The video narrates operations focusing on intercepting narcotics trafficking over international borders. The primary emphasis is on detecting illegal substances like fentanyl, methamphetamine, and marijuana being smuggled into the United States. Utilizing trained dogs and advanced scanning technology, these interdiction efforts concentrate on port entries and commercial shipping facilities where large seizures are conducted by trained officials to combat drug trafficking networks.

The necessity of such operations is underscored by the continuous shift of smuggling methods, with drug traffickers deploying creative concealment techniques, such as hiding fentanyl in everyday objects like candles and shoes. The video underlines the critical role of coordinated efforts by law enforcement agencies to identify and seize illegal narcotics. It also highlights ongoing investigations leading to arrests, which help to dissolve intricate drug distribution networks.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. anomaly [əˈnɑːməli] - (noun) - Something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected. - Synonyms: (irregularity, deviation, aberration)

The officer noticed an anomaly in what appeared to be a candle, and upon inspection of the candle with the anomaly, a load of fentanyl was found

2. interception [ˌɪntərˈsɛpʃən] - (noun) - The act of stopping or seizing something while it is on its way from one place to another. - Synonyms: (catching, halting, seizure)

So the narcotics interceptions are very big.

3. surge [sɜːrdʒ] - (noun) - A sudden powerful forward or upward movement, especially by a crowd or by a natural force. - Synonyms: (increase, rise, rush)

We are in the middle of a DHS wide surge to combat the recent increase in fentanyl.

4. courier [ˈkʊr.i.ər] - (noun) - A person or company that transports goods or documents, in particular. - Synonyms: (messenger, dispatch rider, deliveryman)

You coming from Mexico? Today we're doing a special operation to inspect couriers that are coming from Mexico

5. contraband [ˈkɒn.trə.bænd] - (noun) - Goods that have been imported or exported illegally. - Synonyms: (illegal goods, smuggled items, black-market goods)

It's some sort of plastic or glass. But there's something in there. Fentanyl was found yesterday inside of candles.

6. impromptu [ɪmˈprɒmptjuː] - (adjective) - Done without being planned or rehearsed. - Synonyms: (unplanned, spontaneous, unprepared)

So we did an impromptu encounter with him.

7. intact [ɪnˈtækt] - (adjective) - Not damaged or impaired in any way; complete. - Synonyms: (whole, unbroken, undamaged)

Typically they put it in Ziploc bags and wrap it with cellophane or tape. That makes it a real intact brick.

8. magnitude [ˈmæɡ.nɪ.tjuːd] - (noun) - The great size or extent of something. - Synonyms: (size, dimensions, scale)

A large population of the United States thinks that marijuana is not such a big deal.

9. interdict [ˌɪntərˈdɪkt] - (verb) - Prohibit or forbid something, especially by law. - Synonyms: (prohibit, ban, outlaw)

Utilizing trained dogs and advanced scanning technology, these interdiction efforts concentrate on port entries and commercial shipping facilities.

10. surveillance [sərˈveɪləns] - (noun) - Close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal. - Synonyms: (observation, monitoring, scrutiny)

We're just going to catch up with the guys that are already out there to see what activities he's up to today.

HSI Arrests Dealer Trying to Ship a Kilo of Fentanyl (Full Episode) - To Catch a Smuggler

This is our cargo bridge. We're going to start with the most downwind to see if we can find any type of narcotics, because that's what he's trained on the far port of entry. These trucks that we inspect have the capacity to bring in big amounts of merchandise. And just like they can bring in merchandise, they can bring in narcotics. So the narcotics interceptions are very big. Come on, mom. My dog alerted on the tiger trailer. Oh, it's a good boy. Yes. Good boy, buddy. He hid on the cab area of the passenger side. I'm gonna go ahead and escort it down to get a scan.

I see anomalies in the cab area. It looks like the speaker box. There's something in there, or maybe it might be outside the speaker box there. We need to take a further look. All right, we'll see. Doesn't look right. The speakers are disconnected. These speaker boxes are not common for a tractor trailer. They normally have normal speakers like the ones that you see up here. Whenever we see boxes like this, that grabs our attention. That's something that we must check. Watch out on that one. They're heavy, dude.

