On this episode of FedEx, Myron talks about a case he went on trial on. This case was one of the most controversial cases he ever took the stand on. He talks about his experience on this case and how it inspired him to become a federal agent.
00:02:21.320You guys know this channel actually takes quite a bit of my time because, you know, researching cases, pulling up old documents, especially for cases like this that were mine.
00:02:29.780I'm, like, trying to remember, oh, man, what was the defendant's name?
00:03:36.580Now, you know, for all the people who say, oh, cover up, blah, blah, you know, the conspiracy theorists, guys, you know, you can have your opinion.
00:05:59.940If you guys wonder why I have such a sense of humor or whatever it may be or I don't get offended, the reason why is because I got bullied a lot in school, especially after 9-11.
00:06:07.600I mean, hell, I remember them saying, oh, Bin Laden's your uncle and Saddam is, you know, after they killed Saddam in like 05, they're like, oh, yeah, we killed your dad.
00:06:16.500Like, you know, it was fucked up shit.
00:06:28.160She got harassed a lot because she would cover her hair.
00:06:31.200And after 9-11, people weren't so happy with anyone that was Muslim at the time.
00:06:34.760And so I remember one time someone drove by.
00:06:38.780I think we were like at Target or something like that or Walmart.
00:06:41.480Somebody drove by and like said something crazy to her.
00:06:44.940And, you know, the look on her face was just like fucking again, right?
00:06:50.540And I was like, man, I'm going to I'm going to work in law enforcement so that we can go ahead and get the fucking guys that did this shit.
00:06:56.400So no one else has to to ever deal with that, you know, you know, obviously, I'm not like excusing that idiots, you know, ignorance for, you know, insulting my mom just because she wore a hijab.
00:07:07.360But, you know, a lot of good Muslims like suffered the consequences after 9-11 simply for, you know, what the religion they practice.
00:07:14.200Right. And obviously, you know, these extremists fuck it up for everybody else.
00:07:17.260So anybody else that's that's Muslim or comes from that part of the world, the Middle East or India or Pakistan or Asia or wherever it may be, you guys know what I'm talking about after 9-11.
00:07:27.820Hell, even if you weren't let's say you weren't Muslim, but you were like Hindu or something like that, they still gave you the same type of energy because people were ignorant.
00:07:33.860You know, they didn't know the difference.
00:07:35.260So that definitely motivated me to get into law enforcement.
00:07:39.260People ask all the time, hey, what will like inspired you?
00:07:44.460And 9-11, guys, actually created the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.
00:07:48.960The Homeland Security Act was, you know, pretty much enacted to kind of thwart terrorism.
00:07:55.040And a big reason why was because agencies weren't working together.
00:07:57.560A big part of and when I'm going to talk about this in detail when I break down the 9-11 case for y'all, but a big reason why the terrorists are able to even get on the planes and get the visas and everything else like that was because agencies weren't sharing information.
00:08:10.400And what happened with the Homeland Security Act is they combined some agencies to kind of make things a bit easier.
00:08:15.580And two of the agencies that they combined are the agency that I worked for.
00:08:19.400I worked for before I resigned, which was Homeland Security Investigations.
00:08:23.680It was legacy prior to that U.S. Customs Service.
00:16:46.800I did crazy shit when I was on the job, guys.
00:16:48.300This was basically an undercover operation where we had, we're meeting with, we're meeting with some bad guys.
00:16:56.560And those bad guys, what they did was they gave us some illegal aliens, right, thinking that we're going to transport them to San Antonio for them.
00:17:01.920So we went ahead and took the aliens in, right?
00:17:04.760And then what we did was, and illegal aliens, guys, are, you know, undocumented migrants, whatever you guys want to refer to them.
00:17:10.180But legally speaking, in the United States, you call them illegal aliens.
00:19:14.260There's a lot of crazy stuff that goes on.
00:19:16.420So, Best works together with other law enforcement agencies, and they go ahead and, you know, do those types of investigations that are directly tied to the border.
