All language subtitles for Cowboy.Cartel.S01E02

[Raul Perdomo] Anyone in Laredo
knows who the Zetas are.

Not only who they are,
but what they're capable of doing.

[Melissa del Bosque]
The Zetas would terrorize the population,

so that they could control the population.

[Michael Fernald] The people on the border
being extorted and exposed.

They're disposable to the Zetas.

[Michelle Fernald] The power, the control
that the cartel has over people.

I get chills right now
even talking about it.

[Lawson] You cannot stand up to this group
without grave consequences.

[Steve Pennington]
You have to follow the money,

because the money is gonna
lead you back to the top people

that want to control the funds.

All about the money.

[bill counter whirring]

[theme music playing]

I've written for years about Mexico,

um, and subjects connected to Mexico,

including, um, the drug trade.
The illegal drug trade.

I was working for The New York Times,

covering foreign policy in Latin America.

So, I'm spending a lot of time in Texas
on the US-Mexico border,

talking to former agents, current agents.

One of my best DEA sources
introduced me to an informant.

And we had, you know...

I'm not ashamed to say it,
a fairly boozy dinner one night.

Me and this informant
and a couple of agents.

The informant says
"I might have something for you,"

and he sends me an email.

[horns honking]

And the e-mail is a picture
from a quarter horse racing magazine

of an advertisement about a sale.

And it was the name of José Treviño.

I didn't know what to make of it.

You know, the Treviño name
is pretty infamous in Mexico,

pretty infamous in the drug trade.

The Treviño brothers run the Zetas cartel.

[phone ringing]

And surely that can't be...

can't be the person I think it is, right?

Because they surely
wouldn't use their real name

in an advertisement like this.

And the informant said, "Why not?"

- [starting bell clanging]
- [announcer] They're running.

Headed out for the lead,
Prospect To The Top with Miss Racy Jess.

Dominyun got away fast
as well inside of that.

Far side, Mr Piloto's coming on.

Dominyun. Mr Piloto!

Mr Piloto becomes the first horse ever

to qualify tenth
to the All American Futurity

and come back and win
the biggest race two weeks later.

[Scott Lawson] Ruidoso was our first
surveillance operation.

The first active step in this case,

and we knew that this case
was more than a hunch.

We have Mr. Piloto, the winning horse,

being transferred into José's name
at the last minute.

[announcer] Tremor Enterprises LLC, your
winning owners here, and how about it.

[Lawson] We got to witness José
win the biggest race of the year

with the horse with the worst odds
in history at the All American Futurity.

At the conclusion
of the whole weekend,

we learned José and his entourage
bought 22 horses.

[camera shutter clicks]

That José himself did not even
pay for these horses.

This Mexican businessman had flown
on a private jet to Ruidoso,

walked into the sales office and
written a check for 2.2 million dollars.

And his name was
Francisco Colorado Cessa.

[Jason Hodge] When you have someone
writing a personal check,

you know, those
financial transactions are great

'cause each one of them
is like a fingerprint.

But once that transaction goes
through the banking system,

it can't be erased.

So, it just permanently
ties someone to an event.

[Melissa del Bosque]
Francisco Colorado Cessa,

he had big business contracts with Pemex,

this nationally owned oil and gas company.

Because he was somebody
who had an oil business,

he had a lot of money.

He was somebody who had a lot of
high-level political contacts in Mexico,

but you know, he was definitely a new face
in the quarter-horse racing world,

so they're, like, "Who is this guy?"

[Lawson] At this point,
we're really starting to think

that the Zetas are co-opting Mexican
businessmen who have, you know,

established businesses to use
what would appear to be legitimate funds

to pay for these horses
in The United States.

I knew right away that targeting
this criminal group

with a money-laundering front
was gonna be difficult.

But we may have an opportunity

to get right to the heart
of the leadership and right at the family

in a way that has never been done.

