#CinemaJourney
#BuildingBad
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00:00A gang of thieves take extreme measures to pull off an extraordinary bank robbery in Fortaleza, Brazil.
00:08What the police didn't know was that the heist had been in the planning stages for three months.
00:15A group of innovative cyber criminals set up shop in a huge underground complex in a small town in Germany.
00:23Cyber Bunker's solution was to custom build crypto phones and establish bulletproof networks protected from the prying eyes of the authorities.
00:32Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, terrorizes the United States with an unprecedented bombing campaign.
00:42His cabin was full of bomb making materials.
00:47The world's most inventive criminal minds.
00:50Lawless ingenuity, born out of greed.
00:56From back alleys to the high seas.
01:00Secret structures.
01:03Custom built vehicles.
01:05High tech innovation.
01:07What happens when engineering genies ends up on the wrong side of the law and starts building bad?
01:14On the morning of August 8th, 2005, authorities responded to a call from the Central Bank in Fortaleza, Brazil.
01:33The police expected to find evidence of a random robbery attempt or a broken ATM.
01:41But what they found shocked even the most experienced investigator.
01:49A group of thieves had stolen 164 million Ries in cash from the inner vault.
01:55That is about 30 million U.S. dollars.
01:58To give you an idea of how much cash we're talking about, it weighed three and a half tons.
02:04And all of it was used bills, so they were totally untraceable.
02:09The police discovered a single hole in the vault's floor, which led to an underground tunnel.
02:15So the first thing they needed to do was follow the tunnel to see what or who was at the other end.
02:21This wasn't some tiny escape hole carved out by a couple of shovels.
02:27It was a sophisticated feat of engineering, excavation, and technology.
02:32The structure was protected on all sides by wooden panels.
02:37It had electric lights and a ventilation system.
02:40And even a phone line installed.
02:43These thieves clearly knew what they were doing.
02:46The tunnel spanned just over 250 feet and surfaced inside a rented house at Hua DeMarco,
02:55where the perpetrators had set up a fake landscaping company to avoid suspicion.
03:00What the police didn't know was that the heist had been in the planning stages for three months
03:05by a crack team of ex-cons, engineers, and tunnel experts.
03:12Pulling off the tunnel heist required the involvement of over 30 individuals.
03:16But the four key players were all members of a crime organization known as the PCC, the First Capital Command.
03:27The First Capital Command was originally formed by convicts in the early 90s
03:32as a response to Brazil's brutal prison system.
03:35At the time, inmates were routinely being beaten, tortured, or even killed by prison guards.
03:41The PCC banded together to protect themselves, or even to break one another out from secure prisons.
03:49So over time, hundreds and hundreds of prisoners became experts at prison breaks.
03:55And most of these escapes involved underground tunnels.
04:00Add to that, they were extremely organized.
04:04They made contact with powerful criminals on the outside in Sao Paulo,
04:09as well as with other crooks still in prisons across Brazil.
04:14To this day, it's the largest organized crime faction in the country.
04:20The mastermind behind the tunnel heist was a high-ranking member of the PCC named Antonio Dos Santos,
04:29who went by the nickname, The German.
04:34The key to his plan was a contact inside the central bank, a security guard named Edelson.
04:39Edelson had intel about the inner workings of the bank, including details about the banknotes themselves that he'd pass along to Dos Santos.
04:50For example, used banknotes were all stored together in the vault, separate from the new ones.
04:58The central bank allowed lower-level security guards to help with the task of carrying the stacks of money in and out of the vault.
05:05So Edelson had first-hand access to the vault's layout and security systems.
05:12He discovered that the central bank's security cameras didn't record anything.
05:18They just monitored the vault in real time.
05:21Not only that, there was a blind spot in the system.
05:25Areas in the vault that the cameras couldn't track.
05:28And the cameras weren't able to zoom in to identify a face.
05:33Using contacts he'd made, both in and out of prison, Dos Santos put together a team of highly skilled criminals.
05:43The first thing Dos Santos did was to hire a right-hand man named Mineru, or the manager.
05:49His job was to set up the fake landscaping business in the rented house and make it look as real as possible.
05:55He even came up with a company logo that got printed on business cards and on the company van.
06:02From there, Dos Santos enlisted the services of a powerful drug dealer from Sao Paulo named Luis Fernando, nicknamed Faye.
06:12He agreed to front the $200,000 that the entire operation would cost.
06:17All the equipment and technical supplies they needed came with a hefty price tag.
06:23Most critically, Dos Santos needed someone who could map out the underground route of the dig to avoid hitting sewers and power lines, like a city planner.
06:34He also needed a foreman to oversee the day-to-day operations since the tunnel was going to take months to build.
06:42For the city planner, he hired José de Cruz, a.k.a. The Engineer, an ex-con with real-life, entirely legal experience.
06:50The foreman went by the name of Moises, a crook with a reputation for masterminding Brazil's most notorious prison break.
06:58Dos Santos rounded out his gang with a small army of diggers, an electrician, surveillance men, and even a cook to feed the workers.
07:07Each one knew their role, and by May of 2005, it was time to start digging.
07:17To reach the central bank by the planned target date of August 5th, the thieves needed to work around the clock.
07:23That meant they had to stick to a strict work schedule of three eight-hour shifts every single day.
07:28They started by digging 13 feet straight down, below the rented house.
