In this episode, we react to the documentary "Operation C-Load" which covers a Columbia, Columbia drug trafficking organization tied to your boy, Pablo Escobar. This episode is hosted by my friend, Dollface, who is a former Homeland Security Special Agent in charge of the Miami Field Office.
00:07:08.620Six crimes went up. It was out of control back then.
00:07:12.620But arresting users and dealers individually does little to slow the onslaught.
00:07:17.620You know, it's never ending. It's just a constant flow. For every one or two guys you take down,
00:07:24.620there's others to replace them. Facts.
00:07:26.620The only way to stem the flow of narcotics is to find the organizations that import the drugs
00:07:31.620and dismantle them. Bam. You got to go after the source, baby.
00:07:34.620To do this, the Department of Justice creates the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, known as C-13.
00:07:43.620Okay. So let's talk about this real quick. Okay. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Okay.
00:07:49.620And we're going to rewind this just a little bit. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
00:07:54.620That means OCDF, my friends. Okay. That's what we use in a law enforcement world to refer to as OCDF.
00:08:00.620So it was made to combat major, right, large and typically transnational drug trafficking organizations that transcend borders. Okay.
00:08:11.620So OCDF cases, guys, are what is designated on the most significant of DTOs or drug trafficking organizations.
00:08:19.620I've done several OCDF cases myself. Excuse me, as I sneeze over here.
00:08:26.620When I was in Miami, I did a couple of OCDF cases.
00:08:28.620And when I was in Texas, I did a big OCDF case that centered around crystal methamphetamine.
00:08:32.620And it's very difficult to get your case approved as an OCDF or Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
00:08:38.620And basically, and see, no one else on YouTube, by the way, can talk about this shit because no one's actually done an OCDF case as the lead case agent.
00:08:45.620I was the lead case agent. I created the OCDF paperwork, everything, filed it.
00:08:50.620And the way it goes is this. You need to have one or more agency involved, typically at least one other federal agency involved, right?
00:08:56.620Because it's considered a task force, which means can be done by one agency.
00:09:00.620Then you need to have a sophisticated organization.
00:09:02.620And then more importantly, you need to establish that your like your organization is linked to some large scale drug traffic organization.
00:09:11.620Right. You call them a C pot or our pot regional priority organized target or C pot, which is typically international.
00:09:17.620Right. And you need to be able to link your drug traffic organization to one of these two pots of of.
00:09:24.620How do I say this of as a source of supply? OK.
00:09:27.620And then you've got to write up a whole narrative on why your case deserves to be designated as OCDF case.
00:09:32.620And then you also need to have a bunch of targets identified.
00:09:37.620You need to pretty much identify who's the suppliers in your organization, who's the couriers, who's the distributors, who's the financers, et cetera.
00:09:45.620And it's not easy to do. You know, my OCDF write ups were 10 plus pages easily.
00:09:51.620Right. And that doesn't include all the paperwork that comes in where you have to fill in all the information.
00:09:56.620And it's got to be pretty damn good, because what happens is you have to go and then do a presentation in front of the OCDF committee.
00:10:04.620Right. And when you go to the OCDF committee, there's someone from FBI there, DEA there, IRS there, HSI there.
00:10:10.620All the federal agencies are there. OK. U.S. Marshals, ATF, everyone. OK.
00:10:16.620And you present your case there and they pretty much, you know, OK, we saw your presentation, whatever.
00:10:21.620And then if it gets approved, they approve it. And then you get something called an OCDF number assigned to you.
00:10:27.620OK. And there's different OCDF regions in the United States.
00:10:30.620Last I checked, I think there were seven. They're pretty much in every major city.
00:10:33.620There is obviously one in Miami, one in Houston, one in New York City, L.A., Chicago, Phoenix.
00:10:43.620So they're all over the place. Pretty much all the main drug hub cities have an OCDF strike force there.
00:10:49.620And pretty much it was created, man, to dismantle and disrupt large scale drug traffic organizations.
00:10:55.620I'm telling you guys, it's all from the top of my head, by the way, because I used to do these cases myself.
00:10:58.620I mean, obviously, I could pull up the DOJ website for y'all.
00:11:01.620But that is how you get an OCDF case proposed, approved, and then you get an OCDF case number.
