Narcoworld: Dope Stories (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - It's Kill or Be Killed - full transcript
Meth smugglers and law enforcement officials play a high stakes game of cat and mouse around Phoenix and the US-Mexico border.
[sirens wailing]
[cocks gun]
[Chico] Our product
is the best shit in town. You know why?
Because it's fire.
Right now, [scoffs],
it's bigger than Starbucks.
[man] Put your hands up!
[Clair over radio] We got a runner!
Methamphetamines is our number one
narcotic problem.
So, when we do this,
it makes a difference.
We're stick up kids.
If we know you got drugs,
then we're gonna do everything
to get to what you got.
[winces]
[groaning]
[in Spanish] Here, look at my hand.
To start with,
the first sign of quality
is the way it looks.
[dog barking]
[exhales]
[in English] This is the kitchen.
But I'm the cook.
A lot of people around here
like to call it dope,
glass, shards,
crystal, crank.
To me, it all means money.
I cook the best shit.
[narrator] Bluey cooks crystal meth
for a Phoenix-based gang
using an array of flasks, funnels,
and toxic chemicals.
[Bluey] This is only one of the kitchens.
Yeah.
These ones...
I can get rid of them for ten a key.
Right here.
That's where the real money happens.
[narrator] When a batch
of Bluey's crystal is ready,
the gang moves it to a stash house
closer to market.
[crickets chirping, dog barking]
[rock music plays]
[Chico] Our product is
the best shit in town. You know why?
'Cause it's fire.
I don't know what the cook puts in it,
but he puts some magic in it.
The cook is more important
than the killer in this business.
[narrator] Chico is a local kingpin
with links to the Sinaloa Cartel.
I work for my own organization here.
I send my money back to the big dogs,
that's all you're gonna get.
[narrator] The cook
provides a backup to the regular shipments
he gets from Mexico.
We can't rely on the big shipments
all the time.
They get busted all the time,
so we gotta find other ways to make it.
That's where the cook comes in.
Let's say we lose a shipment.
Okay. Well, we're not gonna wait for them.
We gotta make our own.
I'm gonna keep making money
while I wait on a shipment.
This is about a quarter key.
Break it down
four ways.
Sell 'em at $7,500 a piece.
That's about...
$30,000 in a month in the end.
Cook gets ten G's. I stay with 20 G's.
Add that up and I'm making
about a quarter mil a year
just off this little shit right here.
[narrator] With so much cash at stake,
protection is never far away.
This one right here,
this is a good weapon.
Take anything out.
This one here,
a 9 millimeter.
That's a good luck charm.
[narrator] Angel takes his job seriously.
That's a bad boy.
AK-47.
This right here does damage.
This is no joke.
Wanna see what a body looks like
after you've used one of these
on somebody?
It ain't a pretty sight.
You gotta protect the money.
Anybody... competition,
newcomers, old rivals.
You gotta keep it safe,
gotta keep our money coming.
Gotta make sure nobody fucks with that.
Kill or be killed.
I'm the one walking away.
["Furies" plays]
♪ Sticks and stones will wait for you ♪
♪ But it's not bones they break in two ♪
♪ Saints and sin rest in the same home ♪
[narrator] Phoenix lies at the heart
of one of America's biggest metro areas.
Its road network makes it
a perfect distribution hub.
One of the city's drug markets
lies northwest of downtown.
Dealers call it "The blade."
♪ Gods and devils want me ♪
♪ They want me ♪
♪ But wrong and right don't haunt me ♪
♪ Don't haunt me ♪
♪ The furies, they can't stop me ♪
♪ Can't stop me ♪
Hey, come back here!
[continues indistinctly]
[narrator] The high demand for meth
means that every day's a payday
for The Blade's dealers.
Today, I got, uh...
probably now just a little less
than a half ounce.
I'm about to weigh out some twenties,
what I call "grammers."
Which is...
somewhere right around a gram.
You're never on point.
Everybody else around here
charges probably about...
25 to 30 bucks per gram.
I do it just a solid $20.
I'm the cheapest in town.
They're gonna come back to me regardless.
I can give 'em a half gram for $20 bucks,
I guarantee they're gonna come to me
before they go down the road.
Normally, I pick up anywhere
from a half pound to a pound,
and I usually make about ten grand
off of a pound.
My stuff's always good, solid.
You do a shot of this shit, your eyes are
gonna fucking be bouncing back and forth.
You're gonna have to fucking lay back.
You ain't gonna be able
to hold yourself up.
You're gonna be sitting there just
tripping for about ten minutes,
then you're gonna get up
with the biggest rush you've ever had,
and you're gonna love it
and go for a speed race.
We call it white boy dope around here.
[Heather] It's kind of like
not normal having a lot of...
[narrator] E-Zee's first customer
of the night is Heather.
[Heather] I'm kind of a functional addict.
I own my own business. I have a day job.
I'm educated.
I did all that and I did it all,
the whole time, using crystal meth.
That's not something that I'm proud of.
It's what I know, it's what gets me up
in the morning and gets my day going.
What I have right here is 0.2 of a gram
on top of the beer can.
♪ The writing's on the wall ♪
♪ The sky's about to fall ♪
Eighteen is the first time
I did crystal meth.
That's twenty years ago.
After doing it so long, smoking,
I just wasn't getting high anymore.
And so, I have to inject it to get high.
This is a different high,
it's more intense.
♪ Run, darlin', run ♪
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
The first time I used it,
it was very euphoric.
Kind of feel like, you know, Superwoman.
[laughs] You can go conquer the world.
I guess a lot of addicts
will always chase their first high.
You never get that high again.
So that's gonna soak it up,
and then I'm gonna...
get it on there with the syringe.
♪ Know you'd have to hide ♪
♪ With nothin' left inside ♪
And tie it off to keep it tight.
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
[coughs]
[laughs]
It feels really euphoric.Um...
I get a tingle in the back of the throat,
my heart rate's elevated,
my body feels kind of warm.
And, um...
it's good.
It feels good.
[sirens wailing]
[indistinct police radio chatter]
[narrator] A Homeland Security Team
is fixing to raid a house in Tucson,
one hundred miles South of Phoenix.
It's part of a strategy
to choke off the Phoenix supply line.
We've been investigating
a drug trafficking organization that...
primarily deals in methamphetamine sales.
