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Florida Cases QUAD EPISODE The FBI Files · FBI Files

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: A mysterious woman lures a businessman across state lines with
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the promise of a lucrative deal. When he vanishes, authorities
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: turn to the FBI for help. Suspicions point to a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: bitter business rivalry, but the suspects stonewalls investigators. Agents would
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: use state-of-the-art technology to find friends and lovers who might
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: be willing to reveal the truth.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: A wealthy businessman went to Florida to make one last
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: deal before he retired, but he never returned home to
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: his millions. Authorities examined who was closest to the victim
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and who stood to gain from his disappearance. But this time,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: conventional rules did not apply. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: of the FBI's New York office. In a case that
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: spanned the entire East Coast, agents would have to untangle
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: a web of sex, money, and vengeance that led to murder.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Newark International Airport in New Jersey. On Saturday, February 24th, 1996,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Kiwi Airlines Flight 45 took off for West Palm Beach, Florida.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: 58-year-old Frank Black was on board. Black owned and operated
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a successful school bus and transportation company in Andover, New Jersey.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: He had made millions and was on his way to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Florida to meet a new industry contact. Black told his
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: family and coworkers he would be home Monday in time
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: for another meeting. He also told them that his contact
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: in Florida, a woman named Mia Giordano, was to pick
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: him up at the airport.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: How are you doing?
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Good.
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: Good.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: She would take him to meet others involved in the
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: lucrative business deal. Privately, Black hoped to retire after closing
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the deal. When Black failed to return on Monday, his
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: family contacted the New Jersey State Police. Detective Sergeant Lee
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Liddy was one of the state detectives assigned the missing
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: persons case.
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: He was the kind of guy that he would always
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: phone home. He always wanted to know what was going
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: on with his business. He was a hands-on type of guy.
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: Without Frank, the business really didn't run. And that's why
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: they were concerned when they didn't hear from him. All
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: of a sudden he disappeared because Frank wasn't the kind
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: of guy who would just walk away from his business.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: New Jersey investigators interviewed Black's daughter, Leanna, and his girlfriend
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and office manager, Sally Roberts. Leanna said her father had
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: missed an important meeting with her to discuss the sale
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: of his business. He also had not answered calls to
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: his cell phone. Sally Roberts recalled that the woman from Florida,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Mia Giordano, had phoned the office many times recently but
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: never left her number. The Florida woman claimed to represent
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a company named Valdez Exporting. Giordano provided a description of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: herself so Black could recognize her at the airport. She
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: said she was five foot one and blonde. A detective
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: visited the travel agent who booked Black's trip. The agent
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: confirmed that Black purchased a one-way ticket to Florida. He
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: didn't bother to rent a car since his contact had
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: arranged to pick him up. Airline records corroborated that Black
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: had boarded the flight. But he had not registered at
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: any hotels upon his arrival in West Palm Beach. An
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: examination of Black's records revealed that his credit cards had
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: been used after his arrival in Florida. To follow the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: credit card trail, New Jersey detectives contacted the Fort Pierce
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE Special
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Agent Michael Driscoll was assigned the case.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Frank Black's credit card was used at the embassy suites
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: in Riviera Beach between approximately 1 in the morning and
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: 2 in the morning. Now we're talking about from February
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: 24th into February 25th. And then at 4 o'clock in
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: the morning, his credit card, a different credit card, but
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: Frank Black's credit card was used to purchase gas at
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: a gasoline station in North Miami.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: To investigators, this seemed odd since he hadn't rented a car.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: The state agent interviewed the employee who had worked on
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: February 25th. When shown a photo of Black, the attendant
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: said he didn't recognize him. The station's pumps all had
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: credit card slots. No one would have had contact with
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Black or whoever was using his credit card. The employee
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: didn't recall seeing anyone fitting Mia Giordano's description. Driscoll contacted
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the Florida Secretary of State Corporation Division to get an
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: address for Valdez Exporting, Mia Giordano's company. He found no
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: such company registered in the state. He also attempted to
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: locate Mia Giordano herself.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: We did a very extensive search to identify any Mia
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Giordano in Florida, and we couldn't find any, I believe,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: any Mia Giordano's in Florida or any that would even
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: come remotely close. And we checked Florida as well as
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: New Jersey with negative results.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: On March 1st, a detective from the New Jersey State
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Police traveled to Florida where Frank Black's trail ended. Nobody
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: had heard from Black in five days. Detectives now believe
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the millionaire had met with foul play. Their most likely suspect,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a woman calling herself Mia Giordano, was untraceable. Investigators' focus
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: turned to the phone calls Black received on the days
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: leading up to his trip to Florida.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: We obtained the phone records of Frank Black, which identified
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: phone calls from a residence in Jupiter And the residence
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: in Jupiter was rented, it was a townhome rented by
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: a girl identified as Lisa Costello.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: She wasn't blonde, but she was 5'1. Mia Giordano had
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: described herself as being exactly that height. The calls from
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Lisa Costello matched the times when Mia Giordano allegedly phoned
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Black to set up the meeting in Florida.
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: Mia Giordano was a fictitious figure. She never existed. And
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: she was supposed to set up the deal with Frank Black.
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: Mia Giordano was actually Lisa Costello.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Investigators took Costello's photo to the hotel where Black's credit
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: card had been used on February 25th. The resort was
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: on the strip at Riviera Beach. the state agent asked
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: to speak to the clerk who had been on duty
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the morning in question. While he waited, he checked the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: phone that had been used with Black's credit card. Like
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the gas pump, the phone required no signature from a customer,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: just a credit card. Anyone could have made the calls.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Karen Voorhees had worked the front desk on the morning
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: in question, but she did not recognize a photo of
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Frank Black. She did recall waiting on another customer that morning.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: At around 2 a.m., a dark-haired woman asked for a room.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: The hotel was booked, so she used a payphone several
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: times to query other hotels. It was the same time
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Frank Black's credit card was used at the phone. Voorhees
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: described the woman as being in her 30s with brown
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: hair and standing a little over five feet tall. Driscoll
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: showed Voorhees a photographic lineup of six women. Without hesitation,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the clerk picked out Lisa Costello.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Lisa Costello was now really the primary suspect. I mean,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: we did have some evidence on her that then we
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: checked the... car rental agencies by the West Palm Beach
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Airport and found out that Lisa Costello rented a car
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: just shortly before the time that Frank Black's flight arrived.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Investigators found the car at the airport rental lot. A
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: subpoena allowed them to impound it for an evidence search
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. But examiners would
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: find no trace of Frank Black in the car. There
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: was no physical evidence linking Lisa Costello to the missing businessman.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Florida investigators began covert surveillance on Lisa Costello. They followed
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the suspect for days to establish her routine and determine
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: her contacts. They soon learned that Costello was dating a
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: man named Alan Mackerley. Investigators began to tail Mackerley. Like
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Frank Black, he also owned a bus company in New Jersey.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: but was now living in Florida. The two men had
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: known each other most of their lives.
• 11:59
  Speaker 6: Over the years, Alan Mackerley and Frank Black built up
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: a rivalry. The two bus companies are about 10 miles apart.
• 12:07
  Speaker 6: So even though they each had their own contracts and
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: their own business, they were always vying for the same
• 12:13
  Speaker 6: contracts and the same business.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Phone records indicated recent calls to Black from Mackerley's Florida home.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: This seemed strange since the two men were fierce rivals.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Detectives went to speak with the manager of Black's bus company.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Sally Roberts said Black and Mackerley used to be friends,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: but their business rivalry had made them enemies. She detailed
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the last time she had seen the men together. It
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: was at an industry banquet in January of 1996. She
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: and Frank were talking with friends when she saw Mackerley approaching.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Angry that Black had stolen one of his major bus contracts,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Mackerley threatened his rival.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: He said he was going to get him and put
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: him under. That could mean put him out of business,
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: and it could also possibly mean he was going to
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: kill him someday.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Black took the threat seriously. Afterwards, he wouldn't go to
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: any meeting that Mackerley might attend, unless he had someone
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: with him. Investigators contacted Mackerley to ask him if he
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: had seen or spoken to Frank Black recently. McAlee flatly
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: denied calling him in the days preceding Black's trip to Florida.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Him denying that and us knowing phone calls had been
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: made from his house to Frank Black's business obviously indicated
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: something was wrong.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Investigators believed that McAlee and Costello had probably killed Frank Black,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: but they needed stronger proof. they turned to Assistant State
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Attorney Robert Belanger.
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: One of the first investigative tools that the FDLE wanted
• 14:25
  Speaker 7: to use was wiretaps. So you have to show a
• 14:29
  Speaker 7: really compelling reason for listening to someone's telephone conversations. So
• 14:34
  Speaker 7: we drafted those applications and orders and obtained an order
• 14:39
  Speaker 7: allowing us to listen to Alan Mackerley's telephone conversations.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, investigators heard very few phone conversations between Mackerley and Costello.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: This was because Costello was now living with Mackerley. If
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: they were talking about Black's disappearance, it wasn't over the phone.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: In order to record any incriminating conversations, investigators would have
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: to bug Mackerley's house. Assistant State Attorney Lawrence Merman hoped
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: they had enough probable cause to get inside.