00:11:06.620And then, bam, once you have an OCDF case assigned to you, that's a big deal because now you can get federal funding to pay, you know, overtime to local and state police officers that work on your case or detectives.
00:11:16.620You get funding for equipment, laptops, surveillance equipment, cameras, whatever it may be that you need for your investigation, undercover fronts, all that stuff.
00:11:25.620And then most importantly, you get a dedicated OCDF AUSA, which, as you guys know, your prosecutor is very important, especially when it comes to federal cases.
00:11:33.620So that AUSA is dedicated to OCDF, so they don't have as many cases, so they can really focus on your cases.
00:11:39.620Any big drug investigation that you guys see that is prosecuted nine out of ten times is going to be an OCDF case, okay?
00:11:46.620So if someone has an OCDF case, you know for a fact that they did some work to do that case.
00:11:51.620Any of these big RICO cases that are involved with drugs, any of these big organized crime cases typically are OCDF cases.
00:11:57.620Even if it's not centered around drugs, OCDF has kind of changed their, kind of changed the layout a bit, and now they're more focused on organized crime as a whole.
00:12:06.620So I actually had an OCDF case that was primarily human smuggling.
00:12:09.620You know, a couple years ago, you weren't able to do that.
00:12:11.620So it's good that the OCDF initiative has switched a bit from, you know, only going after primarily drugs to other facets of organized crime,
00:12:18.620especially since other types of crimes are starting to rise up. Like fraud, for example, huge.
00:12:23.620You know, you're getting more fraudsters and scammers now than drug traffickers. Why?
00:12:26.620Well, because with fraud and scamming, it doesn't carry as big of a penalty.
00:12:30.620So why would someone go ahead and sell a bunch of cocaine and crack and all this other, heroin, whatever,
00:12:34.620and do a bunch of time when they can go ahead and start scamming people for credit cards
00:12:39.620and make way more money or make the same amount of money with far less risk, right?
00:12:43.620When you investigate, when you do drug trafficking, every agency and their mom investigates drugs.
00:12:47.620You got the FBI after you, you got the DEA after you, you got ATF after you, you got Homeland Security Investigations after you.
00:12:52.620Everyone does Title 21 cases nowadays, which is drug trafficking, okay?
00:12:56.620However, not everyone does fraud and financial crimes.
00:12:59.620The main agencies that do fraud and financial crimes are Homeland Security Investigations, the Secret Service, and the FBI.
00:13:05.620Those are the three, and the IRS as well, but they don't typically do fraud as much.
00:13:08.620They're more concerned with like violations of the tax code, all right?
00:13:12.620So anyway, guys, that's a quick little summary on OCDF and it's how it's transformed over the decades.
00:13:20.620Hope you guys enjoyed that because I know OCDF like the back of my hand.
00:13:26.620I just went off the top of my fucking head on that one, man.
00:13:28.620So that's how OCDF works in the United States.
00:13:37.620I learned a lot though during that little segment.
00:13:41.620So yeah, so in this case, man, they basically designated this an OCDF case and they're starting to go after the suppliers of the cocaine, which then in turn becomes crack, which leads to all the violence.
00:13:53.620Known as C-13, the task force is made up of-
00:13:56.620Oh, and then real quick, C-13, for those of you guys that watched our Rich Porter case on Paid in Full, C-11, as you guys remember, was the squad that handled violent crimes in New York City, right?
00:14:10.620They went after, you know, Alpo Martinez, Rich Porter, etc.
00:14:13.620C-13, also a drug group, probably assigned to the Safe Streets Task Force as well, was created to go after this Colombian organization, which we're going to talk about here in a second.
00:14:23.620But that's how the FBI organizes their groups, guys.
00:14:25.620They go off of, it typically goes with a letter and then a number, and that's considered an FBI squad.
00:14:30.620As I explained on the last episode, an FBI squad is comprised of an SSA, Supervisory Special Agent, and then somewhere between five to ten agents that work underneath.
00:15:31.620The situation was that you had Colombians in control of the drug trade.
00:15:38.620The two main drug gangs are Colombia's Medellin and Cali cartels.
00:15:44.620When the cartels ship drugs into the country, they smuggle them in by packing them among valid cargo, according to U.S. Customs Special Agent Phil Spinelli.
