The Corrupt Ringleaders | TRIPLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

A young man plans elaborate crimes that he believes will net him millions of dollars as he puts his violent plans into action. The lives of innocent people and police officers mean nothing. The FBI tries to bring him to justice, but they soon face a criminal enterprise. thank you caught in the act a disguised bank robber heard explosives at the police and disappeared in a hail of bullets when the police identified the suspect, they connected him to an armed kidnapping but could not find him. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI. New York Office The suspect's behavior was organized but unpredictable.

They all leave a trail and the agents hoped they could find the right one. Martinez California is a suburban city 30 miles north of Oakland when dawn broke on October 15, 1993. Most of Martinez was still asleep, no one. He noticed the dark figure crawling across the roof of a bank in the center. He carried a state-of-the-art cordless power saw and drilled with special noise-reducing motors so he knew exactly where to cut in the ceiling. The masked man took advantage of a flaw in the bank's security system. the alarm could not detect movement in the space between the roof and the roof of the bank, allowing him to move freely just below was the bank's office was equipped with motion sensors he knew that if he descended below he had activated the bank's alarm the man masked He also knew that the Bank employees would arrive in a few hours and deactivate the security system.

He settled in and waited for them hours later. Martinez residents began their morning commutes two miles from Martinez Bank in the town of Pleasant Hill. The police operator responded to a seemingly unrelated emergency call. Someone saw two Hispanic men entering a supermarket with guns in their waistbands, it was shortly before 9 a.m. Pleasant Hill Police Officer Bob Lauderdale responded to the supermarket and one of the reporters or my dispatcher reported that the caller was calling from a pay phone. phone directly across the street from the store, I noticed an adult black male standing in front of the phone booth wearing a black varsity type jacket with tan sleeves and wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet.

Officer Lauderdale and Sergeant Gary Ezell entered the supermarket to investigate. A hallway-by-hallway search would begin to find the suspect in the city of Martinez, the masked man had waited three hours in the crawl space on the roof of the bank. Bank employees were preparing to open to the public, they deactivated the alarm when they arrived. I think It was incredible, the masked man saw a teller enter his access code to the ATM room where he would fill the machines with cash. It was his signal for a dramatic entry abroad. The door closed automatically behind the cashier.

The thief threatened to kill his co-worker. If she didn't open the door then he opened it himself the bank manager was in the break room heard the commotion of breaking glass hurry up she came out and called 9-1-1 bank registration 211 in progress 66 78 dispatch Alhambra alerted to the Martinez police yelling to raise your hands at the accountants, all available units run towards the bank with their sirens off, okay, hurry up, hurry up, the robber left with a backpack full of cash, but to keep it You have to evade the Martinez Police Officers who arrived in front of the Martinez Bank and the Pleasant Hill Police Departments only had nine officers available to respond and two of them were busy on a suspicious call at a supermarket.

Need someone in the back, the robber saw an easy exit around the back of the bank, but Needing a distraction, Martinez foreign traffic officer Earl Moffatt moved to cover the back of the bank in his 10 years in strength. This would be the first time Officer Moffatt would fire his weapon. He's shooting at me and he's only 20 yards away. what was going through my mind is just chaos as the shooting continued. Pleasant Hill police were still investigating the 9-1-1 call about two men with guns entering the supermarket. No, I'm sure none of the employees saw anything.

Normally, we have to go, Officer Lauderdale became suspicious immediately after we were unable to locate anyone matching that description. I thought the bank robbery and Martinez was too much of a coincidence. In Martinez, the bank robbery suspect continued his shootout with Officer Muffet. I couldn't. He did not copy his empty gun, the officer was forced to reload the gunman took advantage of the moment. Moffatt knew he would be vulnerable to an ambush if he jumped the fence, followed procedure and called for backup while officers cordoned off the neighborhood. Martinez police were joined in the investigation by the FBI and Supervisory Special Agent Bob Moore; the FBI automatically investigates all bank robberies.

Any crime against these institutions is a federal crime. We have concurrent jurisdiction and have traditionally worked on bank robberies very closely with local law enforcement when I first arrived on the scene. It was quite chaotic. We had been notified that a robbery had occurred and that a shooting had occurred after the robbery. Commander Tom Simonetti supervised the crime scene investigation for Martinez police. At the crime scene we found casings from a Glock 45 pistol, as well as spent bullets. who have been fired in our office FBI agents know that most bank robberies are poorly planned attempts to obtain drug money.

The evidence this thief left behind suggested a more sophisticated criminal. The method of operation was so unique that you simply don't see robberies committed every day by people falling through the roof with a rope on the roof evidence the technicians processed the abandoned power tools they found no fingerprints the agents interviewed bank employees about their traumatic experience they described the robber as a muscular black man in a red jacket he robbed an average bank nets only three thousand dollars, the bank manager determined that the robber escaped with more than thirty-five thousand dollars and, upon removing them from the room from the ATM, no die packs were placed with the money.

Technicians found no fingerprints, but discovered a shoe print on the desk where the thief landed while the crime scene was being processed. Martinez police combed the neighborhood behind the bank looking for the masked suspect and soon found a trail of him. He was marked by twenty-dollar bills that had fallen out of his backpack, but the money trail ended abruptly at the closed end of a cul. de-sac leaving no trace of suspect The Pleasant Hill Lauderdale police officer was guarding the crime scene when he recognized someone in the crowd of onlookers and suddenly noticed the subject he had seen making the 9-1-1 call Now I was standing in a group of people who were observing the activities at the bank robbery.

I thought it was too much of a coincidence to see the same guy in the mall and now I was at the bank robbery in Martínez. I contacted the guy to identify him and find him. find out what he was doing in the area, what he is doing the officer knew the person who called 9-1-1 at the supermarket gave dispatchers the name Kyle Farrell now the man said his name was Ural Wills oh this is just around the corner, it's suspicious enough that Officer Lauderdale asked the man to come to the police station for questioning, we'll go over this.

The subject was surprisingly cooperative and had no problem going to speak with Martinez detectives. The man provided Martinez police with a driver's license that appeared to confirm his name. It was Ural Wills, a background check on him revealed that three years earlier, in 1990, he was arrested for an armed robbery at a supermarket in Oakland, but was later acquitted despite the previous arrest. Police had nothing to link the man to the Martinez bank robbery. They had no choice. But to free him, they did not know that discovering the man's true identity would lead them to the bank robber who was willing to kill to escape from the police in Martinez California.

A bank robber threatened the lives of employees until he got what he came for. in foreign cash. For the bank's ATMs, police searched for the suspect by following a trail of twenty-dollar bills near the crime scene until it ended in a residential cul-de-sac. For FBI Supervisory Special Agent Bob Moore, the end of the trail was itself a clue. A trail of twenty dollar bills stopped there, so we initially assumed there had been a getaway car somewhere near that end of that dead end that had caught anything. Martinez police interviewed residents who lived in the normally quiet suburban area; one homeowner said that earlier the day he was working in his front yard he noticed a new Jeep Cherokee speeding past his house.

He thought the white woman behind the wheel might have simply been a reckless teenager. The witness said the vehicle had no license plates, just a sign for a nearby Jeep dealership, several other Witnesses in the neighborhood also saw the vehicle, but none of them could agree on the color of the Jeep. Supervisory Special Agent Bob Moore pursued the driver of the vehicle, called the dealership advertised on the SUV and learned that they sold more than 60 new Jeep Cherokees in Yes, in the last three months we began to identify the people who had purchased those cars with negative results.

Every Jeep Cherokee had to be investigated. Martinez Police Commander Tom Simmons knew it would be a painstaking job. We also spoke to several of the registered owners of new Jeeps. and had no criminal record or had been out of town and were able to prove they were not involved in the robbery. We found one had been stolen from a nearby BART station. The vehicle was recovered in the city of Concord and after investigating and processing it, it was determined that it was not involved in the crime. The last two jeeps that we reviewed were sold to a car rental company in the city of Antioquia.

Agents went to the company. rent to investigate the last two vehicles can you get me the rental papers they requested copies of the rental contracts they found out that one of the jeeps was rented the day before the theft and they returned the name the motorcyclist used in the parking lot the next night from Banco Martínez who was also the same man Police observed making a 9-1-1 call near a Pleasant Hill supermarket. Martinez police needed to clear up the question of how Ural Wills could have simultaneously fled the area in a Jeep and been seen in the bank parking lot as a bystander absolutely by In their responses they addressed Officer Lauderdale when I presented him with everyone's photo. their wills and in the photo list Officer Lauderdale identified a different person as all of their wills.

Lauderdale chose the photo of Doug Jones, a known criminal associate of Ural Wills when investigating Mr. Wills' criminal history we determined that he had an accomplice who had committed several crimes with him. Detectives believed accomplice Doug Jones posed as Wills at the robbery scene to throw police off. Wills was now considered the agents' prime suspect. It was clear why. Jones made the call while the bank robbery was in progress. Planning for this included attempting to create a diversion from police by making a 9-1-1 call to the Pleasant Hill Police Department. Martinez police conducted a more detailed background check on Ural.

