01x07 - Cocaine Sausages

[bunniefuu]

[footsteps sound]

LARA: They are in route.

LARA: We're looking for
unusual passengers,
unusual activity.

ALBRITTON: Excuse me, sir?
How you doing, man?

You got your passport
with you? Where you
coming from today?

ALBRITTON: Lima. Okay.

LARA: Barbosa. On your left.

There's a gentleman
in a jean jacket.

Walking around the carousel
looking suspicious, so, I'm
gonna get him right now.

Hi, got your passport?

LARA: Where are you
coming from today, sir?

LARA: Nigeria. What caught
my attention was

that he was there waiting
and once he grabbed his bag

we saw him walk around the
whole carousel twice.

Then I saw him go through
the oversized luggage.

He was over there
just waiting.

It didn't seem right.

Okay, sir, why do you
come to the United States?

LARA: Okay. And what do you
have in your bags today, sir?

LARA: Just clothes?
Nothing else?

MONTALVO: He wasn't acting
like a regular passenger.

He's looking around if
anyone's watching him,

looking if there's a quicker
way out of the situation.

LARA: All right, sir,
I'm gonna have you follow
me really quick, okay?

PASSENGER: Okay.
LARA: We're gonna do
a quick baggage exam.

Barbosa, Montalvo, be
advised, I'm en route.

I want to see what was
his real intention coming
into the United States.

LARA: I understand,
sir, but you need to
understand right now,

I'm still gonna go ahead
and take a look at your
bags and everything.

THOMAS: Customs and Border
Protection intercepted
five kilos of MDMA

that was arriving
in the mail.

By the dose it could
be anywhere from
10,000 to 30,000

or 40,000 doses of MDMA.

This box is international
shipment from Germany.

It's got five kilos of MDMA.

It's addressed to a
storefront right down
the road on DeKalb.

We're going to deliver it.
Controlled delivery.

We're gonna leave it
at the storefront.

We're gonna have two
units inside the store.

Your main focus is
this box, the rest of us
will be the arrest team.

Don't lose focus, don't
get like tunnel vision
on a female or a male.

The box is key, whoever's
holding it is the person

we're gonna have
to interview and
ask questions.

All right, we'll
see you out there?

If you wanna affect
change, you can't just
focus on the smuggler,

you have to get a dealer,
a distributor, right down to
the individual on the street.

COVINGTON: Morning. Do you
have any food in this bag?

PASSENGER: No,
nothing like that.

COVINGTON: I'm just
gonna take a look.

As an AG Specialist,
my main focus

is agriculture-related items.
Okay, so you just have bread?

COVINGTON: And what else?

COVINGTON: Bread and
seeds? Okay.
PASSENGER: Yeah.

COVINGTON: So, in addition to
passengers who bring in food
items for their own personal

consumptions, we also
have food couriers.

COVINGTON: Food couriers are
in the business of bringing
commercial shipments of food

from point A to point B.

COVINGTON: So, each food
courier will bring in
three to six bags

and they are filled
to the gills.

This is a cheaper and
faster way to get
commercial shipments

of food into the U.S.

COVINGTON: Let's take
a look at that one.

When commercial shipments go
through cargo, sometimes

it can take a day or more
before items are inspected.

Whereas when the couriers
are bringing those same
kind of food items

through passenger baggage,
they can be inspected on
the spot and released.

Okay, you're all set. They'll
drop off their products

to someone who's
waiting outside for them.

Then they'll hop on another
flight and then we can see
them again tonight

or see them the
next morning.

You're gonna put all your
bags right here, okay?

SHAFIQUE: So does this
one look like a food?

COVINGTON: Even though
most food couriers aren't
up to anything ill*gal,

on occasion illicit products
such as narcotics are found.

SHAFIQUE: It's not
exactly sausage. It
looks like a sausage.

But when you touch a
sausage usually it's
just harder.

But when I squeeze
the item, it's soft.

There was a powder inside
the packet, but they
tied it up with ribbon.

And, uh, I do the field test.

If it's a food, it's
gonna show us whatever
food items it is.

If it's narcotics, it's
going to show us what
type of narcotics it is.

THOMAS: We're heading out
to the storefront now.

The units are
getting in position.