• 15:17
  Speaker 8: Being able to actually enter someone's home and plant a
• 15:21
  Speaker 8: listening device is extremely restrictive and the probable cause that's
• 15:25
  Speaker 8: required is very high. The situations that would warrant that
• 15:31
  Speaker 8: are very limited. This case actually presented that situation.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: A judge signed the warrant. and investigators planted listening devices
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: in Mackerley's home. They set up outside, watching and listening. Hopefully,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the couple would discuss what happened to Frank Black. Alan
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Mackerley and Lisa Costello were extremely cautious. Investigators believe the
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: couple knew they were listening.
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: And every time that we would hear them starting to talk,
• 16:15
  Speaker 7: they would turn the radio up in the kitchen loud.
• 16:19
  Speaker 7: So we probably have several hundred hours of tapes with
• 16:24
  Speaker 7: nothing but music on it.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Once again, investigators came up empty-handed.
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: Our chief assistant state attorney, Dave Morgan, had even commented
• 16:38
  Speaker 7: to me after we failed to get anything on the wiretaps,
• 16:42
  Speaker 7: it looks like Alan Mackerley's gotten away with murder.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: Alan, what are you doing?
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: With Black's body still missing, Mackerley and Costello could elude
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: authorities as long as they maintained their silence. In June
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: of 1996, Florida state agents believed that Alan Mackerley and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: his girlfriend Lisa Costello had murdered 58-year-old millionaire Frank Black.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: But investigators had little evidence against the couple, and Black's
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: body was still missing. They checked morgues in Palm Beach, Broward,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and Dade counties where Black was last known to have traveled.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: There were no unidentified bodies matching Frank Black's description. If
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Mackerley and Costello had killed Black, they had covered their
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: tracks well. Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Michael
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Driscoll expressed his frustration to his friend, FBI Special Agent
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Jay Miller.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: We used to play racquetball together and he'd ask me
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: about how this case was going and I'd tell him,
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: you know, a little bit about it, not a whole lot,
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: and he'd say, well, if you ever need a hand,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I'd be happy to help out.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: In June of 1996, Special Agent Jay Miller asked to
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: be assigned the case out of the FBI's Fort Pierce
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Resident Agency.
• 18:31
  Speaker 9: Even though we were close friends, initially I did not
• 18:33
  Speaker 9: know a lot of the details about Frank Black's disappearance,
• 18:37
  Speaker 9: but As I could sense his frustration, I was able
• 18:41
  Speaker 9: to elicit more information about the case, and we were
• 18:46
  Speaker 9: able then to come to an understanding that we needed
• 18:49
  Speaker 9: to look at this thing again from the start.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Though investigators believed Mackerley killed Black over a disputed busing contract,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: wiretaps and listening devices had failed to tie him to
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: any crimes. Investigator's best lead was still Black's alleged meeting
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: with Costello. Perhaps if subpoenaed and confronted with the evidence,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: she would turn on Mackerley. It was a gamble that
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: could jeopardize their entire case.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: By giving anyone, in this case Lisa Costello, a subpoena,
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: it compels her to come in and give information, and
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: it gives her immunity. Hypothetically, if she came in and
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: admitted she killed Frank Black, she would be immune from
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: that statement. You could not use that statement against her.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: On June 13th, 1996, Lisa Costello appeared before a Florida
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: grand jury when questioned by state attorneys she was uncooperative
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: and hostile the judge cautioned her that if she did
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: not answer she would be jailed for contempt of Costello
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: ignored his warnings. Investigators believed her refusal to cooperate confirmed
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: she was involved in Black's disappearance. But it would take
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: more than a hunch to solve the case. The gamble
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: to subpoena Costello backfired. Now that Mackerley's closest ally was
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: sitting behind bars, Investigators had no potential witnesses to turn
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: on the suspected murderer. Lacking further leads or physical evidence,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the case against Mackerley might never make it to trial.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Michael Driscoll and his team were determined to
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: keep this from happening.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: We heard information that, let's just say from a confidential source,
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: that there was a witness who wanted to talk, but
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: was concerned about, one, that witness's own involvement, and two,
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Alan Mackerley's violence. Felt that Alan Mackerley was a violent person,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: and that maybe there'd be retaliation if this unknown and
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: unidentified witness would talk.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: That witness was Bill Anderson. A former Marine pilot, Anderson
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: was one of Alan Mackerley's closest friends. Agents interviewed him
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: at his home in Florida just down the street from Mackerley.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Anderson had also owned a bus company in New Jersey
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and had been a commercial pilot after a decade of
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: military service.
• 21:55
  Speaker 9: So now we had two investigators, Driscoll and myself, and
• 21:58
  Speaker 9: a prosecutor, a land jay, all being Marines, and then
• 22:02
  Speaker 9: the person who we believed could be the key to
• 22:04
  Speaker 9: solving the case, Bill Anderson being a Marine. And so
• 22:08
  Speaker 9: I think there was some camaraderie right there from the start.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Investigators felt that bond would help them develop Anderson as
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a witness. He told the agents his friendship with Mackerley
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: had been strained recently, but he was reluctant to detail
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Mackerley's relationship with Frank Black. The agents felt Anderson knew
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: something that could break the case wide open.
• 22:32
  Speaker 9: There was a little hesitancy on his part. We took
• 22:34
  Speaker 9: it easy on him and gave him a little space,
• 22:37
  Speaker 9: gave him the opportunity to do whatever he needed to do,
• 22:40
  Speaker 9: to confer with counsel or whatever. In our minds, we
• 22:43
  Speaker 9: knew that we were talking to the man that had
• 22:45
  Speaker 9: the answers, and he wasn't telling us.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: The agents met with Anderson on many occasions and slowly
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: won his confidence. They knew he was loyal to his
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: friend Alan McAlee, but they felt his sense of honor
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: would eventually cause him to turn. Despite Anderson's lingering doubts,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: agents believed he was ready to talk by early August.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: They suspected a subpoena would help him justify turning against
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: his friend.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: In my experience, good, honest, hardworking people that flew fighter
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: jets in the Marine Corps would have a difficult time
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: going under oath before the whole world and God and
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: lying about it.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Investigators had to take the chance. Like Costello, if Anderson
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: had any part in the crime, His statements could not
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: be used to prosecute him for murder. Five months after
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the disappearance of millionaire Frank Black, investigators had little evidence
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to support their theory that Black was murdered by his
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: business rival, Alan Mackerley. Looking for a fresh lead, investigators
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: subpoenaed Mackerley's close friend, Bill Anderson. Anderson had been reluctant
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: to talk, but after a month, the former Marine's sense
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: of honor prevailed. He began by telling investigators that Alan
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Mackerley had purchased a plane earlier that year. Mackerley asked
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Anderson to become his private pilot since Anderson had experience
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: flying fighter jets and commercial airliners. In exchange, Anderson could
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: use Mackerley's plane as he wished. In March of 1996,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: while staying at a hotel in Leesburg, Florida to supervise
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: repairs on the plane, Anderson was contacted by Mackerley. His
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: friend said he needed him to take the plane out
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: over the ocean. Anderson explained that the aircraft would be
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: grounded for several more days He suggested they rent another plane.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Mackerley insisted on using his own plane. He didn't want
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: anybody else to know about the flight. Anderson asked why.
• 25:28
  Speaker 9: Mackerley told Bill that he had shot Frank Black and
• 25:33
  Speaker 9: that they had wrapped his body up in plastic, that
• 25:37
  Speaker 9: they had taken the body out in the ocean and
• 25:40
  Speaker 9: thrown it out in the ocean, and that the the
• 25:43
  Speaker 9: bag did not sink. And he went on to tell
• 25:48
  Speaker 9: Bill that it didn't sink, so he took a knife
• 25:50
  Speaker 9: and stuck some holes in it, and the body did sink.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Mackerley told Anderson he was worried that the body had surfaced.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: He wanted to fly over the area to make sure
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: it hadn't. Anderson refused.
• 26:11
  Speaker 9: Anderson was shocked. I mean, I think he was truly shocked. Anderson, again,
• 26:18
  Speaker 9: was in the bus business, as was Mackerley and Black.
