03x10 - Dope on a Rope

[bunniefuu]

- How are you doing today?
- MAN: Doing okay.

Is there anything in the vehicle
you want to declare to me today?

My partner referred the vehicle
for Z-Portal x-ray inspection.

We did detect an anomaly.

We will secure the driver.

We will take the vehicle
to a secure location,

our lift area, and we will move forward
with our procedures.

All right.

The officer noticed some Bondo
in the rear wheel well of the vehicle.

Now, Bondo's used to repair vehicles

if they've been in accidents,
or to cover things.

LIPKE: The other side
will be the same thing.

Packages are tied together
onto the yellow string here.

So, as we pull the string out,
the packages will come out.

And we affectionately call this
"Dope on a rope."

Okay.

You have to be very gentle,

because you don't want packages
to break open.

Had this vehicle made it through,

that compartment could be used
to put money in

and go back south.

Four, five, six.

PEREZ: This side is all pills.

PEREZ: Oh!

What do you have?

This car has a GPS tracker.

This one has a 4G LTE sim card
inside of it.

The Mexican cartels
will have this car tracked.

PEREZ: Oh! Did you see this?

There was another GPS tracker
attached to the packages itself.

Somebody had high stakes on this car.

LIPKE: From the feel of them,
probably fentanyl pills.

But we'll have to open them up
and find out.

OFFICER: Where are you guys coming from?

Spring break over there?

- Okay. Have a good one.
- WOMAN: Thank you!

STYLES: There has been an uptick in
travel, mainly because of spring break.

So, we are getting flights
that are fairly full coming back in.

JOSEPH: How was your trip?

In a good way or bad way?

Must've been there too long.

You have a good one.

JOSEPH: We get a lot
of travelers coming in

from Cancun, Jamaica,
the Dominican Republic.

Pretty much all over the Caribbean.

They go there to party for the weekend.

And anytime there's a busy travel period,

it's a good time for the cartels
to send massive loads through.

Do you have your passport?

All right. Come with me.

STYLES: This female came

off of the flight
from Montego Bay, Jamaica.

The K9 did alert,
so we're looking for any type

of controlled substance inside these bags.

So what do you do for a living?

Okay.

You ever been outside the country before?

Oh, God, where is it?

STYLES: Wait, wait, wait.

Marijuana.

So, outside
of this little bit of marijuana,

do you have any more in the bag?

You think that's it?

Because in a lot of states
marijuana is decriminalized,

people believe it's okay
to import across country lines.

The problem is it is still
a controlled substance.

It is still not permissible
to be transported

into the United States.

STYLES: Okay.

STYLES: Of course.

All right, so you did have more.

There were 12 packages
extracted out from the vehicle.

Some of the packages have
a brown, gooey substance.

Once I do the testing,
I will get a better understanding of it.

And you can see how it's becoming green,

telling me that
it's a positive for heroin.

There's different commodities
within the same seizure.

It's what we consider a mixed load.

All the strings that we're removing
will be kept as evidence.

There's a new forensic test
that they've been doing, palynology,

where there's certain bees
and certain pollen

that attracts to everything.

They can see where
these packages were introduced

into the car depending
on the pollen that it is,

to see where they came from.

So, this is gonna be sent to the lab,
where they're gonna do a test.

Three kilograms of heroin.

We've got three kilograms
of fentanyl pills.

That's how lucrative it is
for these cartels

to smuggle narcotics into the country.

Somebody's payday didn't happen.

At the moment,
HSI is doing an investigation

and interviewing the subject.

It's a brand-new plate,
so we'll do our queries on the plate

and on the person
to gather a crossing history.

This will go into our seized property
and will be destroyed.

Good morning. No photo ID?

What's the deal? How you doing?

Good. I'll take that.

This is what you have for a document?

You're bringing this?

Are you a US citizen?

Are you sure?

Okay. Do me a favor.

Go ahead and remove everything
that you have on your face.

I need the glasses off, the hat off.

Do me a favor, take the mask off.

Where are you going?

I thought you just came from Mexico.

Yeah.

Okay.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

[SPEAKING ENGLISH]

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

All right. Grab your stuff.
Go through that door.

We'll go into secondary.

ELLSWORTH: This individual
doesn't have any documents.