And we have information
that they are heavily armed,
they've been known to have some
semi-automatic and automatic weapons.
Therefore we're gonna use the Homeland
Security Special Response Team.
You guys are going to hold up there,
and then the breachers can come out
and we'll catch you coming out the back.
We use them in more
of our high-risk operations.
They just have more tools
on the tool belt,
which becomes useful
in a situation like this.
So, we're heading
into a pretty tight-knit neighborhood,
so the houses are one
right on top of each other.
So, we're always worried
about the neighbors reacting or...
individuals who we haven't identified
who may be running protection
for this organization.
They might create a distraction,
there might be gunfire down the street.
They try to draw us away from the scene.
It's gonna be this house here,
this white one, directly in front of us.
[dog barking]
Do you copy? SRT is making entry.
[man] Police! Search warrant!
Come to the door!
Police!
[Ray] The team's inside the residence.
[dog barking]
Yeah, 10-4.
We do have one in custody.
[narrator] The agents secure the property
and quickly discover drugs.
[Ray] There's packaged marijuana
all over the house.
Definitely lots of weed paraphernalia
all over the place.
[narrator] If meth was stashed here,
it's gone now.
But the agents make a further discovery.
[Ray] See this over here?
It's like an arsenal in there.
Yeah, there's AK, SKS.
Those are all gun boxes.
There's tons of ammo, tons of gun cases.
[narrator] This time, the team
got the drop on the bad guys
before things could turn ugly.
[rock music plays]
[man] Definitely some unique weapons
that we found in one of the rooms.
Nickel-plated AK, nickel-plated Uzi,
there's a flamethrower.
♪ I hear the voices and they
They tell me I'm dope ♪
♪ Whisper lustful thoughts in my mind
It's so inappro ♪
[narrator] All this firepower
was meant to protect something valuable.
To Special Agent Rede,
it all points to one source.
[Ray] Given our proximity to the border,
we're only 50 miles away,
it's very likely that all the illegal
contraband that we found in here,
any of the narcotics or the drugs,
all originated in Mexico.
You just can't beat the prices of Mexico.
It's a lot cheaper,
there's plenty of supply
to meet the demand.
It's just the nature of the beast.
[narrator] Chico's operation, meanwhile,
remains secure.
[Chico] We use 12 houses.
We don't stay in one house.
Let's say the fucking narcs
are outside watching us.
Guess what? We'll go do business
out of the other house.
That's what keeps us out of the radar.
Keep moving, switch cars, switch houses.
You just gotta keep doing it.
[narrator] He's waiting on his next
shipment from his contacts in Mexico,
and the clock is ticking.
We got secrets, man.
We got secrets to get this shit over here.
We got a little plan that works good.
Bring it from Nogales, that's all.
We'll leave it at that.
[narrator] Two hundred miles
south of Phoenix,
Nogales straddles the US-Mexico border.
[helicopter overhead]
[siren wails]
Nothing moves in or out of Nogales
without the Sinaloa Cartel
knowing about it.
[barking]
[Diego in Spanish] This product
comes directly from the Sinaloa Cartel.
This is like Formula 1,
it's the best quality available.
They don't need to hide
from the government here.
So it's the best there is here
for consumers from the US.
You can check the quality,
you can see it.
To start with,
the first sign of quality...
is the way it looks.
It has to look big and whole like this,
like a shard, as they call it.
There is...
a pound...
in this bag.
Here in Mexico,
it can cost $1,000 dollars,
and in the USA,
it'll go for $3,500 up to $5,000.
[narrator in English]
Diego and his partner, Oscar,
are prepping ten pounds of Cartel meth
for shipment.
[in Spanish] Wrap another layer.
[speaking Spanish indistinctly]
Now it's perfect.
That's it.
[narrator in English] This ten pounds
will have a street value
of over $300,000 in the US.
[Oscar in Spanish] We apply grease
to prevent it from smelling.
It masks the odor.
[narrator in English]
Years of trial and error
have gone into perfecting
these techniques.
[in Spanish]
And then we wrap it in carbon paper
to avoid detection from X-rays.
[narrator in English]
But they leave the best till last.
[in Spanish]
We still need to do one more thing...
to make it undetectable...
by sniffer dogs or scanners.
This mix of Mexican chili and water
does all the work.
We boil it, strain it,
and then spray it on.
This hurts the dogs' noses
and they won't be able to sniff drugs.
I wouldn't recommend
that anyone sniffs this chili.
It'll hurt your nose, too.
[coughing]
I am going to put the whole ten pounds
inside this seat back.
[grunts]
[groans]
[grunts]
Excuse me.
I'm taking this off
so it won't stop my hand when I put it in.
For what I am doing right now,
we get around $1,500 to $1,700.
This is what is going to make us
our money.
But the one who carries it
across the border...
will earn more.
Around $7,000-$8,000.
And if a job goes wrong,
we all lose.
With God's favor,
we are going to earn money.
[groans]
There is $12,000 worth
in this seat back.
[grunts]
And I just have to...
[grunts]
And it seems like...
it's going in.
It's going in!
This one is difficult,
but I am not giving up.
I'm not giving up.
[grunts, winces]
[groans]
It's all...
Here, look at my hand.
You can hurt yourself.
This hurts,
but it's how we earn money.
It's how we earn money.
If you don't do it,
you won't achieve anything in life,
because here,
in Mexico, there is nothing to do
to earn money.
All done!
It's finished.
And off we go.
[narrator in English] Oscar's final job
is to call the driver, Leon,
and tell him where to pick up the car.
[mid-tempo music plays]
[Leon in Spanish] My main job is...
drug trafficking.
All I do is run from Nogales to Arizona.
Back and forth,
there's a longer route.
It can be three times a week, by car,
sometimes four.
We travel along
the freeway...
until we get to Phoenix.
Once there, others take charge.
The most common drugs taken by car
are methamphetamine and cocaine.
Sometimes it's hidden in the wheel,
sometimes in the fuel tank.
There are some cars with a double tank.
[narrator in English] Within minutes,
Leon faces the riskiest part
of the entire journey,
the port of entry...
...where customs and border protection
are waiting.
[tense pulsating music begins]
[man] The primary drug activity
that we see here in Nogales
are hard narcotics,
heroin, methamphetamine,
cocaine, and fentanyl.
Our meth seizures
since October 1 of this year,
Arizona-wide, are up to 2,000 pounds.
