01x02 - Operation Cobra

[bunniefuu]

[birdsong]

{\an8}-[loud g*nsh*t echoing]
-[machine clacking]

[loud g*nsh*t echoing]

[loud g*nsh*t echoing]

[loud g*nsh*t echoing]

[crow cawing]

[Larry Loveless]
One of the funny stories
every DEA agent has to tell

is when you're doing
your undercover deals

and you meet with a guy,

you're buying drugs
from him undercover

and buy three times
and order up big.

On the fourth time,
you lock him up.

And they always say,
"I knew you were
a cop all along."

[loud g*nsh*t echoing]

Well, if you knew I was a cop,

you must be one
stupid m*therf*cker

to sell dope to a cop.

And he says, "You know,
you better watch out.

Someday, somebody like me
may show up at your house."

Let me tell you something,
I've lived my life

thinking about someone
like you coming to my house.

I fantasize about someone
like you coming to my house.

I masturbate thinking
about someone like you...

coming to my house.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[snake hissing]

[gator bellowing]

'Kay, there's a garbage can
full of rats.

[laughing]
This is what we feed

-the alligators in the morning.
-[insects buzzing]

It's a lot of rats.

These rats
come from a rat farm.

Nowadays, they farm everything.

So...

[gator bellowing]

Anybody hungry?

[gators chomping]

[gators hissing]

Hey, I'm not liable
for loss of equipment.

[laughter]

[Bryan Christy] People who are
attracted to reptiles

are often passionate
about those animals.

Unfortunately,
it's not very hard

to find a criminal
in the reptile community.

{\an8}I always looked at this
as organized crime.

{\an8}I was a criminal investigator

and a journalist
at National Geographic.

I got in my truck
and I drove to Florida

and started looking up
reptile-related federal cases.

The names that came up
right off the bat

were Hank Molt,

Tommy Crutchfield.

But I also found
in case after case,

there was a man named
Ray Van Nostrand.

Over and over again,
Van Nostrand, Van Nostrand.

Ray filled the void
that Hank and Tommy left

when they went to prison.

And he took the reptile
smuggling industry

into a dark
and violent underworld.

There's CIA connections
in this story.

There's m*rder.

This is a major operation

and reptiles are part of it
from beginning to end.

And at the center of it
is this guy, Ray Van Nostrand.

{\an8}[phone ringing]

[Ray Van Nostrand] What about
that turtle that we had?

{\an8}[Ray] You still got it?

[Ray]
Actually, they got me in jail,

and they wanted to know
everything about you.

{\an8}[Mike Van Nostrand laughing]

{\an8}[both laughing]

{\an8}That was...
[laughing]

{\an8}-That was good.
-[Ray] Mike-- Mike said--

-Hello? Goodbye.
-[Mike] Oh, that was funny.

See ya. Bye.

-[Mike laughing]
-I don't know.

Ray hustled all the time.

{\an8}I mean, you can almost look up
the definition of "hustler"

{\an8}and see a picture
of Ray Van Nostrand.

You wanna buy
a couple of turtles?

I got turtles for sale.

{\an8}Ray could, you know,
sell Eskimos, uh, ice.

{\an8}He was my best friend,

{\an8}and there was never
a conversation

{\an8}without him trying
to sell me something.

[Dwayne Cunningham]
Ray was about volume.

Get 'em in, get 'em out.

{\an8}He was focused
on the wholesale.

Mass imports
of poison arrow frogs

and curly tail lizards
from the Bahamas

hundreds at a time.

[Mike]
Pops was always into reptiles,

but he wasn't into it
like Tom Crutchfield was,

where he's into
the rare species.

For Pops,
it was the art of the deal.

He loved to buy and sell,

and have it,
and get it, and sell it.

That was Pops.

Hello? Hello?
You there?

[crew laughing]

[Tom Crutchfield]
He just was a really nice,

fun, likable guy.

I didn't ever think he would
turn out like he has, though.

[Bryan]
It's this crazy paradox.

You have this incredibly
lovable guy.

{\an8}But then, he is in the center
of this very violent world.

{\an8}He also had a major impact

in the reptile space
for generations.

[Eric Goode]
Ray, so where were you born?

I wanna say, uh,
in Teaneck, New Jersey,

but I'm not sure.

[Eric] Do you remember
when you met Elaine

and when you got married?

Um...

-No.
-[Eric] Okay.

What brought you to Florida
from New York, do you think?

I really don't remember.

[♪ gentle music playing]

[Elaine Van Nostrand]
He's a diabetic, and a lot
of diabetics get Alzheimer's.

He's got both Alzheimer's
and dementia.

{\an8}He knew all the scientific names
of all the snakes,

{\an8}where they came from,
how to take care of them.

He knew everything about snakes.

Boy, you're really making me
go back and have memories here.

That was our prom, 1963.

He treated me really nicely.

We went out to dinner.

He gave me money,
I had clothes.

And I fell in love with him

because I wasn't used
to being treated so well.

We decided
we would get married.

We did go on a honeymoon
down in Florida,

and at first
I was happy with that,

but then he kept wanting
to go snake collecting.

I got pregnant right away.

I have three boys.
I have my son, Ray,

my son, Michael,

and my youngest is Alex.

Ray's first business

was Bronx Park Pet
near the Bronx Zoo.

It was exotic, lots of snakes.

He worked there pretty much
seven days a week.

[Bryan]
But in 1973, America changes.

