All language subtitles for FBI.True.S06E08.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- During the
cocaine cowboy era,

Miami was plagued with crime.

There was homicides
after homicides all day long.

- Sal Magluta
and Willie Falcon

ran the largest
drug trafficking organization

in the history
of South Florida.

- In the Latin community,

they were very famous
for their speedboat racing

and everybody knew
they were the hub

for cocaine trafficking
in Miami.

- The DEA conducted a massive
drug trafficking investigation

of Sal Magluta
and Willie Falcon.

Everybody is expecting for them
to be convicted at the trial,

but they were acquitted
on all counts.

- Respects the system
and respects that

a jury found us not guilty.

- The prosecutor suspects that
there was some jury tampering.

Government witnesses
had been murdered.

- Everybody talked about it.

Those are Willie and Sal's
peoples getting killed

from his organization.

These are drug hits.

- This really was an attack
on the whole justice system.

- We had to shut him down

- In the FBI, we make
a lot of headlines.

Drug busts,

mob stings,

terrorist takedowns.

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.

- Freeze!
- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

- But they don't know
the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking
agent-to-agent.

This is "FBI True."

- Hey!
- Hey, how are you?

- How are you?
Thanks for coming in.

- Raquel "Rocky" Cicini was a
Hialeah PD homicide detective

before joining the FBI's
Miami field office,

where she specialized
in public corruption

and crisis negotiation.

- Hi there. Nice to meet you.
- Good to see you.

- Yeah.
- Nice to meet you as well.

- Mario Tariche is
a 30-year veteran of the FBI.

He investigated
drug trafficking,

public corruption, money
laundering, and war crimes.

- So you both worked on one
of Miami's most famous cases.

How did you get involved?

- Cindy Coppola is a
23-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked organized crime,
terrorism,

drug trafficking,
and money laundering.

- My first day
in the Miami office,

our supervisor, Mike Clemens,
calls me into the office

and asks, would you
be interested

in being the lead case agent
on the Falcon and Magluta case?

The Sal Magluta
and Willie Falcon

drug organization was one
of the largest

drug trafficking organizations

probably in the history
of South Florida.

Rocky, growing up in Miami,
I'm sure had heard of,

uh, Los Muchachos, you know.

- The Boys.
- The Boys.

- The Boys.

- Which was their nickname
in the community.

- They're Cuban.
They went to Miami High.

In the Latin community,

they were very famous
for their speedboat racing.

- Seahawk.
Sal Magluta, the driver.

- And they had
million-dollar boats.

How could these guys
afford these boats?

And everybody knew that
they were the hub

for cocaine trafficking
in Miami.

Cocaine was the drug
of the '80s.

During the cocaine cowboy era,

Miami was plagued with crime.

There was homicides
after homicides,

drug killings all day long.

- In the late '80s,

there was a massive
drug trafficking investigation

of Sal Magluta
and Willie Falcon

conducted by the DEA.

Conservative estimates
were that

from the late '70s
and into the early '90s,

the organization had trafficked
more than 78 tons of cocaine

into South Florida and over
$2 billion in sales of cocaine.

The DEA executed arrest
and search warrants

at a mansion
in Fort Lauderdale

for Willie Falcon and then
a mansion on La Gorce Island

where Sal Magluta was living.

During the search of the
mansion on La Gorce Island,

they find a treasure trove
of evidence.

Ledger books, cocaine, cash.

They found
fraudulent passports

and driver's licenses
that Sal Magluta had.

At Willie's house,

they find that he has
a gun in the house

and the gun has the
serial number scratched out.

And so they end up
getting arrested,

both Magluta and Falcon,
in 1991 for drug trafficking.

So they actually don't
go to trial until 1995.

Everybody's expecting for them
to be convicted at the trial,

but to the shock of everybody
in the community,

they were acquitted
on all counts.

- Which is unbelievable.
They--

- Unbelievable.
- There's no way.

- Willie Falcon
and Sal Magluta

have been acquitted
on drug smuggling charges,

but that doesn't mean

the federal government
is giving up.

- Justice system,
respects the system,

and respects that a jury
found us not guilty.

We went to trial.

We did it the way this country

and this Constitution was
meant.

- After the acquittal,
Willie Falcon is immediately

charged with
a weapons violation.

He's convicted and
he gets a nine-year sentence

for having
that illegal firearm.

Sal is charged
with the possession

of fraudulent passports,

but that's not enough
to hold him on bond,

so he's released,

and the U.S. attorney's office
is really taken aback.

It was a devastating defeat,

so they want the FBI
to investigate this case.

We started to assemble
a team of agents

in breaking up the case.

Mike Clemens said to me,
well, we have a new agent,

and she's going to
be joining the team.

And as you can imagine,
initially,

I'm like, oh, a new agent?