00:16:35.620Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, which then has the two components, Homeland Security Investigations, and then Enforcement and Deportation and Removal Operations, which I broke down for you guys before.
00:16:45.620But the thing you need to know is that a Customs Special Agent is technically, nowadays, a Homeland Security Investigation Special Agent, which is what I used to be.
00:17:17.620And back then, and even to this day, because I know this from my own experience, Colombian criminal organizations ship drugs a lot of the times through many different means.
00:17:26.620Submarines, through submarines, through big freight ships like this.
00:17:32.620So, and they, they smuggle it in food.
00:18:59.620And then you got U.S. Customs Service, who, you know, obviously has a large amount of authority when it comes to anything to do with inbound or outbound in the United States.
00:19:10.620Like I told you guys before, this is the beauties of having a task force that work together, because when you have different agencies working together, they can leverage each other's powers.
00:19:18.620So I'll tell you guys this now, from my experience, because I had customs authority, too, as a Homeland Security agent, right?
00:19:24.620When a ship comes into the United States, FBI agents, NYPD, they can't search that ship, because they don't have customs authority.
00:19:33.620However, as a customs agent or a customs officer, okay?
00:19:37.620And which, by the way, guys, the customs officers are the guys that you see in the blue uniforms at the airports, alright?
00:19:41.620Those are customs officers, CBP, Customs and Border Protection, right?
00:19:44.620Which used to be the customs service back then.
00:19:46.620They used to be called customs inspectors, and then you had customs special agents.
00:19:50.620But now you got HSI, Homeland Security investigation special agents, and CBP, Customs and Border Protection.
00:19:55.620So they're two different agencies now.
00:19:57.620But anyway, but it used to be all under one.
00:19:59.620Customs special agents were essentially the detectives, and the customs inspectors, you could think of them as like the police officers uniform, right?
00:20:05.620This is prior to 9-11 and prior to 2003 with the Homeland Security Act, right?
00:20:11.620But anyway, since FBI agents and NYPD don't have customs authority, customs agents do.
00:20:19.620So they can go ahead and search a freight ship with zero warrants, okay?
00:20:23.620Because when something comes into the United States or out of the United States, you absolve yourself of Fourth Amendment protection.
00:20:30.620The Fourth Amendment is, you know, the right to privacy from search and seizure, right?
00:20:35.620But that is thrown out the window once you try to come into the United States or out of the United States, okay?
00:20:41.620Because obviously customs agents or officers want to be able to search everyone coming in and everyone going out for national security reasons, for duty purposes so that they can pay their taxes, and a bunch of, you know, make sure that contraband isn't smuggled into the United States, etc.
00:21:03.620Or also commonly known as border search authority, alright?
00:21:07.620So, it was smart for the FBI to have the US Customs Service involved in this investigation where you're targeting a transnational drug trafficking organization that you know imports drugs.
00:22:00.620The most productive cases involve confidential informants.
00:22:05.620Because they know what's going on, they're already on the inside.
00:22:08.620Once the detective develops trust with an informant, doors begin to open.
00:22:13.620And let me say this, confidential informants are 100% required to do big, complex conspiracy cases.
00:22:21.620You need someone to get you into the organization, and 9 out of 10 times it's either going to be a confidential informant, a cooperating defendant, or a witness to some degree.
00:22:30.620But you need a cooperator that's in the inside to get you in, especially with these drug conspiracies.
00:22:38.620I had one particular confidential informant that was extremely reliable.
00:22:44.620In December 1991, the informant tells Apolito about a man named Eduardo.
00:22:51.620He says Eduardo deals in cloned cell phones and might be connected to the Medellin cartel.
00:22:58.620He knows the Colombian cartels desperately want to do business with the American Mafia.
00:23:05.620They felt a traditional organized crime.
00:23:08.620And this is a very common thing, by the way, guys, with Colombian criminal organizations.
00:23:14.620Cell phones are a big thing because cell phones are expensive in Colombia.
00:23:18.620So getting cell phones, I mean, I had a friend that actually did a case on people that were basically stealing iPhones and smuggling them back to Colombia to be sold for a way higher price.
00:23:30.620So there definitely is a market for there's like underground smartphone cell phone market in Colombia.
00:34:09.620And what they do is they go ahead and they put, they insert themselves in between you and that person.