They pass the first
wildlife conservation law.

They made it much, much harder
to bring in rare animals.

[Elaine]
One of Ray's closest friends,

they used
to snake hunt together,

and he was telling him
how wonderful Florida was,

that nobody paid attention
to the laws,

and he could come
down to Florida

and he could do
anything he wanted.

So, Ray said, "You know,
we could move to Florida,

"and we could have a much better
life than we have up there.

I'll have more time
to spend with the boys."

To be honest with you, later on,
I lived to regret that,

but we-- we came to Florida.

[♪ romantic music playing]

It was nice,
it had beautiful beaches

and everything,
and we saw this house.

We had a river
in the back of the house.

The boys loved it.

[Ray Van Nostrand, Jr.]
Well, we were young.

So, I was 10, Mike was probably
eight years old.

{\an8}I just remember waking up and
smelling the orange blossoms.

[Mike]
Pops bought us a boat

and we'd go fishing
and play in the river.

He used to take us out
rabbit hunting

in the orange groves at night,
that was fun.

And I used to go snake hunting
with him over the weekends too.

Mom was a school teacher
and she worked

while my father was working.

You know,
he would do his thing.

[♪ tropical music playing]

After we moved, Ray went down
to work at Pet Farm.

[Jeanne Brodsky]
Pet Farm was a menagerie.

{\an8}It was a crazy place.
It was big.

{\an8}We had animals
going through there,

jungle animals like orangutans,
and chimpanzees,

and big snakes,
and big alligators.

For Christmastime, we were
offering reindeers for sale,

just in case Santa Claus
needed some more.

{\an8}When Ray started working,
the reptile sales

{\an8}just shot up the roof.

{\an8}You could walk in with no
intention of buying anything.

I'm bringing mice to sell,

and I walk out of there
owing him money.

{\an8}[Bruce Weissgold]
With Tom Crutchfield

{\an8}and Hank Molt
under investigation,

just created an opportunity
for someone else to come in.

{\an8}Ray knew how to buy
and sell animals really well.

{\an8}The question is,
where did he get them from?

There you go, Pops,
one of your favorites to catch.

Oh, yeah.

Yep.

That's a male.

-You're right.
-Yep.

It's a beauty.
How much does that cost?

-$125. Here.
-[Ray whistling]

-Two hands.
-Okay, I'll get you
the other one.

It's a beauty.

[Mike] My father
had a lot of connections

around the world
for a lot of crazy stuff.

{\an8}But I used to go snake hunting
with him on the weekends.

{\an8}He'd have his routes
and everything.

We'd cruise down,
and he had sharp eyes.

You know, and he's like,
"Oh, there's-- there's two reds
right there."

I'm like, "Where the-- what
the f*ck are you talking about?"

And he-- sure as sh*t,


he'd see two heads
sticking out of a hole.

Yeah, okay. Okay.

Oh, you got up good that time.

And he went up into the tree,

there were like
seven of 'em in there.

He's like, "Alright,
I'm sending 'em down."

My father would be like
throwing 'em down to me

one at a time
and I was catching 'em.

And every single snake bit me

in the same finger
at the same time.

And I was crying,
'cause I don't know,

I was nine years old
or whatever.

And I'm stuffing 'em
in the bag,

and I didn't particularly
care for 'em.

But that's what he loved to do.

Ray loved money
and hunting snakes,

especially indigo snakes,
'cause it was forbidden

and he liked
what was forbidden.

{\an8}[Stan Chiras]
Indigos are absolutely
stunningly beautiful snake.

I've seen 'em eight feet long.

They're black with a red chin.

And the iridescence
that comes off them

is a green-purple iridescence
in the sunlight

that just takes
your breath away.

It's better than a rainbow.

{\an8}They were in high demand because
they were so incredibly rare.

But they were ill*gal.

[Mike] They're protected mostly
because of habitat destruction.

You weren't allowed
to have 'em, but Pops

was always
looking for indigos.

[Ray Jr.] My dad doesn't worry
about anything.

{\an8}You know,
"Dad, ah, they're ill*gal."

He would tell me, "None of
this sh*t should be ill*gal.

Everybody should have
what they wanna have."

Ray and I were superb
indigo collectors. Superb.

We could go out on his Cadillac
and come back

with six to ten every day.

So, he had a whole pit
full of 'em in the back.

There were like
hundreds of eggs in there

that he had gotten from 'em.

And my mom, I remember Mom
picked me up

from school one day,
we were in her Sunbird.

We pulled in, man, there were


[Elaine] He asked if he could
see what was on the property,

and he saw
all the indigo snakes.

Ray was gone.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

{\an8}They were snakes, you know?

{\an8}I don't like snakes.

{\an8}I've lived with them
since I was 17,

but I don't like them.

[Mike] Fish and Wildlife,
they didn't really wanna talk,

but you know, they're pulling
the eggs out, you know.

I mean, they're just
ripping 'em apart,

and I'm like, "You know
what you're doing?"

Stuffing 'em in buckets,
and I'm thinking to myself,

I mean, I'm only nine,
and I know

you're not supposed to be
handling reptile eggs like that.

And they basically
arrested me.

[laughing] Yeah.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

I think he moved on
from indigos to drugs.

[laughing]

[♪ news theme playing]

[announcer]
This is World News Tonight.

Reporting from Washington,
Peter Jennings.

{\an8}Good evening.
The subject is drugs.

