Narcoworld: Dope Stories (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Greed Is a Deadly Sin - full transcript
Follow the flow of smuggled hash as criminals transport it from Morocco, across the Strait of Gibraltar, up the cost of Spain and into France.
[old piano playing]
[Prost in French] In France,
we’re the biggest consumers of hash.
[music evolves with hard beat]
This suburb is where it’s at.
It’s where the turfs are.
There’s a huge market here.
[Pistachio in French]
The Moroccan sends it to a Spanish guy,
then my guy goes to get it
from the Spaniard.
Then he brings it here
and makes a big profit.
[officer in Spanish]
Raul, go quick!
It is confirmed that it is our boat.
It’s on the way.
[siren wails]
[dealer in French]
I wake up in the morning.
I want to make money.
Their parents will cry.
Their parents will cry.
[Pistachio] Let the game commence.
["Logilo Mixtape Vol.4 Index N04" playing]
[Pistachio] Welcome to Hell.
The ninety-three.
It’s dangerous, if you...
If you don’t play by the rules.
[man in French] It’s OK, we know.
[Pistachio] I’m waiting for him.
I don’t feel good here...
because he’s not replying.
Maybe he got caught and I’m here waiting.
I don’t know.
[narrator] Wholesaler Pistachio
is expecting
a delivery of five kilos of hash.
[in French] Yeah,
I’m taking a lot of risks.
There's only the police
that's walking around at these hours.
[narrator] He could get 30 years
if he’s caught.
I’m going to call him to see where he is.
Hello.
You coming?
What? Yeah. It’s me.
OK, fine.
Hey! He’s arriving.
[mysterious music playing]
- [M'Bizi in French] Are you alright?
- [Pistachio] Very good.
[M'Bizi] Police are everywhere!
And when I say everywhere,
I mean everywhere!
We need to be quick.
The quicker you get rid of it, the safer.
[narrator] Now that they've got it,
they need to break it down fast.
["Ready" playing]
♪ A man not afraid to die
gave his life for a dream ♪
♪ Born hustler so the game conceived ♪
♪ A caged beast, but now I'm free
How can you blame me ♪
♪ I was born for this
The game chose me ♪
♪ Now I've been training for this
My whole life ♪
♪ Carpe diem, huh
Seize the moment right, right ♪
♪ We gon turn up and rock plenty ice ♪
♪ This is our time, yeah
I'm bout that life ♪
He’s weighing out the two grams...
and then he puts it in the bags
and wraps it.
He’s the packing guy.
Two is 10€.
From one slice...
they can make 50 bags of 10€.
It’s their turf, not mine.
I’m a supplier.
On 5 kg, I’ll take 1,000€.
[narrator] Pistachio is flipping the hash
straight on
to a local street dealing gang.
[Pistachio] What they do with it
after that, it’s their problem.
[slow beat music playing]
[narrator] This five kilos will sell
for 25,000 euros in just a few days.
[mobile phone buzzes]
[in French] Yeah?
Yeah, I’m here.
OK.
Yeah, it’s all good.
Fine.
It’s my buddy at the end of the street
who’s acting as a lookout.
There are no cops, it’s cool. For now.
We must hurry up though.
[narrator] Masterminding the street
operation is M’bizi.
[M'Bizi] Makes you a bit paranoid.
Got to pay attention to everything,
look behind your back.
Be sharp, you have got to be sharp.
Otherwise you can get caught.
["Up Early Like a Boss" playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[dog growls]
[narrator] Skirting the edges
of France's first city,
the 93rd, Seine-Saint-Denis, region
has the country’s highest crime rate.
Here, the hash industry is estimated
to be worth over one billion euros a year.
And both cops and customers
are always on the lookout for dealers.
[M'Bizi] I arrive, there’s a line,
they’re waiting for me.
Yeah, these are my regular clients.
There must be about a 100 each day.
One hundred to 150.
They come about once a day...
all week long.
I try to do it as discreetly as possible.
I’ve got my secret stashes.
A good place is where you wouldn’t expect
to find something.
You won’t know, you won't expect it,
In fact, the dumbest places make
the best stashes.
Can I hide it again? You got it?
If I put all the drugs here,
tomorrow they will come back here.
If I put it there,
they will go over there.
That’s the way it is.
[rap music playing]
Two grams per person,
but there are some that want two.
So four grams.
It goes quickly...
very quickly.
Gets real high.
We're talking big sums.
[narrator] Operating in the 93rd,
a gang like M’bizi’s
can make around 65,000 euros a week.
[M'Bizi] I make my money and I keep quiet.
If I don’t do this, I don’t eat.
What am I gonna do if I don’t do this?
What am I gonna do?
It’s very easy money.
[narrator] And it's not just the dealers
who are cashing in
on this booming underworld economy.
The entire 1200 mile supply chain
from Morocco to Paris is paved with gold.
The first link,
the speedboat pilots who make a killing
getting the hash into Europe.
[MacGyver in Spanish]
The sea is like a plate.
Flat, flat, flat, flat.
Not even one wave.
Today is a perfect day
for smuggling hash
with a rubber boat.
Perfect, today is perfect.
[upbeat music playing]
[Narrator]
MacGyver is a freelance hash pilot.
[MacGyver]
My whole life, since I was...
I started when I was 17 years old...
and now I am 45.
