Six Million Dollar Seizure (Full Episode) | To Catch a Smuggler

foreign ER of the internal conspiracy group for Homeland Security investigations and this is the man of the hour the case agent Paul all right I'll just give a general overview of the case that we know what's going on a flight arrived from Curacao to New York's JFK Airport on the surveillance video we have the baggage handler he's seen offloading the bags this is a standard procedure this happens thousands of times a day here at JFK he's about to pull off with the two containers after allegedly offloading the flight you can see right here those are four suitcases three in the first card and one in the second card each of those suitcases contains 16 kilograms of cocaine those four suitcases they are not going down to customs the baggage handler decides to drive around the terminal area we believe he was doing that as counter surveillance to see if anyone was following him when he stops the baggage cart he goes into the first container that remember has the three bags he's pulling the bag tags off of the pieces of luggage proceeds to the rear cart where he removes the tag removes the bag and places that bag into the first cart he then unhooks the second car and he proceeds to drive in the direction of the domestic baggage terminal drop area this area is where suitcases go down to the domestic belt the whole public has access to that nobody is there checking tickets with your name the public can just walk in take a suitcase off the carousel and walk right out after reviewing videotape we were able to identify a black Honda Accord in the area of the terminal the same night and time the suitcases arrived on the domestic belt we believe that those two individuals that were inside that black Honda collected the suitcases and distributed the cocaine in the New York area during the course of our investigation we ended up arresting the JFK baggage handler and we did learn that the two occupants of the black Honda were former Airline employees here in New York we then learned that two kilos of cocaine will be arriving on a flight tonight from Nassau Bahamas we suspect that these two same suspects are going to show up and receive the two kilos of cocaine will be to find the drugs coming off the plane with the assistance of CBP we have some people on the site already there's going to be about 26 special agents and Task Force officers once the flight lands tonight we're gonna escort the flight to the gate we're going to maintain visual contact at all times with the ramp workers all the cargo coming off all the suitcases we want to make sure if there's any type of narcotic anywhere on the plane that we get it and then HSI are going to conduct and control delivery and try and get the bad guys on on the outside we will track the narcotics and let them go down on the domestic terminal and then we will see who comes and picks it up remember these guys have worked at the airport before they know the ins and outs we're trying to cover every exit every possible scenario so just be alert we have Agents set up outside we're going to see where the bags go we'll make a call ultimately when the drugs get picked up and we'll decide when we're going to take this down and affect the arrest foreign [Music] it's not like that anymore they're getting smart blaster you hit prove it on the side there's no sad weight as we find it they're looking for ways to hide it better we're going to be working in Trinidad now sorry passport Trinidad is known for Narcotics so would you like to hit this flight how you doing passport are you traveling by yourself yeah okay what's the purpose of the trip you have a company over there what's the name of the store Stylistics you have any like little uh like business card or anything profit how many buddies are you bringing in I'm breaking about who's this yeah how do you get your style when did you buy the ticket to come so was it planned yeah and when do you return Friday [Music] if you're a question what's up we're gonna go through immigration and then we're gonna go through a customs inspection Hotel it's already paid for it all right guys the plans change a little bit I just got Intel that the cocaine never made it on the plane you guys been around long enough you know we got to be fluid we got to react the good thing is that we have arrest warrants for two of our main targets uh we do know that previously they were in a black Honda so be on the lookout for that and since we have all these people here and we just got these warrants signed a few hours ago we're going to execute those arrest warrants today we've already deployed some people out to the residence communicate wait for instructions do not jump the gun God in your car okay all right we're heading your way all right thanks so they got the one guy the first Target he's in custody now we're gonna go and pick up the second target okay guys this is Kevin and we're set up on the corner Target's gonna be on the right probably sitting in the driveway look to your left this black Honda I believe it's just right there that's the black Honda that we saw on the video from when the cocaine came in from Curacao okay Temple and you have the eye on the set right now yeah [Music] because I'm walking to his vehicle okay so we're right here we might get out and take him right now here it is he's right behind you yeah I'd like to take him somewhere not too far away like if he gets a block off he's in his car car hasn't started he's moving he's moving what's up right now we're following behind him take him up the next light Chris you pull up to the left we're going to take the right okay okay yeah we're gonna take them now we got a couple cars in place I've got about six units rolling up on him he might be turning he's making it right I advise that we take him mid block yeah can we get one car ahead of him and take it yeah doing that now okay foreign [Music] very happy so far with the driver just consented to search of his vehicle so we'll see if he uh if he has any drugs or weapons or any evidence of the crime our agents will go back and they'll conduct a post arrest interview and they'll see if he wants to cooperate and tell us more about what's going on in the organization this is the the