{\an8}In the last year, approximately
one in every five Americans

{\an8}has used either marijuana,
cocaine, heroin,

or other drugs
such as Quaaludes.

[♪ '80s rock music playing]

During the '80s,
drugs were everywhere.

[reporter]
We welcome you, James Brown.

How did all of
this trouble begin?

[singsong]
Living in America!

[chuckles]

[Stan] Specifically in Miami,
that was the hub

of drug use
and the business of drugs.

[reporter] Authorities
say there's an avalanche

of cocaine
crossing our borders.

[reporter 2] The half a million
dollars that you see here

was found last evening...

[reporter 3]
Looking at what is more than

16 million dollars' worth
of cocaine.

Federal agents
in Florida today

talked up the nation's
largest coke bust ever,

more than four tons
of cocaine.

[agent] What do we got?!
What do we got?!

-[indistinct shouting]
-No, stay there! [indistinct]

{\an8}Miami was like out of control.

They would bring it in
by planes,

dropping it over areas
in the Everglades,

just pushing it right out.

[reporter 1]
The accused smugglers' boat

crashing into the mangrove.

[reporter 2] Its crew
had vanished, leaving behind

a parrot, which wasn't talking.

[Mark McCarthy]
They'd drop it in the ocean.

They'd bring it over
on their own submarines.

I mean, it was all corrupt,

and all the cops
were on the take.

The mistrial in the cocaine
and racketeering trial

of seven Miami police officers.

[Mark]
But that money built Miami.

[reporter] There's every
indication of barely a dent

in the multi-billion dollar
flow of cocaine

and heroin into
the United States.

[Bryan]
Ray's introduction to cocaine

and speed was at Pet Farm,

where he was trying
to keep up with the orders,

and somebody said,
"Here, try this."

[Elaine] Before Pet Farm,
he wasn't drinking

or using drugs at all.

But all of a sudden,
he was not being--

Let me put it this way,
he wasn't a very good husband.

[Mike] I don't wanna say
he cared less about his family,

but he wanted
the crazy lifestyle

that came along
with-- with the drugs.

[Bryan]
Ray is working at Pet Farm,

and in one day
walks Mario Tabraue.

[Eric]
Who was Mario?

'Cause Mario was
in the drug business.

-No, I don't remember that.
-[Eric chuckles]

But he's maybe still around.
[laughing]

No, I know Mario.

[Joe Wasilewski] Mario Tabraue
was one of the drug kingpins.

It was the-- you know,
the worst-kept secret.

[Tom] He was a well-known
Miami drug dealer,

and he was one
of the cocaine cowboys.

[reporter 1] They call them
the cocaine cowboys,

executing two Latin males
in the Crown Liquor Store.

[reporter 2]
And the apartment was sprayed
by machine g*n fire,

a trademark
of the cocaine cowboys.

[Hank Molt]
Mario was on another level,

the big Cuban Miami godfather
type of guy there,

with the weapons
and parking lots

full of bulletproof
black Mercedes,

and guys in silk suits
coming and going.

There was a big parallel
between the people

that smuggled the drugs
and who would smuggle reptiles.

Then you get a guy like Mario,

who's a drug dealer
and a wildlife dealer,

and he would merge
the two together

with a high degree of success
for quite a long time.

[Mike] Mario and my father
had everything in common.

I mean, they loved animals,
they loved selling animals,

they loved getting animals in,
they loved dealing in animals.

[Dwayne]
Mario's house, it was--

{\an8}I had never seen
anything like it.

{\an8}It was just this big, beautiful
South Florida house.

And he had the pools
in the backyard with penguins.

He had chimpanzees,
he had tigers.

Just an amazing
array of animals,

and he knew all about 'em.

[Stan] The guy
had a lion in his office.

Just came out of the corner
of the room,

I walked in, said, "Hey Mario,"
and woompf!

I got jumped by this lion.

I was working
at his house primarily,

where he had
his private collection there.

I remember somebody
brought him a gorilla.

Holy cow, how do you get
a baby gorilla

into the country?

"Well, the same way
you get a kilo of coke."

It was a huge place.

A lot of marble statues
and stuff.

Lots of money coming
in and out,

weapons everywhere.

I can remember mopping the dust
of the cocaine on the floor.

You could probably scrape
that together and...

[laughing] ...you'd have a kilo
right there.

{\an8}Mario's high-rolling days
were something

{\an8}that you only see in movies.

He had a famous chimp
named Caesar

that loved doing cocaine.

Wore gold Rolex,

as well as a chain
with a pendant on it.

One of his friends
thought it would be funny

to taunt the chimp with coke.

Caesar came running
through the sliding glass door,

shattered the sliding
glass door,

snatched the bag of coke
from his friend's hand,

ran up a palm tree,

and didn't come down
from that palm tree

until they showed
the chimpanzee more cocaine.

[faint chimpanzee screeching]

[Jeanne] When it came
to Mario's shipments,

they were very important
to Pet Farm.

Pet Farm got lots of parrots
from him, and snakes.

I kinda stayed away from him
'cause I was scared.

But the part
that scared me especially

was that
we would get those animals,

and Mario would want
the boxes back.

So, I asked
one of the employees,

"Why does he want
the boxes back?"

And he looked at me and said,
"Really, you don't know?

"He wants the boxes because
there could be something

in the bottom of the boxes."

I'm not saying what.

{\an8}Yes.

I'm not saying it, though.
[laughing]

Can't we leave it
open for-- for interpretation?