• 26:23
  Speaker 9: And Anderson and Black were not friends. Anderson did not
• 26:29
  Speaker 9: like Black in the least either.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: But still, over a business rivalry, you don't kill somebody.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: According to Anderson, Mackerley murdered Black in the foyer of
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: his house. The former Marine pilot confirmed what investigators had suspected,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: not even law enforcement. Desperate to stop the violence, authorities
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: turned to the FBI for help.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: A suspected drug dealer would stop at nothing to keep
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: local and federal authorities from building.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: A case against him.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: When his organization started targeting the government itself, federal agencies
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: went on high alert. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: the FBI's New York office. He was a desperate man,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: driven to desperate measures. Bringing him down would take the
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: combined efforts of the DEA, the ATF, and the FBI.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Fort Myers Beach, Florida, July 18th, 1987. It was a
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Saturday night in a Gulf Coast beach town with a
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: thriving nightlife and a booming drug trade. Away from the tourists,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: many local residents spent the weekend at private parties. For some,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: that included cocaine. At one party, several men waited for
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: their friend to return with more drugs He'd been gone
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: for about a half an hour when they heard what
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: sounded like gunshots at around 10 p.m. The owner of
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the car, whose vehicle was used for the drug run,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: saw that it was now parked out front. Inside, he
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: found his friend shot to death. the Lee County Sheriff's
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Department responded to the scene. A forensic technician found only
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: one identifiable fingerprint on the car. It belonged to the
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: vehicle's owner. Lying close to the driver's door were seven empty.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: 22 caliber shell casings. Investigators determined the victim had been
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: shot at close range. An autopsy would reveal eight bullet
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: wounds in his upper body and traces of cocaine in
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: his bloodstream. The owner of the car said the dead
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: man was his friend, 29-year-old Craig Caron. Reluctantly, he told
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: homicide detectives that the victim had left earlier to buy cocaine.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: The victim's girlfriend suggested police should question her boyfriend's cocaine dealer.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: He owed the dealer money for drugs. The dealer had
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: a reputation for violence. Lee County homicide detective Tom Continos
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: learned the dealer's name was Jeff Saganek.
• 30:31
  Speaker 10: Jeff was a young kid from Fort Myers Beach who
• 30:34
  Speaker 10: had established himself as what I thought to be a
• 30:37
  Speaker 10: mid-level drug dealer on the beach. Through talking to Craig's associates,
• 30:47
  Speaker 10: I learned that Craig owed Jeff a large amount of money.
• 30:53
  Speaker 10: And the reputation was that you better pay your bills
• 30:58
  Speaker 10: with Jeff or he's going to send someone to collect it.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: The next day, an unexpected visitor appeared at the Lee
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Department. It was the alleged cocaine dealer himself,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: 23-year-old Jeff Saganek. He asked to see the detective investigating
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the previous night's killing. He wanted to give a statement.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: The reputed dealer, with a history of arrests, heard he
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: might be a suspect and wanted to set the record straight.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: On the night of the murder, Jeff Saganek claimed that
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: he and his girlfriend were at a restaurant for a
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: late dinner. He said that he had talked to the
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: victim in the parking lot just before the couple sat
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: down to eat. After a few minutes, the man left.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: The reputed dealer said he and his girlfriend were at
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: the restaurant from about 9.45 until 11 p.m. And he
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: had more to offer than his word. Jeff Saganek handed
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the detective his restaurant receipt. The waitress who served them
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: confirmed the story. It appeared he had an airtight alibi.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: But to the seasoned detective, it seemed Jeff Saganek was
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: trying too hard to cover his tracks.
• 32:35
  Speaker 10: I had investigated enough homicides to see all different types
• 32:38
  Speaker 10: of suspects and how they react and the reasons why
• 32:41
  Speaker 10: they commit murder. For this young kid to come in,
• 32:45
  Speaker 10: as well organized as he was, with an alibi, with witnesses,
• 32:50
  Speaker 10: with receipts, he became my number one suspect.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: On a tip, the detective questioned a member of a
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: local rock band who was also known to deal cocaine.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: He admitted that the victim sometimes bought drugs from him directly,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: which made Jeff Saganek, allegedly the largest dealer on the beach,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: angry over the lost sales. At about 11.15 on the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: night of the murder, Jeff Saganek came to the lounge
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: where he was playing. According to the performer, Jeff Zaganek
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: boasted that he had just had the victim wasted and
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: that it would teach the people of Fort Myers Beach
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: a lesson. The musician's story was one of many over
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the next several months that confirmed what police already suspected.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: But even in the underworld of Fort Myers Beach, rumors
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: and innuendo were not evidence of murder.
• 33:50
  Speaker 10: Everything that I got was hearsay. No one would really
• 33:54
  Speaker 10: give me sworn testimony that says, I saw this or
• 33:58
  Speaker 10: I saw that, or I know this and I know that.
• 34:00
  Speaker 10: It was all he said, she said type of intelligence information,
• 34:04
  Speaker 10: which is maybe okay for drug cases.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: But not with murder investigations.
• 34:10
  Speaker 10: You need sworn testimony of people who actually saw something happen.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Then in the summer of 1988, over a year after
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the murder, the detective finally got a break. A young
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: woman came forward, claiming to have witnessed the killing. She
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: had not spoken up sooner because she was addicted to
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: drugs and was protecting her former supplier, Jeff Saganek. Now
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: she was clean and wanted to tell detectives what she
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: had seen on the night of July 18th, 1987.
• 34:51
  Speaker 7: But when he told me to go.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: She was on her way to the cocaine party that
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: evening when she witnessed the shooting. The gunman was her
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: former boyfriend, a man who worked for Jeff Saganek. but
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the detective would be unable to speak to her boyfriend directly.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Just a few months after the murder, her boyfriend had
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: committed suicide. She told police that she also had direct
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: knowledge about Jeff Zaganek and his organization. The woman said
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Jeff and his right-hand man operated out of a local
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: pizza parlor that Zaganek owned. The dealer stored his drugs
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: and money at several different locations and moved between them
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: to avoid detection. Few people knew where he actually lived.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Jeff Saganek had many people on his payroll, but she
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: knew only a handful. Her former boyfriend was one of them.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Hired by Jeff Saganek to do whatever the dealer needed done,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: She and Jeff had also had an arrangement. In exchange
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: for storing drugs and guns at her apartment, Jeff had
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: paid her rent. Unable to corroborate her story with other
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: testimony or physical evidence, the detective could not charge Jeff
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Zaganek with the murder.
• 36:50
  Speaker 10: I followed up on those leads and I was not
• 36:53
  Speaker 10: able to substantiate any of the information that she gave
• 36:56
  Speaker 10: me at that point. So without the trigger man, without
• 36:59
  Speaker 10: a gun, without eyewitness testimony, I couldn't get to Jeff.
• 37:05
  Speaker 10: I couldn't get to Jeff. I had no physical evidence,
• 37:08
  Speaker 10: no testimonial evidence that enabled me to bring charges against Jeff.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: The homicide detective looked to the Lee County Narcotics Unit
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: for help detectives began surveillance on Jeff Saganek's pizza parlor,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: hoping to identify someone they could turn against the dealer.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: The place was a popular spot. It would take time
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: for officers to discern the drug traffickers from the legitimate customers.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: To complicate matters, Jeff Saganek changed his name legally to
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Jeff Matthews, presumably to sever ties to his past crimes.
• 37:54
  Speaker 10: Jeff was the type of person where he wanted to
• 37:56
  Speaker 10: be a clean-cut businessman. Jeff even went to the point
• 38:00
  Speaker 10: of changing his name from Jeff Saganek to Jeff Matthews
• 38:05
  Speaker 10: to try and help him with his reputation.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Over several weeks, investigators noted which people frequented Jeff Matthews'
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: place without picking up any food. Investigators spotted one man
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: who visited often. A license plate check revealed his name
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: was Stephen Franken. Detectives speculated that Franken might be their
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: connection to Jeff Matthews. Investigators called DEA Special Agent Dennis Bolum,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: who was already familiar with Stephen Franken. Agents believe Franken
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: was a low-level cocaine dealer who procured his supply from
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Jeff Matthews, but they had no proof. To link the
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: two men, Agent Bolum hoped to use an informant close
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: to Franken.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: I received some information from a cooperating source that Mr.
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: Franken was distributing cocaine out of his house on Hibiscus
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: Street in Fort Myers Beach, and that He was distributing
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: to quite a few people down at the Fort Myers
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: Beach area.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Their informant, recently arrested for possession, was one of Stephen
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Franken's biggest customers. For his cooperation in controlled drug buys
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: from Franken, the informant would receive probation. if the purchases
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: were successful. Agents would be able to arrest Franken, then
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: press him for direct testimony about Jeff Matthews and his organization.
