Original subtitles

America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse.

It's been America's longest running and most expensive war.

Drugs are menacing our society.

Fought with enforcement and prison.

A war waged in the media.

The war on drugs has failed. All it does is enhance the drug deal.

And it's a war with no end in sight.

as the demand in the United States for drugs continues to generate billions in

profit for narcotraffickers.

So what's it like to be on the front lines of this war?

For three months, fusion embedded with the men and women who do it every day.

And they gave us an unprecedented look inside a new international anti

-narcotics operation.

While we were there...

The operation sees $400 million worth of pure cocaine.

It's a modern, high -tech war.

An often violent war.

And sometimes, a frustrating war.

This is Drug War.

There absolutely is an element of warfare here. There are a number of

that can go wrong in any mission. Every time we go out, there's an element of

danger, there's an element of risk, because we don't know what we don't know

until it happens.

We sailed with the USS Renz at the beginning of their seven -month

Her mission is to hunt traffickers in the waters off Columbia.

It's a sprawling area where 70 % of their busts take place.

The Rents is bristling with high -tech surveillance gear.

But her crew mostly depends on stealth.

But of course, so do the traffickers.

We were trying to decovert, and what happens sometimes is you'll get

like this that's not on radar anywhere.

And even with the lookouts looking, with the contact this small, they just kind

of pop up out of nowhere on what's happening. Now we've got a visual on

if we've got a visual on him, he's got a visual on me.

Tom tells me that if he's a legitimate fisherman, I'm wondering where all of

gear is.

Roger, I copy Lima Charlie.

Go ahead and steer towards him.

BWC, Rents has a fishing vessel that is mirroring their movements.

There's no visible fishing gear from the Rents right now.

Rents wants permission to launch the helo, take a closer look, see what's

on.

Fighting the drug war isn't a run -and -gun operation.

Every move the Rents makes has to be approved here, at this command center in

Florida.

Why would he be out here this far?

We plan to go find out, so I'm waiting for the boss to tell me what he wants me

to do.

Our job is to be a bit like a clearinghouse.

We get information from all different kinds of sources.

Some of it is from human sources. Some of it is from partner nations. Some of

is from surface assets afloat.

And then we determine who's got an asset that can then take action on the

highest priority target.

This is Comfort Fleet. Do you have permission to launch your helo? Take a

look at that vessel.

Fort Fleet, out.

Might be a fisherman, might not be.

We're going to go out there and try to find this guy, and then we'll see if

we're going to board him or not.

The Renth is just one ship that's part of the multinational anti -drug

Launched in 2011, it's called Operation Martillo, the hammer.

Operation Martillo working exactly as it's designed to.

U .S. working bilateral agreements with the Colombians using multi -national

forces together to hammer the living hell out of the bad guys.

The best way we can combat these drug traffickers down here is to take their

large loads of contraband from them as close to the source as possible.

Let's get close. He's got them.

He's got them.

The USS Rent uses a helicopter to get a closer look at a suspicious vessel.

Roger,

understood. You have good, solid visual on the target.

We're very far from land. We're almost 180 miles from land. That's a long ways

out for a fishing vessel to be.

So, you know, is he legitimate?

Possibly. But there's more reasonable suspicion there for him not to be

legitimate, to be this far out.

All right. We know you got a good shot.

But this isn't the only chase for Martillo right now.

Command Center is keeping an eye on another investigation in the Pacific.

The U .S. Department of Homeland Security provides a covert surveillance

another major drug trafficking route.

Yes, sir, we have a contact on radar. It's moving at a high rate of speed.

showing about 40 knots.

The P -3 Orion surveillance plane used to hunt Soviet subs during the Cold War.

In the drug war?

that scans the ocean for small boats loaded with fuel cans and drugs.

Roger, sir. The GOFAS has changed course, and now he's heading in 035 and

35 knots and heading back into the Azuero Peninsula.

Copy, sir. The GOFAS seems to have barousel fuel on board. Let me know if

get any comps.

Copy.

Running low on fuel, but keeping an eye on it, sir. The P -3 spotted the

suspects at the tail end of its mission, but she's running out of fuel.

So the crew needs to turn to one of its partners in Operation Martillo, the

Panamanian Navy, or CENAN.

I will contact CENAN and see what they have available assets, why it's in that

area.

All right, Roger that. We'll be working with CENAN.

The ETA would be approximately 35 minutes.

There's the interceptor on narrow.

The GOFAST sees the Panamanian patrol boat and begins evasive maneuvers.

The target is increasing speed now to approximately 40 knots.

The Sinan helicopter arrives and tails the smugglers.

Suddenly, the go -fast takes a sharp turn and heads for shore at over 45

an hour.

He's heading 035 now.

This

guy's

going to beach here pretty soon, I think.

He's in a narrow road.

As soon as the patrol boat is on scene, we're attempting to locate the personnel

that went under the water.

They have the target.

We're climbing on up. We're heading back.

While keeping tabs on the situation in Panama, Central Command gets some useful

intel on its other case back in the Atlantic and passes it on to the rent.

Helicopter just visited a VID on a fishing vessel that we did not know was

here. That fishing vessel back in 2010 was found to have a false bottom. It's

most likely still operating illegally.

It's probably carrying contraband.

That false bottom is enough for me to go alongside doing ROA.

I want you to close at 25 knots. The captain authorizes the rent to approach

fishing boat.

But here's where it gets tricky.

The U .S. military can't legally go after drug smugglers.

I have zero law enforcement background. I have zero law enforcement authority.

