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Real Cops, a Fake Raid, 3 Drownings: How the Miami River Cops Were Caught · FBI Files

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Three mysterious deaths in the Florida River confound local authorities.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: The preliminary investigation reveals little. But when police and the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: FBI find a sinister link to international drug smuggling, they
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: uncover a conspiracy of unbridled greed and ruthless violence. It's
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a case that thrusts an entire city into chaos.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: In the 1980s, thousands of violent criminals flooded into America
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: from Cuba and Colombia. Drugs hit South Florida, and the area,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: bloated with illicit wealth, became a violent powder keg. I'm
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: In the bloody Miami drug wars, the winners got rich,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: the losers buried, and everyone was a target.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Colombia, South America. Until the 1970s, life was simple but hard. Then,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a failed economy gave way to a sharp rise in
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: drug trafficking. The drug trade caused stiff competition that literally
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: began to rip the country apart. Ruthless Colombian drug lords
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: began consolidating their businesses into partnerships known as cartels. Death
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: came to anyone who got in their way. As the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: cartel's influence grew, so did the American appetite for illicit drugs.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: And Miami became the prime point of entry for most
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: of the cocaine smuggled into the country. And with it
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: came bloodshed. Colombian assassins were sent to Miami to wipe
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: out the local competition. the homicide rate grew to more
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: than triple the national average for large cities. Miami was
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: named the murder capital of the U.S. Former Metro-Dade homicide
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: detective Alex Alvarez recalls how in 1979, violence came to
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a Miami shopping mall.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Several drug traffickers bought out a step van lined it
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: with bulletproof vests and portholes, and did a drug hit
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: in the parking lot and sprayed it with hundreds and
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: hundreds and hundreds of rounds in the parking lot trying
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: to kill their intended target.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Two known drug traffickers were killed and several innocent bystanders
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: were wounded.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: There were also incidents of high-speed pursuits on the expressway
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: between two drug dealers that were just shooting it out
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: on the expressway during rush-hour traffic. and numerous people were
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: being injured and killed. It was like the wild, wild west,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: so there was a need to try to curb and
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: stop these drug traffickers who seemed to be out of control.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: A special squad was formed to deal with the violence.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Central Tactical Unit, or CENTAC-26, was headquartered at the Metro
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Dade Police Department. Sergeant George Plascencia was a detective assigned
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to the unit, the first of its kind in Miami.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: It was the 26th one in the nation.
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: The purpose of forming the task force was that we
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: would go out and monitor all the homicides in the
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: county and pick and choose the ones that we thought
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: involved major drug traffickers and attempt to work that angle,
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: the homicide angle, and dismantle the organization.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: By the mid-1980s, constant pressure from law enforcement slowly changed
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the way drug traffickers were doing business in Miami.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: They got a little bit more sophisticated. They still did
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: the murders, but not the shootouts in public.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Drug traffickers went deep underground, organizing cells that excluded all
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: but family and close friends. Many cells specialized in activities
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: such as cocaine transportation, distribution, or money laundering. In only
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: a few years, the business had become large and sophisticated,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and still very deadly. On the afternoon of July 29, 1985,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a marine salvager working on the Miami River noticed something.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Off the bow of his boat floating in the water
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: was a body. By the time Metro Dade County Police responded,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: dock workers had pulled two more bodies from the river.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: The coroner examined the deceased for any signs of trauma
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: or gunshot wounds. He found none. It appeared that the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: three had drowned. On the bodies, officers found beepers, Rolex watches,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and plenty of cash. Two were armed. Essentially, they were
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: all carrying the tools of a drug smuggler. Metro-Dade police
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: called Syntac 26. Sergeant Placencia investigated. Yeah, hold on, let
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: me write this down.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: We started doing area cams to see if anybody had
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: seen anything suspicious or had seen these individuals prior to
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: them meeting their demise, and that proved to be, you know,
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: not so fruitful at all.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: Nobody had seen anything.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: The three victims were identified as local Cuban Americans. Two
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: had minor police records. The official cause of death was drowning,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: but there was no indication how they ended up in
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the water or why. Detective Alex Alvarez searched for a
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: lead in the case.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: We began running records checks and contacting the Drug Enforcement
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Administration to see if these people were known drug traffickers.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Agents at the DEA did not know the men, but
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: they did have a source that could help.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Right, right. What's the address? They had an informant, and
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: that informant knew the son of one of the dead
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: men people that were fished out of the Miami rivers,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: and it was definitely drug-related. And he was going to
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: put us into contact with the son.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: That afternoon, investigators paid a visit to the son. He
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: was willing to tell what he knew, hoping that the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: mystery of his father's death could be solved.
