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Unreported World S50E04 01 May - Byse
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00:00Tonight's Unreported World is from Puerto Rico, a new front line in America's war on drugs.
00:06The Caribbean island is a U.S. territory, was a key launching area for its military action against Venezuela,
00:12as well as ongoing operations to intercept cocaine and fentanyl in the region.
00:16But while authorities chase traffickers, the island itself is facing a devastating fentanyl epidemic.
00:23Guillermo Galdós travels from a newly reopened U.S. military base to the streets of San Juan,
00:29following federal agents trying to stop the drugs, the families and front line responders battling an overdose crisis.
00:37And a warning from the outset, this episode shows strong images of the effects of serious drug abuse,
00:43which some viewers may find distressing.
00:47Good morning, everybody. Thank you all for being here.
00:50Puerto Rico caught in the middle of President Trump's war on narco-terrorism.
00:55All right, guys, relay. Go ahead.
00:57American military bases resurrected, wow, to pursue traffickers heading to the U.S. across the Caribbean.
01:05They are going after an individual who is wanted at federal level.
01:11But the island itself has its own drugs problem.
01:18With dealers pushing fentanyl and addicts dying.
01:27So how are Trump's military operations helping Puerto Rico's opioid crisis?
01:41So how are Trump's military operations helping Puerto Rico's opioid crisis?
01:56If America's war on drugs is ever going to be won, then this is the very front line.
02:03Puerto Rico is a United States territory and a backdoor for narcotics entering the country.
02:09The drugs that don't make it to mainland USA stay in Puerto Rico.
02:14This island is the closest U.S. territory to drug-producing countries in Latin America.
02:21Anything that gets into here has a clear passage to the United States mainland,
02:27making Puerto Rico one of the most important conduits for cocaine and fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. after Mexico.
02:36Since last summer, the U.S. has invested billions of dollars striking boats they suspect to be running drugs.
02:44The ambition of Operation Southern Spear is to stop the cartels' maritime routes.
02:51But federal agents on the island are also battling the influx of drugs.
02:58They work closely with local police day and night to infiltrate the drug gangs.
03:07We've been invited to film a series of high-level raids with drug enforcement agents in the capital.
03:14They're hoping to catch one of the island's most wanted men.
03:19It's 4 o'clock in the morning and I'm driving with a massive police contingent.
03:24I think we're going to enable it, where they're going to bust several houses that, according to them,
03:31have been selling drugs, including cocaine and fentanyl.
03:37This is a multi-agency operation with the SWAT team, Trafficking and Firearms Officers,
03:43and the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, all working together.
03:58They find the suspects, but also young children.
04:02A 39-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman are arrested.
04:10The raids on this estate continue.
04:26A success for law enforcement, they also find a large hole of drugs.
04:44The operation ends with what they hope will be the biggest arrest.
04:51This is quite a big operation.
04:53They are going after an individual who is wanted at federal level.
05:02As we wait for news, tensions rise between the police and the locals.
05:10The police was telling me that if we were not here with a big police force,
05:16this place would be incredibly dangerous.
05:20This neighbourhood, or barrio, is known for being run by criminal gangs.
05:27The police just arrested a man, and he's one of the most wanted here in Puerto Rico.
05:33He is accused of drug trafficking.
05:37Jonathan Alomar Reyes, known as Papillon,
05:40was on the run after being charged last year in possession of a machine gun.
05:44He was caught this morning with a large amount of cash and drugs.
05:51But despite the increased efforts of drug enforcement agencies,
05:55Puerto Rico has the second highest number of drug overdose deaths in the world.
06:05On the outskirts of the capital, I meet Zuleika.
06:09She works for the drugs charity Punto de la Montaña.
06:12They provide drug users with clean syringes,
06:16life-saving antidotes for overdoses, and a friendly face.
06:33She tells me that it's the drug fentanyl that has changed the landscape.
06:38I understand that what they report is due to the change in the substance.
06:43Apparently, what there is now in the last few months is quite good.
