American Cartel (2021) s01e03 Episode Script
The Devil Next Door
1
[rain falling]
[indistinct talking over radio]
License.
[Bercovici]: There's a belief
in police work that every major
investigation starts
with a traffic stop.
One of the things
about a traffic stop,
it's probably the most
dangerous thing that we do.
What happened in Burbank
that night, simple traffic stop,
[gunshots blasting]
Which led to the
manhunt for a cop killer,
David Garcia,
which led to going after
gangs that were working
with the Mexican mafia
and the Mexican drug cartels,
and then we discovered
that they have infiltrated
the city government in Burbank,
and you just you know,
you really can't make that up.
[gunshot blasts]
This stuff doesn't happen
in the city of Burbank,
and it did.
[sirens wailing]
What started as
the murder of my son
got bigger and
bigger and bigger.
They had a direct pipeline
source to a super lab
from Mexico.
[man] Rival drug cartels
have waged a deadly war.
[man #2] Victims have
suffered violent death.
[man #3] Twelve more
dead bodies found today.
Influence and money
They've got it all.
It was shocking to
me that someone
at the top of city
government was
swept up in the investigation.
A lot of people
watched "The Wire,"
but we lived it.
♪♪
♪♪
[Bercovici] The clock
was ticking on us.
Garcia's on the run, and
if he was able to escape,
there is that fear that
these guys are emboldened
to take on the cops,
and you know they have
access to high-grade weaponry,
so we needed to catch the guy.
We're gonna send a
message that you don't do this,
that you don't get away with it.
When he was relocated
to Mexico, to Tijuana,
he didn't get there by himself.
There was some support there.
Now who was it?
[detective] Is that David
you're talking about?
[Barba] Yeah, that
That's him, that's David.
[detective] For sure
that's the guy, or maybe?
[Barba] No, that's him.
[Tim Stehr] We get a thorough
interview from Alfredo Barba
and he tells us
everything that happens.
He takes us
through all the steps.
David Garcia runs
from the crime scene.
He runs all the way
to his neighborhood,
and that's where
he runs De Leon,
and De Leon gives him
a ride up to another house
in Arleta.
Luis Sandoval was a
shot caller in that gang,
and he said, wow,
we gotta get we got to
get David Garcia out of here.
And Luis knew he had to get
someone that was
clean to to do this.
So he used Alfredo
Barba, because
he didn't have a
criminal record.
No one would be able to attach
Alfredo Barba with the gang.
Luis Sandoval called Barba
"and said, "Take this
guy, take him into Mexico
and hook him up with a
Vineland Boy gang member."
His name was Eric Avina.
Eric Avina had a warrant for
his arrest for gun violations.
That's why he was hiding there.
Alfredo Barba says,
"Okay," loads him in a car
and delivers, uh, David
Garcia into Mexico.
Alfredo Barba told us, "The
last time I saw David Garcia,
I brought him to Eric
Avina, across the border."
[Tim] We don't
know if he's still there.
We don't know
where in Mexico he is.
Our goal was to
get Eric Avina now.
[Tony Burke] Now
we're basically down
to one person away, who last,
possibly still has or
last had contact with him.
Who physically has or knows
the location of our fugitive.
[detective] Alfredo Luis.
[Tim] And Barba said to find Luis
Sandoval and get information from him.
[investigator] You said,
your friend Luis Sandoval
[Adam Bercovici] Sandoval
was supposedly the guy
that, you know,
masterminded the entire thing.
[Tim] We can get him then,
we can maybe get David Garcia.
So, the detectives that
were talking to Alfredo Barba
had learned that he, as a
facilitator, he did different things.
[Barba] I do errands for him.
Like, he rented
a location to do a marijuana
grow, he got the phones,
he also fed the dogs,
that were at the marijuana grow.
Uh, they were pitbull dogs
that were there to guard
the outside perimeter
of the grow house.
And he would have to ask
for money from Luis Sandoval.
So, the idea was now,
let's get Alfredo Barba
to reach out to Luis Sandoval
and say he needs to
meet him for some money.
[Barba] Luis?
Yeah, yeah it's me.
Yeah, I'm good, I'm good.
[Tim] And the plan was
to get Luis Sandoval there,
get him in custody before
he can make a phone call
to Mexico or wherever
David Garcia is.
[police officer] There's a pedestrian
walking towards our location.
[Tim] We hear somebody sees him.
Luis Sandoval doesn't
like the look of it.
The decision's made
by the team out there,
to box him in and take
Luis Sandoval into custody.
He sees him coming
and the chase is on.
[tires screeching]
[police siren wailing]
[helicopter blades whirring]
[Tim] And we finally
have Luis Sandoval.
And Luis Sandoval
refuses to talk to anyone.
He refuses to talk
to investigators,
the District Attorney, Craig
Richman goes to talk to him.
Several different
investigators say,
"We wanna explain to
him the gravity of this,
explain what he's looking at."
You know, and that he needs to
help us, you know, David Garcia.
Luis Sandoval refuses.
Luis Sandoval never tells us
anything about
where David Garcia is.
So now, we're
really under the gun.
Now, coming up with
another plan is imminent.
And I will, again my hats
off to my investigators.
They Still talking
to Alfredo Barba.
Alfredo Barba tells them
They say, "Hey, you
think you could make a call
to a person in Mexico and
say hey, I'm coming down there.
I'm on my way down, Luis wants
me to give you some money."
[Barba] No, not at
all, it'd be normal.
[Tim] Barba said
that this is something
that would be
normal for him to do.
He said Eric Avina
would want the money.
So we discuss it as a group.
And I'll say, probably half
the people are telling me
"You know, Timothy,
they're gonna know."
They're gonna
know this is a setup.
If we use Alfredo Barba
and send him down there,
they're gonna
kill Alfredo Barba,
"because they know
he's working with us."
And I said, "I don't
believe we're doing that."
[Tim] We didn't have any
indication that there was a call
from Luis Sandoval
to Eric Avina.
I made the decision, we're
gonna go ahead and try that plan.
[Tim] We were gonna
take Alfredo Barba
and we were gonna
drive into Tijuana, all of us.
And Alfredo Barba was
gonna point out Eric Avina
and we're gonna take
him into custody there.
Then we can maybe get
to wherever David Garcia is.
[Barba] Yo, I was calling
because I wanted to
So Alfredo Barba makes
the call into Mexico.
And we tell him, "You tell
him, I'm already almost there."
And this was the
eve of Thanksgiving.
[Tim] I go to the heliport
with Alfredo Barba.
Start heading south
down to the border.
The challenge in Mexico
is the corruption factor
within law enforcement.
[Tim] I think it's pretty
common knowledge,
how many are on
payroll of drug cartels.
You have to find the right
police to work with down there.
And that's what the Marshals do.
[Burke] On our task
force, that's something that
Joe Chavarria or Don
Vasquez specialize in.
[Scott Samuels] Joe
was known for his ability
to reach out and talk to the right
people in Mexican law enforcement.
We needed to figure out how
were we going to grab this guy,
how are we gonna do it lawfully.
We're now dealing
with a sovereign nation.
[Tim] It is explained to me that they
don't trust the local police officers.
So, it was kinda touchy.
We link up Captain
Stehr with Don Vasquez.
[Tim] He's one of the
undercovers, he goes back and forth.
[Samuels] He's famous in the
Marshal Service for his work in Mexico.
He probably kind of looked more,
more like a street urchin
or a homeless person.
But he worked very
effectively in Tijuana
and he blends in well.