On a case like this, we'll
meet two or three people
before we finally find

the person who's ordered
the drugs or is expecting
the delivery.

That's typical of what
a smuggler will do.

They'll add layers between
themselves and us.

So, our task here is to
wait it out until
someone picks it up.

And each person who picks it
up is a little bit closer to
the, the ultimate recipient.

THOMAS: Yeah, I'm on set.

THOMAS: Okay. The package
is in the storefront?

THOMAS: When we set up a
surveillance like this one,
we wanna be, uh, layered.

You want some
people directly in
front of the shop,

but then there are also
agents who are, um, a
little further off.

We have a, uh,
pretty wide net.

The agents who are
on scene, there are
about ten agents,

some on foot, but
some in vehicles,

have all four corners of the
location under surveillance.

THOMAS: Looks like a
male. Can you see him?

THOMAS: Dry, no,
um, no umbrella.

THOMAS: Okay. Good copy.

It's not a small
consequence to be arrested
for drug smuggling.

It could be a 10-year
sentence or more.

And that could really
motivate someone not to
wanna come into custody.

It's a violent lifestyle,
dealing drugs, so they
could very well be armed,

which is something we
consider while we're here.

THOMAS: There's probably
a vehicle standing by
outside waiting for him.

[music]

THOMAS: That is not
our target.

THOMAS: All right,
good copy.

THOMAS: We're here for
someone to pick up the
box, that's the evidence.

That's what we are going
to prosecute, that's
what you really need,

the possession of the
drugs. So, it's really
just a waiting game.

LARA: Go ahead and place
all your belongings on
top of the belt for me.

I'm gonna do a
quick baggage exam.

All right, sir. So, how many
days will you be staying in
the United States?

LARA: Five days. Any
food in your bags today?

LARA: Snacks. Okay.

LARA: So, tell me
about this ministry.

LARA: Petroleum industry,
okay. What's your
position title?

LARA: So you're an engineer?

LARA: Yes, okay. Is
this your badge?

LARA: Okay.

LARA: I'm gonna have you step
back for me, please, okay?
PASSENGER: Yeah.

LARA: It's been expired
since last year.

ALBRITTON: When was the last
day you went to work?

Do you have a, uh,
employee ID that's
not expired?

ALBRITTON: It doesn't
take three months to
issue an ID, sir.

LARA: So, where is
this conference at?

LARA: Lake Tahoe.

LARA: Just take a seat, okay?
PASSENGER: Thank you.

MONTALVO: One, two, three,
three-fifty, three-ninety,

four hundred, four
hundred and four.

LARA: Hello? My name is
Officer Lara, I'm with U.S.

Customs and Border Protection.

I'm just trying to see
if this reservation is
still active.

He's here in regards
for this workshop.

You don't have a reservation
for that number.

You guys cancelled it? Okay.

Thank you so much for
your assistance, ma'am.

The workshop said that
you have to pay before
getting in there.

He doesn't have any
reservations of him
paying for the workshop.

So, something
doesn't make sense.

ALBRITTON: His credit
card expires this month.

According to him he
has 31,000 naira on
his credit card.

MONTALVO: Twenty-one thousand
ALBRITTON: Which is about
MONTALVO: $58.

ALBRITTON: I don't
know, 50, 60 bucks.

MONTALVO: Registration
is 600 bucks, that's
more than what he has.

LARA: How much did you pay
to attend this workshop?

LARA: You have not paid.

LARA: According to
the workshop, which
I have called,

you actually had to pay
before in order to
attend this workshop.

LARA: You need to pay ahead
of time in order to attend

this workshop is what
I'm telling you.

LARA: So you're telling
me that the event lied to
me, to a federal officer,

they lied to me?

ALBRITTON: Okay. Right now,
brother, there's a lot of
holes in that story.

LARA: Your conference,
it's at a hotel.

Why didn't you get
reservations?

LARA: Okay. He's not
answering my questions.

MONTALVO: Right now
you're gonna go speak to
another set of officers.

They're gonna give you the
opportunity to be honest.

The mistakes you made with me
by not being honest with me.

You get another chance.

And they're gonna decide
whether you can come
in or not today, okay?

I'll give him the benefit
of the doubt. Things do
happen in life.

