01x03 - Mountain of Evidence

[bunniefuu]

[distant sirens]

[reporter] Willy Falcon

and Salvador Magluta were arrested

and charged with smuggling nearly 75 tons

of cocaine into South Florida.

The Feds seized nearly

2.1 billion dollars' worth of property

as they prepare their case

against the Falcon group.

But then witnesses against the g*ng

started dropping like a judge's gavel.

[Grieg's

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" plays]

[Jim] Falcon-Magluta organization

was never known as a violent organization.

It wasn't characteristic of their method

of operation to retaliate or injure

or k*ll persons they had done

business with or sought to suppress.

The stakes changed

when they were arrested.

The government was seeking witnesses

to provide information to the grand jury

and help support

the indictment in this case.

And Tony Posada

was one of those witnesses.

I was not working

in the cocaine business anymore.

[music building]

I had nothing to do with Sal and Willy.

Whatever they did in seven years,

I had no knowledge of.

I was inside my house.

I was there with my son.

It was right after breakfast.

My wife's car was in front of my van.

She had to move my car to get hers.

And when she backed up, the b*mb went off.

[expl*sive booming]

Broke every g*dd*mn window in the house.

I grabbed the g*n, and ran out.

My son was screaming, "Mama! Mama!"

[somber music plays]

My wife, she didn't get hurt.

Thank God. [scoffs]

Man, that was a f*cking time.

From then on, I became total enemy

because I knew

they had to be the ones who did it.

I became an outsider

and I guess they were worried

that I was gonna testify.

[Chris] I was cautioned by an attorney

in preparation of the case

that you really don't know

what you're dealing with

with Falcon and Magluta.

They would resort to anything

in order to save their own skins.

["Blood Sport" by Pitbull playing]

Woo!

Sniff, co- ♪

Snort, -caine ♪

Deal, cow- ♪

Extort, -boys ♪

Will, will, k*ll, k*ll ♪

For the love of the blood sport ♪

They'll do 25 to life

For the love of the blood sport ♪

It was not a good time in anyone's life

to be associated with the Willy

and Sal case as a potential witness.

Yeah, we made a new channel on Miami.

It's called Recut, Recut, uh, Channel.

[laughs]

[Chris] Juan Barroso smuggles numerous

boatloads of cocaine importations

into South Florida for Falcon and Magluta,

and he was named in the indictment.

[dramatic music playing]

I was at my house

and I had the car outside.

You know what they did?

They sliced the tire.

Well, I'll go to the station

and change it.

I got in the car

with my son, six years old.

[car engine starts]

[music intensifies]

And when I got to the service station,

I got down. I was changing the tire.

And when I was putting the tire in

[g*nshots firing]

They shot me in the arm

and one hit back here.

It hit the floor and hit me over here.

My son said, "Don't sh**t him!"

And the guy turned around

and started running.

So he saved my life.

"Don't sh**t him. Don't sh**t him."

[laughs]

I thought it was Willy and Sal.

I said,

"Okay, so you going to order me k*lled?"

Now I'm gonna testify.

[Frank] Pedro Rosello was one

of their top lieutenants,

one of their main confidants.

Willy's brother married Pegy's sister.

So, Pegy and Willy

were truly like brothers.

[Alexia] While Peter was out on bond

that year, um, little Peter's born.

There was a hit on him the night

that I was giving birth.

[somber music plays]

[Frank] Willy found out that Pegy

had turned government informant

and was going to testify against him

as one of his main witnesses.

It was just, like, disastrous to Willy.

[Pegy] Peter's born. I'm ready to go home.

It was, like, ten o'clock at night.

And I'm leaving and Alexia's like,

"No, no, no, you can't leave.

You can't leave me here by myself."

So I stayed that night.

He never got out of the hospital,

so they were never able, you know,

to to k*ll him.

If he would go home that night, no way.

They were waiting for him

in the parking lot.

[sirens wailing]

[Pegy] I wasn't mad.

Going into this since I was young,

I mean, there's consequences, you know.

"Oh, you know, there was a hit on you."

I didn't care.

'Til this day, I don't care.

You didn't get to k*ll me.

So I'm fine with that.

You know, I'm alive.

There were several other

murders and attempts.

[reporter] The next to talk

about the Falcon g*ng, Lazaro Cruz.

He was shot outside his Hialeah home.

He lived, but the attackers escaped.

[Pat] Every six months, there seemed to be

a new attack on a potential witness.

