Narco Wars (2020) s02e06 Episode Script

1
MAN: Shake this Square World
and blast off for Kicksville.
NIXON: America's public enemy
number one is drug abuse.
NANCY: Just say no.
MAN: The Mafia is a major
player in the international
drug underworld.
MAN 2: At the end of the day,
it's all about the dollar.
It's all about the dollar.
REAGAN: American
people want the Mob,
and its associates
brought to justice,
and their power broken.
HARRIS: There's now an
understanding that the war on
drugs was an abject failure.
MAN 3: You have to
stop and ask yourself,
how did we get here?
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(thunder)
(wind)
(helicopter rotors)
JOHN: You have to be pretty
top‐notch in your profession,
just to survive it all.
You get heavy turbulence.
You gotta slow the aircraft
down because you could
have structural failure.
Like, losing a wing
wouldn't be much fun.
A North Atlantic
storm in November,
it's a pretty impressive event,
to put it mildly.
My name is
John Raymond Boulanger.
I'm what you would
call a mercenary pilot.
I fly for hire, to
he who pays the most.
I had 4,343 kilos of cocaine,
and I was flying from Colombia,
directly to Canada.
Normally the flight
would be about nine
hours, give or take.
But I ran into the storm,
for about 45 minutes or an
hour, before I broke out.
And, low and behold,
there were the F‐18s.
Then they were off to my rear.
And the other guy came
up close beside us,
and flying around me,
making signals to go down.
And I just waved to him.
They can't shoot at you.
But they were
running out of gas.
We were just timing
it and say, okay, how
long is it gonna be before
they're gonna run out?
It was interesting.
He gave us a nice little show.
I went down to treetop level.
I flew the rest of
the way treetop level.
Below radar, so nobody knew
where the airplane was.
The authorities put out an
alert, to all the airports.
There's a big white Convair,
somewhere in Canada,
if anybody saw
it to report it.
I should have arrived
around 6:00 in the morning,
but I arrived at
quarter to nine, instead.
I was standing
out on the runway,
waiting for the crew hired
to go and do the pick‐up.
I looked all over the place,
couldn't figure out where
the hell these guys were.
Turns out they had been
there since 3 in the morning.
At around 7:30,
they decided I wasn't coming,
and they left!
So, anyway, I started walking.
And a truck went by.
I hitch‐hiked.
And he gave me a lift all
the way down to the lumber camp,
and that's where I was when
the RCMP arrived by helicopter,
'cause the Police had
blocked off all the roads.
So they asked,
"What's in the airplane?"
I said, "Cocaine."
And he says, "How much?"
I says, "A lot!"
ANCHOR: It's being
touted as the biggest drug
bust in Canadian history,
and probably the
most dramatic.
CHRIS: The seizure of 4,300
kilos of cocaine really
reverberated through DEA.
That's a staggering
amount of cocaine,
coupled with the fact
that it was flown directly
from the North Coast of
Colombia, into Canada.
JOHN: I would have
made around 45 million.
It's a pretty good payday.
For one day's work,
that's not bad.
I was arrested.
Pled guilty and got 23 years.
And that was it
and became famous.
But I take things
with a grain of salt.
It was and I
believe it still is,
the biggest bust ever in Canada.
CHRIS: We were just wondering,
who could be behind this?
JOHN:
Everybody knows who it is,
but I don't technically
wanna say their names,
but they know.
PIETRO: Don't get me wrong,
these people are killers.
But he was always a
gentleman, very charismatic.
Everywhere he went,
he showed respect.
VITO: Best lawyer in
the country, over here.
ANTONIO: Nick Rizzuto
was very ambitious.
He came from a major
crime family in Sicily.
Nick talked it up that
he belonged to the kind of,
the aristocracy of the Mafia.
But when he came to Canada,
he realized there was
a well‐established criminal
organization in power.
PIETRO: Anybody that lived
in Canada would tell you,
I wanna go to
Montréal and enjoy myself,
because of all
the nightclubs.
The downtown core
of a two‐kilometer radius,
we had 480 licensed
alcohol establishments.
And, for the great part,
they were controlled
by the Cotroni family.
The gambling,
the loan sharking,
protection, if you
had a business you had to
buy their cheese, you
had to buy their ice‐cream.
