A contract killing a brutal murder a neighborhood in chaos for the New York City Police Department and the FBI New York City becomes the front lines in a Relentless battle the enemy powerful drug dealers who will stop at nothing to protect their profits Oh In the 1980s the drug trade in New York City was a nightmare dealers made Millions Street violence was out of control the NYPD battled the drug gangs only to become their target I’m Jim calstrom Farm ahead of the FBI’s New York office hundreds of FBI agents and police
Officers launched a bold plan to stop the violence and shut down the gang’s deadly business in New York City in the 1980s the NYPD was fighting a losing battle against the drug lords okay NYPD detective Sergeant Mike McGinnis worked narcotics in the borough of Queens there were several major organizations
Selling cocaine and heroin in southeast queens and one of them was Lorenzo fat cat Nichols organization 26 year old Queen’s native Lorenzo fat cat Nichols is a drug wholesaler he distributes cocaine and heroin to mid-level dealers price for a kilo of coke is fifty thousand dollars he’s worth millions Nichols protects his operation by surrounding himself with a tight group of loyal Associates many are family members for police in Queens cracking nickel’s operation will not be easy his headquarters is at a deli at 107th Avenue and 150th Street in Jamaica Queens We conducted surveillances there we had talked to many informants there we had done a lot of buying bust operations there where we’d send that Undercovers and buy drugs and it was a continuing problem in the area but we couldn’t really make a case at that point against fat cat or any of the
Principles in his organization that all changed in July 1985 one of our units was doing a buy and bust operation and developed some information that led us to get a search warrant for fat cats grocery store and for an apartment above the grocery store performance told us that there was
Weapons cash and numerous drugs stored there myself and two detectives went into the grocery store I went behind the counter and I walked towards the rear of the counter and I saw there was a light on in the back room so I went into the back room
There were three men behind a big desk and I realized one of them was Fat Cat nickels Put your hand s up Nichols reaches down for something the chair over here under a towel on the chair where Nichols was sitting detectives find a loaded automatic and a revolver police searched the room and find heroin cocaine and thirty thousand dollars in cash several ounces of marijuana is on nickel’s desk
Oh my God the raiding party that went to the second floor apartment found 150 000 in cash in boxes wow that’s a lot of cash hundreds of perhaps thousands of pieces of cocaine Street cocaine wrapped in tin foil and glass scenes of heroin and additional weapons Nichols is arrested on drugs and weapons
Charges 24 hours later he’s free on Seventy thousand dollars bail at the time of his arrest Nichols was already on parole he reports to his parole officer to see if the arrest violated the terms of his parole he tells his parole officer Brian Rooney that he was only in the grocery to order
A sandwich Rooney calls McGinnis to check his story out so I told them what had happened that we had arrested Nichols in the grocery store that he had a number of weapons but unfortunately he made bail and I’m sure he’s gone and Rooney said to me no
He’s not he says he’s sitting outside my office here foreign For violating his parole now for Nichols what that meant was even though he had made bail on the case where we got him he was in on the parole violation and there’s no way around that you can’t get bail on it so not counting the trouble that he was in with me he
Owed 14 years to the state so he was in big trouble foreign a week later McGinnis and Rooney testify at Nichols parole hearing I briefly described what had happened that night and uh the uh adjudicator immediately continued his violation of parole which meant he was in he was entitled to one
More hearing like that and then he would go back in for the remainder of those 14 years but the drug dealer has no intention of letting that happen two months after the hearing Nichols parole officer Brian Rooney gives a co-worker a ride home from work he drives through South Jamaica the
Neighborhood in Queens he knows this section of Queens is dangerous but he has no idea he is being followed Suddenly a car pulls up beside him Brian Rooney is shot once in the arm and once in the back he dies instantly his Killers disappear into the night survive quickly but there is nothing they can do they process the scene and find little evidence no shell casings were left behind
No one saw the shooting news of the murder quickly reaches detective Sergeant Mike McGinnis Sergeant worked in my office called me up and told me about it said they just killed the parole officer up on uh on Sutton Boulevard and it was Brian Rooney
He was a very fine guy in a good parole officer he was just a real good combination of social worker a police officer that’s necessary to be a good parole officer police hit the streets to gather intelligence and find the Killer Rooney’s murder is the latest in a string of homicides in South Jamaica rival drug gangs battle each other for territory and control of the profits the homicide rate in that part of the city where the drugs are being sold was skyrocketing shootings were commonplace citizens were terrified to come out of
Their houses and for that reason we knew that we had no choice but to go after these drug gangs the NYPD steps up their efforts in operation cleanup a major long-term anti-drug operation they bring in hundreds of officers from precincts all over the city the operation targets drug dealers in
The Jamaica Queens area where Rooney was murdered There’s also canvas the neighborhood near Sutphin Boulevard where the shooting occurred they interview locals hoping that somebody saw something out of the ordinary the day Rooney was killed about that you got any names or anything on the streets that’s all you can tell me police learn the two men associated with
Lorenzo fat cat Nichols were both seen in the area Howard Mason and Perry Bellamy Nichols had a strong motivation for killing Rooney Investigators suspect he may have ordered Mason and Bellamy to kill his parole officer foreign officer Brian Rooney is shot to death on A Street in South Jamaica Queens [Applause] police suspected one of his Parolees Lorenzo fat cat Nichols ordered the hit Mike McGinnis former detective Sergeant with the NYPD we were all astounded with what happened to Brian Rooney that they would have the audacity to uh to kill him but I think they think he was if they got Rooney out of the way Nichols would be able to make
The street and where they got that from I don’t know but that was their thinking as the detective who arrested Nichols McGinnis knows he could be next on The Hit List I looked over my shoulder I was careful but I never let it stop me from what I was doing
To have it happen where somebody actually says I’m gonna kill this officer to get a benefit and to maybe get myself out of jail that was very unusual and I think people in law enforcement and the citizens in general found it kind of unnerving police know that Howard Pappy Mason a
Lieutenant in the Nichols organization and Perry Bellamy a Mason associate were seen in the neighborhood the night Mooney was murdered an anonymous caller claims Bellamy was outside the car when Rooney was shot the next day another informant tells detectives where to find Bellamy the tip leads investigate his right to it
Bellamy is picked up on the street in his neighborhood and brought in for questions He admits he saw Rooney just hours before he was murdered he claims he knew about the hit and tried to warn Rooney that’s why he was seen in the area that night I know if something happened to a cop after hours of questioning detectives learn he did more than warn Rooney look
So that’s who did Bellamy reveals he was in the car with Rooney the night he was killed he says Howard Mason shot Rooney Bellamy was in jail weeks before the murder is to have overheard Nichols telling another inmate that his parole officer was going to get what’s coming to him
