WEBVTT - 6. The Ramp Rat 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:09.200 President phone call I mean a nine fifteen pm East 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:11.200 some of the time in the US and the nineteenth 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:15.280 of February twenty fourteen, be as kind to and the Georgescos. 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:21.480 This is one the Colombian phone call. 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.440 To Flavio on the fourteenth day of My two thousand 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.280 and fourteen at eight am immediately. 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.880 For two years now, Wan's been recording his phone calls 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:37.440 with the two unrelated George Escus, Flavio and Flavio's friend 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:39.159 in Los Angeles, Andy. 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.360 He leaves me the name, a phone number, and a 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:43.520 great message. 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.080 He even records the voicemails. He leads for them. 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.960 Thank you, so call me back. Lizen doesn't man all 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.360 the time. Just call me back. It's one thank you, 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:59.520 I will plays A call to Flavio is twelve forty 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:01.880 eight a m. Eastern time on the nice of July 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:02.920 two thousand fourteen. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.959 Want's also been keeping a secret. He is Colombian, that 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.640 part's true, but he isn't working for the farc rebel group. 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.920 He's working for the FEDS, and he's trying to build 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:21.400 a so called narco terrorism case for the Drug Enforcement 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.680 Administration the DEA. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:28.720 The local time in eight thirty five pm. Go, I 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.000 about to go to the cafeteria at the Mario Hotel 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.160 to me where the flood and a compani your hairs 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:40.080 with him. We are right now in for the inn book. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.880 In some of wants undercover recordings, you can hear his 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:50.320 Dea colleagues. They're helping Wan create some elaborate theater arms, 0:01:50.320 --> 0:02:00.400 trafficking theater, all designed to ensnare Flavio Georgescu. I'm Trevorarensen 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.520 from Western Sound and iHeart Podcasts. This is Alphabet Boys, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:39.160 episode six. The ramp rat Wan sting operation targeting Flavio 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.840 is complex, but this thing isn't unique. It's not some 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.960 sort of one off. It's part of a much larger 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:52.280 Dea tactic that drug agents adopted during America's post nine 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.720 eleven era. To explain, I need to go on a 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:59.960 short tangent and tell you about another similar sting. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.840 Yeah everything, Yeah, sorry. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:10.840 Time, no no problem. 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.520 How I'm sitting in a conference room in Lower Manhattan. 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.880 I'm here to interview Joshua dre Tell, a criminal defense 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:23.440 lawyer specializing in terrorism cases. So so topically, I want 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:24.880 to talk to you about the kind of narco terrorism 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.280 things in general, and also this idea of the Southern 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.560 District being kind of the world Police. And then and 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.920 then also about the Jamal Yusuf case. Sure in particular, 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:41.400 one of Joshua's clients was a man named Jamal Yusuf, and. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:46.560 Jamal Yusseff was a hustler, a successful hustler. The parlayed 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:51.200 knowledge of certain geographical regions such as the Middle East 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:56.160 and Latin America into being an effective broker for many 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.520 deals that were mostly hustles. 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:06.040 Jamal, like Flavio, was targeted in a so called narco 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:11.280 terrorism sting operation. Neither Flavio nor Jamal had anything to 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:16.120 do with drugs or really narco terrorism. Now, the DEA 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.719 is meant to be investigating cases involving drugs, that's obvious, 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.600 But the DEA built cases around both Jamal and Flavio 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.440 that centered on the idea that they were supporting terrorism 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.800 by attempting to sell weapons to people who earned money 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.200 running drugs. In this episode, I'm going to explain how 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:39.240 people like Jamal and Flavio, no real connections to terrorists, 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.919 no real connections to drugs, could become in the DEA's 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:49.719 eyes narco terrorists with the help of course of informants 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:55.240 like jan Jamal Yusuf was born and raised in Lebanon, 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.320 but he was a Syrian citizen. His background is shadowy 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.600 and suggest possible connections to Syrian intelligence. As a young man, 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:08.840 Jamal lived and worked in several countries, including Greece, Nigeria, Germany, 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:10.520 and the United Arab Emirates. 