The Debrief With MyronGainesX - BIGGEST Heist In History： The Dunbar Robbery Of $18.9M In LA Of 97'!

00:00:00.000 All right, and we are live. What's up, guys? Welcome to FEDA. Today, we're going to break down the biggest heist in U.S. history. We've got a lot to go over. Let's get into it, baby.

00:00:11.580 I was a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, okay, guys? HSI. The cases that I did mostly were human smuggling and drug trafficking.

00:00:20.020 No one else has these documents, by the way.

00:00:22.240 Here's what FEDA covers.

00:00:24.020 Dr. Lafredo confirmed lacerations due to stepping on glass.

00:00:30.280 Murder Investigations.

00:00:31.280 You see him reaching in his jacket. You don't know.

00:00:33.520 And he's positioning.

00:00:34.160 Been on February 13, 2019.

00:00:35.880 You're facing two pounds of two meditative measures.

00:00:39.040 Bracketeering and Rico Conspiracies.

00:00:40.780 Young Slime Life here and after referred to as YSL.

00:00:43.400 This is 6ix9ine, and then this is Billy Seiko right here. 0.82

00:00:46.860 Now, when they first started, guys, 6ix9ine ran with you. 1.00

00:00:49.500 I'm a FED. I'm watching this music video.

00:00:51.740 You know, I'm bobbing my head like, hey, this shit lit. 0.98

00:00:53.840 But at the same time, I'm pausing. 0.99

00:00:55.320 Oh, wait, who this? Right?

00:00:57.000 Oh, who's that in the back?

00:00:57.940 Firearms and Violent Climbs.

00:01:00.520 A.K.A. Bush IC violated.

00:01:02.360 You're wanting to stay away from the victims.

00:01:04.100 Bush IC arrested after shooting at King of Diamonds, Miami Slip Club injured one person. 0.97

00:01:08.100 This is the one that's going to fuck him up because this gun is not traceable. 0.97

00:01:11.660 Well, it happens at the gun range. 0.98

00:01:12.780 Here's your boy, 42 Doug, right here on the left.

00:01:15.020 Okay. 0.99

00:01:15.380 Sex trafficking and sex crime. 0.71

00:01:16.960 They can effectively link him to paying an underage girl.

00:01:20.080 I'm going to lock my 50-11 right.

00:01:21.420 And the first bomb went off right here.

00:01:24.380 The suspect sent down a backpack on the site of the second explosion.

00:01:28.200 Inspired by Al-Qaeda. 0.93

00:01:29.660 Two terrorists, his brothers, the Zokar Sarnev and Tamerlan Sarnev.

00:01:34.200 When the cartels shipped drugs into the country.

00:01:36.260 This guy got arrested for espionage, okay?

00:01:38.960 Trading secrets with the Russians for monetary compensation. 0.57

00:01:42.980 The largest corrupt police bus in New Orleans history.

00:01:47.200 The days of the police are gone.

00:01:48.700 So he was in this bad boy.

00:01:50.320 We're going to go over his past, the gang time, so that this all makes sense.

00:02:00.660 All right.

00:02:01.280 I hope you guys enjoyed that intro.

00:02:02.360 I know you guys were like, oh, man, the intro's too long.

00:02:04.460 But, hey, guys, it helps me set up.

00:02:06.280 You know, I like it.

00:02:07.300 You know, plus it gets you a little bit hyped up.

00:02:08.700 You know, shows you guys the variety of things we cover on the show.

00:02:11.000 And, you know, we cover all different types of crimes.

00:02:13.360 Today, we're going to be talking about the biggest bank robbery slash heist in history.

00:02:18.200 Guys, this isn't really a bank robbery, but it was for federally insured funds.

00:02:22.500 As you guys know, that means that the FBI is going to step in.

00:02:24.940 So we're going to go ahead and break this down from 1997.

00:02:28.240 My favorite documentary that you guys have come to learn and love, or one of them,

00:02:32.480 FBI Files, older documentary from the late 90s slash early, excuse me, slash the early 2000s.

00:02:40.920 And here it is, guys.

00:02:43.820 And what I'm going to do is I'm going to move this up.

00:02:47.040 Hold on a second, guys.

00:02:49.920 We got a one-man show here, so bear with me here real fast.

00:02:52.360 So I'm going to move this up here, okay?

00:02:55.880 And then I'll go ahead and have this ready for y'all.

00:02:58.400 All right, cool.

00:03:00.300 And, you know, quick analysis, just so you guys know,

00:03:01.820 I went ahead and made an Anchor account.

00:03:05.460 I know a lot of you guys have been asking, hey, Myron, we want to be able to listen to this on audio

00:03:09.620 when I'm driving through the car, whatever it may be.

00:03:11.640 So we went ahead and made a new Anchor for Fetit, okay?

00:03:15.820 It's anchor.fm slash Fetit1811.

00:03:18.900 I'm going to put the link in the description as well.

00:03:21.120 And you guys will be able to listen to podcasts like this on audio only,

00:03:24.380 because I know some of you guys can't necessarily watch the videos when you're at work.

00:03:27.460 But you can listen, though.

00:03:28.640 So we got y'all.

00:03:29.800 And since it's Fetit, you guys don't necessarily have to wear headphones like we're fresh and fit.

00:03:33.060 So I got y'all, baby.

00:03:33.840 Okay, so let's get into this breakdown, guys.

00:03:37.760 And this is from the FBI files that covers this heist from 1997.

00:03:41.760 The episode is called Price of Greed.

00:03:43.760 And, yeah, let's get this thing going.

00:03:56.760 In Los Angeles, a band of gunmen invade an armored car company.

00:04:01.220 They grab millions and then vanish.

00:04:07.140 When the FBI does find suspects, insufficient evidence prevents their arrest.

00:04:13.940 Agents and detectives try to penetrate the gunman's secretive world to bring them to justice.

00:04:19.660 Okay.

00:04:21.760 Okay.

00:04:22.380 Actually, let's get this thing going on.

00:04:22.660 Let's get this.

00:04:23.500 Now let's get this.

00:04:24.700 Let's go.

00:04:25.340 Let's go.

00:04:26.060 Here we go.

00:04:27.680 Here we go.

00:04:30.720 Here we go.

00:04:32.060 Here we go.

00:04:37.840 Here we go.

00:04:41.400 Here we go.

00:04:43.380 Let's go.

00:04:44.380 My God.

00:04:45.740 Hey.

00:04:46.200 Here we go.

00:04:47.120 an armed robbery is a terrifying ordeal when a gang descended on a los angeles cash vault

00:04:57.160 they threatened to kill anyone who resisted the violent assault was the largest heist in u.s

00:05:02.640 history and a piece of plastic was the only and it still is to this day guys it's still the largest

00:05:08.400 heist in u.s history the evidence i'm jim kalstrom former head of the fbi's new york office

00:05:14.080 the fbi lapd and the irs joined forces to unravel a complex network of money laundering fraud and a

00:05:23.240 tight code of silence

00:05:24.440 the los angeles warehouse district is a tough bleak part of town

00:05:39.840 street gangs and violence are common

00:05:44.380 the area's businesses are housed in nondescript buildings many surrounded by barbed wire fences

00:05:52.040 one secure block was occupied by a leading armored car company

00:05:58.940 friday night september 13th 1997

00:06:06.020 employees of the armored car company were going about their routine

00:06:11.420 counting and sorting over 20 million dollars

00:06:14.220 20 million dollars and just so you guys know

00:06:20.120 let's let's figure in 1997 what 20 million dollars was

00:06:24.000 um

00:06:25.120 all right let's see

00:06:28.940 two million dollars was worth three hundred

00:06:33.280 three million six hundred ninety one thousand dollars today right

00:06:36.620 so but 20 million

00:06:38.220 let's see give me one sec here guys i'm pulling it up for y'all

00:06:43.240 bear with me it's a late night here

00:06:46.160 okay 20 million dollars guys here we go

00:06:49.280 this was

00:06:50.900 20 million dollars in 1997 is equivalent in purchasing power to

00:06:54.220 36 million nine hundred nineteen thousand and one hundred twenty seven