In order to get me in the water,
at least 15,000 euros.
I've worked for Moroccans a lot because...
they say, "MacGyver.
I work with MacGyver
because he’s got balls.”
[narrator] He risks a hash run
once every 15 days,
and he’s about to make another one.
[MacGyver] There’s eight miles to Morocco.
So in two hours, you’ve got the hash
over here, in Algeciras.
If you don’t have a good speedboat...
you can’t do anything.
[narrator] He’ll be using a rib
with a 1,000 horsepower engine,
in case he has to take on the cops.
[MacGyver] The Guardia Civil shoots at you
when they can't catch you.
I was shot once...
and got five holes.
It went in, it split my femoral vein,
the aorta artery,
It went in, then out.
It went in again and broke my fibula.
In the middle of the sea.
It’s a miracle I’m alive.
They don’t want me in Heaven.
Not in Heaven, not in Hell.
[upbeat mysterious music playing]
[boat motor roaring]
[seagull cawing]
[MacGyver] The technique we use
to avoid the police
is always to have three boats
leaving at once.
Two of them will play around with them.
go to the Morocco coast,
come back, go there, back again.
And then there’s me,
the one who comes back loaded.
[phone rings]
[in Spanish] Hello, good afternoon.
Guardia Civil from Algeciras speaking.
[narrator] The Guardia Civil is
Europe’s first line of defense
against the narco traffickers.
[officer] Here, the Algeciras Precinct
has 112 km of coast.
Along this 112 km,
are strategically placed SIVE stations
with radars and optronic systems
for both day and night.
These operate 24/7, 365 days a year
to detect all kind of boats,
either with immigrants or with drugs.
[narrator]
Their officers must be vigilant 24/7.
Shark zero, Shark zero from COS.
[voice on radio in Spanish]
Go ahead, go for Shark zero.
There’s a suspicious boat
in the center of Algeciras bay.
Try to get close to check what it is.
[voice on radio] Message received.
We’ll go out with Dolphin 21.
OK, received.
[adventurous music playing]
[officer]
There are seizures on a weekly basis.
They come loaded with hashish.
A boat usually carries around 2,000kg
of hashish in burlap bales.
It’s a game of cat and mouse,
always the same.
[officer]
If you have helicopters in the air,
can they go and support Dolphin 21
which is on its way
to intercept this boat?
[helicopter rotor starting up]
[officer] Now they usually use
three-engine boats.
Each engine is 350 hp.
We're always... If you look at it,
we only have two engines of 300 hp each.
So we are always behind, why?
Because they have much more money.
[narrator] The hash smugglers often outrun
the Guardia Civil’s boats.
But when it a chopper gets above them,
there’s no getting away.
In a bid to avoid prosecution,
the smugglers often dump the product.
But if the cops can recover it,
there’s a chance the narcos will go down.
Hash smuggling
across the Strait of Gibraltar
is now so common
that the entire coastline
is getting sucked in to the drug trade.
But ground zero for this hash invasion
is the small town
of La Linea de la Concepcion.
Here, as many as ten narco boats
are landed every night.
Some carrying up to three tons of hash.
[drum and bass music playing]
[Camo in Spanish]
Yeah, things are pretty fucked over here.
Not great for business.
[narrator] Camo works as a lookout
for a local narco gang.
[Camo]
Everything that may look weird to me...
If something seems strange,
then I have to call someone.
If I see something,
I call another lookout.
Then, we would call the boss,
so they can change the route
or something like that.
[narrator] Tonight the gang plan
to land three hash boats
on one of the local beaches,
and Camo is their eyes on the ground.
[Camo] This is a good viewpoint.
You can see the port, you see everything.
You can get in here
and see the police boats.
I can spend many hours here.
Seven hours, six hours...
keeping an eye on the area
so they don't ruin the plan.
[narrator] If the landings are successful,
Camo will earn 500 euros.
Tonight, I think it’s going to be quiet
because it all seems fine.
[narrator] But what Camo doesn’t know
is that a new team of cops
has been drafted in from Madrid
especially to bust the narco boats.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[in Spanish] Our mission is
to make it difficult for them,
and if anyone has the nerve,
try to catch him.
[narrator] Fresh from the city
Sergio Gomez and his team
are hungry for some action.
Because of how the sea
and the weather are right now,
tonight could be a good night
for smuggling.
So we’ll have to be especially vigilant.
[narrator] The cops have got intel
that a landing is about to go down.
[Camo] The police are there.
I have to make a call now.
I just saw the Jais,
I just saw our cousins from Albacete.
We've only got seconds.
We haven’t got five minutes, just seconds.
So every second we waste over here...
Bye-bye.
Everyone will get caught red-handed.
If it's your mistake, fuck...
They can break your legs,
they can hurt you.
They can do something bad to you.
Something really bad.
[narrator] The cops have made it
to the beach
where the narcos are due to land.
[officer] Listen! Listen!
Listen to that sound,
that’s the rubber boat.
The boat is somewhere close to here.
There’s a white rubber boat...
stopped there, behind that red light.
There’s a buoy and it’s stopped there.
It’s one of the three boats
that have been passing by all night long.
Normally, this area is used
for hashish smuggling.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez] I don’t know
if they're looking for a good landing spot
or they’re just waiting
for a better opportunity.
