NARRATOR: In the criminal justice system
the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups,
the police who investigate crime
and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
Seriously, he got a friend that works at the Garden.
Eighth row tickets? For real?
Yeah.
I gotta ask my mom.
So ask her. She home?
You crazy, Benicio? She ain't gonna let me go out with you.
Don't worry. I'll tell her I'm going with Letti.
Okay. That's cool.
That's cool too.
(GUNSHOTS)
(MEN SHOUTING)
0h. my God!
(GUNSHOTS CONTINUE)
(WOMAN SCREAMING)
(CHATTERING OVER POLICE RADIO)
Whoever it was came in hard and fast.
Found what's left of a kilo in the back bedroom.
Two vics here, five more in the back.
Stash house.
Looks like a shotgun blast over here.
I guess these two were watching the door.
Any idea who they are?
No lD's. We'll get a hit on the prints.
Any more drugs? Cash?
Cleaned them out.
There's an empty floor trap in the bedroom closet.
Damn.
My God!
Looks like this is where the party was.
EMS found one still breathing. Another teenage girl.
Shot? OD'd.
She was covered in blood, but it turned out to be somebody else's.
Is she gonna make it?
Medics said she's touch and go.
Sabina Montgomery. Harpswood.
The prep school?
OFFICER: They all went there.
Melinda McKenzie,
Brittany Walker,
Maria Alvarez.
Looks like Park Avenue is giving Washington Heights a bad name.
The doctor said all we can do is wait.
This must be very tough.
Did you know where your daughter was,
what she was doing? Who she was with?
She told us that she was going to a friend's house to study.
Did you know that your daughter was using drugs?
She doesn't use drugs.
She's into sports. Swimming. She does the butterfly.
I didn't say she was an addict, ma'am.
Maybe this was the first time she used drugs.
Maybe... Sabina has a 4.0 GPA.
She's going to Princeton in the fall.
Sir, excuse me for saying this,
but those girls were snorting heroin.
Your daughter is being treated for a drug overdose.
Three of her friends are in the morgue.
This is all since she started hanging around with that Hispanic girl.
What Hispanic girl?
Maria Alvarez.
CALVIN: A scholarship student.
Is that a bad thing?
It's just a different world.
You know what I mean, with different norms.
She's from that neighborhood.
She must've taken them to that awful place.
I'll tell you what.
When we go up to that awful neighborhood
to tell Mr. Alvarez that his daughter actually died, I'll ask him.
I'm gonna wait in the car, all right?
I hope your daughter makes it, I really do.
RICARDO: You asking did Maria take them there?
I don't think so,
but I also don't think that Maria did drugs, either.
So you didn't know?
Maria was the last person I would have suspected.
Look, I lost ayounger brother tojunk, okay?
My boy, Javier, every day the drug dealers hassle him.
When Maria got into this fancy prep school,
lthought, "Hey, maybe this is our ticket out of this."
But no.
No. Our Mayor says crime is down.
Well, he doesn't live up here.
You're free to look around.
She was a good girl. A really good girl.
The only thing that she was guilty of
was trying too hard to fit in with her new friends.
Too much money, too many things, no limits.
I thought that they were a fast crowd.
Much faster than my Maria.
God.
We searched this girl's computer, her cell phone, her diary.
There's nothing that connects her
to those four dealers in that apartment.
Prints come back yet?
They all had sheets. Burglary, robbery, assault.
A couple of them were pinched a few years back
for taking off a stash house in the 34.
What about the heroin at the scene?
Southwest Asian. Probably Afghani.
Super high grade, 95% pure.
Shoot it, smoke it, snort it.
When I was in Narcotics the stuff on the street was Columbian
and 50% pure at best. You had to shoot it.
Kept the casual user away, but these days...
Prep school girls and stockbrokers, chasing the dragon.
Globalization.
You know, I'd like to know how our prep school girls
hooked up with these lowlifes.
How's that girl in the hospital?
She's still out of it.
And honestly, I don't know what she's gonna be able to tell us anyway.
We were just on our way to her school to talk to a few friends of hers.
All right, I'll call the headmaster.
Give him a heads up that you'll be dropping by.
Felicia? We wanted to ask you a couple of questions.
About Sabina?
Just trying to figure out what happened to your friends.
I don't know anything. I swear.
All right, Felicia. If you don't, you don't, and that's fine with us.