00:06:57.560 one hundred twenty seven dollars and seventy three cents today an increase of

00:07:02.000 sixteen million nine hundred nineteen thousand one hundred twenty seven

00:07:05.160 dollars and seventy three cents over 25 years the dollar had an average

00:07:08.960 inflation rate of two point four eight percent per year between 1997 and today

00:07:12.680 producing cumulative price increase of eighty four point six percent holy what the hell 0.97

00:07:18.780 oh shit oh shit okay so now y'all know what they were really dealing with in today's numbers 0.96

00:07:24.500 so 20 million 97 is worth about almost 37 million today 0.99

00:07:28.620 the money would be dispersed to automated teller machines across los angeles to meet the

00:07:35.200 weekend demand for cash

00:07:36.680 there were five employees including two and just so you guys know real quick in the 90s

00:07:44.080 cash was huge credit cards weren't like like they are today apple pay wasn't a thing

00:07:49.060 you know paying for things on the internet weren't a thing people were purchasing things with cash and

00:07:54.480 the checks guys in the 90s so um it would make sense that they would have this much fiat currency

00:08:00.280 sitting in one location to go ahead and push them out to atms banks checks cash locations et cetera

00:08:06.820 security guards working the graveyard shift

00:08:10.000 at 12 30 a.m one guard took his break in the lunchroom as he did every night

00:08:18.820 five armed men subdued the guard in seconds

00:08:46.940 yeah it ain't your money bro just don't fight it you know guys

00:08:52.400 anytime you're dealing with uh you know you're in a bank you're doing security whatever a lot of

00:08:57.180 times they'll tell you like hey you know it is what it is just give the robbers what they want

00:09:00.260 a lot of times because when they come in they're gonna you're gonna they're gonna outgun you a lot

00:09:03.320 of times

00:09:03.740 they dragged their hostage into an office where security monitors were kept

00:09:15.740 then a second security guard preparing to go home for the night

00:09:35.300 unarmed and out of uniform he offered no resistance

00:09:41.460 can you imagine everybody go home and then you see this guy and you're like oh man the next thing 1.00

00:09:47.400 you know get on the ground motherfucker i'm like damn it 1.00

00:10:02.040 four of the assailants headed for the cash vault 1.00

00:10:07.860 the fifth held the guards at gunpoint and monitored the security cameras

00:10:14.860 the employees in the vault prep area were unaware that the building was under siege

00:10:27.860 the gunman threatened to shoot if anyone disobeyed orders or made any sudden moves

00:10:32.860 again they're also trained to always give up when they get robbed and you know at the end of the 1.00

00:10:45.160 day it's not your money man you know so fuck it 0.99

00:10:47.860 the thieves now had direct access to the vault and it's 20 million dollars 1.00

00:10:56.000 holy

00:10:56.860 one man appeared to be in charge barking orders to his accomplices

00:11:04.520 he also used a concealed radio headset to direct others somewhere outside the

00:11:18.520 so these guys are extremely organized they're hitting them when they know that they got the

00:11:21.600 most money and they're using radio communication so that tells you right there and then these guys

00:11:25.580 knew what the hell they were doing when commanding his men the leader didn't use names only a number

00:11:31.960 code more details more evidence to show that these guys were extremely sophisticated referring to each

00:11:38.740 other by number the robbers were coldly efficient wasting no movement

00:11:46.100 in less than 10 minutes they wheeled millions to the loading dock 0.99

00:11:55.020 holy shit bro oh shit less than 10 minutes they were taking about 20 million bucks 0.99

00:12:01.780 and for anybody that's seen that amount of cash guys is ridiculous it weighs pounds at that point pounds 0.99

00:12:11.100 in the outer office the gunman removed the surveillance recorder bolted to a desk

00:12:36.100 seconds later employees heard more destruction in the back office

00:12:51.100 when the leader and another man returned the employees no doubt feared it was to eliminate witnesses

00:13:10.020 but the assailants only stole the vault manager's pickup truck man breath air

00:13:19.900 just left them there handcuffed all right it's on you guys suddenly it was quiet

00:13:31.620 believing that's good though that nobody got killed man the gunman had fled the guards risked freeing

00:13:40.200 themselves

00:13:40.800 they called 9-1-1

00:13:48.540 LAPD officers were immediately dispatched to the scene

00:13:55.740 detective john lakata knew the case was unusual from the beginning

00:14:08.960 we have experienced armored car robberies where the couriers or the truck are attacked

00:14:16.760 but this was the first time uh we've ever had a facility hit yeah and for them to hit a facility

00:14:25.040 guys they they knew what they were doing facilities aren't going to be as um protected as a bank or as

00:14:31.080 an armored truck you know so these guys were efficient you got you know between them knowing when to hit

00:14:37.160 um going in in a systematic fashion taking the guards down immediately you know immediately uh neutralizing

00:14:43.380 the biggest threats to them then going ahead moving their way into the accounting room

00:14:47.920 you know neutralizing them tying them up getting the money out wheeling it out using codes um and

00:14:53.880 being systematic in their entire approach these guys knew what the hell they were doing you know

00:14:58.360 not your typical bank robbers which is why they were able to make off with so much money

00:15:02.720 officers secured the crime scene and detectives began interviewing the employees

00:15:12.120 they said the five assailants seemed to move through the facility as if they had been there before

00:15:19.500 they didn't see them leave but they heard the sound of a diesel engine pulling into then out of the

00:15:28.280 loading area the sixth assailant must have been driving one employee thought she recognized the voice

00:15:37.520 of one of the gunman is that of a former armored car driver for the company

00:15:41.360 she agreed to come to the station in the morning to study a photo lineup of former employees

00:15:50.000 detectives spoke with the vault manager whose personal pickup truck and keys had been stolen

00:15:59.040 they wondered why his keys were taken and not the others the manager said he parked in the same spot each night

00:16:09.600 one of the suspects had asked him what the vehicle looked like that led us to believe that whoever

00:16:17.060 took his keys and had taken his vehicle knew him and his vehicle

00:16:21.420 the manager agreed one of the men's voices was familiar but he couldn't think of a name

00:16:27.420 yeah the fact that he knew that he had the keys

00:16:30.920 you know obviously they know this was more than likely an inside job

00:16:34.420 he said he would contact them if it came to him

00:16:37.420 forensic technicians took impressions of the facility's door locks

00:16:44.080 initially damage found on the doors and locks suggested the thieves used force to gain entry

00:16:50.340 but later examination by technicians in the police lab proved otherwise

00:16:57.220 there was damage the locks and the mechanisms but not to the degree that it would have caused them to

00:17:05.940 malfunction to open they believed the gunman had used a key then faked signs of forced entry

00:17:13.860 these guys were on the officials later estimated the loss at a staggering

00:17:20.740 eighteen point nine million dollars 0.98

00:17:23.380 fuck eighteen point nine million dollars guys 0.98

00:17:26.580 that my friends is equivalent right here to 1.00

00:17:31.620 thirty four million eight hundred eighty eight thousand dollars

00:17:35.300 five hundred seventy five dollars and seventy cents 0.99

00:17:42.180 god damn 0.97

00:17:44.180 that is uh what it equates to today so eighteen point nine mil in nineteen ninety seven 0.99

00:17:50.180 the robbers knew what to take and what to leave behind

00:17:56.180 all of the high cash bins those bins that contained large amounts of cash were taken

00:18:07.060 those that didn't that contained stamps and cash checks were not taken for obvious reasons

00:18:15.060 this suggested that the assailants knew how the company stored its cash

00:18:20.900 the robbers also appeared to know where the company had installed its video surveillance recorders

00:18:28.660 including a backup machine that was hidden inside a locked cabinet in the back office

00:18:36.500 employees had heard the assailants destroy the lock to get to the backup vcr

00:18:40.580 the recording devices were kept in a cabinet inaccessible to most employees

00:18:49.540 we interviewed all the facility employees and eighty percent of them didn't know about the

