All language subtitles for Drug.Lords.The.Next.Generation.S01E02.720p.HULU.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV Eng

(siren)

BONNIE KLAPPER: There is a huge
percentage of people

involved in the drug trade
that are never caught,

that are never identified,
that are never prosecuted.

♪ ♪

Everyone knew about
the Medellin Cartel,

they knew about Pablo.

But this person, he was not
on anybody's radar.

He really was an invisible.

CHRIS CASCIO: One of his
nicknames was the Gray Ghost.

He did a really good job of not
giving anybody his real name.

LUIS RENDON: The faces
were other people.

Meanwhile, he was a puppet
master above all of them.

RUBEN OLIVA: He was the world's
greatest drug dealer

no one ever heard about.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

KLAPPER: If you combine what the
drug trafficking business earns,

I'm sorry, Mr. Bezos, but
you're not even on the radar.

Typically when drugs

are produced in Colombia,

they transit through

Central America,

ultimately through Mexico,

and the drugs are sold
in the United States.

Now the trafficker
has a big problem.

It's very hard to get
the money back.

The cheapest, most effective

way, though it does generate

a lot of bulk,

is simply to send cash.

Just find some containers,

sometimes with the knowledge
of the shipping company,

often without the knowledge,

load the money up
into the containers,

and then bulk ship to Colombia.

And without a tip, you're
never going to discover that.

(horns honking)

RENDON: Working out of
the US Embassy in Colombia,

we get 10 or 20 tips a day from
sources that have information

on money laundering, narcotics
trafficking and so forth.

KLAPPER: The agents,
they had been contacted

by an informant in Spain,

and honestly, for months,

they had just blown off
the informant.

They get so many tips,
so much information,

but the informant
was persistent.

(ship horn blares)

RENDON: The information was
that millions of dollars

was concealed within big bags
of ammonium sulfate.

This is a fertilizer,

legitimate companies were
transporting this fertilizer

from Mexico to
Buenaventura, Colombia.

I was skeptical.

I was like, this is probably

another one of those
phony allegations.

But we went to the port
of Buenaventura,

and sure enough...

MAN: There it is.

RENDON: There was millions
and millions of dollars

in bulk cash.

It was a magnificent way
for the organization

to smuggle bulk cash,

because the US Customs
can't detect it through x‐ray,

and even when you probe it,

it's so deep you wouldn't
be able to touch it.

KLAPPER: $40 million in cash.

RENDON: It was the largest
boat cash container seizure

in US, Mexico and Colombian
history, probably in the world.

KLAPPER: So, they knew
they were onto something big.

Possibly one of the biggest
invisibles ever.

And that's why they came to me.

I had a reputation as the go‐to
person for money laundering.

I sat down with the two
Homeland Security agents

who said, "We've seized
over $40 million.

Imagine the magnitude
of the organization

and the volume of drugs
that it's producing.

But where do we go from here?"

(phone ringing)

I receive a call from
a Colombian attorney

with whom I'd worked previously.

He said to me, "I have three
clients who need to come in.

They just sustained the seizure
of enormous amounts of money

and their lives are in danger."

I said, "Did they just get
a big hit in Buenaventura?"

And his response was,
"How did you know?"

I said "Well, bring them in
and we'll all find out."

They were sort of between
a rock and a hard place.

Someone was going to come after
them for that lost $40 million.

On the other hand,
they had US law enforcement

breathing down their necks.

They had to make a decision,

which created
the greater risk to them,

and ultimately,
they ended up with

what I like to call
the "good guys."

Once they were signed up,

they went back to Colombia to
act as if nothing had happened.

And you have to remember, they
themselves were not familiar

with whose money
they were laundering.

He was an invisible.

So our instructions to them
were, number one, stay calm.

Number two, gather as much
intelligence as you can

about the group
you were working with.

And most important,
try to get us real names.

♪ ♪

CASCIO: One of his nicknames
was the Gray Ghost.

When we first started
hearing about him in 2004,

I was a special agent
on behalf of the DEA

assigned to
the Caribbean, Atlantic,

and the drug transportation
organizations

working in and
about those areas.

We were getting a series
of fishing vessels

that were loaded from 2,000
to 4,000 kilos of cocaine.