• 7:46
  Speaker 6: Can you tell us what you know and how you
• 7:48
  Speaker 6: found out about it?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Well, I know it's a really big business.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: He told us that his father was one of the
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: biggest drug smugglers in South Florida. He brought in thousands
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: and thousands and thousands of pounds of cocaine.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: He said his father's crew used run-down steel-hulled vessels to
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: smuggle drugs into the country, since the old boats aroused
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: less suspicion than big yachts. He also detailed how the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: smugglers built false bulkheads into the boats, concealing hidden compartments
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: filled with hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds of cocaine.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: When customs searched these boats, their only hope of finding
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: drugs would be to use a welding torch.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: See, the smugglers are smart. They know that there's no
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: way that customs and the open ocean is going to
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: put a torch to a boat because if they're wrong,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: they'll sink the boat.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Now safely past customs, the smugglers would continue to move
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: their enormous cargo up the Miami River.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: They would park it in a marina and then let
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: it sit there for two or three days to make
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: sure there was no surveillance. And on the second, third,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: or fourth day, when they were convinced there was no surveillance,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: they'd come at the middle of the night, unload the
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: drugs into vans, and ship them off to different locations
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: within South Florida.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: The son said he had been visited by two of
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: his father's friends who were on board the ship the
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: night his father drowned. They told him that the boat
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: was raided by a group of gunmen dressed as cops.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: The raiders threw the six-man crew overboard and then stole
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: about 450 kilos of cocaine.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Each kilo at that time was worth approximately $ 60, 000. So
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: the net retail value of this load was approximately $ 27 million.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: And that's not the street value. The street value is
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: probably two, three times that.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: The son provided the names of all three men who survived.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: but said he didn't know how to contact them. The
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: CENTAC detectives needed to find out if there had been
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a legitimate raid at the marina. They contacted every law
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: enforcement agency in South Florida that handled drug cases.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: None of them had any operations close to the boatyard
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: where this incident happened. So at that time, when I
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: canceled out that this was a legitimate raid, my next
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: focus was, well, these people must have been phony cops,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: people impersonating police officers, because there was a trend at
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: that time for people to dress up as police officers
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: and raid drug dealers' homes and steal their cash and
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: steal their drugs.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: To check the victim's son's story, investigators went to the
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: marina where the raid took place. They interviewed the security
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: guard who had been on duty that night. He said
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: that seven or eight men in police uniforms rushed the
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: marina and headed for one of the boats.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: They went right past the security guard. The security guard said,
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: being South Florida, there's nothing unusual, you know, go at it.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: He hadn't gotten a good look at any of them.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Investigators later searched that boat, but found no clues. So
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: they turned their attention to looking for the three men
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: who had survived the raid. Two of the three survivors
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: had minor police records, but could not be located at
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: their last known address. The next day, CENTAC 26 detectives
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: played a hunch. They figured that the survivors would likely
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: be going to the wake for one of the deceased victims.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: So we showed up at the funeral home with the
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: names and identities of the people who we were looking for.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: The detectives were right. They recognized the survivors from arrest
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: photos and approached the men as they entered. The men
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: confirmed the boat was overrun by a group of raiders
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: dressed like cops. But the men denied the boat was
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: involved in drug running. They claimed they were simply having
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: a party.
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: They had been drinking beer with the three victims and
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: two additional friends. And while they were there drinking beer
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: and having a good time, people in blue uniforms stormed
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: past the front gate of the marina and started yelling, police, police.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: The gunmen began assaulting them.
