Contraband: Seized at Sea (2024) s01e01 Episode Script

1
The Island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean
is a U.S. territory, and the halfway
point for South American cartels
transporting narcotics
into the U.S. by sea.
Four miles off the North Coast,
Federal Agents are heading to
intercept a smuggler's boat.
This area is commonly
used by drug smuggling,
and it could take them minutes
to come into the shoreline,
do an offload, and return back to sea.
We have had a lot of high-speed chases.
Agents received intelligence
that a fresh load of contraband
will be delivered today
to a beach known as Smuggler's Cove.
I got eyes.
Coming down. Coming down.
The crew lies in wait just offshore.
Team out there, do you copy?
Tell me do you copy?
While on land, agents move in.
Can you tell me if they have eyes
on the vessel? Please, let me know.
But the sea conditions are worsening.
See how it's breaking there?
That's a reef there.
If we get caught up
on on those breakers, it's no bueno.
Fort Lauderdale is known as
the yachting capital of the world
where over 50,000 boats are registered.
It's 8:00 a.m.,
and the start of Custom
and Border Protection's patrol.
In charge is Vessel Commander Todd,
with Marine Agents, Brittany, and Fritz.
Right now, we're getting
ready to head offshore
and see if we got any traffic
coming in from foreign waters.
Coming up.
Three miles southeast of Fort Lauderdale,
is an invisible line in the sea
that marks the U.S. border.
More than 3000 vessels
cross this line every year,
some of them carrying
contraband from the Bahamas.
Right now, we're just about on the line
to where foreign waters
meets U.S. Customs water.
Today, they're looking for a speedboat
with a history of smuggling.
This vessel is identified
by one of our aircraft
as having a track line
coming out of Bimini, Bahamas,
so they vectored us in for an intercept.
The speedboat is traveling unusually fast.
Inbound from the island of Bimini,
known to be a smuggling hot spot.
We're gonna wait here
for a couple of minutes,
until he gets closer to us,
and then we're gonna
run over and say hello.
Soon, the suspect boat
appears on the horizon.
Zero correction, vessel just dropped.
- Coming up.
- Coming up.
The agent's interceptor
races up at 58 knots per hour.
Sounding the alarm,
to get the speedboat to slow down.
Hey, guys, I'm with U.S. Customs.
How are y'all today?
- I'm real good.
- Good.
- Where are you guys coming from?
- Bimini.
- How long were you over in Bimini?
- Three days.
- How do you know each other?
- Family and friends.
- Mom and dad?
- Yeah.
The occupants of the powerful speedboat
claim to be a family coming back
from a vacation on Bimini.
Are you bringing anything
back from Bimini?
No.
But agents aren't so sure.
We have coolers.
- You have coolers?
- Yes.
Can we see inside your cooler?
Fritz and Brittany prepare
to board, to check out their story.
Keep it in gear.
All right, before we come over,
I want you to go over here. Yeah.
Agent Todd always has
to be ready for a pursuit,
in case the suspect vessel with
its over 1000 horsepower engines
chooses to take off.
- This is your boat?
- My dad's. I wish.
It's a nice boat.
With the suspect powerboat
now in their command,
Agent Todd learns more
about its criminal past.
The closest thing I have recent
was in 2016 of renegade powerboat
allegedly involved in outfitting vessels
for alien and narco smuggling.
2022, they were stopped by Met
and suspected of alien smuggling.
All right, bye.
So, this boat was, apparently,
encountered a couple of years ago,
by some officers and agents
at a boat ramp in Miami.
And it was suspected
that they may have been engaged
in some sort
of an alien smuggling venture.
A previous owner years ago, 10 years ago,
had also been suspected of
some sort of narcotics trafficking.
News of the boat's murky past
has put agents on alert.
The crew on board
is well aware of what's going on.
They're gonna take their
due diligence to make sure
that they're checking
what they need to be checking.
- What do you do for a living?
- I have a business.
- I'm studying nursing.
- Nice.
I help at the trucking
company with my dad.
- Okay. What's your dad do?
- Trucking company.
- Oh, trucking, okay.