Kind of like you know, myself,
I don't necessarily look like
a police officer.
[Tim] Twenty minutes
later, I'm in the car with him
driving into Mexico.
[crowd milling]
[dog barking]
[Tim] Goal was
to get Eric Avina.
[phone ringing]
And the plan was that Alfredo
Barba will get on the phone,
call him out,
while the U.S. Marshals
would then call the Federales.
So that the Federales
could take him into custody.
Barba had told Eric Avina
to meet him in front of a
bar on Revolution Street.
Gave him the name of the bar.
Meanwhile me and Vasquez,
were waiting in the
shadows, you know, watching.
Standing around he's
looking, he's getting impatient.
We have Alfredo Barba
telling him, "Just wait."
"I'm almost there, I'm almost
there, I'm almost there."
I thought he was gonna leave.
It was just taking too long.
Finally, we see
some people jump out of a car.
[Burke] Mexican police
just come up, grab him
throw a black bag over his head.
And throw him in
the back of a vehicle
where two people jumped
on top of him and took off.
[tires screeching]
[Burke] Captain Stehr, he's like,
"Oh, my god! what just happened?
Was that the
police or the cartel?"
[speaking Spanish]
Vasquez told me, "We
got to get out of here."
[siren wailing]
Because the local
police are gonna come.
They thought that it might be
reported as some kidnapping.
[Tim] Now, we're on
Thanksgiving morning.
Everybody had been up all night,
and no one's
with their families.
[Burke] Eric Avina told me
that he's at one of
these two addresses.
In Mexico, in Tijuana.
U.S. Marshals
called the Federales.
Say, "Listen, will you
allow us to come in
and go with us, to
find David Garcia?"
Not sure which house,
they're fairly close together.
But you know, be like, you
know three or four streets apart.
Two different addresses.
But there was a pizza delivery
to this one house
and, you know, they didn't see who
got the pizza, just saw the pizza man
and they see the Mexican police.
Once that pizza man left,
they interviewed him really quick
and said, "Hey,
was this guy there?"
He's like, "Yeah that's
who I delivered the pizza to."
[sirens wailing]
[Burke] That was it,
that's all they needed.
I think they actually surrounded
the house with something like,
25-30 officers.
And kicked in the door
and did a full-blown
raid into that house.
And apprehended Garcia.
I called Tom Hoefel immediately.
Told him we had David Garcia.
Ah but,
we don't have him
across the border yet.
[Tim] Told us to send a
couple people to the border.
I went, two other people
went to the border.
One of them had Matt
Pavelka's handcuffs.
We waited and we're waiting,
my phone rings
and it's the U.S. Marshals.
And they go, "Tim",
your Chief of Police
is going to get a call
from some government official,
"do not let him take that call."
[phone ringing]
[Tim] "They're trying to make this
political, do not let him take that call."
[phone ringing]
'Cause until he's processed
through Mexican
immigration and deported,
we don't have him.
Politics can get in
the middle of that.
And have Mexican
heads of immigration,
mayors, governors
and sometimes people want
to use it for their political gain
or, you know, some press on it.
Even lawyers in the area
are trying to get
their notoriety,
and see if they can get him off.
And you never know
what's gonna happen.
[phone ringing]
We're all on pins and needles,
it's been a little
longer than usual.
[phone ringing]
The Chief of Police actually gets a
phone call from a Mexico number.
Ends up that it's the governor, I
said, "Just don't get the phone."
[phone ringing]
♪♪
[Tim] So it was
Thanksgiving morning.
Here we stood at the border.
It had been
a long road to get here.
And I wasn't gonna be
satisfied until we had him
and till we put our
handcuffs on him.
[Tim] They did call,
they did call for the Chief.
He didn't take the call and
then we sat with pins and needles
to wonder what's
gonna happen next.
We did not know if that meant
now we're not gonna get him,
now they're not
gonna give him to us.
[Tim] And finally,
probably 40 minutes later,
we see a hooded
person being walked.
[Tim] I see Don Vasquez
walking next to the hooded person
and that's David Garcia.
And they bring him to the border
and I had instructed
the two officers that were with
me, "As soon as he's within reach,
just grab him."
We finally have David Garcia.
And
it was almost surreal.
It had already been arranged
what car he was gonna be in,
that he was gonna be in the
car with some investigators
and driven back with a
caravan, back to Burbank.
[Tim] Matt Pavelka's
handcuffs were put on him.
And they stayed on him,
until we got him into the jail
at Burbank Police Department.
[car starting]
[Tim] On the way back,
he gave a full confession
to the investigators.
[Scott Meadows] I
drove him to the jail.
And he was very frank
and admitted to the whole thing.
[gunshot]
[Meadows] If I were to tell you
what I ate for
breakfast, for example,
that's about the same amount
of emotion that came out.
I saw in his face
something that just
so struck me as evil.
[Tim] I did call then,
back at the command post.
And I told him that we
had gotten David Garcia.
And they all were
screaming on the phone
that they were
so happy it's over.
[Darin Ryburn] It just erupted
in cheers,
backslaps, high fives.
Right after all the cheering,
Chief Hoefel and
I got in the car.
At the time Mike and Sue weren't
home, they were at a friend's house.
And here comes
the Chief of Burbank
and I thought what the heck
are they doing here, you know.
They said, "Well, we came
to give you some good news."
Chief Hoefel told them that
David Garcia was in custody.
So
we all cried and
It was a good day.
[Bercovici] It was
Thanksgiving night, right?
And bunch of us were standing
on the steps of the station.
And I saw something, to
this day I'll never forget.
Somebody said, "They're
on their way, they're coming."
And people from all over
the community of Burbank,
ran to be at the foot of the
of the steps of
the police station.
Chief Hoefel came out,
our brass showed up.
That's when the formal
announcement was given
that Garcia had been
taken into custody.
[Mike Pavelka] Tonight,
we are very pleased
that David Garcia is in custody.
And we are here to say thanks
to those that worked so hard,
including the Mexican
authorities that cooperated.
[Tim] Burbank's a
tight-knit community.
Many took this as one of their
own that was shot and killed.
There was a candlelight
vigil outside of our station.
And I believe over
2,000 people came.
[woman] At this time, it
is my honor and pleasure
to introduce the Mayor of the
city of Burbank, Stacey Murphy.
[Ryburn] Stacey Murphy was a huge
supporter of the police department.
I mean, she loved us.
She, you know, she
thought we were great.
[Stacey Murphy] Matthew loved
life and possessed the values
we expect of every sworn
law enforcement officer.
Honesty, hard
work and dedication.
Let tonight be about
committing to keeping his spirit
and the principles
he stood for alive.
[applause]
[Mike Pavelka] Matthew
would be proud to know
how much effort
by different law enforcement
agencies was put in
to the eventual capture
of David Garcia in Mexico.
After the manhunt,
the war wasn't over.
The Vineland Boyz
were out of control.
[John Williams] The
gang has been involved
in killing police officers,
they have obviously
no respect to human life
and no fear.
We were gonna keep
pushing and turn up the heat.
On the investigators
side, you know,
now the work really starts.
[police radio chatter]
What I remember, John Williams
looked up at me and he said,
"We need someone who's
an expert on this stuff."
We need Dan Jenks.
[Jenks] My supervisor
contacted me and said,
"Hey, they're
starting a task force
on the Vineland Boyz and I want
you to head the investigation."
[Williams] Dan's the best that we
had at putting a case like this together.
They had just had
another big case
against the Shoreline Crips gang
with a big water case,
it was very successful.