07:34Then each team would dig their way toward the central bank, using shovels and pickaxes, with GPS technology to guide them.
07:42As the team advanced, they dumped the removed dirt into plastic buckets, which were tied to a pulley system and pulled to the tunnel entrance, where more crew members poured the debris into thick plastic bags.
07:59By the time they had reached the bank vault, they had excavated 30 tons of dirt.
08:05Shoveling and extracting heavy soil for eight straight hours is grueling work.
08:15It's also dangerous and potentially deadly.
08:18A tunnel collapse could kill the entire operation and a few team members.
08:26This is where the respective areas of expertise really paid off.
08:30The construction engineers lined the tunnel walls with 900 wooden sheets to act as reinforcement, and the electricians outfitted the entire route with a light source every 20 feet.
08:44Lack of oxygen was a very real problem, not to mention high temperatures.
08:49You don't want your worker bees passing out or getting sick, especially when every minute counts.
08:54So to combat this, they didn't just install fans for proper ventilation.
08:59They had an entire air conditioning system down there.
09:04For communication, instead of using walkie-talkies, which the authorities can intercept,
09:10the thieves ran a phone line from the lead digger back to the rental house.
09:14So there'd be no time wasted if he needed to report an accident or request supplies.
09:20On Friday, August 5th, at 7 p.m., after three months of back-breaking, nerve-ranking labor,
09:29the tunnel gang finally arrived at their destination, directly under the central bank's vault floor.
09:36Now they faced an even bigger challenge.
09:41The vault floor was made of three and a half feet of reinforced concrete, with steel plates on either side.
09:46But the thieves were prepared for this.
09:50They had a full arsenal of tools, including an electric drill, a skill saw, a blowtorch, and bolt cutters.
09:57After two hours of drilling and sawing, they finally broke through the concrete around 9 p.m.
10:03And that timing is brilliant, because the bank had closed at 6 p.m.,
10:07and by 9 p.m., the place is virtually empty and will be right through the weekend until Monday morning.
10:13The exact placement of where they broke through the floor was also key.
10:19They knew that certain sections of the vault were hidden from the security cameras,
10:23and they had to emerge undetected.
10:27Whether it was art or science or just good luck, they hit their mark.
10:34Dos Santos and four others cramped out from the tunnel
10:36and stuck to the outer walls of the vault to avoid the security cameras and motion detectors.
10:44All the bank notes were kept in large metal cages.
10:48And it didn't take long to identify the used and unmarked bills from the new ones.
10:54Dos Santos and his crew discovered at least five cages filled with stacks and stacks of the notes.
11:00To get the stolen money out of the vault and into the rental house as quickly as possible,
11:06they used the same method of buckets and pulleys that they used to extract the dirt.
11:11And just like before, other members of the team poured the cash into thick plastic bags
11:15when it arrived at the rental house.
11:18It took eight hours to empty the five cages of bank notes.
11:22By Saturday morning, the tunnel gang had made off with over 100 bags of cash.
11:31Dos Santos had pulled off the impossible,
11:35thanks to his team's combined ingenuity and smarts.
11:38But there was no time to celebrate.
11:40They needed to cover their tracks before the cops discovered the crime scene on Monday morning.
11:47The plan was to stash most of the money at a second rental house,
11:51around 10 miles from the central bank, until they decided how to distribute it.
11:55Once each member got their cut,
11:57Dos Santos insisted that they stay quiet and keep a low profile.
12:01In other words, don't communicate with each other,
12:04and please, don't make any obvious or extravagant purchases.
12:11When the press got word of the massive heist, the story blew up.
12:15Everyone was talking about the sheer audacity and brilliance of the tunnel heist bandits.
12:21Not surprisingly, the police were very keen to catch the gang, and fast,
12:26before they became mythologized heroes in the eyes of the public.
12:29Luckily, they didn't have to wait too long.
12:34Ignoring Dos Santos' order about keeping a low profile,
12:38many of the tunnel gang made extravagant purchases,
12:41including a few crooks who, together,
12:43bought 11 cars and cash and shipped them to Sao Paulo.
12:47The purchases caught the attention of the police,
12:51and one of the gang members was arrested in short order.
12:55And of course, as soon as he was captured,
12:59he started to sing like a bird, naming pretty much everyone.
13:03Multiple arrests and charges followed,
13:05as well as more snitching and double crosses.
13:08Fifty-four arrests have been made in connection
13:11with the tunnel heist of Brazil's central bank.
13:16Only 20 million Ries was recovered from the theft,
13:20leaving 140 million Ries, or 26 million U.S. dollars,
13:24still unaccounted for.
13:25On April 3rd, 1996,
13:38FBI agents raided a 10-by-12-foot cabin
13:41in the Montana wilderness
13:42and arrested 53-year-old Theodore John Kaczynski.
13:49Their suspicions that he was the Unabomber
13:52were confirmed when they found a live bomb
13:54in a package under his cot.
13:58Kaczynski was behind 16 bombings in 17 years,
14:02killing three people and injuring 23.
14:05His cabin was full of bomb-making materials.
14:08He had wires, he had pipes,
14:10he had copper and other metals,
14:12he had batteries,
14:13he had bottles of chemicals
14:14like sodium chlorate and ammonium nitrate,
14:17and he had 23 bomb igniters
14:20all stuffed into one cereal box.