Wills spoke to Oakland detectives who arrested him three years ago for a supermarket robbery. They expressed frustration that he was later acquitted. Commander Martinez Tom Simonetti learned of another recent arrest of Ural Wills during this investigation. We had discovered that Mr. Wills had been arrested by the California Highway Patrol for carrying a loaded Glock pistol. Martinez police discovered that the bank robber also used a Glock pistol. Ballistic tests on the recovered bullets revealed that they were from a Glock nine millimeter. Martinez investigators also learned from Oakland criminal informants that Wills often took advantage of other criminals.

Several armed robberies of known drug dealers in the city of Oakland, which led us to believe that we were dealing with someone who was either fearless or very brazen in his criminal activity. The same criminal informants gave information to the police about the Ural Will case. The getaway drivers' methods of operation because Wills believed they were less suspicious to police. The fact that a woman was seen behind the wheel of the jeep wasconsistent with Will's criminal history from the car rental agreements. Agents were able to track down Ural Wills' financial records. The Jeep Cherokee. Wills had paid with a credit card.

We determined through subpoenas that the credit card had been issued by a credit union in Berkeley. They also learned that Wills had a savings account at the credit union, but found no unusually large deposits that could be linked to In the Martinez bank robbery, we asked credit union employees if he would show up at the credit union to call the Berkeley Police Department, even without any suspicious bank deposits. Martinez police officers Commander Tom Simonetti still believed the evidence implicated Wills in the bank robbery. He had an apartment in Antioch, California, 20 miles east of Martinez. Based on information collected by the Martinez Police Department, the FBI, and the Antioch Police Department, we were able to obtain a federal search warrant for Mr.

Will's apartment in the city of Antioch 30 days after the bank robbery Agents FBI and a police SWAT team prepared to execute the search warrant at Will's apartment and have already fired 10 rounds into a Martinez police office. The SWAT team suspected Wills would shoot again. FBI agents on the Martinez Police SWAT Team were serving a search warrant at an apartment belonging to bank robbery suspect Ural Wills. They found a man in the apartment, the SWAT team quickly determined he was not It was Wills, they identified him as Doug Jones, who was a known criminal accomplice of Ural Wills, as well as Will's roommate, Jones was the man seen. making the 9-1-1 call near a supermarket before the Martinez bank robbery and the man seen in the bank parking lot after robbery officers took Jones out of the apartment and took him to the station for questioning, Oh, while investigators were executing their search warrant, I found several items of interest, including a bulletproof vest, agents also found a red jacket that matched witnesses' descriptions of the bank robber's clothing in the bedroom.

They identified a pair of sneakers as the type the thief was wearing. They found an even more revealing clue inside one of the shoes. one thousand dollars all in twenty dollar bills the money stolen from the Martinez Bank was also entirely in twenty dollar bills the shoes were sent to the laboratory where the soles could be compared to a shoe print recovered from the Martinez Bank robbery the detectives also discovered hospital bills that suggested Wills was injured the day of the bank robbery. Martinez Police Commander Tom Simonetti contacted the doctor at the hospital and told us that Mr.

Wills had told him that he slipped on the wet floor at a grocery store and broke his foot. However, the doctor noted that the injury was more consistent with a strong impact, particularly a direct downward impact from a fall or fall, something Wills further linked to the crime when analysts confirmed that one of the shoes found in his apartment matched the shoe print taken. at the scene of Martinez's robbery at the police station where Mr. Willis's officers questioned Will's roommate and criminal partner, Doug Jones, as suspicious as Jones' actions were, the police could not charge him with a crime or force him to talk if Jones knew where Wills was hiding.

He wasn't telling investigators that the biggest frustration in this case was trying to locate Mr. Wills after he knew we were looking for him. 222 Going forward, we had searched his residence, we had contacted everyone who knew him and there was no doubt that he knew we were after him. His agents knew Wills was a career criminal and were sure he would strike again. They spent nearly a month searching the Bay Area neighborhoods Wills frequented. They found no sign of the vile fugitive as investigators searched for Wills. He was planning an even bigger crime. More ambitious than the Martinez bank robbery, he gathered a group of accomplices and informed them of his plan four days before Christmas 1993.

Will's accomplices arrived at the Antioch, California, home of jewelry store owner Gene Mayer, and his wife Ruth, and posed as detectives investigating credit cards. fraud once the door was opened they revealed their sinister purpose two bound the couple with duct tape while a third moved to the back of the house to look for a safe the men told Gene Mayer they were kidnapping his wife and said they would call with The details about how he could get his mayor back were unable to do anything as Euro Will's accomplices left with his wife and a safe full of jewelry, they used Mrs.

Mayer's Suburban as a getaway vehicle , they got in there, come on, just 10 minutes later, Jean Mayer broke free and I called 9-1-1 and the police responded. The scene was supervised by Sergeant Scott Williford. When I arrived at the mayor's residence, officers were in the process of cordoning off the crime scene with police tape and barriers. I entered the residence and Gene Mayer was in. During the interview process he was very traumatized. The detectives tried to focus Mr. Mayer on the description of his wife's kidnappers, but he only looked at them briefly. Detectives processed the home for evidence.

They discovered a ransom note. The mayor never saw the kidnappers leave. He warned her not to do it. contact authorities Jean Mayor was worried he had made a mistake by calling the police. He feared the kidnappers would retaliate by killing his wife to help find Mrs. Mayer. Antioch police requested help from the FBI. They looked for any sign of Ruth Mayer's Suburban that her kidnappers used. as a getaway vehicle, investigators knew that the chances of finding a kidnapping victim alive decreased the longer she was held captive. Officers in Antioch and surrounding communities urgently searched shopping center parking lots thinking the kidnappers may have abandoned Ms.

Mayer's truck and switched to another vehicle. Goodman When they found nothing on the airport road, detectives learned that the jewelry and the stolen safe were worth four hundred thousand dollars, but the mayor didn't care about the jewelry he wanted. His wife was returned unharmed and blindfolded during her abduction. Ruth Mayer had no idea where. she was or what the kidnappers had in store for her Bank robbery suspect Ural Wills used a team of accomplices to rob a jewelry store owner and kidnap his wife inside the mayor's building. Antioch police analyzed the ransom note left by the suspects, the kidnappers demanded two million dollars for the safe return of Mrs.

Mayer the police anticipated that they would call with instructions the technicians installed telephone traps to track and record any incoming calls for more clues Antioch Police Sergeant Scott Williford gathered details about the jewelry stolen from the house you guys to do your job if any of that turned up it could put you on the trail of the kidnappers as Mr. Mayor was a jeweler, he had detailed and specific information about the description of all the jewelry that we were able to provide or compile a detailed list and send to others. agencies regarding the stolen property, the FBI brought in additional resources and helped coordinate the search for any sign of Ms.

Mayer or the Suburban her kidnappers stole from her driveway the next morning, investigators were still combing the mayor's neighborhood looking for clues, teams of officers and agents began talking. to people in the neighborhood we were knocking on doors asking if people had seen anything suspicious in the area as well as interviewing neighbors investigators like Antioch Police Sergeant Scott Williford turned to the media for help did everything he could to Getting the information out to the public so we could have the public's assistance and trying to locate the movement, hundreds of volunteers distributed more than 8,000 flyers throughout the Bay Area.

The flyers had photographs of Ms. Mayer and a description of her suburban strategy quickly yielded results within hours of the kidnapping with the information. We sent the other agencies to locate the Suburban that was stolen. Technicians processed the vehicle for evidence. They didn't find anything useful. Investigators theorized that the kidnappers transferred Ruth Mayer to a second getaway vehicle. They took impressions of fresh tire tracks found at the scene. The prints could be compared to the suspect's vehicle if it was found, although they had found her vehicle, the detectives still had no idea where Ms. Mayer was being held, the kidnappers left her unattended for hours at a time, it was the opportunity to bite their ties, the mayor knew it was an escape attempt.

He was too risky, instead, he memorized the details of the garage in case he was ever asked to identify it. In the driveway he saw the outline of a car, it was covered with a blue tarp. Mayer thought about screaming for help, but she was worried about what would happen. If her kidnappers heard her for the moment, she had no choice but to wait. The mayor quickly raised the money he expected to take his wife home wearing latex gloves. Agents recorded the bill's serial numbers and were prepared to make delivery as soon as they received it. kidnappers' instructions Two days after kidnapper police responded to a call from a Berkeley credit union and asked the manager to call police if he saw bank robbery suspect Martinez, he saw Euro Wills trying to make a deposit that the teller attempted to access. the account but it was frozen Berkeley police arrived and calmly approached the bank, but Wills saw them as they searched Wills Berkeley police recovered a loaded magazine for a Glock nine-millimeter pistol and also discovered that Wills had something else to hide Located in his pocket, it was a key. to a car, the police officers asked him where his car was parked, he denied having a car, the officers then walked down the street checking vehicles until they located his vehicle, the keys in Will's pocket fit a Ford Explorer , FBI Supervisory Special Agent Bob Moore searched the seizure. vehicle in search of evidence that would link Wills to the Martinez bank robbery, instead he uncovered the first break in the Ruth Mayer kidnapping case.