We also are thinking, we could chase
horse crap around for a year

and be the laughing stock
of the Laredo office.

- [phones ringing]
- [copiers whirring]

[Lawson] So when you're
working an investigation

that has the potential to be a big case,

you know that you need to involve
other federal agencies

that bring their resources
to be a partner.

You know, I got less than a year
into the FBI.

I think I can do this,
but I'm gonna need a lot of help.

The DEA has a similar mission
for the most part.

Target and dismantle Mexican cartels.

So, DEA was the obvious choice.

So a meeting was organized
in Houston, Texas

between DEA Laredo, DEA Houston
and FBI Laredo.

That was my first large
inter-agency meeting.

It was a very intimidating feeling,

to walk into this room and try to say,

"This is what I've got
and this is why it's important

that y'all come onboard
and work this case with me."

As this tension and this presentation
is culminating,

it's presented pretty quickly
that the DEA in Houston

was working a similar investigation.

They tell me they have an informant

who is doing the same thing
that Carlos Nayen has been doing,

which is helping find horses
for José Treviño and Miguel Treviño.

They reveal that the informant
is Ramiro Villareal, the Horseman.

What we had learned also
is their main goal

was to use this informant
to find Miguel Treviño,

to try to capture Miguel Treviño.

They weren't interested at this time
in doing a money-laundering investigation.

And I had to promise not to try
to go after Villareal.

But at this point, I already knew that
Ramiro had been replaced by Carlos Nayen.

That was, like, my card to hold,
so I felt the comfort level to say

"Okay, if y'all want to keep
focusing on The Horseman,

we're gonna just do our thing, you know,
with this money-laundering avenue."

There were a lot of agents
throughout Texas

and probably elsewhere in the country
who were sort of, like, "Really, dude?

You think you're gonna do it
through horses?

Really?" Um, and you know,
in some ways they may have been right,

but at the same time,
he did have an angle.

[Hodge] We had an angle
we were trying to work.

They thought they had a better way in,

but we thought we had
a really good tie in into 40 and 42.

It was their money
that was coming over here to fund this.

So, when they put their money places,
man, that's pretty personal.

So, I think we kinda knew
we had the best way in.

[Lawson] All I could do
is keep my nose down

and focus on the investigation.

[Thompson] I started thinking
about how I might confirm

whether José Treviño
was connected to the cartel,

and if that meant that the cartel
was doing business in The United States,

which would be
a pretty terrific little story, I thought.

There are lots of stories
about the drug trade.

While drug cartels are useful foil
for politicians,

the average American cares about them
in kind of a Miami Vice sort of way.

There's something
kind of glamorized about them.

When people die in those kinds of series,

they're typically the bad guy,
or they're nameless, faceless people.

But what got lost was, sort of,

what was happening to people
on the ground in Mexico?

These are teachers,
these are business people,

these are kids going to school.

So, how do I get people
in The United States

to care that the Zetas might be running
a multi-million dollar business

to launder money in the US,

which was driving a lot of the violence

and which was taking a lot
of innocent lives.

[woman] We were by the church.

[man] By the church?

[dispatcher] Good afternoon.
911, what's your emergency?

[man] This lady just drove up here,
uh, on her Jet Ski

and she's reporting that she
had to leave her husband behind

because she was involved in a shooting.

[dispatcher] Okay. Can I talk to her?

[man] Sure.

[woman, voice shaking] Hello?

- [dispatcher] Ma'am?
- [woman, crying] Yes.

[dispatcher] Okay, are you sure
that your husband got shot?

[woman] Yes. He was hit in his head
and he was thrown off the Jet Ski,

and I couldn't pick him up
to get him on mine.

He was just too big.

[dispatcher] Did you see anybody?

- [woman] There were three boats.
- [dispatcher] Three boats?

[woman] Three boats and
they came back looking at me and...

[dispatcher] Okay. What's your name?

[woman] Tiffany Hartley.

