- 7 hours ago
Following the drug dollars from American trap houses to wholesalers and transporters, funneling billions into Mexico's money laundry....
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00:10this company generated 10 million dollars last year this one was five million dollars per year
00:18three million dollars this is another company you can imagine whatever you want in these small rooms
00:25these empty offices are a front for paper companies that launder cartel drug money
00:34from trap houses across america to wholesalers transporters and cartel cells there's a billion
00:43dollar tide funneling into mexico when it's moved you're talking millions weekly
00:52now u.s authorities are cracking down
00:55i see you got a big stack of cash in there what's up there but with this much money at
01:01stake
01:01the cartels are finding ever more devious ways to clean let's put it in the positon
01:07and smuggled in one truck like this they could be a million dollars their dirty cash
01:35nine p.m cancun mexico jc is on his way to pick up dirty american drug money
01:42the proceeds of hundreds of illicit drug deals back in the states the u.s generates over a hundred
01:49billion dollars of drug sales a year the cartels face two problems getting it back to mexico and
01:56banking it why carteles que pues tienen hasta 200 300 millones de dólares parados en sus casas y no
02:04los pueden mover no los pueden sacar that's where jc comes in to spend their profits the cartels
02:11must launder all this dirty cash transforming the proceeds of crime into legitimate profit jc
02:18is part of an army of workers whose job it is to get cartel cash into the banking system without
02:24revealing its origins now that he's in there's no turning back
02:48so he's on call 24 7 to do the cartels bidding
03:03the id cards were secretly photocopied during legitimate transactions jc uses them to make multiple
03:11currency exchanges all bogus jc then picks up the newly swapped pesos and passes them on to his cartel
03:33the cash is now laundered its origin erased
03:45but this cash began its journey 3 000 miles away in chicago
03:54it's one of the biggest narco distribution hubs in america
04:01the windy city's railroad port and interstate highway system
04:06make it the ideal location for distributing dope and collecting cash from across the midwest
04:19and the south side is where a lot of the business gets done
04:24every deals a drop in the bucket that contributes to a mighty river of cash flowing out of the city
04:37and handling the retail an army of local gangbangers
04:57another bag of crack sold
05:00every day thousands of deals like this make fortunes for the mexican cartels
05:07i'm 19 i've been doing this since i was 15 man you got to feed yourself because ain't nobody else
05:11gonna be able to do it we grew up with our mothers and fathers around here so
05:14you feel me you got to be your own father figure get your own money out here because
05:17ain't nobody gonna give it to you
05:25skillet operates at the bottom of the money supply chain
05:29he and thousands like him generate dirty cash
05:33unusable in any quantity until it gets laundered
05:42skillet gets crack on credit and sells it for ten dollars a rock
05:49after a long day of moving product back at the trap house the real work begins
05:55splitting the take first up the crew take their cut
05:59between three of us we're gonna split a four hundred dollar profit off the ounce you know
06:03it works out around 13 bucks an hour but they count on volume to make ends meet
06:09nothing too much but it's about the quick flip we ain't even really thinking about making too much
06:13money we were at about getting it in and getting it off so we could stay with it you feel
06:17the rest of the cash goes up the chain to the cruise drug supplier
06:21a regional distributor who works with the cartel the payment's got to be right and it's got to be
06:27fast we got to go back to the store with 1200 man if you take that credit from him man
06:33you got
06:33to pay him if not he gonna come see you you're gonna be dead six feet under man that's gonna
06:39be
06:39smoke man smoking for that count man yeah where we from you got to keep it with you or somebody
06:44of running your trap or something you feel me but there's another problem moving cash in the hood
06:50is riskier than holding drugs
06:57and skillet's anxious he's got 12 hours until his wholesaler opens shop and that means holding on to
07:04the cash everybody out here thirsty robbers you gotta keep your eyes up for the haters man they trying to
07:09take you down because they ain't eating you feel me it's all our world everywhere man that's why we
07:13call it shot right because it's so you don't know where it's coming from man your homie'll cross you
07:18for a couple bucks man it's how it is you got to keep your pistol while you're trapping and if
07:22not
07:22you're gonna get gagged skillet's homeboy breeze is always ready with a gun he's had plenty of practice
07:29how you are you just all the time i had to swap something out you know you can't keep the
07:35hours for long