Found in the Ford Explorer on the day of Will's arrest was a cell phone, a gun, a pager that belonged to Euro Wills and a bag containing jewelry, agents had previously thought the kidnapping of Mayor Ruth in the Ruth cases Martínez's bank robbery were not related, that all changed when they discovered that some of the jewelry was personalized RM, they were Ruth Mayer's initials. Officers showed the jewelry to Ruth Mayer's husband, who confirmed it had been stolen. from his home, investigators now considered Wills a suspect in both the kidnapping of Ruth's mayor and the Martinez bank robbery, further linking Wills to the Martinez bank robbery.

FBI technicians performed ballistics tests on the Glock pistol recovered from Will's vehicle and compared the bullets fired by the Glock in the laboratory to the bullets recovered from the Martinez Bank crime scene. The tests indicated that the bullets were not fired by same gun investigators believed Wills likely disposed of the gun used during the bank robbery and replaced it with another gun of the same make and model. He's in his car. I want to know where they told him that Wills was no longer just a bank robbery suspect, but that he was also a suspect in the kidnapping of Mayor Ruth.

We can already connect him to Mrs. Mayer, but these Jewels are desperate to save Mrs. Mayer's life. Antioch police asked Wills to tell them where she was being held, but Wills refused to cooperate. He remained silent about his involvement in the young mayor's kidnapping with Wills in jail. Investigators feared his accomplices would panic and do something desperate. They will show some organization. But authorities held a press conference to ask for new leads and also warned Will's accomplices that they were closing in and that Mrs. Mayer should be released for damages. On the other hand, I can't say for sure, but we are certainly looking at them from the point of view.

Fourth day of Mrs. Mayer's captivity On Christmas Eve, the man guarding Mrs. Mayer received instructions from the other accomplices inthe kidnapping plot. His orders were to get rid of Mrs. Mayer any way she could. The man ordered her to stay down and out of sight while he drove. Mrs. Mayer couldn't be sure if she was going to live or die the kidnapping victim Ruth Mayer had endured four days of captivity the ringleader of the kidnapping Ural Wills was in police custody accused of a bank robbery that left Wills leaderless and they were Concerned that the law was closing in, the accomplices ordered the man guarding Ruth Mayer to dispose of her as best he could 30 miles north of her home in Antioch, California, where she was kidnapped in a town called El Sobrante.

The kidnappers decided get rid of Mrs. Mayer by freeing her now, don't get rid of Antioch Police Sergeant Scott Williford believed that police efforts to reach the kidnappers through the media were successful, they knew the crime services, They knew there was pressure on this, the case at that time and they didn't do it. He didn't know what to do, it was so important that everyone knew all the details of this and they were forced to publish their views on Ruth Mayer's return. They made headlines and on local newscasts. I just want to say that I'm very, very happy to be.

Investigators at the home questioned Ms. Mayer about her ordeal. She did not know the location where she was being held and she could not describe her kidnappers, so she provided the agents with important details. She was able to use her senses while she was held in this garage and she actually had remarkable recollection of many of the circumstances that occurred in the area where she was held. She described certain sounds she heard while she was detained. She described the sound of passing trains. She described the sounds of buses or diesel-powered vehicles. having to downshift or slow down as if she were going to take a sharp turn, we have an adventure based on information obtained from Mrs.

Mayer. Investigators were looking for a location near train tracks and major bus lines. They used the cell phone seized from Will's vehicle to narrow down the search. Agents quickly obtained the phone's billing records and headed east. They focused on calls Wills made around the time of Ms. Mayer's kidnapping. We were able to track the cell phone usage and determine where it had been in use the night before, including in Antioch, and in addition to the numbers that had been called that night, investigators learned that Towers in western Contra Costa County picked up the signal. from Will's cell phone the night of the housejacking, they began searching streets in Contra Costa County where the train tracks and major bus lines are located.

Intersected based on Ms. Mayer's observations, the agents were looking for any house that had a vehicle covered with a blue tarp in the driveway, we will locate the house in San Pablo and only by visual inspection on the exterior it matched The criteria and description that Ruth Mayer gave us, the agents obtained a search warrant for the house and found no one inside. Ms. Mayer identified the garage as the location where she was detained. Officers wanted to question the homeowner but were unable to locate him. Investigators sought out the owners' relatives in an effort. to find him Edward Rodríguez was the nephew of the owner of the house, the agents did not know that he was guarding Ruth Mayer during the kidnapping, but Rodríguez mistakenly believed that the agents were looking for him and said that he was about to turn himself in in a court of law .

Investigators found Rodríguez remorseful for the The party he played in the kidnapping and convinced him to cooperate finally the guard confessed to the entire crime, confessed to the planning, the details of the operation and exposed the Rodríguez named all the conspirators in the plan. Anyone else said that Euro Wills planned and directed the kidnapping operation. Agents corroborated the guard's statements with records from Will's cell phone. Then they arrested all the conspirators. Brian Tomasello, one of the gunmen who broke into the mayor's home, was convicted of six counts of robbery and kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison.

Edward Rodríguez was found guilty of kidnapping and robbery. The jury gave him a short sentence of eight years because he freed Mrs. Mayer before he could be tried for the kidnapping of the mayor of Ruth Ural. Wills was found guilty of the Martinez bank robbery and sentenced to 39 years prosecutors learned Wills suffered from kidney failure doctors gave him less than 10 years to live Wills was certain he would die in prison. Prosecutors informed the mayor of her plans not to try him for his kidnapping. She is a forgiving person. She knew she got justice. She knew that he was in Mr.

Wills' custody for the rest of his life. And I think she forgave everyone. While he pursued his violent plans, Ural Wills hoped to make millions and live a life of luxury. Instead, the FBI and local police made sure the criminals spent their final days behind bars in Texas. An unsuspecting federal agent is kidnapped at gunpoint. The men responsible escape without being seen. In the vast terrain of South Texas, precious minutes pass before Lawman's disappearance is discovered with the life of one of their own. On Jeopardy, his colleagues are determined to find the suspects, bring them in and make them pay, oh, when the victim of a violent crime is a member of law enforcement, the work of investigating becomes personal and the border crossing into the United States.

I am fugitives, kidnapped, a customs inspector and then missing. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office, desperate to find his colleagues, local, state and federal authorities. They undertook a large-scale manhunt in Texas and Mexico, a race against time that they hope to solve would make the difference. Authorities at the U.S. port of entry in Del Rio, Texas, see hundreds of legal crossings between the United States and Mexico every day, but we also see an average of $250 million in confiscated drugs, all kinds of criminal activities and thousands of illegal immigrants each year, the men and women of US Customs know that the threat of danger is always present, hiding behind the crowd of harmless civilians, there are criminals who see them as The enemy on the afternoon of September 27 January 1984, a vehicle with Texas plates stopped at the port's main checkpoint.

Customs inspector José Torres asked the occupants for identification to have a chance. The three passengers provided green cards showing that they were legal resident aliens authorized to work in the U.S. The driver explained that he was a U.S. citizen, but only presented a baptismal certificate since Inspector Torres could not accept it. Upon registering the car's license plate, he ordered the driver to proceed to a secondary checkpoint for further verification. Thank you. Customs Inspector Richard Latham received the vehicle. baptismal certificate 10 year border veteran it was his job to drive questionable people or vehicles oh follow me Latham took the driver inside to speak with an immigration and naturalization service officer the ins officer reprimanded the driver for his insufficient documents since the The man claimed he was a U.S. citizen born and raised in El Paso.

The officer questioned him about details that only a resident could know in minutes. The man's detailed responses persuaded the official that his lack of documentation was his only indiscretion. The driver was acquitted but Latham still had To inspect the vehicle, he must look inside his car following the routine procedure. He checked for illegal drugs or undeclared contraband, as there was nothing suspicious about the men or their behavior. Inspector Latham was alone during the search, it seemed to everyone working at the port that day. Like every other day, around 4:45 p.m., a police detective from Del Río, Texas, arrived and informed border officials that a jewelry store had been robbed 15 minutes earlier in the Mexican border town of Sudad Acuña. , two miles away, unfortunately his information was incomplete, but he said Mexican police were looking for four Hispanic men, at least one of whom spoke English.

Police and border officials immediately went to alert each of the inspectors on duty, as thieves might attempt to enter the United States. Inspections at the main checkpoints were duplicated. Customs officials wanted to be sure that no one associated with the theft would enter the country. They had something to declare well, but around five o'clock, Inspector Torres received disturbing news. Customs inspector Richard Latham had disappeared. Del Rio Detective John Martin was at the Port that day when he suddenly disappeared, we knew something was wrong, although the timing of the Disappearance marked a shift change. Latham had not followed the required protocol for leaving his post, he had not left in his own vehicle, he had not checked in and told anyone else he was leaving and the standard procedure for those inspectors, even if they were rotating for coffee or going to the bathroom, would have been to have notified other inspectors at the Port.