He's claiming he's a US citizen,

but he's never been here,
from what we can tell.

The officer did all his checks,
couldn't see any reason to believe

that he was a United States citizen.

How long have you been in Mexico?

ELLSWORTH: What are you
going to the United States for?

Do you know
anybody here in the United States?

You don't know anybody?

You don't know anybody here,
you're coming to the United States,

because you wanted to get
a better life, better job.

You don't have to say.

I'm not asking you who.

I'm asking do you know people here?

ELLSWORTH: Do you have a cell phone?

I'm not trying to get your phone cut off.

Just asking if you have
a way to contact people.

- Okay. Go and have a seat.
- Yo!

ELLSWORTH: Oof!

That erratic behavior,
you never know what you're gonna get

when you're talking to somebody like that.

Right now, he seems
a little bit comical at times.

I'm a little bit unsure
of what he's saying.

What's up, man?

There's a Canadian border
and a US border, yeah.

This can turn into
a disastrous situation really quick

because it is indicative of someone
who has had heavy drug use.

There's a good chance
that he could have something on him,

whether it be residual
or maybe he decided to carry something in,

so we need to find out.

Hey, bro. I know you wanna come
into the United States.

So, before I can let you
into the United States,

I'm trying to find out who you are
and what you're about.

That's why I'm asking you a few questions.

So, let's be honest
with each other right now.

In the last 24 hours,
have you done any type of drugs?

I'm not talking about music.
I'm talking about drugs.

When's the last time you did drugs?

Two or three weeks?

Hold up.

Slow down. Slow down a little bit.

I know you're excited, so just slow down.

It's not gonna stop you from coming out.
I just wanna make sure,

medically-speaking, you're good.

So, is that a yes or a no?

So, in the last couple of hours...

Coke?

- Heroin? Meth?
- Crack.

Crack?

So you dabbled
in a little something-something?

Chronic users or habitual users,

there's times when they forget
that they leave stuff on them.

Or some of these guys get talked
into bringing stuff in,

just because this guy
has no clue what's going on.

Right now, we wanna
definitely get a K9 on site

and get him screened just to make sure.

Hey, you good?

Nothing sharp on you
that's gonna hurt me, stick me, cut me?

No weapons at all?

Is that soap?

Okay.

- This dog.
- Yeah.

He's just gonna sniff you a little bit.

Don't react to the dog, okay.

Turn around.

You're good?

The screen didn't yield anything positive.

So, it's just a matter
of his immigration status

and whether or not he should be here
or not be here.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

ELLSWORTH: Once they
do those fingerprints,

they're gonna find out
if he's got US citizenship.

Determine whether or not he's gonna stay
here in the United States

or if he's gonna get sent back to Mexico.

You guys are good with him?

Yeah, he's good to go.

He's documented as a US citizen.

ELLSWORTH: We made sure
he had nothing on him.

He was clean as far as that was concerned.

And we let him go.

He's gonna go do whatever it is
he needs to do to take care of his life.

Hopefully, everything works out for him.

Woo!

STYLES: All right, go ahead and repack,

and then we'll make a determination
as to what we are going to do.

What does that have to do with anything?

Because it's less than a gram,
we're just going to throw it away?

Forgetting it's in there and telling me

because it's less than a gram
I'm gonna throw it away

are two totally different statements.

Why would you assume
I'm just gonna throw drugs away?

You need to stop listening
to what these folks are telling you.

These folks gon' steer you wrong.

What is that?

I was just thinking the same thing.

So what is this pill right here?

Is this an Oxy pill?

Oxycodone. Painkillers.

You have a prescription?

Do you have a prescription?

You know why they won't prescribe it?

Because they are highly addictive.

I'm just gonna tell you,

my thought of giving you discretion
just went out the window,

because you have this Oxy pill as well.

With the opioid crisis,

doctors can't give out
those prescriptions like they used to

because they are highly addictive.

If you can't get the prescription,

it's a possibility
that you may have maxed out.

We have no way of knowing that,
so we are going to take possession of that

and treat it as serious as it really is.

Get a pat down, too?

STYLES: Yeah. I need to find a female.

All right, sweetheart, right over here.

And then we are going
to bring her to a search room

and do a pat down.

See if she has any additional
controlled substances on her person.

STYLES: She doesn't have
any other items on her person.