As the crewmembers were
coming in from the boats,

a certain name kept popping up
when we would speak to them.

Don Luis.

For them, he was a "Don"
meaning "respect,"

and Luis, that was
his first name,

so these guys referred
to him as Don Luis.

At the time, other names were
more prominent in Colombia.

Don Luis, as we knew him, wasn't
getting a lot of attention.

But we knew if we were catching
11 different boats

for the tune of 22 tons,
that we knew belonged to him,

this was a pretty
significant target.

Our primary goal was to try
to get him identified

and trying to really
understand his organization

and the depth
of his organization.

My partners and I,
we turned every rock we could,

traveled all over
Central and South America

trying to track down leads.

So we really were on a hunt.

2006, 2007, I received some
information that he was the guy

behind the scenes of
a Bogota soccer team

who invested in the team
and who was paying the bills.

He owned it, but not on paper.

Some of the stuff
we weren't sure

what was rumor
and what was fact,

and it became, you know,
like a passion of ours.

Like, we were going to get
this guy identified

and we were going
to get him arrested.

We received information that
his first last name was Caicedo.

But we knew Luis Caicedo was
a very popular name in Colombia,

so we had to really
do some digging

to get his second last name.

And ultimately, we got the phone
call from a well‐placed source

that he used to be
a police officer

and then we had to try to figure
out what agency he worked with

and how many years ago.

We had individuals in Colombia
looking through that paperwork,

and that gave us
the second last name.

Velandia was his
mother's last name,

and that was the hard name
to come up with.

Literally within hours
we were able to get a photo

from a visa application

with those two names together,
the Caicedo Velandia.

We were getting information
from our intelligence sources

in Colombia that
he was known as Don Lucho.

KLAPPER: Chris Cascio,
he and his people

had identified Lucho
before anyone else.

They got a drug indictment
against Lucho.

The problem was they had no idea

where he was or
how to capture him.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

RENDON: They basically gave us
a tip on a person named Max.

Max was a high‐ranking member

of the narcotics
trafficking organization

based out of Bogota.

He was not the top
of the hierarchy.

He took orders from the boss,
the cartel kingpin.

We were working collaboratively

with the Colombian
National Police

in trying to identify Max.

Because we didn't
have his identity.

But after following him around,
doing tactical surveillance,

we thought this was a high‐level
worker of the organization.

KLAPPER:
This high‐ranking member,

he decided to take his family to
the United States on vacation.

We obtained his flight plan.

RENDON: So once
he landed in Miami,

we were able to greet him
at the airport

and introduce ourselves
as federal agents

and notified him that
he was under arrest.

I don't think he had any idea

that anybody was
looking for him.

It was a big shock.

(jet passing overhead)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

RENDON: When Max told us
who his boss was,

Luis Caicedo, AKA Don Lucho,
we were pleased.

This guy was operating
for a long time

without being discovered.

CASCIO: I didn't want
to get too excited,

'cause it had been
a number of years

that we were looking for him.

DAVID MARWELL: He was a massive
target and worked for years

without anybody knowing
anything about him.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Upon soliciting
Max's cooperation,

he laid out for us
the entire enterprise.

The entire cartel.

KLAPPER: Once we arrested
this high‐ranking member,

we were able to obtain
a tremendous amount

of physical evidence

documentary evidence,
testimonial evidence.

We actually discovered Lucho
was part of what has become

the new generation of how to run
drug businesses in Colombia.

Designed to limit his exposure

and to remain small
and tightly controlled.

Lucho decided, I'm the CEO,
I have high level partners,

everything else
will be outsourced.

I need drugs,
I'm not going to own the labs

like Pablo owned labs.

I'll contract with people
to make the drugs.

I need transport, I'm gonna
contract with people

who have the planes
and the boats.

I need killing, I need murder.

I'll outsource to the hitmen.

(gunshot)

It was almost as if he had
sat down with accountants

and investment advisors
and decided,

"How can I make the most money
and incur the least risk?"

And that's really why he
was able to stay invisible

for so long.

While Lucho was clearly the
brains behind the organization,

he had partners.

One of the most prominent ones

was an individual
named Julio Lozano.

Julio was extremely valuable
for his connections to the labs,

to the product.

