Original subtitles

You're going to Atlanta?

Yep. Who lives in Atlanta that you're visiting?

It's family, my boyfriend's family.

Your boyfriend's family?

Eight million U .S. citizens have active criminal warrants.

Sir, can you call me here, please?

Where are you guys heading to today?

Amsterdam and Vienna.

Okay. How long are you guys going to stay over there?

Ten days.

Get back on your letter.

Today, local police have alerted the airport authorities that a man heading

Jamaica has a warrant.

and is not allowed to leave the country.

We'll start checking everybody's passports from now on. You thinking the

sweatshirt? I think so.

We cannot lawfully detain this gentleman until he shows intent to travel outside

the United States.

So once he scans the ticket and crosses through the door onto the jetway, that's

intent to travel, and we are able to detain him.

Do you see him now or no?

No, not yet.

The gate closes in less than 10 minutes.

But so far, there's no sign of the suspect.

If they have an idea, they do have a warrant. If maybe they see us prior to

ending the plane, they get a little skittish, they decide not to board the

plane.

Do you have your passport with you?

She's here.

I know. Do you have your passport?

We have a few more questions for you right over here, okay?

I'll hold you back for a minute. I have to.

I'm going to set you back down.

Set you back back up.

You currently have a warrant out of Florida for larceny.

Larceny? Yes.

So we're going to detain you now.

Correct.

Are you sure it's me? Yes.

I think this is me.

You are not going to Jamaica today.

Anything in the bags that tick me, poke me, cut me, hurt me by any chance? We're

up against the clock. We're looking for anybody that's not declaring and there's

going to be a lot.

Good morning, ma 'am. Where are you coming from today?

Dubai. Dubai.

You have a great day. Seriously, I was thinking about that.

It's okay.

Across Newark's 3 Terminal.

Just put it down on the ground for me. Is that everything?

Money. Yeah, that's fine. Change.

I'm not worried about your change, okay?

Hundreds of Customs and Border Protection officers work to ensure

aren't entering the U .S. with undeclared goods or money.

First and foremost, you're coming through a port of entry.

It looks good, it smells good, but you can't bring it in. Sorry.

There's certain things that's prohibited here.

Some of the things that we do look for is eye contact with passengers.

Are you bringing anything back into the country?

You sure?

Today, Officer Bynum is conducting cold stops on travelers who just disembarked

off a flight from Europe.

Given the fact I was born in Brooklyn, it's just second nature that, you know,

you got to trust your gut.

and if it quacks like a duck, it walks like a duck, it is a duck.

So being skeptical is not bad. You just want to make sure people have the right

intentions coming into the country.

At the CBP checkpoint, he zeroes in on a married couple acting nervous.

You're here to visit? From Poland. Okay, let me see your passport.

And what do you do for a living, sir?

We're here for business. We run business in America. We sell software.

Give me both. This one is my current.

It's okay. Okay.

How much cash are you bringing into the country?

I have $8 ,000.

$8 ,000? How much cash are you carrying, ma 'am?

$6 ,000. $6 ,000, right?

$4 ,000. Okay, you have $6 ,400 and you have $8 ,000.

I have eight. Okay.

By law, cash which exceeds $10 ,000 per person or per couple must be declared in

customs using a FinCEN 105 form.

Failure to do so can lead to criminal seizure of the money or criminal

Okay, so how long are you going to be here again?

For a week. For a week? So why do you have $8 ,000 and why do you have $6

What are you trying to do? What are you looking to purchase?

you consider this like a big money so it's like you're here you're in new york

sir listen you're i'm asking you a question and you're answering my

with a question so the your behavior no no big plans we were not but just for a

case because you know sometimes online banking doesn't work properly so you

to pay for for a hotel maybe some shopping uh that i really

heard that the banking in the united states fails to where you have to have

currency of that amount.

Not saying that you can't have that money,

right? But it's not your typical passenger that'll bring $8 ,000 to $6

So let me just run some system checks real quick. If everything comes back

you know, you're on your way, okay?