- Yeah.
Agent Brittany checks out their story,
while Agent Fritz verifies their IDs.
Given the vessel's checkered past,
they have to be prepared
that the boat could try to escape.
Something agents
have encountered in the past.
A nearby Black Hawk
from Air & Marine Operations
is called in as backup.
They're gonna circle around,
give us some overwatch, some cover.
Make sure everything's good and
safe for us. If anything breaks bad,
they'll be able to assist us
with an air crew rifle operator.
They'll be able to track
this vessel if they flee from us,
without us being able to stop them.
A thousand miles south
of the U.S. mainland
in the Caribbean Sea
is the Puerto Rican capital, San Juan.
The Port is used
by South American drug smugglers,
as an entry point
into U.S. territory,
and up to 10 tons of cocaine
are seized here every year.
This morning, a cargo ship is arriving
from the nearly Dominican Republic,
carrying imports of food, and other goods.
But the authorities
have received intelligence
that the vessel also has
a shipment of drugs on board.
As the boat pulls into port,
Customs and Border Protection
Officer Victor Ortiz and his team,
are already waiting.
We arrived prior the vessel arrival,
in order to see
that we don't see any vessel
or any prior vessel
that get closer to the boats.
Because we have officers
around, looking at the vessel,
to make sure nobody
throw everything overboard.
Drug gangs sometimes
throw narcotics into the sea,
as a way of offloading it
before the boat is searched.
Drug traffic organizations,
they manage their smuggling
operations in different ways.
They change, we make changes,
we caught them, and they change.
So, they always try
to be one step ahead of us.
With no sign of suspicious
activity spotted on the water,
the team can now hone in
on the vessel itself.
We're gonna board the boat,
and we'll inspect everything.
We're gonna walk around,
we're gonna inspect the galleys
and all the areas around
the boat, inside and outside.
The boat is carrying
more than 200 truck trailers,
transporting produce from countries
across South and Central America.
Cartels are known to hide
their narcotics among these goods,
or within the walls
of the trailers themselves.
Each one is inspected
for the slightest clue
that something could be amiss.
We look in the roof and the ceiling,
we do look underneath.
We look everywhere,
including inspecting the outside
and underneath the cargo as well.
They can hide dope anywhere.
There's plenty of room available.
These platforms,
they used to make a false floor
and it was full of dope.
As the officers work
their way through the deck,
one trailer is identified as suspicious.
The reason why they opened this container,
because they found
that the seal was damaged.
Even though it was the correct
seal but as you can see,
it was kind of smashed in this area.
A seal is placed on a container
at its port of origin.
A damaged seal means the container
could have been tampered with,
somewhere along its journey.
And while there doesn't seem
to be anything wrong
with the bags of grain inside,
underneath, officers think
they may have found something.
The chassis' width is wider
than what it should be.
So, we're gonna bring an x-ray machine
and we'll pass it through the chassis
to see if there's an anomaly
or is a regular chassis.
An unusually wide chassis could mean
that the trailer has been modified.
With their powerful
handheld x-ray scanner,
officers are able to look
inside the structure
and see if anything is hidden.
A mysterious shape
is immediately detected.
It may just be what the team
has been looking for.
What we're gonna do now
is make a hole with the drill
and use the fiber optic scope
to see if there's something
inside one of those beams.
A hand-held drill is used
to penetrate the steel.
Dude, white.
A white powder is inside.
- Is this coke?
- Dude, I think so.
Meanwhile, off the North Coast
Team out there, do you copy?
Tell me, do you copy?
agents suspect a boat carrying
contraband has made landfall.
A full search of the area known
as Smuggler's Cove is underway.
Stop! Stop!
On the beach, a hastily
abandoned boat is found,
and four suspected gang
members were seen running away.
You can have 20 guys out there,
hiding, we won't see them
and for the most part, they have AK47.
So, our personnel is extremely vulnerable
in this type of environment.
No contraband is found in the boat,
but the number of fuel canisters suggest
the smugglers planned a return trip.
All hallmarks of a drug drop.