He had a man named
Claudio Silva.

Claudio had a big farm.

Claudio was very happy to set up
a crematorium on his farm,

and when Lucho directed,

the bodies would end up
in Claudio's crematorium.

RENDON: These three gentlemen
were known as

the Dons of the organization,

hence the name Don Julio,
Don Claudio, and Don Lucho.

KLAPPER: Lucho also
partnered with someone

who was far from invisible:

a very major trafficker
called Loco Barrera.

Loco was part of
the organization,

mainly for the deterrent value
of his name.

People knew you did not want
Loco anywhere near you,

because you were going
to end up dead,

as would your entire family and
everyone else you ever spoke to,

down to your dog.

So Loco was more the threat that
was held over anyone's head.

Don't mess with Lucho, or you're
going to have to deal with Loco.

JEREMY MCDERMOTT: The
relationship between Don Lucho

and Loco Barrera for me
is the prototype

visible/invisible relationship.

All eyes were on Loco Barrera,

who's handling the operational
side of the business.

Nobody knew that behind him,
pulling the strings,

making the deals and
the big money was Don Lucho.

RENDON: Don Lucho is
a very serious man,

and with that amount
of money that you have

and to leverage over
police, military,

you're able to influence
a lot of people.

KLAPPER: In a legal business,

someone's trying to
steal your trademark,

someone's engaging
in libel or slander,

you can seek redress
through the legal system.

Drug trafficking,
there is no redress.

Someone steals your drugs
and steals your money,

you can't go to court
to get it back.

You have to take law enforcement
into your own hands.

RENDON: If you crossed his path,
you basically got killed.

KLAPPER: Lucho had
a head of security.

An individual who went by
the alias Sillas,

means "chairs" in Spanish.

Sillas was an ex‐sicario,
a hitman.

He had been shot in
a drug gun battle

and he was paralyzed
from the waist down.

Lucho installed him,
in his wheelchair,

in a room with video cameras,
recording equipment;

he was listening to everyone.

You transported for him,

your chats were going
to be intercepted.

You sourced drugs for him?

Your chats were going
to be intercepted.

And Sillas oversaw
this whole operation.

The most important part
of Sillas' job

was to execute the executions.

He would get word from Lucho,
"This person stole from me."

He would get word from someone
else in the organization,

"This person slept
with my wife."

Whatever the reason,
Sillas would then subcontract

to a closed group
of sicarios, hitmen.

As the organization
became more powerful,

Sillas would direct the hitmen,

or the police, who were
also working for Lucho,

to simply kidnap the targets

and bring them to
Claudio Silva's farm.

CASCIO: Sometimes
with the violence,

it's part of their culture

that if they don't enforce
violations of their code,

then everyone's going
to take advantage of them.

So they have to set examples,

whether it's members
in the organization,

people that they care about,
people that they're fond of,

and when they get to that level,
like Lucho's level,

and if he doesn't handle it,
then everybody's going to do it.

RENDON: The organization had
a code that they used internally

to document payments.

So it might have been
yellow for payments,

or it might have been blue
for cocaine shipments.

But red always meant
the color of blood.

Yeah, pretty much
you're taken out.

(Max sighs)

MARWELL: Ultimately,
we made a tactical decision

to pursue Lucho.

CASCIO: Our primary goal was
to try to get him extradited

and brought to the United States
to face charges.

MARWELL: This operation
was unprecedented.

KLAPPER: Agents infiltrated
Lucho's organization.

MARWELL: We, from
an undercover capacity,

actually ran the cartel.

RENDON: So Max was
very cooperative,

and he was willing to work right
away with the US government.

Nobody in Don Lucho's
organization

knew that he was under arrest.

KLAPPER: We decided to take
advantage of the situation.

RENDON: We put him up in
a location in New York

and set up
an undercover operation.

KLAPPER: We set up a war room,

and the agents infiltrated
Lucho's organization

and ran it as if they were
this high‐ranking individual.

How? The various high‐ranking
members of his group

typically never met in person.

Everyone shared an email address
and the password for the email.

When they needed to communicate
with each other,

they would draft an email
and leave it in the system.

Undetectable to law enforcement.

