we really do have a narcotic smuggling organization there seems to be hints of it there seems to be smoke and what we're trying to do is see if in fact there is a fire there investigators spot a man and a woman who might be associated with eduardo going in and out of a house hopefully authorities can id the pair later this sort of meticulous and time-consuming work is required to gather intelligence and build a case against the cartels who operate under a strictly enforced code of silence c-13 task force also checks the purity percentage of the cocaine eduardo sold them it was extremely high quality it was in the high 90s which was like telling you that it's you're basically into the source which is what we needed pure cocaine means no middlemen have cut it down yet it looks like eduardo is a good lead into the cartels that point we realized that we had somebody that could possibly take us to the types of individuals of drug traffickers that the task force was geared to target it's the first milestone in what will be a long and dangerous investigation in 1991 new york c-13 task force tries to infiltrate a colombian drug cartel beginning with a low-level broker named eduardo after one successful cocaine buy eduardo asks undercover detective richard eppolito to meet the drug dealers eduardo represents so he orchestrated a meet with a female individual known as a street name was monica they would never give anybody their real name for fear they would be identified as with every meet backup agents cover epilido they recognize monica as the woman seen at the house eduardo entered after the first bye when i was introduced to moniker it just meant stepping up on one extra step in a ladder epilito must constantly maintain the charade in character is tony romano a member of the mafia he explains he has connections in customs and can move shipments through the ports agents spot a man watching the meet they realize he's the other person seen at the house special agent fernando janos colombians as sophisticated as they were oftentimes would conduct counter surveillance this was you know a standard operating procedure for them so we were wary of individuals that could be looking out to you know for law enforcement it's a preliminary meeting no real decisions are made but monica appears interested she wants to meet again to discuss details with her partner willie when she and eduardo leave backup tails them to id monica's car later in an effort to id her the task force has a uniformed officer conduct a routine traffic stop on the car the driver is the man who watched the meet in the restaurant [Music] the officer gets id's on the pair the man is gustavo valencia and monica's real name is rocio londagno investigators run the names and discover both are involved with colombian cartels the vicious worldwide leaders of the drug trade with this information the c-13 task force opens an official federal conspiracy case and brings in u.s customs from the reports customs agent phil spinelli confirms valencia's street name is willie willie had been identified as being at least a distant cousin of pablo escobar who was the head of the major cartel at that time escobar runs the medellin cartel the most violent gang in the history of colombian drug trade he offers bounties on the heads of colombian police officers maintaining power by killing whoever crosses him since willie's related to escobar the c-13 investigation takes on new urgency they might now be able to take the investigation all the way to the colombian kingpin lieutenant mike garrity ideally in any investigation you take it from point a to point z and that's what we were trying to do we were trying to get from the lowest level to the highest level and once we met willie with his connections we figured we were right on target during the course of this investigation while undercover epilito is constantly under the threat of death he can never slip out of character tony romano the role he is playing supposedly knows how the ports work but epilito doesn't in order to maintain his disguise customs agents must give the detective a crash course on international transportation it was extremely important for richie to be knowledgeable about the ports you have to remember what richie is posing as this is a wise guy a member of a mafia family he's also purporting to have connections down at the piers so he can guarantee the safe passage of the narcotics through customs the only way he can convince willie and moniker of this is to have enough knowledge of the inner workings of the peers so when he explains to them how he intends to carry out the caper it will be believable it will be true it will be accurate because the cartels are sophisticated enough to run their own background checks the task force creates a full identity for the fictitious tony romano complete with a long criminal record everyone working the case knows how important it is to hide eppolito's true identity they recall that in february 1985 decorated dea special agent enrique camarena was id'd as law enforcement by the mexican drug gang he infiltrated gang members kidnapped him tortured him then stabbed him to death [Music] the c-13 task force wires epilido to get incriminating conversations on tape they are all aware that if eppolito is discovered it could be a death sentence in previous meetings no one has patted him down but that could change this type of work it's very easy to explain them finding a gun on you i mean that's part of doing business you're going to have a gun on you but it's extremely difficult to try to explain that little wire sticking up tape to your chest above all epilido has to become his character fully to reduce suspicion and i had to dress like the wise guys i had to talk like the wise guys i had to have a fleshy car i'd have the