00:18:54.900 recording devices in the back office so that's a good thing that put that narrows it down to 20

00:18:59.940 of the employees that would have critical information like that and also guys the people that they room

00:19:05.220 they robbed was called loomis uh you know it was dunbar armored facility but uh

00:19:10.180 it was loomis that they robbed by the way because i think the documentary didn't mention the company

00:19:17.220 investigators processed the loading area for any evidence of shoe prints tire tracks or clothing

00:19:22.500 fibers they found none

00:19:28.260 but they did discover what appeared to be a broken truck reflector or lens cover

00:19:33.620 that's a big one personally spoke with the maintenance person that had cleaned the facility earlier in

00:19:40.500 the day and he assured me that that lens would have had them and left there sometime in the evening so

00:19:46.660 it was surmised by us that it probably was left by the suspect's vehicle

00:19:53.940 we didn't have a lot of clues as to what the vehicle would be other than that reflector that was

00:19:59.380 recovered and we didn't know if it was a common item taken off of trucks or vehicles

00:20:09.380 that's an important clue

00:20:14.340 since the money stolen from the facility was federally insured

00:20:18.100 the fbi joined the investigation bam that's how you get federal jurisdiction

00:20:22.660 the vhs tapes holy that brings back memories man

00:20:33.300 all the young boys don't know what the hell that is like what is that 0.99

00:20:35.780 shit agent john mccarran from the los angeles field office studied a crime scene video made by the 0.99

00:20:41.700 los angeles police that detailed the sequence of the gunman's activities during the robbery 0.87

00:20:46.580 the five masked gunmen had pulled off the largest cash heist in u.s history

00:21:08.740 even to this day and hope the public could help find them

00:21:15.860 media was given general descriptions of the individuals i don't think honestly guys that

00:21:20.580 record will ever be beaten because we are starting to move uh towards a cashless society um you know

00:21:27.620 by the by the year so i don't think that we're ever going to have this record be of um 18.9 million

00:21:35.140 which is about 34 million 35 million buying power today they committed the robbery as far as height

00:21:40.900 and weight and clothing and the fact that the individuals were all armed and um there was a

00:21:48.100 posting of a reward at the time assistant u.s attorney alka sager hoped the vague descriptions would be

00:21:55.700 enough to produce a lead the victims told us that they believed that the robbers were black and that was

00:22:02.420 based on the skin color that they saw through the eye holes of the mask and they also told us that one

00:22:08.740 of the robbers appeared to be lighter skinned and he may be hispanic they were not able to see anybody's

00:22:15.220 face but they had heard voices

00:22:21.940 at lapd headquarters one of the armored car company employees was shown a photo lineup

00:22:32.420 the woman believed she had recognized the voice of one of the robbers

00:22:39.780 now she was trying to match his voice to a face

00:22:45.700 the lineup consisted of pictures of policemen mixed with several former armored car drivers and security

00:22:51.540 officers and they do this guys to make sure that they're not being unduly suggestive with um you

00:22:59.380 know with having a witness identify somebody because once you have a witness identify somebody

00:23:04.100 they're going to want to the first thing the defense is going to go ahead and attack you on

00:23:07.300 is they're going to say oh well you only showed the defendant the photo of my client and no one

00:23:11.860 else that looks like him so of course they're going to pick them from a lineup so you have to go ahead

00:23:15.460 and get either a six photo array or you could do this where you have a bunch of different pictures

00:23:19.460 and you just scroll through and you show it to them and then that allows you to better articulate that

00:23:24.420 you did not you know pressure the the the potential witness and or put them in a situation where

00:23:30.500 you know you for you it's like they had no other choice but to pick that defendant you know what

00:23:34.180 i'm saying so the more people that are there the more you can argue no bro we were being unbiased

00:23:38.580 you know as possible we took measures to not be biased and the witness was actually able to

00:23:43.860 identify the person positively um with their recollection

00:23:47.540 she picked one former driver as a possible match to the voice she heard on the night of the robbery 0.82

00:23:59.540 gotcha bitch police learned that the man had recently left la for new orleans 1.00

00:24:05.780 agents from the fbi's new orleans field office approached the former armored car driver at his 0.98

00:24:18.100 family's home there he said he was unaware that the company had been robbed and was willing to cooperate

00:24:26.180 he said that he had left his job on good terms a few weeks before the robbery

00:24:39.860 turned out that he was out of town on vacation during the robbery and the agents were able to corroborate

00:24:47.780 his statements about being out of town and just so you guys know that female is the a usa aka the 0.99

00:24:53.780 federal prosecutor in this case she's the one that's overseeing the investigation making sure 1.00

00:24:59.780 that you know they get enough evidence to go ahead and go after these guys typically after a bank

00:25:03.220 robbery this big the a usa is going to be attached to the investigation from the onset which is great

00:25:07.220 because then you can go ahead and make sure that you guys are working in tandem and making sure the

00:25:10.820 evidence is collected appropriately um and in this case they went ahead and interviewed somebody in

00:25:14.660 another state so you know you're going to reach out to that other office and a collateral request

00:25:18.740 they're going to go out interview them and write a report up send it back and uh you know you can go

00:25:23.140 ahead and start to you know check off boxes in your investigation thank you very much on the night

00:25:28.100 of the robbery in los angeles the man was 1900 miles away in louisiana

00:25:35.780 so he was ruled out as a suspect despite the false lead investigators still believe the robbery had been

00:25:43.300 an inside job but whoever the gunmen were they left little behind and with 18.9 million dollars

00:25:53.060 in their hands they could be anywhere

00:26:00.420 in september 1997 the fbi and the lapd were unable to identify any of the six masked men

00:26:08.100 who had robbed an armored car company of nearly 19 million dollars

00:26:13.540 they believed at least one was a current or former employee since the gang entered the building with a

00:26:18.340 key and knew where hidden surveillance equipment was

00:26:25.620 you made mention at the scene in a second interview the vault manager on duty during the heist

00:26:31.940 realized he recognized the voice of the lead gunman

00:26:38.260 he believed the man was alan pace a former company employee

00:26:42.020 he thought pace was one of the two gunmen who stole the keys to his pickup truck

00:26:49.300 pace was familiar with the truck and had asked to borrow it before

00:26:57.220 fbi special agent john mccarron studied pace's employment history

00:27:02.500 alan pace was an employee who had worked for the company for approximately a year and a half

00:27:08.900 he was actually suspended the day prior to the robbery oh 28 year old alan pace had no criminal record

00:27:18.260 but when the company suspended him for disciplinary reasons he had not turned in his keys 0.94

00:27:25.940 you would think they would change the locks but stupid of course not investigators went to 0.97

00:27:30.900 interview pace at his home in los angeles 0.98

00:27:40.100 i want pace

00:27:42.180 pace told them he knew about the robbery through the media

00:27:44.980 but assured the agents that he had nothing to do with the heist

00:27:51.060 he said he was at a party with his girlfriend on the night of the crime

00:27:56.260 he gave them her address and phone number

00:28:01.860 investigators needed to verify pace's alibi

00:28:08.340 they called in for a background check on the girlfriend 0.99

00:28:14.100 detective john lakata learned she was a former employee too

00:28:18.820 mr pace's oh wow worked in the facility in the cache vault area and specifically had a position that

00:28:26.740 required her to handle the security video equipment she had been terminated approximately four weeks

00:28:34.740 prior to the robbery

00:28:37.620 so they got alan pace who had been suspended and then they has got his girl who had been fired prior

00:28:42.740 and she knew about the security cameras

00:28:48.580 investigators asked pace's girlfriend about the night of the robbery

00:28:51.780 she confirmed that on that night pace and several of his friends attended an all-night party in long beach

00:29:04.100 she and pay stayed at the party through the early morning hours of the following day

00:29:10.260 and there were plenty of witnesses who saw them there

00:29:12.660 those suspicious pace's alibi was corroborated and it was enough to block investigators temporarily

