03x03 - Chasing the Dragon: The Mob and the Mujahideen

[bunniefuu]

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PERSON (on radio): , possible overdose on (bleep)

- Street, at th and th. -PERSON (off screen): Okay.

(sirens wailing)

ZAKARIYA REED: Fire Dispatch, can you add unit

that run on 's.

Here we are in little sleepy Toledo.

There's been times where I've put in opiate overdoses

in a -hour period.

It's very, very frustrating.

A lot of the deaths that we have are young...

and, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's tragic.

Right, go do your thing.

(sirens wailing)

It's an ongoing, never ending... losing battle.

MEDIC: Open your eyes, dude.

What did-- What drug did you take?

REED: What we have is, um,

uh, seemed like an accidental overdose.

We had somebody who was addicted to opiates in the past.

He admitted takin', uh, fentanyl twice today, uh, down at the park.

What we've seen here on the street is, um, a fentanyl

which is, uh, way stronger than heroin has ever been.

(sirens wailing)

I cannot believe

we had four overdoses before :

and... (mumbles)

we'll get there.

-(radio chatter) -(sirens wailing)

All right, dispatch, can you put on that run with medic ? Last one.

(car honks)

PERSON (off screen): Oh god. It's a possible overdose.

-DISPATCHER (on radio): -. -REED: That's a code .

Uh, it's a, it's a dead on, dead on scene.

SPEAKER : Shake this square world and blast off for kicks-ville.

PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: America's public enemy number one

is drug abuse.

SPEAKER : Heroin destroys everything.

SPEAKER : Prescribing pain pills

created huge numbers of addicts.

CROWD: People die! (inaudible)!

SPEAKER : Opium is cash.

It's like you're growin' bills on the bush.

SPEAKER : Crime and drug abuse go hand in hand.

It's like peanut butter and jelly.

KAMALA HARRIS: There's now an understanding

that the w*r on drugs was an abject failure.

SPEAKER : You have to stop and ask yourself,

"How did we get here?"

(fisherman speaking native dialect)

FRANK FIORDILINO: Mattanza is a Sicilian custom.

A whole bunch of fishermen get together and put out a hundred-yard net

and k*ll a thousand tunas.

The water turns red... and that's La Mattanza.

But it has a double meaning.

, it's no longer tuna that was being slaughtered,

it was Sicilian people.

My name is Frank Fiordilino and I was born into a mafia family

in in Sicily.

The Sicilian started, as early as the 's,

to transport heroin,

and in the sixties, got a little bit larger

until it just blew up in the seventies and eighties.

(horn blows)

Gaetano Badalamenti, and they would call him Don Tano,

is one of the most powerful mob bosses in Sicily.

Gaetano Badalamenti became very rich, very fast.

He got into everything...

from livestock to politics

to extortion... to construction.

He had a lot to do with the airport in Palermo,

and, uh, it's called Borsellino Falcone Airport,

but, uh, with all, with all due respect,

it should be called Gaetano Badalamenti because he did build it.

And he starts smugglin' drugs.

SPEAKER: Eventually, on an American street,

you are talking about more than a half million dollars a pound.

MARIA BADALAMENTI: Without doubt, the airport was key to his career.

It helped make the Mafia rich.

Don Tano was the boss.

I only met Don Tano when I was a child.

I'm Maria Badalamenti...

great-niece of Don Tano Badalamenti.

Don Tano was a very calm person except for moments

when he had fire in his eyes

and you could see his violence and power.

He became extremely important all over the world.

RALPH BLUMENTHAL: Gaetano Badalamenti was, uh, believed

to be responsible for %

of the heroin coming into America...

which yielded huge profits...

and that triggered a lot of jealousy among his fellow Mafia bosses.

Salvatore "Totò" Riina was the boss of the Corleonesi family,

which was the most vicious of the, uh, Mafia clans in Sicily,

and he was called "The Beast" (laughs) for a reason.

FIORDILINO: , "Totò" Riina wanted everything.