So it was not a hard sell
to get Dan Jenks involved.
[Jenks] I was assigned to go to
Burbank PD, I'd never been there before.
I stopped and picked
up Dan Fournier,
who was assigned
to the gang unit.
And I went into my first
meeting for the task force.
[Fournier] So Dan Jenks, I really
didn't know much about Dan Jenks,
but from the first
meeting we had with him,
I was like, wow, just impressed.
Like, this guy really knows
what he's talking about.
[Jenks] It was a clear
stated goal at the beginning.
We knew that we had a
problem that we'd identified
and we needed to figure
out how to address it.
It was an odd position
to find myself in,
I've been assigned
to investigate a gang
but the crime has
already been solved.
The murder of Pavelka
and the attempted
murder of Campbell,
were solved by Burbank PD.
It was well handled
and over with
when I first started
in December.
But the mission
of dismantling the gang
was something new to me
and it made me
feel a sense of
awesome responsibility.
[Jenks] When I sat in that
first briefing, I was advised
that, you know, the Vineland
Boyz were selling narcotics
out of the Ramada Inn that
night the Pavelka was killed.
The type of weapons they had
high-powered weapons,
fully automatic weapons,
really concerned us.
But when I saw a
hundred grams in the car,
that's a significant
amount of drugs
and it'd been high quality.
Generally all the high quality
methamphetamine comes
from super labs down in Mexico
associated with drug trafficking
organizations and cartels.
David Garcia and Ramon Aranda,
the two people involved in
the Pavelka shooting were,
what we considered
street-level gang members.
But obviously we wanted to focus
on who was supplying them,
what was their importation
point, to get to the root cause of it
and see if we can
dismantle their organization.
I knew it was gonna be a
challenge right from the beginning.
So having just come off
the Venice Shoreline case,
it looked like the
perfect opportunity to,
for lack of a better term,
put the band back together.
[Dave Torres] 2003,
and 2004, I was, um,
assigned to an LAPD,
DEA Task Force,
given the same federal
powers as federal DEA agents.
HIDTA Group 51, it's an acronym
for High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area.
Detective Jenks was
asking about our group and,
you know, my initial
response was, "Good luck."
It's very difficult
to prosecute a federal case
because you have to get the United
States Attorney to agree that the case
is worthy of their
time, basically.
[Torres] What other law enforcement
thought about Vineland Boyz,
that they were just regular
street gang members
who had involved in
street stuff, street robberies
car jackings, burglaries,
just simple things.
I got the feeling
it was something bigger.
[Adam] Matt Pavelka, Jim Beyea,
both were shot and killed
by the Vineland Boyz.
[Fournier] The ultimate goal
is to cut the head off the gang.
Because the higher-ups, the
shot callers are just as culpable
as Ramon Aranda
and David Garcia.
It's like reading a book,
you always want to get
to the last chapter and see
who the main kingpin in it and
where the narcotics are coming from.
But at that time, I didn't know.
The leaders of the
gang don't actually go out
and handle the drugs
with their own hands,
they don't drive, pick
them up and deliver.
They make sure they're at
least once or twice removed
and it can't be
tied back to them.
[Jenks] So, our initial plan
was to work from the bottom-up.
Let's find out, okay, you
got the lowline drug dealer.
Okay, well, where is
he getting his dope from?
Then you get that guy.
Okay now, you know who
that guy is, now you go up,
see who his associates
are, who he's dealing with.
And then you get up to the next
guy, you slowly move up the level
till you get to the top.
You know, it's easy to tell who's
out on the street selling drugs
and you can put in
undercover officers, informants.
We started to having
surveillance conducted.
If you've got a bunch
of guys coming in,
you know, parking isolated
from everybody else.
Trunks go open,
doors go open,
there's a sudden exchange.
Guess what? You
probably have a drug deal.
[Jenks] And then if they did
make an arrest, we would go
interview these people,
and see if we can develop
intelligence or make
them an informant.
We were able to buy some drugs and make some
arrests and search some search warrants.
We did that quite a bit for
the first couple of months.
But we were not
able to breakthrough
and get their source of supply
or the hierarchy of the gang
through those arrests.
People just wouldn't cooperate.
So the traditional
investigative measures
were not helping us get to
the main organizers in the gang.
So we needed a new
investigative strategy.
[phone dialing]
[line dialing]
[dog barking]
[man 1 speaking Spanish]
[man 2 speaking Spanish]
[man 1 speaking Spanish]
To take down a gang
of this sophistication,
you need to get
up on their phones
and the he only way to
do that is through a wiretap.
[men conversing in Spanish]
[phone chatter]
[line ringing]
[Jenks] A wiretap is a
unique law enforcement tool.
Gives us the ability to really
get the inside of what's going on.
Who's communicating with who?
Who's involved in
narcotics transaction?
Who's dealing in weapons?
[chatter in Spanish]
But it can only be
used as a last resort.
So you can't start
with a wiretap.
In order to get in a wiretap
basically, we have to show
that all other
investigations we've done,
tried to do it, wouldn't work.
And that's what we did.
[shutter clicking]
On April 12th, 2004, we
got the first series of wiretaps
that were signed
by a federal judge.
[chatter in Spanish]
[Jenks] As the wire developed, we
needed somebody that spoke Spanish.
[phone ringing]
[Carlos Camacho] So at the time I
was working gangs in North Hollywood.
[chatter in Spanish]
But I grew up in Los Angeles.
And during the late 80's,
there was so many gangs.
So many shootings,
so many killings.
[police sirens wailing]
[Camacho] Gang
members typically intimidate
the community that they are in.
One summer night
when I was in the eighth grade,
I was with my
friend, my neighbor.
And we were riding our bicycles.
And all of a sudden,
some gang members came up to us
and started asking us
where we were from.
And I wasn't from a gang
and I said, "Hey,
I'm from nowhere."
And that's when he put
the gun to my forehead
and said, "I'm gonna kill
you, where are you from?"
And
I said, "I'm from nowhere."
After that I was afraid,
afraid to be in
front of my house.
And that's,
that's why I wanted
to be a police officer.
I didn't want to be afraid.
And I didn't want other
people to have to be afraid.
[line ringing]
[voice in Spanish]
[Camacho] On wiretaps
[voice in Spanish]
you would see their
family side of it, you know,
taking care of the kids,
picking up the kids from school,
birthday parties, being there
for their event for their kids,
their baseball games.
And then you would
see a whole different side
which was the criminal aspect.
[voice in Spanish]
Yes, most wiretaps when
you have criminal activities
and they're discussing criminal
activities, they try to be coded.
[voice in Spanish]
[Camacho] For instance, we had
some narcotics that
they called the Audi
and we're like, "What
are they talking about?"
[voices in Spanish]
And the high amounts
of Audi, who has
ten or 20 Audis?
That's just not, it doesn't
make sense, right?
They're probably not
importing cars from Germany.
But when we started
sending surveillance teams,
and sure enough,
they would seize narcotics
with an Audi symbol
on the very top.
And that put it all together.
[phone ringing]
[Camacho] We actually
make a glossary.
A Kuiper for quarter, an
ounce of Marijuana or
The Crys or the Crystal
or the Blanco, the
blight, the powder.
Ventanas, in Spanish,
they would say ventanas,
which is a glass.
[Jenks] Amphetamine.
It looked like little
window panes,
or little pieces of
broken shards of glass.
They were talking about Motores.
So, they would say, use,
"Hey, bring me the motors,
I'm ready for the motors."
But what these codes
mean, this conjecture,
until you actually
see the seizures.