[narrator] After lying in wait
for over an hour,
the cops realize something isn't right
and move on.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez] The promenade
and everywhere is full of people,
and some of them might be informing.
There are usually lots of people
who look out for the police
and pass the information by phone
or even small walkie-talkies.
And they can be from kids
around 14 or 15 years old
to even an elderly person.
[narrator] With narco collaborators
dogging their every move,
the cops begin to target
any suspicious-looking locals.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez in Spanish]
When something gets our attention,
we stop, we ask for documentation,
we conduct a small search
of their personal belongings.
[narrator] Their best bet is to catch
the spotters with contraband
and take them off the streets.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez]
When you search someone,
they already know
which parts we do and don’t touch.
So they hide things there.
From huge knives inside their pants,
drugs in different parts of their clothes,
in their shoes.
People have a great imagination
when it comes to hiding things.
[narrator] But these suspects are clean.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez] This is how it is,
it’s intense. We’ve received a few calls,
and that’s why we’re moving
back and forth, that's how it is.
But a lot of the calls are intended
to drive us crazy
and keep us busy by moving us around.
So if we go to one spot,
they’ll unload at the next, and so on.
[narrator] While narco collaborators
create a smoke screen with fake tip-offs,
the hash boats gain safe passage.
[man on radio] in Spanish
There were two white ones escaping.
[officer] It’s hard.
The Guardia Civil has called.
They said that one got in,
and another one got to the rock,
got in and unloaded.
We’ve received three calls in an hour.
They unloaded three times
and were smuggling.
Our team has seen three or four boats,
which have driven past us.
[narrator] With gangs
of local collaborators
unloading each boat,
the narcos can land tonnes of hash
in minutes.
[seagulls cawing]
Spiriting it away to secret stashes
around town,
known in the trade as nurseries.
[Kiké in Spanish] It's hard, isn't it?
- [Santiago in Spanish] Thank God.
- [Kiké] Did you lock the back door?
[Santiago] Yes, don’t worry.
[narrator] Local hash wholesalers
Santiago and Kiké
are feeling nervous.
Yesterday, I saw an undercover police car
driving around here,
and three hours later, a car
from the Policía Nacional driving around.
They pretended to go into a park,
but I think they were trying to fool us.
They are watching over someone here.
I’m suspicious.
[narrator] And with good reason.
They’ve just restocked their nursery.
[country rock music playing]
[Santiago] Right now, we have 27 kg.
It just arrived,
so it’s of the best quality.
Once it gets here,
we unpack it and split it in two.
One part we leave here, for us to sell,
and the other part
goes straight to France.
We already got it prepared and packed.
One kilo of hashish bought in Africa
costs between 100€ and 300€,
depending on the hash quality,
the quality of the goods.
As soon as it gets here,
we buy it for 1,000€ or 1,500€ at most.
[narrator] If all goes well,
Santiago and Kiké could make 20,000 euros
in a matter of hours,
by flipping half their product
to French buyers.
But La Linea is buzzing with police.
In a lock-up a few miles away,
cops have made
one of their biggest busts of the year.
[José Luis Fernandez in Spanish]
We have been able to locate a nursery
here in this town, on these premises
which is a small parking garage.
When we arrived,
it just looked like a normal garage,
but during our search,
we realized there were some holes
in the back wall...
and it was a fake wall,
which could be unlocked remotely.
We found 110 bails of hashish,
with an approximate weight of 3,600 kg
ready for distribution.
This operation has cost the narcos
around three million euros.
This weakens them immensely.
Today is a good day for the Civil Guard
and for all Spanish people.
It’s never a victory,
there’s always something missing.
[narrator] And that’s why Kiké
and Santiago are so wary of the police.
[Santiago] The truth is that nowadays,
things are getting worse every day.
They brought new police units
to try and control this,
so things don’t get out of hand.
There is a lot of chaos,
to be honest, a lot of chaos.
- [Kiké] I want to get rid off this.
- [Santiago] We must be careful.
[Kiké] They don’t stop driving
around the block. They don't, man.
I spend all day at the window
watching every car that stops, honks.
Everything, bro. Do you get me?
Let’s sell it, quickly.
They’ll be here any moment.
[narrator] They’re meeting
their international buyer in minutes.
[Kiké] Listen, these people are strange.
They’re armed, they’re dodgy people
from France. That is not Algeciras.
it is a different world.
It’s another country, a bigger one.
Stranger people.
[dogs barking]
[narrator] If things go to plan,
the Spanish role
in the smuggling operation is done.
Now, it's over to the French.
[Prost in French]
My thing is the go-slow.
You can’t be stressed out.
You've got to be sure of yourself.
It’s not like it is in the movies.
Voilà.
[narrator] Prost has one
of the riskiest jobs of all.
He must smuggle the hash
all the way to Paris,
right under the noses of the police.
[Prost]
You have to disappear in the crowd.
You just have to be another guy in a car,
blending in with all the other cars
driving around.
[narrator] And that takes nerves of steel.
[Prost] For the go-slows,
you need a more basic car,
like everyone has.
Something like a company car.
We buy it clean.
You go with a fake ID, a fake document
and then you buy the car in cash.
It's best to cross over to Spain
in the early evening,
and drive through France at night.
Always.