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: Stephen Franken was important to the investigation. He had quite
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: a bit of knowledge as far as drug trafficking that
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: was taking place down at Fort Myers Beach and with
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: Jeffrey Matthews' participation in this drug trafficking.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: The informant returned with cocaine. After several more buys, DEA
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: agents finally had what they needed to make an arrest.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: On August 25th, 1988, agents secured a felony arrest warrant
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: for Stephen Franken for the sale and distribution of a
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: controlled substance. Once Franken was in custody, agents searched his house. Inside,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: they found prepackaged cocaine, scales, and cash. In exchange for
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: a shorter sentence, Franken agreed to cooperate with agents. He
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: admitted that murder suspect Jeff Matthews was his cocaine supplier
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: and consented to say so in front of the grand jury.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Franken was released on bond until then. As investigators continued
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: to hunt for evidence in their case against Matthews, deputies
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: in nearby Collier County, Florida, responded to a crime scene.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: On October 2nd, 1988, a surveyor had discovered fully clothed,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: skeletonized human remains in a rural dump site. It appeared
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the body had been there for the past several weeks.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Though there was no wallet or other ID, detectives did
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: notice a paper bracelet on the victim's wrist, similar to
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: those used by hospitals and nightclubs. Investigators gathered dental records
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: from local families who had recently reported their loved ones
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: as missing. They hoped one of them would match the
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: unknown victim's. The dental records along with the body were
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: sent to the medical examiner for comparison. He first determined
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: that the victim was a white male in his 20s,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: killed execution style with five 38 caliber bullets to the head.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: From the body's wrist, the ME removed the paper bracelet.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: He confirmed it was an admission ban from a nightclub
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: in Fort Myers Beach. Dental records from a missing 22-year-old
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: man last seen leaving the club confirmed that the murder
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: victim was Thomas Sellers. A Collier County Sheriff's detective visited
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Sellers' father to give him the bad news.
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: Has he been doing any legal activities or hanging around
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: anybody lately?
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: The father told the detective that his son had a
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: cocaine problem. and believed the young man owed his dealer,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Jeff Matthews.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: $ 1, 000.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: It was also rumored that his son was last seen
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: leaving the club with a man reputed to be a
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: hitman for the dealer. But once again, investigators were unable
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: to find evidence to corroborate the rumors.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: Do you have any pictures of your son?
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Agents and detectives only direct witness to Matthew's operation was
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Stephen Franken, a low-level dealer arrested months earlier. They hoped
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: his grand jury testimony would be enough to arrest a
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: cocaine supplier suspected of ordering two executions. On January 27th, 1990,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: As the DEA and Lee County Florida sheriffs continued to
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: pursue suspected cocaine dealer and murderer Jeff Matthews, detectives received
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: a call about another possible homicide. At around midnight, a
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: man was unpacking boxes in his new home when he
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: heard the sound of a car squealing towards his house.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: The vehicle didn't stop until it reached his backyard. Inside,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: the driver was dead. Lee County Detective Tom Continos was
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: one of the first to arrive at the home in St.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Carlos Park.
• 45:13
  Speaker 10: Initially, I was told it was a motor vehicle accident.
• 45:16
  Speaker 10: There was a dead body in the car. The closer
• 45:21
  Speaker 10: I looked, the more I realized that he didn't die
• 45:23
  Speaker 10: from a car accident. He died from a bunch of
• 45:26
  Speaker 10: bullet holes.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: The driver's license found on the victim identified the dead
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: man as 22-year-old Stephen Franken, the primary witness scheduled to
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: testify against drug kingpin Jeff Matthews at a grand jury
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: hearing just two days away. It seemed Matthews was aware
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: that without Franken's testimony, Investigators wouldn't have enough evidence to
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: bring an indictment against the cocaine dealer, suspected in two
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: killings and now a third. According to DEA Special Agent
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Dennis Bowen.
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: I think the timing, of the murder was because of
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: the timing of the grand jury, the information we received
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: as far as Jeffrey Matthews being involved in other shootings
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: and murders at Fort Myers Beach, and that Stephen Franken
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: had some valuable information as far as Jeffrey Matthews' drug operation.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: But now the grand jury would never learn what Franken
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: knew about Matthews. The federal witness was likely dead before
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: he crashed. Detectives decided to search the surrounding area to
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: determine where the shooting had taken place.
• 46:36
  Speaker 10: Something happened before the guy hit the house, or else
• 46:39
  Speaker 10: he wouldn't have driven through the house. So I walked
• 46:43
  Speaker 10: down the dirt road about several hundred yards, and I
• 46:49
  Speaker 10: found what looked like some attempt at a roadblock.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Large and small branches covered the road, strewn by what
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: must have been a vehicle. To the left side of
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: the site, detectives found several. 22 caliber shell casings, the
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: same caliber as the bullets later removed from Stephen Franken's body. Footprints,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: as well as tire impressions from a separate vehicle, were
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: discovered close by in the loose dirt. Technicians made plastic
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: casts for later comparison should a vehicle or suspect be located.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: From their placement in Franken's wounds, officers determined that the
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: shooter had fired at the driver's side of the car.
• 47:44
  Speaker 10: My immediate thoughts were that someone had constructed this roadblock
• 47:49
  Speaker 10: to slow a car down, slow the car down enough
• 47:53
  Speaker 10: where someone can jump out of some brushy area that's
• 47:57
  Speaker 10: along both sides of the road and shoot. The gunman
• 48:06
  Speaker 10: must have known when Franken left work and the route
• 48:09
  Speaker 10: he traveled home.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: The victim probably stopped briefly when he saw debris in
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: the road. Just long enough for the shooter to take
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: accurate aim. Clinging to life for a few more moments,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: he likely accelerated down the road and into the house.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Though suspected murderer and drug dealer Jeff Matthews was believed responsible,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: investigators were once again left with no direct evidence tying
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Matthews to the crime. The fact that Stephen Franken had
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: been a federal witness enabled authorities to broaden the investigation
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: to include the US Attorney's Office and the FBI. Together,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: they needed to develop a strategy to snare Jeff Matthews
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: and put an end to the violence. Retired Special Agent
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Guy Nottoli was part of the team.
• 49:11
  Speaker 11: The FBI immediately started working with the Lee County Sheriff's
• 49:15
  Speaker 11: Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration. There was nothing done
• 49:19
  Speaker 11: without telling the other agency involved that what was going on.
• 49:25
  Speaker 11: The FBI did have a lot of manpower that they
• 49:27
  Speaker 11: could put on this matter. They did have tremendous ability
• 49:31
  Speaker 11: for the technical aspect of the investigation.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: They knew Matthews was still operating in the area, but
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: the dealer was well insulated. The only way to get
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: to him was through his drug operation and employees. But
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: after the informant Franken was murdered, finding someone else to
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: cooperate would be no easy task.
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: What made it so difficult was that we didn't have
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: a lot of people come forward and voluntarily supply information
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: on Jeffrey Matthews. Most of the people knew that he
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: was capable of committing murders, and they were intimidated by him.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Agents turned to a man behind bars whom they believed
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: had been an insider in Matthew's organization. Serving a 10-year
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: sentence on concealed weapons charges, the Fort Myers Beach, Florida
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: man was reputed to be one of Matthew's former hitmen.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: He agreed to tell what he knew about the dealer's
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: drug operation in exchange for a shortened sentence. Just before
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: his arrest, the alleged hit man admitted that Matthews had
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: ordered him to surveil Stephen Franken to learn the man's schedule.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: With that information, Matthews would be able to silence Franken
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: before he could testify against him. The convict denied knowing
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: who actually pulled the trigger since he was behind bars
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: before the murder took place. He did tell investigators about
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: another unsolved homicide he claimed that Matthews had committed. He
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: said that one night at the pizza parlor, a contractor
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: was repairing the tiles on the kitchen floor after the
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: restaurant closed. The hitman had brought over a new silencer
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: for Matthews' gun.
• 51:27
  Speaker 12: No one's going to hear anything.
• 51:29
  Speaker 6: No one will hear anything.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: I think, either way, it's a heavy gun. Yeah. Look
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: at that.
• 51:35
  Speaker 13: Yeah, how's that?
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: Nice. Sorry.
• 51:36
  Speaker 9: Go ahead.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: He claimed the drug lord killed the contractor just to
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: test the silencer. Agents hoped to get Matthews to corroborate
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: the hit man's stories. The convict agreed to call Matthews
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: to set up a recorded meeting. He asked Matthews to
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: come by the prison to drop off some new music tapes.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: Agents would be ready to record the conversation on audio
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: and video, hoping Matthews would incriminate himself.
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: We received approvals from the U.S. Attorney's Office as well
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: as the jail to install these recorders. Then after we
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: installed everything, he never did show up. Jeffrey Matthews is
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: very elusive, surveillance conscious. He insulated himself pretty well. Even
• 52:43
  Speaker 4: his closest friends didn't know where he was residing at.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Matthews' last suspected victim.
• 52:48
  Speaker 6: May have been.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: But because he was silenced, the alleged murderer remained free
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: and was becoming more desperate. By early 1990, the FBI, DEA,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: and Florida authorities continued to pursue suspected drug lord and murderer,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Jeff Matthews. Since 1988, he had been implicated in four
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: executions in the Fort Myers Beach area. For Lee County
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: homicide detective Tom Continos and dozens of agents, a lack
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: of hard evidence and verifiable witness statements kept Jeff Matthews
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: just out of reach.
