The Debrief With MyronGainesX - Pablo Escobar's NYC Drug Traffickers BUSTED In Operation Seaload! Case Breakdown!

00:00:00.800 All right, we are live. What's up, guys? Welcome. We're going to be doing an episode on Operation

00:00:05.640 Seaload, which covers a Columbia drug trafficking organization tied to your boy, Pablo Escobar.

00:00:10.140 And I got a friend with me, by the way, doll face in the house.

00:00:12.680 Hey, we got a lot to talk about, guys. We'll be reacting to a documentary today. It's going

00:00:15.860 to be lit. Let's get into it, baby.

00:00:20.520 I was a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations. Okay, guys, HSI. The cases

00:00:24.240 that I did mostly were human smuggling and drug trafficking. This is the arrest paperwork,

00:00:32.120 okay? So he turned himself in on February 13, 2019. This charge carries a death penalty. Florida

00:00:36.340 is one of the states that still has the death penalty, guys.

00:00:42.380 6'9 ran with these two guys. Billy Seiko introduced 6'9 to your boy, Kifano Jordan, aka Shadi. No one

00:00:48.780 else has these documents, by the way. I've been looking everywhere. 1812. So he was in this bad

00:00:53.320 boy. We're going to go over his past, the gang ties, so that this all makes sense.

00:01:02.200 All right. I hope you guys enjoyed that. I got a couple of different intros that I'm

00:01:04.960 playing with right now, guys. So we'll see which one makes the final cut. But anyway,

00:01:09.440 without further ado, you guys requested this actually last week. I asked you guys, hey,

00:01:13.220 I'm going to take a poll. What do you guys want to see? Do you guys want to see the Buffalo

00:01:16.760 Shooter, Columbia Drug Traffic Organization tied to Pablo Escobar or Payton Full? And this one

00:01:22.440 actually came second, this Columbia Drug Traffic Organization case. So I'm going to go ahead

00:01:27.240 and make sure we get this thing filmed for y'all. And this is right after the Vibes Cartel

00:01:31.100 episode for some of you guys that are going to see this on the replay. This episode is going

00:01:34.540 to drop in a few days. And shout out to Dollface for making that happen, by the way. You want 0.93

00:01:37.960 to introduce yourself to the people real quick, Dollface?

00:01:40.100 Hey, everyone. My name is Dollface. Duh.

00:01:42.620 I'm here just helping out. My friend. Yeah, cool. Awesome. I'm just here. I'm just here helping out.

00:01:54.220 I'm just here. Yeah, we went to get Sonny real quick and then we came back and now we're here for

00:01:58.060 the two-peat. Yeah, round two. Round two. So guys, as usual, we're going to go ahead and react to an

00:02:03.680 episode here from a show called FBI Files. Okay. As you guys know, I love this show. And this is an

00:02:10.240 older documentary from the 90s slash early 2000s. And we're going to cover Operation C-Load here,

00:02:15.900 guys, which covers a Columbia Drug Traffic Organization from the early 90s in New York City.

00:02:20.800 Okay. And they were tied to Pablo Escobar. And you guys are going to see this pretty good one.

00:02:25.180 So I guess without anything you've got to say before we start this bad boy.

00:02:28.100 I'm just excited to hop right into the information. I just need you guys to like the video.

00:02:34.360 Like the goddamn video right now. Subscribe to the channel. Yes. And let us know how the intro is. 0.98

00:02:39.360 Yes. Let us know, obviously, in the comments. And yeah, guys, other than that, man, let's get this

00:02:44.700 bad boy. Sorry, I'm going to go ahead. And the name of the, it's called Operation C-Load. This is the

00:02:48.000 FBI Files YouTube channel, guys. So don't forget to always show love, subscribe, like. And what I'll do is

00:02:53.020 I'll make sure to put the episode on down below in the description for y'all. So yeah. So I guess

00:03:00.240 without further ado, let's go ahead and enlarge this bad boy and get into reacting. And as you

00:03:04.480 guys know, I've done, you know, drug traffic organization cases myself, DTOs. We used to

00:03:09.320 call them for short. And I actually did Columbia Drug Trafficking in the Miami field office before

00:03:13.420 I left for HSI. So this is going to be a good one. And I'll be able to give you guys some pretty

00:03:17.320 damn good insider info as to how these investigations are done. So without further ado, let's get into it.

00:03:23.020 Viewer discretion is advised.

00:03:29.240 Robbery. Torture. Murder. A drug cartel will do anything to protect their business, no matter

00:03:38.700 who's caught in the crossfire. The FBI and NYPD work together to fight back, risking their

00:03:46.480 own lives by going undercover to unlock the secrets of deadly drug gangs, to bring them

00:03:52.860 down from the inside.

00:03:56.200 Hands up, boys!

00:03:59.080 All right. So fast forward a little bit. Got our boy over here, Jim Kallstrom from the

00:04:06.260 FBI, New York office.

00:04:08.080 When the streets of New York flooded with crack cocaine in the 1980s, a wave of violence threatened

00:04:13.560 to drown the city. Colombian cartels brought the coke in and ran their operations with an

00:04:18.860 iron fist.

00:04:19.580 I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office. Agents somehow had to infiltrate a

00:04:25.900 complex crime ring protected by a code of silence. Going head to head with killers, any misstep would

00:04:32.720 be fatal.

00:04:33.220 As you guys know, cocaine in the 80s was crazy, and then that went and continued on into the

00:04:40.820 90s, okay? And New York City was definitely a hub for cocaine trafficking, because as you

00:04:46.340 guys know, it's probably the biggest metropolitan area in the United States alongside L.A. So

00:04:51.440 yeah, let's get into it.

00:04:52.500 Crack cocaine. Cheap, easy to make, and highly addictive. When it hits the streets, violent

00:05:10.740 crime follows. Most of the bloodshed occurs at the street level among users and dealers.

00:05:18.380 But innocent people suffer too. NYPD detective Richard Eppolito worked narcotics.

00:05:26.380 There was one gentleman that owned a Chinese restaurant. Came out one night, and there was

00:05:34.040 a couple of individuals involved in drugs, and they'll do anything they can to do to get

00:05:39.980 their next fix. 1.00

00:05:40.740 Oh, shit. 1.00

00:05:42.620 Yeah. 1.00

00:05:43.620 Killed him for his gold teeth, man. Crazy. 1.00

00:05:56.620 Damn. 1.00

00:05:57.620 And you know, I'll throw some captioning in here just in case people got to listen to it 0.99

00:06:01.620 in low volume or something like that. We got y'all, baby, over here. Fed it. Like the video,

00:06:05.620 guys, let's continue on. But yes, this was not crazy, guys, for this to be happening in

00:06:09.620 the 80s and 90s where people would kill you just for your gold teeth, man. Wild stuff.

00:06:13.620 In New York, the crack epidemic began in the late 80s. NYPD Lieutenant Mike Garrity.

00:06:22.620 It was an extremely violent time. You had turf wars. You had people who just controlled

00:06:28.620 a certain corner. If you set up to make a sale on that corner, there'd be a drive by

00:06:32.620 shooting. We were losing our youth. We were losing innocent bystanders to drive by. Everyone

00:06:38.620 and just so you guys know, we did an episode on paid in full, you know, on also covered

00:06:44.620 crack with Rich Porter and Apple Martinez, et cetera, in the late 80s and 1990s as well.

00:06:49.620 And, you know, that was going on in Harlem. Right. So this case is going to cover a different

00:06:53.620 area of New York, but nonetheless, violent, you know, drug trafficking organizations ruled

00:06:58.620 New York City back then. And it was bad, man. It was really bad. You guys got to remember

00:07:01.620 this is before the surveillance era, you know, of cameras being on every corner. So people

00:07:05.620 were doing crazy shit all the time.

00:07:08.620 Six crimes went up. It was out of control back then. 0.99

00:07:12.620 But arresting users and dealers individually does little to slow the onslaught.

00:07:17.620 You know, it's never ending. It's just a constant flow. For every one or two guys you take down,

00:07:24.620 there's others to replace them. Facts.

00:07:26.620 The only way to stem the flow of narcotics is to find the organizations that import the drugs

00:07:31.620 and dismantle them. Bam. You got to go after the source, baby.

00:07:34.620 To do this, the Department of Justice creates the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, known as C-13.

00:07:43.620 Okay. So let's talk about this real quick. Okay. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Okay.

00:07:49.620 And we're going to rewind this just a little bit. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

00:07:54.620 That means OCDF, my friends. Okay. That's what we use in a law enforcement world to refer to as OCDF.

00:08:00.620 So it was made to combat major, right, large and typically transnational drug trafficking organizations that transcend borders. Okay.

00:08:11.620 So OCDF cases, guys, are what is designated on the most significant of DTOs or drug trafficking organizations.

00:08:19.620 I've done several OCDF cases myself. Excuse me, as I sneeze over here.

00:08:26.620 When I was in Miami, I did a couple of OCDF cases.

00:08:28.620 And when I was in Texas, I did a big OCDF case that centered around crystal methamphetamine.

00:08:32.620 And it's very difficult to get your case approved as an OCDF or Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. 0.68

00:08:38.620 And 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. 0.58

00:08:45.620 I was the lead case agent. I created the OCDF paperwork, everything, filed it. 0.84

00:08:50.620 And the way it goes is this. You need to have one or more agency involved, typically at least one other federal agency involved, right?

00:08:56.620 Because it's considered a task force, which means can be done by one agency.

00:09:00.620 Then you need to have a sophisticated organization.

00:09:02.620 And then more importantly, you need to establish that your like your organization is linked to some large scale drug traffic organization.

00:09:11.620 Right. You call them a C pot or our pot regional priority organized target or C pot, which is typically international.

00:09:17.620 Right. And you need to be able to link your drug traffic organization to one of these two pots of of.

00:09:24.620 How do I say this of as a source of supply? OK.

00:09:27.620 And then you've got to write up a whole narrative on why your case deserves to be designated as OCDF case.

00:09:32.620 And then you also need to have a bunch of targets identified.

00:09:37.620 You 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.

00:09:45.620 And it's not easy to do. You know, my OCDF write ups were 10 plus pages easily.

00:09:51.620 Right. And that doesn't include all the paperwork that comes in where you have to fill in all the information.

00:09:56.620 And 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.

00:10:04.620 Right. And when you go to the OCDF committee, there's someone from FBI there, DEA there, IRS there, HSI there.

00:10:10.620 All the federal agencies are there. OK. U.S. Marshals, ATF, everyone. OK.

00:10:16.620 And you present your case there and they pretty much, you know, OK, we saw your presentation, whatever.

00:10:21.620 And then if it gets approved, they approve it. And then you get something called an OCDF number assigned to you.

00:10:27.620 OK. And there's different OCDF regions in the United States.

00:10:30.620 Last I checked, I think there were seven. They're pretty much in every major city.

00:10:33.620 There is obviously one in Miami, one in Houston, one in New York City, L.A., Chicago, Phoenix.

00:10:43.620 So they're all over the place. Pretty much all the main drug hub cities have an OCDF strike force there.

00:10:49.620 And pretty much it was created, man, to dismantle and disrupt large scale drug traffic organizations.

00:10:55.620 I'm telling you guys, it's all from the top of my head, by the way, because I used to do these cases myself.

00:10:58.620 I mean, obviously, I could pull up the DOJ website for y'all.

00:11:01.620 But that is how you get an OCDF case proposed, approved, and then you get an OCDF case number.

00:11:06.620 And 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.

00:11:16.620 You get funding for equipment, laptops, surveillance equipment, cameras, whatever it may be that you need for your investigation, undercover fronts, all that stuff.

00:11:25.620 And 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.

00:11:33.620 So that AUSA is dedicated to OCDF, so they don't have as many cases, so they can really focus on your cases.

00:11:39.620 Any big drug investigation that you guys see that is prosecuted nine out of ten times is going to be an OCDF case, okay?

00:11:46.620 So if someone has an OCDF case, you know for a fact that they did some work to do that case.

00:11:51.620 Any of these big RICO cases that are involved with drugs, any of these big organized crime cases typically are OCDF cases.

00:11:57.620 Even 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.

00:12:06.620 So I actually had an OCDF case that was primarily human smuggling.

00:12:09.620 You know, a couple years ago, you weren't able to do that.

00:12:11.620 So 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,

00:12:18.620 especially since other types of crimes are starting to rise up. Like fraud, for example, huge.

00:12:23.620 You know, you're getting more fraudsters and scammers now than drug traffickers. Why?

00:12:26.620 Well, because with fraud and scamming, it doesn't carry as big of a penalty.

00:12:30.620 So why would someone go ahead and sell a bunch of cocaine and crack and all this other, heroin, whatever,

00:12:34.620 and do a bunch of time when they can go ahead and start scamming people for credit cards

00:12:39.620 and make way more money or make the same amount of money with far less risk, right?

00:12:43.620 When you investigate, when you do drug trafficking, every agency and their mom investigates drugs.

00:12:47.620 You got the FBI after you, you got the DEA after you, you got ATF after you, you got Homeland Security Investigations after you.

00:12:52.620 Everyone does Title 21 cases nowadays, which is drug trafficking, okay?

00:12:56.620 However, not everyone does fraud and financial crimes.

00:12:59.620 The main agencies that do fraud and financial crimes are Homeland Security Investigations, the Secret Service, and the FBI.

00:13:05.620 Those are the three, and the IRS as well, but they don't typically do fraud as much.

00:13:08.620 They're more concerned with like violations of the tax code, all right?

00:13:12.620 So anyway, guys, that's a quick little summary on OCDF and it's how it's transformed over the decades.

00:13:20.620 Hope you guys enjoyed that because I know OCDF like the back of my hand. 0.98

00:13:26.620 I just went off the top of my fucking head on that one, man. 0.97

00:13:28.620 So that's how OCDF works in the United States. 0.99

00:13:31.620 Dolfa, you got anything on that?

00:13:33.620 That was beautifully said.

00:13:35.620 Thanks, I appreciate that.

00:13:37.620 I learned a lot though during that little segment.

00:13:41.620 So 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.

00:13:52.620 Makes sense.

00:13:53.620 Known as C-13, the task force is made up of-

00:13:56.620 Oh, 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?

00:14:10.620 They went after, you know, Alpo Martinez, Rich Porter, etc.

00:14:13.620 C-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.

00:14:23.620 But that's how the FBI organizes their groups, guys.

00:14:25.620 They go off of, it typically goes with a letter and then a number, and that's considered an FBI squad.

00:14:30.620 As 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.

00:14:37.620 All those agents are field agents.

00:14:39.620 They go ahead and actually do the investigations.

00:14:41.620 They carry the cases, etc.

00:14:42.620 They help each other.

00:14:43.620 And then the supervisor is a first-line supervisor.

00:14:45.620 He doesn't carry any cases.

00:14:47.620 He reports all the stuff up the chain to the assistant special agent in charge and obviously the SAC or the special agent in charge.

00:14:55.620 Assistant special agents in charge are also known as ASACs, okay?

00:14:59.620 And they have this, you know, whether it's the FBI, you know, Homeland Security Investigations, DEA, etc.

00:15:04.620 We all use the same exact format when it comes to the supervisor chain, all right?

00:15:11.620 NYPD detectives and FBI agents.

00:15:15.620 They know exactly who they're up against, according to Supervisory Special Agent Fernando Llanos.

00:15:21.620 In New York in the early 90s.

00:15:23.620 So he was the 14 or the supervisor.

00:15:25.620 14 is another term for supervisor because they're GS-14.

00:15:28.620 He was a supervisor over this group.

00:15:31.620 The situation was that you had Colombians in control of the drug trade.

00:15:38.620 The two main drug gangs are Colombia's Medellin and Cali cartels.

00:15:44.620 When 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.

00:15:54.620 With containerized cargo.

00:15:56.620 Okay, so this is very important.

00:15:58.620 Number one, have I done freight drug cases? Yes.

00:16:01.620 I actually had a big one in Miami before I resigned.

00:16:05.620 But, what I do want to draw to your attention is that they have a U.S. Customs Special Agent here.

00:16:11.620 Okay?

00:16:12.620 Now, you guys are probably wondering, well, Customs Special Agent? 0.99

00:16:15.620 Myron, what the fuck are you talking about?

00:16:16.620 Yes, guys, the U.S. Customs Service no longer exists. 0.99

00:16:19.620 It was disbanded, right?

00:16:21.620 After 2003.

00:16:23.620 What happened was they took the Immigration Naturalization Service, a.k.a. INS, and then they took the U.S. Customs Service, right?

00:16:30.620 U.S.C.S., and they combined them into one agency.

00:16:34.620 What did that agency end up being?

00:16:35.620 Immigration 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.

00:16:45.620 But 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.

00:16:52.620 Okay?

00:16:53.620 So, for all intents and purposes, if this was prior to 2003, I would be a Customs Agent.