It's a 30% increase from last year.
The cartels may be producing more,
they may have refocused
their business model
on methamphetamine,
so they're pushing more through.
It is like looking for a needle
in a haystack,
because 99% of our traffic
is legitimate traffic.
So, we're looking for that one percent
that is of a criminal element.
[indistinct chatter]
[Leon in Spanish] If you are going
to get caught, it'll happen,
so I don't stress about it.
I don't have any particular tactics.
I cross normally.
You get...
a rush of adrenaline because...
you feel like a bandit.
I am nervous, but I hide it.
You have to try...
not to show it.
[man in English]
There are several things that we look for.
We'll look for nervousness of the driver,
their demeanor,
how they answer our questions.
I believe we're fairly successful.
They should definitely be worried.
We're really good at our job.
[train whistle blows]
[Leon in Spanish] If you're stopped,
look at the officer firmly
and answer his questions.
Pay attention to the lips...
and to what he is saying,
because he could ask you something
that you don't understand.
And sometimes they get angry,
and then it's worse.
You must pay attention
to what they ask you.
[in English] The smugglers
will wrap packages in certain items
to try to defeat us.
They'll take natural voids on a vehicle
and they'll modify them.
They'll build, say, a trap door onto them
or into them, load drugs in it.
They'll also load seats,
natural storage compartments.
We use several types of equipment,
we use X-rays,
we use density meters,
we also use some very rudimentary tools,
hand-held mirrors,
tappers, which is usually either
a brass rod or a small hammer...
- [tapping]
- ...to tap on parts of vehicles
and to try to detect
whether it's solid or hollow.
[narrator] This time,
the officer finds nothing.
You're good to go, sir.
[train whistle sounds]
[narrator] Sniffer dogs
are the final hurdle
that smugglers like Leon have to face.
Our dogs are trained to detect the odor
of several different narcotics.
Their sense of smell is probably
700 times better than ours.
The smugglers attempt to defeat
our canines by using masking odors.
[Leon] Whoo!
[drumming]
[narrator] Having made it
across the border,
Leon heads north on I-10,
destination, Phoenix.
[Leon in Spanish] But...
The further the packages travel,
the more expensive they become.
Most of the jobs end up in Phoenix,
more than anywhere else.
If there are problems ahead,
we have to wait a few days,
until we are given the all clear
by the spotters.
Sometimes you can be waiting
with the product for up to 15 days.
[narrator in English]
Leon relies on spotters
who lurk close to the freeway.
They watch the cops' every move
and tip the smugglers
when the coast is clear.
Air and Marine Operations are tasked
with taking the spotters down.
[Clair] The cartels put
spotters and scouts
on the high ground, such as mountain tops.
And they have a fantastic network
of secure radios and encrypted radios
that they use amongst themselves.
And some of them live out there
for several days at a time.
And they watch for our aircraft,
they watch for border patrol,
ground agents, and other law enforcement.
[man over radio] Okay, ready for take off.
[narrator] Clair Morris,
the Black Hawk's co-pilot,
gets a call from base.
[man over radio]
It's gonna be a group of five.
They will be bearing 287,
14.1 nautical miles.
Did you copy that?
Coming in, copy that.
[Clair] Yeah, we copied.
[narrator] Border patrol's CCTV cameras
have picked up a group
in the mountains nearby.
The Black Hawk is scrambled to intercept.
[man] Do you see that little white dot,
out in the distance?
See where that trail kind of goes through,
uh, the rocks there.
- [Clair] Up, up on the ridge way?
- [man] Yeah, right up,
kind of right up on the shoulder there.
Right where that bird
is starting to orbit.
Hanging tight.
[Clair] I'm gonna come round
and look at that closer.
Yeah, I see bodies right now.
Stand by, I see something.
They're running, they're running!
Ten o'clock, got to get the ropes.
Ropes, ropes, ropes.
I just lost him in here.
[narrator] The suspects
are well camouflaged,
making them tough to track.
[Clair] Do we have bodies
leaving downhill?
[man] Negative. I was watching,
nothing came downhill that I could tell.
[narrator] While the ground team
combs the mountainside,
Co-Pilot Morris continues his search
from the air.
[Clair] We got a runner.
There is three going south.
[man] Okay.
Come on, can you copy?
558, stay with the southbounders,
we'll take the north ones.
Standby. Got 'em.
[Clair] Ropes away.
Touching ground. Over.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[narrator] One down,
four to go.
[Clair] Let me wear this guy out first.
[man] I can catch this guy, he's slow.
[Clair] Yeah.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[man] He said he's done.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Clair] Okay, roger that. Stay with him.
Uh, that would get us, I think, all five.
[man] Copy.
[Clair] Can I wedge myself in here?
[man] Oh, that's a good mark.
All right, got everybody squeezed in.
Open the door on the right.
Bunch of 'em are here. Left door secured.
[Clair] Within the past several years,
they started using
this very good camouflage.
They get it somewhere in Mexico.
It is very good,
and it's very difficult to see.
[narrator] But the cartel has
an army of spotters at its disposal,
ready to give traffickers the all clear.
[Leon in Spanish]
When I receive the call, we go.
[narrator in English] For the smugglers
who make it across the border,
the rewards are plentiful.
But Leon still faces hidden dangers.
[Blazer] As they're coming
from Mexico to Phoenix,
then we get to jump on a vehicle,
we get to jump on a route.
Oh, yeah, we're all over it.
[narrator] Blazer heads up
a local jacking crew.
I will use any type of guns,
AK47s, AR-15s,
handguns, pistols, Glocks, whatever.
Arizona got it.
[narrator] The crew works on intel
from snitches.
We'll get inside information about it.
We know what time
they'll be passing what area.
There'll be certain details
that we look for,
a bent license plate,
a certain something on the antenna.
We're like sharks, you know.
We're always waiting,
and when we get it, we go.
We'll get behind them,
and we'll start intimidating them
immediately.
We'll get it bumper to bumper,
we'll pull up on the side
and we roll the windows down,
"Hey, get the fuck out, pull over."
You know? "Stop the car."
And we'll scare them like we're gonna
crash their car off the road.
We'll jump in front of 'em,
we'll block 'em up, we'll stop that shit.
We'll do whatever we have to do
to get what's inside their car.
