ACTING_SUPERVISORY_AGENT_CONNOR ACTING_SUPERVISORY_SPECIAL_AGENT_CONNOR AGENT AGENT_ON_RADIO DEPUTY_CHIEF_CANZANO OFFICER OFFICER_BAZILUS OFFICER_CANADILLA OFFICER_CAVAZOS OFFICER_PANZARINO OFFICER_RAMIREZ OFFICER_RODRIGUEZ OFFICER_RUIZ OFFICER_SWANSON OFFICER_VARGAS OFFICER_VILLARREAL SUPERVISOR_FUENTES TRAVELER

ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
All right.
AGENT
All right, he's at the light.
AGENT
If we could get the next unit, just to keep eyes on it.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
Yeah, I can take that.  We just got a request from one of our other teams, which specializes in, uh, commercial trucking.  They believe they've identified a vehicle that's already made it through and is, uh, loaded in the cargo section with narcotics.  So we're gonna get out on the road and give them a hand.  I'm set.
AGENT
10-4.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
Our primary concern is that we, you know, we can't let these drugs hit the street.
AGENT
He is going to be set up, uh.
AGENT
About to turn to continue north towards the 11.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
I just happen to be coming down it.  I may cross him at the intersection.
AGENT
10-4.  He's about ten seconds from that intersection.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
I got him.

ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
Okay, I've got him.
AGENT
Copy.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
Truck ramped on to 805 North, which runs the entire west coast.
AGENT
Anybody with him at this time?
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
I think this is him right here.
AGENT
Woah, he's shifting over.
AGENT
And he's taking the 56 East.
AGENT
Off, off, off.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
Damnit.
AGENT
56 East.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
That was a hard last minute change.
AGENT
Yeah.
AGENT
For a semi-truck.
AGENT
That is about as last second as you can make it.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
I'm trying to think what's up next.  This is not a normal route.  We don't have a destination for it yet.  It just, uh, makes it problematic.
AGENT
Actually, it merged back into the 5, right?
AGENT
He is.
AGENT
Headed for the 5.
AGENT
Unless he does another last second turn.
AGENT
Uh, okay, committed 5 North.
AGENT
Off, off, off.
AGENT
Back to 5 North.
ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR
So he made a last minute exit onto another feeder highway that-that should have split off from the 5.  But in actuality, it comes right back on to the 5.  Uh, my guess is that that was some form of countersurveillance.  That just heightens our suspicions that, you know, the information that we've developed is correct.  That this vehicle is, in fact, loaded.  We have the busiest land border in North America here in San Diego.  Thousands of trucks are coming through an hour.  We know that a lot of these cargo loads go to the Los Angeles area, which is a major distribution area.  But the truth is it could stay here in San Diego or go somewhere in between.  It could hop on the 8 and head into Arizona.  It's very much a guessing game.  But the likelihood is, we're headed for Los Angeles.

OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] Hello.
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] Good afternoon, officer.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] Anything to declare?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] I'm bringing tortillas, medications, nopales.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] Have a good day.
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] Thank you, officer.  Have a good day.
SUPERVISOR FUENTES
This is the port of Brownsville, the southernmost point of Texas.  We are in the border from, uh, Matamoros, Mexico under the state of Tamaulipas.  And you have a lot of people here that regularly cross from Mexico, some that live in Mexico and come and work here in the United States.

OFFICER
[speaking Spanish] Where you coming from today?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] The dentist.
OFFICER
[speaking Spanish] No drugs, no guns, over $1,000 in cash?
TRAVELER
No.
OFFICER
All right, sir, thank you.
TRAVELER
Yes, sir.
SUPERVISOR FUENTES
For the most part, as far as narcotics, we get marijuana, cocaine, meth, smuggled in the vehicles.  And our job here is pretty much just to do what we can to find and intercept the narcotics.

OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] Hello.  Anything to declare?
TRAVELER
No.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
Okay.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] Have a good day.  [speaking English] Yeah, I haven't had a good target yet.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
It's been, uh, a little slow the last couple months here in Brownsville.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
She's gonna be excited.  Come on, Sophie.  So this is Sophie.  And let's go baby girl.  Come on.  I've been a handler for nine years now.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
We have four new K-9s and we actually have one that's about to go to the academy.  Good girl.  Come on.  The K-9 program is growing.  So we're hoping that we're gonna get more positions available.  Because they're an amazing asset, as far as trying to find the narcotics that are going through.  Pre-primary, we try to search all the vehicles that are coming in.  Let's go, baby.  Good girl.  She goes either wherever she thinks the narcotic is at and she will not leave it.  Yup, found something.  Let's go.  Can you send the red Suburban in, please?  Single male, please.
OFFICER
Okay.
OFFICER
[speaking Spanish] They're going to do a quick inspection, okay?
OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] We're going to number two, okay?
OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] Turn it off and give me the keys.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
Okay.  I, I just need to check under the hood, because she went under the hood in pre-primary.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
So it's a pre-primary target?
OFFICER VILLARREAL
Yes.  Checking to see if there's any tampering.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
Terminals don't look messed with.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
There's these natural voids, and they can easily hide stuff in there.  There could be a lot of factors that the dog can be alerting to.  The dogs are trained to find odors that are not supposed to be there.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
I'm not seeing anything.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
Me neither.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
Ah, this is frustrating.  I don't see, I don't see anything.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
I'm good with it.  It could be somebody that might have been touching the vehicle underneath.  It might have been contact with some type of narcotic.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
All right, sir.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
We're trying, Rhys, we're trying.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
We've all been trying.  Nobody has gotten anything.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
Nothing, dude.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
Yeah.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
It's coming in.  We just haven't figured out where it's coming in from.  It's a competition between the good and the bad.  Cat and mouse.  Come on.  Good girl.

DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
We're currently at the port of New York, Newark.  Newark Liberty International Airport.  We are on the cargo arrival side.  All these aircrafts that you see right here are cargo carriers.  We also have express consignment cargo here.  Express consignment arrives on DHL, United Parcel Service and Federal Express, as well.

DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
Today, we'll be going to an express consignment facility.  It's a, a common method or a preferred method of narcotics smugglers to use express consignment.  What the bad guy has on his side is the ability to track every movement of that package.  If there's a delay for any, uh, length of time, they'll be wary about collecting the package.  They'll assume, if they're savvy smugglers, which most are, that, uh, somewhere along the process that, uh, it was intercepted by law enforcement.

DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
This morning, we have a flight from Cologne, Germany.  We have a specialty group, uh, known as, "the targeters."  And they've identified at about 85 to 90 packages for an enforcement, a more thorough examination.
OFFICER
What is that?
OFFICER
It's, uh, books.  Educational books.  Good to go.
OFFICER BAZILUS
On average, we probably get 20,000 shipments a day, Monday through Friday.
OFFICER CANADILLA
In here, we have some IPR sneakers.
OFFICER CANADILLA
We actually get a lot of counterfeit items that go out for resale.  We get sneakers, we get handbags.  We get basically everything.
OFFICER SWANSON
They've been known to put contraband drugs inside cardboard, inside the actual packaging itself.
OFFICER SWANSON
So we always check, in addition to the commodity, we check the packaging.
OFFICER
So what you got?
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
This is actually coming from Amsterdam.  And it's going to a private individual.
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
I'm not sure if what is it that they're trying to bring, but, uh, this is manifested as, uh, a insulation block.  Could be used for medical purposes perhaps, we don't know yet.  So we're gonna find out to see what this is.  All righty.  So there's apparently two packages here.  It's well protected, for sure.  Let's bring these two guys out of here.  Um, very interesting.  Well, that's definitely not an insulation block for sure.  This looks organic.  It looks biological.  Um, this looks like shrooms.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
Hey, check it out.
OFFICER
What is it?
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
Shrooms.
OFFICER
Bingo.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
We've seen these before.  This is a shroom grow kit.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
What they'll do is, they'll put this in soil and this will grow the mushrooms.  It's a Schedule One narcotic.  It's definitely prohibited for importation.
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
To the naked eye, most regular people would just probably think this is some sort of food.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
We see legit mushrooms come in.  They say they're manifested as mushrooms and they go right to AQI to be refrigerated.  But it's manifested, uh, incorrectly.  It's going from a person to a person, to an apartment right, a couple miles from here.  Uh, fragile.  This side up.  I think I can pretty much drop this from a thirty story building, and it's really not gonna break.  So what's fragile about it?  So it gives the appearance of being something that it's not.  Strictly for hallucinogenic, euphoric high.  Um, how do I know that?  Because prior experience of seizing these things.  You want to seal it up?
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
Yeah.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
You'll see a warehouse full of things being seized.  Seizing's nice, but ultimately, it's the arrest we want.  This will definitely get referred to Homeland Security Investigations.  Because my job is to find it, their job is to possibly make a case.  But the bottom line is, look, this is not gonna get admitted into the country.  Thank you so much.  Moving on.  Moving on, moving on, moving on.
[SNAP-IN]
OFFICER CANADILLA
This is a different shipment that we have today.  Gonna check them and see what we have.
OFFICER
These.
OFFICER CANADILLA
These are.
OFFICER
More vapes.
OFFICER
What do you have there?
OFFICER CANADILLA
It says, "City of New York Police Identification Badge."  There's no documentation.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
It originated in the Netherlands and it is going to a residential, uh, address in New York.
OFFICER CANADILLA
There's no type of paperwork, no type of ID, or anything registered in regards to this badge.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
Yeah.  The biggest thing is who is gonna challenge an NYPD badge especially i-in the city of New York where this is going to.  This is, uh, identical to the badge protectors that we wear, the holders we wear.  Mostly, this is how detectives in plain clothes, they wear it right next to their weapon, uh, if, if they're carrying a weapon.  This whole system was designed for this badge.  We've seen, uh, bulletproof vests.  We've seen bogus IDs.  Regularly, we see police memorabilia.  It feels authentic.  It's definitely constructed well.  Very good find.  Excellent job, Officer Canadilla.  Um, and we'll definitely be following up with this.  We'll put it to the side and then everything will be, uh, secured in our seizure vault.  We'll refer to, uh, Homeland Security Investigations.  And I'm confident Homeland Security Investigations will loop in NYPD and they'll jointly conduct an investigation.  Just like with passengers, when you find one bad one that doesn't mean you stop doing the rest.  So we have a job to do.  Uh, we still have more packages on the docket to, to inspect and, and that's what we'll do.
[END OF SNAP IN]
OFFICER VARGAS
Hello, miss.
OFFICER VARGAS
[speaking Spanish] Anything to declare?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] No, I'm not bringing anything.
OFFICER VARGAS
[speaking Spanish] Where you headed to?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] I'm going to Olmito.
OFFICER VARGAS
Okay.
OFFICER VARGAS
[speaking Spanish] Thank you.

OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] Good day.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] Where are you headed?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] Going to Mission.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
Uh, Mission.  Every officer kind of does things a little differently.  I kind of look at the vehicle and look to see who's driving.  See if it's clean or dirty.  I kind of put all that together.  By the time they get here, I've already kind of established whether or not I'm gonna look into a little more or if I'm gonna release it.
OFFICER CAVAZOS
[speaking Spanish] You'll have to go through inspection, okay?  [speaking English] Hey, secondary.  You got a '17 Honda Civic, '17 Honda Civic.
OFFICER CRUZ-GARCIA
[speaking Spanish] Good day.
OFFICER CRUZ-GARCIA
[speaking Spanish] What were you doing in Mexico?
OFFICER CRUZ-GARCIA
Um, he's claiming, uh, he left the vehicle to, for a car wash.  They took out all the carpets.  So we're going to check it out thoroughly, contact the K-9 officer.
OFFICER
[speaking Spanish] Follow me this way.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
She's alerting.
OFFICER CRUZ-GARCIA
Yeah.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
Good girl, mama.  Good girl.  Good girl, mama.  Good girl.  I'm very confident that the vehicle is going to have some, um, some sort of concealed narcotic somewhere.
OFFICER CRUZ-GARCIA
Basically now, we're going to put the car on a lift so we can take a better look underneath the vehicle.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
All this has been tampered with.  Because there's something in here.  Like they smeared something.
OFFICER
Is that fresh oil or fresh gas under the tank, or what?
OFFICER VILLARREAL
It could have been a decoy.
OFFICER
A decoy.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
What smugglers tend to do is they use decoys.  Because of what they smeared here, it could be anything mixed with any kind of drug.  And of course the dog is gonna alert as fast as my dog alerted.  That could be a big possibility.  They threw something in here.  Our dog was on point down here.  The way my dog alerted, that was like, like it was the actual brick was just sitting there.
OFFICER
Clear, clear, clear.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
That's why, like, I was so sure.  But we didn't find anything.  We're hunting.  We're hunting every day.  That's non-stop.  We learn their trends, they learn our trends and it's just back and forth.  We're gonna get them.  It's gonna happen.