[reporter] Luis Escobedo, who was going

to testify against his old friends,

was shot to death

outside a Coconut Grove Bar.

[Chris] m*rder*d by virtue of the fact

they're going to testify

against Falcon and Magluta.

[reporter] And yesterday, the latest

on the witness list, Bernardo Gonzalez,

was gunned down.

Nothing like this had ever happened.

A real, plotted, concerted effort

to eliminate witnesses

is comparable maybe

to a big Mafia case in New York City.

Here's the $60,000 question,

are there any witnesses left?

The government officials didn't return

our phone calls today and you can bet

if they have witnesses, those witnesses

certainly aren't sticking their heads up.

Now, just from a common-sense standpoint,

you go, "Hm, what's the common denominator

for all these people?"

[Pat] You had to conclude

that Falcon-Magluta,

they had something to do with it.

[Jim] Even though everyone believed it was

Willy and Sal orchestrating these murders,

there was no evidence

to support it at that point.

The government has never presented

the first bit of it in court.

And so, all of this

is just trial by news link.

Far as the murders went,

they were under investigation,

but we were focused on the drug trial.

I gotta tell you, if ever there was

a major motion picture waiting to happen,

this one has got to be it.

[Jim] Willy and Sal are front-page news.

They're all over the place.

Their trial is upcoming.

Billions of dollars in cocaine,

millions in drug profits,

and a trail of dead government witnesses.

So I open up The Miami Herald,

and I see this article about

two very infamous Miami characters.

[salsa music playing]

They are described as cocaine kingpins.

- Kingpins.

- Kingpins.

[Bobby] The allegations against them

were that they were responsible

for almost all the cocaine

to come into this country.

- [reporter] More than 75 tons.

- [reporter 2] Seventy-five tons.

[reporter 3] Seventy-five tons of cocaine.

I think somehow the government messed up.

Their career was 12 years?

It was probably, like, 175 tons

of cocaine, not 75 tons.

[Bobby] I joined up

with the adventures of Willy and Sal.

[funky music plays]

I was going to defend what I would

consider the quintessential Miami case.

[Pat] The defense team was formidable,

excellent lawyers, the best.

But the prosecutors

weren't exactly slouches themselves.

Chris was the young g*n on the team.

This was his first really big case.

[Chris] It probably rankled Falcon

and Magluta

thinking that they were deserving

of a more accomplished

and acclaimed

prosecutor than the likes of me.

This was gonna be the case that

was gonna define his career, he believed.

[Chris] Given the stature

of the defense attorneys in this case,

I thought it was prudent to seek out

our best, most experienced prosecutors.

Pat Sullivan is an icon

within the US Attorney's Office.

[Jim] You can go through all the cases

he did, like the Miami River Cops case.

[reporter] The federal government

investigating allegations

of unprecedented corruption

within the Miami Police Department.

[Jim] The prosecution of Noriega.

[reporter 2] Government prosecutors

refused to say anything

as they waded through the crush

of reporters

who are here in Miami

to watch the Noriega trial.

Pat was a natural person to work with me

in the trial of Falcon and Magluta.

[Pat] They were charged with what's called

"a continuing criminal enterprise,"

a charge that's reserved

for a drug kingpin.

[Marilyn] I was concerned about Sal.

They were going to trial for conspiracy

to distribute cocaine and all that.

Sal and Willy

would be put in jail for life.

[dramatic chords play]

[reporter] Jury selection

taking place today

in federal court in downtown Miami.

Some of the questions

more than 100 jurors will have to answer,

"Have you heard about this case?"

[producer] I have to ask you

about choosing the jury.

This was a very meticulous process.

[laughing]

I have to laugh at the fact

when you talk about jury selection

being a carefully orchestrated process.

You have to recognize

that horse racing is a more exact science

than jury selection.

[Frank] You can see

this case involves drugs.

Do you think that with your feelings

you could be a fair and impartial juror?

[woman] Yes.

[Frank] Anyone feel they cannot be

a fair and impartial person

in a case involving

drugs and drug dealers?

[Jim] The defense had so much money,

they hired three mock juries.

They were like focus groups to go

through the evidence and get a sense

of what the real jury

may respond to in court.

[Frank] Informants. Do you feel that

someone should be convicted

just on the basis of the testimony

of an informant, how's that?

[jurors] No.

You have a hundred, two hundred people

who are allegedly selected by draw.