He wanted the drugs from Palermo.

He wanted the rackets and the political power from Badalamenti,

and he starts eliminating the old guard and it becomes a blood bath.

This w*r broke every rule possible.

It was kids being m*rder*d.

No more... them just killin' each other. Now it's, they're killin' everybody.

BADALAMENTI: It was an age of complete terror in Sicily.

BLUMENTHAL: It's a terrible time for Badalamenti.

Bodies are turning up all over the place.

FIORDILINO: Once his friends started gettin' picked up and k*lled,

he had to get out.

BLUMENTHAL: He's forced into exile for self-protection

and he flees to, uh, Brazil.

FIORDILINO: Anything that he made illegally

were now property of "Totò" Riina and the Corleonesi.

BLUMENTHAL: In Brazil, Gaetano Badalamenti

faces the most important crisis of his life.

He's now alone... He's lost his connections in Italy.

He's really hard-pressed for money.

How is he gonna find new sources of heroin to continue his trafficking?

How is he gonna hang on to his empire? This is a real moment of truth for him.

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: Massive Soviet military forces

have invaded the small, sovereign nation of Afghanistan.

Heavily armed troops have crossed the border

and are now attempting to conquer

the fiercely independent Muslim people of that country.

MIRWAIS FARAHI: We had only one way

and that was to fight.

REPORTER: President Carter called the Russian invasion of Afghanistan

the greatest threat to peace since World w*r Two.

FARAHI: My name is Mirwais Farahi.

I used to be the freedom fighter mujahideen

in Afghanistan in s.

I was ... very young.

Mujahid is a person who fight for the freedom of his country.

People from all different backgrounds.

Farmers, businesspeople, shopkeepers...

fighting with anything they put their hands on...

(person speaking native dialect)

to defeat Soviet Union.

I remember when they bombed Kabul.

I lost member of, uh, my family...

and, you know, it's, it's tough.

We, We get k*lled... our country's destroyed.

Farmers couldn't really grow crops.

But it was easy to grow poppy.

Cultivation start increasing rapidly.

SPEAKER: This is what it’s all about,

the bulb found inside the opium poppy.

Slit the bulb and opium oozes out.

Refine the opium and you have heroin.

DOUG WANKEL: I’m Doug Wankel.

I was DEA’s man in Afghanistan.

In , when I arrived, Afghanistan was largely viewed

as, uh, a producer of hashish and opium.

It wasn’t that big of a threat to the United States.

It was produced for internal consumption and regional consumption.

In the summer of , we saw things drastically change.

Heroin production in the border areas of Afghanistan had grown,

almost beyond belief growth.

So, it was quite concerning, uh, uh, quite alarming.

But with the Russians taking over,

we had no real access, uh, to operate in Afghanistan,

to take action against the major traffickers involved,

try to get them ar-arrested.

BLUMENTHAL: When the w*r broke out in Afghanistan,

it was very good for Badalamenti.

It was a great chance for him to rebuild his heroin empire.

He lucked out.

SPEAKER: Ten kilos of opium can be turned into one kilo of heroin.

All that's needed is water, a Bunsen burner,

a press, and some chemicals.

GREGORY LEE: We knew that there was, uh, heroin production that was increasing,

but there was nothing we could possibly do about it.

My name's Gregory D. Lee.

I'm a -year retiree of the Drug Enforcement Administration

as a supervisory special agent.

And it was very easy for heroin traffickers to transport

from the source country of Afghanistan to Pakistan, which is right next door.

SPEAKER: Smugglers find many ways of hiding their ill*gal cargo.

In this case, it was hollowed out stones.

LEE: They would take it d-down to Karachi

and they would put it in commercial shipments,

cover it up with, uh, rice or wheat, or whatever the export happened to be.

Heroin traffickers had free reign to do whatever they wanted to do.