AGENT ON RADIO
He's turning westbound, passing a.
AGENT ON RADIO
Uh, a red bar, off to this left-hand side.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
10-4.

ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
The sun's going down.  We have left San Diego county and we are now in Los Angeles.  So right now our, uh, team up in LA is assuming the primary role in this investigation from here.  Our truck has exited the freeway and we're in a predominantly industrial warehouse area.
AGENT ON RADIO
He's making a, uh, left turn into this, uh, lot here.
AGENT ON RADIO
Looks like some sort of warehouse.
AGENT ON RADIO
Has a bunch of big rigs parked in this.
AGENT ON RADIO
Uh, parking structure here.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
Copy.
AGENT ON RADIO
If you guys wanna hang back.
AGENT ON RADIO
Uh, I got a good eye on him.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
10-4.  We were able to run some checks.  And, um, it's manifested for produce, likely avocados or something to that effect.  And we're in a produce section of Los Angeles.  Uh, if it is loaded, it's gonna be somehow mixed in with the, um, with the produce.
AGENT ON RADIO
Looks like he's backing up to one of these bay doors.
AGENT ON RADIO
It's gonna be more along the, uh, far west side of this.
AGENT ON RADIO
Uh, lot back here.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
With these cargo loads, we've seen them sit for a long time.  Hours, sometimes even days, before someone tries to unload them.  Everybody here is tired and the lights on the truck just shut down.  So there's a possibility that it's gonna sit there for a while before they attempt to unload it.  It's a challenging waiting game, because we don't know how long it's gonna be.  It could be in ten minutes, it could be in six hours.  But if our information's correct and this cargo load is loaded that is a lot of drugs to not hit the streets.  And so, it's-it's worth fighting for.  And we're gonna stay on this to see it through to some kind of, uh, conclusion.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
It's morning.  Uh, we've been here all night.  Um, most of the businesses were closed until about an hour and a half ago.  And now we're starting to see forklifts running around and cargo trucks.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
So we're hoping to see some more activity soon.  We're, um, submitting for a search warrant for the location.  And, um, we're gonna take some action against the truck so we can inspect it and-and confirm the dope and seize it.
AGENT ON RADIO
All right.  Our guy's in the back, opening the doors now.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
We got activity.
AGENT ON RADIO
We've got our target and then another guy with him in the back.
AGENT ON RADIO
Of the trailer.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
Somebody just showed up and opened up our vehicle.  And it looks like they're getting prepared to unload.
AGENT ON RADIO
He's on the east side right now.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
So we're trying to hustle over there.
AGENT ON RADIO
We're all set up.
AGENT ON RADIO
We all have our locations.
AGENT ON RADIO
They're picking up the first pallet right now.
AGENT ON RADIO
Move in.
AGENT ON RADIO
Go!  Let's go!
AGENT ON RADIO
Go!
AGENT
Police!  Hands up!
AGENT
Police!
AGENT
Hands!  Hands!
AGENT
Hands!  
AGENT
Hands!  
AGENT
On your knees!
AGENT
Get on your knees!
AGENT ON RADIO
Our driver's detained.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
We've got him.