Based on the intelligence received,
we believe that this is the vessel
that we were hoping to interject.
We apprehended one subject,
we continue to search
for three to four additional subjects
that were seen carrying bags.
They came from the beach this way,
crossed here
and carried on that way there.
So far, agents have apprehended
one of the gang members.
He was carrying hundreds
of rounds of ammunition.
Now, the search is widened
to uncover the rest
of the culprits still at large.
Hundreds of places
where they can be right now.
The nature provides great
locations for these people to hide.
So, as you can see,
it's not a good terrain.
Further along the beach, agents have
discovered evidence of a camp
set up by the smugglers.
Usually, it's makeshift huts that they use
for them to wait for
the drug load to come in.
As you can see, what is spoiled.
It's very likely
that this happened recently.
From there, they have
a great view of the mangrove.
The smugglers, believed to have been
from the Dominican Republic,
may have gotten away this time,
but agents are making inroads
into the drug cartel's operation.
We should check how many are in the box.
Twenty-five.
- And 300 in the box.
- Three hundred in the box, okay.
It's 40 in total.
In addition to the vessel that was found,
we also discovered different IDs.
They found identification
for several subjects in the vessel,
I can tell you that it's not
gonna be a slap on the wrist.
It sends a message not just to
the drug trafficking organizations,
that we're here seven days
a week, 24 hours a day,
and the consequences are gonna be severe.
Thanks to this bust,
agents may be able to catch
the smugglers red-handed next time.
In the Caribbean
Puerto Rico's close neighbors
are the countries of Haiti
and the Dominican Republic.
Every year, thousands
searching for a better life
pay human traffickers to attempt
the 80-nautical mile
journey across the ocean.
But hundreds of migrants drown
in their attempt to enter
the United States territory.
Today, Agent Castro, and his crew,
are on their way to intercept a boat
filled with people coming from
the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
- Clear.
- All line's clear.
All right.
We just received a call
from a local fisherman.
He reported a very suspicious boat.
Looked like a boat full with people,
so we got two units going out.
All right, everybody
grab a seat. Coming up.
Following the fisherman's tip off,
support agents in the air
have spotted a makeshift
wooden boat, a mile off the coast.
I see something over here.
Go on this side.
There you go.
Within a few minutes, the team
catches up with their target.
Hey, get up here.
The flimsy vessel
is dangerously overloaded
and quickly taking on water.
- Are we ready?
- Yes.
U.S. Customs.
Stop the vessel. U.S. Customs.
They're not stopping.
They're getting closer to shore.
They're non-compliant! Non-compliant!
With less than a mile to shore,
the trafficker's more
concerned with escaping,
than the lives of his passengers,
and refuses to stop.
Stop the boat! U.S. Customs!
Agents need to fire
disabling bullets at the engine,
in order to stop the boat.
Hey, that's a kid!
That's a kid. Hold on.
But the traffickers are using
a young girl as a human shield.
They have a female on top of the engine.
Stop the boat! Stop the boat!
If the boat continues to take on water,
the migrants could all end up in the sea.
Agents must get them to safety, and fast.
Meanwhile, back in San Juan
acting on an
intelligence tip off,
officers are searching a cargo ship
from the Dominican Republic,
which they suspect
may be carrying narcotics.
And they've zeroed in
on one particular trailer.
Dude, white. White.
- Is this coke?
- Dude, I think so.
It looks like
the team has hit the jackpot.
A white powder, resembling
cocaine, is hidden in the chassis.
Officers use a fiber
optic scope to investigate further.
Look, that's plastic, what they
usually use for wrapping them.
The image appears to show a series
of plastic wrapped packages,
- hidden in the support beams.
- This is dope.
But finding the drugs was just step one.
Officers must now
determine how to get it out.
Who's gonna pull?
If the whole length
of the beam has been filled,
then it could be a massive haul.
Orlando! Orlando.
For officers at this port,
intercepting a shipment
of this size is a huge achievement.
How many are there?
So far, we have 70 bricks at this
time. And there's still more inside.
A mile offshore,
a rescue mission is underway.
A boat filled with migrants
is taking on water.