14:26The FBI also found 10 notebooks in the cabin,
14:29some of them written in Spanish,
14:31detailing his extensive experiments
14:33and tests with bombs.
14:35These notes were examined
14:36along with Kaczynski's 35,000-word manifesto
14:40entitled Industrial Society and Its Future.
14:43The manifesto had been published
14:45by the Washington Post seven months earlier
14:47when Kaczynski's identity was still a mystery.
14:51Kaczynski's writings
14:52offered the FBI valuable insights
14:55into his behavior
14:56and revealed a troubled history
14:58as a child prodigy and math genius.
15:04In the fifth grade,
15:05Ted scored 167 on an IQ test.
15:08He skipped two grades,
15:09partially due to a father
15:10who pushed him hard academically,
15:11and he enrolled in Harvard
15:13at 16 years old in 1958.
15:16At Harvard,
15:17Kaczynski participated
15:18in a three-year mind control experiment
15:21run by psychology professor Henry A. Murray
15:23that was sanctioned by the CIA.
15:26For that,
15:2722 undergrads were subjected
15:28to verbal, physical,
15:30and emotional abuse
15:32in a series of staged interrogations,
15:34and it's believed
15:35that those experiments
15:36were a crucial factor
15:38contributing to his growing feelings
15:40of alienation from society.
15:43In 1969,
15:45after graduating from Harvard at 20
15:47and earning a math PhD in Michigan,
15:50Kaczynski resigned suddenly
15:52from an assistant professorship
15:54at the University of California, Berkeley.
15:56Two years later,
15:59he isolated himself
16:00up in a tiny cabin
16:02outside Lincoln, Montana.
16:04All alone,
16:05his anti-technology views
16:07spiraled into a deadly plan.
16:12Seeing modern industrial society
16:15as fundamentally corrupt
16:16and destructive,
16:17Kaczynski decided
16:18on a bombing campaign
16:19to disrupt society
16:21and spread his anti-technology beliefs.
16:23But to succeed,
16:25he would first have to learn
16:27the principles of bomb building.
16:31Kaczynski's inexperience
16:32was obvious in his early devices.
16:35Kaczynski committed seven bombings
16:37between 1978 and 1982,
16:39but they did minimal damage
16:41due to his rudimentary materials.
16:44His early bombs
16:45had limited destructive capacity
16:46because his main charge
16:48was smokeless powders
16:49combined mostly with match heads.
16:51Kaczynski also relied
16:52on simple triggering mechanisms
16:53like basic loop switches
16:55and household on-off switches,
16:57which made them unreliable.
17:00For Kaczynski's third bomb in 1979,
17:03he managed to get a mail package
17:05with a device inside
17:06into the cargo section
17:07of American Airlines Flight 444.
17:12It was a juice can
17:13within a small wooden crate.
17:15He used a barometric pressure switch
17:17that did initiate
17:18when it was supposed to,
17:19but it released green smoke
17:21instead of exploding.
17:23And when that green smoke
17:24came up into the cabin,
17:26the pilot made an emergency landing.
17:27The bomb didn't detonate
17:29because instead of an explosive powder,
17:31Kaczynski had used barium nitrate,
17:33and that's a powder
17:34that makes green smoke for fireworks.
17:36Bomb number five,
17:46a package with a pipe bomb inside it,
17:49was safely detonated by security
17:52when it was left outside
17:53a University of Utah computer room.
17:56But Kaczynski's five other bombs
17:59between 1978 and 1982
18:01did detonate
18:02when their packages were opened.
18:04Four were either mailed to
18:06or left in university locations,
18:09with one mailed
18:10to the president of United Airlines,
18:12concealed inside a hollowed-out book.
18:15From his first bomb to a seven,
18:18the injuries to Kaczynski's victims
18:20worsened.
18:22His bombs were gaining strength,
18:25and the FBI had finally become aware
18:27that there was a serial bomber
18:29on the loose.
18:30Bomb number four
18:33in the hollowed-out book
18:35was a key clue.
18:36It had two homemade initiators.
18:38That's a trigger in the bomb
18:40that sets off the larger explosion.
18:42Each initiator was made of wood,
18:44carved into a shape like a dowel.
18:47Grooves for wires
18:48had been cut on either side.
18:51They were identical to two initiators
18:53found on the smoking bomb
18:54that failed to detonate
18:55in the cargo hold of Flight 444.
18:58The FBI's bomb examiner said
19:00he'd never seen that design
19:01in the thousands of bombs
19:02he'd investigated.
19:04In addition,
19:05the initials F-C
19:07were found on bombs
19:08four through seven,
19:10and every bomb
19:11had something made out of wood.
19:12Those initials
19:13were later identified
19:14in his manifesto
19:16as Freedom Club,
19:17and those common traits
19:19were considered calling cards
19:21for the man now officially known
19:23as the Unabomber.
19:24But despite the FBI's awareness
19:28of the Unabomber,
19:29the media were not informed.
19:32The authorities didn't want
19:34to create unnecessary panic.
19:36This was fortunate for Kaczynski
19:38because there were no suspicions aroused
19:41that would hinder
19:42his future bombings.
19:43But the lack of publicity
19:44also meant his anti-technology message
19:47was not being heard.