["Run On" playing]
♪ You may run for a long time ♪
♪ Run for a long time ♪
[narrator] The vast majority
of European hash follows this route
from the south of Spain into France.
But that means crossing
a notorious bottleneck.
The Pyrenees mountains...
making it the ideal area
for the French authorities to intercept
le go-slow.
♪ Let me tell you that God
is gonna cut you down ♪
[music fades out]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Insp. Julien in French]
It’s an entry point in the sense that...
a lot of Moroccan cannabis
transits via Spain.
So, this afternoon we’re doing
dynamic checks on the A9 freeway
and on the national road
running from Spain to France
to search for narcotics.
[narrator]
Today, Inspector Julien and his team
are laying a trap for any traffickers
coming up from Spain.
[Insp. Julien]
We have eight agents on foot...
and four agents on motorbikes.
We’ve installed a spotting scope...
at a spot that gives a good view
of the freeway.
The agents manning the scope
are responsible for bringing cars
or trucks to our attention.
And the agents already on the freeway
will intercept them.
[narrator] When the trap is sprung,
the freeway team will intercept
the suspect vehicle
and escort it to the search area,
where a team of agents lies in wait.
[Prost] You can’t be afraid.
It’s adrenaline, you’ve got to take it.
Got to take it and be confident.
Your job is your job.
[narrator] Prost has removed his mask,
ready for the most challenging part
of the entire journey,
the crossing into France.
But after years of trafficking,
he's confident he's perfected
the go-slow technique.
[Prost]
Always a car in front and one behind.
The car with the stuff
always in the middle.
In this car,
the biggest load of hash is 150 kg.
You always need to keep 10 km to 15 km
between the vehicles.
Maybe the lookout car at the front
will warn you,
or you never know
if they’re rushing in from behind.
Either way, you’re warned.
[Insp. Julien] Jérôme, he just drove by.
We’re ahead of him.
[narrator] The police spotters
have flagged a vehicle.
We’re soon reaching
the first Narbonne exit.
We’re at the 3 km marker, we’re coming.
[siren wailing]
[narrator] They scramble the bikes
in case the target decides to run.
[motorbike police siren wailing]
We’re arriving.
We’re 300 m from the resting area.
We’re bringing a car.
[man on radio] Understood.
[People speaking in French]
[Insp. Julien] Classic Customs check.
We search the vehicle
to make sure it’s not transporting
something we’re after,
be it narcotics, weapons.
[mysterious music, building up]
[narrator] The search is negative,
but across the parking lot...
the canine unit is out.
[Insp. Julien] The bikes stopped
this vehicle with five occupants.
We took out every piece of luggage,
and the dog is going over it all.
Searching the luggage has led us
to a small quantity of cannabis.
[narrator] The students escape
with a 200 euro fine,
but their cannabis will be sent
to a secret location to be destroyed.
[Prost] There are police everywhere.
You've got roadblocks.
They lie in wait around corners.
They even get the choppers out nowadays.
Got to be discreet, got to be smart.
[narrator] After making an epic journey,
the hash is nearing its final destination.
[Prost] My merchandise always arrives here
in Seine-Saint-Denis.
This suburb is where’s it’s at.
It’s where the turfs are.
There’s a huge market here.
If you want to make money with drugs,
there’s plenty to be made.
[narrator] Prost is one
of the main suppliers in the 93rd.
One of his shipments can sell
for over 300,000 euros.
[Prost] Once you’re in the 93,
that’s where things can get dangerous.
Because they can sniff you out.
Here they can sniff you out.
Better to arrive at night.
[music stops]
[knocking on door]
[hip hop music playing]
[Pistachio] It’s the best from Morocco,
straight from Morocco.
The less I know, the better,
as we say back home.
Knowing too much can bring problems.
[narrator] While M’bizi and his gang
break down the next load,
Pistachio counts the take from the last.
[Pistachio] We live better lives than most
I guess, even though no one can see.
Basically, you can’t do anything
except maybe save it up
and one day disappear with the whole stash
if you manage to put it by.
I hope I’ll either make enough money
so I can stop before I get caught
or keep climbing higher.
[dogs barking in the distance]
[narrator] There’s a limit to the amount
he can spend in the hood,
or risk blowing his cover.
I made 3,000€ in a day and a half.
I take my money,
I sleep quietly at home every day.
I’m not greedy,
I’m not a guy who’s only into luxuries.
When you keep chasing more and more...
that’s when you fall.
Greed is a deadly sin.
[in French]
We don’t want to reveal too much
because this is where we bring
all the seized items,
and we don’t want anyone
to find out where it is.
[narrator] The French Customs
anti-trafficking operation
is also drawing to a close.
[customs officer] Some say
the quality of the cannabis
we seized today is worth roughly 10€/g
and we got roughly two tons.
We put all of the merchandise we seized
into an incinerator.
So for us, this is where the game ends.
Consumers, traffickers and Customs
all share a single objective,
to see hash go up in flames.
["It's Ours" playing]
♪ I'm from the home where them boys will
leave you without a hope in hell ♪
♪ A lonely world
I used to think you would know me well ♪
♪ Ready for war so I brought more liquor ♪
♪ Sharpen my sword
like a broadmoor killer ♪
♪ Come from down in the dust
that'll never settle ♪
♪ Never reach my level, I'm a born rebel ♪
♪ I'm a born rebel
Turn your silver chain to a gold metal ♪
♪ Yeah and ain't nobody stoppin' me ♪
[music stops]
[Prost in French] In France,
we’re the biggest consumers of hash.
