All language subtitles for FEDS.2023.S01E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

MS13 is the most violent
street gang

I've ever investigated.

[reporter] Rape, murders,
and violence,

MS13 has left
a trail of victims

throughout Greater Boston.

Their moniker stands
for control, rape, murder.

They wanted to take over the
drug business here in Boston.

[in Spanish]

[reporter]
Three teenagers murdered

and an innocent mother
killed in MS13 crossfire.

They're recruiting kids as
young as 10 and 11 years old.

[Mako] MS13,
they are like animals

because they make young kids
into psychos.

[woman speaking]

[Mario] They were trafficking
in violence.

And that violence
is everything to them.

[Maria]
They stabbed him 38 times.

[man]
MS13 turned a hard working

blue-collared community

into their own
hunting ground for murders.

And so my job
is to protect those kids.

I do it because I want
our communities to be safer.

I wanna protect our country.

My name is Special
Agent Jeff Wood.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] This isFEDS.

[sirens wailing]

[indistinct shouting]

I've never seen a gang
so quick to kill somebody

as MS13 was.

[indistinct chatter]

[Mario] Violence is everything
to them.

They're able to recruit
through the violence.

They're able to keep
the territory
through the violence.

They're able to make money
through the violence.

MS13's origins start back to
a really horrific civil war

in El Salvador.

A lot of people fled to LA.

Some of the younger generation
became their own sort of gang.

[Jeff] 1979,
there was Mara Salvatrucha

which means this
El Salvadorian gang wars.

But in the 1980s,
they morphed

into an American street gang

doing drive-by shootings,
selling drugs.

People started getting
locked up.

The Mexican Mafia and the
California prison systems

was ruling all
the Hispanic gangs.

Mara Salvatrucha
showed their respect

adopted 13
because 13 is the number

associated with
the Mexican Mafia.

The fact that MS13 gang
members were not US citizens,

they were deported back
to El Salvador.

Once they were
in El Salvador,

it became more terrorizing
than before.

And as a result of that,

the power structure
which had always been LA,

it transferred to El Salvador.

[indistinct chatter]

[Jeff]
This case was different.

It was more violent.

It was faster.

It was bigger
than my other cases.

I had to separate myself

from the human aspect,

so I can do this job
because it's horrifying.

[tense music playing]

Started 2012,
we began looking at MS13

because we knew the problem
was around the rest
of the country.

And we were starting to see
an uptick in violence

that MS13 was committing
in the Greater Boston area.

In this condensed area,

we have one
of the highest populations

of Central Americans
in the country.

It was frightening to know
that this existed

in our communities.

They work really,
really hard.

They work in the back
of a house or restaurants.

They work jobs that nobody
wants to work.

You've got mothers and fathers
who are afraid that their kids

will be forced into gangs.

You've got mothers and fathers
that are afraid

that their kids
walking home at night

could be shot during
a drive-by.

[Mario] I was assigned
to the gang unit

for the Mass. State Police.

My job was to be

on the streets all the time.

We developed information

that the majority
of the recruiting for MS13

was being conducted
at the local schools.

And unfortunately,
we are blind

to this Central American
community

because they don't come
to law enforcement

for fear of retribution.

My name is Maria.

I came to the United States
for a better life.

I felt scared of the gun
violence in El Salvador.

And there was no future
for my family.

I didn't have the money
for a ticket to America.

So I came by jumping
on the freight train.

When I get here,
I took two jobs

and saved for a year
so my family could come, too.

When my son arrived,
I was so happy.

He went to high school
and started doing well.

I thought I was removing him
from danger.

But he started
getting harassed in school

by people who want him
to join MS13 in Boston.

He said no because he wanted
to be an engineer.

Then two months
after we got here,

some guys threatened to
kill him if he didn't join.

[Mario]
Maria is an incredible story.

She endured so much
to get here.

And all she wants to do
is bring her family back.

And here I am investigating
crimes and not understanding

there's a community out there
that doesn't have a voice.

[Mario] Jeff and I have been
partners since 2000.

He and I probably spent
more time together

than we did with our families.

The FBI can't do violent
street gang operations,

investigations
without our local and state

law enforcement partners.

So we created the North Shore
Gang Task Force

here in Boston.

[Mario]
In 2012, we saw violence

in a manner that we had just
never seen before.