jewelry soon appalito meets willie as he moves up the organization ladder the criminals become more savvy it gets tougher to fool them we're talking about people doing substantial period of time in jail if caught therefore everybody has a sixth sense their very existence depends on whether or not they have a sixth sense or an antenna that goes up and they're there to question richie they're there to make some determination is he somebody who's reliable dependable and can they do business with them the task force listens in and covers epilito and uh basically your buddies though they don't want to see you get hurt so it's it's good feeling knowing that there are guys there to back up the task force slowly makes its way toward the heart of the cartel knowing that at any moment a single mistake could be deadly undercover detective richard eppolito posing as a mafioso named tony romano meets with colombian drug cartel members he's backed up by other members of the c-13 task force some of whom act as mafia bodyguards epilito tells suspects monica and willie that if they can get the cocaine to the new york docks he can move it past customs into his secure warehouse for distribution customs agent phil spinelli that was very appealing to the colombians because they need somebody to pick up these containers full of narcotics it appears after the meeting undercover agents follow the suspects they note an interesting aspect of colombian drug traffickers according to supervisory special agent fernando janos they took a low-key approach colombians did not drive around in mercedes benzes and and porsches and flashy expensive vehicles they didn't dress particularly in an expensive way they didn't particularly wear experience they didn't wear expensive jewelry a lot of gold and stuff they made every effort to remain low-key and we saw that with with uh monica and willie from additional sources investigators developed more intelligence on the couple it was believed that they had loads in the past and trusted to them that had been lost and therefore they lost favor they lost uh money and they were obligated to the cartels when willie and monica lost the drugs the cartels made one thing very clear make good on the debt or die that pressure should help move the task force's case forward of course the people that are indebted to the cartel are looking to get out of debt with the cartel and are willing to take more chances to hopefully make a bigger score to be able to get even through monica and willie investigators expand the investigation and pierce the cartel's secret world according to detective eppolita one of the goals was to establish enough probable cause to get court-ordered wiretaps to further enhance the case gather intelligence uh basically know what the bad guy's gonna do before they actually do it because the couple discussed drug trafficking with epilido investigators have no trouble getting warrants to tap their phones the task force uses the taps to determine if the cartel believes epilido is who he says he is they felt free talking on the phones they would discuss a lot of their arrangements what they had in mind what they wanted to do the big mafioso that they met on tape monica and willie tell their cartel contacts that tony romano is a safe bet we could listen to their calls they were making to colombia discussing the meeting they just had with him and you know we were able to gather insight that you would not be able to to gather otherwise into what their thinking was the cartel has taken the bait and is ready for the next step they send another hire associate to meet with the mafioso there's also a female came into the picture named magola she was a very attractive colombian national she was the niece of a notorious drug dealer out there who they used to refer to as ivan the terrible he's responsible for the deaths of approximately 19 national police officers the task force knows ivan the terrible specializes in killing cops usually in a torture chamber he had built at his compound in bogota colombia epilido must continue playing his role and needs to convince magola that he's a mafia wise guy or risk being killed and he's the perfect cop to do it he grew up with some uh quote mob people he knew how they acted uh he had the looks he knew the way to act he knew the way to dress and you give richie a little bit of leeway you give him a script and he could play the role to a t and he was absolutely excellent in playing his role epilito notices one of magola's associates has a gun and must decide whether to call for help from backup he takes the risk and stays in character he doesn't want to blow the case backup knows what to do if anyone gets suspicious of them instead possibly somebody is making us what we would do is probably step a little bit further back from the side so they would think that to a certain extent they are seeing ghosts where in fact there were no ghosts in the end it appears magola believes tony romano can provide a safe route for drug running slowly the task force makes its way deeper into the cartel we were pieced mealed individuals first we met eduardo then we met monica then we went met willie then it was margolis they kept introducing different uh people the way it works those people would report back to the people back in columbia and they'd say what's going on it seems to be going well but epilito can never let down his guard he is in constant danger if the cartel suspects anything they could send assassins and hit epilito at any time not just at a meeting they could wait get you at a later time let you think everything's okay next time you show up you get one in the back of the head [Music] i feel very uppity very alert it's just uh natural adrenaline i guess that kicks in there's a bit of excitement involved it's challenging