But if you do, that's between you and your conscience.
You were friends with Maria Alvarez too, right?
Do you know what people are saying about her?
That this is somehow her fault because she lives uptown.
I was supposed to go with them.
But I chickened out. I said I wasn't feeling well.
Where did you meet these guys?
At a rave. Down in Chelsea.
We went there every Friday night.
We'd hook up with them there and party.
These guys, were they from Maria's neighborhood?
She never saw those guys before.
We just hung out with them at the rave, you know?
So what happened last night?
They said they had some H.
Really good stuff.
(SIGHING) Said we should come over and try it.
The other girls wanted to, but it scared me.
And where is this rave?
(DANCE MUSIC PLAYING)
Why you busting my balls? All we're doing is having a little fun.
You know how fast we can close this hellhole down?
We go back in there and we see people doing drugs,
all we gotta do is make one phone call
and this place is gone for good.
Okay, okay. Hey, I didn't say I wouldn't help you.
What do you want?
These guys I know. Tino, Eddie.
Last names?
I don't know anybody's last name.
You're gonna have to be a little bit more helpful, Hugo.
(sums)
They run with Sammy Santiago from uptown. Part of his crew.
So what's he into?
Sammy deals H. Moves a lot of it.
But not here, though, I swear. He knows this place is off-limits.
Is he in there right now? We should go look and see if he's in there.
Hey, hey, hey. He never showed up.
Must be getting lucky someplace else.
Where do we find him? (SIGHS)
Where do we find him?
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
Nobody's home.
So what do you wanna do?
Oh, as long as we're here.
What do you know?
Something don't smell so good.
Oh.
RODGERS: It's a well documented torture technique.
You beat someone long enough,
the muscle tissue starts to break down.
Rhabdomyalysis.
The toxins build up in the bloodstream, cause the kidneys to fail.
Is that what killed him?
It would have, but I guess they were in a hurry.
Restraint abrasions.
(SIGHING) After they got tired of beating him he was strangled.
Petechial hemorrhaging, ligature marks on his neck.
So how about a time of death?
(GROANS) About 24 hours, give or take.
That's about the same time they ripped off the stash house.
What about these cigarette butts?
RODGERS: Oh, we bagged one of those.
Didn't look American. Maybe a European brand?
I'll have the lab let you know.
FONTANA: Thanks.
No forced entry.
Maybe Santiago was expecting somebody.
Well, this guy doesn't strike me as the type you just drop in on.
Well, it is rude just to show up
at a drug dealer's doorstep unannounced.
We pull the LUDS on his phone,
maybe we can figure out who visited him.
What can I do for you, detectives?
A call was made to Sammy Santiago's cell phone from here.
Is this Sammy Santiago
in the concrete business?
Actually, he's in the heroin business.
Heroin?
I sell sand and gravel.
You did a stretch for assault
a little while back, didn't you?
When I was young and stupid.
I'm a businessman now.
I control my temper.
But I will let you gentleman know if I find out
who made this call to this dead heroin dealer. Yes?
The old country?
I am. Yes.
I'm from Chicago.
Lot of Albanians in Chicago.
Some of them are in the Outfit.
You call it the Mob around these parts.
I sell gravel.
Have you ever heard of torturing a guy to death,
by beating him on the soles of his feet?
No.
It sounds painful.
I don't want that to happen to me. Or you.
Or to you.
You should consider quitting. Those things'll kill you.
Have a good day, detectives.
What do you say we stop by the crime lab on the way to the hospital?
We didn't think it was that bad.
It wasn't like we were shooting up or anything.
You know, I'm really surprised at you.
A smart girl such as yourself,
going to Princeton and all.
I guess I made a mistake.
I guess you did.
Are you gonna send me to jail?
You know what? Wejust might send you to jail,
unless you promise to tell us the truth
about everything you remember that night,
you stay in school and get yourself some drug counseling.
I promise.
Okay!
Sabina, I'm going to show you some photos, all right?
I want you to see if you recognize anybody.
If you do, tell me from where.
I was kind of out of it.
I don't know if I got a good look.
Just take a look. All right? Take your time.
No. Sorry.
How about this one?
(WHISPERING) Bardha.
Where do you know him from?
That place. Where I...
Where my friends got killed.
When did you see him?
I was nodding off.