But the American people are
counting on us that we don't
let possible t*rrorists,

someone that might be coming
here to work, someone that
doesn't have the right status,

to come into our country.
You're gonna walk that way.

Do me a favor, take
your hand out of your
pocket, okay?

SHAFIQUE: We just conduct the
field test and it came out
as a positive for cocaine.

SHAFIQUE: We placed the
subject under arrest.

He was pretty calm.
He's not excited,

he's not upset, he's
not nervous.

It looks like he probably
knew, or it looks like he
have a previous experience.

Call Homeland Security
Investigation and
the special agents,

they will come and take
over the case to prosecute
the subject.

We have a guy here, a food
courier, coming from Mexico.

And he has a sausage
that appear anomaly.

I conducted a field
test and it came out as
a positive for cocaine.

Right now we placed him
under arrest, and here
we go, guys,

you take it from
here, I guess.

PATRICK: Thanks, boss.
SHAFIQUE: All right.
PATRICK: I'll talk to you.

We're actually seeing a
little uptick when it
comes to food couriers

bringing in things
that are ill*gal.

They may believe that
they weren't inspected
as heavily as before,

so I think that's why they're
being used currently.

Concealment-wise, the external
stuff, we're just seeing more
and more creativity.

Pretty much if you pick
it, you know, any item
in your head,

they're gonna try and fit some
kind of drugs into it and,
um, smuggle it into the U.S.

Inside there was powder
cocaine, some of it's
starting to fall out,

some of it might be
a little bit hardened just
from being packed together.

But for the most part it
was definitely made to
look like a food item.

This only is about 200
grams which, still, it's
a lot of drugs,

but for federal and for
what the normal weight
that we see,

it's not gonna be a
whole lot.

But the intel we got on it
is probably just as
important as getting

the drugs because this
is gonna help us be able
to pre-empt

exactly how this
stuff is coming in,

who's bringing it in,
what targets that we
can garner from it.

That's gonna go over
to the NYPD labs.

That small intel can turn
into the linchpin that leads
us to capturing someone

that's big in these drug
trafficking organizations
down the road.

Every single seizure is
one more step that we get

to these drug trafficking
organizations.

THOMAS: Okay. It looks
like a female entering
the business.

THOMAS: One of our units
has gone into the business

and posed as a customer and
relayed to the outside

units that the woman is
waiting for a car
service inside.

So, she's waiting out of the
rain inside the business now.

Okay. I have a TLC
car pulling up.

A Honda Accord Sport.

Looks like it's
gonna be our vehicle.

It's, uh, it's a for-hire
vehicle. So, stand by.

THOMAS: Go ahead with
the block 'cause
we're not clear

on who's behind us
on Broadway.

So just keep the block,
uh, uh, when you get
the arrest signal.

[music]

THOMAS: 10-4. 10-4, you
got it? You guys got it?

It was a fluid situation,
but it went safely.

She was arrested.

AGENT: Do you have
your driver's license?

THOMAS: She had a for-hire
vehicle waiting for her.

THOMAS: You're not taking
her, she's not gonna
make the ride today.

AGENT: No, we're gonna
give her a ride, okay?
DRIVER: Okay.

AGENT-THOMAS: All right.

THOMAS: Now we have a
person we could expand
our investigation on,

we could determine who
they communicate with,
who is responsible

for the manufacturing
of these pills, or
whether they are,

uh, a prior narcotics
trafficker.

THOMAS: And evidence
from the interview

and the investigation
surrounding this young woman

will lead us to answering
those questions.

THOMAS: Hello.

THOMAS: What are
you guys looking at?

THOMAS: All right. No
interview has started yet?

THOMAS: Just, uh, the, the
bare minimum and I'll,

and I'll give you, give me
a callback. Let me know
how you're doing.

THOMAS: Thanks, bud.

Just received a call
from Customs and Border
Protection, Terminal 4.

There was an anomaly
picked up on an x-ray on
the passenger's luggage.

The, uh, inspectors probed
the luggage and found,
uh, heroin and cocaine.

So, we're kind of in a
rush, we're expediting a
little bit, because, um,

it is time-sensitive.

PATRICK: We've already
had one narcotics seizure
concerning a food courier

today and now we've
been called right
back for another one.

PATRICK: It's raining
outside today and, like they
say, when it rains it pours.