[dispatcher]
Uh, what's your husband's name?

[Tiffany] David Hartley.

[reporter] Shot to death
on a lake that runs

between the US-Mexican border.

[reporter 2] The wife
tells the sheriff her husband

was shot once in the back of the head.

She went back to try to save him but then,
on the Mexican side,

shots were fired back at her.

[Lawson] They got into an area where
the Zetas, you know, store narcotics

and the Zetas were suspicious
that they were law enforcement.

Then they just executed an American
citizen in the middle of the lake.

We spent the next several weeks
trying to build a case

against the Zeta hitmen who did this.

Obviously we couldn't successfully work
the David Hartley murder investigation

without having investigative steps
happen in Mexico.

There's an individual
from the Mexican government

trying to help us locate David's body,
help us gather information,

and then one Monday...

[reporter] One of the homicide
investigators in Mexico

never came home last night.

[reporter 2] His head was found
along the road that leads to Falcon Lake

and that the rest of his remains
have not been found.

As of yet, this kinda falls in line
with the MO of the Zetas cartel,

which is a powerful, a brutal drug cartel,

and this has been
the way they do business,

sending a clear message.

[Lawson]
Prior to the Zetas' rise to power,

there were these unspoken rules
that cartels operated by.

And it was basically,
don't bring attention to yourself,

don't harm folks
who are not in the criminal world

and don't attack
a US law enforcement officer.

For me and for anyone
who investigates the Zetas,

it felt like there was a change
in the rules of the game.

It really sparked a drive in,
you know, not just me,

but my squad to really want
to target the Zetas

and expose and prevent, you know,
further families from being hurt.

I think my dad just always had, like,
this very realistic view on life.

He knew that, as a young man,

especially wanting to go
in law enforcement,

that you're gonna see some tough things.

You're gonna see folks
in their worst hour.

You're gonna see folks
who lost loved ones close to them.

He said a lot of cops kinda lose
their heart as they go through this life,

and he's like "You cannot,
you know, you cannot do that."

He said you have to find a way to always
have heart about what you're doing.

[Tone] During this time,
things are changing

and it's the Zetas
that are changing 'em.

The cartels, historically,
had been extremely disciplined

at keeping both their business
and the violence

on the Mexican side of the border,

because that's how you avoid
unwanted attention.

The Zetas are just sort of getting
more and more brazen in every way.

The violence,
it's just... it's heightening,

and the stakes just keep building
and building and building.

[Lawson] At this point it's becoming clear
that it's time

to get a prosecutor on board who will
aggressively pursue this case with us.

I think a lot of public with the FBI,

they think of us as this
powerful organization.

But when we're conducting
an investigation, we're gonna need support

from The United States Attorney's office.

We can't bring charges against someone
unless we have a prosecutor on board.

So really, if we don't have a prosecutor,
we don't have much of a case.

[Perdomo] You're the case agent so
you're gonna be excited about your case.

You now need to sell your case
to this prosecutor

so that they can see what you see,
even though it's just a vision right now.

Without them...

...you can't get to that finish line.

[Lawson] Jason Hodge and I were trying to
figure out who is a prosecutor in Austin

who is driven and determined and motivated
to tackle a case of this size.

We knew that we needed
the cream of the crop.

We needed somebody willing
to take a hard case.

One name kept being kicked around.

We were greeted by this six-foot-three
marine JAG attorney.

Has kind of an intimidating presence.

[elevator dings]

[Doug Gardner]
Jason Hodge and Scott Lawson

came to my office in January of 2011.

[producer] So, do you remember
your first impressions?

Uh, Scott was tall. Uh, Jason was not.

Um...

Kind of wary about agents from Laredo.

Not because they're bad agents
or bad people, it's just,

Laredo is kind of a first posting.

So I guess I was more concerned
about experience level.

[Lawson] He just says
"Tell me what you've got," you know,

and gives me time to give the spiel.