Either Don Tano himself,

or somebody within the Badalamenti organization,

made it a point to go to a place like Karachi or Islamabad or Peshawar...

and completed a deal,

establishing a steady supply of Afghan heroin

that he could smuggle eventually to the United States.

When that took place, nobody knows.

But... the fact is... the deal was done.

FIORDILINO: Just because Badalamenti...

didn't do no more business in Sicily

didn't mean he didn't have powerful friends in other places.

He knows who’s in the drug game in the United States, so that was easy.

Once you know the players, you know the game.

BLUMENTHAL: He had relatives and connections all over the world.

In Germany... in Argentina.

FIORDILINO: Brazil has an Italian community.

He connects with them... and he creates this pipeline.

From Afghanistan to the United States...

and Badalamenti is, is, is directing this.

BLUMENTHAL: And he built this multi-billion-dollar heroin empire

based on his ability to organize

and he was absolutely brilliant at it.

When you think there's one man masterminding this, it's extraordinary.

FIORDILINO: I mean, we're Italians, we built (bleep) Rome.

BLUMENTHAL: Don Tano Badalamenti

started to send Sicilian Mafia operatives into the U.S.

to set up pizza parlors all across America.

In Illinois, New Jersey,

uh, all over the Eastern Seaboard, all over the heartland.

Heroin was smuggled in tomato cans...

in olive oil cans...

in cheese boxes.

It was so innovative.

FIORDILINO: It's eventually called “The Pizza Connection,”

because... pizzerias all over the United States

are bein' used as a pickup spot to pick up your drugs.

I mean what better place to, to, to have a cover.

You're Italian, you own a pizza shop. It's perfect.

BLUMENTHAL: They actually did make some good pizza,

but, but the real purpose of this was to further the drug business.

FIORDILINO: Out of being kicked out and bein' exiled,

Badalamenti becomes the biggest middleman in the world

in the heroin game at that time.

It was kinda like he was saying to, uh, "Totò" Riina,

"(bleep) you, I'm gonna do whatever I wanna do

and I'm gonna take your business and do it somewhere else."

(cars honking)

SPEAKER : The most active street business in New York

is in the Lower East Side.

Customers come here from all around the Metropolitan area.

SPEAKER : An influx of heroin is feeding a new heroin epidemic.

BLUMENTHAL: DEA looked at it and said, "This is coming from Afghanistan."

That's a sudden new problem, they didn't know how to cope with that.

GERALDO RIVERA How do you get the money to do that to yourself?

ADDICT: Steal it.

BLUMENTHAL: It unleashed a huge crime wave that devastated America.

Cities were going bankrupt dealing with the problems.

It was a terrible time.

REPORTER: More than half a million Americans are hooked.

BLUMENTHAL: The country was in a panic.

The DEA were asking themselves,

"How do we stop this? Uh, how do we plug this pipeline?"

RICHARD FIANO: So, my name is Richard Fiano.

I spent, uh, years in, in DEA,

assigned to the New York Office, Miami Office.

I wind up gettin' a job... in Pakistan.

REPORTER: The w*r in Afghanistan

has had one deadly consequence.

Its neighbor, Pakistan, has become the world’s biggest center for heroin.

In towns like Landi Kotal, it’s openly on sale in vast quantities.

FIANO: Landi Kotal is on the border

between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It's a tribal area run by warlords...

and a very dangerous place for any informants.

We knew that Landi Kotal was a, a smuggling hot spot

and you can pretty much buy anything you want there.

It's like Dodge City.

You could walk into any bazaar and buy dope.

Haji Ayub Afridi.

His name came up in several investigations.

He had a lot of influence and he had a lot of wealth.

There aren't that many ways that you can come to that kind of wealth

in a place like Landi Kotal, um, by sellin' onions and tomatoes.

LEE: Afridi built this huge

square kilometer compound

that can only be described as unbelievable.

Twenty-five-foot walls.

Was pretty well furnished with the, the best you can get in Pakistan.

He's got , armed guards.

He had anti-aircraft weaponry at the corners of his compound.

