Six Million Dollar Seizure (Full Episode)

welcome everybody I'm the supervisor of the internal conspiracy group for Homeland Security investigations and this is the man of the hour the case agent Paul all right I'll just give a general overview of the case that know what's going on a flight arrived from curau to New York's JFK airport on the surveillance video we have the baggage handler he's seen offloading the bags this is a standard procedure this happens thousands of times a day here at JFK he's about to pull off with the two containers after allegedly offloading
the flight you can see right here those those are four suitcases three in the first cart and one in the second cart each of those suitcases contains 16 kg of cocaine those four suitcases they are not going down to customs the baggage handler decides to drive around the terminal area we believe he was doing that as counter surveillance to see if anyone was following him when he stops the baggage cart he goes into the first container that remember has the three bags he's pulling the bag tags off of the pieces of luggage proceeds to the rear cart where
he removes the tag removes the bag and places that bag into the first cart he then unhooks the second cart and he proceeds to drive in the direction of the domestic baggage terminal drop area this area is where suitcases go down to the domestic belt the whole public has access to that nobody is there checking tickets with your name the public can just walk in take a suitcase off the carousel and walk right out after reviewing videotape we were able to identify a black Honda cord in the area of the terminal the same night
and time the suitcases arrived on the domestic belt we believe that those two individuals that were inside that black Honda collected the suitcases and distributed the cocaine in the New York area during the course of our investigation we ended up arresting the JFK baggage handler and we did learn that the two occupants of the black Honda were former Airline employees here in New York we then learned that 2 kilos of cocaine will be arriving on a flight tonight from Nassau Bahamas we suspect that these two same suspects are going
to show up and receive the two kilos of cocaine the plan will be to find the drugs coming off the plane with the assistance of CBP we have some people on the site already there's going to be about 26 special agents and Task Force officers once the flight lands tonight we're going to escort the flight to the gate we're going to maintain visual contact at all times with the ramp workers all the cargo coming off all the suitcases we want to make sure if there's any type of narcotic anywhere on the plane that we get it and then HSI
are going to conduct the control delivery and try and get the bad guys on on the outside we will track the narcotics and let them go down on the domestic terminal and then we will see who comes and picks it up remember these guys have worked at the airport before they know the ins and outs we're trying to cover every exit every possible scenario so just be alert we have Agents set up outside we're going to see where the bags go we'll make a call ultimately when the drugs get picked up and we'll decide when we're going to take this down and
affect the arrest [Music] [Music] yo hey how you doing man you see your passport finding narcotics is very difficult nowadays have anything in your pockets back in the days you open the bag it's bricks of cocaine it's not like that anymore they're getting smart Blaster you get prob it on the side there's no set weight as we find it they're looking for ways to hide it better we're going to be working in Trinidad
now sir passport Trinidad is known for Narcotics so we like to hit this flight how you doing passport are you traveling by yourself okay what's the purpose of the trip I found clth you have a company over there store a store what's the name of the store stylist you have any like little uh like business card or anything no okay how many bags are you bringing in i a bring no bag is this yeah how do you get your stuff I buy when did you buy the ticket to come uh yday so was it planned yeah and when did you return
Friday talk to her a little okay for me sure you're question was it you or somebody else you kind of know that okay we're going to go through immigration and then we're going to go through a customs inspection okay your hotel it's already no all right guys the plans changed a little bit I just got Intel that the cocaine never made it on the plane you guys been around long enough you know we got to be fluid we got to react the good thing is that we have
arrest warrants for two of our main targets um we do know that previously they were in a black Honda so be on the lookout for that and since we have all these people here and we just got these warrants signed a few hours ago we're going to execute those arrest warrants today we've already deployed some people out to the residence so we're going to get moving everyone best communicate wait for instructions do not jump the gun go ahead in your car okay I we're heading your way all right thanks so they got the one guy the first
