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On "America's War on Drugs"...

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Cocaine is
the atom bomb of Latin America.

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He was given
a cellmate with whom

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he would go on
to change the drug world.

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I could get us enough coke
to get the whole world high.

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Pablo Escobar had tremendous
political ambitions.

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If you're gonna mess with Pablo,
you know, Pablo will kill you.

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I must speak to you tonight
about a mounting danger

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in Central America.

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This is an outlaw regime.

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There's lying, secret
shipments of weapons down,

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and then coming back
with cocaine.

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I'm going after
the drug dealers

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that they were protecting.

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We were really playing
Russian roulette with our lives.

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I knew it went
all the way to the White House.

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I do not deny that I engaged
in shredding on November 21st.

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You basically have a
secret CIA operation laid bare.

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It's really hard for me
to fantasize that something

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so small could be so valuable.

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Pots big enough to cook me in.

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It was like, this is
what I was made for.

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It's important
to think about cocaine

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almost not as a drug.

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But what it really was
was a currency.

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Any valuable currency
has an inherent power to it.

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And cocaine became
that currency.

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Two years
after Richard Nixon

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declares the War on Drugs,

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the Watergate scandal
rocks the nation.

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Nixon's on his way out.

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And drug use is on the rise.

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In the early to mid-'70s,

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because Nixon had been obsessed
with marijuana and heroin,

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nobody talked that much
about cocaine.

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And within a very short
period of time,

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it became one of
the biggest moneymakers

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in drug smuggling in the world.

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And it caught everyone
by surprise.

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The story of how cocaine

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took America by storm
starts here

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in a Connecticut federal prison

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where this man is doing
time for car theft --

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Carlos Lehder.

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Son of a German father
and Colombian mother,

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Carlos Lehder is
a man of contradictions.

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He worships Hitler
and John Lennon.

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He was a car thief
in the beginning.

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He used a lot of coke himself,
he had delusions of grandeur.

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He was crazy in many ways,
but also he was a visionary.

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At a fairly young age,

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he went to jail in Danbury
in Connecticut,

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and that might have been
the end of his criminal career,

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but it wasn't.

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He was given a cellmate
with whom he would go on

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to change the drug world.

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Lehder's cell mate
is an American

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with a passion for aviation.

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George Jung, a hippie misfit,
who specializes in smuggling

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marijuana from Mexico into
the U.S. on small planes.

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Jung had been importing cannabis
from Mexico to the United States

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using a light aircraft.

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He'd never thought of
importing anything else.

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These relatively unknown
criminals hooked up together

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and became partners.

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It was this match made in heaven

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because Jung had
experience with airplanes

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and with smuggling marijuana

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and Lehder had experience
with cocaine.

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The combination of these two
guys resulted in the conclusion

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to revolutionize the cocaine
trade in the United States.

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Camila!

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Medellin is the center

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of Colombia's burgeoning
cocaine underworld,

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and the home of the man
with whom

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Carlos Lehder
and George Jung

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will revolutionize
the cocaine trade.

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Senorita!

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Pablo Escobar Gaviria --

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As a teenager was already
a petty thief,

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allegedly stealing gravestones

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and then sanding them down
to be resold.

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He sells contraband cigarettes
on the Colombian black market.

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Then he moves on to cocaine.

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Pablo Escobar
was sort of like

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if you founded a company,

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you need a chief of operations.

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Escobar's job was to help
manage this network

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of cocaine processing labs,

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and then to help manage
the smuggling

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of the cocaine product
into North America.

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What's wrong?

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And Escobar
is looking for a better product

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to compete
in the North American market.

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Escobar's meeting
with a Chilean chemist

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who just fled a bloody coup.

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In the early '70s,
Chile, not Colombia,

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is the center
of the cocaine trade.

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Chile's also a Cold War hotspot,

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where the U.S. is worried
a left-wing government

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will turn Communist.

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On September 11, 1973,

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a CIA-backed coup overthrows

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the democratically-elected
government.

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An American ally,

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Augusto Pinochet
begins cracking down

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on criminals
and those he considers

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to be enemies of the state.

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The best chemists in the world

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for making cocaine from coca
were in Chile.

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When they cracked down on them,
they split and left

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and went to Colombia.

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America's attempts to foster
the replacement

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of left-leaning governments
with governments

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that were more friendly
to the United States backfire.

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That, ultimately,
was the beginning.

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With help from
the Chilean chemists,

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Escobar and his partners
in Medellin

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are soon making some of
the best cocaine in the world.

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There was a lack
of attention initially paid

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to drug trafficking
in Colombia

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by the U.S.
intelligence services

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because they weren't communists.

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The basic policy
was capitalism is good.

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Become capitalists
and everything will be okay.

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But that was exactly what
the narcos were doing, right?

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Carlos Lehder is out of prison,

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and he has convinced
Pablo Escobar to allow him

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to distribute his cocaine
in the U.S.

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Inside his luggage
is 50 kilograms

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of Pablo Escobar's
nearly-pure cocaine.

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It will be worth
more than $2 million

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if Lehder's old cellmate
George Jung

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can get it out of the airport.

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Against the wall,
by the escalator.

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Excuse me.

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Using his old marijuana
connections,

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Jung tests the market
of L.A.'s party circuit.

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George Jung came out
to California with cocaine

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and found himself at the head

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of this party
and nightclub scene.

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Cocaine was the drug of doctors
and lawyers

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and famous people were using it
in discotheques.

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Jung and people like him
selling cocaine,

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distributing it,
they became rock stars.

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Cocaine inhaled
as crystalline powder

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causes a buildup of dopamine,

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the feel-good neurotransmitters
that kick in

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when you're eating chocolate
or having sex.

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Jimmy Carter's
top drug-policy official

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was a cocaine user and said
there is just as much reason

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to legalize cocaine as there is
to legalize marijuana.

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Greed and pleasure
were on the rise

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and the consciousness expansion
of the late '60s were waning.

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George Jung quickly unloads
his entire 50 kilogram stash.

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In just two weeks,
he makes $2.2 million dollars --

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worth over $9 million
in today's money.

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It's like
a light bulb goes off

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in his head and he's like,
"Oh my God,

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this is the business
that I need to be in."

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But whenever I got involved
with anybody

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who was in the cocaine business,

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bad stuff happened
every single time.

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George Jung delivers
the cash to his old cellmate

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Carlos Lehder.

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His successful trip to L.A.
just proved that demand

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for cocaine in the U.S.
far outstrips supply,

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and they'll soon become
Pablo Escobar's

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main U.S. distributors.

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But there's a weak link --
transportation.

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Stewardesses and other civilians
are being used to smuggle coke

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in luggage
on commercial flights,

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but it's not enough.

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Large amounts of cocaine

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are also snuck
in on cargo ships,

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hidden inside wood
or other merchandise.

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But ships are easy targets.

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It's all about logistics.

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It's all about
moving the product

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from one place to another.

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Anybody who can figure out
how to get it there,

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that's what it really
comes down to.

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Carlos Lehder is about to make

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one of the most audacious moves

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in the history
of the war on drugs.

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Jung has convinced him
that small planes hold the key

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to their takeover
of the American cocaine market.

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Carlos Lehder was a visionary
when it came to logistics.

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The man who figured out
the best smuggling routes

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into the United States.

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The round trip flight
from Colombia to Florida

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is too far for a small aircraft
to make without refueling.

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So Lehder finds a small Bahamian
Island with a long runway.

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It's called Norman's Cay.

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Norman's Cay
was a stroke of genius

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because nobody was watching
planes laden with cocaine

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flying from Colombia
into Norman's Cay.

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He buys up half the properties
on the island in cash

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and then threatens to kill
anyone who won't leave.

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Carlos Lehder took over
and threw all the normal people

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who were living there out
and brought his boys in,

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and it became just
a completely insane situation.

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Man #1: All right.
I will consult you.

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Drop 500.
You're coming in too slow.

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Man #2: Clear.

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Check. 8-4-0.

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The Medellin Cartel
now has their own island.

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Sí.

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Planes land and take off
around the clock,

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carrying hundreds
of kilos of cocaine

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destined for Florida.

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Lehder is bringing
in $20 million a month.

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It was nuts, it was crazy.

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They were bringing women
in there.

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There were orgies.

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It was party central.

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Party central with
a lot of cocaine.

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He was getting high on
his own supply, but hugely so.

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I mean, these guys
would party for days.

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It became nuts,
completely insane.

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Carlos Lehder is so coked up
at that time,

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he was getting really paranoid.

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George Jung, the guy
who really got him started

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in this whole thing,
kicks him off the island.

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Despite the madness,
Carlos Lehder is now

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head of logistics
for Pablo Escobar.

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Carlos Lehder went on to
really pioneer the explosion

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00:13:09,005 --> 00:13:11,135
of cocaine traffic in the U.S.

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But few people at the time
realize Lehder and Escobar

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are just middlemen

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in a much larger
cocaine production network

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allegedly protected
by the highest level

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of the American government.

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I'm going after the drug dealers

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that they were protecting
for Central Intelligence.

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We were really playing
Russian roulette with our lives.

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Aah!

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The foothills of the Andes --

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one of the only places
in the world

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00:14:03,146 --> 00:14:06,316
where the coca plant grows.

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00:14:12,939 --> 00:14:16,069
The greatest drug lord
no one knows is about to launch

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a revolution
in the war on drugs.

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Roberto Suárez, a descendant
of the rubber baron of Bolivia,

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00:14:23,993 --> 00:14:25,913
his family's plantations

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00:14:25,952 --> 00:14:29,522
were more than four times
the size of New Jersey.

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00:14:29,564 --> 00:14:34,874
Roberto Suárez was a handsome,
very charismatic leader.

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00:14:36,049 --> 00:14:37,569
The Bolivian people,

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among the poorest people
on earth, loved him.

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Why? Because Roberto
feeds the people.

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In the mid-'70s,
Suárez switches his empire

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00:14:47,190 --> 00:14:50,450
to a more lucrative crop --
coca.

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00:14:52,282 --> 00:14:54,552
He was a rancher
in the Beni region of Bolivia

253
00:14:54,589 --> 00:14:56,979
where I happened to live
for many years.

254
00:14:57,026 --> 00:15:00,026
He began buying up large
quantities of land,

255
00:15:00,073 --> 00:15:04,513
began mass producing
the huge labs in the jungles.

256
00:15:04,555 --> 00:15:08,645
They had air strips hidden
under the jungle canopy.

257
00:15:08,690 --> 00:15:13,260
Roberto Suárez
was in control of 60%-80%

258
00:15:13,303 --> 00:15:17,263
of the global cocaine market.

259
00:15:17,307 --> 00:15:21,047
Pablo Escobar was just
a customer of Roberto Suárez.

260
00:15:21,094 --> 00:15:24,054
DEA agent Michael Levine

261
00:15:24,097 --> 00:15:26,057
is based in South America,

262
00:15:26,099 --> 00:15:28,929
working undercover
on some of the biggest cases

263
00:15:28,971 --> 00:15:31,581
in the growing cocaine trade.

264
00:15:31,626 --> 00:15:33,576
I was part of an undercover team

265
00:15:33,628 --> 00:15:38,418
that had penetrated
the Roberto Suárez organization.

266
00:15:38,459 --> 00:15:42,329
Posing as a half-Sicilian,
half-Puerto Rican Mafia don

267
00:15:42,376 --> 00:15:45,466
from the U.S., I had made deals

268
00:15:45,509 --> 00:15:48,899
face to face with, uh,
Roberto Suárez and company.

269
00:15:48,948 --> 00:15:52,518
We were in position
to take them down.

270
00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:55,870
Enter American special interest

271
00:15:55,911 --> 00:15:59,521
in the form of the CIA.

272
00:15:59,567 --> 00:16:01,787
By the mid-'70s, South America

273
00:16:01,830 --> 00:16:04,270
is not only the center
of the cocaine underworld,

274
00:16:04,311 --> 00:16:07,441
it's also become
a Cold War hotspot.

275
00:16:07,488 --> 00:16:11,058
The Cold War brought
a conscious fear,

276
00:16:11,100 --> 00:16:13,970
on the part of our leadership,

277
00:16:14,016 --> 00:16:17,366
of the encroachment
of communism.

278
00:16:17,411 --> 00:16:21,071
The U.S. backs
right-wing dictatorships

279
00:16:21,110 --> 00:16:24,070
against a perceived
communist threat.

280
00:16:24,113 --> 00:16:26,123
In the Cold War,
everything was viewed through

281
00:16:26,159 --> 00:16:28,379
who could take
advantage of what.

282
00:16:28,422 --> 00:16:30,292
If we didn't do this, would
the Soviets taking advantage?

283
00:16:30,337 --> 00:16:33,037
So we propped up dictators
across the hemisphere.

284
00:16:39,694 --> 00:16:42,964
And it's here in Bolivia
the U.S. worries

285
00:16:43,002 --> 00:16:47,482
a leftist president is leaning
toward the communist side.

286
00:16:47,528 --> 00:16:50,528
Roberto Suárez began realizing
that this access to money

287
00:16:50,574 --> 00:16:52,234
gave him political power.

288
00:16:52,272 --> 00:16:54,972
And so he offered to pay off
all of Bolivia's debt,

289
00:16:55,014 --> 00:16:58,104
and the government said no.

290
00:16:58,147 --> 00:16:59,497
Roberto Suárez

291
00:16:59,540 --> 00:17:03,280
decides to take over the country
himself.

292
00:17:03,326 --> 00:17:05,416
But he needs muscle to do it,

293
00:17:05,459 --> 00:17:07,199
so he turns to one
of the 20th century's

294
00:17:07,243 --> 00:17:09,813
most notorious war criminals --

295
00:17:09,854 --> 00:17:11,864
Klaus Barbie,

296
00:17:11,900 --> 00:17:14,340
one of Hitler's top
Gestapo officers

297
00:17:14,381 --> 00:17:16,081
in occupied France --

298
00:17:16,122 --> 00:17:19,652
known as the "Butcher of Lyon."

299
00:17:19,690 --> 00:17:24,650
After the war, Barbie becomes
a U.S. intelligence asset,

300
00:17:24,695 --> 00:17:26,865
and like many
high-ranking Nazis,

301
00:17:26,915 --> 00:17:29,565
he flees to South America.

302
00:17:29,613 --> 00:17:31,533
Living under an assumed
name in Bolivia,

303
00:17:31,572 --> 00:17:34,312
he's part of Operation Condor,

304
00:17:34,357 --> 00:17:36,397
the CIA-connected covert plan

305
00:17:36,446 --> 00:17:39,876
to eliminate communists
across South America.

306
00:17:41,843 --> 00:17:45,413
Barbie's now working
for Roberto Suárez.

307
00:17:48,545 --> 00:17:53,155
His team of Nazi mercenaries
known as the Fiancés of Death

308
00:17:53,202 --> 00:17:56,162
help capture and torture
Suárez's enemies --

309
00:17:56,205 --> 00:17:59,115
other drug lords,
anyone in the way.

310
00:17:59,165 --> 00:18:01,115
They were all serial killers.

311
00:18:05,084 --> 00:18:07,654
They were part of the Bolivian
bloody revolution,

312
00:18:07,695 --> 00:18:09,175
they were killing,
they were torturing.