None of this had happened. The only conclusion from him was inspector. Latham had been kidnapped. Our first investigative response was to determine when Inspector Latham had last been seen and what he had been doing. Customs Inspector Torres reported seeing Latham searching an older model vehicle as a secondary checkpoint. He described the car as a gray Pontiac Grand from the late 1970s. Prix, with three or four Hispanic men next to him who matched the jewelry thieves wanted by the Mexican police inspector, described the driver as a man in his twenties. years who wore an El Paso baseball cap.

Torres realized that, when he turned to check, the next vehicle inspector must have discovered Latham. something and the kidnappers attacked and then escaped from the port at the scene. U.S. Customs Service Special Agent Dennis Harlan helped lead the search. It was a race against time. In my experience, if an officer is captured at gunpoint, they are eventually killed. Everyone knew the window. The opportunity to rescue the kidnapped officer was brief and they sprang into action. A customs officer retrieved the computer list of all license plates that passed through the port of Del Rio into the U.S. between 4:15 and 5 p.m. m.

Around the time Latham disappeared, the list was fewer than 100. .It would take valuable time to achieve this. Del Rio police began creating a composite image using an identifier based on the inspector. The pre-drawn facial features of Torres and other Memories Witnesses were merged piece by piece into an image of the driver. When the composite image was complete, investigators sent it to all local, state and federal police agencies in the area, police units They spread out in search of a gray Grand. Prix ​​investigators now had a possible image of the driver, but nothing specific about the passengers.

Custom Service helicopters supported the ground units, but with few leads they knew that finding the men in the Texas-backed country would be difficult after an hour and a half from Latham. The missing car traveling at a discreet speed of 55 miles per hour could be anywhere within 20,000 square miles. The search area was huge and with every minute it was getting even bigger in record time. The DMV database returned the list of license plate numbers with the names and addresses of the owners. There were eight Pontiac Grand Prixes on the list. Police officers went to six addresses in Del Rio to investigate the vehicles, but two were registered to the owners in El Paso, where the driver of the suspect vehicle said he lived and that he was 10 hours away from customs. .

The agent contacted the nearest FBI field office to seek assistance and informed Special Agent Don Weatherman of the kidnapping. It was very disheartening to realize that we had a missing Customs inspector. No trace of hurray could be what happened to him and therefore very little information other than the fact that he was last seen doing his job and no one knew or saw anything of him from that moment on, the agent Customs asked the meteorologist to direct the field agent in El Paso to locate the two FBI special agents registered with Grand Prix, Charles Riley, to whom he was assigned.

Agent Riley theorized that theRegistration information he received may have been outdated, and he returned to the FBI office in El Paso determined to find the cars and their owners. In the evening I asked the office employee to do more license checks on both license plates of the vehicles trying to find the actual owners of the vehicles. At the current time, it would take hours to compare the data. Much of this would already be done. at hand, state and local police maintained barricades in all directions from the port, what do you want? Do you have any identification?

All vehicles leaving the area were stopped and searched when FBI agents from San Antonio arrived in Del Rio, they were briefed on the latest developments in The search, despite the efforts of dozens of cooperating law enforcement agencies, had not found nothing. Almost seven hours had passed since Inspector Richard Latham was kidnapped. At the end of the first night's investigation, there were still no promising clues that they are always expected to find. release them, but history doesn't prove that, so basically we knew we were looking for a body probably late that night, you know the full scale search was still going on the next morning, a fixed wing plane that could travel faster and further than The helicopters expand the search perimeter to cover the vast Texas brush.

Texas state troopers continued their roadblocks in the area surrounding Del Rio, although at that point they knew the suspects had likely left in El Paso. Special Agent Riley eliminated his suspects. An elderly couple who owned a grey. Pontiac Grand Prix, but the other owner sold his vehicle to a man named Ricardo Cortez. Cortez had not registered the vehicle in his name. A background check showed that Ricardo Cortez had a criminal record for drug possession. Riley located his most current address at that address. The address I spoke with Cortez's mother and determined that he had been out of town for three or four days.

She wasn't sure when he would return. She said Cortez still owned the car in question and that she had it with him. I went to the El Paso Police Department obtained a photograph of Cortez and sent a copy to the Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas. Cortez looked like the composite image of the driver. Finally, the agents had their first suspect, something specific they could move in hopes of finding Richard Latham. and the men who kidnapped him, but his hopes rose Fifty miles away, a man gathering firewood near Eagle Pass, Texas, made a gruesome discovery: the body of a man wearing a U.S. customs uniform in Del Rio, Texas, authorities believe jewelry thieves cross the border in a gray.

Pontiac Grand Prix kidnapped American customs inspector Richard Latham. Investigators identified the driver of the car as Ricardo Cortez, who had been missing since Latham's disappearance. They first learned that the body of a man wearing a U.S. customs uniform was discovered in a ditch off Highway 277 near Eagle Pass. Local Texas officials secured the scene but decided no one would enter until the FBI arrived, while agents at the Del Rio port of entry boarded a helicopter for the 60-mile flight to Eagle Pass. Texas state troopers continued to control roads throughout the area where the kidnappers were now located.

Most likely he was gone, but no one could be sure of being frustrated. Trooper art Corral, who was working on the Del Rio to El Paso highway, was not going to give up the search. We were there for hours checking cars and at the roadblock, and you know, it seemed like Nada, we weren't going to get anywhere, our supervisor advised us to go ahead and stay on that road, but break the roadblock, so in part I decided to stop cars that had three or more Latino men in the car at the time. I saw this car go by and there were three people in the car, as unlikely as the men inside could be related to the kidnapping, the driver got out and approached the police, how they had been.

Corral explained why he had stopped him. The Hispanic subjects are involved in the kidnapping of the The driver gave his identification. He was an Eagle Pass taxi driver hired by the men in his car to take them to Presidio Texas. He admitted that he was glad he was stopped. His passengers were agitated and made him nervous. The police officer decided to carry out a check. From them he obtained the green cards of the two passengers Rafael Calderón and Jesús Ramírez, none of them fit the description of the suspected driver of the Grand Prix and there were only two of them determined to be thorough.

Trooper Corral had his partner perform a check. the names just in case inside the car Corral's colleague tried to communicate his response by radio to the office but there was no signal he tried again even so nothing is common in that area losing contact there were many valleys and peaks and sometimes you lost contact with the station radio station you would have to change location to be able to make contact with one of our stations. He took the passenger's information to call from a different position. Okay, they thought they could afford the risk of letting the car leave here. there's only one road, there might not be another road for 100 miles, so when you let go of a car, you know, for whatever reason, and something comes up, you probably have a good chance of finding it again, the Troopers took the opportunity and came back to catch him. a radio signal 15.

FBI agents arrived in Eagle Pass to process the scene where the body was discovered. Everyone working on the case hoped to find their colleague alive, but the evidence was clear: it was Richard Lathan, the inspector who had been bound by his own handcuffs and shot twice in the back. The kidnappers were now police killers. The agent U.S. Customs Officer Dennis Harlan was distraught over the loss of his friend and we lost one of our own when a brother officer was captured and killed and, uh, those of us who have been in the field took it personally and I was sorry that Richard was dead, but a criminal investigation of this nature, the discovery of the body is very, very important, the body becomes evidence, so I felt a sense of relief that we had found the body, as I had a feeling of sadness because a friend of mine was gone.

Examiners determined he had been shot with a .38-caliber pistol. Like Del Rio Detective John Martin's missing service weapon, the execution-style murder shed a chilling light on the type of criminal they were after someone who has the temerity to kidnap a law enforcement officer and subsequently murder that officer knowing the response you are going to receive is the most dangerous type of individual, that means they do not take anyone's life in any way and they would kill the average person on the street at a strange time. The Troopers continued trying the radio after several minutes they made contact, the dispatch officers checked the men in the taxi, returned with a return and said that there was a possible hit to one of the passengers, which was Ramirez in the seat rear, there was an outstanding DUI warrant for one Jesus Ramirez, it may not be the same Ramirez, but the cops needed to verify his identity, so we decided to move forward and are trying to locate him.

Fortunately, the taxi was still on the road, the driver stopped for the second time. Police officer Corral cleared the driver. and I approached the vehicle to talk to Jesús Ramírez. I started yelling at the guy in the back seat and then talked him into getting out right then. I see, uh, I see the passenger kind of hunched over in the back seat and he's moving around you. I know I can see his head and shoulders squirming in the back seat, so I keep calling him and suddenly I'm not going to answer about the investigation into the kidnapping of a federal officer.

Texas state troopers stopped a car to question a man inside. but the traffic stop quickly became dangerous for Trooper Art Corral and his partner when he shot himself and my partner took the shotgun and we didn't have time to call anyone. uh, you know, it's just the two of us and when there's a shooting, you have to react quickly you know you know because that could mean life or death give me double with his partner covering him Corral took Raphael Calderón out of the vehicle and put him in custody behind the patrol car away from any weapons then they went to check The man in the back seat, Jesús Ramírez, had shot himself in the head with a .357.