Target he's in custody now we're going to go and pick up the uh second target okay guys this is Kevin and we're set up on the corner Target's going to be on the right right probably sitting in the driveway if you look to your left this black Honda I believe is his right there that's the black Honda that we saw on the video from when the cocaine came in from Cura okay 10 point you have the eye on the set right now [Music] yeah he's walking out walking to his vehicle okay so we're right here we might get out and take him
right now here he is he's right behind you where you want to take this guy I'd like to take him somewhere not too far away like if he gets a block off all right break break he's in his car car has started he's moving he's moving just pull out right now we're following behind him take him up the next light Chris you pull up to the left we're going to take the right okay he can't yeah we're going to take them now we got a couple cars in place I got about six units rolling up on him he might be turning he's making a
ride I advise that we take him mid block yeah can we get one car ahead of him and take it yeah doing that now okay let's do this do we're going to talk all right right just be cool with us we'll be cool with you you got any weapons drugs anything that's going to hurt anybody in this car sir all right you mind if we search this car sure sir okay very happy so far the driver just consented to search of his vehicle so we'll see if he uh if he has any drugs or weapons or
evidence of the crime our agents will go back and they'll conduct a post arrest interview and they'll see if he wants to cooperate and tell us more about what's going on in new organization this is the third arrest on this case so far but we still have more people in this criminal conspiracy we're going after the the high level members of the organization we're going to take it all the way up [Music] we're going to whip this area and we get the K9 here now so hold on one second stand by good boy we have narcotic detector dogs all
over the country you'd be amazed at the things that dogs can find narcotics floating in a tank of gasoline that's sealed so the smuggers try but we seem to have a pretty good success rate of finding it this is Jax he is trained to detect narcotics pretty good partner he always wants to come to work he never complains about what I want to listen to on the radio you can stay right there he he'll just sniff around you it's a life of sacrifice for these dogs they don't get a lot of Frills but he serves a bigger purpose than what he understands canons
have been around since the 1970s back then it was heroin and cocaine and marijuana through the years we've had to add ecstasy and Fentanyl to what our dogs can find come on with me we have states that are legal marijuana but federally it's not allowed in so if you're bringing it in we're still going to seize it put your bags on the Belt there's some yummy food in there the dog might have liked that okay nothing else in the bags there's cigarettes in there any marijuana no no marijuana did you smoke marijuana while
you gone maybe something like that not sure if I did you're not sure if you smoked while you were gone I don't think I did if I did I wasn't aware do you smoke marijuana in Oregon like you put it in the bag sometimes of course it's my purse that's probably why the dog is hitting on your back is what I'm trying to say there been many of that in there before you will not find it in there now thank you sir M A lot of times a dog will hit on a pocket or they'll hit on a purse and it's from where they store it previously so you know not always going
to get someone that has marijuana does that happen often where the dogs are like I mean you know it's not uncommon um not a big deal okay if that day ever comes where the federal government recognizes marijuana as a legal drug then we'll stop training our dogs on it that's a go toy huh yeah you like that toy right now we're in the middle of interviewing the two suspects that we just arrested we didn't find anything in the black Honda of note but we did get some information from the interviews that there may be another vehicle so
we're going to go out and we have consent to search that vehicle and we're going to see what we [Music] find dark sbor that's not entirely familiar to us you know we always have to be aware of our surroundings [Applause] [Applause] SC yeah basically was a drug dealer starter kit really excited about this we knew we were on to something good we seized three handguns we seized an estimated $130,000 cash which is a good sign that means that they were selling the drug so these are the importers SL Distributors
investigations are a puzzle you put all the pieces together I'm pretty confident that we're going to get the person that is reaping all the benefits of this criminal activity this is a really good [Music] hit all right this is your bag everything inside is yours let me get your jackon she's very disorganized so right now it's just about having a thorough interview because we want to be able to catch them in a alive so you said you want to buy about how much clothes 2500 but you got to pay for the hotel and that's after