313
00:18:11,873 --> 00:18:15,443
They're working for a guy
who is powerful enough

314
00:18:15,485 --> 00:18:19,835
to take over his country
that CIA is helping him.

315
00:18:19,881 --> 00:18:22,101
What do I do with it?
Who do I turn to?

316
00:18:28,150 --> 00:18:30,110
No lo sé.

317
00:18:37,768 --> 00:18:39,938
Roberto Suárez
overthrows

318
00:18:39,988 --> 00:18:44,298
the Bolivian government
with the help of CIA assets.

319
00:18:46,125 --> 00:18:48,685
I'm going after the drug dealers
that they were protecting

320
00:18:48,736 --> 00:18:51,296
for Central Intelligence.

321
00:18:51,347 --> 00:18:53,997
They were playing
Russian roulette with our lives.

322
00:18:54,045 --> 00:18:56,785
People in the Bolivian
government were murdered,

323
00:18:56,831 --> 00:18:58,441
raped, exiled.

324
00:18:58,485 --> 00:19:00,435
I would look up
to heaven and say,

325
00:19:00,487 --> 00:19:02,397
"Is anybody keeping
track of this ?"

326
00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,190
Suárez installs
his own president

327
00:19:10,236 --> 00:19:13,056
and cocaine production
goes into high gear.

328
00:19:13,108 --> 00:19:15,758
It was a seminal moment
because it showed

329
00:19:15,806 --> 00:19:20,246
that these guys could actually
take control of a country.

330
00:19:20,289 --> 00:19:22,809
Roberto Suárez essentially
turned Bolivia into the first

331
00:19:22,857 --> 00:19:24,987
fully functional narco state.

332
00:19:35,739 --> 00:19:38,439
Suárez plies children
with cocaine cigarettes

333
00:19:38,481 --> 00:19:40,401
to stomp the coca leaves.

334
00:19:42,572 --> 00:19:46,972
Kerosene is used to isolate the
active ingredients of cocaine.

335
00:19:50,450 --> 00:19:51,890
Once in a hard paste,

336
00:19:51,929 --> 00:19:54,539
Suárez uses
Bolivian Air Force planes

337
00:19:54,584 --> 00:19:57,074
to fly it by the ton
across the border

338
00:19:57,108 --> 00:20:00,368
and into the hands of
Pablo Escobar and his partners.

339
00:20:00,416 --> 00:20:02,766
They needed a huge
supply of cocaine,

340
00:20:02,810 --> 00:20:04,640
so when the coup takes place
in Bolivia,

341
00:20:04,681 --> 00:20:06,471
perfect timing for them.

342
00:20:06,509 --> 00:20:10,209
Now they've got access
to huge amounts of cocaine

343
00:20:10,252 --> 00:20:12,212
that they could then smuggle
into the United States.

344
00:20:18,217 --> 00:20:20,827
The Medellin Cartel
is now out to take control

345
00:20:20,871 --> 00:20:22,351
of South Florida's drug trade

346
00:20:22,395 --> 00:20:25,435
from the Cubans and the Mafia,

347
00:20:25,485 --> 00:20:27,525
and one of their own
is on the ground

348
00:20:27,574 --> 00:20:29,844
doing their dirty work.

349
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:31,880
Griselda Blanco,

350
00:20:31,926 --> 00:20:34,226
raised in the slums of Medellin,

351
00:20:34,276 --> 00:20:36,146
she made a name
for herself designing

352
00:20:36,191 --> 00:20:39,281
and manufacturing undergarments
to smuggle cocaine.

353
00:20:39,325 --> 00:20:41,935
July 4, 1976 --

354
00:20:41,979 --> 00:20:44,199
when over 1,000 ships
from around the world

355
00:20:44,243 --> 00:20:45,593
fill New York Harbor

356
00:20:45,635 --> 00:20:47,985
to celebrate
America's Bicentennial,

357
00:20:48,029 --> 00:20:51,379
Blanco reportedly slips 6 kilos
onto a ship

358
00:20:51,424 --> 00:20:54,214
sent by the Colombian Navy.

359
00:20:56,037 --> 00:20:58,077
She earns the nickname,
the Black Widow,

360
00:20:58,126 --> 00:21:01,386
for allegedly
killing two of her husbands.

361
00:21:01,434 --> 00:21:04,574
Griselda Blanco,
from all my experience with her

362
00:21:04,611 --> 00:21:08,051
and her group, was an animal.

363
00:21:08,092 --> 00:21:11,752
Blanco engineers
a wave of violence across Miami.

364
00:21:27,808 --> 00:21:31,198
Two men are dead,

365
00:21:31,246 --> 00:21:33,986
the shop clerk wounded,

366
00:21:34,031 --> 00:21:37,911
bullets are everywhere.

367
00:21:37,948 --> 00:21:41,298
Investigators
make an alarming discovery

368
00:21:41,343 --> 00:21:44,693
when they inspect the van
the shooters leave behind.

369
00:21:44,738 --> 00:21:48,348
The van's a killing machine --

370
00:21:48,394 --> 00:21:51,014
armor-plated siding
for protection,

371
00:21:51,048 --> 00:21:54,698
specially designed window slats
for sniper fire,

372
00:21:54,748 --> 00:21:57,048
bulletproof vests,
and an arsenal

373
00:21:57,098 --> 00:21:59,538
of high-caliber
automatic weapons.

374
00:22:02,016 --> 00:22:06,456
The Dadeland shooting really
jarred the public consciousness

375
00:22:06,499 --> 00:22:08,939
in Miami and the rest
of the United States.

376
00:22:11,547 --> 00:22:13,677
Anytime you've got
that massive amount

377
00:22:13,723 --> 00:22:16,383
of drugs flowing into
one geographical area,

378
00:22:16,422 --> 00:22:20,382
you're going to have war.

379
00:22:25,039 --> 00:22:27,479
While the
cocaine cowboy war body count

380
00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:29,040
mounts in Miami,

381
00:22:29,086 --> 00:22:33,786
so does the money.

382
00:22:33,830 --> 00:22:36,960
The cocaine trade is now
worth four times more

383
00:22:37,007 --> 00:22:40,007
than Florida's orange harvest.

384
00:22:40,054 --> 00:22:42,934
Miami's booming.

385
00:22:42,970 --> 00:22:45,490
It's just cash just flowing
through that city

386
00:22:45,538 --> 00:22:49,188
like nothing you've ever seen.

387
00:22:49,237 --> 00:22:52,757
It's important to think
about cocaine not as a drug.

388
00:22:52,806 --> 00:22:55,196
But what it really was
was a currency.

389
00:22:55,243 --> 00:22:58,683
It's easily transportable,
easily smuggled,

390
00:22:58,725 --> 00:23:02,635
and you can trade it for dollars
anywhere in the world.

391
00:23:02,685 --> 00:23:06,035
It's one of the most universally
convertible currencies

392
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:07,780
that exists in the world.

393
00:23:07,821 --> 00:23:11,091
Any valuable currency
has an inherent power to it.

394
00:23:11,128 --> 00:23:15,738
And cocaine became
that currency.

395
00:23:15,785 --> 00:23:17,085
But their new wealth and fame

396
00:23:17,134 --> 00:23:21,144
has made the drug lords
into targets.

397
00:23:21,182 --> 00:23:25,452
A private island,
enormous mansions,

398
00:23:25,491 --> 00:23:29,021
unlimited amounts of women
and booze and coke.

399
00:23:29,059 --> 00:23:31,669
You can't do that
and not attract notice.

400
00:23:35,283 --> 00:23:37,023
Deep in the jungle,

401
00:23:37,067 --> 00:23:39,807
leftist rebels known as M-19

402
00:23:39,853 --> 00:23:41,723
are desperate to finance
their war

403
00:23:41,768 --> 00:23:44,768
against the Colombian
government.

404
00:23:44,814 --> 00:23:48,384
They hatch a risky plot --

405
00:23:48,427 --> 00:23:50,907
kidnap Martha Ochoa,

406
00:23:50,951 --> 00:23:54,651
the sister of three
of the Medellin Cartel leaders.

407
00:23:54,694 --> 00:23:58,394
The rebels demand $12 million
for her safe return.

408
00:24:09,709 --> 00:24:12,319
When Martha Ochoa
gets kidnapped,

409
00:24:12,363 --> 00:24:15,503
the cartel guys get together
and make things happen

410
00:24:15,541 --> 00:24:18,761
that even the government
of Colombia couldn't do.

411
00:24:18,805 --> 00:24:21,325
The Cartel leaders
respond by putting together

412
00:24:21,372 --> 00:24:26,472
a team of assassins
they call Death to Kidnappers.

413
00:24:26,508 --> 00:24:31,248
Cartel hit men hunt down and
execute M-19 rebels one by one.

414
00:24:31,295 --> 00:24:35,995
When they can't find one,
they kill their families.

415
00:24:36,039 --> 00:24:40,389
The brutality is shocking
even by Colombian standards.

416
00:24:40,435 --> 00:24:42,175
When the Colombians
had a grudge,

417
00:24:42,219 --> 00:24:43,959
they would break
into the house,

418
00:24:44,004 --> 00:24:45,614
they would kill
the guy they wanted,

419
00:24:45,658 --> 00:24:47,398
they would kill his family,

420
00:24:47,442 --> 00:24:49,972
they would kill the maid,
they would kill the dog,

421
00:24:50,010 --> 00:24:52,670
they would even kill the fish.

422
00:24:52,708 --> 00:24:54,748
The rebels
finally back down

423
00:24:54,797 --> 00:24:56,577
and a deal is brokered.

424
00:24:56,625 --> 00:24:59,885
Martha Ochoa is set free
unharmed.

425
00:24:59,933 --> 00:25:02,283
The kidnapping of Martha Ochoa

426
00:25:02,326 --> 00:25:05,026
also brings
the cartel leaders together.

427
00:25:16,558 --> 00:25:18,948
Faced with
the common threat of kidnapping,

428
00:25:18,995 --> 00:25:20,645
the Medellin Cartel leaders

429
00:25:20,693 --> 00:25:22,743
call a meeting
with their main rivals,

430
00:25:22,782 --> 00:25:25,922
the cartel from
the city of Cali.

431
00:25:42,192 --> 00:25:44,412
They sit down and they carve up
the United States

432
00:25:44,455 --> 00:25:47,195
and they say, okay, you'll
get Chicago and that area.

433
00:25:47,241 --> 00:25:50,421
We'll take New York City
and the East Coast.

434
00:25:50,461 --> 00:25:52,291
Cali will get New York.

435
00:25:52,333 --> 00:25:55,033
Medellin will get Florida
and the Southern states.

436
00:25:55,075 --> 00:25:57,765
California is left up for grabs.

437
00:26:03,866 --> 00:26:05,956
Cartels generally don't make
peace with each other.

438
00:26:05,999 --> 00:26:07,829
They're usually at war.
But in some cases,

439
00:26:07,870 --> 00:26:09,220
they get together and decide

440
00:26:09,263 --> 00:26:10,573
that they've got more to gain

441
00:26:10,612 --> 00:26:12,352
by a cease-fire.

442
00:26:18,925 --> 00:26:20,615
With the cartels aligned,

443
00:26:20,666 --> 00:26:22,796
cocaine distribution
reaches new highs.

444
00:26:29,675 --> 00:26:33,805
Blanco has pushed
the violence too far.

445
00:26:33,853 --> 00:26:35,903
Police say
she might be responsible

446
00:26:35,942 --> 00:26:38,162
for more than 200 murders.

447
00:26:38,205 --> 00:26:42,115
Griselda,
being the bloodthirsty person

448
00:26:42,165 --> 00:26:45,945
that she became also pioneered
the methods of violence

449
00:26:45,995 --> 00:26:50,605
that really wreaked havoc
in South Florida.

450
00:26:50,652 --> 00:26:52,922
Blanco
was known for repopularizing

451
00:26:52,959 --> 00:26:55,739
an old mob technique...

452
00:27:01,402 --> 00:27:02,752
...the drive-by shooting.

453
00:27:08,496 --> 00:27:11,276
The steady flow
of cocaine coming into the city

454
00:27:11,325 --> 00:27:14,585
has turned it into
the murder capital of America.

455
00:27:14,633 --> 00:27:19,253
By 1981, Miami really
is a paradise lost,

456
00:27:19,289 --> 00:27:23,729
the burgeoning hot zone
for the drug wars.

457
00:27:23,772 --> 00:27:26,082
Over the last year,

458
00:27:26,122 --> 00:27:29,262
the murder rates reached
an all-time high.

459
00:27:29,299 --> 00:27:32,089
By the end of July,
the Medical Examiner's Office

460
00:27:32,128 --> 00:27:34,348
is forced to rent
a refrigeration truck

461
00:27:34,391 --> 00:27:35,921
from a local Ryder.

462
00:27:35,958 --> 00:27:38,088
The morgue is overflowing

463
00:27:38,134 --> 00:27:41,184
and the public
is in a state of panic.

464
00:27:46,273 --> 00:27:49,763
When President Reagan
takes office, this is a crisis.

465
00:27:49,798 --> 00:27:52,148
These types of things don't
happen in the United States.

466
00:27:52,192 --> 00:27:54,282
You don't have bloodshed
in the middle of the streets.

467
00:27:54,324 --> 00:27:57,724
All the agencies
and law enforcement

468
00:27:57,763 --> 00:28:00,033
will be brought together
in a comprehensive attack

469
00:28:00,069 --> 00:28:02,029
on drug trafficking
and organized crime.

470
00:28:22,483 --> 00:28:24,053
Man #1: What kind of shape
is this guy in?

471
00:28:24,093 --> 00:28:25,313
Man #2: He was hit once
here in the groin area

472
00:28:25,355 --> 00:28:27,305
and another one down
on the...

473
00:28:27,357 --> 00:28:29,447
As cocaine trafficking
and murder rates soar

474
00:28:29,490 --> 00:28:30,840
in South Florida,

475
00:28:30,883 --> 00:28:32,753
the new president
is forced to confront

476
00:28:32,798 --> 00:28:34,888
a growing crisis.

477
00:28:34,930 --> 00:28:37,850
Nixon, the '70s,
that's the first stage.

478
00:28:37,890 --> 00:28:39,720
That kinda plateaus.

479
00:28:39,761 --> 00:28:44,551
In the 1980s, Reagan initiates
a second war on drugs.

480
00:28:44,592 --> 00:28:47,642
One of the most critical duties
that we faced upon taking office

481
00:28:47,682 --> 00:28:50,602
was controlling the influx
of illegal drugs

482
00:28:50,641 --> 00:28:52,641
into this country.

483
00:28:52,687 --> 00:28:55,077
Ronald Reagan --
a former actor

484
00:28:55,124 --> 00:28:58,434
who goes on to become
the governor of California.

485
00:28:58,475 --> 00:29:02,475
As president, he promises to
restore the crumbling economy,

486
00:29:02,523 --> 00:29:04,223
fight the communist threat,

487
00:29:04,264 --> 00:29:07,484
and relaunch Nixon's
forgotten War on Drugs.

488
00:29:07,528 --> 00:29:09,658
This is the "Miami Vice" era

489
00:29:09,704 --> 00:29:11,314
of drugs running pretty freely

490
00:29:11,358 --> 00:29:13,268
between the Caribbean
and Florida.