00:19:51.600You know, FBI does CP as well, but HSI, man, they really, like, yeah.
00:19:57.520Because you guys got to remember that child pornography used to be something, was more of a customs violation because people have to smuggle that shit in.
00:20:03.860But now, it's on the internet, and when it's on the internet, it affects interstate commerce.
00:20:21.800Identity benefit fraud, guys, is like when people make fake passports, fake documents, making presses, making fake driver's license, all that other stuff.
00:20:28.440They go after, and then global trade investigations, yep.
00:20:31.980You know, obviously, this is commercial fraud.
00:20:36.700And then intellectual property and trade fraud.
00:20:38.620Guys, this is something also interesting that we do, that they basically, you know, if you make counterfeit stuff, you know, Coach, Louis Vuitton, et cetera.
00:20:48.820And then you got, okay, counterproliferation investigations.
00:20:51.560I will go ahead and do one of these for y'all.
00:20:53.720I did a very big one when I was, like, in the way beginning, a CPI case.
00:20:59.640And counterproliferation, guys, is people try to get U.S. technology, right, on weapons or whatever it may be and give it to foreign adversaries, okay?
00:21:07.480And these cases can get really, you know, espionage-y, if you know what I'm saying.
00:21:57.220And then worksite enforcement, they also do that as well, which is when you ā you know, people that employ illegal aliens, like, on a mass scale, that's criminal.
00:22:05.500And then also cultural property theft.
00:22:46.860So anyway, that right there, my friends, is an introduction to HSI.
00:22:50.920Now, you guys are probably wondering, well, what do special agents do on a typical day?
00:22:53.760Instead of me talking about it, guys, I'm going to show you guys all this video.
00:22:56.160And then we're going to get into the trial because I really want you guys to understand the duties and the life of what it's like to be a federal agent.
00:23:37.540So, yeah, it's not it's definitely not a nine to five job.
00:23:41.660If you want to be able to, you know, go in at nine and come home at five, like obviously there's, you know, certain groups and certain types of agencies that will allow you to live that that lifestyle.
00:23:50.420But if you want to be running and gunning and doing big cases or whatever, fuck no.
00:23:54.900Man, I remember you guys say all the time, yo, Mario, why can't you sleep?
00:24:11.900OK, so when you're on call, if they catch people smuggling aliens, if they catch people at the bridge with drugs, if they catch people doing whatever, guess who they call you?
00:24:20.480And then you got to show up at three o'clock in the morning and go deal with it.
00:24:23.820So I was used to being up at night because we would always get called late at night.
00:24:29.040You know, you are better off sometimes just sleeping during the day than, you know, sleeping at night because you knew that they were going to call you.
00:24:34.480That's when the crooks were doing all the crazy shit that they do.
00:24:36.460So so that is why, guys, it's not a nine to five job, especially if you work for HSI on the southwest border.
00:24:43.260Oh, Lord, you're going to be out all the time working all the time.
00:24:46.900I dude, when I was on the border, we were making arrests damn near every single day.
00:24:51.700Most federal agents and agencies might make a criminal arrest once every five years.
00:24:56.360Dude, we're arresting people every day because, remember, they're calling you from the ports.
00:25:57.840So let's go back to this video as far as like what it's like to be a special agent.
00:26:02.200Just so you guys know, the name of the channel is called Fed1811 because 1811 is the job series code for all special agents.
00:26:07.780It's in the United States, whether you work for FBI, DEA, whatever it may be.
00:26:10.500It's the government series job series code.
00:26:13.520It's not all like the movies where every day your favorite onscreen character is getting in car chases, kicking in doors and arresting bad guys.
00:26:21.960While you will do some of that, it's just not a typical day.
00:26:26.500One thing they never show you on TV is the multiple hours of sitting in front of a computer, researching, typing reports and utilizing dozens of databases.