Come on.

{\an8}There was definitely overlap

{\an8}between narcotics smuggling
and wildlife trafficking.

They used the same
trade routes,

they used the same facilities,

the same methods
of concealment.

This oversized radio...

has been hollowed out
on the inside...

[Bryan] What makes Miami
especially appealing

is it's close to South America.

It's a warm climate,

so unlike New York,
if things have to sit

in customs, the animals
aren't gonna die.

And reptiles in general
make great cover species

'cause they're aggressive,

particularly if you're
an overworked

Miami wildlife inspector.

You're not gonna open
that crate of cobras,

and these guys
put drugs in there.

[Hank]
Some of the reptile people
were tempted into the industry.

They thought it was easy money,

and it turned out
to be not so easy.

[Joe] Mario, he had a place
called Zoological Imports.

He sold everything
from aardvarks to zebras.

[Hank] There was AK-47s
and handguns and stuff

on this mirrored, like,
section in his office.

He would sh**t, like,
bust up a glass wall

or something like that,
just 'cause that was Mario.

And the next room was
a snow room, the blizzard room.

And everybody knew about it.

[Bruce Edelman] When I used
to go to Mario many years ago,

it seemed like
there was a break time,

and that was like
a coke break time.

{\an8}And everybody seemed
to snort coke,

{\an8}and then they would go back
to selling reptiles.

[snake hissing]

[Tom] Mario bought
six diamond pythons.

It's $67,000.

It was a substantial
amount of money.

And we go in his office,
and the first thing I see

is a Santeria shrine
in the corner.

He's got a MAC-10
on the back of his desk.

So, he pulled out
two briefcases,

one full of money
and one full of coke.

And he opens up the coke
and he says,

"You can double your money."

So, I said, "I'll take
the cash," 'cause I said,

"That's a line
that I never cross."

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

Tell you about drugs?
Well, I used to buy some of--

or get some of 'em
or trade 'em,

but it w-wasn't really bad,
bad stuff.

I mean, I don't think
that I shot people

-or anything like that, but--
-No, you didn't sh**t people.

-No, nothing like that.
-[laughing]

[Hank]
Ray was toasted after that.

He fell under Mario's charm
and he left Pet Farm.

Began working
for Mario full-time.

Eventually, the Feds took
a big interest in these guys,

'cause they were pretty open
in what they did.

That's how that
crazy stuff got going.

[birdsong]

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nsh*t]

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Larry] This case has lived
with me for a number of years.

And Mario's like the bad penny
you can never get rid of

'cause it keeps popping up.

{\an8}Okay.

I reported to the Miami office
in January of '85.

A new case had been submitted

targeting a drug trafficking
organization

run by Mario Tabraue.

My nickname was Pool Table,
'cause I was green and square.

I mean, I... [chuckles]
I didn't know anything.

Uh, but I learned quick.

Mario Tabraue
and his father Guillermo

were certainly well known to us
as a drug trafficking family.

{\an8}We estimated that the Tabraue
drug trafficking organization

{\an8}brought in over $70 million.

Our case was called
Operation Cobra for a reason,

because we had heard
he was smuggling drugs in

with shipments of cobras.

The only reason
Mario got investigated

was because of Larry Nash.

Larry Nash had been
an informant for a while.

Law enforcement wired up
Mr. Nash with a transmitter,

and-- and he's meeting
with some bad guys

negotiating a drug deal.

The agents observed them
taking Larry Nash,

putting him in the back seat
of a Mercedes,

and the Mercedes takes off.

And they start to follow it.

And what happens
is one of those

South Florida
thunderstorms hit,

and the rain just pours down.

They're still picking up
some of the transmitter,

but then they lose him,
and he's gone.

[phone line ringing]

What was then alleged
was these traffickers

contacted Mario Tabraue
and said,

"We've just k*lled an informant
for the government.

We've gotta get rid
of the body."

Mario instructed them to go
to his ranch in Southwest Dade.

They drove there,
took the body out,

dismembered it,
set up a grill,

cooked the meat off the bones
as best they could.

We're told they played
soccer with the head,

kicking it around the field.

Larry Nash
has never been seen since.

That was 100% the reason
this case got the juice,

got the money behind it.

In our case against Mario,

we had a wiretap,
but it wasn't his telephone.

We broke into his office

at Zoological Imports Unlimited
and placed a bug.

And Mario was a player.
Mario liked his women.

And all night long,
he's on the phone.

He's calling his wife,
he's calling his girlfriend.

The room bug
picked up conversations

and anything else
that was going on

at the office at the time.

And just about every afternoon,

Mario and his secretary,
bada-bing, bada-boom.

The people listening
to the conversation

were FBI language specialists.

After a while, they had heard

all of the sex
they wanted to hear,

'cause it was
every stinking day.

[Mark]
He would have sex

with almost anybody's wife,
girlfriend around.

[penguins squeaking]

Even my girlfriend
was sleeping with him.

[Larry] I remember Ray
being at Zoological Imports.

We joked among ourselves,
called him Raymond Van Nostril

because he was using
so much cocaine.

"Ray Van Nostril's
here again, guys."

You know, that kinda thing.

Ray was the reptile guy,
we were told.

[Hank] Ray just hungered
after that Miami lifestyle,

the fast cars and the flash.

That was Mario.
And at the same time,

Ray knew a lot of people,

and he would get
all these rare animals,

so Mario probably saw use
in Ray, too.