They controlled everything.
ANTONIO: Vic Cotroni
came from Calabria.
Nick Rizzuto came from Sicily.
And there was bad
blood between them,
since the beginning.
They never like one another.
Nick Rizzuto found
himself among powerful men,
and he tried to find
an area of operation.
NICK: Rizzuto's
organization had three main
profile‐driven schemes:
drugs, particularly heroin,
money laundering, and
public construction contracts.
Nick Rizzuto Senior's
intentions were to create
profits that would endure,
not only his lifetime,
but the lifetime of
his grandchildren.
PIETRO:
There was gonna be violence.
There was gonna be a turf war.
He knew that was coming.
(gunshots)
♫ ♫
ANTONIO: Nick Rizzuto,
with his family,
left the Canada
and moved to Venezuela,
because he fear for his life.
He had to run.
PIETRO: Rizzuto had a lot
of connections in Venezuela.
He had family there.
And he used that family to
really strive and gain power.
ANTONIO: Venezuela,
at that time,
was a place where the
Mafia was well‐established,
and they were able to
infiltrate institution,
banks, to corrupt
the politicians,
because they willing
to accept their money.
It was the perfect
place to establish a
criminal enterprise.
Because they were
very close to Colombia,
and very close to
drug traffickers there.
NICK: Cocaine was emerging
as a popular drug of
choice in North America.
JOHN: Cocaine pretty well
displaced the heroin market,
the beginning of the 80s.
PIETRO: Heroin was
for addicts, junkies,
whereas cocaine was part
of having a glass of wine,
everybody would consume.
There was cocaine
all over the place.
JOHN: Once it started
getting popularized,
with the disco culture
and all that sort of stuff,
then it went skyrocket.
NICK: Nick Rizzuto
saw the opportunity to
create millions of dollars
from cocaine.
CHRIS:
The Cali Cartel got their
start in the early 1970s,
by sending smaller
quantities of cocaine
into the United States.
And they were slowly able
to evolve into bringing
in larger quantities.
They were able to really
present themselves
as businessmen.
CHRIS: So they wore suits.
They socialized with the
upper society, the elites.
CHRIS: Drugs would
leave Colombia, go into
Venezuela, depart Venezuela,
and go into Canada.
CHRIS: Cocaine was coming
in camouflaged, in anything
that you could think of:
seafood, fish, shrimp, coffee.
REPORTER: Agents find more
than seven tons of cocaine,
hidden in broccoli boxes.
CHRIS: These kind of
shipments and these methods
were extremely effective for
bringing drugs
into the United States.
PIETRO: Nick Rizzuto groomed
his son, Vito, very well.
And, today, we don't see
mobsters of that caliber,
of that personality.
He was a tall man,
with a deep voice,
and he spoke
four languages fluently.
ANTONIO: For
Vito Rizzuto, the son of Nick,
was the baptism of fire.
♫ ♫
PISTONE:
My name is Joseph Pistone,
Special Agent in the FBI.
I was undercover
for six years, in the
Bonanno crime family,
and my undercover name
was Donnie Brasco.
During this operation,
I found out that the
Mafia crew, up in Montréal,
were considered a faction
of the Bonanno Mafia family.
They had their own boss,
and everything, but they were
loyal to the Bonanno family,
in New York City.
PISTONE: There was
a lot of friction within
the Bonanno family.
There were three capos
that were not loyal to
the boss, who was in jail.
They wanted to take
over the family.
So they called
a sit‐down, which is a
meeting, and the plan was,
when the three opposition
capos got to the meeting,
they would kill them.
One of the guys they
brought in for the hit was
Vito Rizzuto, from Montréal.
When the three capos
walked in, the guys
were hiding in a closet,
and these guys jumped out,
and Vito Rizzuto yelled,
"This is a stick‐up."
(gunshots)
Hitting three capos,
at one time, is a
big deal within the Mafia.
To Vito Rizzuto, it
was a feather in his cap,
to solidify his
place in the family.
REPORTER:
Two shotgun blasts,
at close range.
Paolo Violi dead, in
his own Montréal coffee bar.
Violi's death
was part of a gang war,
that has not yet ended.
