Original subtitles

On this episode of Drug War, Panamanian police race to stop

smugglers heading for Costa Rica.

And the USS Rance heads to the Pacific on new intel.

My hope is we come through the canal and they get an immediate vector to go get

bad guys.

But first, they must cross the Panama Canal.

The whole time we're trying to keep the ship off the two concrete barriers that

has no rubber on it and nothing to help me but us.

The war on drugs is now in its fifth decade.

Dealed by the men in the United States, it continues to generate billions for

the cartels.

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 seized $400 million

worth of pure cocaine.

This is Drug Wars.

In Panama, a SWAT team is on a manhunt for a local gang leader.

The intel came from three Colombian traffickers arrested after a manhunt.

The Colombians gave up the buyer, a gang member called El Topo.

Panamanian intelligence linked him to narco -trafficking gangs in Panama.

Regular police don't patrol these streets.

This is a risky mission for the SWAT team.

that they have given us, that they have trusted us to bring as a consequence the

capture of both illicit substances and the people involved in this smuggling.

SLL means black blood.

They are dedicated to the smuggler.

Other organizations hire them to kill their enemies or for any job of

that they need.

Also to take care of drugs,

what is drug sales, all this.

Here we can see the message that they send to the police.

They hate us, as you could say.

Here we are going to talk to a neighbor to see how the area is.

Don't worry, no robberies.

No,

don't be sad.

The SWAT team captain asked our cameras to stay behind.

It's very hard to get anyone to talk to the police.

much less with cameras around.

A few minutes later, the officer rejoins the group.

He says he was able to get crucial intel on El Topo's whereabouts.

But the patrol car fails to meet them.

The team is stranded, exposed, and drawing unwanted attention.

In a previous episode of Drug Wars, the crew on the USS Rance were about to make

their first bust of the season.

But the boat turned out to be legit.

Delta, 1 .7 is no.

I do not recommend boarding.

Roger. This operation for this specific craft is over.

We'll recover the team. We'll recover our guys.

Get the boat back on board and proceed on whatever the following task may have

for us.

As it turned out, new intel soon came in, and Central Command ordered Lantier

and his crew to the Pacific.

But first, they have to cross the Panama Canal.

I'm expecting us to get turned on to active cases pretty quickly. My hope is

come through the canal and I get an immediate vector to go get back at us.

14 ,000 ships transit the canal every year.

That's almost two ships per hour every day.

Right now, they're backed up and short on tugs.

Lance here is on his own.

It's 108 foot wide, and I'm 47 foot wide. That gives me about 25 foot on

side. That's not a lot of room.

It's looking good. Yeah, we're coming over.

No, we're good.

We can see. We're on the right side now. We're good.

You're perfect.

The Panamanian pilot arrives on board to assist, but it's up to Lance here and

his navigators to get them through.

So I'm watching the buoy.

I'm watching the shipping.

I'm watching the ranges, and I'm listening to you.

No boom.

No crash.

No bang.

If I need us to come right along, I will tell them that. But the one that's

driving the whole problem for me is my navigator. He's got the chart.

He's spotting fixes as we go.

And what he's plotting is how far left and right am I drifting and what my set

is. So he's having a set and drift, and he's giving corrective coursing the

entire time to keep us either in the center or to the right.

You have to basically hold a ship that wants to twist to port at slow speed off

of both sides of the pier.

So to say it's challenging is an understatement.

In Panama City, a SWAT team is stranded in one of the city's most dangerous

neighborhoods.

After talking to an informant, the officers fear the gang might come after

Finally, the patrol unit arrives.

Once out of danger, the SWAT team reports that El Topo was spotted

leaving in a vehicle.

possibly making a run -up to Costa Rica.

The police begin to set up roadblocks as quickly as possible.

For us, it is very important that the checkpoint is surprising.

They are most likely to be leaving in a vehicle from Chumical to the outskirts

of Veracruz. So, they are pending here at this checkpoint.

The descriptions we have are two people in black T -shirts, one person in white

T -shirts, thin.

We don't know the descriptions of the vehicle, but we know that one of them is

armed.

The police do what they can, but without a description of the car, they think El

Topo may have already eluded them.

Meanwhile, the rent is on her way to the Pacific, where a new case is in the

works. But her crew can't rush this canal crossing.

We are going to get as close as we can to that port side wall about still

maintaining in the middle. That's about that 25 -foot area we're talking about

to either side.

Lanthier's crew guides the rents to the first lock, beginning a painstaking 10

-hour journey across Panama.

The other issue is just a constant, you know, kind of fight with the ship and

the current because there's a little bit of rip current he's telling me about

here that we need to watch.

The only source of propulsion on the rents is one propeller at the rear of

ship.

There are no bow thrusters.

Nothing to help steer or rotate the ship quickly.