That's probably
not going to work.

Rocky turned out to be an
invaluable member of the team,

but I was reluctant
in the beginning.

I didn't know that, though.

- The prosecutors suspect that
there was some jury tampering,

because there's
absolutely no way

that 12 jurors are going to
agree on a not guilty verdict.

In addition to the
jury tampering,

leading up to the trial,

government witnesses
had been murdered.

- The homicides happened
between 1989 to 1993,

and it seemed to happen
in conjunction to hearings.

- And then there was a massive
money laundering operation

run by the organization

and we suspect that they were
using all of this drug money

to pay for lawyers
and obstruct the case.

And we came up with
the code name Operation RECOIL,

which stood for Racketeering,
Executions, Corruption,

Obstruction of Justice,
Intimidation of witnesses,

and Laundering of drug money.

- So where did you start?

- The first part of
the investigation

was the homicides
and attempted homicides

of the government witnesses.

Rocky was in charge
of that part of the case.

- The first homicide was
the attorney, Juan Acosta.

He was supposed to testify
before the grand jury

about all these
offshore accounts

and a hit team came
into his office and killed him.

And then they learned
that Tony Posada

was going to be cooperating
with the government.

- Right, right.
- He was a drug trafficker.

He was a drug trafficker.

He worked for Willie and Sal

and they had put a car bomb
in his vehicle.

It went off,
but nobody got hurt in that.

- One of the other witnesses,
Lazaro Cruz,

he saw the hit team as
he was coming out of his house,

so he ran into his house
and they shot up his door.

And then one of the
other witnesses, Juan Barroso,

he was in the car, actually,
with his son.

He went to get gas and as he
was leaving the gas station,

they had done something
to the tire of his car.

And he pulled over and as
they came by to shoot him,

he slid under the car and
Barroso and his son survived.

- Suzanne's was a nightclub
in Coconut Grove,

and Luis Escobedo was murdered
in the parking lot.

And then we had
the Gonzalez brothers.

They were assassinated.

- Bernardo Gonzalez lay dead

in a pool of blood
in that black Cherokee.

Tonight, sources say

the bloodbath was
bought and paid for.

- Everybody was taken aback
and surprised by this.

Like, maybe in mafia cases
in New York City

you see witnesses
getting killed or car bombs.

We hadn't seen something
like that in Miami before.

- In Miami,
everybody talked about it.

Those are Willie and Sal's
peoples getting killed

from his organization.

So these are drug hits.

- Homicide detectives with the
city of Miami and Miami-Dade

have done some arrests
of hit team members

involved in these homicides

but we didn't have
any evidence at that time

linking Sal and Willie to
ordering any of these murders.

And that was going
to be our job,

is to try and link
these murders

to Sal Magluta
and Willie Falcon.

- Our goal was
to get cooperators,

so I went to interview the
hitmen and said, we're the FBI.

We can protect you,
we can protect your family,

if you cooperate with us.

One of the hitmen,
Javier Cadena,

he had told us that he used
a contact person named Eddie.

He didn't have his last name
or anything.

And he had a 478 number
for Eddie.

That 478 number was connected
to a cell phone company

owned by Sal Magluta's
brother-in-law, Eddie Lezcano.

We put Eddie Lezcano
in a photo lineup

and Javier Cadena
identified Lezcano

That was the first
real piece of evidence

that tied Javier Cadena

to a family member
of Sal Magluta.

- We learned
from the hitmen that

there was one leader
of both of these hit teams,

and we only knew him as Tocayo.

Tocayo was associated
with the cartels in Colombia,

and he was the main person

in charge of
eliminating these witnesses.

And the homicide detectives
suspected that

Tocayo had met with
Eddie Lezcano

and that's how
they orchestrated

all of these homicides.

But by the time we identified
Tocayo, obviously, he's gone.

He's back in Colombia,

so we start working with
the Colombian authorities

to try and get him arrested
in Colombia.

- So while you're trying
to find out who orchestrated

all these homicides,

are you simultaneously
working on the juries?

- Yes. So one of the jurors

had come to the U.S.
attorney's office and he said

you really need to investigate
the jury foreman, Miguel Moya,

because all he was doing was
advocating for an acquittal.

- This juror just laid out

what was going on
during jury deliberations

and Moya putting more
and more pressure on everybody

for a not guilty verdict,

saying all the cooperators
were liars,

the government didn't
prove their case.

But a lot of the jurors,
you know,

hung tough in the beginning

and they were like,
absolutely not.

- Sure. Yeah.
- These guys are guilty.

So then Moya comes up
with another idea.

He's going to bring up
to the judge

that he feels that the jury
should be sequestered.

So now the jury
gets sequestered,

and then
his pressure intensifies

on the other jurors who
are holding out.

Eventually,
the jurors just give up.