third arrest on this case so far but we still have more people in this criminal conspiracy we're going after the high level members of the organization we're going to take it all the way up [Music] we're going to win this area and we get the canine here now so hold on one second step we have narcotic detector dogs all over the country you'd be amazed at the things that dogs can find narcotics floating in a tank of gasoline that's sealed so The Smuggler is to try but we seem to have a pretty good success rate of finding it this is Jax he is trained to detect narcotics pretty good partner he always wants to come to work he never complains about what I want to listen to on the radio you can stay right there he'll just sniff around you it's a life of sacrifice for these dogs they don't get a lot of Frills but he serves a bigger purpose than what he understands canines have been around since the 1970s back then it was heroin and cocaine and marijuana through the years we've had to add ecstasy and Fentanyl to what our dogs can find we have states that are legal marijuana but federally it's not allowed in so if you're bringing it in we're still going to seize it put your bags on the Belt some yummy food in there the dog might have liked that okay nothing else in the bags there's cigarettes in there I need marijuana no no marijuana did you smoke marijuana while you're gone maybe something like that I'm not sure if I did not sure if you smoked while you're right I don't think I did if I did I wasn't aware do you smoke marijuana in all you know like you put it in the bag sometimes of course it's my purse purse probably why the dog is sitting on your back is what I'm trying to say many of that in there before you can't find it in there now thank you sir a lot of times a dog will hit on a pocket or they'll hit on a purse it's from where they store it previously so you're not always going to get someone that has marijuana does that happen often my dogs are like oh I mean you know it's not uncommon um not a big deal if that day ever comes where the federal government recognizes marijuana as a legal drug then we'll stop training our dogs on it right now we're in the middle of interviewing the two suspects that we just arrested we didn't find anything in the black Honda of note but we did get some information from the interviews that there may be another vehicle so we're going to go out and we have consent to search that vehicle and we're going to see what we find [Music] this neighborhood that's not entirely familiar to us yeah we always have to be aware of our surroundings [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] basically this is a drug dealer starter kit really excited about this we knew we were onto something good we seized three handguns we seized an estimated 130 thousand dollars cash which is a good sign that means that they were selling the drugs so these are the importers distributors investigations are a puzzle you put all the pieces together I'm pretty confident that we're going to get the person that is reaping all the benefits of this criminal activity it was just a really good hit [Music] all right this is your bag everything inside is yours Let Me Get Your Dragon she's very disorganized so right now it's just about having a thorough interview because we want to be able to catch them in the live so you said you want to buy about how much clothes foreign and uh after Transportation food how much money are you bringing in in cash 500. and you are 100 sure that credit card has two thousand dollars yeah if there isn't then you're getting caught in a lot um I'll be right back we have a lot of passengers who come here with the same story they come to shop to the United States to resell it in their countries however most of the times those passengers actually have a plan and she's only coming for one day normally when these people come they come for three four days because if you don't find something that one day and you go back home what was the purpose of your trip so we have to make sure that she's authentic because we have had incidents in the past where we've had passengers come in with the same story who have swallowed cocaine she says she has some money and her credit card but you did this for work here well that's like a debit card gift card basically yeah what's your name is that her name no what is a different name Karina it says Karina it's not going to let her use it then there's something she's not telling us or she's just lying can't put in the pattern yeah put your stuff away and come follow me okay I'm gonna put her in private room to speak to her a little bit more see if I can get the tooth out of her and see where the story goes from here take a seat right here I'm gonna search your body [Music] what's her daughter's name so the debit card is hers right yeah yeah she's just she's too calm she's been through this before obviously she's been put in that room before she's been in padded now before she said that she made himself Jordans and that um last time she stayed in three months there was a few drones that were dropping like new drawings that she was exporting back home through here and that's where she stayed here last minute ticket low income you know what make phone calls call her daughter right see the story make sense if it makes no sense if it's completely awesome we'd write it up give me your daughter's number I'm gonna give her a call okay wait for me I have to charge the phone yeah she literally only has three contacts right now I don't know what you want to do come on we can have outbound check and she's taking stuff out she doesn't take anything out she came and she passed or she's taking out cash I don't have enough evidence to keep her but every piece of information that she gave me I couldn't verify anything found this one so I'm gonna make sure that we have an inspection on our way back to Trinidad make sure she's taking out merchandise I'm gonna be looking after you okay after make sure you leave tomorrow if she's not then she's lying about something let me slam sniff real quick sir all right thank you how are you come through sir just quick sniff ing after something I'm gonna take a look at your bags real quick okay fine are these all your bags here