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Transcript
00:00A strange vessel is seized in the Pacific Ocean.
00:04How was this bizarre yet impressive craft deployed in a massive drug smuggling operation?
00:12Authorities discover hundreds of stolen vehicles at the Port of Montreal.
00:16This was the largest car ring bust in Canadian history.
00:20The investigation reveals that high-tech criminal ingenuity has turned Canada into one of the world's leading suppliers of black market vehicles.
00:29Cops raid a drug lab in Missouri and find an innovative new way to cook methamphetamine.
00:36The meth that was on the streets was lower cost, better quality, and much more addictive than it had been before.
00:44The world's most inventive criminal minds.
00:49Lawless ingenuity born out of greed.
00:53From back alleys to the high seas.
00:57Secret structures, custom-built vehicles, high-tech innovation.
01:03What happens when engineering genies ends up on the wrong side of the law?
01:08That starts Building Bad.
01:11On June 8, 2019, United States authorities on patrol in the international waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean spotted a strange half-submergent vessel moving through the waves.
01:37Approaching the boat at high speed, the Americans were stunned by what they encountered.
01:56This was a huge makeshift handcrafted submarine.
01:59And the bizarre yet impressive vessel was not the only discovery.
02:03It had an armed crew of four and three tons of cocaine concealed inside.
02:08This is a vessel referred to as a narco-sub and it was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard.
02:14There have been rumors about cartels using homemade submarines since the 1990s.
02:20But nobody in law enforcement circles had ever laid eyes on one until 2006.
02:26Clearly these types of vessels have been extremely successful in evading authorities.
02:33Especially when it's believed that more than a hundred had been built by the time of this sub's capture.
02:41Colombia produces more than 70% of the world's cocaine, making it by far the biggest supplier on the planet.
02:48The United States is the global leader in the drugs consumption, spending over $28 billion in cocaine annually.
02:55It's a match made in narcotics heaven.
02:58But the ongoing challenge for the cartels is getting their supply into the huge American market.
03:04Historically, cocaine has been transported by every means of conveyance you can think of.
03:09By land, air and sea.
03:11From cars and trucks, to private jets and cargo planes, to fishing boats and large ships.
03:17With so much money on the line, criminal organizations were willing to do whatever they could to get their hands on the cash.
03:25During the 1980s, Go Fast Vessels, or GFV as they are known to law enforcement,
03:31became the preferred mode of transportation for the Medellin cartel and their associates.
03:37They ranged between 28 to 48 feet in length and could travel almost 60 miles per hour in ideal conditions.
03:44These kinds of speedboats could be easily acquired without raising any suspicion.
03:48They were affordable and were small enough that they could operate outside the commercial transit and immigration systems.
03:54A small crew or even a single driver could get the job done if they were careful to avoid radar and coast guard surveillance.
04:03Artisanal boatyards began popping up in the jungles of Colombia and other cocaine hotspots of South America.
04:09These were off-grid sites where amateur boatbuilders could modify and outfit Go Fast Vessels to maximize speed, cargo capacity and radar evasion.
04:19The GFVs being pumped out of these boatyards were so successful that in 1999 they contributed to the creation of the Joint Interagency Task Force South,
04:29which united every U.S. military and law enforcement branch and 15 separate nations.
04:35It was such a problem for authorities that the branches of the Coast Guard created their own high-speed inflatable boats
04:42that were accompanied by armed helicopters to try and stop them.
04:47With the new task force in place and agencies coordinating their efforts, Go Fast Vessels were easier to track and capture.
04:54Authorities were seizing millions of dollars in drugs and cash from these vessels every year.
05:00Traffickers needed something fast but less visible, like a submarine.
05:04But how would these highly-surveilled criminals get their hands on an actual sub?
05:08It's not like there were decommissioned U-boats floating around.
05:13Deep in the jungles of South America, the cartels got to work constructing submarine prototypes.
05:19Traditional subs were made of heavy metals, welded and sealed to withstand water pressure.
05:25But this construction made them heavy and highly visible to radar,
05:29and the narcos didn't have access to the necessary materials, even if they wanted to pursue a similar design.
05:38What they did have at their disposal was a stock of speedboat hulls, motors, and materials like plywood, fiberglass,
05:45and other synthetics that could maintain a lightweight structure and were already proven to evade most detection systems.
05:54So they experimented with wrapping existing gutted boat hulls in fiberglass.
06:00Unfortunately, these submarine designs weren't 100% watertight due to their makeshift squared access hatches.
06:08But they did create the illusion of a submarine, even if the vessels could not be fully submerged.