07:35that's my baby though i'm gonna say i'm loving it so i'm loving it all we need is their money
07:43man
07:44that's all we care about the greater chicago area has thousands of trap houses holding millions of
07:51dollars destined to go south if local police could choke off the money supply here they'll do major
07:58damage to the local dealers and their mexican suppliers 50 minutes away in lake county local
08:10sheriffs are planning to do just that they're preparing to raid a trap house and seize cash they
08:21always want to protect their money no matter what all right let's load up
08:32we've gotten a lot of tips where stash houses are at it's worth it because that's where you hurt people
08:38a lot of these guys are accustomed to being in jail you know it's not a big threat to them
08:41you take their money from them you take what they've worked for that's where it hurts
08:46so today they hope to seize the dealer's cash before he passes it up the supply chain we're on our
08:53way to uh uh gary indiana to do a search warrant put the bad guys in jail
09:08right in front of this car
09:12watch that window over there
09:16the sheriffs block all escape routes they know the suspect's armed and has a history of resisting
09:22arrest
09:28but the battering ram can't get them in they're losing crucial time
09:36finally
09:36got one in custody two they get their man plus a female accomplice
09:50but they haven't found what would really damage the local supply chain
09:56money would be nice but just didn't have that luck today
09:59back in chicago one flush dealer turns to cleaning his newfound cash
10:11peace long do not touch the drugs baby this is what i touch on a daily basis
10:22cocaine wholesaler peace long splits his drug revenue sending dirty money south to his suppliers
10:30while laundering his personal profits
10:33tonight he's preparing to clean one hundred and fifty thousand dollars at a chicago club
10:39getting ready for this little joint tonight
10:42we're setting it up about 150 big money baby all day that's all we do
10:48gonna flip this real quick get rich baby all day
10:54but getting the money there is no guarantee
10:57you gotta wrap this seal you know what i'm saying wrap this seal because one time
11:01riding got pulled over they brought the dogs dogs snapped me out took 17 from me
11:06so now i gotta wrap it up vaseline it down and keep it concealed
11:11so he takes no chances
11:14all right now on my way down here to go pick up this little cheddar if i want it to
11:19be used
11:22strap up safety first as a chicago kingpin peace long makes millions supplying cocaine to the city's
11:30street gangs but he can't spend his ill-gotten gains without drawing unwanted attention
11:37most we ever did was like one five that's 1.5 mil people and that was not too long ago
11:44to be honest with
11:45he must claim a credible source of income to get his money into a bank or else
11:50his crack den dough will be useless i gotta mingle with the rich people keep my nose clean dress sharp
11:58and leave all the other stuff in my neighborhood so he fronts events at clubs to make it look like
12:06he's a legitimate entrepreneur that's where the most money come in say we do two three events
12:12a week usually more smallest one might bring you in ten the biggest one might bring in like you said
12:18150
12:18200. peace long cooks the books inflating his sales with dirty drug cash now what i'm collecting on
12:26is the door the drinks the tickets i'm gonna pay for everything full up front with my dirty money
12:33and i clean it within an hour or two like i said
12:38by inflating ticket food and drink sales peace long has masked the money's true origin
12:45ultimately he receives a check that he can deposit in a bank all right what's up just left from one
12:51of
12:51the huge events you know what i'm saying just made 150 off that checked up baby 150 off that yeah
12:59that
12:59dirty coke money to clean game money because it's all about the game baby nobody plays it better
13:06peace long's cleaned his personal profits but he's got a problem he still must pay his traffickers but he
13:14can't wire this much money as it would draw unwanted attention feds don't get you they know you owe too
13:21much money don't don't think they don't they know tough banking regulations and federal investigators
13:28means he must be careful with the traffickers money fortunately for wholesalers like peace long
13:34there's another cog in the laundering machine to help
13:39an army of transporters ready to move his cash debts across the border
13:47special agents for ice homeland security investigations work to stop the flow of dirty cash south
13:55as you can see here's a vehicle that we seized from a criminal organization that was moving money
13:59to the to the southwest border and into mexico
14:07but this is no ordinary suv start the vehicle activate the rear defrost then there's a magnet which
14:14completes the circuit raising the entire back of the vehicle revealing the hidden compartment
14:22ingenious retrofits like this keep hsi agents on their toes there's enough room in this trap