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:15.080 You could trace his evolution through the geographical areas that 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.560 he basically burned bridges and could go back to. 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.200 At some point, Jamal moved to Norway, where he ran 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.880 several small businesses, including a restaurant, a store selling baby 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.240 clothes and cosmetics, and a kiosk offering cigarettes and candy. 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.839 And he had a good history of disappearing himself and 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.880 then appearing somewhere else in a different identity or in 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:37.920 a different context. That's how he got out of the 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:39.080 Middle East in the first place. 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.080 Eventually, by two thousand and six, Jamal makes it to 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:47.200 Latin America, where he starts a new hustle. He negotiates 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.400 a deal to borrow two hundred thousand dollars from a 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:53.640 group of Mexican men connected to organized crime. Jamal said 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:57.240 he could repay the loan with weapons secretly shipped from Lebanon. 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.760 Jamal has this picture of himself in front of a 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.200 room full of military grade weapons. He shows the photo 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.560 to the Mexicans as proof of the weapons that he 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:12.880 can deliver. But what the Mexicans don't know is Jamal 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:17.640 is talking to someone else, the FBI agent stationed at 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:23.839 the US embassy in Mexico City. It's a complicated web 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:29.680 of people around the world. To sound familiar, but there's more. 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:34.240 Jamal claims to the FBI agent that the weapons in 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.120 the photo belonged to the US military and that they 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.520 were stolen by American soldiers in Iraq. He says those 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:44.120 soldiers then sold the weapons to the Hesbala terrorist group 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:45.320 in Lebanon. 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:50.479 As any sophisticated hustler would do. Jamal's trying to play 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:51.000 both sides. 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.599 Jamal also tells the FBI agent that he has a 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:00.080 deal to sell those weapons to some Mexican guys, and 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.799 he's willing to cooperate with the US government. 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.200 He's trying to ingratiate himself to the government so he 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.960 has protection, which is why he operated overseas all the time, 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.320 you know, in his original environment, and when that played out, 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:16.880 you know, to the point where he couldn't do it anymore. 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.160 He wound up in Latin America, so he's just doing 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:19.880 the same thing. 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.800 But the deal with the Mexicans falls through. They don't 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.880 provide any money and no weapons are shipped. In two 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:31.240 thousand and six, Jamal is arrested in Honduras on charges 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.080 of using a fake passport and possessing a handgun, and 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.239 by two thousand and eight, two years into his prison sentence, 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:43.280 Jamal is desperate, so he comes up with a new hustle. 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:49.320 Jamal meets a Colombian who claims to represent get this, 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:54.080 the FARK rebel group. He shows the guy another photo 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.880 of a room full of guns, and Jamal tells the 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:02.400 Colombian that he can deliver these weapons. But this photo 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:07.800 it's not real, at least not real to Jamal. It's 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:09.560 an image that he found online. 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.080 Yeah, it was just a photo of a room full 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.360 of like RPGs and stuff in boxes, you know, crates, 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:17.840 like typical kind of armament crates, and had a couple 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.400 of stray aks and things like that lying around. It 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:21.800 was on the internet. 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.360 Jamal arranges to sell these weapons to the FARC, but 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.080 the Colombians don't know that Jamal's trying to run a scam. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.440 Once he gets the advanced payment, he plans to bounce 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:34.439 with no weapons delivered. 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.280 Unfortunately, he was being hustled at the same time. 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:44.280 This might not be surprising now, but the Colombians, like 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:49.280 Flavio's friend Juan, aren't really with the FARC. They're with 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.959 the DEA. And once the DEA has built its case 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.160 against Jamal, armed agents grab him off the street and 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.560 hounder us throw them into an suv and speed toward 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:00.000 the airport. 