The others would check
the email in draft form,

because it was never sent,
and receive their instructions.

So by using this method
of communication,

it enabled him to operate
undetected for so many years,

but it also enabled us,
once we had the keys,

to become part of
his organization.

Once we had the key,
once we knew the emails,

we were able to take over
as if we were that person.

MARWELL: All the people
that worked it

had never been in
a position similar to this

where in an undercover capacity

they are running
a cartel operation.

They are in control
of the network.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

KLAPPER: So we infiltrated and
we began issuing the orders.

"Oh, you have drugs in
Venezuela? Send them here."

"Oh, you have money in the
Netherlands, send it there."

We would issue the orders
to the transporters,

to the money launderers,

and then we would seize
the drugs and seize the money.

MARWELL: This operation
was continually unnerving,

unnerving for all those
that were involved in it.

RENDON:
Running a drug trafficking
organization remotely,

it's very stressful.

KLAPPER: We had a very fine line
to walk, a balance.

We didn't want to get greedy
and seize too much

and lose the chance
to capture him.

On the other hand, we wanted
to seize as much drugs

and as much money as possible.

MARWELL: We were literally
doing narcotic deals

and/or money laundering deals
all over the world.

We did it in Ecuador,
we did it in Argentina,

we did it in Colombia,

Morocco, Spain, Rotterdam.

I mean, it was unprecedented.

It took a lot of cocaine
off the streets

in all these various countries.

I believe the entire amount
of money that was seized

was something to the tune
of $175 million.

RENDON: Working with Max
proactively

in an undercover capacity meant
dealing with him every day,

20 hours a day,
working through weekends,

working through holidays
non‐stop.

So you start to understand
in a personal way what led him

to be a worker for a major drug
trafficker like Luis Caicedo.

I personally think
he got involved

because he had no choice.

Once you get in deep,
you can't get out,

and that's what
most of these guys

who are the underlings
of the kingpins say.

You know, if you get out
of an organization,

you're either gonna get killed

or your family's
gonna get killed.

You really have no options
but to work for them.

We would go for walks,

we'd take him out to drink
some pop, some shakes,

to kind of decompress
from the investigation.

When you're dealing with
a high‐level person,

anything could happen.

Ambushing, people trying
to break him out

of the undercover location
we were at.

So you're talking about me
with another 10 to 15 agents

just to even take him
outside for a breath.

KLAPPER: Every day was
filled with tension,

because we never knew
when Lucho would say,

"There's a mole,
we must shut it down,

we must end communication."

The chatter over the wires was
that Lucho was getting worried.

He could not understand
how in an organization

that had evaded seizures

was getting hit one after
another after another.

RENDON: Things were
running dry.

There were no more cocaine
shipments to send anywhere,

there were no money pickups,

and some people
stopped responding,

because everybody got scared
of what was happening.

Don Lucho was like,
"What in the hell is going on?"

MARWELL:
These narcotics cartels,

they factor in
losing loads of dope.

What they get really upset with

is when their money
is confiscated.

KLAPPER: Lucho had suffered
very few seizures

before our investigation
started.

We knew that with
a certain number of seizures

someone was going to figure out
that there was a leak.

Day in and day out,
"Is it time to shut it down?"

"Is today the day?"

"Ah, well, just one more load.
One more seizure."

Until finally we decided,
it's too hot,

there's been too many seizures,

we have to go in
for the kill shot.

We have to get Lucho.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

RENDON: The belief is
that arrest warrant

went through
the Colombian government,

and Don Lucho was able
to obtain that

from the Colombian government
through corrupt means.

And so he saw his name,

and he absconded to a country
that would offer safe harbor.

KLAPPER: Lucho felt
some heat in Colombia,

so he had moved his family
to Argentina.

MARWELL: But we didn't know
precisely where he was.

So having some of our
cooperators contact him

via email, we were able
to triangulate

some of his coordinates.

KLAPPER: So Lucho was
living in an enclave

where a lot of Colombian narcos
build their houses.

You can always tell
in Argentina.

Gated communities,

monstrous‐size houses,
lots of security,

and that's where
he had relocated.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

RENDON: So the plan
to capture Don Lucho

was having Max set up a meeting
with Don Lucho in Argentina.