14:29to probably conceal just about a million dollars
14:35outside chicago hsi is on the hunt for dirty money the group that i'm currently in
14:42is a financial investigations group that group primarily focuses on the illegal and illicit
14:49narcotics proceeds that are being transferred back to mexico and columbia special agent popovitz is
14:56heading to a strip mall where cartel operatives have previously conducted cash handovers in the last 10
15:02years on average our team seizes about 10 million dollars a year in bulk cash
15:11bags of dirty cash often change hands in plain sight
15:16this is the typical big box store parking lot cartels want to remain anonymous
15:23blend in with the general population we've actually done multiple deals in here meaning that
15:29we've observed members of cartels dropping bags to other members it's very simple you'll you'll see
15:38two cars pull up side by side and typically what happens is trunk opens up and a duffel bag goes
15:44from
15:45one to the other he's got a white t-shirt open the back door of the vehicle we just dropped
15:51it back to
15:51the uc in a perfect world we're able to identify who that person is dropping the money off to and
15:57then
15:57eventually hopefully hit the larger load and really disrupt the organization
16:09everyone thinks that it's just in the bad parts of town but the reality of it is it's in every
16:13part of
16:14town and it's in every parking lot it's estimated anywhere from 20 to 40 billion dollars moving around
16:24this country per year so to move 20 to 40 billion dollars a year a hundred thousand dollars at a
16:31time you just can't do it so they have to take those risks and they have to push that kind
16:36of money
16:36through these vehicles trying to run the law enforcement gauntlet are thousands of cartel money
16:43transporters man one thing you got to realize that it is a thousand compartments on the truck these
16:50tires right here man can be filled with 10 to 15 a piece from this part right here to this
16:57part right
16:58here now you got an extra compartment you can build easy it's walls right here people build all day long
17:05man
17:11today spins is making final checks on his truck before transporting dirty drug cash to the cartel in
17:18houston he can stash millions of dollars in a truck like this i do like you know one trip every
17:27two
17:28three months you know plain and simple trip is normally two days 22 hours on the road from chicago to
17:37houston
17:40with the direct southern routes out of chicago heavily patrolled spins switches highways
17:46highways he's using i-65 southbound in lake county indiana but sheriffs are on the lookout we've seen
17:55major shipments of money coming through here that we're destined for mexico
18:05sergeant stewart has patrolled indiana's highways for over 10 years he's no stranger to intercepting dirty money
18:17mexico typically in a year three of us sees you know anywhere from five hundred thousand to a million
18:22in cash you're being detained right now on suspicion of trafficking illegal currency
18:26but picking the right vehicle requires an experienced eye
18:30you as you can see there's hundreds of cars that go by every minute and we have to somehow sort
18:35through
18:35that ton of traffic typically i see them long before they see me because i'm sitting still just watching
18:41traffic. If they're a criminal that's committing a serious crime or something that's serious in
18:46their mind, and they suddenly notice me when I've seen them all along, they're going to have that
18:51fury reaction. They're going to have that adrenaline dump. They're going to stop thinking
18:54clearly, and they're going to do something that disrupts the flow of traffic.
19:00Yeah, I felt like I've been trailed, you know, while I was driving with my load down the highway.
19:06I felt like, you know, people watching me, you know, just get paranoid sometimes.
19:14But if Spins gets pulled over with cartel money in his possession,
19:18he won't be worrying about going to jail. What I think about cartels is like, you know,
19:24they're some badass b****, man. You just don't want to mess with it.
19:33It's go time.
19:44I'm going to take a look at this car up here. When it was approaching me, it was tailgating
19:49a semi. Sergeant Stewart of the Lake County Sheriff's is following a suspicious vehicle
19:54along I-65 in Indiana.
20:01He approaches cautiously. Some traffickers are prepared to use maximum force to defend
20:08their loads.
20:08Do you know all your brake lights are out back here? Your license plate is hanging off the
20:12back. Is your license valid?
20:14It's not valid.
20:15All right, we'll come back here. Let's check out your license.
20:18Let's jump in the front over there.
20:25With the driver in the car, the sheriff senses something.
20:29You get charged with weed before?
20:31No.
20:32No.
20:33Yeah, the reason why I mention that to you is because you smell like weed a little bit
20:35right now.
20:36Oh, no.
20:36Are you smoking today?
20:37No, I was around somebody that was smoking today. I don't want to lie to you.