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.200 He thinks he's being killed, you know, guys with automatic 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.920 weapons hooded in the back of a suv hurtling down 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.640 the highway and openly gets to the airport and he 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:11.640 gets thrown on a plane to the US. 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:12.920 That's how it's started. 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.040 Even though we have an extradition treaty with the hunters, 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:17.920 this is how it's stuck. 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.160 Jamal's taken to Manhattan, where federal prosecutors charge him with 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:34.599 conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Jamal's charge was 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:39.040 supporting FARC, even though in his case, FARC wasn't really FARK. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.280 They're the DEA, and he's brought to New York to 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:46.600 face those charges even though the alleged crime didn't happen 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:52.640 in New York or even in the United States. Under 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.280 federal conspiracy law, a defendant doesn't need to help an 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:59.880 actual terrorist, he just needs to think he's helping a terrorist. 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.040 Jamal's scam attempt caught him in what's known as a 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:08.960 narco terrorism sting. These things occur exclusively outside the United States, 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:13.240 using paid informants employed by the DEA, and then the 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.080 person caught is sent to Manhattan to be prosecuted, even 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.880 though there is no connection at all between the crime 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.800 and New York City. The Southern District of New York 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:27.280 in Manhattan, the most influential and powerful US Attorney's office 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:31.439 in the nation, has turned narco terrorism stings into its 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:33.440 own little cottage industry. 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.040 They're imagined an event and ambitious in that way. And 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:38.240 I don't mean that in a bad way. 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:39.520 I mean that in a way of like. 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:42.640 We're going to do these things, and we're going to 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.560 cultivate a group of FBI and DA people who will 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.120 master this and bring all the cases to us, will 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.400 own the informants, Our network will be hours. 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.160 Joshua, the defense lawyer, says that narco terrorism stings aren't 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:03.199 really about stopping narco terrorism. They're about numbers, arrests, prosecutions, convictions, 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:07.720 which to federal law enforcement agents mean paychecks and promotions. 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:13.520 They cultivated the informants and they cultivated the people overseas 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:17.600 as a reliable actor in the process. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:18.920 You're not wasting your time. 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:21.840 You are going to get convictions, you're going to get paid, 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:24.680 and you're going to have work next time. 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.360 Jamal Yusuf pleaded guilty in his case and served ten 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:34.160 years in prison. His ultimate crime making the mistake of 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:39.400 trying to scam a much more powerful scammer, the US government. 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:51.400 So what does this have to do with Flavio? A lot, actually, 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.840 and I'll get to that, But first I need to 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.800 tell you about the guy who was Flavio in his crosshairs, 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:05.160 the guy running the governments Wan, the wide bellied, brash Columbia. 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:31.880 That's after the break. One is a Dea informant, but 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:38.200 one isn't his real name. That's Alex Diaz. The current 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.960 whereabouts of Wan or Alex are difficult to pin down. 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:47.640 He's lived at various times in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Kansas, 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:52.120 and Colorado. The most recently available public records suggest that 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.959 one lives at least part of the time in a 0:12:55.040 --> 0:13:00.960 condo in Centennial, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. I'm in 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.720 a large middle class complex of three story buildings, each 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.120 with wood paneledy accents on the outside. Wan's condo, or 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:15.560 what I think is Wan's condo, is here seven. His 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:23.320 unit is on the third floor of the building. The 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.640 doormat reads welcome to the shit Show, which seems fitting 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:35.000 for Wan. No one's answering, so I leave a note, 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:37.640 tucking it slightly under the welcome to the shit Show Matt. 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:41.720 In the note, I write that I'm searching for Wan 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.920 or Alex ds and then I want to discuss his 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:50.320 work for the DEA. Jan has never contacted me, which 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.760 honestly isn't surprising. Federal drug agents pay him lots of 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:59.079 money not to talk to journalists like me. Want's a 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:04.559 seasoned hand for the DEA. His specialty narco terrorism cases. 