00:27:27.720Because you're supposed to do your vehicle report, right, every month where you put like, you know, you attach your receipts, you know, you put in your mileage, all that stuff, right?
00:27:39.460Because they gave you a take-home car, right?
00:27:41.440And then they would give you like admin paperwork to do for your vehicle, right, getting checks done on it.
00:27:46.780You know, you would have to do your time sheets, all this stupid shit.
00:28:17.680They're out there in the streets doing stuff.
00:28:20.420Guys that are in the office all day that don't do anything, they're the ones that keep up with admin stuff because they ain't got nothing better to do, you know?
00:40:12.760You'll submit a very detailed plan that will be submitted to your supervisor for approval before any action can be taken.
00:40:19.620If you want to take out money to pay your confidential informant, you will need to fill out a form or submit a memo explaining in detail the reason for your request.
00:40:28.240And all of that paperwork has to be approved, sometimes by multiple supervisors, and then uploaded into the case management system, and then a paper copy is saved in a physical case file.
00:40:38.220So, it's frustrating at times because you'll get bogged down with administrative tasks and paperwork.
00:44:45.000Yeah, so that's pretty, that's a very good overview, accurate overview of what it's like.
00:45:14.420You know, every agency is different, guys.
00:45:15.820So, obviously, depending on who you work for, that's going to dictate a lot of, you know, how you do things.
00:45:22.440So, but in general, that's a very good assessment of what it's like to be a criminal investigator slash special agent slash 1811 in the U.S. government.
00:45:30.720So, now that you guys know what HSI is, you guys know what special agents do, now we're going to go ahead and go over a case that I did back in 2018, guys, okay?
00:45:39.060This was a human smuggling case that I got from Customs and Border Protection OFO.
00:45:44.280Now you guys are probably, not OFO, sorry, Air and Marine.
00:45:46.680So, I'm going to introduce you guys real quick to who these guys are, Air and Marine.
00:46:29.020So, this case, like I told you all before, guys, was a human smuggling case, maritime human smuggling, which means it was done on the water, okay?
00:46:35.860The person's name was Stanley Roll, a Bahamian, okay?
00:46:40.820And that is a very common last name, because I can't tell you how many people I arrested that had the last name Roll.
00:46:46.420But this is what he, this is the indictment, okay?
00:46:48.100And you guys know an indictment is a formal charge from the U.S. government.
00:46:51.520A grand jury went ahead and listed to the case and indicted him, okay?
00:46:55.020So, this is one of the cases I did myself.
00:46:57.440So, as you can see, 8USC, 1324, 8USC, 1324, A1A, all these different things.
00:47:01.620You guys are probably wondering, what the fuck is 8USC?
00:47:04.6208USC, guys, is the Immigration and Nationality, or the INA, okay?
00:47:09.4808USC, typically, if you've ever seen anything that says 8USC, it's going to be an immigration violation to some degree, okay?
00:47:18.300And in this case, 8USC, 1324 is human smuggling or alien smuggling, all right?
00:47:22.020And then all these subsets is, like, conspiracy or, you know, inducement, whatever it is.
00:47:27.240Like, it, like, you know, it specifies it a little bit.
00:47:30.100But 8USC, 1324, in general, is human smuggling.
00:47:48.020Then the second, counts 2 through 17, encouraging and inducing aliens to enter the United States, okay?
00:47:53.980And these are the aliens that he smuggled into the U.S.
00:47:55.800The reason why they wrote out these two guys' names and they used initials for these other guys is because these guys were convicted felons, guys, okay?
00:48:02.760Since these guys were convicted felons, it's an extra charge if you smuggle in illegal aliens that are convicted felons, all right?
00:48:08.920And then next was counts 18 through 33, bringing aliens to the United States for commercial and private financial gain.
00:48:20.180If you ever see an illegal alien in the United States, 9 out of 10 times, they were professionally smuggled into the United States through some type of illicit criminal organization.
00:48:59.840He pays somebody else to get me from China to a transit country.