Authorities charged Bellamy with aiding and abetting the murder of Officer Rooney next detectives Tracked Down Howard Pappy Mason On the wall in the suspect’s boot they find a fully loaded 22 Derringer Mason is charged with murder and weapons possession investigators have put the conspirators Behind Bars but they can’t prove fat cat Nichols ordered Mason and Bellamy to kill his parole officer While police try to build a case against Nichols who is still in jail his organization continues to grow in 1987 the illegal drug crisis in New York goes from bad to worse a new drug explodes onto the scene the crack cocaine swept over the community I’ve never seen anything like it
FBI special agent David Higgins worked drug cases in New York basically what happens in the preparation of crack you can take a relatively small amount of cocaine and combining it with other ingredients you you stretch it tremendously so that something that might have been sold previously as a gram amount for a
Hundred dollars could turn around and make the drug trafficker a thousand dollars the drug sells cheap as little as two dollars a vial and it’s highly addictive for a working-class neighborhood like South Jamaica crack cocaine is The Perfect Storm because of the high level of addiction the drug users were repeatedly looking
To get high and therefore they’re out trying to find sources of income anywhere they could naturally they turn to crimes such as burglary and robbery and of course the general level of crime in these neighborhoods increased as a result the NYPD steps up its efforts they rename operation cleanup operation Queens
In the early 80s a federal organized crime drug enforcement task force was formed in New York City to go after the drug dealers and the major distributors special agent Richard Martinez was assigned to the task force it was set up as an organization that utilized FBI New York City Police Department Drug Enforcement
Administration and other agencies to coordinate a direct attack against these elements here it is right here South Jamaica okay the ocf task force was divided up into squads and each Squad had its own mission to accomplish our particular Mission happened to be the cocaine crack cocaine and heroin dealers operating in the city
The task force is investigating several drug gangs in Jamaica Queens you felt that was the best thing we could do for the citizens in that Community was to get as much power into this group as that was going to go after these guys as much power as possible
Dealing drugs in South Jamaica Queens is a lucrative business the high profits lead to more competition and more violence nearly half the serious crimes in New York City are crack related in October 1987 a taxi dispatcher is murdered for testifying about a gun battle she witnessed a month later a Guyanese immigrant
Complains to police that drug dealers have been selling crack on his Street okay the next evening someone firebombs his home NYPD officers from the 103rd Precinct in South Jamaica are assigned to protect the witness and his family but the threats continue Thomas godbolt a member of Lorenzo fat cat Nichols organization approaches the
Witness on the street God Boltz says he has three weeks to leave the neighborhood or his entire family will die In 1987 drug dealers rule South Jamaica Queens Citizens brave enough to stand up to the dealers are intimidated and murdered the New York City Police Department and a federal task force turn up the heat on all the drug organizations in Jamaica Queens they make over 2 000 arrests for the sale and possession of drugs in the four
Months between October 1987 and January 1988. in late January 1988 one of Lorenzo Nichols lieutenants Thomas Mustafa godbolt is sent to Rikers Island for threatening the Guyanese Witness on February 24th Howard Pappy Mason suspected of shooting parole officer Brian Rooney is convicted on a weapons possession charge the next day Lorenzo Nichols is
Sentenced to 25 years to life on 11 counts of drugs and weapons possession we had cut off the head of the snake and caught a couple of his top people with him and had a great case and and so we really felt we had put that organization pretty much on the sidelines
The NYPD and the FBI are making Headway in the battle to take back the streets of South Jamaica from the drug dealers but the war is about to take a dark turn February 26 1988 just days after Nichols and Mason were convicted officer Edward Byrne is guarding the Guyanese Witness
Even with the man who threatened his family in jail the witness continues to receive threats burn is a rookie just 22 years old this is just another routine night at 3 A.M a car drives past officer Byrne’s position there are four men inside the sedan drives around the block and out of sight 20 minutes later three men sneak up behind officer Burn’s car The witness hears the gunshots 3 28 a.m dispatch sends out the call Officer Down in Jamaica Queens Police arrive at the scene minutes later both front windows of Officer Burns police cruiser have been shot out the rookie cop is dead every police officer’s response to that every police officer takes that personal when a police officer is murdered the witness officer Byrne was protecting
Tells police he heard the shots and saw several men get in a tan colored car and speed away investigators find an abandoned 1976-10 Olds Cutlass parked about two miles from where Burns was shot they find nothing in the car linking it to the murder right after the murder of the officer
Byrne a New York City Police Department started cracking down on all the drug dealers a tremendous amount of heat was put on all the drug dealers in Jamaica Queens they wanted the murders of Officer Byrne hundreds of police officers working 12-hour shifts blanket three precincts the 103rd the 105th and the 113th and
Southeastern Queens They raid nearly 200 locations and questioned more than 300 suspected drug dealers investigators believe Lorenzo Nichols ordered the murder of his parole officer from jail and the man who threatened the witness officer Byrne was protecting had ties to Nichols organization Nichols is a natural suspect at the time of Officer Byrne’s murder
Several members of the FBI task force are investigating a queen’s drug dealer with ties to the Nichols organization what we did was we simply shifted Focus we were looking at something called the Smith organization who had dealings with a number of nickels Associates we simply moved full
Power we looked right at the Nichols organization because we were gaining intelligence from the same informants that were telling us about the Smith organization they had Intelligence on the Nichols organization we targeted the members of the organization who were still on the street operating his drug conspiracy group to get inside the organization
Investigators use a variety of weapons they set up undercover drug buys And used telephone wiretaps if Nichols was involved in the murder of Officer Byrne he’s just made the biggest mistake of his life now the resources of the FBI the NYPD and the DEA are focused on bringing down his operation a rookie cop is killed shot to death on
A street in New York City 22 year old officer Eddie Byrne gave his life protecting a witness from a deadly drug gang On February 29th officer Eddie Byrne is laid to rest Ten thousand police officers attend the funeral You can’t kill a police officer and get away with it special agent Richard Martinez that’s why police react so quickly you can’t kill a police officer and get away with it New York city mayor Ed Koch vows to find those responsible City offers a ten thousand dollar reward for information leading to the
Conviction of burns killers immunity is outraged after years of being intimidated they are fed up with the drug dealers special agent David Higgins the shootings would take place at any time of day many times bystanders innocent bystanders in the neighborhood would be caught in the crossfire and there were a
Number of notorious cases in which children were killed as a result of these shootings yeah police set up a hotline to field tips they answered 400 calls every eight hours within days the reward money climbs to a hundred thirty thousand dollars three days after the shooting an anonymous caller says he knows who