Right now, we have the speaker boxes removed, and you can actually fill the substance right here. You can feel it. We're going to try to take it apart as easy as we can, but it's going to be rough. It's screwed on? Looks like it. Yep. Most of the time, speaker boxes are glued, but on this one, it's not glued. It doesn't have caulking, and it's got screws. We're gonna try to remove the screws to see the packaging inside. Oh, it's gonna come out. There you go.

It's a crystal like substance in a loose fashion inside one bag. So we're gonna remove those screws so we can leave that bag intact and have it all together. Could be a mess. In San Diego and San Diego county, we've seen a large uptick in fentanyl being trafficked, smuggled, and distributed. So it's become priority for this office. We have thrown a lot of resources at it and created a new task force to help combat the issue in drug smuggling.

One of the largest hurdles is getting the drugs from another country into the United States. And then once you've made it into the United States at a port of entry, like we have here in San Diego. San Diego isn't necessarily the intended destination for those drugs. They're gonna go to Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Atlanta. Several weeks ago, we received information of someone in San Diego that was shipping narcotics, both cocaine and fentanyl, out to the East coast. Since then, we've been able to confirm his identity and a location that we believe he's staying.

My teammates have already found him and are following him up on the highway. We're just going to catch up with the guys that are already out there to see what activities he's up to today. The goal of today is to build more information on the case, hopefully identify other locations or other people involved in the case. At this point, there's no plans for enforcement. You never know what the day is going to bring. I think I'm finally catching up. What's the last location of five tenfold.

We are in the middle of a DHS wide surge to combat the recent increase in fentanyl. We used to see fentanyl being smuggled. As, for lack of better terms, an add on drug. The majority of the drugs smuggled in the vehicle would be predominantly meth, for instance, and then there would maybe be some cocaine and maybe a package or two of fentanyl. Over time, we've seen it shift to the point where we're seeing 100 pounds of just fentanyl coming through. No other drugs are in the vehicle. That obviously is a huge cause of concern for us. This isn't a party drug anymore. People are dying. We're gonna turn right, and he's gonna be. Yep, that's him right there. That Mercedes. He's out, standing on the street, backpack coming out. Green bag has weight to it. Looked like he loaded that green bag. Headed for target location. Hello.

You coming from Mexico? Today we're doing a special operation to inspect couriers that are coming from Mexico. What city are you coming from? Now, this is your bag. Everything in here is yours. Corey is are individuals that actually make money to pick up goods and materials that are destined to come back here into the United States for people that are actually waiting for them. Yesterday, agriculture officers were x raying courier bags coming off the Mexico flight. The officer noticed an anomaly in what appeared to be a candle, and upon inspection of the candle with the anomaly, a load of fentanyl was found. The man claiming to carry food through JFK airport actually had $60,000 worth of fentanyl on him.

Three candles that had nearly two and a half pounds of fentanyl stuffed inside. Fentanyl is a very dangerous product, and we have never really encountered it in the passenger environment. Here in the passenger terminal, it's very dangerous because if you're exposed to it, it can harm you. This fentanyl inside a candle. It could have been the first test from a drug cartel. So we're doing a full blitzen on all the food couriers coming from Mexico. If there's anybody that might be a little bit suspicious, we're looking at that bag. You packed everything yourself? You did. Okay, take a look at this real quick.

This candle. There's a candle inside the bag, and that was the mode that was used a few days ago at terminal one. So we're going to take a look at this candle very closely. Got another candle? Nah, empty. Okay. Got more? Same bag? Yeah. Oh, wow. All right, so there's three other candles. Thank you. Yeah, we put the candles through the x ray, and it's a negative, but we'll keep trying. All right. These ears, I just want to lay one down and one up. Shoes, sneakers, boots. It's a very common method of smuggling. You hollow out the inside and you fill them with narcotics.

So we need to find out if anything other than what's supposed to be there is. Is there, you see an anomaly right here? Right. We found an anomaly in the toe part of the boot. Sometimes shoes made in different countries are crafted a little bit differently. So we like to just make sure that everything is on the up and up. The way these once boots are constructed, there's a very thick piece of wood with rubber on the bottom of the shoe. So even though it's very thick and it's very dense, I was able to probe through the material, and I saw that there was no anomaly. I just want to double check the heel as well, because sometimes you may be focused on one part of the shoe and not take a look at the other part. So it's heavy, right in this block.