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:12.560 Narco terrorism. It sounds scary, right. Take two of the 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:19.120 world's most villainous evildoers, drug runners or narcos and terrorists, 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:25.040 and well combine them you get narco terrorists. They must 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:29.760 be the world's super villains, right, or maybe and hear 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:35.880 me out, maybe they don't exist, not really, maybe they're 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:41.840 just inventions. To understand how American law enforcement might have 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.320 conjured up so called narco terrorists, you really have to 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.560 go back to the so called war on drugs. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:53.520 America's public enemy Number one in the United States is 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.800 drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:02.160 it is necessary to wage a new, all out offensive. 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:05.960 In nineteen seventy one, well in the middle of a 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:10.400 fight for his political life, President Richard Nixon formally announced 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:15.160 the War on Drugs. In hindsight, now a half century later, 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.840 the rhetoric was clearly the product of a moral panic, 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.280 but it was being pushed by America's highest elected officials. 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.320 Drugs are menacing our society. 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.880 They're threatening our values and undercutting our institutions. 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:31.920 They're killing our children. 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.640 In nineteen eighty six, as part of the Just Say 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:40.080 No campaign, President Ronald Reagan boasted in a televised address 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:44.520 from the Oval Office that thirty seven federal agencies were 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.960 engaged in the War on drugs and that funding for 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:53.560 drug related federal law enforcement had tripled. The drug war 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.360 was a feeding frenzy, an alphabet soup of dozens of 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.320 federal agencies all seeking a spot at the time table, 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.280 and the FBI, at the time, not tasked with investigating 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:08.080 drug crimes, was left out. The Bureau saw all that 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.800 government money flowing to much smaller agencies, including the Drug 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:16.760 Enforcement Administration the DEA, and so around the time that 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.840 Reagan gave this national address, the FBI muscled in on 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:24.600 the drug war, successfully lobbying Congress to give the Bureau 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:30.080 concurrent jurisdiction with the DEA over drug crimes. Undercover stings, 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:32.680 in which federal agents pretended to be drug buyers or 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:37.240 drug sellers, became one of the FBI's primary tools, racking 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:42.160 up arrests, prosecutions, and convictions. There were so many cases 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.440 and so many prosecutions that the war on drugs became 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:49.600 self fueling. The moral panic meant more law enforcement funding. 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.440 More law enforcement funding meant more undercover stings and more arrests. 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:58.640 More stings and more arrests meant more hysteria. A cycle. 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:06.400 This This is crack cocaine. 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.720 In nineteen eighty nine, President George H. W. Bush gave 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.320 a national address from the Oval Office in which he 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.120 held up a bag containing crack cocaine. 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.879 Seized a few days ago by drug enforcement agents in 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:23.080 a park just across the street from the White House. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.600 America's panic about drugs at the time made President Bush's 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.520 claim seem believable. A drug dealer was selling crackouts at 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.399 the White House, but it was all nothing more than 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:40.040 drug theater. The Washington Post later reported that DEA agents 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.480 had to manipulate a drug dealer to come to a 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:49.520 park near the White House. A decade later, America was 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:50.560 on to a new war. 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.000 We understand that there has been a plane crash on 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.199 the southern tip of Manhattan. You're looking at the World 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.880 Trade Center. We understand that a plane has crashed into 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:01.760 the World Trade Center. 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:02.520 We don't know anything. 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:07.680 The War on Terror, billions and billions of dollars poured out, 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:12.400 and among the biggest beneficiaries was the FBI, which overnight 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:17.359 transformed into an agency whose number one priority is counter terrorism. 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.320 The administration of President George W. Bush then launched something 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.560 of a pr campaign to combine the old war his 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:29.040 dad fought with the new war he was fighting. Combining 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.760 the War on drugs with the War on Terror. 