[voice in Spanish]
One particular case, somebody
wanted to buy two motors.
[phone dialing]
[line ringing]
[men conversing in Spanish]
[police siren wailing]
[Jenks] Ultimately, was
able to get on that purchaser
and stop that car.
And got two kilos.
So now, you know,
it's consistent that
two kilos of cocaine
that were seized,
were the two motors
they were talking about,
with the participant
who was on the phone.
Realized we got it right.
So then we start
making determinations
about what code
they're speaking,
what crimes they're involved in
and then the case
started gaining momentum.
[policeman over radio]
[Jenks] As the case went
on, I saw more narcotics
than I did in the
entire three years
I was assigned to narcotics.
At one point we got, I believe
was 47 kilos of cocaine.
It's a lot of narcotics.
I met with this sergeant out
there that was running the crew
and he was excited
because they had found
this picture.
[Torres] We had a individual,
last name was Chaidez.
Chaidez was identified
as a higher-up,
probably a lieutenant
within the Sinaloa Cartel.
El Chapo ran the Sinaloa Cartel.
[Fournier] I mean, come on, it
went all the way to Chapo Guzman.
Cartel, I mean that's how
big the organization was.
I mean, that's a shock.
I think it woke us up.
[chatter over radio]
There was a photo for a wedding.
So that tells you the
personal connection
between the gang
and the Sinaloa Cartels.
We found out later
that the link basically
was Mariano Meza.
Mariano Meza was
married to the sister
of Luis Sandoval.
[Williams] Sandoval,
he was the one that got
Garcia taken that night
within hours of the shooting,
across the border into Mexico.
[Jenks] So it kinda
went full circle.
[Bruce Applin] Consider
the gravity of that realization,
that the Vineland Boyz were connected
with the Chapo Guzman organization.
We were like,
"Hey, wait a minute,
so they co-opted
these street gangs."
You know, they actually
created a method of distribution
with these gangs
that, we up to this point kinda
considered localized street gangs.
And the answer to that was yes.
[Mundo] In 2004, El Chapo
Guzman was not a household name.
So, it might not have been common
knowledge to the average person.
But the Mexican cartels
were already deeply entrenched
in the United States.
Street gangs and prison
gangs, all fit into their puzzle.
[Iaon Grillo speaking]
Chapo Guzman of Sinaloa Cartel.
Which is arguably still the
richest and most powerful
drug cartel in Mexico.
[Grillo] El Chapo escaped
from prison in 2001,
after he'd been in
prison for eight years.
When he came out in 2001
and he started rebuilding,
he was very aggressive.
So in this period, the
Sinaloa Cartel is bringing in
tons and tons and
tons of cocaine,
tons of crystal meth.
If you're a member of a Mexican
Cartel, and you can cultivate
a gang like the Vineland
Boyz, to sell their product,
at a large scale,
they would love that.
They would have representation
on this side of the border.
[Grillo] If you have
a ton of cocaine,
the Sinaloa Cartel could
buy that ton of cocaine
for $2 million.
And then that ton of cocaine could be
worth a $150 Million in American streets.
So it's just huge amounts
of profits there being made.
So then, you have
these street gangs
with some of them forging closer
ties to the cartels and trying to move up.
The higher you move up,
the cheaper you can buy drugs
and the more money you can make.
Vineland Boyz were trafficking
any large amounts of narcotics.
Millions of million of dollars.
[Jenks] And we started
looking at the criminal histories
and where these guys
had been arrested.
They'd been arrested in Kentucky
for selling pounds of cocaine.
Been arrested in North Carolina.
Atlanta, Tennessee, Hawaii.
Their activities ran
across the entire country.
[Bercovici] The crazy
thing about all of this is
that the Vineland Boyz
weren't just importing drugs.
They were importing the
cartel's culture and their violence.
That was surprising to me.
They were basically
doing all the same things
the cartels do in Mexico,
whether it be their music,
the narcocorridoes.
[hip-hop music playing]
We're hearing those all
the time on the wiretap.
The drug sales,
the worshipping
of the Saints that protect them,
the cockfighting.
[indistinct shouting]
We had a lot of murders
involving Vineland Boyz.
And these murders
were cartel-style murders.
People shot in the back of the
head, people in the trunks of car,
people kidnapped, tied
up and tortured in garages.
[Camacho] The
similarities were very clear.
They were trying to be or,
being like the
cartels in Mexico,
in our own backyard.
As it turned out, the
leader of the Vineland Boyz
lived just several
blocks from where I lived
at the time, in a
multi-million dollar home.
It's kinda like living
with The Sopranos,
right next door.
[Mike Pavelka] There's
no part of society
that many of have these gangs
and the cartels don't touch.
[Bercovici] What was shocking
is how deep this thing went.
We discovered that
in the city of Burbank,
there was corruption
connected to these gangs.
[Mike Pavelka] During
several of the memorials
that we went to
the candlelight vigil,
we got to know council
members Stacey Murphy.
It's my sincere hope
that when we walk away
from this candlelight
vigil tonight,
will keep what we know about
Matthew Pavelka in our hearts and souls.
Cocaine, three handguns and
approximately 900 rounds of ammunition,
were seized from that residence.
[Mike Pavelka] Later, it came
out that she and her boyfriend
were involved with
the Vineland Boyz.
[officer] It is also known that
Mr. Shaffer has 19 handguns registered to
and then on at least
two separate occasions,
he has provided known
Vineland Boyz gang members
with handguns, in
exchange for cocaine.
I was, I was actually
shocked when I found out that
that she was
involved with cocaine
and he was involved in
trading weapons for drugs.
Who knows what kind of
information was being passed along.
[Bercovici] One thing
this case taught us,
that the reach of the
cartels is insidious.
I don't know what Stacey
Murphy's motivation was.
But what I do know is, somebody
that was in the position of trust
was drawn in by bad people.
It doesn't get uglier than that.
[tape whirring]
[Jenks] That night that
they made this large seizure,
on the Vineland Boyz.
Now seeing this picture,
we began to realize
we made a
significant connection.
As an investigator, once you
tie into these drug
trafficking organizations
and cartels in Mexico,
then you start being able to get
the rest of what's available
through the federal government.
And that support the
logistics and money.
Because what we are
up against was a group
that had means,
opportunity and financing
to thwart our efforts.
[siren wailing]
[Bercovici] Case was now
gonna go in the long haul.
We were going to take
this to the full measure
and do what we had to do to
bring these people to justice.
[man] I don't know, dog.
[Bercovici] We rode that
wire for another 12 months.
We had car chases, we
had suspects murdered
right in front of
surveillance teams.
We had to try and stop a hitman
on the loose in North Carolina.
[siren wailing]
And the ride was gonna get a
whole lot wilder before it was over.
[gunshot]
This shit storm landed
on Burbank's doorstep
through one simple traffic stop.
[Tim] With Greg Campbell, I
specifically remember being told,
"Greg will never walk again."
And you know, that's not
true, you know, Greg walks.
[Mike Pavelka] Greg was a
fighter, he continues to be a fighter.
So no, he proved them wrong.
[policeman] Down to work limited
duty, he drives himself to work now.
He's got a long way to go,
but he's with us here tonight.
I just want to introduce you,
Greg Campbell over here.
[applause]
[Mike Pavelka] You know, it's
astounding that the murder of Matthew
just kept morphing into something
bigger and bigger and bigger.
Ultimately, this story
being told to me,
and the only
reason I'm doing this
and I'm even willing to
talk about it is because
of the sacrifice that Matt made.