00:34:15.620They broker the deal and they get some off the top, right?
00:34:18.620That's how the, that's how it goes typically.
00:34:20.620Now, as you build more and more trust, sometimes they'll introduce you to their connect, right?
00:34:26.620Especially when you're trying to get bigger and bigger quantities of whatever the hell you're trying to do.
00:34:29.620Whether you need more guns, you need more drugs, you need harder, harder drugs, or you need something that's a little bit more sophisticated that he can't necessarily provide.
00:34:37.620Or the person that he's getting the stuff from doesn't trust him to provide.
00:34:50.620And you need to get around these guys as soon as possible.
00:34:52.620And I'm talking to you guys now as a former agent.
00:34:54.620My goal anytime in my informant knew a guy like this and informants always know fucking idiots like this, that yo, I know a guy, I know a guy, blah, blah, blah.
00:35:01.620Nine out of 10 times when your informant comes in and tells you about it, someone is going to be someone like this, who's a fucking middleman.
00:35:07.620You got to get around this middleman as quickly as possible because what's going to happen with these middlemen a lot of time is you may have to do two, three deals to build some trust with them.
00:35:15.620And then eventually they'll get you to their connect or their source.
00:35:20.620But they're going to be involved a lot of times so that they can continue to make sure that they make money because they brought that source a valid customer.
00:35:27.620But the goal is you got to get this guy out of the fucking picture.
00:35:31.620Well, he's never going to actually come out of the picture, but they're going to be involved in the transactions, but you need to go ahead and meet the goddamn source.
00:35:38.620Because these guys, a lot of the times are fucking useless and all they can do is get you the stuff or maybe make something happen, happen kind of, but nine out of 10 times, they're not the real criminals.
00:36:48.620Um, but obviously, um, I guarantee you that they probably had done like maybe a deal or two after that cell phone thing.
00:36:55.620Um, and they probably had bought like an ounce or two prior, you know, or, or Eduardo had told them I got a good cocaine connect with some Colombians.
00:37:04.620So it wouldn't sound crazy for them to say, well, let me get a kilo.
00:37:38.620FBI, DEA, ATF, um, customs back then, or Homeland Security investigations, you know, uh, fucking everyone and their mom investigates drug trafficking, man.
00:37:45.620So the mafia was smart enough to understand that drug trafficking is a dirty business.
00:38:33.620You know, this just could get me killed.
00:38:35.620This can't get me whacked for doing drug trafficking.
00:38:37.620So a kilo is a lot, you know, no one is going to do their first buy for a kilo.
00:38:42.620And if they did do it for the first time, obviously, you know, they're, they're summarizing the case here.
00:38:46.620Um, if it was the first buy, then I guarantee you there were some conversations that led up to that because a kilo cocaine guys.
00:38:51.620Um, when I was an agent back down in South Texas was about $28,000, you know, uh, 20, 28 K.
00:38:58.620Um, and then if you get it to like a New York city, uh, you know, uh, Chicago or whatever up north, uh, it's going to raise it up to somewhere around 40 to 50,000, you know?
00:39:07.620So back then it was probably right around the same thing, maybe 30, 40 K back then in New York city.
00:39:27.620If you're, if you're getting kilogram amounts, you are now what I would consider a higher level drug trafficker by far.
00:39:32.620You know, you're not going to get kilos as a fucking bum.
00:39:35.620And the other thing too, I want to tell you guys as well, as far as, uh, you know, the importance of undercovers being congruent to who they say they are.
00:39:40.620Um, that's almost life or death type shit.
00:39:43.620If you're an undercover and you purport yourself to be a certain person, you have to be that person.
00:39:48.620You need to look like the role, sound like the role, even smell like the role.
00:40:39.620The reason why you have to, if you make a drug deal happen, especially for a larger amount, let's say a couple of ounces, half a pound, a pound, a kilo, whatever it is.
00:40:49.620You need to follow the person you bought it from immediately after.
00:40:55.620Well, I'll tell you guys right now, nine out of 10 times when you're dealing in higher quantities of drugs, not, we're not talking grams and you know, maybe an ounce here or whatever.
00:41:03.620But if you're buying a couple of ounces, right, or a couple of pounds or a kilo or more, right, you need to follow the person after the drug deal happens.