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:34.639 I helped murder families in Colombia. 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:35.840 It was just innocent fun. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:37.800 I helped kidnap people's dads. 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.119 Hey, some harmless fun. 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:42.400 I help kids learn how to kill. 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.199 This was a public service announcement that ran during the 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.920 two thousand and two Super Bowl, just a few months 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:48.719 after nine to eleven. 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:50.600 I was just having some fun, you know. 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:52.400 I helped kill policemen. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:54.280 I was just having fun. 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.320 I helped the bomber get a fake passport. 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:57.359 All the kids do it. 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:58.840 I helped kill a judge. 0:18:58.920 --> 0:18:59.959 I helped blow a building. 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:05.120 My life, my body. The ad ends with large white 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:10.000 letters on a black screen. Drug money supports terror, it reads. 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:15.040 The intended message was clear, if you use drugs, dear Americans, 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:20.960 you support those evil terrorists with the war on terror. Suddenly, 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.639 the DEA found itself in the same position the FBI 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.960 was in in the nineteen eighties, shut out of the 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:36.639 biggest funding game in town. Here's Joshua dre Tell again, 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.160 the lawyer specializing in terrorism cases. 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:44.520 They were losing their budgetary control, they were losing their 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.800 career advancement through these kinds of investigations, and they were 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:52.639 also losing their status essentially within the law enforcement and 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:54.000 criminal justice community. 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.600 So the DEA took a lesson from the FBI and 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.679 petitioned Congress to give the agency a peace of the 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:01.399 War on terror. 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.960 So what better way to sort of reaffirm their importance 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.400 by saying, Oh, this is narco terrorism problem that's out there. 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:13.159 The DEA was then given jurisdiction over narco terrorism, a 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.919 mandate to travel the world and investigate how drug smuggling 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:20.840 operations were secretly funding terrorist networks and terrorist attacks. The 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:25.879 gambit worked, the money came flowing into the DEA. In 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:28.960 two thousand and six, Congress allocated two hundred and eighty 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.560 seven million dollars in the DEA budget for international enforcement. 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.119 A decade later, that number had ballooned to four hundred 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:41.359 and sixty seven million dollars. Suddenly, the DEA has nearly 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.200 half a billion dollars every year to search the world 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:49.480 for narco terrorists, a lot of money to hire informants. 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.440 And among those enlisted to help the DEA in this 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.879 global search is one liason. 0:20:57.920 --> 0:20:59.560 I want you have this thing. I know you don't 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.600 want to talk to no one, and I agree, but 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:03.800 I just wanted to go business people that I have 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:06.399 a man this time that can make it happen. 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:14.280 Wan wasn't always a DEA informant, but he's been one 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:19.359 for a very long time. Want's a former drug runner 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.960 who spent decades working for the DEA, and he's earned 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.840 millions of dollars in the process. And here's what I 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:32.400 can say as fact about Wan or Alex ds. He's 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:33.760 an only child from Colombia. 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:41.600 My mother hardly helped me. My mother is Moke locust Stride. However, 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:43.080 lockus strike many and many of you. 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.639 He was born in nineteen fifty, making him about sixty 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:50.160 four years old. When communicating with Flavio, anytime someone brings 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:52.200 up one's age, he's quick with a joke. 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:54.080 O you, I'll tell you too. 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:59.240 One came to the United States from Colombia at age 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.440 seventeen and has strong ties there. 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:07.760 Am miss Is. It's a good count, very big counter. 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:08.760 It's big. 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.399 As a young man, Juan began working for American Airlines 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:15.800 sky Chef, you know, the guys responsible for loading food 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.520 and drinks on the planes. Jan eventually took a position 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:22.239 with sky Chef in Miami. Miami International is a key 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.520 hub for American airlines and a US gateway to Latin America. 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:33.000 Miami at the time was basking in the afterglow of 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:37.840 Miami Vice. The city had a reputation for drugs, fast cars, 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.680 skimpy bikinis, and free flowing money. 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:43.680 That dude you showed up with tonight works undercover for 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:44.640 the DEEA pal. 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:47.760 His name Scott Wheeler. And as for Leon, he's on 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:50.159 the payroll of a Columbian. I've been too stiff. As 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:52.560 if you were a character straight out of Miami Vice. 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:57.040 Juan had a sideline gig at Miami International Airport. He 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.359 used his position with American Airlines to smuggle a daggering 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:03.760 amount of drugs into the United States three thousand kilos 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:10.480 of marijuana and four thousand kilos of cocaine. But federal 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:13.040 drug agents figured out what Wan was up to, and 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:16.159 he was arrested and hit with federal criminal charges and 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:20.200 a ten year prison sentence for drug smuggling. So Wan 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:24.200 cut a deal with the DEA. He agreed to work 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:27.359 with drug agents as an informant in exchange for knocking 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:31.119 down his decade long prison sentence to just three years. 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:35.320 Around the time that Jan was released from prison, federal 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:37.840 agents in Miami had been noticing that baggage handlers at 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:41.399 the airport, so called ramp rats were driving around in 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:45.920 fancy cars and living large, which was odd for guys 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:50.520 earning about ten dollars an hour. Of course, the DEA 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:53.400 had a pretty good idea of how these low paid 0:23:53.440 --> 0:23:57.240 workers might afford such a lifestyle, so federal agents launched 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:02.240 two undercover investigations at Miami intern National Airport called Operation 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:08.040 sky Chef and Operation ramp Rap, resulting in scores of 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:12.600 arrest of airport workers who were helping to smuggle in cocaine, heroin, 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:17.400 and other drugs. The Miami Herald in nineteen ninety nine 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:20.760 published a front page story about the DEA investigations at 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:24.600 the airport. The newspaper described the DEA's lead informant as 0:24:24.840 --> 0:24:28.199 quote a fat man with an annoying habit of spitting 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:32.440 an agent's faces as he talked. One is, in fact, 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:37.680 Shorten Stocky, a fat man and spitting an agent's faces 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:42.240 as he talked. Well, I mean, just listen to one. 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:46.760 Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. If you cannot do it, 0:24:47.119 --> 0:24:52.840 then let's forget about this. And and you're killing I 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:55.320 don't care about you. I don't care only about my business. 0:24:55.359 --> 0:24:56.800 If you're gonna work with me with it to be 0:24:56.880 --> 0:24:57.840 serious about working. 0:24:58.600 --> 0:25:01.800 You can almost feel this hitting you in these recordings. 0:25:05.520 --> 0:25:08.160 Wan's been at this informant game for nearly thirty years, 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:12.200 and he's been rewarded handsomely. In addition to getting to 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:14.400 skip those last seven years of his prison sentence back 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:19.320 in the nineties, Wan has earned nearly five million dollars 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:23.480 working for the DEA and other federal law enforcement agencies. 0:25:24.440 --> 0:25:27.119 If you go to Rome, I have a list of 0:25:27.240 --> 0:25:30.280 hotels that I've built, like American hotels. 0:25:31.200 --> 0:25:34.480 Want's traveled the world with undercover work, funding a lifestyle 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:36.360 filled with nice hotels. 0:25:37.119 --> 0:25:40.639 You'll find was built as an American hotel because they 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:41.720 are the biggest rooms, all. 0:25:41.640 --> 0:25:43.600 That exclusive restaurants. 0:25:43.920 --> 0:25:49.960 I want the ottobush and women, Oh, beautiful, women, beautiful. 0:25:50.480 --> 0:25:55.440 I'm friendly, friendly, It's good, It's good. 0:25:56.320 --> 0:26:02.240 Wan's been delivering federal cases for decades. Experienced operator and 0:26:02.840 --> 0:26:09.640 his current target, Flavio George Escom that's after the break 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:23.840 One makes big money as a DEA informant in part 0:26:24.480 --> 0:26:27.920 because he's the ideal frontman for a narco terrorism sting, 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:31.480 the perfect guy to play the part of a fark agent. 0:26:32.640 --> 0:26:33.399 He's Colombian. 0:26:33.960 --> 0:26:35.920 Maybe when you saw me, you know it was because 0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:38.040 I'm the only Latin people Columbia. 0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:45.440 He's a native Spanish speaker, have a part head on, 0:26:45.560 --> 0:26:49.200 and he has plenty of firsthand experience with cocaine. 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:52.880 You have to like cocaine leaves fresh to keep your 0:26:53.359 --> 0:26:54.480 your blood pressure right. 0:26:55.680 --> 0:27:02.360 But neither of the de nor the Justice Department maintains 0:27:02.400 --> 0:27:05.719 a publicly accessible list of so called narco terrorism stings. 0:27:06.440 --> 0:27:09.159