491
00:29:13,316 --> 00:29:15,706
And so President Reagan
put George Bush in charge of it

492
00:29:15,754 --> 00:29:18,324
and told him to do his best.

493
00:29:18,365 --> 00:29:20,365
George H.W. Bush,

494
00:29:20,410 --> 00:29:23,460
the blue-blood son
of a powerful U.S. Senator.

495
00:29:23,500 --> 00:29:27,550
George Bush was a fighter pilot.

496
00:29:27,591 --> 00:29:30,381
He later gets into
the oil business

497
00:29:30,420 --> 00:29:33,160
and in the '70s
under Gerald Ford

498
00:29:33,206 --> 00:29:37,506
is made head
of Central Intelligence.

499
00:29:37,558 --> 00:29:40,258
Now Vice President Bush
is put in charge

500
00:29:40,300 --> 00:29:42,080
of a special task force

501
00:29:42,128 --> 00:29:45,258
to stop the flow of cocaine
into South Florida.

502
00:29:45,305 --> 00:29:47,085
Those
who have been asking for a fight

503
00:29:47,133 --> 00:29:49,093
are now going to get one.

504
00:29:49,135 --> 00:29:52,785
Now the war will be fought
with a brain trust of expertise,

505
00:29:52,834 --> 00:29:55,324
with federal, state,
and local resources

506
00:29:55,358 --> 00:29:56,928
pitted against the criminals

507
00:29:56,969 --> 00:30:00,839
and drug traffickers
and hired assassins.

508
00:30:00,886 --> 00:30:02,576
It's a young task force,

509
00:30:02,626 --> 00:30:05,796
a task force that has just
begun the battle

510
00:30:05,847 --> 00:30:08,847
of the drug war
in South Florida.

511
00:30:11,722 --> 00:30:15,032
Bush has elements
of the Army, Air Force,

512
00:30:15,074 --> 00:30:18,124
Navy, DEA, FBI, Coast Guard

513
00:30:18,164 --> 00:30:20,604
and local police
under his command.

514
00:30:20,644 --> 00:30:24,134
-Police force!
-Put your hands up, man!

515
00:30:24,170 --> 00:30:26,740
Almost overnight,
Miami starts to look like

516
00:30:26,781 --> 00:30:29,181
a military occupation.

517
00:30:29,218 --> 00:30:32,088
But the real battle will be
fought in the shallow waters

518
00:30:32,134 --> 00:30:33,964
of the Caribbean.

519
00:30:34,006 --> 00:30:36,966
When Carlos Lehder
bought Norman's Cay

520
00:30:37,009 --> 00:30:40,749
and was flying cocaine
from Colombia into his island,

521
00:30:40,795 --> 00:30:45,575
a lot of that cocaine moved out
into Florida via airplane.

522
00:30:45,626 --> 00:30:47,366
A lot of it also went by boats.

523
00:30:49,978 --> 00:30:53,628
The Coast Guard's being outrun
by the smugglers' speed boats,

524
00:30:53,677 --> 00:30:56,637
so Bush turns to
an old friend for help.

525
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:59,160
George Bush had a fascination
with boats, you know,

526
00:30:59,205 --> 00:31:02,205
that sort of blue-blood
Connecticut lifestyle.

527
00:31:02,251 --> 00:31:05,561
And Don Aronow was the boat guy.

528
00:31:05,602 --> 00:31:09,782
Don Aronow,
a legend in South Florida.

529
00:31:09,824 --> 00:31:12,914
He builds some of the fastest
speed boats in the world,

530
00:31:12,958 --> 00:31:16,088
popular with Miami's elite,
Hollywood stars...

531
00:31:16,135 --> 00:31:18,745
We have Cary Grant running one
of our Cigarettes, you know?

532
00:31:20,226 --> 00:31:24,486
...and increasingly,
cocaine smugglers.

533
00:31:24,534 --> 00:31:28,804
Don Aronow was
the premiere race boat builder.

534
00:31:28,843 --> 00:31:32,463
He built race boats
that George Bush enjoyed.

535
00:31:32,499 --> 00:31:35,499
They were fast, they could
make round trips

536
00:31:35,545 --> 00:31:39,105
between Miami and the Bahamas
in a matter of hours.

537
00:31:39,158 --> 00:31:43,468
And so all of the drug smugglers
were gravitating to the fastest,

538
00:31:43,510 --> 00:31:45,690
most badass boats on the water,

539
00:31:45,729 --> 00:31:47,599
and these were built
by Don Aronow.

540
00:31:47,644 --> 00:31:51,174
Bush asks Aronow to
build him a fleet of chase boats

541
00:31:51,213 --> 00:31:53,523
faster than the smugglers'.

542
00:31:53,563 --> 00:31:56,313
Aronow calls the boats
Blue Thunder,

543
00:31:56,349 --> 00:32:00,089
and outfits them with
two 650 horsepower engines,

544
00:32:00,135 --> 00:32:02,615
promising Bush they are
the state of the art

545
00:32:02,659 --> 00:32:04,399
in pursuit watercraft.

546
00:32:04,444 --> 00:32:06,194
When you want to look
tough on drugs,

547
00:32:06,228 --> 00:32:08,228
having your picture
snapped aboard Blue Thunder

548
00:32:08,274 --> 00:32:11,584
is one way to do it.

549
00:32:13,409 --> 00:32:15,849
Recommended course --
3-0 degrees.

550
00:32:15,890 --> 00:32:20,680
-Speed -- 20.
-Side 8-4-0.

551
00:32:20,721 --> 00:32:22,511
The Blue Thunder fleet
is dispatched

552
00:32:22,549 --> 00:32:24,509
from the first-ever
command center

553
00:32:24,551 --> 00:32:28,291
built exclusively
for the War on Drugs.

554
00:32:28,337 --> 00:32:30,947
We have an unidentified vessel
just west of West End,

555
00:32:30,992 --> 00:32:32,952
Grand Bahama.

556
00:32:32,994 --> 00:32:35,044
A state-of-the-art
radar monitoring system

557
00:32:35,083 --> 00:32:37,353
tracks suspected smugglers.

558
00:32:43,657 --> 00:32:45,877
There's definitely a lot
of stuff on the boat.

559
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,970
Looks like he might be dumping
some more stuff here, yep.

560
00:32:50,011 --> 00:32:51,711
And he's changing course.

561
00:32:51,752 --> 00:32:52,672
Man #2: This guy's
going to beach here

562
00:32:52,709 --> 00:32:56,319
pretty soon I think.

563
00:32:56,365 --> 00:32:59,845
The Coast Guard soon realizes
they have a problem.

564
00:32:59,890 --> 00:33:02,110
Don Aronow had
two sets of customers then.

565
00:33:02,154 --> 00:33:05,334
He was selling to both
the federal government

566
00:33:05,374 --> 00:33:07,334
that was trying
to interdict drugs

567
00:33:07,376 --> 00:33:09,986
and he was selling
to the dopers

568
00:33:10,031 --> 00:33:11,771
who were bringing
the drugs in.

569
00:33:11,815 --> 00:33:13,425
While the Blue Thunder boats

570
00:33:13,469 --> 00:33:16,339
fly over the calm waters
of Miami harbor,

571
00:33:16,385 --> 00:33:20,775
their wide hull design slows
them down in the open ocean.

572
00:33:20,824 --> 00:33:25,264
The cigarette boats Aronow sells
the narcos beat them every time.

573
00:33:25,307 --> 00:33:27,567
Was the flaw
in Blue Thunder

574
00:33:27,614 --> 00:33:29,794
something that was intentional,

575
00:33:29,833 --> 00:33:32,843
to help sort of
the other customer base,

576
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:34,620
or was it something
that was unintentional

577
00:33:34,664 --> 00:33:36,544
and just pure happenstance

578
00:33:36,579 --> 00:33:39,189
that ended up putting a crimp
in law enforcement efforts?

579
00:33:39,234 --> 00:33:40,764
It was just so Miami

580
00:33:40,801 --> 00:33:43,851
because here was this rich,
colorful figure,

581
00:33:43,891 --> 00:33:46,721
seemingly playing both sides
in law enforcement

582
00:33:46,763 --> 00:33:49,983
and with the dopers
bringing in cocaine.

583
00:33:50,028 --> 00:33:52,068
Don Aronow was
gunned down near his boat yard

584
00:33:52,117 --> 00:33:53,417
in North Miami.

585
00:33:53,466 --> 00:33:55,026
Witnesses said a man
in a Lincoln

586
00:33:55,076 --> 00:33:57,076
pulled alongside
Aronow's Mercedes

587
00:33:57,122 --> 00:33:59,172
and shot him five times.

588
00:33:59,211 --> 00:34:01,561
Don Aronow ended up
getting murdered

589
00:34:01,604 --> 00:34:04,874
and many of those questions that
we may have about Blue Thunder,

590
00:34:04,912 --> 00:34:06,832
and sort of what was
going on ended up,

591
00:34:06,870 --> 00:34:09,090
you know, dying with him.

592
00:34:09,134 --> 00:34:12,444
I am the first to admit
that we have not shut down

593
00:34:12,485 --> 00:34:15,525
the drug smuggling
into South Florida.

594
00:34:15,575 --> 00:34:19,965
But nobody denies that we've
made it much more difficult

595
00:34:20,014 --> 00:34:22,504
for these smugglers
to do business.

596
00:34:22,538 --> 00:34:24,798
But with the heat on
in South Florida,

597
00:34:24,845 --> 00:34:26,975
the Colombians look
to find other routes

598
00:34:27,021 --> 00:34:30,291
to bring cocaine
into the United States.

599
00:34:37,162 --> 00:34:41,082
A small plane has just crossed
the Arkansas state border

600
00:34:41,122 --> 00:34:44,652
and a new era in the drug war
is about to begin.

601
00:34:44,691 --> 00:34:49,091
Logging the 316 delta
bravo flight at 2:00.

602
00:34:49,130 --> 00:34:51,090
The flight's manifest
says the pilot

603
00:34:51,132 --> 00:34:53,792
took a pleasure trip
to Florida for the weekend.

604
00:34:53,830 --> 00:34:55,090
See the lakes down there?

605
00:34:55,136 --> 00:34:58,266
He did in fact have fun,

606
00:34:58,313 --> 00:35:00,753
but he wasn't in Florida.

607
00:35:10,325 --> 00:35:11,455
-Come on, come on!
-Aaaah!

608
00:35:17,202 --> 00:35:22,252
Barry Seal -- a legend
in the world of drug smuggling.

609
00:35:22,294 --> 00:35:26,524
Seal becomes the youngest pilot
ever for TWA,

610
00:35:26,559 --> 00:35:29,779
until he is arrested for
attempting to smuggle explosives

611
00:35:29,823 --> 00:35:33,393
to anti-Castro Cubans,
but he's never charged.

612
00:35:33,435 --> 00:35:35,785
Barry Seal had
a long history of both

613
00:35:35,829 --> 00:35:39,489
working for the CIA, working
as a commercial airline pilot,

614
00:35:39,528 --> 00:35:41,398
and also for smuggling drugs.

615
00:35:41,443 --> 00:35:43,753
He would fly weapons
for the CIA.

616
00:35:43,793 --> 00:35:48,233
He would fly drugs for cartels.
It didn't matter what.

617
00:35:48,276 --> 00:35:50,836
The exciting thing in life
to me is to get into

618
00:35:50,887 --> 00:35:52,497
a life-threatening situation.

619
00:35:52,541 --> 00:35:54,761
Now, that's excitement.

620
00:35:58,156 --> 00:36:01,716
In Colombia, Seal
makes a deal with Pablo Escobar

621
00:36:01,768 --> 00:36:03,468
and the Medellin Cartel.

622
00:36:03,509 --> 00:36:05,819
Missed you last night, huh?

623
00:36:05,859 --> 00:36:07,169
You should have come, man.
Those chicas,

624
00:36:07,208 --> 00:36:08,508
they were fantastic.

625
00:36:08,557 --> 00:36:10,517
I can't thank you enough.

626
00:36:12,735 --> 00:36:15,475
It's hard to come up with
a more colorful character

627
00:36:15,521 --> 00:36:19,261
than Barry Seal
when it comes to smuggling.

628
00:36:19,307 --> 00:36:22,527
With the Cartel
looking to bypass South Florida,

629
00:36:22,571 --> 00:36:26,271
Barry Seal provides an answer
using a small airport

630
00:36:26,314 --> 00:36:28,584
in the tiny city
of Mena, Arkansas,

631
00:36:28,621 --> 00:36:31,321
where Bill Clinton's governor.

632
00:36:31,363 --> 00:36:34,633
Seal pilots his own plane
to Colombia 500 times

633
00:36:34,670 --> 00:36:37,150
to ferry drugs
to the United States,

634
00:36:37,195 --> 00:36:39,885
earning an average
of $1.5 million a trip.

635
00:36:46,813 --> 00:36:49,513
With demand for cocaine
growing across the country...

636
00:36:51,948 --> 00:36:54,948
...the U.S. government
decides to take the fight

637
00:36:54,995 --> 00:36:57,555
directly to the source.

638
00:36:57,606 --> 00:37:00,436
Flying fast and low
over the jungle,

639
00:37:00,479 --> 00:37:02,089
Colombian National Police

640
00:37:02,132 --> 00:37:04,182
narrow in on a remote drug lab

641
00:37:04,222 --> 00:37:06,092
called Tranquilandia.

642
00:37:06,136 --> 00:37:09,136
It's the size of a small town.

643
00:37:09,183 --> 00:37:13,883
It's owned by Pablo Escobar
and the Medellin Cartel.

644
00:37:13,927 --> 00:37:18,707
On one of its first major
international raids is the DEA.

645
00:37:22,544 --> 00:37:26,684
The DEA is part of
the Department of Justice,

646
00:37:26,722 --> 00:37:29,552
sort of like international
FBI agents

647
00:37:29,595 --> 00:37:32,635
trying to catch people
that are breaking the law

648
00:37:32,685 --> 00:37:36,725
by smuggling or facilitating
the illegal drug trade.

649
00:37:36,776 --> 00:37:38,816
The DEA is
the only agency in the world

650
00:37:38,865 --> 00:37:41,345
that can enter
into hostile zones

651
00:37:41,389 --> 00:37:44,869
and develop an investigation
and a prosecution.

652
00:37:44,914 --> 00:37:47,574
Patrol to all units.
Please be advised.

653
00:38:01,061 --> 00:38:03,631
The DEA and
the Colombian National Police

654
00:38:03,672 --> 00:38:05,942
have carried out a raid
on Pablo Escobar's

655
00:38:05,979 --> 00:38:09,159
jungle cocaine labs
with deadly effect.

656
00:38:11,506 --> 00:38:17,686
11 are dead, 40 are arrested,
including an American pilot.

657
00:38:17,730 --> 00:38:21,820
And they begin
destroying the labs.

658
00:38:21,864 --> 00:38:24,394
The take down of
the Tranquilandia drug labs,

659
00:38:24,432 --> 00:38:27,482
by far the biggest
anyone had seen.

660
00:38:27,522 --> 00:38:30,742
It was a significant blow to
the actual production of cocaine

661
00:38:30,786 --> 00:38:32,656
on a on a worldwide level.