06:13They just needed them to sit low enough in the water that they could travel more discreetly.
06:20The simplest and most low-tech solution to get the vessels to sink lower into the water was literally to weigh them down.
06:27They would load them with cargo until they sat as close to the surface as possible without going under it.
06:33And the more cargo they delivered, the more money they could make.
06:36So it was a win-win situation.
06:40Weighing some of the vessels down further were massive fuel tanks that could give them a range of over 1,000 miles,
06:47depending on what kind of motor was used in the construction.
06:51When it came to the engines, the boat builders could make one of two choices.
06:54If they maintained outboard motors, commonly associated with most speedboats, the easiest design choice,
06:59mid-sea refueling and maintenance would be more difficult, and the low position of the vessel in the water risked the engines flooding.
07:07Alternatively, the motors could be encased in the fiberglass shell too, effectively making them inboard motors,
07:14which is resolving the crew's access issues, but raising a new dangerous one, toxic fumes.
07:22Sadly, there have been a number of cases of crews dying at sea due to these ventilation issues.
07:30These first narco-subs, known to law enforcement as low-profile vessels, or LPVs,
07:36had the shape of classic powerboats or yachts, but were far from luxurious.
07:41They were crammed and hot with a crew of two to five men.
07:45There were no galleys, no bedrooms, only a porthole and a shared toilet, if you were lucky.
07:51These were purpose-built one-way trip vessels that maximized cargo space, engine power, and profits,
07:58and their overall hydrodynamic design, paint and finish, made them much more difficult to spot, let alone capture.
08:05Even after the fall of the Medellin cartel in the 1990s,
08:10the remaining players in South and Central America understood the importance of these vessels to their business model.
08:17It wasn't long before they were churning out roughly 100 homemade narco-subs a year.
08:24A huge reason why these designs were so successful is the fact that they had a self-destruct feature
08:30and were scuttled or intentionally sunk as soon as they were offloaded at their destination,
08:36leaving no evidence behind. That's pretty genius.
08:40By 2009, the U.S. estimated that they were only able to intercept 14% of cocaine shipments via narco-sub.
08:49In response, federal prosecutors in Florida started to invoke a little-known law,
08:55which allowed the arrest of smugglers caught in international waters.
08:59The expanded scope of the U.S. authorities posed a major threat to the cartel's ability to avoid arrest and prosecution.
09:07They would have to go back to the drawing board and devise a new and improved vessel design to stay one step ahead of the law.
09:15Something had to be done.
09:17With speed in mind, they turned to references like the cigarette racing boats of the 1960s,
09:23famously fast, needle-thin designs that cut through the waves rather than bounced over them.
09:27So boat builders got to work making their vessels longer and thinner to take advantage of that hydrodynamic design, only fully wrapped.
09:35This version of a narco-sub averaged 65 feet long with a 1.6 ton cargo space.
09:43However, one was discovered that measured an extraordinary 100 feet long, 10 feet wide, and a carrying capacity of up to 3 tons.
09:52That's an impressive haul of product.
09:55Known as very slender vessels or VSVs, these designs could support three or more motors, either inboard or outboard, to take their speed to the next level.
10:06Some could even make a 2,000 mile trip from Colombia to Mexico or Guatemala in only four days.
10:13For a while, these vessels were effective.
10:17But they weren't perfect, and there were always people lurking in the weeds, looking to get in on the action.
10:23Experienced speedboat driver Oscar Moreno-Ricardo seized the opportunity to make some major profits.
10:29He capitalized on his criminal connections to try his hand at boat building, and he quickly earned the nickname the King of Narco-Subs.
10:37Boat builders like Moreno saw a market for fully submersible vessels, and their work was so in demand and respected that they were able to work with a number of different drug trafficking organizations.
10:48Looking for other design options, the cartel began experimenting with traditional tube-like submarine vessels made out of fiberglass, and the results showed promise.
10:59Once they had a fully airtight superstructure, they needed to add ballasts.
11:05These are controlled cavities that allow a vessel to take on or release water to affect its buoyancy.
11:12This gave narco-sub drivers the ability to control when and how they surfaced to load and unload the precious cargo.
11:21These fully submersible vessels, or FSVs, could travel between one to three meters below the waves while maintaining the safety of the cargo.
11:31The first attempts at fully submersible vessels ran on diesel, so even if the body of the vessel was the water, the engine still required some kind of intake and exhaust system that had to sit above the water so that the engine wouldn't choke or flood.
11:48These designs were known as snorkel subs because of the mast or pipe that remained above the water.
