ACTING_SUPERVISORY_SPECIAL_AGENT_CONNOR AGENT DANIELLE OFFICER OFFICER_BRISCO OFFICER_BUONINCONTRI OFFICER_GOMBASH OFFICER_JACKSON OFFICER_KIM OFFICER_LOPEZ OFFICER_PARRA OFFICER_PENA OFFICER_PERALES OFFICER_PRIETO OFFICER_RAMIREZ OFFICER_YBARRA OFFICER_ZUBIA SUPERVISORY_OFFICER_CICCONE SUPERVISORY_OFFICER_RAMOS SUSPECT TRAVELER OFFICER JACKSON Hello, ma'am. Where are you going? [speaking Spanish] OFFICER JACKSON Okay. Refer to secondary. Move the vehicle to the secondary area. A young female, single driver, a little nervous. Even thought it was really weird. That's the trend, really. I mean, those are the things we've seen the most.asking her, like, one or two questions. Her attitude was a little different and I just OFFICER PRIETO I'm just looking for any sort of tamperings. Any, you know, bolt scratches. See if the seats been taken off, any of the moldings have been taken off. No tampering on this side. As well as this side. This, right here, has been tampered with. Somebody's taken this off. Seems like the radio has been taken off too. There's a lot of tool marks on both sides it seems like, right here against the top. It probably is loaded with narcotics. OFFICER PRIETO We're gonna go ahead and send it through the x-ray. All right. So what do we got? OFFICER By the dash, like center dash. OFFICER PRIETO Center dash? OFFICER Near the firewall here. OFFICER This is an anomaly. So. OFFICER PRIETO Let me go focus on that area. OFFICER All right. You can do a further inspection on that. OFFICER KIM The referral is for inside where the radio and under the center console and the dash. OFFICER BRISCO Oh, there's the prize. OFFICER I see two bundles in here. OFFICER KIM Looks like it's behind the radio. They made a little compartment behind the radio. OFFICER BRISCO I could squeeze my hand in there. OFFICER KIM Woo-hoo-hoo! OFFICER BRISCO That's it. The rest of it looks empty. Sometimes, on top, they'll try and throw some chili flakes to try and through the K-Nine dogs off. OFFICER BRISCO So, this one, I call that a "chili flake burrito." Time to test it. OFFICER KIM All right. So, I'm just gonna scan it with the laser. And it'll tell us what it is. It just tested positive for cocaine. Now you can weigh it. OFFICER BRISCO All right. OFFICER BRISCO 2.36 kilos (5 pounds) of cocaine. Even though it's a small amount, it's still a big win. Just the fact that it could go so far. Starting from here, it could go all over the States. Anywhere that anybody buys drugs from drug dealers. It starts somewhere. And this is one thing that we stopped to get to somebody else. AGENT All right. Our guy's driving quick. AGENT About 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour). AGENT He just made a right-hand turn. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR I got him. We've located a vehicle, um, in the United States that recently crossed over from Mexico. We've determined that it's high-risk, that it's loaded for narcotics. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR We don't know the vehicle's intended destination, uh, or even what's inside of it. But here in San Diego, we see a lot of the synthetic narcotics. We see a great deal of methamphetamine. We also see a surge recently in fentanyl. AGENT He's making a, uh, left turn into this, uh, lot here. AGENT Parking lot of a school. AGENT Coming out of the car and he is walking towards the school. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR It sounds like, you know, the person's already out of the car and walked inside the building. We don't know if this is normal behavior for this person. We don't know if it's a counter-surveillance technique to let the car cool off, or if someone else is supposed to come pick up this car or the drugs right now. Who's got best eye on it? Can guide me in? AGENT Straight through the second entrance. It's the second vehicle to your right. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR That's the vehicle. Got it. And it appears to be parked in this adult learning center. So right now we're in an area where there's several schools of varying degrees. Elementary, middle, and high school. That adds some complexities to it. Obviously, the schools are a sensitive site that we wanna protect. There could be women, children, whole families. So we always have to take the public's interest and safety, uh, into consideration with any operation that we, um, that we take on. All right. I know we normally, uh, would plan for some type of enforcement action. Given the sensitivity, we are going to forgo that plan, unless there's a threat to the public, um, or there's a dire need to do so. AGENT Copy that. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR My best guess is that someone will come for these drugs and transfer them into another vehicle, and then drive away. So, right now we're just trying to figure out what our best option is. OFFICER RAMIREZ I'm part of the T.I.E.R. team, the Trading Intelligence Enforcement Response team here, at JFK. We support all kinds of investigations, whether narcotics, counterfeit goods, or especially cultural property law detected theft. That could be artifacts that have been imported here illegally and looted from, uh, certain countries. And we, uh, assist from the beginning of the investigation all the way until the arrests are made. We're a small team, uh, but, uh, we're, uh, we're very effective and we've been very successful here at JFK. OFFICER RAMIREZ Being part of this team, you know, it's, uh, it gives you a lot of satisfaction. When you have somebody that's importing artifacts here illegally, it's not fair for the people of that country. You're taking their, uh, identity away. So, uh, it's our job to prevent that. We're at the JFK International Mail Facility. It's the biggest facility of its kind in the nation. They process over 60% of international mail that's coming into the United States. OFFICER RAMIREZ They have a parcel manifested as souvenirs, but we suspect that, uh, it might have some, uh, antiquities. So we're gonna make sure that everything's in compliance. OFFICER Hey. OFFICER RAMIREZ How are you? OFFICER How you doing? OFFICER RAMIREZ Good. OFFICER What's going on? OFFICER RAMIREZ You got a parcel for me? OFFICER We think we've got a parcel that might be of interest to you. OFFICER RAMIREZ Thank you. This is the parcel that, uh, was targeted for us. Arrived from Ukraine. And we suspect from the information we got from the intel, there might be some, uh, antiquities here. OFFICER Lately, we are seeing a lot of packages from Ukraine coming through different items. OFFICER RAMIREZ The fact that there's a war going on over there and some people are looting, uh, or stealing, and then it ends up over here in the U.S. or they take it to other places in Europe. OFFICER RAMIREZ And it's a big problem. OFFICER RAMIREZ As a matter of fact, in the summer, the President of Ukraine actually came over and we returned some artifacts back to their home country. And we wear gloves at this because we don't want none of the oils from my hands or my skin to touch that. These are sometimes rare artifacts and we just wanna preserve them as much as possible. Wow, look at this. It looks pretty old to me. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] OFFICER RAMIREZ Look how cool this looks. OFFICER Yeah, yeah. What are these? Uh. OFFICER RAMIREZ Looks like spearheads. OFFICER Spearheads or something. OFFICER RAMIREZ Small spearheads. OFFICER RAMIREZ I'm not an expert, but we can see that it looks pretty old. I mean, this doesn't look modern at all. OFFICER Have you seen stuff like this in the past? I mean, uh. OFFICER RAMIREZ You know what? As a matter of fact, the T.I.E.R. team that was involved in a couple seizures of, uh, swords, Ukrainian swords. OFFICER Right. OFFICER RAMIREZ And, uh, spearheads that were bigger than this one. And artifacts like this, they're supposed to have documentation. They're supposed to have provenance, which is basically the history of the item. OFFICER RAMIREZ I don't see anything here. I'm gonna take this back to my office. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do some measurements. I'm gonna take some pictures. We'll contact a subject matter expert. Usually it's a person from a museum or, uh, or university. And the SME will tell me how valuable this is, how old this is, how much, uh, how much it's worth, and the origins. If this becomes an investigation, we'll do it jointly with Homeland Security Investigations. And if it's being imported here illegally, then it will be repatriated back to their home country. AGENT Do you have an eye on the car? ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR I have a good view of our car. AGENT Looks like he's coming out. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Yeah, he's about to be mobile again. AGENT Go time. AGENT We're moving. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR The first step is getting the drugs off the school campus. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR And that alleviates a lot of our challenges. Um, now we're just back to mobile surveillance which is the arena that we're used to living in. AGENT He's making a right-hand turn. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR All right. You've got Charles and I with you. AGENT Copy. It looks like he's gonna go on 805, uh, North. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Oh, here we go. AGENT And he's committed to 805 North. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR He's gonna be three ahead of us. Just shot over to the right lane. AGENT [inaudible] he's gonna be off, off, off. Can somebody take him? AGENT Ten-four. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR There's a shopping center not far off this exit, where it's very common, um, for narcotics traffic to go there. So I wouldn't be surprised if he turns into that shopping center. AGENT He's gonna pull into the shopping center here. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR You've got Caesar and I. These large commercial parking lots have a lot of come-and-go traffic and it allows for people trying to do nefarious things to kinda hide in plain sight along with other, uh, shoppers. All right. He's turned up along the storefront and now he's turning away from the store. Anybody have eyes on him that I can let him go? AGENT I have eyes. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR He's pulling into a stall. AGENT Continuing slowly. AGENT He's parked in one of the stalls. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Okay. He's got a satchel with him. He's out. And he's into the trunk. I'm blocked by the trunk lid. AGENT I think this is it. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Trunk is closed. He's now walking away without the satchel. He's away on foot, towards the store. AGENT What do you wanna do? You want to take it down? ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR If the dope stays in the car, we let it, we let it play and we follow it out. If the dope gets separated from the car, we should consider enforcement action. We're gonna let this play out as long as we can and hope that this leads us to more people. So we just sit and watch. And we wait. AGENT Okay, copy that. OFFICER GOMBASH Anything to declare, man? Weapons? Drugs? Nobody's in the trunk? TRAVELER No. OFFICER GOMBASH No? You sure? All right, nobody's gonna start banging and screaming back there, huh? All right, man. All right, thank you. Have a good day. OFFICER GOMBASH The past few months, we've been seeing a lot of fentanyl and cocaine, and then also meth. So those are the three big ones right now. We've been seeing a lot of aftermarket compartments, to where they build compartments within the seats, behind the seats, in the floors. It's a constant cat-and-mouse game. Go. OFFICER I'm gonna take a vehicle to secondary. Can you come here? OFFICER GOMBASH Ten-four. En route. We're going into secondary. Uh, they found a vehicle of interest. It's a black Mustang. So we'll find out what's going on. OFFICER ZUBIA So you see that compartment right here? OFFICER GOMBASH Oh, yeah. OFFICER ZUBIA And then on this side, you can see where they covered it up with a white piece of cardboard with a little green emblem? So. OFFICER ZUBIA Possibly loaded. Let's just do it in the back, bro. OFFICER GOMBASH Yeah, we'll take a look. Right now, we'll bring it back into our more secure area, to where we can break down, uh, the vehicle a little bit further. And right there, there's a powdery substance, uh, within the engine. Right now, uh, from the looks of it, it kind of does look like cocaine. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] OFFICER GOMBASH There is a baggy full of powder in there that you can see, uh, clearly right now. OFFICER GOMBASH We'll test it, see if it's fentanyl or cocaine. OFFICER It's saying that it's baby formula. That's why we gotta go ahead and get in there and drop the manifold. We'll see if it's concealing anything else. SUPERVISORY OFFICER CICCONE We've contacted the contractor. He's arrived. SUPERVISORY OFFICER CICCONE And right now, we are currently dismantling the engine manifold area, so we can pull all the bundles out to see what may be underneath that first bundle that we've tested. We can see that they've got bundles underneath here. We're hoping that there is actually narcotics. We gotta cut open each one of these bags. There might be fentanyl, there might be cocaine, there might be meth in all of these. So we'll take these over, open them, to see if there's anything in there. OFFICER PENA Negative. SUPERVISORY OFFICER CICCONE It's masa? For the tortillas? We found four bundles of tamale masa. So we've, uh, inspected those bundles, there's no narcotics in it. It's a reminder for us that we can never take a step back on our heels and get complacent. Today, it happens to be, uh, four packages of tamale masa. Tomorrow it could be four bundles of fentanyl or methamphetamines. So we'll just keep looking and keep working. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI This was the package that they think that has some antiquities in it. OFFICER LOPEZ Okay. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI We're gonna go take a look at it and see what's inside. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Hey, what's going on? You have a package for the T.I.E.R. team? OFFICER Yeah, it's right there. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Thank you. So what do we got? Interior decoration. Twelve. OFFICER LOPEZ Where's it coming from? OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Uh, from the Ukraine. With the war going on, it gives us another reason to look at this. Items could be smuggled out and looted from museums. Uh, similar to what happened a few years back during the Arab Spring uprisings. Let's see what we got. Oh. That's definitely not a decorative item. It appears to be some type of fossil. Two animal heads. OFFICER LOPEZ Wow, you can actually see the teeth here. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Yeah. The teeth, the eye sockets. It's pretty heavy. You can see, like, the rock and dirt, like, solidified. OFFICER LOPEZ What is the, uh, declared value? OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Twelve dollars. OFFICER LOPEZ Twelve dollars. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI I mean, only a subject matter expert will be able to determine if the item is authentic or not. It definitely does feel and look real. We'll get this back over to the office, take a whole bunch of pics and. OFFICER LOPEZ Okay. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Go from there. AGENT I'm gonna move a little closer, considering this parking lot is always hot. AGENT Let's try to keep our footprint very small. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR This is still early on in the investigation, so we don't know, um, his level of involvement. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR We don't know if this is his normal pattern. My best guess is that a new driver will get in the vehicle and then drive it away. So we are on the hunt, looking for the bad guys. AGENT A Ford has already circled around next to me twice. AGENT Maybe nothing, um, but. AGENT It's just driving around. I don't know if it's looking for a spot or what. AGENT He's parking. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Yes, I see him. He's probably in his 50s. AGENT So he's a young man? ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Yes, he's a young man. Fifty's not old, just saying. Probably not, statistically speaking, in the age demographic that would be likely to interact with our car. AGENT S1 is at his vehicle. S1 is at his vehicle. AGENT Trunk open and he bought a lot of stuff that he is piling in the trunk. AGENT S1's back in the vehicle. AGENT We're moving. AGENT Backing up. Looks like he's gonna be going west. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR He's come back out. He's loaded a bunch of stuff into the trunk, which is of interest to us. That's where we believe the drugs to be. That may or may not be a way to kinda conceal it better. If it's easy for him or someone else to get out, it's also easy for law enforcement to find. AGENT So I'm ahead of him, he is coming up to the. AGENT The green at the intersection to make a left. AGENT Is there anybody with him? ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Yeah, he's set up to go north, 805 North. We're not with him. Stand by. Hang on, guys. AGENT Copy. 805 North is where he turned. AGENT It was a last minute decision. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR The plot thickens. We do this a lot. We get pretty good at, kind of, predicting where people are headed or the turns that they might take, based on our past experience. And he did not do that. That makes it interesting. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] AGENT Has anybody else caught up yet, or am I the closest one to him? ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Uh, we are, but he's farther ahead of us. He's probably got about a mile jump on us. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR He made an unexpected turn on us and he got a little bit of a head start. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR So now we're trying to reacquire up on the highway. AGENT Lane two. AGENT Copy. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR You got it, Gwen? AGENT Yeah, I got him. He's getting on the off-ramp right now. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Ten-four. He ramped off the interstate. He's into a neighborhood that we're pretty familiar with. It's a very, um, law enforcement savvy neighborhood. AGENT He's parking. AGENT S-One is at the trunk. Trunk is open. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR We need to get a good eye on that trunk and what comes out of that trunk. AGENT He took out his brown bag and is walking away from V-One. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR All right, I have a good view of the front. AGENT I'm one car in front of it. I can see if somebody walks by to it. AGENT On the street at the vehicle. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Yeah, uh, with a dog? Himmie, if you can hear me, um, tap your head. Okay, I've worked a couple cases in this exact neighborhood. Um, understand that this neighborhood knows who we are, they know each other, they know their neighbors. You're, you're gonna stick out. Get off the street. OFFICER RAMIREZ Hi, how are you? Good to see you. DANIELLE Hi. OFFICER RAMIREZ Hi. DANIELLE Good to see you too. OFFICER RAMIREZ Come on in. DANIELLE Hey. OFFICER LOPEZ Hi. DANIELLE How are you? Nice to see you. DANIELLE I have some interesting things to look at today? OFFICER RAMIREZ We sure do. DANIELLE There's always something interesting here. OFFICER RAMIREZ Yeah. When it comes to cultural property investigations, the TIER team has a subject matter expert that we have a good relationship with. OFFICER RAMIREZ And their reports are crucial when it comes to an investigation. So we got this from the mail branch. And it came from the Ukraine. DANIELLE Okay. OFFICER RAMIREZ It was, uh, manifested as, uh, souvenirs. DANIELLE There's quite a few of them. So these are actually ancient arrowheads. There's a few things that I noticed right away from looking at them. The first is that they're heavily corroded. These, you know, must have been buried for, you know, a very, very long time. And the other thing I noticed is that they're iron. So these would have been made anywhere from fifth century B.C. to tenth century A.D. Just from their design and their shape, um, we know they came from Ukraine, which makes perfect sense. DANIELLE Because what is now Ukraine was Ancient Scythian people and the, you know, they were invaded by Greeks and Romans and these would have been part of weapons. OFFICER RAMIREZ Now this uh, this little ornaments. They don't look like as old as, uh, those arrowheads. Are these real? DANIELLE These look to me to be more, um, late nineteenth, early twentieth century. They don't look individually handmade. They may have been machine cut. The design on them is more of a late nineteenth century Art Nouveau. OFFICER RAMIREZ Right. DANIELLE The, the, they're, they're jewelry pieces, but they definitely are not nearly as old as these. OFFICER RAMIREZ Right. Right. DANIELLE I would put the arrowhead total at twelve hundred dollars. It's been fascinating to me to see the wide variety of material that's been really taken from Ukraine and brought here. Like, those skulls. They were really interesting. Our paleontologist is finishing up the report on those. That should be over to you soon. It's all sorts of cultural property that, that doesn't belong coming into this country. OFFICER RAMIREZ Yeah, it was brought here illegally, obviously. Uh, it doesn't belong here. So it's a good find for us, no matter how small. And we're looking forward to get this repatriated back to, uh, where it belongs. DANIELLE These are important pieces in history. OFFICER RAMIREZ Yeah. Now that we know what these items are, we know that they're legit, we're gonna seize those, uh, arrowheads. Uh, we're gonna contact HSI, Homeland Security Investigations. Their antiquity theft group over there. And they'll be able to repatriate this back to, uh, Ukraine. OFFICER LOPEZ We'll see you soon. DANIELLE Thank you. I'm sure we will. OFFICER RAMIREZ So now, we’re waiting for the report on the heads. OFFICER YBARRA I don't know. I don't see anything yet. OFFICER YBARRA Last week we spotted the silver SUV. Found four empty compartments in the seats. OFFICER YBARRA When we find an empty, non-factory compartment like that on a vehicle, it's usually a good indicator that they're smuggling narcotics. So we make a huge effort to continue to investigate that vehicle, to try and follow up on that vehicle. And try to catch that vehicle again. And, uh, we're looking for him right now, see if he comes across. OFFICER YBARRA There you go. OFFICER YBARRA It's right there. The silver SUV, we're gonna send him into secondary inspection for an X-ray. Thank you. OFFICER PERALES So we're looking at the Z-portal X-ray image and it does appear to be anomalies in the seats, in the compartments where we had already identified. We're gonna take the vehicle back to our secure area to do a further inspection into the seats. OFFICER Turn on the car. Maybe it has to be on. OFFICER PERALES There should be some kind of switch, some kind of button to open, mechanically open this compartment. So that's basically what we're trying to look for right now. OFFICER YBARRA You gotta find where those wires are running to. We know that there's, there's buttons to open up that compartment, but we were unable to find