00:49:04.120Now, a transit country, guys, a lot of times is somewhere like Mexico, the Bahamas, or South America where they can stage you, prepare you, and then move you into the United States.
00:49:12.080So, for this example, let's use Mexico.
00:49:39.340The going rate for a Chinese national to be smuggled into the United States from Mexico, the going rate is somewhere between $50,000 to $60,000, $70,000, okay?
00:49:51.460So, by the time they get to Mexico, they're probably already in $20,000 to $30,000, all right?
00:49:55.840So, they get to Mexico, and then they're moved north.
00:49:58.380As they're moved north, they pay more and more money to different smugglers in the organization, okay?
00:50:04.440There's different types of people at different levels.
00:50:06.680So, once they get to the border, right?
00:50:08.280Like, let's say in Laredo, you got Nuevo Laredo, which is across the border from Laredo, Texas, right?
00:50:12.600Once they're there, they got to pay the final payment pretty much.
00:50:15.700And what that is is that they're going to pay their smuggler to help them cross the river and into the United States and get in a vehicle and then get them to a stash house once in the United States, okay?
00:50:25.280But that's just one example of Chinese.
00:50:26.860I know some of you guys are probably saying, yo, why do Chinese get charged more?
00:50:30.480The reason why Chinese get charged more, guys, as I get a sip of my thing here.
00:50:39.760Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs, anyone from the Middle East in general, those are considered exotics.
00:50:47.140Aliens from these types of country, guys, Russians, right?
00:50:51.480Aliens from these countries have to pay more because there's a security risk to the human smuggling organizations.
00:50:57.280They're smuggling someone who is of a different nationality, which brings more law enforcement attention to them,
00:51:02.420not only in their home country of Mexico or wherever it may be, but it puts them at risk for their entire smuggling organization moving aliens like this.
00:51:09.860So what ends up happening is one of two things.
00:51:11.940Either A, you got specialized smugglers that only deal with that nationality of aliens, okay?
00:51:16.240So you got a lot of Chinese nationals, for example, that only smuggle Chinese nationals,
00:51:19.640and they live in Mexico and they facilitate the transportation of said aliens,
00:51:22.220or you have Mexican human smuggling organizations that will go ahead and take these Chinese,
00:51:28.860but they're going to charge them a premium, okay?
00:51:31.200Because it makes their entire or it opens their organization up to be susceptible to law enforcement.
00:51:37.500Because even though police are corrupt in Mexico, it's one thing for them to turn a blind eye towards another Mexican.
00:51:42.380It's another thing for them to turn a blind eye towards a Chinese individual, okay?
00:58:14.340Now, you guys got a visual representation.
00:58:17.380Upon spotting the law enforcement aircraft, the boat suddenly changed course and headed east away from land.
00:58:23.900Law enforcement boats from the U.S. Coast Guard and CBP intercepted the boat 41 nautical miles east of Miami in international waters and boarded it.
00:58:30.640So, he tried to come to the United States.
00:58:32.660They caught him at about 19 miles in, right?
00:58:45.220Coast Guard and CBP have very powerful boats.
00:58:47.200So, they were able to catch up to him.
00:58:48.480So, what happened is they went ahead and they boarded his boat.
00:58:51.680Guys, on international waters, etc., maritime law, they're able to go ahead and do...
00:58:57.440Board your boat and do inspections, okay?
00:59:00.640Upon boarding the boat, officers encountered co-defendant Stanley W. Roll, who was operating the boat, and 16 other people consisting of three Haitian males, one Haitian female, one Chinese female, five Chinese male, five Dominican males, and one Panamanian male.
00:59:20.140Okay, and actually, now that I'm going through this, these Chinese, I was able to link them to a Chinese organized crime syndicate out of Miami and New York.
00:59:34.940I remember now, these six Chinese that were caught.
00:59:38.940Because I remember interviewing them, and they were involved in another case that I was working in the same time.
00:59:43.420Remember how I told you guys back in, like, 2018?