REPORTER 2: The
hotel killers wore masks
and used submachine guns.
Police say they knew
exactly who they were after.
They shot three men in the
bar and a fourth outside.
PRODUCER: Okay good,
we are good to go.
We're rolling on this end.
♫ ♫
REPORTER: The self‐confessed
hitman told the court
he saw Montréal mobster,
Frank Cotroni as
a father figure.
When asked why he killed for
Cotroni, Simard answered,
"I wanted to be
part of the family.
I wanted to treat
him with respect."
PIETRO: Real Simard brought
down the Cotroni family.
He brought down
the Cotroni family.
NICK:
Vito was to be the godfather,
le parrain, of Montréal.
PIETRO: The legitimate
economy was booming, and
so was organized crime.
The Rizzutos came
along with the cocaine.
That was the new product.
That was the new thing.
NICK: The Rizzuto crime
family did not have the
will to distribute,
because they wanted to remain
anonymous, and to avoid
detection from the different
law enforcement
agencies in Canada.
They had to develop a
relationship with those
that had the capacity,
and the manpower, to
distribute on the street.
Thereby you see a relationship
developing between the Rizzuto
crime family and the outlaw
motorcycle gangs.
CHRIS: Thousands of kilos
were coming into Canada,
that were being distributed
by the Rizzutos,
was going to the Hells Angels,
the West End Gang,
other street gangs.
ANTONIO: He succeed
by creating the strategic
alliances between the Mafia,
the Colombian cartels,
the street gangs,
the Hells Angels.
PIETRO: He was a visionary.
He had the talent of
getting people together.
REPORTER: Drugs and money,
they go hand in hand.
Cocaine and marijuana sales
generate so much money that
smugglers literally have
no place to put it all.
PIETRO: In order
to combat organized crime
and money laundering,
you gotta follow the money,
not the individual,
not the product
Follow the money.
ANTONIO: At one point,
Colombians want to be
paid in American Dollars.
And so, Vito Rizzuto
had this major issue,
to convert Canadian Dollars
in American Dollars.
PIETRO: The RCMP and Montreal
Police opened up an exchange
bureau, a money exchange.
Like, in every major city
in the world, you would
change your currency.
It wasn't phony,
it was a real exchange bureau,
with real employees,
right smack downtown Montreal.
And the service was
excellent, and they were
acting like Western Union,
that everybody knows today.
But it's a sting operation.
Wise guys would bring
in their money to exchange
from Canadian to American,
and then wire it to
Venezuela, Peru, or Colombia,
for the purchase of narcotics.
It was fantastic.
All the serial numbers
were noted, of every bill.
It was a brilliant
undercover operation.
Brilliant.
REPORTER:
More than 40 suspects
were rounded up yesterday,
during a massive
sweep by the RCMP.
Security at
the Montréal Courthouse
was particularly tight,
as the accused were arraigned
on more than 500 charges.
CHRIS: Sabatino Nicolucci
was an important conduit for
the Rizzuto crime family,
with the Cali Cartel.
He had contact
with the Cali Cartel,
and was able to coordinate
a lot of drug shipments,
from Colombia into
Canada, for the Rizzutos.
And Sabatino Nicolucci
laundered in excess of
$30 million,
through this undercover
currency exchange house.
He was wanted on over
400 counts of drug trafficking,
and money laundering.
Nicolucci had done loads,
on behalf of Vito Rizzuto,
in Montreal.
We deployed to Cali,
and set up surveillance on
the apartment complex that
we had identified through
the telephone tone analysis.
We made a phone
call into the residence,
'cause we had the number.
(ringing)
And, a few minutes later,
we did a raid on the apartment.
And Sabatino Nicolucci
was arrested.
This was definitely
a significant arrest,
because of the overall
player that he was.
REPORTER: The RCMP says the
operation had dealt a major
blow to organized crime.
Rizzuto's name appears
on this court document,
of people allegedly involved
in the money laundering.
REPORTER 2: He's been
called Canada's Teflon Don.
In the 80s, the man the
RCMP calls The Godfather
of the Montreal Mafia,
dodged the bullet on
drug trafficking charges.
VITO: Best lawyer in
the country, over here.