We saw youth
being hunted down

by gang members.

They'd be tracked off
of bus lines.

They'd be followed home
from school.

There were assaults.

There were robberies.

And it all can be attributed
back to MS13.

Our goal with
Operation Mean Streets

was to infiltrate the gang
with informants,

gather evidence
of the criminal activities,

and then prosecute them.

And remove them
from our streets.

[Peter] We wanted to take out
a high quantity

and a high quality
of MS13 members.

And eliminate
the effectiveness

of MS13 in the Boston area.

[Mario]
Throughout any investigation,

having an informant
is critical to its success.

It gives you eyes
and ears to things

that you just would not see

if you didn't have
somebody on the inside.

In this case with MS13,

we just had difficulty finding
somebody that we could use.

They will murder you.
Murder your family.

Murder anybody
associated with you

for cooperating
with the police.

[Mario]
I was out in El Salvador

for an exchange program

learning more about the gang.

That was 2012.

While in El Salvador,
a colleague introduced me

to an individual
who could potentially

develop into an informant.

That individual we named Mako

was actually not a member
of MS13

but was a member of a cartel.

Mako had been arrested
as a member of that cartel

and deported back
to El Salvador.

He had a very lucrative
drug trafficking business.

And now he suddenly
has nothing.

He wanted to come back
to the states

and live back here
in the states with his family,

and go on to be a productive
member of society,

and not be a criminal anymore.

[Mario]
He had expressed an interest

in helping to get rid
of MS13 in Massachusetts.

[Mako] When I meet Mario,

I know it's time
to fix my life.

So I offered to work
with the FBI.

This is the only way
I can clear my life

and I can help young people.

He was convinced that he would
be able to infiltrate.

[Mako] I grew up with MS13
the whole of my life.

They are animals.

I've seen people cut in pieces
and then they eat them.

When Mako was introduced
to the FBI,

it was an outstanding
opportunity for us.

He's a known criminal.

That gives him credibility
because he can talk the talk.

You can't send a rabbit
into the snake den

and expect the rabbit
to survive.

You need to send a snake
into the snake den.

When we first brought Mako
in the States,

we had him pretend that
he was an illegal immigrant

in Chelsea, East Boston.

[Mario]
Mako, in the very beginning

in this investigation,

was purchasing fake passports

or fake ID cards,

you know, asking a few
of them for narcotics.

And that builds up
his reputation now

as somebody who's involved
in the narcotics trade.

I gave Mako authority

under my direction
to go buy drugs.

Our goal was to have him,

once he made
these friendships,

to use his old backstory
as a drug dealer

to show that MS13 was willing
to use their resources

to protect this drug dealer,
so we could prosecute them.

We were always strategizing
what we were gonna do

for the case to move forward

to accomplish the goal
of removing these violent

gang members from the streets.

[Mako] The first time
I arrived in Boston,

I'd be afraid all the time.
I don't know nobody.

And I feel the FBI,

maybe he thinking now,

this guy,
he's not gonna do it.

Like in my mind,
I say like, I have to do it.

Over here,
you got opportunity.

In my country,
you get nothing.

But to get
a better life first,

I must live a double life
with MS13.

[Mario] So Mako arrives
in Massachusetts

and initially we got him
embedded into the community.

He was then introduced
to Muerto.

And Muerto means death
or the dead one.

Muerto is an MS13 homeboy,

which means
he'd already committed

several violent crimes.

[Mako] First time
I meet Muerto is right here

where everyone
comes to hang out.

When Mako met Muerto,

that was key
for our investigation.

That first introduction
enabled him

to make a good friend
within the gang.

[Mako] Everybody listen to
Muerto right here in Chelsea,

because he's a tough man.

As soon as I meet him,
me and him connected.

And after that,
I got a power here in Boston.

[Mario] They become friendly.

And from that,

Mako is introduced
to other MS members.

That opened up the door
for us to infiltrate the gang.

[Mario] I would meet Mako
on a regular basis

couple times a day.

This is where
we were able to put Mako

in the majority
of this investigation.

I would go underneath
this carport.

On the inside,
we would exchange information

out of view
from everybody in the city.

The city has eyes everywhere.

[Peter] At this stage,
we're mostly learning about

who some of the players are,
what they were doing.

We were building up trust.

His trust with them,

so that they would confide
in him and tell him things.