And they descend into a world

they never wanted to be even close to.

And you're supposed to look

at those people

after responses to a few questions

and determine whether

that person can be fair,

when let's face the fact,

you're not looking for a fair juror.

You're looking for a juror

who's biased towards your case.

[Frank] Just because someone's charged

with a crime, there's something to it?

- [juror 1] No.

- [juror 2] Yes.

- [Frank] Think there's something to it?

- [woman] Yeah, why would they charge him?

One of the questions I always ask is,

"Do you believe where there's smoke

there has to be fire?"

[Frank] So, where there's smoke

there's fire?

- [juror 1] Yep.

- [juror 2] Not all the time.

Because that then shifts

the burden to me to prove the clients

not guilty as opposed to the way

it should be by law is for the government

to prove that the defendant is guilty.

[Frank] If you were in jail

and I offered you an opportunity

to get a reduced sentence,

would you rat out your brother?

[woman] I sure will, my momma too.

[laughter]

The government made its selections

and the defense made theirs.

I laugh to this day about lawyers

being very pompous

about, "Well, I selected this juror."

"This juror was my juror.

No question about it."

Oh, please.

[woman] It was the summer of 1995.

I was 23 years old.

My mother called to notify me

that I had received a manila envelope

from a federal judge.

It included a sealed jury summons

along with a two-page letter

listing the name of the case.

It said, "United States of America versus

Augusto Falcon and Salvador Magluta,"

and that I was a prospective juror.

I didn't know anything about them.

I only knew the name Willy Falcon,

that he was a drug dealer.

The only media coverage I remember

was a witness was k*lled

in Horse Country, him and his brother,

by two Colombian hit men.

And I remember the pictures

that came out in the news.

I never imagined

that I would be picked as a juror.

I did not read the newspaper.

I did not turn on the news.

I did not, all right?

So, I remained extremely naive.

I was working at an elementary school.

I was teaching first grade.

I got a jury summons almost every year

and I was raised that it was my civic duty

to go to serve,

and I'm always picked for the jury.

This one was a little different.

It said this was gonna be a longer trial.

You know, I'm in the teaching profession,

and to me a trial was a mini vacation.

There's 12 jurors and four alternates,

so 16 jurors were four African-Americans

set up in this left-hand corner,

about six Hispanic over here,

and I'm over here, and another,

we'll say Caucasian, all right?

Oh, I hate to say it,

but there was segregation in our group,

which was really a sad thing to say.

Just the usual division

that you see in society

that we don't want to acknowledge.

[reporter] We're coming up now

on three and a half minutes to the reading

of the verdict

in Judge Lance Ito's courtroom

[man] All right, Mr. Simpson, would you

please stand and face the jury?

[Chris] During the Falcon-Magluta case

awaiting trial,

the O.J. Simpson case had occurred.

[woman] In the matter of the people

of the State of California

versus Orenthal James Simpson,

we the jury find the defendant

not guilty of the crime of m*rder.

- [cheering]

- [applause]

[Chris] I saw what took place

in California, Los Angeles,

with the OJ case,

and I saw parallels

with the Falcon-Magluta case.

[Bobby] People in Miami understand

not everything is always as it seems,

and I think people in Miami

have a distrust of the government.

Two weeks after an unbelievable

acquittal of O.J. Simpson,

and we were walking in

on a much more hopeful note.

Yes, it is possible that

cross-examination can win a trial.

Yes, it is possible that

a jury will just doubt the case.

Overwhelming evidence,

it's not necessarily enough to convict.

[Verdi's "Libiamo, ne' lieti calici"

from La Traviata playing]

[reporter] Finally, Willy Falcon

and Sal Magluta have ended up here,

a federal court in downtown Miami

on the tenth floor today.

Extra security all over the place.

There are federal agents up there,

even a metal detector

right outside of the courtroom.

Courtroom's a theater.

["Libiamo, ne' lieti calici"

continues playing]

And this trial was the best show

that Miami has ever seen.

Chris Clark gets up before the jury.

"May I present to you the case

of the United States of America

versus Augusto Guillermo Falcon

and Salvador Magluta."

"Willy and Sal, los muchachos, the boys."

And then with just a slight flourish

of his right hand,

he just steps off to the left and turns

and motions towards the two of them

sitting at the defense table.

And you could just see

every juror just move from Chris Clark

over to that defense table,

where Willy and Sal are sitting.

And they're impeccable.