00:41:11.620And the reason why is because nine out of 10 times that person needs to pay that fucking person back that gave them the drugs on consignment.
00:41:17.620Because a lot of the times the person that sells you the drugs, right, when you're undercover, whatever, isn't the person that supplied it.
00:41:23.620It's someone else that that person was able to get the drugs from.
00:41:26.620Hence this dude, Eduardo, being a middleman, which is why he's able to deal with cell phones in one day, then all of a sudden be dealing with drugs the next day.
00:41:32.620Suppliers and guys that are actually involved, you know, knee deep in the crime that they're involved in typically deal in that crime alone.
00:41:40.620If I'm a high level drug trafficker, I'm dealing drugs only.
00:41:43.620Typically, I'm not going to be also involved in arms trafficking and credit card fraud or whatever.
00:41:49.620I may be involved where I dabble in it, but I'm not going to be super, super involved and have my hand in multiple cookie jars and open myself up to more potential investigations being open against me.
00:41:58.620If I'm a drug trafficker and I'm dealing kilogram amounts, right, and I'm like a supplier, that's more than likely what I'm going to do.
00:42:07.620So this guy, Eduardo, right, a telltale sign that he's a middleman.
00:42:10.620And again, guys, like the video because ain't nobody going to give you all sauce like this.
00:42:13.620The telltale sign someone's a fucking middleman is when they're doing all types of different crimes.
00:42:17.620OK, that's how you know that they're not really linked to the source like that, or I don't like they're not necessarily the supplier.
00:42:22.620So after a deal like this happens where they bought a fucking kilogram, guarantee you, they probably paid him at least 10 or 15K for this, by the way, with OCDF funds, which is why it's so important to have an OCDF case because they give you a lot that so you can go ahead and make shit happen like this.
00:42:34.620They bought the kilogram, right, a control purchase.
00:42:50.620And we used to do this all the time as well.
00:42:51.620After we did our drug trafficking cases or we did our control purchases, I had a big meth case out of Texas.
00:42:57.620And every time after we did a deal or we did a gun deal or whatever it may be, we went and followed the guy and did surveillance to see where the hell they went after to identify other conspirators.
00:43:06.620Nobody knows, first of all, if in fact we really do have a narcotic smuggling organization.
00:43:15.620And what we're trying to do is see if, in fact, there is a fire there.
00:43:18.620Investigators spot a man and a woman who might be associated with Eduardo going in and out of a house.
00:43:27.620Hopefully authorities can ID the pair later.
00:43:31.620This sort of meticulous and time consuming work is required to gather intelligence and build a case against the cartels who operate under a strictly enforced code of silence.
00:44:14.620After you see some drugs, you have to test it so that you can figure out how close you are to the source.
00:44:19.620The pure it is that typically the better, um, the, the higher probability that you're closer to your source.
00:44:25.620A lot of times, if it's cocaine, your international source, if it's methamphetamine, um, your international, well, methamphetamine is a whole other thing, but for, I'll give you guys an example.
00:44:35.620When I was doing my, my methamphetamine case, uh, out of Texas.
00:45:00.620We were seizing methamphetamine guys that was coming back 97% pure.
00:45:04.620Now for some of you guys that aren't aware of how methamphetamine is, you can't get methamphetamine that, that, that, um, pure in the United States because the materials you used, right.
00:45:14.620To create methamphetamine are heavily regulated in United States.
00:45:44.620And which is why we were able to make our case OCDF because I was able to directly link that our drugs were coming from, um, from the Templars and also from some, from some Zetas.
00:46:34.620So I, I guarantee you they were probably going nuts when they found out that the cocaine was coming back in the, in the nineties in New York city.
00:47:04.620The more pure the drugs, like I said, 80% or above, it significantly increases the time that the drug traffers spend in, in jail.
00:47:11.620So that's also very important for the prosecutors because prosecutors get awarded based on how much time their defendants get.
00:47:18.620So that's also good for the U S attorney's office to be able to say, yo, we're seizing drugs off the street that are 80% more 80% or more off.
00:47:25.620And then that goes into sentencing guidelines as well.
00:47:27.620So that's another important factors, uh, to it.
00:48:03.620I had somebody that could possibly take us to the types of individuals of drug traffickers that the task force was geared to target.