Scott would say,
"Hey, this is what we believe is going on.

We believe these individuals
are involved in these acts."

[Lawson] And really don't have
a great idea how I was landing.

Our nerves are on high edge because
if Doug is not interested in our case,

there's nowhere else to go with it.

Initially, it didn't strike me
as anything out of the ordinary.

I sort of had this assumption this
is gonna be run of the mill cartel case,

but then they kept talking about horses
and cocaine and money laundering.

Money is coming from the Zetas

to fund the success of the racehorse

and to fund the ongoing, um, breeding
and racehorse operations for José Treviño.

I'd never seen a case like this before.
I don't think any of us had.

[Lawson] Well, as you're going
through the horses, you know,

the prosecutor is automatically
start thinking about forfeiture issues

and complexities and why
it's gonna be a pain in their butt.

But when you start talking
about your main target

is the brother of the leader
of the Los Zetas cartel,

you could see that his eyes perked up.

Well, I... I had the head,
I had the family.

So, we had the opportunity to find,
you know, the top bullies

and, you know, at least affect
their livelihood and their family

to the extent that they probably
affected countless of others.

I've never liked bullies.

I felt this is sort of a way
I could address that issue

and Miguel and Omar...

...you know, the biggest bullies
out there that I've seen.

Which is why I said bring it on,
I'm taking it.

[Lawson] Things are pointed
in the right direction

and I know that I now have that expertise

to take this case to this finish line.

[Gardner] We quickly realized
this is gonna be

a money laundering case
through the horses.

Needed the help of the financial folks,
which is the Internal Revenue Service.

So then, a guy named Steve Pennington
comes into the picture.

He's a guy that can manage
a taskforce of his own.

- [engine revving]
- On both the drug and the financial side.

Steve's a runner
and he's not very good at it.

He's a golfer,
he's not very good at that either.

He's unique.

I don't know how to explain
his uniqueness, but he's unique.

[motor revving]

[rock music playing]

[Gardner] Steve is a...

extremely hardworking,
extremely intelligent,

extremely driven
IRS criminal investigator.

And he's one of the few agents
that makes you want to work with him.

- [producer] Ready?
- Ready.

Early 2011,
Doug Gardner calls me up and said,

"Hey, we think the Zetas
are laundering money

through the horse industry
in The United States."

"Are you interested in working
on the leaders of the Zeta cartel,

namely Miguel Treviño, Omar Treviño,
Z40 and Z42?"

And I'm like,
"Well, hell yeah. I'll do it."

This was a chance to actually
go after the leaders

of a cartel that's responsible
for a lot of illegal activity.

So I needed the team that was
very knowledgeable about narcotics

and the way that traffickers dealt.

My name is Steven Junker, I go by Steve.

I spent 23 years working in narcotics,
undercover, with my partner Brian Schutt.

Were you born in a barn?
Close the door.

[laughs]

We were partners for 24 years.
He's like my wife.

We worked undercover together.
Our hair was way down to our back.

In 1999, we started working
money-laundering drug conspiracy cases

with Steve Pennington and his Waco team.

[Schutt] Pennington called and talked
about this horse case.

A lot of cash, you can buy equipment,
you can buy tractors, you can buy animals.

Nobody's gonna come looking
to see how you paid for it.

It's like, that's interesting,

it's a good way to launder money,
is what I thought.

I do remember Steve Pennington.

Literally, it was like
"Hey, we need volunteers

to go help us deal with this
money-laundering horse case."

And I'm like raising my hand
like I'm a kid in school,

and I'm like, "I'll go."

[Junker] The idea of going
after the Zeta family

or the Zeta organization,
it wasn't just a cell,

it was fucking awesome.

[Pennington]
When we were invited to join up,

they sat down and they explained
that they thought

that 40 and 42, in the Zetas,

were laundering money
through the horse industry.

