Original subtitles

On this episode of Drug Wars, Panama's Border Patrol continues a mission to

capture a group of Colombian drug smugglers in the indigenous region of

Gunayala.

The local natives are beginning to suffer the consequences of drug traffic

their region.

Meanwhile, the U .S. Coast Guard is about to intercept a fast boat smuggling

drug.

When an unidentified boat appears out of nowhere and changes the entire

operation. The

decades

-long war on drugs is a constant battle.

With the growing demand in the United States, cartels are moving an endless

supply of drugs.

Quasity for cocaine.

Fusion is taking you inside the drug war. The front lines of Operation

a multinational counter -narcotics operation.

In just three months, we witnessed over 15 tons of drug seizures, totaling over

$800 million.

This is Drug Wars.

155 and 14 on the line. On the previous episode of Drug Wars.

The U .S. Coast Guard was on a night operation to intercept drug smugglers

traveling in the Pacific just off the coast of Guatemala.

The Coast Guard spotted the smugglers, who were now at full speed trying to get

away, forcing Coast Guard officers to fire warning shots and try to disable

their engine.

We will now be sending OTH inbound to take positive control.

Maneuver the cutter to course 010 to close the distance.

The small Coast Guard boat quickly heads to intercept the smugglers.

Suddenly, they receive a radio call that another unidentified boat is also

heading towards the smugglers.

With this mission taking place so close to Guatemala, it seems this country's

authorities also had intel on the smugglers.

But they are now heading straight towards the Coast Guard's small boat.

The two law enforcement authorities can mistakenly fire at each other if they

cannot communicate.

A blue -on -blue in the middle of the ocean can be deadly.

With the weather taking a turn for the worse and a Guatemalan police boat in

area, the Coast Guard's small boat decides to veer out of the hot pursuit

avoid conflict.

District 11, District 11, cut about well, cut about well.

OTH is holding off right now.

Right now, there's a Guatemalan interceptor that's also coming on

They have a blue light on, and our helo's in night vision. They have night

vision goggles on right now.

I heard that the target of interest is also shining lights at the helo,

which is going to mess up their ability to actually see the horizon.

Our small boat right now is... standing off from the TOI.

The only thing I can guess is that the interceptor got there before we did.

Our small boat is currently standing off.

We've just recovered our helo, and we should be on scene in approximately 10

minutes. The ship calls back the helo and small boat. Now that the Guatemalans

took over the mission, the captain wants a full report of what went down.

Right now we're just going to kind of monitor the...

a big Guatemala interceptor in the TOI, and see what they end up doing.

On the previous episode of Drug Wars, Panama's Border Patrol, Cenefront,

received intel about three Colombian traffickers stashing drugs in a remote

indigenous region. An operation to capture the smugglers was planned, and

Cenefront had two suspects in custody.

After interrogating the smugglers, one agreed to collaborate and reveal the

location where the drugs are stashed.

But they haven't found anything yet.

Officers feel he may be trying to give them the runaround.

After inspecting the sack of drugs, the agents realize this is much less than

the intel suggested.

The intel agent manages to get a confession about a third suspect, who is

apparently the only one who knows where the rest is buried.

Why don't you help us with what's missing, brother?

Tell me.

The partner, partner.

But what's his name?

Enrique Parra.

The closest village is Nargana, the most likely place where the third

Colombian suspect is looking for engine parts.

The team returns to the center front base.

The two suspects will remain in custody until the agents find the third

accomplice, and one of them decides to collaborate and lead them to the rest of

the 50 kilos.

Colombian drug runners started to use a new route, moving drugs through an

indigenous region called Gunayala in Panama, tempting some of the locals into

making loads of money by working for the narcos.

Since

2011,

Centerfront has partnered with the Guna Indians in an effort to maintain a law

enforcement presence in the area and a better relationship with the indigenous

community.

One of the latest agreements between Centerfront and the Guna authorities is

strategic checkpoint on the only road that connects the mainland to the

province.

Local Guna have enlisted Centerfront to work at the shared checkpoint.

They hope this will help keep the peace with the natives so they feel protected

and not controlled.

The place

is

important because the place where it is established...

If the gringos come, why don't they make the same

request to the gringos, to the foreigners?

but to the Kunas, right? And that's a discrimination.

The Kunayala region, the Kunas, are not drug traffickers, right?

Unfortunately, we are in a transit place in Colombia, right? We are victims of

the great drug traffickers.

Most of them are Colombians who are indigenous, who are buying...

to make the transceiver to transport it.

The indigenous peasants are also involved.

Not all cunas are drug traffickers.

If you are going to talk about a cuna, the cunas are not going to Colombia to

look for drugs, right?

The drugs fall in the region and I don't know if when they are persecuted or

they throw it on purpose, that I don't know.

It really is something that the General Congress today understood.

That is, that the drug not only passes through there, And he's going to tell

United States that drugs come to his island, that drugs come to his

and affect his children.

We're going to see bultos, the narcos passing by, throwing bultos at the

There's little style.

What they find, they hide it, they keep it, and they start selling it. They

start looking for their contacts, who they sell it to, who they don't sell it

to.

