02x05 - Hidden Compartments

[bunniefuu]

- ARCE: Casablanca and...
- STEPHENSON: Venezuela?

- ARCE: Uh-hmm. Hello.
- WOMAN: Hello. Good night.

- STEPHENSON: Good night.
- ARCE: Good night.

Sir, where are you coming from today?

STEPHENSON: Oh, where you going?

STEPHENSON: You're going by yourself?

STEPHENSON: They fly on the same flight?

- MAN: Sorry?
- They fly on the same,

from Casablanca?

STEPHENSON: Oh, okay!

STEPHENSON: Come on and let me
check your bags, you'll be on your way.

Go and put your bags over here.

How much money?

STEPHENSON: What's this?

You got a test kit?

[ARCE CHUCKLES]

STEPHENSON: Oh, sh**t.

- MAN: For my acid.
- ARCE: You mix it?

ARCE: He's used it with the other,

uh, medication for his stomach.

STEPHENSON: We're chasing on a daily
basis and it's a bit of a hunt.

It's just that small minute percentage

who are traveling
for more nefarious reasons.

But at the end of the day,
as long as we are able

to see the inspection all the way through
and do our due diligence,

we're good to go.

Any questions?

- ARCE: Okay?
- MAN: For you?

- Thank you.
- ARCE: Go straight out.

MAN: Yes.

STEPHENSON: We got a tip
from some intel overseas

about an anomaly that's coming in today.

Right now we got a statue
coming from Ghana, Africa.

OFFICER: They only have three cans.

It's going to be in one of three cans.

STEPHENSON: We've had
anomalies in the past

where they've actually hollowed out
the inside of the statue

and stuffed it with narcotics.

Yeah, that... that thing at the bottom
over there is huge, man.

STEPHENSON: The front of it
is scratched off.

That's it.

That's it. This is it.

Just gonna follow that bin around,

take it over to the warehouse,
get the items out,

then we'll run it through x-ray
and see what we got.

[MACHINE BEEPING]

STEPHENSON: See anything on the image?

Flip it, 'cause that looks like
it may be going all the way.

- STEPHENSON: On the inside.
- OFFICER: Yeah, right?

STEPHENSON: It's abnormal.

CHRIS: Why would you fly
a piece like this on an airline

and pay that much money
to ship it by air freight

when you can put it in a container?

It could be $1,000 to ship that.

It doesn't make sense to me.

STEPHENSON: We're definitely
gonna go in and probe it.

THOMAS:
All right, I think this is everybody.

This is the bag?
Let's get this center stage.

All right.
Most of you have already been briefed,

but a female courier came in this morning.

She flew in from Port of Spain.

After making her way
through Passport Control,

she's here at baggage claim.

She picked up her first bag.

Woman's in the baggage area,
looking for her second bag.

She's circling the baggage carousel.

You can see she's asking
this baggage handler in yellow for help.

With the help of the baggage handler,
they found the bag.

It's right where she was standing.
She didn't recognize it.

That's unusual being out there
and not being able to spot your bag.

The CBP officers
pulled her in for inspection.

After removing the contents of the bag,

they determined there's a false bottom.

The officer calls for backup
to escort the passenger

to secondary screening.

It's determined there's 2.1 kilograms
of cocaine concealed.

She's been cooperative,

so we're going to, uh,
do a controlled delivery.

We made a phone call
to the intended recipient,

who has agreed to meet
with the female over by the mall.

He doesn't know where,
he just knows the area of the mall.

Likely a public restaurant
with a lot of glass, so we could see in.

We'll put her inside.

She's gonna text him,
the target will come in,

maybe they have a conversation.

She doesn't leave the restaurant,
doesn't leave her seat,

just gives him the bag.

And then he'll leave with the bag

and then we arrest him from McDonald's

to whatever vehicle is waiting outside.

THOMAS: All right, see you guys out there.

This is fairly dangerous.

You don't know the mindset of the
person who's coming to pick up

the package, and that could really
motivate someone

not to wanna be arrested,
not to wanna come into custody.

It's not uncommon,
if you're a drug dealer, to be armed.

Naturally, they don't wanna be arrested
by law enforcement,

but they also don't wanna be robbed.

It's a heightened level of danger.

It's not necessarily
that they're targeting police,

but they're protecting
their financial interests,

they're protecting their drugs.

It's a dangerous proposition
to arrest someone

who's smuggling drugs.

Now that's easy.

[DRILL WHIRRING]

Before you pull it out,
brush the wood shavings off the leg,

in case something pops out with it.

Can you...

All right, then pull it out.

It's very dense wood.