00:29:22.500 oh i got an alibi

00:29:24.180 they would need a different tact to keep the case moving forward

00:29:36.100 so he became clearly when he did this case he was a regular agent but now he's a supervisory

00:29:40.260 special agent so uh as you guys know i've broken this down before but supervisory special agents oversee

00:29:45.300 a team of you know between five to ten agents um and they don't the supervisor doesn't necessarily carry

00:29:51.780 cases the agents underneath him do and this this case i mean i'm sure that's a part of why he got

00:29:56.900 promoted by um you know solving this case um but yeah now he's a supervisor for this documentary

00:30:05.940 the only physical evidence was a cracked amber lens found at the crime scene

00:30:10.340 in it we're going to uh they believed it came from a diesel truck used as one of the getaway vehicles

00:30:21.780 they needed to find that truck i got the assistance of some of my partners and half a dozen of us for

00:30:30.020 the next five evenings between the hours of 11 p.m and 3 3 a.m um went to the location of where the

00:30:39.540 armored car facility was and interviewed anyone that frequented the area either on foot or in a vehicle

00:30:50.260 a week after the robbery they patrolled the warehouse district near the scene of the crime

00:30:57.300 after several nights they found a homeless man who lived on the streets in the area

00:31:01.300 he said that on the night the robbery took place he saw a mid-sized rental truck idling near the armored

00:31:12.820 car company oh it sounded like a diesel

00:31:19.700 he noticed it that night because usually there was little business or late night traffic in the area

00:31:24.580 but he didn't see the driver he'd never seen the truck there before or since

00:31:35.300 shots homeless people in la being great witnesses

00:31:42.100 the description of the diesel rental truck fit the victim's statements that they heard a diesel truck in

00:31:46.740 the company loading area investigators suspected that the amber lens found in the loading area

00:31:55.220 had fallen off that truck

00:32:00.500 teams of agents and detectives canvas facilities in the los angeles area that rented diesel trucks

00:32:08.660 they showed employees a photo of the partial lens found at the crime scene

00:32:12.340 they come up all the time really several recognized the lens as the type used on the running lights for a certain model of truck

00:32:22.740 the lenses were a problem because they frequently fell off and needed to be replaced

00:32:28.980 there were 83 rental truck facilities that rented the truck that the lens most likely came off of

00:32:37.460 we subpoenaed documents from all the rental vehicles that they and guys a subpoena is basically when

00:32:44.180 the government sends you a request for some type of information and you must comply they had rented

00:32:51.460 two months prior to the robbery it's a legal request

00:32:56.260 for a period of time two months after the robbery so they got themselves a nice little window

00:33:01.060 the investigators spent hours pouring through the rental records

00:33:07.460 but there were no rentals by alan pace or his girlfriend

00:33:13.140 it looked like another dead end

00:33:18.740 remember alan pace is the guy that was you know had the keys still and had been suspended by the company

00:33:24.580 and his girlfriend is a former employee who had been fired a month prior

00:33:27.700 authorities contacted assistant u.s attorney alka seger for legal advice on how to proceed

00:33:34.500 and again there she is she's the prosecutor you can't just go get a warrant because somebody's 0.95

00:33:39.700 a suspect and you think that they did a crime you have to have evidence that they committed the crime

00:33:45.380 alan pace had denied any involvement in the robbery and had even claimed that he was um at another

00:33:51.620 place he had an alibi which witnesses that we spoke to corroborated so at that point in time all we had

00:34:00.420 was the fact that he was a disgruntled employee who had been fired the day before the robbery and uh one

00:34:06.900 of the uh employees uh believed that the one of the robbers had a voice that was similar to his and that

00:34:15.700 clearly was not enough evidence

00:34:20.740 so at this point guys all they have is an employee that says yo it sounds like his voice

00:34:24.820 um like a little you know vehicle light and really not much else so investigators need to

00:34:33.380 start to take some uh a little bit more aggressive steps to try to figure out who the robbers actually

00:34:38.500 are to find out more the fbi and lapd began watching the former armored car company employee

00:34:50.500 if pace was involved in a multi-million dollar robbery he might show signs of his newfound wealth

00:34:56.340 we did do surveillance of mr pace and he did not appear to be living beyond his means he didn't appear

00:35:09.060 to be spending a lot of money he didn't appear to have a lot of cash at his disposal

00:35:17.940 nothing implicated pace in the robbery beyond the circumstantial evidence they already had

00:35:22.660 as the months passed there was little movement on the case

00:35:31.940 the reward for information leading to a conviction now totaled two hundred fifty thousand dollars

00:35:38.260 holy crap bro that's quite a bit of money back then in 1997 let's go ahead 250 000 in 1997 guys has the

00:35:45.300 equivalent buying power of 461 489.10 today so damn near double guys um is what it was and that's a 0.96

00:35:57.940 really big reward um to catch some damn bank robbers in 1997 i'll tell you how that but the amount of

00:36:02.900 money they took was ridiculous i remember guys this is 30 34 35 million you know in today's dollars of 18 0.96

00:36:09.620 18.9 million back then was about 35 million today despite the extensive media publicity this case

00:36:16.580 received and uh the rewards uh for any information about uh the perpetrators of this robbery there were

00:36:24.500 absolutely no leads uh no forensic evidence uh no eyewitnesses uh the investigation just came to a

00:36:32.900 grinding halt though pace was still the primary suspect without more substantial evidence the fbi

00:36:42.260 was unable to make an arrest for now it appeared that alan pace and five accomplices had gotten away

00:36:50.100 with nearly 19 million dollars in cash

00:36:53.220 by september of 1998 a full year had passed since six masked gunmen made off with almost 19 million

00:37:06.900 the prime suspect was alan pace a former armored car company employee suspended the day before the crime

00:37:16.740 assistant u.s attorney alka seger was frustrated by the lack of evidence against pace

00:37:23.780 it didn't appear that he was out there spending money it didn't appear that he had the fruits of

00:37:28.660 the crime so um there really wasn't any legal legal basis to go out and arrest him or even to

00:37:35.700 search his house then press coverage of the one-year anniversary of the crime prompted a lead for case

00:37:43.780 agent john mccarran an informant called the fbi saying he thought he might know one of the robbers

00:37:50.100 uh i tell you guys all the time informants help cases significantly man that's why when i was an

00:37:57.780 agent myself i had me personally guys i was there was a time period where when i was an agent i was

00:38:02.100 controlling like damn near 10 plus informants you know some documented some not you know you got

00:38:08.420 confidential ci's that are you know documented with a number that you actually pay you got source of

00:38:12.580 information that you know just provide information because you know they they may like you as an agent

00:38:17.540 they want to help law enforcement etc good samaritans you got um people that are cooperating

00:38:22.020 defendants in cases where they're trying to work off time um you have other sources that other

00:38:26.900 agencies might go ahead and control that you also co-control so um yeah man it's uh make cases

00:38:33.140 you got to have informants any good agent has a bunch of informants investigators went to the

00:38:38.340 informants home in suburban los angeles the informant explained he'd been an employee of the armored car

00:38:50.100 company a year earlier around the time of the robbery he had since left to become a real estate agent

00:38:59.220 he claimed that shortly after the robbery he was given one hundred thousand dollars in cash to

00:39:04.100 purchase a home for a man he knew eugene hill hill asked that the deed to the home be listed in the

00:39:13.700 name of his girlfriend at his girlfriend's apartment hill stored a trunk filled with smaller boxes

00:39:24.340 he gave one of the boxes to the informant

00:39:26.500 and guys one hundred thousand dollars in 1997 just to give you guys a little bit of a perspective

00:39:42.020 here right is the equivalent to 184 595 dollars today guys so imagine you know you're there chilling

00:39:53.140 whatever and then you guys like yo bro uh yeah i got some cash uh check this out and then bam they

00:39:56.980 give you 185k pretty much like what the bro where'd you get this money and it's wrapped in bank

00:40:02.740 in bank bands the informant when he received the money noticed that the ten thousand dollar bundles