OFFICER
Wedding favors.  It's good to go.
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
A lot of times our targeting team, they look into the manifest and they look at anything that could be IPR related, FDA, or drugs.  Here, they're actually listed as just documents.  We're gonna open it to see what it contains.  Very weird, because this is, uh, coming from one shipping company and as we open the package, we see a different shipping company.  So they have a lot of different cards.  They all have different addresses.  California.  We have Texas.  We have Philadelphia.  So this is going all over the place.  So the interesting thing is, what could be so special that it's going everywhere.  Yeah, they're Christmas cards.  It's the summertime right here in New York City, so I'm not sure whether if this is appropriate to begin with.  Not only are we shipping, uh, Christmas cards, but they also contain shipping labels.  It also has, uh, let me see, on this one, it has, voilà, look at that.  A VIN number.  This is even more interesting now.  So, this is the vehicle identification number.  Every vehicle has, like, it's own unique, uh, identity, for lack of a better word.  So that's what's gonna differentiate it from the other vehicles.  So all of these are containing VIN numbers.  This definitely smells like illegal, uh, situation.
OFFICER
Yeah, yeah.
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
We deal with VIN numbers all the time.  In New York City and New Jersey area, it's predominantly notorious for a lot of vehicles getting stolen.  This one, in particular, has a lot of different VIN numbers in comparison to the other ones.  And it also has another shipping label.  My guess is that most likely as they make it to this, uh, person's address, and I'm assuming this person is then gonna distribute them across the States.  When you put two and two together, it's safe to say that there's definitely something going, uh, on as-as far as vehicle theft goes.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
This one's for a Mercedes Benz AG.  So if you look, these vehicles are all high profile cars.  Tape them up and put them in a pallet, and then we'll start with the next, uh, find.
OFFICER RODRIGUEZ
Okay.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
We're going to link up with our Customs and Border Protection counterparts.
DEPUTY CHIEF CANZANO
Their unit deals with specifically stolen outbound cars.  They are, by far, the busiest in the country, so once we put these VIN numbers in our system, then we should be able to tie it to the car that they belong to.

OFFICER VARGAS
All right.  Thank you.  Have a good one.

OFFICER VARGAS
Hello.
TRAVELER
Hi.
OFFICER VARGAS
[speaking Spanish] Anything to declare?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] No, nothing.
OFFICER VARGAS
[speaking Spanish] What was the reason for your trip?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] Work.
OFFICER VARGAS
Oh.
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish]
OFFICER VARGAS
[speaking Spanish] You come here often?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] Yes.
OFFICER VARGAS
[speaking Spanish] The car is yours, right?
TRAVELER
[speaking Spanish] Yes.
OFFICER VARGAS
The crossings of the vehicle, nervous behavior.
OFFICER VARGAS
[speaking Spanish] Okay.  Just give us a second.  [speaking English] Escort lane two.  So I just decided to run the inspection into secondary for enforcement.
OFFICER RUIZ
Right now we're just trying to see if we see, uh, any, anything out of the ordinary.  Any tampering on any kind of bolts.  Something that, that doesn't look right.
OFFICER
I don't see anything.
OFFICER
K-9's gonna run it.  It's time to put the K-9 to work.  Watch out, guys.
OFFICER
That's a good alert.  That's a good girl.  That's a good girl.
OFFICER
Found it?
OFFICER
Yeah, it's in the center console.
OFFICER
Okay.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

OFFICER
We are reviewing the image.  In the center console, we see a dark spot, which looks like an anomaly.  Secondary, can you go ahead and check the center console for an anomaly?
OFFICER
10-4.
OFFICER
Uh-hmm.
OFFICER
Let's do it.
OFFICER
All right.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Yeah, it's been, this has been, uh, played with a bit.  I think it's tampered, no?
OFFICER
Yeah.  These screws have been taken off.  You see how, like, they're all damaged, scratched?
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Oh, yeah.
OFFICER
It's missing screws.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Oh, yeah.
OFFICER
Right here.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Oh, yeah.  There's a trap door here.
OFFICER
Yeah?
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Yeah.  Let's see.  I can see something in here.  Oh, yeah.
OFFICER
Yeah, there's packages.
OFFICER
There's packages in there.
OFFICER
Yeah.