The police officers recovered that weapon in a .38 caliber revolver, now they needed to know why the traffic stop was became mortal. Come on, a police officer recovered Ramirez's identification and a piece of paper. of his jacket while the other took out Rafael Calderón's belongings, that's all you have, including a large knife and a cloth bag. Corral suspected that Ramirez would not have committed suicide because of a DUI warrant. He knew there had to be another reason. Agents were called to the incident and learned that Latham's body had been discovered by the customs agent, but I believe the highway shooting was related to the Latham case and they flew to the scene when they arrived, reviewed the evidence along with The .357 that Ramírez used to commit suicide was a 38 caliber pistol.

It was later determined that the service revolver was Inspector Richard Lathams. The weapon that killed him. In the pillowcase that they took from Calderón. They discovered tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry that matched items stolen during the robbery in Mexico. They also found a handwritten bill of sale for a 1975 model Pontiac Grand Prix taken from the dead man's jacket the seller's name was Ricardo Cortez the first suspect identified hours earlier now with Rafael Calderón in custody it was time to get some answers On the way back to Del Rio FBI Special Agent Moses Alanay questioned Calderón.

In the back seat of a Ranger vehicle on the road, Mr. Calderon began to tell me what had happened the previous two days from the moment he and three other friends left El Paso for Mexico. Calderón claimed that Jesús Ramírez planned the election of Robin, who he claimed Ramírez chose. jewelry store in Mexico believing it was easier to get away with an armed robbery there than in the U.S., while Calderón Ramírez and the third man he knew only as Carlos robbed the place where his driver Ricardo Cortez was waiting in the getaway car, they went to the women who took as much as they could grab in a few minutes then they left Calderón said that they went to the border crossing in Del Río everything seemed to be fine when Cortez passed the internal interview at Customs the inspectors They searched the trunk I'll look in your car they started to get nervous when they checked the back seat they found the bag of stolen jewelry so Ramírez pulled out a gun as they were leaving Puerto Cortez the man named Carlos took the inspector's service revolver and secured it. with their own wives we go and according to Calderón Jesús Ramírez was in charge the whole time he decided that the inspector had seen too much they had to get rid of him Calderón said that he and Ramírez forced Latham into the ditch, he claimed that it was Ramírez who shot him to the inspector twice in the back with his own service revolver after leaving the The customs inspector to Die, the men continued to Eagle Pass when they crossed the border back into Mexico at a motel there they searched the jewelry putting the pieces more valuable in pillowcases, the plan was to separate Calderón and Ramírez would take the jewelry back to the United States.

Ricardo Cortez and Carlos were supposed to keep the car in Mexico for a few days and everyone would meet later in El Paso. The agent noted that during Calderon's version of events, he repeatedly named Ramirez as the man who shot him, the suspect was taken to jail in Del Rio agents reviewed the facts of his case. Raphael Calderón was in custody, according to him, the shooter was Jesús Ramírez, who committed suicide at the traffic stop. The driver of the Grand Prix Latham wanted was Ricardo Cortez of El Paso. The fourth suspect was a Calderon man.

He only knew that Carlos he and Ricardo Cortés were still at large. Customs Special Agent Dennis Harlan was determined to find him. Every effort would be made to capture and prosecute those involved after the kidnapping and murder of American Customs Inspector Richard. Four suspects were developed: One suspect, Rafael Calderón, was in jail, another was dead and two more were still at large. Six hours after Latham's body was recovered, State Police in Piedras Negros, Mexico, asked agents of the FBI to his office, some of the personal effects Customs inspectors had was discovered in a parking lot across the border in Eagle Pass, where his body was found, includingThe location where Latham's wallet was located, police issued a canister of Mace and several documents of interest to FBI Special Agent Don Weatherman.

We also located two traffic citations from the California Highway Patrol, one of which is listed on Raphael Calderón, the subject in cussey, the other was listed before Carlos Peña less than 24 hours after kidnapping investigators had an identification of the fourth suspect. Carlos Peña was a native of Mexico who was legally residing in the U.S. Investigators received his photograph from the Immigration and Naturalization Service now. They had to find Peña and his partner Ricardo Cortez, it seemed like it wouldn't take long the next day. . El Paso police received a tip that Cortez and Peña were hiding in an apartment in south El Paso.

Within minutes, an arrest plan was underway in the closed area surrounding the apartment building was locked down with coordination units on the ground and in the air was FBI Special Agent Charles Riley. Streets were cordoned off in that area and roadblocks were set up. U.S. Border Patrol helicopters were in the air watching rooftops and officers were stationed throughout. The area while the search was underway, the search for the fugitives was a delicate mission. SWAT teams cleared the building apartment by apartment. It was dangerous work. The hallways were narrow and provided no cover if the two desperate men attacked foreigners despite their thorough search.

American customs agent Dennis Harlan was undeterred. Tons of manpower on the road made a case like this, but some luck and good luck comes with some hard and aggressive police work. Then a new lead emerged when State Police in Piedras Negras, Mexico, discovered a gray 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix abandoned in the parking lot of a nightclub. FBI agents crossed the border to search the car, but Mexican law prohibited large-scale processing of the vehicle. We were unable to remove the vehicle and bring it back to the United States. We couldn't withdraw anything. Except for the tracks on the vehicle, FBI agents photographed the car to document items they could not collect and dusted it for latent prints.

It was a surprisingly low-tech process, duct tape and index cards, but it paid off when the fingerprints were sent to the FBI. At the Washington lab we determined that the four identified suspects had matching prints taken from the vehicle in El Paso, Texas. U.S. customs agents continued their search for Ricardo Cortez and Carlos Peña. They learned that Peña and the now-dead suspect, Jesús Ramírez, had lived in the same location. apartment complex interviewed the apartment manager, who identified the photo of the things he said she last saw him and Ramirez the night before Latham was murdered.

The two were moving boxes from a gray Grand Prix to an apartment. A third man arrived driving a blue foreign car. In other photos, she identified him as Ricardo Cortez. She said the three men drove off that night at the Grand Prix, leaving the blue car in the parking lot. The manager received a call from Ricardo Cortez the next day asking him not to tow the car. or his mechanic would pick him up soon that blue car was his best chance to get to Cortez during the night and until the morning the agents keep surveillance around noon a man arrived and took the car it was not Cortez nor Peña the agents followed the man He drove to a quiet area of ​​the city, he entered a bar a few minutes later, returned alone, and the officers detained him.

Any questions, I'm sure the man admitted that the car belonged to Ricardo Cortez. She said Cortez asked her to pick him up and meet him at the bar but Cortez never showed up, so she left the keys with the bartender. He said he didn't know where Cortez was staying. The agents verified his story with the waiter. He had also not seen Cortez as he continued surveillance in the blue car. FBI agents located Cortez. girlfriend her daughter's boyfriend asked her if she knew where Cortez was she said she hadn't seen him or heard from him in over a week okay this is very important it's been over a week I don't know But the agents, even the woman's own mother, doubted her story when you suffocate.

If they could install a tap and track her phone, no, with her consent, investigators could locate the source of all the incoming calls we needed to arrest the other two suspects involved. in the kidnapping of Richard Latham and subsequent murder, so that's where the attention went from there, I mean, where the hell are these guys? The only thing investigators could do was wait for Ricardo Cortez to call the FBI. The US Customs Service and other agencies were closing in on the two remaining suspects in the murder of a US Customs Agent had contacted the girlfriend of one of the suspects Ricardo Cortez were monitoring his phone hello Ricky where are you two days later he got a call it was Cortez he didn't tell him where he was but agents traced the call to a motel in El Paso Special Agent Charles Riley was ready.

Other officers, members of the El Paso Police Department and US Customs, headed to the motel. The SWAT team surrounded the building. Ricardo left the hotel thanks to the combined efforts of three law enforcement agencies. The investigators accomplished their mission according to Special Agent Don Weatherman at the FBI Customs Enforcement Office in El Paso and the police department there did a very good job. Cortez was arrested at that motel eight days after the murder of Richard Latham. Texas authorities had Ricardo Cortez in custody. A search of the room revealed no signs. suspect Carlos Peña, Grand Prix driver Ricardo Cortez and Rafael Calderón were now detained.

Jesús Ramírez had committed suicide at the traffic stop, but Carlos Peña was still at large. Yes, when asked about the murder, Cortez gave a different account than the The first suspect interviewed Rafael Calderón, who agreed that after Latham Ramírez and Calderón were kidnapped he took the inspector to the ditch, but Cortez said that the fatal shots were fired not by Ramírez but by Raphael Calderón after Texas State Police conducted a traffic stop and Ramírez committed suicide. His caller saw an opportunity to blame his dead associate when Cortez claimed that, in fact, it was Calderon who had shot Inspector Latham.

This was somewhat surprising. Cortez said that after the force separated, he and Peña abandoned the car and took a bus to Juárez Mexico Cortez reported that Peña was still in Juárez and had not come to El Paso. The FBI realized they couldn't arrest him on his account. One of the other agents he was working with contacted Mexican authorities and provided them with the background information. information about Peña and began searching for Peña in Juárez, the United States Customs Service offered the Mexican police a reward for information leading to Peña's arrest by the police and Juárez made sure that the friends and Peña's relatives understood that the authorities would not leave any of them alone until the fugitive surrendered two days later, the tactic was successful.