00:40:11.380 had these bank straps on them he kept those bank straps

00:40:16.340 they were dated the two days prior to the heist oh we were able to later determine the paper type

00:40:27.620 wrappers actually came from some of the money stolen from the armored car company oh the informant

00:40:34.980 said hill changed his mind and asked for the money back but in cashier's checks not cash

00:40:40.340 the informant had kept fifteen thousand dollars and hill had recently begun threatening him he hoped

00:40:48.020 so you see obviously he you know so you guys see what he did there what he wanted him to do was give

00:40:53.300 him the money back in cashier's checks so that he can get the money laundered but it was a failed attempt

00:40:57.540 because he kept some of the money and obviously the dude got mad like bro give me my 15k back so

00:41:02.660 that's why he cooperated with you know the police so he basically uh got this dude to essentially

00:41:09.700 launder money for him unwillingly essentially the fbi could protect him

00:41:18.100 eugene hill had no criminal record and had never worked at the armored car company

00:41:24.660 but a background check revealed hill had a connection with prime suspect

00:41:28.900 alan pace both had worked for another security agency in los angeles

00:41:33.940 investigators began surveillance on the hill

00:41:42.500 at one point they followed so now that's a very solid lead guys because think about it

00:41:47.140 this dude had given the informant money with bands that were tied back to that particular

00:41:52.740 robbery so now this guy goes all the way to number one

00:41:56.420 one in the suspect list into a business named extreme entertainment

00:42:04.660 the company billed itself as an entertainment service that provided everything from children's

00:42:09.380 games to exotic dancers

00:42:14.260 business records revealed that eugene hill was a partner in the company along with alan pace oh

00:42:20.180 so these guys have a business an entertainment business and next thing you know the first suspect

00:42:28.100 alan pace who remember guys had been suspended by this company and his girlfriend had been fired a

00:42:34.180 month prior who knew about the surveillance videos he's partnered up with this guy hill now who runs

00:42:41.380 this business and had paid this real estate agent or tried to pay this real estate agent to essentially

00:42:46.420 launder money for him and change his mind about it down the road so i need a bag of cashier's checks

00:42:54.020 investigators suspected that extreme entertainment was likely established to launder money from the robbery

00:43:02.100 the internal revenue service was brought on board and supplied with information from records and documents

00:43:09.140 which would assist us in preparing money laundering charges against some of these individuals

00:43:14.820 and you typically bring uh the irs and guys in your investigation when there's a very strong

00:43:20.180 financial nexus um especially when you got individuals like this that aren't necessarily

00:43:23.700 paying taxes or whatever it is um you know irs agents you know they're meticulous you know

00:43:28.420 a lot of them are accountants a lot of them are come from a financial background their academy

00:43:31.860 is actually one of the longest i think it's probably the longest federal agency academy in the

00:43:37.060 country right now if i'm not mistaken uh longer than fbi longer than hsi longer than atf

00:43:41.300 um because they go through quite a bit of financial um background when they go through the academy it's

00:43:48.100 a pretty difficult academy the investigative team learned more about the company

00:43:56.580 besides alan pace and eugene hill extreme entertainment listed two other men as partners

00:44:03.940 terry brown and fred mccrary

00:44:06.340 the four had worked together at the same la security agency before alan pace was hired at the

00:44:13.140 armored car company extreme entertainment's accounting books looked suspicious to los

00:44:20.020 angeles irs assistant special agent in charge philip mullins there were four suspected robbers

00:44:27.460 involved in extreme entertainment so this is the irs agent now that was on the case at the time he's

00:44:33.620 asac now which means he's in management but prior um he he was an agent on this case extreme

00:44:40.580 entertainment wasn't really generating very much income but there was a lot of cash going through

00:44:46.260 the business uh into the bank accounts and then a lot of money being paid out in salaries

00:44:53.220 so that's obviously a big red flag because they're not making that much money yet they're able to go ahead

00:44:58.420 and move money throughout the company and pay everybody really big salaries how are they able to do that

00:45:02.980 when they're not generating income investigators began to dig deeper into the financial backgrounds

00:45:07.860 of the four partners when you follow the money it always leads you back to the crime

00:45:13.620 they subpoenaed bank statements credit card reports and tax returns 0.86

00:45:19.940 in the personal bank and it's a pain in the ass to get tax returns by the way guys but when 0.69

00:45:23.780 you work with the irs it's very easy to get them you have to do an ex parte order to get tax returns

00:45:28.980 without the irs involved so um that's smart that they brought them on in this investigation and

00:45:33.540 then the fact that they were able to get all these financial documents i know for a fact that they did

00:45:37.860 grand jury subpoenas to go ahead and get these documents because what the thing is is that when

00:45:41.620 you do regular subpoenas guys the when you do a regular admin subpoena even though it's a legal document

00:45:46.900 the subscriber and or person of the business of what you're serving the subpoena on they have a duty to

00:45:52.820 notify their customer so for example if you do a subpoena to let's say somebody like facebook or yahoo or

00:45:58.020 whatever after 30 to 60 days what they may do is they may notify the subscriber hey just so you

00:46:03.380 know the government requested documents on this account that you control and obviously that will

00:46:08.900 go ahead and mess with your investigation so in order to thwart that the way around that is you

00:46:14.820 do a grand jury subpoena which is a subpoena that is issued through a grand jury through the u.s

00:46:20.100 attorney's office and that will allow you to get um records and or documents without any type of

00:46:25.300 issues uh where they have to notify the customer subscriber or whatever it may be so with financial

00:46:31.940 records especially you always want to go the grand jury subpoena route i've done financial

00:46:37.300 investigations before so this stuff is drilled in my head man records of eugene hill they found the

00:46:43.380 suspect had a second source of income one of the things that we discovered were deposits of checks from

00:46:51.140 a company called rainforest now we'd never heard of rainforest and we didn't know what kind of company

00:46:55.860 it was so we went and looked at the rainforest bank records and we found that in addition to writing

00:47:01.620 regular monthly checks to eugene hill rainforest was also writing checks on a regular basis to somebody

00:47:08.180 named thomas johnson like hill thomas johnson's position someone else identified rainforest was listed

00:47:17.540 as a consultant it was unclear what type of consultants they were

00:47:25.140 rainforest was in business developing new recycling technologies

00:47:30.580 johnson and hill had invested two million dollars in the company

00:47:33.700 the investment in a legitimate company was a classic money laundering scheme yes you take

00:47:41.460 bad money you invest it in something you hide it conceal it and ultimately end up with something

00:47:48.020 that looks legitimate and that's essentially guys what money laundering is in layman's terms

00:47:53.220 take illicit funds you know derived from criminal activity putting it into something to try to conceal

00:47:58.660 the source of said funds so that you can go ahead and legitimize it and then be able

00:48:02.980 to enjoy the fruits of your illegal label labor investigators felt confident that the five men

00:48:10.340 were strong suspects but so far no evidence connected them directly to the 18.9 million dollar robbery

00:48:21.380 lapd detective john lacava and his partner detective john wong cross-referenced the

00:48:27.140 suspects names against truck rental records from the time of the robbery

00:48:33.380 so that'd be fine detective wong made an important discovery

00:48:40.420 my partner john wong is the one that found the rental agreement from one of the suspects eugene hill

00:48:47.780 in which he had rented the suspect's vehicle that was used that night

00:48:53.140 just prior to the robbery and then returned just after the robbery

00:48:56.180 we were able to locate that very truck it was still in the los angeles area and we got that

00:49:03.620 truck and we removed the light assembly and had the fbi forensics lab compare it

00:49:10.820 to the lens that was found on the loading dock area they needed to know if the amber lens had fallen off that truck

00:49:22.900 while waiting for the lab results investigators looked further into suspect thomas johnson

00:49:27.780 johnson lived in an expensive home in an upscale las vegas neighborhood

00:49:37.780 and just so you guys know uh las vegas is only about three hours from la

00:49:42.100 um it's very common for people to make that drive you know every weekend or whatever because