OFFICER: That's probably why they used it,

- 'cause they know it's too easy.
- CHRIS: Yeah.

I think we're gonna have to cut the belly.

Let's flip it with this base
right on the cardboard,

then we can get
a nice flat cut on the bottom.

There you go.

- CHRIS: Is it... Is it cracking?
- WOMAN: Oh, yeah, it's cracking.

OFFICER: Might wanna just pry it.

CHRIS: Yeah, now take
a little bit and just pry it out.

OFFICER: It's coming out. There we go.

CHRIS: That is thick.

- OFFICER: Yeah.
- CHRIS: Is it all the way through?

CHRIS: Can you reach in?

Who's good at stealing sodas
out of a soda machine?

CHRIS: I think you can just
reach in and see if it's in there.

Who's good at stealing sodas
out of a soda machine?

CHRIS: Is it all the way through?

MAN: Yeah.

CHRIS: Ah, God.

That void's what the shading was,

and I think this is what
you were seeing on the x-ray.

Bottom line, it's negative,

but if you're not looking,
you're not gonna find anything.

This was targeted information.

So this was an item you had to look at.

This shipment didn't look right,
so we inspected it.

This one came out negative,
but you never know the next time.

Plenty of fish in the sea.

STEPHENSON: Sir, how you doing today?

- Can I see your passport?
- MAN: Yeah, sure.

STEPHENSON:
Flight is coming in from Jamaica,

a few from South America,

they use any of those islands
in the Caribbean

as a springboard or an in-transit point,
to bring narcotics into the country.

- You're traveling by yourself?
- WOMAN: Yeah.

STEPHENSON:
Can I see your passport, please?

WOMAN: Sure.

STEPHENSON:
But we don't get tunnel vision.

We look for all possible
areas of violations.

There's the illicit gold trade
and money laundering,

even human trafficking.

- How you doing today?
- WOMAN: Good.

STEPHENSON:
Can I see your passport, please?

- How was your trip?
- WOMAN: It was good.

STEPHENSON: What do you do for a living?

WOMAN: I do real estate.

STEPHENSON: So, what does
the real estate agent do

when they go to Jamaica?

STEPHENSON: Where'd you stay?

WOMAN: I stayed, oh, my God,
I went to Port Antonio, stayed there,

went to Kingston.

STEPHENSON: Would you just
wait over here for me for a second?

STEPHENSON: Look, you can,
we don't stop you,

but if you do, somebody's gonna have
to be in there with you.

STEPHENSON: Uh, we're not
finished talking to you yet.

One of the things that drew
my attention to the traveler

was the fact that she says
she went there for a vacation,

but Kingston is the capital of Jamaica

and not a lot of tourism is done there.

Congratulations.

You've been selected
for a more intensive examination.

Follow me over here.

THOMAS: Yeah, I'm on the belt.
It's bumper-to-bumper, bro.

So, uh, it says
we'll be there 10 after 4:00.

No one's ever on time for a drug deal.

The car in front of us
has two of our agents

and the female cooperator.

Once we get to the meet location,

the female will call her contact.

If all goes well,
then we'll agree to come out here

and pick up the luggage.

When you're out here
and you're supervising the group,

you have to consider
everyone's position and perspective.

It's a decision you can't make
from the office.

On paper, it looked good,
but when you get out here,

you know, there could be
a child's birthday party at this location.

There's a lot of variables.

Right now, we're arriving on scene
to the meet location.

THOMAS: All right, good copy.
I'm on scene here.

Looking at the exits now.
There's two parking lots.

It's a north and a south lot
that don't connect.

We have to cover both.

THOMAS: Oh, perfect,
all right, so you got north covered.

I just need some people to the south.

THOMAS: All right, good copy.

So now we're in position.

THOMAS: Okay, she's heading in.

THOMAS: With the cooperator now
in the restaurant,

our main concern is safety.

Public safety
and the safety of our cooperator.

The female courier,
she's gonna text the target

to tell them where
to come pick up the bag,

so it's really just a waiting game.

STEPHENSON: You ever been arrested before?

- WOMAN: Yeah.
- STEPHENSON: For what?

STEPHENSON: Was it a felony or...

STEPHENSON: Wow, at 18?

STEPHENSON: The young lady said
she was coming back from vacation

but we found some information about
her being arrested for money laundering

that sparked our interest
with regards to her itinerary.

How much money are you
traveling with today?

- WOMAN: About 300.
- STEPHENSON: 300?

WOMAN: Well, that's what I have left.

- STEPHENSON: Okay.
- WOMAN: Yeah.

STEPHENSON: As I'm going through her bag,

I'm looking for articles that are
consistent with her claims of travel.