We'll do whatever we have to do
to get you to get the fuck out.
Some of these smugglers,
they'll fight for theirs,
they'll die for theirs.
Some of them have families
that they're being held,
so they have to make sure
that the shipment
gets to where it has to go,
or they'll get killed
and their family will get killed.
So that puts a lot of pressure on them
to not so easily give up their shit.
But we don't give a fuck.
If we have to, we'll kill you. Period.
[narrator] But today's target
hasn't materialized.
Sometimes, you know,
they say something's gonna be there,
someone's gonna be there,
and they're not there.
Or they give us the wrong description.
Or it's supposed to be a truck,
but it's a car, so we miss it.
You know, so it's not always perfect.
That's why it's a struggle. You know?
You have to have...
the right information.
But we have to do it,
because if we don't do it,
then nobody's gonna eat.
There's a lot of people that's hungry.
[narrator] Having safely made it
to the outskirts of Phoenix,
Leon's job is nearly done.
♪ It's been a long time ♪
♪ Since feelin' the wind blow ♪
[Leon in Spanish] I am paid around...
$150-$200 dollars
per pound of methamphetamine.
The most I have been paid
for one job was $5,000 dollars.
They paid me in one sum,
the $5,000 dollars.
Normally, I grab the money
and I don't even count it.
["Long Time" continues playing]
♪ Come all you sisters
Come all you brothers ♪
♪ Come to the water ♪
♪ Lift your eyes
Leave your knives ♪
♪ It's been a long time ♪
♪ Since I've seen any sunshine ♪
[narrator] Finally, after a long day,
the meth reaches its destination.
But that doesn't mean it's safe.
[man] All right, guys,
we're going to get started.
This is gonna be a search warrant.
We received a complaint about...
methamphetamine being sold
out of this address.
[narrator] Sergeant Adrian Leos
and his team
have spent weeks watching
a suspected meth dealer's house.
Now they're going in.
[man] There's two entry doors.
The front door's gonna be
on the south side.
This is where we're gonna make our entry.
[narrator] Pinal County covers
the metro area South of Phoenix,
the prime drug corridor into the city.
[Adrian] This drug dealer's
dealing to kids,
he's getting our people addicted
to methamphetamines.
Methamphetamine is our number one
narcotic problem in Pinal County.
We get a lot of violent crimes,
a lot of burglaries,
a lot of, uh...
stabbings, shootings,
different aggravated assaults
based on our drug problem
with methamphetamines.
So, when we do this,
it makes a difference.
The narcotics that we get,
and we take the subject to jail,
is gonna make a good impact
on our... on our community.
It's gonna take a drug dealer out
of our community and that's what we want.
[man over radio]
We're about to make a turn here.
So we're turning here.
[man over radio] Hey, guys, be advised.
We have a bike coming up
to the residence right now.
[indistinct police radio chatter]
[officer] I've got it, man.
I got you, I'm behind you.
It's cool.
[man] We're coming out.
[banging] Sheriff's office, come out!
[banging]
[man] Oh!
- [officer] Put your hands up!
- [man] Yes, sir, absolutely.
- Anybody else in here?
- No, sir.
- [officer] Slowly, walk to me.
- Yes, sir.
- [officer] Come here! Come here!
- Yes, sir.
[officer 2] I'll finish clearing.
[man] My hands are
under the shower curtain.
- [officer] Hands up. Anybody else in here?
- [man] No. I'm turning off the water.
[officer] Hands up. Stand up.
Don't touch the water. Stand up.
Hands up.
- [officer] Uh, Sarge?
- [Adrian] Yeah?
- It looks like he put it down the drain.
- [Adrian] I think he flushed it.
The bathtub was on.
[officer] Oh, he was in it.
He was sitting on the bathtub.
He had a good...
minute.
[Adrian] Okay.
[narrator] It looks like this dealer
may be one step ahead of the cops.
[Adrian] They knew we were coming.
And when we came out here,
they had surveillance cameras.
Okay?
If you hear the water running,
the main target
was coming out of here...
with the water running.
So he had time
to dump the narcotics
down the drain there.
[narrator] Without evidence,
the cops can't make any busts.
- [officer] Quit digging in your pants.
- [man] I'm pulling my pants up.
[Adrian] Hey, listen, listen.
My name is Sergeant Leos.
Stop moving or I'm gonna pick you up
- and put you inside a car, understand?
- Yes, sir.
Okay, stop moving and listen
to what we are telling you to do.
[narrator] Several suspected customers
are detained...
while the officers begin
a thorough search of the property.
And their luck begins to change.
While they were searching,
they found a little bit of meth,
some drug paraphernalia...
on the table over there.
[man] It was found
when I pulled this dresser out.
It fell out from underneath
and fell on the floor.
That's methamphetamine, no doubt.
You can feel
it's a crystal-like substance.
Digital scale with the crystals on it.
It's residue.
- You can see more meth here.
- We really got 'em.
Homemade pipe.
Oh, this is crystal...
Hard crystal.
$1,400 dollars, approximately.
- My body's hurting, man.
- You need to walk.
Hey, get that fucking camera
out of my face, man.
[Adrian] I'm very happy with the results.
I know we didn't get what he flushed,
but in different rooms, we found
a large amount of methamphetamines.
It's not personal use
from what we found in there.
Somebody is selling narcotics
from this residence.
Get the fucking camera out of my face.
- It's not in your face, don't look at it.
- Yes, it is.
It was a problem in this neighborhood,
and we took care of that problem today.
The good guys won today.
[chuckles]
[narrator] But the cops
aren't the only winners.
Chico and his gang
have successfully evaded the law,
and their drugs will continue to feed
the trade on The Blade.
[Chico] I don't give a fuck
about being raided by the police.
Fuck the police.
I don't give a fuck about them.
They lock me up today, guess what?
We've got another guy
ready to do this tomorrow.
[sirens wailing]
There's always somebody in line.
They're not gonna stop us.
I ain't afraid of 'em.
They're just fucking cops.
To all you cops out there,
you can suck my dick.
I'm gonna get this money
no matter what.
Yeah, um...
About how much more of this
do we got, man?
'Cause we gotta get back to business.
We gotta get back to business.
["Burning Brighter" plays]
♪ I heard you talking
I ain't seen no action ♪
♪ You put your money where your mouth is ♪
♪ What kinda metal are you made of ♪
♪ You think you're setting off
A chain reaction ♪
♪ Put your money where your mouth is ♪
[cocks gun]
[Chico] Our product
is the best shit in town. You know why?