He also was gathering
a lot of information,

intelligence on
what the gang look like.

They have very clear
leadership structure.

The Eastside clique
was led by Casper.

And then the second
in charge, Playa.

And underneath them,
we'd call them homeboys.

They are significant
contributor to the gang.

They have a Chequeo
and a Paro.

We were able to determine
that there was

a significant clique
that Muerto belong to.

We also learned of all
of the cliques in that area,

which totaled eight
at the time.

It just blew the lid off
the case for us.

He was able to infiltrate

the world's most
dangerous gang.

We were cautious
about everything

that we were doing with him.

We were very, very aware

of how risky it was for him
and his safety.

[Jeff] I always had
more stress
in this investigation

than I had at any time
in my life

including my tour
in Afghanistan,

just worried for his safety.

[Peter] At this point now,
we were thinking about

gathering evidence
that could be used

to charge people
with federal crimes,

but every plan works until,

you know,
you get punched in the mouth.

[Mako] One day, Muerto,
he rings me and says,

"What are you doing now?"
I tell him nothing.

But I worry the way
that he say it.

I think something is wrong.

It's very nerve-wracking.

If the gang now knows
that he's cooperating,

he's wearing a wire,
then they're gonna kill him.

Muerto asked me to pick up
some other gang members

and drive out to an
MS13 meeting place.

[Mario] This location
caused us a lot of stress.

It's so isolated.

This is a tough
place to watch.

We were always afraid that
Mako would be killed here.

[Mako] I open the garage door
and everybody looks at me

and I say, "Oh, my God,

they found out I'm working
with the FBI."

This is a situation
where this could be

closing our case down
long before

we're ready to close it.

[in Spanish]

[Mako]
Casper, he's the leader.

He get out of,
like, the couch.

And then he say,
"You're not scared?"

And I say,
"I never be scared, bro."

But I'm scared.

I waited,
expecting he's coming

to stab me or something.

And he said,
"Now, you're going to be

initiated in the gang.

You're going to be
jumping tonight."

So, in MS13

to become a homeboy,
you get jumped in.

You have a leader
who counts to 13 slowly.

And during that 13 seconds,
you have up to four, five

members of the gang
beating you up.

[Casper speaking Spanish]

The leader counts to 13,
he's picked up,

and he's celebrated
now as a homeboy.

[man in Spanish]

[Mako] When the guys finish
everything, I'm not happy.

I feel sad.

I'm scared to tell to the FBI
I get jump in,

because I think the FBI
are going to take me back

to El Salvador.

[Jeff] When Mako called us and
said he had been jumped in,

first thought, "Holy crap.
He's a member."

At the same time,

I'm thinking,
this is fantastic.

He's now a full member,
it's gonna even open up

more access to the gang.

So, I'm thinking,
"How am I gonna handle this?"

[Peter] Option one
was to pull him out.

Even that would have
to be done delicately,

because you can't just
pull him out in a way

that makes it clear
that he was cooperating.

Option two is,
can we keep him in?

Another really fortunate part
about this investigation was

the other cliques
that were in the area,

they were really adhering
to that rule

of you have to commit
a homicide

to become a homeboy.

Not so much Eastside.

For them, the rules
were a little bit different.

They were legal
residents here.

They didn't really
wanna forfeit that.

So they weren't as violent
as the other cliques.

That enabled us to say
we can continue this case,

taking it day by day
and seeing what happen.

[gunshots]

[woman speaking]

[Mario] In 2014,

we were seeing spikes
in violence.

The leadership in El Salvador

was creating a new way
of running the gang.

They were giving out
punishment to gang members

that have violated the rules.

[woman speaking]

[woman 2 speaking]

They made sure that in order
to become a homeboy,

you had to commit murder.

If you were gonna say,
"Oh, I'm not gonna do that,"

then you just
became the target.

[gunshots]

[woman speaking]

[Mario] That new rule
was horrific for us.

We were seeing high school
MS13 gang members

taking their machetes

and hacking their
rival gang members

to try and kill them.

[woman speaking]

It's power. It's fear.

They wanna control
their territory.

[woman speaking]

[Mario] In a span of months,

there were multiple
machete attacks

where, like, people's arms
were hacked off.

Just complete carnage.

And so, we had to move
quickly on those cases

to remove the people
responsible.

It was very stressful.