00:16:58.620 Okay?

00:16:59.620 So, I know Customs very well.

00:17:00.620 But Customs Agents typically, back then, investigated the importation of controlled substances.

00:17:07.620 Okay?

00:17:08.620 Which also falls under Title 21.

00:17:10.620 So, Customs Agents had Title 21 authority.

00:17:13.620 Title 21 is the drug code in the United States.

00:17:16.620 Okay?

00:17:17.620 And 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.

00:17:26.620 Submarines, through submarines, through big freight ships like this.

00:17:32.620 So, and they, they smuggle it in food.

00:17:34.620 They commingle it in with produce.

00:17:36.620 There's so many different ways that they smuggle drugs in.

00:17:39.620 It's, they get very creative, these organizations.

00:17:41.620 But this has been going on for decades, guys.

00:17:45.620 You can conceal the narcotics in just about any type of cargo that you ship into the United States.

00:17:55.620 They've liquefied narcotics and tried to put it into bottles.

00:17:59.620 They've disguised it as dominoes.

00:18:03.620 They've put it into cans of guava paste and cans of peaches where the peaches were completely sealed.

00:18:08.620 Crazy, right?

00:18:09.620 That's crazy.

00:18:10.620 And they ship it in through New York City, one of the busiest ports in the world.

00:18:13.620 In the New York area, we receive approximately 5,000 containers a day.

00:18:19.620 Each of those containers probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of about 18, 20, maybe 30,000 pounds of cargo.

00:18:26.620 So it's extremely difficult.

00:18:28.620 It's like finding a needle in a haystack. 0.85

00:18:30.620 Crazy, guys. 0.95

00:18:31.620 Crazy. 0.98

00:18:32.620 Absolutely crazy.

00:18:33.620 So this is great.

00:18:34.620 This is a fantastic task force that they got set up here.

00:18:36.620 You got the FBI, right?

00:18:37.620 Who, you know, as you guys know, the FBI investigates a multitude of different crimes, right?

00:18:42.620 To include drug trafficking as well.

00:18:43.620 Typically, when it's tied to a sophisticated drug trafficking organization, you got the NYPD, right?

00:18:48.620 Who, obviously, is a state and local agency.

00:18:53.620 However, you know, the NYPD has a strong grasp on the city of New York, okay?

00:18:58.620 You can't escape those guys.

00:18:59.620 And 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.

00:19:10.620 Like 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.

00:19:18.620 So I'll tell you guys this now, from my experience, because I had customs authority, too, as a Homeland Security agent, right?

00:19:24.620 When a ship comes into the United States, FBI agents, NYPD, they can't search that ship, because they don't have customs authority.

00:19:33.620 However, as a customs agent or a customs officer, okay?

00:19:37.620 And which, by the way, guys, the customs officers are the guys that you see in the blue uniforms at the airports, alright?

00:19:41.620 Those are customs officers, CBP, Customs and Border Protection, right?

00:19:44.620 Which used to be the customs service back then.

00:19:46.620 They used to be called customs inspectors, and then you had customs special agents.

00:19:50.620 But now you got HSI, Homeland Security investigation special agents, and CBP, Customs and Border Protection.

00:19:55.620 So they're two different agencies now.

00:19:57.620 But anyway, but it used to be all under one.

00:19:59.620 Customs special agents were essentially the detectives, and the customs inspectors, you could think of them as like the police officers uniform, right?

00:20:05.620 This is prior to 9-11 and prior to 2003 with the Homeland Security Act, right?

00:20:09.620 That got put into play under Bush.

00:20:11.620 But anyway, since FBI agents and NYPD don't have customs authority, customs agents do.

00:20:19.620 So they can go ahead and search a freight ship with zero warrants, okay?

00:20:23.620 Because when something comes into the United States or out of the United States, you absolve yourself of Fourth Amendment protection.

00:20:30.620 The Fourth Amendment is, you know, the right to privacy from search and seizure, right?

00:20:35.620 But that is thrown out the window once you try to come into the United States or out of the United States, okay?

00:20:41.620 Because 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.

00:20:55.620 Okay?

00:20:56.620 So that is a Fourth Amendment, how do I say this?

00:20:59.620 It's a way to get around the Fourth Amendment. 0.81

00:21:01.620 It's through customs authority, okay?

00:21:03.620 Or also commonly known as border search authority, alright?

00:21:07.620 So, 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.

00:21:16.620 You know, it's a non-negotiable. 0.99

00:21:17.620 If you don't have a customs agent on board, what the fuck are you doing? 1.00

00:21:20.620 Are you stupid? 1.00

00:21:21.620 Because FBI does not have customs search authority. 1.00

00:21:25.620 When the drugs hit New York, they are distributed across the country.

00:21:30.620 The task force is determined to shut off this supply of drugs and break the backs of the cartels.

00:21:37.620 Our purpose in the task force was to build cases, try to monitor these individuals, try to infiltrate them, and take them down.

00:21:50.620 To do so, Detective Apolito immerses himself undercover in the shadowy world of drug traffickers, and he needs help.

00:21:59.620 So he's the NYPD guy.

00:22:00.620 The most productive cases involve confidential informants.

00:22:05.620 Because they know what's going on, they're already on the inside.

00:22:08.620 Once the detective develops trust with an informant, doors begin to open.

00:22:13.620 And let me say this, confidential informants are 100% required to do big, complex conspiracy cases.

00:22:21.620 You 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.

00:22:30.620 But you need a cooperator that's in the inside to get you in, especially with these drug conspiracies.

00:22:36.620 Let's continue on.

00:22:38.620 I had one particular confidential informant that was extremely reliable.

00:22:44.620 In December 1991, the informant tells Apolito about a man named Eduardo.

00:22:51.620 He says Eduardo deals in cloned cell phones and might be connected to the Medellin cartel.

00:22:58.620 He knows the Colombian cartels desperately want to do business with the American Mafia.

00:23:05.620 They felt a traditional organized crime.

00:23:08.620 And this is a very common thing, by the way, guys, with Colombian criminal organizations.

00:23:14.620 Cell phones are a big thing because cell phones are expensive in Colombia.

00:23:18.620 So 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.

00:23:30.620 So there definitely is a market for there's like underground smartphone cell phone market in Colombia.

00:23:37.620 So this is a 91. 1.00

00:23:39.620 There was a demand for this shit. 1.00

00:23:40.620 So I could only imagine how much more crazy it is now. 1.00

00:23:42.620 But I knew about my buddy had this case back in 2019.

00:23:46.620 So there's definitely a market for it because it's more expensive in Colombia, especially iPhones.

00:23:50.620 iPhones are expensive everywhere else outside of the United States a lot of times, guys.

00:23:54.620 And this is the undercover agent right here, by the way, not agent, but he's he's an NYPD detective that's assigned to this task force.

00:24:00.620 And he's with NYPD.

00:24:02.620 So he's going to be the main you see here.

00:24:04.620 So as you guys can see, the Colombian criminal organizations want to work with the American Mafia.

00:24:10.620 You know, your traditional La Cosa Nostra Italian mobs. 0.99

00:24:14.620 And for those of you guys are wondering, La Cosa Nostra is Italian or Sicilian.

00:24:19.620 Well, same thing, I think for our thing.

00:24:23.620 OK, which is, you know, which is how the mafia operate in the United States.

00:24:29.620 And obviously in the 90s, the mafia still existed in the 90s, guys.

00:24:32.620 You know, people said, oh, no, they took the mafia down in the 70s.

00:24:36.620 Yeah, they took a couple of families down and everything else like that.

00:24:39.620 But in the 90s, the mafia was definitely still alive and well.

00:24:42.620 OK, maybe not as strong and as powerful as they were in the 70s, but they were still around for sure.

00:24:47.620 And especially in New York.

00:24:49.620 I was here a long time.

00:24:51.620 They know all the ins and outs, all the tricks.

00:24:54.620 They have all the contacts.

00:24:56.620 And that's basically what they were looking for.

00:24:59.620 This could be the opportunity Eppolito's been looking for to get inside the cartel.

00:25:04.620 He decides to go undercover, posing as a member of the mafia in an effort to orchestrate a large scale drug purchase from the cartel.

00:25:14.620 The detective asks the informant to set up a meeting with Eduardo and introduce him as Tony Romano, his undercover identity.

00:25:23.620 The informant goes to Eduardo.

00:25:25.620 Doesn't get more Italian than that right there.

00:25:27.620 Tony Romano.

00:25:28.620 Right.

00:25:29.620 What are your thoughts so far, Dolphys?

00:25:31.620 Anything?

00:25:32.620 Interesting.

00:25:33.620 Like, I'm just tuned in.

00:25:34.620 OK.

00:25:35.620 And by the way, she hasn't watched the episode before, guys.

00:25:36.620 So she's watching it brand new, just like you guys.

00:25:38.620 Yeah.

00:25:39.620 All right.

00:25:40.620 When tells him about Tony Romano, Eduardo seems interested in a mafia connection and agrees

00:25:47.620 to meet.

00:25:52.620 But he warns the informant, if it's a set up, there'll be hell to pay.

00:26:02.620 Undercover work is among the most dangerous assignments an officer takes up.

00:26:06.620 If he's identified as a cop, he and his informant will likely be killed.

00:26:11.620 Every meeting is scripted so the undercover knows what to say and what to avoid.

00:26:18.620 An undercover operation is a carefully orchestrated deal.

00:26:23.620 We just don't send the undercover out there.

00:26:25.620 He doesn't operate in a vacuum.

00:26:27.620 What we do, we have pre-meets before we go out.

00:26:29.620 We have tech plans.

00:26:30.620 We go over things.

00:26:31.620 We try to cover every scenario that possibly could happen.

00:26:36.620 And when we decide to go out, the safety of the undercover is paramount.

00:26:41.620 We have people that are assigned strictly to watch the undercover, provide security for

00:26:47.620 them.

00:26:48.620 You try to control the meet location.

00:26:49.620 You're going to pick a location that you're somewhat familiar with.

00:26:52.620 C-13.

00:26:53.620 Okay.

00:26:54.620 What he's referring to, guys, is there's something called a, you know, operation briefing.

00:26:58.620 Okay.

00:26:59.620 And at the briefing, anytime you're going to do any type of enforcement action, whether

00:27:02.620 it's an undercover meet, you're meeting with bad guys, you're, you're, you know, doing

00:27:07.620 a takedown, you're doing a surveillance, whatever it may be.

00:27:10.620 These are all considered enforcement actions for most law enforcement agencies.

00:27:13.620 Okay.

00:27:14.620 Um, and what you're going to do is you're going to do a briefing.

00:27:16.620 Everyone that's going to be involved in the briefing is going to be there.

00:27:19.620 Uh, you're going to turn, you know, delegate roles, right?

00:27:21.620 So let's say it's an arrest warrant.

00:27:22.620 Hey, you guys are going to be a perimeter.

00:27:23.620 You guys can be the entry team.

00:27:25.620 Uh, you guys are going to be, um, the, uh, the, uh, the mobile team, which is basically

00:27:29.620 maybe you identify people that are there.

00:27:31.620 Uh, then you're going to have someone else that an interview team, uh, the, um, a delivery

00:27:35.620 team, you know, or basically like a driver team where guys like transport the bad guy to

00:27:39.620 wherever they need to go, especially with these big operations where you're arresting

00:27:43.620 50, a hundred people at a time.

00:27:44.620 You got a command center, you got the case agent there delegating roles, everything else

00:27:47.620 like that.

00:27:48.620 So that's what happens at the briefing.

00:27:49.620 You're setting everything up.

00:27:50.620 So for now that we know what an operation briefing is, let's talk about operation briefing

00:27:53.620 when it pertains to undercover operation.

00:27:55.620 So what the NYPD detective detective was saying was, is correct.

00:27:58.620 You are going to have a meeting, but it's going to be a little bit more detailed than

00:28:01.620 that.

00:28:02.620 A lot of times you can identify who the meeting is going to be with.

00:28:04.620 Um, you're going to have the, the, the, the confidential informant, uh, like meet the

00:28:09.620 entire briefing team.

00:28:10.620 So everyone knows who the confidential informant is.

00:28:12.620 So there's no, you know, accidental shootings or accidents or whatever may be.

00:28:15.620 Then the undercover is obviously going to be there as well.

00:28:18.620 Um, there's going to be an extraction team.

00:28:20.620 Okay.

00:28:21.620 And what I mean by that is that you're going to have four to five agents, six agents in

00:28:25.620 another vehicle.

00:28:26.620 Their only job is to watch the undercover.

00:28:27.620 And if anything happens, they're there to go in, get him out.

00:28:31.620 That's the whole thing.

00:28:32.620 Okay.

00:28:33.620 So you're going to have your surveillance team.

00:28:34.620 Then you're going to have your extraction teams as well.

00:28:36.620 So undercover operations are very dangerous.

00:28:39.620 So, um, you know, so you're making sure that the undercover is wired up.

00:28:42.620 You can hear everything going on, right?

00:28:44.620 They have, you know, so the most sophisticated equipment on.

00:28:47.620 So like whether, you know, some kind of micro, uh, uh, microphone.

00:28:50.620 Some small microphones that you can hear what the hell is going on,

00:28:53.620 how the conversation is going.

00:28:54.620 Obviously it's transmitting while simultaneously recording at the same time.

00:28:57.620 So you can use that as evidence, but more importantly,

00:28:59.620 you need to be able to hear what the hell is going on.

00:29:01.620 And if there is an issue, you know, a lot of times the undercover,

00:29:04.620 this is all public information.

00:29:05.620 There'll be a safe word that the undercover or a phrase,

00:29:08.620 which will be like the distress signal.

00:29:10.620 He'll say something like, obviously you're not going to, it's not help,

00:29:12.620 but let's say to make things simple, it's help.

00:29:14.620 Then the extraction team knows to go in, grab him, get him out,

00:29:18.620 deal with any perpetrators that might be trying to harm the undercover.

00:29:21.620 And then the rest of the surveillance units converging as well.

00:29:23.620 Obviously that's the last case, worst case scenario.

00:29:25.620 You don't never want that to happen because now the case is blown,

00:29:28.620 but you have to take these prerequisite,

00:29:30.620 these prerequisite steps to ensure that the undercover and the confidential

00:29:33.620 informant are both safe because you are in a situation where it's

00:29:37.620 extremely dangerous.

00:29:38.620 You're dealing with criminals.

00:29:39.620 You know, a lot of times the criminals are going to do,

00:29:41.620 try to do counter surveillance.

00:29:42.620 They're going to try to see if they make the guy, 0.96

00:29:44.620 if he's a law enforcement officer.

00:29:46.620 Um, and you know, you gotta be ready for any type of situation.

00:29:49.620 So these briefings are literally life saving.

00:29:52.620 You need to have them right for any type of enforcement action,

00:29:55.620 whether it's undercover.

00:29:56.620 I don't care if it's,

00:29:57.620 you're just showing up and sending undercover in to go buy a couple

00:30:00.620 grams of cocaine from someone that he's dealt deal with for a year.

00:30:03.620 You have to always have a briefing.

00:30:05.620 And we used to have a rule with HSI.

00:30:06.620 Most agencies that have this too, if you don't go to the briefing,

00:30:09.620 you can't go to the operation.

00:30:10.620 And I used to have that as a case agent, strict rules.

00:30:12.620 If agent was like, yo, I want to help out, whatever.

00:30:14.620 If you didn't come to my brief, I'd be like, no, you can't help.

00:30:16.620 Because last thing I want is like,

00:30:18.620 he doesn't know who the undercover looks like.

00:30:19.620 He doesn't know who the informant is. 0.98

00:30:20.620 And then some bullshit happens and he don't know what he's doing. 0.85

00:30:23.620 So these meetings are extremely important guys. 0.99

00:30:26.620 Very, very important.

00:30:27.620 Uh, let's continue on.

00:30:29.620 He decides to have Eppelito meet Eduardo in a local bar.

00:30:33.620 Set up outside.

00:30:36.620 And this is smart, obviously, to, you know, hold your undercover,

00:30:38.620 your first undercover meeting in public somewhere.

00:30:40.620 Right?

00:30:41.620 Just in case.

00:30:42.620 Prevailed, you know, them arriving and going in.

00:30:46.620 But we also sent agents and detectives, you know, inside.

00:30:50.620 Very common to do that when you're going to meet somewhere,

00:30:54.620 you have some undercovers and some other agents in there,

00:30:57.620 you know, wearing plain clothes, whatever,

00:30:58.620 watching what the hell is going on.

00:31:02.620 The key is never appearing too anxious.

00:31:05.620 It was best not to jump right into the drugs.

00:31:10.620 Cause a lot of times when you do that, they raise up on you.

00:31:13.620 And they think you're the cops or the feds and they back off.

00:31:17.620 So I figured I'd start off small, start off low,

00:31:19.620 and try to do some cellular fraud.