Our taskforce started looking
at the financial aspect of it.

Started looking at the money.

If you wanna go for top guys
within a drug organization,

you can't necessarily follow the drugs,

because they're
not gonna be touching the drugs.

We were not looking for cocaine
in the horse stalls.

You have to follow the money,
because the money is gonna lead you

back to the top people
that want to control the funds.

And that's the reason they're
in the drug business, they want the money.

All about the money.

And the power.

Money-laundering is the taking
of proceeds from an illegal source.

For example, drug trafficking.

And they try to clean it up
so they can be used in certain ways.

So, you'll run it through a business.

You'll say it's from the sales
of a restaurant,

but in reality it came from drug proceeds.

Well, then they've got money
in their bank account,

then they go buy a house,
they can buy a car.

If you look just
on the surface of it, you go,

"Oh, you got money from a legit source.
No problem."

But the way a money-laundering
conspiracy works...

each person that touches those funds
and conducts a financial transaction,

whether it's to conceal
or further organize criminal activity

has committed an overt act
in the money-laundering conspiracy.

And that person can be
indicted and charged.

My job was to figure out
how they were doing it,

get the facts and the proof that the money
was in fact from an illegal source

and that it was being laundered
and this is where the money was going.

You start building the case and that's
where we went with our team,

focusing on those financial transactions

and FBI focusing on what they were
trying to get accomplished.

[Lawson] So in January of '11,
I get a call from my source

and he says, "For the first time ever,
José wants to sell a horse at auction."

Prior to this all they've done
is buy, buy, buy.

They never had to sell,
they never wanted to sell.

So I said "Well, which horse
are they gonna sell?"

And he tells me
it's gonna be Blues Ferrari.

Blues Ferrari,
purchased by the organization.

The horse got transferred
into José Treviño's name for...

...right around 20,000 dollars, I believe.

And normally, a horse's value is gonna be
how well they run, how well they race.

Did not do very well in the races.
Not at all.

[Lawson] We sent agents to the auction,
and just as all these other horses

look like Miss America and all dolled up,
Blues Ferrari is the exact opposite.

[Gardner] And I remember the same
horse farm manager saying,

"That horse came in looking like
death eating a cracker."

Death eating a cracker,
I mean that horse wasn't...

No one had brushed it,
no one had washed it.

[Lawson] So, Blues Ferrari enters the ring
and the bidding starts.

Everybody's thinking low four figures.

It goes from 5,000 to 10,000,
then we're up at 50, then we're at 80.

I think he went for 310,000 dollars.

Thank you. You've been a good bidder.
Thank you all.

[man] For a horse that made
20,000 dollars, 30,000 dollars,

for it to sell for anything
above 100,000 dollars was highly unusual.

[auctioneer speaking, indistinct]

The other half of the story is
the gentleman who was raising his hand

and bidding on Blues Ferrari had never
been seen at a horse auction before.

And was brought
into the horse auction house

by Fernando Garcia and Carlos Nayen.

That gentleman walks
into the horse auction house,

he writes two checks.

One for 150,000 dollars
out of his personal account

and a second check for 160,000 dollars
out of his personal account.

The gentleman who signed these checks
signed the name Alfonso Del Rayo.

That was a brand new name to us.

[del Bosque] Del Rayo went
up to the office to write these checks

for these horses
that really weren't valuable horses.

They knew something was up.

Person running the auction house goes,
"That's kinda strange."

So he took photos of Mr Del Rayo
signing the checks,

which was the only time he ever did that.

[Lawson] I suspected that Alfonso was
probably the next Francisco Colorado,

the next Mexican businessman
who had a legitimate business

and the Zetas were asking him
to make purchases for them.

[Gardner] They just washed,
laundered, 300,000 dollars

through the auction house
to make it look "legitimate" purchase

of a racehorse that they themselves sold.

It's like, "Nice!
I like the way you did that."