Every passenger has a story

and as long as their bags
tell the same story and it's consistent,

normally, they're good to go.

Are you bringing anything back
for anybody else?

WOMAN: No.

STEPHENSON: Were you smoking over there?

STEPHENSON: Do you? Why?

STEPHENSON: What do you do
with this? This for cigarettes?

STEPHENSON: What do you do
with this? This for cigarettes?

STEPHENSON: For your...
Oh, you bought him a gift?

STEPHENSON: But you said
everything belongs to you. Right?

WOMAN: Um.

STEPHENSON: It seems as though,
uh, there is something a little bit off.

She was not being forthright.

So, this is the thing, right?

When you're speaking with an officer

and if we can find that
you omitted willfully a material fact,

it constitutes, like, lying.

So tell me about your trip,
just to make sure that you were...

- WOMAN: Me?
- STEPHENSON: Yeah.

How did you pick these places on the map?

How do you figure this whole thing out?

WOMAN: Google. You wanna see my itinerary?

It's my traveling book,
so you can see all the places in it.

Late at night when I can't sleep,
I make these itineraries.

STEPHENSON: Oh, you even put down
to the food, huh?

WOMAN: Yeah, I even know
what I wanna eat, where I wanna eat at.

STEPHENSON: You got


WOMAN: No, that's how long
the drive is from there to there,

- so I have to plan out my day like that.
- STEPHENSON: Ah!

As I was checking in her bag,
she presented a very detailed itinerary

where we were able
to see exactly where she was

and we found there was no need
to detain the passenger any further.

All right.

You're good to go, okay?

All righty.

HAWKINS: Good morning, everybody.

Today, we're gonna do
a operation targeting personal effects.

We're gonna be also looking
for anything dealing with a nexus to ASF,

African-swine-fever-affected countries.

So we're gonna have all hands on deck.

Okay, let's go.

We're the first line of defense
for safeguarding agriculture.

- WALKER: All this is one?
- HAWKINS: Uh-hmm.

WALKER: It looks as if we have...

one shipment coming from Lagos, Nigeria.

I smell food, I can smell it.

People like to bring
a sense of home back with them

or shipped to them.

You know, after working here for so long,

it's almost like a hound dog.

We know where the deers are.

We know where the food is.

It's really easy to figure out
that inside this bag is dried fish

and sure enough, it's dried fish.

The fish is actually fine.

- HAWKINS: What else you got?
- WALKER: Need this one.

WALKER: The country that it's coming
from is affected with bird flu.

Because they have dehydrated chicken

and we're unable to tell
how it was actually cooked,

it's prohibited.

HAWKINS: Food could be prohibited
based off of disease classification.

Because you might have
African swine fever,

HPAI, which is, uh, bird flu.

Warthog skins have African swine fever,

it's highly contagious.

This shipment is going
to approved taxidermist

who has been trained
in how to handle animals with a disease,

so this looks fine.

WALKER: This is a shipment
that manifested as frozen snail.

This one scares me. What? [CHUCKLES]

So...

Ooh.

Oh, my God.

So what we have to do
is make sure there's no prohibited items

that could be hidden
or mixed in with the snail,

like bush meat,

which is any type of unidentified animal.

FANOIKI: These are snail right here.

So once it's not a live snail,
it's good to go.

You can bring it in frozen,
boiled, cooked, fresh,

but not live.

WALKER:
Have you had it before? A snail before?

FANOIKI: Oh, yeah, yeah.
I'm from Nigeria, so we eat that a lot.

- Oh.
- Yeah.

It tastes like octopus.

- Have you tried octopus?
- Yes.

FANOIKI: It just tastes the same way.

Mm-hmm. So you might wanna
try it one time though.

WALKER: I'll never say never.

But I'mma say it now.

[LAUGHS]

Okay. So the snails can go.

STEPHENSON: Sit down, please.

It's very important
that you be as forthcoming,

and, uh, as accurate,
open and honest as possible at this point.

MAN: Okay.

STEPHENSON: We have a passenger
who arrived from Caracas, Venezuela,

with his wife and his family.

In Passport Control, they realized that

he had a lot of international travels
in the past year

for someone who hasn't
traveled internationally before that.

For that reason, he was referred
to Secondary for further inspection.

During secondary inspection,

we observed the passenger's legs
were crossed in a awkward manner.

This is something we've seen before
in the past with internal smugglers.

Because of his behavior,
we think that it's necessary

to bring him in
for a more intensive examination

in a private screening area.

[OFFICER 1 SPEAKING SPANISH]

- [MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]
- OFFICER 1: Okay.