00:31:21.620 Smart.

00:31:22.620 This is how I used to do my undercover cases as well.

00:31:25.620 You never work.

00:31:26.620 You always work your way up.

00:31:27.620 Okay.

00:31:28.620 You never start with, all right, man,

00:31:29.620 I'm trying to buy some crystal meth or some heroin or some cocaine.

00:31:31.620 No, no, no, no, no, no. 1.00

00:31:32.620 You always have to start with some bullshit up front. 0.99

00:31:35.620 A lot of the time it's marijuana. 0.99

00:31:36.620 But in this case, you know, 1.00

00:31:37.620 they're going with an even more bullshit crime, 0.99

00:31:39.620 which is, you know, cell phone fraud. 0.99

00:31:41.620 Okay.

00:31:42.620 Business with this guy.

00:31:45.620 Apolito suggests a deal for clone cell phones,

00:31:48.620 reprogrammed phones that use an unwitting customer's service for free.

00:31:53.620 He says he needs them for his mob activities.

00:31:57.620 And I also told him that I don't want to jump right into the drug aspect

00:32:01.620 because I don't know who you are.

00:32:04.620 You know, so let's do this.

00:32:05.620 And if we both come out of it.

00:32:06.620 Okay.

00:32:07.620 Yeah.

00:32:08.620 We can move on.

00:32:09.620 So a little bit of psychology there.

00:32:12.620 So basically guys, what's going on here is they're doing a controlled purchase.

00:32:16.620 Okay. 0.99

00:32:17.620 Of bullshit cell phones, essentially from the Colombians. 1.00

00:32:20.620 All right. 1.00

00:32:21.620 And they're doing this for a couple of reasons.

00:32:23.620 Number one, to establish that they have the funds, right?

00:32:25.620 That's very important to show that.

00:32:26.620 Yes, we got money.

00:32:27.620 We can make this happen.

00:32:28.620 So social proof then also to show trust.

00:32:31.620 Hey, I'm going to buy these cellular telephones from you.

00:32:33.620 And you guys aren't going to get busted.

00:32:35.620 And then number three, so that they can go ahead and move their way up, right?

00:32:39.620 The chain to get involved into more nefarious activities.

00:32:43.620 All right.

00:32:44.620 But once the money starts rolling in, then you can start slowly start to get yourself into the organization.

00:32:49.620 Eduardo agrees to clone the phones for a price.

00:32:57.620 After the meet, Eppolito debriefs the task force.

00:33:00.620 By now, intelligence agents have uncovered more details about the drug dealer.

00:33:06.620 Eduardo was considered like a street dealer or a mule.

00:33:13.620 He wasn't well placed within any organization.

00:33:18.620 He's a guy that would broker deals, try to hook you up with somebody, you know, stuff like that.

00:33:25.620 He definitely wasn't our main focus in this whole investigation.

00:33:29.620 And we wanted to use him as a stepping stone to go higher up or go up the ladder.

00:33:35.620 Okay.

00:33:36.620 Let me, let me just break this down for y'all real quick.

00:33:38.620 Cause I don't, this is extremely important.

00:33:39.620 You guys need to all know this in the criminal world. 0.97

00:33:42.620 When you do investigations, you're going to have guys like this, do like Eduardo all over the fucking place. 0.98

00:33:47.620 Okay. 0.95

00:33:48.620 And what these guys do is they don't really have any type of like real criminal affiliation.

00:33:55.620 What they do is, is they know guys.

00:33:58.620 Okay.

00:33:59.620 So they don't necessarily have the drugs.

00:34:01.620 They don't necessarily have the weapons.

00:34:03.620 They don't necessarily have the cell phones or the fraud or the scamming device or whatever the hell that you need.

00:34:07.620 But they know someone that does.

00:34:09.620 And what they do is they go ahead and they put, they insert themselves in between you and that person.

00:34:15.620 They broker the deal and they get some off the top, right?

00:34:18.620 That's how the, that's how it goes typically.

00:34:20.620 Now, as you build more and more trust, sometimes they'll introduce you to their connect, right?

00:34:26.620 Especially when you're trying to get bigger and bigger quantities of whatever the hell you're trying to do.

00:34:29.620 Whether 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.

00:34:37.620 Or the person that he's getting the stuff from doesn't trust him to provide.

00:34:41.620 Okay.

00:34:42.620 That's how you get involved. 1.00

00:34:43.620 But in the criminal world, when I was an agent, you would always deal with fucking ass clowns like this who were middlemen. 1.00

00:34:49.620 Okay. 0.99

00:34:50.620 And you need to get around these guys as soon as possible.

00:34:52.620 And I'm talking to you guys now as a former agent. 0.99

00:34:54.620 My 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. 1.00

00:35:01.620 Nine 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. 0.99

00:35:07.620 You 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. 0.81

00:35:15.620 And then eventually they'll get you to their connect or their source.

00:35:19.620 Right.

00:35:20.620 But 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.

00:35:26.620 Okay. 0.99

00:35:27.620 But the goal is you got to get this guy out of the fucking picture. 0.99

00:35:31.620 Well, 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. 0.99

00:35:37.620 Okay. 0.96

00:35:38.620 Because 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. 0.98

00:35:47.620 Okay. 0.99

00:35:48.620 They just know the real criminals.

00:35:50.620 Claiming he's satisfied with the clone phone deal.

00:35:54.620 Eppolito takes the case to the next level.

00:35:57.620 He sets up another deal with Eduardo, this time for drugs.

00:36:02.620 The detective has to maintain his mobster image.

00:36:06.620 You basically have to show credibility.

00:36:11.620 You have to be able to convince the people that you're who you say you are.

00:36:16.620 In doing so, it means you have to walk the walk, talk the talk.

00:36:23.620 Authorities need to play it cool. 0.98

00:36:26.620 They don't want to order too much cocaine right away, which could tip Eduardo off.

00:36:31.620 In fact, that's a red flag.

00:36:33.620 So what we decided to do was just order a small amount.

00:36:36.620 So one kilogram of cocaine is what we ordered from Eduardo.

00:36:40.620 Okay.

00:36:41.620 Now that's a lot.

00:36:42.620 I ain't gonna lie.

00:36:43.620 That is a lot guys.

00:36:45.620 One kilo of cocaine is quite a bit.

00:36:48.620 Um, but obviously, um, I guarantee you that they probably had done like maybe a deal or two after that cell phone thing.

00:36:55.620 Um, 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.

00:37:04.620 So it wouldn't sound crazy for them to say, well, let me get a kilo.

00:37:08.620 Okay.

00:37:09.620 Um, and you guys also got to keep in mind as well that, um, the mafia.

00:37:13.620 Okay.

00:37:14.620 And I don't know if you guys know this, but the mafia typically frowned upon drug trafficking.

00:37:17.620 Okay.

00:37:18.620 Back in the olden days, right? 0.80

00:37:19.620 The, you know, the Michael Francis days, whatever the OG guys, um, selling drugs could get you killed. 0.58

00:37:25.620 Okay.

00:37:26.620 It was looked at as a dirty business.

00:37:27.620 It would brought a lot of attention on you.

00:37:28.620 As I discussed earlier with you guys, drug trafficking attracts attention from every agency.

00:37:33.620 Cause everyone investigates drugs.

00:37:34.620 You got, you know, staying local narcotic squads on you.

00:37:37.620 You got the feds on you. 0.99

00:37:38.620 FBI, DEA, ATF, um, customs back then, or Homeland Security investigations, you know, uh, fucking everyone and their mom investigates drug trafficking, man. 0.98

00:37:45.620 So the mafia was smart enough to understand that drug trafficking is a dirty business. 0.98

00:37:49.620 Okay.

00:37:50.620 And it brings violence with it.

00:37:51.620 Okay.

00:37:52.620 A lot of the times, right?

00:37:53.620 Obviously it's not like the mafia weren't beating the shadow of people, whatever, but it brings even more violence.

00:37:57.620 A higher propensity for violence.

00:37:58.620 All right.

00:37:59.620 You know, it's one thing to, you know, be loan sharking people and busting kneecaps. 1.00

00:38:03.620 It's nothing to be, be fucking ordering Sicarios to run after people and kill them. 0.99

00:38:06.620 You know what I'm saying? 0.99

00:38:07.620 So that the mafia always looked at it like it was a dirty business.

00:38:10.620 So for him, right.

00:38:12.620 Coming in as a mob boss or, or as a mafia guy, a maid guy, um, you know, him asking for a kilo of cocaine, though a lot.

00:38:21.620 There was probably some conversations had where Eduardo said, I got Columbia connects.

00:38:26.620 If you say you got Columbia connects, okay, cool.

00:38:28.620 Can you get me a kilo? 1.00

00:38:29.620 Cause I can't be meeting up with you all the time doing fucking drug deals. 1.00

00:38:32.620 I'm a part of the mafia. 1.00

00:38:33.620 You know, this just could get me killed.

00:38:35.620 This can't get me whacked for doing drug trafficking.

00:38:37.620 So a kilo is a lot, you know, no one is going to do their first buy for a kilo.

00:38:42.620 And if they did do it for the first time, obviously, you know, they're, they're summarizing the case here.

00:38:46.620 Um, if it was the first buy, then I guarantee you there were some conversations that led up to that because a kilo cocaine guys.

00:38:51.620 Um, when I was an agent back down in South Texas was about $28,000, you know, uh, 20, 28 K.

00:38:58.620 Um, 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?

00:39:07.620 So back then it was probably right around the same thing, maybe 30, 40 K back then in New York city.

00:39:12.620 So, uh, you know, kilos quite a bit.

00:39:17.620 Eduardo comes through with a single kilo, a good sign.

00:39:22.620 He may be connected to a cartel.

00:39:24.620 Oh no, that's not just a good sign.

00:39:26.620 That is a sign.

00:39:27.620 If you're, if you're getting kilogram amounts, you are now what I would consider a higher level drug trafficker by far. 1.00

00:39:32.620 You know, you're not going to get kilos as a fucking bum. 0.97

00:39:35.620 And 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. 0.99

00:39:40.620 Um, that's almost life or death type shit.

00:39:43.620 If you're an undercover and you purport yourself to be a certain person, you have to be that person. 0.98

00:39:48.620 You need to look like the role, sound like the role, even smell like the role.

00:39:52.620 Okay.

00:39:53.620 Um, and I'll tell you guys a quick little story real fast.

00:39:56.620 Um, you know, we'll keep going and then I'll tell you guys a story after.

00:39:59.620 Cause I want, I want to keep going through with this documentary.

00:40:01.620 So I don't off track here, but it's a, it's a good story.

00:40:05.620 Let's not stand up.

00:40:07.620 It's beautiful.

00:40:11.620 Undercover officers follow Eduardo after the deal.

00:40:15.620 They need to determine if the man's really connected to a cartel.

00:40:20.620 Someone who can lead them up the chain of command or just another small time dealer who cannot help further the investigation.

00:40:28.620 Okay. 0.99

00:40:29.620 This is fucking critical guys. 0.98

00:40:32.620 And I, I wish the narrator, this is this man. 0.99

00:40:34.620 Yo, like the goddamn video because only on Fetty. 0.98

00:40:37.620 Are you guys going to get sauce like this? 0.99

00:40:38.620 Why it's so important?

00:40:39.620 The 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.

00:40:49.620 You need to follow the person you bought it from immediately after.

00:40:54.620 Why?

00:40:55.620 Well, 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.

00:41:03.620 But 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. 0.93

00:41:11.620 And 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. 0.95

00:41:16.620 Okay. 0.96

00:41:17.620 Because 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.

00:41:22.620 Okay.

00:41:23.620 It's someone else that that person was able to get the drugs from.

00:41:26.620 Hence 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.

00:41:32.620 Suppliers and guys that are actually involved, you know, knee deep in the crime that they're involved in typically deal in that crime alone.

00:41:39.620 What do I mean by this?

00:41:40.620 If I'm a high level drug trafficker, I'm dealing drugs only.

00:41:43.620 Typically, I'm not going to be also involved in arms trafficking and credit card fraud or whatever.

00:41:49.620 I 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.

00:41:58.620 If 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.

00:42:04.620 Right.

00:42:05.620 That's my expertise.

00:42:06.620 That's what I'm going to do.

00:42:07.620 So this guy, Eduardo, right, a telltale sign that he's a middleman.

00:42:10.620 And again, guys, like the video because ain't nobody going to give you all sauce like this. 0.97

00:42:13.620 The telltale sign someone's a fucking middleman is when they're doing all types of different crimes.

00:42:17.620 OK, 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. 0.98

00:42:22.620 So 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. 0.55

00:42:34.620 They bought the kilogram, right, a control purchase. 0.96

00:42:37.620 He goes after the purchase is done.

00:42:39.620 He's got to pay off his supplier. 1.00

00:42:41.620 All right, because a kilo like that, they're going to be on his ass. 0.99

00:42:44.620 All right, whoever is giving him a kilo of cocaine is going to be connected. 0.99

00:42:46.620 So they go ahead and do surveillance and follow him back.

00:42:49.620 And this is what happened.

00:42:50.620 And we used to do this all the time as well.

00:42:51.620 After we did our drug trafficking cases or we did our control purchases, I had a big meth case out of Texas.

00:42:57.620 And 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.

00:43:06.620 Nobody knows, first of all, if in fact we really do have a narcotic smuggling organization.

00:43:12.620 There seems to be hints of it.

00:43:14.620 There seems to be smoke.

00:43:15.620 And what we're trying to do is see if, in fact, there is a fire there.

00:43:18.620 Investigators spot a man and a woman who might be associated with Eduardo going in and out of a house.

00:43:27.620 Hopefully authorities can ID the pair later.

00:43:31.620 This 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.

00:43:41.620 Absolutely.

00:43:42.620 Surveillance is non-negotiable, baby.

00:43:44.620 You gotta, you gotta do the leg work.

00:43:48.620 The C-13 task force also checks the purity percentage of the cocaine Eduardo sold them.

00:43:54.620 It was extremely high quality.

00:43:55.620 It was in the high nineties, which was like telling you that it's, you're basically into the source, which is what we needed.

00:44:03.620 Pure cocaine means no middlemen have cut it down yet.

00:44:07.620 It looks like Eduardo is a good lead into the cartels.

00:44:12.620 Very, very important.

00:44:14.620 After you see some drugs, you have to test it so that you can figure out how close you are to the source.

00:44:19.620 The pure it is that typically the better, um, the, the higher probability that you're closer to your source.

00:44:25.620 A 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.

00:44:35.620 When I was doing my, my methamphetamine case, uh, out of Texas.

00:44:38.620 Okay.

00:44:39.620 We were, we're, and I will do a breakdown for y'all on this case.

00:44:42.620 You guys have heard me refer to it a million times.

00:44:44.620 It was probably one of the, it was probably one of the biggest cases I've ever done. 1.00

00:44:47.620 We had dirty cops of all those crazy shit, but long story short. 0.99

00:44:50.620 And that one will probably take two to three hours for me to break down for y'all. 0.99

00:44:53.620 But anyway, when I was doing my methamphetamine case, we were seizing methamphetamine.

00:44:58.620 Excuse me.

00:45:00.620 We were seizing methamphetamine guys that was coming back 97% pure.

00:45:04.620 Now 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.

00:45:14.620 To create methamphetamine are heavily regulated in United States.

00:45:17.620 Okay.

00:45:18.620 If you watch the show breaking bad, you do this, right.

00:45:20.620 So the only way that you're going to get meth that pure is, is going to come from Mexico.

00:45:24.620 Okay.

00:45:25.620 And they call it Mexican super meth. 0.86

00:45:26.620 They call it ice.

00:45:27.620 It looks like glass.

00:45:29.620 Okay.

00:45:30.620 And, um, when I was doing my case, I knew it was coming from, uh, Michoacan, right.

00:45:36.620 Which is a, a, a area in Mexico that is notorious for having, you know, meth labs and all the other stuff.

00:45:42.620 So it was coming from there.

00:45:44.620 And 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.

00:45:54.620 Okay.

00:45:55.620 But when you have drugs that pure, it's a great sign, right.

00:45:59.620 That you have a, a, a, a sophisticated drug traffic organization.

00:46:03.620 And more importantly, you're close to the source, which makes your case sexier because now you can articulate in your case.

00:46:09.620 I need funding for surveillance, for overtime, for equipment, et cetera, because I'm getting drugs that are 90 plus percent pure.

00:46:17.620 Okay.

00:46:18.620 And just so you guys understand in the, in the federal system, anything over 80% is considered pure.

00:46:23.620 Okay. 0.98

00:46:24.620 So if you're getting in the nineties, that's fucking insane. 0.99

00:46:26.620 That's insane. 0.99

00:46:27.620 All right.

00:46:28.620 Um, and then for them to get cocaine in the nineties in New York city is crazy.