Yeah, that's good. Everything is consistent with the way the boot is supposed to be constructed. This is some kind of liquid. Yeah. But if you look at here, same company. This goes all the way down. It goes all the way down. Okay. All right. Do you mind if I just test both of them? Yeah. Okay. This courier, he is bringing in four bottles of deodorant. One of them looks unusual in a sense that the consistency is different from the rest. So we just want to make sure it's good.

If it's something that's very small and there's no match found, and the only inconsistency is the texture of it, it's good to go for me. Thank you, sir, for your time. I do appreciate it. Okay. One of the bigger challenges that we face is the fact that a lot of these couriers they're bringing in legitimate items. But sometimes things can be something. It can be something so innocuous, something so small, like a candle. So just makes the game a little bit more difficult to play. Cars unoccupied. He's back out.

Brake. Somebody's back out. We're into the driver's seat. Driver door closed. Brake light's on. Car is away, away, away eastbound. I wonder if he's trying to find parking. I don't think he was in a valid spot. Yeah, here he comes again. Walk, pull out, maybe give him my spot. He's coming right at us, and he's got really good tint, so I can't get a side profile photo. Yeah, he's looking for a pocket spot. Center. He's pulling out, and he's going to pull into that one. Good job, Steve. Give him that spot.

He's going to walk right by me. I'm going to try to get a clear photo of him. Oh, that's fantastic. I can't believe my look. That parking spot is courtesy of the federal government. He had on the swivel like he's looking for someone or like he's being directed to something. I don't know if he's looking for someone else or looking for us, but he's still on speakerphone. Grabbed a bag out of the back. This bag is more like a plastic shopping bag. Just loaded back up in the driver's seat. Reverse lights on, backing out of the stall.

And it's a way away, away. He is westbound, making a left. Yeah, he's crossing market on eleven. Market on eleven, northbound. There he is right there. So this g street is the one that will turn into State Road 94, which is a highway in a couple blocks. If by chance this person goes to some type of shipping facility, that's of great interest to us, and if that happens, we may end up intercepting a package today. Looks like you may have pulled up into a shopping center. All right. There's a postal annex over here.

I think that's where it's parked. Yes. Confirmed. It's parked at in front of a postal annex in the shopping center. Okay. Just try to keep eyes on to see if he brings any packages inside. He just pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall that has a commercial shipping business, which is of great interest to us because we know that he ships out packages of dope. So we're gonna get set up and see if he goes in to try to send something out. Oh, there he is. I'm gonna go in and get aize on. See what he's got. I'll be off the air.

One big bag. Juice crystal like substance. There we go. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Uh oh. The reason why, as per policy within CVP, we are required to weigh protective gear is because of this. The bag broke and the substance is all over the table. If we do get exposed, it could go bad very fast. Can we have another bag? Is it loose? Yeah. Gonna have to carefully try to lift it. Get the loose stuff.

Did it drop? Yeah, but it's cause the bag's tearing down here. Yeah, this side too. Typically they put it in ziploc bags and wrap it with cellophane or tape. That makes it a real intact brick. And it's real hard for us to break the package completely. Like right now, we still have a second box to open up. Since we opened up the first one, the second one's always easier. We're gonna be testing it right there. No money. You saw that? Mm hmm.

There it is. It tested positive for methamphetamine. Gonna find out. A weight? 34.68 kg for the far port of entry. The advantage of working at the import lot here is that when we do encounter a load, it tends to be pretty substantial. The more our cars we can get out of the community, the better off the community will be. The driver will be arrested and prosecuted and the methamphetamine will be seized. One bag in the time. Right.

Everything in the bags of yours? Yeah. Did you pack the bags yourself? Yeah. Doesn't look right. It seems that the x ray technicians have discovered something inside one of the bags. So what we're going to do is we're going to search further to see if, in fact it was just an anomaly or it might be a drug. Thank you. Could you ask him if he packed everything himself for me, please? No, he didn't. Somebody else. Oh, really?

He just picked it up. He didn't pack it. Oh, wow. All right. See what we got here. What is this? Senor? Tequila. Tequila. All right. Da da da da da da da da. Tequila. Yeah. Wow. That's a big bottle of tequila. I must say. I got a few things here I'm gonna look at. I'm gonna look at those capsules. I'm gonna look at that liquid right there.