A night pursuit in the Pacific forced the U .S. Coast Guard to fire warning

shots at a smuggler boat when they refused to stop.

Suddenly, Guatemalan authorities also showed up on the scene, creating a

dangerous situation that almost caused a blue -on -blue situation.

Once the officers return to the Coast Guard cutter, the captain gets a first

-hand account of what took place.

They were shining lights right in their eyes, like purposely to try to blind

them. And then when they did, they did warning shots, which we were like right

off their foul for. The TOI, they did the warning shots, and the TOI started

hitting us right at us. Yeah, I heard you say that. So we got out of there,

they were way closer than what we thought.

And then that Guatemalan boat was coming right for us.

So we thought that they thought of... We were the T .O .I. The Guatemalans were

scaring me because they were headed right for me, and they were closing

I veered out of there, and then I got away, and then I saw the warning shots

off, and then we turned our blue lights on, and then the Guatemalans veered away

from us.

He, like, went right on top of them, and then they disabled one engine, and as

soon as they disabled one engine, the one guy went overboard, and he was

on to the side of the panga, getting dragged behind.

Right now, Guatemalan forces have boarded the smuggler's boat and are

questioning the suspects.

Now that they've successfully interdicted the Panga, we're going to

heading towards our position. There's still a couple of questions that need to

be answered, such as if they're going to transfer the suspects that they have on

the Panga to our vessel.

After conducting a search, Guatemalan police confirms drugs on board and that

some bales were tossed overboard.

We're going to try to find some of the contraband.

Most likely if it's weighted we won't find anything, but if it wasn't

weighted... What we're going to do is just hope that, you know, some of it's

collected together so we can actually see it here at night.

Next morning, a joint search for the floating bales of drugs begins.

Not too far, the crew spots a few bales.

Because

these

are international waters and the U .S. has an agreement with the Guatemalan

police, the drugs and the suspects will remain in the custody of the U .S. Coast

Guard.

It soon turns out the suspects were wanted for another open drug trafficking

case that the U .S. Coast Guard was assigned to.

The Boutwell is almost at full capacity.

With over $500 million in drugs aboard the ship and now several trafficking

suspects attained, the crew must decide if they continue on the mission or they

head to land.

This effort against drugs, has been going on for some amount of time and

continue to go on for some amount of time.

As long as there is a demand for drugs, there will be an effort to stop that

demand. And the best way that we can do that in the Coast Guard is by

interdicting the drugs in the maritime domain as close as possible to the

supply.

Panamanian Border Patrol got intel about 50 kilos of drugs moving into the

Gunayala region.

So far, they surprised two Colombian smugglers with only some of the drugs.

The suspect confessed that a third accomplice headed to town to find parts

the broken engine, and he's the one who buried the rest of the drugs.

Now, intel agents hit the streets, looking for any unfamiliar faces and

suspicious characters.

Soon, a local informant claims to have seen a Colombian fisherman asking around

for a boat mechanic.

The agents continue their search until they get word that the fisherman is at a

local restaurant.

Investigaciones. ¿Qué hace por acá?

Comandamos un prestito.

¿Pero usted es colombiano?

¿Su pasaporte?

No tengo pasaporte. ¿Y cómo ingresó al país?

Por lancha.

¿Por lancha?

Pero tiene que tener pasaporte.

Ronnie, come here to the canteen in the center.

Yes.

Get up, please, gentleman.

With the statement of the informant, where he described a person of brown

in an indigenous population, it was not difficult for me to know that he was in

front of the presence of the subject he was looking for.

Let's proceed to the base for a verification, okay?

Agents decided to detain and bring in the fishermen for further interrogation,

but they are still uncertain if this is the third suspect from the beach.

In Panama, authorities have surprised two Colombian smugglers trafficking

through the Gunayala region, and now a third suspect has been detained.

Our cameras were not allowed in the interrogation, but agents got the

to cooperate and are now planning a mission to head back to the island.

The next morning, center front units return to the island in hopes the

will lead them to the rest of the drugs.

The intention of the subject is to collaborate, so we have the faith that

will is true and that he will take us to the location of these packages.

Are you sure it's here?

Intel paid off.

Now that the complete 50 kilos are seized and three suspects detained,

can focus on which organization sent the drugs and who is the buyer.

No hay más?

¿Seguro? ¿Puedo buscar y no encuentro más?

Ok.

Centerfront units waste no time to continue the investigation.

The drugs and the three suspects are soon transported to the main base in

City.

Once at the base, the district attorney processes and tests the drugs to

determine which substance it is.

While all the legal paperwork on the thief contraband is finished, intel

officers are already working on building a case beyond the three smugglers,

hoping to dismantle this drug route in the indigenous region.

As pressure from law enforcement increases, cartels look for new routes

their product.

Gunayala's proximity to Colombia has made it a preferred route for narco

organizations like FARC, ELN, and the BACRIM.

who attempt to lure Guna Indians into drug trafficking.

On the next episode of Drug Wars... The Dominican

Republic's drug enforcement is on an undercover pursuit to dismantle the

Venezuelan cartel.

And the U .S. authorities join the mission to track down the narcos

drugs into the Dominican Republic.