[music evolves with hard beat]
This suburb is where it’s at.
It’s where the turfs are.
There’s a huge market here.
[Pistachio in French]
The Moroccan sends it to a Spanish guy,
then my guy goes to get it
from the Spaniard.
Then he brings it here
and makes a big profit.
[officer in Spanish]
Raul, go quick!
It is confirmed that it is our boat.
It’s on the way.
[siren wails]
[dealer in French]
I wake up in the morning.
I want to make money.
Their parents will cry.
Their parents will cry.
[Pistachio] Let the game commence.
["Logilo Mixtape Vol.4 Index N04" playing]
[Pistachio] Welcome to Hell.
The ninety-three.
It’s dangerous, if you...
If you don’t play by the rules.
[man in French] It’s OK, we know.
[Pistachio] I’m waiting for him.
I don’t feel good here...
because he’s not replying.
Maybe he got caught and I’m here waiting.
I don’t know.
[narrator] Wholesaler Pistachio
is expecting
a delivery of five kilos of hash.
[in French] Yeah,
I’m taking a lot of risks.
There's only the police
that's walking around at these hours.
[narrator] He could get 30 years
if he’s caught.
I’m going to call him to see where he is.
Hello.
You coming?
What? Yeah. It’s me.
OK, fine.
Hey! He’s arriving.
[mysterious music playing]
- [M'Bizi in French] Are you alright?
- [Pistachio] Very good.
[M'Bizi] Police are everywhere!
And when I say everywhere,
I mean everywhere!
We need to be quick.
The quicker you get rid of it, the safer.
[narrator] Now that they've got it,
they need to break it down fast.
["Ready" playing]
♪ A man not afraid to die
gave his life for a dream ♪
♪ Born hustler so the game conceived ♪
♪ A caged beast, but now I'm free
How can you blame me ♪
♪ I was born for this
The game chose me ♪
♪ Now I've been training for this
My whole life ♪
♪ Carpe diem, huh
Seize the moment right, right ♪
♪ We gon turn up and rock plenty ice ♪
♪ This is our time, yeah
I'm bout that life ♪
He’s weighing out the two grams...
and then he puts it in the bags
and wraps it.
He’s the packing guy.
Two is 10€.
From one slice...
they can make 50 bags of 10€.
It’s their turf, not mine.
I’m a supplier.
On 5 kg, I’ll take 1,000€.
[narrator] Pistachio is flipping the hash
straight on
to a local street dealing gang.
[Pistachio] What they do with it
after that, it’s their problem.
[slow beat music playing]
[narrator] This five kilos will sell
for 25,000 euros in just a few days.
[mobile phone buzzes]
[in French] Yeah?
Yeah, I’m here.
OK.
Yeah, it’s all good.
Fine.
It’s my buddy at the end of the street
who’s acting as a lookout.
There are no cops, it’s cool. For now.
We must hurry up though.
[narrator] Masterminding the street
operation is M’bizi.
[M'Bizi] Makes you a bit paranoid.
Got to pay attention to everything,
look behind your back.
Be sharp, you have got to be sharp.
Otherwise you can get caught.
["Up Early Like a Boss" playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[dog growls]
[narrator] Skirting the edges
of France's first city,
the 93rd, Seine-Saint-Denis, region
has the country’s highest crime rate.
Here, the hash industry is estimated
to be worth over one billion euros a year.
And both cops and customers
are always on the lookout for dealers.
[M'Bizi] I arrive, there’s a line,
they’re waiting for me.
Yeah, these are my regular clients.
There must be about a 100 each day.
One hundred to 150.
They come about once a day...
all week long.
I try to do it as discreetly as possible.
I’ve got my secret stashes.
A good place is where you wouldn’t expect
to find something.
You won’t know, you won't expect it,
In fact, the dumbest places make
the best stashes.
Can I hide it again? You got it?
If I put all the drugs here,
tomorrow they will come back here.
If I put it there,
they will go over there.
That’s the way it is.
[rap music playing]
Two grams per person,
but there are some that want two.
So four grams.
It goes quickly...
very quickly.
Gets real high.
We're talking big sums.
[narrator] Operating in the 93rd,
a gang like M’bizi’s
can make around 65,000 euros a week.
[M'Bizi] I make my money and I keep quiet.
If I don’t do this, I don’t eat.
What am I gonna do if I don’t do this?
What am I gonna do?
It’s very easy money.
[narrator] And it's not just the dealers
who are cashing in
on this booming underworld economy.
The entire 1200 mile supply chain
from Morocco to Paris is paved with gold.
The first link,
the speedboat pilots who make a killing
getting the hash into Europe.
[MacGyver in Spanish]
The sea is like a plate.
Flat, flat, flat, flat.
Not even one wave.
Today is a perfect day
for smuggling hash
with a rubber boat.
Perfect, today is perfect.
[upbeat music playing]
[Narrator]
MacGyver is a freelance hash pilot.
[MacGyver]
My whole life, since I was...
I started when I was 17 years old...
and now I am 45.
In order to get me in the water,
at least 15,000 euros.
I've worked for Moroccans a lot because...
they say, "MacGyver.