Because it's fire.
Right now, [scoffs],
it's bigger than Starbucks.
[man] Put your hands up!
[Clair over radio] We got a runner!
Methamphetamines is our number one
narcotic problem.
So, when we do this,
it makes a difference.
We're stick up kids.
If we know you got drugs,
then we're gonna do everything
to get to what you got.
[winces]
[groaning]
[in Spanish] Here, look at my hand.
To start with,
the first sign of quality
is the way it looks.
[dog barking]
[exhales]
[in English] This is the kitchen.
But I'm the cook.
A lot of people around here
like to call it dope,
glass, shards,
crystal, crank.
To me, it all means money.
I cook the best shit.
[narrator] Bluey cooks crystal meth
for a Phoenix-based gang
using an array of flasks, funnels,
and toxic chemicals.
[Bluey] This is only one of the kitchens.
Yeah.
These ones...
I can get rid of them for ten a key.
Right here.
That's where the real money happens.
[narrator] When a batch
of Bluey's crystal is ready,
the gang moves it to a stash house
closer to market.
[crickets chirping, dog barking]
[rock music plays]
[Chico] Our product is
the best shit in town. You know why?
'Cause it's fire.
I don't know what the cook puts in it,
but he puts some magic in it.
The cook is more important
than the killer in this business.
[narrator] Chico is a local kingpin
with links to the Sinaloa Cartel.
I work for my own organization here.
I send my money back to the big dogs,
that's all you're gonna get.
[narrator] The cook
provides a backup to the regular shipments
he gets from Mexico.
We can't rely on the big shipments
all the time.
They get busted all the time,
so we gotta find other ways to make it.
That's where the cook comes in.
Let's say we lose a shipment.
Okay. Well, we're not gonna wait for them.
We gotta make our own.
I'm gonna keep making money
while I wait on a shipment.
This is about a quarter key.
Break it down
four ways.
Sell 'em at $7,500 a piece.
That's about...
$30,000 in a month in the end.
Cook gets ten G's. I stay with 20 G's.
Add that up and I'm making
about a quarter mil a year
just off this little shit right here.
[narrator] With so much cash at stake,
protection is never far away.
This one right here,
this is a good weapon.
Take anything out.
This one here,
a 9 millimeter.
That's a good luck charm.
[narrator] Angel takes his job seriously.
That's a bad boy.
AK-47.
This right here does damage.
This is no joke.
Wanna see what a body looks like
after you've used one of these
on somebody?
It ain't a pretty sight.
You gotta protect the money.
Anybody... competition,
newcomers, old rivals.
You gotta keep it safe,
gotta keep our money coming.
Gotta make sure nobody fucks with that.
Kill or be killed.
I'm the one walking away.
["Furies" plays]
♪ Sticks and stones will wait for you ♪
♪ But it's not bones they break in two ♪
♪ Saints and sin rest in the same home ♪
[narrator] Phoenix lies at the heart
of one of America's biggest metro areas.
Its road network makes it
a perfect distribution hub.
One of the city's drug markets
lies northwest of downtown.
Dealers call it "The blade."
♪ Gods and devils want me ♪
♪ They want me ♪
♪ But wrong and right don't haunt me ♪
♪ Don't haunt me ♪
♪ The furies, they can't stop me ♪
♪ Can't stop me ♪
Hey, come back here!
[continues indistinctly]
[narrator] The high demand for meth
means that every day's a payday
for The Blade's dealers.
Today, I got, uh...
probably now just a little less
than a half ounce.
I'm about to weigh out some twenties,
what I call "grammers."
Which is...
somewhere right around a gram.
You're never on point.
Everybody else around here
charges probably about...
25 to 30 bucks per gram.
I do it just a solid $20.
I'm the cheapest in town.
They're gonna come back to me regardless.
I can give 'em a half gram for $20 bucks,
I guarantee they're gonna come to me
before they go down the road.
Normally, I pick up anywhere
from a half pound to a pound,
and I usually make about ten grand
off of a pound.
My stuff's always good, solid.
You do a shot of this shit, your eyes are
gonna fucking be bouncing back and forth.
You're gonna have to fucking lay back.
You ain't gonna be able
to hold yourself up.
You're gonna be sitting there just
tripping for about ten minutes,
then you're gonna get up
with the biggest rush you've ever had,
and you're gonna love it
and go for a speed race.
We call it white boy dope around here.
[Heather] It's kind of like
not normal having a lot of...
[narrator] E-Zee's first customer
of the night is Heather.
[Heather] I'm kind of a functional addict.
I own my own business. I have a day job.
I'm educated.
I did all that and I did it all,
the whole time, using crystal meth.
That's not something that I'm proud of.
It's what I know, it's what gets me up
in the morning and gets my day going.
What I have right here is 0.2 of a gram
on top of the beer can.
♪ The writing's on the wall ♪
♪ The sky's about to fall ♪
Eighteen is the first time
I did crystal meth.
That's twenty years ago.
After doing it so long, smoking,
I just wasn't getting high anymore.
And so, I have to inject it to get high.
This is a different high,
it's more intense.
♪ Run, darlin', run ♪
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
The first time I used it,
it was very euphoric.
Kind of feel like, you know, Superwoman.
[laughs] You can go conquer the world.
I guess a lot of addicts
will always chase their first high.
You never get that high again.
So that's gonna soak it up,
and then I'm gonna...
get it on there with the syringe.
♪ Know you'd have to hide ♪
♪ With nothin' left inside ♪
And tie it off to keep it tight.
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
♪ When the devil calls your name ♪
[coughs]
[laughs]
It feels really euphoric.Um...
I get a tingle in the back of the throat,
my heart rate's elevated,
my body feels kind of warm.
And, um...
it's good.
It feels good.
[sirens wailing]
[indistinct police radio chatter]
[narrator] A Homeland Security Team
is fixing to raid a house in Tucson,
one hundred miles South of Phoenix.
It's part of a strategy
to choke off the Phoenix supply line.
We've been investigating
a drug trafficking organization that...
primarily deals in methamphetamine sales.
And we have information
that they are heavily armed,
they've been known to have some
semi-automatic and automatic weapons.