19:48After his seventh bomb in 1982,
19:54Kaczynski went silent
19:55for three years.
19:56It's now suspected
19:57that he spent this time
19:59testing new bomb-building techniques
20:00so that when he returned to action,
20:03he would make a mark
20:03on U.S. society so profound
20:05that it couldn't be ignored.
20:10After three years
20:11spent honing his bomb-building skills,
20:13the Unabomber struck four times
20:16with a vengeance
20:17between May and December of 1985.
20:22Kaczynski used a new combination
20:24of chemicals
20:25for these bombs' explosive mixture,
20:27ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder,
20:30which reached a higher temperature
20:31and burned longer.
20:33This, combined with better concealment methods,
20:36resulted in more severe injuries.
20:38Bomb number eight
20:40was concealed in a three-ring binder
20:42attached to a file box
20:44in the computer science building
20:45at Berkeley
20:46where he used to teach.
20:48When a curious grad student
20:49lifted the binder's cover,
20:51the explosion blew four fingers
20:53off his right hand.
20:55It was more powerful
20:56because Kaczynski used metal caps
20:58on the pipe device
20:59instead of wood.
21:02Bomb number nine
21:03failed to detonate
21:04because the batteries died
21:05when the package sat unopened
21:07in a receiving office
21:08at Boeing
21:08for nearly a month.
21:10But number 10
21:10seriously injured
21:11a psychology professor
21:12from the University of Michigan
21:13when it was mailed to his home.
21:18The Unabomber's 11th bomb
21:20on December 11, 1985
21:22took him into a new realm
21:25of violence.
21:28Hugh Scrutton,
21:29a man who owned
21:30a computer rental store
21:31in Sacramento, California,
21:33found a block of wood
21:34with nails sticking out the ends
21:36on the ground
21:36outside his store's back door.
21:38And when he went to move it,
21:39the explosion killed him instantly.
21:43Kaczynski was experimenting
21:44with new triggering systems
21:46at this point.
21:47The authorities believed
21:49this one had a lever
21:50that was spring-loaded
21:52and connected to the initiator.
21:54So it was designed
21:55to detonate
21:56the instant it was moved.
21:58Ted Kaczynski's bombing campaign
22:02had now claimed
22:03its first fatality.
22:05In the aftermath
22:05of Hugh Scrutton's death,
22:08for the first time,
22:09the FBI informed the public
22:11that they were pursuing
22:12a serial bomber.
22:13The publicity didn't deter Kaczynski.
22:17In February 1987,
22:18in Salt Lake City,
22:20he left a device
22:20in two hollowed-out 2x4s,
22:22nailed together
22:23in a parking lot
22:24near another computer store.
22:25When the owner moved it,
22:27the bomb's explosion
22:27lacerated his face,
22:29legs, and arms
22:30with shrapnel.
22:32The bomb's metal
22:33and wood debris
22:34were blasted more than
22:35100 feet around
22:36that parking lot.
22:37The owner was lucky
22:38he wasn't killed.
22:40But this bombing,
22:41his 12th,
22:42was a major failure
22:43for Kaczynski
22:44because for the first time,
22:46he was witnessed at the scene
22:48so police could make a sketch.
22:52Kaczynski's goal
22:53to cause fear
22:54and disruption in society
22:55was succeeding.
22:57But his lack of discretion
22:58nearly got him caught.
23:00He went silent
23:01for six years
23:02and the FBI investigation
23:04almost completely stalled.
23:07But Ted Kaczynski
23:09was in no way finished.
23:11After refining his methods
23:13once more,
23:14in June of 1993,
23:16he struck twice.
23:19Bombs number 13 and 14
23:21seriously injured
23:22a geneticist in California
23:24and a computer scientist
23:25in Connecticut.
23:26These two bombs
23:27were mailed on the same day
23:28in smaller packages
23:29than before,
23:30identical padded manila envelopes,
23:33and they were rigged
23:34to explode when opened.
23:35By returning to bombing
23:37by mail,
23:38Kaczynski had lowered
23:39his risk of detection.
23:43In December of 1994,
23:46Thomas Mosser,
23:47an advertising executive
23:48in New Jersey,
23:50opened a homemade wooden box
23:51inside a cardboard package
23:53and was killed instantly.
23:57A few months later,
23:58Gilbert Murray,
23:59a lobbyist for the forestry industry,
24:02died in Sacramento, California
24:03after opening one of
24:05Kaczynski's newly designed
24:07mail bombs.
24:09These bombs
24:10were especially dangerous
24:11because Kaczynski
24:13increased their shrapnel
24:14to maximize
24:15his victim's injuries.
24:17For bomb number 15,
24:19he loaded it
24:19with paneling nails
24:20and double-edged razor blades.
24:23He scored the pipe
24:24inside bomb number 16,
24:26so the explosion
24:28would result in smaller,
24:29more lethal fragments.
24:31Ted Kaczynski's refinements
24:35in bomb building
24:35over 17 years
24:36are an astounding
24:38yet horrifying achievement.
24:40He was only captured
24:41because the Washington Post
24:42agreed to publish
24:42his manifesto
24:43in exchange for ending
24:45his bombing campaign.
24:47While getting his essay,
24:49Industrial Society
24:50and Its Future
24:51into the World,
24:52propagated Kaczynski's
24:54anti-technology mandate,
24:56his brother recognized
24:57the style of writing
24:58and reported him
24:59to the FBI.