boom it's got marijuana here I forgot it was in my bag we have a little bit of marijuana here we're gonna do a test just to verify what it is you turn orange faucet for marijuana weight on the scale it's about 12 grams it's probably worth about 150 dollars we will issue the fine there will be possibly five thousand dollars I made a mistake and had marijuana cannabis in my bag and got to pay a 5 000 fine because they can't arrest me because it ain't chargeable but they can find you for how do you feel about that you know how I feel the same way you would [Music] position three is in location we're probably about five minutes up since arresting the baggage handler and the two other New York suspects both of who worked for the airlines previously we've developed a lot more information on this organization we've now identified an additional members of this Airline internal conspiracy we began looking at a previous video of the JFK baggage handler we're able to see that Not only was the baggage handler taking cocaine from the airport he was also moving money into the airport to be smuggled to Southern California and we can see him going down from the employee locker room at JFK to the terminal bathroom meeting with the individual who we later identified as the money transporter the money transporter is based out west we're estimating that the baggage handler and the money transporter in this video were moving an estimated anywhere from 300 to 400 000 US Dollars the money transporter then gets on uh aircraft and flies out to the West Coast bypassing any TSA or security checkpoints those proceeds were going to be utilized to purchase more kilos of cocaine through a Mexican connect we were able to identify the money transporter he lives here in Vegas and we developed a plan with Homeland Security investigations in Las Vegas on how we would affect the rest of the targets so right over there is the target vehicle that burgundy color sedan and on the corner there is the target residence we're pretty confident he's in the residence the residence comes back to him his vehicle that's registered to him is parked in front of the house we're gonna execute up it's called the knock and talk we'll knock on the door of the residents hopefully the target will answer the door there are several things to consider doing a knock and talk from an officer safety standpoint you know they could always run back in the house they could grab a weapon you never know how many people are going to be in the house so you kind of don't really know what you're walking into okay is it yours it's my husband would he be able to come out contact with there to be a female [Music] we have a confirmation that that's our Target we're gonna play some under arrest foreign [Music] we have confirmation that that's our Target we're gonna Place him under arrest [Music] what is this about what is it and we'll discuss that in a little bit we're sure you have the right person this this is a joke right wait wait relax breathe the HSI Las Vegas office they did a great job got them away from his children and family make sure there was no you know no safety issues or anything like that long time get out of here as quick as you can we'll see how it happens back at the office [Music] the day before I saw this female coming from the Caribbean she told me she's coming to purchase clothing she owns a store in Trinidad and told me she's leaving today you seen we have an inspection outgoing I want to make sure she leaves and I want to make sure she takes back merchandise if she doesn't leave then we have a problem and she leaves with no merchandise we have an even bigger problem maybe she came and she passports [Music] love I see you [Music] I got her hello my name is coming with family no check your luggage and you'll be on your way [Music] what was the purpose of a trip um oh okay when you came into the US yes so yesterday just one day it's not enough time to shop it's too little and when you came in how much money you brought into the U.S cash money then how much money are you taking back home no cash you weren't sure you spend at all okay pretty good this is a new stuff for your jersey oh okay you have any receipt of the stuff you bought it okay it's good you're checking her bags we feel like the purpose she initially told me is legitimate so I'm gonna go ahead and release the passenger right now the majority of the time we spend hours on the passenger drilling them asking questions because we think we have something good but we get a lot more negatives and positives but I'm Gonna Keep Looking we're going to keep talking and who knows maybe we'll actually find something thank you for your time have a good flight guys thanks everyone for coming today so after the arrest of the money transport our investigation opened up into a larger conspiracy this organization would send the cocaine from Curacao to New York's JFK Airport then send those proceeds to Southern California where they were purchased more cocaine that was imported from Mexico that cocaine was then sent from Southern California to the New York area we were able to introduce an undercover agent from our Long Beach office that undercover agent was able to pick up one kilogram of cocaine from the source of supply and today we'll be flying in the JFK to deliver that cocaine to the recipient who paid for it the New York distributor I'm also the former Airline employee here in New York what we're going to try to do today is to conduct and control delivery basically what's going to happen is when the flight lands the UC will start getting in contact right he hasn't been in contact with the target yet but no yeah so he basically you could say like hey I'm on the ground where should I go and then right from there we should have an idea what's going on he just goes up to the window pulls out the kilo hands it to them they'll probably look at it pay him his payment and then it'll be taken down the UC will be taken down with the other targets so just everyone know that tequila cocaine so with his drugs there's guns right so be safe you know work together the most important part is the security of the on the cover if anyone sees anything anyone hears anything you don't like call it out we'll stop it the nearest