That's what led
to the not guilty verdict.

And this juror was
very suspicious

because during the trial
it appears that

Moya is spending money,

so he starts a financial
investigation of Moya.

Follow the money.

- That's right.
- Follow the money.

- During the financial
investigation,

we see no more ATM withdrawals
from his bank account.

We have Moya distributing
money to family members

into their accounts

and he starts
paying down all his debt.

He buys a new truck.

His parents, uh, buy
a vacation home in the Keys.

They were able to trace
around $350,000

in unexplained spending.

And meanwhile,
Moya is an airport mechanic

at Miami International Airport.

This guy makes $30,000 a year.

We're at a point where we have
all this unexplained spending.

How do we tie this--
- To Willie and Sal.

- Right. How do we tie this--
- How do you tie it back?

- First idea we have
is to try and get Moya

to meet with an
undercover agent

and maybe get some sort
of admission to taking money.

So we knew that he was
a basketball fan,

so the FBI sets up, like,
a flyer.

It was like a sweepstakes
where you can win free games

to a Los Angeles Lakers-
Miami Heat game,

which we knew
he would be interested in.

So we sent an agent
to his house

with some form
for the sweepstakes

and we gave him free tickets
to the game.

And we have
our undercover agent.

Rocky.

- There I went to sit
next to him in the arena.

I got to talk to him.

Just small talk.

So after the game,
we went to a bar in the Grove.

And we talked about
South Florida

and he started, uh,
bragging a little bit

about having a place
in the Keys.

I noticed that Moya
had a nice Rolex.

We had a few drinks
and then we left.

So we set up another meeting.

I said, I'm going
to bring a girlfriend.

And we went to Mango's.

The music at Mango's,
it's hopping.

And the other agent
is Puerto Rican like me,

and that salsa music came on
and we just started dancing.

And Miguel
started dancing with me,

and you know, he started
getting a little loosey-goosey,

touchy, whatever.

- We started to get
a little uncomfortable

that he was getting a little
bit handsy and aggressive.

But Rocky tried to get him
to talk a little bit

about his jury service,
and he was not interested.

So we're like, you know,
this is not working.

- And that's when
Mario pulled the plug.

- Let's, uh--
- let's try a different approach.

And that's when
I started thinking.

And you know,

I talk to my brother Ray
a lot about FBI cases.

And he says,
I got a guy on my squad.

He's absolutely the best.
Talk to Jack Garcia.

So I said, Jack, let's
come up with a scenario

to try and get an admission
from Miguel Moya on tape,

you know,
that he took a bribe.

So what we decided to do was
as Moya was coming out of work,

we have Jack pose as he's
a member of the organization

and that they have information
that the FBI has

this detailed case against you.

We want to make sure
you don't cooperate.

So that was the plan.

So we're in a van, you know,

about probably, like, ten cars
down in the parking lot.

We see Moya come out, and
you know, Jack's a large man.

And immediately Moya,
you know, is like,

taken aback a little bit.

And Jack just hits him
right away.

Who he is, you know,
I'm from the organization,

I work with Willie and Sal.

- He goes,
so I'm here to talk to you

about the money
that we paid you.

- And then he's like, well,

I don't know what
you're talking about.

So Jack said, listen,

you know,
don't play dumb with me.

Don't waste my time.

We have a contact
in the Department of Justice

that has given us
all this information

about the way you've been
spending the money we gave you.

- And he's like, well,
you know,

I don't know what
you're talking about.

And Jack keeps pressing him
like,

we told you to be careful
with the money.

- So finally,
he's not admitting to anything

and Jack tells him,
you know what?

I'm just going to tell
Sal and Willie that I was here

and offered you help
and you don't want our help.

And then Moya said,
no, no, no, no, no.

And then Jack starts to get him
to talk about the money.

- Jack says something
to the effect that, you know,

you can go to jail for this

and you've got to stop spending
and this and that.

And he goes, don't worry, man,
don't worry.

I'll do the 20 years.
Don't worry.

- So we get the admission
that we're looking for.

And as you can imagine,
we're all in the van

and we're like, oh, thank God.
- Listening, yeah.

- God, yeah. Thank god.
Now--now we got him.

So now we feel confident
that now we go and arrest him.

Then we start to uncover some
more links to the organization,

and they're able to link
cell phone records

between Moya and
the organization members.

So now we can show the jury,
look, during the trial,

he's talking to people
in the organization.

So he was convicted.

And during the sentencing,

Judge King said, well,
you said during the tape,

you know,
with undercover Agent Garcia--

- Yeah, yeah.
- I'll do 20.

- That you would do 20 years.

- So now I'm going
to sentence you to 20 years.

That was a big win for us.

So now the tide's
starting to turn to us.

