01x01 - Murky Waters

[bunniefuu]

The Island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean

is a U.S. territory, and the halfway

point for South American cartels

transporting narcotics

into the U.S. by sea.

Four miles off the North Coast,

Federal Agents are heading to

intercept a smuggler's boat.

This area is commonly

used by drug smuggling,

and it could take them minutes

to come into the shoreline,

do an offload, and return back to sea.

We have had a lot of high-speed chases.

Agents received intelligence

that a fresh load of contraband

will be delivered today

to a beach known as Smuggler's Cove.

I got eyes.

Coming down. Coming down.

The crew lies in wait just offshore.

Team out there, do you copy?

Tell me do you copy?

While on land, agents move in.

Can you tell me if they have eyes

on the vessel? Please, let me know.

But the sea conditions are worsening.

See how it's breaking there?

That's a reef there.

If we get caught up

on on those breakers, it's no bueno.

Fort Lauderdale is known as

the yachting capital of the world

where over 50,000 boats are registered.

It's 8:00 a.m.,

and the start of Custom

and Border Protection's patrol.

In charge is Vessel Commander Todd,

with Marine Agents, Brittany, and Fritz.

Right now, we're getting

ready to head offshore

and see if we got any traffic

coming in from foreign waters.

Coming up.

Three miles southeast of Fort Lauderdale,

is an invisible line in the sea

that marks the U.S. border.

More than 3000 vessels

cross this line every year,

some of them carrying

contraband from the Bahamas.

Right now, we're just about on the line

to where foreign waters

meets U.S. Customs water.

Today, they're looking for a speedboat

with a history of smuggling.

This vessel is identified

by one of our aircraft

as having a track line

coming out of Bimini, Bahamas,

so they vectored us in for an intercept.

The speedboat is traveling unusually fast.

Inbound from the island of Bimini,

known to be a smuggling hot spot.

We're gonna wait here

for a couple of minutes,

until he gets closer to us,

and then we're gonna

run over and say hello.

Soon, the suspect boat

appears on the horizon.

Zero correction, vessel just dropped.

- Coming up.

- Coming up.

The agent's interceptor

races up at 58 knots per hour.

Sounding the alarm,

to get the speedboat to slow down.

Hey, guys, I'm with U.S. Customs.

How are y'all today?

- I'm real good.

- Good.

- Where are you guys coming from?

- Bimini.

- How long were you over in Bimini?

- Three days.

- How do you know each other?

- Family and friends.

- Mom and dad?

- Yeah.

The occupants of the powerful speedboat

claim to be a family coming back

from a vacation on Bimini.

Are you bringing anything

back from Bimini?

No.

But agents aren't so sure.

We have coolers.

- You have coolers?

- Yes.

Can we see inside your cooler?

Fritz and Brittany prepare

to board, to check out their story.

Keep it in gear.

All right, before we come over,

I want you to go over here. Yeah.

Agent Todd always has

to be ready for a pursuit,

in case the suspect vessel with

its over 1000 horsepower engines

chooses to take off.

- This is your boat?

- My dad's. I wish.

It's a nice boat.

With the suspect powerboat

now in their command,

Agent Todd learns more

about its criminal past.

The closest thing I have recent

was in 2016 of renegade powerboat

allegedly involved in outfitting vessels

for alien and narco smuggling.

2022, they were stopped by Met

and suspected of alien smuggling.

All right, bye.

So, this boat was, apparently,

encountered a couple of years ago,

by some officers and agents

at a boat ramp in Miami.

And it was suspected

that they may have been engaged

in some sort

of an alien smuggling venture.

A previous owner years ago, 10 years ago,

had also been suspected of

some sort of narcotics trafficking.

News of the boat's murky past

has put agents on alert.

The crew on board

is well aware of what's going on.

They're gonna take their

due diligence to make sure

that they're checking

what they need to be checking.

- What do you do for a living?

- I have a business.

- I'm studying nursing.

- Nice.

I help at the trucking

company with my dad.

- Okay. What's your dad do?

- Trucking company.

- Oh, trucking, okay.