I work with MacGyver
because he’s got balls.”
[narrator] He risks a hash run
once every 15 days,
and he’s about to make another one.
[MacGyver] There’s eight miles to Morocco.
So in two hours, you’ve got the hash
over here, in Algeciras.
If you don’t have a good speedboat...
you can’t do anything.
[narrator] He’ll be using a rib
with a 1,000 horsepower engine,
in case he has to take on the cops.
[MacGyver] The Guardia Civil shoots at you
when they can't catch you.
I was shot once...
and got five holes.
It went in, it split my femoral vein,
the aorta artery,
It went in, then out.
It went in again and broke my fibula.
In the middle of the sea.
It’s a miracle I’m alive.
They don’t want me in Heaven.
Not in Heaven, not in Hell.
[upbeat mysterious music playing]
[boat motor roaring]
[seagull cawing]
[MacGyver] The technique we use
to avoid the police
is always to have three boats
leaving at once.
Two of them will play around with them.
go to the Morocco coast,
come back, go there, back again.
And then there’s me,
the one who comes back loaded.
[phone rings]
[in Spanish] Hello, good afternoon.
Guardia Civil from Algeciras speaking.
[narrator] The Guardia Civil is
Europe’s first line of defense
against the narco traffickers.
[officer] Here, the Algeciras Precinct
has 112 km of coast.
Along this 112 km,
are strategically placed SIVE stations
with radars and optronic systems
for both day and night.
These operate 24/7, 365 days a year
to detect all kind of boats,
either with immigrants or with drugs.
[narrator]
Their officers must be vigilant 24/7.
Shark zero, Shark zero from COS.
[voice on radio in Spanish]
Go ahead, go for Shark zero.
There’s a suspicious boat
in the center of Algeciras bay.
Try to get close to check what it is.
[voice on radio] Message received.
We’ll go out with Dolphin 21.
OK, received.
[adventurous music playing]
[officer]
There are seizures on a weekly basis.
They come loaded with hashish.
A boat usually carries around 2,000kg
of hashish in burlap bales.
It’s a game of cat and mouse,
always the same.
[officer]
If you have helicopters in the air,
can they go and support Dolphin 21
which is on its way
to intercept this boat?
[helicopter rotor starting up]
[officer] Now they usually use
three-engine boats.
Each engine is 350 hp.
We're always... If you look at it,
we only have two engines of 300 hp each.
So we are always behind, why?
Because they have much more money.
[narrator] The hash smugglers often outrun
the Guardia Civil’s boats.
But when it a chopper gets above them,
there’s no getting away.
In a bid to avoid prosecution,
the smugglers often dump the product.
But if the cops can recover it,
there’s a chance the narcos will go down.
Hash smuggling
across the Strait of Gibraltar
is now so common
that the entire coastline
is getting sucked in to the drug trade.
But ground zero for this hash invasion
is the small town
of La Linea de la Concepcion.
Here, as many as ten narco boats
are landed every night.
Some carrying up to three tons of hash.
[drum and bass music playing]
[Camo in Spanish]
Yeah, things are pretty fucked over here.
Not great for business.
[narrator] Camo works as a lookout
for a local narco gang.
[Camo]
Everything that may look weird to me...
If something seems strange,
then I have to call someone.
If I see something,
I call another lookout.
Then, we would call the boss,
so they can change the route
or something like that.
[narrator] Tonight the gang plan
to land three hash boats
on one of the local beaches,
and Camo is their eyes on the ground.
[Camo] This is a good viewpoint.
You can see the port, you see everything.
You can get in here
and see the police boats.
I can spend many hours here.
Seven hours, six hours...
keeping an eye on the area
so they don't ruin the plan.
[narrator] If the landings are successful,
Camo will earn 500 euros.
Tonight, I think it’s going to be quiet
because it all seems fine.
[narrator] But what Camo doesn’t know
is that a new team of cops
has been drafted in from Madrid
especially to bust the narco boats.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[in Spanish] Our mission is
to make it difficult for them,
and if anyone has the nerve,
try to catch him.
[narrator] Fresh from the city
Sergio Gomez and his team
are hungry for some action.
Because of how the sea
and the weather are right now,
tonight could be a good night
for smuggling.
So we’ll have to be especially vigilant.
[narrator] The cops have got intel
that a landing is about to go down.
[Camo] The police are there.
I have to make a call now.
I just saw the Jais,
I just saw our cousins from Albacete.
We've only got seconds.
We haven’t got five minutes, just seconds.
So every second we waste over here...
Bye-bye.
Everyone will get caught red-handed.
If it's your mistake, fuck...
They can break your legs,
they can hurt you.
They can do something bad to you.
Something really bad.
[narrator] The cops have made it
to the beach
where the narcos are due to land.
[officer] Listen! Listen!
Listen to that sound,
that’s the rubber boat.
The boat is somewhere close to here.
There’s a white rubber boat...
stopped there, behind that red light.
There’s a buoy and it’s stopped there.
It’s one of the three boats
that have been passing by all night long.
Normally, this area is used
for hashish smuggling.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez] I don’t know
if they're looking for a good landing spot
or they’re just waiting
for a better opportunity.
[narrator] After lying in wait
for over an hour,
the cops realize something isn't right
and move on.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez] The promenade
and everywhere is full of people,
and some of them might be informing.