662
00:38:34,703 --> 00:38:37,623
That just pissed Pablo off.

663
00:38:37,663 --> 00:38:41,413
The DEA's growing role
in Colombia's war on drugs

664
00:38:41,449 --> 00:38:45,239
is largely thanks to the
country's Minister of Justice,

665
00:38:45,279 --> 00:38:48,149
Rodrigo Lara Bonilla --

666
00:38:48,195 --> 00:38:51,365
a fearless crusader
against the cartels.

667
00:38:51,416 --> 00:38:54,506
He's teamed up with American
law enforcement to arrest

668
00:38:54,549 --> 00:38:57,549
and extradite cartel leaders
to the U.S.

669
00:38:57,596 --> 00:38:59,596
Lara Bonilla grasped
the magnitude

670
00:38:59,641 --> 00:39:02,121
of what Colombia was facing
in ways

671
00:39:02,165 --> 00:39:06,075
that most of the political elite
didn't or simply didn't care to.

672
00:39:06,126 --> 00:39:08,516
He was a brave guy
who took on the cartels,

673
00:39:08,563 --> 00:39:10,523
took on Pablo Escobar,

674
00:39:10,565 --> 00:39:13,525
and everybody knew that the
cartels were going to get him.

675
00:39:26,059 --> 00:39:29,149
Less than two months
after the Tranquilandia raid,

676
00:39:29,192 --> 00:39:33,592
Lara Bonilla's car is ambushed.

677
00:39:33,632 --> 00:39:36,902
He's shot seven times
and dies instantly.

678
00:39:39,159 --> 00:39:41,549
The young shooter
arrested at the scene

679
00:39:41,596 --> 00:39:44,726
tells police Pablo Escobar
promised him a payment

680
00:39:44,773 --> 00:39:47,303
of 2 million Colombian pesos --

681
00:39:47,341 --> 00:39:51,131
the equivalent of just $650.

682
00:39:53,869 --> 00:39:55,869
Killing the
attorney general of the country,

683
00:39:55,915 --> 00:39:57,695
that was unprecedented.

684
00:39:57,743 --> 00:39:59,883
It showed if you're going
to mess with Pablo,

685
00:39:59,919 --> 00:40:01,399
you know,
Pablo will kill you,

686
00:40:01,442 --> 00:40:02,842
and it doesn't matter
really who you are.

687
00:40:02,878 --> 00:40:04,838
It doesn't matter
if you're in Downtown Bogotá,

688
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:06,360
doesn't matter
if you have bodyguards,

689
00:40:06,404 --> 00:40:07,674
doesn't matter if you
have an armed car.

690
00:40:07,709 --> 00:40:09,409
We're going to get you.

691
00:40:09,450 --> 00:40:11,670
And that was a powerful message
to the elites

692
00:40:11,713 --> 00:40:15,593
in ways that terrified them.

693
00:40:15,630 --> 00:40:18,070
There's no limits to
which these guys won't go.

694
00:40:18,111 --> 00:40:20,291
And they have the money,
they have the power,

695
00:40:20,330 --> 00:40:21,810
they have the weapons.

696
00:40:21,854 --> 00:40:23,254
So you either play along
with them

697
00:40:23,290 --> 00:40:25,380
or you're gonna die.

698
00:40:25,423 --> 00:40:28,693
I actually met with
Pablo Escobar Jr. years later.

699
00:40:28,730 --> 00:40:32,130
He went back to Colombia
and met with Lara Bonilla's son

700
00:40:32,168 --> 00:40:35,958
to apologize for that murder,
which is a pretty amazing story.

701
00:40:37,783 --> 00:40:40,613
As the country mourns
Lara Bonilla's death,

702
00:40:40,655 --> 00:40:43,175
the Colombian government
doesn't back down,

703
00:40:43,223 --> 00:40:45,493
forming an alliance
with the Americans

704
00:40:45,530 --> 00:40:47,360
to begin extraditing drug lords

705
00:40:47,401 --> 00:40:49,401
for trial in the United States.

706
00:40:49,447 --> 00:40:52,487
The United States decided
that it wanted

707
00:40:52,537 --> 00:40:54,627
to begin extraditing people
out of these countries

708
00:40:54,669 --> 00:40:56,929
because it was clear
that the judicial systems

709
00:40:56,976 --> 00:40:59,536
of those countries
couldn't handle the pressure.

710
00:40:59,587 --> 00:41:02,417
But it became a really
hated by the narcos.

711
00:41:06,159 --> 00:41:08,549
Escobar
and the other cartel leaders

712
00:41:08,596 --> 00:41:11,466
band together,
launching a public campaign

713
00:41:11,512 --> 00:41:13,342
against extradition.

714
00:41:13,383 --> 00:41:16,473
There was so much
power within this group of guys.

715
00:41:16,517 --> 00:41:19,687
Pablo Escobar had tremendous
political ambitions.

716
00:41:19,738 --> 00:41:22,778
He he put together
a group of drug dealers

717
00:41:22,828 --> 00:41:26,308
that were going to pay off
the national debt of Colombia

718
00:41:26,353 --> 00:41:29,623
if they would agree to
block any extradition

719
00:41:29,661 --> 00:41:32,451
of Colombian drug lords
to the United States.

720
00:41:32,490 --> 00:41:34,360
Escobar's head of logistics,

721
00:41:34,404 --> 00:41:37,454
Carlos Lehder, even starts
his own political party

722
00:41:37,495 --> 00:41:39,665
and eventually runs for office.

723
00:41:39,714 --> 00:41:41,894
Carlos Lehder
began to hate the United States

724
00:41:41,934 --> 00:41:44,374
and became psychotic.

725
00:41:47,069 --> 00:41:50,679
Cocaine is
the atom bomb of Latin America.

726
00:41:50,725 --> 00:41:55,025
He ultimately saw
cocaine as a way of destroying

727
00:41:55,077 --> 00:41:58,077
the society
in the United States.

728
00:41:58,124 --> 00:42:00,564
Colombia could have been taken
over by Escobar and his people.

729
00:42:12,834 --> 00:42:15,324
30 gunmen
have launched an attack

730
00:42:15,358 --> 00:42:18,968
on the Colombian Supreme Court,

731
00:42:19,014 --> 00:42:21,894
and have taken 300 hostages.

732
00:42:23,671 --> 00:42:27,111
The attackers are left-wing
M-19 guerrillas...

733
00:42:30,417 --> 00:42:32,587
...the same group
who kidnapped the sister

734
00:42:32,637 --> 00:42:35,117
of Pablo Escobar's partners.

735
00:42:35,161 --> 00:42:37,951
Now they're fighting
for the cartel.

736
00:42:37,990 --> 00:42:41,210
Escobar has allegedly
paid them $2 million to wage war

737
00:42:41,254 --> 00:42:43,434
on the Colombian government.

738
00:43:04,799 --> 00:43:07,629
When the battle's
over, more than 100 are dead,

739
00:43:07,672 --> 00:43:11,022
including 11 judges.

740
00:43:11,066 --> 00:43:13,766
And the court building
is in flames --

741
00:43:13,808 --> 00:43:16,288
along with all the evidence
the government had compiled

742
00:43:16,332 --> 00:43:18,812
to extradite the cartel leaders.

743
00:43:18,857 --> 00:43:20,467
All of those documents
were destroyed.

744
00:43:20,510 --> 00:43:23,640
That probably made Pablo Escobar

745
00:43:23,688 --> 00:43:27,738
and the Medellin Cartel
extremely happy.

746
00:43:27,779 --> 00:43:29,959
But before
the government can retaliate,

747
00:43:29,998 --> 00:43:34,178
the cartel leaders
flee the country.

748
00:43:34,220 --> 00:43:37,750
Carlos Lehder finds
sanctuary in Nicaragua

749
00:43:37,789 --> 00:43:39,919
where the M-19 rebels
have connected him

750
00:43:39,965 --> 00:43:44,095
to their allies,
the communist Sandinistas.

751
00:43:44,143 --> 00:43:46,673
Escobar goes to Panama,

752
00:43:46,711 --> 00:43:48,671
where he has long been
laundering his money

753
00:43:48,713 --> 00:43:52,503
with the corrupt president
Manuel Noriega.

754
00:43:52,542 --> 00:43:54,982
Central America

755
00:43:55,023 --> 00:43:59,163
increasingly becomes
the cartel's transit hub.

756
00:43:59,201 --> 00:44:03,901
And Barry Seal is now one of the
cartel's most trusted pilots.

757
00:44:03,945 --> 00:44:05,815
It was very easy for Barry Seal

758
00:44:05,860 --> 00:44:08,250
to fly drugs into North America

759
00:44:08,297 --> 00:44:12,557
throughout Central America
for narco traffickers.

760
00:44:12,606 --> 00:44:16,696
That was one aspect
of his life only.

761
00:44:16,741 --> 00:44:18,831
What Pablo Escobar doesn't know

762
00:44:18,873 --> 00:44:23,233
is Seal has another,
even more powerful, employer --

763
00:44:23,269 --> 00:44:25,919
the United States Government.

764
00:44:47,685 --> 00:44:50,165
At home,
President Reagan is waging

765
00:44:50,209 --> 00:44:52,729
a reinvigorated War on Drugs.

766
00:44:54,779 --> 00:44:56,739
Abroad,
the administration's

767
00:44:56,781 --> 00:45:00,051
main focus
is the communist threat.

768
00:45:00,088 --> 00:45:02,218
And Central America
is the new battleground

769
00:45:02,264 --> 00:45:05,754
for Cold War covert operations.

770
00:45:05,790 --> 00:45:08,010
Central America
in the early '80s

771
00:45:08,053 --> 00:45:09,973
is basically a hot mess.

772
00:45:10,011 --> 00:45:13,711
We've got atrocities,
we've got insurgencies,

773
00:45:13,754 --> 00:45:15,764
counterinsurgencies,

774
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:19,410
all kinds of nefarious groups
with different motives,

775
00:45:19,455 --> 00:45:22,015
and we get elbow-deep
in all of that.

776
00:45:24,939 --> 00:45:27,769
Nicaragua
is run by the Sandinistas,

777
00:45:27,812 --> 00:45:29,512
Marxist rebels who overthrew

778
00:45:29,552 --> 00:45:33,082
an American-backed dictator
in 1979.

779
00:45:33,121 --> 00:45:35,991
Reagan almost immediately
starts painting

780
00:45:36,037 --> 00:45:38,607
for the American public,
a very vivid

781
00:45:38,648 --> 00:45:41,428
and very ominous picture --

782
00:45:41,477 --> 00:45:44,697
this idea that
if the Soviets gain influence

783
00:45:44,742 --> 00:45:47,352
in Central America
and Nicaragua,

784
00:45:47,396 --> 00:45:50,876
a week from today, they could be
on the -- the beaches in Texas.

785
00:45:53,054 --> 00:45:54,754
The White House
is eager to paint

786
00:45:54,795 --> 00:45:58,145
Nicaragua's communist leaders
as drug traffickers.

787
00:45:58,190 --> 00:46:02,020
And they enlist an unlikely
accomplice -- Barry Seal.

788
00:46:02,063 --> 00:46:03,853
The cartel smuggler
has been busted

789
00:46:03,891 --> 00:46:06,201
and is now
a government informant.

790
00:46:08,940 --> 00:46:12,510
One of the strangest missions
that Barry Seal ever flew

791
00:46:12,552 --> 00:46:15,512
occurred when
the Reagan Administration

792
00:46:15,555 --> 00:46:18,775
sent Barry Seal into Nicaragua

793
00:46:18,819 --> 00:46:21,129
in an airplane that had cameras,

794
00:46:21,169 --> 00:46:25,299
where he could film
Nicaraguans handling cocaine

795
00:46:25,347 --> 00:46:28,737
that was being
shipped to the U.S.

796
00:46:28,786 --> 00:46:30,656
Get those in the back,
okay?

797
00:46:30,700 --> 00:46:33,660
The purpose of Barry Seal's
mission was to frame

798
00:46:33,703 --> 00:46:37,843
the Nicaraguan government
as narco traffickers.

799
00:46:37,882 --> 00:46:40,102
Barry Seal became a very
important part of this

800
00:46:40,145 --> 00:46:42,095
because he claimed
to have knowledge

801
00:46:42,147 --> 00:46:45,317
that Pablo Escobar
and the Medellin Cartel

802
00:46:45,367 --> 00:46:50,107
were actually supplying
the Sandinistas with cocaine.

803
00:46:50,155 --> 00:46:52,675
The CIA outfits
a military transport plane

804
00:46:52,722 --> 00:46:54,162
with hidden cameras,

805
00:46:54,202 --> 00:46:55,942
and Seal takes off
to record a deal

806
00:46:55,987 --> 00:46:59,597
with Sandinista officials
and Pablo Escobar himself.

807
00:47:03,908 --> 00:47:08,648
10 seconds.
Stand by, please, sir.

808
00:47:08,695 --> 00:47:11,825
My fellow Americans,
I must speak to you tonight

809
00:47:11,872 --> 00:47:14,312
about a mounting danger
in Central America

810
00:47:14,353 --> 00:47:16,923
that threatens the security
of the United States.

811
00:47:16,964 --> 00:47:18,714
The communist government
of Nicaragua

812
00:47:18,748 --> 00:47:21,578
has launched a campaign
to subvert and topple

813
00:47:21,621 --> 00:47:23,671
its democratic neighbors.

814
00:47:23,710 --> 00:47:25,710
The Sandinistas
have even involved themselves

815
00:47:25,755 --> 00:47:27,235
in the international
drug trade.

816
00:47:27,279 --> 00:47:29,499
This picture, secretly taken

817
00:47:29,542 --> 00:47:32,112
at a military airfield
outside Managua,

818
00:47:32,153 --> 00:47:34,553
shows Federico Vaughan,

819
00:47:34,590 --> 00:47:36,770
a top aide to one of
the nine comandantes

820
00:47:36,810 --> 00:47:38,460
who rule Nicaragua,

821
00:47:38,507 --> 00:47:41,417
loading an aircraft
with illegal narcotics

822
00:47:41,467 --> 00:47:44,117
bound for the United States.

823
00:47:44,165 --> 00:47:46,725
No, there seems to be no crime

824
00:47:46,776 --> 00:47:48,996
to which the Sandinistas
will not stoop.

825
00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:53,000
This is an outlaw regime.

826
00:47:53,044 --> 00:47:57,444
They return to some of
the original tactics of the CIA.

827
00:47:57,483 --> 00:48:02,923
We can back insurgency groups
that are against our enemies.

828
00:48:02,967 --> 00:48:05,527
We can give them money.
We can give them training.

829
00:48:05,578 --> 00:48:10,018
We can get them to conduct
the dirty war.

830
00:48:10,061 --> 00:48:12,631
The CIA starts
training and funding

831
00:48:12,672 --> 00:48:16,462
a secret army to take back
the country from communism.

832
00:48:16,502 --> 00:48:20,162
They're called the Contras.

833
00:48:20,201 --> 00:48:25,211
The Contras were people
who had been disenfranchised.

