Voice Of Terror | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

a series of bombings rock cities from new york to miami embassies are attacked businesses are destroyed cuban americans are gunned down by assassins deep within the u.s cuban exile community a mysterious group emerges to take credit for the violence the terrorist group known as omega 7. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] alright [Music] in the late 1970s the fbi had a working knowledge of anti-castro terrorists operating in the united states but then a new group appeared more violent and aggressive than their predecessors i'm jim kelstrom former head of the fbi's new york office all agents had to go on was a series of chilling phone calls a mysterious voice and the threat of more violence fbi field officers from new york to miami coordinated their efforts determined to catch the vicious killers [Music] new york city the morning of june 6 1976 uptown manhattan [Music] a massive bomb detonates at the cuban mission to the united nations new york police and the fbi rushed to investigate the explosion i could actually hear the bombs walk from my apartment special agent larry wack lives three blocks from the mission he's on the scene in minutes the devastation was unbelievable my first reaction was there's no way anybody walked away from this thing and it turned out nobody got injured or hurt special agent wack examines the entrance of the mission from the blast pattern it looks like the bomb exploded directly in front of the door he notices a security camera mounted overhead assuming that the guy walks up and sets it down at the door he had to be on video agent whack asks a cuban diplomat for permission to look at the videotape from your camera told us that we couldn't view it right away and that they would take a look at it and get back to me [Music] got a call the next day from one of the diplomatic personnel up there who said that there's uh nothing on the tape and i said uh okay this is the game we're gonna play it appears that the cuban officials are keeping the videotaped evidence for their own intelligence even if it cripples an fbi investigation it would be nice in a perfect world if they said look here's a copy of the tape and you do what you need to do with it you know we're going to keep the original but it doesn't happen a news station provides the fbi with a tape recorded phone call from a man who claims he belongs to an anti-castro organization that bombed the cuban mission omega-7 the fbi has never heard of omega-7 [Music] for cubans fleeing fidel castro's brutal regime northern new jersey has become a safe haven it is home to nearly 100 000 cuban immigrants [Music] fbi agents talk with people in the community in an effort to identify members of omega-7 getting information from the cuban exile community was one of the most difficult things we ever ran across even if they knew who the guys were to them their heroes appreciate it for the fbi it's another dead end over the next two years omega 7 strikes targets in new york city again and again they bomb the cuban mission twice another bomb detonates at lincoln center where an orchestra from cuba had been performing in each instance a representative of omega-7 calls local news stations to claim responsibility the terrorist group is on a rampage but the fbi has few leads we were coming up with no witnesses we were coming up with pieces of battery and whatever that wasn't going to pin down anybody for now investigators only solid lead is a mysterious voice claiming responsibility for the violence to fbi special agent tom menipace all the tapes sound like the same person there were slight variations in tone but if you listen to them all at the same time you really picked up kind of a common thread mccaller would identify himself always as a member of uh omega 7 most people pronounced it omega there was a distinct omega with this guy it was calm collected here's what we did here's why we did it fbi agents in new york and miami have interviewed dozens of suspected anti-castro terrorists but none of the agents recognize this particular voice the voice was driving us crazy [Music] nobody's got this voice we were taking copies of the tapes and playing them with prominent members of the community and we were basically trying to get a name for that caller but even those deeply involved in the cuban community are unable to id the caller if there's not that immediate recognition then a lot of times you get into an area where people are speculating it's like gee it sounds like so and so and you kind of know right there that you know they're stretching yeah they're local thanks very much for your help all right take care investigators also play the voice for informants they know have connections to various anti-castro organizations no one has any idea who the voice belongs to don't recognize anyone [Music] and still the bombings continue northern new jersey march 1979 [Music] omega 7 bombs the offices of a cuban businessman in northern new jersey his name is eulalio negren an activist who helps reunite cuban refugees with their families in the united states at the scene the fbi finds no witnesses and little evidence investigators believe the bomb is only a warning if they meant to kill negrin with a bomb i would think that they would have used a more powerful device and known that he was there and put it