- Yeah.

Agent Brittany checks out their story,

while Agent Fritz verifies their IDs.

Given the vessel's checkered past,

they have to be prepared

that the boat could try to escape.

Something agents

have encountered in the past.

A nearby Black Hawk

from Air & Marine Operations

is called in as backup.

They're gonna circle around,

give us some overwatch, some cover.

Make sure everything's good and

safe for us. If anything breaks bad,

they'll be able to assist us

with an air crew r*fle operator.

They'll be able to track

this vessel if they flee from us,

without us being able to stop them.

A thousand miles south

of the U.S. mainland

in the Caribbean Sea

is the Puerto Rican capital, San Juan.

The Port is used

by South American drug smugglers,

as an entry point

into U.S. territory,

and up to 10 tons of cocaine

are seized here every year.

This morning, a cargo ship is arriving

from the nearly Dominican Republic,

carrying imports of food, and other goods.

But the authorities

have received intelligence

that the vessel also has

a shipment of drugs on board.

As the boat pulls into port,

Customs and Border Protection

Officer Victor Ortiz and his team,

are already waiting.

We arrived prior the vessel arrival,

in order to see

that we don't see any vessel

or any prior vessel

that get closer to the boats.

Because we have officers

around, looking at the vessel,

to make sure nobody

throw everything overboard.

Drug gangs sometimes

throw narcotics into the sea,

as a way of offloading it

before the boat is searched.

Drug traffic organizations,

they manage their smuggling

operations in different ways.

They change, we make changes,

we caught them, and they change.

So, they always try

to be one step ahead of us.

With no sign of suspicious

activity spotted on the water,

the team can now hone in

on the vessel itself.

We're gonna board the boat,

and we'll inspect everything.

We're gonna walk around,

we're gonna inspect the galleys

and all the areas around

the boat, inside and outside.

The boat is carrying

more than 200 truck trailers,

transporting produce from countries

across South and Central America.

Cartels are known to hide

their narcotics among these goods,

or within the walls

of the trailers themselves.

Each one is inspected

for the slightest clue

that something could be amiss.

We look in the roof and the ceiling,

we do look underneath.

We look everywhere,

including inspecting the outside

and underneath the cargo as well.

They can hide dope anywhere.

There's plenty of room available.

These platforms,

they used to make a false floor

and it was full of dope.

As the officers work

their way through the deck,

one trailer is identified as suspicious.

The reason why they opened this container,

because they found

that the seal was damaged.

Even though it was the correct

seal but as you can see,

it was kind of smashed in this area.

A seal is placed on a container

at its port of origin.

A damaged seal means the container

could have been tampered with,

somewhere along its journey.

And while there doesn't seem

to be anything wrong

with the bags of grain inside,

underneath, officers think

they may have found something.

The chassis' width is wider

than what it should be.

So, we're gonna bring an x-ray machine

and we'll pass it through the chassis

to see if there's an anomaly

or is a regular chassis.

An unusually wide chassis could mean

that the trailer has been modified.

With their powerful

handheld x-ray scanner,

officers are able to look

inside the structure

and see if anything is hidden.

A mysterious shape

is immediately detected.

It may just be what the team

has been looking for.

What we're gonna do now

is make a hole with the drill

and use the fiber optic scope

to see if there's something

inside one of those beams.

A hand-held drill is used

to penetrate the steel.

Dude, white.

A white powder is inside.

- Is this coke?

- Dude, I think so.

Meanwhile, off the North Coast

Team out there, do you copy?

Tell me, do you copy?

agents suspect a boat carrying

contraband has made landfall.

A full search of the area known

as Smuggler's Cove is underway.

Stop! Stop!

On the beach, a hastily

abandoned boat is found,

and four suspected g*ng

members were seen running away.

You can have 20 guys out there,

hiding, we won't see them

and for the most part, they have AK47.

So, our personnel is extremely vulnerable

in this type of environment.

No contraband is found in the boat,

but the number of fuel canisters suggest

the smugglers planned a return trip.

All hallmarks of a drug drop.

Based on the intelligence received,

we believe that this is the vessel

that we were hoping to interject.