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: They said several friends were thrown in the water by
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: these individuals dressed in blue uniforms.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Within minutes, all six men were overboard in the Miami River.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: But only three swam to safety. The investigation had now
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: become a triple homicide. The Syntac 26 detectives were convinced
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the raid was yet another instance of fake cops ripping
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: off drug dealers. But again, the survivors denied that drugs
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: were on the boat and insisted they did not know
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: why the men attacked them. They said they didn't see
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: any badge numbers of police cars, couldn't even tell which
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: department the uniforms were from. With no detailed information from
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: the two witnesses, the investigators were left without any significant leads.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: With the case stalled, the FBI offered their assistance. Special
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Agent Robert Martin.
• 14:01
  Speaker 7: At about the same time that the homicide investigation began
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: regarding the three bodies found in the Miami River, an
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: FBI cooperating witness provided some information to us regarding a
• 14:13
  Speaker 7: group of police officers who were involved in some rip-offs.
• 14:16
  Speaker 7: And he identified who those guys were, at least several
• 14:19
  Speaker 7: of them, knew who some of them were, had conversations
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: with them.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Detective Alvarez got an unexpected call from an agent in counterintelligence.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: He says he needs to meet with us, that he
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: has a motive and possible information about our case. He
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: put two and two together, so maybe this is related.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: to this information that I'm getting through my informant, Armando Un.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Now we can narrow down.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Armando Un, the FBI agent said, was a well-connected nightclub
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: worker that knew about a group of crooked cops who
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: were ripping off drug dealers along the Miami River. CENTAC
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: 26 detectives went to see Armando Un. But he did
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: not want to see them. The interview went nowhere. It
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: would take the murder of a friend before Armando Un
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: would talk. A motorist was driving through the Everglades. He
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: spotted something that piqued his curiosity. A wooden box. He
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: pulled over. To his horror, he found a body inside.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: He called police. Detectives from Miami-Dade's Drug Task Force, CENTAC 26,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: were investigating the deaths of three men found floating in
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: the Miami River. They hoped an informant named Armando Un
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: could help them. His friend and employer had been found
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: murdered in the Florida Everglades. His name was Luis Rodriguez,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the owner of a nightclub in Miami's Little Havana district.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: He'd been shot several times in the head and then
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: stuffed in a box rigged to spring open. A gruesome display.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Investigating for Syntac-26 was Detective Alex Alvarez and Sergeant George Plasencia.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: they needed to get Armando Un to talk.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: We never mentioned anything about the three bodies. Our ploy
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: in speaking to him was that we were investigating the
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: death of his best friend, the murder of his best friend.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: According to Detective Plascencia, Armando Un was very candid.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: We sat down and chatted with him for a while.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: About Luis Rodriguez, and he said, yeah, Luis Rodriguez was
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: involved in drug trafficking.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: He admitted that Rodriguez was dealing drugs out of his
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: nightclub and said he believed the men Rodriguez was involved
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: with killed him. He was furious that his friend had
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: been murdered and said he wanted to help. But if
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: he knew about police officers, real or fake, robbing drug dealers,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: he said nothing.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: He never mentioned that the police officers were involved. He
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: did say that Luis Rodriguez was friendly with some officers.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Armando Un seemed wary and selected his words carefully. When
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the interview ended, the detectives still had no suspects in
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the Miami River murders. All they really knew was that
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Luis Rodriguez was dead and may be the fourth drug
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: murder victim in as many days. Then a city of
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Miami detective contacted Placencia and Alvarez with a surprising lead.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: He said that Luis Rodriguez had also worked for him
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: as a police informant.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: He told us that Luis Rodriguez was giving him information
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: about people who were dressed as police imposters and were
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: ripping off drug dealers and committing murders in Dade County.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: The detective explained that he had met Luis Rodriguez through
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: a Miami patrol officer named Marco Ribera.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: I said, we need your help now. I need you
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: to set up a meeting between the street cop and
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: George and I, and let's tell them that we're investigating
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: Luis Rodriguez's murder. That'll be the cover story.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: The meeting was set for that night at the Miami
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Police Department. Officer Ribeiro worked the late shift in 60 Sector,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: police code for Little Havana. He verified that he knew
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Luis Rodriguez and that Rodriguez had, on occasion, been his informant.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: But then, without prompting, he brought up the Miami River drownings.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: He volunteered some information about the three bodies that were
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: floating up in the Miami River. He said that these
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: guys stole the drugs themselves, and when the owner of
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: the drugs found out about it, had them murdered or
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: they were thrown in the water and drowned themselves, that
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: there was no cops involved at all.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: His denial that officers were involved, which no one had mentioned,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: seemed too forceful. The CENTAC 26 detectives tested him.