[copier whirring]

[Pennington] When we first
started looking at things,

everybody was
in way over our heads at the time.

It was millions of dollars
in the horse industry.

It was front companies in Mexico.

It was a tremendous amount of horses.

It was a lot of people involved with it
and it was, like...

"Everybody just take a deep breath.

Step by step, let's start...
and let's start wading through it."

Started looking at financial aspect of it.
Started looking at the money.

And we obtained bank records
and horse records on José.

I am not the money guy, I'm a narc.
I know narcotics.

You ask me about narcotics
and I can tell you.

But even I could see okay,
something's up with this.

Buying racehorses is not illegal.

Overpaying for racehorses
is not illegal either.

[Pennington] Having the different
companies is not illegal,

but the Treviños use companies,
what I refer to as front companies

for the sole purpose
of laundering the money.

And that is illegal.

I know José Treviño is dirty.

I know he's using his brother's drug money
to run a horse business.

I can't prove that at this point.

[Hodge] You know, we were gonna
have to prove up the fact

that the source or the generation of those
funds actually came from 40 or 42.

Can't bring fairytales
into the Federal Court.

You have to bring in,
you know, hard evidence

that can back up this narrative
of this story that we have.

Sure, it was horses
and it was money-laundering...

...but these were assets that
were belonging to the Los Zetas cartel.

Being in Laredo, we're so close to Mexico.

From our federal office, I mean,
you can see into Mexico,

you know, through some of the windows.

We were just always aware
of that potential for violence.

It was always in the back of our mind.

[reporter in Spanish] A moment ago,
some shootings occurred in this place

in this sector of Reynosa

where high caliber gunfire was heard,

and where traffic was stopped.
This happened before noon.

There are blockades
at the International Bridge

and other situations that are
taking place in our city.

[rapid, overlapping gunfire]

- Are you recording?
- [cameraman] I am recording.

[gunfire continues]

Moving on, what you hear
are rifle shots

and even louder noises.

This is what is happening
on the Reynosa border.

The confrontation taking place
is between federal forces

and some sort of organized crime cell.

The gunfire that you hear
at this moment...

[gunfire intensifies]

...it is a confrontation
between federal forces

and organized crime.

[powerful gunfire echoing]

Get down. Get down. Get down.

[in Spanish] The Zetas, at one point
were so powerful

that they decide to take over
the whole country.

One way to look at it is that they
created a criminal empire

and they are the kings
of that criminal empire.

[reporter in English]
Los Zetas have taken over.

They are Mexico's most violent,
most vicious, most feared drug cartel,

and it looks like they are here to stay.

[Thompson] In many of these communities,
when you're talking to the mayor,

you're probably also talking
to the drug organization.

Or when you're talking
to the military chief,

you're probably also talking
to the drug organization.

[del Bosque] The Zetas
were allowed so much impunity

and how can they just like,
have gun battles in the streets

and do whatever they want?

[British reporter]
The Zetas are battling this territory

in control of Mexico's drug trade.

[del Bosque]
It changed everything for journalists,

like, how are we gonna do this, you know?

We're just domestic reporters
and this is, like, a war zone.

[reporter 2] Last year alone, nearly 6,300
people were killed in Mexico's drug war.

That's more than double
the number the year before.

I mean, there were gun battles,
there were people being kidnapped.

[reporter 2]
Cartels are also increasingly expanding

into human smuggling,
extortion and kidnapping.

[del Bosque] And they were so threatening

that you could not really report on them

'cause they were also
killing journalists as well.

[producer] So, anyone who tried
to report on them,

anyone who got in their way,
anyone who stood up to them...

Would wind up dead.

[man in Spanish] Can you tell us
about the button that you have?

[in Spanish] Yes. Despite working
for a major media outlet

I have been threatened by people
related to organized crime

and I belong to a program
that the government started

to protect journalists. This is my button

to call for help, if necessary.