20:40Is there any more weed in that car right now?
20:41No, I'm crying with my baby.
20:43I don't know weed anymore.
20:47Sergeant Stewart turns up the heat on the passenger.
20:51Jump out.
20:55Hey, I was talking to your partner. You said some guys were smoking weed with you earlier
20:58because he smelled like weed.
21:00There's no weed in the car.
21:01No, no, I said he smelled like weed.
21:02Okay, that's him.
21:03Stick your weed in the car and see if he's smoking.
21:05Is there weed in the car?
21:07No, there's no weed in the car.
21:08Okay.
21:09With little evidence of illegal activity, the sergeant doesn't have many options.
21:16Your license is valid.
21:17Do you think you could finish driving all the way to ****?
21:19You don't have no problem with that?
21:20No, sir.
21:21Figuring he has bigger fish to fry, he decides to cut them loose.
21:25They seem like they were legit.
21:28I didn't notice anything in the car or any odor in the car itself.
21:32I don't think there was anything really more that I needed to do with that.
21:38But the following morning, sergeant Stewart is in for a surprise.
21:43He spots something that looks familiar.
21:54It's the same vehicle with the broken brake light and the passenger that sergeant Stewart pulled over yesterday.
22:00What, uh, what's going on?
22:02He said he wanted to search the car, but no, I don't care, no right to search the car.
22:07If you can smell any weed, just nothing like that.
22:10But there's something wrong with the driver.
22:13The canine unit take a closer sniff.
22:17Did your dog hit on the car?
22:18Yeah.
22:18Okay, you can search it if you think you need to.
22:22The deputies now have probable cause.
22:27If the driver's trafficking weed, he's looking at prison time.
22:33Then sergeant Stewart spots something in the man's pocket.
22:37I see you got a big stack of cash in there.
22:38What's up, Dad?
22:39No, this is money.
22:41How much you got there?
22:43My girlfriend's money.
22:44Two girlfriends?
22:45Yeah.
22:46How much is it?
22:49A large amount of cash like this makes Stewart suspicious.
22:53The man could be moving both drugs and money.
22:56How come you got your girlfriend's tax money in your pocket?
23:00She know you got it?
23:01Yeah.
23:01She trust you with it?
23:02Yeah.
23:03That's a good girlfriend.
23:05You ain't got to work?
23:07No, I don't have a job, sir.
23:08Oh, you don't?
23:09You must got a sugar mama.
23:13Good.
23:14Okay.
23:15With no drugs present, they've got to let him go again.
23:19Like I told you, man, make sure you get them brake lights fixed.
23:21That's just asking to get pulled over.
23:23Cops can seize any amount over $10,000 if they suspect it's dirty.
23:29Unfortunately for Sergeant Stewart, carrying $5,500 isn't a felony.
23:36A lot of these lower level guys are moving back and forth between these cities, which are only a couple
23:41hours apart, with, you know, $10,000, $6,000, even $20,000.
23:48Probably they're going to be safe with that amount of money.
23:51The cops only seize a small part of the income from America's $100 billion drug trade.
23:57I've heard estimates that it's only 1% of what is going up and down the highways are being transported
24:03back to drug cartels in Mexico.
24:05We're barely making it then.
24:14300 miles south, money transporter spins as made it a third of the way to Houston without drawing any unwanted
24:22attention.
24:24Like transporters across the nation, he's carrying drug money for laundering by the cartel, who will then package the cash
24:32in preparation for its journey across the border.
24:41I guess you could say I'm the hood bank.
24:43I make sure that everything is where it's supposed to be.
24:46I'm basically accounting for my organization.
24:53Capo directs the movement of dirty cash throughout the United States and into Houston.
24:58Whoever is holding that crown for being the most responsible with the money, making sure everything gets back in one
25:03piece,
25:04and that's how it ended up being my situation of branching out to Atlanta and Miami's and New York's and
25:09New Jersey and Chicago.
25:11He's waiting for spins and a dozen other cash transporters to deliver before he sends the money down to Mexico.
25:19A tough week at the border where it's hard to get stuff across, maybe $100,000, $200,000.
25:24When it's smooth, you're talking millions weekly.
25:27Capo smuggles money across the border to Nuevo Laredo, but right now there's a problem.
25:32All this work is going on over Mexico, you know, with this state line.
25:35This is all Sinaloa territory.