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: We asked.
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: This patrolman to repeat a story at the conclusion of
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: our meeting, and we detected that the story didn't fit
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: the first story that he had told us.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: There was something wrong there.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Ribera claimed a street source told him about the raid,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: so the detectives asked to speak directly with the source. Yeah,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I guess so.
• 20:19
  Speaker 6: You know, just give me a call tomorrow.
• 20:20
  Speaker 8: I'll try to contact him, and if I can't get
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: in contact.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: With him for any reason, I'll let you guys know.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: For the Syntec investigators, the case had taken a dramatic turn.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: This officer, sworn to uphold the law, seemed to be
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: hiding something. The following day, Officer Marco Ribera introduced the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: detectives to the source, who allegedly had information about the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Miami River murders.
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: I don't know if I should even be talking to
• 20:49
  Speaker 6: these guys. I don't even know, bro.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Ribera claimed his source could verify that drug trafficking Colombians
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: had carried out the raid, not Miami cops.
• 20:59
  Speaker 9: Hey, listen.
• 20:59
  Speaker 10: Hey, listen.
• 21:00
  Speaker 6: We understand that you heard.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: But as the source spoke, he had a hard time
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: remembering details of his story. Officer Rivera had to help
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: him remember, according to Detective Alvarez.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: The officer keeps having to correct him. No, no, no, no,
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: it happened like this, and tell him about this, and
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: he's filling in the blanks for this guy who's obviously
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: been coached and cued on what to say. So we
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: knew at that point, obviously, he was covering something up.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Officer Rivera's cover-up meant the detectives were faced with an
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: even more serious problem. In case the deadly raiders were
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: actually Miami police officers, they needed to be very careful.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: This is a problem that we weren't really trained or
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: focused in to investigate, which is, you know, we're not
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: internal affairs investigators. We don't investigate cops. That wasn't our role.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: That wasn't our job. But we were charged with the
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: responsibilities of investigating these murders, and if these murders were
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: committed by cops, they were fair play. We realized that
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: if we were going to start to investigate cops, we'd
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: have to do things very differently.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: The CENTAC 26 detectives had to cover themselves. They asked
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the police chief to hold their personnel files as a
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: precaution against internal leaks.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: We did a lot of things to protect our identity
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: and our family's identity. We took every... thing that we
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: had in our names and took them out of our
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: names so they couldn't trace where we lived and who
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: we were. We're investigating. They're going to find out who
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: we are. So right away, we built a wall between
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: them and us.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Once they felt safe, CENTAC detectives began investigating the officers
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: working the night shift in 60 Sector, Little Havana. Officer
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Marco Ribera's beat. With the chief's permission... Miami PD's Internal
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Affairs gave CENTAC 26 the personnel records for the officers
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: in question.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: The City of Miami Internal Affairs Unit was very concerned.
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: They were very cooperative.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: They, you know, the names that we provided to them,
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: they started looking into and giving us the backgrounds that
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: they had on these individuals.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: The investigators focused on a close-knit group of eight officers,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: all relatively recent hires who joined the force at a
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: time when Miami was in crisis. In the spring of 1980,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Cuban President Fidel Castro had announced he would allow thousands
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: of political refugees to seek asylum in foreign countries. The U.S.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: agreed to accept 3,500. Then, unexpectedly... Castro announced that for
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: the first time in years, he would also allow American
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: boats to enter Mariel Harbor. The result was what became
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: known as the Mariel Boatlift. More than 120,000 Cuban refugees
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: flooded into South Florida, which overwhelmed Miami's ability to handle them.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Most were hardworking immigrants looking for a chance at the
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: American dream. Most, but not all.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: 10% of them, it was estimated, were criminals that were
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: dumped out of the prison system of Fidel Castro. So
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: there was a spike in the crime wave in Miami-Dade County.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: To stem the rising crime rate, the city had to
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: hire over 400 new cadets in three years.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Instead of hiring the best candidate, they hired anybody who
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: was just marginally acceptable. They just couldn't find enough cadets
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: quality candidates and they went for quantity as opposed to quality.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Syntac 26 began surveillance, watching as the officers in question
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: hung out together after hours, enjoying lifestyles far beyond the
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: means of honest police officers. Marco Ribeiro was the suspected ringleader.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Armando Garcia had recently become part owner of a bodybuilding gym.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Osvaldo Coelho had just retired from the force. He was
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: 30 years old, driving a $ 100, 000 Lotus. It was easy
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: to track their lavish spending.