The individual that
we have was found to
be a food courier

coming in from Mexico.

AGENT: We just want to
weigh the actual drugs,
to get a truer weight.

That's almost two and
a half kilos of heroin.

You got it? Seven PVC
pipes in total filled
with, uh, cocaine.

THOMAS: Two and half kilos
of heroin and, um, four to
five kilos of cocaine.

Yeah, its a substantial
amount of, uh, narcotics.

And, uh, this courier is
likely not the ultimate
recipient of the drugs.

He's not the street dealer.

But the courier might
lead us to the
street-level dealer

or to additional narcotics
that are here in the States.

MONTALVO: Apparently, he's
attending this workshop.

So we called this place
and we asked them if he
was registered,

and they told us that he
was not registered and he
hasn't paid the dues.

RIM: All right, sir.

MONTALVO: At this moment,
he has to realize that we
got him lying.

But, I mean, I'll give him
the benefit of the doubt.

It's always good to give
people that opportunity
to come clean.

RIM: I'm gonna take
a statement from you.

We're just gonna talk about
your purpose of travel,
what are you doing here.

PASSENGER: Okay.

RIM: Please raise
your right hand.

Do you swear or affirm that
all statements you're about

to make are true and
complete to the best
of your knowledge?

PASSENGER: Yes, I do.
RIM: Okay. Put your hand down

What country are
you a citizen of?

RIM: Okay.

RIM: And the purpose of
travel to the United
States was?

RIM: Sir, immigration
officers contacted
this convention.

They don't know
who your team is.

You are not registered.

RIM: No. It's not
the procedure.

RIM: No, it's not, sir.

Why would somebody at this
convention state to an
immigration officer

that the registration's
closed? So who's lying?

RIM: Okay. So you're saying
this letter you presented

to Customs and Border
Protection is true?

RIM: So you're saying this
person made a mistake?

RIM: Yes.

RIM: Okay. I don't believe
him one hundred percent,

but if he's telling
the truth,

I can't just jump to
a conclusions after
a few questions.

And you are currently
employed, correct?

RIM: Chemical engineer?

RIM: Who hired you? What
is that person's name?

PASSENGER: Doctor [bleep].

RIM: So, if we call
the embassy to
verify that person,

he will vouch for you?

RIM: Yes, you think
so? Okay.
PASSENGER: Yes.

RIM: Okay. All right. With
passenger, Abdullah,

80 percent he's lying,
20 percent he could be
telling the truth.

To verify his employment,
we do a little bit more
research on that passenger.

I don't waste time
because we just wanna
know the truth.

Just think about all
the things you said.

Just think, okay?

[music]

RIM: You state that
everything you
presented is true

and what you're
saying is true?

RIM: Okay. So then.

RIM: When did I say that
you were coming to work?
I never said that.

RIM: Sir, the officers
have already verified
as much as they can,

and your story doesn't
match.

Mr. Abdullah.
PASSENGER: Yes, sir.

RIM: Can I say
something to you?
PASSENGER: Yes.

RIM: You had no idea that
we were actually gonna call
the Nigeria government

to verify if you are a
government official.
PASSENGER: Yes?

RIM: And they stated that
they don't know anything

about you or your officers
coming. Do you understand?

So how did you
obtain this letter?

You know what I
think and believe?

I think that you do not
work for this company.

Mr. Abdullah,
honestly, I'm sorry.

I don't believe you.

[laughs]

It's not funny.

We find you inadmissible
because this letter you're
presenting is not real.

And the visa that you
presented will be
cancelled today.

The job we do, it is
challenging because
people who are desperate

to come into the US, they
will continue to lie.

But basically our job is
catching liars and having
them tell the truth.

And that's what we do.

All right, Mr. Abdullah.

We know he's inadmissible
and there's a flight that's
leaving that evening,

so we want him on that
flight to go back home.

MONTALVO: This is one of
those common scenarios in
which someone comes here,

they'll provide
documentation that
is not accurate,

that is not a hundred
percent real,

just in the hopes of
deceiving the officer so
they can come here and work.

He thought he was gonna
show up and "Hey, I'm here.

Let me into your country."
Well, unfortunately, that's
not the way things work.

[music]

QUEVEDO: We have some
prohibited chicken
from Honduras.

And as you can see,
it's completely raw.