00:46:33.620 All right.

00:46:34.620 So 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.

00:46:39.620 Cause New York city.

00:46:40.620 Right.

00:46:41.620 Is obviously up north.

00:46:42.620 Most of the time, by the, by the time drugs get up to New York city, it's been stepped on two or three times in the Carolinas.

00:46:46.620 Right.

00:46:47.620 Typically coming from Miami or, uh, or, or Atlanta or Texas, whatever.

00:46:51.620 It's been stepped on a few times by the time it gets up there into New York so that they can make more money.

00:46:54.620 All right. 0.86

00:46:55.620 So if you're getting drugs that pure in New York city, that's a damn good sign. 0.95

00:47:01.620 That point. 0.81

00:47:02.620 Oh, also purity affects sentencing.

00:47:04.620 The more pure the drugs, like I said, 80% or above, it significantly increases the time that the drug traffers spend in, in jail.

00:47:11.620 So that's also very important for the prosecutors because prosecutors get awarded based on how much time their defendants get.

00:47:18.620 So 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.

00:47:25.620 And then that goes into sentencing guidelines as well.

00:47:27.620 So that's another important factors, uh, to it.

00:47:30.620 You have anything doll face?

00:47:32.620 Um, the, um, the agency, like how they set it up is like smart.

00:47:37.620 Like I like the fact, like how they did the briefing, like they prepared a person that's actually going into the situation.

00:47:44.620 Yeah.

00:47:45.620 So they don't go in there blind.

00:47:46.620 I didn't even know that, that, that they do that.

00:47:48.620 Yeah.

00:47:49.620 It's a lot of work, man.

00:47:50.620 It's a lot of work.

00:47:51.620 Yes.

00:47:52.620 And these cartels smart too.

00:47:54.620 Yep.

00:47:55.620 Absolutely.

00:47:56.620 All right.

00:47:57.620 Uh, we'll get back into it.

00:47:58.620 And you said, what's up?

00:47:59.620 Yeah.

00:48:00.620 Eduardo's the middleman.

00:48:01.620 Edward is the plug.

00:48:02.620 Yeah.

00:48:03.620 I had somebody that could possibly take us to the types of individuals of drug traffickers that the task force was geared to target.

00:48:12.620 It's the first milestone in what will be a long and dangerous investigation.

00:48:19.620 In 1991, New York's C-13 task force tries to infiltrate a Colombian drug cartel, beginning with a low level broker named Eduardo.

00:48:31.620 After one successful cocaine buy, Eduardo asks undercover detective Richard Eppolito to meet the drug dealers Eduardo represents.

00:48:40.620 So he orchestrated a meet with, uh, a female individual known as, uh, his street name was Monica. 0.93

00:48:48.620 They would never give anybody their real name.

00:48:51.620 Uh, and this is common guys, because, um, as you want to go ahead and get more and more drugs, right?

00:48:57.620 If they sold the kilo, it went well at this point.

00:49:00.620 Now he's probably going to start doing multi kilogram deals, right?

00:49:03.620 Now 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.

00:49:13.620 So 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.

00:49:22.620 All right.

00:49:23.620 So 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.

00:49:29.620 So, uh, let's go ahead and continue on.

00:49:33.620 Hope you guys are enjoying this.

00:49:34.620 Please like the video.

00:49:35.620 Cause you guys aren't going to get it insight like this anywhere else.

00:49:37.620 I fear that it would be identified.

00:49:39.620 As with every meat backup agents, cover up a leader. 1.00

00:49:43.620 They recognize Monica is the woman seen at the house.

00:49:47.620 Eduardo entered after the first buy.

00:49:49.620 When I was introduced to Monica, it just meant stepping up on one extra step in a ladder. 1.00

00:49:55.620 Eppolito must constantly maintain the charade in character as Tony Romano, a member of the mafia.

00:50:04.620 He explains, he has connections and customs and can move shipments through the ports.

00:50:10.620 Agents spot a man watching the meat.

00:50:13.620 They realize he's the other person seen at the house, special agent, Fernando Llanos.

00:50:19.620 Colombians as sophisticated as they were.

00:50:22.620 And obviously this is very important because remember guys.

00:50:24.620 So now he says, yo, we got a customs guy.

00:50:26.620 Why?

00:50:27.620 Well, because now they have a customs agent on the task force so they can go ahead and say,

00:50:31.620 yo, we can facilitate the safe entry of drugs into the United States.

00:50:36.620 Okay.

00:50:37.620 So that's huge to a Columbia drug trafficking organization.

00:50:42.620 So let's keep playing.

00:50:43.620 Let's, let's keep going. 0.99

00:50:44.620 Hope you guys are enjoying the goddamn video. 0.99

00:50:45.620 Enjoying the content. 0.99

00:50:46.620 Like the video.

00:50:47.620 You ain't going to get no more stuff like this anywhere else.

00:50:49.620 Oftentimes we conduct counter surveillance.

00:50:51.620 This was, you know, a standard operating procedure for them.

00:50:54.620 So we were wary of individuals that could be looking out to, you know, for law enforcement.

00:50:59.620 It's a preliminary meeting.

00:51:01.620 No real decisions are made.

00:51:03.620 But Monica appears interested. 0.91

00:51:05.620 She wants to meet again to discuss details with her partner, Willie.

00:51:10.620 When she and Eduardo leave, backup tails them to ID Monica's car.

00:51:18.620 Later in an effort to ID her, the task force has a uniformed officer conduct a routine traffic stop on the car.

00:51:24.620 The driver is the man who watched the meat in the restaurant.

00:51:31.620 The officer gets IDs on the pair.

00:51:36.620 The man is Gustavo Valencia.

00:51:42.620 And Monica's real name is Rocio Londano. 1.00

00:51:51.620 Investigators run the names and discover both are involved with Colombian cartels.

00:51:58.620 All right.

00:51:59.620 So this is really cool that they did this.

00:52:01.620 I've done this myself.

00:52:02.620 So after a meet, right?

00:52:04.620 And you don't know who the people are.

00:52:05.620 You had an undercover, an informant meet, whatever.

00:52:07.620 You could go ahead and do like a like a T-stop, a traffic stop like this where, you know, hey, they were speeding.

00:52:14.620 They, you know, break some some, you know, traffic law, whatever it may be.

00:52:18.620 And you go ahead and you get them identified.

00:52:21.620 Right.

00:52:22.620 Oh, OK, no, we'll let you off of the warning, whatever.

00:52:24.620 But bam, at least now you know who the hell they are.

00:52:26.620 OK, this is also because now the person that they know was involved in the counter surveillance.

00:52:30.620 Hey, this guy's kind of fishy.

00:52:31.620 He's looking at this meeting a little too hard.

00:52:32.620 What's going on?

00:52:33.620 That's considered counter surveillance.

00:52:34.620 Now he's the one that's actually driving that he was the one that drove the chick there.

00:52:38.620 Now they got them both identified.

00:52:39.620 They 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.

00:52:46.620 Right. So now they got them fully identified.

00:52:48.620 They know who the source is.

00:52:49.620 And now we can move the investigation forward.

00:52:52.620 Right.

00:52:57.620 Vicious worldwide leaders of the drug trade.

00:53:04.620 With this information, the C-13 task force opens an official federal conspiracy case and brings in U.S. Customs from the reports.

00:53:13.620 All right. So bam.

00:53:14.620 Now they bring in U.S. Customs agents, which is huge.

00:53:17.620 You need this. You know what I mean?

00:53:18.620 So so at this point, they're probably now that they got people identified, they got a kilo of cocaine.

00:53:24.620 They probably went to the U.S. attorney's office, got the case officially accepted by the AUSAs.

00:53:29.620 Right. Because like I told you guys before, federal prosecutors are extremely picky on the investigations that they pick and take.

00:53:35.620 And yeah, and they're probably going to OCDF the case, which is why they brought U.S. Customs Service in.

00:53:42.620 Because, well, you know what?

00:53:44.620 Actually, I already already know how this case began.

00:53:46.620 C-13.

00:53:47.620 So I already know it's going to be an FBI case, right?

00:53:49.620 FBI is involved with NYPD.

00:53:51.620 They're working the case together.

00:53:52.620 They want to make the case OCDF.

00:53:53.620 To make a case OCDF, you need another federal agency involved.

00:53:56.620 Well, who's the best agency to bring in on a, you know, a drug trafficking investigation, especially that involves import,

00:54:02.620 involves importation, U.S. Customs Service.

00:54:05.620 So bang, they bring in the U.S. Customs Service.

00:54:07.620 Now they can make this case OCDF.

00:54:09.620 Once you make the case OCDF, you're going to go ahead and get a bunch of federal funding.

00:54:12.620 You're going to get more prestige.

00:54:13.620 The case is going to be prioritized and the U.S. attorney's office is going to be prioritized in your office.

00:54:18.620 When 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.

00:54:25.620 Right.

00:54:26.620 Remember, guys, in a big, busy field office like New York, everyone is doing cases.

00:54:29.620 So you need to be able to set your case apart from everybody else and get the resources that you need.

00:54:33.620 Cases are not cheap to do.

00:54:35.620 You know, they're very difficult.

00:54:36.620 They take time.

00:54:37.620 They take surveillance.

00:54:38.620 They take manpower.

00:54:39.620 Okay.

00:54:40.620 And they take resources.

00:54:41.620 So 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.

00:54:48.620 And 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.

00:54:56.620 And they're going to be involved and they're going to help fund things as well.

00:54:59.620 When I work with the DEA, there were times where I would fund drug buys and then there were times they would fund drug buys.

00:55:03.620 We bought guns.

00:55:04.620 We had ATF involved.

00:55:05.620 They would fund gun buys.

00:55:06.620 So we were all working together, levering each other's assets, authorities, abilities, money, you know, for purchase of evidence.

00:55:14.620 And we were all working together to make the case happen.

00:55:16.620 So 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.

00:55:24.620 Okay.

00:55:25.620 And NYPD is a state agency.

00:55:26.620 They don't have the same authorities as well.

00:55:28.620 So so this is basically more than likely how this case developed and became the way that it is now.

00:55:34.620 You know, we kind of jumped the gun a little bit by saying, hey, Customs Service is going to be involved in the investigation.

00:55:39.620 But I already knew it as soon as they had a customs agent speaking about the investigation.

00:55:42.620 They were going to be involved.

00:55:43.620 But remember, guys, U.S. Customs Service no longer exists.

00:55:46.620 Right.

00:55:47.620 This is pre 2003 after 9-11 and the Homeland Security at the formation of Department of Homeland Security.

00:55:53.620 U.S. Customs Service used to be under the Department of Treasury. 0.98

00:55:56.620 Customs like the fucking video, by the way. 0.99

00:55:59.620 Right. 1.00

00:56:00.620 You're going to get this kind of knowledge anywhere else.

00:56:02.620 Agent Phil Spinelli confirms Valencia's street name is Willie.

00:56:06.620 Willie had been identified as being at least a distant cousin of Pablo Escobar.

00:56:11.620 Okay.

00:56:12.620 Bam.

00:56:13.620 Now I know when they ran the names.

00:56:15.620 What happened was they probably got hits that U.S. Customs Service were looking at this couple as well.

00:56:20.620 So they have a meeting.

00:56:22.620 Hey, you guys are working this target.

00:56:24.620 Yeah, we're working that target.

00:56:25.620 What do you have on him?

00:56:26.620 What do you have on him?

00:56:27.620 You know what?

00:56:28.620 We're working the same targets.

00:56:29.620 Let's work together.

00:56:30.620 And this is how I actually did a lot of good cases myself.

00:56:31.620 I would look at it.

00:56:32.620 I'd come.

00:56:33.620 I'd identify a target.

00:56:34.620 And then I would go ahead and I'd run his name through, you know, the law enforcement databases.

00:56:38.620 And I'd see like an FBI record.

00:56:39.620 Right.

00:56:40.620 See an ATF record.

00:56:41.620 I see a DEA record.

00:56:42.620 Hey, we're looking at the, you know, you know, if, if it encountered it.

00:56:44.620 If it encountered a contact special agent, blah, blah, blah from the DEA or contact special agent, blah.

00:56:48.620 So I'd be like, okay, cool.

00:56:49.620 I'd get that agent's contact information.

00:56:51.620 I'd call them.

00:56:52.620 I'd hit up my, like our FBI liaison or I'd hit up my DEA liaison, whatever.

00:56:56.620 Cause obviously there's guys that assign to different task forces.

00:56:59.620 I hit up a guy that I know would know someone over at that agency.

00:57:01.620 Hey, can you put me in contact with this guy?

00:57:03.620 Yeah.

00:57:04.620 Here's his number.

00:57:05.620 Boom.

00:57:06.620 I call him up.

00:57:07.620 Hey, you know, this is special agent, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:57:08.620 With, you know, my already doxed.

00:57:09.620 You guys already doxed my name anyway.

00:57:11.620 I'm with Homeland Security Investigations out of Miami, Florida, or at the time Laredo, Texas.

00:57:15.620 I see that you have a record on this guy, blah, blah, blah.

00:57:17.620 Uh, you know, would you like to meet sometime and talk about the case?

00:57:20.620 Cool.

00:57:21.620 Yeah.

00:57:22.620 And if it's a case that they're actively working, they're going to want to meet with you because

00:57:24.620 they're going to want to go ahead and identify that guy and figure out what the hell's going on.

00:57:26.620 You know, you meet with the agent, right?

00:57:28.620 If he's cool guy, whatever.

00:57:30.620 And they're like, you propose, Hey, let's work this case together.

00:57:32.620 Um, and then bang, you work the case together.

00:57:34.620 So custom service already had these guys on their radar.

00:57:37.620 And they knew that one of the guys was a distant cousin of Pablo Escobar. 0.89

00:57:41.620 So this is why the FBI was probably like, damn, we need to bring these guys involved into the investigation. 0.74

00:57:46.620 They've already been looking at these dudes. 0.96

00:57:47.620 Okay.

00:57:48.620 And this is how law enforcement works.

00:57:50.620 A lot of the times, uh, where everyone is doing their own investigations.

00:57:53.620 You'll identify somebody and then you'll figure out another agency is working it.

00:57:56.620 And then bam, you get involved and work together.

00:57:58.620 Does that always go that way?

00:57:59.620 No.

00:58:00.620 Sometimes you'll get into fights where you don't want to work with that other agency or that

00:58:03.620 other agent.

00:58:04.620 And it's almost a race to see who can get him arrested faster, which kind of sucks that

00:58:08.620 that happens sometimes.

00:58:09.620 Um, but the best way to go is always you want to cooperate and work together because

00:58:13.620 everybody wins at the end.

00:58:15.620 Uh, but a lot of people want to be a lead case agent.

00:58:17.620 They want to be able to kind of say, Oh, it's our case, blah, blah, blah.

00:58:19.620 And that's what happens, man.

00:58:20.620 It's competitive, right?

00:58:21.620 This is a part of the reason why nine 11 happened.

00:58:23.620 You know, a lot of the agencies had segmented portions of information.

00:58:26.620 They didn't want to share.

00:58:27.620 FBI had information.

00:58:28.620 State department had information.

00:58:29.620 CIA had information.

00:58:30.620 All these guys had information, but they didn't want to share.

00:58:32.620 And then bang, next thing you know, nine 11 happens obviously.

00:58:35.620 So that's what the worst, you know, that's the most egregious of what happens when information

00:58:39.620 isn't shared, right?

00:58:40.620 Obviously this is a drug investigation.

00:58:41.620 So it's the risk isn't as crazy, but, um, but this happens, man, you know, the agencies

00:58:46.620 are compartmentalized and everyone is competitive, right?

00:58:48.620 A lot of eight type personalities and law enforcement.

00:58:50.620 So this happens.

00:58:51.620 Um, but luckily they were able to work it out.

00:58:54.620 Custom service already had a case open.

00:58:55.620 Probably FBI figures out.

00:58:57.620 These guys are, um, drug traffickers call each other.

00:59:00.620 This guy's linked to Pablo Escobar.

00:59:01.620 All right, cool.

00:59:02.620 Let's work together.

00:59:03.620 Let's OCDF this case.

00:59:04.620 Bang.

00:59:05.620 Now they're up and rocking and rolling.

00:59:06.620 Who was the head of the major cartel at that time.

00:59:11.620 Escobar runs the Medellin cartel, the most violent gang in the history of Colombian drug

00:59:18.620 trade.

00:59:19.620 He offers bounties on the heads of Colombian police officers, maintaining power by killing 0.99

00:59:24.620 whoever crosses him.

00:59:26.620 Since Willie's related to Escobar, the C-13 investigation takes on new urgency.

00:59:32.620 They might now be able to take the investigation all the way to the Colombian kingpin.

00:59:38.620 Lieutenant Mike Garrity.

00:59:40.620 Ideally, in any investigation, you take it from point A to point Z.

