Original subtitles

(siren)

MAN: As long as there is a stockbroker on Wall Street

who's willing to pay $100 to do a bump,

there's going to be someone who's going to figure out

a way to get it to them.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MAN: Narco trafficking has evolved

into a transnational global phenomenon.

(man yelling)

♪ ♪

WOMAN: They felt untouchable.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

WOMAN: What the DEA decide to do was to put in place

an operation to get them.

(siren)

MAN: The disadvantage was the sheer scale of it.

What the hell is in those bags?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(man screaming)

DAN DYER: The cocaine industry is constantly evolving.

(man screaming)

MAN: That's gonna be hard to get on.

DYER: It's constantly adapting,

it's constantly changing its methods.

(muffled yelling)

DYER: It leaves the Pacific coast of Colombia,

and into Central America,

and it makes its way into the United States.

♪ ♪

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INTERVIEWER: What is the real name of the man known as Gerald?

INVESTIGATOR: He is responsible for having shipped

into Central America over 250 tons of cocaine.

Gerald started by driving semi‐submersible speedboats,

which would be used to transport cocaine

from Colombia to Central America for the Rastrojos.

(siren)

The Rastrojos are a criminal gang who rose to power

between 2000 and 2010.

♪ ♪

At their peak, all over the south of the country,

this was the organization that monopolized

all drug trafficking in southern Colombia.

In its time, it came to be

Colombia's biggest criminal organization.

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DYER: So when you say the term "fast boats,"

it's a 30 to 40‐foot boat, narrow‐beamed,

and you can put anywhere between 500 kilos

to three tons on that boat.

INVESTIGATOR: Speedboats loaded with cocaine

would follow the coast,

from Tumaco to Chocó and from there to Panama.

Panama was the meeting point

for the various drug trafficking organizations.

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DYER: It's a homemade almost submarine.

It's semi‐submersed in the water.

The only thing that shows on the top of the water

is the top of the boat,

painted like a blue‐gray color, which matches with the sea.

(man screaming in Spanish)

DYER: They're handmade,

typically in the jungles along the rivers.

They fill them up with cocaine, as much as 8 tons.

It's very, very difficult for us to stop them.

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INVESTIGATOR: We just couldn't work out how a speedboat,

that was not designed to make it out on the open sea,

could get all the way to Central America.

We started doing field work on the ground.

We came across this alias, Gerald.

So gradually, through stakeouts, following, phone tapping,

we established Gerald had a fake Colombian ID

and that he was actually an Ecuadorean drug trafficker.

We had to prevent another Pablo Escobar from rising up.

The investigation on Gerald

started around the end of 2014, early 2015.

Most of the Rastrojo leaders had been apprehended,

so the gang was decimated.

The drug trade monopoly had been broken down into smaller cells,

what we call "invisible narcos."

Gerald's was the cell that was shifting most cocaine

into Central America.

The first thing was to figure out Gerald's modus operandi.

What we did was to try to infiltrate

by selling them speedboat engines.

These had a satellite tracker installed.

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♪ ♪

Gerald's idea was to use very large ships

that would carry fuel, food supplies,

spare engines, personnel, and mechanics.

He placed those ships at strategic points,

out in this open sea.

So these were like refueling points, service stations.

With just two or three stops at these service stations,

they would be able to reach their destination,

the Central American coast.

Over the course of one night,

he might send out between five and ten boats,

each one of them carrying between 700 and 1,000 kilos.

He brought a high level of technical complexity

to drug trafficking operations.

He would use search buoys, GPS,

and that meant shipments never got lost.

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INVESTIGATOR: His operations center was in Cali.

In Cali, he'd pretend to be an important businessman,

involving cattle rearing, fisheries,

and property development.

He had a whole façade and his aim was to blend in

with Cali's high society, for them to welcome him in.

So he had the money to do this,

but he didn't really have the way in;

that was his challenge: to break into Cali's high society.

So we tried to give him, to provide him,

with the type of woman who would supply this need of his.

That was how we selected a woman from our department,

a woman who looked like she belonged in high society.

And then we sent her to one of Cali's most prestigious gyms,

that Gerald would visit from time to time.

The idea was that she would seduce him.

This woman attracted Gerald's attention,

and eventually they got to know each other.

That made Gerald think this could be the opportunity

to access Cali's high society,

through this woman's undercover identity.

A woman who could facilitate his access to what he was after.

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Gerald had been dating her, and she asked him to come over.

He told her he would and gave her a likely date.

The extradition order could only be issued

just a few hours before Gerald arrived in Colombia.

If he managed to find out that there was an extradition order

in the works, he would not return.

He'd never come back to Colombia.