on his car or something like that that full more than three years after the original omega-7 attack another bomb explodes at the cuban mission to the u.n the same mysterious voice calls news stations and takes credit on behalf of omega-7 a month later the terrorist group abruptly changes its pattern [Music] eulalio negrin and his 12-year-old son leave their home [Music] in new jersey two masked men attack a businessman for trying to free political prisoners in cuba the victim is eulalione grin a cuban-american activist paramedics try to save his life but he's lost a lot of blood [Music] in the end negrin pays the ultimate price tragically negrin's 12-year-old son witnessed his father's horrible killing [Music] fbi special agent tom menipace must interview the grief-stricken boy he was in shock basically saw his father get killed and that's pretty horrible special agent larry whack is stunned by the brutality of the murder there's a lot of unwritten rules out there in the game of cops and robbers and bad guys shooting a man in front of his son is not part of the rules and i found that to be tremendously cold and calculating and began to realize that we were dealing with some pretty callous fellows union city police recover empty brass cartridges believed to be from the shooter's weapon [Applause] [Music] the fbi and police question area residents did you know how many people inside you do a real intense neighborhood investigation essentially tracing the path in which the car was seen fleeing investigators finally find a witness who can describe the color make and model of the gunman's vehicle at the newark fbi office special agent menipace listens to a news tape in which a voice proudly claims credit for negrin's murder the stakes are getting higher it's gone from being you know a bomb in a doorway you know endangering people to actually taking a life a prominent man has been assassinated in front of his own home but all agent menipace has to go on is a vague description of the killer's car how many of them are registered in union city or hudson county or elizabeth who are they registered to are any of those registrations people who we have as suspects in the case in 1979 there was no computerized record system for vehicles by make and mama investigators failed to find the killer's car at the autopsy a pathologist recovers several bullets from the murdered man's body the bullets could be crucial evidence but only if investigators can find the murder weapon a month later december 1979 the cuban mission is bombed again the soviet mission is also attacked for providing aid to cuba the blast seriously injures an nypd officer yet again the mysterious voice of omega-7 takes credit for both bombings [Music] miami january 1980 the bomb partially destroys a small cigar factory this is the third bombing in miami in a year to the fbi the pattern is familiar special agent george kozinski is a bomb tech with the fbi's miami field office tremendous amount of damage done not just to the building but to the cigars that were being manufactured there which are manufactured by hand as in new york a representative of omega 7 calls a local news station to take credit for the bombings fbi special agent tom walzer believes the terrorists are trying to intimidate the shop owner who advocates better relations with cuba the goal was ultimately to get to the attention of the cuban community but it was also to send a message to the individuals and businesses that had dialogue with the castro regime as well as to send a message to the island of cuba itself in little havana a predominantly cuban neighborhood in miami fbi agents and police continue to dig for clues [Music] we have good access to cuban leaders to individuals in the community as well as establish sources that cooperate with the fbi and other law enforcement agencies because the miami pd has informants metro date has to fdle has an atf [Music] despite their wealth of informants the fbi comes up with nothing solid agents compare tape recordings of the miami bombings with those from new york they agree that it's the same person as in new york investigators play a tape for members of miami's cuban community [Music] no one seems to recognize it manhattan march 25th 1980. fbi agents respond to a report that a bomb has been placed on a limousine belonging to the cuban ambassador to the united nations through interviews investigators pieced together what happened when the chauffeur got the limo ready to take the ambassador to an appointment he bumped the car in front of him [Music] he got out to inspect the damage and found a shoe box wrapped in gray duct tape [Music] the chauffeur was suspicious he was aware that the mission had been bombed repeatedly he put the box in a garbage can away from the mission and hurried inside to call police when the nypd bomb squad arrives the chauffeur shows them where he put the suspicious device but the garbage can is now empty the officers realize the department of sanitation has made its regularly scheduled pickup by now the truck and the bomb could be anywhere in the city in new york a chauffeur finds a possible bomb underneath the limousine of the cuban ambassador to the united nations he places the suspicious device in a trash can and calls the nypd bomb squad by the time they arrive the device has been picked up by a city garbage truck [Music] the bomb squad catches up