There was a lot of noise coming from the other room.
Shouting... I guess gunshots.
Then a man came into the room.
That man.
What did he do?
He started shooting...
Everyone.
We have a witness that identifies him
as one of the shooters at the Washington Heights massacre.
We can also tie him to the murder of Sammy Santiago.
We have DNA evidence that puts him at the crime scene.
And how do you come to find Mr. Bardha's DNA?
Well, let's just say that Mr. Bardha enjoys a smoke
while he's torturing somebody to death.
So what happened? Sammy Santiago ripped you off?
You took down his stash house,
then you found Sammy and gave him a little a foot massage, huh?
How's he doing?
You're wasting your time, fellas. Are we?
We're gonna get search warrants
for his house and for his place of business.
And you know what we're gonna find?
We're gonna find heroin
that matches exactly the heroin that we found in that stash house.
Afghani heroin!
ED: And maybe a shotgun and a Tech-9
that we can also tie to the scene of the crime.
We got you for Santiago and we're gonna nail you for those other seven.
It was not my heroin.
CARRANO: Arten. Let him talk.
He gets a deal, you get a name.
He is the suspect in eight homicides.
What kind of deal do you think he's gonna get?
Hydar Raheem. From Bombay.
He is in the heroin business.
Afghani heroin?
He needs somebody to distribute his product in this country.
He talks to Santiago.
Santiago says he's interested.
He asks for time to think about it.
Then he rips off Raheem instead.
So Raheem's pissed.
(CHUCKLES) He is so pissed. He calls me.
And you pay Sammy a visit.
We had a discussion.
He tells me where Raheem's heroin is.
So I go to the stash house and get it back.
You killed seven people, including three teenage girls.
We did not know those girls should be there.
The other four, they are soldiers.
They choose this life.
Does Bardha's story check out?
Well, Raheem does have an import store at Broadway and 11th.
It's wholesale, to the trade only.
What does he import?
Antiques and sacred objects. Now, Customs is reluctant to search religious items,
so it's a pretty clever way to smuggle junk.
Does Raheem have a sheet? No. He's clean.
Bardha says that Raheem's got a shipment of Afghan heroin
coming in in the next couple of days.
All right, let's track it and see if we could catch Raheem taking delivery.
Who do we have coming in now?
Flight 227 from London.
(CHATTERING OVER PA)
Another young Indian couple.
(PHONE RINGING)
Yeah... Got it.
I need to take a look at your bags.
Random check, ma'am.
Of course.
They sure look nervous as hell.
Okay, let's see what we got.
Look at these screws.
You got three Phillips-head, and one straight-edge.
Messing with this religious stuff could get you sued.
That's all right, we're authorized.
ED: Look at that.
We should pack this stuff back up and let them go where they're going.
May I help you?
Yeah, you can stay out of our way.
What's going on here?
You're under arrest.
For what? Drug trafficking.
Oh, my God, we didn't know.
Be quiet! Where is your warrant?
We don't need a warrant.
We saw these two people walk into this establishment
carrying a suitcase with an unknown quantity of heroin in it.
What... What heroin?
I sell religious pictures, icons.
Save it for later, bro'.
Don't say anything. I'll get you a lawyer.
ED: Let me read you your rights, first.
Yeah, please do.
He didn't know the picture frames contained heroin?
So, those couriers just brought it in on their own?
And then just happened to take it directly to his store?
Can you prove otherwise?
We're going to search his store, his other properties,
and his warehouse.
I've got a feeling we're gonna find a whole lot more
than statuettes and knick-knacks.
And somehow, I get the feeling that the, uh,
"I didn't know the heroin was in the statue of the Lord Vishnu"
defense isn't gonna work.
We'd like to talk to the District Attorney.
(FONTANA LAUGHING)
He's a little busy this time of day, man.
I think they're going to want to hear what my client has to say.
Well, why don't you give us a little preview?
Maybe we can get somebody on the phone.
Qaadar Khaleel.
Who's that?
One of the biggest drug lords in Afghanistan.
And you got your dope from him?
He is the man I work for.
(SCOFFS) The only problem with that is,
is that Afghanistan is halfway around the world,
and a little out of our jurisdiction.
He is here. Khaleel is here. In New York.
He arrived last night. He comes once a month.
On business? And pleasure.
He fancies blondes.
There are not so many of them back in Afghanistan.