All right, so just follow me over here.

We'll follow you over here. Yeah, you're going to follow me.

The couple's reliance on cash instead of electronic payment.

could be a sign they want to make untraceable transactions.

Yep, sir, put your jacket up here and whatever you have in your pocket, just

here, your cell phone.

Okay.

All right, guys.

I'm going to quickly just search your bags and just verify a couple of things,

okay?

And you said the money's in here?

The pocket in the back.

Okay.

Do you always keep your money like this?

Yeah. You like that? Okay.

The couple has divided the cash into several bundles and distributed it in

various pockets around their luggage.

Sometimes there's something called structuring where...

Essentially, people say, hey, hold half of it and I'll hold the rest, and that's

people's way of trying to get around the system.

Just bear with me real quick and just check something, and I'll tell you why

you're here.

Curious about their story, Officer Bynum searches a public database and

discovers something surprising.

Okay.

All right, guys.

So just have a seat over there.

Yeah, we're going to leave this all here. Yep, just go there and take a

So the gentleman happened to be wanted for investigation by the FBI.

So I'm trying to figure out what's my next step as far as then what to do with

it.

In Atlanta, officers have intercepted a man with an active arrest warrant in

Florida, just as he was about to board a flight to Jamaica.

Until they make contact with the Orlando department who issued the warrant,

officers must detain the suspect.

A lot

of people don't know they have a warrant. A lot of people, if something

they get arrested, think that the charges were dropped, they don't make a

appearance, they fail to keep up.

with what they need to do, and the ward's put in for them.

Well, Officer Kopalewski informs the Orlando PD.

Officer Gonzalez inspects the man's luggage.

I mean, there is a scent of marijuana in this area here, so we're trying to

figure it out, you know, if it's coming from his bag or where's it coming from.

As soon as we picked him up, we noticed a strong smell of marijuana.

It could be anywhere in the bag. It could be hidden anywhere inside linings,

inside pills.

So we've got to be thorough and make sure we're finding what we need.

Smugglers exporting marijuana to the Caribbean often target commercial

out of the southern states.

So when Officer Gonzalez discovers several bags of pills, Red flags go up.

We're just going to do a test. I mean, a large amount of these capsules.

There's different types, different colors.

Because marijuana can be used in capsule form,

if the test is positive, Officers haven't just intercepted a wanted man.

They may have uncovered a smuggling operation.

In Newark... You always keep your money like this?

Yeah. Like that? Okay.

Officer Bynum is working with a couple that just arrived from Poland.

They are carrying $14 ,600 in cash between them, but failed to submit a

105 form, declaring that they were over the $10 ,000 threshold.

It's something called structuring, where essentially people don't want to come

into the country with $10 ,000.

So they say, hey, hold half of it and I'll hold the rest.

people way of trying to get around the system, but $10 ,000 is $10 ,000.

After discovering several bundles of cash stashed in pockets throughout the

couple's carry -on.

Just have a seat over there.

Yeah, we're going to leave this all here. Yep, just go there and take a

Officer Bynum discovered the husband may be wanted by the FBI.

Hey, what's going on, man? This is Bynum and Bags.

Concerned the man may be involved in criminal activity.

He calls his supervisor.

Yeah, so I got a question for you, man. I did a cold stop on a passenger, and he

was let through like normal.

Turned to find out he's wanted for some investigation with the FBI.

And he's traveling with a large amount of money that's labeled.

Yeah, so, you know, I just happened to do a cold stop stopping, you know.

Appeared like all that?

All right.

His supervisor confirms that the FBI investigation is now closed.

The man is no longer under suspicion.

But Officer Bynum still has to process their cash.

All right. I got the money here. I need you to witness.

Okay. He has eight.

He said that he has eight, and then it's 2044, and then you got this.

Okay. All right. Just tell them. Just tell them to come up.