to the truck [Applause] they questioned the driver according to fbi special agent tom menopause when they first asked him you know did you find something a mechanical device in the trash he says no they're like it might be a bomb at which point he's like it's in the cab [Music] the driver had spotted a radio receiver inside the box he was planning to take it home inside the box is enough c4 explosive to potentially blow up a building in the lab an fbi bomb expert examines the device for fingerprints hairs and fibers he finds nothing [Music] queens new york september 11 1980. omega 7 claims another life the victim is an attache of the cuban mission to the united nations [Music] to my knowledge it was the first assassination of a un official in the history of the u.n on u.s soil a newly formed fbi nypd task force investigates it's the first joint terrorism task force in fbi history in the fall of 1980 the fbi gets a break in the case a former anti-castro radical contacts special agent larry whack he feels innocent people are dying and decides to cooperate the informant cannot identify the members of omega 7 but he has heard a rumor about the group he had learned that there had been a significant split in the actual omega hierarchy or as he called it the board anything else agent wack believes that once the fbi has identified suspects they can exploit the division by pitting one faction against the other [Music] three months after the murder of the cuban attache a bomb explodes in front of the cuban consulate in montreal [Music] at the new york fbi office the task force wonders if omega 7 members from the united states are responsible according to the ins shortly after the bomb exploded a car entering the united states refused to stop for inspection border guards were unable to get the license plate number the car was going too fast but they did get a description of the vehicle a short time later a new york state trooper stopped a car matching that description the two men inside the car denied running the border few miles back without a license plate number or other evidence of guilt the officer was forced to let them go but before he did he wrote down the information from their driver's licenses including their names enrique er bons and antonio casaveris the task force recognizes airborne's name he was known to us as a fanatical violent exile from miami the other gentleman in the car was an unknown entity at that moment which was interesting to us because the big question was who is this guy according to his driver's license casa verdes lives in new jersey agent menipace visits his apartment complex to talk to his neighbors they tell him casaveris recently moved to miami [Music] menipace plays a tape of the suspect's voice the neighbors all identify the mysterious man the voice of omega seven as antonio cassiveris these people who knew him as a nice young guy they were shocked that i'm sitting there playing these credit taking calls for them and they're recognizing the voice on the tapes as someone they know it's a huge break in the case the task force immediately gets a subpoena for casaveri's phone records and begins to analyze who he has been calling it's like dropping a pebble in the water the leads go outward because you see who he calls and then you see who they called we start to see heavy calling uh in in times in dates leading up to incidents and then on the day of the incident no calls and then after the fact calls from the phone records the fbi identifies three other likely members of omega seven they analyzed the credit card records of all four suspects among the charges are several automobile rentals the car rentals were really one of the biggest things that really became of interest to us agents discover that some of the suspects had rented cars at newark airport just before the bombings and could have used them in the crimes in fact one man stands out because he had received a parking ticket across the street from the cuban mission the same day that omega 7 gunned down the cuban attache his name is eduardo mizoras miami september 11th 1981 [Music] the bomb explodes at the mexican consulate omega 7 takes credit hours later a second bomb explodes at the mexican consulate in manhattan once again omega-7 claims credit although the explosions are over 1200 miles apart agent manipase believes it's possible that a single person place both bombs one person had the time to fly from florida to new jersey or new york and carry out the bombings agent menipace rushes to newark airport to check the records of rental car agencies i just was basically working my way down the line showing pictures asking them questions at the very last rental car company menipace learns he's on the right track the employee looks at the pictures and he says you just missed this guy suspect eduardo mazzorus had just traded in his rental car for a new one he claimed that the brakes were bad i said well where's that car that he just brought back and the guy said we haven't touched it yet i said don't touch it i said he has one of your cars now the man said that's correct agent menipace knows it's a huge break i had the car at the curb that i believe he'd used in the bombings i had a hard suspect in omega-7 renting the car just before the bombings in new york and a couple hours after the bombings in florida agent menipace asks investigators to meet him at the