Raheem is going to meet him tomorrow.
What do you think?
Fancies blonds, huh.
Don't even go there.
Raheem's got a deal if he agrees to wear a wire.
I want this drug lord's confession on tape.
This dude travels in style.
Khaleel's car just pulled up. Black Town Car.
OFFICER ON RADIO: Copy that. Black Town Car.
Did you see that? Zoom in on those plates?
Those are diplomatic plates.
Yeah. Raheem's in. One other passenger and a driver.
Khaleel a diplomat?
Raheem didn't mention that.
Well, it doesn't matter. We wired the guy, not the car.
They're on the move. They're heading south on Broadway.
Red, white, blue diplomatic plates.
Adam-Frank-one-zero-two-one.
We got the eyeball.
Don't know about you, but! am famished.
(SPEAKING URDU)
Parwana's on 12th Street.
They're going to Parwana's restaurant on 12th Street.
Three blocks from here between Broadway and University Place.
It's between Broadway and University Place.
I have some news about Santiago.
Everything's been taken care of?
As you instructed.
I called Bardha and told him this was a serious problem.
And?
We have our product back.
Santiago and his friends?
Bardha took care of them.
(SIGHING) Excellent.
Did he just give it up?
That's the best we're gonna get.
We're gonna take him in front of the restaurant.
OFFICER: Ten-four. Back-up is flying.
(SIREN BLARES)
ED: Qaadar Khaleel?
(TIRES SCREECHING)
(POLICE SIRENS WAILING)
Yes? You're under arrest.
I have diplomatic immunity.
For murder and narcotics trafficking? I doubt it.
Good work. Excellent work.
He's a Judas, Raheem is. He set you up and he sold you out.
"Docket number 48102. People v. Qaadar Khaleel. "
Charge is eight counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
Eight counts of murder in the first degree.
That's a lot of counts.
How does he plead, Mr. Rems?
Not guilty, Your Honor.
Ms. Southerlyn?
The defendant is a drug lord.
He's an international narcotics trafficker.
Alleged.
My client has no criminal record whatsoever.
Who ordered the Washington Heights massacre.
He's an Afghan national
with access to unlimited amounts of drug money.
He's clearly a flight risk.
The People's entire case is built on the word of a narco-trafficker
who's complicit in these murders
and who'll say anything to reduce his jail time.
We have a video recording of the defendant discussing
how he ordered these murders.
We dispute it was an admission.
And in any event it was illegally obtained.
You can argue your suppression issue
before the trial judge, Mr. Rems.
I'm not granting bail to anyone connected to this blood bath.
The defendant is remanded.
(GAVEL POUNDS)
So what's wrong with the statement, Mr. Rems?
The police eavesdrop on a diplomatic car
and invaded the sanctity of a foreign nation's consular territory.
Please. Are you trying to tell me that your client is a diplomat?
I don't think the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
makes that distinction.
Mr. Khaleel is a very important man in Afghanistan.
But I checked.
He's not with your consulate here.
Mr. Khaleel is a businessman.
What was he doing in your Consul's car?
Mr. Khaleel calls me when he comes to New York.
I drive him, show him the City.
Please, do not involve me in this.
My brother is one of his captains, in Paktika, in Afghanistan.
I don't understand.
Are you saying your brother's a police or military officer?
No, no, no. Khaleel has his own army, militia, about 500 men.
He's awarlord.
Khaleel keeps my province safe from outlaws and terrorists.
He keeps the Taliban from coming back.
He feeds my brother's children.
When he asks me to do this, I cannot say no.
Khaleel isn't part of the Afghanistan diplomatic mission.
It doesn't change the diplomatic status of the car.
The Vienna Convention of 1961 states that
the premises of a country's diplomatic missions,
as well as its means of transport, are immune from search.
The defense claims that a drug dealer
has an expectation of privacy in that vehicle?
Even if it's used on a lark?
That's right.
Well, I don't think that bird'll fly.
Let's see what this State Department fella has to say.
Mr. Branch! Edwin Blitzer.
What can I do for you, Mr. Blitzer?
Well, we understand you have Qaadar Khaleel in custody.
He's been charged as a principal
in the Washington Heights massacre.
He's been in the country less than 24 hours.
What could he possibly have to do with that?
Mr. Khaleel is an international narco-trafficker.