They're recruiting kids
in high school

to kill somebody.

The next step of the
investigation was

infiltrating the rest
of the cliques

and gather evidence
against them.

We had to sit down with Mako
and talk to Mako

and he came up with an idea.

Mako said, "Hey, I'm gonna be

a gypsy taxi cab driver
to make money."

And the gypsy cabs
are a very common thing

in our communities.
It's like an Uber for cheap.

It started when people
need a ride.

When they are drunk to go home
because I'm not drinking

when the rest are drinking

and suddenly everyone feels
comfortable with me

and boom, all MS,
he got my number.

[Jeff]
And we were like, "Great,

because now we're gonna
outfit your car

with audio, video surveillance
equipment."

It's a great way
to gather evidence

because you can see
everybody's face clearly,

everybody's sitting
in one position

as opposed to walking
around on the street.

[man in Spanish]

[Mako in Spanish]

[man in Spanish]

We get a phone call
from an MS13 gang member,

picks him up,
and then he'd start

engaging them in conversation.

[in Spanish]

[laughter]

[Mako in Spanish]

[Jeff] And because
he was so trusted,

people just started telling
him different things

that they were involved in.

[Mako] Also, when I get
a call from MS,

they got an address
and a phone number,

and I give it to the FBI.

[man in Spanish]

[Mako in Spanish]

[man in Spanish]

On multiple occasions during
this investigation,

he will learn of a potential
crime beforehand.

And so, Mako was able to give
us eyes and ears on things

to prevent that violence

and to resolve some
of the violence.

[man in Spanish]

I got my respect because
I come from El Salvador.

So when the guys come in my
car, like, they start to talk.

But always I'm scared
in case someone finds me out.

[man in Spanish]

[man over the phone
in Spanish]

[Mako] My experience,
you know, with the cartel

is always useful,
but MS is more dangerous.

So my rule is simple.

I don't trust nobody.

It's easier when
I don't trust nobody.

[Jeff] It's dangerous,
like the fact Mako had a car

opened up a world
of wonders to us.

It was the gold mine.

[Mario] It wasn't long
after we had Mako

driving in a gypsy cab

that we were able to affect
our first arrest.

December 2014,
a murder occurs in Chelsea.

[Mario] MS13 members
entered a house,

shooting one person
in the face

and shooting another
in the heart,

leaving one dead

and one clinging on to life.

Mako gets a call
from Big Crazy.

Big Crazy is the leader

of the Everett Locos
Salvatrucha.

They're gonna smuggle
the murderer

out of Massachusetts
to New Jersey.

[Mako] I tell Big Crazy, "Hey,
bro, I can pick you up later."

I tried to delay things
to give time for the Feds

to make a plan.

I pick up Big Crazy,

and then the hitman gets in.

A guy called Vida Loca,
who's from New Jersey.

[Jeff] Big Crazy and
the murderer jump in the car.

[Mario] We certainly weren't
gonna let the killer
leave the area.

So we told Mako we're gonna...
we're gonna stop.

We're gonna pretend that
we're just pulling it over

on his brake light.

[Jeff] We followed him.

[Mario] It's nerve-wracking.

It's extremely dangerous
for Mako.

[Jeff] Mario is in
an unmarked cruiser

and he pulls Mako over.

[Mario] I go up
to the driver side.

[Jeff] And as Mario
is giving Mako a citation,

he's able to identify
everyone in the car

and he sees the murderer
and takes him, cuffs him,

puts him in the back
of the cruiser and leaves.

Big Crazy
immediately accuses Mako

of being an informant
that led to this guy's arrest.

[Mako] I feel scared.

Vida Loca, the hitman,
he got arrested.

Now, maybe I'm dead.

Big Crazy,
the gang leader tells me,

"I wanna check
the brake light."

I say, "Okay.

He goes back
and when I push the brake,

he sees it's not working.

Mako, before he got
into his car,

came up with a plan
of disabling his taillight.

He didn't tell us.
We didn't know about it.

We didn't have time.
He just did it.

[Mako] I know
how criminals work,

so I have to protect myself.

And I told him, "Yeah, man,

this is what
the police told me."

Crazy say,
"Okay, take me back home."

And after that,
Crazy, like, calmed down.

He was cooler.

Every day
in this investigation,

our concerns
were that they would learn

that he was cooperating,

that would result
in his death.