00:59:44.620 And that's what we were trying to do.

00:59:45.620 We were trying to get from the lowest level to the highest level.

00:59:49.620 And once we met Willie with his connections, we figured we were right on target during

00:59:53.620 the course of this investigation.

00:59:55.620 While undercover, Eppolito is constantly under the threat of death.

00:59:59.620 He can never slip out of character.

01:00:02.620 Tony Romano, the role he is playing, supposedly knows how the ports work.

01:00:07.620 But Eppolito doesn't.

01:00:09.620 In order to maintain his disguise, customs agents must give the detective a crash course

01:00:14.620 on international transportation.

01:00:17.620 It was extremely important for Richie to be knowledgeable about the ports.

01:00:23.620 You have to remember, what Richie is posing as is a wise guy, a member of a mafia family.

01:00:29.620 He's also purporting to have connections down at the piers, so he can guarantee the safe passage

01:00:35.620 of the narcotics through customs.

01:00:37.620 The only way he can convince Willie and Monica of this is to have enough knowledge of the inner

01:00:43.620 workings of the piers, so when he explains to them how he intends to carry out the caper,

01:00:49.620 it will be believable.

01:00:51.620 It will be true. 0.52

01:00:52.620 It will be accurate.

01:00:53.620 And this is very important, man.

01:00:54.620 As an undercover, you really need to be able to walk the walk and talk the talk.

01:00:57.620 And, you know, if you're going to say, I can facilitate the safe transportation of your 0.97

01:01:01.620 drugs into the United States, well that's a big fucking statement, because when the 0.99

01:01:05.620 Colombians move the drugs in, they're going to move thousands of kilograms into the United 0.99

01:01:08.620 States, which is worth millions of dollars.

01:01:10.620 So, he needs to really be able to do what the hell he says he can do.

01:01:14.620 And then also, luckily, you know, as a wise guy, right?

01:01:17.620 Or as a main member of the mafia, which I'll do an episode for you guys on the mafia as

01:01:21.620 well.

01:01:22.620 I don't think I've done a breakdown on La Cosa Nostra yet.

01:01:25.620 So, I will do one.

01:01:26.620 And that's going to come into play, because I know one of you guys want me to hit Whitey

01:01:29.620 Bulger.

01:01:30.620 I'll do that.

01:01:31.620 And that's going to, you know, have a pretty significant component with it to the mafia.

01:01:35.620 But he needs to know this stuff.

01:01:37.620 So, remember guys, he's NYPD.

01:01:39.620 NYPD has no knowledge of customs, okay?

01:01:42.620 Customs is a federal, it's federal laws.

01:01:46.620 NYPD enforces New York State laws.

01:01:48.620 So, as NYPD detective, the customs agents need to bring him up to speed and let him

01:01:52.620 know, hey, this is how the piers work, this is how importation works, this is what duty

01:01:56.620 is, this is the customs authority, this is what customs inspectors look for on the boats,

01:02:00.620 this is my customs guy, we're going to be able to facilitate whatever, this is how the

01:02:03.620 ceiling works, all that stuff.

01:02:05.620 So, the NYPD detective needs to get read up on all this, so that he looks, he's able

01:02:10.620 to walk the walk, he's able to talk the talk and walk the walk in real time, because the

01:02:14.620 Colombians are going to be moving in thousands of kilos on a freighter ship. 0.90

01:02:18.620 Now, when it comes to the importance of walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes

01:02:21.620 to undercover, I'll give you guys an example.

01:02:24.620 Go down memory lane, right?

01:02:27.620 When I had my case in Texas, right?

01:02:31.620 That drug case that I told you about, it was a very big case.

01:02:33.620 We were involved in firearms trafficking, we were involved in methamphetamine distribution,

01:02:37.620 we were involved in everything in that criminal organization.

01:02:40.620 But I had an undercover agent that worked that case, right?

01:02:43.620 I was the case agent and the undercover, and I'll never forget, we had a pre-briefing,

01:02:47.620 and I only spoke to him on the phone, I had never met him.

01:02:50.620 And, you know, he was an agent from another part of Texas that came over to Laredo, and

01:02:54.620 he came, and I'll never forget, when he showed up, I was like, what, like, are you supposed

01:03:01.620 to be here?

01:03:02.620 And then it hit me.

01:03:03.620 I was like, oh, wait. 0.99

01:03:04.620 This is the fucking undercover. 1.00

01:03:05.620 Because he looks so fucking dirty, bro. 1.00

01:03:07.620 Like, he didn't look like an agent, like, at all. 0.99

01:03:09.620 You know what I mean? 1.00

01:03:10.620 Like, he looked like a fucking criminal, bro. 1.00

01:03:12.620 That's the point. 1.00

01:03:13.620 But that was the point.

01:03:14.620 You know what I'm saying?

01:03:15.620 He looked the part, he talked the talk, he walked the walk, he spoke that broken, you 0.99

01:03:19.620 know, ghetto ass Mexican Spanish. 1.00

01:03:21.620 Like, all that shit, you know? 1.00

01:03:25.620 So he sounded like a fucking, you know, Mexican drug trafficker. 1.00

01:03:29.620 He looked like a Mexican drug trafficker. 1.00

01:03:30.620 He wore the chains, he had the fucking boots, all that shit. 1.00

01:03:34.620 You know, so he looked like it. 1.00

01:03:36.620 You know, he really, really looked like a crook. 0.96

01:03:38.620 And when he went and did the meetings, he spoke in a certain way, he conveyed himself 0.97

01:03:42.620 a certain way, he would sit there and drink with the criminals.

01:03:44.620 He built a lot of rapport, and they really trusted him, bro.

01:03:46.620 So, um, it's very important that the undercover, right, is congruent to who he purports himself

01:03:55.620 to be.

01:03:56.620 Okay?

01:03:57.620 So, uh, so that was, that was my example here. 0.99

01:04:00.620 You know, cause we were, we were doing crazy shit. 0.96

01:04:02.620 We were buying guns. 0.98

01:04:03.620 We were buying methamphetamine.

01:04:04.620 Uh, we were posing as, uh, we were, we were getting hitmen involved.

01:04:08.620 You know, I remember one of our crooks one time asked us for a connect on a murderer.

01:04:12.620 And we were like, yeah, we know what guy.

01:04:13.620 And we were able to put another undercover in play, but they called my guy.

01:04:17.620 They called my undercover agent. 0.98

01:04:18.620 Cause he had built so much goddamn trust with them. 1.00

01:04:21.620 Uh, that they said, yo, we need this fucking guy gone. 0.99

01:04:24.620 Um, do you know someone that can make it happen? 0.99

01:04:27.620 And he was like, sure.

01:04:28.620 So he calls me.

01:04:29.620 He's like, yo, these guys call me. 1.00

01:04:30.620 They fucking need this dude killed, blah, blah, blah. 1.00

01:04:32.620 What do you want to do? 1.00

01:04:33.620 Cause I'm the case agent. 1.00

01:04:34.620 So I'm like, oh fuck. 0.98

01:04:35.620 So I go ahead and I'm going to break all this down in more detail for y'all later on. 0.99

01:04:39.620 But I basically go ahead and I'm like, yo, I need another undercover agent.

01:04:42.620 So I was able to get a buddy of mine from DEA to get me an undercover agent on short notice.

01:04:47.620 Right. 0.99

01:04:48.620 That looked like a fucking hit, man. 1.00

01:04:49.620 And we're able to make this shit happen. 1.00

01:04:51.620 Uh, 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. 0.99

01:05:01.620 All right.

01:05:02.620 So let's continue on here.

01:05:05.620 Because the cartels are sophisticated enough to run their own background checks.

01:05:09.620 The task force creates a full identity for the fictitious Tony Romano.

01:05:13.620 This is very common.

01:05:15.620 You need to do this for under, especially for big undercover cases like this, where you create a full name and everything for the guy.

01:05:21.620 So 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.

01:05:28.620 Everyone working the case knows how important it is to hide Eppolito's true identity.

01:05:36.620 They recall that in February 1985, decorated DEA special agent Enrique Camarena was ID'd as law enforcement by the Mexican drug gang he infiltrated.

01:05:48.620 Gang members kidnapped him, tortured him, then stabbed him to death.

01:05:54.620 The C-13 task force wires Eppolito to get incriminating.

01:06:02.620 Yeah, that was crazy.

01:06:03.620 What happened with Kiki Camarena?

01:06:05.620 I met his family when I was down in Laredo.

01:06:08.620 They came and they did a talk.

01:06:10.620 So, 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.

01:06:20.620 So and this is a 91 guy.

01:06:22.620 So obviously that was still fresh in everybody's head.

01:06:25.620 Conversations on tape.

01:06:28.620 They are all aware that if Eppolito was discovered, it could be a death sentence.

01:06:33.620 In previous meetings, no one has patted him down.

01:06:37.620 Everything all right?

01:06:38.620 But that could change.

01:06:40.620 In this type of work, it's very easy to explain them finding a gun on you.

01:06:46.620 I mean, that's part of doing business.

01:06:48.620 You're going to have a gun on you.

01:06:49.620 But it's extremely difficult to try to explain that little wire sticking up tape to your chest.

01:06:54.620 Above all, Eppolito has to become his character fully to reduce suspicion.

01:07:00.620 And I had to dress like the wise guys.

01:07:02.620 I had to talk like the wise guys.

01:07:04.620 I had to have a fleshy car.

01:07:06.620 I had to have the jewelry.

01:07:08.620 Soon Eppolito meets Willie.

01:07:11.620 As he moves up the organization ladder, the criminals become more savvy.

01:07:16.620 It gets tougher to fool them.

01:07:19.620 We're talking about people doing substantial period of time in jail if caught.

01:07:24.620 Therefore, everybody has a sixth sense.

01:07:27.620 Their very existence depends on whether or not they have a sixth sense or an antenna that goes up.

01:07:33.620 And they're there to question Richie.

01:07:36.620 They're there to make some determination.

01:07:38.620 Is he somebody who is reliable, dependable, and can they do business with him?

01:07:43.620 There they are.

01:07:44.620 There they are.

01:07:45.620 The task force listens in and covers Eppolito.

01:07:49.620 And they're basically your buddies, though.

01:07:51.620 They don't want to see you get hurt.

01:07:53.620 So it's a good feeling knowing that there are guys there to back up.

01:07:59.620 The task force slowly makes its way toward the heart of the cartel, knowing that at any moment a single mistake could be deadly.

01:08:12.620 Undercover detective Richard Eppolito, posing as a mafioso named Tony Romano, meets with Colombian drug cartel members.

01:08:22.620 He's backed up by other members of the C-13 task force, some of whom act as mafia bodyguards.

01:08:29.620 Which that's great cover because that would make sense for him as a wise guy, a.k.a. a made man.

01:08:35.620 And, 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.

01:08:43.620 You know, he's coming and dressed up as a suit.

01:08:46.620 And again, this is the importance of congruency when you deal with other criminals right there on high alert.

01:08:53.620 They got their antennas up.

01:08:54.620 They're making sure that they're not, you know, doing a deal with an undercover agent or an informant.

01:08:59.620 So they want to make sure that everything seems in place or not out of place.

01:09:05.620 Apolito 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.

01:09:20.620 That 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.

01:09:32.620 OK, 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.

01:09:42.620 OK. 0.99

01:09:43.620 So you can see their eyes opening up like, oh, shit. 0.99

01:09:48.620 Customs agent Phil Spinelli. 0.99

01:09:51.620 That was very appealing to the Colombians because they need somebody to pick up these containers full of narcotics at the piers.

01:10:00.620 After the meeting, undercover agents follow the suspects.

01:10:04.620 They note an interesting aspect of Colombian drug traffickers, according to supervisory special agent Fernando Llanos.

01:10:12.620 They took a low-key approach.

01:10:14.620 Colombians did not drive around in Mercedes Benzes and Porsches and flashy expensive vehicles.

01:10:20.620 They didn't dress particularly in an expensive way.

01:10:24.620 They didn't particularly wear expensive jewelry, a lot of gold and so forth.

01:10:28.620 They made every effort to remain low-key, and we saw that with Monica and Willie.

01:10:33.620 Smart.

01:10:35.620 From additional sources, investigators developed more intelligence on the couple.

01:10:40.620 It was believed that they had loads in the past entrusted to them that had been lost.

01:10:48.620 And therefore, they lost favor, they lost money, and they were obligated to the cartels.

01:10:56.620 When Willie and Monica lost the drugs, the cartels made one thing very clear.

01:11:03.620 Make good on the debt or die.

01:11:08.620 That pressure should help move the task force's case forward.

01:11:11.620 Of course, the people that are indebted to the cartel are looking to get out of debt with the cartel,

01:11:17.620 and are willing to take more chances to hopefully make a bigger score to be able to get even.

01:11:23.620 True Monica and Willie.

01:11:25.620 And this is true.

01:11:26.620 Whenever you lose a load or whatever, that's the worst thing that could happen.

01:11:29.620 Because a lot of the times when you get these drugs, guys, you're getting them on consignment.

01:11:32.620 It's not like you're getting a million.

01:11:33.620 You have a million dollars to drop on a couple kilos of cocaine.

01:11:36.620 You're not going to have that.

01:11:37.620 They're going to give you the drugs a lot of the times if you're trusted.

01:11:40.620 They'll give you the drugs up front on consignment for either free or a small fee.

01:11:44.620 Then your job is to sell the drugs, get rid of the drugs, make that money back, and then pay off your debt,

01:11:49.620 and obviously take your cut of profit.

01:11:51.620 So in this case, they lost a couple of loads.

01:11:53.620 But since this guy is related to Pablo directly, they didn't get killed.

01:11:57.620 You know what I'm saying?

01:11:58.620 So that's actually very important.

01:12:00.620 Investigators expand the investigation and pierce the cartel's secret world, according to Detective Epilito.

01:12:07.620 One of the goals was to establish enough probable cause to get court-ordered wiretaps and further enhance the case,

01:12:15.620 gather intelligence, basically know what the bad guy's going to do before they actually do it.

01:12:20.620 Because the couple discussed drug trafficking with Epilito,

01:12:24.620 investigators have no trouble getting warrants to tap their phones.

01:12:28.620 The task force uses the taps to determine if the cartel believes Epilito is who he says he is.

01:12:35.620 So this is huge, because when you're listening to wiretaps,

01:12:38.620 you can actually get a whole other component of the investigation that you might not be able to get otherwise.

01:12:42.620 So they're able to kind of foresee what the hell is going to happen,

01:12:45.620 because now they're listening to them on the phones.

01:12:47.620 They're seeing, okay, do they trust our guy? Are they scared of our guy?

01:12:50.620 Do they doubt our guy? Whatever it may be.

01:12:52.620 And it allows the team, right, the ability to be able to monitor the undercover meetings

01:12:57.620 and to monitor the investigation based on how scared or how comfortable the criminals are, okay?

01:13:04.620 So it puts a little bit of ease on the extraction team because they know,

01:13:07.620 all right, these guys are not really too scared of our UC, whatever it may be.

01:13:11.620 Obviously, you're still on higher alert, but it creates a little bit of a cushion of relief

01:13:16.620 knowing that they do trust the undercover to some degree, okay?

01:13:20.620 And obviously, on these phone calls, which they don't know are tapped,

01:13:23.620 you're going to be able to get the real deal of the behind the scenes of what the hell the criminals actually think.

01:13:26.620 So this is actually fantastic that they're wiretapping while simultaneously running an undercover operation,

01:13:31.620 which is ideally what you want to do.

01:13:33.620 You want to be up on phones, you want to have undercover in, you want to have informants in,

01:13:37.620 you want to have different prongs into the organization so that you can get more intel so you know how to move correctly, okay?

01:13:45.620 Free talking on the phones. They would discuss a lot of their arrangements, what they had in mind,

01:13:50.620 what they wanted to do, the big mafioso that they met.

01:13:55.620 On tape, Monica and Willy tell their cartel contacts that Tony Romano is a safe bet. 0.99

01:14:02.620 That's good shit. 0.99

01:14:03.620 We could listen to their calls they were making to Columbia, discussing the meeting they just had with him. 0.99

01:14:07.620 And, you know, we were able to gather insight that you would not be able to gather otherwise into what their thinking was.

01:14:13.620 The cartel has taken the bait and is ready for the next step. They send another higher associate to meet with the mafioso.

01:14:22.620 It's good stuff.

01:14:23.620 There's also a female who came into the picture named Margola. She was a very attractive Columbia national.

01:14:32.620 She was the niece of a notorious drug dealer out there who they used to refer to as Ivan the Terrible.

01:14:39.620 He was responsible for the deaths of approximately 19 national police officers.

01:14:45.620 The task force knows Ivan the Terrible specializes in killing cops.

01:14:52.620 Usually in a torture chamber he had built at his compound in Bogota, Colombia.