He had a football field size rose garden.

The breeze would bring the scent of the roses to him

while he drank his tea in the afternoon.

I mean, that, that's the kinda guy you're dealin' with here.

You end up with the biggest house in all of southwest Asia

'cause what else are you gonna spend your money on

if you're a successful drug trafficker?

(indistinct chatter)

(all shouting)

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: During the past months,

the mujahideen fighting inside the country

have improved their weapons, tactics, and coordination.

The support that the United States has been providing the resistance

will be strengthened so that it can continue to fight effectively for freedom.

REPORTER: Have you bought many g*ns...

-MUJAHIDEEN: Yes. Yes, many g*n. -REPORTER: ...for Afghanistan?

Where's the money come from?

MUJAHIDEEN: This, uh, come America.

-REPORTER: From America? -MUJAHIDEEN: Yes.

FIANO: Afridi was a great asset in moving equipment,

AKs, I mean a lot of weaponry...

for the United States in and out of Afghanistan.

SPEAKER: So long as Afridi is an asset for the CIA

in the w*r against the Soviets, he was essentially untouchable.

LEE: So, we have to change direction and try something different.

FIANO: In order to stem the flow of the heroin,

you have to target criminal groups

that are distributing it in the United States.

SPEAKER: Fentanyl poisoning deaths doubled in states

between and , in just two years.

ADDICT: You gotta be heartless...

because anything can happen at any given time.

And you gotta close your eyes to other people feelings.

What I have right here is a half a kilo of heroin.

These two together equal a whole kilo of "dog food."

The leftovers that I have, which, this year, is, like, over grams,

I make samples and I give to my suppliers.

Basically, this like $, worth.

(dog barking)

My suppliers are gon' give this to their users

and they're gon' ask for a number, one from ...

and they will let me know that it's a good product.

(sirens wailing)

I stay loyal to the streets,

I stay loyal to the users,

I stay loyal to the dealers,

and I stay loyal to the people that flag the signs.

This baby right here, this ain't no drive-by sh**ting,

this a walk up and k*ll,

direct look in the face, pull the trigger, watch him take his last breath.

Sometimes we do have to set an example.

(thunder)

BADALAMENTI: My dad was Don Tano's nephew.

He was an honest, middle-class man.

He worked for the tax office.

He just wanted to live a simple, free, ordinary life.

He'd drop us off at school first.

My sister and I were nine and seven.

(bell ringing)

Some birds suddenly took to the air.

I was filled with anguish.

I knew that something terrible was about to happen

and that my life would change.

I met a man who was in the street

on the day my dad was m*rder*d.

He told me: "Maria, remember that

"your dad died with a smile on his face.

"The smile of someone who has the courage

to make the right choice and live an honest life."

PRESIDENT REAGAN: Today, the power of organized crime

reaches into every segment of our society.

It holds a virtual monopoly on the heroin trade.

The time has come to cr*pple the power of the mob in America.

(person speaking native dialect)

(people speaking native dialect)

CARMINE RUSSO: We had formed surveillance units conducting wiretaps.

This went on for many, many, many, many months.

We were tryin' to take down an organization,

not just a bunch of individuals.

My name is Carmine F. Russo

and I was a special agent with the FBI for years.

Tie straight?

The key figure in this investigation.

This article referred to an individual who had been arrested in Germany

and, lo and behold, his last name was Badalamenti.

Could it be that the individual that they're talkin' about

and they're dealing with is Gaetano Badalamenti?

We thought this guy had disappeared, uh, from the face of the Earth it seemed.

About a week or so later, it happened again.

Another member of the Badalamenti family

was k*lled in Argentina.

At this point... I said,

"Guys... Gaetano Badalamenti's involved in this."

He became the target.

TONY GRECO: Gaetano Badalamenti had been in hiding somewhere in the world.

It was thought to be in South America, but we don't know where he's at.

My name's Tony. I was with DEA years

and I'm still in the business,

so that's why I, I choose not to reveal my face during this interview.

I was assigned to the DEA-FBI task force

because I was able to speak Sicilian.

I was asked if I wanted to go on a temporary assignment

to monitor a, uh, wiretap.

The wire focused on Pietro Alfano's pizza restaurant in Rockford, Illinois.

Pietro's wife was a family member of Gaetano Badalamenti.

I was assigned to follow Pietro Alfano to see

if he could lead us to Badalamenti...

and he used this payphone, like, daily.

So, a wiretap was initiated on the restaurant

and on the payphone that were, uh, next to the restaurant.

(phone ringing)

We'd been waiting for several months on this wire.

(person speaking native dialect)

Pietro is on the payphone...

he's talkin' to Zio, his uncle.

This is good, we have movement.

We believe we have Gaetano Badalamenti on the other end.

The adrenaline is flowing.

And the uncle orders him to come to meet him.

"Drop everything you're doin' and come meet me."

So, Alfano says, okay, he will.

And that was the end of that conversation.

But nobody mentions what city he's in.

So, we're there wondering where-- how do we find that out,

what city are you going to?

Well, he goes back into his restaurant...

and he makes a call to an airline

and that's when we knew that this uncle was in Madrid, Spain.

We still weren't % sure that it was Gaetano Badalamenti.

FBI supervisor comes in.

He goes, "Hey, kid, you got a valid passport?

You're gonna get on a plane tomorrow and go, uh, follow Alfano to Madrid."

I said, "Yes, sir, uh, I will do that."

At O'Hare Airport, we have Alfano seated at the gate.

He's wearin' a suit... thin build...

and gets on board.

The FBI agent was on one part of the plane

and I was in a different part of the plane.

That way we had him under our view at all times during the flight.

They follow Alfano off the plane.

Follow him to a residence in Madrid.

They stake out the place all day.

Gaetano Badalamenti, he's the one they're waiting for.

BLUMENTHAL: The Spanish police now have created

an army of, uh, surveillance people

and they cover the neighborhood.

They wait through the night.

No sign of Don Tano Badalamenti.

But suddenly, Alfano comes out with an older man...

uh, with sunken eyes, uh, mournful looking.

(sirens wailing)

Spanish police surround them... There's no escape.

They're immediately arrested.

But it was a, a signal moment in law enforcement history.

OFFICER (shouting): Hit it! Hit it! Hit it! Go!

(sirens wailing)

RUSSO: A decision was made that once Badalamenti was arrested...

the rest of the individuals we identified in this conspiracy would also be arrested.

REPORTER: In Manhattan Federal Court today,

the Pizza Connection drug trial got underway.

Gaetano Badalamenti, reputed Sicilian mob boss,

is charged with running a .-billion-dollar heroin ring,

along with other defendants.

FIORDILINO: The trial had a, a big spotlight on it.

It was one of the biggest at the time

and it took a long time.

It had big, big names here in the United States

and, of course, Badalamenti himself.

GRECO: This really puts the nail in the coffin

against the heroin trade being conducted by the Mafia.

(phone ringing)

LEE: I got a phone call from Haji Ayub Afridi...

and he says that he's considering self-surrendering to the United States.

I went to my boss, and he had a laugh.

He said, "There’s no way in the world this guy’s gonna surrender."

All of a sudden, things changed in Pakistan, politically,

and Afridi thought seriously that he was gonna be kidnapped...

tortured, put in a dungeon somewhere, beaten every day, that type of thing...

and I suggested to Afridi that I meet in Dubai.

Then we left the next day and went to his hotel room to meet him.

Here I am now, U.S. citizen, unarmed.

The only people I have with me are my partner,

who is also unarmed...

and we're about to meet one of the biggest heroin traffickers in the world.

We were holdin' our breath.

And I open the door and there he was.

Haji Ayub Afridi.

He paid his own way (laughs) to get to, uh, New York.

Afridi was sentenced to five years in a federal penitentiary

and fined $,.