We apprehended one subject,

we continue to search

for three to four additional subjects

that were seen carrying bags.

They came from the beach this way,

crossed here

and carried on that way there.

So far, agents have apprehended

one of the g*ng members.

He was carrying hundreds

of rounds of ammunition.

Now, the search is widened

to uncover the rest

of the culprits still at large.

Hundreds of places

where they can be right now.

The nature provides great

locations for these people to hide.

So, as you can see,

it's not a good terrain.

Further along the beach, agents have

discovered evidence of a camp

set up by the smugglers.

Usually, it's makeshift huts that they use

for them to wait for

the drug load to come in.

As you can see, what is spoiled.

It's very likely

that this happened recently.

From there, they have

a great view of the mangrove.

The smugglers, believed to have been

from the Dominican Republic,

may have gotten away this time,

but agents are making inroads

into the drug cartel's operation.

We should check how many are in the box.

Twenty-five.

- And 300 in the box.

- Three hundred in the box, okay.

It's 40 in total.

In addition to the vessel that was found,

we also discovered different IDs.

They found identification

for several subjects in the vessel,

I can tell you that it's not

gonna be a slap on the wrist.

It sends a message not just to

the drug trafficking organizations,

that we're here seven days

a week, 24 hours a day,

and the consequences are gonna be severe.

Thanks to this bust,

agents may be able to catch

the smugglers red-handed next time.

In the Caribbean

Puerto Rico's close neighbors

are the countries of Haiti

and the Dominican Republic.

Every year, thousands

searching for a better life

pay human traffickers to attempt

the 80-nautical mile

journey across the ocean.

But hundreds of migrants drown

in their attempt to enter

the United States territory.

Today, Agent Castro, and his crew,

are on their way to intercept a boat

filled with people coming from

the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

- Clear.

- All line's clear.

All right.

We just received a call

from a local fisherman.

He reported a very suspicious boat.

Looked like a boat full with people,

so we got two units going out.

All right, everybody

grab a seat. Coming up.

Following the fisherman's tip off,

support agents in the air

have spotted a makeshift

wooden boat, a mile off the coast.

I see something over here.

Go on this side.

There you go.

Within a few minutes, the team

catches up with their target.

Hey, get up here.

The flimsy vessel

is dangerously overloaded

and quickly taking on water.

- Are we ready?

- Yes.

U.S. Customs.

Stop the vessel. U.S. Customs.

They're not stopping.

They're getting closer to shore.

They're non-compliant! Non-compliant!

With less than a mile to shore,

the trafficker's more

concerned with escaping,

than the lives of his passengers,

and refuses to stop.

Stop the boat! U.S. Customs!

Agents need to fire

disabling b*ll*ts at the engine,

in order to stop the boat.

Hey, that's a kid!

That's a kid. Hold on.

But the traffickers are using

a young girl as a human shield.

They have a female on top of the engine.

Stop the boat! Stop the boat!

If the boat continues to take on water,

the migrants could all end up in the sea.

Agents must get them to safety, and fast.

Meanwhile, back in San Juan

acting on an

intelligence tip off,

officers are searching a cargo ship

from the Dominican Republic,

which they suspect

may be carrying narcotics.

And they've zeroed in

on one particular trailer.

Dude, white. White.

- Is this coke?

- Dude, I think so.

It looks like

the team has hit the jackpot.

A white powder, resembling

cocaine, is hidden in the chassis.

Officers use a fiber

optic scope to investigate further.

Look, that's plastic, what they

usually use for wrapping them.

The image appears to show a series

of plastic wrapped packages,

- hidden in the support beams.

- This is dope.

But finding the drugs was just step one.

Officers must now

determine how to get it out.

Who's gonna pull?

If the whole length

of the beam has been filled,

then it could be a massive haul.

Orlando! Orlando.

For officers at this port,

intercepting a shipment

of this size is a huge achievement.

How many are there?

So far, we have 70 bricks at this

time. And there's still more inside.

A mile offshore,

a rescue mission is underway.

A boat filled with migrants

is taking on water.