He wanted to meet because he
wanted to know what was going on

with, you know, the organization
and all the recent seizures.

KLAPPER:
"Guys, we've got to be careful.

The gossip, the chatter is that

he's beginning
to get suspicious."

The tension was enormous.

Are we really going to get him?

RENDON: So when we got on
that plane, I was scared, man,

I was like holy (bleep),
like, this is happening.

We were going to go forward
with capturing

the biggest drug trafficker
in the world.

CASCIO:
There's so much corruption

in different countries,
you have to be really careful

when you actually let people
know that you have a target,

you want to put
handcuffs on him,

because if you do it too soon
and they get word of that,

then the guy runs,
and you can't find him.

RENDON: The meeting point
was going to be

around a shopping center

in a highly public
Argentine community.

♪ ♪

KLAPPER: Is he going to be‐‐
sorry, Lucho‐‐

but is he going to be
dumb enough to show up

more or less unaccompanied
at a meeting?

RENDON: Don Lucho,
people were scared of him.

Not just in Colombia
but all over the world.

MARWELL: We were all
on pins and needles

waiting to see
how this happened,

and we were just hoping that
everything would go okay.

RENDON: Our agency coordinated
with the Argentine authorities.

CASCIO: Depending on
your relationship

with local law enforcement,

sometimes you get to go out
on the operation,

sometimes you don't.

RENDON: So the Argentines
set up surveillance

around the meeting point.

They basically did
everything in country,

'cause as diplomats overseas,

we have no
law enforcement authority.

CASCIO: The safe place to
keep us is at the embassy

so we can't get in any trouble
or do anything silly

or screw up their operation.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

RENDON: All it is was
a very covert operation.

There was no lights and sirens.

Once they saw him, they went
ahead and apprehended him.

He knew the gig was up.

KLAPPER: The moment he was
in custody, we received word.

And we all shouted
and we high‐fived.

"We've got him. We've got him.
He's in custody. We've got him."

CASCIO: When that went down,
it was about a five o'clock,

five or six o'clock
on a Friday night.

We were standing by
at the embassy

and jumped in the car,
drove to the arrest location.

There was an individual
in the back of a car in a suit,

and I thought, that kind of
meets the criteria for this guy,

because he wasn't just like
a low‐level crewmember.

This was, you know,
this was the boss.

RENDON: He looked at me
with a shock on his face

I'd never seen.

His eyes were wide open.

He didn't know
what was going on.

But when we
identified ourselves,

he kind of nodded and said,
"Yeah, I basically got caught."

CASCIO: In my ten seconds
of brief conversation

in Spanish with him, we
explained it wasn't an accident

why he was in handcuffs.

We encouraged him that
in his particular case

it was in his best interest
to waive extradition,

and if he delayed the
extradition a year or two years,

the information that he could
provide to us real time

was going to be stale,

and it'd be in his best interest
to get on a plane

and get to the United States.

RENDON: He knew someone
definitely betrayed him,

because their organization was
so secret and so underworld.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

After he got caught, we were
listening to these calls

of Loco Barrera making plans

to send helicopters and trucks

and armored vehicles trying
to break Don Lucho out of jail.

RENDON: Loco Barrera is serious
about trying to break Lucho out.

That's what kind of respect
Loco had for Don Lucho.

So that's why we had to move
fast and get Lucho out of there,

back to the US.

CASCIO: Back in
the United States,

Don Lucho, he was
looking at 20 to life.

KLAPPER: The only way
in the United States

for a drug trafficker to avoid
spending 10, 20, 30 years

in jail is to cooperate.

There is no other alternative.

CASCIO: The first part of
this cooperation was just,

"Can you turn over any money?
Can you turn over any drugs?"

KLAPPER: The Homeland Security
agents wanted to seize

as much money as possible.

Their job was to convince
Lucho to turn over the money.

CASCIO: Most of these guys will
tell you when you lock them up

they don't have any money
and they spent all their money,

or so‐and‐so owes them money,
and it was true,

Lucho had a bunch of people
that owed him a lot more money.

But we knew that he had moved
significant amounts of cocaine,

which meant he'd made
significant amounts of money.

And the conversation
that we had was,

"You don't have
to give it all up,

but you gotta give
a lot of it up."