25:02After serving
25:03more than 25 years
25:04of his four life sentences,
25:07Ted Kaczynski
25:07hung himself in jail
25:09in June of 2023.
25:10On September 26, 2019,
25:29German authorities
25:29executed a raid
25:30on a huge underground complex
25:32in Traben-Trarbach,
25:34a scenic town
25:35on the banks
25:36of the Moselle River.
25:37The facility was home
25:43to a website hosting business
25:45known as Cyberbunker.
25:51The raid was the culmination
25:53of several years
25:54of investigation
25:55that revealed
25:56Cyberbunker servers
25:57were hosting
25:58illegal dark web marketplaces
26:01used for drug dealing,
26:03credit card scams,
26:04and any other criminal activity
26:06you can think of.
26:07It was the nerve center
26:09for a major
26:10cybercrime enterprise
26:11and a huge bust
26:12for the German authorities.
26:17The police seized
26:18over 800 servers
26:19and hard drives,
26:20more than 100 USB sticks
26:22and computers,
26:23nearly 60 phones,
26:25and roughly 100,000 euros
26:26in cash.
26:27Over 600 German police officers
26:30were involved
26:31in the operation.
26:31It's a staggering number
26:33and seven people
26:34were arrested
26:35including the alleged ringleader
26:37Hermann-Johan
26:38Fervere Derksen
26:39known as Zendt.
26:43Zendt grew up
26:44in a small city
26:45in the eastern Netherlands
26:46called Arnhem.
26:50Just outside of town
26:51was an abandoned
26:52Nazi bunker
26:53from World War II
26:54and he visited the site
26:55occasionally as a youth,
26:57possibly planting the seeds
26:58for Cyberbunker.
27:01Zendt always had an interest
27:05in technology growing up,
27:06so after graduating
27:07from college,
27:08he decided to make
27:08a career out of it
27:09and open several
27:10computer-related businesses
27:12to varying degrees
27:13of success.
27:16In 1995,
27:17he discovered
27:18that a 40-year-old
27:1920,000 square foot
27:21former NATO bunker
27:23in the northern
27:24Dutch town of Hoos
27:25was for sale
27:26and he jumped
27:27at the chance
27:28to buy it.
27:29This became
27:30Cyberbunker
27:31version 1.0.
27:35Zendt and a few
27:36of his friends
27:36set up a company
27:37based on the facility
27:38offering costly
27:39but extremely secure
27:40web hosting services
27:41targeting entrepreneurs
27:43in the fledgling
27:43online pornography business.
27:45He was an open-minded
27:49guy with a very
27:50liberal outlook
27:51but the Cyberbunker
27:52did have some rules.
27:53They would host
27:54any content
27:55except anything
27:56with ties to
27:57terrorism
27:57or child pornography.
27:59But soon enough,
28:00the authorities
28:01would be at
28:02Cyberbunker's door
28:03for reasons that
28:04did not relate
28:05to its business activities.
28:06On July 27, 2002,
28:11an explosion
28:12rocked part
28:12of the complex
28:13that Zendt
28:14had rented out
28:15to what he believed
28:16was a painting company.
28:19When the cops
28:20came to investigate,
28:22they found the remains
28:22of an ecstasy lab
28:23in what was left
28:24of that part
28:25of the bunker.
28:26Zendt denied
28:27any knowledge
28:27of the drug operation
28:28and clearly
28:29the police believed him
28:30because he wasn't
28:31charged with anything.
28:32But he did lose
28:33the business license
28:34and Cyberbunker
28:35was forced to relocate.
28:37The servers
28:38were moved
28:39to Amsterdam
28:40and for the next
28:4110 years,
28:42Cyberbunker
28:43operated on the fringes
28:44of the internet,
28:45hosting shady
28:46pharmaceutical sales websites
28:48and supporting
28:49phishing scams
28:50that bombarded
28:52the internet
28:52with spam emails
28:53in the hopes
28:54of relieving people
28:56of their credit
28:56card information.
29:00In 2012,
29:02Zendt got word
29:03that a bunker
29:03near Traven-Trarbank
29:05was for sale.
29:06Interested in returning
29:07Cyberbunker
29:08to its underground roots,
29:10he traveled to the town
29:11and liked what he saw.
29:14The bunker was built
29:16sometime in the 1970s
29:17by the Bundeswehr,
29:18the military
29:19of what was then
29:20West Germany.
29:21For over 30 years,
29:23it was the home base
29:24of the Bundeswehr's
29:25meteorological unit
29:26and its main activities
29:27were analyzing
29:28and anticipating
29:29weather patterns
29:30in places where
29:31the German military
29:32was active.
29:35It's a really
29:36impressive complex,
29:37five stories deep
29:38under a 30-acre
29:39parcel of wooded land
29:40with almost 60,000 square feet
29:43of total floor space.
29:44The walls are made
29:45of 31-inch thick concrete,
29:47enough to withstand
29:47a nuclear bomb.
29:49The rooms are
29:49completely soundproof
29:50and no electronic
29:51transmissions
29:52can get through.
29:56In 2012,
29:58the Bundeswehr
29:59relocated its
30:00meteorological division
30:01and the bunker
30:02was put on the market
30:03for 350,000 euros.