Full of blood. The
whole thing, it seems
to be contaminated.

POWELL: As an Agricultural
Specialist, my main job

really is to make
sure that no plant,

pests, or diseases
get through these
ports of entry.

Anything agriculture related,
we make sure that it's
safe to enter the country.

We definitely wanna check
and see if there's any, uh,

pests in here that could
wreak havoc on our
agricultural industry.

It's also for public health.

Let's go this way.

These shipments are
from Africa.

Wow. These are all fully
formed mounted trophies.

AUGIER: There's a, a
few different species
of antelopes.

We have a water
buffalo over there.

We have a hawk of
some sort right here.

POWELL: A poorly finished
trophy is very problematic
because rotting flesh,

it could carry a
lot of diseases.

One example, uh, if the,
the antlers, antlers could
have anthrax still on them

which is why they
have to be sanitized.

Now, if it doesn't smell,
it looks very clean then,
uh, it's usually good to go.

Everything matches up.

The documents look good.
We're good. Okay.

This is a giraffe skull.

When they wrap it up like
this, it doesn't matter

if they have documents
stating it's treated.
That's meaningless.

We have to look.

We don't wanna see any
blood, any tissue on here.

We found many times blood
and tissue, we had to refuse
it and send it back.

Yeah, it looks clean.

I don't see any tissue.

They did a really
good job sanitizing.

This is good to go.

This is the back skin
of some type of animal.

AUGIER: Oh. Right here.
Right here. Right here. Oh.

POWELL: What is that?
AUGIER: Insect.

Oh, there's another
one there.

POWELL: There are insects
crawling around here.

Uh, it is very dangerous.

You don't wanna get bit
by a flea that's been
sitting on one of these.

There's no telling
what's been sitting over
there in the jungle.

They're, they're,
they're crawling.
There's one here too.

POWELL: Yeah.

They're all over.

They're infested.

AUGIER: Oh.
POWELL: What is that?

POWELL: Yeah. There
are insects crawling
around here.

Uh, here in Florida,
you have to be
particularly careful.

It's a tropical environment
so anything in here can,
can live here and reproduce.

So we're gonna have
to leave this on hold.

CDC's already been contacted
and they'll have to fumigate
this entire shipment.

It'll k*ll whatever this
is, and we'll go from there.

Whether they'd release
this or not, I don't know.

THOMAS: To the street here?

THOMAS: All right.

He's going to have key
evidence in identifying
the ultimate recipient,

and that will lead us to the
street-level dealer or to
additional narcotics

that are here in the States.

Is it a big place or
is it, um.

TRANSLATOR: Uh,
it's a big company.

THOMAS: Big company?
TRANSLATOR: Big company. Yeah.

PATRICK: We're getting
people that may have just be
used as pawns in the game.

A lot of them are
from poorer nations.

These drug trafficking
organizations, they do not
care about these people.

So at least we can step in,
um, so that they know

that at least someone is
looking out for them.

COURIER: Uh-huh.

THOMAS: Thank you.
Thank you. Gracias.

The courier is still
detained at the airport,
but we broke the team off

and sent some agents to
take care of this while
the iron's hot.

You know, we wouldn't
wanna come tomorrow and
knock on the door and,

and the business claim
no knowledge of what's
going on.

They could possibly
be taken back.

They are not expecting six
or seven law enforcement
officers to show up,

and it, um, could
potentially be dangerous.

The recipient of the narcotics
could be here, so it's, it's
something to be mindful of.

Anyone on the radio?

THOMAS: Yeah,
we're on scene now.

Tonight I had decided to
cover my HSI uniform because
it just draws attention.

If after we leave, it's
perceived that he cooperated
with law enforcement,

it could possibly put this
business owner in danger.

AGENT: All right.
So let's go.

THOMAS: Hello.

[inaudible] we understand
you're providing a service
of goods, uh, into the US.

Do you mind if we
look around?

POWELL: Look at this. No
markings anywhere.

OFFICER: no markings on
that on the outside.

POWELL: When a shipment
comes through, we have
to work really hard

to find new things smuggled.

We do have intel sometimes to
help us pick those samples.

But, for the most
part, my experience and
intuition is my best tool.

This looks interesting.

OFFICER: Yeah.
What's this one?