00:49:47.060 you know in los angeles the bars close at pretty much 1 30 to 2 a.m

00:49:51.380 um in vegas they obviously don't close so very popular party destination for

00:49:55.540 la people is las vegas the irs conducted surveillance of his residence and during that period of time

00:50:05.300 his girlfriend at the time was identified

00:50:08.980 agents flagged the girlfriend's name if vegas police ran into her they should call la 1.00

00:50:21.380 on the night of september 10th 1999 nearly two years to the day after the robbery the team in la

00:50:28.180 got a call and boarded a helicopter

00:50:34.260 there had been a domestic disturbance at thomas johnson's las vegas home

00:50:40.260 johnson's girlfriend had called the police

00:50:44.260 oh here we go let's see what happens next

00:50:49.620 i hope to use the disturbance call as an opportunity to question the girlfriend 0.98

00:50:55.780 she alleged that johnson had beaten her

00:50:59.380 she was more than willing to answer any questions they had about him

00:51:05.140 hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn man 1.00

00:51:09.620 she said johnson was laundering money through the las vegas casinos

00:51:12.900 he and a friend would buy thousands of dollars in chips that he would later have her exchange

00:51:21.460 for cash

00:51:24.340 the exchange was always in amounts less than ten thousand dollars to avoid filling out cash reports

00:51:30.740 all right so real quick guys this is extremely common uh to launder money going to vegas and

00:51:35.940 basically i had a drug investigation where and you know i'll probably do a breakdown on this case

00:51:40.180 for you guys but what the guy did was he had a scheme where he would take his drug money he would

00:51:44.020 go to vegas travel there you know he'd go there with 10 20 50 000 100 000 what he would do is

00:51:51.220 he would you know play one game of poker play one game of you know blackjack whatever i'm not really

00:51:56.580 a gambler myself but you play one hand and then he you know win or lose okay cool cash out take those

00:52:03.220 casino receipts and basically legitimize that money that he had um that he had pretty much put into the

00:52:11.380 game uh so that's one methodology of you know obviously laundering money through casinos especially

00:52:18.340 in las vegas where they're seeing a lot of money all the time the other thing too guys is that with

00:52:22.260 ten thousand dollars that is you have to fill out something called the currency transaction report which

00:52:26.260 is monitored through the irs okay so anytime you leave the country with ten thousand dollars you got

00:52:31.620 to declare to customs or come in with ten thousand dollars you got to declare to customs and then

00:52:34.500 anytime you conduct a transaction that is ten thousand dollars or more in the united states

00:52:39.620 that institution is responsible for filling out a currency transaction report aka ctr and that's what

00:52:45.380 they also do at banks jewelers etc anything where um high price merchandise uh trend or high price

00:52:52.500 transactions may occur let's get back into the video

00:52:55.620 thomas johnson appeared to be very fond of gambling and appeared to have a lot of money with which to

00:53:04.420 gamble and it's a little tricky when you uh do these types of investigations because you don't know

00:53:11.300 where that money is coming from if it's perhaps gambling winnings that are then being used to conduct

00:53:17.460 more gambling activities or if it's perhaps what we thought which was money from the robbery

00:53:23.540 the girlfriend told investigators johnson had mentioned a big job that he had taken part in back in los

00:53:28.740 angeles

00:53:33.060 she said johnson had invested in a company with a gambling friend

00:53:38.180 when investigators showed her a photo of eugene hill she confirmed that he was johnson's friend bam

00:53:44.420 the circumstantial evidence against thomas johnson allen pace and eugene hill was building

00:53:55.140 but it was still not enough to make any arrests

00:53:59.380 agents would need to turn but it is strong circumstantial evidence that shows that these

00:54:03.780 guys are more than likely the perpetrators the suspects against one another if there was to be any hope of convictions

00:54:14.420 that's what's going to happen to be in the case of the crime

00:54:18.820 two years after six masked gunmen robbed an armored car company of 18.9 million dollars

00:54:25.140 the fbi irs and lapd had gathered strong circumstantial evidence against five suspects

00:54:32.660 but had nothing that directly tied the men to the crime

00:54:36.020 the only physical evidence recovered was a cracked amber lens found in the loading area of the armored car

00:54:45.460 company investigators believe the lens fell off a truck rented by suspect eugene hill a day before the

00:54:52.900 robbery

00:54:56.580 they sent the broken lens and the other lenses from the truck's running lights to the fbi lab in washington dc

00:55:02.740 forensic metallurgist michael smith compared tool marks from the broken lens to those on the other

00:55:11.620 lenses from the truck

00:55:15.380 on this case the marks look rather like the uh the rings on a tree um and we attempt to see whether those

00:55:21.620 marks line up or not using a high-powered comparison microscope he made an exact match

00:55:28.740 the same tool made all the lenses in the same work session indicating the broken lens had very likely

00:55:36.820 come from the truck rented by hill

00:55:41.700 that's crazy but that's awesome really strong evidence

00:55:48.580 the forensics results were compelling but they did not definitively prove that eugene hill

00:55:53.860 or the other four suspects were with the truck during the robbery

00:55:59.140 assistant u.s attorney alka seger needed stronger evidence before authorizing arrests

00:56:06.500 okay real quick so that you guys are probably wondering what the hell do they mean by her

00:56:09.780 authorizing arrest well number one guys forensic evidence back in you know in the late 90s like

00:56:13.780 that was still relatively new right so of course prosecutors are going to be a little like apprehensive to

00:56:19.220 go off of that right um but it's fantastic because even though it doesn't show that they had been in

00:56:24.500 the truck it shows that that was a truck that was used okay the other thing too that you guys got

00:56:28.820 to understand is that when it comes to the feds the a usa's have all the power okay it's not like the

00:56:34.660 state and locals were dealing with assistant district attorneys versus assistant united states

00:56:39.620 attorneys assistant district attorneys are for the state assistant united states attorneys are for

00:56:43.300 the feds right for the for the government the federal government so when you make arrests right

00:56:50.660 as a local pd officer for the state you have a lot of discretion you're able to go ahead and articulate

00:56:56.180 probable cause fairly easy and you're able to make arrests right there on the scene okay and they need

00:57:01.460 to be able to do this because you know in general regular law enforcement officers police officers state

00:57:05.460 troopers etc they're coming into contact with individuals more way more they may say things

00:57:09.860 happening in the field and they're able to make arrests however in the state level they lose a

00:57:14.500 lot of those cases okay the state loses a bunch of cases all right because a lot of times when you're

00:57:19.380 you know kind of making things happen right there on the spot you know evidence gets thrown out it's

00:57:24.500 not as strong etc now when it comes you know and they're able to make the arrest and they kind of

00:57:29.060 give it to the ada and then ad has to deal with it and clean it the federal level doesn't work like 0.92

00:57:33.300 that guys at the federal level the usa holds all the power and you have to bring the case to them

00:57:38.500 they decide if they want to prosecute they're able to tell you yes or no right and they actually

00:57:42.100 decline more than most cases that come through and if they do like it they'll take it and then

00:57:46.820 what's going to happen is you have to work that investigation with them and they're going to decide

00:57:51.220 when they feel comfortable to indict the case because once the case is indicted now the a usa's office

00:57:56.580 is on the hook to fully take it to trial and prosecute the feds guys don't like to indict a case unless

00:58:02.980 they know they can win trial that's why the feds don't lose because by the time you're

00:58:06.740 stepping into that grand jury room to indict they already have everything they need to

00:58:10.340 get you this is why everyone is terrified of the feds so with that said the prosecutor has a lot

00:58:15.940 of weight in the federal system at usa as far as when to go to grand jury indict and then you know

00:58:22.500 obviously from that get the subsequent arrest warrants so they're always going to be risk averse

00:58:28.180 and they don't want to lose because they have a high conviction rate high win rate

00:58:31.300 and at usa is a lot of times they're divas i'll keep it a thousand but they don't lose and that's

00:58:37.540 the reason why they don't lose because they are divas hill's girlfriends would provide it 1.00

00:58:43.860 we had identified two of his girlfriends who also appeared to be spending not large amounts but