Shot the cop the detective convinces the caller to meet him the tipster tells police the shooter was Todd Scott police are familiar with Scott he suspect in the murder of a prostitute detectives go looking for Scott at the apartment of a relative they find a witness who is willing to talk
He tells detectives he knows the men who carried out the shooting at present when the hit was planned and he knows who ordered it on February 24th only hours after his conviction on a gun charge Howard Mason called one of his dealers Philip Copeland from a pay phone at Rikers Island thank you
The next day Copeland met with fellow gang members Todd Scott David McClary and Scott Cobb in an apartment 10 blocks from the murder scene Copeland told him the boss is mad and he ordered them to hit a cop any cop the price of the contract was eight thousand dollars
According to the informant the men Drew straws to choose the shooter Todd Scott would pull the trigger what you gonna do that’s what’s up that’s what I like to hear the officer’s fate was sealed the next morning Scott came back to the apartment bragging about what they had done they only collected a few hundred dollars of the eight thousand they’d been promised
That individual told how the murder actually went down who they chose that it wasn’t officer Byrne chosen as an individual but they chose the police officer that was guarding the cooperating Witnesses house that he was a target of opportunity Howard Mason wanted Burns murder to send a chilling message to law enforcement
Your reputation is everything on the street if you’re a drug trafficker if it’s known in your neighborhood that you are unwilling to take violent retribution for acts against you or your organization you’re not going to last very long as a drug trafficker this was a killing that really uh
Galvanized law enforcement in New York City the execution of a uniformed police officer who’s targeted not because of any particular act or case but because he was a police officer in and of itself the NYPD finally have names to link to the shooting they issue warrants for Philip Copeland Todd Scott Scott
Cobb and David McClary Copeland is already in jail on another charge police go looking for the other three men later that same afternoon Scott Cobb’s mother calls police she wants to arrange her son’s surrender he never shows up investigators believe Cobb will eventually contact his mother they
Install a trap on her telephone line to catch the numbers of all incoming calls The shooting continues to dominate the news and police keep up the pressure on the street it’s not long before another important witness comes forward a young woman tells detective she witnessed the shooting of Officer Byrne a woman said she was on the street when she heard a shot and saw men around the
Police car she hid behind a car until the men left she doesn’t think they saw her Investigators show the witness photo lineups she confirms Todd Scott is the man she saw at the passenger window of the patrol car she also identifies David mcclary’s the man standing by the driver’s side window and Copeland is the man she saw standing behind McClary police now have a witness to the shooting
To find the three suspects still at Large the day after the trap on Scott Cobb’s mother’s phone is set up police get a hit an incoming call is traced to an address in Queens Village it’s one of several safe houses owned by Howard Mason on March 3rd less than a week after the
Burn shooting detective spot Scott Cobb hey man step down and put your hands behind your back he is quickly taken into custody police searched the safe house in the basement they find Todd Scott At noon the next day David McClary surrenders to police is accompanied by his mother of the four men accused of Burn’s death McClary is the only one who doesn’t have a criminal record Todd Scott and David McCleary give conflicting statements each accused the other of actually pulling the trigger
All versions of the events Place Scott Cobb behind the wheel of the getaway car police and prosecutors are eventually able to piece together this version of events 3 25 a.m Todd Scott distracted officer Byrne by tapping on the window on the passenger side of the patrol car David McClary shot officer burn five
Times through the driver’s side window Philip Copeland was just behind McClary all four men are charged with second-degree murder but for the agents and police larger questions Loom Howard Pappy Mason act on his own was Fat Cat Nichols involved in the murder can they prove it police and FBI agents suspect one of two
Men is responsible for ordering the murder of a New York City police officer drug wholesaler Lorenzo fat cat Nichols or his former employee Pappy Mason special agent David Higgins the murder of police officer Byrne was a state uh investigation it was conducted by the New York City Police Department and
While they conducted their homicide investigation Federal authorities and the local members of the federal task force conducted a parallel investigation targeting the Nichols organization as a whole investigators realize that it’s not enough to put the organization’s leaders and their lieutenants in jail they hope to stop the violence they must destroy the gangs
Fat cat Nichols drug operation is huge it brings in over 20 million dollars a year we had already established through informing information that the Nichols organization nerve center was the Big Mac Deli located in the Laurelton section of Queens New York we immediately obtained subpoenas to examine the telephone toll records for
That location to investigate this large and dangerous organization the FBI turns to wiretaps special agent Richard Martinez is the assigned case agent only that type of investigation can collect information on major conspiracies when an undercover officer deals with one person buying drugs he’s dealt with one or two people
To get an Enterprise or an organization you need the ability to wiretap agents wiretap Nichols headquarters but they immediately run into a problem suspects involved in the Nichols organization were so paranoid about the attention of law enforcement in the neighborhood which had occurred as a result of the burned shooting
They became convinced that they were the target of a wiretap so they immediately shifted their operation to a new location the agents Target Nichols family the week after the shooting the FBI begins wiretapping Lorenzo Nichols sister we knew that a lot of mid-level Distributors were dealing with her
So hers was a ideal phone to get into she was talking to Lorenzo Nichols she was talking to about 12 mid-level Distributors that she was bagging for she was passing on instructions or conversations from the drug dealers to Lorenzo Nichols she was in the middle of this whole organization
And that was the beauty of it she liked to talk neko’s sister is paranoid someone is spying on her every day she was saying my phone’s tapped don’t talk but then she would turn around and talk for one day the time she would leave the phone off the hook
Which is basically a bug into her house and you could hear her have conversations with these guys when they would pick up their drugs over the wiretap the FBI intercepts a key call between Nichols and his sister they’re talking about Pappy Mason in one particular conversation she discussed
Why Pappy Mason had done that thing a reference to the actual murder of Officer Byrd and Lorenzo responded that he didn’t know why he did it Pepe Mason had a reputation of being the kind of violent guy in Lorenzo near the end was kind of pushing him away
Not really wanting to directly deal with him because he drew too much pressure from law enforcement all indications prior to that that Lorenzo Nichols was involved in this but through that conversation which was later backed up with debriefing of cooperating Witnesses Howard Mason reported the execution murder of police officer Burton
Pappy Mason thought that the police department disrespected him so therefore he already he ordered his contemporaries to go out and to kill any police officer Nichols was not involved in the murder of Officer Byrne but his operation still continues to grow and to supply very dangerous street gangs with product