MUNOZ: Yeah. I see one, two,
three, four, five, six.

OFFICER: We've got several.

I'm gonna go ahead and open one
and see what it looks like.

Oh it's got an, an odor
inside it. Smell it?

[music]

OFFICER: It looks like
something I've never
actually seen.

It's kind of like
clay-looking, very fine
powder, but very well packed.

MUNOZ: So it is
manifested as leaf powder.

POWELL: Leaf powder?
MUNOZ: Yes.

MUNOZ: And, like about
a weight of 5,000
kilograms in total.

So I'm pretty sure all these
packages that we see here.

MUNOZ: Yeah.

POWELL: It looks
like it could be.

POWELL: Kratom is in
the coffee family.

OFFICER: Yeah.

POWELL: It's a natural
plant, which is only
grown in Southeast Asia.

But it's a lot
stronger than coffee.

It's getting really
popular here in the States.

People take it to get,
I guess they get a high
off of it.

OFFICER: Okay.

POWELL: And people who
are trying to come off
an opioid addiction,

instead of taking morphine,
they'll take this.

We're gonna have to
take a sample of this,

but we're also gonna have
to refer this to the FDA.

The FDA has found numerous
samples of kratom

that's had high levels of
salmonella and E. coli.

And a lot of people have
overdosed and have gone
to the emergency rooms.

It's manifested as
leaf powder. We've
seen that before.

But it doesn't say
it's actually kratom.

They're not telling it's
kratom because the FDA has
been regulating this

and they don't allow
kratom in.

Importers are making
a fortune on kratom.

The street value, we're
looking at about two
million dollars.

At the moment, it's
completely legal.

It's just not legal
to import.

The FDA is pushing to schedule
it now, so we'll see what
happens in about a year.

OFFICER: So we'll seal it
up and, uh, have them
check it out.

POWELL: Seal it up.
OFFICER: Okay.
POWELL: Yeah.

This shipment here, if it
is kratom, is either gonna
be re-exported

to the country of origin
because they manifested it

as something else or it's
going to be seized and
incinerated.

THOMAS: We understand
you're providing a service.
OWNER: Yes.

THOMAS: Of moving
goods into the US?

No one suspicious, right?
No one, no new customers?
No suspicious.

THOMAS: No?

THOMAS: Key is just
knowing your customer.

That's what's most
important right now.

THOMAS: All right.

AGENT: All right.
Again, thank you.

THOMAS: Thank you.
Thank you.

This is a business
that receives
packages from Mexico.

The, uh, business owner
kept good records.

THOMAS: In fact, there are
no other shipments similar
to the one we intercepted

and the level of
cooperation we received,

it doesn't appear that
the business was involved.

At this stage of the
investigation, we believe
that somebody likely put

the heroin and cocaine
into the luggage using
an established,

legitimate business to move
drugs over the border

AGENT: Exactly.
AGENT: See you back soon.

THOMAS: All right. We'll see
you back there. Thank you.

This is the end of today.
This is the end of tonight.
But not the end of the case.

Finding the responsible
parties is not a
one-night, uh, operation.

But our minimum this evening
is a success because

the heroin and cocaine
have been seized.

The public's safe.

We have information
and evidence to pursue.

It was definitely,
uh, a great day.

MAURO: Make sure we call our
checkpoints out, all right?

When we go in, Victor Two,
make sure you do that, okay?

Today we're gonna be doing
a narcotics transfer.

We're gonna be moving all of
the narcotics and property

that's been seized at JFK and
brought to, uh, a facility
to be, uh, destroyed.

All right. Let's go.
OFFICER: Sergeant.

MAURO: This is a secret
operation because the drug
dealers and the cartels

and things like that,
they may want it back.

Wait for me to
give the all clear.

So we're out there with
M4s, Kevlar vests, and
what we need to match

any firepower that
comes at us.

ROSSINI: It's very
significant.

I mean, you're talking
about thousands of
pounds of contraband.

It's a dirty job, but
someone's got to do it.

There he goes.

Look at that, in one
scoop. Awesome.

Crane operator will pick
it all up, drop into the
boiler, thousand degrees,

where it's incinerated.

It's a matter of saving
lives, which is what we
do every day.

Getting this stuff off the
streets, it's gonna make a
difference.

[music]