Mario wanted the-- the rarest,

most ill*gal animals.

Of all the lizards,
a Komodo dragon

is really at the top.

Extraordinary lizard
from Indonesia,

from the island of Komodo.

Endangered species list,

'cause they're native
to just this one little island.

A 15-foot lizard,
can take down water buffalo,

antelope, humans.

[Bruce Weissgold] The prospect
of getting a Komodo dragon

has these guys
wetting their pants.

It's the ultimate.

It's like finding a stash
of ill*gal gold bars.

The idea came through Mario.

How can we possibly get one?

Ray had the connection
of Anson Wong,

a notorious animal dealer.

Whatever it was,
he'd get it for you.

[phone line ringing]

One day,
Ray called Anson Wong.

They were having a discussion
about how to get Komodos

into the United States.

I just happened to say,

"If you were to ship in boxes
of 100 water monitors,

{\an8}"hatchlings, so they were like
four to six inches long,

{\an8}"and you have a baby
Komodo dragon,

{\an8}"and you ship 'em in,

{\an8}"you'd have to be
an expert-expert

"at Fish and Wildlife
to open up a box of 'em

"and go,
'That's not a water monitor,

that's a Komodo dragon.'"

A few weeks later,
Ray called me to the shop

and he handed me an envelope,

and there was money
in the envelope.

And he said,
"This is from our Asian friend

who said thanks
for the good idea."

[Elaine]
Ray lived for the moment.

He always had--
had what he wanted.

He always expected to get
what he wanted.

And he loved his children,

but it didn't stop him
from doing things.

He started with the chains
and the rings.

-[snake hissing]
-Drugs, he was using quaaludes.

He was going out with women.

I would wake up in the morning,
there would be people

sleeping on the couches
and on the floor.

{\an8}-[bellowing]
-It was horrible.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

Okay, that's this part that
we're gonna stop at right there.

-[Eric] Okay.
-Because it started

the worst 10 years of my life.

[Larry] To do surveillance,
you have to blend in.

I can remember dressing up as
the telephone company repairman.

I had a Southern Bell hat
I would put on

and carry a clipboard looking
at telephone lines and things

to try and get an eye
on what's going on.

During the course
of the investigation,

we identified a number
of associates of Mario's.

You're always evaluating
future defendants

to help further
our investigation.

Ray Van Nostrand.

We saw his value as a witness

more than his culpability
as a big-time drug dealer.

Because I never pictured Ray
as a big-time drug dealer.

I think he was mostly
supporting his own habit.

We began to make a case on Ray

so that he could be arrested,

and we would have
some incentive to get him

to cooperate with
the government

and testify against Mario

and the other members
of the organization.

And I remember he-- he drove a--
like a bread truck

or a-- or a panel-type truck.

When you saw that pulled in,
you knew Ray was there.

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Elaine] When Ray
went to work for Mario,

he bought a big
silver panel truck,

and he set it up
really nicely with cages.

And he would drive around
to the different pet shops.

So, he thought that if he went
to the pet shops,

he could entice them
to buy more snakes,

and turtles, and whatever else
he was selling.

The pets fill the van,
but up in the ceiling of the van

is the cocaine.

And Ray traveled South Florida

selling drugs from this van
using animals as a cover.

[♪ upbeat music
continues playing]

[Dwayne]
Mario had the money,

Ray had the connections
to sell.

So, it was kinda like
a perfect match.

And subsequent years,
they became the largest house

for selling reptiles
in all of the United States.

[Bryan] So, Mario would
call up and say,

"I need three c*ck,"

and that's three kilos
of cocaine.

"I need three c*ck--"
smaller bird, it's three grams.

[chirping]

[Mike]
The guys in the business were,

you know... [laughing]

...were his drug customers.

So, you know,
"Hey, Ray, you got a rabbit?"

You know, and a rabbit
would be a keyword

for an eight-ball of coke.

[Dwayne]
You had to have a code.

So, a woman calls one day,

"I need three
and a half rabbits."

[laughing] And he's like,
"Are you out of your mind?

"You can't have a half a rabbit.

Do we have to go
over this again?"

[Larry]
I've got two words to describe
Zoological Imports Unlimited.

It stunk.

When you hit
the front of the alley,

depending on which way
the wind blowed,

it was worse than any pig farm
in Kansas I've ever been around.

And it was very hard
to surveil.

What you have to prove

is that there was
a criminal enterprise.

And we knew there was
an animal connection

between Ray and Mario.

So, yes, we believed
he was trading animals

and actively dealing
in ill*gal drugs with Mario.

[Eric]
Larry, people keep warning me

not to interview Mario.

There's a reason for that, Eric.
There's a reason for that.

He's a dangerous m*therf*cker.

So, you still be careful
when you're dealing with him.

There's a dark side to this

that we all need
to be careful of here.

And I'm just saying this
for us in this room.

Um, don't f*ck around with this.

[birdsong, chittering]

[intercom beeping]

{\an8}[receptionist]
[on intercom] Zoological.

Yeah, hey, it's Eric for Mario.

-[receptionist] Okay, alright,
I'll open the gate.
-Thanks.

[intercom beeping]

[metal gates clanging]

[Eric] [under breath] f*ck.

-[birdsong]
-[fountain splashing softly]

[Mario Tabraue] Come in,
so you can close that door.

And then, you can close
the door behind you, ay?

[gate squeaking]

Come on, sweetie.