They are in suits that are more expensive

than anything the defense attorneys

next to them are wearing.

Every bit the drug kingpins the government

would want them to look like.

All the defense team just lined up

right there.

[man] What you're going to hear now

is the government's

opening statement

by the United States attorneys.

[man] Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm the assistant United States Attorney.

A grand jury has returned an indictment

charging these two defendants

with running

the largest cocaine enterprise

uncovered in the history

of law enforcement.

[Chris] The opening that I gave

in this case detailed Falcon and Magluta.

And it depicted them as the Miami

success story that had gone awry.

They had unlimited access

to large quantities of cocaine

that the Colombian cartel

needed to have transported successfully

into the United States.

Falcon and Magluta provided the means

to bring drugs in by boat and by pilots,

who would fly the cocaine from Colombia

through transshipment points

in the islands

and arrived in South Florida.

The government had assembled

a great number of witnesses

who themselves

were involved in the narcotics trade,

who had worked with Falcon and Magluta

in one guise or another,

including Louis Mendez, Pegy.

Juan Barroso, despite the fact he was shot

and survived the attempted m*rder,

he did testify.

Jorge Valdes turned his drug business

over to Falcon and Magluta

and provided them

with the contact with the Medellin cartel.

And Tony Posada,

despite the attempt on his life

with the car bombing that did not succeed

in k*lling him, he too testified.

[gavel banging]

[Jim] The government had 80 people

on its witness list.

It was "a mountain of evidence,"

as the O.J. Simpson prosecutors would say.

[Albert] During the course of the trial,

I sat at one end of the counsel table

and because I've had trouble

with my hearing,

I have lost to some extent,

a control of the volume of my voice.

And I have a big voice.

And I can fill up a courtroom

with my voice.

And there would be

some evidence introduced

that was damning beyond imagination.

And I would mutter, I thought,

"Devastating!"

That was the word.

[Jim] Here's the way it would go.

Chris Clark would present a witness,

lead 'em through their testimony,

present every bad thing they could find

about Willy and Sal and then sit down.

The government got up

and laid out their case

and everything sounded pretty bleak.

[Jim] And then Krieger would stand up.

[Bobby] When Albert stands up,

every guy turns toward him,

- [Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony" plays]

- the barrel chest comes out.

And we thought, "All right, here we go.

Let the games begin." And they did.

[Chris] A witness could say the sky

is blue, and after two hours of Al Krieger

confounding him

with his variety of questions,

no longer would you be sure

that the sky was blue.

These witnesses are not believable

and I'm being very kind when I say that.

Albert doesn't use a shotgun

to take out a witness.

He uses needles.

And he pinpricks 'em

'til they bleed to death.

Each one was excoriated

by cross-examination.

There was a back and forth

with one witness.

"Why are you testifying today?

What is the deal that you have?"

"How long have you been

in the drug business?"

Every question was stupid. He's like,

"Well, did you not perjure yourself

in your first trial?"

[Jim] "Have you lied on the stand before?

You have lied on the stand before."

"So, you're a perjurer. You've perjured

yourself. You are a perjurer."

"You are a perjurer!"

I looked at Albert Krieger

and I'm like, "You're an as*h*le!"

[Jim] One of the worst witnesses by far

was Tony Posada.

[Bobby] Tony Posada denied almost every

cross-examination question from Krieger.

The bald-headed guy,

what the hell was his name? Krieger.

He didn't ask the right questions.

I don't know.

I was not involved.

[Jim] Krieger stands up and reads

what the US Attorney, in another trial,

said about Tony Posada.

"No one should ever believe anything that

Tony Posada ever says in a courtroom."

"He is a habitual liar

who will never, never tell the truth!"

[Bobby] It was a very telling moment

of how lacking in veracity

cooperating witnesses can be.

"You can't believe anything

the prosecution witnesses are telling you,

because they're trying to get a deal."

[Albert] The government can give you

your liberty.

"You testify in the fashion

that I'm seeking,

you are a free man."

[Pat] The only people who know

the inner workings of a conspiracy

are those who participated in it.

You don't find swans

swimming in the sewer.

[Jim] So, the prosecutors,

they knew they had bad witnesses.

So what they wanted to do

was try to convey to the jurors,

"Common sense tells you,

these are drug kingpins."

[Bobby] If Willy and Sal

were not involved in the drug trade,

how did these two dropouts end up

holding gold bars in tuxedos in Vegas?