PIETRO: Vito Rizzuto was
never directly involved with it.
He was never charged.
His associates were.
He never directly put his
hands in the cookie jar.
He always had somebody
else do it for him.
He had a art of delegating.
He should have given
management courses,
in university.
The Rizzutos make a lot
of money,
and they reinvest
it back into gaming,
internet gambling,
finance companies, construction.
So, basically,
they became parallel banks.
And, slowly,
they're getting away from it,
because with cocaine
you do a lot of time.
The moneymaker was the drugs.
But Vito wanted his kids to
go straight, go legitimate.
NICK: Vito Rizzuto's most
important legacy he wanted to
leave behind was the fact that
his children had not
adopted the lifestyle
that he had for himself.
CHRIS: If you give
law enforcement enough time,
they will be able to take
down any criminal organization.
♫ ♫
REPORTER: Killings, that took
place more than 20 years ago.
The victims,
three members of the notorious
Bonanno crime family.
They were shot dead
in a New York city
social club, in 1981,
during a bloody internal war.
PISTONE: Cases like
that never go away.
And eventually somebody's
gonna get arrested,
somebody's gonna talk.
It took over
20 years to solve the case,
but at the time of the
hits of the three capos,
Joey Massino was one of the
main players in the killing.
And then, from this hit,
Joey Massino becomes a
boss of the Bonanno family,
and then Vito becomes
boss up in Montreal.
He didn't wanna die
in an electric chair.
When Joey turns, he actually
testifies against Vito.
His information is that
Vito was in on the hit, and
he was one of the shooters.
So, it gave the
Government enough ammunition,
and enough evidence,
to indict Vito.
PIETRO: It was the 20th of
January, it was a cold day.
We went at his
house with Nick Milano,
at six in the morning.
It was all coordinated
with the United States, also.
NICK: Pietro and I
arrived at the door.
We were welcomed by his wife.
Upon entering, Mr. Rizzuto
was at the top of the stairway.
PIETRO: Actually,
the first thing he says,
he asks his wife to
"make me a coffee."
I knew Vito.
And he says, "Pietro,
what are you here for?"
I said, "I have a
warrant to execute."
NICK: We stepped
into the parlor,
and I informed him
that I was arresting him,
with regards to the triple
murders conducted in New York.
PIETRO: He didn't really
take it seriously, in
the sense that he says,
"My lawyer is working
on that."
He was wearing his jeans and,
I guess, when I'm nervous
I tend to joke around
more than anything else,
so I asked him,
"Mr. Rizzuto,
it's a big arrest for me,
could you put a suit on?"
You know, and he did.
(sirens)
REPORTER:
Today, Vito Rizzuto's
luck finally ran out,
in a Brooklyn courtroom.
Rizzuto was sentenced to ten
years, for his role in a brutal,
triple murder,
in New York, 26 years ago.
ANTONIO: Nick and Vito were
in power for at least 25 years.
One of the longest reign
in the history of the Mafia,
in North America.
Vito Rizzuto was able to
build a criminal enterprise
worth billions of dollars.
When he was in a prison
in the United States,
that was the most difficult
ten years of his life,
because old enemies
and new enemies get together
and start to kill the people
very close to Rizzuto.
REPORTER: Nick Rizzuto
Senior, the 86‐year‐old head
of Canada's most
famous Mafia family,
has been shot and
killed in his own home.
REPORTER 2: His shooting,
in his home last week,
comes less than
a year after grandson,
Nick Junior, was
gunned down in public.
PIETRO:
He lost his father while he
was in jail, and then his son.
That devastated him.
His closest allies
actually turned on him.
And he never thought that
he had so many people
that would back‐stab him.
I saw him when he came
out of jail, and he was
totally a different person.
Totally a different person.
NICK: Vito Rizzuto's
claim to fame, if you will,
his strength,
had always been negotiation.
ANTONIO: Vito Rizzuto
pioneered the way criminal
organization should
work and operate.
The idea of building
the strategic alliance
to conquer new markets.
Today, the 'Ndrangheta is
the most globalized Mafia.
They operate in
almost five continents,
and they use the same
system of Vito Rizzuto.
PIETRO: You can control it,
but we'll never
eliminate organized crime
Never.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.