Therefore we're gonna use the Homeland
Security Special Response Team.
You guys are going to hold up there,
and then the breachers can come out
and we'll catch you coming out the back.
We use them in more
of our high-risk operations.
They just have more tools
on the tool belt,
which becomes useful
in a situation like this.
So, we're heading
into a pretty tight-knit neighborhood,
so the houses are one
right on top of each other.
So, we're always worried
about the neighbors reacting or...
individuals who we haven't identified
who may be running protection
for this organization.
They might create a distraction,
there might be gunfire down the street.
They try to draw us away from the scene.
It's gonna be this house here,
this white one, directly in front of us.
[dog barking]
Do you copy? SRT is making entry.
[man] Police! Search warrant!
Come to the door!
Police!
[Ray] The team's inside the residence.
[dog barking]
Yeah, 10-4.
We do have one in custody.
[narrator] The agents secure the property
and quickly discover drugs.
[Ray] There's packaged marijuana
all over the house.
Definitely lots of weed paraphernalia
all over the place.
[narrator] If meth was stashed here,
it's gone now.
But the agents make a further discovery.
[Ray] See this over here?
It's like an arsenal in there.
Yeah, there's AK, SKS.
Those are all gun boxes.
There's tons of ammo, tons of gun cases.
[narrator] This time, the team
got the drop on the bad guys
before things could turn ugly.
[rock music plays]
[man] Definitely some unique weapons
that we found in one of the rooms.
Nickel-plated AK, nickel-plated Uzi,
there's a flamethrower.
♪ I hear the voices and they
They tell me I'm dope ♪
♪ Whisper lustful thoughts in my mind
It's so inappro ♪
[narrator] All this firepower
was meant to protect something valuable.
To Special Agent Rede,
it all points to one source.
[Ray] Given our proximity to the border,
we're only 50 miles away,
it's very likely that all the illegal
contraband that we found in here,
any of the narcotics or the drugs,
all originated in Mexico.
You just can't beat the prices of Mexico.
It's a lot cheaper,
there's plenty of supply
to meet the demand.
It's just the nature of the beast.
[narrator] Chico's operation, meanwhile,
remains secure.
[Chico] We use 12 houses.
We don't stay in one house.
Let's say the fucking narcs
are outside watching us.
Guess what? We'll go do business
out of the other house.
That's what keeps us out of the radar.
Keep moving, switch cars, switch houses.
You just gotta keep doing it.
[narrator] He's waiting on his next
shipment from his contacts in Mexico,
and the clock is ticking.
We got secrets, man.
We got secrets to get this shit over here.
We got a little plan that works good.
Bring it from Nogales, that's all.
We'll leave it at that.
[narrator] Two hundred miles
south of Phoenix,
Nogales straddles the US-Mexico border.
[helicopter overhead]
[siren wails]
Nothing moves in or out of Nogales
without the Sinaloa Cartel
knowing about it.
[barking]
[Diego in Spanish] This product
comes directly from the Sinaloa Cartel.
This is like Formula 1,
it's the best quality available.
They don't need to hide
from the government here.
So it's the best there is here
for consumers from the US.
You can check the quality,
you can see it.
To start with,
the first sign of quality...
is the way it looks.
It has to look big and whole like this,
like a shard, as they call it.
There is...
a pound...
in this bag.
Here in Mexico,
it can cost $1,000 dollars,
and in the USA,
it'll go for $3,500 up to $5,000.
[narrator in English]
Diego and his partner, Oscar,
are prepping ten pounds of Cartel meth
for shipment.
[in Spanish] Wrap another layer.
[speaking Spanish indistinctly]
Now it's perfect.
That's it.
[narrator in English] This ten pounds
will have a street value
of over $300,000 in the US.
[Oscar in Spanish] We apply grease
to prevent it from smelling.
It masks the odor.
[narrator in English]
Years of trial and error
have gone into perfecting
these techniques.
[in Spanish]
And then we wrap it in carbon paper
to avoid detection from X-rays.
[narrator in English]
But they leave the best till last.
[in Spanish]
We still need to do one more thing...
to make it undetectable...
by sniffer dogs or scanners.
This mix of Mexican chili and water
does all the work.
We boil it, strain it,
and then spray it on.
This hurts the dogs' noses
and they won't be able to sniff drugs.
I wouldn't recommend
that anyone sniffs this chili.
It'll hurt your nose, too.
[coughing]
I am going to put the whole ten pounds
inside this seat back.
[grunts]
[groans]
[grunts]
Excuse me.
I'm taking this off
so it won't stop my hand when I put it in.
For what I am doing right now,
we get around $1,500 to $1,700.
This is what is going to make us
our money.
But the one who carries it
across the border...
will earn more.
Around $7,000-$8,000.
And if a job goes wrong,
we all lose.
With God's favor,
we are going to earn money.
[groans]
There is $12,000 worth
in this seat back.
[grunts]
And I just have to...
[grunts]
And it seems like...
it's going in.
It's going in!
This one is difficult,
but I am not giving up.
I'm not giving up.
[grunts, winces]
[groans]
It's all...
Here, look at my hand.
You can hurt yourself.
This hurts,
but it's how we earn money.
It's how we earn money.
If you don't do it,
you won't achieve anything in life,
because here,
in Mexico, there is nothing to do
to earn money.
All done!
It's finished.
And off we go.
[narrator in English] Oscar's final job
is to call the driver, Leon,
and tell him where to pick up the car.
[mid-tempo music plays]
[Leon in Spanish] My main job is...
drug trafficking.
All I do is run from Nogales to Arizona.
Back and forth,
there's a longer route.
It can be three times a week, by car,
sometimes four.
We travel along
the freeway...
until we get to Phoenix.
Once there, others take charge.
The most common drugs taken by car
are methamphetamine and cocaine.
Sometimes it's hidden in the wheel,
sometimes in the fuel tank.
There are some cars with a double tank.
[narrator in English] Within minutes,
Leon faces the riskiest part
of the entire journey,
the port of entry...
...where customs and border protection
are waiting.
[tense pulsating music begins]
[man] The primary drug activity
that we see here in Nogales
are hard narcotics,
heroin, methamphetamine,
cocaine, and fentanyl.
Our meth seizures
since October 1 of this year,
Arizona-wide, are up to 2,000 pounds.
It's a 30% increase from last year.