We were able to establish from listening on the telephone that in fact Lorenzo fat cat Nichols was communicating with core members of the conspiracy every week or two weeks a group of individuals would go up and have meetings with him and receive orders from him in person as to how the
The operation was to be managed agents place a microphone in the visiting room at Rikers Island they try to listen in on Lorenzo Nichols meetings with his lieutenants unfortunately the sound quality is too poor to hear anything agents and police continue to build a case we learned their methods of distribution
We learned the methods of drug preparation we were able to identify some of their sources of Supply who was communicating with who how it was done what the level of their trafficking was who some of their customers were as a result and it established a hierarchy of the organization for us
Yes we continued to conduct surveillances related to the information that we received from the wiretap but surveillance is difficult Most successful drug dealers are Savvy and know how law enforcement gathers information the drug traffickers employ counter surveillance techniques they actually pay people on the street for a radius of several blocks to maintain a lookout for police authorities in the area when agents get enough information from the wiretap they make arrests
If it in a time say for example we intercepted the call in which there was a a drug transaction occurring or a transport of drugs from one location to another location I could say to the investigators work in the case we need to take this load off
After five long months agents meet with the prosecutor it was time to put some charges on some subjects to get some Cooperators and to execute the search warrants to get the guns to get the drugs that’ll confirm the conversations that you have Martinez feels they have enough probable
Cause to issue arrest in search warrants when it’s time to bring the case down and that’s when we brought this case down in August the prosecutor agrees it’s time to take down the Nichols organization after five months of Investigation special agent Richard Martinez plans a complex and potentially dangerous arrest operation
The goal is to completely dismantle the Nichols drug organization jury needs to hear three things to prove guilt Beyond a doubt one they want the testimony of somebody inside a cooperator as an investigator I want to provide tapes to the participants in the organization in their day-to-day activities and lastly physical evidence
The arrest operation will hit over 20 locations agents believe the search warrants will give them the physical evidence they need guns drugs and money they also have arrest warrants for 38 members of Nichols organization they hope a few of these people will turn and become Co-operators when a jury looks at a cooperator
The conversations that have been either intercepted through title III or consensually recording and physical evidence and they all say the same thing there’s only one verdict literature you can come back with and that’s guilty agents prepare affidavits and coordinate the 400 bodies needed to execute the operation everyone involved understands the risks
Always danger when you’re executing an arrest warrants and search warrants you never know how a person is going to react that’s why you go well armed and well equipped and with enough people to control the scenario to minimize that potential violence August 11 1988 the affidavits have been written
The arrest and search warrants have been issued the arrest teams are prepared everything is in place Everybody knows what they’re going to do who knows who they’re going to pick up knows where they have to go and it’s just time to execute it several of the targeted locations are very dangerous in this case we deployed three SWAT teams in three locations in which we
Thought we might have a potential violent reaction the teams hit locations where drugs are being stored and sold fortunately we never tipped our hand in this investigation so none of the defendants knew we were coming when we decided to come for them Thank you Nickel’s sister is surprised by the arrest team she reacts with anger this was a unique investigation that mothers of the main subjects of this case were involved mom was involved Howard Mason’s mother was involved Howard Mason’s bomb we arrested with uh kilo’s crack cocaine in a handgun in a residence
All over the Jamaica section of Queens one by one members of the Nichols organization are arrested and evidence is collected During the execution search warrants we found guns we found a substantial amount of packaging material a substantial amount of crack cocaine and numerous individuals with cash money and sees all those items Lorenzo fat cat Nichols and Howard Pappy Mason are both arrested in prison on drug charges that will keep them behind
Bars forever by the end of the day 30 people are arrested five pieces of property are seized nickel’s sister and other key players in the organization decide to become Cooperators multi-million dollar violent drug operation is effectively destroyed for Lorenzo Nichols it was the murder of Officer Edward Byrne a murder he had
Nothing to do with that finally brought down his drug Empire in this case dismantled the Lorenzo Nichols organization Lorenzo was convicted and went to trial every member of this organization that was charged was convicted and once again in 1992 Lorenzo Nichols also pleads guilty to ordering the murder of parole officer Brian Rooney
Later that same year there is a surprising development in the Rooney murder case Randolph Lucas is arrested on an unrelated charge and confesses his involvement in the crime he claims his brother Eric drove the car and that he shot and killed Brian Rooney They were hired by a Nichols associate to hurt Rooney but they panicked and fatally shot the parole officer no one knows why Perry Bellamy claimed to have been at the scene that night and why he said he witnessed Howard Mason shoot Brian Rooney the NYPD anti-drug operation and the
Federal task force targeting Queens drug dealers had a decided effect on drug-related crime in New York City FBI special agent David Higgins the task force cases in New York sent the message to the streets eventually that crime doesn’t pay that if you’re going to be involved in violent drug
Trafficking in New York City you’re ultimately going to face Justice in a federal court I believe that that message resounded on the streets because the crime rate in New York City and made other major U.S cities the violent crime rate dropped significantly in the 1990s it’s my belief that it dropped because
Of all these successful prosecutions Brian Rooney’s name was placed on the memorial for parole officers killed in the line of duty the foundation was created in officer Edward Byrne’s name their legacy is the destruction of a deadly organization that threatened the neighborhoods they had sworn to protect The Killers know when to strike and how to disappear murder stack up all unsolved but when a pregnant woman is assassinated agents vow to stop the violence twisting battle ensues and the line between cop and criminal blurs unless agents can solve the case No One Is Safe [Applause] foreign In the 70s and 80s a gang of thugs wreaked havoc on the island of Puerto Rico organized experienced and deadly they seemed beyond the reach of the law I’m Jim couch from head of the FBI’s New York office as a U.S Commonwealth Puerto Rico falls under the jurisdiction of the
FBI agents discovered the gang was run by corrupt cops men sworn to protect now ought to kill the fraternity of law enforcement was splinted and at War July 28 1977 San Juan Puerto Rico New York Diamond dealer Stephen Brooks visits the island on his annual business trip he plans to meet a local juror to collect money from an earlier deal He also wants to sell from the new inventory he’s carrying 250 000 worth of quality stones he’s alone with no bodyguard Brooks is scheduled to return home in two days On July 29th Puerto Rico police respond to the discovery of a body outside the city it’s an adult male shot with a 38 caliber gun then burned severely there’s no driver’s license and because of the fire of visual ideas impossible police find no other Clues