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

STEPHENSON: What is it?

MAN: Aye, okay.

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

OFFICER 1: He swallowed them.

[OFFICER 1 SPEAKING SPANISH]

- [MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]
- OFFICER 1: Eighty-five.

[OFFICER 1 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

STEPHENSON: Stand up, stand up.

All right, there we go.

Once a passenger admits
to transporting narcotics internally,

our primary focus shifts to their safety.

STEPHENSON: Eighty-five.

STEPHENSON: We're bringing the passenger
to a medical facility,

where he can safely pass the narcotics
under medical supervision.

SIMS: This Lagos, Nigeria flight
is known for us as a high-risk flight.

I love working this flight.

There are a lot of medicinals
that we're picking up.

It's just an interesting melting pot
of agricultural products.

Good morning. How are you?

SIMS: I'm good.

We're gonna scan this flight
and we'll see what we have.

Do you have any food items in your bags?

SIMS: What do you have, sweetheart?

SIMS: Frozen soups?

[LAUGHING]

SIMS: I try to give off positive energy,

you know, to the passenger.

You've done this before?

Ah-ha, you learned your lesson before.

All right, good to know.

They're more receptive
to understanding the process.

- [LAUGHS] You got a list.
- I got a list.

I love it, awesome, awesome.

SIMS: Awesome.

They're more receptive
to wanting to help to not bring anything

that's gonna potentially harm, uh,
US agriculture as a whole.

We do have a pest that has been found.

- Right there.
- WOMAN: Ooh.

SIMS: The fear is, worst case scenario,

an invasive species gets out
into the environment.

They can cause massive destruction

to agricultural products or plant products

that we have currently here in the US.

Good morning.

MAN: Good morning. How are you?

I'm good. How are you?

Any food items in your bag?

Yes, food is here and here.

SIMS: What kind of food items do you have?

SIMS: All right, is that
all the food you have?

SIMS: Okay.

Once I start going through the bags,

if something prohibited is found,

you could potentially receive a penalty,

a civil penalty,
for failure to declare, okay?

All right. [CHUCKLES]

All right, so here we go.

SIMS: Mm-hmm. This is garri.

I have to look through your garri
to make sure.

Garri is a form of the cassava,

and when it comes in bundles like this,

we have people that stick other items,

so that's what I'm doing now,
just inspecting his garri.

You said you had garri,
you have dried fish.

SIMS: But you didn't declare this.

This is not allowed, sweetheart.

Hey!

SIMS: Uh-huh.

- This is not allowed.
- Oh.

SIMS: Egusi is a melon seed.

- MAN: But I passed through...
- SIMS: And in this form, it's prohibited,

because of a storage pest
that we're concerned about.

One of them is called khapra beetle.

MAN: Ah.

- SIMS: You will cry?
- Yes.

SIMS: Well, you...
I don't want you to cry,

but I will be taking it
because it's prohibited.

[SIMS LAUGHING]

SIMS: No, sugar.

I get it, egusi soup, I know,
and it's very delicious.

But when entering, I cannot let this pass.

Stop looking at it. Let me take it away.

All right, so I appreciate you.

Have a wonderful day, okay?

I try to be very sympathetic,

knowing that it's a local hometown treat
that is specific to that region.

I try to go into it with a heart,

but this is what is set forth

when it comes
to protecting US agriculture.

Okay. What we got next? Ooh.

THOMAS: Okay, good copy. Thanks.

Right now, the female courier,

she's in the restaurant
on the phone to the US recipient

so that he can pick up the cocaine.

THOMAS: Which is about, uh,
three minutes from here.

[PHONE RINGING]

Hello?

I can't get a text. What's going on?

There's an NYPD squad
eating lunch in there?

NYPD officers in there don't know
that we're cops

and that we're conducting
a controlled delivery in the restaurant.

We wouldn't want a situation
where they're surprised to see us.

Well, you can tell 'em we're...
So we don't get, uh, blue on blue,

we could tell them we're there,
because, uh...

Okay. Thanks, bye.

Uh, the sergeant from the PD
is gonna go in

and let those cops know that we're here,

just so we don't have any blue on blue.

OFFICER 3: That's the target.

THOMAS: At the arrest signal.
Not now. At the arrest signal.

THOMAS: At the arrest signal.
Not now. At the arrest signal.

Okay, the sarge is out.

NYPD is leaving out the back entrance.

THOMAS: Oh, got it.

All right, take it down, take it down.

[SIRENS WAILING]

Good, good?

THOMAS: Our girl, where she at in there?

THOMAS: Okay, good. All right.

That was a very successful operation.