rental agency time is of the essence the fbi must stop omega-7 before the terrorists strike again [Music] terrorist bombs explode at mexican consulates in miami and new york within hours of each other the fbi believes omega-7 an elusive group of cuban radicals used rental cars to drop off the bombs eduardo mazuris one of the fbi's prime suspects has just returned a car at newark airport special agent tom menipace calls in a canine unit to inspect the vehicle the dog alerts on the trunk the indication being that there was a bomb residue in the explosive residue in the trunk of that car investigators know that mazarus has rented another car [Music] when he returns it agents are waiting for him thank you mazaris is surrounded by fbi agents disguised as customers and rental car employees but with only circumstantial evidence they decide to surveil him rather than arrest him i immediately recognized him he looked just like his picture agent menipace follows the suspect on a shuttle bus to the terminal i'm just another traveler waiting for a shuttle bus to uh to go to the terminal and i'm going to stay with him as closely as i can i'd like to buy a one-way ticket to man men of pace watches as mazoras gets in line to buy a ticket and i'm maybe three or four feet behind him i'm as close to him without burning the surveillance as i can and what's your name [Music] he uses a false name he uses the name a medina [Music] and he buys a ticket to miami as the suspect heads for his gate agent menipace rushes to notify the fbi field office in miami [Music] in miami fbi agents follow the suspect from the airport through the narrow streets of little havana and eventually to his house the miami field office obtains a warrant to wiretap mazaris's phone special agent george kozinski we monitor 24 hours a day and it's a very consuming it takes up a lot of man hours and a lot of personnel and obviously they had to be bilingual for a year agents listen to the wiretap but hear nothing that connects masaurus with omega seven everything we were doing was basically looking looking for a thread looking for that break looking for that piece of information that was going to get us headed towards to go from theory to reality to to get to the actors in the six years since the original cuban mission bombing the anti-castro terrorist organization omega-7 has spread fear through more than a dozen bombings and two assassinations the fbi is determined to bring the group to justice on september 2nd 1982 at the federal courthouse in new york city prosecutors subpoena all omega 7 suspects to appear before a federal grand jury the fbi needs their statement on record before the statute of limitations runs out but they have an ulterior motive knowing that omega-7 is split into two rival factions the fbi devises a scheme designed to pit one against the other agents arrange for the two factions to be in court on the same day they watch as both groups meet in the hallway it was evident to me in the courthouse but we were all there on the same floor that there was a lot of friction going on between him and then there was a lot of animosity there agents want each faction to worry that the other faction may be cooperating against them it could prompt some of them to make a deal they certainly knew what they'd done and they certainly knew who the members of the group were and the fact that they're all there and we're all there is telling them you know without coming right out and saying it the game's over we're closing the circle on you guys most of the suspects assert their fifth amendment rights and refuse to testify only eduardo mazarus takes the stand he denies everything but two weeks after the grand jury confrontation agent whack returns to his office to find a message from eduardo mazuris agent wack returns the call immediately he basically said uh i want to come up to talk to you obviously i'm not about to turn down that offer so i said well when would you like this to be and he said well i'm going to uh arrive within the next couple days and i'll reach out for you then and we'll arrange to meet fine i'll be waiting for your call days later agent wack and an nypd detective meet eduardo mazuris at a hotel in newark he was very uh well groomed and you think you were sitting there talking to a you know a new york city businessman about a deal coming up that was not really a big deal at least in his eyes eduardo mazuris tells them that he's come to negotiate with the fbi on behalf of omega seven's leader omar omar's little concern that the fbi is getting close not just new york but miami newark and everybody else that's participating in this thing mazaris says he's willing to tell them all about the crimes committed by the other faction but only if the fbi promises to leave omar's faction alone agent wack asks to meet omar in person [Music] zorus tells him it's impossible but he agrees to meet again the next day [Music] agents suspect that omar does not exist agent wack fears that he could be omega-7s next target the first thing we did was look under uh the car we were driving because at that juncture i had no idea what this guy was up to possibly this was some sort of a setup so we checked the car for a a bomb pretty close when we left [Music] the next day investigators meet with eduardo mizoras for a second time [Music] they confront the suspect about omar's existence you're omar and