11:55Snorkel subs were so successful that authorities were only able to intercept 5% of them when 30 to 40% of drugs coming to the U.S. were arriving this way.
12:06The cartel's dogged ingenuity and financial investment in the development of narco-subs was paying huge dividends.
12:14These narco-subs cost an average of $1 million U.S. dollars to construct, and that price tag can soar to $2 million for the larger versions.
12:23But they carry hundreds of billions of dollars worth of product on every voyage, so clearly the potential profit outweighs the investment and the risk.
12:33In 2022, Colombian police captured Oscar Moreno Ricardo, the rumored king of narco-subs, hoping that his arrest would be a major blow to the cocaine trafficking system.
12:45But by then, narco-sub design knowledge had spread throughout the smuggling community, and it was unstoppable.
12:52The high-seas game of cat and mouse between the cartels and authorities continues.
13:02On April 2, 2024, Canadian authorities seized nearly 600 stolen vehicles bound for international black markets at the Port of Montreal.
13:18With an approximate total worth of $34.5 million, this was one of the most valuable stolen car seizures the world had ever seen, and the largest in Canadian history.
13:29This wasn't the result of a tiny crew that was just really accomplished.
13:34This was a massive, coordinated effort including local thieves, allegedly bribed officials, and organized crime groups with their fingers in all the right parts.
13:48For decades, car theft has been a growing problem in the entire country.
13:53In 2022, in Toronto alone, more than 12,000 vehicles were stolen in a single year.
14:00That number translates to roughly one car every 40 minutes.
14:07It's gotten so bad that Canada is known as a supplier country in international car theft circles.
14:12So, how are car thieves in Ontario nabbing so many cars that end up halfway around the world in the blink of an eye?
14:18Theft became a problem almost immediately after the car was invented.
14:23Some of the earliest models didn't even have full doors, let alone locks, so anyone could just hop in, turn the ignition, and take off.
14:32But as cars became more commonplace, car manufacturers had to adjust to the criminal threat.
14:38Vehicles were modified to have features like removable steering wheels, and in 1910, the key was introduced.
14:44Even though they weren't widely used until the 40s.
14:48From keys and locks, and eventually alarms and trackers, automobile technology has evolved right alongside crafty car thieves.
14:57They figured out how to pick locks, jimmy doors, and hotwire the latest models for a quick getaway by mastering a specific set of physical skills.
15:06But things were about to change.
15:08In the mid 2000s, technological advancement in car design led to the invention of digital keys, which allowed drivers to open and start their vehicles with a push of a button.
15:19For seasoned thieves, these keyless systems were a major and loud pain in the neck.
15:26Since most of these models came with standard factory installed alarms.
15:32Keyless systems are based on short range radio signals.
15:35The key, or the fob, is a transponder that picks up and responds to a signal from the car.
15:42And when it's engaged, the car verifies that unique signal or serial number from the key, and if it's a match, the door is open.
15:49But if you don't have the key, you don't have the car.
15:52Thieves needed to invent something that could intercept and interfere with that communication.
15:57The problem was that these key fobs had a range of only a few milliseconds.
16:02The problem was that these key fobs had a range of only a few feet, meaning the keys had to be next to the vehicle for the system to work.
16:11There were plenty of desirable cars parked along suburban streets and in driveways.
16:16But the keys to these cars were more often than not locked safe inside the house.
16:20So they had to figure out a way to boost that faint signal from the key inside the house so that it could reach the car.
16:27Tech-savvy criminals started turning household items like wires and antennas into their own portable radio systems that could trick cars into thinking their keys were present.
16:40They were a simplified two-part system that required an amplifier and a transmitter to be used in tandem.
16:47Crews worked in pairs. One person stood next to the car with the transmitter that was picked up by the receiver of that car.
16:54The car then issued an authentication challenge to that transmitter, assuming that it was the car's key.
17:02Then that challenge was sent to the other thief's amplifier device.
17:07The other thief stands near the front of the house, which is probably where the key is, and waves that amplifier around trying to get the car and the key connected.
17:16So once that signal reaches the key and the key signal goes back to the car, bang, you're in.
17:21What used to take 10 to 20 minutes to get into that car now takes less than 30 seconds.
17:27It's pretty impressive.
17:29Over the years, the success of these systems has made them so popular that they can now be bought online for a relatively low price.
17:38These modern versions are a lot more sleek, they're less conspicuous, they're easier to use, but they all have this one major basic problem, and that is that you never get the key.