Safe, and they normally
don't go this smooth.

We haven't interviewed yet.

We're gonna determine
whether he is the dealer,

he is the ultimate recipient of the drugs,

or if he's supposed to move it
onto another individual.

STEPHENSON: We had a passenger
who admitted to swallowing cocaine.

He was traveling
from Venezuela last night.

Once he admitted
to bringing in the cocaine,

we brought him to a medical facility

where he was allowed
to expel the cocaine safely.

Over 80 pellets of cocaine.

That was a quick turnaround
for that guy to have that.

HUMES: That's a good...

STEPHENSON: Yeah.

STEPHENSON: Yeah.

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

HUMES: They went home this morning.

[OFFICER SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

HUMES: Okay, that's good.

We're all professionals here, man.

STEPHENSON: True.

He brought his family,
thinking he was gonna blend in

and circumvent inspection,

but that was not the case.

STEPHENSON:
Now that the narcotics have passed,

we can shift our focus back
doing the investigation.

We're gonna hand the passenger off to HSI,

where they'll do a full interrogation
and they'll take it from here.

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

OFFICER 1: The reason
we're here is to go over the details,

how you came into possession
of the 85 pellets of cocaine

that you extruded at the hospital.

What I'm expecting from you
is just for you to be honest and truthful.

As long as you're truthful with us,
it'll work towards your favor.

[OFFICER SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 1 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 1 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

OFFICER 1: Cocaine.

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

- [MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]
- OFFICER 1: Hour and a half.

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

- [MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]
- [OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

SIMS: Good morning.

I'm gonna do a 100% baggage exam

- on these two bags, okay? All righty.
- MAN: Okay.

All fish items? Dried fish?

- MAN: Mm-mmm.
- Lots of dried fish?

Mmm-hmm. Those are fine.

What I'm doing...
I'm checking for pests inside of here.

You got bugs...

inside of your beans.

All right.

Yes.

They're just crawling all around in there.

Give me one moment, okay?

I am opening up some beans

that were seized from a passenger
coming in from Nigeria,

and what I'm looking for...
I'm looking for storage pests.

And there you go.

So, as you can see,

the pests are just crawling around
everywhere.

Sometimes they get commingled

and they look or they're camouflaged
by the product surrounding them.

So I'll tap the paper, just like this,

to get 'em to jump or to move,

and it also helps my eyes to refocus

and to not get lost.

Bingo! Found 'em. There we go.

This is a lepidoptera.

And we actually have two specimens.

This other pest, which is a beetle,

we are concerned about, he's right here.

So, in this one commodity,
we actually have two storage pests

that we're gonna submit
for identification.

This is all data collection
that we're taking up, uh, for the USCA.

We turn over
our pest interceptions to them.

They take a look at it
to make sure that we kinda keep a gauge

on what's coming in as a hitchhiker
on certain products.

That's how they come up
with the rules and regulatory actions

as to what can come in
from certain countries.

When it comes to lepidoptera,

in order for us to preserve the specimen
long enough for the identifiers,

we actually have to cook, so to speak,

to preserve the specimen.

All the rest of the pests
that I do not submit,

I just kind of hit them with some alcohol,

just to kinda
go ahead and put 'em to sleep.

That's what I like to call it. [CHUCKLES]

Yes, tears or no tears,
it is an unfortunate thing,

because it is sad that you do have
to take the commodity from the passenger

because it is something
that is dear to their heart.

It reminds them of home.

All right, you did declare them,
so that's fine,

but I'm gonna have to take your beans.
They can't come in, okay?

SIMS: Even though this is something
that does hurt them,

when the commodity is seized,

I do try to make sure
that they see the bigger picture

for what could potentially happen,
if the pests were to get out.

Have a great day, okay?

- Yeah. Thank you.
- SIMS: Okay, thank you.

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 1 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 1 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

OFFICER 1:
It's the second time he's done this.

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[OFFICER 2 SPEAKING SPANISH]

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

OFFICER 1: Okay,
he's got the New York contact.

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[ALBERT SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

[ALBERT SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

ALBERT: Black.

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

ALBERT: He provided us
with names and phone numbers of the people

that were in New York
that were gonna receive the pellets.

So we're gonna work
that part of the investigation

and pass it to our New York office.

OFFICER 2: Okay.

ALBERT: We're hoping that this could lead
to the identification

of an international trafficking group.

STEPHENSON:
We're processing over a million passengers

every given year,

and there are times where the stories
draw on your heart strings.

But smuggling narcotics
can cause the people in our nation harm.

So it's gratifying to know
that me and my partners are here,

safeguarding our nation's borders.