Original subtitles

On this episode of Drug Wars, the USS Wren finally gets new intel on an

smuggler. But now, the ship is more than 100 miles away.

And a routine patrol near Panama City stumbles onto something big.

The war on drugs is now in its fifth decade. America's

public enemy number one in the United States.

is drug abuse.

Fueled by consumers in the United States, it continued to generate

the cartel.

For three months, Fusion embedded with the men and women fighting the modern

-day war on drugs.

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

-narcotics operation called Martillo, The Ham.

While we were there, the operation seized $400 million worth of pure

This is Drug Ward.

In a previous episode, the USS Wrench received intelligence about a fishing

vessel running drugs.

But with an overwhelming number of boats in the area, the ship picked the wrong

one to track.

We might stumble on something.

We might not.

Wrench, this is.

CTF -40, redirect your location close to 25 miles west of Brennaventure.

Over. But the Rents receives fresh intel on suspect and gets help from the P -3

surveillance plane.

Victory 7, advisement ready to come.

We have a suspicious fishing vessel in the vicinity of 0325 north, 07830

west, on a course of 065, 6 knots.

White Hole.

Roger. We have a good copy and all information, so we'll go in and try and

visual ID on it.

Sport Fleet, roger. Out.

Armed with the new lead, the rent speeds towards the new coordinates.

With luck, they can catch the traffickers before they hand off their

another boat.

This is rent. Roger. Out.

Watch out. Contact of interest.

0 -6 -3 -5 -north. 0 -8 -1 -5 -0 -what?

Track 2. Plot that. Need a bearing and range to it.

Bridge Combat.

We have a contact of interest.

We're plotting a bearing in range at this time.

Flight radar.

Go ahead, radar.

They have past information of a fishing vessel off the west coast of Columbia.

They want us to go and investigate.

Contact bears, 279.

Bridge Combat, contact bears, 279.

Captain Lancier plots his course carefully.

He needs to calculate every move perfectly to make this bust happen.

Meanwhile, in Panama City, a Sinan unit prepares for a patrol.

With an increased presence of Colombian traffickers making short runs from

Colombia, this unit remains vigilant.

They spot a few small fishing boats, but one in particular catches their

attention.

The boat seems even more suspicious as they approach.

It's covered by a tarp and seems to have no fishing gear.

Sinan boards, but asks our camera to stay behind while they conduct the

In the Pacific, the rents is finally closing in on a target, a fishing boat

suspected of smuggling a large shipment of drugs.

Launch the helo. Launch the helo, aye, sir.

The P -3 plane already has eyes on the target and begins to track the vessel.

We have a duty on the target. It's the only target in the area.

Flight, we can go ahead and start a descent.

All right, we'll descend on down. Three, we're heading on in.

Contact bearing.

Two, seven, six, ten thousand yards.

Relying on solid intel, the Coast Guard and the Navy are starting to think this

may lead to a bust.

The crew

plans every detail while trying to anticipate any course changes their

target could take.

What's happening is every time we get an updated position passed to us, that

gives us a position for him, it gives us a course and speed for him, we then

calculate an intercept to get there as quickly as we possibly can.

We're turning towards the target right now. We have

an ATF approximately 20 minutes.

Combat bridge, what course do you want us on?

Covering so much distance with so many course corrections could leave time for

the smugglers to hand off their load of drugs to another boat and escape back to

land.

Back in Panama City, a Sinan patrol surprised a crew of Colombian fishermen.

Officers carefully board the boat and ask our cameras to stay behind.

The officer comes out and confirms finding suspicious packages on board.

That's enough to detain his crew and haul the boat back to port for a full

inspection.

They proceed to tow the boat and alert the commander of a possible bust.

When safely back at the Sinan base, officers wait for daylight to proceed

the search.

The crew was detained, and the captain has to accompany the officers as they

search his boat.

As they inspect every compartment, they quickly realize these guys are

not fishermen.

Upon checking the documents, Sanan officers see that nothing matches and a

of paperwork is missing.

one of the officers spots something in the lower deck.

The USS Renz is quickly approaching a fishing vessel that intel indicates is

carrying a large shipment of drugs.

As the helicopter crew readies for flight, the ship carefully positions

to remain undetected by the fishing vessel.

We have a visual.

Caller Hall, and it's heading 065 at 6 knots.

Vickery 7 came back. Currently hold video of five personnel on board. Give

permission to launch their helo.

Helo, Red Stingers, off deck.

With the weather taking a turn for the worse, the plane and helicopter may lose

sight of their target.

The helicopter is now overflying

the fishing vessel.

but can't find it on their infrared camera, or FLIR, as they struggle

the heavy clouds.

The rents is bearing down on smugglers that have eluded them for hours. A

fishing vessel that Intel suggests is carrying a large shipment of cocaine.