25:37This is our goal.
25:39It's definitely worth it.
25:40It's a good place.
25:42Capo works for the Gulf Cartel, which controls Nuevo Laredo.
25:48And the ongoing war with the Sinaloa cartel makes Capo's cash shipments vulnerable.
25:54This is where it's going down.
25:55Everybody's fighting for this s*** right there.
25:57This border, that's game time.
26:00So Capo keeps bodyguards.
26:03Nobody wants to die alone.
26:04That's why I keep my family with me.
26:06You're always going to see me with a soldier by my side.
26:08Somebody that's ready to die for me like I do for them.
26:11He claims to have police on his payroll.
26:13There's a lot of dirty cops out there.
26:16A lot of them work for us, I have to say that, but yeah.
26:20Someone's shooting.
26:25Gunfire is an everyday thing in the hood.
26:28Capo's crew can't find the shooter.
26:31We're right right now.
26:32It's called a ground zero.
26:34Straight here, right here's a rough man.
26:35They caught a little Mexico.
26:36The shot could be nothing, or it could be a warning from a rival cartel.
26:42But Capo only really worries about one thing.
26:45That's my main thing, to worry about that money.
26:47That's all I care about.
26:49Some say I would have the easy job just collecting the money, but I got the hard part.
26:53I got what everybody wants.
26:54It's Capo's job to get the cartel money across the border.
27:02Capo manages the cash coming into Houston via couriers.
27:06We like to put it in the hands of somebody that's dedicated to the family part of our organization,
27:11because you never know when there's money involved who will run away or who will disappear on us.
27:16At the end of the day, if you do get in trouble with something, you won't be here no more.
27:20And when it comes to collecting this cash, he only trusts one man.
27:25We're doing our regular routine, going around collecting bread, collecting our money.
27:32That way we can get ready to go back down south.
27:39V-Star's job is to move dirty cash over the border.
27:44But first, he's working the streets of Houston,
27:48a meeting with transporters who have traveled from all over the USA to pay off their cartel debts.
27:55Just like that.
27:57Make it happen.
27:59We can collect anything easy from $40,000 to $50,000, you know, just one night.
28:05But if the transporters don't show, they could find themselves in trouble.
28:10Dead trouble.
28:12If they end up owing money, anything could happen.
28:15From me telling the people down there in Mexico to come down here and chop their head off.
28:20If I collect this bread, I feel the s*** back over.
28:24You know, you don't want to come down to owing, you know, people money.
28:28The cartel says jump.
28:29You say how high.
28:31How's it done?
28:33Let's get the s*** out of here.
28:36As the payments pile up, V-Star gets nervous.
28:40People out here roaching, who's trying to knock your hustle.
28:46You know, there's a lot of them out here in the street.
28:49If you look everywhere, all these bones, there don't got nothing to lose.
28:54Anything can happen at any time, so you can't be scared.
28:59You got to be prepared for anything.
29:03They're just lurking.
29:05Waiting for somebody to die.
29:10After three hours, he's finished his rounds.
29:13He settles up with Capo.
29:17In a few hours, we got about a good $30,000, $35,000.
29:22Do that by another two or three days.
29:26We'll be ready for next week.
29:28Go back down to Mexico.
29:32Every two weeks, you know, it's how we like to move, you know,
29:35because the product is moving, you know, the streets calling for it.
29:39So you got to keep the money, you know, rotating.
29:44And that rotation never stops.
29:48Capo just got a call from his bosses in Mexico.
29:53Yeah, it was one of those rush jobs that tomorrow, this had to be done.
29:57He's got to move a large quantity of cash within the city.
30:01Whatever time it is, no matter if it's 3 in the morning, we call, the boys got to answer.
30:05They know the money's right.
30:07So he's building a trap in his vehicle.
30:10This is one of our little hideouts, so we kind of do a little bit of a little stash part.
30:15Another process of moving the money, everything that moves around is through this.
30:21These panels, we buy them, basically weld whatever box you're going to put you behind it.
30:25We hit it with a seal that'll make it smellproof, fireproof, everything to imagine.
30:29Once that plate's built, they'll weld it inside the frame of the truck.
30:34My guys right here have done it all, from gas tanks to cross floors, airbags.
30:39I'm talking, like I said, full MacGyver-type setup.
30:45Yesterday's mystery gunshot has made Capo philosophical.