AGENT
We've got four in custody right now.
AGENT
Uh, still need to be interviewed and.
AGENT
Looking to see if we can, uh, get more information.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
Nice.  That's our original?
AGENT
That's driver.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
Yeah, okay.  Everyone else came from inside?
AGENT
Yeah, everybody else is inside.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
But they were in the process of beginning the unload, so it's just kind of figuring out who's who and what their involvement is?
AGENT
Correct.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
So what's next?
AGENT
Next is essentially gonna be, we're gonna be towing this.
AGENT
Uh, tractor trailer away and then conduct our thorough search.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
And all this is gonna take a minute?
AGENT
Yes.
AGENT
Getting the tow truck out here.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
Yeah.
AGENT
A specialized tow truck at that.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
So we can at least see at least five pallets.  Uh, they're probably about five, six feet high.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
Those are the ones that we're gonna have some interest in and we're gonna inspect those a lot better.  Hey, our tow's here, I think.  I don't even know how they're gonna get that.  Okay.  We're gonna let this warehouse get back to business.  We're gonna take it off site to a place that's safer for us to pull out the narcotics.  All right, thank you.  We think we have a pretty good idea of what's in there.  Everything else, that through our investigative efforts and our checks, kind of lines up.  Some of us have been up for thirty-some hours, but we're in the last hour, or so, of this.  And we're gonna push through and see it to the end.


OFFICER PANZARINO
Port Newark, New York, New Jersey is the busiest port on the east coast, if not in the country.  Tens of thousands of vehicles are exported every month.
OFFICER PANZARINO
BMW, Mercedes, Land Rover, all day long.  I'm focused on finding stolen cars.  Tens of millions of dollars just from this port yearly in stolen cars that get recovered.  That money's used to fuel terrorism, the narcotics trade.  We're going to a warehouse where we have containers staged for examination.  I look for discrepancies in the filings, things that just don't fit what's being shipped.  Once it goes in the container and it's brought to the seaport, well that's the last stop.  If we don't get it there, it's homefree to where it's going and they got away with it.  It's like finding a needle in a haystack when you're looking for the stolen cars.  But targeting is a very important part of finding the cars.  These containers were targeted by myself.  And it is supposed to contain two vehicles and household effects.  This one looks good.  It just has two cars.  But until I get in there and get the VIN numbers and match 'em up to what they have, we don't know.  Make things easy.  Right now, we're gonna take a picture to ID these cars by the public VIN.  Okay.  I'm gonna go up to the Tundra, take a picture of that one.  Let's see if we get the VIN on this one.  Okay.  And then we're gonna run them in the system and see if they come back as stolen.  Let's see what we have.  Bingo.  Yes.  Both of these cars are stolen.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
OFFICER PANZARINO
Bring it in.

OFFICER PANZARINO
You're good.  Okay.  Yeah, put it over here for now and let's grab the other one.  It's brand new.
OFFICER PANZARINO
The bottom is shiny.  No dirt.  It's actually easier to steal a car today than when it was twenty years ago.  All these cars now, they have the key fobs where there's no ignition switch, you don't need a key.  And then with internet, they make it look easy.  They're not even going to dealerships.  Right over the phone, right over the computer.  They could be in New York buying a car from a dealership out in Missouri with somebody else's ID.  It still has the stuff from the dealer.  This one here, we have a key.  So it'll make things a little easier from here on out.  Let's see if it starts.  Fifty-five miles (eighty-eight kilometers), so it never saw the road.  I'm gonna try to start the Infinity.  Usually, if one has a key, the other one does.  In this case here, the car starts up.  So the key has to be in here somewhere.  So, we're all good.  Two stolen cars today, at least.

OFFICER PANZARINO
After reviewing the printouts of the thefts of these vehicles, it appears that both of them were steals from two separate dealerships by a fraudulent purchase.  Identity theft on the internet.  We're all actually a victim when it comes to stolen vehicles.  Our insurance rates are higher.  And, uh, you have the consumer who owned the car.  They take their ID's, credit cards, and all that, and that ends up fueling more steals.  These cars are gonna be going in the warehouse.  They'll be looked through real good to make sure there's nothing else concealed inside them.  And then they'll be scheduled for recovery back to the owner.  In this case, it's either the dealership or their insurance company.  Two cars and it's not making it somewhere.  I guess we, uh, ruined their plans.

OFFICER RAMIREZ
It's positive.
OFFICER
Okay.  Yeah, there's packages in there.  I see one gray.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Let's take it apart.
OFFICER
Yeah.