834
00:48:25,250 --> 00:48:27,820
A lot of these people were
elites, people with money,

835
00:48:27,861 --> 00:48:30,391
people with connections,
sometimes people

836
00:48:30,429 --> 00:48:34,039
with a high level of corruption.

837
00:48:34,085 --> 00:48:37,085
Things start to go awry.

838
00:48:37,131 --> 00:48:40,531
It starts to emerge
that they're committing

839
00:48:40,569 --> 00:48:43,489
a number of atrocities --
mining harbors,

840
00:48:43,529 --> 00:48:47,229
torturing people.

841
00:48:47,272 --> 00:48:50,142
When the brutality
of the Contras is made public,

842
00:48:50,188 --> 00:48:53,538
Congress passes
the Boland Amendment.

843
00:48:53,582 --> 00:48:56,932
The Boland Amendment
says the U.S. can only give

844
00:48:56,977 --> 00:49:00,937
humanitarian, non-lethal
support to the Contras.

845
00:49:00,981 --> 00:49:03,331
So, what develops out of this

846
00:49:03,375 --> 00:49:06,805
is an effort to covertly
raise money

847
00:49:06,856 --> 00:49:10,426
to buy military supplies.

848
00:49:10,469 --> 00:49:12,989
Yet again,
the Agency finds itself

849
00:49:13,037 --> 00:49:15,997
in that moral quagmire.

850
00:49:16,040 --> 00:49:20,260
"We need to find other ways
to fund these operations."

851
00:49:28,487 --> 00:49:32,397
Ilopango Air Base
in El Salvador --

852
00:49:32,447 --> 00:49:34,577
the American military's hub
for its battle

853
00:49:34,623 --> 00:49:39,633
against communism
across Central America.

854
00:49:39,672 --> 00:49:43,552
Arriving in this plane
is an undercover DEA agent...

855
00:49:47,071 --> 00:49:49,861
Celerino Castillo --

856
00:49:49,899 --> 00:49:53,119
a second generation combat
veteran from South Texas.

857
00:49:53,164 --> 00:49:57,304
He earns a Bronze Star
in Vietnam,

858
00:49:57,342 --> 00:49:59,612
then joins the DEA in New York

859
00:49:59,648 --> 00:50:02,648
and goes undercover
as a trafficker,

860
00:50:02,695 --> 00:50:05,305
but when his fellow cops
pocket seized drug money,

861
00:50:05,350 --> 00:50:08,220
Castillo refuses.

862
00:50:08,266 --> 00:50:10,216
Supervisor came up
and says, "Look,

863
00:50:10,268 --> 00:50:12,098
everybody gets a handful."

864
00:50:12,139 --> 00:50:14,049
And, and I says,
"I can't do that, man,

865
00:50:14,098 --> 00:50:17,278
because if I do that,
then I am just like them."

866
00:50:20,756 --> 00:50:23,586
Working undercover,
Castillo infiltrates the base,

867
00:50:23,629 --> 00:50:27,589
where he's heard rumors of
large-scale cocaine trafficking.

868
00:50:27,633 --> 00:50:31,123
The Ilopango airport
in El Salvador

869
00:50:31,158 --> 00:50:34,548
was like the O'Hare Airport.

870
00:50:34,596 --> 00:50:37,986
The traffic was enormous,
crisscrossing.

871
00:50:38,035 --> 00:50:40,775
People would land with
permission, without permission,

872
00:50:40,820 --> 00:50:43,210
some of them crash-landed.

873
00:50:43,257 --> 00:50:46,997
The safe houses
were all over the place.

874
00:50:47,044 --> 00:50:51,144
The girls were everywhere,
the partying was huge.

875
00:50:53,137 --> 00:50:57,137
I had an informant,
who I paid a lot of money,

876
00:50:57,184 --> 00:51:00,754
who actually believed
in what I was doing.

877
00:51:00,796 --> 00:51:05,626
He was the tower controller
at Ilopango,

878
00:51:05,671 --> 00:51:08,721
and he was able to give me
the tail numbers of the planes

879
00:51:08,761 --> 00:51:10,461
that were coming in
with the drugs.

880
00:51:10,502 --> 00:51:12,502
Castillo starts
photographing the planes

881
00:51:12,547 --> 00:51:16,457
the tower controllers
identified.

882
00:51:16,508 --> 00:51:20,988
We started to
identify the pilots.

883
00:51:21,034 --> 00:51:23,864
He identifies one of the pilots
as Barry Seal,

884
00:51:23,906 --> 00:51:25,866
the cartel smuggler.

885
00:51:25,908 --> 00:51:28,738
Barry Seal could fly
his fleet of planes

886
00:51:28,781 --> 00:51:32,261
without being questioned at all.

887
00:51:32,306 --> 00:51:33,826
He was very well known.

888
00:51:33,873 --> 00:51:37,313
He was just one of
many American pilots

889
00:51:37,355 --> 00:51:40,525
that were running
out of Ilopango.

890
00:51:40,575 --> 00:51:42,225
When Castillo
begins to identify

891
00:51:42,273 --> 00:51:45,843
other known cocaine smugglers,
he alerts his superiors.

892
00:51:45,885 --> 00:51:47,885
When I got all the intelligence,

893
00:51:47,930 --> 00:51:52,070
I went to see
the U.S. ambassador.

894
00:51:52,109 --> 00:51:54,499
"Ambassador,
this is what we have.

895
00:51:54,546 --> 00:51:56,976
You have a guy here in Salvador

896
00:51:57,026 --> 00:52:00,636
who's running large amounts
of drugs into the U.S."

897
00:52:00,682 --> 00:52:02,122
Gave him the guy's name.

898
00:52:02,162 --> 00:52:05,912
He says, "He works
for Félix Rodríguez."

899
00:52:05,948 --> 00:52:07,948
Félix Rodríguez --

900
00:52:07,994 --> 00:52:11,654
His family was forced to flee
Cuba after the revolution.

901
00:52:11,693 --> 00:52:15,183
Rodríguez has devoted his life
to killing communists.

902
00:52:15,219 --> 00:52:17,789
He fights at the Bay of Pigs,

903
00:52:17,830 --> 00:52:20,880
and helps in the hunt
to kill Che Guevara.

904
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:23,880
He's on the front lines
in Southeast Asia,

905
00:52:23,923 --> 00:52:26,063
and now Central America.

906
00:52:28,928 --> 00:52:32,448
Many of the characters who had
shown up in Southeast Asia,

907
00:52:32,497 --> 00:52:36,537
like Félix Rodríguez,
now appear in Central America.

908
00:52:39,765 --> 00:52:42,325
But Castillo begins
to suspect Rodríguez

909
00:52:42,376 --> 00:52:45,286
is part of a larger
covert operation.

910
00:52:50,689 --> 00:52:53,129
He went around
bragging that he was connected

911
00:52:53,170 --> 00:52:56,260
to the Vice President,
George H.W. Bush,

912
00:52:56,303 --> 00:52:59,313
and that he only answered
to him.

913
00:53:02,570 --> 00:53:08,400
Castillo develops
a source close to Rodríguez.

914
00:53:08,446 --> 00:53:10,616
The best places
to get my intelligence

915
00:53:10,665 --> 00:53:12,795
were the whorehouses
where Sandra worked.

916
00:53:15,888 --> 00:53:20,758
Sandra was Félix's
regular girlfriend.

917
00:53:20,806 --> 00:53:22,586
Sandra allegedly tells Castillo

918
00:53:22,634 --> 00:53:25,254
when Rodríguez leaves town
and when he returns.

919
00:53:28,770 --> 00:53:31,250
He compares Rodríguez's travel
with the flights

920
00:53:31,295 --> 00:53:35,595
of suspected cocaine smugglers.

921
00:53:35,647 --> 00:53:38,257
The pilots were
running drugs all the way

922
00:53:38,302 --> 00:53:40,222
from Colombia
into Central America.

923
00:53:40,260 --> 00:53:42,520
Ilopango turned out to be
the trampoline.

924
00:53:42,567 --> 00:53:44,997
The drugs coming in,
they bounce right there

925
00:53:45,047 --> 00:53:49,047
and go to every part
of the United States.

926
00:53:49,095 --> 00:53:51,835
Castillo believes he's
discovered something shocking.

927
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:56,540
Some CIA contract pilots
illegally arming the Contras

928
00:53:56,581 --> 00:54:00,061
in violation
of the Boland Amendment

929
00:54:00,106 --> 00:54:04,276
are also smuggling cocaine
to help the cause.

930
00:54:04,328 --> 00:54:06,328
Castillo believes much
of the operation

931
00:54:06,373 --> 00:54:09,423
is under the command
of Félix Rodríguez.

932
00:54:09,463 --> 00:54:11,993
It turned out to be arms
coming south

933
00:54:12,031 --> 00:54:16,511
and cocaine going north
in the C-130s.

934
00:54:16,557 --> 00:54:20,517
In a shadowy war,
you're moving supplies

935
00:54:20,561 --> 00:54:23,481
and personnel into
these theaters of war,

936
00:54:23,521 --> 00:54:26,311
so you're establishing
smuggling routes.

937
00:54:26,350 --> 00:54:29,270
And you have a group
of armed men

938
00:54:29,309 --> 00:54:32,749
who are ready to do illegal
and dangerous things,

939
00:54:32,791 --> 00:54:36,931
so layering drugs on top
of that is very easy.

940
00:54:36,969 --> 00:54:40,489
I started getting intelligence
from U.S. Customs.

941
00:54:40,538 --> 00:54:42,318
They were getting
the same information.

942
00:54:42,366 --> 00:54:43,576
We were sharing information.

943
00:54:43,628 --> 00:54:46,068
The FBI was doing
the same thing.

944
00:54:46,108 --> 00:54:49,418
And when I questioned the CIA,
they would say,

945
00:54:49,460 --> 00:54:53,120
"It's a covert operation
being run by the White House."

946
00:54:53,159 --> 00:54:55,769
According to Castillo,
his superiors refuse

947
00:54:55,814 --> 00:54:59,514
to follow up on his allegations
about Ilopango.

948
00:54:59,557 --> 00:55:02,777
And to this day,
Rodríguez denies any involvement

949
00:55:02,821 --> 00:55:05,081
with drug trafficking
at the base.

950
00:55:05,127 --> 00:55:08,087
My supervisor says,
"Don't get involved, man,

951
00:55:08,130 --> 00:55:10,870
because we got orders
to stay away from it."

952
00:55:10,916 --> 00:55:13,786
I say, "This is not
what I signed up for.

953
00:55:13,832 --> 00:55:16,362
I became a federal agent
because I was gonna fight.

954
00:55:16,400 --> 00:55:19,970
I don't care who's involved."

955
00:55:20,012 --> 00:55:25,022
I was in Guatemala at
the ambassador's cocktail party.

956
00:55:25,060 --> 00:55:28,150
I didn't want to go because
I'm not that type of guy

957
00:55:28,194 --> 00:55:30,894
to mingle with people like that.

958
00:55:30,936 --> 00:55:35,286
But when
the guest of honor arrives,

959
00:55:35,332 --> 00:55:40,512
Castillo sees the opportunity
to reveal what he's uncovered

960
00:55:40,554 --> 00:55:44,734
to highest level
of the American government.

961
00:55:44,776 --> 00:55:48,166
I was standing there,
and he comes up to me.

962
00:55:48,214 --> 00:55:52,834
And he says,
"So what do you do here?"

963
00:55:52,871 --> 00:55:55,221
And I explained to him
that I was a DEA agent

964
00:55:55,264 --> 00:55:57,144
assigned to Central America.

965
00:55:57,179 --> 00:55:59,049
And he says, "Well,
that's good for you."

966
00:55:59,094 --> 00:56:03,404
And I say, "By the way,
we have received intelligence

967
00:56:03,447 --> 00:56:08,797
that the Contras are heavily
involved in the drug trade."

968
00:56:08,843 --> 00:56:14,463
And he smiled at me
and just walked away from me.

969
00:56:14,501 --> 00:56:18,071
It was right there and then
that I knew that it went

970
00:56:18,113 --> 00:56:21,163
all the way to the White House.

971
00:56:41,963 --> 00:56:43,493
By the mid-1980s,

972
00:56:43,530 --> 00:56:45,400
cocaine has spread from Miami

973
00:56:45,445 --> 00:56:48,485
and is now flooding
America's inner cities.

974
00:56:51,103 --> 00:56:53,113
In South Central Los Angeles,

975
00:56:53,148 --> 00:56:55,498
an up-and-coming cocaine dealer

976
00:56:55,542 --> 00:56:58,552
is about to make a deal
that will change his life

977
00:56:58,589 --> 00:57:00,499
and the war on drugs forever.

978
00:57:07,728 --> 00:57:09,248
Rick Ross --

979
00:57:09,295 --> 00:57:11,905
also known as "Freeway Rick."

980
00:57:11,950 --> 00:57:16,040
Raised in the projects, he was
a teenage tennis prodigy.

981
00:57:16,084 --> 00:57:18,174
My dream was to go
to a four-year university.

982
00:57:19,784 --> 00:57:22,224
It's crazy how somebody
can fool themselves

983
00:57:22,264 --> 00:57:24,444
into believing that they're
going to a four-year university

984
00:57:24,484 --> 00:57:25,794
when they can't read or write,

985
00:57:25,833 --> 00:57:28,493
so I found myself
on the streets.

986
00:57:28,532 --> 00:57:31,322
And it's there where
a friend first introduces Ross

987
00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:35,150
to a drug few in his
neighborhood had ever seen.

988
00:57:35,190 --> 00:57:36,320
I couldn't believe...

989
00:57:36,365 --> 00:57:37,885
a small amount of cocaine,

990
00:57:37,932 --> 00:57:42,112
it was probably about
the size of a match head,

991
00:57:42,154 --> 00:57:43,944
and he was telling me
that it was worth 50 bucks,

992
00:57:43,982 --> 00:57:45,902
and it was really hard
for me to fantasize

993
00:57:45,940 --> 00:57:49,070
that something so small
could be so valuable.

994
00:57:49,117 --> 00:57:53,027
It was like, this is
what I was made for.

995
00:57:55,559 --> 00:57:58,559
Ross finds he is
a natural at selling cocaine,

996
00:57:58,605 --> 00:58:01,125
and soon business is booming.

997
00:58:04,568 --> 00:58:06,178
His only problem --

998
00:58:06,221 --> 00:58:10,441
getting his hands
on enough supply.

999
00:58:15,709 --> 00:58:17,669
Everybody liked Freeway Rick.

1000
00:58:17,711 --> 00:58:20,281
He was someone that didn't have
to rely on violence

1001
00:58:20,322 --> 00:58:21,592
in order to sell his product.

1002
00:58:21,628 --> 00:58:25,108
It was just relationships
that he had.

1003
00:58:25,153 --> 00:58:29,163
Ross is meeting with a man he
only knows by the name Danilo.

1004
00:58:29,201 --> 00:58:31,551
I would always see
Danilo lurking around,

1005
00:58:31,595 --> 00:58:33,025
you know, kinda like,
in the shadows.

1006
00:58:33,074 --> 00:58:34,824
Every now and then,
he would give me a nod.

1007
00:58:34,859 --> 00:58:36,299
I've heard good things
about you, too.

1008
00:58:36,338 --> 00:58:38,648
He offers to sell Ross
large quantities

1009
00:58:38,689 --> 00:58:41,819
of high-quality cocaine
at a heavy discount.