He checked there was no extradition order,

and that's when he accepted the proposition

to come back to Colombia and meet with our undercover agent.

And that was when

the Criminal Investigations Department apprehended him.

That was when we captured Gerald.

(sirens)

♪ ♪

It was 100% successful.

We arrested Gerald, his second in command,

three other drug traffickers

who were the leaders of his networks.

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One was Rocho, the head of the production.

We captured Thiago, who was in charge of sea routes.

We also captured Zorro, who was the networking guy.

So, we captured Gerald, and from then, his whole family.

The whole thing crumbled for him.

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♪ ♪

PETER VINCENT: The vast majority of cocaine

that enters the United States,

enters through ports of entry on container ships.

PENN BULLOCK: Only a fraction of the containers

on container ships are really closely inspected

by the authorities.

VINCENT: These container ships are massive,

and they contain hundreds of very large containers.

And remember, at $25,000 to $35,000 per kilo of cocaine,

a couple of tons hidden amongst the nooks and crannies

of a massive container ship,

represents millions of dollars of proceeds

for the narco traffickers.

♪ ♪

The market now is truly global in nature.

Narco traffickers are in fact looking more and more to Europe,

to China, and as far away as Australia,

because there is less exposure

and there is much greater profitability.

So, for instance, a kilo of cocaine produced in Colombia

may be worth $25,000 when it hits the United States.

That same kilo of high grade cocaine,

if it makes it to Europe,

is worth from 35,000 to 40,000 U. S. dollars.

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JORGE LARA: There is an evolution in how planes

have been used in the traffic of cocaine.

BULLOCK: In the 1970s, it was a free‐for‐all.

There were hundreds if not thousands of illegal flights

into the United States every year.

El Chapo,

he had probably the biggest fleet of them all,

he had hundreds of planes, maybe up to 600.

Mostly small, junky twin props.

VINCENT: Narco traffickers have more recently begun to use

very expensive, very fast, Lear‐type jets.

VINCENT: They're often treated differently,

because it is assumed by security forces

that they are owned and operated

by ultra‐high net worth individuals.

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IAN TRUBY: I am Ian Truby, I'm a principal officer

with the National Crime Agency stationed at Heathrow.

In the 10 years I've been in this role

I have never seen an attempt like this.

♪ ♪

A person using the name Claire Harris

made an approach to a broker.

They don't have aircraft of their own,

but if someone wishes to hire a private jet,

they would make all the necessary arrangements for you.

Claire Harris requested a flight

from Luton to Bogota in Colombia

on the 8th of December,

returning from Colombia

on the 10th of December,

arriving into Farnborough

on the 11th of December.

The charter was 128,500 pounds,

and that was paid in cash by Claire Harris

and an associate of hers known as Andreas.

We haven't positively identified either of those people.

It's a hypothesis that the December flight

was actually a test run,

they were just seeing if this method would work.

♪ ♪

On the January flight to Bogota,

we had Alessandro Iembo, the Italian national,

Martin Neil, the UK national.

And additionally Victor Franco‐Lorenzo,

the Spanish national,

and Jose Migueles‐Botas, an additional Spanish national.

TRUBY: Claire Harris explained that the passengers

were major players in cryptocurrency

and involved in the music industry

and were going to meet Bruno Mars

while they were in Colombia.

It was very brazen, they were using a private jet

and they were using Rolls‐Royces and Mercedes limousines.

If they turned up in a 20‐year‐old car,

there might have been some questions asked.

They stayed at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel.

They had a drink.

They put the bags that were eventually taken onto the flight

into the locker room in the hotel,

and they were seen to change the combination on some of the bags

whilst they were in that luggage room.

They were picked up in Mercedes limousines

and they were transferred to Luton.

The 12 suitcases that were booked onto the flight

were subject to a security x‐ray.

Those 12 bags weighed 350 kilos,

and we believe that they did contain paper,

but we cannot say for sure that it was cash.

They flew from Luton on a privately chartered jet

and went directly to Bogota.

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MARTY YOUNG: We were allowed access

to the charter company's CCTV system,

which proved very, very beneficial.

It identified all of the vehicles.

They used two armored vehicles to collect the passengers.

YOUNG: The bags which were on board the aircraft

were taken away by one of the drivers of the armored vehicles.

Those bags did not accompany the passengers to the hotel.

♪ ♪

YOUNG: Alexander Arias previously worked

at Bogota Airport for a number of charter services,

so he knew the system inside out.

His knowledge of how forward operating bases work

and managed was certainly of great benefit

to the drug trafficking organization.

He begun to organize everything

from an apartment which was close to the airport,

and this kind of became the center of operations.

♪ ♪

YOUNG: And she was regularly in contact with Alexander Arias.