17:47So once the car is running, it works, but if you turn it off or if it runs out of gas, it's dead, because without the key, you can never start it again.
17:56This presented an issue for thieves that needed to be addressed.
18:01But as it turns out, technological advancement on the part of car manufacturers solved the problem for them.
18:08All new cars have onboard diagnostic systems, or OBD.
18:13These car computers have standardized digital ports beneath the dash.
18:18Getting access to these ports provides real-time interactive data about the vehicle.
18:24These ports have proven to be a major vulnerability.
18:29A quick Google search will show that portable professional tablets with OBD cables are readily available online for around $1,000.
18:38While much more expensive than the simple relay system, when used together, the relay attack gains access to the car, and the OBD tablet overrides the key issue by reprogramming a dummy fob in minutes.
18:55In January of 2022, a six-month-long investigation around Toronto led to the recovery of 217 vehicles hijacked using OBD systems.
19:05Though police charged 24 low-level people in connection with the seizures, the major players could not be identified.
19:13This issue of organized car theft was so widespread that some car owners had their vehicles targeted three or more times, and many have even had their replacement cars stolen.
19:23Car owners looking to prevent theft invested in everything from enhanced surveillance systems to retractable driveway bollards, and even low-tech solutions like the club.
19:34Enterprising thieves needed to come up with more efficient workarounds that didn't require multiple steps like relay or reprogramming attacks.
19:43It's easy to assume that those improvements in design are great for the consumer, the person that buys the car.
19:48But that Internet of Things approach to design has had a lot of accidental and unintended consequences, and car thieves have always been very quick to jump on any opportunity.
20:00By studying new schematics and vehicle design plans, they figured out a new bypass system similar to the OBD attack, except it doesn't require key access to enter the vehicle at all.
20:12Now, it's just one centralized attack from the outside.
20:18Modern cars, especially luxury models, are designed with smart features throughout to make the user experience smooth, connected, and enjoyable.
20:27This means that most major components of the car, if not all, have been designed to communicate and connect with the car's overall computer system.
20:34A majority of those connections are all inside the car, but there is this one major vulnerability that the car thieves found, and that was the headlamps.
20:50Smart thieves figured out that behind the headlamp modules of modern cars is an access port to the controller area network system.
20:58That behind the headlamp modules of modern cars is an access port to the controller area network bus, or CAN bus, the central network that allows communication with the vehicle's smart components.
21:11On February 11th, 2024, a car owner rushed out to her driveway when she noticed one of her car headlights turned on.
21:19The thieves had hacked the CAN bus system of her Lexus by disconnecting the other headlight.
21:25Car theft has become a billion-dollar cash cow for organized crime groups with very little downside.
21:32And it's getting worse.
21:34From 2023 to 2024, car theft and car-related home invasions in Toronto rose a staggering 400%.
21:43But to be this successful, it can't be random.
21:47This is made-to-order crime.
21:50Scouts identify potential target vehicles, then those vehicle IDs are sent to higher-ups, who decide if the car is needed by their end users.
22:02Once the buyer is confirmed, the car is scheduled for pickup by any means necessary.
22:07Then within 24 to 48 hours, it will end up in a shipping container at the Port of Montreal, bound for international waters.
22:14It's shocking to car owners and infuriating to police, who have had very little success stopping these thieves.
22:22Another problem is this isn't just profitable for the criminals.
22:26Insurance companies have had to jack up their rates. It's unclear if they're making more money as a result.
22:31And then if you look at the companies that make and sell cars, well, they're making and selling more cars.
22:37So there are a lot of people making a lot of money off of this problem.
22:42For now, coordinated police efforts will continue and concerned car owners will do their best to protect their property.
22:51But until insulated, well-paid major players of organized crime groups can be identified,
22:58cars will continue to go missing from the streets of Toronto, only to be found on the other side of the planet.
23:05The nearly 600 vehicles stopped at the Port of Montreal in 2024 was a serious blow to organized car theft,
23:13doubling the number of seizures at the port for the year.
23:16But it's anyone's guess how many cars are still getting through successfully.
23:35On February 2, 1993, police raided a bizarre drug laboratory in Battlefield, Missouri,
23:42and discovered a scene unlike anything they had ever witnessed before.
23:46Instead of beakers and Bunsen burners, they found garbage bags full of used cold medicine,
23:52jars of kerosene, lighter fluid, and a strange yellowish cake in the oven.
23:57It looked more like a messy garage than anything else, but this was a newfangled meth lab.
24:02A man named Bob Piolet was arrested on sight.