1010
00:58:41,866 --> 00:58:44,996
I got like a $2,000 discount
per kilo,

1011
00:58:45,043 --> 00:58:48,443
which for me was, like,
unheard of.

1012
00:58:48,481 --> 00:58:50,611
You know, my profit margin
just -- just skyrocketed.

1013
00:58:57,185 --> 00:59:00,355
Ross soon realizes
he can make even more profit

1014
00:59:00,406 --> 00:59:03,056
if he uses a new way
of processing cocaine

1015
00:59:03,104 --> 00:59:05,764
that is increasingly popular
on the streets.

1016
00:59:05,803 --> 00:59:07,943
I run into a guy
who was a pimp.

1017
00:59:07,979 --> 00:59:09,759
What he was doing
is he was making it into

1018
00:59:09,807 --> 00:59:13,847
what we call rock form.

1019
00:59:13,898 --> 00:59:16,598
Rock, or what
will soon be known as crack,

1020
00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:19,600
is a mixture of baking soda
and powder cocaine

1021
00:59:19,643 --> 00:59:23,123
that delivers an instantaneous
and euphoric high.

1022
00:59:28,565 --> 00:59:30,955
But the high wears off quickly

1023
00:59:31,002 --> 00:59:33,922
and soon the user
needs another hit.

1024
00:59:33,961 --> 00:59:36,791
Powder cocaine.
It's the cocaine base

1025
00:59:36,834 --> 00:59:40,014
along with a hydrochloride
group attached to it.

1026
00:59:40,054 --> 00:59:42,754
Remove that hydrochloride group
that's attached,

1027
00:59:42,796 --> 00:59:44,926
then that's just
the cocaine base.

1028
00:59:44,972 --> 00:59:46,842
That's the freeing of the base.

1029
00:59:46,887 --> 00:59:48,717
You can smoke that.

1030
00:59:48,759 --> 00:59:51,539
Crack changes
the economics of cocaine ---

1031
00:59:51,588 --> 00:59:55,288
crack rocks are sold for
as little as $10 a hit.

1032
00:59:55,330 --> 00:59:59,420
Cheap to produce and cheap to
distribute, cheap to purchase.

1033
00:59:59,465 --> 01:00:01,635
It also created, in some ways,
more of an addiction

1034
01:00:01,685 --> 01:00:03,595
because it wasn't
really strong enough

1035
01:00:03,643 --> 01:00:05,303
to get you high for very long,

1036
01:00:05,340 --> 01:00:07,600
so you needed more of it.

1037
01:00:11,695 --> 01:00:14,645
Thanks to his source's
cut-rate cocaine,

1038
01:00:14,698 --> 01:00:18,008
and rising demand
on the streets,

1039
01:00:18,049 --> 01:00:19,789
Ross expands his operation,

1040
01:00:19,833 --> 01:00:23,103
building industrial-size labs
to cook crack.

1041
01:00:23,141 --> 01:00:27,581
We cookin' in pots
big enough to cook me in.

1042
01:00:29,843 --> 01:00:33,673
It became kind of like
an assembly line of production.

1043
01:00:37,546 --> 01:00:42,986
The demand just kept coming,
kept coming, kept coming.

1044
01:00:43,030 --> 01:00:46,730
His cooks are capable of making
50-kilogram rocks at a time.

1045
01:00:46,773 --> 01:00:48,303
Hm.

1046
01:00:48,340 --> 01:00:51,650
It takes a pickaxe
to break them up.

1047
01:00:51,691 --> 01:00:54,301
We went from $300 a day,
next thing you know,

1048
01:00:54,346 --> 01:00:55,906
we're making
a million dollars a day,

1049
01:00:55,956 --> 01:00:57,346
sometimes $3 million dollars.

1050
01:00:57,392 --> 01:00:59,792
And the rest is history.

1051
01:00:59,830 --> 01:01:01,790
He became the most
successful coke dealer

1052
01:01:01,832 --> 01:01:03,702
in South Central Los Angeles.

1053
01:01:03,747 --> 01:01:05,357
Everybody wanted to be
Rick Ross.

1054
01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:07,840
Everybody wanted to be
this big baller.

1055
01:01:07,881 --> 01:01:11,281
You know, something that
you dream of becoming.

1056
01:01:13,713 --> 01:01:15,853
But what no one
at the time in L.A. knows,

1057
01:01:15,889 --> 01:01:17,719
including Ross himself,

1058
01:01:17,761 --> 01:01:22,721
is that his main supplier
has a dark secret.

1059
01:01:22,766 --> 01:01:27,286
His full name --
Oscar Danilo Blandón.

1060
01:01:27,335 --> 01:01:30,725
He's a former Nicaraguan
government official,

1061
01:01:30,774 --> 01:01:34,214
who's now part of the CIA-backed
Contra war effort

1062
01:01:34,255 --> 01:01:37,685
to overthrow the communist
Sandinista government.

1063
01:01:37,737 --> 01:01:39,907
Danilo Blandón ended up
in California

1064
01:01:39,957 --> 01:01:42,737
as part of the political wing
of the Contras.

1065
01:01:42,786 --> 01:01:45,046
It was very difficult
for the organizers

1066
01:01:45,092 --> 01:01:47,362
of the political wing
of the Contras

1067
01:01:47,399 --> 01:01:50,319
to get any type of support
for their cause.

1068
01:01:50,358 --> 01:01:51,798
And so some
of these guys resorted

1069
01:01:51,838 --> 01:01:54,748
to very controversial means.

1070
01:01:54,798 --> 01:01:57,408
Danilo had connections
all over the country.

1071
01:01:57,452 --> 01:01:58,802
It was kind of like this whole

1072
01:01:58,845 --> 01:02:01,145
little Nicaraguan
connect, you know?

1073
01:02:01,195 --> 01:02:02,845
Blandón told me that money

1074
01:02:02,893 --> 01:02:05,203
that he made went toward
fighting this war.

1075
01:02:05,243 --> 01:02:07,333
They wanted this war to be won.

1076
01:02:07,375 --> 01:02:09,195
That was as far
as I went with it.

1077
01:02:09,247 --> 01:02:12,207
The less you know
about somebody, the better.

1078
01:02:12,250 --> 01:02:15,950
And Blandón starts offering
Ross more than just coke.

1079
01:02:15,993 --> 01:02:21,223
He started bringing Uzis
and MAC-10s and Thompsons,

1080
01:02:21,259 --> 01:02:27,129
AKs, and just
an arsenal of weapons,

1081
01:02:27,178 --> 01:02:28,918
that that we had
never saw before.

1082
01:02:28,962 --> 01:02:33,532
Okay, but the real
surprise -- this.

1083
01:02:33,575 --> 01:02:35,265
Blandón even provides Ross

1084
01:02:35,316 --> 01:02:38,316
sophisticated
police radio scanners.

1085
01:02:38,363 --> 01:02:40,413
You know when they're coming,

1086
01:02:40,452 --> 01:02:43,242
where they're coming
from, how many.

1087
01:02:43,281 --> 01:02:46,021
So Rick and his henchmen,
any time the police

1088
01:02:46,066 --> 01:02:47,976
started closing in
on his network,

1089
01:02:48,025 --> 01:02:50,105
he was able to find
out about it.

1090
01:02:50,157 --> 01:02:53,897
And every time they did a raid,
there was nothing there.

1091
01:02:53,944 --> 01:02:57,384
By 1986, crack has
spread across the country

1092
01:02:57,425 --> 01:03:00,245
and Freeway Rick Ross is
running a drug empire

1093
01:03:00,298 --> 01:03:02,468
that stretches across
20 states --

1094
01:03:02,517 --> 01:03:06,257
with an alleged income
of $900 million.

1095
01:03:06,304 --> 01:03:08,004
Well, the thing that made
Freeway Ricky Ross

1096
01:03:08,045 --> 01:03:10,655
such a successful crack kingpin

1097
01:03:10,699 --> 01:03:13,139
is the fact that he had
a very reliable supply

1098
01:03:13,180 --> 01:03:14,970
of cheap cocaine.

1099
01:03:15,008 --> 01:03:17,138
He was selling everything
that he was getting

1100
01:03:17,184 --> 01:03:18,974
as quickly as he got it.

1101
01:03:19,012 --> 01:03:21,712
And thanks to
Blandón's never-ending supply

1102
01:03:21,754 --> 01:03:23,414
of discount cocaine,

1103
01:03:23,451 --> 01:03:26,371
Ross helps change
the demographics of the drug --

1104
01:03:26,411 --> 01:03:29,981
from a rich man's party favor
to a cheap street high.

1105
01:03:34,506 --> 01:03:36,326
For many of us
who fell through the cracks

1106
01:03:36,377 --> 01:03:38,507
of society, crack was a way out.

1107
01:03:38,553 --> 01:03:40,863
But it had a devastating effect.

1108
01:03:40,904 --> 01:03:44,524
It was more like a bomb that was
dropped on the black community.

1109
01:03:44,559 --> 01:03:47,479
Hands behind your back!

1110
01:03:47,519 --> 01:03:51,869
That drug destroyed
families, communities,

1111
01:03:51,915 --> 01:03:55,695
and eventually it destroyed
part of the black race.

1112
01:03:55,744 --> 01:03:57,624
The people
that were most involved

1113
01:03:57,659 --> 01:04:02,009
in cocaine trafficking
in the early 1980s to mid-1980s

1114
01:04:02,055 --> 01:04:06,275
were the very same people
that the CIA was employing

1115
01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:09,240
to help channel weapons
to the Contras

1116
01:04:09,280 --> 01:04:12,110
and support those operations.

1117
01:04:12,152 --> 01:04:15,422
We had three or four
cases where we arrested

1118
01:04:15,460 --> 01:04:18,770
CIA contract workers
with cocaine,

1119
01:04:18,811 --> 01:04:23,381
and I get a phone call that
the charges have been dismissed.

1120
01:04:23,424 --> 01:04:26,864
You know, we are risking
our lives,

1121
01:04:26,906 --> 01:04:31,996
making cases against
significant drug traffickers.

1122
01:04:32,042 --> 01:04:34,912
Then on the other hand, you got
another government agency

1123
01:04:34,958 --> 01:04:38,568
allowing the drugs to come in.

1124
01:04:38,613 --> 01:04:41,273
And we're not talking
about 100 pounds,

1125
01:04:41,312 --> 01:04:44,492
we're talking about tons.

1126
01:04:44,532 --> 01:04:47,192
I don't care if you call it
national security or whatever.

1127
01:04:47,231 --> 01:04:50,361
That introduction

1128
01:04:50,408 --> 01:04:54,718
of white powder

1129
01:04:54,760 --> 01:05:00,550
was killing black people.

1130
01:05:10,776 --> 01:05:13,206
As the crack cocaine
epidemic spreads,

1131
01:05:13,257 --> 01:05:15,347
the White House creates
one of the most memorable

1132
01:05:15,389 --> 01:05:18,569
public-relations campaigns
in history.

1133
01:05:18,610 --> 01:05:21,790
What should you do
when someone offers you drugs?

1134
01:05:21,830 --> 01:05:24,830
Just say no!

1135
01:05:24,877 --> 01:05:27,177
Nancy Reagan's
"Just Say No" symbolized

1136
01:05:27,227 --> 01:05:29,487
the kind of zero tolerance,

1137
01:05:29,534 --> 01:05:32,284
puritanical approach
that America has always taken.

1138
01:05:32,319 --> 01:05:34,629
America is not good
doing nuance.

1139
01:05:34,669 --> 01:05:37,319
We don't do grays.

1140
01:05:37,368 --> 01:05:39,668
Hollywood also gets involved,

1141
01:05:39,718 --> 01:05:43,288
with celebrities joining
the anti-crack chorus.

1142
01:05:43,330 --> 01:05:47,200
This is crack -- rock cocaine.

1143
01:05:47,247 --> 01:05:52,117
It isn't glamorous or cool
or kid's stuff.

1144
01:05:52,165 --> 01:05:56,255
It's the most addictive kind
of cocaine, and it can kill you.

1145
01:05:56,300 --> 01:05:58,820
What will you do
when someone offers you drugs?

1146
01:05:58,867 --> 01:06:01,907
Just say no!

1147
01:06:01,958 --> 01:06:03,478
I can't hear you! Louder!

1148
01:06:03,524 --> 01:06:06,404
Just say no!

1149
01:06:06,440 --> 01:06:08,530
That's wonderful.

1150
01:06:10,879 --> 01:06:14,059
What's really ironic
is the fact that Nancy Reagan

1151
01:06:14,100 --> 01:06:17,360
was waging this huge
just say no to drugs campaign

1152
01:06:17,408 --> 01:06:21,628
and making drug use
a national moral issue,

1153
01:06:21,673 --> 01:06:24,633
at the same time that
her husband's administration

1154
01:06:24,676 --> 01:06:27,716
was elbow-deep
in the drug trade.

1155
01:06:27,766 --> 01:06:30,676
Down with dope.
Up with hope.

1156
01:06:30,725 --> 01:06:32,465
Down with dope.

1157
01:06:32,510 --> 01:06:37,730
Fast forward into
the summer of 1986...

1158
01:06:37,776 --> 01:06:40,206
Len Bias, the basketball player,

1159
01:06:40,257 --> 01:06:45,437
the second overall draft pick
of the 1986 draft dies.

1160
01:06:45,479 --> 01:06:48,219
Initial reports
were that Len Bias

1161
01:06:48,265 --> 01:06:50,395
had taken crack cocaine.

1162
01:06:50,441 --> 01:06:53,621
And so the reports were,
"This drug is so unpredictable

1163
01:06:53,661 --> 01:06:57,061
and so addictive
that it killed this athlete

1164
01:06:57,100 --> 01:06:59,320
at the height of his powers."

1165
01:06:59,363 --> 01:07:01,373
Then a week later, Don Rogers,

1166
01:07:01,408 --> 01:07:04,798
a Cleveland Brown, dies.

1167
01:07:04,846 --> 01:07:06,976
In both cases, it was
powder cocaine,

1168
01:07:07,023 --> 01:07:08,503
but it didn't matter.

1169
01:07:08,546 --> 01:07:11,506
In the American people's
conscience, it was crack.

1170
01:07:11,549 --> 01:07:14,289
And crack was so unpredictable
and so addictive

1171
01:07:14,334 --> 01:07:16,904
that it took down
these two great athletes

1172
01:07:16,945 --> 01:07:19,595
at the peak of their powers.

1173
01:07:19,644 --> 01:07:24,084
Jesse Jackson gives the eulogy
at Len Bias's funeral.

1174
01:07:24,127 --> 01:07:27,297
He says that crack has killed
more black people

1175
01:07:27,347 --> 01:07:31,867
than Klu Klux Klan ropes.

1176
01:07:31,917 --> 01:07:34,957
Congressman in Harlem,
Charlie Rangel,

1177
01:07:35,007 --> 01:07:40,187
was on President Reagan about
not doing enough for drugs.

1178
01:07:40,230 --> 01:07:42,930
All of these forces
are coming together.

