Speaker 1: American reports or the story here, and he hasn't told
Speaker 1: me about that. That's Daniel Hopsicker, the Florida based reporter
Speaker 1: who penned the Moniker and has written extensively about cocaine. One.
Speaker 1: It seems to think that Fernando Blanco s is hiding something.
Speaker 1: We're hiding a lot of things. Blankio is we've heard,
Speaker 1: claims to be the man behind the d C nine
Speaker 1: with five plus tons of cocaine that got busted in
Speaker 1: Compech on April ten, two thousand six. In his first
Speaker 1: round of recorded interviews with the Reward Manuelatios, blank You
Speaker 1: insisted that he had purchased the d C nine, that
Speaker 1: the previous owners, Fred Geffen and Royal Son's Inc. Had
Speaker 1: committed a major error by not immediately canceling the plane's registration.
Speaker 1: Here's what he told many owner in our own people.
Speaker 1: It was their mistake, he says, the grave one, because
Speaker 1: the plane was flying as if it still belonged to
Speaker 1: its US owners, and no one will believe them when
Speaker 1: they say that they had already sold it. Blankfield claims
Speaker 1: that he had nothing to do with Geffen and Royal Sons.
Speaker 1: He claims that Jorge whom he describes the business partner
Speaker 1: in his legal companies coordinated the purchase at the DC
Speaker 1: nine without any knowledge of Blankiell's plans for the plane.
Speaker 1: Hop Sticker, however, just doesn't buy it. Were you growers
Speaker 1: in the airplane and in that plane when it was
Speaker 1: questioned owned Fred given Oh if you read again, his
Speaker 1: willing document had been mosted by d A and rolled
Speaker 1: over and was working for them ever since. Perfect Yes,
Speaker 1: although actually thank you does mention the CIA so very briefly.
Speaker 1: Here's what he told Menu yet, which means I can
Speaker 1: send you those documents, that the planes really were connected
Speaker 1: to the CIA, that the plane was in Montanamo, that
Speaker 1: the plane was in Paris with the CIA, that the plane,
Speaker 1: my plane really made flights for the CIA. Thank You'll
Speaker 1: never sent those documents. But he told Manuel that the
Speaker 1: d e A sent an agent on April eleven, the
Speaker 1: day after the drug bust. That agent interviewed local airport
Speaker 1: authorities from Blankio says, we're on his payroll. Those authorities,
Speaker 1: confronted with the evidence from the Falcon twenty, also confiscated
Speaker 1: in Campeche, told the d e A agent that Raoul
Speaker 1: Himenes Alfaro was the owner of the plane and that
Speaker 1: Raoul Himenez Alfaro was Fernando Blanco Scena. From that moment,
Speaker 1: Blankio says, the d A spent two years confiscating businesses, properties,
Speaker 1: and bank accounts belonging to Fernando Blanco Scena and Raoul
Speaker 1: Himenez al Faro. But the d A never charged Blancio
Speaker 1: or Raoul with any crimes related to the DC nine,
Speaker 1: not even when they realized that they had arrested him
Speaker 1: or rather both of them in the Dominican Republic by mistake,
Speaker 1: perhaps illegally. The plane shows up on a runway but
Speaker 1: a small coastal airport in Mexico, stuffed with coke. The
Speaker 1: Mexican Army says that irregular flight behavior raised suspicions and
Speaker 1: that the plane and the blow belonged to El Chapo Busman.
Speaker 1: The Venezuelan government investigates the plane and produces witnesses who
Speaker 1: say the plane was empty as it was being repaired
Speaker 1: on the runway in Caracas. Fred Geffon says he sold
Speaker 1: the plane through a broker and does not know the
Speaker 1: identity of the purchaser. Jorge Coles says that Geffon does
Speaker 1: know who the purchaser was, though he declines to name him.