30:06However,
30:07given the unique nature
30:08of the complex,
30:09very few parties
30:10came forward
30:11with an interest
30:12in purchasing
30:13the property.
30:15And that's where
30:16Zent entered the picture.
30:17What better place
30:18to set up shop
30:18for a dodgy
30:19internet hosting company
30:20than a five-story
30:21deep nuclear bunker
30:22in the middle
30:23of a forest?
30:27In June of 2013,
30:29Cyberbunker
30:29moved into the complex
30:31and got to work
30:32making it their own.
30:34Security was
30:35a top priority.
30:36The bunker was
30:37already a veritable
30:38fortress with an
30:39airlock entry,
30:40a gatehouse
30:41at the road access,
30:42and ramparts
30:43and fencing
30:43surrounding the
30:44entire property.
30:45But Zent wasn't
30:46entirely satisfied.
30:48So, he ordered
30:48the entire perimeter
30:49fences to be made
30:50much taller
30:51and the entrance
30:52strengthened
30:52with more barriers.
30:56Inside,
30:57they hoped to use
30:58or at least retrofit
31:00as much of the
31:01existing infrastructure
31:02as possible
31:03to save money
31:04and time
31:04on the setup.
31:05On the third level,
31:07an older supercomputer
31:08connected to a huge
31:10screen was repurposed
31:11and dozens of racks
31:13of servers
31:14were installed
31:14in a nearby room.
31:16The servers
31:17generated so much
31:19heat,
31:19it seeped through
31:20the vents
31:21and warmed up
31:22the entire bunker.
31:24With a complex
31:26setup to Zent
31:27satisfaction,
31:28the new and improved
31:29Cyberbunker
31:30was open for business.
31:31But the industry
31:33was changing.
31:34The ultra-secure
31:36hosting business
31:37had been profitable
31:38over the years.
31:39But competition
31:40had begun to crowd
31:40the marketplace
31:41and many of the
31:42law-abiding websites
31:43hosted by Cyberbunker
31:44were starting to move
31:45to more traditional
31:46hosting services.
31:48By 2015,
31:50the business
31:50was only bringing in
31:52between 200,000
31:52and 300,000 euros
31:54a year,
31:54barely enough
31:55to cover Cyberbunker's
31:56operating costs.
31:58So Zent did what
31:59any enterprising
32:00criminal would do.
32:01He switched
32:01business models.
32:02The new scheme
32:06would involve
32:06the Cyberbunker team
32:08engineering
32:08encrypted smartphones
32:10and building
32:11secure private
32:11networks for them
32:12to run on.
32:13Perfectly suited
32:14for drug dealing.
32:17There were existing
32:19encrypted messaging
32:19apps available
32:20at the time,
32:21but they still had
32:22to go through
32:22traditional networks.
32:24High-level criminals
32:24always want extra
32:25layers of protection.
32:27So Cyberbunker's
32:28solution was to
32:29custom-build
32:29crypto phones
32:30and establish
32:31bulletproof networks
32:32protected from the
32:33prying eyes
32:34of the authorities.
32:36What they did,
32:37which was rather
32:38ingenious,
32:39was re-engineer
32:40BlackBerrys
32:41or Androids
32:42to operate
32:43on a single
32:44customized
32:45messaging system.
32:47The phones
32:47were also designed
32:48to be untrackable
32:49and the microphone
32:50and cameras
32:51were disabled.
32:52Many even
32:53included a panic
32:54button that erased
32:55all of the contents
32:56of the phone
32:57when activated.
32:59Cyberbunker sold
33:00the crypto phones
33:01for up to 2,000 euros
33:02and then charged
33:03another 2,000
33:04as an annual fee
33:05for using their
33:05private networks.
33:06But to take full
33:07advantage of the
33:08new business,
33:08they needed access
33:09to bigger markets
33:10and that meant
33:10taking on a partner.
33:14Around this time,
33:15prominent Irish
33:16drug trafficker
33:17George Mitchell
33:17was spotted
33:18in Trabin-Tarbach,
33:20which raised
33:21more than a few
33:21eyebrows.
33:24Mitchell was a
33:25notorious career
33:26criminal.
33:27In the late 90s,
33:28he'd spent a year
33:29in a Dutch prison
33:30after getting caught
33:31with a load
33:32of stolen computer
33:33parts.
33:33Rumor had it
33:34that when Zent
33:35was running
33:35a personal computer
33:36business around
33:37this time,
33:38he'd purchased
33:39stolen computer
33:39parts from Mitchell,
33:41so their relationship
33:41went back many years.
33:45Authorities believed
33:45that Mitchell
33:46had moved to Germany
33:47from southern Spain
33:48where he had an
33:48extensive network
33:49of connections
33:49in the drug world.
33:51He was the perfect
33:51sales representative
33:52for Cyberbunker's
33:53crypto phone enterprise.
33:56For a while,
33:57business was booming,
33:58but Mitchell's presence
34:00did not go unnoticed
34:01by the German police,
34:02who were already
34:03keeping a close eye
34:04on the Cyberbunker.
34:07In 2018,
34:08a Cyberbunker intern
34:09found an unfamiliar
34:11server under the floorboards
34:13of the data center,
34:14hardwired to the company's
34:15extensive bank
34:16of servers.
34:19It's assumed the police
34:20had someone on the inside.