Come on, sweetie.
You're all wet.

-Come on, baby. Come on, baby.
-[tiger growling]

These guys are over


{\an8}[birds squawking]

{\an8}You wanna bring the rest out?
Are we good to go?

{\an8}-Let's bring 'em all out.
-[worker] Bring 'em all out.

[Mario] When you feed
these animals,

they gotta be fed separately,

'cause they'll k*ll over food,

so that's why we have
the lockouts.

They get fed from
the lockouts separately.

I feel these are better trusting
than most humans.

You know what to expect
from them at any time.

And you'll deal with it.

And you build a trust
and a bond,

and they hardly betray you.
Humans become your best friend.

Next thing you know,
they stole your bank account.

Man's the most dangerous animal

'cause they-- they have the--
the ability to--

to think and have
evil thoughts,

and do evil things.

-[kiss smacking]
-[whispering indistinctly]

Animals are just nature,
do whatever they do,

and they really
don't hurt nobody

if nobody provokes 'em.

[lion bellowing]

This is what I love to do,
since the '70s,

since I first got
my first tiger.

I got it from Ray Van Nostrand.

This one is really cool.

Give a little smile.
Come a little--

There you go, little smile.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

{\an8}[Mario] No.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

Venomous is
the excitement of it.

And the colors,
some of the colors are amazing.

-Where do you want me?
-[Eric] Just sit back there.

-[Mario] Here?
-[Eric] Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you sit here.

-[monkey screeching]
-[Mario] Alamere,
come back here.

What is that?
What is that, Alamere?

What is that?

See, this to me
is rewarding as hell.

This thing was hostile
for food and everything.

Alamere, come back here. Hey.

Where are you going?

[Eric] So, Mario,
let's start just telling me

sort of how you got
to this place.

[Mario] Since I was a child,
I had an affinity for animals.

I was born in Cuba,
my parents were born in Cuba,

but my grandparents are from
Syria and Lebanon.

Back then, my father
worked for the CIA as, uh,

a-- a intelligence gathering
for the Bay of Pigs invasion.

[Fidel Castro speaking Spanish]

[reporter] In the years
since he took power,

Fidel Castro has become
an enemy of the United States.

[Mark] Kennedy was
supposed to back up

all these Cubans that were
wanting to overthrow Castro.

[reporter]
At this moment in Guatemala,

a Cuban exile army
is being created by the CIA.

[Mark] Kennedy was
supposed to back them up

with air support.

[reporter]
Bay of Pigs, Cuba.

-[g*ns firing]
-For the next 48 hours,

the men on the beach
take a terrible pounding.

They wait for help.
None comes.

[Mark] So, he literally
betrayed these people.

They were imprisoned,
they were jailed,

they were k*lled.

Some of them came back.

One day, I brought up
John F. Kennedy,

and me and Mario were just
sitting in the house talking.

He says, "That's a communist
son of a bi--"

I mean, I could see the hatred.

[♪ soft music playing]

[Larry] The premier smugglers
in this country

were former
Bay of Pigs operatives.

[g*nf*re]

We trained them
to be the best there was.

How to operate
small craft in high seas,

clandestine radio
communications,

getting in and out of a beach
without being detected.

What do you do
with those skills?

You go tuna fishing?
No, you start running dope.

[Mario] I-- I came from Cuba
when I was seven years old.

So, I went to work
at my father's jewelry store,

and that's where all
the Bay of Pigs guys,

they started
bringing in the pot.

One day, a guy called,
was looking for the buyer.

I said,
"Oh, sure, we can handle it."

I put 'em together, and I made
a quarter-million dollars.

I had rented this house,

these two round houses
in Florida City.

There was nobody around there,

except these two round houses
these Colombians had built.

And that's where I used
to stash my pot.

Yeah, those things
were awesome.

Totally round,
they looked like mushrooms,

two stories high
with a spiral staircase.

It was perfect
'cause right out of the Keys,

we can bring the vans
and trucks into there
and stash 'em.

Fish and Wildlife would come
and inspect, and have no idea

that the first floor
was full of marijuana.

-Kinda futuristic and cool.
-Absolutely. Round.

I think I did my first
snort of cocaine at 23.

I'm not gonna lie about it,
I loved it.

Two people I knew
needed an enforcer

and somebody that could
guarantee their security.

And they put me as
a third partner in a business,

and the first business
was 3,700 kilos,

and I made like
two million dollars,
so that was very fruitful.

So I said, "f*ck it."

[Larry]
He was a fairly young man

when he got started
in the business.

And it-- it was principally
marijuana smuggling,

and Guillermo,
his jewelry shop

became a central meeting place,
as it were, for people,

to make payments afterwards.

And in buying
and selling jewelry.

Drug traffickers like jewelry,

and-- and he certainly did well
in the business with that.

{\an8}[Mario speaking]

His name was Larry Nash,
he was an A*F informant.

A guy that worked for me
shot him, and they panicked,

and dumped him on my farm.

But I, stupid as I was,
couldn't bury the guy

'cause the ground was like--
can't bury him.

Can't get-- the helicopter's
looking for this guy.

He was wired,
which they didn't know,

so we burned him.

And I went through
a time in my life

where I went so bad
with drugs,

I got to the point
where I was super paranoid.

Some of my friends
started to say, "Hey, like,
we're gonna move elsewhere

because you're crazy.
You're crazy."

But I would hide in my closet
and look at people--

in my pockets of the clothes
to see if somebody hiding.