So he had a couple individuals
that were in Colombia still

that we were
making phone calls to.

And ultimately, we were notified
that there was a car

at a certain location,
a certain color,

and that in the trunk
of that car

was, you know,
some of his drug proceeds.

We'd roll out to these different
locations with the local cops.

They'd run the dog on the car,
the dog would hit on it,

and then, you know,
we would open up the trunk,

and sure enough there'd be
a bag of money in there.

Each of the drops,
a different car would show up

at a different location,
never the same location,

and bags of money in the trunk.

The first amount was
right around $12 million.

About a week later we collected
another $16 million, same way.

But the fourth drop in Colombia
was the biggest.

We received information
about an apartment,

and they had boxes
and boxes of money,

and to the tune of
close to $50 million

inside the apartment.

And it was in a pretty
raggedy neighborhood.

$102 million was ultimately
seized in Colombia.

But I explained to him that,
"Listen, we appreciate

what you did in Colombia,
that's great,

but that money
stays in Colombia.

If you can get $10 million to
the US through another country,

that's going to do
a little bit more for you."

So a short time later,
he arranged for a series

of four to five
different drops in Panama

where we would fly to Panama,
we'd go to a location,

and there would be
a person there.

And the person would turn over
the suitcase to us,

and we would seal it up
per our policies and procedures,

throw it in our carry‐on
and fly home with it.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Lucho, he pled guilty
to everything

that we charged him with.

He always seemed
very respectful, very sincere.

"Hey, I just want to
get this behind me

and move on with my life."

You know, that was really
his attitude with us.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

For someone that moved
that amount of cocaine,

did he do enough time in jail?

Probably not. Probably not.

Should he have done
a little bit more? Maybe.

Everything lined up
just perfectly for him.

From the judge that sentenced
him, to the timing of it,

everything lined up for him

where he got
a favorable sentence.

RENDON: Don Lucho right now
is out of jail,

and I think that he will
continue to operate

the way he was before.

I think that he still
has a lot of influence.

I think he still
has a lot of debts

that haven't been collected.

So I think now he's still
a dangerous man.

CASCIO: I would like to say

he's not going to get
back into business,

but we've had guys spend
the same amount of time,

go back out there
and start up again.

I hope that's not what he does.

(siren)

KLAPPER: His partners,
Julio Lozano,

sentenced back in Colombia,
Claudio Silva as well,

paid his sentence
back in Colombia.

For the Colombians,
this is a way of life.

They know that there's a shot

that they're going
to get arrested,

they're going to
have to cooperate,

they'll get their
sentence reduced,

they'll go back to Colombia,

and some significant percentage,

not having any
other career path

will immediately return to
trafficking or money laundering.

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♪ ♪

MCDERMOTT: The story of
Loco Barrera is perhaps

an extreme case of what
happens to a visible.

As the net began
to close around him,

he became
increasingly desperate.

He used a frying pan to burn his
fingerprints and grow a beard,

hoping that that would help him
remain not arrested and hidden.

It didn't.

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♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

RENDON: Their street value
was over $24 billion

of sales of narcotics worldwide.

912 tons of cocaine.

So the magnitude just shows
why they were probably

the most successful cartel

in the history of
that underground world.

CASCIO: We asked him that, like,
"You made so much money.

At what point didn't you
just want to check out

and when's enough enough?"

He says, "Yeah, you're right.
Yeah. I should have."

In his instance,

I think he enjoyed
the business aspect of it,

and he was a really good
businessman.

KLAPPER: When all was
said and done,

we took down what, for his era,
was the largest invisible,

Don Lucho.

We took down his
entire hierarchy

in terms of his partners,
his right‐hand men.

And we took down well over 30

of what I like to call
his subcontractors.

The people who provided him

with what he needed
to run his business.

We accomplished our goal,
which was to dismantle.

If you're going to ask me,
ultimately,

did our work have any effect
on the drug trade itself?

The answer is no.

Not at least for a minute.

With him out of the picture,

younger, even more
violent traffickers

have stepped into the space.

So with every great success,

all we do is create an opening
for the next generation.

There are always other
invisibles waiting in the wings.

Captioned by
Side Door Media Services