Peña contacted the FBI office in El Paso and informed them that he wanted to turn himself in. Arrangements were made with him to meet at the top of the Santa Fe Bridge. The top of the bridge is the border between Mexico and the United States and there is a marker there that does not allow us to enter Mexico for any interviews or detention, so Upon meeting him at the top of the bridge we asked her to cross into the United States, but she did and we took him. in custody The hunt was over, investigators took Carlos Peña to the El Paso port of entry when they asked him that his story matched Cortez's down to the smallest detail.

FBI Special Agent Don has it in my mind that Carlos Pena's arrest pretty much summed up and concluded the story. investigation into who was responsible for the murder of Richard Latham his story was so consistent that I am convinced that Calderón was a shooter and not the deceased Jesse Ramírez in San Antonio a federal grand jury indicted Calderón Cortezy Peña and six counts in exchange for his cooperation Ricardo Cortez was allowed to plead guilty to conspiracy and assault on a federal officer Carlos Peña pleaded guilty to the same charges They were also convicted on state kidnapping charges and each received 23 years Rafael Calderón the man who killed Richard Layson, who was charged with assault for murder of a federal officer, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

No one had been able to stop the men from taking the life of American Customs Inspector Richard Latham, but his colleagues and friends made sure the killers were arrested. paid the price Customs Service Special Agent Dennis Harlan When someone is murdered it is a serious matter, but when an officer serves the country and protects the people The money he or she is murdered there is something that happens within law enforcement. which is very, very positive, that no one cares. Who gets the credit? Everyone is interested in capturing those who were involved to see that justice is done.

Memorial services for Richard Latham were held at the Del Rio Port of Entry on January 31, 1984 at 2:30 p.m. U.S. Customs officers at every port of entry in the country observed a moment of silence out of deep respect for their fallen friend. Three mysterious deaths in the Florida River confuse local authorities. The preliminary investigation reveals little, but when police and the FBI find a sinister link to international drug smuggling, they uncover a conspiracy for unbridled greed and ruthless violence - it's a case that plunges an entire city into chaos in the 1980s. Thousands of violent criminals flooded into the United States from Cuba and Colombia.

Drugs in South Florida and the area bloated with illicit wealth became a violent powder keg. I'm Jim Calstrom. former head of the FBI's New York office in the bloody Miami drug war the winners got rich the losers were buried and everyone was a target Colombia South America until the 1970s life was simple but hard then a failed economy gave way to a sharp increase in drug trafficking. Drug trafficking sparked tough competition that literally began to tear the country apart. The ruthless Colombian drug traffickers began to consolidate their businesses into associations known as cartels. Death came to anyone who stood in his way.

As the cartel's influence grew, so did the American appetite for illicit drugs and Miami became the main entry point for most of the cocaine smuggled into the country and with it came bloodshed. . The Colombian assassins were sent to Miami to eliminate local competition. The homicide rate grew to more than

triple

the national average in large cities. Former US Metro Dade homicide detective Alex Alvarez remembers how in 1979 the violence reached a Miami shopping center. His date of birth is that several drug dealers bought an A Step van, lined it with bulletproof vest and portholes, and drugged it in the parking lot. and they sprayed him with, you know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bullets in the parking lot trying to kill their intended target.

Two known drug traffickers were killed and several innocent bystanders were injured. There were also incidents of high-speed chases on the highway between two drug traffickers. dealers who were just shooting on the highway during rush hour and numerous people were injured and killed, it was like the Wild West, so it was necessary to try to slow down and stop these drug dealers who seem to be out of control. control the special squad was formed to deal with violence Central Tactical Unit or centak 26 was based in the Metro Dade Police Department Sergeant George Placencia was a detective assigned to the unit, the first of its kind in Miami, it was number 26 in the nation The purpose of forming the task force was that we would go out and monitor all the homicides in the county and pick out the ones that we thought involved major drug traffickers and an attempt to work on that angle of the homicide and dismantle the organization By the mid-1980s, constant pressure from law enforcement slowly changed the way drug traffickers did business in Miami.

They became a little more sophisticated. They still committed the murders, but not the shootings in public places. Drug traffickers became deeply underground and organized cells that excluded everyone except their family members. and close friends many cells specialized in activities such as cocaine, transportation, distribution ormoney laundering in just a few years the business of this is a very deadly big business on the afternoon of July 29, 1985 a marine rescuer working on the Miami River noticed something off the The bow of his boat floating in the water was a body when Metro Dade County Police responded. Dock workers had pulled two more bodies from the river.

The coroner examined the deceased for signs of trauma or gunshot wounds and found none. It appeared that the three had drowned in the bodies, officers found pagers, Rolex watches and a lot of cash. Two were armed, essentially all carrying the tools of a drug smuggler. Metro Dade police called syntac-26. Sergeant Placencia investigated and we started running cameras in the area to see if anyone had seen anything. It's suspicious to see these individuals before they passed away and that turned out to be, you know, not so fruitful. Nobody had seen anything. The three victims were identified as local Cuban Americans.

Two had minor police records. The official cause of death was drowning, but not. There was no indication how they ended up in the water or why Detective Alex Alvarez sought a lead in the case. We began running record checks and contacting the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to see if these people were known drug traffickers. The DEA agents did not know the men but they had a source that could help them determine the address of an informant and that informant knew the son of one of the dead people who were caught in the rivers of Miami and was definitely related to the drugs and he was going to put us in contact with the Sun that afternoon the investigators paid a visit to the Sun he was willing to tell what he knew hoping that the mystery of his father's death could be solved.

Can you tell us what you know and how you did you find out? Well, I know. It's a really big business and he brings it back, he told us his father was one of the biggest drug dealers in South Florida, he brought in thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds of cocaine, well I know, last Saturday he said yes, He said his father's crew used dilapidated steel boats to smuggle drugs into the country, as old boats aroused less suspicion than large yachts. He also detailed how smugglers built false bulkheads on ships that concealed hidden compartments filled with hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds of cocaine. and Customs searches these ships, their only hope of finding drugs would be to use a blowtorch, they see that smugglers are smart, they know there is no way for customs and the open sea to put a blowtorch on a ship because if they make a mistake.

They will sink the ship now, get it through Customs safely, the smugglers will continue moving their huge cargo up the Miami River, spare the marina and then leave it there for two or three days to make sure there is no surveillance and in the second third On the fourth day, when they were convinced that there was no surveillance, they had come in the middle of the night, unloaded the drugs into Vans and sent them to different places in South Florida, Sun said that he had been visited by two of the friends From his father, who were aboard the ship the night his father drowned, told him that the ship had been assaulted by a group of armed men dressed as police officers, the Raiders threw the six-man crew overboard and They then stole about 450 kilos of cocaine worth approximately $60,000. so the net retail value of this load was approximately $27 million and that is not the street value.

The street value is probably two or three times more than the Sun provided the names of the three men who survived but he said he did not know how to contact them together. Sentac detectives needed to find out if there had been a legitimate raid at the marina. They contacted all South Florida law enforcement agencies handling drug cases. None of them had operations near the shipyard where this incident occurred. So at that time, when I wrote off that this was a legitimate raid, my next approach was, well, these people must have been fake police, people posing as police officers because there was a trend at that time that people would dress up as police officers and carry out raids. houses of drug dealers and steal their money and steal their drugs to check the story of the victim's son.

Investigators went to the marina where the raid took place, interviewed the security guard who had been on duty that night and he said that seven or eight men in police uniforms rushed the marina and headed to one of the boats, They passed right past the security guard, on the security guard's side, this being South Florida, nothing unusual, you know, go ahead, I hadn't gotten a good look at any of them, investigators then looked for that boat but found no clues. , so they focused their attention on searching for the three men who had survived the raid. Two of the three survivors had minor police records, but could not be located at their last known address.

The next day, the Syntac-26 detectives had a hunch and assumed that the survivors were probably going to the wake of one of the deceased victims, so we showed up at the funeral home with the names and identities of the people we were looking for. The detectives were right, they recognized the survivors from the arrest photos and approached the men as if they entered, the men confirmed that the ship had been invaded by a group of assailants dressed as police officers in blue uniforms, but the men denied that The boat was involved in drug trafficking, they claimed that they were simply having a party drinking beer with the three victims and two other friends and while they were there drinking beer and having a good time, people in blue uniforms burst through the main gate of the marina and began to shout police, police, the gunman began to attack them, he said that several friends were thrown into the water by these individuals dressed in blue uniforms inside. minutes the six men fell overboard into the Miami River but only three swam to safety the investigation had now become a

triple

homicide the syntactic 26 detectives were convinced The raid was another example of fake cops ripping off drug dealers , but again the survivors denied that the drugs were on the boat and insisted that they did not know why the men attacked them.