We suspected there were
other jurors involved,

but the financial analysis
of the other jurors

wasn't as easy as what we saw
in the Moya case.

So later on in the case,

we had heard
from other witnesses

that an individual
called Raul Sarraff

made bribe payments
to a female juror

and Raul Sarraff grew up
with Sal Magluta.

- Before Sal
and Willie's trial,

Raul Sarraff discovered that
his neighbor, Gloria Alba,

had received one of the
jury questionnaires.

- So he coached Gloria
on what she needs to do

to get on the jury
so she gets selected.

We approach Raul Sarraff.

We tell him,
this is your one chance.

You either cooperate
or you're going down,

and he agrees
to cooperate for us.

But when we meet with Raul,
originally the plan was

Gloria is going to get,
like, $250,000.

- Right.
- Uh, to hang the jury.

But if there's
a not guilty verdict,

she's going to get $1 million.

But she gets, like, $260,000.

So the trial ends
and she's like,

well, where's the rest
of my money?

I was promised $1 million.

So Sal Magluta,
according to other witnesses,

says, I'm not paying this lady.

What is she going to do,
go to the police and say

oh, the organization didn't
give me my extra bribe money?

But Raul says Gloria,
she's super-greedy

and she's very aggressive

and I think if I call her
and tell her

that I have more money for her,
she'll talk to me.

When Raul Sarraff
calls Gloria and says,

hey, listen, the
money we owe you,

we're so sorry
we didn't pay you.

I'd like to
get together with you

and discuss some of the money
that we owe you.

And immediately she goes into,

damn right,
you guys owe me money.

Like, where is that money

that you guys are supposed
to be paying me?

Raul says, listen, bring
your husband to the meeting,

because we know
her husband was involved

in receiving the bribe
and spending the money.

So they meet at a restaurant.

Raul says, we're going
to give you 50,000.

She's upset.
She's pointing her fingers.

She's like, $50,000?
$50,000 is ridiculous.

- So she wants
the rest of her money,

but she, of course, is going
to accept the $50,000.

And we're all waiting
in the parking lot.

So as soon as her
and her husband

come out to the parking lot,
we arrest them.

So we explained the situation
to Gloria, and we said, well,

do you have any information
that could help your case?

So she said there was one
other juror, Maria Penalver.

She definitely took a bribe.

We were able to trace maybe
$20,000, $25,000 Maria spent,

and we knew her boyfriend,
Gerald Rodriguez,

had also spent some money.

Miami-Dade PD and FBI agents
had approached both of them

as they come out of work.

So Maria agreed to come
to the FBI office,

and we finally get
the confession.

Raul, Gloria,
and Maria plead guilty

to obstruction
of justice charges

and are each handed
a five-year sentence.

Isael and Gerald are also
charged and sentenced.

The third part of the case
was a massive

money laundering operation
run by the organization.

And to our astonishment,
we get a call one day

from the
U.S. attorney's office

about an informant
named Orlando.

He wants to cooperate
in the case.

And he told us that his
girlfriend, Marilyn Bonachea,

had been distributing
large amounts of cash

for the organization during
the trial and after the trial.

- Marilyn and Sal
were teenagers

when they met
and became a girlfriend.

Sal eventually married,
but they never broke ties.

- She was extremely loyal
to him and he trusted her.

So we knew that Marilyn
was a paralegal,

uh, that worked
on the defense team.

- She became the bookkeeper.

And prior to us
getting involved,

those books were confiscated

during a traffic stop
by the DEA.

- We sent those ledger books
up to FBI headquarters

to have them deciphered.

- They couldn't figure it out,

so we knew we needed
to find a way

to get her to cooperate
and decipher these books.

As we're trying
to decode Marilyn's books,

Sal Magluta's passport trial
is about to begin.

- So Sal decides at that point
in the middle of the trial

to flee,
and we don't know where he is.

And then the informant
calls us and says,

they want Marilyn out of Miami
as quickly as possible

because Sal Magluta is worried
that the FBI is going to come

get her because of the seizure
of these ledger books.

- We're all busy--
trials, working, what have you.

And we get a phone call
that she's got to leave today,

and we have to do
a surveillance from Miami

to wherever they lead us.

- Next time on FBI True.

- We had to scramble
everybody.

All hands on deck.

We need to know,
where is Willie and Sal?

Are they going
to stash Marilyn?

The organization
is going to send somebody

to take you to a safe house.

So this individual from the
organization finally shows up.

He's delivering illegal drug
money for Willie and Sal.

We suspected they were
using all this drug money

to pay for lawyers
to obstruct the case.

- They would write
these fake checks

with letters for the attorneys
to make it look legit.

- So we convinced the FBI,

OK, we're going
to let this money walk

because we want to identify
everybody.

- Our system cannot be allowed

to get corrupted like this
by criminals.