[Eric] If you had an addiction,
would you say your addiction

was an addiction
to drugs or animals?

Animals.

This is more like a treat
than a dinner.

I come from a divorced family
since I was five years old.

My mother was anti-pets,

to a point where my father
would argue with her,

"Let him have a pet.
Let him have a pet."

So, my mother said,
"There's something
wrong with our son.

He's gotta go
to a psychiatrist."

So, my father
took me to a psychiatrist

who evaluated me,
and called my mother

and he said, "There's nothing
wrong with your son.

"He has an affinity
for animals.

"Let him have an animal because
that's what makes him happy

"and maybe helps him
deal with the fact

that his father
no longer lives with him."

My mother
still didn't allow animals.

When I got out
of my mother's reign,

that's what drew me
to have exotic animals.

Back then, I sold drugs
to maintain my animal habit.

-Look at that face.
-[kitten purring]

The most beautiful face
of any cat in the world.

[Larry] You can say
whatever bad things

you want about Mario Tabraue,
but he loves animals.

His business
was certainly driven

by his love for all kinds
of different animals.

[kitten snarling]

[Eric]
Was Ray in the-- the drug
business and the animal--

Ray worked
selling reptiles for me

and he would--
he would get, you know,

like a half a key of coke

and sell to his reptile dealer
buddies and stuff.

[Bryan]
When Ray got further along

in the ill*gal side
of the reptile world...

he turned to g*ns.

And he loved them in the same
way he loved reptiles.

He really talked about them
with a fondness.

And he was selling
MAC-10s, MAC-11s,

Berettas,
Browning Hi-Powers.

[Ray Jr.] Me and my dad
would go to the g*n shows...

buy tables of MAC-10s,
MAC-11s,

cut the braces off of 'em,
and he would sell 'em

to the Cubans in Miami.

{\an8}When I was there, he was--

{\an8}he lost his machine g*n
and he was panicking.

He would lose 'em
because he was so high,

he couldn't find them.

He forgot where he put it,

and he was looking
all over the house for it.

[Elaine] There were
government connections

with what was going on.

That was the time
of Iran-Contra.

{\an8}Mario's father came to Ray
to see if Ray could get g*ns.

Everything okay?

{\an8}[crew chuckles]

{\an8}No, that's not funny,

{\an8}'cause if she gets in trouble,
you know.

Everything that I said
is common knowledge.

And I already said
that I-- I really liked Mario

and he was very nice to me.

{\an8}[Mike speaking]

{\an8}[Ray]
Yeah, but not crazy amounts.

I mean, I might have
a couple, you know.

Well, you used to sell g*ns.
You used to do--

you used to go to g*n shows
and you used to sell g*ns.

Every once in a while
you'd come home with a--

with a machine g*n and go,
"Check this out, Mike."

-[Mike laughing]
-I did crazy sh*t

'cause I was doing drugs.

[Stan]
I distinctly remember the day

I severed my relationship
with Ray.

These-- I believe
they were Colombians,

{\an8}they were looking for Ray,
and these guys just looked mean.

{\an8}And they weren't happy,
and I-- I told 'em,

I said, "I don't know
where he is, he shows up

whenever he shows up,"
which is true.

They left, and when he came in
later that day,

I said, "Ray, these guys
are looking for you

and they look like hit men."

I said,
"What-- what's going on?"

He goes, "Oh, they're just upset
I sold 'em something."

I said,
"What'd you sell 'em? Drugs?"

And he goes, "No, silencers."

[laughing]
And I just went, "Silencers?!

"Do you know what
they use those for, Ray?

"To k*ll people!

And they're coming around
mad at you?"

[Hank] I was there when Ray
was sitting behind desks,

sweating, his eyes running down
and baggies full of cocaine.

I remember walking out
in the parking lot, I'd say,

"sh*t, we could
have a machine g*n
in the parking lot today.

A drive-by sh**ting
in this place like this,"

'cause it was just that crazy.

[Mike]
People would come to the house.

You know, some of those guys
were sketchy.

That made family life difficult.

[Ray Jr.] It was a bad time
of our life, you know?

I'd wake up in the morning

{\an8}and there would be someone
in the bathroom,

some scumbag
just snorting cocaine.

I mean, at 16,
I'm walking around with a g*n

thinking,
today's the day that--

that I'm gonna have
to protect my mom.

[Larry]
We wanted Ray Van Nostrand

as a witness against Mario,

but we knew
we had to arrest him

and charge him
to get his cooperation.

We were able to return
an indictment

and-- and charge him
on some cocaine deals.

Best place to find 'em
is in their bed.

So, go to the house,
oh-dark-30.

[knocking]
Knock, knock, knock.

"We're the police, you're not.

We're here for your arrest."

[engine revving]

[agent] Hit the ground!

[Mike]
One morning, we woke up,

I was on my way
out the door

to go to Broward
Community College,

and you know, they were
pounding on the doors,

and agents trudging
through the...

[laughing] ...through
the empty lot next door,

falling in the mud,
you know,

and then beating
on the door, you know,

that they had a search warrant
for the house.

[Elaine]
There were tons of them,

and they swarmed around me.

And I said to him, "Can you
tell them please to be quiet?

Because my little boy
is sleeping."

And darn it, if he didn't!

[Larry] I remember
the children in the house

and being careful
that this is a traumatic event.

This is-- this is something
that they're going to live with

for the rest of their lives.