uh it's dangerous [Music] any mistake could mean another murder of a dedicated law enforcement officer new york investigators try to infiltrate pablo escobar's median drug cartel and dismantle it as the case builds the c-13 task force puts more resources into it including an office for undercover detective richard eppolito's mafia character i just had an undercover office in floral park queens then it was wired for both video and audio to document meets and gather evidence it's the best place for monitored meetings according to lieutenant mike garrity we were able to bring the people there we were able to record the conversations we were able to videotape every one of these conversations when monica and willie show up to the office for a meeting they're watched the entire time fbi special agent mary setzer acts as eppolito's receptionist we met in the office approximately two or three times a month my responsibilities were to answer the door when the subjects arrived announce them to the undercover and then usher them into the office she's there for protection but she's also part of the act richie frequently tried to ease the tension by making fake phone calls to me from the office during his meetings he would pick up the telephone and say make sure that order arrives tomorrow get that facts out it's all done to convince the cartel members the detective is actually tony romano you have to establish credibility with these people if you say who you are somebody you have to show them you have to prove it so we set up this operation to bring them there and put them at ease plus it served as a meeting place it was out of the view of the public they felt secure it felt safe it's a slow process as the task force orchestrates a complex fraud against weary adversaries supervisory special agent fernando janos these were savvy people you know these were people that were involved drug trafficking for many years in colombia and elsewhere outside of colombia and furtherance of the cartel's major worldwide distribution effort throughout the whole investigation we were always concerned that you know there would be a slip up that something inappropriate would be said or perhaps that surveillances would be would be made that would give the whole thing up if the cartel ever suspects anything they would likely kill epilito and is informed on rare days off eppolito needs a reason he can't meet monica and willie he tells them he often goes to atlantic city to tend to the mafia business there eventually monica and willie asked to see the atlantic city operation epilita's got a problem he has no real business in atlantic city the team scrambles to create an elaborate roost that will trick the drug dealers took them all to atlantic city that's another credibility thing they wanted to see where i spent my weekends where i hung out so we took them to the casinos the jersey state police were very instrumental on setting up the casinos where i could you know walk in like i was a big shot we could comp them we got them rooms you know we dine like kings and queens backup is all around [Music] the entire undercover operation is carefully scripted and nothing is left a chance the task force wants the cartels to see everything they need to see to believe epilido is a mafioso they even send in an undercover officer to act as a mafia captain and ask the informant for a meeting with eppolito the informant talked to richie richie walked away but in clear view of the other participants the other individuals pre-arranged threw his arms around richie greeted him kissed them on both cheeks and he handed him an envelope with a wad of money and richie sent them on his way walked back to the table pulled out the wad of money in the envelope leaped through would put his back and richie complained that he's always working even in atlantic city he can't catch a break and these people were totally impressed with this but the cartel needs more convincing they send an interrogator to meet with abelito his street name is sammy and he specializes in finding undercover cops sammy was uh somebody was a wild card that uh was introduced to the investigation he was uh you know an enforcer somebody that uh apparently you know uh was capable of you know determining whether somebody was you know a law enforcement officer obviously the room is fully wired and agents watch from an office in the hotel in touch with backups stationed near the room they must protect eppolito but they can't move too soon i have to make a decision basically in a split second and if you make the wrong decision in a case like this let's say to move in you just you could blow maybe about a year's worth of investigation now if you move too slow you could lose an undercover layer sammy starts the interrogation [Music] i didn't pat him at the door to see if he was armed or not but you know while these guys are armed and you got to be careful and uh you know i had to make sure i came up with the right answers because uh if we had any inclination that i was either a bad guy looking to rip him off or law enforcement i mean god knows what might have happened abilito knows backup is there but it's still a tense situation there's always a signal that's uh set up between you and the backups in case something goes wrong or code word uh then you know you let loose with the signal or the code word they just take the whole thing down several times sammy hints that he thinks epilido's trying to trick them we were extremely close there we could have got in there in a couple of seconds but those couple of seconds could have meant life or death so it is a gut wretching uh situation as sammy continues to press epilito agents fear that one wrong answer could destroy the entire investigation and detective eppolito would be killed undercover detective