30:49You know, you lose a lot of people in your family, you know what I'm saying?
30:51But your car's going to be called any day, man.
30:54I don't worry about that no more.
30:55I ain't scared of that.
30:58But moving this much cartel money, he can't afford to take chances.
31:03My lookout guy is all up and down the street right now.
31:06They give us a heads up.
31:08At the first sign of trouble, Capo will get a call.
31:11We get worried all day.
31:14But like you said, anybody can die at any moment.
31:16It don't matter what kind of work you do.
31:19Yo.
31:21It's a lookout.
31:23And he's got news.
31:25Capo, the money trafficker, is getting ready to move millions of cartel cash when his lookout calls.
31:32It's a false alarm.
31:34So the crew continues building secret compartments in their vehicle.
31:38He's about to be done.
31:39He's like on the last well.
31:41He's going straight to the truck.
31:43He's going to close it up and put everything we love in there.
31:52Young Boss serves as Capo's chief trap builder.
31:58Right there, in that little spot, we fit over $125,000 in that one spot.
32:03In one truck like this, they could be a million dollars.
32:06After three hours of work, the trap gets the finishing touches.
32:15The money is now ready for delivery.
32:22This is a small run that's here in town.
32:24I'm saying even if it's down the street, we're going to make sure that we cover our ass.
32:28I'm excited.
32:29When we're done, it gets going on the road.
32:34But the dirty money's still got to get packed for the journey south.
32:39No, I'm just getting ready.
32:40Do what I do.
32:41V-Star's Houston office is a hub for smuggling cash into Mexico.
32:47We've got money coming from all over Texas, all over different states.
32:50There's money coming from everywhere.
32:52This last bag right here is from Chicago.
32:55He's vacuum sealing Capo's money so the dogs don't sniff it out.
33:00The last bag.
33:02You know, so now we're getting ready to go down south.
33:04Take down to Mexico.
33:10Crossing the border is the riskiest part of the dirty money's journey.
33:15V-Star's strategy, drive it in a fully serviced black SUV and play it cool.
33:21You've got your seatbelt on.
33:22You put your signals on.
33:24Anything you don't do is just going to cause the tension and it might get you pulled over.
33:33Once you get to the checkpoint, you know, you can't be nervous.
33:36You've got to make sure you're ready for the questions that might ask you what you're doing down here.
33:40You know, how long you're going to be down here.
33:42Because if you're not ready, you're going to get pulled over to the side.
33:45You're going to get stripped all the way down, you know.
33:47Down there at the border, they ain't going to play with that.
33:50That's all federal right there.
33:56It will take V-Star five hours to drive from Houston to Laredo.
34:01The city has five different bridges into Mexico.
34:05Two for passenger vehicles, one for trains, and two for commercial vehicles.
34:12It's the busiest inland port in the United States, and a smuggler's paradise.
34:29Standing against the billion-dollar tide of narco dollars is the anti-terrorist and contraband enforcement team.
34:39These cops use high-tech scanners to seek out money stashed deep within vehicles.
34:44But the cartels keep responding with new tricks of their own.
34:48The challenge of working here is probably the scouts.
35:00Officer Hernandez works bridge number one in the city center, where the cartels have lookouts.
35:07This bridge, it's hard for us to target vehicles.
35:10If you can see, there's a pedestrian walkway.
35:13There's people walking all over the place.
35:15They see us here, and then people will find out, and then, you know, they won't cross.
35:19You'll see cars back over there that, you know, they'll turn around and hit back.
35:23You know, once they see us here, it's not easy.
35:28The cartels place scouts at strategic positions along the border.
35:32They use CB radios to give smugglers the coordinates of AT-SET operations.
35:39With thousands of passengers and commercial vehicles passing through each day, officers must pick and choose who to stop.
35:56Before, it used to be very easy, you know, you'd get this single male coming from, you know, up north
36:01going in the deep into Mexico, and that was it.
36:05Nowadays, anybody's a smuggler nowadays.
36:07You know what I mean?
36:08We don't, it's kind of hard to just target one group.
36:12It's just, like, families trying to smuggle money into Mexico.
36:16Older people, younger people, you know, people that you don't expect.
36:20Those are the ones we kind of try to target.
36:22A single male in a black SUV grabs his attention.
36:36They pull it over for inspection.