00:58:50.580 amounts of cash approximately two years after the robbery we had gotten to the point where we needed

00:58:57.060 to talk to these women that were in eugene hill's life worried that charges might be filed against 0.98

00:59:04.980 her one of hill's girlfriends rolled telling investigators what she knew

00:59:10.500 she told them that after the date of the robbery hill suddenly had a lot of cash

00:59:19.220 she said hill stored two foot lockers filled with boxes of the cash in her apartment

00:59:24.100 she and a friend helped him count and sort thousands

00:59:32.420 it's getting real now man told her that before the new chris bills could be spent

00:59:37.940 they needed to look worn so she washed them

00:59:46.900 usually thomas they weren't kidding about that money laundering i guess guys johnson took part in the

00:59:52.260 operation she said they would go to las vegas buy gambling chips with the washed bills and then turn

01:00:00.340 them in for new cash

01:00:04.500 very common tactic my drug dealer guy i told you guys about before did this often story corroborated

01:00:09.220 the statement previously given by johnson's girlfriend and when i say my drug dealer i mean

01:00:13.860 the guy that i investigated which i will break down that case for y'all as well that was a that was

01:00:18.100 a very very big case that i did when i was down in south texas the methamphetamine case

01:00:27.940 in return for her testimony prosecutors agreed not to file charges against her

01:00:35.780 next fbi agents and lapd detectives wanted to talk to eugene hill's sister

01:00:41.140 i had some questions about bank accounts the irs had uncovered

01:00:48.820 we were able to subpoena her records and determine that she had

01:00:53.220 several accounts that she was holding in trust for eugene hill those records showed that there were a

01:01:02.100 lot of unexplained cash deposits into those records and it also appeared that checks were being written

01:01:09.140 for motorcycles and vehicles and other consumer goods so now he had a little bit more indication

01:01:18.260 that eugene hill was perhaps spending money that he really couldn't explain receiving

01:01:25.860 using his sister as a conduit to do so

01:01:27.860 she agreed to talk to the investigators but said she first needed to make a phone call

01:01:40.500 she stepped away and appeared to send a numeric page 0.89

01:01:45.940 yes guys in the 1990s that's how they went ahead and did their text messaging it was through sending

01:01:50.100 pages on beepers

01:01:55.780 investigators asked her about the accounts she held for her brother

01:02:01.380 she was evasive and claimed to be unaware of any of her brother's financial matters

01:02:08.580 moments after the phone call eugene hill arrived

01:02:11.620 when questioned hill denied any knowledge of the armored car company robbery

01:02:23.060 he told investigators that he didn't have time to answer their questions then

01:02:26.820 but he would meet them the next morning at their office stop the cap

01:02:36.420 loaded with cash hill was a significant flight risk

01:02:46.820 the fbi called assistant u.s attorney alka seger for advice because like i said before guys they can't

01:02:53.300 make an arrest without her authorization so the agent and i've been in this position before guys

01:02:57.860 where you got someone you know they're gonna run and you're like yo if i let this

01:03:01.540 fucking guy go i know he's not gonna show up what am i gonna do i call the usa two o'clock in the 0.99

01:03:05.940 morning whatever it is yo listen we got him here i want to fucking take him i'll write the criminal 0.99

01:03:10.420 complaint we'll file it we'll get him in jail we need to do it now let's see what happens 0.96

01:03:14.580 i was just getting ready for bed uh the phone rang at home and the agent said uh you know this is what

01:03:24.900 mr hill wants to do should we let him go and it was just one of those split second you know decisions

01:03:32.580 that had to be made and i made the decision that we were not going to let eugene hill go we're going

01:03:38.100 to arrest him that night as hill was heading back to his car he was placed under arrest

01:03:48.580 with only circumstantial evidence connecting him to the robber it was a risk

01:03:54.260 it is a risk but you got to take it sometimes the law requires an expeditious trial and the clock

01:04:00.340 had begun to tick told you guys as soon as you arrest them that clock begins my friends so at this

01:04:06.420 point now they have to get them in front of a judge they have to you know give them a speedy trial if

01:04:11.220 you ask for one so that's how it goes at the fed system

01:04:18.020 on september 23rd 1999 the fbi arrested eugene hill one of five men suspected in an armored car company

01:04:26.660 heist assistant u.s attorney alka sager had made the decision to arrest hill despite having only

01:04:34.340 circumstantial evidence linking him to the crime

01:04:38.980 by letting hill go there was a real danger that he would have alerted the others to the investigation

01:04:46.740 given the amount of money that was taken in this robbery uh it was apparent that these robbers would

01:04:54.420 have the means to flee if they wanted to and i just felt we couldn't take that chance

01:05:04.580 a search of hill's home provided no solid evidence tying hill to the robbery

01:05:10.420 but investigators did discover ledgers that showed hill had purchased real estate in other people's names

01:05:18.740 prime suspect alan pace was also listed on hill's ledgers as having purchased real estate in others names

01:05:25.060 finally irs agent philip mullins had something on pace this was very significant and that there was

01:05:36.580 over a million dollars worth of real estate purchased for alan pace that he had no legitimate source of

01:05:43.780 income to purchase that property if convicted eugene hill was facing up to 40 years and just so you

01:05:51.060 guys know one million dollars back then was worth one million eight hundred forty five thousand nine 0.98

01:05:55.380 hundred fifty six dollars and thirty nine cents today guys which is insane so these guys bought damn 0.92

01:06:01.220 near two million dollars worth of real estate in today's standards without really having jobs or income

01:06:05.620 so of course this is going to make the irs go where'd all this money come from prison

01:06:14.980 hoping for sentencing consideration he confessed and promised to tell police everything he knew 0.98

01:06:20.820 oh shit he said alan pace recruited him and three others for the robberies 0.98

01:06:26.260 so that makes alan pace the head alan pace told him that he had already spoken to terry brown 0.99

01:06:34.820 and freddie mccrary and they were ready to do the job and he wanted eugene hill

01:06:39.700 to come on board and maybe bring another person in

01:06:45.380 so eugene hill approached thomas johnson who agreed to participate and that's where the plan was hatched

01:06:53.140 he'll confirmed pace was the mastermind of the heist and leader of the gang

01:07:00.420 because he had all the knowledge and he knew you know how everything was set up

01:07:04.580 hill knew all of the men except for the sixth who was a personal friend of pace's

01:07:11.860 pace told the others his plan could set them up for life

01:07:14.500 and that's how we knew to take the car and that it wouldn't be a problem they would just

01:07:35.220 uh tie up the employees uh take the money and they'd be in and out you know within half an hour

01:07:44.500 of the time following orders hill rented the diesel truck on the day of the robbery

01:07:49.540 and met up with the gang at the party in long beach

01:07:54.980 shortly before midnight they left the party one by one

01:08:02.180 they drove to the warehouse district then five walked to the armored car company see how smart that

01:08:08.420 was they left one by one so no one really noticed that they were all gone at the same time

01:08:13.620 to leave it to you know create this alibi prior

01:08:19.780 during the robbery one man stayed with the truck waiting a few blocks away for the call to pull in

01:08:24.740 when the truck arrived they loaded it up pace knew to take the surveillance equipment

01:08:36.660 they later transferred the money to a storage unit rented by thomas johnson where it remained for two weeks

01:08:44.500 four of them left in the rental truck

01:08:46.180 eugene hill and alan pace drove away in the vault manager's pickup since pace knew where he parked each

01:08:54.740 night

01:08:59.780 the six men disposed of the guns and vcrs changed their clothes and returned to the party as if nothing 0.97

01:09:06.260 had happened that's fucking smart i'm not even gonna lie man they they had this planned out from the rip 0.91

01:09:15.860 in the time it took others at the party to drink a couple more beers 0.97

01:09:19.620 the gang had committed the largest armed run in u.s history

01:09:26.580 investigators needed to corroborate eugene hill's story

01:09:31.940 fbi special agent john mccarran and his team believed thomas johnson should be the next one taken