24:07Until this bust, police understood methamphetamine production to be a highly scientific process,
24:13which required a complex setup of laboratory equipment, tools, and glassware.
24:18Even the large-scale super labs of the 1980s run by biker gangs like the Hells Angels or the Banditos
24:24still required relatively traditional lab setups in the barns, their warehouses where they operated.
24:29And given the specialized nature of the work, they knew to employ actual chemists to execute their technical process.
24:36So how did this highly specialized chemical process go from major laboratories
24:42to illegal tabletop trailer setups in Middle America?
24:47Methamphetamine is a stimulant that can be snorted, smoked, or dissolved in liquid to be injected.
24:54It causes a boost of energy and alertness that can last for many hours.
24:59Unlike other drugs like cocaine and heroin, meth doesn't originate from any plant at all.
25:05It is a purely synthetic, 100% lab-created product.
25:09That's part of what makes it so tricky.
25:12Plant-based drugs are a little bit limited by their ingredients.
25:15For cocaine, you have to have coca plant.
25:18For opium, you need poppies. But meth has no geographic limitations.
25:23And that also means a lot of those ingredients are more affordable.
25:27Methamphetamine was first synthesized in 1893 by a Japanese chemist,
25:32and it was used as a prescription medical treatment for asthma and narcolepsy.
25:37But meth's use became more widespread during World War II,
25:41after a German pharmaceutical company created an over-the-counter version of the drug
25:46that was distributed to troops to stave off fatigue.
25:51While useful in the short term for engaging the troops, meth was highly addictive.
25:54Its off-book use exploded after the war, and by 1970, the drug was outlawed in the U.S.
25:59Even so, demand never waned.
26:02And that was especially true in the economically depressed rural areas of the U.S., like Missouri.
26:08Though he had never received a formal education,
26:11Bob Piollet grew up with a well-used chemistry set.
26:15In the late 80s, likely motivated by the proliferation of meth in his community,
26:20Piollet became interested in the drug's chemical properties.
26:24Chemical makeup.
26:28His curiosity led to some casual research at the Southwest Missouri State Library.
26:33There, Piollet accidentally discovered what would become his solution
26:38while reading some Nazi-era research papers about amphetamines.
26:42The papers inspired his experimentation,
26:45and the eventual name of this new meth process, known as the Nazi method.
26:51Piollet's new method was a remarkably simplified three-step process
26:55that could produce high-quality meth in a fraction of the time.
26:58With a simplified tabletop setup, some commercially available ingredients, he was done.
27:04First, over-the-counter cold medicine with the active ingredient pseudoephedrine
27:09was crushed in a coffee grinder.
27:11The resulting powder was then doused in methyl alcohol,
27:14likely in the form of windshield washer fluid,
27:17that would evaporate, extracting or isolating the ephedrine.
27:22Next, you take some chemicals that you can find in farm fertilizers,
27:25you mix that with chemicals that come from the inside of a commercial battery.
27:29All that goes together to make something called meth oil.
27:32And that oil is mixed with more ether,
27:35passed through a coffee filter,
27:37and what you end up with is this set of crystals that can be crushed into a powder.
27:42Police and law enforcement had hoped that his arrest in 1993
27:47would put a stop to this kind of experimentation.
27:50But they were too late.
27:52Piollet's recipe got out,
27:54and mom-and-pop meth labs began exploding across the state,
27:58turning its already dense drug landscape into a meth mecca.
28:02Because of Piollet's breakthrough,
28:04trailers, garages, and kitchens became viable tabletop labs,
28:08pumping out small batches of meth in only two hours,
28:11without a heat source.
28:21The 1990s were marked by more and more busts,
28:24as authorities found hundreds of new homemade meth labs each year.
28:28And it wasn't just an issue in Missouri.
28:31Across the country, new cooks were trying their hands at meth production,
28:35using Piollet's system.
28:37At the time, meth was selling between $10,000 and $15,000 a pound.
28:42It was seen as a low-risk, high-reward endeavor
28:45that could be executed with only a few cheap legal household ingredients
28:49and a readily available supply of cold medication.
28:52Even when the product was less potent or inconsistent,
28:55the customers weren't picking.
28:57But for authorities, it was getting out of control.
29:00Beyond lab busts, there was an influx of dangerous chemical fires
29:03and issues of child endangerment,
29:06as producers became more brazen with their setups.
29:09By 2004, the meth crisis led to 24,000 seizures of meth labs,
29:153,000 of which were in Missouri alone.
29:19In response to the rising crisis, in 2006,
29:23the U.S. government instituted nationwide limits
29:26on the Nazi method's active ingredient, pseudoephedrine.