06:51One of the people that Zuleika reaches out to is Elliot.
06:55He started using heroin ten years ago.
06:58He's been in and out of rehab, but now injects a cocktail of heroin and fentanyl seven or eight times
07:06a day.
07:08How old are you?
07:12I'm 32.
07:15I'm 32.
07:1732.
07:18Why did you start?
07:23I'm bashing around with friends.
07:28Elliot is living with a friend, but finding it increasingly difficult to look after himself.
07:35He has sores on his legs, a side effect of fentanyl addiction, made worse by poor hygiene.
07:42Do you want to get better?
07:45To stop using drugs?
07:48The reality of heroin, they're always going to be drugs.
07:57Fentanyl can be 50 times stronger than heroin, and that makes it a much harder drug to quit.
08:04And their dose and way of use, they try to see, as normal, the realities that affect from a completely
08:13adverse way,
08:14to which you could see in the 80s, 90s with heroin, with the crack, with the cocaine, which was the
08:19most common.
08:20Now, these people, with the little access to money that they have,
08:25sell them this type of substance, which is fentanyl.
08:29Three years ago, 850 people a year were dying from fentanyl overdoses.
08:35Those numbers have finally started to calm down because of outreach programs,
08:40lower supplies, and wider availability of antidotes.
08:44But because fentanyl is now mixed with other drugs, the number of deaths is expected to rise again.
08:52People like Elliot don't live much longer.
08:56We don't know them, but their life's expectations in this condition,
09:01they're very committed.
09:03They're very committed.
09:08Suleika says stigma around addiction means health care providers ignore these people.
09:15Mel, good day, baby.
09:16Hey, good day.
09:17Are you okay?
09:19What we want to know is what you have there, if it doesn't bother you to teach.
09:23Heroin.
09:27Heroin is widely available, and in many cases, laced with fentanyl.
09:34One of the people Suleika is keen to speak to is Tamara, who is addicted to both.
09:40How many times are you injecting me?
09:42A few times.
09:44No.
09:44Two.
09:45Are you sharing cookies, jeringuillas, alcohol?
09:47No.
09:49Before Tamara was on the streets of San Juan, she used to live with family in mainland America.
09:55What do you think about fentanyl?
10:00It sucks.
10:02It sucks.
10:03Why?
10:04It's not as fun.
10:06It's not as fun?
10:08Why not?
10:10It's just not.
10:13It's not alone.
10:14Do you wish you could stop using it?
10:17Yes.
10:17Yeah?
10:21I'm gonna take a hug.
10:24It's okay, mommy.
10:26It's okay.
10:28Don't cry.
10:29I'm here.
10:30Suleika is one of the only people who can help Tamara into recovery.
10:36Tamara has been living in the streets for the last year and a half.
10:41She's been using fentanyl.
10:43And today, she said to the people from Punto de la Montaña that she would like to get better.
10:49And she's asking for help to get into a rehab clinic.
10:53So maybe next week, she'll have that chance.
10:58In many ways, Puerto Rico is a contradiction.
11:02On the other side of the island, the White House has reopened a military base as part of the War
11:07on Drugs.
11:08Wow.
11:10That's a big landing strip.
11:13Since November last year, the U.S. has moved jet fighters, drones and military personnel to this base.
11:21The heart of Operation Southern Spear, an ongoing U.S. military campaign in the Caribbean that has bombed more than
11:3040 boats, killing nearly 150 people.
11:37The Pentagon boasts of $4 billion worth of drug seizures.
11:42But has Operation Southern Spear made any difference to drug dealing on the island?
11:48I want to speak to the people selling fentanyl on the streets here.
11:54After days talking with the local gangs, we've been granted access to a local dealer.
12:01We need to protect his identity.
12:04He sells heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, crack and fentanyl.
12:08Since Donald Trump's campaign started his campaign in the Caribbean, that is destroying boats,
12:17here has stopped the income of drugs?
12:20Before you got a kilo, $8,000, $14,000.