Stop the boat!

But the trafficker is refusing to stop,

and holding a child over the engine

to prevent agents from catching it.

We've exhausted every possible way

that we have to hail them, blue lights.

We even came alongside

and told them to stop.

Agents must get the migrants to safety,

but are running out of options.

Try and hit the cowling with the PLS.

- Brian, get on there.

- Okay.

- ---!

Go!

Get on board. Come on!

Use PLS.

Get the female off the engine.

They deploy PLS:

the Pepperball Launching System.

Overpowering the smuggler,

so he releases the girl

he's using as a human shield.

Ceasefire!

It gives agents the chance they need,

to fire non-lethal b*ll*ts

to disable the engine.

Clear! Raise your hands.

Everybody, everybody! Hands up!

Be advised that the vessel has stopped.

Agents will arrest the smugglers,

and the people in the boat

will be taken to safety.

Having gained control of the situation,

agents are now in charge

of a rescue mission.

We gotta make sure

they're good, they hydrated.

The vessel that they're on is not safe.

Some of them are telling me

that it's taking on water.

Not only that, seas and winds

are gonna pick up here pretty soon,

to four feet, and 20 knot winds.

Agents have requested U.S.

Coast Guard backup for this rescue.

This is a right here.

We are on the west side, southwest

of Puerto Rico with the migrant case.

We just wanted to see

where the location of the cutter was.

And the ETA for our location.

So, the cutter is 50

nautical miles off your course.

- Still?

- Yeah, they're pretty far away.

This is filling up with water.

The Coastguard is sending a cutter.

A substantial ship

big enough to hold all the migrants,

but it will take

an hour and a half to get here.

With the flimsy

wooden boat taking in water,

and bad weather closing in,

the situation has become critical.

In Fort Lauderdale,

a helicopter is on its way

to help investigate a speedboat

with a history of smuggling.

Those on board claim to be

a family returning from vacation.

Agents are checking all their IDs

and investigating what's on board.

We have six documents that we need to run

and two of which

are not U.S. citizen passports.

- How was the trip over?

- I mean, there were some waves.

Agent Brittany's interviewing them,

to see if their stories checkout.

- There were sharks, too.

- Sharks?

- At the dock, or at the beach?

- No, like, in the beach.

Agent Fritz is looking for any signs

of drugs, or human trafficking.

But on a vessel of this size,

there aren't many places to hide.

It looks like mom and dad is in the

back, but that's where the cooler is.

And she's getting drinks and food

for the other occupants of the boat.

But we can't see

what's in that cooler, so.

Luckily, all that's in the cooler is soda.

And there's no evidence

of contraband anywhere.

It turns out, the family

bought the boat recently,

and any recorded run-ins with the law

were associated with the previous owners.

Their documents all check out.

- Hey, thanks, guys.

- Have a safe trip.

One of them

had a little bit of criminal history,

but nothing huge that we need to act.

It seems all they're guilty of,

is buying a boat with a murky past.

Air support stands down,

and heads back out on watch.

And the crew continues their

patrol of the seas around Florida.

A mile off the west coast

of Puerto Rico

Could you notify that

there's vessel floating around here,

see if they can come give us a hand?

agents are trying

to prevent over 60 migrants,

in a dangerously

overloaded boat, from drowning.

I'm starving. Traveling all day long.

With the U.S. Coast Guard's

rescue ship an hour away,

agents are having to

come up with a new plan.

We're gonna start transferring

everybody to our boat.

- They can be forward and aft.

- Okay.

You're gonna sit them down,

pat them down, and adjust.

The vessel that they're on is not safe.

Some of them are telling me

that it's taken on water.

We're making a decision of

bringing them on board our vessel,

which is a more stable platform.

They don't all fit on my boat,

so I asked local PD

if they can help us out.

A police boat's on its way.

But until it arrives,

agents must stop

the migrant boat from capsizing.

They're very antsy.

They get very desperate to get off,

'cause a lot of times they're not

thinking about balancing the boat.

They'll all just run to our boat and

put all their weight to one side,

and a lot of times,

potentially, even flip it over.