Every day.

In 2015,
there was a directive

from leadership
in El Salvador

to the leadership
in the United States

that they needed to commit
more acts of violence.

Install fear in their enemies.

[woman speaking]

[Mario] They wanted
to continuously demonstrate

that murder, rape,
control mantra was real.

You know, we got
to make sure that everybody

was playing
a role in the violence.

[Maria] The last day
I saw my son, it was a Sunday.

He wore the new clothes
that I bought him on

which he never wore.

And one day, a boy
who says he is the cousin

of a girl
my son is talking to online.

He came
and took him to meet her.

He said the girl
was waiting on the beach,

that when they were walking
along the sandy shore,

the gang was waiting.

They struck him
over the head with a big rock.

And when he fell,
the other guy

stabbed him
using kitchen knives.

They stabbed him 38 times.

The impact was so strong,

half of the knife
got stuck inside him.

He was just 15 years old.

The truth is
that I didn't think

they could kill him here.

I thought that here,
they could threaten him,

but not kill him.

But that wasn't the case.

There was no difference
between here and El Salvador

because they were killing
so many children.

It was awful for every mother.

It was brutal and it just
brought to life again

how horrific
these MS13 gang members are

when they go and plan
and execute their victims

in order to become
full blown members.

He had been
catfished by the gang,

and so through the course
of two to three months,

the gang pretended
to be a pretty girl

to this little 15-year-old

who thought
he had a girlfriend.

They assumed that he was
part of the Rivals,

uh, 18th Street Gang.

That was never the case.

[Mako] I feel like angry
because I don't like it,

you know,
the way they did it.

MS13, they are like animals

because they make
young kids into psychos.

It was always a worry
for the FBI and the task force

that Mako could be
discovered as an informant.

He's providing us
the information

that could somehow
lead back to Mako

and result in his death.

Every day, they looked
at different people

and accuse them of cooperating
with the police.

In April 2015,
Mako gave us the information

that MS13 wanted to kill
a gang member

with his street name Clacker.

A few months earlier,

we arrested the guy for a gun.
He's in jail.

That leader thinks
Clacker informed on him

and directs Mako
to go down to New Jersey

to pick up a homeboy,

bring him back,
and go kill Clacker.

[man in Spanish]

[Mako in Spanish]

People think Clacker,
he's the one who's snitching.

Like, for real.

But it's not Clacker, it's me.

Clacker, he's innocent.

[Mario]
Mako brings the hitman

and they're circling around,

we're conducting surveillance.

We are on high alert.

-[Mako in Spanish]
-[man in Spanish]

If they found
a recording device on him,

they would kill him
immediately.

Word would go down
to El Salvador immediately

and, uh, his entire family
would be killed.

[Mario] I was in a unmarked
vehicle following him.

My job was to make sure
that Mako was safe.

[man in Spanish]

[man in Spanish]

[Mako] I feel bad
because I don't want him

to get killed.
But it's no easy for me

because I tried
to be a criminal

and at the same time,
I want to save his life.

At some point,
Chucky in the backseat

pulls out a machete
and they start describing

what they're gonna do to him.

[man in Spanish]

[man in Spanish]

The hitman
was gonna come up behind him,

take his garrote
and start choking him out.

While the chaqueo
was supposed to come up

and start hitting him

with the machete
and killing him.

[man in Spanish]

[Mako] I was worried.
They are so ready to kill,

they could go kill anyone.

I feel so angry
because this guy,

he has no heart.

When he sees a lot of love,
he's so happy.

[Jeff]
Eventually the hitman goes,

"We can't find him.

It's time for me
to go back to New Jersey."

[Mario]
At the time of this, though,

we had already moved Clacker

and his entire family.

And in fact,
Clacker was in grand jury

testifying
about the entire thing.

And we had him
telling us for two days

his whole story about
his involvement in the gang.

[Peter] You're always looking
for the opportunity

to roll somebody,
to get somebody to cooperate,

because that's how cases
are made.

One of the things that
I always tell cooperators

is that we need to know
all the bad stuff you did.

So probably the sixth time
we're talking to him,

Clacker tells us
that he was involved

in robbing gypsy cab drivers.

But he says
Mako was like the setup guy.

Mako would call
a gypsy cab driver

and say, "You know,
meet me at the corner

of such and such street."