He's importing Afghan heroin into New York.
You have evidence of this?
Plenty.
Do you want to see it?
Khaleel is an ally of our...
Our interests over there.
He has been a staunch opponent of the Taliban.
Well, the one thing you could say about the Taliban
is they didn't tolerate drug trade.
The threat in Afghanistan wasn't about opium.
Not then, but what about now?
Isn't the country in danger of becoming the next Colombia?
We're cognizant of the threats to the new government
and the conflict in Afghanistan is far from over.
Khaleel has helped us capture a dozen al Qaeda operatives
over the past two years.
The man is an indispensable resource.
He's a drug lord. It's like dealing with Pablo Escobar.
We have to prioritize.
First the Taliban and al Qaeda.
And after the drug lords and warlords have helped Karzai do that,
we help Karzai deal with the drug lords and war lords.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
That's how it works in that part of the world.
You can't be picky on who you work with.
You can see how sensitive this matter is for the State Department.
This case could be a huge embarrassment
to the United States and President Karzai.
Well, when they see the crime scene photos
of the Washington Heights apartment,
I'm sure they'll get over that.
I understand you have both the man who gave the direct order
and the man who did the actual killing, in custody.
Mr. Raheem and Mr. Bardha.
And they've both agreed to plead guilty? Isn't that enough?
Mr. Raheem will testify that Mr. Bardha carried out these killings
at the behest of your erstwhile ally.
Anything you could do to help us, Mr. Branch,
would be greatly appreciated.
We'll thank Mr. Khaleel for his past assistance to America
in fighting terrorism.
But, he's gone onto drug dealing and mass murder.
And if I have anything to say about it,
he'll spend the rest of his natural life
in a New York correctional facility.
The Vienna Convention makes it clear you can't search a diplomatic car.
Except that the diplomatic protection the defendant seeks to invoke
applies only to a physical search.
What message do we send to the world
when we allow the police to place wired agents
into diplomatically protected areas?
Mr. Khaleel can't shield his conversations
simply by holding them in diplomatic car.
The Supreme Court has held that a person has
no constitutionally justified expectation
that someone he talks to will not reveal that conversation to the police.
The informant wore awire. Audio and video.
And the Supreme Court has also held that an orally reported conversation
is no different than a wire transmission.
US v. White.
Mr. McCoy's analysis is correct.
The Vienna Convention didn't prevent Mr. Raheem
from relaying the substance of his conversation
with Mr. Khaleel after the fact.
It doesn't prevent him from recording it either.
Your Honor...
I'm allowing Mr. Khaleel's recorded statement to be introduced at trial.
Eight murder counts, Mr. Rems.
I suggest your client might want to think about a plea bargain.
The best I can do is 50 to life, Mr. Rems.
You want that, Mr. Khaleel?
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
So, I can tell Judge Mizener
that I at least made an effort.
Notice that I'll be introducing a public authority defense at trial.
Which applies when an informant or a hostage
is forced to do something illegal.
Like when a Cl handles drugs to keep his cover.
Exactly.
That isn't a recognized defense, Mr. Rems.
And which government authorized Mr. Khaleel to murder eight people?
The United States. It enlisted his help in the war in Afghanistan.
I didn't realize American teenagers in Washington Heights
were enemy combatants.
My client poses as a friend to the insurgents
who are eager to do business with drug traffickers
in an effort to fund their terrorist activities.
I still don't see what it has to do with this case.
In order to continue to assist the US,
he has to run his drug business.
Which requires him to behave like a drug lord.
So if someone steals his drugs,
he's authorized to slaughter them to keep his cover?
He didn't authorize the slaughter of anyone.
He merely asked an overzealous subordinate
to retrieve his stolen property.
This is one of the most outrageous claims I've ever heard.
Maybe so.
But if Mr. Khaleel is going down for this,
he's taking his handlers down with him.
So is the military corroborating his story?
I don't know that they have any choice.
The US Government knows exactly
what Mr. Khaleel has been doing.
This is Khaleel's handler, Captain Clark Wallace. Army Special Forces.
And here's a letter from Captain Wallace
confirming the shipment of M-16s to Mr. Khaleel in Gardez.
"March 2nd, 2002."
A photograph and an old letter
aren't gonna make your case, Mr. Rems.
Check the arrest report.
You'll notice his first call wasn't to me.