richard eppolito faces off against an interrogator from pablo escobar's drug cartel a man known only as sammy he demands details of eppolito's past crimes to prove he really is a mafioso agents watch the meet ready to send in back up at some point during the interrogation process i i thought i had to put a stop to it before either i said something that i couldn't back or the informant and i basically stood up i told him i said listen i said do you really expect me to tell you everything i've done do you expect me to tell you the people i've killed the people i've done drugs adult drugs with i says for all i know you could be a cop you could be an agent i says i told you what i'm going to tell you the detective takes a risk in character is tony romano demanding more respect he says here's my hand either you feel comfortable with me or it's a pleasure meeting you and i'll take my business elsewhere the tension rises and he got all upset walked off to the side talking to them there was some hollering and screaming in spanish of course which i didn't understand sammy and the others might be planning something violent but eppolito can't back down now you can't show that you're intimidated or afraid of them i miss the worst thing you got to come on just as strong or even stronger than native at times detective mike garrett is seconds away but seconds might be too late we were getting ready to move in but richie handled it excellent he was able to get out of it watch both units stand down stand down everything's okay finally sammy decides epilito is the real thing he came back smiled shook my hand and said we'll be doing business once again the detective has conned the criminals customs agent phil spinelli it's all part of being an undercover it's all part of being able to act calmly under pressure and richie of course being the pro he has handled it very well before the drug traffickers leave atlantic city sami decides to test the informant according to supervisory special agent fernando janos all of the subjects asked the source to to go to one of their rooms to talk to him and uh fortunately we had an adjacent room and were able to listen in to the conversation the informant is a civilian not law enforcement and might not hold up to the pressure of the interrogation agents watch as sammy tries to get the informant to double-cross tony romano he pushes hard got a little heated at times uh the backup teams thought they were gonna have to aggression through the door and rescue the informant and just basically take the case down at that point it's a big case but not worth a man's life you have to take calculated risks and this was another instance where we needed to do that you know uh can we respond quickly enough can we get into the room if this man whips out a gun you know or a knife and puts it to our source's throat [Music] quicker than that he says i could never do anything to portray him or the family and when he said that they they respected him and they saw he wasn't going to betray me so they felt i guess they felt he had a certain amount of integrity and he wouldn't be that much of a risk factor for them as well and they broke open a bottle of champagne in the room they celebrated another possible crisis averted could have been the end of the investigation oriented to the informer if they had decided to kill him it seems like endless meetings but this level of caution is how the cartels grew so powerful you're dealing with formidable adversaries i mean there was a lot of negotiations before we got down to the um the fine movements of getting the drugs from colombia over to here as the investigation deepens the next step up the ladder is hernando sanchez a high-level cartel member he suggests going beyond a single shipment and opening a new drug pipeline into the u.s a marriage of the colombian cartels and the american mafia we gave them the opportunity to move a product without law enforcement interceding from the pier to one of our warehouses so in effect what we did we provided one-stop shopping for this organization and they loved it [Music] the addition of hernando means the c-13 task force is moving deeper into escobar's cartel it was a feather in our cap to get him involved in this particular thing and more and more we we knew we were getting closer and closer to the source [Music] with a warrant investigators tap hernando's phones to protect eppolito they root calls through a secure atlantic city phone number to his new york home during one call hernando asks epilito to come to colombia with him to inspect a cocaine shipment it's too dangerous for eppolito to go it would be like walking into the lion's den and the task force would be unable to protect him but if he backs out the cartel may grow suspicious and kill him undercover detective richard eppolita was working to bring down the powerful medellin drug cartel hernando sanchez wants him to accompany him to colombia to inspect a cocaine shipment the detective must get out of the trip it's too dangerous his team could not protect him on foreign soil thinking quickly he tells hernando he can't leave his mob business unattended and hopes he doesn't suspect anything i mean one of two things could happen they could just walk away from you and never have anything to do with you again or depending on how far you are into their group organization how much you do know you i mean your life could be at risk appalito gets a break hernando falls for the story the task force continues to follow the suspects to id more associates investigators watch as their nando meets with a man identified as mauro trujillo a high-level cartel member who's been wanted by the dea for narcotics trafficking and money laundering agents want to grab him but they don't want to blow the current investigation so they wait as