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: One officer bought a home and built this pool and
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: he paid the developer cash showed up with a bag
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: full of cash and gave it to him here for
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: the purchase of my home.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Still, the detectives had little solid evidence.
• 26:05
  Speaker 11: Yeah, I'm in front of the restaurant. I don't see
• 26:07
  Speaker 11: any marked units over here. Our boy is definitely over
• 26:10
  Speaker 11: here having coffee with some friends outside, but I don't
• 26:14
  Speaker 11: see any units.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: They needed first-hand information, and they needed it soon.
• 26:23
  Speaker 10: If these officers had already left.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: At least three people dead, the detectives feared there could
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: easily be more. Four people have been murdered in Miami
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: over a $ 27 million drug deal gone bad. With so
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: much money involved, the dividing line between the criminals and
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the cops blurred. the FBI offered their assistance to local
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: law enforcement. Special Agent Robert Martin.
• 26:56
  Speaker 7: We began an investigation which became a joint investigation into
• 27:00
  Speaker 7: whether there was some police corruption in the city of Miami.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Drug task force detectives with CENTAC 26 had narrowed their
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: investigation to a suspected group of corrupt Miami police officers.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: But the detectives needed inside information if they had any
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: chance of cracking the case. They hoped they could get
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: it from a reluctant police informer named Armando Un. They
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: had already interviewed Un about the murder of his friend
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: and partner, nightclub owner Luis Rodriguez. He seemed wary, perhaps
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: afraid they too were dirty cops.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: Hey, Armando, I want you to look at these photographs
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: and see if he recognizes anyone.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Detective George Plasencia tried to win his trust by showing
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: photos of their surveillance of the suspect officers.
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: And he started looking through the photos and he just paused.
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: He dropped the photographs and shook her hand, and he says,
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: you guys are doing a good job.
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: Let's sit down and talk.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Un came down to CENTAC 26, where he told Detective
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Alex Alvarez he figured he had nothing to lose.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: He was scared. He thought, well, if I stick it
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: out with the crooked cops, they were the ones that
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: probably killed my partner. And he said, well, if they
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: killed him, the next person to go is me.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: In a marathon debriefing, he explained the origins of the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: rogue officers and their criminal enterprise. He said his friend
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and employer, nightclub owner Luis Rodriguez, had grown tired of
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the officers coming into his bar and shaking down his
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: patrons for small amounts of drugs.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: He wanted to make sure that his customers weren't bothered.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: So he first started paying the cops off not to come.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Soon he devised another plan that could make everyone some money.
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: According to Un, Luis Rodriguez said to the officers, hey,
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: you know what, instead of arresting these people that are
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: coming over here with petty drugs, why don't I set
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: up deals, you know, maybe multi-kilo deals, more drugs involved,
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: and when these people come over, I'll give you a
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: description of their car, where they're coming from, You can
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: stop them, steal their cocaine, bring it to me.
• 29:37
  Speaker 6: I'll sell it.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: I'll give you a share.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: The officers agreed.
• 29:48
  Speaker 7: What made this whole thing possible for these cops was
• 29:50
  Speaker 7: they grew up and knew people who were.
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: In the drug trade. And that was the one aspect
• 29:55
  Speaker 6: of what they had going for them.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Patrolman Marco Ribera ran the ripoffs. It seemed a perfect plan.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: The dealers would never incriminate themselves by reporting the thefts,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: and Rodriguez would always come through with the cash.
• 30:18
  Speaker 11: Good night now.