00:48:12.620It's the first milestone in what will be a long and dangerous investigation.
00:48:19.620In 1991, New York's C-13 task force tries to infiltrate a Colombian drug cartel, beginning with a low level broker named Eduardo.
00:48:31.620After one successful cocaine buy, Eduardo asks undercover detective Richard Eppolito to meet the drug dealers Eduardo represents.
00:48:40.620So he orchestrated a meet with, uh, a female individual known as, uh, his street name was Monica.
00:48:48.620They would never give anybody their real name.
00:48:51.620Uh, and this is common guys, because, um, as you want to go ahead and get more and more drugs, right?
00:48:57.620If they sold the kilo, it went well at this point.
00:49:00.620Now he's probably going to start doing multi kilogram deals, right?
00:49:03.620Now at this point, the person that's the source wants to meet you because now we're talking about significant amounts of drugs that they're responsible for getting to you, which they obviously have a plug back in Columbia that is going to be looking for some type of payment.
00:49:13.620So they need to start betting you because now we're talking about serious amounts of drugs where we're going into the hundreds, if not millions of dollars in, uh, in value.
00:49:23.620So this is typically once you start to meet the source and they're moving up the chain, which is, this is, you know, fantastic in a drug investigation.
00:49:29.620So, uh, let's go ahead and continue on.
00:52:39.620They run their names through their databases and they're able to figure out, OK, these guys have links to Columbia cartels where, you know, we're on to something here.
00:52:46.620Right. So now they got them fully identified.
00:54:13.620The case is going to be prioritized and the U.S. attorney's office is going to be prioritized in your office.
00:54:18.620When you say, I need agents for surveillance and it's OCDF case, your supervisor is going to fight, you know, to get you the guys that you need, the resources that you need.
00:54:41.620So if you're able to get your case designated as OCDF case, especially with the U.S. attorney's office, well, bam, now your office is going to prioritize that investigation.
00:54:48.620And now only you have a force multiplier because you now have another federal agency, the U.S. Customs Service, in this case, that has power, their own funding source.
00:54:56.620And they're going to be involved and they're going to help fund things as well.
00:54:59.620When I work with the DEA, there were times where I would fund drug buys and then there were times they would fund drug buys.
00:55:06.620So we were all working together, levering each other's assets, authorities, abilities, money, you know, for purchase of evidence.
00:55:14.620And we were all working together to make the case happen.
00:55:16.620So in this case, the U.S. Customs Service was a fantastic federal agency to bring in on an investigation like this because they have authorities and powers that you can't necessarily do as FBI agents.
01:04:49.620And we're able to make this shit happen.
01:04:51.620Uh, but, but yeah, man, that, that's the importance of having a good undercover agent where the criminals are going to call you for criminal activity because they trust your guys so much.
01:05:15.620You need to do this for under, especially for big undercover cases like this, where you create a full name and everything for the guy.
01:05:21.620So if they ever run his name or his criminal history, it comes back and it's real because some of these guys have dirty cows on the take fleet with a long criminal record.
01:05:28.620Everyone working the case knows how important it is to hide Eppolito's true identity.
01:05:36.620They recall that in February 1985, decorated DEA special agent Enrique Camarena was ID'd as law enforcement by the Mexican drug gang he infiltrated.
01:05:48.620Gang members kidnapped him, tortured him, then stabbed him to death.
01:05:54.620The C-13 task force wires Eppolito to get incriminating.
01:06:10.620So, yeah, man, I mean, that was that's a perfect example of what goes bad when, you know, with an undercover operation, you know, he they tortured and killed him and it was terrible.
01:07:53.620So it's a good feeling knowing that there are guys there to back up.
01:07:59.620The task force slowly makes its way toward the heart of the cartel, knowing that at any moment a single mistake could be deadly.
01:08:12.620Undercover detective Richard Eppolito, posing as a mafioso named Tony Romano, meets with Colombian drug cartel members.
01:08:22.620He's backed up by other members of the C-13 task force, some of whom act as mafia bodyguards.
01:08:29.620Which that's great cover because that would make sense for him as a wise guy, a.k.a. a made man.
01:08:35.620And, you know, La Cosa Nostra, you know, to be coming up with his own guys and making sure that everything is good because obviously they got to protect their dude as well.