00:59:46.2602018, I think it was right around the time 6ix9ine got arrested.
00:59:50.080In November, it was December of 2018, or January of 2019.
00:59:55.740I went to New York to go ahead and do an Asian organized crime case.
01:00:04.620So, yes, each of them paid about $50,000 to $60,000.
01:00:07.240Then you got five Dominican males and one Panamanian male, okay?
01:00:10.940Roll was provided his Miranda rights and admitted he was transporting the 16 people to an at-sea rendezvous with another boat.
01:00:17.240He believed the 16 people were aliens who did not have legal permission to enter the United States and that he was going to be paid for transporting them.
01:00:23.320Officers found $23,400 in cash on his person.
01:00:27.140Roll stated the boat, aliens to transport, and cash were provided to him by a man in the Bahamas.
01:00:31.060He threw his phone off the boat when his vessel was boarded by law enforcement.
01:01:34.040They do biometrics, which means they check their status.
01:01:37.580They see if they're illegal aliens, whatever it may be, right?
01:01:41.580And so they went ahead and put them on the Coast Guard cutter.
01:01:44.640Through checks of government databases, 16 people with Roe were confirmed to be aliens with no documents or permission to enter or remain in the United States legally.
01:01:50.840All the people were then transferred to the ashore at Miami Beach, Florida, and transported to Dania Beach Border Patrol Station for processing.
01:02:47.280You can Google it, as you guys can just see just there.
01:02:49.440So, the defendant, Moreno Archibald, was among ā because anytime they catch illegal aliens, guys, they give them to Border Patrol so that they can process them and put them in a detention center, which is ā there's an immigration detention center in Pompano Beach.
01:03:02.560So, Border Patrol process them, and then they turn them over to enforcement removal operations who basically ā think of them as, like, the immigration jail.
01:03:09.180All the people were transported ashore to Miami Beach and transported to Dania Beach.
01:03:12.060Now, at Dania Beach, right, that's where me and my people showed up, and we went to go interview everybody involved in the smuggling event.
01:03:19.840So, when this went down, guys, they contacted us, and then we responded to do the investigation because, obviously, there was a human smuggling event that went on.
01:03:28.300So, the defendant ā one of the defendants was among the aliens found on board the boat with Roe, Moreno Archibald.
01:03:32.680Based on biometrics, queries, immigration databases, other Department of Homeland Security databases, and files maintained by the U.S. CIS, it was determined that Moreno Archibald had been previously removed and deported from the United States to Panama on or about October 20, 2003 and on June 8, 2016.
01:09:50.260So obviously, when you prepare for trial, guys, as the case agent, your job, right?
01:09:57.240And the case agent is the main person that runs the case.
01:09:59.600Your job is to get the witnesses ready and to get all the evidence and give it to the prosecutor so that the prosecutor can fight the case.
01:11:09.680So we're able to establish that all those people that we caught, those Chinese, those Dominicans, whatever, none of them had legal right or authority to be in the United States.
01:11:58.360Then they got still frames from interdiction video.
01:12:00.440So they had him on video getting arrested and they got still frames.
01:12:03.360Then they got the conviction record for one of the aliens.
01:12:05.340Because remember, guys, that's an important part of charging role was that he not only brought in illegal aliens, but he brought in two convicted felons.
01:14:27.160And then you got map location of GoFast when discovered by CBP, map location of GoFast vessel when stopped by CBP and then judging convictions for the defendant.
01:14:35.180Because remember, guys, he had been arrested before for this.
01:15:28.500Then cross-examination is when the defense attorney questions the government witness.
01:15:33.640OK, this is why they never put like most defense attorneys will never put their client on the stand because, well, number one, they have a right to not testify, you know, to remain silent.
01:16:08.880And then they say that USA says, good morning.
01:16:10.780Can you tell us where you're employed?
01:16:11.860He goes ahead and says I'm employed by Special Agent Homeland Security Investigations in Miami, Florida.