It was to Captain Wallace.
The letter and photograph are authentic.
Khaleel's one of our best sources in Eastern Afghanistan.
According to Interpol, he's a huge importer
of heroin into Western Europe.
And now he's trying to establish himself in New York.
Things on the ground aren't black and white.
Especially in a place like Afghanistan.
You make friends with whoever you need to.
Not so different than being a prosecutor.
Except that we don't allow the people we make deals with
to expand the scope of their criminal activities.
That's here.
We're talking about over there.
I'm not.
I've got eight murders to prosecute in New York City.
Why did Khaleel call you the night that he was arrested?
To get him the hell out of there.
What could you have done for him?
Who do you think called the State Department?
I heard they sent somebody to spring Khaleel.
The only way that's going to happen, Captain Wallace,
is ifajury acquits him.
I'm just stating the facts, Mr. McCoy.
The fallout from this is going to hit people
much higher up on the chain of command than me.
HYDAR: I have worked for Qaadar Khaleel for over 10 years.
Supervising poppy crops in Afghanistan
and shipping the raw opium to Pakistan for processing into heroin.
What other work did you perform
for the defendant, Mr. Raheem?
I oversaw the transport of that heroin into nearby countries,
like India, Turkey, Iran, for sale in Europe and Russia.
Were you responsible
for importing the defendant's heroin into the United States?
Yes, I was.
JACK: And where did you store this heroin?
In stores, homes, what we call "stash houses."
Did you reveal the location
of one of these stash houses to Sammy Santiago?
Yes.
For what reason?
Well, we wanted to sell our heroin, here in New York.
So we contacted Mr. Santiago,
hoping he and his associates would be interested in helping us.
Did they? They robbed us instead.
What happened as a result?
Mr. Khaleel asked me to get our heroin back.
And to have Santiago and his crew killed.
JACK: Nothing further.
Let's get one thing straight to start, Mr. Raheem.
You hired Arten Bardha to kill these people?
Yes.
And in exchange for leniency,
you made a deal with the District Attorney
to testify against my client.
Yes.
Did my client ever tell you explicitly
to have Sammy Santiago and his crew killed?
No. But I knew what he wanted done.
Are you aware, Mr. Raheem, that the production of heroin in Afghanistan
has grown by 2000%
since the United States overthrew the Taliban regime?
That 85% of the world's heroin now comes from Afghanistan?
I am not a bookkeeper.
But, yes, there is much, much more now.
In fact, that was the reason you were sent here, wasn't it?
To find a market for my client's surplus heroin?
Yes, it was.
Did the United States military allow my client
to do business as a drug trafficker?
I know that US soldiers drove by his poppy fields every day.
So, at the very least, they were aware
that he was in the heroin business?
They had to. Unless they were idiots.
So it's quite possible
that Qaadar Khaleel was authorized
by the United States government
to come to this country to further his business interests
in order to support his identity as a drug lord?
Objection to what's possible.
Sustained.
No further questions.
My name is Clark Wallace.
I hold a commission as a captain in the United States Army, Special Forces.
REMS: And what was your last assignment?
I served in Afghanistan.
How were you deployed?
I commanded a military intelligence and reconnaissance unit
composed of native Afghans in Paktika province.
Meaning you weren't working with the regular Afghan Army?
Correct.
Why were you commanding a local civilian force, Captain Wallace?
The provinces are controlled by the local tribesmen.
If you're in an area like Paktika,
where you require knowledge of the terrain, routes,
who the good guys are and who the bad guys are,
you engage local people in order to carry out your mission.
What was your mission, Captain Wallace?
To capture Taliban and al Qaeda operatives
hiding along the Pakistani border, in the tribal areas.
Mr. Khaleel was one of the tribal leaders
you engaged to help you do this?
He controlled a large area of the Paktika province.
And how exactly did he help you?
He provided intelligence, vehicles, personnel.
Personnel? What does that mean?
He provided men. Soldiers. Troops.
To fight?
If necessary.
And who paid these men, the Afghan government?
The fighters I worked with weren't paid by the central government.
They were paid by...
Mr. Khaleel.
He had a standing militia of 1,500 men.
And where did Mr. Khaleel
come up with the money to pay and equip 1,500 full-time fighters?
I wouldn't know.
Are you saying you had no knowledge that Mr. Khaleel was in the heroin business?