01:08:43.620You know, he's coming and dressed up as a suit.
01:08:46.620And again, this is the importance of congruency when you deal with other criminals right there on high alert.
01:08:54.620They're making sure that they're not, you know, doing a deal with an undercover agent or an informant.
01:08:59.620So they want to make sure that everything seems in place or not out of place.
01:09:05.620Apolito tells suspects Monica and Willie that if they can get the cocaine to the New York docks, he can move it past customs into his secure warehouse for distribution.
01:09:20.620That is the magic words for Columbia drug traffic organizations, because obviously dealing with customs is their biggest adversary, guys, because that's the main interdicting agency that takes away their drugs.
01:09:32.620OK, so if they're able, right, if he can get it, if they can get it to the United States, he will facilitate the safe passage into the United States, which is literally huge.
01:15:11.620He grew up with some, quote, mob people. He knew how they acted. He had the looks. He knew the way to act. He knew the way to dress.
01:15:23.620And you give Richie a little bit of leeway. You give him a script and he could play the role to a tee.
01:15:29.620And he was absolutely excellent in playing his role.
01:15:32.620Eppolito notices one of Magola's associates has a gun and must decide whether to call for help from backup.
01:15:44.620He takes the risk and stays in character. He doesn't want to blow the case.
01:15:52.620And you'll be in, you know, situations like this a lot of the time is undercover where it's like, you know, you're dealing with armed criminals.
01:15:58.620What are you going to do? But obviously they're listening to the wiretaps, right?
01:16:02.620They know that they trust him. They know that they that he's he's a higher level mafioso.
01:16:07.620So he knows, OK, if they're having their conversations and they're talking highly of me on the phone and I'm even in this meeting in the first place, they clearly trust me.
01:16:17.620OK, so he's able to take that, you know, educated risk.
01:16:21.620Let's continue on. How do you like this, by the way, Dolphes? I love it.
01:16:25.620It's good stuff. Yes, great stuff, actually.
01:16:28.620OK, like I'm learning a lot between like how.
01:16:30.620Yeah, I see you taking notes over there. Yeah.
01:16:34.620It's very interesting. Cool, cool, cool.
01:16:36.620Backup knows what to do if anyone gets suspicious of them.
01:16:42.620It's that possibly somebody is making us. What we would do is is probably step a little bit further back from the side.
01:16:50.620So they would think that to a certain extent they are seeing ghosts where in fact there were no ghosts.
01:16:57.620In the end, it appears Magola believes Tony Romano can provide a safe route for drug running.
01:17:05.620Slowly, the task force makes its way deeper into the cartel.
01:17:10.620We were piecemeal individuals. First we met Eduardo, then we met Monica, then we met Willy, then it was Margolis.
01:17:19.620They kept introducing different people. The way it works, those people would report back to the people back in Colombia and they'd say what's going on.
01:17:30.620It seems to be going well, but Eppolito can never let down his guard. He is in constant danger.
01:17:40.620If the cartel suspects anything, they could send assassins and hit Eppolito at any time, not just at a meeting.
01:17:49.620They could wait, get you at a later time, let you think everything's OK. Next time you show up, you get one in the back of the head.
01:17:59.620That boy was about to get fucking clapped. That ankle holster, he was ready to go, man.
01:18:09.620He had that joint. He was about to pull that boy out and be like, hey, what? What? What the?
01:18:14.620You know what I'm saying? Just be ready for that shit. He was ready, OK?
01:18:17.620Yeah, he was ready. Yeah, a lot of agents carried their guns on their ankles, guys.
01:18:23.620I personally never ankle carry. I think it's fucking trash. Ain't it heavy on your ankles when you walk?
01:18:28.620It kind of is. It's the most. It's actually the most comfortable way to carry your gun.
01:18:31.620A lot of agents carry their guns on their foot. Yeah, I think it's stupid, but a lot of them do.
01:18:36.620Yeah, I carry appendix. I think that's the best way to carry.
01:18:40.620But everyone is different. That boy is about to get clapped for having a cell phone, man.
01:18:44.620It was the fact that he was acting like he was tying his shoes.
01:18:49.620I feel very uppity, very alert. It's just natural adrenaline, I guess, that kicks in.
01:18:59.620There's a bit of excitement involved. It's challenging. It's dangerous.