You can come up, both of you guys.

Each day, U .S. customs officials seize around $300 ,000 in illicit or

undeclared money as part of a global initiative to combat international crime

syndicates from transporting ill -gotten gains across borders.

If there's any doubt over the money's origin, the couple faces having it

So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 20.

The

total

comes to over $15 ,000, more than they earlier declared to Officer Bynum.

You can bring as much money.

You have to fill out this form, though. Okay.

Yes.

Okay. Yes. And then if you're leaving the country and you still have more than

$10 ,000, you also have to report that to us. Okay.

Officers Bynum and Kukuro have the couple complete a FinCEN 105, legally

documenting the cash.

You guys can come out here.

All right.

And the couple is allowed to go.

You came in here the right way. You're declaring the money the right way.

And maybe you wasn't informed, and maybe you forgot upstairs, but this covers

you. But they'll be checked the next time they return to the U .S. He had to

fill out the proper documentation, which he did.

It was a good catch.

This was a good opportunity just to know that we're out here doing our job, and

we're doing it correctly.

across the United States. Excuse me, sir. Ma 'am, could you come here real

quick? Customs and Border Protection officers are tasked with spotting anyone

entering the country who could pose a risk to its citizens.

Hi, sir. May I see your passport before you go?

Okay. Are these your bags?

Yes, sir. Okay. Where are you coming from?

Zambia. Okay.

In Detroit, a teenager traveling from Scotland has been referred to secondary.

after his behavior raised suspicion.

He's been giving kind of vague answers. He's super shaky, very nervous.

He said he was coming to visit his girlfriend.

He said they met through a gaming website, a gaming app. We do see it a

He told me he's 18, his girlfriend's 15, 16.

So that is the first issue, is him being an adult, visiting a minor, so trying

to figure out what her actual age is. There are a lot of pressures online.

And our job is to protect, you know, not only the people coming in, but like the

people that are already here in the U .S.

Online grooming is a worldwide problem, with over a million cases each year

reported in the U .S. alone.

But to prove his intentions are honest, the young man volunteers information on

his phone.

If you'd like me to, I can do that. It's a message.

You can search for specific keywords on that.

That's okay. I can do it. Thank you.

Even though the messages reveal nothing of concern, Officer Lamour wants to

speak to the 15 -year -old girl.

But he only has her mom's cell number.

She consults a colleague.

So they talk on a gaming thing. You don't have her number, though? Mm -mm.

Yeah, it seems pretty suspicious.

Yeah.

Maybe I should try to call the mom. I think you should definitely call her.

Maybe it's not that big of a deal.

But, yeah, just get some answers, basically.

Yeah.

Hi, this is Officer Lamour with U .S. Customs and Border Protection.

How are you?

Good.

We're trying to verify his true intent as to why he's coming to the U .S.

And what's your daughter's date of birth?

The mother tells Officer L 'Amour her daughter is 18, not 15, as the passenger

first claimed. What he's telling me, what you're telling me, are two separate

things. We just need to know the truth.

All right, thank you.

Bye.

It just seems weird.

She said 18, but he's telling me 15 or 16.

The mom.

Officers suspect the woman on the phone may have been the girlfriend posing as

her mom so she can meet the passenger in secret.

We don't know if her parents are aware of the situation, so I need to figure

if there's consent with them and, yeah.

In Atlanta,

officers have detained a man with an active arrest warrant for larceny theft.

The man was about to board a flight to Jamaica.

After picking up the scent of cannabis on his carry -on, a search revealed

several bags of pills.

The Jamaica -era corridor is

a common trafficking route for U .S. high -potency cannabis and cocaine.

They look like they're homemade capsules. We're just going to do a quick

them and see what we get back.

It looks like it's negative. It's coming back.

Some sort of supplement, herbal supplement.

It's not testing positive for any narcotics.

So we're just going to call it a negative.

The suspect's luggage is clean.