OFFICER RAMIREZ
So the trap door was here, underneath the, the shifter.
OFFICER
Oh, hold on.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
One package.
OFFICER
So far, two packages.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
They really jammed them in there.
OFFICER
Yeah, they're stuck in there.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Want me to try and hit it down?
OFFICER
Yeah.  Bang it this way.  Yeah.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
What the heck.
OFFICER
Here.  Give me that.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
They're not budging.  We're afraid to tear the packages.
OFFICER
There you go.  There you go.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
There's still more?
OFFICER
Yeah.  Oh, yeah.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Eight, nine, ten.
OFFICER
Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Fourteen packages.  Total fourteen packages?
OFFICER
Yeah.  We're gonna have to go test them.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
From the looks of it, from my experience, it's wrapped differently so it's gonna be more of a mixed load.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
We'll go ahead and test them, make sure we're confirming what kind of drug it is.  Whether it's cocaine, heroin.  So, we'll go ahead and see.


ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
The biggest difference with the cargo loads versus the passenger cars that we are typically investigating is the sheer volume.
AGENT
You put a rope on those, put it on a forklift, and then back the forklift up.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
Yeah?  All right.  The size of the containers that they ship in can hold so much more.
AGENT
All right, let's stop there.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
One of these vehicles can hold hundreds of kilos (two hundred twenty pounds).  Uh, which is several, several cars worth full, uh, that would be normally coming through our ports of entry.  Want to try in here?  It's not uncommon for the loaded packages to not be easily accessible for inspection.  Try this one.  It's dead center.  Oop.  Oop.  Got a winner.  That's different.  Just heavier, denser.  It's thicker.  Right there.  Bingo.  That looks like a dope package to me.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
It felt heavier and, like, it was wider when I grabbed it.

ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
So not every one of these boxes is gonna be loaded and not every package is gonna be loaded.  That being said, we have to do our due diligence and we have to check every single package to make sure that no contraband hits the streets.  There you go.  That's one, yup.  So cut it in fours and then they break better.  Sweet.  Whenever you're dealing with drugs hidden in food commodities, it's always messy extracting it.  There you go.  You got one.
AGENT
That's one, right?
AGENT
Yeah.
ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
We still have to test it, but we believe it to be cocaine.  We seized it here in Los Angeles, which is a major distribution hub that spreads far and wide into the interior.  So these could've been headed anywhere from Buffalo, New York to Blaine, Washington.

ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
Thank you, man.  Take care.  Our HSI Los Angeles office took primary along with their state local partners.  They've pretty much got it well in hand and are starting to process, uh, the narcotics.  So we're gonna start heading back down to San Diego again.


ACTING SUPERVISORY AGENT CONNOR
We spent a lot of hours on this and it would appear that this is the end.  This is only the beginning of this investigation.  We're gonna continue to work these investigative leads and try to dismantle this network as far, as wide as we can take it.


OFFICER RAMIREZ
We have a total of fourteen packages.  We're gonna unwrap them to get better access.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
And as we're unwrapping the packages, we're finding, uh, different signs.  The smugglers, they put these markings on the bricks themselves to show to who they're going to.  And also we're finding, like, these dryer sheets.  They believe that dryer sheets and all these other scents are gonna throw our K9s off, but, I mean, as you can see, it obviously doesn't work.  They still pick it up.  So the Gemini is a tool that we use to test the properties of the narcotics.  It has a library of different chemicals to give us the exact match.  I'm just gonna open up the package.  Okay.  So we got a positive for cocaine.  The packages, they're all wrapped in different forms.  From our experience, it's a mixed load.  So we're gonna go ahead and test this to confirm that.  Also positive for cocaine.  So, so far it looks like all the packages are cocaine.  So we're gonna go ahead and weigh them now.
OFFICER
Two more.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
We estimated about twelve point forty-six kilograms (twenty-seven pounds) of cocaine.

OFFICER
[speaking Spanish] Stand up.
OFFICER
[speaking Spanish] Turn around.
OFFICER
[speaking Spanish] Hands behind your back.
OFFICER RAMIREZ
Right now, we have the driver detained.  And we're also gonna seize the narcotics and turn them over to HSI for further investigation and processing.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
Smugglers get smart but then we get smarter.
OFFICER
Hello [speaking Spanish] Have a good day.
OFFICER VILLARREAL
Good girl.  We're hunting every day, so you will be seeing us on the bridges and checking cars left and right.  We're just starting, so we're excited.