So we are going
to take possession of the drugs.

We did reach out to HSI
and to the local authorities.

They both declined prosecution.

So we are going to issue
a penalty against the person.

So, this is what we're gonna do,

we're gonna take that $5,000 fine,
and we're gonna mitigate it down to $500,

and you will pay that today.

STYLES: But I'm gonna tell you, that
Oxy pill almost had you in jail today.

Ain't no weed worth going to jail.

Ain't no Oxy pill worth going to jail.

[MALE OFFICER SPEAKING]

All right.

Because she didn't have
a past criminal history,

we are going to mitigate
the fee down to the $500.

And in all honesty, I do believe
that after this situation,

we won't see her
with any drugs in the future.

Hello. How are you?

Hello.
What were you doing in Mexico?

How far is that from here?

Seven hours?

Why did you drop her off over there?

You didn't want to go?

No? Why not?

Why?

No Internet? I got you.
Where do you live?

Okay. Do you work right now?

No? So who do you
live with in Phoenix?

- Is this your vehicle?
- It's my dad's.

Everything inside it belongs to you?

I'm gonna have you
open up the hood and the trunk.

All right.

All right, cool. You can go in here.

You get the back seat,
and I'll get the front seat.

You want to take a closer look at that,
make sure that there's nothing in them.

I don't really see anything in this one.

Oh.

What is that?

GARCIA: Yeah, the blue?

GARCIA: What is it?

GARCIA: What the... What is that?

I'm gonna ask him if he knows

if there's been any work on the car.

Do you know if there's been
any work done on the car?

GARCIA: And before that?
Do you know of anything else?

None? At all? All right.

All right, cool.

He said the tires two weeks ago,
but he doesn't know anything else.

You wanna show him?

GARCIA: How do you know, though?

Thank you.

'Cause you can see where
it's coming out of the firewall.

That dust and stuff
has been built up for years.

Okay.

So the light blue,
or whatever color, piece on the back,

that's an original piece.

It's there. It stays...

GARCIA: Interesting. Okay.

You can still run it if you want.

No.

But, I mean,
there's nothing in that piece.

- Okay.
- Okay?

I'm gonna go let him go.

Just because something doesn't have
contraband or anything derogatory,

like, that does not mean
that it's not a good check,

because the next person might be loaded.

So it's never really a bad check.

We learn from that process
and keep on going.

All set.

[CAR DOOR CLOSES]

MATHESON: We're dealing with
spring break time,

and people bringing back items
that we got interest in.

So we picked a few
source countries of interest.

- Hello.
- WOMAN: Hello.

- Can I see your passport?
- Yes.

Hello, sir.
Where are you going today?

- Atlanta.
- Atlanta. Do you live here?

Okay.

- All right, have a good day.
- Thank you.

There's something there, huh?

Sir, how are you doing?

This bag is yours?

I'll just go through your bags real quick.

K9 alerted on one bag,
at which time we did stop the passenger.

That's the contraband I was looking for.

Come on over, ma'am.

Are you traveling by yourself today?

Where are you coming from?

And how long
were you down at the dentist for?

I got you.

How much money
are you traveling with today?

All right.
What do you do for a living?

Her hands were crossed.

She seemed a little timid,
a little scared.

Not like the typical traveler
that comes through.

All right. Follow me to the back.

She went down to see the dentist.

She stated she was unemployed.

She has $40 on her,
but she stayed overnight in a hotel.

And not only that, she provided no ID,

so her story's pretty fishy,
and we referred her to secondary.

- Her name's in the system, no ID.
- No ID?

- Yeah.
- Okay.

If you could just take a seat for me.

I'm just gonna check your bag.

Are you bringing any drugs,
narcotics, weapons?

- Are you bringing anything for anyone?
- No.

Have you crossed here before?

How long ago was that?

CEVALLOS: A few years ago?

Uh-huh. How much...

Oh, really?
So you didn't get any work done?

How'd you know which dentist to go to?

Just looked it up?

And what hotel did you stay at?

Olivia?
And how much was it there a night?

And you said you don't work right now?

When did you work last?

2017? So it's been a while.

She has a lot of makeup stuff.

Kind of doesn't make sense
if you're coming for dental work.

Did you meet with anyone in Mexico?