That's where the U .S. Coast Guard comes in.

As the U .S. Coast Guard, we fall under the Department of Homeland Security.

We can operate pretty freely out here without the same restrictions that

Department of Defense personnel do.

When this ship operates under the Coast Guard, we got a tactical control ship to

them. They become my boss.

They just changed course of speed according to combat. And, of course, the

intercept is 113.

113, aye.

Yes, visual.

The boat's about to go in the water.

As soon as the boat goes in the water, I'm going to close and get top cover. So

I've got real good lines of fire in case something sprawly happens like he

decides to shoot.

Back in Panama, the boat suspected of drug running ran aground.

Those aboard made a run for the jungle, leaving behind the go -fat and two sacks

of drugs.

But they need to find the suspect.

And the operation becomes a manhunt.

There's these fast boats, the go fast, so -called.

You don't believe the source zone, Colombia and Ecuador.

The first place they really can be interdicted is in Panama.

Panama has become a central highway for narco -traffickers.

The police here have seized more drugs than any other country in Central

America.

In this case, they lose the suspects

in the dense jungle, but the operation isn't a total loss. Two stacks were

recovered. However, these boats usually carry up to 40, so it's possible there's

more drugs and clues hidden in the go -fast.

It was a game of entanglement that was done by the personnel of the FENAN,

personnel of the region of Commander Rodríguez, in pursuit, guided by the

aircraft up here, and until they got to the coast.

This was with the help of the U .S. Air Force.

They gave us the information, we moved our boats, we moved helicopters, also a

lot of resources were moved for this capture.

District Attorney Mora has been working cases like this for years, and he can

tell a lot from the way the cocaine is packaged.

All told, the two stacks contained 38 bricks of cocaine.

aspecto intrusivo de la embarcación.

Bob is up and down on the horizon, but he's right under that helo right now.

There we go.

The other

guy came out, got his phone, and just started making all kinds of hand

Not very happy that we're here.

Meanwhile, the rents and the Coast Guard carefully approach the fishing vessel.

This could be the first drug bust of their mission.

Once

we actually

launched that small boat to go carry out a law enforcement boarding on a suspect

vessel. We can't hit the pause button and have a redo. Depending on what

nationality they claim for the vessel, that will determine exactly what steps

have to take to get that country's permission to get on board.

I cannot in any way, shape, or form influence him in his decision -making,

because if I do, I've overstepped my bounds.

The crew on the rent hopes this will be their first bust of the season, but it

won't be easy.

Everything has to be by the book.

But the boat raised the Colombian

flag. and brought this operation to a standstill. We need to get all the

that need to be answered. We need to send that back through our chain of

and then make a determination based on the boarding officer's suspicions, based

on the answers given, based on what we see, patterns of life, historical

things we've seen in the sky, all this type of information.

They have to make a determination. Do we have sufficient probable cause or

reasonable suspicion to go on board?

If we do, then we'll go on board and actually conduct a boarding.

The biggest challenge right now is being patient, because everybody wants to get

the bus, including me.

So up the chain it goes, to the 4th Fleet Command in Florida.

On the rent, they wait.

Mora's search has to be meticulous.

Without the suspects in custody, he has to scrutinize everything.

This phone card might reveal a lot about the traffickers and their buyers,

if there's any data to read.

Mora's team is convinced there's contraband hidden somewhere in the go

After tearing apart the boat for hours, They think they may have a breakthrough.

But they find nothing.

They lost the suspect, and the seizure is small.

But Mora calls the operation a success.

He says they seized a million dollars worth of cocaine that will never make it

to the United States.

The crew on the rent hopes this will be their first bust of the season.

But it won't be easy.

Everything has to be by the book.

Typically, we're able to ascertain from the helicopter that there is no flag

being flown. There are no indicators of nationality on the board of the vessel

whatsoever. And at that time, we can go through a process to assimilate that

vessel without nationality.

What that allows us to do is basically approach that vessel as if it was

stateless. and not have to go through the extra considerations of contacting

specific nation to get their permission to conduct boarding.

127 is no, not recommend boarding.

Roger, good copy, stand by, I'm going to send the outboard jets out.

After getting a closer look, the Coast Guard thinks this fishing vessel is

legit. This is 4th Fleet, roger, out.

VWC, Renton's lead at team came back, they recommend not boarding.

They noticed that the child's on board, they talked to the captain.

And the captain's story checked out. He just took his nephew out, and there's

other fishing vessels in the area.

LIDET doesn't seem necessary to board the vessel right now.

All right. So everything's checking out there?

So far, LIDET, when they went over there, everything's checked out, and no

boardings been conducted.

All right. Have them knock it off.

Roger.

This is Comfort Fleet. Stand down, LIDET team. Bring them back to the ship.

Comfort Fleet concurs. Do not board the vessel. Far away is complete.

Turn back to mother.

Jive is going with the boarding team's recommendation not to board.

and they said they have nothing further for us at this point.

This operation for this specific craft is over.

It can certainly be frustrating at times, but we're here. We're going to

fighting the fight and taking as much contraband off the waters before it

the streets.

There's no doubt in my mind that what we're doing as a single ship in a sea of

potential bad guys and movements and flow every night is a drop in the

But what we take off the streets is significant.

The drug business is a $95 billion business, of which $94 billion of it is

profit. If we weren't such big consumers of drugs, the cartels would not make

very much money.

On the next episode of Drug War, how a Panamanian port becomes a deadly

battleground.

And meet the covert agents and informants fighting the drug

war.

And when one is tortured, they end up with one's family and the last one to

is one.