They said that they did not see any license plate numbers of the police cars nor could they even say what department the uniforms were from without information. Running out of significant leads with the case stalled, the FBI offered its assistance to Special Agent Robert Martin around the same time as the homicide investigation into the three bodies found in the Miami River began, a witness who He cooperated with the FBI, he gave us information about a group of police officers who were involved in some scams and he identified who those guys were at least several of them knew who they were some of them had conversations with him Detective Álvarez received an unexpected call from an agent of counterintelligence that he says he needs Meet with us to say that he has an impossible motive and information about our case.

He put two and two together, so maybe this is related to the information I'm giving my informant Amanda. Now we can, we can take down Armando, the FBI agent. He was a well-connected nightclub worker who knew of a group of

corrupt

cops who were ripping off drug dealers along the Miami River. Then 26 detectives went to see Armando but he didn't want to see them, he had to kill a friend first. Armando would not speak a motorist was driving through the Everglades he saw something that aroused his curiosity the people who stopped, strange to his horror, he found a body inside he called the police detectives from the Miami-Dade anti-drug group centak 26 were investigating the death of three men found floating in the Miami River they hoped that an informant named Armando Un could help them their friend and employer had been found murdered in the Florida Everglades his name was Luis Rodríguez the owner of a nightclub in the Little Havana district of Miami he had been shot several times in the head and then put in a box prepared to open Spring a gruesome display investigating for centak 26 were Detective Alex Alvarez and Sergeant George Placencia we needed Armando to talk we never mentioned anything about three bodies were tricked into talking to him It was that we were investigating the death of his best friend the murder of his best friend according to Detective Placencia Armando, he was very sincere, sat down and chatted with him for a while about Luis Rodríguez and he said that yes, Luis Rodríguez was involved in drug trafficking.

You know me, he admitted that Rodriguez was dealing drugs at his nightclub and said he believed the man Rodriguez was involved with killed him. He understood that he was furious because his friend had been murdered and said that he wanted to help, but he did know. about real or fake police officers robbing drug dealers he didn't say anything he never mentioned that a police officer was involved he did say that Luis Rodríguez was friendly with some officers thank you very much Armando seemed cautious and selected his words carefully the detectives still had no suspects In the river murders Miami, all they really knew was that Luis Rodríguez was dead and could be the fourth drug murder victim in his many days, so a city of Miami detective contacted Placencia and Álvarez with a surprising clue: he said Luis Rodríguez He had also worked for him as a police informant.

Andreas was giving him a dress like Susan. They were ripping off drug dealers and committing murders in Dade County. One of those guys, the detective explained to him that he had met Luis Rodriguez through a Miami patrol officer named Marco Rubera I told him I needed his help Now I need you to set up a meeting between the street cop, George and I and tell them that we are investigating the murder of Luis Rodriguez, that will be the cover story the meeting was set for That night at the Miami Police Department, Officer Ribeiro worked the afternoon shift in the police code of sector 60 of Little Havana.

He verified that he knew Luis Rodríguez and that Rodríguez had sometimes been his informant, but later, without being Upon request, he brought up the Miami River drownings, offered some information about the three bodies floating in the Miami River, and said that these guys stole the drugs themselves and when the owner of the drugs found out, he either murdered them or dumped them. in the water and crowned themselves by saying that there were no police involved at all. His denial that there were officers involved that no one had mentioned seemed too blunt. Sentac 26 detectives proved it.

He was launched into repeating a story at the end of our meeting. and we detected that the story did not fit with the first story that had told us that something was wrong there and claimed that a street source told him about the raid, so the detectives asked to speak directly to the source and the technological investigators on the case. In a dramatic turn, this officer who had sworn to uphold the law seemed to be hiding something. The next day, Officer Marco Rivera introduced the detectives to The Source. Who supposedly had information about the Miami River murders.

I don't know if he should keep talking. I don't even know, Brother Rivera claimed that his source was able to verify that Colombian drug traffickers had carried out the raid, not Miami police. What is the source that spoke? She had a hard time remembering the details of his story. The best thing was helping him remember, according to Detective Álvarez. The officer keeps having to correct them, no, no, it happened like that and he tells him about this and he's filling in the blanks for this guy who's obviously been trained and given instructions on what to say, so at that point we knew he was obviously covering up. something.

Officer Rivera's cover-up meant detectives faced an even more serious problem in case the deadly Raiders were actually Miami police officers. They had to be very careful, really trained or focused to investigate, which is that we are not internal affairs. Investigators, we did not investigate police officers, that was not our role, it was not our job, but we were given the responsibility of investigating these murders and if these murders were committed by police officers, they were fair game, we realized that if we are going to to start investigating the police we would have to do things very differently syntac-26 detectives had to cover up they asked the police chief to save his personal

files

as a precaution against internal leaks we did many things to protect our identity and our family's identity we took everything we had in our name and took it out of our names so they couldn't tracewhere we lived and who we were and we are investigating, they are going to find out who we are.

We immediately built a wall between them and us, once they felt safe, Syntact detectives began investigating the officers working the night shift in Sector 60 of Little Havana. Officer Marco Rubera's pace was fine and with the chief's permission, Miami Police Department Internal Affairs gave Sentac 26 the personnel records. For the officers in question, the city of Miami's Internal Affairs unit was very concerned. They were very cooperative. They know the names we provide them. They began to investigate and give us the background they had on these people that the investigators focused on. a close-knit group of eight officers, all relatively recently hired, who joined the force at a time when Miami was in crisis in the spring of 1980.

Cuban President Fidel Castro had announced that he would allow thousands of political refugees to seek Asylum in foreign countries the United States agreed to accept 3,500. Then, unexpectedly, Castro announced that for the first time in years he would also allow American ships to enter the port of Marielle. The result was what became known as the Marielle Boat Lift. More than 120,000 Cuban refugees flooded into South Florida. Those who overwhelmed Miami's ability to handle them, most were hard-working immigrants looking for an opportunity to achieve the American dream, most, but not all, an estimated ten percent of them were criminals who were expelled from the system Fidel Castro's penitentiary, so there was an increase in the crime wave in Miami-Dade County to stop the increase in the crime rate, the city had to hire more than 400 new cadets in three years, instead of hire the best candidate, they hired anyone who was marginally acceptable, they simply couldn't find enough quality candidates and looked for quantity instead of quality centac 26 began surveillance by observing how the officers in question hung out together after hours enjoying lifestyles far beyond the means of honest police officers Marco Rivero was the alleged ringleader Armando García had recently become co-owner of a bodybuilding gym Oswaldo Cawejo had just retired from the force.

He was 30 years old and drove a hundred thousand dollar Lotus. It was easy to trace his generous spending. An officer bought a house and built this pool and paid for it. The developer showed up with a bag full of cash and I gave it to him here for the purchase of my house, yet the detectives had little solid evidence, another restaurant. I don't see any Mark units around here or there's definitely a guy here having coffee with some friends, but I didn't see any units they needed first hand information and they needed it soon if these officers had already left at least three people dead the detectives were afraid that there could easily have been more Four people have been murdered in Miami over a $27 million drug deal gone wrong with so much money involved the line between criminals and cops was blurred the FBI offered its help to local authorities the agent special Robert Martin began an investigation that turned into a joint investigation into whether there was any police

corrupt

ion in the city of Miami over drugs.

The detectives on the task force with Centak 26 had narrowed their investigation to a suspected group of corrupt Miami police officers, but the detectives needed inside information if they had any chance of getting lucky in the case. I'll go out, they hope they can get it from a reluctant police. Informant named Armando um, they had already interviewed him about the murder of his friend and partner, nightclub owner, Luis Rodríguez. He seemed cautious, perhaps afraid that they were corrupt police too. The photographs seem to recognize anyone. Detective George Placencia attempted to gain his trust by showing surveillance photos of him. of the suspicious officers and started looking at the photos and he just paused and dropped the photos and shook his hand and said you guys are doing a good job let's sit down and talk but unfortunately these things go wrong it came down to centak 26 where he told detective Alex Álvarez thought he had nothing to lose he was afraid that they were probably the ones who probably killed my partner he said well, if they killed him the next person to go is me in a marathon interrogation he explained the origins Of Dishonest Officers in His Criminal Enterprise, he said his friend, an employer and nightclub owner, Luis Rodriguez, had grown tired of officers coming into his bar and extorting small amounts of drugs from his customers.

He wanted to make sure his customers weren't bothered so first he started paying the police so they wouldn't come. Sony came up with another plan that could make everyone some money according to Luis Rodriguez himself he told the officers hey you know that? Instead of arresting these people who come here with petty drugs, why not? I make deals, you know, maybe multi-kilo deals, more drugs involved and when these people come I'll give you a description of their car where they're coming from, you can stop them from stealing their cocaine, bring it to me. sell it, I'll give you a share.

The officers agreed that what made all of this possible for these police officers was that they grew up among new people who were in the drug trade and that was the only aspect of what they had going for them, Patrolman Marco Rivera. They executed the scams it seemed like a perfect plan the dealers would never incriminate themselves by reporting the robberies and Rodriguez would always walk away with their money have a good night now boom said the operation grew quickly with more and more police involved but they got Greedy with Wanting to do more and bigger scams, Rodríguez introduced them to a second bar owner who knew about larger shipments.