Did you do anything else
besides go to the dentist

to get an estimate?

Because you wouldn't bring all this stuff
just to go to the dentist.

So, you said
you came down here last night?

I'll be right with you, sir.

[MAN SPEAKING]

[MAN SPEAKING]

CEVALLOS: Ten times?

CEVALLOS: You're unstoppable now, huh?

All right.
Just give us one minute real quick.

And what time do you think
you went to the dentist?

Maybe two hours?

There has to be another reason
why she went down here.

Something isn't adding up here.

Supervisor Ulanday?

I gotta talk to you in the back.

I wanted to request
a pat down on a female.

She just told me she was going
to the dentist today,

but then she told me she stayed
over the night last night.

- She didn't get no work done.
- Okay.

So, can we get two females?

Can you come over here with us?

I was called in to do a pat down
on a female traveler.

There has been
an increase in body carriers,

specifically females
recruited by the cartel.

Maybe they're in
an unfortunate financial situation

or whatever the case may be.

They are vulnerable to become drug mules.

MATHESON: That's the contraband
I was looking for.

So, what's in it?

MATHESON: Pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes.

MATHESON: The suspected
controlled substance

was a positive
for contraband of marijuana.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Once we do detect that it is positive,

we have to go through our procedures
and notify the investigators.

One, two, three, four, five.

And the second one has ten,
eleven, 12, 13, 14.

And the net weight of that is...

Normally, we don't see this much
on a traveler for personal use.

While in certain cities
in the United States

marijuana has been legalized,

here in Atlanta, we have zero tolerance.

So, any amount is likely
to get you in a little bit of trouble.

Go and have them locked up
in the safe for us.

- Yes, sir.
- All right.

Thank you, brother.

We seized his merchandise,

and we're giving him
a $500 penalty for importing.

He is in our system now,
but he's free to go home.

Hello, sir.

Where are you going?

Are you declaring anything
or bringing anything back?

A what?

Is there a cat in that?

Oh, hey!

Whose cat is this?

Okay.

- Have a good day, man.
- Yeah.

You gotta go to secondary, okay?

MARTINEZ: Female, driving by herself.

The gas tank tapped solid.

So, now we're bringing her in
for further inspection.

ANGULO: How old was the female?

MARTINEZ: She's about 46 years old.

The dog alerted to the gas tank.

You'll look through the Z-Portal?

- Yeah.
- Okay.

We're waiting for the vehicle
to go through the x-ray

and quickly identify anything
that is not supposed to be there.

All right. Go ahead, bro.

Yup, there's some anomaly.

Looks like
the rest of the vehicle is clear,

so we're concentrating on the gas tank.

[BEEPS]

On that corner, it's got a little lever.

MARTINEZ: This is the sending unit,
where you can get into the fuel tank.

This is the plate that goes on top of it.

So you can see that
it was tossed to the side.

So that's a good indicator
that they might have gotten through here.

ANGULO: [LAUGHING] It just came off
with a couple of taps.

This normally takes a lot more.

Pull that.

Let's take it off and...

Oh, yeah, I see packages.

MARTINEZ: They got a string.

ANGULO: Makes it easier
to pull the packages out.

MARTINEZ: There we go.

ANGULO: It's a crystalline substance.

MARTINEZ: We normally see crystal meth
coming in on the gas tanks

'cause they're easier to mold,
you know, smaller packages.

Gas tanks are a good concealment method
for bringing drugs across.

They'll pack up the drugs,

then they'll fill up
as much gas as they can.

There's usually about five gallons left,
so that's enough to get them across.

And they'll mess with the fuel indicator,

so it'll look like it's full,
but it's actually not.

There's a lot of strings here.

ANGULO: There's a lot of strings.

MARTINEZ: I've never seen a gas tank
with strings attached to them.

Never.

ANGULO: Whenever they get to,
they probably don't have a lot of time

to pull the drugs out,
so this facilitates their job.

It's a lot of gasoline. Very strong.

So the mask protects
a lot more than coronavirus.

Looks like we got everything.

So, 10, 20, 30, 40, 45.

Now we're gonna test.

Yup.

MARTINEZ: Positive for methamphetamine.

Forty-two,

forty-three.

All right.

Total weight is 21.5 kilograms,
$156,000.

That's quite a bit from a gas tank.