We want to start having a

conversation, friendly, right.

So, that way,

the process goes a lot easier.

Please. Some have

already fallen in before

and unfortunately,

several have not made it.

Please, we don't want that.

Is that okay? Take it easy.

We are going to start with the girl.

Since each boat can only accommodate

six additional passengers,

they start with the women and children.

Many of the migrants

are traveling in family groups.

Just sit down right there.

My cousin has two children.

- Oh, so, they're from Haiti also?

- Yeah.

They are my cousins.

I have two uncles here.

- Two uncles there?

- Yeah, we are six.

You'll get your chance.

- We're ready?

- We're ready.

How many do we have?

- We have five.

- Tell him, one more.

While the rescue mission continues,

the suspected human traffickers

are isolated and checked for weapons.

Agents plan to make several trips,

transferring the migrants

to the coastguard's ship,

further out at sea.

- Is she pregnant?

- No.

One, two. Nice and easy.

We're not in a hurry.

You're good. Watch your head.

After an hour into the mission,

so far, everyone's safe.

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida

a mile offshore, Marine Agents

Brittany, Todd and Fritz,

are continuing their patrol

- Going down.

- Going down.

when a 65-foot

private yacht enters U.S. waters

from the direction of the Bahamas.

That's a boat that we'd like to

look at and verify their documents.

Verify any cargo manifesting,

anything like that.

Vessels inbound from

the Bahamas are of interest,

and the Island of Bimini

is a well-known smuggling hot spot.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

U.S. Customs.

Where are you coming from?

- Coming from the Bahamas.

- What island?

- Grand Bahama.

- Grand Bahama?

Did you pass Bimini on your south side?

Passed Bimini on the south side, no.

- No? Do you have your passports?

- We do.

We're gonna come on board.

Don't reach for your passports.

Ma'am, can you move

to the other side of your boat?

- Do you want me to slow down?

- No, just do what you're doing.

We'll get on board.

Despite being asked to stay within sight,

the woman suddenly darts below deck.

No. Don't Ma'am! Stop

what you're doing! Come back up.!

I don't want anybody

going anywhere and do anything.

- Where's the passports at?

- On the table.

Down there, on the table? All right.

Criminals often keep g*ns on board,

so anyone subject to inspection

must remain in sight

at all times, for agents' safety.

- They're on the table?

- Yes. Pass the container.

- Okay.

- They're all together.

Brittany heads below to get the passports,

and look for any obvious contraband.

- Hey, Brit, are you okay?

- Found them.

All right.

But instead, it's Vessel Commander, Todd,

who spots something out of the ordinary.

The name on the transom of this boat

is different than the name

that's displayed on the bow.

It looks like

a vinyl sticker wrapped name.

You can still see

the painted name underneath.

Changing, or covering up, a boat's name,

is a tactic smuggler's use

to avoid detection.

What's up?

Make sure you check

the documentation real good.

He's got a different name on the

transom than he's got on the bow.

And the name on the transom

looks like it's been taped over,

or covered and changed somehow.

Okay, all right. Thanks.

You got two different names

on your boat. What's up with that?

We had to register it in Canada.

So, we changed it to Abundance.

And then we got a sticker

and put it on the back.

I didn't think we had to change the side,

because that wasn't an official thing.

We're gonna call it Persistence,

spelled it right on the back,

- and then leave the sides.

- Oh, okay.

- We're good?

- Yes.

The boat's records verify that the

couple bought the vessel in Florida

a few weeks ago, and renamed the boat.

They're told they must update the

boat's signage when they get home.

The agents will exchange the information

that they know, or that they've seen,

and corroborate that and make sure

everything appears on the up and up.

- Thank you.

- You all have a good day.

Thank you. You, too.

The inspection has ended with an

all-clear, despite the tense start.

The lady had gotten up

to go get her passports,

but they were down below deck.

So, we don't like people to go

out of our sight,

especially while we're boarding.

Unfortunately, we've lost agents

in the past, that have been m*rder*d

because they let people

disappear from their sight.