Now all he has to worry about is where he'll be spending the night.

We did get confirmation from the originating agency.

We will now transport him to Clayton County Jail, where he will be held until

the originating agency comes up from Florida and transports him back to

He will not go down the strip to Jamaica now.

Once he's been extradited to Florida, He'll appear before a judge who will

decide whether or not to grant him bail. When you do catch somebody, you do feel

satisfied and you do feel like you've done your job for the day.

Every day we try to keep the country safe, regardless of if they have a

somebody trying to transport drugs, narcotics.

Do the crime, do the time, as they say.

That's okay. I can do it. Thank you.

In Detroit, an 18 -year -old has flown in from Scotland to meet a 15 -year -old

girl he met on a gaming website.

Officer L 'Amour wants to make sure that her family is aware of the

relationship. What he's telling me, what you're telling me, are two separate

things. We just need to know the truth.

A call to the girl's mother to check his story.

This reveals an inconsistency.

When I called the mom, the mom said she's 18, so I'm not really sure what

is. I'm going to go back in and kind of do a little bit more investigating and

see where that kind of takes us.

Officer L 'Amour suspects the person on the other end of the line might have

been the 15 -year -old girl herself posing as her mom.

We're just trying to figure out his intent. I mean, if he is coming to see a

-year -old at nothing.

you know illegal is going on we're trying to like make sure he's safe make

the people that he's coming to visit are safe so she decides to call the

mother's phone number again this is officer lamore calling back i have a few

more questions for you um first off what's your daughter's dina birth

so she's 15.

you said 18 you He's visiting an 18 -year -old daughter.

The woman in fifth, she is the girl's mother and initially gave the age of her

older daughter because she was worried how it might look to authorities.

I think that's all the questions I have for now. I'll give you a call back if I

have anything else, okay?

Bye.

Right now it does seem like that was actually the mom.

But she did say that he is visiting them as a family, I guess they're family

friends.

Because her daughter is 15 years old, I guess he's staying with the mom's

boyfriend, not in their house.

That was one of the stipulations for him to come and visit, I guess.

I think it actually was the mom.

You did?

Like, just how she was talking. She gave me the date of birth. She finally gave

me the daughter's age. She was giving me the 18 -year -old age.

Saying, like, that's the one he's visiting.

Her older daughter?

The older daughter. Why did she give you her daughter?

Because I think she's 18.

This one's 15.

She gave me the addresses.

Boyfriend's address?

Yeah, boyfriend's address. Their address.

I mean, she's frustrated.

But, like, she knows. She seems to know everything. It's not like she's in the

dark. I know the mom was kind of lying a little bit in the beginning. But she

started opening up a little bit more once she realized, like, we're just

our job.

Satisfied with the story.

Officer L 'Amour wants to confirm the traveler will be staying with the mom's

boyfriend.

Hey, do you know, are you aware of where you're staying while you're here?

Uh, I don't know.

You know you're staying at his house? Yeah. Okay, I just want to make sure.

Okay. Sorry if I didn't explain that the best.

That's okay.

With no legal basis to deny entry, the passenger will be admitted into the U

Maybe when you see her mom, you can let her know that she doesn't need to lie to

us. She can just tell us. It makes things so much smoother.

Oh, sorry. I didn't realize she lied.

That's all right.

All right, so I'm going to walk you out, okay? You all have your phone and your

passport.

You don't have a backpack?

Okay.

Just push the door. You're all set.

Have a good day.

We're trying to protect everyone.

You hear about crazy stories that go on out there.

And kids are innocent. We want to keep it that way.

At Atlanta, it's the job of CBT officers to protect the country from threats

entering through one of the world's busiest international gateways.

Some of those threats are less visible than drugs or

weapons, but potentially just as damaging.

Every suitcase represents a possible risk.

to American ecosystems and food supplies.

This is not what I expected to see today.

A traveler from Ghana, West Africa, has declared a suitcase and a box packed

with food to agricultural specialist Norwood.