The cartels may be producing more,
they may have refocused
their business model
on methamphetamine,
so they're pushing more through.
It is like looking for a needle
in a haystack,
because 99% of our traffic
is legitimate traffic.
So, we're looking for that one percent
that is of a criminal element.
[indistinct chatter]
[Leon in Spanish] If you are going
to get caught, it'll happen,
so I don't stress about it.
I don't have any particular tactics.
I cross normally.
You get...
a rush of adrenaline because...
you feel like a bandit.
I am nervous, but I hide it.
You have to try...
not to show it.
[man in English]
There are several things that we look for.
We'll look for nervousness of the driver,
their demeanor,
how they answer our questions.
I believe we're fairly successful.
They should definitely be worried.
We're really good at our job.
[train whistle blows]
[Leon in Spanish] If you're stopped,
look at the officer firmly
and answer his questions.
Pay attention to the lips...
and to what he is saying,
because he could ask you something
that you don't understand.
And sometimes they get angry,
and then it's worse.
You must pay attention
to what they ask you.
[in English] The smugglers
will wrap packages in certain items
to try to defeat us.
They'll take natural voids on a vehicle
and they'll modify them.
They'll build, say, a trap door onto them
or into them, load drugs in it.
They'll also load seats,
natural storage compartments.
We use several types of equipment,
we use X-rays,
we use density meters,
we also use some very rudimentary tools,
hand-held mirrors,
tappers, which is usually either
a brass rod or a small hammer...
- [tapping]
- ...to tap on parts of vehicles
and to try to detect
whether it's solid or hollow.
[narrator] This time,
the officer finds nothing.
You're good to go, sir.
[train whistle sounds]
[narrator] Sniffer dogs
are the final hurdle
that smugglers like Leon have to face.
Our dogs are trained to detect the odor
of several different narcotics.
Their sense of smell is probably
700 times better than ours.
The smugglers attempt to defeat
our canines by using masking odors.
[Leon] Whoo!
[drumming]
[narrator] Having made it
across the border,
Leon heads north on I-10,
destination, Phoenix.
[Leon in Spanish] But...
The further the packages travel,
the more expensive they become.
Most of the jobs end up in Phoenix,
more than anywhere else.
If there are problems ahead,
we have to wait a few days,
until we are given the all clear
by the spotters.
Sometimes you can be waiting
with the product for up to 15 days.
[narrator in English]
Leon relies on spotters
who lurk close to the freeway.
They watch the cops' every move
and tip the smugglers
when the coast is clear.
Air and Marine Operations are tasked
with taking the spotters down.
[Clair] The cartels put
spotters and scouts
on the high ground, such as mountain tops.
And they have a fantastic network
of secure radios and encrypted radios
that they use amongst themselves.
And some of them live out there
for several days at a time.
And they watch for our aircraft,
they watch for border patrol,
ground agents, and other law enforcement.
[man over radio] Okay, ready for take off.
[narrator] Clair Morris,
the Black Hawk's co-pilot,
gets a call from base.
[man over radio]
It's gonna be a group of five.
They will be bearing 287,
14.1 nautical miles.
Did you copy that?
Coming in, copy that.
[Clair] Yeah, we copied.
[narrator] Border patrol's CCTV cameras
have picked up a group
in the mountains nearby.
The Black Hawk is scrambled to intercept.
[man] Do you see that little white dot,
out in the distance?
See where that trail kind of goes through,
uh, the rocks there.
- [Clair] Up, up on the ridge way?
- [man] Yeah, right up,
kind of right up on the shoulder there.
Right where that bird
is starting to orbit.
Hanging tight.
[Clair] I'm gonna come round
and look at that closer.
Yeah, I see bodies right now.
Stand by, I see something.
They're running, they're running!
Ten o'clock, got to get the ropes.
Ropes, ropes, ropes.
I just lost him in here.
[narrator] The suspects
are well camouflaged,
making them tough to track.
[Clair] Do we have bodies
leaving downhill?
[man] Negative. I was watching,
nothing came downhill that I could tell.
[narrator] While the ground team
combs the mountainside,
Co-Pilot Morris continues his search
from the air.
[Clair] We got a runner.
There is three going south.
[man] Okay.
Come on, can you copy?
558, stay with the southbounders,
we'll take the north ones.
Standby. Got 'em.
[Clair] Ropes away.
Touching ground. Over.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[narrator] One down,
four to go.
[Clair] Let me wear this guy out first.
[man] I can catch this guy, he's slow.
[Clair] Yeah.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[man] He said he's done.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Clair] Okay, roger that. Stay with him.
Uh, that would get us, I think, all five.
[man] Copy.
[Clair] Can I wedge myself in here?
[man] Oh, that's a good mark.
All right, got everybody squeezed in.
Open the door on the right.
Bunch of 'em are here. Left door secured.
[Clair] Within the past several years,
they started using
this very good camouflage.
They get it somewhere in Mexico.
It is very good,
and it's very difficult to see.
[narrator] But the cartel has
an army of spotters at its disposal,
ready to give traffickers the all clear.
[Leon in Spanish]
When I receive the call, we go.
[narrator in English] For the smugglers
who make it across the border,
the rewards are plentiful.
But Leon still faces hidden dangers.
[Blazer] As they're coming
from Mexico to Phoenix,
then we get to jump on a vehicle,
we get to jump on a route.
Oh, yeah, we're all over it.
[narrator] Blazer heads up
a local jacking crew.
I will use any type of guns,
AK47s, AR-15s,
handguns, pistols, Glocks, whatever.
Arizona got it.
[narrator] The crew works on intel
from snitches.
We'll get inside information about it.
We know what time
they'll be passing what area.
There'll be certain details
that we look for,
a bent license plate,
a certain something on the antenna.
We're like sharks, you know.
We're always waiting,
and when we get it, we go.
We'll get behind them,
and we'll start intimidating them
immediately.
We'll get it bumper to bumper,
we'll pull up on the side
and we roll the windows down,
"Hey, get the fuck out, pull over."
You know? "Stop the car."
And we'll scare them like we're gonna
crash their car off the road.
We'll jump in front of 'em,
we'll block 'em up, we'll stop that shit.
We'll do whatever we have to do
to get what's inside their car.
We'll do whatever we have to do
to get you to get the fuck out.
Some of these smugglers,
they'll fight for theirs,
they'll die for theirs.