For land here, it means every move has to be calculated at least 100 yards in

advance.

Speed over ground.

We'll be a long night. We won't be done until probably 3 o 'clock in the morning

or so. We'll be tired by that point.

They got us here. They got us here. We'll wait for the lines from there.

So now they're going to start pulling us.

There's only feet to spare on each side.

But finally, the Panamanians hook the ship up to mules.

All mules are tensioned.

These electric trains will guide them safely through the canal.

It'll be another seven hours and two more crew rotations before the rent hits

the Pacific.

Not far from the rents in Panama City, the police have been setting up

roadblocks throughout the night, hoping to catch a drug trafficker known as El

Topo.

Panama officials estimate that some 25 tons of drugs move by land from Panama

Costa Rica every year.

The roadblocks go on for hours with no luck.

Major Gill and his team think someone may have tipped off El Topo.

Panama SWAT teams led by Major Gill set up surprise roadblocks.

They're acting on a tip with few details.

They think of calling off the operation until their luck suddenly changes.

I heard a scream from a tire, a brake, and I heard it from a place that had no

exit.

Major Gill and his team wonder if this is just a stolen car.

not their target.

It looks like this may be El Topo's car after all.

Major Gil says local gangs in Panama have become very powerful, working with

Mexican and Colombian cartels. But it's not just local gangs.

According to intelligence reports, the Gulf cartel, Beltran Leyva, Los Zetas,

and Juarez Cartel, have all been involved with drugs and killings in

The crew on the Wrens have just cleared the Panama Canal and are now in Pacific

waters, waiting for orders from command.

Wren, this is Comfort Fleet over.

There may be a big shipment tonight on the move south towards Columbia.

We've got a pending case right now we're going out on. We think it could become

an active and targeted case very quickly.

So as soon as we get clear of the Subaru here, we'll move in high speed.

One Bravo GTE online maximum available at 35 knots.

Our job is that we go out here, find them, and once we find them, stop them.

On their way out to deeper waters, the engine suddenly shuts down.

The rent is actually on her final voyage.

At 30 years old, she'll be decommissioned in San Diego at the end

deployment, so not everything is as reliable as hoped.

Yeah, I've got a 30 -year -old ship. Got it.

And in the last two years, we've done a lot of work to keep the ship up.

Right now, the engine won't start.

The engineers have to figure out what's wrong

and fat.

We traced it down to there was not enough voltage going into our spark

Now, the entire mission depends on the engineering team.

They have to scramble to replace the cable, or they'll be out of commission

tonight's operation, or maybe even longer.

We've had a casualty to one of our engines, and we need a part to get the

fixed.

Most of these parts are having to fail on the engine, especially on a shifted

stage. They're not readily kept in the stock system on the ship because they

don't normally fail.

I have to place this order. We are already on satellite phone.

Up here on the O3 level is actually the best spot to actually make a phone call.

If you try calling another place, a lot of times the infrastructure gets in the

way of the signal.

Hi, this is Lieutenant Manolo with the USS Rent.

I'm calling to place a CASREF mill strip order for a Category 3 CASREF, please.

You're telling me that this part is not in stock in any of the warehouses in the

supply system?

Check to see if it's on any other storerooms in the fleet.

Oh, okay.

Wow. All right, so this party isn't even available on any of the other ships.

In Panama, Major Gill and his team captured a van stocked with hidden drugs

they believe belongs to a local gang member and drug trafficker, El Topo.

that use the different criminal organizations to try to make fun of the

authorities.

We can see the work they do in the vehicles in order to be able to make

their double funds.

The strategy of the criminal groups is, when they are already on the ground, to

go to Central America to later reach their most precious market, which is the

United States.

Critics say these kinds of small busts don't scratch the surface.

But Major Gil disagrees.

In 2012, Panama's Ministry of Public Security estimated that up to 7 ,500

belonged to gangs affiliated with cartels.

The USS Rents is dead in the water with an engine failure.

They're on an active case and need to find a replacement part fast.

Oh, okay.

Wow. All right, so this part isn't even available on any of the other ships.

What I'm afraid of right now is since it's not available, Priority Material

Office may have to go out and do an emergency buy. The issue with that is if

part is not readily available on the shelf of the actual company that makes

it could be a long time if they have to manufacture it. Lead time can be, you

know, a couple hundred days.

Basically, we would not be able to continue our counter and our product

if we do not hit this part.

One of the challenges being down here in Fourth Fleet, this area of the world,

unlike any other fleet in doing this mission, is we don't have any forward

operating bases down here. So anytime we need a part for an emergent repair, it

takes quite a bit of coordination to get it out to us.

What I want to do is go catch bad guys. And so we want to get fixed

and we want to get back out on mission very quickly, knowing we're the only

asset down here.

On the next episode of Drug Wars.