12:24Now they're at $30,000.
12:26It's expensive.
12:28It's expensive.
12:30It's expensive.
12:32It's expensive.
12:34It's expensive.
12:35Before the drug, and after the drug, it's a bad thing.
12:38It's expensive.
12:38Is this where fentanyl is filling the gap?
12:41Which is around three or even four times cheaper than cocaine,
12:44and easier to smuggle because you need a lot less of it.
12:48He tells me because it's synthetic, it can be made in labs anywhere.
12:53But that also means its potency and quality varies widely.
12:58Do you know that fentanyl, with a little bit like this,
13:02you're going to kill you.
13:04That's what people are doing here, the garete.
13:07That's what they're selling and they're killing everyone.
13:11Do you feel bad that you're selling venom?
13:15The people know what they're going to buy.
13:17I wonder if they know how deadly this drug has become.
13:21The Puerto Rico Forensics Institute says 80% of all overdose deaths involve fentanyl.
13:28Can you try to see if the cocaine that you have there has fentanyl?
13:33Yes.
13:35In fact, he tests all of his drugs.
13:39He mixes a small sample with an agent.
13:44Fentanyl is found frequently laced in so many other drugs
13:47that these kinds of kits are freely available to addicts on the island.
13:53See, you can see that it's positive for fentanyl.
13:57So everything is contaminated with fentanyl.
14:04Fentanyl is an insidious problem in Puerto Rico.
14:07Hidden in plain sight are users trying to juggle their addiction
14:11with their normal day-to-day lives.
14:17Olga is a grandmother and a former beauty queen
14:20who has been taking hard drugs on and off for the last 45 years.
14:27She's about to have her next dose.
14:31What a cure.
14:33How many hours?
14:35Well, now are like 1, right?
14:37Yes.
14:38Honestly, I'm not asleep at my bed for a time,
14:40I'm at night a three and pico listening to music in the car
14:43so I'm gonna wait a little while I'm at my niece.
14:44But I'm going to come here to the 4.
14:47And I'm at the 4.
14:49Is it like,
15:02It's difficult to know really what is that you put it inside your body.
15:09When fentanyl is combined with other drugs, the effects can be even more deadly.
15:30That high is short-lived and there is a shocking physical effect as well.
15:35Regular injections damage the skin and can cause blisters and ulcers.
15:41And in three years and so on, I have completely destroyed my feet.
15:46Because the fentanyl is eating from outside to outside.
15:51Can you show what it is?
15:55This is the fentanyl.
15:59See?
16:01This is the fentanyl.
16:03This is to explode.
16:04This is the fentanyl.
16:05This is the fentanyl.
16:08Olga, how did things change here when the fentanyl arrived?
16:13Oh, my God.
16:14I was the one who said, and I've been removed 27 years.
16:20I don't fall into that because if you fall into that, it doesn't stop.
16:26But she says fentanyl is so readily available, it makes giving up even more impossible.
16:33Why do you think there is so much drugs here in Puerto Rico?
16:40Puerto Rico is an island that has always been a vehicle to transport to different countries.
16:46If you give me, I'll pass you.
16:49Do you think there is more drugs now in the street than before?
16:53Much more.
16:55Much more.
16:59This morning, we've been given rare access to the Drug Enforcement Agents Undercover Unit.
17:05Good morning, everybody. Thank you all for being here.
17:08They're briefing ahead of a drugs bust that I will be joining.
17:12Just to give you a case background, in October, agents received information on a target selling kilograms of cocaine here
17:20in Puerto Rico.
17:22Undercover operations like this are expensive, and the DEA has been giving extra funding this past year.
17:29All right, guys, so we are going with the mission, okay?
17:32So please maintain communication and keep those updated.
17:37William Cabrera is one of the drug enforcement leads.
17:42How normal are operations like this in here?
17:46From our perspective, I mean, they're very frequent. I mean, you have a lot of, Puerto Rico, it's a place
17:51that 80% of the drugs that come from here, from Colombia, Dominican Republic, that 80% goes to the
18:00States, 20% remains here.