And that sacrifice,
was not in vain.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
[rain falling]
[indistinct talking over radio]
License.
[Bercovici]: There's a belief
in police work that every major
investigation starts
with a traffic stop.
One of the things
about a traffic stop,
it's probably the most
dangerous thing that we do.
What happened in Burbank
that night, simple traffic stop,
[gunshots blasting]
Which led to the
manhunt for a cop killer,
David Garcia,
which led to going after
gangs that were working
with the Mexican mafia
and the Mexican drug cartels,
and then we discovered
that they have infiltrated
the city government in Burbank,
and you just you know,
you really can't make that up.
[gunshot blasts]
This stuff doesn't happen
in the city of Burbank,
and it did.
[sirens wailing]
What started as
the murder of my son
got bigger and
bigger and bigger.
They had a direct pipeline
source to a super lab
from Mexico.
[man] Rival drug cartels
have waged a deadly war.
[man #2] Victims have
suffered violent death.
[man #3] Twelve more
dead bodies found today.
Influence and money
They've got it all.
It was shocking to
me that someone
at the top of city
government was
swept up in the investigation.
A lot of people
watched "The Wire,"
but we lived it.
♪♪
♪♪
[Bercovici] The clock
was ticking on us.
Garcia's on the run, and
if he was able to escape,
there is that fear that
these guys are emboldened
to take on the cops,
and you know they have
access to high-grade weaponry,
so we needed to catch the guy.
We're gonna send a
message that you don't do this,
that you don't get away with it.
When he was relocated
to Mexico, to Tijuana,
he didn't get there by himself.
There was some support there.
Now who was it?
[detective] Is that David
you're talking about?
[Barba] Yeah, that
That's him, that's David.
[detective] For sure
that's the guy, or maybe?
[Barba] No, that's him.
[Tim Stehr] We get a thorough
interview from Alfredo Barba
and he tells us
everything that happens.
He takes us
through all the steps.
David Garcia runs
from the crime scene.
He runs all the way
to his neighborhood,
and that's where
he runs De Leon,
and De Leon gives him
a ride up to another house
in Arleta.
Luis Sandoval was a
shot caller in that gang,
and he said, wow,
we gotta get we got to
get David Garcia out of here.
And Luis knew he had to get
someone that was
clean to to do this.
So he used Alfredo
Barba, because
he didn't have a
criminal record.
No one would be able to attach
Alfredo Barba with the gang.
Luis Sandoval called Barba
"and said, "Take this
guy, take him into Mexico
and hook him up with a
Vineland Boy gang member."
His name was Eric Avina.
Eric Avina had a warrant for
his arrest for gun violations.
That's why he was hiding there.
Alfredo Barba says,
"Okay," loads him in a car
and delivers, uh, David
Garcia into Mexico.
Alfredo Barba told us, "The
last time I saw David Garcia,
I brought him to Eric
Avina, across the border."
[Tim] We don't
know if he's still there.
We don't know
where in Mexico he is.
Our goal was to
get Eric Avina now.
[Tony Burke] Now
we're basically down
to one person away, who last,
possibly still has or
last had contact with him.
Who physically has or knows
the location of our fugitive.
[detective] Alfredo Luis.
[Tim] And Barba said to find Luis
Sandoval and get information from him.
[investigator] You said,
your friend Luis Sandoval
[Adam Bercovici] Sandoval
was supposedly the guy
that, you know,
masterminded the entire thing.
[Tim] We can get him then,
we can maybe get David Garcia.
So, the detectives that
were talking to Alfredo Barba
had learned that he, as a
facilitator, he did different things.
[Barba] I do errands for him.
Like, he rented
a location to do a marijuana
grow, he got the phones,
he also fed the dogs,
that were at the marijuana grow.
Uh, they were pitbull dogs
that were there to guard
the outside perimeter
of the grow house.
And he would have to ask
for money from Luis Sandoval.
So, the idea was now,
let's get Alfredo Barba
to reach out to Luis Sandoval
and say he needs to
meet him for some money.
[Barba] Luis?
Yeah, yeah it's me.
Yeah, I'm good, I'm good.
[Tim] And the plan was
to get Luis Sandoval there,
get him in custody before
he can make a phone call
to Mexico or wherever
David Garcia is.
[police officer] There's a pedestrian
walking towards our location.
[Tim] We hear somebody sees him.
Luis Sandoval doesn't
like the look of it.
The decision's made
by the team out there,
to box him in and take
Luis Sandoval into custody.
He sees him coming
and the chase is on.
[tires screeching]
[police siren wailing]
[helicopter blades whirring]
[Tim] And we finally
have Luis Sandoval.
And Luis Sandoval
refuses to talk to anyone.
He refuses to talk
to investigators,
the District Attorney, Craig
Richman goes to talk to him.
Several different
investigators say,
"We wanna explain to
him the gravity of this,
explain what he's looking at."
You know, and that he needs to
help us, you know, David Garcia.
Luis Sandoval refuses.
Luis Sandoval never tells us
anything about
where David Garcia is.
So now, we're
really under the gun.
Now, coming up with
another plan is imminent.
And I will, again my hats
off to my investigators.
They Still talking
to Alfredo Barba.
Alfredo Barba tells them
They say, "Hey, you
think you could make a call
to a person in Mexico and
say hey, I'm coming down there.
I'm on my way down, Luis wants
me to give you some money."
[Barba] No, not at
all, it'd be normal.
[Tim] Barba said
that this is something
that would be
normal for him to do.
He said Eric Avina
would want the money.
So we discuss it as a group.
And I'll say, probably half
the people are telling me
"You know, Timothy,
they're gonna know."
They're gonna
know this is a setup.
If we use Alfredo Barba
and send him down there,
they're gonna
kill Alfredo Barba,
"because they know
he's working with us."
And I said, "I don't
believe we're doing that."
[Tim] We didn't have any
indication that there was a call
from Luis Sandoval
to Eric Avina.
I made the decision, we're
gonna go ahead and try that plan.
[Tim] We were gonna
take Alfredo Barba
and we were gonna
drive into Tijuana, all of us.
And Alfredo Barba was
gonna point out Eric Avina
and we're gonna take
him into custody there.
Then we can maybe get
to wherever David Garcia is.
[Barba] Yo, I was calling
because I wanted to
So Alfredo Barba makes
the call into Mexico.
And we tell him, "You tell
him, I'm already almost there."
And this was the
eve of Thanksgiving.
[Tim] I go to the heliport
with Alfredo Barba.
Start heading south
down to the border.
The challenge in Mexico
is the corruption factor
within law enforcement.
[Tim] I think it's pretty
common knowledge,
how many are on
payroll of drug cartels.
You have to find the right
police to work with down there.
And that's what the Marshals do.
[Burke] On our task
force, that's something that
Joe Chavarria or Don
Vasquez specialize in.
[Scott Samuels] Joe
was known for his ability
to reach out and talk to the right
people in Mexican law enforcement.
We needed to figure out how
were we going to grab this guy,
how are we gonna do it lawfully.
We're now dealing
with a sovereign nation.
[Tim] It is explained to me that they
don't trust the local police officers.
So, it was kinda touchy.
We link up Captain
Stehr with Don Vasquez.
[Tim] He's one of the
undercovers, he goes back and forth.
[Samuels] He's famous in the
Marshal Service for his work in Mexico.
He probably kind of looked more,
more like a street urchin
or a homeless person.
But he worked very
effectively in Tijuana
and he blends in well.
Kind of like you know, myself,
I don't necessarily look like
a police officer.