1179
01:07:42,971 --> 01:07:45,931
And so Congress did the only
thing that they could do

1180
01:07:45,974 --> 01:07:48,064
and President
signed the legislation,

1181
01:07:48,107 --> 01:07:54,197
and that's the 1986
Anti-Drug Abuse Act.

1182
01:07:54,244 --> 01:07:59,644
Well, today it gives me great
pleasure to sign legislation

1183
01:07:59,684 --> 01:08:01,384
that reflects
the total commitment

1184
01:08:01,425 --> 01:08:03,855
of the American people
and their government

1185
01:08:03,905 --> 01:08:06,725
to fight the evil of drugs.

1186
01:08:06,778 --> 01:08:08,738
Under these new
sentencing guidelines,

1187
01:08:08,780 --> 01:08:11,000
five grams of crack cocaine,

1188
01:08:11,043 --> 01:08:14,353
often sold by and to
African-Americans,

1189
01:08:14,394 --> 01:08:18,094
carries a mandatory
five-year sentence.

1190
01:08:18,137 --> 01:08:22,227
For powder cocaine, often sold
by and to white Americans,

1191
01:08:22,272 --> 01:08:25,712
it would take 100 times that
amount for the same sentence.

1192
01:08:30,845 --> 01:08:32,405
All of a sudden,
they just started locking up

1193
01:08:32,456 --> 01:08:36,236
basically these kids.

1194
01:08:36,286 --> 01:08:39,766
These guys were coming in
for small amounts of crack

1195
01:08:39,811 --> 01:08:41,681
and getting more time
than a guy who's busted

1196
01:08:41,726 --> 01:08:44,076
with a kilo of pure cocaine.

1197
01:08:46,905 --> 01:08:50,515
Removing them from the
community, what does that do?

1198
01:08:50,561 --> 01:08:53,481
Now you don't have the people
who are bread winners

1199
01:08:53,520 --> 01:08:56,780
to support families.

1200
01:08:56,828 --> 01:09:00,398
The protectors of
the communities, they're gone.

1201
01:09:02,312 --> 01:09:04,662
What does the Reagan
War on Drugs do?

1202
01:09:04,705 --> 01:09:07,095
Well, consider this -- in 1980,

1203
01:09:07,143 --> 01:09:09,843
African-Americans are 12%
of the American population,

1204
01:09:09,884 --> 01:09:15,194
and they constitute 23%
of people arrested for drugs.

1205
01:09:15,238 --> 01:09:18,068
10 years later, they're still
12% of the overall population,

1206
01:09:18,110 --> 01:09:20,070
but now they constitute 40%

1207
01:09:20,112 --> 01:09:21,902
of everyone arrested for drugs,

1208
01:09:21,940 --> 01:09:25,070
and 60% of everyone convicted.

1209
01:09:35,954 --> 01:09:38,394
Authorities believe
last night's machine-gun killing

1210
01:09:38,435 --> 01:09:40,515
of top drug informant Barry Seal

1211
01:09:40,567 --> 01:09:43,477
was ordered by drug bosses
in Medellin, Colombia,

1212
01:09:43,527 --> 01:09:47,787
who sent five men
to Baton Rouge to kill Seal.

1213
01:09:47,835 --> 01:09:51,095
Barry Seal met an ignoble end.

1214
01:09:51,143 --> 01:09:55,673
He was gunned-down
in the streets.

1215
01:09:55,713 --> 01:10:00,943
Questions linger over
exactly who killed him.

1216
01:10:00,979 --> 01:10:02,809
Seal was a tough-guy pilot

1217
01:10:02,850 --> 01:10:05,460
who became one of the most
important and daring

1218
01:10:05,505 --> 01:10:07,455
undercover operatives
infiltrating

1219
01:10:07,507 --> 01:10:09,937
the top Colombian
drug operations.

1220
01:10:09,988 --> 01:10:14,118
Barry Seal was supposed to be
a highly protected witness

1221
01:10:14,166 --> 01:10:15,816
at the time of his death

1222
01:10:15,863 --> 01:10:19,483
and yet, the gunmen were
very easily able to find him

1223
01:10:19,519 --> 01:10:22,909
and shoot him down in public.

1224
01:10:22,957 --> 01:10:24,737
It was Seal
who posed as a smuggler

1225
01:10:24,785 --> 01:10:27,565
and flew into Nicaragua
and took these pictures

1226
01:10:27,614 --> 01:10:30,704
showing Colombian drug dealers
and Sandinista officials

1227
01:10:30,748 --> 01:10:32,618
loading cocaine on his plane.

1228
01:10:32,663 --> 01:10:34,583
Seal was scheduled to be
the key witness

1229
01:10:34,621 --> 01:10:37,361
against this man -- Jorge Ochoa,

1230
01:10:37,407 --> 01:10:39,317
the top Colombian drug boss

1231
01:10:39,365 --> 01:10:41,235
responsible for
the assassination

1232
01:10:41,280 --> 01:10:45,200
of Colombia's attorney general
and now the murder in Louisiana.

1233
01:10:45,241 --> 01:10:47,771
There were a number of people
that Seal

1234
01:10:47,808 --> 01:10:51,768
had begun to infuriate.

1235
01:10:51,812 --> 01:10:55,952
Barry Seal began telling people
that he was flying weapons

1236
01:10:55,990 --> 01:11:00,040
for the Central Intelligence
Agency into Central America

1237
01:11:00,081 --> 01:11:03,521
in support of the Contras.

1238
01:11:03,563 --> 01:11:06,313
He also talked about
Pablo Escobar,

1239
01:11:06,349 --> 01:11:10,609
and a lot of people believe
that Barry Seal's death

1240
01:11:10,657 --> 01:11:12,527
was basically a collusion

1241
01:11:12,572 --> 01:11:16,922
between the U.S. government
and the cartels.

1242
01:11:16,968 --> 01:11:20,798
What's interesting is that
a year after Barry Seal's death,

1243
01:11:20,841 --> 01:11:23,711
the Contra operation unraveled.

1244
01:11:29,981 --> 01:11:32,641
Deep in the jungles
of Nicaragua,

1245
01:11:32,679 --> 01:11:35,069
Marxist Sandinistas soldiers

1246
01:11:35,116 --> 01:11:37,676
just shot down
a military cargo plane.

1247
01:11:40,383 --> 01:11:44,433
Lo and behold, out
of the jungle comes this guy.

1248
01:11:48,565 --> 01:11:50,915
His plane has been shot down,

1249
01:11:50,958 --> 01:11:52,658
the two other crew members
are killed,

1250
01:11:52,699 --> 01:11:55,349
and a 17-year-old
Sandinista soldier

1251
01:11:55,398 --> 01:11:57,268
has him bound by the hands

1252
01:11:57,313 --> 01:11:59,363
and is leading him
out of the forest

1253
01:11:59,402 --> 01:12:03,192
with a rifle over his shoulder.

1254
01:12:03,231 --> 01:12:05,631
And from that
totally spectacular

1255
01:12:05,669 --> 01:12:07,979
and unexpected moment,

1256
01:12:08,019 --> 01:12:11,499
a whole series
of revelations unfolds.

1257
01:12:11,544 --> 01:12:14,334
The lone survivor of the crash,

1258
01:12:14,373 --> 01:12:20,383
Eugene Hasenfus, is no stranger
to covert operations.

1259
01:12:20,423 --> 01:12:22,513
He's a veteran of Air America,

1260
01:12:22,555 --> 01:12:26,295
the CIA airline that allegedly
helped fuel the heroin trade

1261
01:12:26,342 --> 01:12:30,482
during the Vietnam War.

1262
01:12:30,520 --> 01:12:34,440
If you told the average person
that there were Americans

1263
01:12:34,480 --> 01:12:37,000
who had fought in a secret war
in Laos

1264
01:12:37,048 --> 01:12:38,918
doing the same thing
in Central America,

1265
01:12:38,963 --> 01:12:40,623
most people would've
thought you were crazy.

1266
01:12:42,445 --> 01:12:46,055
The very same allegations
ended up surfacing

1267
01:12:46,100 --> 01:12:49,320
that not only were weapons being
brought down to Central America

1268
01:12:49,365 --> 01:12:52,455
to secret bases that the CIA
had involvement

1269
01:12:52,498 --> 01:12:53,928
with protecting and controlling,

1270
01:12:53,978 --> 01:12:55,238
but also these flights

1271
01:12:55,283 --> 01:12:57,163
were returning to military bases

1272
01:12:57,198 --> 01:12:59,158
and drugs were being brought
into the country.

1273
01:12:59,200 --> 01:13:04,550
It probably would've been better
if I would've been...

1274
01:13:04,597 --> 01:13:06,157
if I wouldn't of made it
out of that plane.

1275
01:13:06,207 --> 01:13:09,297
-Why?
-Dead people don't talk.

1276
01:13:11,343 --> 01:13:13,783
In the wreckage,
the Sandinistas find evidence

1277
01:13:13,824 --> 01:13:16,174
linking the plane
to the illegal operation

1278
01:13:16,217 --> 01:13:20,047
to arm the CIA backed
right-wing Contra army.

1279
01:13:20,091 --> 01:13:24,791
Congress very plainly stated
to the Reagan administration,

1280
01:13:24,835 --> 01:13:27,925
"You can't send weapons
to the Contras."

1281
01:13:30,841 --> 01:13:33,541
But this plane's loaded
with weapons,

1282
01:13:33,583 --> 01:13:37,593
and it began to expose
the Contra operation.

1283
01:13:37,630 --> 01:13:41,460
The plane actually had a more
interesting history than that.

1284
01:13:41,504 --> 01:13:45,294
The very same plane that had
been shot down over Nicaragua

1285
01:13:45,333 --> 01:13:47,253
carrying weapons for the CIA

1286
01:13:47,292 --> 01:13:49,862
was the plane that
had belonged to Barry Seal.

1287
01:13:52,428 --> 01:13:55,388
This was an unprecedented event
in American history,

1288
01:13:55,431 --> 01:14:00,701
where you basically
have a secret CIA operation

1289
01:14:00,740 --> 01:14:03,790
laid bare for everyone
to look at and to dissect

1290
01:14:03,830 --> 01:14:05,830
and to criticize.

1291
01:14:07,834 --> 01:14:09,314
Reporter" Today,
Colonel Oliver North's

1292
01:14:09,357 --> 01:14:12,397
the key witness
in the Iran arms scandal,

1293
01:14:12,448 --> 01:14:14,928
is due to give evidence in
public for the first time.

1294
01:14:17,061 --> 01:14:18,981
Congressional hearings
are called,

1295
01:14:19,019 --> 01:14:21,409
and the illegal operation
to arm the Contras

1296
01:14:21,457 --> 01:14:24,677
is revealed to be part
of a larger conspiracy.

1297
01:14:24,721 --> 01:14:26,071
The Iran-Contra scandal

1298
01:14:26,113 --> 01:14:27,553
is one of the most
complicated scandals

1299
01:14:27,593 --> 01:14:29,203
in the history
of American politics.

1300
01:14:29,247 --> 01:14:31,077
It's not just one scandal.

1301
01:14:31,118 --> 01:14:33,118
It's several scandals
wrapped into one.

1302
01:14:33,164 --> 01:14:35,994
On the one hand,
a secret war in Nicaragua,

1303
01:14:36,036 --> 01:14:38,686
but on the other hand,
America's arch enemy, Iran,

1304
01:14:38,735 --> 01:14:41,165
actually receiving missiles
from the U.S. government,

1305
01:14:41,215 --> 01:14:43,865
the profits of which
were used to purchase supplies

1306
01:14:43,914 --> 01:14:46,574
for the war in Nicaragua.

1307
01:14:46,612 --> 01:14:48,882
The elaborate
operation is run

1308
01:14:48,919 --> 01:14:52,789
by Lieutenant Colonel
Oliver North --

1309
01:14:52,836 --> 01:14:56,186
A highly-decorated platoon
commander in Vietnam,

1310
01:14:56,230 --> 01:14:58,450
now a National Security Council
staffer

1311
01:14:58,494 --> 01:15:01,154
for the Reagan White House.

1312
01:15:01,192 --> 01:15:04,982
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North
was a nobody effectively

1313
01:15:05,022 --> 01:15:06,762
at the beginning
of the Contra war.

1314
01:15:06,806 --> 01:15:08,416
It's with great pleasure
that I present to you

1315
01:15:08,460 --> 01:15:10,290
Oliver North.

1316
01:15:10,331 --> 01:15:13,551
But he got very lucky
because he was known

1317
01:15:13,596 --> 01:15:16,686
by a select group of superiors
in the National Security Council

1318
01:15:16,729 --> 01:15:18,209
as a guy that would
pretty much do anything

1319
01:15:18,252 --> 01:15:20,692
and not ask any
questions whatsoever.

1320
01:15:20,733 --> 01:15:24,043
And so there's, literally,
a very narrow chain of command

1321
01:15:24,084 --> 01:15:27,834
from the highest levels of power
out of the vice-president office

1322
01:15:27,871 --> 01:15:30,661
down to one guy,
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North,

1323
01:15:30,700 --> 01:15:32,220
that was given free license

1324
01:15:32,266 --> 01:15:35,226
to run a secret war
in Nicaragua.

1325
01:15:35,269 --> 01:15:38,189
The National Security Council
during the Reagan administration

1326
01:15:38,229 --> 01:15:40,669
was very powerful.

1327
01:15:40,710 --> 01:15:43,280
-Okay, well, let me ask you --
-I don't have a comment.

1328
01:15:43,321 --> 01:15:46,891
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North
was really the one directing

1329
01:15:46,933 --> 01:15:49,073
a lot of these CIA operations.

1330
01:15:53,853 --> 01:15:55,643
The nation is transfixed

1331
01:15:55,681 --> 01:15:57,771
when North is forced to testify.

1332
01:15:57,814 --> 01:16:01,434
You had the spectacle
of this ramrod,

1333
01:16:01,469 --> 01:16:04,429
straight patriotic American --

1334
01:16:04,472 --> 01:16:09,092
true believer, boy-scout
Oliver North raising his hand.

1335
01:16:09,129 --> 01:16:14,569
When I saw Oliver North
raise his hand to be sworn in,

1336
01:16:14,613 --> 01:16:17,623
you know, he hadn't worn
the uniform in 10 years,

1337
01:16:17,660 --> 01:16:19,530
and that day, he put it on

1338
01:16:19,575 --> 01:16:22,095
to make it look like
he was a patriot.

1339
01:16:24,884 --> 01:16:28,454
While North denies working with
or protecting drug traffickers,

1340
01:16:28,496 --> 01:16:30,756
he admits to shredding
classified documents.

1341
01:16:30,803 --> 01:16:34,943
I do not deny that I engaged
in shredding on November 21st.

1342
01:16:34,981 --> 01:16:37,851
I will also tell this committee
that I engaged in shredding

1343
01:16:37,897 --> 01:16:39,987
almost every day
that I had a shredder.

1344
01:16:40,030 --> 01:16:43,730
But some of his diary entries
survive,

1345
01:16:43,773 --> 01:16:46,563
including several in which North
appears to be aware

1346
01:16:46,602 --> 01:16:50,782
the Contras were involved
in cocaine trafficking.

1347
01:16:50,823 --> 01:16:53,003
North ended up taking the fall

1348
01:16:53,043 --> 01:16:55,653
for a lot of the things
that happened,

1349
01:16:55,698 --> 01:16:58,958
but there were people higher-up
that were never prosecuted.