• 53:35
  Speaker 10: Two years have gone by, and I still couldn't get
• 53:37
  Speaker 10: my hands around Jeff Matthews. There was nothing there for
• 53:41
  Speaker 10: me to follow up on. It was dead end after
• 53:44
  Speaker 10: dead end after dead end. All the time I knew
• 53:49
  Speaker 10: Jeff was my number one suspect, and he was getting
• 53:53
  Speaker 10: stronger and stronger and bolder and bolder on his criminal
• 53:56
  Speaker 10: activities on the beach, and it was very frustrating.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: On February 12, 1990, A judge agreed that investigators had
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: enough circumstantial evidence against Matthews to search the dealer's pizza place,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: the likely headquarters for his operation. They served the warrant
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: after hours to avoid endangering customers. From the restaurant, investigators
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: seized documents phone records, and bank and credit card statements.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: They also confiscated Matthew's Trans Am. The tire treads were
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: compared to impressions found at one of the murder scenes.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: The results were Nick years in prison without the possibility
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: of parole. He will never again be free to terrorize
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: the people of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. October 8th, 1985
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: marked the beginning of a string of brutal robberies that
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: rocked South Florida. Two masked men used military weapons in
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: a violent spree that threatened innocence. But no one knew
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: who they were or where they would strike next. Before
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: the FBI could stop them, lives would be lost and
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: law enforcement would be changed forever.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: In Miami, a gang of robbers targeted banks and armored cars.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: They carried assault weapons and weren't afraid to use them.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: They struck during the day and sometimes twice a day.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: For a while, they seemed unstoppable. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: head of the FBI's New York office. We knew that
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: to stop these criminals would require stealth, ingenuity, and perhaps
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: a little luck. No one expected to become one of
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: the bloodiest chapters in FBI history.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: Miami, Florida, 1985. To FBI agents, it seemed a city
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: under siege. Each week, there were three to five bank robberies. Kidnappings,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: major drug deals, and shootings were everyday occurrences. But just
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: when it seemed things couldn't get any worse, a new
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: breed of outlaws hit the streets and turned the Miami
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: crime wave into a war. On October 8th, an armored
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: car courier made a scheduled pickup at a steak and
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: ale restaurant. The driver waited for his partner to return,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: unaware that two heavily armed men were also waiting nearby.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: As the guard approached the rear of the truck, the
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: gunman advanced with military style precision.
• 57:42
  Speaker 14: The driver refused to open his door.
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: He drove away following company policy.
• 57:50
  Speaker 15: The subjects retreated to a getaway car.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: And attempted to camouflage their escape with a military-issue smoke grenade.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: The Metro Dade County Police and the FBI responded to
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: the scene. Robberies of armored cars and banks fall under
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: FBI jurisdiction. The supervisor of the Miami FBI's Violent Crimes
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: Unit was Special Agent Gordon McNeil.
• 58:36
  Speaker 16: There were basically no clues as far as who these
• 58:39
  Speaker 16: individuals were. We had absolutely no idea, no way to go.
• 58:44
  Speaker 16: No one had seen them without the black hoods over
• 58:48
  Speaker 16: their faces. They wore gloves on both hands.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: One piece of information witnesses did provide was the license
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: number of the getaway car. Agents tracked the number and
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: learned the car had been stolen a month before. But
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: the lead was a dead end. The robbers had escaped
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: with only $ 2, 800. But their use of military weapons and
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: commando tactics convinced Agent McNeil they would probably strike somewhere
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: in Miami again. But where and when? The answer came
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: just eight days later. At a busy supermarket on South
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Dixie Highway, another armored car arrived to make a scheduled pickup.
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: A courier returned to the truck with several money bags
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: filled with cash and receipts. He never saw the car
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: that came around the corner.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 13: The robbers escaped empty-handed.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Metro-Dade police and the FBI quickly responded to the alarm.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Six Adams, 31, 1097. These men were clearly not afraid
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: to use deadly force. The courier would later die from
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: his injury. While he was taken to the hospital, agents
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: interviewed his partner. As he described the gunman, it quickly
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: became obvious they were probably the same men responsible for
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: the previous robbery at the Steak and Ale restaurant.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 16: There was no money taken in that particular robbery, but
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 16: there were a number of shots fired. So the ante
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 16: was still going up here as far as I was
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 16: concerned because of the continued use of violence by these
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 16: two individuals.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: Ballistics evidence would further confirm the connection between the two robberies.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Investigators found double-aught buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun,. 45 caliber
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: bullet casings, and two. 23 shell casings. The two. 23s
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: seemed most significant.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 16: And the identification division of the firearms unit of the
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 16: FBI laboratory compared those two shell casings and said they
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 16: were fired from the same weapon. So we definitely had
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 16: a link now between the Winn-Dixie attempt and the Staken
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 16: Ale robbery.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Two violent robberies were linked to the same masked gunman
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: but there were no leads to their identities. Because they
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: had not scored any cash at the Winn-Dixie robbery and
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: so little at the steak and ale, investigators were certain
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: they would soon strike again. Two weeks later on Friday,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: November 8th, a third robbery occurred. This time a bank
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: job at the Florida National Bank. As a teller and
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: a guard walked from the main building to the drive-thru,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: two masked gunmen emerged from a car. At gunpoint, they
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: ordered the teller to open the door to the drive-thru.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: She tried to comply, but there was a problem with
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: the key. Stalled in broad daylight at a busy intersection,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: the gunman aborted the robbery and fled with only the $ 10, 000
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: the guard had been carrying. Within minutes, local authorities and
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: the FBI Violent Crime Unit responded to the scene of
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: the crime. Just a few blocks away from the two previous.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 16: Robberies, This pattern was starting to develop that all these
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 16: crimes were happening in the same general area along U.S.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 16: Highway number one.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: FBI interviews with the bank employees confirmed that the robbers
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: were the same pair who'd hit the armored cars. Maybe
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: they figured a drive-through bank would be less heavily fortified
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: than armored cars, easier sources of cash.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 16: There was no higher priority in this case. We had
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 16: to find these guys, and we had to get them
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 16: off the street before they killed more innocent people.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: But just an hour and a half later, they hit
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: the professional savings bank only 18 blocks away. Get your
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: hands up!
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 8: Get your hands up!
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: Get over there! Get over there!
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 14: Get out of here now!
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: Get out of here now! Get out!
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 13: Get out!
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: You!
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: Come on over here! You!
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 6: Come over here!