[Tim] Twenty minutes
later, I'm in the car with him
driving into Mexico.
[crowd milling]
[dog barking]
[Tim] Goal was
to get Eric Avina.
[phone ringing]
And the plan was that Alfredo
Barba will get on the phone,
call him out,
while the U.S. Marshals
would then call the Federales.
So that the Federales
could take him into custody.
Barba had told Eric Avina
to meet him in front of a
bar on Revolution Street.
Gave him the name of the bar.
Meanwhile me and Vasquez,
were waiting in the
shadows, you know, watching.
Standing around he's
looking, he's getting impatient.
We have Alfredo Barba
telling him, "Just wait."
"I'm almost there, I'm almost
there, I'm almost there."
I thought he was gonna leave.
It was just taking too long.
Finally, we see
some people jump out of a car.
[Burke] Mexican police
just come up, grab him
throw a black bag over his head.
And throw him in
the back of a vehicle
where two people jumped
on top of him and took off.
[tires screeching]
[Burke] Captain Stehr, he's like,
"Oh, my god! what just happened?
Was that the
police or the cartel?"
[speaking Spanish]
Vasquez told me, "We
got to get out of here."
[siren wailing]
Because the local
police are gonna come.
They thought that it might be
reported as some kidnapping.
[Tim] Now, we're on
Thanksgiving morning.
Everybody had been up all night,
and no one's
with their families.
[Burke] Eric Avina told me
that he's at one of
these two addresses.
In Mexico, in Tijuana.
U.S. Marshals
called the Federales.
Say, "Listen, will you
allow us to come in
and go with us, to
find David Garcia?"
Not sure which house,
they're fairly close together.
But you know, be like, you
know three or four streets apart.
Two different addresses.
But there was a pizza delivery
to this one house
and, you know, they didn't see who
got the pizza, just saw the pizza man
and they see the Mexican police.
Once that pizza man left,
they interviewed him really quick
and said, "Hey,
was this guy there?"
He's like, "Yeah that's
who I delivered the pizza to."
[sirens wailing]
[Burke] That was it,
that's all they needed.
I think they actually surrounded
the house with something like,
25-30 officers.
And kicked in the door
and did a full-blown
raid into that house.
And apprehended Garcia.
I called Tom Hoefel immediately.
Told him we had David Garcia.
Ah but,
we don't have him
across the border yet.
[Tim] Told us to send a
couple people to the border.
I went, two other people
went to the border.
One of them had Matt
Pavelka's handcuffs.
We waited and we're waiting,
my phone rings
and it's the U.S. Marshals.
And they go, "Tim",
your Chief of Police
is going to get a call
from some government official,
"do not let him take that call."
[phone ringing]
[Tim] "They're trying to make this
political, do not let him take that call."
[phone ringing]
'Cause until he's processed
through Mexican
immigration and deported,
we don't have him.
Politics can get in
the middle of that.
And have Mexican
heads of immigration,
mayors, governors
and sometimes people want
to use it for their political gain
or, you know, some press on it.
Even lawyers in the area
are trying to get
their notoriety,
and see if they can get him off.
And you never know
what's gonna happen.
[phone ringing]
We're all on pins and needles,
it's been a little
longer than usual.
[phone ringing]
The Chief of Police actually gets a
phone call from a Mexico number.
Ends up that it's the governor, I
said, "Just don't get the phone."
[phone ringing]
♪♪
[Tim] So it was
Thanksgiving morning.
Here we stood at the border.
It had been
a long road to get here.
And I wasn't gonna be
satisfied until we had him
and till we put our
handcuffs on him.
[Tim] They did call,
they did call for the Chief.
He didn't take the call and
then we sat with pins and needles
to wonder what's
gonna happen next.
We did not know if that meant
now we're not gonna get him,
now they're not
gonna give him to us.
[Tim] And finally,
probably 40 minutes later,
we see a hooded
person being walked.
[Tim] I see Don Vasquez
walking next to the hooded person
and that's David Garcia.
And they bring him to the border
and I had instructed
the two officers that were with
me, "As soon as he's within reach,
just grab him."
We finally have David Garcia.
And
it was almost surreal.
It had already been arranged
what car he was gonna be in,
that he was gonna be in the
car with some investigators
and driven back with a
caravan, back to Burbank.
[Tim] Matt Pavelka's
handcuffs were put on him.
And they stayed on him,
until we got him into the jail
at Burbank Police Department.
[car starting]
[Tim] On the way back,
he gave a full confession
to the investigators.
[Scott Meadows] I
drove him to the jail.
And he was very frank
and admitted to the whole thing.
[gunshot]
[Meadows] If I were to tell you
what I ate for
breakfast, for example,
that's about the same amount
of emotion that came out.
I saw in his face
something that just
so struck me as evil.
[Tim] I did call then,
back at the command post.
And I told him that we
had gotten David Garcia.
And they all were
screaming on the phone
that they were
so happy it's over.
[Darin Ryburn] It just erupted
in cheers,
backslaps, high fives.
Right after all the cheering,
Chief Hoefel and
I got in the car.
At the time Mike and Sue weren't
home, they were at a friend's house.
And here comes
the Chief of Burbank
and I thought what the heck
are they doing here, you know.
They said, "Well, we came
to give you some good news."
Chief Hoefel told them that
David Garcia was in custody.
So
we all cried and
It was a good day.
[Bercovici] It was
Thanksgiving night, right?
And bunch of us were standing
on the steps of the station.
And I saw something, to
this day I'll never forget.
Somebody said, "They're
on their way, they're coming."
And people from all over
the community of Burbank,
ran to be at the foot of the
of the steps of
the police station.
Chief Hoefel came out,
our brass showed up.
That's when the formal
announcement was given
that Garcia had been
taken into custody.
[Mike Pavelka] Tonight,
we are very pleased
that David Garcia is in custody.
And we are here to say thanks
to those that worked so hard,
including the Mexican
authorities that cooperated.
[Tim] Burbank's a
tight-knit community.
Many took this as one of their
own that was shot and killed.
There was a candlelight
vigil outside of our station.
And I believe over
2,000 people came.
[woman] At this time, it
is my honor and pleasure
to introduce the Mayor of the
city of Burbank, Stacey Murphy.
[Ryburn] Stacey Murphy was a huge
supporter of the police department.
I mean, she loved us.
She, you know, she
thought we were great.
[Stacey Murphy] Matthew loved
life and possessed the values
we expect of every sworn
law enforcement officer.
Honesty, hard
work and dedication.
Let tonight be about
committing to keeping his spirit
and the principles
he stood for alive.
[applause]
[Mike Pavelka] Matthew
would be proud to know
how much effort
by different law enforcement
agencies was put in
to the eventual capture
of David Garcia in Mexico.
After the manhunt,
the war wasn't over.
The Vineland Boyz
were out of control.
[John Williams] The
gang has been involved
in killing police officers,
they have obviously
no respect to human life
and no fear.
We were gonna keep
pushing and turn up the heat.
On the investigators
side, you know,
now the work really starts.
[police radio chatter]
What I remember, John Williams
looked up at me and he said,
"We need someone who's
an expert on this stuff."
We need Dan Jenks.
[Jenks] My supervisor
contacted me and said,
"Hey, they're
starting a task force
on the Vineland Boyz and I want
you to head the investigation."
[Williams] Dan's the best that we
had at putting a case like this together.
They had just had
another big case
against the Shoreline Crips gang
with a big water case,
it was very successful.
So it was not a hard sell
to get Dan Jenks involved.