What became this, like,
dark hole of censorship, and it still is.

I pursued that story for a long time,
trying to figure out what's the end game,

what's the solution,
and then I just stopped.

Because I saw that it wasn't gonna be
a solution, wasn't gonna end...

[producer] I sense a little bit
of hopelessness in your voice.

[tense laughter] Yeah.

[sniffles]

[voice shaking]
Yeah, it's hard to talk about...

Um...

...when you really get down to it,
because it's...

it's a tragedy.

And, uh... you know,
a lot of people have died.

[Thompson] I wasn't familiar
with 40 and 42 in any deep way,

but I was absolutely familiar
with who they were

and what they were capable of.

And...

And it made me reluctant at first
to even pursue something like this

'cause I wasn't sure how I would do it
without running into them.

If you're really gonna chase this story,
you need access.

I would need to be very careful
if I was going to go after a story

that would essentially expose an important
business to them in the United States.

I didn't know who I might run into.

I didn't know who might be watching.

I was sleeping
in different hotels every night,

I was changing my rental car
every couple of days.

I was knocking on doors of people

who worked as trainers
for the Zetas cartel

and I didn't know
when I was gonna knock on a door

that was not a good door.

[car door closes]

So, how do I do it so they don't
find out that I'm doing it?

And I don't want to just say

that they would necessarily come after me,
although they might,

but I was really
worried about people that I might talk to.

So, how do you move around

without leaving a fingerprint on someone
who could get hurt?

Because they could really hurt some
of the people that I would try to talk to.

I was in the office in 2011,
when I got a call from the source.

And he says, "We're hearing
that the horseman, Ramiro Villareal,

was found deceased in a fiery car crash
outside of Nuevo Laredo."

He was the first person who had bought
all these horses for Miguel Treviño.

We knew that there's not too many
circumstantial ways

that Ramiro Villareal got killed
in a fiery car crash.

Through our investigation,
we learned that Ramiro Villareal

was summoned to meet with 40 in Mexico.

At this meeting was Carlos Nayen,
40 and several other

of the Zeta cartel members.

And at this meeting he was executed.

Ramiro being killed,
it just followed a similar pattern

of 40 utilizing a person to his will
to send money, to do his actions,

and when they become either vulnerable
in his eyes, or no longer useful,

he discarded them and would kill them.

And now it happened to Ramiro.

And he was working with the DEA.

So the concern was there,
what do they know

and what do they know about the folks
assisting in my investigation?

And you know that anybody
that you talk to in this investigation

or anybody that cooperates with you

is also putting themselves out there
to, uh... to risk death.

Yeah, it's a burden that I carry,

to do everything that I can in my power
to ensure your safety.

And that is an obligation
that I take very seriously.

[line ringing]

- [Graham] Hello?
- [Garcia] Tyler, it's me, again. Hey.

- [Graham] What's up?
- So we owe you something from March?

[Graham] No, not from March,
but see the problem is this.

The problem is... I... what I...
Listen, but listen.

[Graham] Y'all are getting me
in a jam with José.

Because I can't just pass on those
stud fees unless you pay those up front.

You know, I gotta have money to operate.

- [Garcia] Okay, okay.
- You know what I'm saying?

And late spring of 2011,
we're now in the breeding season,

and the bills are mounting up.

The cartel owes the source sometimes
250,000 dollars a month.

And the source is putting all kind
of pressure on Fernando, Carlos, José,

anybody who'll listen to pay up
on those tabs.

Which made me a little nervous.

I'm, like, "I don't know if you know
these guys well enough,

you should not be pushing so hard."

But, at some point
he gets a call from this guy

that we had not heard from before,

but we eventually identify him
as Victor Lopez, the money carrier.

He was moving money
across the border for the cartel.

- [Graham] Hello?
- [Lopez] Good morning, Tyler.

[Graham] What's up?

[Lopez] I got your money, man.