01:16:19.140What are your duties and responsibilities as a special agent?
01:16:21.040As a special agent, I'm tasked with investigating crimes involving Title 8, Title 19 of the United States Code and following immigration customs violations.
01:17:21.180And at that time, did you see, and this is the AUSA, and at that time, did you see the vessel that was involved in human smuggling interdiction?
01:19:52.580And then they ask him more about the money.
01:19:56.240And then, and I'm skimming through this guy so that like I don't bore you with the semantics because a lot of the times they're going to go and ask very similar questions multiple times.
01:20:06.200They make sure that they cover every facet, right?
01:20:09.400Okay, so they played, they played portions of the interview, okay?
01:20:22.020Okay, so now I move to admit government's exhibit 4B, actually, which has been previously admitted into evidence as government exhibit 4B.
01:20:27.740And I'll direct the jurors to the, to the binders are in front of them.
01:20:30.920They can following, they can follow the recorded conversation with the transcripts that they have in front of them.
01:20:36.060And now the portion that I'm going to play is the portion that is, and then basically what they do is they play a portion of the interview that we had with the defendant, okay?
01:21:32.760The cross-examination, guys, is, again, like I said before, now, this is where the defense attorney is going to start grilling my guy, Steve, right?
01:22:53.860He's trying to make it like, yo, you guys were interviewing my defendant at an early time.
01:22:59.180It was cold as hell in there, et cetera.
01:23:00.680Now you guys are wondering, wait, wait, why is the Border Patrol Station very cold?
01:23:04.340They keep Border Patrol Stations very cold, guys, because to kill bacteria, and also because a lot of times when you bring the illegal aliens in,
01:23:11.800they haven't showered in weeks, right?
01:23:53.400I know that there's a period of time where the people that were involved in interdiction are kept on a Coast Guard cutter where biometrics conducted,
01:23:59.700and then there's a time where they're brought ashore, where they're picked up by Border Patrol personnel.
01:24:03.740So it's from the time the interdiction occurs, it's sometimes, you know, a day or so later.
01:25:05.920A lot of times when we respond to do interviews, they've already been there for at least an hour or two so the Border Patrol can continue their processing.
01:25:12.120And the way our processing room works is we'll take them to other migrants to get to figure out.
01:25:16.620We'll talk to other migrants to get an idea, figure out what their story is, and then we'll interview the, I think he means defendant, what we would call the principal, the boat captain, last.
01:25:27.560So what he means is that we would interview the witnesses first, then we talk to the suspect last because we already have everyone else's story.
01:26:55.060Are you familiar with the tactic whereby you might try to minimize the suspect's conduct in order to make it seem that what they did is not so bad in order to get them to talk?
01:27:11.640Did you ever make a statement to my client to the effect of, really, I think you may just be a victim of other people that are actually profiting off this type of behavior?
01:28:22.280And at some point, did you say, it's understandable, I can understand why you might have done something like this, because I know the economic conditions in certain parts of the Bahamas are bad?
01:28:55.020And you guys are probably wondering, well, Myra, what were you doing when all this shit was going on?
01:28:57.920So while my buddy Steve was on the stand, I was sitting at the table with the prosecutors.
01:29:03.880You guys know there's two tables, right?
01:29:05.100You got the defendant sitting at the table with his defense attorney.
01:29:07.780Then you got the prosecution sitting on one side with their agents.
01:29:10.420So I was sitting, the two prosecutors were at the table and I was sitting next to them and I was, you know, there observing everything going on, right?
01:29:18.660Because as a lead case agent, you got to make sure that, you know, you're kind of like the, you're the director.
01:29:24.060You're making sure everything is like, you know, good for the prosecutor.
01:29:27.100So Steve is on the stand and I'm sitting there.
01:29:28.940So the defense attorney points at me and says, everyone that interviewed my client is here, right?
01:29:32.340So this guy right here and he points at me and then he obviously has Steve on the stand, right?