01:14:56.620 Eppolito must continue playing his role and needs to convince Margola that he's a mafia wise guy or risk being killed.

01:15:08.620 And he's the perfect cop to do it.

01:15:11.620 He 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.

01:15:23.620 And you give Richie a little bit of leeway. You give him a script and he could play the role to a tee.

01:15:29.620 And he was absolutely excellent in playing his role.

01:15:32.620 Eppolito notices one of Magola's associates has a gun and must decide whether to call for help from backup.

01:15:44.620 He takes the risk and stays in character. He doesn't want to blow the case.

01:15:52.620 And 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.

01:15:58.620 What are you going to do? But obviously they're listening to the wiretaps, right?

01:16:02.620 They know that they trust him. They know that they that he's he's a higher level mafioso.

01:16:07.620 So 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.

01:16:17.620 OK, so he's able to take that, you know, educated risk.

01:16:21.620 Let's continue on. How do you like this, by the way, Dolphes? I love it.

01:16:25.620 It's good stuff. Yes, great stuff, actually.

01:16:28.620 OK, like I'm learning a lot between like how.

01:16:30.620 Yeah, I see you taking notes over there. Yeah.

01:16:32.620 Yeah, I'm taking notes. Yeah.

01:16:34.620 It's very interesting. Cool, cool, cool.

01:16:36.620 Backup knows what to do if anyone gets suspicious of them.

01:16:42.620 It's that possibly somebody is making us. What we would do is is probably step a little bit further back from the side.

01:16:50.620 So they would think that to a certain extent they are seeing ghosts where in fact there were no ghosts.

01:16:57.620 In the end, it appears Magola believes Tony Romano can provide a safe route for drug running.

01:17:05.620 Slowly, the task force makes its way deeper into the cartel.

01:17:10.620 We were piecemeal individuals. First we met Eduardo, then we met Monica, then we met Willy, then it was Margolis.

01:17:19.620 They 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.

01:17:30.620 It seems to be going well, but Eppolito can never let down his guard. He is in constant danger.

01:17:40.620 If the cartel suspects anything, they could send assassins and hit Eppolito at any time, not just at a meeting. 0.84

01:17:49.620 They 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. 0.99

01:17:59.620 That boy was about to get fucking clapped. That ankle holster, he was ready to go, man. 0.99

01:18:09.620 He had that joint. He was about to pull that boy out and be like, hey, what? What? What the?

01:18:14.620 You know what I'm saying? Just be ready for that shit. He was ready, OK? 1.00

01:18:17.620 Yeah, he was ready. Yeah, a lot of agents carried their guns on their ankles, guys.

01:18:23.620 I personally never ankle carry. I think it's fucking trash. Ain't it heavy on your ankles when you walk? 1.00

01:18:28.620 It kind of is. It's the most. It's actually the most comfortable way to carry your gun.

01:18:31.620 A lot of agents carry their guns on their foot. Yeah, I think it's stupid, but a lot of them do. 1.00

01:18:36.620 Yeah, I carry appendix. I think that's the best way to carry. 0.99

01:18:40.620 But everyone is different. That boy is about to get clapped for having a cell phone, man.

01:18:44.620 It was the fact that he was acting like he was tying his shoes.

01:18:49.620 I feel very uppity, very alert. It's just natural adrenaline, I guess, that kicks in.

01:18:59.620 There's a bit of excitement involved. It's challenging. It's dangerous.

01:19:06.620 Any mistake could mean another murder of a dedicated law enforcement officer.

01:19:14.620 New York investigators try to infiltrate Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel and dismantle it.

01:19:22.620 As the case builds, the C-13 task force puts more resources into it,

01:19:28.620 including an office for undercover detective Richard Eppolito's mafia character.

01:19:33.620 We just had an undercover office in Floral Park, Queens, and it was wired for both video and audio to document meets and gather evidence.

01:19:46.620 It's the best place.

01:19:48.620 And this is the beauty of having, you know, OCDF funds.

01:19:51.620 You're able to get undercover operations going like this where you can have undercover storefront,

01:19:56.620 an undercover office, an undercover house, whatever, you know, wired up with cameras and audio equipment,

01:20:03.620 undercover agents that actually work it.

01:20:05.620 So what they're doing is they're building more congruency to this mafioso where they can have safe meetings, right, and everything. 0.99

01:20:12.620 And he has a goddamn secretary even in there, okay? 0.98

01:20:15.620 Who's an undercover agent as well, right? 0.99

01:20:18.620 Or an undercover probably for NYPD or maybe FBI, whatever it may be,

01:20:21.620 because he's the lead undercover operative in this thing.

01:20:23.620 So, you know, this is the beauty of having OCDF funds, guys, okay?

01:20:27.620 From a former case agent perspective, you get the money to do this type of stuff when you have big cases, all right?

01:20:33.620 And the fact that they were able to articulate,

01:20:35.620 yo, one of the people involved in this drug investigation was a cousin of Pablo Escobar, bam! 0.99

01:20:41.620 The U.S. Attorney's Office, they'll give you whatever the fuck you want, you know? 0.90

01:20:44.620 And they're not the ones that fund it, but I mean, they're going to give you whatever resources 0.75

01:20:47.620 from a prosecutorial standpoint to make it happen.

01:20:49.620 And then the agency, whether it was the FBI, U.S. Custom Service, whatever, they all have money to go ahead and make this happen.

01:20:55.620 And I can speak about this too, right?

01:20:57.620 When I was an agent, right, the U.S. Custom Service used to have undercover operations

01:21:03.620 where they got a fuck ton of money to be able to do stuff like this.

01:21:06.620 So I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't actually U.S. Custom Service that funded this undercover house, okay?

01:21:12.620 Or this undercover office, excuse me, that they were able to use to go ahead and make these things happen.

01:21:17.620 Because when you have undercover situations like this, U.S. Custom Service used to have a nice pool of money that they can pull from

01:21:24.620 that they can go ahead and make these operations happen, all right?

01:21:28.620 So there's, like the video, man, you're not going to get insider stuff like this anymore.

01:21:32.620 And this is, you know, obviously this is back in the 90s, right?

01:21:35.620 The U.S. Custom Service doesn't exist anymore, so it's not like this classified info or whatever.

01:21:38.620 But yeah, guys, U.S. Customs definitely had good pools of money to be able to do UC operations just like this,

01:21:44.620 to have undercover fronts and everything.

01:21:47.620 Place for monitored meetings.

01:21:49.620 According to Lieutenant Mike Garrity.

01:21:53.620 We were able to bring the people there.

01:21:55.620 We were able to record the conversations.

01:21:57.620 We were able to videotape every one of these conversations.

01:22:03.620 When Monica and Willie show up to the office for a meeting,

01:22:06.620 they're watched the entire time.

01:22:11.620 FBI Special Agent Mary Setzer acts as Eppolito's receptionist.

01:22:17.620 We met in the office approximately two or three times.

01:22:20.620 So the FBI you see involved as well.

01:22:22.620 Three times a month.

01:22:24.620 My responsibilities were to answer the door when the subjects arrived,

01:22:29.620 announce them to the undercover, and then usher them into the office.

01:22:35.620 She's there for protection, but she's also part of the act.

01:22:39.620 Richie frequently tried to ease the tension by making fake phone calls to me from the office during his meetings.

01:22:52.620 He would pick up the telephone and say, make sure that order arrives tomorrow. Get that fax out.

01:22:58.620 It's all done to convince the cartel members the detective is actually Tony Romano.

01:23:04.620 See, this is what I'm saying, baby.

01:23:06.620 Attention to detail, man.

01:23:07.620 This is fantastic undercover work here.

01:23:09.620 You know?

01:23:10.620 Because they think they're in a natural office setting where he's running an office,

01:23:14.620 he's running a business, whatever.

01:23:15.620 Obviously, he's a criminal as well. 0.51

01:23:16.620 But he has a secretary. 0.75

01:23:18.620 She's answering phone calls. 1.00

01:23:19.620 Hey, bitch. 1.00

01:23:20.620 Go fax this stuff. 1.00

01:23:21.620 You know what I'm saying?

01:23:22.620 Like...

01:23:23.620 You know what I'm saying?

01:23:25.620 He's probably freaking out on the phone a little bit.

01:23:26.620 Like, hey! 1.00

01:23:27.620 What the fuck? 1.00

01:23:28.620 You know, this shit isn't done. 1.00

01:23:29.620 Get this shit next week. 0.99

01:23:30.620 This is all stuff to create an image that's gonna be very important. 0.99

01:23:33.620 Okay, guys?

01:23:34.620 Little details like this make cases.

01:23:37.620 Alright?

01:23:38.620 So this is great stuff.

01:23:39.620 What's your thoughts on this doll face?

01:23:41.620 Boy, you gotta be a full, like, an actor.

01:23:44.620 Yeah.

01:23:45.620 Have you ever done, like, something like that?

01:23:47.620 Like, you had to act?

01:23:48.620 Yeah, no.

01:23:49.620 Me, myself, no.

01:23:50.620 I was always the case agent.

01:23:51.620 Like, I didn't want to do undercover work. 1.00

01:23:52.620 Fuck that shit. 1.00

01:23:53.620 Oh, okay. 1.00

01:23:54.620 So when you're the case agent, you're the one dictating the case, and you're the one

01:23:56.620 operating, like, running the case, like, to do stuff like this.

01:23:59.620 Okay.

01:24:00.620 I've done it before where I've had, like, undercover meets.

01:24:01.620 You organized?

01:24:02.620 Yeah.

01:24:03.620 Okay.

01:24:04.620 Yeah.

01:24:05.620 So, like, all these people, all these agents involved that you guys are seeing.

01:24:08.620 So, the fat guy, he was an undercover agent, right?

01:24:12.620 The woman, obviously, she was another undercover agent. 0.91

01:24:15.620 The FBI guy, the Hispanic guy, he was a supervisor. 0.91

01:24:19.620 And then you got the customs agent who was probably the case agent on the case, because

01:24:22.620 the way he's speaking, you can tell how he's extremely detailed as far as, like, speaking

01:24:26.620 about, oh yeah, we need to go ahead and facilitate the drugs in, whatever.

01:24:29.620 So, the customs agent was probably, the customs guy was probably the case agent on the custom

01:24:36.620 side.

01:24:37.620 Because you have to have a case agent for each agency.

01:24:39.620 Right.

01:24:40.620 So, the lieutenant that's speaking from NYPD, he was probably the case officer or case

01:24:45.620 detective for the NYPD.

01:24:46.620 Because every one of these agencies has to have a case open with their own respective

01:24:49.620 agency.

01:24:50.620 Gotcha.

01:24:51.620 Okay.

01:24:52.620 So, everybody played a role.

01:24:53.620 Everyone has their own cases open, right, for their own respective agency, but they're

01:24:58.620 all, you know, it's all the same investigation.

01:25:00.620 Gotcha.

01:25:01.620 Okay.

01:25:02.620 And then I'm trying to figure out who the FBI case agent was in this case.

01:25:06.620 It might have been that lieutenant, because that lieutenant probably was a task force officer

01:25:10.620 with the FBI.

01:25:11.620 Oh.

01:25:12.620 And a task force officer is basically the same as like having a special agent assigned.

01:25:16.620 He was probably assigned to that C-13-11 squad.

01:25:18.620 He was a task force officer, which means he is able to work state cases with the NYPD and

01:25:25.620 also do federal investigations with the FBI.

01:25:28.620 So, that lieutenant more than likely was probably the FBI case agent and then the customs agent

01:25:32.620 that you guys saw before they were speaking.

01:25:34.620 He was probably the customs case agent and then you have the UCs and then you had the

01:25:38.620 supervisors, which is great because now you have pretty much all the main people involved

01:25:42.620 in the investigation.

01:25:43.620 But more than likely, those two NYPD guys are task force officers with the FBI.

01:25:48.620 I'm willing to bet they were task force officers in that C-13-11 squad, probably a part of the

01:25:53.620 Safe Streets Task Force, which is very common to have your state and locals involved in it.

01:25:57.620 Guys, like the video.

01:25:59.620 No one else is going to break down these cases to this level of detail and have this kind of

01:26:02.620 information to give you guys the real deal on how these investigations work.

01:26:05.620 So, like the video.

01:26:06.620 You have to establish credibility with these people.

01:26:09.620 If you say who you are somebody, you have to show them.

01:26:13.620 You have to prove it.

01:26:14.620 So, we set up this operation to bring them there and put them at ease.

01:26:18.620 Plus, it served as a meeting place.

01:26:20.620 It was added a view of the public.

01:26:22.620 They felt secure.

01:26:23.620 They felt safe.

01:26:25.620 It's a slow process as the task force orchestrates a complex fraud against wary

01:26:31.620 adversaries.

01:26:34.620 Supervisory Special Agent Fernando Llanos.

01:26:37.620 These were savvy people.

01:26:39.620 Yeah.

01:26:40.620 So, I think he was the supervisor over this investigation.

01:26:42.620 You know, these were people that were involved in drug trafficking for many years in Colombia

01:26:46.620 and elsewhere outside of Colombia and further into the cartels.

01:26:50.620 So, he's the one actually like this guy's supervisor, right?

01:26:52.620 They don't carry the case.

01:26:53.620 They don't run the case.

01:26:54.620 They're the ones making sure that upper management knows what's going on.

01:26:57.620 They're the ones securing funding.

01:26:58.620 They're the ones securing personnel.

01:27:00.620 They're the ones securing funds.

01:27:02.620 They're the ones helping the case get the steam it needs to be pushed.

01:27:06.620 You know?

01:27:07.620 So, that's what a good supervisor does. 1.00

01:27:09.620 Gotcha.

01:27:10.620 Major worldwide distribution effort.

01:27:15.620 Throughout the whole investigation, we were always concerned that, you know, there

01:27:18.620 would be a slip up, that something inappropriate would be said or perhaps that surveillance would

01:27:25.620 be made that would give the whole thing up.

01:27:29.620 If the cartel ever suspects anything, they would likely kill Eppolito and his informant.

01:27:38.620 On rare days off, Eppolito needs a reason he can't meet Monica and Willy.

01:27:44.620 He tells them he often goes to Atlantic City to tend to the mafia business there.

01:27:49.620 Eventually, Monica and Willy asked to see the Atlantic City operation.

01:27:53.620 Oh. 0.98

01:27:54.620 It's time to put up or shut up, baby. 0.99

01:27:57.620 Okay? 0.98

01:27:58.620 So, this is common as undercover, right?

01:28:00.620 In times where you're not available to deal with the criminal organization, right?

01:28:03.620 Because, obviously, you're a full-fledged criminal now.

01:28:05.620 You're deep cover.

01:28:06.620 Right?

01:28:07.620 Days that you're not able to meet with them, what do you say?

01:28:09.620 Oh, well, you know, you're not going to tell them, I'm hanging out with my family

01:28:11.620 and kids.

01:28:12.620 Today's my day off from NYPD. 1.00

01:28:13.620 No, you're not going to fucking say that shit. 1.00

01:28:14.620 Stupid. 1.00

01:28:15.620 You're going to say, yo, you know, I have another criminal or opera. 1.00

01:28:18.620 I got another operation I got going on.

01:28:20.620 In this case, right, that would make sense.

01:28:21.620 As a mafia guy, we know that the mafia ran New York, New Jersey, et cetera, and Atlantic City

01:28:25.620 isn't that far from New York City, and it's a huge gambling hub.

01:28:29.620 So, it would make sense, right?

01:28:31.620 Again, going back to that congruency, it would make sense that the mafia would have their tentacles

01:28:34.620 into the gambling involved in Atlantic City, okay?

01:28:38.620 So, they want to obviously see the operation there, right?

01:28:42.620 What are you going to do? 1.00

01:28:43.620 Are you going to tell them, no, you guys can't see it, or whatever, or fuck that shit? 1.00

01:28:46.620 No, we want to come to Atlantic City. 1.00

01:28:48.620 Because what's going to happen is they're not going to say, we want to see your organization

01:28:51.620 or your criminal activity going on in Atlantic City. 0.99

01:28:53.620 No, they're going to say some bullshit like, yo, we're going to be going to Atlantic City. 0.99

01:28:56.620 I know that you worked there, whatever. 0.95

01:28:57.620 Can you link up with us sometime?

01:28:59.620 So, to build rapport and create more, how do I say this, social proof or criminal social proof in this case,

01:29:08.620 he's going to go ahead and facilitate this meeting, all right? 0.99

01:29:11.620 Because it's almost like a girl shit-testing you. 0.99

01:29:14.620 Same exact thing. 0.99

01:29:15.620 Yo, you know, we're going to be in Atlantic City.

01:29:17.620 We'd love to meet with you there, blah, blah, blah, translation.

01:29:20.620 We still need a little bit more proof that you are who you say you are. 0.99

01:29:23.620 So, he sees, he's able to read through it between the lines and make this shit happen. 0.99

01:29:27.620 And you guys are going to see right now. 0.99

01:29:29.620 I really like how they did this.