So usually from Ghana we see a lot of vegetables, a lot of dry items.

Typically dry things are fine if we don't find any disease on there, we

find any...

Evidence that there could be pets living on there or still munching on the

leaves or anything like that. So we're going to take a look.

The woman explains she didn't pack the box herself.

Yet travelers are responsible for their own luggage, even if they don't know the

contents.

This is just corn husk, but a lot of the time we have insect holes in them, like

this one.

There's a small one here, right here.

He's probably been eating on there.

Dry things are always looking for disease, or like I said, the pest holes.

So that left is not something that's still in here, eating on it.

A single invasive pest.

can cause billions of dollars in agricultural damage if it escapes into

.S. ecosystem.

Ma 'am, so these, they have insect holes in it, so we have to take it, okay?

It's still insects that couldn't live in this out here.

So this.

But the corn husks aren't the only item of concern.

These are not going to be allowed. They're fresh.

They'll have some leaves on it. Probably will find a lot of insects on these

too. If you take a diseased plant, plant it in soil with healthy plants, now

those plants are going to be diseased plants.

So we don't want to contaminate what we already have here that's growing healthy

with diseased things. And we don't know what this is. We don't know if it could

be a federal noxious weed that can grow crazy and we don't get any control over

it.

are not going to be allowed, okay? They're too fresh.

Insects can still live on it.

What were you going to do with it?

You eat, you chew on it?

You bet you was going to chew on those, which a lot of times they use as a tooth

brush, so it's not uncommon.

Prized for their natural antibacterial properties, people across Africa, Asia,

and the Middle East.

have been cleaning their teeth with neem sticks for thousands of years, having

already found two items hosting live insects.

Oh, look, your favorite.

It's right there.

The work is yet to come.

A bug which could not only damage U .S. fruits and vegetable crops, but could

also be carrying dangerous foreign pathogens.

Up

to

15 ,000 fast -track shipments arrive at Newark Airport's express confinement

facility every day.

This morning, a CBP team has been assigned to screen over 150

boxes coming from Israel.

Officer Olivo and his colleagues have just two hours to inspect the cargo

it enters the U .S.

This is my workout.

My gym days are over for now.

Just concentrate on cardio.

And whatever little exercise I can get here.

They must scrutinize every package to catch any contraband.

Guys up. Do we got any bins up in the front?

Okay. All right, here we go.

Including counterfeit consumer goods, weapons, and narcotics.

All right.

Guys, get your shipment coming out.

Officer Olivo quickly spots something that requires a closer look.

Just to see what it is. Sometimes I can't identify what it is by looking at

image. So then we just, you know, pop it open just to see what it is.

It's very dense.

And that could be indicative for narcotics, possibly.

So we'll take a quick look. This is some type of agriculture product.

It looks like, though, they cleared it. It has tape on it. I'm going to just...

Double check this piece.

It looks like we have more food products in here.

Yeah, some type of yogurt.

With the first box clear, attention turns to a shipment of watches.

We just got to look at it to see if it's possibly counterfeit.

Most of these are different vendors, but they're all coming from the same

country, United Arab Emirates, which is a common area for counterfeit goods.

So it's good to take a look at these just to make sure.

Over 50 million fake luxury goods from the Middle and Far East enter the U .S.

annually, costing the economy over $130 billion in lost revenue.

It's a large brand, but it's nothing expensive.

So it's a regular brand, not high value, so we're going to let this go down the

road today.

With the clock ticking, the officers have just one hour left before the

is scheduled for release.

Oh, boy.

Yeah, let's look at this, guys.

Let's look at this.

Something new catches Officer Olivo's eye. We're going to take a more closer

look at it because it's something in the X -ray that I like. It may be something

or it may not.

I just need to confirm it.

All right, you guys are ready?

Oh, wow.

Okay, guys, hold the shipment out.

Jose, it looks like we have some cot here. You want to come over here and

confirm just to make sure? I think you were right with the x -ray.