36:41A high-end vehicle traveling deep into Mexico seems unusual.
36:46A preliminary search reveals no contraband.
36:49We're going to take this one to the Z-portal to the extra machine over at Bridge 2.
36:53But Officer Hernandez wants to scan the vehicle to check for a trap hiding money.
36:58It's a 13 vehicle, you know what I mean?
37:00They'll utilize high-end vehicles.
37:01You don't expect to check high-end vehicles.
37:03But doing the unexpected sometimes gets results.
37:122008 BMW X5.
37:14Officer Hernandez has flagged a suspicious car at the Mexican border he thinks is transporting dirty cash.
37:21And he's taking it to an X-ray to find out.
37:24This is someone, man, coming from Houston.
37:27That's how he sells cars.
37:30The driver's story doesn't add up.
37:35Unless he's under cartel protection,
37:37his fancy car could make him a target for robbery or kidnapping across the border.
37:46If there's cash hidden in a secret compartment,
37:49the X-ray should find it.
37:55Right now, it's looking good.
37:58I haven't found anything.
38:00The only anomaly we see is that big guy driving.
38:06All right.
38:08Thanks, Pete.
38:09Appreciate it, man.
38:09Have a good one.
38:11They let the driver go.
38:16With around 26,000 vehicles passing into Mexico every day,
38:21catching money movers red-handed isn't easy.
38:26V-Star makes it across the border and heads to Cancun with his haul of dirty cash.
38:32One step closer to the money laundry.
38:43Over 4 million tourists visit the beach destination each year.
38:48Unaware that they're helping launder dirty dollars on an industrial scale.
38:54But one man has decided to take a stand.
38:57Cancun inició su vida turística con dinero del narcotráfico.
39:02Y los grandes carteles del narcotráfico utilizan turismo para lavar sus dólares.
39:12Pedro is investigating cartel money laundering in Cancun.
39:17Se habla que hay más de 45,000 cuartos tan solo en Cancun.
39:21Pedro believes 10% of these rooms remain empty.
39:25Their purpose, to clean cash.
39:274,500 habitaciones, haciendo dólares por habitación, por 12 meses del año.
39:33Es una cantidad importante de dinero que se puede lavar aquí.
39:40Le sumas lo que consumen en los bares, lo que consumen en los restaurantes.
39:45A los prestadores de servicios, todos ellos cobran el objetivo.
39:49Por eso es que aquí los grandes carteles deciden lavar su dinero.
39:53And this business model is spreading throughout Mexico.
39:58Lo que nadie quiere aceptar es que la realidad, que desde hace más de 15 años,
40:04la economía mexicana depende del dinero del narcotráfico.
40:09Muchos de los negocios lícitos, muchos de las grandes obras, son precisamente dinero del narcotráfico.
40:16Today, Pedro is investigating one of the cartels' most lucrative laundering techniques.
40:27But his investigation only gets so far.
40:58Pedro's taking a huge risk.
41:01But he presses on with his mission, regardless.
41:15Once the building work is finished, the cartel's construction company sells high to a cartel-owned front company.
41:23The result, money clean enough to bank.
41:27Following the paper trail, only gets Pedro so far.
41:47Behind this administrative facade, lurks an army of corrupt accountants and lawyers who make sure Pedro can never trace the
41:55money directly to the cartels.
41:57This company generated $10 million last year.
42:02This one was $5 million per year, $3 million.
42:07This is another company.
42:09You can imagine whatever you want in these small rooms.
42:17Silvia is one of Cancun's biggest money launderers.
42:21It's her job to close the circle and get the cartel's dirty billions into the legitimate Mexican banking system.
42:28We create companies, but they are paper companies.
42:33She does it by generating complex financial structures.
42:37When the money gets back to our client, now we clean and with papers, and we just get a small
42:44part of it, so everybody wins.
42:47And their take-home is huge.
42:57She's just taken delivery of $10 million in cash that a client wants clean.
43:03This money can come from drugs, smuggling, or any kind of stuff that you can imagine, but we don't have
43:12to know, and we don't want to know.
43:21After a 3,000-mile journey across the border, the cartel's money is now laundered, but the cycle continues.
43:30From the drug dealers making the dirty money in the States, to the scouts and transporters moving it across the
43:37border,
43:39and the cartel's cells cleaning it in Mexico, the billion-dollar tide continues to flow.
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