29:30The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act
29:33had an immediate cooling effect on the meth industry.
29:37This method required about eight packages of cold meds
29:40to make half an ounce of meth.
29:42But with that new law, suddenly brands with pseudoephedrine
29:46were removed from public shelves.
29:48They were either with the pharmacist or they were locked behind glass.
29:51And besides that, customers are limited in how much they can buy at once
29:54or how much they can buy over a 24-hour period.
29:56Some states are even now requiring a prescription to get cold medicine.
30:02There is no doubt that this was a major blow to the meth economy.
30:05But the steady pace of criminal innovation
30:08was not going to let this be a death blow.
30:10Cooks and users had to adjust if they were going to keep up
30:13with the lucrative demand for meth.
30:15To maintain operations, communities of independent meth cooks
30:19coordinated their efforts to gather supplies.
30:21They started working with runners called smurfs,
30:23who were responsible for navigating the local and state retail situation.
30:28A smurf was the face that went to multiple sites, stores, and even states
30:33to skirt the legally imposed limits and cold medicines.
30:37Employing new faces made it much more difficult
30:41for authorities to identify questionable purchases.
30:44Smurfs were less obvious,
30:46and it was hard to distinguish one smurf from another,
30:49let alone from the average customer.
30:50And each cook was working with between 10 to 15 smurfs at a time,
30:55adding to the complexity of the system.
30:59Over time, some of these smurfs evolved from simple runners
31:03into small-time suppliers.
31:05They amassed stockpiles of cold pills
31:08that could be sold at a major market to the cooks who relied on them.
31:13But the addition of smurfs wasn't enough.
31:15Within the next few years,
31:17a new portable lab modification hit the scene.
31:20This was a one-pot meth production method
31:23that worked with only a couple of pseudoephedrine pills and a large bottle.
31:26The method was called shake-and-bake.
31:30It required a sealable vessel that could hold at least 1.5 liters of volume,
31:35often a used 2-liter pop bottle,
31:38where all the required ingredients,
31:40including the pseudoephedrine and various household solvents,
31:43were added and mixed together for shaking.
31:47This was dicey.
31:48This chemical reaction needed to be watched carefully.
31:51You had to burp it every few hours to prevent the bottle from exploding,
31:55but eventually what you get is market-ready meth.
31:58And it's efficient, and it's contained,
32:01but that shake-and-bake method is way more dangerous
32:04than previous production styles
32:06because that mixture can easily burst into flames at any point in the process
32:09if it just gets exposed to oxygen.
32:12Even so, the portability of the shake-and-bake method
32:14was very appealing and meant that it could be done literally anywhere at any time,
32:18even when driving in a vehicle.
32:21The product potency and quality definitely varied,
32:24but this innovative method still led to another major spike in meth lab busts.
32:31On March 1, 2013, police raided a mobile home
32:34on the outskirts of Mountain Grove, Missouri,
32:37and discovered a series of containers,
32:40including metal chemical cans and plastic bottles,
32:42fitted with hoses.
32:45Four people were arrested,
32:47and a total of 95 shake-and-bake meth labs were seized,
32:50today the largest seizure of its kind in the state.
32:54Eventually, the stressors and obstacles
32:57placed on small-time producers and the meth economy
33:01slowed down independent production of the drug
33:04with major declines in busts by the mid-2010s.
33:08Over that period, even though street value seems to decline,
33:12the overall market demand for meth hadn't changed.
33:15If anything, it had grown from a backwards drug to a mainstream product.
33:22While lab seizures and federal regulation
33:25interfered with domestic production,
33:27south of the border, cartels and organized groups
33:30were primed to fill the growing void.
33:33They already had major drug production facilities
33:36and trafficking infrastructure,
33:38so from a business perspective, it just made sense.
33:42In 2016, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
33:45noted that Mexican-made meth was coming into the local market,
33:49and by 2019, the majority of the meth available in the U.S.
33:53had been made in these Mexican super labs.
33:56And that shift from shake-and-bake local to super lab Mexican
34:00meant that the meth that was on the streets was lower cost,
34:03it was better quality,
34:05and it was much more addictive than it had been before.
34:08Come out of the house!
34:10Sheriff's office! Sheriff's office!
34:13Meth production has come full circle
34:16from the days of Bob Pilet's innovative method.
34:19And even though the man himself is gone
34:22and his system fallen out of favor,
34:24his revolutionary ideas remain an important chapter
34:27in the story of the war on drugs.