It seems that this gentleman only picked up the bag. He did not, in fact, pack the bag. So that. That's an interesting twist on this specific courier which shows anything could be in here without his knowledge. That's tequila. All right. Okay. What do we have here, sir. What's this candy gonna say? Okay, we're really trying very hard to look at every courier coming in. We're trying to see if there's. If there's a trend in drug smuggling.

All right, so I just opened up one of the candies. There's nothing inside it. These look like some kind of cracker. Looks like it might be corn or rice. Queso? No? Cocado de leche? Yeah. Okay. Basically, all kinds of sweets, but it looks like they, in fact, are just sweets. I don't see anything here. Okay, first I'm gonna test the powder testing for heroin and cocaine. Okay.

It's supposed to turn to green, but it doesn't look like there's a reaction. So this, obviously, this is not heroin, but I'm going to test it for cocaine. Okay. All right. And we're looking for pink over blue. It's a negative on this also. All right, here you go. I'm going to attest this liquid for opioids. No results. Thank you, senor. We appreciate your patience. Thank you so much. Hasta luego.

I do take it personally because I've had family members that I've had problems over the years with substance abuse, but I'm confident that if they continue to bring them in with the couriers, that we're gonna find it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I was able to just walk up, and he didn't notice. He's looking for a box, but that looks like a dope package to me. I agree, the way it's wrapped.

Okay. Looks like he's coming out. You want to do it now? He may be loading the box up right now. Yeah. Let's go ahead and bring a car in behind him. Open the door. Open the door. Unlock the door now. Do it now. You get plenty of time. Unlock it. Step out. Look here. Empty hands. On the car. On the car. On the car. Do you have any weapons on you? No. Any weapons? Okay. Can I look in your car? Okay. All right. Just relax right here for me. Okay.

We followed our shipper, and he went to a postal annex. I followed him in. I basically saw the package before he boxed it. We had reason to believe that he was about to ship out a package. We weren't going to allow him that opportunity to get those drugs out onto the street where we couldn't intercept them. So we did an impromptu encounter with him, and then ultimately, he gave us consent for the vehicle. We're gonna bring in a dog to not only sniff that package, but also the rest of the car. And see what else we can find.

Oh, yeah. That's a good hit. That's also an alert. We got it. Hello, sir. What on the. The four port of entry processes about 2500 trucks daily up to 2700 on a very busy day. Alrighty, sir. Here you go. Thank you. We're right across the river from Reynosa, Mexico. There is areas of Reynosa that is controlled by some of the cartels. They use this bridge in particular to get narcotics up into the big cities.

You have to focus on trying to intercept that merchandise before it comes into the country because it won't just affect one person, it'll affect thousands if not millions of people, depending on what the narcotic is. All right, thank you. The way I start my search on the trucks, I work my way from downwind all the way to upwind. Hopefully get lucky and catch something. She's trained on narcotics and human sense. An alert can happen anytime. But that little head turn, she'll pick it up.

Her body posture will change her breathing and of course she'll pull me to it. Up. Atta girl. Up above. Atta girl. Hey, where's it work? Yeah, definitely. This one's gonna go in. My dog. Alerted to the older president of narcotics, started going up on her own with no commands. She went in, alerted and indicated. So I'm gonna send this vehicle back to further inspections. Just wait right at the green tape and the officer will pull you right up. Alright. What are they?

It's not organic. It's some sort of plastic or glass. But there's something in there. Fentanyl was found yesterday inside of candlest, so we're checking the x rays to see anything that might resemble or look like a tall cylindrical object. Could be. Could be anything. Where do you live? Here in New York? In Queens? In Queensland. I wonder why. There's a piece of paper there. You want to keep one? Keep. No, no, I can't. Oh, I see it. That's how it's baked. These are Kendall, how many of them? Three.

Okay. All right, so the passenger I have now has one check bag and one courier bag. So these candles have piqued our interest. No more in here. They weren't exactly the same candles as we saw yesterday, but it could be that that's the concealment method that's hot right now. Or the method that they're using. So we're going to thoroughly x ray those candles and then we're going to probe them to make sure that there is nothing but wax in the candles. Can you run these through the x ray. Thank you.

How do we look? Nothing. Yeah, the x rays appear negative. We're going to probe one of them. My luck, I find the candles that are actually candles. X ray was negative, and the probe of two of the candles was negative as well. All right. Sorry. We have to check. We have to check. All right. Yeah, just, just what you do is just light it and then just put a little wax along the side. It'll stay. Okay. Thank you, my friend. No problem. Thank you. Have a good day.