[Jenks] I was assigned to go to
Burbank PD, I'd never been there before.
I stopped and picked
up Dan Fournier,
who was assigned
to the gang unit.
And I went into my first
meeting for the task force.
[Fournier] So Dan Jenks, I really
didn't know much about Dan Jenks,
but from the first
meeting we had with him,
I was like, wow, just impressed.
Like, this guy really knows
what he's talking about.
[Jenks] It was a clear
stated goal at the beginning.
We knew that we had a
problem that we'd identified
and we needed to figure
out how to address it.
It was an odd position
to find myself in,
I've been assigned
to investigate a gang
but the crime has
already been solved.
The murder of Pavelka
and the attempted
murder of Campbell,
were solved by Burbank PD.
It was well handled
and over with
when I first started
in December.
But the mission
of dismantling the gang
was something new to me
and it made me
feel a sense of
awesome responsibility.
[Jenks] When I sat in that
first briefing, I was advised
that, you know, the Vineland
Boyz were selling narcotics
out of the Ramada Inn that
night the Pavelka was killed.
The type of weapons they had
high-powered weapons,
fully automatic weapons,
really concerned us.
But when I saw a
hundred grams in the car,
that's a significant
amount of drugs
and it'd been high quality.
Generally all the high quality
methamphetamine comes
from super labs down in Mexico
associated with drug trafficking
organizations and cartels.
David Garcia and Ramon Aranda,
the two people involved in
the Pavelka shooting were,
what we considered
street-level gang members.
But obviously we wanted to focus
on who was supplying them,
what was their importation
point, to get to the root cause of it
and see if we can
dismantle their organization.
I knew it was gonna be a
challenge right from the beginning.
So having just come off
the Venice Shoreline case,
it looked like the
perfect opportunity to,
for lack of a better term,
put the band back together.
[Dave Torres] 2003,
and 2004, I was, um,
assigned to an LAPD,
DEA Task Force,
given the same federal
powers as federal DEA agents.
HIDTA Group 51, it's an acronym
for High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area.
Detective Jenks was
asking about our group and,
you know, my initial
response was, "Good luck."
It's very difficult
to prosecute a federal case
because you have to get the United
States Attorney to agree that the case
is worthy of their
time, basically.
[Torres] What other law enforcement
thought about Vineland Boyz,
that they were just regular
street gang members
who had involved in
street stuff, street robberies
car jackings, burglaries,
just simple things.
I got the feeling
it was something bigger.
[Adam] Matt Pavelka, Jim Beyea,
both were shot and killed
by the Vineland Boyz.
[Fournier] The ultimate goal
is to cut the head off the gang.
Because the higher-ups, the
shot callers are just as culpable
as Ramon Aranda
and David Garcia.
It's like reading a book,
you always want to get
to the last chapter and see
who the main kingpin in it and
where the narcotics are coming from.
But at that time, I didn't know.
The leaders of the
gang don't actually go out
and handle the drugs
with their own hands,
they don't drive, pick
them up and deliver.
They make sure they're at
least once or twice removed
and it can't be
tied back to them.
[Jenks] So, our initial plan
was to work from the bottom-up.
Let's find out, okay, you
got the lowline drug dealer.
Okay, well, where is
he getting his dope from?
Then you get that guy.
Okay now, you know who
that guy is, now you go up,
see who his associates
are, who he's dealing with.
And then you get up to the next
guy, you slowly move up the level
till you get to the top.
You know, it's easy to tell who's
out on the street selling drugs
and you can put in
undercover officers, informants.
We started to having
surveillance conducted.
If you've got a bunch
of guys coming in,
you know, parking isolated
from everybody else.
Trunks go open,
doors go open,
there's a sudden exchange.
Guess what? You
probably have a drug deal.
[Jenks] And then if they did
make an arrest, we would go
interview these people,
and see if we can develop
intelligence or make
them an informant.
We were able to buy some drugs and make some
arrests and search some search warrants.
We did that quite a bit for
the first couple of months.
But we were not
able to breakthrough
and get their source of supply
or the hierarchy of the gang
through those arrests.
People just wouldn't cooperate.
So the traditional
investigative measures
were not helping us get to
the main organizers in the gang.
So we needed a new
investigative strategy.
[phone dialing]
[line dialing]
[dog barking]
[man 1 speaking Spanish]
[man 2 speaking Spanish]
[man 1 speaking Spanish]
To take down a gang
of this sophistication,
you need to get
up on their phones
and the he only way to
do that is through a wiretap.
[men conversing in Spanish]
[phone chatter]
[line ringing]
[Jenks] A wiretap is a
unique law enforcement tool.
Gives us the ability to really
get the inside of what's going on.
Who's communicating with who?
Who's involved in
narcotics transaction?
Who's dealing in weapons?
[chatter in Spanish]
But it can only be
used as a last resort.
So you can't start
with a wiretap.
In order to get in a wiretap
basically, we have to show
that all other
investigations we've done,
tried to do it, wouldn't work.
And that's what we did.
[shutter clicking]
On April 12th, 2004, we
got the first series of wiretaps
that were signed
by a federal judge.
[chatter in Spanish]
[Jenks] As the wire developed, we
needed somebody that spoke Spanish.
[phone ringing]
[Carlos Camacho] So at the time I
was working gangs in North Hollywood.
[chatter in Spanish]
But I grew up in Los Angeles.
And during the late 80's,
there was so many gangs.
So many shootings,
so many killings.
[police sirens wailing]
[Camacho] Gang
members typically intimidate
the community that they are in.
One summer night
when I was in the eighth grade,
I was with my
friend, my neighbor.
And we were riding our bicycles.
And all of a sudden,
some gang members came up to us
and started asking us
where we were from.
And I wasn't from a gang
and I said, "Hey,
I'm from nowhere."
And that's when he put
the gun to my forehead
and said, "I'm gonna kill
you, where are you from?"
And
I said, "I'm from nowhere."
After that I was afraid,
afraid to be in
front of my house.
And that's,
that's why I wanted
to be a police officer.
I didn't want to be afraid.
And I didn't want other
people to have to be afraid.
[line ringing]
[voice in Spanish]
[Camacho] On wiretaps
[voice in Spanish]
you would see their
family side of it, you know,
taking care of the kids,
picking up the kids from school,
birthday parties, being there
for their event for their kids,
their baseball games.
And then you would
see a whole different side
which was the criminal aspect.
[voice in Spanish]
Yes, most wiretaps when
you have criminal activities
and they're discussing criminal
activities, they try to be coded.
[voice in Spanish]
[Camacho] For instance, we had
some narcotics that
they called the Audi
and we're like, "What
are they talking about?"
[voices in Spanish]
And the high amounts
of Audi, who has
ten or 20 Audis?
That's just not, it doesn't
make sense, right?
They're probably not
importing cars from Germany.
But when we started
sending surveillance teams,
and sure enough,
they would seize narcotics
with an Audi symbol
on the very top.
And that put it all together.
[phone ringing]
[Camacho] We actually
make a glossary.
A Kuiper for quarter, an
ounce of Marijuana or
The Crys or the Crystal
or the Blanco, the
blight, the powder.
Ventanas, in Spanish,
they would say ventanas,
which is a glass.
[Jenks] Amphetamine.
It looked like little
window panes,
or little pieces of
broken shards of glass.
They were talking about Motores.
So, they would say, use,
"Hey, bring me the motors,
I'm ready for the motors."
But what these codes
mean, this conjecture,
until you actually
see the seizures.
[voice in Spanish]
One particular case, somebody
wanted to buy two motors.