34:38On April 8, 2009, the Mursk, Alabama,
34:42a U.S.-flagged cargo ship,
34:44was sailing in the Indian Ocean
34:46roughly 240 miles off the coast of Somalia
34:49when it was attacked by a small speedboat
34:52carrying four pirates armed with AK-47s.
34:56Despite the unarmed crew's efforts
34:59to thwart the attack using fire hoses and flare guns,
35:02the Somali pirates were able to board the ship.
35:04They took Captain Richard Phillips hostage
35:07on one of the Alabama's covered lifeboats
35:10and demanded a ransom of $2 million.
35:13It was the first time that pirates had set foot
35:16on an American vessel in about 200 years.
35:19Pirates are about one thing only,
35:22and that is money.
35:24So more often than not,
35:26ship owners and their insurers
35:28just pay the ransom to make the problem go away.
35:31You get these huge bundles of cash,
35:32literally airdropped into the ocean
35:35by private security companies.
35:37Pirates take the loot,
35:39they release the ship,
35:41and the whole situation is resolved.
35:43With a pretty high success rate
35:45and millions of dollars out there to be earned,
35:47piracy developed into a major problem.
35:50In 2011, two years after the Alabama was hijacked,
35:53there were over 200 pirate attacks
35:55in the waters off Somalia.
35:57Question is, why?
36:02Following the collapse of an authoritarian regime in 1991,
36:06hundreds of thousands of people fled Somalia
36:09because of political instability
36:11and an ugly civil war.
36:13Local warlords took control of much of the country,
36:17and although there is a central government,
36:19political affairs are often dictated
36:21by rival clans.
36:23Schools are shut down,
36:25hospitals are shut down,
36:27the central bank hasn't printed any currency
36:29in over a decade,
36:30and the majority of the cash that's in circulation
36:32is so degraded, people just can't use it anymore.
36:35So, Somalis turn to the U.S. dollar,
36:37or even counterfeit U.S. dollars
36:39that are made by warlords in ungoverned regions.
36:43On top of all the political and economic instability,
36:47Somalia is prone to natural disasters
36:49like droughts, floods, cyclones.
36:52These things can have a devastating effect
36:54on food supply and people's ability to make a living.
36:57Given all these challenges,
36:58you can see why piracy
37:00is an attractive way to escape poverty.
37:02People tend to associate pirates
37:04with old-time buccaneers like Blackbeard
37:06or Long John Silver
37:08with his pegged leg and parrot on his shoulder
37:10flying the Jolly Roger and terrorizing the seas.
37:13But today's pirates are quite sophisticated.
37:15They're well-funded,
37:17armed to the teeth,
37:19and surprisingly tech-savvy.
37:22The Indian Ocean is a big place
37:25for would-be pirates,
37:26and for pirates,
37:28locating a ship for a potential attack
37:30must be like finding a needle in a haystack.
37:32But like many modern criminal enterprises,
37:35Somali hijacked teams are turning to technology
37:38to solve the problem.
37:40What pirates do is set up a command center.
37:42In the early days,
37:44the centers were usually on land,
37:46often in a remote coastal town called Ale,
37:48known as the world's piracy capital.
37:51But as they honed their techniques,
37:53the pirates realized that it was more advantageous
37:54to set up these command centers at sea
37:57on so-called motherships.
37:59They might hijack a medium-sized vessel
38:01like a fishing trawler
38:03and then use the onboard technology
38:05to locate ships to target.
38:07For the most part,
38:09they use the Automatic Identification System,
38:11or AIS.
38:13The AIS was created to avoid collisions at sea,
38:15to make ocean traffic safer,
38:17using GPS and VHF frequencies
38:19to broadcast data to everyone involved.
38:21So any ship's location,
38:23its speed, its heading,
38:25those are all available
38:27to every vessel in the vicinity,
38:29and they're even available on the internet.
38:32Once a potential target has been identified,
38:35the pirates have to determine
38:37whether or not it's worth their time
38:39and effort to attack the ship.
38:42The AIS also provides other intel
38:44that they're after.
38:46The ship's name, destination,
38:48number of crew members,
38:49and most importantly, cargo.
38:51The more valuable and substantial the cargo is,
38:53the more likely they are
38:55to have their ransom demands met.
38:58Some pirate groups have taken it a step further.
39:00In 2016,
39:02an unnamed global shipping group
39:04had its systems hacked.
39:06Pirates were able to access
39:08detailed information about vessels' cargo,
39:10allowing them to conduct targeted attacks.