Transportation food okay how much money you bringing in in cash 500 and you're 100% sure that credit card has $2,000 now if there isn't then you're getting caught in a lot I wouldn't be caught in a life before my daughter have to load it is a reloadable card okay I'll be right back we have a lot of passengers who come here with the same story they come to shop to the United States to resell it in their countries however most of the times those passengers actually have a plan and she's only coming for one day normally when these people come they
come for 3 4 days because if you don't find something that one day and you go back home what was the purpose of your trip so we have to make sure that she's authentic because we have had incidents in the past where we've had passengers com in with the same story who have swallowed cocaine she hasn't paid for the hotel she admitted she hasn't paid for the hotel she has 500 bucks in cash she saids she has some money and her credit card but you didn't this work here well that's like a debit card a gift card basically
yeah what's your name is that her name no no what is a different name Karina it says Karina it's not going to let her use it then there's something she's not telling us or she's just lying put in the P yeah put your stuff away and come follow me okay I'm going to put her in private room to speak to her a little bit more see if I can get the truth out of her and see where the story goes from here take a seat right here I'm going to search your body [Music] what's her daughter's name k so the debit card is hers right
yeah she's just she's too calm she's been through this before obviously she's been put in the room before she's been patted down before she said that she made s Jordans and that um last time she stay in 3 months there was a few Jordans that were dropped like new jords that she was exporting back home through here and that's why she stayed here last minute ticket low income you know what make phone calls call her daughter right see if the story makes sense if it makes no sense if it's completely off then we write it up
see give me your daughter's number I'm going to give her a call okay wait for me she an answer I have to check the phone see what you see on the phone yeah she literally only has three contacts right now I don't know what you want to do I want to see if she actually leaves tomorrow can have out BR check if she's taking stuff out she doesn't take anything out she came and she passed or she's taking out cash I don't have enough evidence to keep her but every piece of information that she gave me I couldn't verify
anything come this way so I'm going to make sure that we have an inspection on her way back to Trinidad make sure she's taking out merchandise I'm going to be looking after you okay after there make sure you leave tomorrow if she's not then she's lying about something just let him sniff real quick sir all right thank you how are you come to sir just quick sniff after or something I'm going to take a look at your bags real quick okay fine are these all your bags yeah right what is
here boom he got marijuana here I forgot it was in my back we have a little bit of marijuana here we're going to do a test just to verifi what it is should turn orange positive for marijuana we on scale it's about 12 G it's probably worth about $150 we will issue the fine that will be possibly $5,000 I made a mistake and have marijuana cannabis in my bag and got to pay a $5,000
fine cuz they can't arrest me cuz it ain't chargeable but they can find you for it you you know how I feel the same way you [Music] would position is in location we're rolling up onto the set we're probably about 5 minutes off since arresting the baggage handler and the two other New York Suspects both of who worked for the airlines previously we've developed a lot more information on this organization we've now identified and additional members of this Airline internal conspiracy we began looking at previous video of the JFK and baggage
handler we're able to see that Not only was the baggage handler taking cocaine from the airport he was also moving money into the airport to be smuggled to Southern California we can see him going down from the employee locker room at JFK to the terminal bathroom meeting with the individual who we later identified as the money transporter the money transporter is based out west we're estimating that the baggage handler and the money transporter in this video we're moving an estimated anywhere from 300 to $400,000
the money transporter then gets on a aircraft and flies out to the West Coast bypassing any TSA or security checkpoints those proceeds were going to be utilized to purchase more kilos of cocaine through a Mexican connect we were able to identify the money transporter he lives here in Vegas and we developed a plan with Homeland Security investigations in Las Vegas Vegas on how we would affect the rest of the targets so right over there is the target vehicle that burgundy color sedan and on the corner there is the target
residence we're pretty confident he's in the residence uh the residence comes back to him his vehicle that's registered to him is parked in front of the house we're going to execute a what's called a knock and talker will knock on the door of the resident hopefully the target will answer the door several things to consider doing a knock and talk from an officer safety standpoint you know they could always run back in the house they could grab a weapon you never know how many people are going to be in the house so you kind