There are usually lots of people
who look out for the police
and pass the information by phone
or even small walkie-talkies.
And they can be from kids
around 14 or 15 years old
to even an elderly person.
[narrator] With narco collaborators
dogging their every move,
the cops begin to target
any suspicious-looking locals.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez in Spanish]
When something gets our attention,
we stop, we ask for documentation,
we conduct a small search
of their personal belongings.
[narrator] Their best bet is to catch
the spotters with contraband
and take them off the streets.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez]
When you search someone,
they already know
which parts we do and don’t touch.
So they hide things there.
From huge knives inside their pants,
drugs in different parts of their clothes,
in their shoes.
People have a great imagination
when it comes to hiding things.
[narrator] But these suspects are clean.
[Insp. Sergio Gomez] This is how it is,
it’s intense. We’ve received a few calls,
and that’s why we’re moving
back and forth, that's how it is.
But a lot of the calls are intended
to drive us crazy
and keep us busy by moving us around.
So if we go to one spot,
they’ll unload at the next, and so on.
[narrator] While narco collaborators
create a smoke screen with fake tip-offs,
the hash boats gain safe passage.
[man on radio] in Spanish
There were two white ones escaping.
[officer] It’s hard.
The Guardia Civil has called.
They said that one got in,
and another one got to the rock,
got in and unloaded.
We’ve received three calls in an hour.
They unloaded three times
and were smuggling.
Our team has seen three or four boats,
which have driven past us.
[narrator] With gangs
of local collaborators
unloading each boat,
the narcos can land tonnes of hash
in minutes.
[seagulls cawing]
Spiriting it away to secret stashes
around town,
known in the trade as nurseries.
[Kiké in Spanish] It's hard, isn't it?
- [Santiago in Spanish] Thank God.
- [Kiké] Did you lock the back door?
[Santiago] Yes, don’t worry.
[narrator] Local hash wholesalers
Santiago and Kiké
are feeling nervous.
Yesterday, I saw an undercover police car
driving around here,
and three hours later, a car
from the Policía Nacional driving around.
They pretended to go into a park,
but I think they were trying to fool us.
They are watching over someone here.
I’m suspicious.
[narrator] And with good reason.
They’ve just restocked their nursery.
[country rock music playing]
[Santiago] Right now, we have 27 kg.
It just arrived,
so it’s of the best quality.
Once it gets here,
we unpack it and split it in two.
One part we leave here, for us to sell,
and the other part
goes straight to France.
We already got it prepared and packed.
One kilo of hashish bought in Africa
costs between 100€ and 300€,
depending on the hash quality,
the quality of the goods.
As soon as it gets here,
we buy it for 1,000€ or 1,500€ at most.
[narrator] If all goes well,
Santiago and Kiké could make 20,000 euros
in a matter of hours,
by flipping half their product
to French buyers.
But La Linea is buzzing with police.
In a lock-up a few miles away,
cops have made
one of their biggest busts of the year.
[José Luis Fernandez in Spanish]
We have been able to locate a nursery
here in this town, on these premises
which is a small parking garage.
When we arrived,
it just looked like a normal garage,
but during our search,
we realized there were some holes
in the back wall...
and it was a fake wall,
which could be unlocked remotely.
We found 110 bails of hashish,
with an approximate weight of 3,600 kg
ready for distribution.
This operation has cost the narcos
around three million euros.
This weakens them immensely.
Today is a good day for the Civil Guard
and for all Spanish people.
It’s never a victory,
there’s always something missing.
[narrator] And that’s why Kiké
and Santiago are so wary of the police.
[Santiago] The truth is that nowadays,
things are getting worse every day.
They brought new police units
to try and control this,
so things don’t get out of hand.
There is a lot of chaos,
to be honest, a lot of chaos.
- [Kiké] I want to get rid off this.
- [Santiago] We must be careful.
[Kiké] They don’t stop driving
around the block. They don't, man.
I spend all day at the window
watching every car that stops, honks.
Everything, bro. Do you get me?
Let’s sell it, quickly.
They’ll be here any moment.
[narrator] They’re meeting
their international buyer in minutes.
[Kiké] Listen, these people are strange.
They’re armed, they’re dodgy people
from France. That is not Algeciras.
it is a different world.
It’s another country, a bigger one.
Stranger people.
[dogs barking]
[narrator] If things go to plan,
the Spanish role
in the smuggling operation is done.
Now, it's over to the French.
[Prost in French]
My thing is the go-slow.
You can’t be stressed out.
You've got to be sure of yourself.
It’s not like it is in the movies.
Voilà.
[narrator] Prost has one
of the riskiest jobs of all.
He must smuggle the hash
all the way to Paris,
right under the noses of the police.
[Prost]
You have to disappear in the crowd.
You just have to be another guy in a car,
blending in with all the other cars
driving around.
[narrator] And that takes nerves of steel.
[Prost] For the go-slows,
you need a more basic car,
like everyone has.
Something like a company car.
We buy it clean.
You go with a fake ID, a fake document
and then you buy the car in cash.
It's best to cross over to Spain
in the early evening,
and drive through France at night.
Always.
["Run On" playing]
♪ You may run for a long time ♪
♪ Run for a long time ♪
[narrator] The vast majority
of European hash follows this route
from the south of Spain into France.