Correct, sir.
You never saw his poppy fields?
None I could identify as Khaleel's.
And you never asked him how he funded his militia?
I don't ask questions I don't need the answers to.
Captain, you're testifying under oath.
I understand that.
May We approach?
This man is perjuring himself.
He's your witness, Mr. Rems.
If you have evidence he's lying, let's see it.
Rems had his head in the clouds if he thought that
a captain in the Special Forces was going to
openly acknowledge that he'd consorted with a heroin trafficker.
I don't know what's worse,
them pretending it didn't happen or just admitting it.
You know, Rems is corroborating our case
by conceding that Khaleel's a dealer.
But it's also tending to support it.
At the very least, the military acquiesced to his opium business.
At the very least?
Are you suggesting that they may have facilitated it?
Possibly.
At most they may have ignored it, in Afghanistan.
But Khaleel's not being charged with drug felonies.
He's charged with murder, in New York State.
And there's not a snowball's chance in hell
that our government acquiesced to that.
Didn't the CIA help run drugs for the Contras?
That's a left-wing myth from a lunatic fringe.
Don't be too sure this is a lock, Arthur.
These days, half the country
thinks everything the government says is Orwellian double-speak.
And the other half have absolute faith in what we're doing.
So try to make the jury see it that way.
I don't want them buying any paranoid conspiracy theories
about the federal government.
I have received money, rifles for my men.
And up until now, plenty of thanks
from the United States Government for the work that I did.
As confirmed in this letter from Captain Wallace?
Yes.
Where was this photograph taken?
Near Jalalabad.
We had apprehended some Taliban.
We were actually celebrating.
How did that happen, Mr. Khaleel?
We believed they might be with al Qaeda,
and we had heard they were interested in doing business with me.
What kind of business?
They were offering to transport some of my opium into Pakistan.
Was Captain Wallace aware you were doing this?
He encouraged it.
He wanted to capture some of these men and question them
about their terrorist activities. Which is what we did.
Did he ever request that you stop your drug trafficking activities?
(SCOFFS)
Captain Wallace is a smart man.
He knows that without opium, Afghanistan would crumble.
The poppy seed crop represents half of my country's economy.
Maybe more.
So American forces have done nothing to stop your drug business?
It is not their business to do so.
It is the Afghan government's.
And they haven't done anything to interdict your activities?
Under the Taliban, opium was forbidden.
Now it is flourishing.
Which is why we have come to America.
To look for new markets for our products.
Like New York?
One of the biggest. The sky is the limit.
Mr. Khaleel,
did you authorize Hydar Raheem to murder your business rivals?
Absolutely not.
I asked him to retrieve the heroin that was stolen from me.
That's all.
Everything's been taken care of?
As you instructed. I called Bardha.
I told him this was a serious problem.
And?
We have our product back.
Santiago and his friends?
Bardha took care of them.
Excellent.
That's you talking to Mr. Raheem, sir?
Yes.
Gloating over the murders of your rival drug dealers?
Listen to the videotape. I did not say I did anything like that.
But Mr. Raheem did in fact work for you?
From time to time. The man is not my puppet.
So which is it, Mr. Khaleel,
you deny ordering the murders
or the United States authorized you to do so
to protect your identity as a drug dealer?
I don't understand your question.
Of course you do. Make a choice in front of this jury.
You ordered the murders or you had no hand in them?
Every day in my part of the world,
the United States drops a bomb or fires a missile in order to kill terrorists.
Do other people die as a result?
Yes, regrettably.
But for the greater good.
I ordered no murders.
I simply dispatched a subordinate
to retrieve the product that was stolen from me.
Using any means necessary?
I don't know how to answer that.
I believe you just did, Mr. Khaleel.
JUDGE: Has the jury reached a verdict?
Yes, we have, Your Honor.
How do you find?
We find the defendant, Qaadar Khaleel,
guilty of eight counts of murder in the first degree.
(GAVEL POUNDS)
It's basic physics. For every action there is a reaction.
We arm the mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union,
they turned on us.
They'll attack us at home and abroad.
9/11, we invade Afghanistan,
topple the Taliban, and the world is flooded with cheap heroin.
And I've got eight dead bodies in New York City
and more to come.
It's called "blowback."
Unintended consequences.
Something tells me Khaleel won't be
the last unintended consequence to show up on our doorstep.