And bury the murder victim as a John Doe Four months later media coverage prompted by Brooks’s family helps police realize it was the diamond dealer’s body they found the murder is part of an alarming Trend in the last few years at least two other U.S Diamond Merchants have been killed in Puerto Rico special agent Fernando candelario where transportation of jewelry by
Individuals coming in from New York specifically ended up in Puerto Rico these individuals were kidnapped their bodies were found later on since the slangs have an interstate aspect the FBI works with local police but no solid evidence points to any suspect the agents would communicate with their counterparts at the police of
Puerto Rico to see if the police of Puerto Rico had developed any leads but with no leads reported the cases grow cold at the time violent crime is common in San Juan where poverty mixes with a surging cocaine trade and Drug gangs rule the streets authorities have trouble sending the
Powerful gangsters to prison In March 1979 one major gang leader under investigation for murder silence is the only witness to that murder with a gunshot to the Head Leader’s girlfriend Jessica Trujillo Witnesses The Killing and later agrees to help put the gangster away special agent Jim bird of the San Juan FBI
And testify in the homicide case against a pretty well-known organized crime character there in San Juan um this girl because they were aware of the danger the threats against her was kept in police custody Jessica spends her days at the police station and at night homicide detectives driver to her grandmother’s house to
Sleep the trial begins in May 1980 and prosecutors look forward to finally getting a guilty verdict against a major drug lord but then on the trial’s fifth day a body is discovered in a sugarcane field near San Juan it’s Jessica Trujillo the only witness against the gang leader
An autopsy later reveals she was shot twice at point-blank range execution style and she was three months pregnant The only evidence recovered a Panama Hat found near the body The terrible murder shocks Island residents including San Juan FBI special agent D Rosario Jessica was very well known in the news media it was well known that she was going to testify against uh this other individual whom she witnessed murder another man and it was well known that Jessica was
Being protected by the police the allegations were at least the rumors initially were that since she had been in police protective custody apparently she was murdered by police officers suddenly the unthinkable seems possible the Puerto Rico Bureau of special investigation known as nie Works potential police corruption cases
They asked the FBI for help it was a matter of trust whom do you trust and the nie thought it better to trust the FBI than to go to the police department itself and try to find someone there that they could really trust to conduct this investigation FBI and nie agents interviewed the
Detectives in the homicide Division and are stunned when no one claims to remember who had custody of Jessica the day she was killed no cooperation was obtained at all none of the investigators were going to talk at all about this thing it’s an ominous turn agents get nothing but interference from
Police officers sworn to protect and serve the strict Code of Silence frustrates FBI special agent Angelo class it was obvious from the outset that the police officers Were Somehow involved either they had given Jessica up to somebody or or they had killed her themselves yet the truth remains elusive
Finally agents Tracked Down the officers said to be responsible for escorting Jessica the night before her body was found detective Victor suse claims that he and his partner detective Hugh Valera drove Jessica Holmes schedule their Alibi is that they left her in front of her grandmother’s house
Victor says he has no idea what happened after they dropped her off perhaps someone abducted her Agents try to corroborate Victor’s story we interviewed many people we went out to her grandmother’s house and conducted a neighborhood investigation there no one reports seeing Jessica at all that day and then the one clue that had been recovered disappeared the Panama Hat found near Jessica’s body mysteriously
Vanishes from the police evidence Locker media reports claim the homicide Chief often wears a Panama Hat like the one in question and agents determined the car used to drive Jessica home that night belongs to the Puerto Rican homicide Chief himself amaterio Benitez agents secure the car and FBI technicians examine it for evidence
Its interior surfaces have been recently cleaned according to nie special agent Manuela Ponte on the car when we figure out that you know it was clean because something might have happened in this car something like a murder or something that was trying to be covered FBI technicians dismantle the car
Beneath the front seat they discovered dried blood a lot of it more blood appears beneath the dashboard and behind the passenger door panel the way the blood was destroyed in the car we believe that the that a person had been killed in that car technicians also find ballistic evidence
Marks that appear to be from a bullet discharged inside the car at the FBI crime lab examiners compare the dried blood to samples taken from Jessica at autopsy but there’s a problem making a match back then we didn’t have DNA so the only thing we could say was it was the same
Type of blood as Jessica’s but we couldn’t say that that blood came from Jessica when agents question their material the homicide Chief calmly explains he bleached the car’s interior after transporting a dead animal in the back seat he says the bullet marks came from an accidental weapon discharge months earlier
He has no idea how the blood got there and explains dozens of people have access to his car due to a tight departmental budget his car was used by almost everybody in the homicide division whenever they were short of cars they would use his car he would lend it out
So that we couldn’t we couldn’t know for sure who might have been in the car we didn’t have enough physical evidence circumstantial yes but not physical and when we charge somebody we really want to go with a case that that we’re extremely confident that we’re going to
Be successful in its prosecution so we didn’t want to we didn’t want to take a chance and and not be successful by prematurely charging anybody with crime suddenly instead of one suspect agents have dozens and still nothing solid to act on somehow the Agents of the FBI and nie
Have to break through a wall of Silence to get to the truth in 1980 FBI and Puerto Rico nie agents suspect corrupt cops Were Somehow involved in the death of Jessica Trujillo a government witness murdered while under police protection evidence suggests the shocking possibility that Jessica was killed in
The car of homicide Chief amaterio Benitez but it’s not enough for an arrest especially with such a high-level suspect according to FBI special agent Jim Byrd I mean there was some circumstantial evidence but again this is not a guy with a criminal background this is the head homicide investigator for the whole
San Ramon metropolitan area you can’t just say uh we think you did it you’re coming with us um the case wasn’t going to be solved for for some time because they’re investigating cops and they’re not certain who they can trust special agent Angelo class and the rest
Of the team cannot allow any leaks when we started we were given our own room and nobody was allowed back there unless you were working on the case the agents desperately need someone on the inside they check into the detectives who allegedly drove Jessica home kill Valera and Victor suse
We kind of profile them a little bit we asked other agents about them we found out more about these two individuals and we felt like of the two the more serious individual the better cop if you will of the two was Victor and so we decided we were going to appeal to that