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: The robbers quickly took control of the lobby. At gunpoint,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: both customers and employees quickly followed their orders. With their
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: masks and high-powered weapons, no one doubted.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: They meant.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 10: Business.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: This time, they scored big. They raced off with over $ 41, 000,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: delivered earlier that day by Wells Fargo. They escaped in
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: yet another getaway car, a Chevy Monte.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: Carlo.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: Witnesses had little to tell agents. The robbers had entered
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: quickly and forced everyone down on the floor where they
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: couldn't see what was going on. But since the men
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: had actually been inside the bank this time, perhaps the
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: security cameras had captured them on tape. Agents were soon
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: disappointed to learn that the cameras had somehow malfunctioned and
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: nothing had been recorded. It was the fourth robbery in
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: six weeks. The heavily armed robbers were looting banks and
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: armored cars in broad daylight.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 16: The witnesses in these cases indicated that they felt that
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 16: these people looked like true professionals. The way they walked,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 16: the way they talked, the way they carried their weapons.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 16: And I truly believed up until when we finally found
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 16: out who they were that we could very easily have
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 16: been dealing with police officers here or very recent ex-military.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: With such violent criminals on the loose, agents honed their
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: own skills on the firing range. They worked the case relentlessly,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: exchanging whatever slim leads they had. But nothing panned out.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: Two months went by without another robbery, and still there
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: were no leads. On Friday, January 10th, 1986, William Roberts
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: prepared to make a transaction at the Barnett Bank just
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: as an armored truck was unloading outside. He looked up
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: from his checkbook and watched as two masked robbers shot
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: the guard in the back. As the guard lay on
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: the ground, one of the gunmen shot him twice more.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: This was the robbers fifth heist in just three months.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: And another big hit, they fled.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 12: With $ 54, 000.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: William Roberts trailed the men for blocks. Though he maintained
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: a safe distance, Roberts worried the thieves knew he was
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: following them. Still, he stayed on their tail and noted
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: their license tag and car model. He tracked them to
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: a parking lot where they pulled in next to a
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: white pickup truck. Roberts parked across the street and continued
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: to watch them. He noted the make and model of
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: the pickup truck, but could not see the tag number.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: After driving off, Roberts would flag down an officer and
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: tell him the story. The FBI responded to the scene
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: and interviewed bank employees. They found several 223 rounds, later
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: determined to be fired from the same weapon used in
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: the first two robberies. Nearby, FBI agents examined the getaway
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: car the robbers had left behind. But William Roberts was
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: the star witness. Thanks to Roberts, the FBI had the
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: first big break in a three-month string of violent robberies.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: A check on the license tag of the getaway car
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: revealed the car was registered to a man named Aureliano Brielle.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: Agents prepared to pay him a visit. Since the car
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: had never been reported stolen, they suspected Brielle was involved
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: in the crimes. They dressed for safety. In Miami, the
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: FBI had been tracking two masked gunmen who had been
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: robbing armored cars and banks, already killing one guard. Now
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: agents had located the registered owner of one of the
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: getaway cars. On January 14th, Special Agent Morales and a
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: partner arrived at the home of Aureliano Brielle, the registered
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: owner of the car. A woman opened the door. Special
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: Agent Morales now works undercover and wears a hood to
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: protect his identity.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 15: She asked me if I was there about her son.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 15: And I said, yes, I was, as a matter of fact.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 15: She said, well, my son Emilio has been missing.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: Mrs. Brielle's husband came to the door and they invited
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: the agents to come into the house. Mr. Brielle explained
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: that his son Emilio had disappeared three months ago with
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: a family car, which he borrowed to go target shooting
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: in the Everglades. The Brielles had filed a missing persons report,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: but heard nothing. They had hoped the agents brought news
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: of their son. But both the Brielles and the agents
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: would be disappointed. The FBI knew nothing of the young
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: man's whereabouts. And as the interview progressed, Agent Morales grew
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: certain the Brielles knew nothing of the robberies.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 15: The conclusion at the end of the day was that
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 15: the Brielle family was not involved.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: They were victims.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 15: Their car had been stolen and their son was missing.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: The Metro Dade Police Department processed the Brielle's car with
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: FBI agents observing. But evidence technicians found no fingerprints or
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: anything else to advance the case. The next two months
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: were quiet again, though the robbers remained on the loose.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Agents worked other cases as they continued to mine every
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: possible resource for clues. Then on March 14th, Special Agent
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: Ben Grogan told a skeptical Agent Morales about a newspaper
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: article he believed was related to the case. The article
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: reported the attempted murder of a man named Jose Collazo
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: two days earlier. Two men had shot Collazo multiple times.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: Then they had stolen his gun and his car, a
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: black 1982 Chevy Monte Carlo. Guarantee I'm right. Grogan swore
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: that the vehicle would be the bank robber's next getaway car.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: While it seemed to some agents nothing more than a hunch,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: they respected Grogan.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: Shot him four times, with the arm, through the face.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: At 53, he was a career agent with 25 years
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: on the job, including time as a SWAT team leader.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: He got up, walked a mile and a half to
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: a convenience store. His colleagues called him the doctor because
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: he could do jobs no one else could do. So
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: they took a chance on his hunch.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 4: Mr.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 16: Collazo, tell.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 4: Me what happened.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: Grogan and another agent visited Collazo in the hospital. Collazo
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: was in rough shape, with wounds to the side of
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: his head, his arm, and his back. but he managed
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: to tell the story of his nightmarish afternoon in the Everglades.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: Palazzo had gone to a recreational trail near a lake
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: where gun owners often practice target shooting. He was preparing his.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: 22 when two men drove up beside him.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 7: How you doing?
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: The driver pulled a gun on Collazo, who somehow had
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: the presence of mind to identify it as a steel
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: blue Magnum revolver. He pegged the other man's rifle as
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: a Ruger Mini 14. When the assailants demanded Collazo's guns, car,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: and wallet, he complied.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: Now back on up. Back up.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: Back up. But they shot him several times anyway, at
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: close range. Then they left, taking Collazo's Monte Carlo and
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: their own F-150 pickup truck. As they drove off, they
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: believed Collazo was dead. He was just waiting until the
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: shooters were gone. Then he would rally what little strength
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: he had to survive.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 15: Collazo had to make a decision as to whether he
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 15: would try to live or just lay down and die.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 15: And Collazo said he chose to try to live. So
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 15: he picked himself up out of that lake and walked
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 15: almost a mile after being shot three times to seek help.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: Finding Collazo was the best break in the case so far.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: He provided the single clue no witness until now could offer,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: a description of the suspect's faces. They had not worn
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: masks when they assaulted him. Using Collazo's description, a Dade
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: County police artist drew composite sketches of his assailants. The
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: drawings would be made into posters with information about the
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: suspects and their crimes, plus the warning that both men
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: were heavily armed and extremely dangerous. Retired Special Agent John
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: Hanley A 22-year FBI veteran then assigned to the Violent
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: Crimes Unit remembers what Collazo said.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 12: Collazo was able to give a description of the guys.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 12: He told us about the white pickup truck. He was
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 12: shot in the same general area as we thought Emilio
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 12: Brielle had disappeared.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: In the coming days, agents stepped up their efforts. They
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: conducted a grid search of the streets crossing South Dixie
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: Highway in the vicinity of the bank robberies. I got
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: the agents together.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 16: After I told them what I had on my mind,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 16: they looked at me like I was crazy. But I said,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 16: I want you to get down between 88th Street on
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 16: South Dixie Highway and 185th Street and come up with
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 16: any license numbers on white Ford F-150 pickup trucks. Something
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 16: just told me in my gut But perhaps, who knows?
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 16: We're trying to make our own luck. What is it,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 16: a million to one, ten million to one?
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 16: But they came back with the license numbers of ten
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 16: white Ford F-150 pickup trucks.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: Computerized checks of the license numbers would reveal the owners' names.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: Agents would then request driver's license photos from the Department
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: of Motor Vehicles. Perhaps if Collazo saw the photos, he
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: could identify the truck's owner But in 1986, technology was slow.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: And before the photos came back from the DMV, the
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: robbers struck again. On Wednesday, March 19th, just one week
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: after Collazo's assault.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: The thieves hit another.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: Bank in South Dixon Avenue.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 13: Back up!
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 7: Get out!
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 4: Come on!
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 7: Get out!
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 17: Give me the bag!
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 16: Give me the bag!
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: It was their sixth hit in five months.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 13: Give me the money!
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 5: Put your face down!
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 13: Be quiet!
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: One kept the terrified customers at bay. The other looted
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: money from a teller. The man escaped with over $ 8, 000
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: in cash. As customers and employees recovered from the assault,
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: an off-duty customs official who had seen the robbers flee
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: called police. He'd noted the make of the getaway car,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: a black Chevy Monte Carlo, and the tag number, NTJ891.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: Just as Agent Grogan had predicted, it was Jose Collazo's car.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 15: They didn't even change the tag, and we're not really
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 15: sure whether they were, well, we're pretty sure they weren't
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 15: that stupid, but. We speculate that in their minds, you know,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 15: they were these hard, hard men. And we think that
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 15: they were probably just saying, hey, in your face, police,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 15: you know, come and get us if you can.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: Investigators learned little of value from witnesses. At this bank,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: the security cameras had filmed the entire robbery, but the
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: videotape was of little use. The camera's lenses had captured
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: little more than unidentifiable masked bandits. There was little doubt
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: these robbers planned each hit carefully.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 16: It appeared to me that they were doing surveillance of
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 16: the banks prior to some of the robberies because on
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 16: most occasions, they robbed the bank within 10 minutes of
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 16: delivery of a cash shipment by an armored car company.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 16: So they were waiting until the cash was inside from
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 16: the armored car company and then hit the bank.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: On April 10th, Gordon McNeil and Ben Brogan discussed the
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: case at firearms practice, sifting for any clues they may
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: have overlooked. It had been about three weeks since the
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: last robbery, There were no clues to the thieves' identities,
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: but McNeil detected a pattern.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 16: You're always looking in law enforcement for patterns of crime,
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 16: things that seem to happen on a consistent basis. And
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 16: the only thing that we had gone in these cases
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 16: was this significant pattern that developed, always on Friday between
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 16: 9 and 12, hitting the same banks multiple times, always
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 16: in the same 40 square hours.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: Three mysterious deaths in the Florida River confound local authorities.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: The preliminary investigation reveals little. But when police and the
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: FBI find a sinister link to international drug smuggling, they
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: uncover a conspiracy of unbridled greed and ruthless violence. It's
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: a case that thrusts an entire city into chaos.
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 17: In the 1980s, thousands of violent criminals flooded into America
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 17: from Cuba and Colombia. Drugs hit South Florida, and the
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 17: area bloated with illicit wealth became a violent powder keg.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 17: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 17: In the bloody Miami drug wars, the winners got rich,
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 17: the losers buried, and everyone was a target.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: Colombia, South America. Until the 1970s, life was simple but hard. Then,
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: a failed economy gave way to a sharp rise in
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: drug trafficking. The drug trade caused stiff competition that literally
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: began to rip the country apart. Ruthless Colombian drug lords
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: began consolidating their businesses into partnerships known as cartels. Death
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: came to anyone who got in their way. As the
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: cartel's influence grew, so did the American appetite for illicit drugs.