Hospital trauma one Center Jamaica okay something happens anybody get them in get them out just go it says flight still tracking for 10.55 so the game plan is we're going to have a group of Agents be the cover team for the undercover the rest of the agents will be spread out on foot as well as in vehicles in the parking garage and the terminal we're going to be driving by in a second so just tap your brakes gotcha okay this is us coming right by you all right so you guys are in a great spot like if he was going to meet him I think they'd meet here that's the best bet you know these guys might know this a lot you know what I mean yeah the New York distributor was a former Airline employee so he's very familiar with that terminal they know there's cameras all over the place that's why we're worried about counter surveillance try keeping an eye on see what's in these calls too you know what I mean if you see anybody like that guy sitting there with his lights on all right looks like the flight has touched down flight has touched down careful copy that we're all positioned around the terminal making our way to the Rival game [Music] what are you bringing back with you from over there yes anybody give you anything to bring each day each officer might have three to five good passengers travel together right we talked to them we speak to them we check their bags and you'll continue on to you're satisfied to declare [Music] I just do a head that's weird you wear these give me a second all right it's a bedroom so you can see how it's darker on the bottom it's like really like dense very dense it's completely off the swing Yep they're loaded oh definitely [Music] there you go white powder from the odor I'm going to say it's cocaine this is the sole of the shoe and that yellow packet is loaded get it tested oh it's so thick there you go Blue positive for cocaine I'm just gonna take you to another area and process you are your wife know about this no it's not time to be lying to your wife know about this she does so why she acting like she don't know about it the only thing that's load is those shoes they're gonna weigh both the shoes together [Music] [Music] it smells so strong oh my God it's like a weird mustard smell yes that's what we do all the time it's a cat in the mouse game you know one finds that everybody helps it's a team effort just your thumb like that so much hard work we got a lot of negatives but when we hit it's a good feeling foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] we'll make sure no one is on his tail copy thank you all right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you have to Industry or child representation [Music] we just got word that our targets contacted our undercover and they are going to be meeting up at the departure level which is right here showing sending out updates on location they're walking through the terminal slow okay [Music] our Undercovers on the escalator right now and we have agents at the arrival and departure areas so we're a few minutes out [Music] uc's outside by door number seven it's him right there right the backpack yeah yeah that's him all units supposedly the targets are in a black Ford Explorer that's all tinted out targets are saying they're at seven and then just watch his level don't be surprised that this happens quick [Music] now black SUV just rolled up it's a black Ford Explorer with tinted windows entering the departure area right now that may be it see it look at that black explorer right there the one in the Middle with the tail light out yeah it's got to be our guy right there man gets that car right behind you guys therefore I'm blocking whenever you're ready [Music] It's that car right behind you guys therefore I'm blocking whenever you're ready our targets are looking for our undercover right now okay that's all you see going right to the vehicle and everybody stand by Vinnie wait for all signal you'll see the lights and close it off when we take it down all right when he walks away yeah make sure you help close this road get ahead of it get ahead of them yeah okay but let them clear [Music] all right we're gonna be taking it down all units take it down get out go go right now I gotcha oh my goodness step out hands up come up oh my goodness all right got anything on you no come on is there anything on you there's nothing on me you got any weapons anything I need to know about more just relax man give us five seconds all right just relax I don't know anything all right that's fine that's fine relax relax thank you thank you we'll get them back take them to the side all right okay let's go get him in a car let's go all right so we got our two Targets we got our two guys we got a bag they still got the drugs nobody got hurt everything is good this investigation began with us identifying a baggage handler in New York it led us to a huge International conspiracy with the movement of well over thousands of kilos of cocaine unload it we'll lay out everything these organizations with that amount of Narcotics you're looking at multi-million if not billions of dollars that are being made we're definitely going to be sending all this stuff for prints and DNA swabs thus far in the investigation we're able to seize 10 kilograms of cocaine 550 000 US dollars made multiple arrests and all the evidence we gathered will help us prosecute these individuals thank you this is a joke right hey relax relax [Music] [Applause] you got another flight you're doing after this this is just the beginning we turn over every Rock we look at every phone we look at every suspect it takes a lot of time and dedication but we're gonna do whatever we can to disrupt and dismantle this criminal organization [Music]

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 1,191,325

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, full episode, To Catch A Smuggler, Drug smuggling, documentary 2022, Drug seizure, Drug smuggling 4k, Illegal cases, Dark Web, Deadly party, Drug linked case, Overdosage, Solving Skills, Drug Usage, Smuggling NatGeo, History, HSI uncovers, Airline employees, CBP sniffs, Million Dollar Cocaine, Six Million Dollar Seizure

Id: zqmQZNWO4Ng

Length: 44min 24sec (2664 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023