Some of them have families
that they're being held,
so they have to make sure
that the shipment
gets to where it has to go,
or they'll get killed
and their family will get killed.
So that puts a lot of pressure on them
to not so easily give up their shit.
But we don't give a fuck.
If we have to, we'll kill you. Period.
[narrator] But today's target
hasn't materialized.
Sometimes, you know,
they say something's gonna be there,
someone's gonna be there,
and they're not there.
Or they give us the wrong description.
Or it's supposed to be a truck,
but it's a car, so we miss it.
You know, so it's not always perfect.
That's why it's a struggle. You know?
You have to have...
the right information.
But we have to do it,
because if we don't do it,
then nobody's gonna eat.
There's a lot of people that's hungry.
[narrator] Having safely made it
to the outskirts of Phoenix,
Leon's job is nearly done.
♪ It's been a long time ♪
♪ Since feelin' the wind blow ♪
[Leon in Spanish] I am paid around...
$150-$200 dollars
per pound of methamphetamine.
The most I have been paid
for one job was $5,000 dollars.
They paid me in one sum,
the $5,000 dollars.
Normally, I grab the money
and I don't even count it.
["Long Time" continues playing]
♪ Come all you sisters
Come all you brothers ♪
♪ Come to the water ♪
♪ Lift your eyes
Leave your knives ♪
♪ It's been a long time ♪
♪ Since I've seen any sunshine ♪
[narrator] Finally, after a long day,
the meth reaches its destination.
But that doesn't mean it's safe.
[man] All right, guys,
we're going to get started.
This is gonna be a search warrant.
We received a complaint about...
methamphetamine being sold
out of this address.
[narrator] Sergeant Adrian Leos
and his team
have spent weeks watching
a suspected meth dealer's house.
Now they're going in.
[man] There's two entry doors.
The front door's gonna be
on the south side.
This is where we're gonna make our entry.
[narrator] Pinal County covers
the metro area South of Phoenix,
the prime drug corridor into the city.
[Adrian] This drug dealer's
dealing to kids,
he's getting our people addicted
to methamphetamines.
Methamphetamine is our number one
narcotic problem in Pinal County.
We get a lot of violent crimes,
a lot of burglaries,
a lot of, uh...
stabbings, shootings,
different aggravated assaults
based on our drug problem
with methamphetamines.
So, when we do this,
it makes a difference.
The narcotics that we get,
and we take the subject to jail,
is gonna make a good impact
on our... on our community.
It's gonna take a drug dealer out
of our community and that's what we want.
[man over radio]
We're about to make a turn here.
So we're turning here.
[man over radio] Hey, guys, be advised.
We have a bike coming up
to the residence right now.
[indistinct police radio chatter]
[officer] I've got it, man.
I got you, I'm behind you.
It's cool.
[man] We're coming out.
[banging] Sheriff's office, come out!
[banging]
[man] Oh!
- [officer] Put your hands up!
- [man] Yes, sir, absolutely.
- Anybody else in here?
- No, sir.
- [officer] Slowly, walk to me.
- Yes, sir.
- [officer] Come here! Come here!
- Yes, sir.
[officer 2] I'll finish clearing.
[man] My hands are
under the shower curtain.
- [officer] Hands up. Anybody else in here?
- [man] No. I'm turning off the water.
[officer] Hands up. Stand up.
Don't touch the water. Stand up.
Hands up.
- [officer] Uh, Sarge?
- [Adrian] Yeah?
- It looks like he put it down the drain.
- [Adrian] I think he flushed it.
The bathtub was on.
[officer] Oh, he was in it.
He was sitting on the bathtub.
He had a good...
minute.
[Adrian] Okay.
[narrator] It looks like this dealer
may be one step ahead of the cops.
[Adrian] They knew we were coming.
And when we came out here,
they had surveillance cameras.
Okay?
If you hear the water running,
the main target
was coming out of here...
with the water running.
So he had time
to dump the narcotics
down the drain there.
[narrator] Without evidence,
the cops can't make any busts.
- [officer] Quit digging in your pants.
- [man] I'm pulling my pants up.
[Adrian] Hey, listen, listen.
My name is Sergeant Leos.
Stop moving or I'm gonna pick you up
- and put you inside a car, understand?
- Yes, sir.
Okay, stop moving and listen
to what we are telling you to do.
[narrator] Several suspected customers
are detained...
while the officers begin
a thorough search of the property.
And their luck begins to change.
While they were searching,
they found a little bit of meth,
some drug paraphernalia...
on the table over there.
[man] It was found
when I pulled this dresser out.
It fell out from underneath
and fell on the floor.
That's methamphetamine, no doubt.
You can feel
it's a crystal-like substance.
Digital scale with the crystals on it.
It's residue.
- You can see more meth here.
- We really got 'em.
Homemade pipe.
Oh, this is crystal...
Hard crystal.
$1,400 dollars, approximately.
- My body's hurting, man.
- You need to walk.
Hey, get that fucking camera
out of my face, man.
[Adrian] I'm very happy with the results.
I know we didn't get what he flushed,
but in different rooms, we found
a large amount of methamphetamines.
It's not personal use
from what we found in there.
Somebody is selling narcotics
from this residence.
Get the fucking camera out of my face.
- It's not in your face, don't look at it.
- Yes, it is.
It was a problem in this neighborhood,
and we took care of that problem today.
The good guys won today.
[chuckles]
[narrator] But the cops
aren't the only winners.
Chico and his gang
have successfully evaded the law,
and their drugs will continue to feed
the trade on The Blade.
[Chico] I don't give a fuck
about being raided by the police.
Fuck the police.
I don't give a fuck about them.
They lock me up today, guess what?
We've got another guy
ready to do this tomorrow.
[sirens wailing]
There's always somebody in line.
They're not gonna stop us.
I ain't afraid of 'em.
They're just fucking cops.
To all you cops out there,
you can suck my dick.
I'm gonna get this money
no matter what.
Yeah, um...
About how much more of this
do we got, man?
'Cause we gotta get back to business.
We gotta get back to business.
["Burning Brighter" plays]
♪ I heard you talking
I ain't seen no action ♪
♪ You put your money where your mouth is ♪
♪ What kinda metal are you made of ♪
♪ You think you're setting off
A chain reaction ♪
♪ Put your money where your mouth is ♪