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: And Miami became the prime point of entry for most
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: of the cocaine smuggled into the country. And with it
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: came bloodshed. Colombian assassins were sent to Miami to wipe
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: out the local competition. The homicide rate grew to more
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: than triple the national average for large cities. Miami was
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: named the murder capital of the U.S. Former Metro Dade
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: homicide detective Alex Alvarez recalls how in 1979, violence came
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: to a Miami shopping mall.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 14: Several drug traffickers bought out a step van lined it
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 14: with bulletproof vests and portholes, and did a drug hit
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 14: in the parking lot and sprayed it with hundreds and
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 14: hundreds and hundreds of rounds in the parking lot trying
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 14: to kill their intended target.
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: Two known drug traffickers were killed and several innocent bystanders
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: were wounded.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 14: There were also incidents of high-speed pursuits on the expressway
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 14: between two drug dealers that were just shooting it out
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 14: on the expressway during rush-hour traffic. and numerous people were
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 14: being injured and killed. It was like the wild, wild west,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 14: so there was a need to try to curb and
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 14: stop these drug traffickers who seemed to be out of control.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: A special squad was formed to deal with the violence.
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: Central Tactical Unit, or CENTAC-26, was headquartered at the Metro
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: Dade Police Department. Sergeant George Plascencia was a detective assigned
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: to the unit, the first of its kind in Miami.
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 5: It was the 26th one in the nation. The purpose
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 5: of forming the task force was that we would go
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 5: out and monitor all the homicides in the county and
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 5: pick and choose the ones that we thought involved major
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 5: drug traffickers and attempt to work that angle, the homicide angle,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 5: and dismantle the organization.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: By the mid-1980s, constant pressure from law enforcement slowly changed
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: the way drug traffickers were doing business in Miami.
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 5: They got a little bit more sophisticated. They still did
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 5: the murders, but not the shootouts in public.
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: Drug traffickers went deep underground, organizing cells that excluded all
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: but family and close friends. Many cells specialized in activities
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: such as cocaine transportation, distribution, or money laundering. In only
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: a few years, the business had become large and sophisticated,
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: and still very deadly. On the afternoon of July 29, 1985,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: a marine salvager working on the Miami River noticed something.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: Off the bow of his boat floating in the water
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: was a body. By the time Metro Dade County Police responded,
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: dock workers had pulled two more bodies from the river.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: The coroner examined the deceased for any signs of trauma
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: or gunshot wounds. He found none. It appeared that the
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: three had drowned. On the bodies, officers found beepers, Rolex watches,
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: and plenty of cash. Two were armed. Essentially, they were
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: all carrying the tools of a drug smuggler. Metro-Dade police
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: called Syntac 26. Sergeant Placencia investigated. Yeah, hold on, let
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: me write this down.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 5: We started doing area cams to see if anybody had
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 5: seen anything suspicious or had seen these individuals prior to
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 5: them meeting their demise, and that proved to be, you know,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 5: not so fruitful at all.
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: Nobody had seen anything. The three victims were identified as
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: local Cuban Americans. Two had minor police records. The official
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: cause of death was drowning, but there was no indication
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: how they ended up in the water or why. Detective
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: Alex Alvarez searched for a lead in the case.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 14: We began running records checks and contacting the Drug Enforcement
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 14: Administration to see if these people were known drug traffickers.
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: Agents at the DEA did not know the men, but
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: they did have a source that could help. Right, right.
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 12: What's the address?
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 14: They had an informant, and that informant knew the son
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 14: of one of the dead people that were fished out
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 14: of the Miami rivers, and it was definitely drug-related. and
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 14: he was going to put us into contact with the son.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: That afternoon, investigators paid a visit to the son. He
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: was willing to tell what he knew, hoping that the
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: mystery of his father's death could be solved.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 12: Can you tell us what you know and how you
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 12: found out about it?
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: Well, I know it's a really big business.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 14: He told us that his father was one of the
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 14: biggest drug smugglers in South Florida. He brought in thousands
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 14: and thousands and thousands of pounds of cocaine.
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: He said his father's crew used run-down steel-hulled vessels to
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: smuggle drugs into the country, since the old boats aroused
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: less suspicion than big yachts. He also detailed how the
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: smugglers built false bulkheads into the boats. concealing hidden compartments
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: filled with hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds of cocaine.
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: When customs searched these boats, their only hope of finding
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: drugs would be to use a welding torch.
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 14: See, the smugglers are smart. They know that there's no
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 14: way that customs and the open ocean is gonna put
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 14: a torch to a boat, because if they're wrong, they'll
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 14: sink the boat.
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: Now safely past customs, the smugglers would continue to move
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: their enormous cargo up the Miami River.
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 14: They would park it in a marina and then let
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 14: it sit there for two or three days to make
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 14: sure there was no surveillance. And on the second, third,
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 14: or fourth day, when they were convinced there was no surveillance,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 14: they'd come at the middle of the night, unload the
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 14: drugs into vans, and ship them off to different locations
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 14: within South Florida.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: The son said he had been visited by two of
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: his father's friends who were on board the ship the
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: night his father drowned. They told him that the boat
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: was raided by a group of gunmen dressed as cops.
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: The raiders threw the six-man crew overboard and then stole
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: about 450 kilos of cocaine.
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 14: Each kilo at that time was worth approximately $ 60, 000. So
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 14: the net retail value of this load was approximately $ 27 million.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 14: And that's not the street value. The street value is
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 14: probably two, three times that.
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: The son provided the names of all three men who survived,
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: but said he didn't know how to contact them. The
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: CENTAC detectives needed to find out if there had been
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: a legitimate raid at the marina. They contacted every law
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: enforcement agency in South Florida that handled drug cases.
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 14: None of them had any operations close to the boatyard
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 14: where this incident happened. So at that time, when I
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 14: canceled out that this was a legitimate raid, my next
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 14: focus was, well, these people must have been phony cops,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 14: people impersonating police officers, because there was a trend at
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 14: that time for people to dress up as police officers
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 14: and raid drug dealers' homes and steal their cash and
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 14: steal their drugs.
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: To check the victim's son's story, investigators went to the
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: marina where the raid took place. They interviewed the security
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: guard who had been on duty that night. He said
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: that seven or eight men in police uniforms rushed the
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: marina and headed for one of the boats. They went
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: right past the security guard.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 5: The security guard said, being South Florida, there's nothing unusual,
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 5: you know, go at it.
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: He hadn't gotten a good look at any of them.
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: Investigators later searched that boat but found no clues. So
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: they turned their attention to looking for the three men
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: who had survived the raid. Two of the three survivors
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: had minor police records, but could not be located at
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: their last known address. The next day, CENTAC 26 detectives
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: played a hunch. They figured that the survivors would likely
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: be going to the wake for one of the deceased victims.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 14: So we showed up at the funeral home with the
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 14: names and identities of the people who we were looking for.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: The detectives were right. They recognized the survivors from arrest
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: photos and approached the men as they entered. The men
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: confirmed the boat was overrun by a group of raiders
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: dressed like cops. But the men denied the boat was
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: involved in drug running. They claimed they were simply having
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: a party.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 5: They had been drinking beer with the three victims and
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 5: two additional friends.
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: And while they were there.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 5: Drinking beer and having a good time, people in blue
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 5: uniforms stormed past the front gate of the marina and
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 5: started yelling, police, police.
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: The gunmen began assaulting them.
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 5: They said several friends were thrown in the water by
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 5: these individuals dressed in blue uniforms.
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: Within minutes, all six men were overboard in the Miami River.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: but only three swam to safety. The investigation had now
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: become a triple homicide. The Syntac 26 detectives were convinced
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: the raid was yet another instance of fake cops ripping
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: off drug dealers. But again, the survivors denied the drugs
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: were on the boat and insisted they did not know
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: why the men attacked them. They said they didn't see
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: any badge numbers or police cars, Couldn't even tell which
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: department the uniforms were from. With no detailed information from
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: the two witnesses, the investigators were left without any significant leads.
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: With the case stalled, the FBI offered their assistance. Special
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: Agent Robert Martin.
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 18: At about the same time that the homicide investigation began
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 18: regarding the three bodies found in the Miami River, an
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 18: FBI cooperating witness provided some information to us regarding a
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 18: group of police officers who were involved in some rip-offs.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 18: And he identified who those guys were, at least several
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 18: of them, knew who some of them were, had conversations
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 18: with them.
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: Detective Alvarez got an unexpected call from an agent in counterintelligence.
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 14: He says he needs to meet with us, that he
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 14: has a motive and a possible information about our case.
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 14: He put two and two together, so maybe this is
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 14: related to this information that I'm getting through my informant,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 14: Armando Un. Now we can narrow down.