Luis Rodríguez brought in another bar owner, he, you and he worked smuggling boatloads of drugs into the United States and Rodríguez says wait a minute. minute Why stop, white, stop in this one kilo and two kilograms of cocaine bust? Why don't we go get the full canisters and get 300,400,500 kilograms of cocaine at once? He didn't know about the raid where the three men drowned, but he did. An earlier one describes that the owner of the second bar had set up a group of Miami officers had gotten on a boat at another marina thinking the crew had gone for the night they knew exactly where the drugs were hidden during the unloading they noticed that the air conditioning was on and I suspected the crew was still on board hiding the crewman gave up the Raiders wasted no time getting rid of the crew as they had on the other raid this time no one drowned all the men swam safely to the shore the police finished and left with about 200 kilos of cocaine valued at more than 10 million dollars Armando confirmed the names of the officers involved the same centac had been observing unfortunately the investigators knew that their credibility would be attacked in court The jury is not going to believe Armando and he is a self-proclaimed drug trafficker, you know, half a dozen or a dozen respected police officers are just not going to believe it, so we need more evidence.

What they needed was a recorded confession from the same police officers who were investigating. They brought in the owner of the local bar from the drug raids and explained the evidence they had implicating him in the scams. He reluctantly agreed to wear a wire and meet with officer Marco Ribera, but said that Ribera had been avoiding him for weeks, without doubt because it was the Sentac 26 investigation that came here. He would have to trick him into attending the meeting. Researchers hope the results are worth the risk. Detectives set up shop in a building across from a bar in the area Ribera patrolled and sent the informant inside when surveillance units confirmed Ribeiro was nearby.

The detectives called 9-1. 1 and reported a fight in a bar Mr. Rivera arrived as planned Rivera came in looking for the alleged fight but everything was silent the informant made his move he told the officer that he had been summoned by the federal prosecutor's office and wanted knowing what to say Rivera took the bait, but did not want to speak in front of witnesses. A foreign police officer spoke freely about his involvement in the anti-drug operation. Rivera had no idea that everything he said was being recorded in Miami. Investigators chased a group of rogue police suspected of vandalizing. of the drug dealers and killing at least three of them, centak 26 detectives finally managed to record an incriminating conversation with the group's leader, Officer Rivera, as he talked about rage, drugs, active dirty cops, Alex Alvarez, the corrupt cop's own words about what he did when he did it and who he did it with the U.S. attorney's office in Miami reviewed the tapes Assistant U.S.

Attorney Russell Killinger knew they would need as much evidence as possible to convince the jury of that several Miami law enforcement officers were behind the murders and robberies, the tapes provided a good start, but Killinger needed more evidence to implicate the other officers, perhaps Armando An could get it. We wanted them to possess us by wearing a microphone and talking to the other police officers, so if we could get those other police officers to confirm their own involvement. from their own mouths using a wire Boone met with Miami officers Marco Rubera and Armando Garcia told them that investigators were asking him questions about the boat raids warned him not to cooperate assured him that Centak had nothing against any of them but then they became suspicious asking him if he was wired, that effectively stopped all plans to record more officers, but the investigators were not deterred, we decided to take a more open approach to the investigation and move on to the next level, which was basically um uh.

Subpoenaing witnesses to grand juries that issued bank subpoenas for banking and financial records, investigators began cataloging the suspects' assets, including Marco Rivera's safe deposit box at a Miami bank. The box contained more than 260 thousand dollars in cash, almost 10 times his annual salary as Ribera the other suspicious officers left incriminating money trails and their money was burning holes in their pockets they were going to spend money left and right they bought 20 30 40 50 000 cars in cash they bought houses worth over two hundred thousand dollars in cash they bought expensive furniture they put in cash now this is an officer who makes thirty thousand dollars we had an enormous amount of evidence the financial records along with the recorded conversations were enough evidence to that arrest warrants were issued days after Christmas 1985 centac 26 Miami PD and the The FBI began the arrests by taking down six Miami police officers, including lead officer Marco Rubera.

Officer Armando Garcia was also arrested without incident. Osvaldo Cawa and Emilio Ray surrendered in the following days. The trial began on September 29, 1986. Federal prosecutors thought they had a strong case. We felt pretty good about the case, we had gotten pretty much all the evidence we hoped to get, and then on January 21, 1987, the jury came back with their verdicts. I remember the judges kept looking at the verdict forms. and he looked at one and put it down and looked at another and put it down then he picked up the other looking at it again and this went on for seemed like an eternity and then he started shaking his head, the jury was deadlocked causing the judge to declare a mistrial one juror had refused to deliberate, investigators were stunned when all the suspects were released, which really was a low point in the investigation, we found out later because the 11 jurors who voted for um for conviction were convinced that these officers, due to all the evidence, were guilty.

They began to introduce themselves and say: you know, we started to be contacted by friends and family of these police officers who offered us jobs and American money and we knew that this was an attempt to try to influence our votes. The trial was a huge setback. The detectives knew. that if they couldn't put these corrupt cops in jail the people of Miami might never trust law enforcement again thanks a group of Miami officers were arrested and prosecuted for corruption but the chaos in the Jury Room resulted in a mistrial all the suspects were freed they were delighted that they weren't convicted which they didn't realize was probably a blessing in disguise for us because all it did was give us more time and we were more determined to find more evidence in their against and that is exactly what happened, the prosecutor and the detectives were not willing to give up with so much at stake, the investigators needed abreak, they finally got one, we discovered that the officers had hired a hitman, they killed Armando and that hitman was the murderer Joe Martínez, he confessed to having been hired.

Hoping that he would get leniency for another crime he had committed, he brought him in and testified against the river police. We were able to add more charges against them and at that point you know the case was getting stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and they. I had nowhere to go and then they started to give in and started to cooperate. The case was finally blown wide open when one of the defendants, patrolman Emilio Ray, decided to confess to his lawyer that he had learned of the additional evidence against him and that he was expecting a lenient sentence in exchange for his testimony, He described to us some pretty chilling conspiracies that had occurred and were happening in an effort to try to kill the government.

Witnesses, all the government Witnesses, especially Armando Un, were in danger. Investigators knew they had to use Patrolman Ray's confession to put more pressure on the other River police officers facing the strengthened federal case. The ringleader Marco Rubera confessed that he had implicated 60 other municipal-minded police officers in various criminal activities, unfortunately Osvaldo Coeo and Armando. Garcia fled the Miami area five months later, an FBI informant said Coyo was hiding in the Bahamas. The FBI has no formal jurisdiction outside the United States, so it maintains legal attaché offices called Lee gats. In many foreign countries they work as liaisons with the National Police of each country.

The FBI liaison asked Bahamian police for help and agreed to help get Coleus wanted for involvement in massive and deadly cocaine scams in Miami. Investigators knew that he had a wide network of friends from whom he could ask for help. They called one of them several times. To get help, what Kauai didn't know was that the FBI had already approached a friend and he was working as an informant. The Bahamian police arrested Osvaldo Coyo without incident. He was extradited to Miami to face charges of drug trafficking conspiracy and extortion. Armando García was the last of the rogue Miami police officers still at large on January 8, 1989, the FBI added García to its list of the 10 most wanted fugitives, FBI Special Agent Robert Martin, the people we consider a serious danger not only for society but also for society itself.

The nature and structure of what makes our country what it is and one of those things is honest and honest law enforcement services. Our Garcia had a list added for that reason, the FBI had evidence that Garcia may have fled to South America, but he had few special sheets. Agent Robert Martin led the public corruption team that continued searching for elusive fugitive Armando García. He was uniquely qualified to understand what it would take to survive outside the country. Here was a police officer who knew all the techniques we could use to find him or capture him, a guy who knew the difficulties of entering and leaving foreign countries and doing investigations in those foreign countries, on top of that, she had a guy who I had a lot of money, hey, I was just looking at these passports.

Garcia Could Be Anywhere For four years, agents investigated hundreds of leads with negative results, and then in late 1993, the FBI received a tip that a friend was planning to visit the Garcia family in Colombia. Agents worked with Colombian police who followed the friend to an apartment in Cali. Agents believed that fugitive Armando García lived there. The Columbia National Police established surveillance with several units. It was going to be a 24-hour surveillance and they waited to see if they could identify anyone who was leaving or traveling. with her three days later they saw Armando García The fugitive was taken by surprise unarmed García told them he said I have four thousand dollars with me I have you to see the jewelry I have you to see my car I have goods and belongings in my apartment you can have all that if you let me go and then they quote the Columbia National Police officer who came to Miami to describe the events and then told Armando García that we are not the dirty cops, you are the last of the main suspects.

Armando García pleaded guilty. for drug trafficking, extortion and tax evasion and he was sentenced to 25 years when it was all over. 17 Miami officers were convicted for their role in the drug fraud and claimed to be the largest police corruption case in Florida history in response to the City of Miami scandal. The Police Department formed its own internal investigations unit that targeted more than 100 additional officers. They were obviously suffering from all the media exposure and then the embarrassment of having numerous officers arrested, but I think that made it a stronger department when it eats up the bad officers it knows. and just make the good officers shine even brighter