Stop the boat!
But the trafficker is refusing to stop,
and holding a child over the engine
to prevent agents from catching it.
We've exhausted every possible way
that we have to hail them, blue lights.
We even came alongside
and told them to stop.
Agents must get the migrants to safety,
but are running out of options.
Try and hit the cowling with the PLS.
- Brian, get on there.
- Okay.
- ---!
Go!
Get on board. Come on!
Use PLS.
Get the female off the engine.
They deploy PLS:
the Pepperball Launching System.
Overpowering the smuggler,
so he releases the girl
he's using as a human shield.
Ceasefire!
It gives agents the chance they need,
to fire non-lethal bullets
to disable the engine.
Clear! Raise your hands.
Everybody, everybody! Hands up!
Be advised that the vessel has stopped.
Agents will arrest the smugglers,
and the people in the boat
will be taken to safety.
Having gained control of the situation,
agents are now in charge
of a rescue mission.
We gotta make sure
they're good, they hydrated.
The vessel that they're on is not safe.
Some of them are telling me
that it's taking on water.
Not only that, seas and winds
are gonna pick up here pretty soon,
to four feet, and 20 knot winds.
Agents have requested U.S.
Coast Guard backup for this rescue.
This is a right here.
We are on the west side, southwest
of Puerto Rico with the migrant case.
We just wanted to see
where the location of the cutter was.
And the ETA for our location.
So, the cutter is 50
nautical miles off your course.
- Still?
- Yeah, they're pretty far away.
This is filling up with water.
The Coastguard is sending a cutter.
A substantial ship
big enough to hold all the migrants,
but it will take
an hour and a half to get here.
With the flimsy
wooden boat taking in water,
and bad weather closing in,
the situation has become critical.
In Fort Lauderdale,
a helicopter is on its way
to help investigate a speedboat
with a history of smuggling.
Those on board claim to be
a family returning from vacation.
Agents are checking all their IDs
and investigating what's on board.
We have six documents that we need to run
and two of which
are not U.S. citizen passports.
- How was the trip over?
- I mean, there were some waves.
Agent Brittany's interviewing them,
to see if their stories checkout.
- There were sharks, too.
- Sharks?
- At the dock, or at the beach?
- No, like, in the beach.
Agent Fritz is looking for any signs
of drugs, or human trafficking.
But on a vessel of this size,
there aren't many places to hide.
It looks like mom and dad is in the
back, but that's where the cooler is.
And she's getting drinks and food
for the other occupants of the boat.
But we can't see
what's in that cooler, so.
Luckily, all that's in the cooler is soda.
And there's no evidence
of contraband anywhere.
It turns out, the family
bought the boat recently,
and any recorded run-ins with the law
were associated with the previous owners.
Their documents all check out.
- Hey, thanks, guys.
- Have a safe trip.
One of them
had a little bit of criminal history,
but nothing huge that we need to act.
It seems all they're guilty of,
is buying a boat with a murky past.
Air support stands down,
and heads back out on watch.
And the crew continues their
patrol of the seas around Florida.
A mile off the west coast
of Puerto Rico
Could you notify that
there's vessel floating around here,
see if they can come give us a hand?
agents are trying
to prevent over 60 migrants,
in a dangerously
overloaded boat, from drowning.
I'm starving. Traveling all day long.
With the U.S. Coast Guard's
rescue ship an hour away,
agents are having to
come up with a new plan.
We're gonna start transferring
everybody to our boat.
- They can be forward and aft.
- Okay.
You're gonna sit them down,
pat them down, and adjust.
The vessel that they're on is not safe.
Some of them are telling me
that it's taken on water.
We're making a decision of
bringing them on board our vessel,
which is a more stable platform.
They don't all fit on my boat,
so I asked local PD
if they can help us out.
A police boat's on its way.
But until it arrives,
agents must stop
the migrant boat from capsizing.
They're very antsy.
They get very desperate to get off,
'cause a lot of times they're not
thinking about balancing the boat.
They'll all just run to our boat and
put all their weight to one side,
and a lot of times,
potentially, even flip it over.
We want to start having a
conversation, friendly, right.
So, that way,
the process goes a lot easier.
Please. Some have
already fallen in before
and unfortunately,
several have not made it.
Please, we don't want that.
Is that okay? Take it easy.
We are going to start with the girl.
Since each boat can only accommodate
six additional passengers,
they start with the women and children.
Many of the migrants
are traveling in family groups.
Just sit down right there.
My cousin has two children.
- Oh, so, they're from Haiti also?
- Yeah.
They are my cousins.
I have two uncles here.
- Two uncles there?
- Yeah, we are six.
You'll get your chance.
- We're ready?
- We're ready.
How many do we have?
- We have five.
- Tell him, one more.
While the rescue mission continues,
the suspected human traffickers
are isolated and checked for weapons.
Agents plan to make several trips,
transferring the migrants
to the coastguard's ship,
further out at sea.
- Is she pregnant?
- No.
One, two. Nice and easy.
We're not in a hurry.
You're good. Watch your head.
After an hour into the mission,
so far, everyone's safe.
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida
a mile offshore, Marine Agents
Brittany, Todd and Fritz,
are continuing their patrol
- Going down.
- Going down.
when a 65-foot
private yacht enters U.S. waters
from the direction of the Bahamas.
That's a boat that we'd like to
look at and verify their documents.
Verify any cargo manifesting,
anything like that.
Vessels inbound from
the Bahamas are of interest,
and the Island of Bimini
is a well-known smuggling hot spot.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
U.S. Customs.
Where are you coming from?
- Coming from the Bahamas.
- What island?
- Grand Bahama.
- Grand Bahama?
Did you pass Bimini on your south side?
Passed Bimini on the south side, no.
- No? Do you have your passports?
- We do.
We're gonna come on board.
Don't reach for your passports.
Ma'am, can you move
to the other side of your boat?
- Do you want me to slow down?
- No, just do what you're doing.
We'll get on board.
Despite being asked to stay within sight,
the woman suddenly darts below deck.
No. Don't Ma'am! Stop
what you're doing! Come back up.!
I don't want anybody
going anywhere and do anything.
- Where's the passports at?
- On the table.
Down there, on the table? All right.
Criminals often keep guns on board,
so anyone subject to inspection
must remain in sight
at all times, for agents' safety.
- They're on the table?
- Yes. Pass the container.
- Okay.
- They're all together.
Brittany heads below to get the passports,
and look for any obvious contraband.
- Hey, Brit, are you okay?
- Found them.
All right.
But instead, it's Vessel Commander, Todd,
who spots something out of the ordinary.
The name on the transom of this boat
is different than the name
that's displayed on the bow.
It looks like
a vinyl sticker wrapped name.
You can still see
the painted name underneath.
Changing, or covering up, a boat's name,
is a tactic smuggler's use
to avoid detection.
What's up?
Make sure you check
the documentation real good.
He's got a different name on the
transom than he's got on the bow.
And the name on the transom
looks like it's been taped over,
or covered and changed somehow.
Okay, all right. Thanks.
You got two different names
on your boat. What's up with that?
We had to register it in Canada.
So, we changed it to Abundance.
And then we got a sticker
and put it on the back.
I didn't think we had to change the side,
because that wasn't an official thing.
We're gonna call it Persistence,
spelled it right on the back,
- and then leave the sides.
- Oh, okay.
- We're good?
- Yes.
The boat's records verify that the
couple bought the vessel in Florida
a few weeks ago, and renamed the boat.
They're told they must update the
boat's signage when they get home.
The agents will exchange the information
that they know, or that they've seen,
and corroborate that and make sure
everything appears on the up and up.
- Thank you.
- You all have a good day.
Thank you. You, too.
The inspection has ended with an
all-clear, despite the tense start.
The lady had gotten up
to go get her passports,
but they were down below deck.
So, we don't like people to go
out of our sight,
especially while we're boarding.
Unfortunately, we've lost agents
in the past, that have been murdered
because they let people
disappear from their sight.