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: Armando Un, the FBI agent said, was a well-connected nightclub
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: worker that knew about a group of crooked cops who
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: were ripping off drug dealers along the Miami River. CENTAC
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: 26 detectives went to see Armando Un. But he did
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: not want to see them. The interview went nowhere. It
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: would take the murder of a friend before Armando Un
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: would talk. A motorist was driving through the Everglades. He
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: spotted something that piqued his curiosity, a wooden box. He
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: pulled over. To his horror, he found a body inside.
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: He called police. Detectives from Miami-Dade's Drug Task Force, CENTAC 26,
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: were investigating the deaths of three men found floating in
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: the Miami River. They hoped an informant named Armando Un
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: could help them. His friend and employer had been found
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: murdered in the Florida Everglades. His name was Luis Rodriguez,
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: the owner of a nightclub in Miami's Little Havana district.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: He'd been shot several times in the head and then
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: stuffed in a box rigged to spring open. A gruesome display.
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: Investigating for Syntac-26 was Detective Alex Alvarez and Sergeant George Plascencia.
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: They needed to get Armando Un to talk.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 14: We never mentioned anything about the three bodies. Our ploy
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 14: in speaking to him was that we were investigating death
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 14: of his best friend, the murder of his best friend.
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: According to Detective Plascencia, Armando Un was very candid.
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 5: We sat down and chatted with him for a while
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 5: about Luis Rodriguez, and he said, yeah, Luis Rodriguez was
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 5: involved in drug trafficking.
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: He admitted that Rodriguez was dealing drugs out of his
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: nightclub and said he believed the men Rodriguez was involved
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: with killed him. He was furious that his friend had
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: been murdered and said he wanted to help. But if
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: he knew about police officers, real or fake, robbing drug dealers,
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: he said nothing.
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 5: He never mentioned that the police officers were involved. He
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 5: did say that Luis Rodriguez was friendly with some officers.
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: Armando Un seemed wary and selected his words carefully. When
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: the interview ended, the detectives still had no suspects in
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: the Miami River murders. All they really knew was that
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: Luis Rodriguez was dead and may be the fourth drug
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: murder victim in as many days. Then a city of
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: Miami detective contacted Placencia and Alvarez with a surprising lead.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: He said that Luis Rodriguez had also worked for him
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: as a police informant.
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 14: He told us that Luis Rodriguez was giving him information
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 14: about people who were dressed as police imposters and were
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 14: ripping off drug dealers and committing murders in Dade County.
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: The detective explained that he had met Luis Rodriguez through
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: a Miami patrol officer named Marco Rivera.
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 14: I said, we need your help now. I need you
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 14: to set up a meeting between the street cop and
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 14: George and I, and let's tell him that we're investigating
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 14: Luis Rodriguez's murder. That'll be the cover story.
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: The meeting was set for that night at the Miami
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: Police Department. Officer Ribeiro worked the late shift in 60 Sector,
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: police code for Little Havana. He verified that he knew
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: Luis Rodriguez and that Rodriguez had, on occasion, been his informant.
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: But then, without prompting, he brought up the Miami River drownings.
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 14: He volunteered some information about the three bodies that were
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 14: floating up in the Miami River. He said that these
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 14: guys stole the drugs themselves, and when the owner of
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 14: the drugs found out about it, had them murdered or
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 14: they were thrown in the water and drowned themselves, that
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 14: there was no cops involved at all.
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: His denial that officers were involved, which no one had mentioned,
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: seemed too forceful. Can you tell us one more time
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: what happened? No, it's more than. The CENTAC 26 detectives
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: tested him.
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 5: We asked this patrolman to repeat a story at the
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 5: conclusion of our meeting, and we detected that the story
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 5: didn't fit the first story that he had told us.
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: There was something wrong there. Rivera claimed a street source
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: told him about the raid, so the detectives asked to
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: speak directly with the source. Yeah, I guess so. You know,
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: just give me a call tomorrow.
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 16: I'll try to contact him, and if I can't get
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 16: in contact with.
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: Him for any reason, I'll let you guys know. For
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: the Syntec investigators, the case had taken a dramatic turn.
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: This officer, sworn to uphold the law, seemed to be
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: hiding something. The following day, Officer Marco Rivera introduced the
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: detectives to the source who allegedly had information about the
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: Miami River murders.
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 18: I don't know if I should even be talking to
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 18: these guys.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: I don't even know, bro. Rivera claimed his source could
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: verify that drug trafficking Colombians had carried out the raid,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: not Miami cops.
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 5: Hey, listen to our man.
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 2: Hey, listen. We understand that you heard him.
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: But as the source spoke, he had a hard time
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: remembering details of his story. Officer Rivera had to help
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: him remember, according to Detective Alvarez.
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 14: The officer keeps having to correct him, no, no, no, no,
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 14: it happened like this, and tell him about this, and
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 14: he's filling in the blanks for this guy who's obviously
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 14: been coached and cued on what to say. So we
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 14: knew at that point, obviously, he was covering something up.
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: Officer Rivera's cover-up meant the detectives were faced with an
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: even more serious problem. In case the deadly raiders were
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: actually Miami police officers, they needed to be very careful.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 14: This is a problem that we weren't really trained or
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 14: focused in to investigate, which is, you know, we're not
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 14: internal affairs investigators.
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: We don't investigate cops.
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 14: That wasn't our role.
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: That wasn't our job.
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 14: But we were charged with the responsibilities of investigating these murders,
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 14: and if these murders were committed by cops, they were
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 14: fair play. We realized that if we were going to
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 14: start to investigate cops, we'd have to do things very differently.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: The CENTAC 26 detectives had to cover themselves. They asked
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: the police chief to hold their personnel files as a
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: precaution against internal leaks.
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 14: We did a lot of things to protect our identity
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 14: and our family's identity. We took everything that we had
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 14: in our names and took them out of our names
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 14: so they couldn't trace where we lived and who we were.
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: We're investigating.
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 14: They're going to find out who we are. So right away,
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 14: we built a wall between them and us.
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: Once they felt safe, CENTAC detectives began investigating the officers
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: working the night shift in 60 Sector, Little Havana. Officer
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: Marco Ribera's beat. With the chief's permission, Miami PD's internal
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: affairs gave CENTAC 26 the personnel records for the officers
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: in question.
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 5: The City of Miami Internal Affairs Unit was very concerned.
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 5: They were very cooperative. They, you know, the names that
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 5: we provided to them, they started looking into and giving
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 5: us the backgrounds that they had on these individuals.
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: The investigators focused on a close-knit group of eight officers,
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: all relatively recent hires who joined the force at a
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: time when Miami was in crisis. In the spring of 1980,
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: Cuban President Fidel Castro had announced he would allow thousands
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: of political refugees to seek asylum in foreign countries. The U.S.
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: agreed to accept 3,500. Then, unexpectedly, Castro announced that for
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: the first time in years, he would also allow American
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: boats to enter Mariel Harbor. The result was what became
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: known as the Mariel Boatlift. More than 120,000 Cuban refugees
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: flooded into South Florida, which overwhelmed Miami's ability to handle them.
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: Most were hardworking immigrants looking for a chance at the
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: American dream. Most, but not all.
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 14: 10% of them, it was estimated, were criminals that were
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 14: dumped out of the prison system of Fidel Castro. so
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 14: there was a spike in the crime wave in Miami-Dade County.
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: To stem the rising crime rate, the city had to
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: hire over 400 new cadets in three years.
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 14: Instead of hiring the best candidate, they hired anybody who
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 14: was just marginally acceptable. They just couldn't find enough quality candidates,
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 14: and they went for quantity as opposed to quality.
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: CENTAC 26 began surveillance, watching as the officers in question
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: hung out together after hours, enjoying lifestyles far beyond the
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: means of honest police officers. Marco Ribeiro was the suspected ringleader.
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: Armando Garcia had recently become part owner of a bodybuilding gym.
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: Osvaldo Coelho had just retired from the force He was
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: 30 years old, driving a $ 100, 000 Lotus. It was easy
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: to track their lavish spending.
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 5: One officer bought a home and built this pool and
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 5: he paid the developer cash, showed up with a bag
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 5: full of cash and gave it to him here for
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 5: the purchase of my home.
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: Still, the detectives had little solid evidence.
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm in front of the restaurant.
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: I don't see any marked units over here. Our boy
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: is definitely.
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 5: Over here having coffee with some friends outside, but I
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 5: don't see any units.
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: They needed first-hand information, and they needed it soon. If
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: these officers had already left at least three people dead,
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: the detectives feared there could easily be more. Four people
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: have been murdered in Miami over a $ 27 million drug
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: deal gone bad. With so much money involved, the dividing
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: line between the criminals and the cops blurred. The FBI
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: offered their assistance to local law enforcement. Special Agent Robert
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: Martin