Inside the box is what appears to be cot, a plant that produces a euphoric

when chewed.

It's a Schedule I drug in the U .S. in the same category as LSD and heroin.

Yeah, that's definitely cot.

Yeah, okay.

In Atlanta.

These are not going to be allowed, okay? They're too fresh.

Insects can still live on it.

Agriculture specialist Norwood has discovered several potentially dangerous

pests lurking in a traveler's luggage.

They've hitchhiked over from Ghana, West Africa, on various items of local food.

As well as destroying crops.

Non -native caterpillars can carry foreign pathogens and parasites.

Having already confiscated bug -infested neem sticks, corn husks, and dried

fruit.

Yeah, so we do have a few insects on here.

Agricultural specialist Norwood spots more on some fresh banana leaves.

If you can see it moving around there, that's also one seal.

Used to wrap food, they are known to carry a host of pests.

That's the risk of bringing in leaves.

We're already seeing the insects on it, so we're going to have to take it.

And there's another one there, too.

One of the most common is the banana weevil, a root borer which hides its

in the leaf.

So based off of the body of the insect, there's another one, is how we're going

to preserve it.

So with these being soft bodies or immature, we place them in alcohol just

they preserve longer.

Every single pest harvested today will be sent to a lab and its threat level

assessed. So we're going to have to take these also.

We found live insects crawling on them, so we're going to have to take it, okay?

This one's fine.

All of this stuff is okay.

But everything back here that we took, you're not going to be able to bring it

in because we found insects on it, okay? Or they pose a risk of bringing in

disease.

The traveler earlier claimed that she didn't know the contents of the box

because someone else had packed it for her.

But in the eyes of the law, she is liable for the contents and could

fine. In the future, when you're coming in, make a list of all the things that

you're bringing.

Failure to declare any of these items could cost you $300.

It's okay today, but in the future, make sure you declare everything, okay?

Because the woman initially declared the customs, that she was carrying food,

she won't pay a penalty today.

We're going to let her go. I gave her a warning this time. I educated her about

a few things.

I think that's good.

All right. Thank you.

She was kind of understanding, I think partly because she wasn't even sure what

she had from the beginning. But she could very well see for herself, like,

not just saying that we're taking it because of this reason. She can see,

this is on your stuff, this is why we're taking it. And she was good to go.

She told me that she understood and that she would do better next time. So we'll

just have to wait to see.

at Newark Airport's express consignment facility.

Oh, wow. Okay, guys, pull the shipment out.

A package from the Middle East has been found to contain COT, a Schedule I

controlled substance in the same category as heroin and LSD.

Yeah, that's definitely COT.

Yeah, okay.

People basically chew this stuff and it gives them like a hallucinogen kind of

high. So, but it has to be in its potent form when it's fresh.

As it gets older, it loses its potency.

Its active ingredient, cathinone, is a stimulant which increases the heart

similar to cocaine and amphetamine.

It almost looks like a thorn bush.

The majority of time come like this because it needs to be fresh.

So it's going to look like this.

Cod is primarily used in religious ceremonies and social gatherings in

Africa and the Middle East.

Since it can cause paranoia and psychosis, it was banned in the U .S. in

Let's open it up and see where it's coming from.

It should be in the paperwork.

Yeah, it's coming from Israel.

So look at that.

All right, so we got something good today, so that's good.

Despite its illegal status, it's in high demand in cities with large immigrant

populations, such as New York and Los Angeles.

It's coming from, looks like it's going to Brooklyn.

Okay, yeah, it's going to Brooklyn.

Officers deploy a canine to seek out any other cod in the same shipment.

The remaining boxes are clear.

That's it for today.

Today's findings will be passed on to Homeland Security Investigations.

The cot, worth over $25 ,000, will be destroyed.

They get the cot, which is good, so we'll definitely take a win for that.

And we'll wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow's another day, another battle.