epilido gets deeper into the deadly cartel the danger increases there's a high risk factor you know some nights i didn't go home uh if i did go home i would have to do it in such a way where i made sure i wasn't being followed finally as the new year passes epiledo learns the shipment is on its way but there's a change of plans instead of the cocaine hernando says they're sending a test load nine and a half tons of marijuana in character is tony romano the detective acts upset at the change but it's a big load and would be the evidence they need to bring the operation to a close was a heck of a test load normally we hadn't seen anything like that test loads were like one or two kilos see if it gets seized goes onto the street and see what happens the task force can't let that amount of drugs on the street when the load arrives at the new york docks undercover investigators transported directly to eppolito's warehouse the investigators need to check the container's contents but there's a seal on its door to ensure no one has opened it it's a common practice in international shipping agents need to find a way to get inside and keep the seal intact u.s customs agent phil spinelli what they were able to do is to detach the door without breaking the seal at first it looks like a normal shipment of clothing [Music] stashed behind the shirts marijuana literally tons of it we recovered somewhere in the neighborhood of about 272 cartons were crates containing nineteen thousand pounds of marijuana valued in excess of twenty one twenty two million dollars they're definitely dealing with a major cartel it's not easy to put together nine and a half tons of marijuana these people had the resources to do all this these were bad guys major violators they uh you know they plagued this country with this stuff and you know they just needed to be taken down and bring a halt to their operation for prosecution the c-13 task force needs the suspects to complete the transaction and accept the shipment epilido invites them to the warehouse and of course there was video and uh you know surveillance equipment in place we had one of the my so-called one of my workers come with a big bolt cutter and cut the seal on the back of the container and i handed them the seal i said here's a souvenir for you and they could see that the load was sealed it wasn't tampered with it got hit in one piece and i uh happened to have an italian switchblade on me by the way i cut it open and they examined it and they were happy so it was stuff they had sent over and they also wanted to take some back with them but abilito can't let the drugs hit the street and uses the cartel's unplanned switch from cocaine to marijuana to his advantage i said uh now you screwed me and you know this is basically how it's gonna go you're gonna do what i tell you to do i want those 5 000 kilos here when i get my drugs then you get your marijuana the suspects panic they are desperate to take control of the drugs shockingly desperate monica actually offered up a baby to me as a former collateral and good trust it's a stunning move no one expects fear it comes across when you hear stories like that the reason being is that if she's willing to give her child up to this unknown criminal figure what would she have done to myself or any member of the investigative team if in fact she found out we were law enforcement or if in fact she found out that ritchie in reality was an undercover police detective it sends a couple of chills up his spine epilido stands firm he will not release the marijuana until the cocaine he ordered comes through cartel members finally agree and plan to meet later while c13 plans arrests epilido faces increased pressure from angry cartel members i can't do that it got pretty pretty uh you know heated uh during these ladder meetings because they kept pressuring him to release the drugs you know to release some of the marijuana so they can then they could then sell it on february 3rd 1993 more than a year after the investigation began the arrest plans are finalized the task force moves in they start with willy and monica at epilito's office by this time the pair suspects nothing [Music] they were people they didn't know what was going on their guys coming with shotguns guns out bull professor then the man they knew as tony romano emerges [Music] you know i went out there to uh to speak to them and try to get them to cooperate and my thomas you know i have i'm the police i guess they felt betrayed and that i had deceived them which i did the interest of justice and uh willie actually looked at me with tears in his eyes and he says uh how could you do this to me i said well william says you come into this country you bring this stuff you destroy our people our youth i said i'm a police officer i'm a detective he says i'm here to pull the law he says you broke the law i said you people are under arrest and that was it and i walked out of the room fbi agents within 24 hours c-13 arrests hernando and six other co-conspirators magola is never found having fled to colombia eduardo monica willy hernando trujillo and others are each charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to distribute narcotics fbi special agent mary setzer they all pled guilty however mao trujillo also known as restrepo fled the country and left for colombia the fbi is looking for information regarding the whereabouts of mr trujillo if anybody has that information they can call the new york office of the fbi at 212-384-1000 more than a year of dangerous undercover work by the agents and officers of the c-13 task force helped [ __ ] a drug cartel many thought was unstoppable [Music] you

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Length: 49min 25sec (2965 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 27 2021