It's a pretty good seizure.

Now I'll call HSI, and they'll come
and interview the person

and they will continue on
with prosecution.

For an amount like this,
she's facing federal prosecution,

and more than likely she'll go to prison.

Loaded?

I asked her if she was willing
if I got her a pad to remove the tampon,

and then she just got
very scared, very distraught.

And from there, she admitted
that it was not a tampon.

- And did she pull it out or what happened?
- She did.

She removed it herself
and admitted that it was narcotics.

This is a common trend we have been seeing
with female travelers.

The guy is with her? Okay, 10-4.

Okay.

CEVALLOS: Within minutes after she
came in, another individual male came in.

She has some kind of connections
with that individual.

[WOMAN SPEAKING]

WOMAN: Yeah.

[WOMAN SOBBING]

MILLER: You're okay.
Take a deep breath. Just hang on.

All right, ma'am.
Are these your bags?

And you're coming from?

And how long did you stay?

All right.

Right now, we have a person of interest,
a young lady, traveling alone today.

And Saint Martin is a known area

for bringing narcotics
to the United States.

So, we wanna know more about her trip.

And what was your purpose to go there?

All right.
And who purchased your ticket?

Your cousin's boyfriend?

Okay. Are you bringing
anything for someone else?

Did anybody give you something to bring?

LESLIE: Okay. So...

You're the owner of the bag.

You're traveling with the bag.

So whatever's in the bag
is your responsibility.

So that's her bag?

So she got her dirty laundry in your bag?

You've seen it with your own eyes?

You packed it with your own hands?

Usually a person will take
their own laundry home with them.

So, everything was starting to...

Not make sense at all.

How much money are you
traveling with today? Any cash?

How much is that?

$300, $400? Okay.

CARRASQUILLO: Mmm-hmm.

Okay, so everything here is yours, right?

You brought it?

You brought it, right?

CARRASQUILLO: My question is,

who this money belongs to?

Is that yours?

It's not yours, right?

Who this bag belongs to? This...

And you're responsible for it, right?

Is there anything else you're bringing?

Oh, it's raining.

It's raining today.

You are allowed to bring
as much money as you want.

But if it's $10,000 or more,
you just have to declare it.

CARRASQUILLO: Let me explain
to you what's going on.

There's an amount of money that
we don't know how much it is.

So that's indications for us

that you are trying
to circumvent our inspection.

So, go ahead, pack your stuff.

- We'll figure what to do.
- WOMAN: And then I can...

Listen to me.
Pack your stuff, we'll figure what to do,

and we'll move on, okay?

A lot of travelers try to sneak money in

because the source of it,

where did it come from,
how did you obtain that money,

it could be illicit funds, it could be
from drug-trafficking organizations.

LESLIE: It makes us wanna know,

what is she into,
what is she doing for work,

and who else she's associated with.

She said that she had no recollection
of who the money belongs to.

She said that the money
did not belong to her.

We take it into consideration
on a case-by-case basis.

Some people don't have knowledge,
some people do it on purpose,

so that currency has to be seized.



We need to call HSI.

LESLIE: Mmm-hmm.

CARRASQUILLO: The seizure was successful.

We continue with the process,

and the subject's incurring
investigation right now.

CEVALLOS: Let's see if I can get one out.

There we go.

I'm taking a sample pill
that I'm gonna crush up.

Put some solution in there.

That solution is gonna dissolve it

and help us get our results
with this little test strip.

So, what we're looking here on this

is to see if this watermark
creates a red line,

which is positive for fentanyl.

There you go. Positive for fentanyl.

So this is the final weight, 37.7 grams.

Now we're gonna take the fentanyl pills
to the storage vault that we have.

HSI is gonna get contacted.

An HSI agent's gonna come and interview
the individual smuggling these narcotics.

[MAN SPEAKING]

Because an agent needs to talk to you.

CEVALLOS: He's gonna be interviewed
as well. He's gonna be detained.

We'll question him because she has
some connection with that individual.

Those gentlemen, they prey on females,
single mothers that are

really hurting for money,
not really working at this time,

and persuades them,
try to make a few bucks.

But unfortunately, she got busted today,

and fortunately we got
some drugs off the streets.

All right, we're good. I'm going
to have you go back into the cell.