that. We couldn't figure it out, so we got our dismantlers and we're just gonna bust everything open. They're suiting up because we have a high suspicion that it's fentanyl powder. A small amount could kill you. OFFICER Oh, wow. There we go. OFFICER It's loaded. OFFICER YBARRA Just two, right? OFFICER YBARRA There's three in there? OFFICER YBARRA There's four more. OFFICER YBARRA So with the two front seats, we've got seven right now. OFFICER You got more right here. OFFICER YBARRA We're looking at about four more bundles. Eleven. Eleven bundles right now. I hope there's more. That one's empty? OFFICER We didn't, we didn't see anything in that one. That's it. OFFICER YBARRA So there's four non-factory compartments. That last seat was empty. So just the driver, passenger, and back passenger side were, were loaded with the, with the bundles. And we're gonna dismantle the rest of the car. We're gonna take the bundles, we're gonna cut one open, and test it to confirm what it actually is. OFFICER PERALES Great work, bro. OFFICER YBARRA Yeah, it was a good catch. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Hey, Frankie. We got the report back from the subject matter expert. And, uh, basically he's saying that it's a, uh, gazelle head. Uh, male and female, both of them are fossilized. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI So the issues here is it's undervalued. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI That it was originally manifested as an interior decoration part for twelve dollars. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI On the open market, it should be worth anywhere from four to six thousand dollars. He didn't correctly declare it. SUPERVISORY OFFICER RAMOS Or manifest it. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Nor the value. SUPERVISORY OFFICER RAMOS Okay. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI And we have to see if there are any issues with the Ukraine. SUPERVISORY OFFICER RAMOS With what's going on right now, most likely it's probably gonna be smuggled out from. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Mm-hmm. SUPERVISORY OFFICER RAMOS From maybe a museum or some, something. Wow, very interesting. Honestly, looking at this, I'm, like, how did this happen? There's, like, you can see these are the horns. I'm assuming this is the other head right here, and how did they die? OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Yeah, it kind of reminded me of the volcano explosion in Pompeii, where you see people embracing each other and stuff like that. SUPERVISORY OFFICER RAMOS Yeah. Wow, very interesting. We're gonna have to seize it right away and make sure we get the paperwork done. And we're gonna have to get it to the vault as soon as possible, because we want to keep this in a proper temperature environment so it doesn't decay or anything like that. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI Okay. You got it. SUPERVISORY OFFICER RAMOS Just get, just get the paperwork working. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI We're on it. We're gonna go ahead and seize this item for failure to declare, because the item description doesn't match its contents. After we seize it, we're gonna contact HSI and they'll further the investigation. OFFICER RAMIREZ Today was a great day for the TIER team. We had two great seizures. OFFICER RAMIREZ Even though these two seizures were not as, as big as some other seizures of cultural theft that we've gotten before, they're important to their culture. They're still items that belong in Ukraine. We're returning history back to their country. We're part of that process and, uh, we take pride in that. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI All right, let's bring it back. SUPERVISORY OFFICER RAMOS Good job, guys. All right. OFFICER BUONINCONTRI All righty. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Can you give me an update? AGENT All quiet here. AGENT No movement whatsoever. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR We haven't seen any activity for a couple hours and he appears to be going about his day. AGENT I'm gonna go over to the vehicle and I'm gonna go do a knock-and-talk. AGENT Ten-four. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR So based on our team's observations and how we feel about everything that we've seen today, uh, we're gonna attempt to make contact and conduct an interview. Uh, we also, obviously, want to inspect the car and, um, confirm the presence of drugs. And then, we'll, we'll go from there. And this isn't ideal, but that's the job. We don't, it doesn't always go our way. Or the way we want it to. This is who we've been following all day. Yup, there's a tracker. AGENT A tracker [inaudible] ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR There's a tracker on the car. Makes it more than likely, even more so, that, that there's drugs in the car. AGENT Police! AGENT Come on out. AGENT [speaking Spanish] Give it to the officer and we'll inspect. AGENT [speaking Spanish] You can wait over there. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Is it okay? Do I got consent? AGENT Yeah. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Okay. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Copy paper, school supplies. Yeah. Yup, that's what we were looking for. You wanna show him? ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Not yours? Okay. AGENT [speaking Spanish] Anyone have a key to your car? SUSPECT [speaking Spanish] No one. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Go ahead and, yeah, take him over there. This is crystal meth. Probably twenty pounds (nine kilograms), maybe, would be a guess. Yeah, it's not even packed well. Hey. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Second tracker. AGENT Last time he confirmed the spare tire was in there was back in October. AGENT He got a flat tire. He changed it out. AGENT He put a tire back in there, so there should be a tire. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR That was back in October, you know. AGENT Walked us through his day. Consented to his phone right away. AGENT Yeah, he has nothing on his phone. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Yup. AGENT I, I do not get a vibe he was lying to us, at all. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Okay. You got the same vibe? AGENT Yeah. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Okay. AGENT Scared. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Of course. He's been very compliant. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Uh, he's given us consent to search his car and to search his phone. Sounds like he, uh, has a really good job. So right now a lot of things just aren't adding up. We're trying to find a way to see if there's a way into the vehicle through, like, nonconventional means. Uh, evidence of a break in or some way you can access, uh, the trunk area without keys. Yeah, yup. Yup, yup, yup. These are tooling, or pry marks, here and here. AGENT Yeah. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR There would, there would almost never be a reason for anything to be scraped here, unless you were fishing for this lock. So far, everything has checked out with his story. This one's left us with some questions that we still need to answer. We're gonna continue interviewing, continue to investigate, and follow up with some other leads that we have. These are likely one pound (four hundred fifty three grams) each and there's sixteen of them, of crystal methamphetamine. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR These drugs are gonna be seized. We're gonna take it back to the port where we have more resources. And if we determine that there's gonna be no prosecution in this, then they'll just be set for destruction. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR For San Diego, this is not a large seizure, but these are still harmful drugs that are hitting our streets. Thanks, gents. SUSPECT You have a nice one. ACTING SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT CONNOR Yeah, man. We'll get out of your hair. We'll move onto the next and we'll also try to bolster this case to see what leads we can follow up and move on from there. OFFICER PARRA We put it in the box, that way if, if it's fentanyl or something dangerous, we won't inhale it. OFFICER PARRA We know it's powder form. So it, it, it could be either cocaine or fentanyl. So we'll check that out real quick. A small amount. And we can turn this right here and then we'll just scan. Hopefully it'll be able to tell us what, what it is. Came up positive for cocaine. We're gonna test another one. Positive for, uh, fentanyl. OFFICER YBARRA So we got eleven bundles today. OFFICER YBARRA Uh, half cocaine, half fentanyl. Now it's our case in paperwork, so we gotta get an exact weight. OFFICER YBARRA For this vehicle, in particular, we knew that he was using that sophisticated compartment to come in north with narcotics. He was empty the first time we had got him, so tracking him down this second time a week later, finding him with narcotics, and stopping him before coming into El Paso was, was a really gratifying feeling. OFFICER YBARRA The type of compartment that they're using hard to track, hard to catch. So cutting off that compartment completely, we've stopped more, uh, narcotics coming in and money going back south. Every day we're learning. Every day we go up, we find stuff, like, it, it's, it's an evolving game every time, like, we come out here.