of don't really know what you're walking into officers are approaching go to the resell hi you on this redet out here yeah is it yours it's my husband's on husband would he be able to come out and talk contact with appears to be a [Music] female looks like subject uh standing outside we have confirmation that that's our Target we're going to place him under arrest [Music] looks like this subject uh we have confirmation that that's our Target we're going to place him under
arrest you're on the okay what what is this about what and we'll discuss that in a little bit are you sure you have the right person this is a joke right b b B relax bre the HSI Las Vegas office they did a great job got him away from his children and family make sure there was no you know no safety issues or anything like that time and get out of here as quick as we can we'll see how it happens back at the office [Music] morning the day before I saw this female coming from the Caribbean she told me she's coming to purchase clothing she
owns the store in Trinidad and told me she's leaving today you seen we have an inspection outgoing I want to make sure she leaves and I want to make sure she takes back merchandise if she doesn't leave then we have a problem and she leaves with no merchandise we have an even bigger problem maybe she came and she [Music] pass blue shirt says love I see [Music] it I got her hello am see your pass pleas how you doing I'm okay coming with family no no check your lugage and you'll be on your way okay what was the purpose of the trip um
I was store so I come to buy some clothes oh okay and when did you came into the US So Yesterday mhm just one day it's not enough time to shop it's too little and when you came in how much money you brought into the US cash money I had 500 oh okay then how much money you taking back home no cash you want you spend it all oh okay very good this is a new stuff or your your stuff your stuff oh okay do you have any receip of the stuff you bought in the hotel yeah okay it's good after checking her bags we feel like the
purpose she initially told me is legitimate so I'm going to go ahead and release the passenger right now the majority of the time we spend hours on the passenger drilling them asking questions because we think we have something good but we get a lot more negatives and positives but I'm going to keep looking we're going to keep talking and who knows maybe we'll actually find something thank you for your time have a good flight guys thanks everyone for coming today so after the arrest of the money transport our investigation opened up into a
larger conspiracy this organization would send the cocaine from curau to New York's JFK Airport then send those proceeds to Southern California where they would purchase more cocain that was imported from Mexico that cocaine was then sent from Southern California to the New York area we were able to introduce an undercover agent from our Long Beach office that undercover agent was able to pick up 1 kg of cocaine from the source of supply and today we'll be flying in to JFK to deliver that cocaine to the recipient who paid for for the New York
distributor also the former Airline employee here in New York what we're going to try to do today is to conduct and control delivery basically what's going to happen is when the flight lands the UC will start getting in contact right he hasn't been in contact with the target yet no not yet so he basically you can say like hey I'm on the ground where should I go and then right from there we should have an idea what's going on he just goes up to the window pulls out the kilo hands it to them they'll probably look at it pay him his payment and then
it'll be taken down the UC will be taken down with the other targets so just everyone know that it's a kilo of cocaine so whe there's drugs there's guns right so be safe you know work together the most important part is the security of the undercover if anyone sees anything anyone hears anything you don't like call it out we'll stop it nearest Hospital trauma one Center Jamaica okay something happens anybody get them in get them out just go so this flight's still tracking for 1055 so the game plan is we're going to
have a group of Agents be the cover team for the undercover the rest of the agents will be spread out on foot as well as in vehicles in the parking garage and the terminal we're going to be driving by in a second so just uh tap your brakes gotcha okay this is us coming right by you all right so you guys are in a great spot like if he was going to meet him I think they'd meet here that's the best bet you know these guys might know this lot you know what I mean yeah the New York distributor was a former Airline
employee so he's very familiar with that terminal they know there's cameras all over the place that's why we're worried about counter surveillance try and keep an eye on see what's in these cars too you know what I mean if you see anybody like that guy sitting there with his lights on all right looks like the flight has touched down flight has touched down copy that we're all positioned around the terminal making our way to the Rival [Music] gate what are you bringing back with you from from over there anybody give you