01:09:39.540 agents in our las vegas field office were conducting surveillance on thomas johnson

01:09:44.820 and we knew his exact location we followed him from one of the casinos

01:09:53.380 agents tailed johnson as he visited several casinos

01:09:59.540 they did not know if the suspect was armed

01:10:05.780 to execute a safe arrest agents needed to isolate johnson outside and away from the casino crowd

01:10:11.940 they asked a casino security guard to approach him with a ruse

01:10:19.140 the guard told johnson his car had been hit and that he needed to go outside to fill out a report

01:10:32.100 johnson took the bait

01:10:41.860 as he checked his car agents safely took him into custody gotcha 0.99

01:10:46.820 a bitch investigate has laid out the case against him and the possibility of decades in prison 1.00

01:10:58.580 Eugene hill so now they're systematically taking down the guys and getting them to cooperate against 0.98

01:11:02.660 each other from you know who they think is the weakest to the strongest so that so that when they

01:11:08.020 bring in the main guy in they can go ahead and get the get him cornered johnson cooperated in the hopes

01:11:14.420 of a lighter sentence

01:11:18.740 johnson verified hill's version of the robbery and confirmed that alan pace was the leader

01:11:25.540 now this is very important guys because even though they're criminals when you have more than one

01:11:30.660 crooks testimony and you have multiple you know stories confirming the same exact facts it solidifies

01:11:36.500 each crooks testimony investigators finally had sufficient evidence they quickly arrested everyone but the leader

01:11:48.420 we knew that pace was aware of the earlier arrests of the other individuals there was a warrant

01:11:54.740 for his arrest and he contacted me here at my office and told me that he wanted to self-surrender 0.66

01:12:02.340 oh shit on february 28th 2000 pace arrived at the la federal building in the company of his lawyer 0.95

01:12:11.940 he made no statement and refused to cooperate with investigators 0.99

01:12:17.860 pace was arrested and held without bail

01:12:23.060 four of the robbers pled guilty to robbery and conspiracy

01:12:26.020 eugene hill was sentenced to nine years in prison

01:12:31.540 thomas johnson received 10 years whoever comes to the table first typically gets the best deal

01:12:38.500 fred mccrary received seven and a half years

01:12:42.100 and terry you probably had a lesser of a role and probably a lower criminal history brown got eight

01:12:48.020 the sixth gunman eric boyd fought the charges against him and was found guilty and sentenced to 17 years

01:12:57.780 holy

01:13:01.220 that's what happens when you go to trial my friends

01:13:06.100 after a three-week trial alan pace who had orchestrated the armed robbery

01:13:10.660 was sentenced to 24 years in prison holy

01:13:21.540 agent seized all of the criminal's assets and keep in mind guys the first guy that cooperated hill

01:13:26.900 he got um nine years right or nine or ten years and the other guys got less the thing is you got to

01:13:32.500 remember guys is that he actually got off better because he did a lot of the money laundering he would

01:13:37.220 have got way more time had he not cooperated the other guys they kind of had the money as well

01:13:42.020 but he was the one that had the businesses he was the one that was like effectively moving the money

01:13:46.500 to and from las vegas so he was facing a lot more time than the other guys that got like seven years

01:13:51.140 etc those guys were just like you know dudes robbing the banks or whatever but he since he cooperated

01:13:56.420 got less time in the grand scheme of things he got the best deal given what they had hit him with

01:14:01.700 okay so that's why he got 10 years and some of the other guys got like seven or eight or whatever

01:14:05.140 it may be those guys weren't getting hit with the strong money laundering charges that he was

01:14:08.740 getting hit with so for him to only get 10 for all the that he did um yeah that's significant

01:14:16.180 they were able to account for about five million dollars of the stolen money

01:14:21.940 so about 14 million dollars remains uh missing we don't know where that money uh is uh how it was

01:14:30.420 spent if it was spent we just have no idea just so you guys know that 14 million dollars is the

01:14:37.460 equivalent of 25 million 843 389.41 today man oh but whenever the felons are finally released the fbi will

01:14:50.580 be watching no one drops it down if they make any moves to recover hidden money they'll go straight

01:14:59.940 back to jail and just so you guys know one of them alan pace right here the mastermind was actually

01:15:06.900 released on october 1st 2020 and then eugene hill

01:15:20.580 this is probably him here

01:15:33.140 released in 2007 yeah that makes sense because he got arrested like in 99 probably got out for

01:15:37.540 yeah eugene lamar hill yeah this is him so um no eugene hill let me just double check make sure

01:15:46.820 yeah it's definitely this is him yeah so he was released in 2007 and then the mastermind was

01:15:52.500 released in 2020 so yeah who knows and i know that they're gonna go ahead um and uh cover this

01:16:00.900 in a movie guys and this right here is the wikipedia okay page of it the aren't dunbar armed robbery

01:16:08.260 is the largest cash robbery to have occurred in united states on september 12 1997 six men robbed

01:16:12.660 the dunbar armored facility on mateo street in downtown los angeles california of us uh 18.9 million

01:16:19.620 um and that was the equivalent of 31.9 mil in 2021 but we know that's closer to 34 to 35 million

01:16:25.140 nowadays robbery was orchestrated by alan pace the third of compton with childhood friends eric damon

01:16:30.260 boyd of buena vista uh eugene lamar hill jr of bell flower freddie lynn mccray uh junior of arletta

01:16:38.580 terry wayne brown senior of los angeles and thomas lee johnson of las vegas so pretty much all these

01:16:43.780 guys are out of prison now um the and hill was the one that had the most time he got 24 years and then

01:16:50.660 boyd was sentenced to 17. so yeah man this was the case man biggest uh heist in u.s history uh hope you

01:17:00.980 guys enjoyed that one we picked this one earlier on my episode of fed it uh i was gonna do either this

01:17:05.220 or a mafia episode and the guys wanted this one so you know we went what the people wanted don't

01:17:10.100 worry i will do a la cosa nostra episode for you guys probably um next week um we'll cover one of

01:17:16.820 the crime families in new york um as you guys know there were five million crime families i might do

01:17:20.820 an episode on the mafia for each crime family for you guys but other than that man hope you guys

01:17:24.740 enjoyed that episode don't forget to like the video subscribe to the channel because you guys

01:17:28.820 aren't going to get breakdowns like this anywhere else on the internet where you got a former fed

01:17:32.420 breaking down federal state and local cases love you guys i'll catch you also don't forget

01:17:39.700 i'm on anchor as well now for audio versions of this podcast it's anchor.fm fresh uh well that's

01:17:45.860 for fresh and fit but it's a for fed it's anchor.fm fed at 1811 subscribe to the youtube channel like the

01:17:51.620 video and i'll catch you guys next week on another episode of fed 1811 where i break down documentaries for

01:17:57.220 you guys peace i was a special agent with homeland investigations okay guys hsi the cases that i did

01:18:05.540 mostly were human smuggling and drug trafficking no one else has these documents by the way here's

01:18:12.340 what fed it covers doctor lafredo confirmed lacerations due to stepping on glass murder

01:18:20.420 investigations you see him reaching in his jacket you don't know and he's positioning been on february

01:18:24.580 13 2019 you're facing two counts of two meditative music racketeering and rico conspiracy young slime

01:18:31.140 life here and after referred to as ysl the defendants uh six nine and then this is billy seiko right

01:18:36.180 here now when they first started guys six nine ran with i'm upset i'm watching this music video

01:18:41.540 you know i'm bobbing my highlight hey this shit lit but at the same time i'm pausing oh wait who this 0.96

01:18:46.340 right well who's that in the back firearms and violence a.k.a bush i see violated you're wanting 0.99

01:18:52.580 to stay away from the dick they can effectively link him to paying an underage girl and the first 0.99

01:19:12.260 bomb went off right here this guy got arrested for um espionage okay trading secrets with the russians 0.99

01:19:30.580 for monetary

The Debrief With MyronGainesX - October 16, 2022

BIGGEST Heist In History： The Dunbar Robbery Of $18.9M In LA Of 97'!

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