[Graham] Well, that's good.
Send it on up here.

[Lopez] Man, I can't make a wire.

[Graham] What's the deal?

[Lopez] Bro. I'm gonna...

I... the thing is I have the money.

I'm the only one here in Laredo.

[Graham] Why don't you just
send me a check then?

[Lopez] What do you mean a check?

[Graham] If it's in your account,
just send me a check.

[Lopez] Can you come for it? To Laredo?

[Lawson] Well, when I hear that,
I'm, like, "Hold up.

This is a great opportunity
to show bulk cash crossing the river,

coming into The United States,
used for the horses."

So, we had the source
call Victor back and say...

[Graham] I could maybe
send somebody down there.

[Lopez] Mm-hm.

Well, I have hundred-dollar bills,

so it's a small package.

So what you want to do?

[Graham] Let me send you a text message
back this afternoon.

Or here in just a little while.

Let me call him and I'll send you
the text message back.

[Lopez] All right. All right.

Victor thinks that a worker
for our source is coming to Laredo

and we set up this cash pickup.

[dogs barking faintly]

[Lawson] We want Victor
to deliver bulk cash

that he did not declare
straight to our undercover.

So that we can document that bulk cash
is crossing the river

to being used in this horse case.

[Hodge] We'd gotten intel that money
was being muled across the river,

we knew in like 9,999 dollar increments
below the reporting threshold.

Therefore, they don't have to declare it

and they think that we won't realize
the criminal nature of the money.

[man, into radio] ...undercover.

[Pennington] If you have
10,000 dollars in cash

and you take more than ten thousand
dollars to a financial institution,

they're required
to do a currency transaction report,

which is then given to the IRS.

So, in order to structure,
to avoid that report,

you keep the amounts
under 10,000 dollars, like 9,000, 8,000.

And as long as you break that money up and
put it in there, it's called structuring.

That's a separate crime in itself.

[Graham] Hello?

[Lopez] I'll be there
at 10:30 at the mall.

[Graham] All right, man.

- [Lopez] All right, be sure to answer.
- [Graham] All right.

[Lawson] This is my first time to oversee
an undercover operation.

If we did anything that alerted Victor
or any other Zeta

to the fact that this is really
a undercover operation,

they would then assume that our source
was co-operating with the investigation.

Victor says, "Hey, hey, you know,
I'm getting the money,

People are crossing the bridge.

One of the girls is detained,
but we'll have the money soon."

So I call Raul and say "Hey, man,

one of the girls crossing the money
is being detained by CBP,

we've got to get her cut loose."

[knocking on door]

We don't want anything to happen
to make the Zetas think

that our source could be cooperating.

Kinda had to share
some information with CBP

and ask them that they would allow
the female to continue on her way.

- [Graham] Hello?
- [Lopez] I'm coming in from there. Okay?

[Graham] Okay.

[Lopez] I'm sorry.
I got a little bit late.

[Graham] Hey, what kind of car
are you in, so I can tell my guy.

[Lopez] In a white cab.

[Graham] In a white cab.

[camera shutter clicking]

[Lawson] We now have Zeta money
in our hands,

straight from the hands of Victor,
you know, the money carrier.

Although we had had the bulk cash once
with Carlos in Austin,

this was the first time
we could say we saw it

cross the international border
right into our hands.

This was a huge piece
for the investigation.

[Pennington] You've got violations now.

Pure, criminal violations,

structured funds coming across the border.

And that's not only a red flag
for the overall conspiracy,

but it's actually criminal violations
on the people doing it.

[Lawson] But with the Zetas,
positive energy is short lived

because something negative
is always around the corner.

[operator]
Mexico Embassy switchboard office.

[man] We are shot! We are shot!

We are on the highway
of Querétaro, Mexico.

We've been shot and attacked
on the highway.

I am a special agent.

We've been shot on the highway.

[operator] Okay.

Try to remain on the line, please.