01:19:06.620Any mistake could mean another murder of a dedicated law enforcement officer.
01:19:14.620New York investigators try to infiltrate Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel and dismantle it.
01:19:22.620As the case builds, the C-13 task force puts more resources into it,
01:19:28.620including an office for undercover detective Richard Eppolito's mafia character.
01:19:33.620We just had an undercover office in Floral Park, Queens, and it was wired for both video and audio to document meets and gather evidence.
01:30:55.620Richie walked away, but in clear view of the other participants.
01:30:59.620The other individual is prearranged, threw his arms around Richie, greeted him, kissed him on both cheeks, and he handed him an envelope with a wad of money.
01:31:08.620Kissing on both cheeks, guys, is a mafia thing that they do.
01:31:12.620You know, the Omerta code of silence, okay, is what they do, typically during their meetings.
01:31:21.620And Richie sent them on his way, walked back to the table, pulled out the wad of money in the envelope, leaped through it, put his back, and Richie complained that he's always working.
01:31:31.620Even in Atlantic City, he can't catch a break.
01:31:34.620And these people were totally impressed with this.
01:31:52.620They send an interrogator to meet with Abuelita.
01:31:56.620His street name is Sammy, and he specializes in finding undercover cops.
01:32:02.620Sammy was somebody, he was a wild card that was introduced to the investigation.
01:32:08.620He was, you know, an enforcer, somebody that apparently, you know, was capable of, you know, determining whether somebody was, you know, a law enforcement officer, obviously.
01:32:21.620The room is fully wired, and agents watch from an office in the hotel.
01:32:38.620You have to make a decision, basically, in a split second.
01:32:42.620Alright, so I'm pretty confident that this guy right here was probably the NYPD case detective.
01:32:48.620The guy that ran the case on the NYPD side, or the case agent in this case, because he was assigned to the FBI C-13 squad as a task force officer.
01:32:58.620Which I've explained what task force officers are before if you guys look at the clips videos.
01:33:03.620Basically, he's deputized under federal authority to work under the auspice of the FBI and can do federal investigations as well as still have his NYPD authority to do state investigations as well.
01:33:13.620But he's a full-fledged federal agent, alright, with FBI.
01:33:17.620A lot of times TFOs get their agency badge, and then they also have the federal agency badge as well.
01:33:23.620So like DEA, for example, their task force officers have a DEA badge, but it's silver.
01:33:26.620Versus the special agents have a golden badge.
01:33:31.620Task force officers have an FBI badge, but it probably might be silver or look a little bit different.
01:33:36.620But they have FBI credentials so that if they need to travel interstate, whatever, they can go ahead and fly armed, do whatever they need to do.
01:33:42.620They could travel interstate to do investigations.
01:33:44.620They have all the same authorities that an FBI agent will have.
01:34:38.620I didn't pat him at the door to see if he was armed or not.
01:34:44.620But, you know, a lot of these guys are armed and you've got to be careful.
01:34:47.620And, you know, I had to make sure I came up with the right answers because if we had any inclination that I was either a bad guy looking to rip him off or law enforcement, I mean, God knows what might have happened.
01:35:02.620Eppolito knows backup is there, but it's still a tense situation.
01:35:08.620There's always a signal that's set up between you and the backups in case something goes wrong or a code word.
01:35:15.620That's the distress signal I was telling you guys about before.
01:35:19.620Distress signal or a takedown code if you're going to do a takedown.
01:35:21.620In this case, it's just a UC meeting, so it would just be a distress code.
01:35:24.620And, you know, you let loose with the signal or the code word, they just take the whole thing down.
01:35:28.620Several times, Sammy hints that he thinks Eppolito's trying to trick them.
01:35:45.620As Sammy continues to press Eppolito, agents fear that one wrong answer could destroy the entire investigation and Detective Eppolito would be killed.
01:36:01.620Undercover Detective Richard Eppolito faces off against an interrogator from Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, a man known only as Sammy.
01:36:11.620He demands details of Eppolito's past crimes to prove he really is a mafioso.
01:36:18.620Agents watch the meet, ready to send in backup.
01:36:24.620At some point during the interrogation process, I felt I had to put a stop to it before either I said something that I couldn't back or the informant.
01:36:36.620Oh shit, we're at the moment of truth.