[♪ gentle music playing]

Ray was arrested,
he-- he declined

my generous offer to cooperate
at the time of arrest.

[Elaine] I didn't want to see
him go away for a long time.

So, I said to his lawyer,
I said,

"Go to the prosecutor
and see what you can do.

See what kind of deal
you can make."

He subsequently
agreed to testify.

[reporter] At this exotic
pet store in Coral Gables,

you could find animals
from around the world.

And according
to a federal indictment,

you could also buy lots
of imported drugs.

Owner Mario Tabraue
and his father Guillermo

are accused of operating
a 10-year,

top-dollar
family drug enterprise,

working out of Zoological
Imports Unlimited

and a family-owned
jewelry store

on Flagler near 10th Avenue.

And at Mario's
heavily fortressed
Coconut Grove home,

agents also confiscated several
high-powered machine g*ns.

[Larry]
I drove to Coconut Grove

because I wanted to see
the inside of that house.

{\an8}[agent] When the building
was surrounded

{\an8}by the task force agents,

a bundle of cash
totaling $50,000

was thrown out a rear window.

Someone threw
a packet of money,

$50,000 out a window,

and literally hit
an FBI agent in the head.

I mean,
they told me my charges,

{\an8}marijuana trafficking charges
facing 45 years.

I got the paper one day
and I saw this Operation Cobra.

And there they were, they were
leading Mario away in handcuffs

and I was like,
I know these guys.

[reporter]
Along with the drug charges,

Mario Tabraue is also accused

of covering up the m*rder,
mutilation, and cremation

of a federal drug informant
seven years ago.

The remains of Larry Nash
were never found.

[Larry] When we arrested him,
he was charged

with racketeering.

And he was charged
with the k*lling

of his first wife, Maria.

She was shot 10 or 12 times
to the face.

It was a brutal k*lling.

The information we had,

she was threatening
to go to the police

and tell them about Mario's
illicit ill*gal activities.

It was alleged
that Mario Tabraue

ordered her k*lled.

According to
an associate of Mario

who shot and k*lled
Maria Tabraue,

he used a Beretta
.380-caliber p*stol

fitted with a sil*ncer
that he got from Mario

and that Mario got from
Ray Van Nostrand.

-[Eric] Ray testified
against you.
-[Mario] For three days.

I mean, three days of testifying
is a lot of testifying.

Ray Van Nostrand's testimony,
even though they said

it was just going to be
the icing on the cake,

really became the whole cake.

[Mario] Ray was facing
a bunch of years.

He f*cked me over.

That man is a piece of sh*t
and he's a liar.

My closest friends
told on me.

[Eric] So that's why you
trust animals over people.

They can't tell 'em.
They can bite a piece off of me,

but they can--
they have nothing to tell.

It was the only count
he was found not guilty of.

I believe he was involved in it,

uh, but the ladies and gentlemen
of the jury saw it otherwise.

[Mario]
And they gave me 100 years.

[Dwayne] A hundred years.

Like, he was sentenced
to a hundred years.

[Mario] And it cost me


Nobody had any idea
why he was released early.

Ask me
how he got out of jail?

I don't know.

That's the story
about Mario Tabraue.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

[Mario] There's some things
that can't go public.

There's things
I cannot talk about.

I just cannot talk about it.

You know, the-- the government
does a lot of dirty work

and they use,
not dirty people,

but people that can do their
work and not talk about it.

[Larry] I've locked up
a lot of people in my life,

in my career. A lot.

He was the one that
I've watched my back for.

[Bryan]
Ray, at the time of his trial,

was completely out of it.

Mike was in the courtroom

waiting for his father
to testify,

and Ray was in the bathroom
doing lines of coke.

I remember
that one of the things
they brought up in court

was, uh, they said,
"Mr. Van Nostrand,

"on your application
to sell these g*ns,

"you said you have
no felony history,

but you are a felon."

And he said,
"Well, if I'd written down

I was a felon, they wouldn't
have sold me the g*ns."

[Elaine] They tested him
after he was convicted,

and in the middle of his trial
he was using cocaine.

Ray was so out of it,

it didn't really affect him
that much.

It hel-- it affected
my sons more.

I just decided,
let's just get this over with,

because I have my children,
I have the house,

there's all these
horrible people in our lives.

[Mike] I just remember going
to the courthouse every day.

I was only 17,
and you know, I had hatred

towards the government
for doing that to my family.

You ended up getting convicted,
and you got a five-year sentence

that they reduced
to a year and a half.

-Huh. I went to jail?
-And then that-- Yes,
you went to jail.

[Eric] Do you remember?

No.

[Mike]
My father did cooperate

with the government in the end,
but he lost everything.

He lost his house,
he lost his wife.

He lost his freedom, his money.

He lost everything
until he had nothing left.

Before my father went to jail,

I came home,
and he was in the garage.

My mother and I were broke,
we had no money.

I said, "Well, do you think
I can do this?"

He goes,
"Yeah, you can do it.

You can always make money
in the reptile business."

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[Bryan]
Mike took over a business
he had no interest in

and made it more successful

than his father
could have dreamed.

He made millions
of dollars for that.

And he did it all legally.

But when his father
gets out of prison,

he goes to work with Mike,

and this changes everything.

[reporter] Federal prosecutors
have brought another case

against the so-called
"lizard king of Florida,"

Michael Van Nostrand.

[♪ dramatic orchestral music
playing]