34:22And given the company's
34:23reputation for super secure hosting,
34:25they were surprisingly sloppy
34:26with their own operations,
34:27making it relatively easy
34:28for the police to eavesdrop.
34:30The Cyberbunker servers
34:32were not connected
34:34using what's called
34:35a virtual LAN cable,
34:37which separates data traffic
34:39from different servers
34:40on the same cable.
34:41It's like having a highway
34:44with individual private lanes
34:45rather than a jumbled up
34:48mass of cars
34:49with no discernible
34:50system of order.
34:52So all the police
34:53had to do
34:53was physically connect
34:54to the server bank,
34:55and they'd be privy
34:56to everything
34:56that Cyberbunker
34:57was up to.
34:58And what they discovered
35:02was that Cyberbunker
35:04was the largest
35:05illicit website host
35:06in Germany,
35:07and possibly the world.
35:10Between 2015 and 2018,
35:13Cyberbunker played host
35:14to fraudsters,
35:15a forum for trading
35:16fake IDs,
35:18counterfeit money,
35:19and every kind of drug.
35:20It also hosted
35:21Flugswap,
35:22a marketplace
35:23that accounted
35:24for roughly 90%
35:25of Sweden's
35:26online drug trade.
35:28But Zent's
35:29ultimate downfall
35:30would be a site
35:31known as
35:31Wall Street Market
35:32that sold more
35:33than 36 million euros
35:35worth of drugs
35:35between 2016 and 2019,
35:38all while being hosted
35:39on Cyberbunker servers.
35:42In April of 2019,
35:45authorities arrested
35:45three German men
35:47believed to be
35:47the operators
35:48of Wall Street Market.
35:52The cops knew
35:53that Cyberbunker
35:55was hosting the site.
35:56So after the owners
35:58were charged,
35:59they raided the bunker.
36:00But they only took away
36:02the servers related
36:03to the case
36:04and left everything
36:05else in place.
36:07After that, though,
36:09all eyes were
36:09on Cyberbunker.
36:11A few months later,
36:12the axe finally fell
36:13and the German authorities
36:14executed the massive raid,
36:16arresting Zent
36:17and his accomplices.
36:21In December of 2021,
36:23Zent was found guilty
36:24of forming a criminal
36:25organization
36:26and later sentenced
36:28to five years
36:29and nine months
36:29in prison.
36:32Proof positive
36:33that even for the most
36:34innovative criminal minds,
36:36the truth finds a way
36:37to the surface,
36:39no matter how far
36:40underground you are.
36:41On January 21st, 2011,
36:54the tranquil desert night
36:56along the Mexico-U.S. border
36:57near Naco, Arizona
36:59was disrupted
37:00when National Guard troops
37:01operating remote
37:03video surveillance
37:04spotted a group
37:05of individuals
37:06employing a peculiar device
37:08on the Mexican side.
37:09It was unlike anything
37:13they'd ever seen before.
37:16What they found
37:17looked like something
37:18straight out of
37:18Monty Python
37:19and the Holy Grail.
37:20It was a catapult-like device
37:22called a trebuchet
37:23that launched
37:24bales of marijuana
37:25over the 18-foot-tall
37:27border fence.
37:29The catapult
37:30was about nine feet tall,
37:32made of welded steel,
37:33and mounted
37:34to a flatbed trailer.
37:36The authorities
37:36would later find it
37:38just 20 yards
37:39from the border.
37:40It was estimated
37:41that this homemade contraption
37:43could launch payloads
37:44up to 50 feet
37:45into U.S. territory
37:46with an impressive capacity
37:48to sling 40 pounds
37:50of marijuana per minute.
37:53You have to admire
37:55the cartel's ingenuity.
37:57The U.S. spends millions
37:58on border security,
38:00and they respond
38:01with 2,500-year-old technology.
38:03Although they were popularized
38:07by medieval Europe,
38:08catapults were actually invented
38:10by the ancient Greeks
38:11sometime around 400 B.C.E.
38:16The early Greek version
38:17was called a ballista
38:18and used the same design principles
38:20as a crossbow.
38:22It's considered
38:23the first-ever artillery weapon,
38:24allowing soldiers
38:25to launch projectiles
38:26from a distance,
38:27which was advantageous
38:28because the Greeks' enemies
38:29were usually limited
38:30to short-range weapons
38:31or hand-to-hand combat.
38:35A typical ballista
38:36was made up
38:37of a wooden frame
38:38with a bowstring
38:39stretched between two arms.
38:41Those arms were loaded
38:43with a projectile,
38:44and then the operator
38:44pulled back on the bowstring
38:46with a winch
38:47to put tension
38:48into the whole thing,
38:49just like an archer
38:50pulling on the string.
38:53When the bowstring
38:54was released,
38:55it launched the projectile
38:57at a high velocity
38:58toward its target,
38:59making the ballista
39:00an effective weapon
39:02for siege warfare.
39:04But it wasn't perfect.
39:06Early models were heavy,
39:08took too much time to load,
39:10and had limited range.
39:13The Romans eventually
39:14modified the Greek design,
39:16creating a one-armed weapon
39:18with a bucket
39:18called an onager.
39:21Onagers used rope tension
39:23similar to baliste,
39:25but instead of a bowstring,
39:27they launched objects
39:28using a long wooden arm
39:30that kind of resembled
39:31a big spoon.
