The Debrief With MyronGainesX - October 16, 2022


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


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 19 minutes

Words per Minute

144.72542

Word Count

11,509

Sentence Count

136

Misogynist Sentences

12

Hate Speech Sentences

17


Summary

The biggest heist in U.S. history and the biggest bank robbery in history! In this episode, the FBI breaks down the heist that took place in Miami, Florida on February 13th, 2019.


Transcript

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.
00:00:46.860 Now, when they first started, guys, 6ix9ine ran with you.
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.
00:00:53.840 But at the same time, I'm pausing.
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.
00:01:08.100 This is the one that's going to fuck him up because this gun is not traceable.
00:01:11.660 Well, it happens at the gun range.
00:01:12.780 Here's your boy, 42 Doug, right here on the left.
00:01:15.020 Okay.
00:01:15.380 Sex trafficking and sex crime.
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.
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.
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
00:07:18.780 oh shit oh shit okay so now y'all know what they were really dealing with in today's numbers
00:07:24.500 so 20 million 97 is worth about almost 37 million today
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
00:09:47.400 you know get on the ground motherfucker i'm like damn it
00:10:02.040 four of the assailants headed for the cash vault
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
00:10:45.160 day it's not your money man you know so fuck it
00:10:47.860 the thieves now had direct access to the vault and it's 20 million dollars
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
00:11:55.020 holy shit bro oh shit less than 10 minutes they were taking about 20 million bucks
00:12:01.780 and for anybody that's seen that amount of cash guys is ridiculous it weighs pounds at that point pounds
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
00:17:23.380 fuck eighteen point nine million dollars guys
00:17:26.580 that my friends is equivalent right here to
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
00:17:42.180 god damn
00:17:44.180 that is uh what it equates to today so eighteen point nine mil in nineteen ninety seven
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
00:20:35.780 shit agent john mccarran from the los angeles field office studied a crime scene video made by the
00:20:41.700 los angeles police that detailed the sequence of the gunman's activities during the robbery
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
00:23:59.540 gotcha bitch police learned that the man had recently left la for new orleans
00:24:05.780 agents from the fbi's new orleans field office approached the former armored car driver at his
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
00:24:53.780 federal prosecutor in this case she's the one that's overseeing the investigation making sure
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
00:27:25.940 you would think they would change the locks but stupid of course not investigators went to
00:27:30.900 interview pace at his home in los angeles
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
01:05:55.380 hundred fifty six dollars and thirty nine cents today guys which is insane so these guys bought damn
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
01:06:20.820 oh shit he said alan pace recruited him and three others for the robberies
01:06:26.260 so that makes alan pace the head alan pace told him that he had already spoken to terry brown
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
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
01:09:15.860 in the time it took others at the party to drink a couple more beers
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
01:10:46.820 a bitch investigate has laid out the case against him and the possibility of decades in prison
01:10:58.580 Eugene hill so now they're systematically taking down the guys and getting them to cooperate against
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
01:12:02.340 oh shit on february 28th 2000 pace arrived at the la federal building in the company of his lawyer
01:12:11.940 he made no statement and refused to cooperate with investigators
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
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
01:18:52.580 to stay away from the dick they can effectively link him to paying an underage girl and the first
01:19:12.260 bomb went off right here this guy got arrested for um espionage okay trading secrets with the russians
01:19:30.580 for monetary