The following day, the vehicles were then driven to a warehouse

in the Fontibón District of Bogota,

again, fairly close to the airport.

The vehicles were then left for, I think it was about 21 hours,

until they were needed again to collect the passengers.

TRUBY: They were due to return to the UK

two days after they landed in Bogota.

YOUNG: The passengers who arrived in Colombia,

they were collected from their hotel,

taken to the charter...

...and boarded the aircraft.

The armored vehicles that were used were allowed to enter

into an area which normally they would not be allowed to enter.

This was facilitated by Luz Dary.

TRUBY: They'd gone so far as to put a fake cop

and a fake sniffer dog near the aircraft

at the time of its departure.

♪ ♪

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TRUBY: Farnborough is a small airfield

in the southeast of England.

It doesn't carry scheduled flights,

it's for private jets, executive jets,

that type of traffic.

The controls around the private jets

are different to the commercial airlines.

DYER: The controls are far less formal.

The narcos are smart, and they saw the opportunity there.

TRUBY: The Border Force officers on this occasion

decided that they were gonna look in the bags.

♪ ♪

All he found in that suitcase were blocks of cocaine.

The bags literally slide out the suitcase onto the floor.

One of those packages was selected,

it's spiked with a knife, a small sample is taken,

and that gave an indication straightaway

for a high purity cocaine.

Obviously, we get cocaine in suitcases very regularly,

but never of this amount, 513 kilos,

very, very rarely by this method.

That has a street value of 41 million pounds.

YOUNG: They've researched the security protocols,

and they were quite happy that they could manage the situation

in Colombia to load the cocaine,

and then similarly in the UK they could manage the risk

in not being stopped and checked at Farnborough.

♪ ♪

YOUNG: So, the people involved in flying the cocaine

back to the UK,

despite this being a really brazen attempt

to smuggle the cocaine into the UK,

I have no doubt they probably thought

they were gonna get away with it.

TRUBY: They would fit my definition of being a mule.

These people were not going to realize the profits from this,

they were gonna be on some kind of fee,

a few thousands, not tens of thousands,

certainly not hundred of thousands.

YOUNG: The Colombian investigation

was a very fast‐moving, excellent example

of international collaboration.

In 23 days, the Colombians arrested six people.

This dog is still wanted.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

JEREMY McDERMOTT: The cocaine trade is like water,

it follows the path of least resistance.

And what organized crime likes more than anything else

is corruption.

BULLOCK: Nowadays they're shipping cocaine from Colombia

across the border into Venezuela

where there are hundreds of illicit airfields.

McDERMOTT: Because there is no control

over Venezuelan airspace,

planes can leave Venezuelan airspace

utterly unmolested.

BULLOCK: They have these incredible maps

that just show just line after line,

almost all of them coming from Venezuela

and then branching off into Central America.

It looks like there's about one successful flight per day;

over a year, probably 240 tons of cocaine.

That number has increased in recent times in Venezuela,

where the government appears to be so corrupt,

law and order is breaking down.

JESSICA CARRILLO MAZZALI: Efrain Campo Flores is a nephew

of the presidential couple in Venezuela,

Cilia Flores and Nicolas Maduro.

ADRIANA NUÑEZ: He was raised by the first lady, Cilia Flores.

Franqui is Efrain's cousin,

he's the nephew of the first lady as well.

MAZZALI: At the beginning, they were a low‐income family,

but Cilia Flores was a lawyer of Hugo Chavez

when he became the president of Venezuela.

NUÑEZ: She is now known for being the first lady,

but before she was the president of the parliament,

she had very important charges

in the Venezuelan administration.

MAZZALI: There is a kind of a joke

with the Cilia Flores family, Flores in Spanish is flowers,

so, they have the garden of the flowers,

because they were spread all over the system.

NUÑEZ: I think the Flores nephews felt,

"I'm a Flores, you cannot mess with me,

because my mom is the first lady,"

so they felt untouchable.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

He told the DEA agent this whole story

about the nephews of the president of Venezuela

trying to smuggle cocaine into the U. S.

MAZZALI: El Sentado wasn't able to record the meeting

with an authorized device from the DEA.

But he got a picture.

What the DEA decide to do was to put in place

an operation to get them.

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♪ ♪

NUÑEZ: The plan was to send what is known as a white plane,

or a clean plane,

authorized by the authorities of Venezuela,

with 800 kilograms of cocaine to the Roatán Island in Honduras.

One of the guarantees that the Flores nephews had

was the complete access to the main airport of Venezuela.

And they were planning to send this shipment

from the presidential ramp, that was like their guarantee

in front of these drug traffickers.