1350
01:16:59,005 --> 01:17:00,915
Vice President Bush

1351
01:17:00,964 --> 01:17:04,664
denies he knew about
any Contra drug trafficking.

1352
01:17:04,707 --> 01:17:06,927
When Bush is elected president,

1353
01:17:06,970 --> 01:17:09,410
he pardons
six high-ranking officials --

1354
01:17:09,450 --> 01:17:11,670
including
the Secretary of Defense

1355
01:17:11,714 --> 01:17:14,414
and the CIA's head
of covert operations --

1356
01:17:14,455 --> 01:17:17,755
over their involvement
in illegal arms sales.

1357
01:17:17,807 --> 01:17:20,677
When North is convicted
of lying to Congress,

1358
01:17:20,723 --> 01:17:23,163
he never spends a day in prison.

1359
01:17:27,730 --> 01:17:32,130
But beneath the Iran-Contra
affair lies a deeper scandal.

1360
01:17:32,169 --> 01:17:35,169
What you ultimately had
was a very dark chapter

1361
01:17:35,215 --> 01:17:37,165
in the United States involvement

1362
01:17:37,217 --> 01:17:40,917
with drug trafficking.

1363
01:17:40,960 --> 01:17:42,700
The Iran-Contra
investigation

1364
01:17:42,745 --> 01:17:45,695
has really, really
never been told.

1365
01:17:45,748 --> 01:17:48,318
You have the bipartisan
investigations,

1366
01:17:48,359 --> 01:17:51,449
people will read,
and then they'll forget.

1367
01:17:51,492 --> 01:17:54,232
They know that nothing's
going to happen,

1368
01:17:54,278 --> 01:17:56,188
and you saw it
with Oliver North.

1369
01:17:56,236 --> 01:18:00,846
He got indicted, he was
convicted, and they let him go.

1370
01:18:00,893 --> 01:18:05,033
It was in no way hidden
that this mercenary force

1371
01:18:05,071 --> 01:18:07,601
that was being funded
with U.S. tax money

1372
01:18:07,639 --> 01:18:12,729
was also, apparently,
importing drugs to the U.S.

1373
01:18:12,775 --> 01:18:16,425
That fact was established even
as it was quickly brushed aside.

1374
01:18:21,044 --> 01:18:22,794
Luck has finally run
out for the man

1375
01:18:22,828 --> 01:18:27,048
who helped Pablo Escobar
revolutionize the cocaine trade.

1376
01:18:27,093 --> 01:18:31,013
Carlos Lehder is captured
by the Columbian National Police

1377
01:18:31,054 --> 01:18:37,154
and extradited
to the United States.

1378
01:18:37,190 --> 01:18:39,580
He's convicted of drug smuggling

1379
01:18:39,627 --> 01:18:42,807
and sentenced to life in prison
without parole.

1380
01:18:42,848 --> 01:18:48,458
plus an additional 135 years.

1381
01:18:48,506 --> 01:18:50,286
After testifying against

1382
01:18:50,334 --> 01:18:53,124
Panamanian dictator
Manuel Noriega,

1383
01:18:53,163 --> 01:18:57,783
his sentence is reduced
to 55 years.

1384
01:18:57,820 --> 01:19:02,040
Lehder also tells the government
that the Medellin Cartel

1385
01:19:02,085 --> 01:19:05,605
had given $10 million
to the CIA-backed Contra Army

1386
01:19:05,653 --> 01:19:07,923
in Nicaragua.

1387
01:19:07,960 --> 01:19:11,180
It's the first public indication
that the cartel was connected

1388
01:19:11,224 --> 01:19:14,454
to the CIA's secret war.

1389
01:19:18,971 --> 01:19:23,801
The hearing will
come to order, please?

1390
01:19:23,846 --> 01:19:27,276
What is the definition
of national security

1391
01:19:27,327 --> 01:19:30,807
which permits us to sacrifice
the war on illegal drugs

1392
01:19:30,853 --> 01:19:34,033
to support the illegal war
of Contras?

1393
01:19:34,073 --> 01:19:35,863
After the Iran-Contra hearings,

1394
01:19:35,901 --> 01:19:38,431
Senator John Kerry
conducts a separate

1395
01:19:38,469 --> 01:19:41,729
and often secret investigation
of the government's involvement

1396
01:19:41,777 --> 01:19:45,687
with drug smugglers
during the 1980s.

1397
01:19:45,737 --> 01:19:47,827
Right on the heels
of the Iran-Contra scandal,

1398
01:19:47,870 --> 01:19:50,000
you had John Kerry --
the lone politician

1399
01:19:50,046 --> 01:19:52,176
willing to try to take this on.

1400
01:19:52,222 --> 01:19:54,352
In testimony before
this committee last year,

1401
01:19:54,398 --> 01:19:55,748
we heard how it's possible

1402
01:19:55,791 --> 01:19:58,231
to literally rent
an island overnight

1403
01:19:58,271 --> 01:20:00,361
so that drug planes
can land, unload,

1404
01:20:00,404 --> 01:20:04,104
and transfer their drugs to
boats that come into Florida.

1405
01:20:04,147 --> 01:20:07,587
We will hear testimony
about the destabilization

1406
01:20:07,628 --> 01:20:11,548
of whole countries, regions,
the support for terrorism,

1407
01:20:11,589 --> 01:20:15,769
and the subversion of our own
laws and institutions.

1408
01:20:15,811 --> 01:20:19,861
Contra pilots
testify under oath.

1409
01:20:19,902 --> 01:20:22,082
After the guns were unloaded,

1410
01:20:22,121 --> 01:20:24,601
was something loaded
into the airplane?

1411
01:20:24,645 --> 01:20:27,165
Uh, yes. I loaded
about 17 duffel bags

1412
01:20:27,213 --> 01:20:29,833
and, uh,
five or six boxes.

1413
01:20:29,868 --> 01:20:32,038
And what was in
the duffel bags?

1414
01:20:32,088 --> 01:20:33,788
Coke -- cocaine.

1415
01:20:33,829 --> 01:20:34,739
And in the boxes?

1416
01:20:34,786 --> 01:20:36,876
Cocaine.

1417
01:20:36,919 --> 01:20:39,969
Anybody explain to you what you
were loading or did you know?

1418
01:20:40,009 --> 01:20:42,319
I knew.

1419
01:20:42,359 --> 01:20:44,359
So we stand in recess
for 10 minutes.

1420
01:20:44,404 --> 01:20:46,844
Despite the admission
Contra pilots

1421
01:20:46,885 --> 01:20:50,105
were running drugs to finance
an illegal CIA war,

1422
01:20:50,149 --> 01:20:53,809
few in the media pick up
on the story.

1423
01:20:53,849 --> 01:20:55,419
In 1992,

1424
01:20:55,459 --> 01:20:57,499
Contra supporter Danilo Blandón

1425
01:20:57,548 --> 01:20:59,718
is charged with
cocaine distribution,

1426
01:20:59,767 --> 01:21:01,417
but to reduce his sentence,

1427
01:21:01,465 --> 01:21:04,415
he agrees to help the government
in a sting operation

1428
01:21:04,468 --> 01:21:06,988
to bring down his old
customer Rick Ross.

1429
01:21:09,777 --> 01:21:12,127
I just need to keep staring
right into the thing, right?

1430
01:21:12,171 --> 01:21:14,171
It's not until 1996

1431
01:21:14,217 --> 01:21:16,607
that a little known reporter
named Gary Webb

1432
01:21:16,654 --> 01:21:19,704
will expose Blandón's
Contra connections.

1433
01:21:19,744 --> 01:21:21,354
We've got all the DEA
undercover tapes,

1434
01:21:21,398 --> 01:21:22,918
we got the FBI reports.

1435
01:21:22,965 --> 01:21:24,305
What we found that it was
connected

1436
01:21:24,357 --> 01:21:26,657
to this Nicaraguan
cocaine pipeline.

1437
01:21:31,538 --> 01:21:33,018
With controversy swirling,

1438
01:21:33,062 --> 01:21:36,762
the CIA director himself,
John Deutch,

1439
01:21:36,804 --> 01:21:38,814
agrees to a town hall meeting

1440
01:21:38,850 --> 01:21:43,550
with the citizens
of South Central L.A.

1441
01:21:43,594 --> 01:21:45,424
You, the President,
and everybody else

1442
01:21:45,465 --> 01:21:48,075
should be highly upset and say,

1443
01:21:48,120 --> 01:21:51,300
"How did this cancer get here?

1444
01:21:51,341 --> 01:21:53,431
How did it happen?"

1445
01:21:53,473 --> 01:21:57,173
The African-American
community really picked it up

1446
01:21:57,216 --> 01:21:59,216
and felt that this was
confirmation

1447
01:21:59,262 --> 01:22:01,572
of what they had been suffering,

1448
01:22:01,612 --> 01:22:05,142
through the war on drugs
and the epidemic of addiction.

1449
01:22:05,181 --> 01:22:07,401
The drugs have been
coming in this country

1450
01:22:07,444 --> 01:22:09,794
and they have been sanctioned
by our government.

1451
01:22:09,837 --> 01:22:13,617
Thank you.

1452
01:22:13,667 --> 01:22:14,967
Rick Ross' co-defendant

1453
01:22:15,017 --> 01:22:17,627
confronts the CIA director.

1454
01:22:17,671 --> 01:22:19,021
Rick lookin' at life.

1455
01:22:19,064 --> 01:22:21,334
My first offense,
I'm looking at 20.

1456
01:22:21,371 --> 01:22:25,111
And Blandón is out of jail
and you paid him $166,000.

1457
01:22:30,336 --> 01:22:32,856
The co-defendant of Ricky Ross.

1458
01:22:32,904 --> 01:22:35,524
Ricky Ross is doing
George Bush's time.

1459
01:22:39,606 --> 01:22:41,826
The purpose of the investigation

1460
01:22:41,869 --> 01:22:45,479
that I described to you
was exactly to find out

1461
01:22:45,525 --> 01:22:50,745
whether CIA officers allowed
that kind of trafficking

1462
01:22:50,791 --> 01:22:54,231
take place knowingly
or conspired to do so.

1463
01:22:54,273 --> 01:22:56,453
That is the purpose
of the investigation.

1464
01:22:56,493 --> 01:22:59,103
If we find anybody who did it,
we will bring them to justice.

1465
01:23:02,586 --> 01:23:03,666
After the town hall,

1466
01:23:03,717 --> 01:23:05,627
the CIA's Inspector General

1467
01:23:05,676 --> 01:23:09,106
launches an internal
investigation.

1468
01:23:09,158 --> 01:23:12,898
He finds numerous allegations
that CIA-backed Contras

1469
01:23:12,944 --> 01:23:16,124
were involved in cocaine
trafficking,

1470
01:23:16,165 --> 01:23:19,115
but he concludes the operations
were never sanctioned.

1471
01:23:21,692 --> 01:23:24,742
The U.S. media just completely
ignored this story.

1472
01:23:24,782 --> 01:23:29,402
It portrayed Kerry
as a conspiracy theorist.

1473
01:23:29,439 --> 01:23:32,959
Gary Webb loses his job
and then his career

1474
01:23:33,008 --> 01:23:35,838
over the backlash to his story

1475
01:23:35,880 --> 01:23:38,100
and later commits suicide.

1476
01:23:40,058 --> 01:23:44,058
Rick Ross serves
16 1/2 years in prison.

1477
01:23:44,106 --> 01:23:45,926
I'm sitting in prison,
and here they are saying

1478
01:23:45,977 --> 01:23:48,147
that I was connected to the CIA.

1479
01:23:48,197 --> 01:23:50,897
How can I be tied to the CIA,
you know,

1480
01:23:50,938 --> 01:23:53,198
little old me, Ricky Ross.

1481
01:23:53,245 --> 01:23:55,675
It was just a crazy situation
to find myself in.

1482
01:24:01,297 --> 01:24:03,907
Cocaine lives parallel
lives throughout the 1980s.

1483
01:24:03,951 --> 01:24:07,611
It starts this fun player drug
in the early 1980s,

1484
01:24:07,651 --> 01:24:09,351
and by the end of the 1980s,

1485
01:24:09,392 --> 01:24:12,182
it's a fun player drug
for a lot of fun players

1486
01:24:12,221 --> 01:24:15,961
who mostly happen
to be white and rich.

1487
01:24:16,007 --> 01:24:20,187
The Reagan War on Drugs
had really been dominated

1488
01:24:20,229 --> 01:24:23,149
by the idea
of these foreign bogeymen

1489
01:24:23,188 --> 01:24:25,628
who were harming America,

1490
01:24:25,669 --> 01:24:27,629
even though there's
this long history

1491
01:24:27,671 --> 01:24:29,981
since the very beginning
of the CIA,

1492
01:24:30,021 --> 01:24:32,071
of operating in countries

1493
01:24:32,110 --> 01:24:35,940
where they ally themselves
with people

1494
01:24:35,983 --> 01:24:37,943
that are involved in drugs.

1495
01:24:37,985 --> 01:24:40,545
If you took every single
cartel leader --

1496
01:24:40,597 --> 01:24:42,727
Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder,

1497
01:24:42,773 --> 01:24:46,123
line them up on the walls
and you killed them,

1498
01:24:46,168 --> 01:24:47,688
there would be a line tomorrow

1499
01:24:47,734 --> 01:24:50,614
of a hundred deep
to replace each one.

1500
01:24:50,650 --> 01:24:54,310
There has never been and there
will never be a War on Drugs

1501
01:24:54,350 --> 01:24:58,700
because America is more addicted

1502
01:24:58,745 --> 01:25:00,825
to drug money than they are
to drugs.

1503
01:25:07,624 --> 01:25:09,104
As America's War On Drugs

1504
01:25:09,147 --> 01:25:10,887
enters its third decade...

1505
01:25:10,931 --> 01:25:12,851
He was owned
lock, stock, and barrel

1506
01:25:12,890 --> 01:25:14,410
by drug dealers.

1507
01:25:14,457 --> 01:25:16,627
Do you know who is
supporting the enemy?

1508
01:25:16,676 --> 01:25:18,676
The casual drug user.

1509
01:25:18,722 --> 01:25:21,592
The militarization
begins in Los Angeles.

1510
01:25:21,638 --> 01:25:23,548
Is it good?

1511
01:25:23,596 --> 01:25:25,816
We had been partying
like a week straight.

1512
01:25:25,859 --> 01:25:29,469
I've got FBI, I've got DEA,
I said "Where's AC/DC at?"

1513
01:25:29,515 --> 01:25:31,295
I experimented
with marijuana a time or two

1514
01:25:31,343 --> 01:25:33,173
and I didn't like it.

1515
01:25:33,215 --> 01:25:35,295
St. - The perfect answer
became "I didn't inhale."

1516
01:25:35,347 --> 01:25:39,087
Drugs is big money
and NAFTA was big money.

1517
01:25:39,134 --> 01:25:40,834
El futuro es la frontera.

1518
01:25:40,874 --> 01:25:42,964
Let us stick with
the strategy that's working

1519
01:25:43,007 --> 01:25:45,007
and keep the crime rate
coming down.