Goodness inside of victory at the time Victor is finishing up his regular National Guard training in the U.S agents are ready when he comes back so we intercepted him at the airport and we told him we wanted to talk to him and we took him voluntarily to an
Apartment that we had rented as a safe house the agents need to get Victor to turn informant it won’t be easy he started denying having any involvement in anything we had the wrong guy nie special agent Manuela Ponte appeals to Victor’s sense of Honor I told him
Well listen if you then killed Jessica I want you to help me out to find out who were the murderers and you are a homicide detective I’m not a homicide detective and you’re one of the best homicide detectives and in fact it was so I need your help
They let him know now is his only chance to save himself the idea was if you don’t cooperate with us we will conduct the investigation we probably will charge you and convict you and you will lose your family you’ll certainly lose that rank that you’re wearing you will go to a federal
Penitentiary and the only way you can avoid this is by coming clean and telling us and cooperating with us they assure the detective they will protect him after several hours Victor finally agrees to cooperate he admits lying earlier he had not driven Jessica home that night as he
First reported he was told to say that by the chief that he and the other agent did not take her home she doesn’t know who took her home Victor claims many detectives are involved in a host of criminal activities they call themselves El muerta escuadra the death squad
He started naming people and crimes and we were taking notes and I mean for days through a series of interviews the full scope of the corruption becomes apparent within the first 10 to 15 debriefing sessions with Victor we had probably identified about 65 individuals mostly police officers that were
Involved in crime but they also had there were some lawyers and some business people we decided we would then group to find out who was involved in criminal activity with who what kinds of crimes they were involved in and then when we had all these groups
It appeared as if though we were dealing with 19 different groups special agent D Rosario helps identify the Corruptions epicenter Jordan of the officers that were involved in corrupt activities came from a specific division within the police department known as the criminal investigation Corps the cic
The cic is made up of the highest ranking detectives on the force and the most powerful basically they were their own fiefdom they were out there doing their own thing and basically they did not have to answer to anyone from their action the cic runs all drug busts in San Juan
They became very powerful and so they began to develop a lot of sources of information and informants out on the street according to Victor those sources became collaborators in a series of armed robberies kidnappings even murder for hire drug dealers are easy targets for the death squad no dealer will press charges
For stolen drugs especially if they don’t survive the robbery In every meeting that we had with Victor just expanded more and more our investigation because Victor was able to provide not just names of people that he personally knew within the department that were involved in committing crimes but he knew of specific crimes that had been committed
Victor tells agents what he knows about the murder of diamond dealer Stephen Brooks he says the Rogue officers of cic were tipped off about the broker’s arrival by the Jeweler Brooks was to meet they pulled the man over knowing he was carrying lots of diamonds my police officer can stop you anywhere
Can stop you uh uh on the street ask you for your title account on everything and that’s what they practically did I mean they they had the power to stop people I made sure there were no Witnesses because the cic investigated the homicide when it was later discovered it was all too easy to cover up their crime so Victor’s Revelations Disturbed The Honest agents working the case these weren’t men that were total strangers I knew them it was appalling it was just appalling
That these men had gone that far here were men who had raised their their right hand and swore to uphold the law and Serve and Protect and yet if if it had not been for their badges they were totally indistinguishable from any other common criminal no matter
How long it takes the FBI and the nie are determined to stop the death squad in Puerto Rico the FBI and nie investigate a broad ring of crooked Cuts who call themselves The Death Squad special agent Angelo class leads the complex investigation subjective was to identify as many
People involved in public corruption in Puerto Rico as we call and then to identify crimes that they had committed and come up with the evidence to be able to prosecute them detective Victor suse has cooperated but agents need more for prosecution one of the first things we had to do was
Try to corroborate where the Victor was being honest with us or not trying to cooperate with her we were getting the truth of whether we were getting all the truth from the so we decided to immediately wire him up and use a body recorder and send him up against some of the individuals
Special agent Jim Bird helps prep Victor for the wired meetings his mission was to engage in conversation people that that we thought were involved in this anyway they would talk about future plans or talk about past crimes that they’d already committed that’s what we were hoping to get it’s a dangerous assignment
The corrupt cops suspected double cross they’ll kill Victor he was going against other police officers and he had to be careful because Victor was a police officer himself he knew how far to go how far to push how provocative to be and how to cover himself Victor starts with officers he already knows
One of Victor’s contacts was uh Julio Cesar who had been the head of special arrest team for the police of Puerto Rico Victor became close to him hung out with him all the time drank with him socialized with him as Victor records Julio admitting to criminal acts agents get probable cause
To move to the next level of electronic surveillance we got enough evidence from conversations between Victor and Julio to to wire up his car and get a wiretap on Julio’s phone with the wiretap warrant agents can listen to and record any conversation in which Julio discusses crimes
It’s not easy as the Rogue cops protect themselves even on personal phone lines according to special agent D Rosario many of the discussions were in code they were not open conversations so we we had to really study a lot of of people to find out you
Know are they referring to this guy or to that guy so we do with a lot of analysis going on regarding that one of the detectives that Julio often talks to is Hill Valera when he’ll implicates himself agents further expand their recording range we got enough power cars to go on Hills
Wire and then from there we identified other people they were involved with and other things that they were doing in planning shipping Heist and shakedowns and other things FBI and nie agents pair off to meticulously develop full cases on each crime discovered and they would run off with with this
Particular case which was a very significant case in itself but it Formed only a portion of the overall corruption case so we were investigating 16 17 18 19 20 cases if you will at one time but so far no one has admitted involvement in the killing of Jessica Trujillo
Investigators only have one suspect the head of the Puerto Rican Police Homicide division agents are determined to find the Killer and solve the murder which started the broad corruption case her murder is the investigation of her murder opened up just a Pandora’s box of individuals involved in
Uh not just murder murder for hire extortion kidnapping fraud bribery it just ran the gamut of basically all the felonies that you can think of as Victor gets in deeper with the corrupt cops they let him in on upcoming crimes in February 1981 they discuss a murder for hire during a particular meeting
Julio brings up for the consideration of the group that he had been offered a contract to kill a journalist in the southern region of Puerto Rico Julio suggests that Victor be the trigger man perhaps to test his allegiance to the group agents can’t let a murder happen but