Fentanyl is just a very, very bad and dangerous substance. It has to be kept off the streets, and yesterday was, was a start. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything, but we will be at it again tomorrow, and hopefully we'll have better success. So we're going to start taking them apart. We're going to have to disassemble every single pallet and go through a thorough inspection of every single item. In this struggle, you have to visually inspect every sheet. We've got to make, make sure. So that's why we're checking them individually.

Bingo. So at this point, we have one package. Looks to be about one kilo. It's a white pottery substance. Now that we have the package secured, we're gonna test it to know exactly what we're working with. Xylazine. Yeah, we don't see that a lot out here. So the first test came back positive for xylazine. That's a pharmaceutical commonly used in horse tranquilizers and also commonly found as a cutting agent for fentanyl. It's more of an east coast trend at this point. We haven't seen a lot of cases out here in southern California.

So this is a type of fentanyl testing strip. What happens sometimes on a laser is that the laser is so pinpoint that it may actually be hitting a substance that just a few molecules or a few granules over to the left or to the right would have been a different result. But with this testing strip, it kind of blends it all together and detects any traits or qualities of fentanyl being present. You take a small sample and you mix it with a solution. 1 bar means it's positive for fentanyl, and then two bars means it's negative. So this one tested positive for fentanyl.

A mixture of fentanyl and xylazine. It can be deadly to anybody who uses it. That's fentanyl mixed with some xylazine. It's not in the rectangular form still, so whatever brick it came out of, it got broken down. Is there more back at the house? No. Okay. All right, we're gonna go back there. We're pretty much wrapping up here. We're gonna break down and head over to the house and we'll affect a search on his residence. We just left the commercial shipping center and we are now headed back to the subject's residence. He's given us consent to search his house.

We're looking for anything that helps further our case. It could be other drugs, money or potentially ledgers, electronic devices, anything that connects the dots in this case. Alright, I think we're good. I'm going to move these to my truck and start bagging these. So a baggie full of about four white oval pills. We'll have to run these to get these tested. I think there's about 14 m 30 pills. These are commonly called counterfeit oxis. The gun would appear to be a nine millimeter, but it is the ghost gun or homemade pistol. Next is to get this turned into evidence.

There's also a number of addresses and mailing forms that are inside that'll give us other leads. We have to balance removing the drugs from the street while also building a good investigation. In this case, we're able to affect an arrest while he or just prior to him shipping drugs out to the east coast. With this arrest today we've stopped this shipper, which obviously he's not working in isolation. So now we work to develop more information about the network that he's working with both here in San Diego and also co conspirators out on the east coast. So we've shut down this one, but now we move on to the next.

See, we got some narcotics. This is a pretty significant note right here. Could be marijuana, could be cocaine. So we have to treat it as an unknown at this point. Over here. Oh wow. We got one right here. It's gonna be a lap. Next one? Yep. There you go. 1234-1678 910. Right now we're looking about ten packages per pallet. We have eleven pallets. We're going to be testing it to see what it is. We need to make sure what we're dealing with before we extract it. It's a green leafy substance and. But it's emitting the order of what appears to be marijuana.

A purplish shade of lilac. And that will indicate positive for marijuana. The advantage of doing it in a cargo environment, it makes it easier to transport. They do it in one truck and you only pay one person. In the case of the smuggler, instead of getting 50 different individuals involved. Stack them, stack them up.

Okay, we're gonna proceed and find out. A weight of 23 pounds. We're about six pallets in when we have about 288 kg. So far. It's just dirty, hot and humid out here. Little tiring, little workout. 78. One more layer. The final count is 85 bundles totaling 876 kg. This is a pretty big bus. It's amazing for CBP to have gotten two seizures on the same day. One of methamphetamine and marijuana. We're going to transport all the narcotics to a circular location in our local vault, and then eventually it gets destroyed.

A large population of the United States thinks that marijuana is not such a big deal. But at the end of the day, it leaves money for the cartel to attempt and bring other hard narcotics that are really dangerous for our communities, especially fentanyl, which is very easily produced and smuggled into the United States. So it feels great and it's a big hit for the cartels in Mexico.

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