01:29:31.620 Eppolito's got a problem.

01:29:35.620 He has no real business in Atlantic City.

01:29:40.620 The team scrambles to create an elaborate ruse that will trick the drug dealers.

01:29:45.620 Took them all to Atlantic City.

01:29:47.620 That's another credibility thing.

01:29:49.620 They wanted to see where I spent my weekends, where I hung out.

01:29:53.620 So, we took them to the casinos.

01:29:55.620 The Jersey State Police were very instrumental on setting up the casinos where I could, you know, walk in like I was a big shot.

01:30:05.620 We could comp them.

01:30:06.620 We got them rooms.

01:30:08.620 You know, we dined like kings and queens.

01:30:12.620 Back up. 1.00

01:30:13.620 Shouts at the New Jersey State Police for making that shit happen. 0.99

01:30:18.620 That was lit. 0.99

01:30:19.620 This Atlantic City, the vacation is brought to you by the New Jersey State Police.

01:30:23.620 Welcome, Columbia Drug Traffickers. 0.78

01:30:25.620 That was lit.

01:30:27.620 Is all around.

01:30:32.620 The entire undercover operation is carefully scripted and nothing is left to chance.

01:30:38.620 The task force wants the cartels to see everything they need to see to believe Eppolito is a mafioso.

01:30:45.620 They even send in an undercover officer to act as a mafia captain and ask the informant for a meeting with Eppolito.

01:30:53.620 The informant talked to Richie.

01:30:55.620 Richie walked away, but in clear view of the other participants.

01:30:59.620 The 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.

01:31:08.620 Kissing on both cheeks, guys, is a mafia thing that they do.

01:31:12.620 You know, the Omerta code of silence, okay, is what they do, typically during their meetings. 0.87

01:31:18.620 So, congruency, baby.

01:31:21.620 And 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.

01:31:31.620 Even in Atlantic City, he can't catch a break.

01:31:34.620 And these people were totally impressed with this.

01:31:36.620 Bam. 1.00

01:31:38.620 Gotcha, bitch! 1.00

01:31:39.620 Oh, gosh. 1.00

01:31:40.620 This is great undercover work, man.

01:31:41.620 These look great.

01:31:42.620 Great stuff.

01:31:43.620 But the cartel needs more convincing.

01:31:52.620 They send an interrogator to meet with Abuelita.

01:31:56.620 His street name is Sammy, and he specializes in finding undercover cops.

01:32:02.620 Sammy was somebody, he was a wild card that was introduced to the investigation.

01:32:08.620 He 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.

01:32:21.620 The room is fully wired, and agents watch from an office in the hotel.

01:32:26.620 In touch with- 0.99

01:32:27.620 This is nerve-wracking shit right here, man. 0.99

01:32:29.620 Backup stationed near the room. 1.00

01:32:32.620 They must protect Abuelita.

01:32:35.620 But they can't move too soon.

01:32:38.620 You have to make a decision, basically, in a split second.

01:32:42.620 Alright, so I'm pretty confident that this guy right here was probably the NYPD case detective.

01:32:48.620 The 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.

01:32:58.620 Which I've explained what task force officers are before if you guys look at the clips videos.

01:33:02.620 But yeah.

01:33:03.620 Basically, 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.

01:33:13.620 But he's a full-fledged federal agent, alright, with FBI.

01:33:17.620 A lot of times TFOs get their agency badge, and then they also have the federal agency badge as well.

01:33:23.620 So like DEA, for example, their task force officers have a DEA badge, but it's silver.

01:33:26.620 Versus the special agents have a golden badge.

01:33:29.620 So FBI, probably the same thing.

01:33:31.620 Task force officers have an FBI badge, but it probably might be silver or look a little bit different.

01:33:36.620 But 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.

01:33:42.620 They could travel interstate to do investigations.

01:33:44.620 They have all the same authorities that an FBI agent will have.

01:33:47.620 So, yep.

01:33:49.620 And if you make the wrong decision in a case like this, let's say to move in, you could blow.

01:33:55.620 And real quick, undercovers typically don't carry the cases.

01:33:57.620 The undercovers are the undercover agent.

01:33:59.620 So he's involved.

01:34:00.620 Because when you're a DEA cover, you don't have time to sit there and write a million reports and run the case and get funding and all.

01:34:05.620 No, hell no.

01:34:06.620 That's a case agent's job.

01:34:07.620 So a lot of time undercovers typically don't run their own investigations.

01:34:11.620 They're the undercover and then there's a case agent that runs the case.

01:34:13.620 So I'm willing to bet that this guy was a case agent on NYPD.

01:34:16.620 The supervisor was involved.

01:34:17.620 Obviously, you got your main UC, who's the star of the show.

01:34:19.620 And then you got your US customs agent who, you know, when he comes up, I'll remind you guys who he is on their side.

01:34:25.620 That also carried the case on the customs side.

01:34:27.620 Maybe about a year's worth of investigation.

01:34:30.620 Now, if you move too slow, you could lose an undercover.

01:34:34.620 Sammy starts the interrogation.

01:34:38.620 I didn't pat him at the door to see if he was armed or not.

01:34:44.620 But, you know, a lot of these guys are armed and you've got to be careful.

01:34:47.620 And, 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.

01:35:02.620 Eppolito knows backup is there, but it's still a tense situation.

01:35:08.620 There's always a signal that's set up between you and the backups in case something goes wrong or a code word.

01:35:15.620 That's the distress signal I was telling you guys about before.

01:35:19.620 Distress signal or a takedown code if you're going to do a takedown.

01:35:21.620 In this case, it's just a UC meeting, so it would just be a distress code.

01:35:24.620 And, you know, you let loose with the signal or the code word, they just take the whole thing down.

01:35:28.620 Several times, Sammy hints that he thinks Eppolito's trying to trick them.

01:35:33.620 We were extremely close there.

01:35:35.620 We could have got in there in a couple of seconds, but those couple of seconds could have meant life or death.

01:35:40.620 So it is a gut-wrenching situation.

01:35:45.620 As Sammy continues to press Eppolito, agents fear that one wrong answer could destroy the entire investigation and Detective Eppolito would be killed.

01:36:01.620 Undercover Detective Richard Eppolito faces off against an interrogator from Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, a man known only as Sammy.

01:36:11.620 He demands details of Eppolito's past crimes to prove he really is a mafioso.

01:36:18.620 Agents watch the meet, ready to send in backup.

01:36:24.620 At 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. 0.98

01:36:36.620 Oh shit, we're at the moment of truth. 0.98

01:36:38.620 Let's see what happens. 1.00

01:36:40.620 And I basically stood up.

01:36:44.620 I told him, I said, listen.

01:36:46.620 I said, do you really expect me to tell you everything I've done?

01:36:49.620 Do you expect me to tell you the people I've killed?

01:36:52.620 The people I've done drugs, dealt drugs with?

01:36:55.620 I says, for all I know, you could be a cop, you could be an agent.

01:36:59.620 I says, I told you what I'm going to tell you.

01:37:02.620 You don't want to work with me?

01:37:03.620 The detective takes a risk.

01:37:04.620 In character is Tony Romano, demanding more respect.

01:37:08.620 He says, here's my hand.

01:37:10.620 Either you feel comfortable with me, or it's a pleasure meeting you, and I'll take my business elsewhere.

01:37:15.620 The tension rises.

01:37:17.620 And he got all upset, walked off to the side, talking to them.

01:37:21.620 There was some hollering and screaming in Spanish, of course, which I didn't understand.

01:37:26.620 So this is a tense moment here, guys. 0.97

01:37:27.620 We don't know what the fuck is going to happen. 0.97

01:37:29.620 Let's see. 0.99

01:37:31.620 Sammy and the others might be planning something violent, but Eppolito can't back down now.

01:37:38.620 You can't show that you're, uh, intimidated or afraid of him.

01:37:41.620 I mean, that's the worst thing.

01:37:42.620 You gotta come on, uh, just as stronger, even stronger than they do at times.

01:37:47.620 Detective Mike Garrett is seconds away, but seconds might be too late.

01:37:52.620 We were getting ready to move in, but Richie handled it excellent.

01:37:57.620 He was able to get out of it.

01:37:58.620 Watch post more than one.

01:37:59.620 All units stand down.

01:38:00.620 Stand down.

01:38:01.620 Everything's okay.

01:38:02.620 That's the importance of what you see.

01:38:04.620 Finally, Sammy decides Eppolito is the real thing.

01:38:08.620 He came back, smiled, shook my hand, and said, we'll be doing business.

01:38:15.620 Once again, the detective has conned the criminals.

01:38:20.620 Customs agent Phil Smith.

01:38:21.620 And this goes to show the extreme measures that these guys are taking, man.

01:38:24.620 This is sophisticated criminal activity right here.

01:38:26.620 Getting into, you know, meeting different, you know, people in the organization, getting 0.99

01:38:30.620 a goddamn interrogator involved. 0.99

01:38:32.620 This is wild stuff right here, man. 1.00

01:38:34.620 Let's keep going.

01:38:35.620 Oh, by the way, guys, like the video, subscribe to the channel, because you ain't going to

01:38:40.620 get breakdowns like this anywhere else.

01:38:41.620 I know I sound like a broken record, but sometimes I got to give people a reminder of the value

01:38:45.620 that you guys are getting on this channel.

01:38:46.620 You're not going to find anywhere else, man.

01:38:47.620 So all I ask is that you like the video.

01:38:49.620 Subscribe.

01:38:50.620 And yeah, what are your thoughts so far as I'll face out this crazy interaction?

01:38:54.620 I ain't gonna lie.

01:38:57.620 I kind of got scared.

01:38:58.620 I'm like, dang.

01:38:59.620 But I'm like, he's alive talking about it.

01:39:01.620 So he did survive it.

01:39:02.620 Okay.

01:39:03.620 Fair enough.

01:39:04.620 Okay.

01:39:05.620 The guy, Sammy, he looked like the guy off of Fast and Furious.

01:39:10.620 Ben Diesel?

01:39:11.620 Yes.

01:39:12.620 Oh, man.

01:39:13.620 All right.

01:39:14.620 It's all part of being an undercover.

01:39:18.620 It's all part of being able to act calmly under pressure.

01:39:22.620 And Richie, of course, being the pro he is, handled it very well.

01:39:25.620 All right.

01:39:26.620 That is the customs case agent right there.

01:39:27.620 Okay, guys.

01:39:28.620 I could tell just from the way that he's speaking and everything.

01:39:30.620 They brought him in for this documentary.

01:39:32.620 He was the case agent on the customs side.

01:39:34.620 Well, before the drug traffickers leave Atlantic City, Sammy decides to test the informant,

01:39:41.620 according to Supervisory Special Agent Fernando Llanos.

01:39:46.620 All of the subjects asked the source to go to one of their rooms to talk to him.

01:39:51.620 And fortunately, we had an adjacent room and were able to listen in to the conversation.

01:39:57.620 So now they're going to grow the informant.

01:40:00.620 The informant is a civilian, not law enforcement, and might not hold up to the pressure of the

01:40:06.620 interrogation.

01:40:07.620 Agents watch as Sammy tries to get the informant to double-cross Tony Romano.

01:40:13.620 He pushes hard.

01:40:15.620 Got a little heated at times.

01:40:18.620 The backup teams thought they were going to have to go crash and through and rescue the informant

01:40:22.620 and just basically take the case down at that point.

01:40:24.620 It's a big case, but not worth a man's life. 0.88

01:40:28.620 You have to take calculated risks.

01:40:30.620 And this was another instance where we needed to do that.

01:40:33.620 You know, can we respond quickly enough?

01:40:36.620 Can we get into the room if this man whips out a gun, you know, or a knife and puts it

01:40:41.620 to our sources' throat?

01:40:43.620 The informant refuses to betray the powerful mafioso. 0.98

01:40:50.620 He says, his people will kill me quicker than that. 1.00

01:40:55.620 He says, I could never do anything to betray him or the family.

01:40:58.620 And when he said that, they respected him.

01:41:01.620 And they saw he wasn't going to betray me.

01:41:05.620 So they felt, I guess they felt he had a certain amount of integrity.

01:41:08.620 And he wouldn't be that much of a risk factor for them as well.

01:41:13.620 And they broke open a bottle of champagne in the room and they celebrated.

01:41:22.620 Another possible crisis averted. 1.00

01:41:25.620 God damn racism. 1.00

01:41:26.620 It's good. 0.99

01:41:27.620 They break open a bottle of champagne with him, but they didn't do that with Tony Romano. 0.98

01:41:30.620 God damn it. 0.99

01:41:31.620 What the hell? 0.99

01:41:32.620 The informant was their people. 0.95

01:41:35.620 Yeah.

01:41:36.620 Yeah.

01:41:37.620 The informant was probably Colombian too.

01:41:38.620 He was like, nah, bro.

01:41:39.620 I'm snitching.

01:41:40.620 They're like, ah, you know what, bro?

01:41:41.620 Let's pop a bottle of champagne.

01:41:42.620 You a real one.

01:41:43.620 Right.

01:41:44.620 With that Italian guy. 1.00

01:41:45.620 Fuck him. 1.00

01:41:46.620 Nah. 1.00

01:41:47.620 Nah. 1.00

01:41:48.620 Fuck Tony. 1.00

01:41:49.620 But hey, my man, we could rock with you though. 1.00

01:41:50.620 Let's break up some champagne.

01:41:51.620 He won't speak our language. 1.00

01:41:52.620 Fuck him. 1.00

01:41:53.620 That was hilarious. 1.00

01:41:55.620 It could have been the end of the investigation. 0.91

01:41:58.620 Or the end of the informant if they had decided to kill him.

01:42:01.620 It seems like endless meetings.

01:42:05.620 But this level of caution is how the cartels grew so powerful.

01:42:09.620 You're dealing with formidable adversaries.

01:42:12.620 I mean, there was a lot of negotiations before we got down to the, um, the fine movements

01:42:18.620 of getting the drugs from Colombia over to here.

01:42:22.620 As the investigation deepens, the next step up the ladder is Hernando Sanchez Aneo,

01:42:28.620 a high-level cartel member.

01:42:31.620 He suggests going beyond a single shipment and opening a new drug pipeline into the U.S.

01:42:38.620 A marriage of the Colombian cartels and the American Mafia.

01:42:43.620 We gave them the opportunity to move a product without law enforcement interceding from the pier to one of our warehouses.

01:42:52.620 So, in effect, what we did, we provided one-stop shopping for this organization.

01:42:56.620 And they loved it.

01:42:58.620 The addition of Hernando means the C-13 task force is moving deeper into Escobar's cartel. 0.99

01:43:05.620 Shit's about to get real, man. 1.00

01:43:08.620 Oh, boy. 0.99

01:43:09.620 It was a feather in our cap to get him involved in this particular thing.

01:43:16.620 And more and more, we knew we were getting closer and closer to the source.

01:43:22.620 With a warrant, investigators tap Hernando's phones.

01:43:27.620 To protect Eppolito, they route calls through a secure Atlantic City phone number to his New York home.

01:43:32.620 During one call, Hernando asks Eppolito to come to Colombia with him to inspect a cocaine shipment.

01:43:42.620 It's too dangerous for Eppolito to go.

01:43:45.620 Yeah, that's a...

01:43:46.620 Nope!

01:43:47.620 No, thank you. 1.00

01:43:48.620 Fuck no. 1.00

01:43:49.620 It would be like walking into the lion's den. 1.00

01:43:53.620 And the task force would be unable to protect him.

01:43:58.620 But if he backs out, the cartel may grow suspicious and kill him.

01:44:08.620 Undercover detective Richard Eppolito is working to bring down the powerful Medellin drug cartel.

01:44:13.620 Get up!

01:44:14.620 Get up!

01:44:15.620 Get up!

01:44:16.620 Get up!

01:44:17.620 Get up!

01:44:18.620 Get up!

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01:44:22.620 Get up!

01:44:23.620 Get up!

01:44:24.620 Get up!

01:44:25.620 Get up!

01:44:26.620 Get up!

01:44:27.620 Get up!

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01:44:32.620 Get up!

01:44:33.620 Let's go!

01:44:34.620 Get up!

01:44:35.620 Get up!

01:44:36.120 Get up!

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01:44:47.600 Get up!

01:44:48.600 Get up!

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01:44:56.900 Get up!