They don’t want to jeopardize the case by arresting anyone too early it was finally decided that the best course of action was to contact the journalist directly tell him that there was a threat on his life that we were working on it but that we
Needed him to be out of Puerto Rico and out of Harm’s Way the journalist disappears for a month which gave us enough time to then through Victor convince Julio and the rest of the group that killing a journalist was not a good idea in fact there was a stupid idea
And the amount of heat that it would bring down upon them and others would be untenable for them and they really should rethink this this contract thing and that’s exactly what happened convinced that killing the journalists would bring too much publicity Julio calls off the hit every word is recorded helping to build
The case we had microphones inside Victor’s car so whenever anyone was in his vehicle we also would record their conversations inside his vehicle despite months of Investigation agents are far from their ultimate goal to arrest and convict every corrupt officer Victor just didn’t have access to all of
The people that we needed to to get information out of there were still huge holes we were just barely beginning and for those of us who are involved we knew this this was a we knew this was going to be a long long term deal and we had
No Illusions it was going to be quickly resolved one of the players Victor is not close to is detective Alejo Del Monte head of the cic agents believe he is the most powerful man in the organization and the most untouchable he was an extremely intelligent man
And as far as being an investigator was perhaps one of the best if not the best homicide investigator that they ever had in that Police Department that was who he was still agents vowed to dismantle the death squad from the foot soldiers all the way to the top In Puerto Rico the 1980 murder of Jessica Trujillo prompts an FBI investigation into a ring of crooked cops his agents learn of alleged crimes case agent Angelo class holds off on making individual arrests and there were so many people involved that it would have been good for that particular case
But it would have been detrimental to the overall objective which was to identify as many people as we could that were involved in corruption in Puerto Rico special agent Jim Byrd the other thing was we still didn’t have enough to make an arrest in the Jessica
Murder or any of the other murders or other suspicious uh activity that we thought could be tied back into police corruption we just weren’t there yet detective Victor suse is turned informed against the death squad in April 1981 he learns the group intends to rob the Puerto Rico Power Authority
As a diversion they plan to detonate a bomb at the back of the complex then stormed the front office the hit is scheduled for when the most cash is on hand according to nie special agent Manuela Ponte they somehow had the Insight that at that time there was
Going to be a lot of money there and wanted to go over there before the armor cars come to pick up the money fearing that somebody’s going to go in with guns blazing and take over this place we had to intervene but agents can’t reveal their investigation they have to use stealth
For fear of tipping off the cops they need to come up with a ruse on the day the strike is to take place Victor covertly contacts the FBI and tells them it’s going down agents call the Power Authority and tell them about the bomb threat as the death squad moves out so dozens
Of regular officers to search for a bomb when they got there um uh the place was crawling with cops so they so they didn’t pull it off and so we’d won one victory on that one crime for at least we bought one day after more than a year agents have good
Cases on several members of the death squad but they still have nothing on Alejo Del Monte the gang’s alleged leader then Victor announces a big break we were informed that Julio says had had invited Victor to travel down to tokaguasa nearby town and meet with Alejo to which is a big breakthrough for
Us we wanted Victor to try to get a recording of Vallejo hopefully they’d be talking about um some kind of corrupt activity from what I see here Victor wants to record the meeting but agents worry Alejo will find any wire Victor had gotten so comfortable with wearing that body recorder that he
Actually fought us on it he argued he wanted to wear the body recorder and we won out basically we just said no you’re not going to wear this body recorder in December 1981 Victor and Julio travel to alejo’s home though Victor cannot record the meeting agents need him to witness Alejo
Discussing criminal Acts as predicted Alejo is cautious of a wire and discreetly Pats down Victor what Alejo was trying to do was to find out a body recorder thankfully this night there is none if he had been wearing the body recorder he would have been found out that same night
Alejo takes Julio inside to talk in private Victor and his Handler’s fear he’s been made as an informant fear is verified on the way home pointing their car back to uh to San Juan he mentioned you know what Alejo told me that you may be working with the federal government
And that was uh the first time that uh we heard that Victor had probably been made Victor tries his best to convince Julio he can be trusted but soon agents learn it didn’t work it was around Christmas of 1981 and we had a wiretap ongoing in one of the conversations we overheard
We learned that plans were well developed to have Victor murdered because they knew that he was cooperating with us investigators call Victor in to tell him it’s over I remember a picture didn’t want to come out he wanted to keep on getting evidence against all these cops
And played that tape for him and he dropped his head and realized that it was all over that he he and his family are going to have to leave agents whisked Victor and his family out of Puerto Rico and into the witness protection program before the death squad can get to him
When Victor stops answering his phone the Rogue cops will surely know some sort of Investigation is going on they’ll be less likely to talk and tougher to crack still the investigation continues we had by this time developed some additional sources within the police department who maybe were not as prolific in terms
Of the information that they could provide like Victor could but certainly they provided enough information that led us to actually conduct further investigations agents need real evidence against the most dangerous corrupt officer Alejo Del Monte we had this um information about a Leo not only by by Victory by some other
Cops that he was the coordinators of these crimes especially committing murder against rulers and contract to kill people so Alejo was our Target so far they have nothing solid against the leader Alejo but they’re about to get it September 1st 1982 years into the investigation Mario Ramirez is driving home after work
From his father’s jewelry store he has no idea his world is about to come Crashing Down in September 1982 a group of armed men abduct Mario Ramirez in San Juan Puerto Rico foreign That night Mario’s father receives a call the man on the line says they’ve kidnapped Mario for a 500 000 Ransom he says he’ll call again with instructions and they’ll kill Mario if anyone calls the police the family struggles with what to do then Mario’s father calls his neighbor FBI special agent Angelo class
It just so happens that the victim and his father lived across the street from me and were personal friends of mine class comes over right away sneaking in a back door hearing what happened class calls for additional agents and tells them to park on side streets and slip in unnoticed we
Have to be careful because I suspect that that the bad guys would be watching Mario’s house as the team gathers they discuss the case earlier a confidential Source reported Alejo Del Monte Planned to kidnap a Jeweler’s son special agent Jim Byrd teaches the family to extend future calls long
Enough for a trace and to elicit details of where Mario might be we try to coach them before the Call Comes in okay next time he calls what are you going to say what are we going to do what what’s the plan what they don’t tell the family is that
If the death squad is responsible Mario may never come home we thought from the very beginning that based on what we knew about the people involved that Mario most likely was going to be killed that whether they got the money or not the chances that he would survive this ordeal were not great Over several days calls come in recorded by the FBI Stolen for time Mario’s father says he can’t come up with all the money the caller lowers the ransom to 224 thousand dollars in cash and Jewelry Mario’s father tries to keep the man on the line but the kidnapper knows exactly when to end each call with traces impossible agents search for
Other ways to find the kidnappers we want to look for any kind of clue is there a traffic in the background are there night noises of the Puerto Rican mountains in the background we want to find out as much as we can about the situation by listening to these tapes
Over and over again as they listen in they come to a remarkable conclusion the people that were reviewing the phone calls after we received them that knew Alejo personally said that’s alejo’s voice they thought that was him on the phone Agents set up covert surveillance of Alejo and the other corrupt cops
Alejo being Hotel colonel in the police department he would know that he was being surveilled so we we had to do it very quietly on the fourth night a final call comes in FBI special agent Fernando candelario is listening in an individual with a unique voice was on
The line he was very specific as to where he wanted the family to drop the money off he described a bridge off the Caguas Expressway the caller says the money and jewelry should be placed in a pillowcase and dropped into the grass by the bridge
The drop must be made in one hour no cops no FBI we began a trace that was unsuccessful at that point because the call was was too short this individual was pretty Sharp he uh seemed to know exactly what he wanted to say and how long he wanted to
Take to say what he needed to say agents know the death squad has killed other kidnap victims but Mario’s Family prays that this time the ransom will be enough save an innocent young man the FBI and Puerto Rico’s nie believe a gang of Rogue cops known as the death
Squad have kidnapped Mario Ramirez On September 4th 1982 agents surveilled The Ransom drop site a bridge outside San Juan according to nie special agent Manuela Ponte we had a couple agents nearby that place and they sneaked down to that road far away and just stayed over there in the bushes Mario’s father heads to the site with
The ransom protected by an armed agent hiding in his car FBI special agent Fernando candelario helps coordinate the rescue attempt we had an aircraft in the air to assist you’d be surprised how quiet the plane could be this was at night we could fly with lights out so the
Kidnapper’s not even going to see the plane in the sky dozens of Agents conduct ground surveillance trying to remain invisible with everyone in place Mario’s father makes the drop by the bridges instructed foreign Agents now wait for the pickup soon the pilot spots a vehicle approaching the plane observes the vehicle park near the bridge an individual exits the vehicle the individual apparently found what he needed to find with the package containing the money returned to his vehicle and drove away special agent Jim Byrd
At that point the car is driving down the highway we have a plane we have ground units trying to follow this individual who has the 224 thousand dollars we still don’t know where the victim is special agent Angelo class has run the police corruption case for two years
We didn’t know who the subjects or the people were inside the car so we asked one of our agents to drive by it and take a quick look so he drives by and he says it’s you’re not going to believe this he says on the radio it’s Alejo himself
As investigators watch from a distance the leader Alejo switches to another car Plane follows the original car ground agents Trail a Leo no one knows which car holds the ransom but that’s the least of their worries primary goal is to rescue the victim even if we have to lose the ransom when the vehicle starts moving we don’t want everybody behind the subject
Didn’t want to get so close that you’re going to burn the surveillance that may cause them to kill the victim as Alejo pulls into his own neighborhood agents decide not to let him get to a phone we thought if we arrested Alejo that the others wouldn’t have a motive
To kill Mario anymore because it would be Alejo to give the order to kill him at the suspect’s house the agents move in official agent D Rosario calls in a warning I got on the radio and I said be careful he always carries an Uzi bring agents instructions Alejo makes a
Move like he’s going for a gun an nie agent fires a warning shot but it went so close to his his face that it actually popped his eardrum and his ears started bleeding agents find no Ransom in the car and no sign of Mario the search of alejo’s house turns up no
Other evidence then the surveillance plane loses contact with the other car seems a total loss well we have a camera from the police of Puerto Rico being arrested for kidnapping charges we don’t have a victim and we don’t have a harassment Mario is still out there somewhere
Agents try to get a Lego to crack and tell them where the victim is held you know that happened it was simply you got the wrong guy I know what you’re talking about I’m a lieutenant Colonial police of Puerto Rico you’ve made a big mistake agents scramble to find any of the other
Suspects we went up and down streets in Congress on the suburbs looking for the cars we had identified with with these uh criminals hours passed hope begins to fade and then Mario was left on the side of the road near San Juan uh called his house with my public
Telephone booth and said I’ve been released we picked them up and and brought them back in it seems that once Alejo was arrested the other kidnappers got nervous and released Mario finally he is home I had never seen groan FBI agents cry that’s how emotional I got
At that point no one really cared with her we had recovered that Ransom or not important that we got him back with Alejo in custody it’s time to take everyone else down a federal judge returns indictments on 32 people mostly corrupt officers agents quickly take them into custody homicide Chief ematerio Benitez
Cooperates and finally tells investigators the details of Jessica trujillo’s murder the crime that started it all the drug lord she was to testify against paid twenty thousand dollars for the hit According to immaterial he and Hilda picked her up that night and decided to kill her on the way to her grandmother’s house as they were driving through the cane Fields out there in that rural part of the island without any warning and shot his fire heels shot her from the back seat
And a moment later bam another gunshot goes off he stopped took her out threw in the sugarcane field and drove off later amaterio realized Jessica had playfully pinned his own police ID on her shirt He went back and retrieved his ID though he missed his Panama Hat such an audacious murder shooting a young girl wearing the chief’s hat and ID in a police car shows how Untouchable the death squad thought they were this was done without any planning on who was going to pull the trigger of
Where it was going to take place what were they going to do with the body he just shot her driving in in the head of homicides police vehicle the two-year investigation is the biggest police corruption case in Puerto Rico’s history most of the officers plead guilty and all receive sentences ranging from eight
Years to life that’s reprehensible what could be worse than somebody with a charge an affirmative duty to protect citizenry and they’re out blowing their brains out for money today the police of Puerto Rico is a different Institution the rebel cic division has been disbanded and the citizens of Puerto
Rico can once again trust the men and women sworn to protect them
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