Speaker 1: Two reporters and Fernando Blancio, who was also Raoul Himenes
Speaker 1: Alfaro and Luis Albert Ortega sal and Jorge Alberto Mario
Speaker 1: Serrano and Luis Fernando luch Castillo says that the plane
Speaker 1: and half of the coke were his, that the other
Speaker 1: half belonged to his Columbian partner. Blanco also says that
Speaker 1: he loaded the plane there in Venezuela before the first
Speaker 1: of the two doomed take off attempts, And he says
Speaker 1: that he never had anything to do with Geff and
Speaker 1: royal Son's Inc. And that, by the way, the plane
Speaker 1: used to make CIA flights to Wantnamo. And you know what,
Speaker 1: I think they all lie. They mixed pieces of truth
Speaker 1: with bits of lies and try to tell captivating story,
Speaker 1: an exciting story, a useful story for moving whatever it
Speaker 1: is they're trying to move. What we can gather from
Speaker 1: all these stories, however, is that a single airplane loaded
Speaker 1: with cocaine brings together the d e A, the CIA,
Speaker 1: the Mexican Army, the Venezuela National Guard, and Fernando Blancos,
Speaker 1: a mid level pilot an air logistics manager for illegal
Speaker 1: drug corporations, with some thirty years of experience under his belt,
Speaker 1: now serving time in the US for things he didn't
Speaker 1: even do. My name for now is John Gibbler, and
Speaker 1: this like Jacob Homer is Transportista episode ten in a
Speaker 1: sense m H. When Fernando Blanco Sisna reached out to Detective,
Speaker 1: he promised the story that would be better than the
Speaker 1: Zapatista rebellion of January and the murder of presidential candidate
Speaker 1: Luis Donaldo Colosio nearly three months later. Here again is
Speaker 1: how many Latios described Blankio's first getting in touch with
Speaker 1: Diego so Orno and Detective, pitching them his life story. First,
Speaker 1: he was like, really mysterious guy because he only gave
Speaker 1: me a phone number, and he told me, you gotta
Speaker 1: call this guy. He's supposed to be in jail. He
Speaker 1: he's been telling me that he has a great, great
Speaker 1: story to tell us that is better than a documentary
Speaker 1: that we released couple of months months earlier. In in
Speaker 1: ethics started like I don't know if the right name.
Speaker 1: He was looking for the age and he was really
Speaker 1: anxious to talk to him. So Dego gave me the
Speaker 1: assignment and so I called him. When I read through
Speaker 1: the transcripts of Blankie's interviews with Menue, I noticed that
Speaker 1: blank You mentioned a few other reporters with whom he
Speaker 1: had been in contact. I decided to call him up
Speaker 1: and asked them about their experiences speaking with and the
Speaker 1: impressions of blank You. The first reporter I called agreed
Speaker 1: only to speak to me off the record. The second
Speaker 1: reporter I called this herd reis a remarkable Colombia investigator journalist,
Speaker 1: the director of UNIVISILS investigated Unit, the author of many books,
Speaker 1: including most recently alex sob The Truth About the Businessmen
Speaker 1: who Became a multi Millionaire Nicolas Malulu's Shadow. An episode
Speaker 1: two of this podcast, I mentioned that when I first
Speaker 1: reached out to Raise an early one, he was surprised
Speaker 1: to hear that I was working on a story about
Speaker 1: link Field. Raise told me that Blink he had long
Speaker 1: promised him the exclusive rights his story, that he would
Speaker 1: tell rays all that he had done and all that
Speaker 1: he knew for a book or a film that would
Speaker 1: blow people's minds. Raya said that while he was still
Speaker 1: hoping for the promised permission to materialize, he had not
Speaker 1: been in touch with things recently, as we heard an
Speaker 1: episode two, Rays was getting ready to release the television
Speaker 1: segment using interviews with BLENK Hill in two thousand seventeen
Speaker 1: when blink Hill sent him a strange letter. Here again
Speaker 1: is what Ray has told me. So when we were
Speaker 1: preparing a special program about the Chappo Bushman, I convinced
Speaker 1: blank Hire to go on the record. My idea was
Speaker 1: recording him from jail by using his voice over with
Speaker 1: a video and image. As the people from the Making
Speaker 1: a Morder documentary did greatly. He was very helpful. He
Speaker 1: not only described Goose Money, his different stage of his
Speaker 1: lives and basically he's playing out the air force of
Speaker 1: the Sinaloa cartel, operates the procedures to land a small
Speaker 1: plane in Aclandestine, track of the Sierra Madre, the international
Speaker 1: routes of the drug trade, and how they refuel the
Speaker 1: planes on Earth. He explained that step by step. But
Speaker 1: days before we were going toward the program, blame him
Speaker 1: a step back and he said that he would not
Speaker 1: authorize the interview. He sent a letter in legal terms
Speaker 1: arguing that the revelation of his sustainments will put him
Speaker 1: and his family and risk, or something like that despite
Speaker 1: that I have his authorization on the record, I decided
Speaker 1: not to use the interview. Then I learned that you
Speaker 1: guys been in contact with several reporters offering his life story.
Speaker 1: The letter, in legal terms that Rais mentions, is an
Speaker 1: affidavid that Blankholl wrote, signed, had notarized, and filed in
Speaker 1: his own court case in November two thousand seventeen. The
Speaker 1: affidavit summarizes blank Hill's correspondence with Rays and then forbids
Speaker 1: Rays from using any of the material from those interviews.
Speaker 1: The document, written after Blankholl gave Raise his authorization, as
Speaker 1: far as I can see, has no legal standing whatsoever.
Speaker 1: If two people sign a contract, one person alone cannot
Speaker 1: rescind or change the terms of that contract. When two
Speaker 1: parties established an initial agreement, both parties must similarly establish
Speaker 1: any alterations to that agreement. Pretty basic right. Thus, finding
Speaker 1: an affidavit about his interviews with the journalist in his
Speaker 1: drug trafficking court case, which he pleaded guilty and then
Speaker 1: unsuccessfully tried to alter his plea, seems to me to
Speaker 1: be a kind of legal oid trick designed to intimidate reporters.
Speaker 1: Rais says that he had Blankiell's authorization on the record,
Speaker 1: but decided not to use the interview that He was
Speaker 1: thus surprised when I reached out to him and said
Speaker 1: that Blankio had been telling his life story to defective.
Speaker 1: When I accessed Blinkiell's court case, I found another affidavit
Speaker 1: filed in January, and this time naming Daniel Hopsicker. Hop
Speaker 1: Sicker told me he didn't even know that this affidavit existed.
Speaker 1: It seems that Blankio filed the affidavit after speaking with
Speaker 1: Hopsicker in person. Blinkio had reached out the Hopsicker and
Speaker 1: invited him to visit him and talk in prison, just
Speaker 1: as he had done with Reis. When I first called
Speaker 1: hop Sicker, I didn't know that he'd been to meet
Speaker 1: blank You in prison. Here's how he described that meeting
Speaker 1: to me. I guess you wanted to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit a bit about Fernando who I went up to
Speaker 1: see UM three or four years ago. Um, there's nobody
Speaker 1: even knew, Okay, I mean, I had written been writing
Speaker 1: about the the bust of the DC nine with five
Speaker 1: and a half tons of cocaine UM, and he was arrested,
Speaker 1: UM extradited too. The U S um, convicted to trial
Speaker 1: and sent to prison, all before anyone. And you know,
Speaker 1: you could see I probably did five a couple of
Speaker 1: hundred stories about it um without anyone knowing, without without
Speaker 1: without anyone knowing that he had been involved with five
Speaker 1: and a half turns of cocaine um, which is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: But but but it's the way, it's the way things go.
Speaker 1: It's the way things go here in the stage. He
Speaker 1: wouldn't he UM. I mean he would he talked, but
Speaker 1: he wouldn't talk talk. I mean it was like he
Speaker 1: would like late he was. He was attempting to market
Speaker 1: what he knew two prosecutors in Nil Chapel case. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if he was distressful or not, because
Speaker 1: I got disgusted. Oh, I don't know if we're still
Speaker 1: in prison or not. The god forsaken prison in North
Speaker 1: Carolina that hop Sicker mentions is the River's Correctional Institution
Speaker 1: from which Blankfield spoke with Menu on a smuggle the cellphone.
Speaker 1: The two thousand sixteen Department of Justice report had this
Speaker 1: to say about the place Rivers had the highest rats
Speaker 1: of contraband finds excluding cell phones, inmate assaults on staff
Speaker 1: uses the force, guilty findings on inmate discipline cases and
Speaker 1: made grievances positive drug tests inmate on inmate sexual misconduct,
Speaker 1: and the lowest phone monitoring rate. God for sinking. Indeed,
Speaker 1: Blink You apparently was moved to another prison in Georgia
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. I told the hop sicker that Blinks
Speaker 1: he was still in prison though he seems to have
Speaker 1: been moved, and asked him if you could tell me
Speaker 1: a bit more about what impression blinks You made on
Speaker 1: him when they met. Oh, I feel sorry for him
Speaker 1: when I met him. Um, by time I left, I
Speaker 1: didn't bet. But um, you know, the people are in
Speaker 1: prisoned in the United States and in conditions that that
Speaker 1: I should be international scandal. Um. I mean it wasn't
Speaker 1: as if he had things any harder than anybody else there.
Speaker 1: But I mean it wasn't. It was only you know,
Speaker 1: it was like a media mock up. But it just looked,
Speaker 1: I mean, still divine. And then he had been there
Speaker 1: every four years already, and and he had solicited me
Speaker 1: to come see him, and so I should left all
Speaker 1: the way up there, you know, a day and a
Speaker 1: half drive up there, and he had decided, well, he
Speaker 1: would talk just a little bit because he was trying
Speaker 1: to retail his story to the plasticators in the JAPO case.
Speaker 1: He worked for Jack, so I disgussed. Didn't want to
Speaker 1: tell the truth, he wanted to sell the truth. Hop
Speaker 1: stickers appraisal here find some support in the court documents.
Speaker 1: U S. Attorney's initially presented blink Yo as a star
Speaker 1: cooperating witness before cutting ties with him and accusing him
Speaker 1: of trying to sell his testimony. Blink Hill says that
Speaker 1: U S attorneys lie. He told Menu that the U
Speaker 1: S Attorneys told him not to include any information in
Speaker 1: his testimony while acts of violence carried out against him
Speaker 1: and his family by another drug trafficker. He was also
Speaker 1: collaborating with the d e A. Such evidence retarnished that
Speaker 1: person standing as a reputable witness in other cases. Blinkyo
Speaker 1: says that the U S. Attorney has told him, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if both the d e A and
Speaker 1: blink Kill's accusations against each other were actually true or
Speaker 1: true in part regardless, the idea of a man marketing
Speaker 1: the truth resonates with me. Here what I've heard in
Speaker 1: how Blinkio tells his stories, and in the experiences of
Speaker 1: the reporters who have spoken with him, gives me the
Speaker 1: impression of a mid level executive in a global illegal industry,
Speaker 1: an industry that depends upon the constant production of official
Speaker 1: invisibility and thus on the marketing of stories told with
Speaker 1: facts and lies. An executive who, upon being stripped of
Speaker 1: his airplanes and bank accounts and multiple passports and taken
Speaker 1: off to prison, turns to the only resource he has
Speaker 1: left to try and keep his business afloat. A man who,
Speaker 1: after decades of ups and downs flying cocaine all over
Speaker 1: the world, finds himself behind bars and becomes a trafficker
Speaker 1: of his own story, as Hopstaker says, a man who
Speaker 1: does not want to tell the truth, but to sell
Speaker 1: the truth. Over the ten plus years he has been
Speaker 1: imprisoned during a thirteen years sentence, he has sought out
Speaker 1: and spoken with several reporters, and then filed legal oid
Speaker 1: documents attempting to forbid those reporters from publishing anything he
Speaker 1: told them. The affidavits naming Herradorius and Daniel hop Saker
Speaker 1: are not the only ones in his file, and all
Speaker 1: these affidavits and a glorious twist of Irony are signed
Speaker 1: by one Luis Fernando Bertolo, a man arrested by the
Speaker 1: d e A in the Dominican Republic, taken to Miami
Speaker 1: and sentenced for drug trafficking crimes he had not yet committed.
Speaker 1: A man who in a sense does not even exist,
Speaker 1: but on Sportista is that that the Diva production with
Speaker 1: Exiled Content Studio in partnership with iHeart Radio's Michael Tura
Speaker 1: podcast Network, Directed and narrated by John Gibbler, Transportista's voice
Speaker 1: by jaquinoo At Its ing and sound design by Ferdandolo
Speaker 1: La Rosa and Pedro Garcia. Reporting by John Gibbler, Emmanuel
Speaker 1: Adios produced by Juli Gonzalez. Voice recording by Ugo Merino
Speaker 1: and Rene Garcia. Transports interviews translated by Cardinal Ries Arguys.
Speaker 1: Production supervision by Nando Vila and Albertosespees. Associate producers Alonso
Speaker 1: Hilar and Alexandro Duran Diego and Drique Orno Is the
Speaker 1: creator and executive producer along with Daniel Eilenberg and Eesactly.
Speaker 1: Executive producers for I Heeart Media are Conald Burne and
Speaker 1: just Sell Bunces. For more podcasts from my Heart, Is
Speaker 1: it the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.