• 30:21
  Speaker 10: See ya.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Un said the operation grew quickly, with more and more
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: cops becoming involved. But they got greedy, wanting to do
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: more rip-offs and bigger ones. Rodriguez introduced them to a
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: second bar owner who knew of larger shipments.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: Luis Rodriguez brought in another bar owner. He knew and
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: he worked smuggling goods. boatloads of drugs into the united
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: states and rodriguez says wait a minute why stop why
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: stop at these one kilo two kilograms of cocaine drug
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: busts why don't we go for the boatloads and get
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: 300 400 500 kilograms of cocaine at one shot.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Boone didn't know about the raid where the three men
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: drowned but he did describe an earlier one the second
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: bar owner had set up A group of Miami officers
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: had slipped aboard a boat in another marina, thinking the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: crew had left for the night. They knew exactly where
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: the drugs were hidden. But during the unloading, they noticed
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: the air conditioning was on. And suspected the crew was
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: still on board, hiding. Hey, no one's on board.
• 32:05
  Speaker 7: Someone's here.
• 32:06
  Speaker 11: Someone's here.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: Look down.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Look down.
• 32:21
  Speaker 10: The crewmen surrendered.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: The raiders wasted no time disposing of the crew, as
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: they had in the other raid. This time, no one drowned.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: All the men swam safely to shore. The cops finished up,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: then drove off with about 200 kilos of cocaine, valued
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: at over $ 10 million. Armando Un confirmed the names of
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: the officers involved, the very ones CENTAC had been watching. Unfortunately,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: The investigators knew his credibility would be attacked in court.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: The jury's not going to believe Armando Un, a self-proclaimed
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: admitted drug trafficker, over, you know, half a dozen or
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: a dozen respected police officers. They're just not going to
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: believe it. So we need more evidence.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: What they needed was a confession on tape from the
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: very cops they were investigating. They brought in the local
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: bar owner from the drug raids and explained the evidence
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: they had implicating him in the rip-offs. He reluctantly agreed
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to wear a wire and to meet with Officer Marco Ribera.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: But he said Ribera had been avoiding him for weeks,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: no doubt because of the CENTAC 26 investigation. They would
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: have to trick him into the meeting. Investigators hoped the
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: results would be worth the risk. Detectives set up in
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: a building across from a bar in the area Ribera
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: patrolled and sent the informant inside. When surveillance units confirmed
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Ribera was nearby, detectives called 911 and reported a bar fight.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Officer Ribera drove up just as they planned.
• 34:49
  Speaker 10: Ribera entered looking for the alleged fight, but everything was quiet.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: The informant made his move. He told the officer he
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: had been subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney's Office and wanted
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: to know what to say. Ribera took the bait, but
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to talk in front of witnesses. The
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: corrupt cop spoke freely about his involvement in the drug operation.
• 35:36
  Speaker 8: Rivera had no idea everything he said was being recorded.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: In Miami, investigators pursued a group of rogue police officers
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: suspected of ripping off drug dealers and killing at least
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: three of them. The detectives of CENTAC 26 finally managed
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: to tape an incriminating conversation with the group's leader, Officer Rivera,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: as he talked about the raids, the drugs, the dirty cops.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Detective Alex Alvarez.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: It was key, key evidence because it was the corrupt
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: police officer's own words about what he did, when he
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: did it, and who he did it with.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami reviewed the tapes. Assistant U.S.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Attorney Russell Killinger knew they would need as much evidence
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: as possible to convince a jury that several Miami law
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: enforcement officers were behind the murders and thefts. The tapes
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: provided a good start But Killinger needed more evidence to
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: implicate the other officers. Perhaps Armando Un could get it.
• 37:02
  Speaker 9: We wanted to get Un wearing a wire and talking
• 37:07
  Speaker 9: to the other cops so that we'd get those other
• 37:10
  Speaker 9: cops to confirm their own participation out of.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: Their own mouths.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Wearing a wire, Un met with Miami officers Marco Ribera
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: and Armando Garcia. He told them that investigators were asking
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: him questions about the boat raids. They warned him not
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: to cooperate. He assured him CENTAC had nothing on any
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: of them. But then they became suspicious, asking him if
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: he was wired. That effectively halted all plans to record
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: any more of the officers. But investigators were undaunted.
• 38:04
  Speaker 9: We decided to take more of an overt approach in
• 38:09
  Speaker 9: the investigation and go to.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: The next level, which was basically.