♪ ♪

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NUÑEZ: The confidential sources of the DEA

and the Flores nephews,

they had three meetings in Caracas.

MAZZALI: They really felt untouchable.

They were flashy.

A flashy life with luxuries.

NUÑEZ: The confidential source for the DEA

noticed that Efrain Campo had a huge Rolex.

MAZZALI: A Rolex Yacht‐Master II,

valued in $43,000.

MAZZALI: I mean, for a watch. (laughs)

It could be the down payment for a house.

The second meeting between the nephews

and the confidential informants is where they discuss

how the money will be used

to finance the campaign for Cilia Flores.

MAZZALI: To regain the seat in the parliament,

the National Assembly.

NUÑEZ: The third meeting Efrain Campo brings

the brick of cocaine.

And the purpose of that

was to assess the quality of the material.

NUÑEZ: The confidential source stated that the cocaine

was between 95% and 97% pure,

and the Flores nephews were sort of proud

of the quality of the product.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MAZZALI: The meeting in Haiti was set up by the DEA.

The nephews were thinking that they were heading to Haiti

to get a big suitcase with $10 million in it,

just as a down payment for the first shipment.

♪ ♪

NUÑEZ: The DEA chose Haiti

because Haiti was open to cooperate with the DEA.

They could just transfer the custody from their local police

to the DEA directly

without passing for the Venezuelan authorities.

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♪ ♪

MAZZALI: The nephews arrived to Haiti

about 10:00 AM in the morning

They were picked up by this DEA informant.

They went to the hotel

where they had a meeting for about an hour.

NUÑEZ: They started to discuss the last minute details.

NUÑEZ: After that, the confidential source

leave the table to pick up the money,

and then he send the signal to the DEA agent.

And four minutes later they were detained

on the restaurant of the Servotel Hotel.

MAZZALI: Once they were arrested

and after the DEA gained custody...

NUÑEZ: They landed in New York that night,

and by midnight they were already

in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Usually El Sentado was surrounded by bodyguards,

but the day of his murder, he was left alone.

The connection between the murder of El Sentado

and the Flores nephews' case hasn't been denied or confirmed.

MAZZALI: They were sentenced to be 18 years in prison

without the possibility of parole.

McDERMOTT: We have a mafia state in Venezuela.

Utterly corrupted by organized crime.

And this isn't just the cocaine trade from outside

corrupted the regime,

they corrupted themselves from within.

And it has led to a complete loss of faith

in the viability of not only that government,

but of Venezuela as a place to bring up your children.

And so now we've seen anything up to 4 million Venezuelans

have fled their homes.

It's just another aspect of the damage

that systematic organized crime can do.

MAZZALI: The Venezuelan government was totally silent,

and of course the authorities never started any investigation.

NUÑEZ: I think that the fact that two persons

that they think that they can do whatever they want

just for having a last name

says everything about the state of corruption in Venezuela

in this moment.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

McDERMOTT: You only need to be invisible

if someone's coming for you.

In Venezuela today, you don't need to be invisible.

♪ ♪

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BULLOCK: The 727 in Mali is one of the most audacious.

It was tons and tons of cocaine.

♪ ♪

BONNIE KLAPPER: Lucho was a genius.

Lucho was part of what has become the new generation

of how to run drug businesses in Colombia.

(crowd shouting)

Previously there were massive cartels.

The more people directly involved, the greater the risk.

Lucho decided, "I will outsource."

CHRIS CASCIO: When you see the amount of drugs

that Don Lucho moved,

absolutely one of the biggest drug traffickers

in the last 10 years, hands down.

The estimation is close to one million kilograms of cocaine.

KLAPPER: So, one of the things that a good business person,

which Lucho certainly was, would do is diversify.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

BULLOCK: The transatlantic route between South America

and West Africa seems to have really become a thing

in the 1990s and especially the 2000s.

KLAPPER: Whole countries in Western Africa

have simply become narcos states

because of the amount of money involved.

BULLOCK: Once the drugs are unloaded in Africa,

they're put on trucks, and there are plenty of overland routes

that are just completely beyond the governments of the region

and beyond the law.

And then it looks like the drugs are smuggled, probably in boats,

across the Mediterranean into Spain, Italy and France.

♪ ♪

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INTERVIEWER: So what happened to it?

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♪ ♪

(man screaming)

DYER: The worst phrase that was ever attached

to drug trafficking was "the war on drugs."

Can we win this war?

(man yelling in Spanish)

DYER: No.

'Cause the war denotes a beginning, an end,

a victor and defeat.

It's not something that's ever going to ever end.

MAN: Everybody stay down!

DYER: It's crime, you fight it constantly

from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed.

Captioned by Side Door Media Services