But that means crossing
a notorious bottleneck.
The Pyrenees mountains...
making it the ideal area
for the French authorities to intercept
le go-slow.
♪ Let me tell you that God
is gonna cut you down ♪
[music fades out]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Insp. Julien in French]
It’s an entry point in the sense that...
a lot of Moroccan cannabis
transits via Spain.
So, this afternoon we’re doing
dynamic checks on the A9 freeway
and on the national road
running from Spain to France
to search for narcotics.
[narrator]
Today, Inspector Julien and his team
are laying a trap for any traffickers
coming up from Spain.
[Insp. Julien]
We have eight agents on foot...
and four agents on motorbikes.
We’ve installed a spotting scope...
at a spot that gives a good view
of the freeway.
The agents manning the scope
are responsible for bringing cars
or trucks to our attention.
And the agents already on the freeway
will intercept them.
[narrator] When the trap is sprung,
the freeway team will intercept
the suspect vehicle
and escort it to the search area,
where a team of agents lies in wait.
[Prost] You can’t be afraid.
It’s adrenaline, you’ve got to take it.
Got to take it and be confident.
Your job is your job.
[narrator] Prost has removed his mask,
ready for the most challenging part
of the entire journey,
the crossing into France.
But after years of trafficking,
he's confident he's perfected
the go-slow technique.
[Prost]
Always a car in front and one behind.
The car with the stuff
always in the middle.
In this car,
the biggest load of hash is 150 kg.
You always need to keep 10 km to 15 km
between the vehicles.
Maybe the lookout car at the front
will warn you,
or you never know
if they’re rushing in from behind.
Either way, you’re warned.
[Insp. Julien] Jérôme, he just drove by.
We’re ahead of him.
[narrator] The police spotters
have flagged a vehicle.
We’re soon reaching
the first Narbonne exit.
We’re at the 3 km marker, we’re coming.
[siren wailing]
[narrator] They scramble the bikes
in case the target decides to run.
[motorbike police siren wailing]
We’re arriving.
We’re 300 m from the resting area.
We’re bringing a car.
[man on radio] Understood.
[People speaking in French]
[Insp. Julien] Classic Customs check.
We search the vehicle
to make sure it’s not transporting
something we’re after,
be it narcotics, weapons.
[mysterious music, building up]
[narrator] The search is negative,
but across the parking lot...
the canine unit is out.
[Insp. Julien] The bikes stopped
this vehicle with five occupants.
We took out every piece of luggage,
and the dog is going over it all.
Searching the luggage has led us
to a small quantity of cannabis.
[narrator] The students escape
with a 200 euro fine,
but their cannabis will be sent
to a secret location to be destroyed.
[Prost] There are police everywhere.
You've got roadblocks.
They lie in wait around corners.
They even get the choppers out nowadays.
Got to be discreet, got to be smart.
[narrator] After making an epic journey,
the hash is nearing its final destination.
[Prost] My merchandise always arrives here
in Seine-Saint-Denis.
This suburb is where’s it’s at.
It’s where the turfs are.
There’s a huge market here.
If you want to make money with drugs,
there’s plenty to be made.
[narrator] Prost is one
of the main suppliers in the 93rd.
One of his shipments can sell
for over 300,000 euros.
[Prost] Once you’re in the 93,
that’s where things can get dangerous.
Because they can sniff you out.
Here they can sniff you out.
Better to arrive at night.
[music stops]
[knocking on door]
[hip hop music playing]
[Pistachio] It’s the best from Morocco,
straight from Morocco.
The less I know, the better,
as we say back home.
Knowing too much can bring problems.
[narrator] While M’bizi and his gang
break down the next load,
Pistachio counts the take from the last.
[Pistachio] We live better lives than most
I guess, even though no one can see.
Basically, you can’t do anything
except maybe save it up
and one day disappear with the whole stash
if you manage to put it by.
I hope I’ll either make enough money
so I can stop before I get caught
or keep climbing higher.
[dogs barking in the distance]
[narrator] There’s a limit to the amount
he can spend in the hood,
or risk blowing his cover.
I made 3,000€ in a day and a half.
I take my money,
I sleep quietly at home every day.
I’m not greedy,
I’m not a guy who’s only into luxuries.
When you keep chasing more and more...
that’s when you fall.
Greed is a deadly sin.
[in French]
We don’t want to reveal too much
because this is where we bring
all the seized items,
and we don’t want anyone
to find out where it is.
[narrator] The French Customs
anti-trafficking operation
is also drawing to a close.
[customs officer] Some say
the quality of the cannabis
we seized today is worth roughly 10€/g
and we got roughly two tons.
We put all of the merchandise we seized
into an incinerator.
So for us, this is where the game ends.
Consumers, traffickers and Customs
all share a single objective,
to see hash go up in flames.
["It's Ours" playing]
♪ I'm from the home where them boys will
leave you without a hope in hell ♪
♪ A lonely world
I used to think you would know me well ♪
♪ Ready for war so I brought more liquor ♪
♪ Sharpen my sword
like a broadmoor killer ♪
♪ Come from down in the dust
that'll never settle ♪
♪ Never reach my level, I'm a born rebel ♪
♪ I'm a born rebel
Turn your silver chain to a gold metal ♪
♪ Yeah and ain't nobody stoppin' me ♪
[music stops]