• 38:17
  Speaker 9: Subpoenaing witnesses to the grand juries, issuing bank subpoenas for
• 38:21
  Speaker 9: bank records and financial records.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Investigators began cataloging the assets of the suspects, including Marco
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Ribera's safety deposit box at a Miami bank. The box
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: contained over $ 260, 000 in cash, nearly 10 times his annual salary.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Like Ribera, the other suspect officers left incriminating money trails.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: The money was burning holes in their pockets and they
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: were spending money left and right. They buy 20, 30, 40, $ 50, 000 cars, cash.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: They bought homes valued in excess of $ 200, 000, cash. They
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: bought expensive furniture, they put down cash. Now this is
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: an officer who's making $ 30, 000. We had an enormous amount
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: of evidence.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: The financial records, together with the taped conversations, were enough
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: evidence for arrest warrants to be issued. Two days after
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Christmas 1985, CENTAC 26, Miami PD, and the FBI began
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: the arrests, taking down six Miami cops, including... the ringleader,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Officer Marco Rivera. Officer Armando Garcia was also arrested without incident.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Osvaldo Coelho and Emilio Ray surrendered in the following days.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: The trial began on September 29, 1986. Federal prosecutors thought
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: they had a strong case.
• 39:54
  Speaker 9: We felt pretty good about the case. We'd gotten pretty
• 39:56
  Speaker 9: much all the evidence in that we had hoped to
• 39:59
  Speaker 9: get in.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Then, on January 21, 1987, the jury came back with
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: their verdicts. I remember the judge just kept looking at.
• 40:14
  Speaker 9: The verdict forms, and he would look at one and
• 40:16
  Speaker 9: put it down, and look at another and put it down,
• 40:18
  Speaker 9: then pick up the other one and look at it again,
• 40:20
  Speaker 9: and this went on for what seemed like an eternity.
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: And then he started shaking his head.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: The jury was deadlocked, causing the judge to declare a mistrial.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: One juror had refused to deliberate. Investigators were stunned as
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: all suspects were released.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: That was really a low point in the investigation. We
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: found out later because the jurors, the 11 jurors that
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: voted for conviction were so convinced that these officers, because
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: of all the evidence, were guilty, they started coming forward
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: and saying, you know, we started getting contacted by friends
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: and family members of these cops offering us jobs and
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: offering us money. And we knew that that was an
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: attempt to try to get us to sway our votes.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: The mistrial was an enormous setback. Detectives knew if they
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: could not put these corrupt cops away, the people of Miami...
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: may never trust law enforcement again. A group of Miami
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: officers were arrested and prosecuted for corruption, but chaos in
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: the jury room resulted in a mistrial. All suspects were released.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: They were thrilled that they weren't convicted. What they didn't realize,
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: it was probably a blessing in disguise for us because
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: all that did is give us more time And we
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: were more determined to find more evidence against him. That's
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: exactly what happened.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: The prosecutor and detectives were unwilling to give up. With
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: so much at stake, investigators needed a break. They finally
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: got one.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: We found out that these officers had hired a hitman
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: to kill Armando Un.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: That hitman was killer Joe Martinez. He confessed to being hired,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: hoping he'd get leniency for another crime he had committed.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: We brought him in. He testified against the river cops.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: We were able to add more charges against them. And
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: by that time, you know, the case was just becoming
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger, and they had
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: nowhere to go, and then they started to fold and
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: they started to cooperate.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: The case finally broke wide open when one of the defendants,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: patrolman Emilio Ray, decided to confess. Through his lawyer, he
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: had learned of the additional evidence against him. He hoped
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: for sentencing leniency in exchange for his testimony.
• 43:13
  Speaker 9: He described to us some fairly bone-chilling statements. conspiracies that
• 43:19
  Speaker 9: had gone on and that were going on in an
• 43:22
  Speaker 9: effort to try to kill the government witnesses.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: All of the government's witnesses, especially Armando Un, were in danger.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Investigators knew they had to use Patrolman Ray's confession to
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: put more pressure on the other river cops. Facing the
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: beefed up federal case, ringleader Marco Ribera confessed.