I used a little more of a forceful

tone until she actually complied,

and she came back,

and sat down, and understood that,

when I'm doing a boarding, I'm in charge.

Take care. Have a safe trip.

The Canadian couple is free

to continue their journey north.

Twelve miles off the coast of Puerto Rico,

agents are transporting rescued

migrants from their sinking vessel

to a U.S. Coast Guard cutter.

Along with some of the human

traffickers responsible.

We are en route approximately

up to another nautical mile.

So 8 miles we'll be looking.

They were making it unsafe for everybody,

but they didn't listen, right.

They were in violation of U.S. law.

Agents rendezvous

with the Coast Guard cutter

in international waters.

The ship's big enough

to hold all 65 rescued migrants,

and the smugglers, safely.

Some of them might have exposure to PLS

but no medical concerns right now.

I have one guy handcuffed, okay?

This guy took a little Haitian girl

and threw her on the cowling

so that we wouldn't

disable the engine, okay?

To us, that's as*ault. I don't

know how you want to handle it.

The Coast Guard

will hand the smugglers over

to U.S. law enforcement.

If convicted, they'll face

up to 20 years in prison.

With the suspected

criminals now in custody,

the rest of the migrants,

who have arrived in a police boat,

are handed over.

Move, move, move, move.

Agents have successfully rescued 65 people

and apprehended three human traffickers.

- Felony failure to heed.

- Yeah.

- And felony obstruction.

- Yep.

So, what he did, his actions,

if they meet the elements,

send us that statement and

if you've got any pictures, videos,

we'll see if we can put charges on them.

- Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

- Yeah, thank you.

All of the migrants will be

returned to their home countries,

each having paid $7000 to the criminals,

without ever

setting foot on U.S. soil.

The mission was very successful.

It's a good day when everybody

goes back home unhurt

and everybody's safe.

At the Port of San Juan in Puerto Rico,

officers have boarded a cargo boat

from the Dominican Republic,

and found a large shipment of narcotics

hidden in the chassis of a trailer.

So far, we have 70 bricks, at this

time. And there's still more inside.

But there's no time for celebration.

The cartel is likely to be watching,

and a seizure on this scale

poses an immediate security risk.

There's a lot of risk.

I mean, a kilo in Puerto Rico,

it goes around $10,000.

In Florida, $20,000, so, so, so.

On the east coast, it's $50,000.

So, I mean, they will

k*ll anybody of us for that.

Officers quickly remove

a few more loose packages

before taking the truck to a secure area,

where the extraction

can be safely continued.

- Pull!

- So far, around 70 packages

have been removed from one beam that spans

- the length of the chassis.

- Pull. Pull.

Another 20 are soon recovered.

And a second beam

running along the left-hand side

is also found to be loaded.

One-eight-three.

Finally, after two hours of work,

the extraction is complete.

We have 183 bricks.

We got 91 in the right side,

and 92 in the left side of the chassis.

It's one of the biggest busts

officers have made at this port.

Since the container

came from the Dominican Republic,

officers suspect the drug

is cocaine from nearby Columbia.

But it still needs to be tested.

This is a Gemini. This basically,

identify any type of drugs,

or chemical components,

that you can find on the streets.

Should be enough.

The laser detector

will give a near-instant result.

Cocaine. That's positive for cocaine.

It's almost pure cocaine,

processed in Columbia

and transport through Dominican Republic.

This is the best quality you can get.

At this stage of its journey,

the drug has yet to be cut,

before hitting the streets.

To be sure the whole batch is the same,

another two bricks are also tested.

That is cocaine, again.

You got three positive

it's cocaine. We're good to go.

We're gonna seal it

and we are packaging at this time

to transfer over HSI.

With evidence gathering complete,

Officer Ortiz now hands the case over

to Homeland Security Investigations.

With more than $2 million

worth of drugs seized,

it's a major victory in the ongoing

battle against the cartels.

At the end of the day,

we were able to identify

to find 240 kilograms of cocaine.

Everybody in the team is excited.

I mean, this is what

we work for, to find the dope

and prevent that dope to reach

our families and our U.S. citizens.