[phone dialing]
[line ringing]
[men conversing in Spanish]
[police siren wailing]
[Jenks] Ultimately, was
able to get on that purchaser
and stop that car.
And got two kilos.
So now, you know,
it's consistent that
two kilos of cocaine
that were seized,
were the two motors
they were talking about,
with the participant
who was on the phone.
Realized we got it right.
So then we start
making determinations
about what code
they're speaking,
what crimes they're involved in
and then the case
started gaining momentum.
[policeman over radio]
[Jenks] As the case went
on, I saw more narcotics
than I did in the
entire three years
I was assigned to narcotics.
At one point we got, I believe
was 47 kilos of cocaine.
It's a lot of narcotics.
I met with this sergeant out
there that was running the crew
and he was excited
because they had found
this picture.
[Torres] We had a individual,
last name was Chaidez.
Chaidez was identified
as a higher-up,
probably a lieutenant
within the Sinaloa Cartel.
El Chapo ran the Sinaloa Cartel.
[Fournier] I mean, come on, it
went all the way to Chapo Guzman.
Cartel, I mean that's how
big the organization was.
I mean, that's a shock.
I think it woke us up.
[chatter over radio]
There was a photo for a wedding.
So that tells you the
personal connection
between the gang
and the Sinaloa Cartels.
We found out later
that the link basically
was Mariano Meza.
Mariano Meza was
married to the sister
of Luis Sandoval.
[Williams] Sandoval,
he was the one that got
Garcia taken that night
within hours of the shooting,
across the border into Mexico.
[Jenks] So it kinda
went full circle.
[Bruce Applin] Consider
the gravity of that realization,
that the Vineland Boyz were connected
with the Chapo Guzman organization.
We were like,
"Hey, wait a minute,
so they co-opted
these street gangs."
You know, they actually
created a method of distribution
with these gangs
that, we up to this point kinda
considered localized street gangs.
And the answer to that was yes.
[Mundo] In 2004, El Chapo
Guzman was not a household name.
So, it might not have been common
knowledge to the average person.
But the Mexican cartels
were already deeply entrenched
in the United States.
Street gangs and prison
gangs, all fit into their puzzle.
[Iaon Grillo speaking]
Chapo Guzman of Sinaloa Cartel.
Which is arguably still the
richest and most powerful
drug cartel in Mexico.
[Grillo] El Chapo escaped
from prison in 2001,
after he'd been in
prison for eight years.
When he came out in 2001
and he started rebuilding,
he was very aggressive.
So in this period, the
Sinaloa Cartel is bringing in
tons and tons and
tons of cocaine,
tons of crystal meth.
If you're a member of a Mexican
Cartel, and you can cultivate
a gang like the Vineland
Boyz, to sell their product,
at a large scale,
they would love that.
They would have representation
on this side of the border.
[Grillo] If you have
a ton of cocaine,
the Sinaloa Cartel could
buy that ton of cocaine
for $2 million.
And then that ton of cocaine could be
worth a $150 Million in American streets.
So it's just huge amounts
of profits there being made.
So then, you have
these street gangs
with some of them forging closer
ties to the cartels and trying to move up.
The higher you move up,
the cheaper you can buy drugs
and the more money you can make.
Vineland Boyz were trafficking
any large amounts of narcotics.
Millions of million of dollars.
[Jenks] And we started
looking at the criminal histories
and where these guys
had been arrested.
They'd been arrested in Kentucky
for selling pounds of cocaine.
Been arrested in North Carolina.
Atlanta, Tennessee, Hawaii.
Their activities ran
across the entire country.
[Bercovici] The crazy
thing about all of this is
that the Vineland Boyz
weren't just importing drugs.
They were importing the
cartel's culture and their violence.
That was surprising to me.
They were basically
doing all the same things
the cartels do in Mexico,
whether it be their music,
the narcocorridoes.
[hip-hop music playing]
We're hearing those all
the time on the wiretap.
The drug sales,
the worshipping
of the Saints that protect them,
the cockfighting.
[indistinct shouting]
We had a lot of murders
involving Vineland Boyz.
And these murders
were cartel-style murders.
People shot in the back of the
head, people in the trunks of car,
people kidnapped, tied
up and tortured in garages.
[Camacho] The
similarities were very clear.
They were trying to be or,
being like the
cartels in Mexico,
in our own backyard.
As it turned out, the
leader of the Vineland Boyz
lived just several
blocks from where I lived
at the time, in a
multi-million dollar home.
It's kinda like living
with The Sopranos,
right next door.
[Mike Pavelka] There's
no part of society
that many of have these gangs
and the cartels don't touch.
[Bercovici] What was shocking
is how deep this thing went.
We discovered that
in the city of Burbank,
there was corruption
connected to these gangs.
[Mike Pavelka] During
several of the memorials
that we went to
the candlelight vigil,
we got to know council
members Stacey Murphy.
It's my sincere hope
that when we walk away
from this candlelight
vigil tonight,
will keep what we know about
Matthew Pavelka in our hearts and souls.
Cocaine, three handguns and
approximately 900 rounds of ammunition,
were seized from that residence.
[Mike Pavelka] Later, it came
out that she and her boyfriend
were involved with
the Vineland Boyz.
[officer] It is also known that
Mr. Shaffer has 19 handguns registered to
and then on at least
two separate occasions,
he has provided known
Vineland Boyz gang members
with handguns, in
exchange for cocaine.
I was, I was actually
shocked when I found out that
that she was
involved with cocaine
and he was involved in
trading weapons for drugs.
Who knows what kind of
information was being passed along.
[Bercovici] One thing
this case taught us,
that the reach of the
cartels is insidious.
I don't know what Stacey
Murphy's motivation was.
But what I do know is, somebody
that was in the position of trust
was drawn in by bad people.
It doesn't get uglier than that.
[tape whirring]
[Jenks] That night that
they made this large seizure,
on the Vineland Boyz.
Now seeing this picture,
we began to realize
we made a
significant connection.
As an investigator, once you
tie into these drug
trafficking organizations
and cartels in Mexico,
then you start being able to get
the rest of what's available
through the federal government.
And that support the
logistics and money.
Because what we are
up against was a group
that had means,
opportunity and financing
to thwart our efforts.
[siren wailing]
[Bercovici] Case was now
gonna go in the long haul.
We were going to take
this to the full measure
and do what we had to do to
bring these people to justice.
[man] I don't know, dog.
[Bercovici] We rode that
wire for another 12 months.
We had car chases, we
had suspects murdered
right in front of
surveillance teams.
We had to try and stop a hitman
on the loose in North Carolina.
[siren wailing]
And the ride was gonna get a
whole lot wilder before it was over.
[gunshot]
This shit storm landed
on Burbank's doorstep
through one simple traffic stop.
[Tim] With Greg Campbell, I
specifically remember being told,
"Greg will never walk again."
And you know, that's not
true, you know, Greg walks.
[Mike Pavelka] Greg was a
fighter, he continues to be a fighter.
So no, he proved them wrong.
[policeman] Down to work limited
duty, he drives himself to work now.
He's got a long way to go,
but he's with us here tonight.
I just want to introduce you,
Greg Campbell over here.
[applause]
[Mike Pavelka] You know, it's
astounding that the murder of Matthew
just kept morphing into something
bigger and bigger and bigger.
Ultimately, this story
being told to me,
and the only
reason I'm doing this
and I'm even willing to
talk about it is because
of the sacrifice that Matt made.
And that sacrifice,
was not in vain.
♪♪
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