39:33They were less accurate
39:34and cruder than the ballista,
39:36but easier to build
39:37and operate.
39:40The name onager
39:41means wild ass,
39:43a reference to a species
39:44of donkey found
39:45in the eastern part
39:45of the Roman Empire.
39:47When a projectile
39:48was released,
39:49onager is reared up
39:49and kicked,
39:50similar to the kicking action
39:51of a donkey.
39:52In the Middle Ages,
39:57a different style
39:58of catapult became popular.
40:00Known as trebuchet,
40:02they used a counterweight system
40:04that relied on gravity
40:05instead of tension.
40:07Trebuchets have been used
40:08for centuries,
40:09dating back to ancient China,
40:11but they are mostly associated
40:13with the medieval period
40:14in Europe.
40:15Designs vary,
40:21but a trebuchet
40:22typically consists
40:23of a platform,
40:24a pole
40:25with an attached sling
40:27containing a projectile,
40:28and a counterweight,
40:29this even heavier object
40:31that gets hoisted up
40:32and then dropped,
40:34creating the force necessary
40:35to launch
40:36whatever's in that sling.
40:37The trebuchet
40:39was far more effective
40:40than a standard catapult,
40:42which could only launch
40:43projectiles weighing
40:44up to 40 pounds,
40:46whereas a trebuchet
40:47could handle a payload
40:4815 times heavier
40:50and had a much greater range.
40:52So you can understand
40:53why the cartels
40:54chose this type of design
40:56to hurl their drugs
40:57over the border fence.
41:00In January of 2012,
41:03authorities conducting
41:04surveillance near
41:05Calexico, California,
41:07witnessed several
41:08suspicious packages
41:09being thrown
41:10over the border fence.
41:14Two people were spotted
41:15collecting the packages
41:16and putting them in a car.
41:18The police later
41:19pulled them over
41:20and found 10 bundles
41:22of marijuana
41:22wrapped in tape
41:23with a loop on the top
41:25similar to a kettlebell
41:27that you'd see
41:27at the gym.
41:29It seems comically primitive,
41:31but it's a cheap
41:32and easy way
41:33to get drugs
41:34over the border.
41:35But the problem is
41:37you can only move
41:38minor quantities
41:39unless you have
41:40a small army
41:42heaving them
41:43over the fence,
41:44which would attract attention.
41:47So, of course,
41:48they tried other
41:49more sophisticated methods.
41:52The following year,
41:54police in Mexicali, Mexico
41:55seized a pickup truck
41:57with a compressed air cannon
41:58mounted in the flatbed.
42:02If you've ever been
42:03to a sporting event,
42:04chances are you've seen
42:05someone firing
42:06a T-shirt cannon.
42:07This is exactly
42:07the same principle,
42:08except the cartels
42:09are using them
42:10to launch drugs
42:11over the fence
42:11instead of T-shirts.
42:14How compressed air cannons
42:16work is pretty simple.
42:18The air pressure
42:19in the tank builds up
42:21and then when you
42:22pull the trigger,
42:23the air is released
42:24into the barrel
42:25and the energy
42:26propels the projectile.
42:30This one was handmade
42:32with PVC piping
42:34attached to a crude
42:35metal tank
42:36that used an old car engine
42:39to generate compressed air.
42:42It could launch
42:42almost 30 pounds
42:43of drugs
42:44across the border
42:45at a time.
42:46That's pretty impressive.
42:51In December of 2012,
42:54a farmer near
42:55San Luis, Arizona,
42:57discovered 33
42:58suspicious-looking cans
42:59scattered around his field
43:01and contacted authorities.
43:02They contained 85 pounds
43:07of marijuana,
43:08worth roughly $42,000.
43:12Police would later find
43:13a carbon dioxide tank
43:15on the Mexico side
43:16of the border.
43:19Based on later testing,
43:20it was estimated
43:21that these air cannons
43:22could shoot
43:22a 30-pound package
43:24of marijuana
43:25at 300 miles an hour.
43:27so if they put
43:29that thing
43:29at 25 degrees,
43:31it could probably
43:31go a half mile.
43:40In 2016,
43:42Mexican federal police
43:43found a black van
43:44parked on a street
43:45in Agua Prita, Mexico,
43:47along the border
43:48with Douglas, Arizona.
43:49A hole had been cut
43:53in the roof
43:54and a huge air cannon
43:56with a 10-foot barrel
43:57was discovered.
44:01This was a pretty
44:02epic cannon,
44:03but according to authorities,
44:05discoverers like that one
44:06are pretty rare,
44:07only once every couple
44:08of years or so.
44:09The problem for the smugglers
44:11is the cannons have to be
44:12relatively close
44:13to the border to work,
44:15and that makes it likely
44:16that they're going
44:16to get caught.
44:17And besides,
44:18cannons are loud.
44:19After the Americans
44:23spotted the catapult
44:24near Naco, Arizona
44:26in 2011,
44:27they contacted
44:28Mexican authorities
44:29who rushed to the area.
44:32They seized
44:33approximately 45 pounds
44:35of marijuana
44:36and an SUV
44:37left behind
44:38by the smugglers.
44:41None of the suspects
44:43were apprehended.
44:49Same as new
44:51at the unexpected
44:52as new
44:53seeing the