anything to bring each day each officer might have three to five good passengers TR together all right come let check the bags right we talk to them we speak to them we check their bags and you'll continue on till you're satisfied anything to [Music] declare why is this still head that's weird you wear these I'm going to go that give me a second all right Saed so you can see how it's darker on the bottom it's like really like densed very dense and completely off the soul
Yep they're loaded oh definitely [Music] there you go white powder from the older I'm going to say it's cocaine this is the sole of the shoe and that yellow packet is loaded get the test this so thick there you go Blue positive for cocaine she going to take you to another area to process you all right your wife know about this no just not time to lying to it your wife know
about this she does so why she acting like she don't know about it I don't know the only thing that's loaded is those shoes what else nothing else nothing else all right sit down they're going to weigh both the shoes together they're theyig look how wide the shoes are [Music] W it smell is so strong oh my God it's like a weird mustard smell yes this is what we do all the time it's a cat in the mouse game you know one finds it everybody helps it's a team effort just your thumb like that so much hard work we got a lot of negatives
but when we hit it's just a good feeling that's why [Music] [Music] we're approaching the end covers of rival we'll keep eyes on him as he exits the building we'll be communicating by text only INF we'll make sure no one is on his tail copy thank you [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Music] time we just got word that our targets contacted our undercover and they are going to be meeting up at the departure level which is right here sh and sending out updates on location they're walking through the terminal slow okay [Music] our undercover is on the escalator right now and we have agents at the arrival and departure areas so we're few minutes
out uc's outside by door number seven that's him right there right with the backpack yeah yeah that's him all units supposedly the targets are in a black Ford Explorer that's all tinted out targets are saying they're at seven and the watch is level don't be surprised if this happens [Music] quick now black SUV just rolled up it's a black Ford Explorer with tinted windows entering the departure area right now just pulling up like y that may be it see it that black explorer right there the one in the Middle with the
tail light out yeah with the onai to come out that's got to be our guy right there man get that car right behind you guys stand for I'll blocking whenever you're [Music] ready it's that car right behind you guys4 I'm blocking whenever you're ready our targets are looking for undercover right now okay that's our UC going right to
the vehicle UC is approaching everybody stand by Vinnie wait for our signal you'll see the lights and close it off when we take it down all right for when he walks away make sure you help close this road get ahead of it get ahead of him yeah okay but let him clear [Music] all right we're going to be taking it down take it down all units take it down get out go go go ground
pleas on the ground the down down down I got you I got you what the is I got him I got him I got him oh my goodness relax ground step out hands up come on oh my goodness oh my oh goodness all right up got anything on you no come on oh my is there anything on you there's nothing on me you got any weapons anything I need to know about what the is going on guys just relax man give us 5 Seconds all right just relax I don't know anything all right that's fine that's fine relax relax we'll get him back take him to the
side all right okay let's go get him in a call let's go all right so we got our two Targets we got our two guys we got a bag we still got the drugs nobody got hurt everything is good this investigation began with us identifying a baggage handler in New York it led us to a huge International conspiracy with the movement of well over thousands of kilos of cocaine unload it we'll lay out everything these organizations with that amount of Narcotics you're looking at multi-million if not billions of dollars that are being made we're definitely
going to be sending all this stuff for prints and DNA swabs thus far in the investigation we're able to seize 10 kgs of cocaine $550,000 us made multiple arrest and all the evidence we gathered will help us prosecute these individuals this is a joke right relax on the ground on the grounda on the ground iids please you got another flight you're doing after this this is just the beginning we turn over every Rock we look at every phone we look at every
suspect somebody's got to watch the front it takes a lot of time and dedication but we're going to do whatever we can to Destro up and dismantle this criminal organization

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqmQZNWO4Ng

Six Million Dollar Seizure (Full Episode) | To Catch a Smuggler

Contact Form