39:13Instead of taking over the ship
39:15for days on end
39:17and negotiating a ransom payment,
39:19they took a slightly different approach.
39:21They come on board,
39:23they move the crew into a safe area,
39:25and then they go straight to the very crate
39:27they know from the barcode
39:29contains all the valuable cargo.
39:31Then they steal the contents,
39:33and they take off.
39:35It's a quick hit and run,
39:37just like an old-fashioned train robbery.
39:39The hackers also downloaded information
39:41about future shipments,
39:43finding out what high-value cargo
39:45would be on certain vessels,
39:47and when those ships were scheduled
39:49to be transported.
39:51Distortion is still the most common tactic
39:53used by Somali pirates.
39:55After establishing a ship's location
39:57and deciding that it's a worthwhile target,
39:59they spring into action
40:01and launch the attack.
40:03Generally, they leave their mothership
40:05in several small, open-air skips
40:07with powerful outboard engines.
40:09Communication is important
40:11according to the attack,
40:13so they rely on high-end satellite phones
40:15and use custom-made GPS systems.
40:17Once the pirates reach the target,
40:19they use M-487s or rocket launchers
40:21before attempting to board,
40:23hoping the captain slows the ship down
40:25in response to the threat,
40:27making it easier for them to climb up
40:29using grappling hooks or rope ladders.
40:31If the breach is successful,
40:33the crew gets rounded up
40:35and stashed away somewhere.
40:37The next order of business
40:39is to disable the ship's communication systems
40:41and then bring that ship closer to shore
40:43or even to a receptive port like Ale.
40:45With the hijacking complete,
40:47the business of negotiating
40:49begins.
40:51The shipping companies are contacted
40:53via email or telephone,
40:55and the pirates usually start out
40:57demanding outlandish sums of money.
40:59The price almost always comes down
41:01during negotiations,
41:03but there have been some exorbitant amounts
41:05paid out over the years.
41:07In 2011,
41:09a staggering 13.5 million U.S. dollars
41:11was paid to Somali pirates
41:13for the release of a Greek oil tanker
41:15after 58 days in captivity.
41:17Once the ransom is paid,
41:19the ship and its crew are released,
41:21and the money is divided up
41:23among the perpetrators
41:25and shadowy figures
41:27who finance the operations.
41:29And in a bit of Robin Hood generosity,
41:31some of the money even filters back
41:33to the communities that provide safe harbor
41:35to these pirates.
41:37Often the money is transferred
41:39through what's known as Hawala,
41:41an ancient informal banking system
41:43where no money changes hands directly
41:45between two parties,
41:47but rather through intermediaries
41:49and intermediaries.
41:51The owing party pays an agent on his end
41:53and provides a password,
41:55the payee's name,
41:57and where they live.
41:59The agent then gets in touch
42:01with a contact in the payee's city
42:03who completes the transaction
42:05by handing over the money,
42:07completely untraceable
42:09and perfect for modern day piracy.
42:11As attacks proliferated
42:13along the East African coast,
42:15shipping companies
42:17and international authorities
42:19took measures to protect their ships.
42:21A study in 2013
42:23showed that piracy
42:25was costing the worldwide economy
42:27about $18 billion every year.
42:30So clearly something had to be done.
42:33Couldn't just sit around idly
42:35letting the pirates operate
42:37with impunity.
42:39Many shipping companies
42:41took measures to protect their ships.
42:43They armed crews,
42:45hired private security,
42:47and rigged their vessels
42:49with weapons called
42:51long-range acoustic devices
42:53that caused ear-splitting sounds.
42:56NATO warships
42:58also began patrolling the waters
43:00where pirate attacks
43:02were happening the most.
43:04And to some extent,
43:06these measures were effective
43:08in reducing the number of attacks.
43:10But they didn't go away entirely
43:12and recent data suggests
43:14that piracy may be on the rise again.
43:16In 2023,
43:18the number of crews taken hostage
43:20rose to 73
43:22from 41 the previous year.
43:24While the stats may sound alarming,
43:26it's worth noting
43:28that the numbers are much lower
43:30than they were back in 2009
43:32when the Alabama was attacked
43:34and Captain Phillips taken hostage.
43:36On April 12th,
43:38four days after the Alabama was seized,
43:40Navy SEAL snipers shot
43:42and killed the three pirates
43:44holding Captain Phillips hostage
43:45on the lifeboat.
43:47A fourth pirate surrendered
43:49and was later sentenced
43:51to over 33 years
43:53in an American prison.
43:55A tragic victory
43:57in the seemingly never-ending war
43:59against piracy.