01:44:57.820 continues to follow the suspects to id more associates and they trust him because he they

01:45:04.220 showed he showed the atlantic city operation you know what i mean so it's not like he's like running

01:45:08.300 around like it's capped like yo you guys see the work the thing that i got going on atlantic city

01:45:13.420 these dudes are paying me while i'm having dinner bro i'm busy as hell i can't come out there what

01:45:16.460 the hell's wrong with y'all so it makes sense right right investigators watch as hernando meets with 0.75

01:45:22.940 a man identified as mauro trujillo a high-level cartel member who's been wanted by the dea for

01:45:29.500 narcotics trafficking and money laundering oh so this is great they're on surveillance and

01:45:35.900 they identify another co-conspirator that's also that's wanted by the dea you know so this is big

01:45:41.180 stuff agents want to grab him but they don't want to blow the current investigation so they wait

01:45:51.260 that sucks you got your guy he's won and he's there but if you grab him up you already know 0.83

01:45:56.780 what time it is so yep as epelito gets deeper into the deadly cartel the danger increases 0.97

01:46:06.540 there's a high risk factor um you know some nights i didn't go home uh if i did go home

01:46:14.540 i would have to uh do in such a way where i made sure i wasn't being followed

01:46:18.380 finally as the new year passes epelito learns the shipment is on its way

01:46:26.300 but there's a change of plans

01:46:29.660 instead of the cocaine hernando says they're sending a test load

01:46:33.180 nine and a half tons of marijuana

01:46:39.580 oh man

01:46:44.300 now as a former case agent that did drug eight cases that is not what you want to hear man and 0.99

01:46:50.460 this is common that they do this stupid shit where it's supposed to be a higher level drug and then 0.99

01:46:56.460 they tell you right before it's going to be weed and this is common that drug organizations do this 1.00

01:47:02.060 they're not going to ship their main drug aka cocaine because cocaine is fairly expensive guys 0.70

01:47:06.620 they're going to ship something a lot cheaper like marijuana or some bullshit okay but especially 0.79

01:47:11.900 when you deal with cocaine this almost always happens i could tell you from a case agent perspective 0.88

01:47:16.780 they're going to deal with either very small quantities or it's weed and this is just what

01:47:21.900 happens so you can obviously see the reaction on the on the undercover agent's face here obviously 0.96

01:47:26.060 this is just a reenactment but i don't have the same goddamn reaction i'd be pissed too 0.94

01:47:29.980 so uh let's see how they react to this uh curveball 0.89

01:47:34.700 in character is tony romano the detective acts upset at the change

01:47:39.340 but it's a big load and would be the evidence they need to bring the operation to a close

01:47:46.700 it was a heck of a test load normally we hadn't seen anything like that test loads were like one

01:47:51.020 or two kilos see if they get seized goes off to the street and let's see what happens

01:47:58.540 the task force can't let that amount of drugs on the street

01:48:02.060 when the load arrives at the new york docks undercover investigators transported directly to

01:48:06.700 epileto's warehouse the investigators need to check the container's contents

01:48:13.340 but there's a seal on its door to ensure no one has opened it all right so this is tricky there's

01:48:17.740 a seal on it guys which in the customs world um you don't you want that seal to be intact because

01:48:22.940 it shows that no one else opened it okay now drug organizations are obviously very sophisticated

01:48:26.940 at getting drugs into it without necessarily breaking the seal or whatever it may be but

01:48:30.780 for a drug organization after they smuggle it in they need to be able to make sure that that seal is

01:48:35.980 still open it's a very big indicator that no one's tampered with it okay so uh let's see how this how

01:48:40.140 they go around this it's a common practice in international shipping agents need to find a way

01:48:47.020 to get inside and keep the seal intact u.s customs agent phil spinelli what they were able to do

01:48:55.660 is to detach the door without breaking the seal bam at first it looks like a normal shipment of clothing

01:49:02.380 stash behind the shirts marijuana literally tons of it bam we recovered somewhere in the neighborhood

01:49:18.060 of about 272 uh cartons were crates containing 19 000 pounds of marijuana valued in excess of 21 22 0.87

01:49:29.100 million dollars holy shit 19 000 pounds of weed but you see how much it's worth yeah 20 million 0.96

01:49:37.500 dollars damn i guess that's one hell of a test load you know why they sent that much though 0.99

01:49:44.060 they were going to send thousands of kilos of cocaine but that was the test right that was their 0.98

01:49:48.540 test in weed yeah but the fact that they were able to send that much weed over tells me that they

01:49:53.580 were prepared to send literally if they had like let's say they let this weed walk which they never

01:49:57.820 would well let's say this weed like had safely facilitated through they would have sent thousands

01:50:03.340 of kilos of weed of of cocaine after this and imagine how much that will cause that would have been

01:50:07.900 even more that would have been even more because weed is not nearly weed isn't as expensive as

01:50:13.180 expensive as cocaine cocaine is by far the most expensive drug right so uh this is hilarious uh

01:50:19.740 so yeah these guys uh these this organization just themselves but uh yeah 19 000 pounds plus

01:50:25.820 we're 20 uh 22 million dollars and 22 million dollars in the 90s guys is the equivalent just

01:50:31.420 so let's play with the inflation thing right quick 22 million dollars in 1991 that's so bad uh inflation

01:50:39.900 calculator let's have some fun with this bad boy inflation calculator right by year here it is

01:50:46.620 all right all right let's pull this bad boy up real fast um boom

01:50:54.700 so let's say if in 1991 okay

01:51:02.700 22

01:51:06.540 that's 22 uh 100 it's 22 000 220 000 2.2 million that should be it

01:51:15.180 it they can't even give it to me if in 1991 entry

01:51:21.740 oh yeah put it in the wrong place my bad guys yeah the year go there yeah bam

01:51:31.900 22 million then uh 1991 uh today 2022 right yep calculate that'd be 47 million dollars uh today 0.93

01:51:42.140 damn almost 50 mil 0.98

01:51:45.020 fucking wild that is ridiculous that's how much that's just weed bro that's how much weed these 1.00

01:51:51.180 fucking guys smuggled in i don't even want to know how much cocaine yeah of course 1.00

01:51:56.220 they're definitely dealing with a major cartel 1.00

01:51:58.700 it's not easy to put together nine and a half tons of marijuana these people had the resources to do

01:52:07.100 all this these are bad guys uh major violators they uh you know they plagued this country with this stuff

01:52:17.580 and uh you know they just needed to be taken down and bring a halt to their operation

01:52:25.260 and guys keep in mind in 1991 marijuana was still highly illegal all across the board okay it wasn't

01:52:32.220 even legalized in states yet at this point for prosecution the c-13 task force needs the suspects

01:52:37.980 to complete the transaction and accept the shipment epelito invites them to the warehouse

01:52:43.740 and of course there was video and uh you know surveillance equipment in place we uh had one of

01:52:52.700 the my so-called one of my workers uh come with a big bolt cutter and cut the seal on the back of the

01:52:57.900 container and i handed them the seal i said here's a souvenir for you and they could see that the load

01:53:03.740 was sealed it wasn't tampered with it got here that's big piece and i uh happened to have an italian

01:53:10.220 switchblade on me by the way i cut it open and uh they examined it and they were happy they saw this

01:53:18.380 stuff they had sent over and uh they also wanted to take some back with them but epelito can't let

01:53:25.260 the drugs hit the street here we go and uses the cartel's unplanned switch from cocaine to marijuana to

01:53:31.740 his advantage okay now we switch it up on them and see what he does here it's very smart what he's about to do

01:53:40.380 i said uh now you screwed me and you know this is basically how it's gonna go you're gonna do what 0.97

01:53:48.060 i tell you to do i want those 5 000 kilos here when i get my drugs then you get your marijuana bam 0.96

01:53:55.420 you're supposed to get that those 5 000 kilos of coke and you guys put them in a bad spot

01:53:58.940 send some weed so now he's gonna hold the weed until the cocaine comes now let's see what happens

01:54:04.060 the suspects panic they are desperate to take control of the drugs shockingly desperate

01:54:13.180 monica actually offered up her baby to me as a former collateral and could trust 1.00

01:54:19.020 it's a stunning move no one expects offered her baby holy

01:54:26.220 but that goes to show how crazy this situation was for them fear comes across when you hear stories

01:54:35.260 like that the reason being is is that if she's willing they give her child up to this unknown 0.93

01:54:40.620 criminal figure what would she have done to myself or any member of the investigative team if 1.00

01:54:47.420 in fact she found out we were law enforcement or if in fact she found out that richie in reality was

01:54:54.060 an undercover police detective it would have been yeah mind you this is 22 million dollars worth of weed

01:55:01.020 here they would have got a couple of chills up his spine epauleto stands firm he will not release the

01:55:11.180 marijuana until the cocaine he ordered comes through the cartel members finally now from a prosecution

01:55:19.660 standpoint this is fantastic because now you've established that it is their weed they're obviously

01:55:23.420 very vested in it i mean hell that's the best evidence you can get right there one of the defendants

01:55:28.380 literally would offer her baby to get the drugs doesn't get any better than that they're looking 1.00

01:55:35.100 at the fbi and the custom service right now they're just like yeah just shaking this rubbing their hands

01:55:39.660 like bird man right now man we agree and plan to meet later while c13 plans arrests epauleto faces

01:55:53.260 increased pressure from angry cartel members they've got pretty pretty uh you know heated uh during

01:56:01.180 these latter meetings because they kept pressuring him to release the drugs you know to release the

01:56:06.380 horse they're fucking pissed and then they could then sell it on february 3rd 1993 more than a year 0.95

01:56:13.260 after the investigation began the arrest plans are finalized the task force moves in they start with 0.98

01:56:20.700 willie and monica at epauleto's office by this time the pair suspects nothing 0.97

01:56:29.740 oh shit they were they will but they didn't know what was going on 0.98

01:56:34.860 uh uh guys coming with shotguns guns out pull professor 1.00

01:56:39.180 then the man they knew is tony romano oh shit emerges 0.80

01:56:48.380 you know i went out there to uh to speak to them and try to get them to cooperate 0.95

01:56:53.820 that's when you let them know that's when the undercover comes out that's when they're like 1.00

01:56:56.700 fuck 0.99

01:56:59.340 that's when they want to cooperate like that's why he went out there to try to get them to cooperate 0.99

01:57:02.700 because it's like you know if you if they think okay well tony's gonna get arrested too we'll be

01:57:06.460 able to beat this case but then if tony romano comes out and he's like nah bruh i was a part of 0.98

01:57:11.180 the police that's when they're just like no you better fucking start talking baby 0.91

01:57:19.420 my thomas you know who i am i'm the police i guess they felt betrayed and that i had deceived them 0.94

01:57:25.900 which i did the interest of justice and uh willie actually looked at me with tears in his eyes and he 0.52

01:57:32.860 says uh how could you do this to me i said oh shit he says you come into this country you bring this 0.99

01:57:38.860 stuff you destroy our people he's just crying how could you betray me and my columbian drug traffic 1.00

01:57:45.660 organization after we try to press you for months and interrogate you and everything else man how 0.99

01:57:50.620 fucking dare you man how dare you oh our youth i said i'm a police officer i'm a detective he says i'm 0.99

01:58:00.460 here to pull the law he says you broke the law i said you people are under arrest and i was in i 0.99

01:58:06.380 walked out of the room within 24 hours c-13 arrests hernando and six other co-conspirators

01:58:18.460 magola is never they just hand all the houses and they're just running that 0.98

01:58:23.180 bitch customs officers you know uh fbi all that shit nypd eduardo monica willie 1.00

01:58:38.140 hernando trujillo and others are each charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to distribute narcotics 0.99

01:58:50.220 and real quick just so you guys while we have their names fresh in your head right now

01:58:54.220 here is the actual federal case that i was able to pull up on pacer for you guys as you can see here

01:58:59.020 eastern district of new york in brooklyn that's where they were indicted out of you got hernando

01:59:02.540 sanchez and now right marijuana sell distribute dispense 21 usc 846 right this is the conspiracy

01:59:08.780 charge in 841 you know possession uh importation and exportation 952 i remember i used to charge this

01:59:14.460 all the time with people trying to import drugs okay 21 usc 952 again bam marijuana and this is

01:59:19.660 how you know it's the 90s because they spell it with that with the h in it okay that's way back in

01:59:24.060 the day they no longer spell it like that anymore but this was back in the day moro trujillo right

01:59:28.380 that's the guy that they met with that had the warrant from the dea um here's gustavo here's rocio

01:59:35.420 the girl right londano the one offering up her baby okay uh uh so she got some of the charges dismissed 0.98

01:59:43.260 she probably cooperated uh let's see here if the other guy got his shit okay these two probably 0.94

01:59:48.060 cooperate i think these are the two yeah the two the couple monica and willie right here they are 0.99

01:59:52.540 right it's crazy crazy crazy guys this was a real case i got it right here here's moro trujillo

01:59:56.940 he never got arrested and we're going to talk about that here in a second this guy got some of the

01:59:59.660 stuff dismissed as well he probably um imprisonment time served okay so uh let's see here he probably

02:00:09.500 cooperated two says he got time serve juan robello robello humberto rojas okay and then bam uh this

02:00:16.380 was actually uh the complaint was filed on uh february sorry january 27 1993 okay and arrest warrant

02:00:27.500 issued so they had the arrest warrants on the 27th of january and then they went ahead on as you guys

02:00:33.900 can see february the next day february 4th 1993 motion to unseal complaint that means that they

02:00:38.780 arrested him on the 3rd because everything was sealed they got the arrest warrants everything

02:00:41.820 ready to go and then bam on the 3rd they went and arrested them okay which makes sense and then the

02:00:45.340 next day they were brought in front of the judge which is makes sense why on the next day it was

02:00:49.660 unsealed when they went to the judge okay this is older case guys so unfortunately we can't look at

02:00:53.500 the documents i would love to read that criminal complaint but i can't pull it up right now because

02:00:58.300 um this is an old ass case and look nothing from it actually is you can see you can't even look so 0.81

02:01:04.140 i'll try to see if i can get it somehow but um but yeah anyway uh let's go ahead and continue on with it 0.76

02:01:16.060 vr special agent mary setzer

02:01:20.460 and if you guys remember she was the undercover woman playing the secretary she looks like a secretary

02:01:24.060 actually so all pled guilty however mao trujillo also known as restrepo fled the country and left

02:01:33.740 for colombia that boy was gone he turned into goku in this man he was like oh y'all all got arrested

02:01:39.660 i'm good the fbi is looking for information regarding the whereabouts of mr trujillo if anybody has

02:01:46.220 that information they can call the new york office of the fbi at 212-384-1000

02:01:53.180 more than a year of dangerous undercover work by the agents and officers of the c-13 task force

02:02:01.260 helped cripple a drug cartel many thought was unstoppable

02:02:09.020 bam hope you guys enjoyed that one man uh that one was crazy uh

02:02:15.820 uh so what are your thoughts on that doll face um question what do they do with the drugs that

02:02:20.860 they capture burn them really you destroy them yeah you destroy them uh i i i remember when we 0.53

02:02:28.300 used to seize the drugs we would burn them or do or throw them we bring them to the facility and they

02:02:32.220 just destroy them okay yeah they have like facilities that just specialize in destroying that 0.99

02:02:36.700 shit i always wondered yeah like how did but how does it get people say oh they just smoke it like okay 0.99

02:02:41.980 bro i don't think they smoke it but i would destroy it i would i would be there sometimes witness it to 0.99

02:02:47.020 get what witness it getting destroyed okay so yeah yeah you file paperwork actually you destroy it gotcha

02:02:53.180 so um and you would have a couple agents there witnessing it and you destroy it um okay anything

02:02:59.660 else anything uh any other thoughts um it was a great interesting case like yeah yeah i loved it cool

02:03:06.380 it was good cool awesome uh well guys hope you guys enjoyed that one man that one took a lot of work

02:03:11.340 man uh and uh like the video subscribe to the channel and uh other net man check us out on instagram uh

02:03:18.540 we'll drop your uh where can the people find you they could find me on instagram at dollface duh d-u-h

02:03:25.580 and they can find me and all my links bam and mine is unplugged phase you guys know man all the

02:03:30.780 links will be in the description below hope you guys enjoyed that episode man it was great and fed

02:03:35.900 it is out man and here's the other uh intro guys let me know what you guys thoughts on this comment

02:03:40.300 below if you thought the first intro is better or the second intro i'll give you guys a sneak peek

02:03:44.700 of the second one right now let me know what y'all think below peace i was a special agent with

02:03:50.380 homeland screen investigations okay guys hsi cases that i did mostly were human smuggling and drug

02:03:55.420 trafficking the sheriff is an official in a county independent city responsible for keeping kidnapping

02:03:59.500 guys you know happens in the drug game um so on this day guys this is september 29 2014 i was on

02:04:07.500 duty that day so obviously you're always on duty when you're a special agent right because you you

02:04:11.420 know you're plain clothes no one else has these documents by the way i've been looking everywhere

02:04:15.660 and no one has them ain't nobody gonna be able to tell you all this

The Debrief With MyronGainesX - October 16, 2022

Pablo Escobar's NYC Drug Traffickers BUSTED In Operation Seaload! Case Breakdown!

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript