All language subtitles for FBI.True.S04E02.720p.WEB.h264-EDITH_eng

- I'd received a phone call.

"You need to turn on
the television."

And there was
one of our partners

on a gurney,
having his chest pumped.

And he was obviously
not going to make it.

- 35-year-old, Jerry Ortiz,

shot and killed in the line
of duty Friday night.

- Executed is the way
I would describe that.

- Following the murder
of Deputy Ortiz,

the Sherif's department
sought Federal and Local
assistance

to help destroy
the Hawaiian Garden's gang.

- They said,
"We'd like you to handle
the investigation."

And I said,
"I'd be honoured."

- You're talking about
creating a task force

that has a singular mission.

And that mission is
to bring them to their knees.

- We knew that a representative
from the FBI
was coming in there.

And to tell you the truth,
we needed it.

- Thank you very much,
everybody.

- We realized,

"Man, we're looking at over
1000 law enforcement officers."

- When we picked that spot
and we showed up,

we thought,
"This is going to be huge."

- This is the thin blue line.
This is what it looks like.

- FBI! Open the door!

In the FBI,
we make a lot of headlines.

Drug busts, mob stings,

terrorist takedowns.

We understand
why people want
to tell stories about us.

- Freeze!
- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

- But they don't know
the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other,

when we're talking
agent to agent.

This is FBI True.

- The Varrio Hawaiian Gardens
is a gang
out of Southern California.

And even though
Hawaiian Gardens the city is
one square mile,

he did have at least
1,200 documented
gang members out of there

and at least 200 affiliates.

- Gary Sloan worked as a Deputy

with the Los Angeles
County Sherif's Department
for 30 years.

17 of which he worked
as a homicide investigator
and gang detective.

- I have to stop you.
So it's one square mile

and you have how many documented
gang members?

- 1200.
- Okay, that's unbelievable.

- Kristy Kottis is
a 24-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked gangs,
crimes against children

as well as
human and drug trafficking.

- Multiple murders,
multiple robberies.

The whole fear
within the community

was exactly textbook
when it comes

to what the gang life
is truly, truly all about.

And that's to put the fear
into the community,

take what you want
when you want.

Believe it or not,

the rules of the street are
actually set in State Prison.

And the State Prisons
are segregated.

Blacks do not get along
with Hispanics,

Hispanics do not get along
with Blacks.

And that tone then trickles down

into the street
when it comes to etiquette

and when it comes
to rules.

Mexican Mafia...

who is going to run
all of Southern California's
Hispanic street gangs

sets the tone as to
what you can and can't do.

And not only are you going
to retaliate against
an African-American

who is involved
in a criminal street gang,

you're also going to target
any African-American

because they are not allowed
within their community.

- Police say Latino gang membes
were looking for a Black perso,

any Black person,
to shoot and they found one."

On the day she was killed,
Cheryl Green was 14 years old.

- And this is what brought it to
another level for all of us.

We felt that, you know,
this isn't one criminal
against another criminal.

- Maureen O'Connell grew up
on the Southside of Chicago

and comes from an entire family
of first responders.

She was a special agent
with the FBI for 25 years.

She worked white-collar crimes,
violent street gangs,

and major narcotics.

- This is a bunch
of predatory thugs

against innocent citizens
in our community.

And that's something
we're not standing for.

- They were known as
the "Hate Gang."

This is a self-proclaimed name
that they gave themselves.

The reason being is because
they targeted African-Americans.

- The victims in Hawaiian
Gardens, the black victims,

they were not gang members.

We're talking about
just civilians

who wanted to just live
in the city.

- Michael S. Lowe
was a prosecutor

for the U.S. Attorney's offices
in Eastern Pennsylvania

and the Central District
of California, in Los Angeles

for 25 years.

- That's one of the reasons
that VHG called themselves
"The Hate Gang"

because they had
an avowed mission

to rid Hawaiian Gardens
of Black people.

By the time we were involved
in our investigation,

there were very few Black people
living in Hawaiian Gardens.

- Orozco was...
He was a gang member

and had been
since he was 11 years old.

He's wanted for attempted
murder

and assault
with a deadly weapon.

Orozco had shot
an African-American

who had been hired
to do some yard work.

I'm here to tell you right now,

if you have ever,
ever met pure evil,

this is pure evil.

- He had devil tattoos
on his forehead.

- Deputy Sherif Jerry Ortiz
was doing a standard patrol.

He was going
to all these targeted areas,

and sure enough,
he saw Orozco.

And they locked eyes

and Orozco took off
running down an alley

that was just adjacent
to this apartment complex.

Jerry got out of his car,

he walked up to the open door
threshold there.

He saw what possibly
could have been the suspect

and he asked that person
to come over

and talk to him at the threshold
of the door.

Jerry asked for the ID
of the person

and the guy cooperated.

Also, sitting there
was two young little girls.

There were right around
seven and nine years of age.

- Little ones, right.
- Yes.

Unfortunately,

Orozco was standing
behind the door.

- Ugh...

Between the door frame
and the door,
there was a small little crack.

He raised
a .38-caliber pistol...

Orozco had fired one round
that struck Jerry
in the side of the head.

And Jerry was dead before
he ever even hit the ground.

- It's so horrible.
Murdered, assassinated.

- Executed.
- Yeah.

- Executed is the way
I would describe that.

One of those girls
tried to tend to Jerry.

And as that person
that Jerry was initially
speaking to was leaving,

he looked back at the girl
and said,

"Don't help that pig."

- Friday afternoon,
hundreds of officers
descended on this neighborhood

after investigators say
27-year-old Jose Orozco,

known as a gang member,

shot Deputy Jerry Ortiz
point-blank in the face.

- So basically, within 24 hours
of the murder of Ortiz,

we're executing
search warrants for arrest...

- Correct.
- ...on Orozco.

- ...here on Norwalk and Carson
and much of Hawaiian Gardens
tonight

is on a virtual lockdown

as they search door-to-door
for the suspect.

- They were able to find Orozco,
cowardly.

And I say, "cowardly."
- Yeah.

Lying down in a bathtub

trying to,
you know, resist arrest.

He was handcuffed,
taken out of there.

- You're forgetting
an important part.

Mr. Tough Guy wet his pants.

- Jerry was just married
three weeks prior.

Thousands of people
showed up to his funeral.

- Without ever having met Jerry,

I went to the funeral

because I would not have missed
that funeral.

Having suffered a few
duty deaths in my own family,

I cried for him like
he was my brother that day.

- So after
Jerry Ortiz was murdered,

the Sherif's Department,

they saw a lot of overt pride

being demonstrated
for the murder.

Shrines to Orozco
found during search warrants.

"HG kills cops,"

these are graffitied
on Sherif's patrol cars.

"HG kills pigs,"
"Rest in Piz, Ortiz."

The Sherif's department
eventually went to my office.

And they said, We want
to create a task force.

Let's invite every
Federal Agency to participate.

And then we'll use every Federal
Law, Criminal Law, we can.

And we'll take as many of these
gang members off the street
as possible.

- And the reason why we named
this operation "Knockout"

is because Jerry was a boxer
on the Los Angeles County
boxing team.

- The FBI came along, like,
right at the beginning.

- I was thrilled to be on it

because I wanted to be part
of the solution.

I wanted to take these people
down.

I was willing to go after them
with everything I had

and I wasn't going to leave
anything on the field

by the time
I was done with this case.

- What was your understanding of
your role when the Bureau said,

"Hey, look, we need you to go
over VHG task force

that the United States attorney
is pulling together?"

- They said, "Maureen,
see whatever they need

and figure out a way
to get it to them."

And I said,
"No problem."

I will say that when I walked in

and being the only female
in the big conference room,

there may or may not have been

a collective group of eye rolls
from him and others.

- I don't remember that at all,
I got to tell you.

- Go ahead, Maureen.

- Sergeant Rivera asked Gary
to show me around.

He brought me all around
Hawaiian Gardens, showed me
where everyone lived.

We're driving down the street
and he said,

"Now, this guy here,
he's been in the wind for..."

it was a couple of months.

So as we turn the corner
in his white Corolla,

there's our boy that they've
been looking for, for months.
- There he is!

- I undid my seatbelt,
opened my door,

held it slightly. And he goes,
"What are you doing?"

I said, "I'm going to tackle
his ass when he comes through
this house."

And he goes, "We're going
to along just fine."

We were building packets
for a takedown

pretty much
from the very beginning.

One of the things we did,

which was at the very beginning
of social media,

is we went through
every single solitary photograph
we could find.

Officers were told,

"If you find any gang photos,
bring them to us."

We would look
at all the FI cards

and we would go from
station to station
to station to station,

and ask for any FI cards
for Hispanic gangs.

We would compare and contrast
that with the list that we had
in our possession.

- We went up on our first
wiretap in December 2005.

- First person that we came
across

and thought was going to be
the best information for us

was a guy by the name
of George Flores.

George Flores was a
long-standing Varrio Hawaiian
Gardens original gangster.

Called OGs.

All the dope was going
to George's house.

- The way these wiretaps -
any wiretap generally works -

is you find out who the...
who you have access to.

You keep trying
to move up the chain

so you intercept
the lower phone,

you see who it's calling,
you get the phone calls.

- Wiretaps would only last
for 30 days.
- Right.

- Sometimes, we would re-up
on the same person

because the information was
so great coming out of it,

but for the most part, 30 days,

we would get
our indictable offences,

and we would get
our next target.

Sometimes, that turned into
two more targets.

- So they just talked
on the phone?

- Like you couldn't believe.
- In code.

But when you have the level of
intelligence,

when you have a few informants,

when you have these years on the
streets working with these guys,

you understand
what these things mean.

- We had intercepts where he was
talking about gang business.

Meetings that would be held,

what beefs were going on

between this gang member
and that gang member.

All stuff that helps us
establish that this is a real
RICO enterprise.

The whole key to RICO is being
able to prove that there's a
criminal enterprise

through a pattern
of racketeering activity.

So it was a really good wiretap.
- What happens next?

- We were continuing
to make arrests.

Make drug seizures.

Make gun seizures.

We were getting cases charged
and convictions

on the Federal side,
on the State side.

- At one point and time,

we got some people detained

and they said,
"When is this going to stop?"

And the homicide detective,

who was in charge
of Jerry's murder,

he goes over, he opens up
that door,

he looks in there,
and he says,

"This is never going to end.
Ever."

- We were showing results
month after month.

- Now the Federal takedown
is coming.

The gang community, they know
what's going to come

after there is a police officer
shot or killed.

They know it's going
to come hard to them.

- Maureen, what's the FBI doing
as we plan this takedown?

- We were trying to determine,
first of all, the manpower
that we're going to need.

And we realized,
we don't have enough SWAT teams
in L.A. County.

- Right.
- We don't have enough
in the seven-county A.O.R.

that Los Angels handles.

We had to bring in SWAT from
San Diego and San Francisco,

and we had to tap
into all of our friends

and all these
other smaller departments.

We had all
the big federal agencies.

We realized,
"Man, we're looking at over 1000
law enforcement officers."

In addition to that,
one of my training agents

was a former HRT guy

who was on the FBI
L.A. SWAT team.

When I briefed him, I said,

"I need resources
and I need a lot of them."

And they said they would love
to come and support
this endeavor

because this was important
to all of us.

And so, now, we've got HRT
coming out

and everybody else,
and every smaller department.

All the smaller departments
wanted in, too.

Because Jerry was their brother.

This is the thin blue line.
This is what it looks like.

- This is
a logistical nightmare.

And we had to literally
write down

every team that was flying in
or coming in,

where they were going to stage,

and what route
they actually could take.

- We decided
that Los Alamitos' military base

would be the best place
for us to go.

It's close enough to
Hawaiian Gardens.

And it's big enough
to house all the big boys.

It's ramped up to a level
you can't even imagine.

- This is the largest
search warrant

that's ever been written
in the history
of the United States.

This is going to be huge.

- First of all, thank you
very much, everybody.

Thank you very much for coming.

- This is a controlled chaos.

- There are federal
arrest warrants for everybody
that we're going after.

- Just take into consideration,

this is 150 locations
being hit all at the same time.

This is unprecedented.

It will probably
never happen again.

- We had to hit at the same time

because we can't let anyone
make phone calls.

We can't let anyone
get the word out.

We can't let this guy call
that bad guy or that bad guy.

Don't think for one second
that we didn't think

that another cop could get
killed in this operation.

- So you guys were at the front
of this group.

And you're looking
at your brothers and sisters
in Law enforcement.

We're ready to execute.
- You could hear a pin drop.

- Sergent Rivera is talking,

"This is what we worked for.

All these years and I want
every one of you to understand

that when one of us gets killed,

when these people are operating
with this type of impunity,

we will stand tall

and do whatever it takes
to stop them."

- We're making a stand
against the VHG

who are taking over
this small community.

With crime, and murder,
and mayhem.

- I'm getting the chills
just now thinking about it.

Then we tell everybody,

"This is where
you're going to be.

We will not be talking to you
anymore.

You go to your staged location."
Where we have set them up.

- For officer safety,

one of the crucial things
we did,

which brings in the FBI
a little more deeply is

I assigned an FBI agent
to each location,

for any team that was coming
from out of the area.

And by 4:30 in the morning,

we were able to actually
announce

that there's a green light.

Be able to be on the radio

and officially make
that announcement

to 1500 law enforcement
officers...

Nothing that's ever
been done before.

Actually...
- Descend.

- Just descend
onto this one square mile.

And to hear
the sounds of the knocks.

- FBI, warrant, open the door.

- You hear the announcements.

- Anybody else in the house;
identify yourself.

- To see the doors
being smashed open.

- Hallway's clear.

- We got three more coming out.

- Get down on your knees,
hands on the back of your head.

- Such a collaboration
of such professionalism,

but so much emotions.

We made sure Jerry's wife,
Chela, was there.

It was unbelievable
to have her there

because all you would hear
over and over,

"Code four, target in custody."

"Code four, target in custody."

She sat there and wept
the entire time.

She just sat there and cried.

- They found meth everywhere.
- Excellent.

- Baggies all over--
Everyone was being punks

so they hooked everybody up
and I'm bringing them
all back here.

These people are getting walked
in, like he said, arrested,

being brought in by the teams.

They're walking into this place
thinking, "Holy."

"That's my neighbor, that's my
neighbor, that's a gangster.

That's a guy I sold to."

We would tell a lot of them,

when they're walking out
from being interviewed,

"Look to the ground,
do not look up.

Do not look up no matter what."

Part of that was FBI PSYOPS.

So when they walked out,
looking down,

the gangsters are like,
"Son of a bitch, they talked."

- So during this massive
takedown, how many shots fired

or incidents of violence
occurred?

- Zero.
- Zero?

- No.
- Wow, that's unbelievable.

- Everyone one of them
went down and complied.

We didn't even have one
use of force.

Not one.

- It's being called
the largest gang takedown
of the U.S.

- Doing something like this
is really the only way
we can have a major impact.

They've controlled the flow
of drugs in that community.

They basically run crime
in Hawaiian Gardens.

- Today, we have unsealed
five Federal indictments

that name a total
of 147 defendants.

This morning, 63 of those
defendants named in the
indictment were arrested.

- This was the largest gang
prosecution in U.S. history.

We charged 212 defendants
federally.

- What did Flores get?
Do you remember?

- Flores got 30 years
on a guilty plea.

- 30 years on a guilty plea?

That's pretty intense.

Imagine, you're pleading guilty
to 30 years.

- In Hawaiian Gardens,

they were saying that,
first time in years,

first time in memory
for some of them,

they could walk down the street

and not be confronted,
and just, you know,

treated warmly as a lot
of these citizens were.

We also talked a lot about
the reduction in crime.

- It was upwards close to 90%.

- You have to feel happy
about that?

- It's absolutely huge
to be able to have
that sort of an impact

on something that these people
have been dealing
with for decades.

- I was never more thrilled
with the results that we got
for everyone involved.

From Chela to the vulnerable
people of the community

to everybody else.

And the relationships
that we all forged

that we hold so dear
to this day.

And doing it together

and doing it with people
that you really love,
respect, and admire.

It was a gift,
it was a blessing.

- After Jerry was murdered,

his wife, Chela,

then put together the Jerry
Ortiz Memorial Boxing Ring.

- Right hand, Jerry, let it go!

Let it go, Jerry!

- Here's to Jerry.
- Here's to Jerry.

- To Jerry.
- To Jerry.

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