I used a little more of a forceful
tone until she actually complied,
and she came back,
and sat down, and understood that,
when I'm doing a boarding, I'm in charge.
Take care. Have a safe trip.
The Canadian couple is free
to continue their journey north.
Twelve miles off the coast of Puerto Rico,
agents are transporting rescued
migrants from their sinking vessel
to a U.S. Coast Guard cutter.
Along with some of the human
traffickers responsible.
We are en route approximately
up to another nautical mile.
So 8 miles we'll be looking.
They were making it unsafe for everybody,
but they didn't listen, right.
They were in violation of U.S. law.
Agents rendezvous
with the Coast Guard cutter
in international waters.
The ship's big enough
to hold all 65 rescued migrants,
and the smugglers, safely.
Some of them might have exposure to PLS
but no medical concerns right now.
I have one guy handcuffed, okay?
This guy took a little Haitian girl
and threw her on the cowling
so that we wouldn't
disable the engine, okay?
To us, that's assault. I don't
know how you want to handle it.
The Coast Guard
will hand the smugglers over
to U.S. law enforcement.
If convicted, they'll face
up to 20 years in prison.
With the suspected
criminals now in custody,
the rest of the migrants,
who have arrived in a police boat,
are handed over.
Move, move, move, move.
Agents have successfully rescued 65 people
and apprehended three human traffickers.
- Felony failure to heed.
- Yeah.
- And felony obstruction.
- Yep.
So, what he did, his actions,
if they meet the elements,
send us that statement and
if you've got any pictures, videos,
we'll see if we can put charges on them.
- Thank you, man. I appreciate it.
- Yeah, thank you.
All of the migrants will be
returned to their home countries,
each having paid $7000 to the criminals,
without ever
setting foot on U.S. soil.
The mission was very successful.
It's a good day when everybody
goes back home unhurt
and everybody's safe.
At the Port of San Juan in Puerto Rico,
officers have boarded a cargo boat
from the Dominican Republic,
and found a large shipment of narcotics
hidden in the chassis of a trailer.
So far, we have 70 bricks, at this
time. And there's still more inside.
But there's no time for celebration.
The cartel is likely to be watching,
and a seizure on this scale
poses an immediate security risk.
There's a lot of risk.
I mean, a kilo in Puerto Rico,
it goes around $10,000.
In Florida, $20,000, so, so, so.
On the east coast, it's $50,000.
So, I mean, they will
kill anybody of us for that.
Officers quickly remove
a few more loose packages
before taking the truck to a secure area,
where the extraction
can be safely continued.
- Pull!
- So far, around 70 packages
have been removed from one beam that spans
- the length of the chassis.
- Pull. Pull.
Another 20 are soon recovered.
And a second beam
running along the left-hand side
is also found to be loaded.
One-eight-three.
Finally, after two hours of work,
the extraction is complete.
We have 183 bricks.
We got 91 in the right side,
and 92 in the left side of the chassis.
It's one of the biggest busts
officers have made at this port.
Since the container
came from the Dominican Republic,
officers suspect the drug
is cocaine from nearby Columbia.
But it still needs to be tested.
This is a Gemini. This basically,
identify any type of drugs,
or chemical components,
that you can find on the streets.
Should be enough.
The laser detector
will give a near-instant result.
Cocaine. That's positive for cocaine.
It's almost pure cocaine,
processed in Columbia
and transport through Dominican Republic.
This is the best quality you can get.
At this stage of its journey,
the drug has yet to be cut,
before hitting the streets.
To be sure the whole batch is the same,
another two bricks are also tested.
That is cocaine, again.
You got three positive
it's cocaine. We're good to go.
We're gonna seal it
and we are packaging at this time
to transfer over HSI.
With evidence gathering complete,
Officer Ortiz now hands the case over
to Homeland Security Investigations.
With more than $2 million
worth of drugs seized,
it's a major victory in the ongoing
battle against the cartels.
At the end of the day,
we were able to identify
to find 240 kilograms of cocaine.
Everybody in the team is excited.
I mean, this is what
we work for, to find the dope
and prevent that dope to reach
our families and our U.S. citizens.