you are here to negotiate this whole thing and he said yes you're right you have the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used again investigators read him his miranda rights the right to talk to an attorney to have him present with you lazarus talks about the criminal activities of his rival faction he started identifying the names of the people who put the bombs down he initially had had problems remembering who did what because they had done so much reveals that the rival faction has more than a quarter ton of explosives hidden away for future attacks he tells investigators he's willing to return to miami to help them find the explosives let's see he wanted to put the opposing faction permanently out of business and was hoping that in his own [Music] mysterious way that he could work a relationship with the fbi and the government that i'll help you get rid of them i won't do this no more and leave me alone but in damning his former comrades mazaris reveals that he is omega 7's primary bomb maker he is the one who was going to call the shots uh as to who dies um who gets bombed how they carry it out i remember thinking to myself that you're so deep i don't even know if a deal is going to be possible with anything here [Music] the fbi now faces a major dilemma mazarus is a confessed terrorist they can either arrest him or they can take him back to miami to find the explosives the decision rises through the ranks of the fbi and the department of justice it went all the way to the director of the fba whether we were going to make this trip to miami the director of the fbi declares that saving lives is paramount they should send eduardo mazaris back to miami we were duty bound to attempt to find those 600 to 800 pounds of high explosives um those explosives could have killed a number of innocent people we had to take a chance we had to locate those explosives [Music] mazaris flies back to miami his fbi handlers travel on a separate flight fearing their presence could jeopardize mazarus's cover [Music] mizoras returns to little havana with instructions to check in by phone [Music] for four days the informant contacts the fbi to brief agents on his hunt for the explosives then on the fifth day missouri sounds and he odd wavering about uh whether he could go on with this whole cooperative thing i didn't like the tone i heard i had a bad feeling about the call agent wack encourages mazarus to keep trying and to call him back that afternoon he begins to wonder if the explosives even exist or whether the informant is just manipulating the fbi [Music] the fbi nypd task force is in a difficult situation they have released an informant confessed terrorist eduardo mazuris who claims he can lead them to a quarter ton of explosives but now agents begin to doubt his intentions [Music] the informant is acting strangely special agent larry whack anxiously waits for the informant to call [Music] hello he said uh yeah i'm sorry but i'm not coming back he said i gotta go and there was a click on the other end of the phone for the task force it's a worst case scenario special agent george kaczynski of the miami field office now has a terrorist loose in his city we were devastated and and then we had to regroup and say okay now we have to find him armed with federal warrants the fbi finds and arrests mazaris's colleagues up this wall hands on your head right hand they include antonio casaveras suspected of bombing the cuban mission in new york city you're the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used again fbi agents search for mazarus in cuban communities in miami and throughout the united states [Music] fbi special agent tom walser he was out there as a fugitive lamb he had been identified but he was still in charge of the group two weeks later special agent larry whack receives an unexpected call fbi it's masaurous and i have a shock i was absolutely caught off guard for this phone call and basically he starts apologizing for taking off and i think he felt truly bad that he ran out on us and when he said he was sorry i i really believe he was but he was also calling because he was trying to find out what are you guys going to do with these other guys who did the murders and so on and so forth and where is that going to leave me agent wack devises a plan to trap the fugitive he tells mazaris to call him at home i gave my home phone number with instructions that if he had to call again call collect call me later i didn't want to have him in a phone booth calling and all of a sudden run out of quarters and have to hang up [Music] investigators set up a trap and trace on all calls to agent wax home at the very least they will find out whether or not mazarus is still in miami [Music] days turn into weeks there is no word from the fugitive then a month and a half later agent wack receives a call it's him i had to have my wife find a neighbor who was uh awake at two in the morning used their telephone to call the new york fbi office to make notifications down to miami and to miami telephone company no it's okay go ahead agent wack tries to keep mazouris on the phone long enough to trace the call [Music] miami fbi agent speeds a little havana the call is coming from a pay phone you're talking about having three four minutes max so our chances of getting in there on time are very very difficult when agents arrive the fugitive is gone [Music] over the next eight months eduardo mazuris calls agent wack at home more than a dozen times no go ahead agents continue their attempts to travel on one occasion we missed them by amount of minutes where the phone was just dangling off the receiver hanging down off agents are frustrated but remain persistent [Music] they map the location of each pay phone mazaris uses a pattern emerges every call has come from little havana we felt very confident that he was living or working in that area concentrated in this area investigators decide not to show the fugitives photo around little havana they fear he will flee to a different city or a different country the last thing we wanted anybody to do was give word to him that we were zeroing in on an area that's the last thing we wanted to happen because we didn't want him to leave if he left we were in big trouble agents do reach out to their most trusted informants in the area but nobody has seen eduardo mazarus they suspect the terrorist has gone into hiding then on january 12 1983 bombs exploded two cuban businesses in miami a third bomb is found unexploded omar aka eduardo mazarus takes credit for the attacks it's bad enough he's on the run now he's bombing again and our first uh reaction was my god if this guy kills anybody we'll never live with ourselves the next night agent wack receives a call it's mazorus the first thing out of my mouth was uh did you do that thing last night and he said yeah yeah you know i just wanted to let you guys know i was still around and let the other side know i was still around and keep the enemy at bay the enemy being little castro whack tries to keep mazorus on the phone as long as possible he's worried by what he hears i could tell he got a lot of enjoyment out of doing it and that made me very nervous because he was going to get more enjoyment as the days went on if he didn't get caught the fbi needs a better plan to trap mazarus before more innocent people are killed in miami an elusive bomber eduardo mazarus is on the run after making a series of traced phone calls the terrorist eludes the fbi's attempts to catch him agents must find a way to speed up their response time [Music] in new york city on july 20th 1983 they get that chance [Music] fbi special agent larry whack gets a call in the early morning hours it's masouris agent wack's wife notifies the fbi to set the trace in motion fbi agents in miami speed toward little havana waiting for word on the caller's exact location well i think uh you're still willing agent wack tries to keep the fugitive on the phone as long as possible [Music] i kept wondering where is everybody where is everybody why haven't they gotten him yet i'm almost running out of things to talk about right all right mazarus hangs up the fbi has lost him [Music] moments later an agent arrives at the pay phone mazarus is gone the agent notices a man resembling masaurus enter an apartment a block away fbi special agent tom walter we were very excited but guarded and based on the location where he saw this individual go into we had our hopes up the fbi watches the apartment all night but no one comes out the next day agents knock on the landlady's door they show her a photo of the fugitive and ask if he lives there she looked at the photo and said yes that's it right over the house right there rather than provoke a violent confrontation the agents asked the landlady to call her tenant outside she knocked on the door and asked for him to come to the door in spanish fbi outside he was in complete shock when he saw a group of agents armed he was very surprised and he was placed under [Music] i'm gonna catch you arrest inside the apartment agents find the tools of the terrorists deadly trade he had numerous weapons silencers omega-7 stickers vests other paramilitary paraphernalia bomb components agents also find remote control devices and half-built timers for setting off bombs i think that he was preparing to conduct terrorist activities because those timers were at different stages we felt very gratified that we were able to stop it before anybody got hurt the federal jury convicts eduardo mazarus of bombings conspiracy and the murder of the cuban mission attache he is sentenced to life in prison other members of omega 7 already incarcerated plead guilty to conspiracy to murder a foreign official and conspiracy to bomb property of a foreign government they are sentenced to 10 years in prison and i think it sent a message to the exile community that look we understand you're anti-castro and you hate communism as much as most of us but i got bad news for you pal you're not going to bring your methods to our streets the successful conclusion of the omega-7 case in the summer of 1983 does send a message it brings an end to anti-castro terrorism within the united states [Music] you

Channel: The FBI Files

Views: 491,311

Keywords: Bombings, Crime documentaries, Crime reenactments, Crime scene recreation, Criminal justice system, Criminal prosecutions, Cuban criminals, Domestic terrorism, Drug cartels, Forensic evidence, Government agencies, Investigative journalism, Law enforcement agencies, Mystery solving, Police procedural, Season Episode, The FBI Files, True crime addiction, True crime series, True crime stories, Wartime criminals

Id: S64raEGx9zU

Length: 49min 23sec (2963 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021