And then when the gypsy
cab driver showed up,

the gang members
would rob him.

It was a shock. It was a blow.

Mako has committed
what we call in the FBI

unauthorized illegal activity.

[Mario] When I heard
about that, I felt betrayed

because we were so involved
with Mako.

At that point,

our relationship changes,
right?

Because we have a partnership
to a degree,

when he does something
that is,

uh, that blatantly hurts

other members
of the community,

it's offensive.

It's a huge deal. That was...

That was the biggest deal.

And my heart is sinking

because I'm thinking
my case is destroyed.

When I got notification
that Mako had participated

in some armed robberies,
my first thought is,

I'm gonna have to arrest Mako

because he's broken the law.

This is something
that I would lock him up for.

I was disappointed.

I was upset.

And now I have to report this
up the chain of command.

The first thing you wanna do
in a situation like that

is you wanna bring him in,
confront him with it.

[Mako] I feel bad, you know,
I make a mistake, you know,

and I don't like that.

But I say I'm not part
in the actual robbery.

[Peter] He said he did it
to gain these guys' trust.

It's not
an acceptable answer.

The normal course,
you shut him down.

But there were
tactical reasons

to keep him in play

and real life reasons
to keep him in play.

One is, if we pull him out,

then MS13 is gonna believe
he was cooperating

and we're putting his entire
family in El Salvador

in jeopardy,
likely to be killed.

Two, this was sort of
the height of the violence.

[gunshots]

[man speaking]

And it would
compromise our ability

to protect the community

where Mako
is our only eyes and ears.

So me and the other members
of the task force agreed

that we should keep him
in play.

At this point, we are
actively in the process

of getting ready
to take the case now.

We had the leadership
of all the different cliques

in the Boston area
that were chargeable

and we had a significant
quantity of members.

But we have a problem.

We don't know the names

of every single person,
their true name.

[Peter] Frequently,
all we had was their

street names,
their code names.

So there's a lot to do

to be able to charge them
and arrest them.

One of the things
that happened

in the investigation
that helped with that

was that there was gonna be
a jump in.

We knew that there'd
be leadership there.

We knew that there'd be
homeboys there.

So, on December 6, 2015,

we followed Mako
to this location.

We didn't follow him
all the way to Deer Island

because we didn't want
anyone to observe us.

Obviously,
it's winter, it's dark.

And we're sitting there,
the meeting's going on.

[man in Spanish]

[man speaking in Spanish]

[Jeff] So when they get done
their jump in,

we had state police
do the car stop.

[officer] Hands, hands, hands,
put your hands on the wheel!

And we came up
with the story and we said,

"Hey, look, you're here at
this water treatment facility.

We got a tip
there were people here.

We're here to make sure
you're not terrorists."

[Jeff] They take
photographs of everybody,

take their IDs,
write their names.

So that way, when we obtained
our arrest warrants,

we had some pretty good ideas
of exact locations

where to go hunt
and find our subjects

and make arrests.

By the time we're done,
we realized we're going

to indict
62 MS13 gang leaders,

members, and associates.

So, we're in December of 2015.

We're wrapping up
our investigation

because we could fill in

the identities
of our suspects.

But then
we get notice from Mako

that a Boston leader

is called
to an East Coast program,

United States
meeting in Virginia.

And that leader asked Mako
for a ride to the meeting

and ends up
inviting him into the meeting.

We don't know
what's going on,

but we know that the
East Coast program leadership

was not pleased

with the leaders
of Mako's clique.

So we followed Mako
and this leader

all the way
to Richmond, Virginia.

[Mako] People are like saying
Casper is too old

because he don't want to do

a lot of criminal things
no more.

Our leaders in Salvador,

they want more murder
all the time.

Casper is scared
because he don't want

to be part
of these crimes no more.

When we arrived
there in Richmond,

we observe MS13 gang members

doing counter-surveillance,

looking for either
law enforcement

or rival gang members.

It's very
nerve-wracking for us.

We don't know
what's going on.

And during the meeting,
the US leader

for East Coast program
asked Mako,

"Why have you not
removed Casper?

Why have you not taken over?"

He wanted to remove Casper
and Playa as leaders

and have Muerto and Mako

take over the leadership
of the clique.

[in Spanish]

[Mako] He said to me,
"What happened?

You leader Casper,
he has to be gone.

He don't listen to the rules."

[Jeff]
This is a huge shock to us.

I feel scared because
I don't want to refuse,

but I don't
wanna be in charge.

But Mako had the trust

from all these different
leaders.

And so Mako would now
have been put into a position

where he would have
to authorize violent crimes,

authorize murders,
and he's gonna be

in a position where his life
may be in danger

if he doesn't follow an order.

Knowing that
there was a possibility

that Mako was going to get
a leadership role,

we knew this case was over.
It had to be taken down.

At that point, I wanted
to prevent any future murders,

and I wanted to make sure
I kept everyone safe.

So my clock was ticking.

[Mario] First,
we had to make sure

that Mako was made safe
and his family were made safe.

There were so many
moving parts and layers.

[Jeff] I started working
approximately

eighteen hours a day,
seven days a week,

filling in the gaps
of making sure

we knew where everyone was

so we could do one big sweep

and arrest everyone at once.

January 29th, 2016
was the day of our takedown.

I did not sleep that night.

We planned everything

down to the smallest detail
that we could.

It's always nerve-wracking.

We wanna make sure
that we were able

to grab
all of the people involved.

[Jeff] This is the first time
where we're doing

62 takedowns at once.

It's a lot of work.

[Mario]
We wanted to really have
a dynamic takedown

so that we could just remove

that criminal element
right from this community.

So all our teams, 500 plus
law enforcement officers,

they roll up at the houses.

We have what I call
the universal key.

It's a big ram. You come in,

you smash the door handle,
breaks the lock,

opens the door for you,
and in you go.

We had a couple of people
who escaped the net that day.

But over the course
of the next couple of weeks,

we did catch everyone
that we needed to catch.

By 5:00,
we're having a few beers

celebrating our victory,

knowing that we've done
our job.

We impacted
the East Coast program

by arresting
their leader here,

indicting their leader
in El Salvador.

And then after our arrest,
we help solve several murders

throughout the entire country.

It made national news.

Today, we arrested the head
of the East Coast program.

That is the head
who oversees MS13 cliques,

gang groups in 10 states.

People were really excited
and glad

that here we were,
we're doing something.

I look back at it,
I mean that was pretty cool.

[Jeff] That community's
gonna go to bed that night

knowing that these
gang members

that terrorized their lives
are off the street.

[Mako] When I got the call
to say the case is over,

I say, "Oh, God, thank you.

I survive.
No more working like 24 hours.

No more living with MS13.
They're animals."

Maybe now I can work
a regular job,

you know,
and do the right things.

It's hard to be an informant.

If the FBI go pay me
a million dollars,

I'm not going to do it again.

We would have
never accomplished

this case without Mako.

Mako was one
of my best sources

I've ever operated.

[Mario] He was intelligent,
he was brave.

He had slipups for sure,
but he was unlike any other

cooperator
I've ever worked with.

[Jeff] MS13 will try
to go after Mako

until he passes away
by natural.

And the fact that he took
that risk is amazing.

[Mario] Going into this
investigation,

we did not know what we had.

And as the case progressed,
thanks to Mako,

we got a front side seat

to how the gang
destroys its own community.

When I was in El Salvador
talking to Mako day one,

I would have
never thought that.

Mako is now
in a safe location.

He's living
the American life.

He is a great family man

and he's doing
the right thing.

The first trial took place

in the end of 2017
and rolled into 2018.

We had a few people
that we never identified.

So, out of the 62 people
indicted,

we arrested 50
and we convicted all 50,

and our sentences
were very large.

We had several life sentences
all the way down

to, I think, the shortest
time frame was in the teens.

There are lots of people
who've lost children

and have families
who feel safer

after they arrested
all the gangbangers.

There have been
no more deaths.

They did a great job.

[Peter]
We have largely eradicated

MS13 in the Boston area.

And to me,
that's the measure of success.

The long term impact
of this investigation

continues to this day
and MS13 has yet to recover.

I feel a huge amount
of accomplishment.

I take great pride in the fact

that we did this case

and we helped
our communities out.

I don't do these cases
for recognition.

I do it because I want
our communities to be safer.

I wanna protect our country.

They wanted to take out as many
muslims as they could.

My dad was an undercover
informant.

He knew what was at stake.

This is an Oklahoma City
magnitude attack.