18:02We arrived at the location where the undercover agent will meet with the dealer.
18:08All right, phone call has been made, and Target says he's in the area.
18:13This is the part where, you know, heart starts pounding because, uh, hey, Target's, we're already in concert with the
18:19Target, and he's already acknowledging he's going to come.
18:22Great Toyota Tacoma pulling in into the parking lot right now. I'm unable to see your tags. Stand by.
18:29We're in a car with tinted windows. They cannot see from outside.
18:33Maybe it would have picked up that vehicle.
18:35That's the car of the Target riding.
18:39It has dark tents, so we're unable to see how many occupants.
18:44All right, guys, I got visual. All right, be ready. All right, Target got off the vehicle. Talking to our
18:48undercover agent.
18:50The man on the left shows the drugs to the undercover officer.
18:56All right, all right, bag is there. Other, UC is checking inside the bag. They're talking.
19:03They shake hands, and the deal is done. They can now arrest him.
19:08All right, UC, UC, he's got out of the bag. All right, he's getting inside the vehicle.
19:14All right, Target's still outside. UC is inside the vehicle.
19:18Reverse lights. Our UC is leaving. Target still remains in the area.
19:21All right, guys, SRT, RS team, make sure you're ready to move in.
19:25All right, guys, SRT, all right, green light, go ahead.
19:28All right, this is where we're going to go. We're going to grab him right now.
19:30All right, there you go. Let's go. You can go now. Let's go now.
19:32Let's go. Let's go. Let's go now.
19:40Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
19:43Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
19:46Like 15 kilos?
19:4715, 16, 17, 18, 19. Once 20 kilogram of cocaine.
19:54Many of the drugs that you find in the street,
19:57do you find traces of fentanyl on them?
20:00Yes, so here in Puerto Rico, we have started to see
20:03an increased amount of fentanyl being laced with cocaine
20:08all the way around, heroin.
20:09So we're actually sending out our drugs to be analyzed
20:12for the search of fentanyl.
20:17But for some fentanyl addicts, there is a glimmer of hope.
20:23Five days ago, we met Tamara, who said she was ready for rehab.
20:29Zuleika has now secured her a place,
20:31but we've been driving around and can't find Tamara.
21:10There is a risk of abuse and violence.
21:12the police are concerned about Tamara's vulnerability.
21:15For women on the streets, there is a heightened risk of abuse and violence.
21:21After searching in all the places Tamara hangs out, we find her.
21:26Tamara?
21:31Tamara?
21:32Tamara?
21:32What?
21:33Tamara, I'm Zuleika.
21:35I'm Zuleika.
21:36I'm Zuleika.
21:36From the point of the mountain, my love.
21:39Are you okay?
21:39Look.
21:42I'm good.
21:42You remember we talked about Wednesdays?
21:45To go?
21:46Yes.
21:47Are we still waiting for that?
21:50Yes.
21:55Are we still waiting for that?
21:55Can you get up?
21:57Yes.
21:59You're tired?
22:00Yes.
22:02Yes.
22:03The difference between now and a few days ago is terrifying.
22:34Come on. Listen up. Let me help you. Let me help you.
22:38Suleika convinces her to go to a local clinic for her black eyes.
22:43But Tamara changes her mind very quickly.
22:49Respira, respira.
22:56What they can do is receive you and give you an emergency.
23:01For your eyes?
23:02I know. For that only.
23:07Tamara can not make a decision today about going to rehab.
23:12And her struggle appears to have been forgotten in the war on drugs.
23:18The $3 billion the White House has spent on Operation Southern Spear,
23:23on military bases and resources to stop the narco-gangs,
23:27seem to be doing little to help tackle the root causes of drug addiction.
24:06Iistenberry's blue теперь until it breaks all of us,
24:07And that is hard for me,
24:07As an and for Bandersof.
24:08The only reason seems wrong.
24:08You
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