• 43:55
  Speaker 9: He had implicated some 60 other City of Miami police
• 43:59
  Speaker 9: officers in various criminal activities.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, Osvaldo Coelho and Armando Garcia fled the Miami area.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Five months later, an FBI informant said Coelho was hiding
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: in the Bahamas. The FBI has no formal jurisdiction outside
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: the United States, so it maintains legal attache offices called
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: legats in many foreign countries. They work as liaisons with
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: each country's national police. The FBI liaison asked the Bahamian
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: police for their assistance. They agreed to help get Coelho.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Coelho was wanted for taking part in massive and deadly
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: cocaine ripoffs in Miami. Investigators knew he had a broad
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: network of friends he could ask for help. Coelho called
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: one of them several times to arrange for assistance. Don't
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: be here. What Coelho didn't know was that the FBI
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: had already approached the friend and he was working as
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: an informant. The Bahamian police arrested Osvaldo Coelho without incident.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: He was extradited back to Miami to face charges of
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: drug trafficking, conspiracy and racketeering. Armando Garcia was the last
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: of the rogue Miami cops still at large. On January 8th, 1989,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: the FBI added Garcia to their 10 most wanted fugitives list.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: FBI Special Agent Robert Martin.
• 46:02
  Speaker 7: We don't pick our top 10 fugitives lightly. They have
• 46:05
  Speaker 7: to be people that we consider to be a serious danger,
• 46:07
  Speaker 7: not only to society, but to the very nature and
• 46:10
  Speaker 7: fabric of what makes our country what it is. And
• 46:13
  Speaker 7: one of those things is, is honest, honest law enforcement services.
• 46:19
  Speaker 7: Garcia was added to the list for that reason.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: The FBI had evidence that Garcia may have fled to
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: South America, but had few leads. Special Agent Robert Martin
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: ran the public corruption squad that kept searching for the
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: elusive fugitive.
• 46:42
  Speaker 7: Armando Garcia was uniquely qualified to understand what it was
• 46:47
  Speaker 7: going to take to survive out of the country. Here
• 46:50
  Speaker 7: was a police officer who knew every technique that we
• 46:54
  Speaker 7: might use to find him or capture him. A guy
• 46:57
  Speaker 7: that knew the difficulties moving in and out of foreign
• 47:01
  Speaker 7: countries and doing investigations in those foreign countries.
• 47:04
  Speaker 6: On top of that, you had a guy that had
• 47:05
  Speaker 6: a lot of money.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Garcia could be anywhere. For four years, agents looked into
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: hundreds of leads with negative results. Then, in late 1993,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: the FBI got a tip. A friend was planning to
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: visit the Garcia family in Colombia. Agents worked with the
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Colombian police who followed the friend to an apartment in Cali.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Agents believed that fugitive Armando Garcia was living there.
• 47:45
  Speaker 7: The Columbia National Police set up a surveillance with a
• 47:48
  Speaker 7: number of units. It was going to be a 24-hour
• 47:50
  Speaker 7: surveillance and waited to see if they could identify anybody
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: who had come out or traveled around with her.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Three days later, they spotted Armando Garcia. The fugitive was
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: caught off guard, unarmed.
• 48:12
  Speaker 6: Garcia told them, said, I have.
• 48:15
  Speaker 7: $ 4, 000 with me. I have, you see the jewelry I have,
• 48:18
  Speaker 7: you see my automobile. I have goods and belongings in
• 48:21
  Speaker 7: my apartment. You can have all of that if you
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: just let me go. And to quote the Columbia National
• 48:28
  Speaker 7: Police official who came to Miami to describe events, they
• 48:34
  Speaker 7: then told Armando Garcia.
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: We're not the dirty cops. You are.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: The last of the main suspects, Armando Garcia, pleaded guilty
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: to drug trafficking, racketeering, and tax evasion and was sentenced
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: to 25 years. When it was all over, 17 Miami
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: officers were convicted for their involvement in the drug ripoff ring.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: It was the largest police corruption case in Florida history.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: In response to the scandal, the city of Miami Police
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Department formed its own internal investigations unit that targeted over
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: 100 additional officers.
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: They obviously were suffering from all the media exposure and
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: the embarrassment of having numerous officers arrested, but I think
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: it made them a stronger department. When you weed out
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: the bad officers, you know, it just makes the good
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: officers shine even brighter.