The helicopter finally has a visual on the target.

So, the P -3 surveillance plane heads home.

From Red Stinger.

I have a white vessel with a blue hull, sir.

On course 065 at 6 knot.

First combat, we have a contact with a white vessel with a blue hull.

My helicopter is on station. It has visual, and it is circling outside of

visual range and outside of audio range, so it's basically operating covertly

with its lights on.

Meanwhile, on the ship, the crew prepares to launch the RIB, in full

and into rough waters.

They're making an approach to the target vessel in the cover of darkness right

now. We're trying to maintain a covert approach to this vessel with the helo

operating well outside of audible range.

About to get the ship as close as I can get.

Have the helicopter go over.

Try to close in on him, see what he's going to do before I go over.

The Coast Guard begins their approach carefully.

They want to be able to surprise the smugglers, giving them no time to

their weapons, if they have any.

Once

the

spotlight hits the fishing vessel, everyone on board will realize they're a

target.

And the situation could turn hostile at any moment.

Back in the Colom base in Panama, Sinan crews are searching every nook and

cranny of this Colombian fishing boat.

They've found nothing so far.

But they're determined to find the drugs that they believe are hidden somewhere.

That is, unless the smugglers manage to dump them before the Sinan crew arrive

By the looks of this old boat, it seems to have been used for smuggling before

But so far, every compartment Sinan cracks open turns up empty

Suddenly, under a water tank, the officers spot a false bottom and find a

compartment full of heavy sacks that appear to be tightly packed drugs.

The officers proceed to arrest the suspects.

The smugglers now realize the gravity of their situation.

We are going to proceed to take it to the safe place, which is our main base

Cocoli, where we are going to proceed to finalize with the verification of the

load.

There we proceed then with judicial support to open one by one of the

do the revision of the packages, and that is where they are going to certify

in reality of what type of substance is illicit.

On the rinse, Lieutenant Anthony of the Coast Guard authorizes a search of the

suspicious fishing vessel that intel says is trafficking.

Flight scooter, Kilo is going over. Stand by.

We're going to go ahead and have the Kilo go over, and essentially what

going to do is drop down in elevation and illuminate the target vessel with a

searchlight to aid the boarding team as they're making their final approach.

Kilo, of course, is going over.

Kilo going over, aye.

Coast Guard, bridge.

Kilo going over. Aye.

Aye. Confronting smugglers is always risky, so the Coast Guard takes every

precaution to coordinate every move with the ship and the helicopter.

The Coast

Guard pulls up to the fishing vessel and lets

the suspects know they're coming on board.

At this time, over.

We have permission

to board

at this time.

The crew on the fishing boat lowers their ladder to the boarding team and

a Coast Guard on board.

Flag, scooter, go ahead.

Overhead, the Hilo continues to provide aerial support in case something goes

wrong.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard unit locates everyone on board and proceeds to search

the ship's cargo.

The Coast Guard finds several sacks in one of the compartments.

Roger, understood.

Juliet, Foxtrot, Tango.

Break. I'm going to contact District 11 and let them know what we found. I need

you guys to go ahead and capture as much imagery as you can before you actually

touch those packages.

Looks like these smugglers were about to offload to another boat, and the rent

surprised them just in time.

VBSS and Coast Guard have found bales of what looks like contraband in the aft

fish hole, sir.

CAO, copy.

It seemed like a small bust at first.

But as the Coast Guard unit continues their search, they find even more bales

hidden all over the ship.

Well, right now, at this point, we've accounted for 80 bales of what has

positive for cocaine.

Request to transfer over to USS Wren.

I'll copy. Over.

Wren, this is a request for permission to transfer the detainees and the drugs

back to the ship.

Permission granted. Transfer detainees and drugs back to the Wrens.

Copy. Wren, come back. We have been given permission to transfer personnel.

In Panama, Sinan is transporting the 25 sacks they believe are full of drugs

back to base.

This is a large drug shipment by today's standards.

According to Tanan, this

load appears to come directly from a laboratory.

which in the drug world is as pure as it gets.

By the time these kilos hit the U .S., traffickers would have cut and diluted

each kilo at least three to four times.

With an average wholesale value of $25 ,000 a kilo, this load of 554 kilos

is worth over $50 million.

It's morning on the Renth.

The crew worked all night on the biggest bus of their deployment so far.

Pull that

door.

So here's the bolt.

It's about 880 keys, approximately.

The speed value is around 68 to 70 million.

Yeah, this is a good seizure.

The remainder of this contraband here is going to be transferred to the U .S.

Coast Guard cutter forward and will be furtherly disposed in Miami, Florida.

The Coast Guard weighs and counts all of the drugs.

In total, they seized 2 ,123 pounds, or 963

kilos.