Falcon, Magluta had no legitimate assets,

never worked a day in their life.

[Jorge] The government didn't need

a witness to convict. All they needed was

just to take pictures of their lifestyle.

[Jim] Every chance they got,

came back to how much money they spent,

how their lifestyle was so lavish,

powerboats, the jet planes,

the prostit*tes, the Bee Gees.

'Cause we're living

In a world of fools ♪

[Jim] "Who else would hire the Bee Gees

to play their brother's wedding

but drug kingpins?"

"They must be drug kingpins!

You must convict them!"

Where's all this money coming from?

[Jim] The defense's response

was a fairly simple one.

"Yes, our clients were drug dealers."

"But the crimes they were willing

to admit that they committed,

are all well outside

the statute of limitations now."

The defense beyond the fact that

all the government's witnesses

are lying, cheat drug dealers,

was the statute of limitations defense.

"Please acquit these two men

on a legal technicality."

"Yes, they are prominent drug dealers,

but they quit drug-dealing five years

before the return of the indictment."

"Therefore, their prosecution is barred

under the statute of limitations defense."

[Jim] They're former drug kingpins

just living off the proceeds,

as if there was some sort of

drug kingpin pension program.

This is a novel defense,

one that I never encountered before.

Whoever came up with that,

I mean, it was good. It was good.

Was it true or no? It wasn't true.

We were working to the last day.

"We're drug dealers,

but we quit shortly after Jorge."

"Yeah. Put Jorge up there."

"Ask him."

"He'll tell you."

[Chris] Jorge Valdes did testify.

[Jorge] I testify. When I got arrested,

I hand the cartel over to Sal and Willy.

And when I came out of prison

and I went back to see him in 1982,

believing to collect my seven

or ten million dollars,

that technically they owed me,

they didn't give me a penny.

They told me they had quit.

And I looked at them.

I looked at Sal and Willy

when the defense asked me

and I said, "They had to have quit."

Whether I believed it was irrelevant.

I needed to believe that they had quit

'cause the betrayal

would've been too horrible.

I loved him. I loved him

as much as I love my brother.

I still love him as much as my brother.

sh*t, I'm going to prison.

I'm 23, I wanna die.

I'm willing to die for everybody.

And I come out of prison,

you're gonna f*ck me over money?

As I looked at him in court, I said,

"They either quit for real,

or they're the biggest son of a b*tches

in the world that betrayed me."

[dramatic music plays]

[Chris] After a jury would hear

from not just one,

but a second, a third, a fifth,

a tenth, a fifteenth, a twentieth,

a fiftieth cooperating witness

who all tell a consistent story,

and you add to that hundreds of thousands

of dollars in cash lying about

and drug ledgers implicating them.

At some point in time, a reasonable jury

will find the defense guilty.

There was enough evidence

that was provided to the jury in a case

that had spanned four months

to convict these two defendants

one hundred times over.

[gavel bangs]

[juror 2] We needed

to find a jury foreman.

[woman] Does anybody know how to be

a foreperson and like to volunteer?

[juror 2] Miguel Moya,

he was juror number one.

Moya was hanging out

with three other women

that he had become very close to.

They all made him the jury foreman.

[man] Give the man the verdict form.

Not a big job.

[juror 2] Because of all

the media attention,

Moya sent a note to the judge.

"The jury should be sequestered."

[reporter] The jurors wrote that quote,

"Pressure outside

the courtroom is tempting."

The judge granted their request.

Attorneys involved say this is

unheard of, but is a pleasant surprise.

They are asking to undergo

the inconvenience of sequestration

in order to be sure that they do their job

in a fashion consistent with the law.

That to me is wonderful.

[juror 2] We said goodbye to our family.

We were not allowed to have cell phones.

We started deliberating.

[dramatic music plays]

[man] Now, y'all need to deliberate.

We'll see you later. Thank you.

[juror 2] There was 17 counts

in the indictment.

On day one, we went voting to see who

thought they were guilty of each count.

And right away,

all but three counts were dismissed.

The prosecution was showing us things,

but what they presented was very little.

We're told that

these are big, gangster type guys,

and, you know,

they looked like Laurel and Hardy.

I mean, you know,

if they passed me on the street,

they weren't guys I'm gonna run away from.

The guys who looked like gangsters

were the attorneys.

But the government, they're telling us

there's tons and tons of cocaine about.

Throughout the entire trial,

the only cocaine we ever saw physically

was a bag full of cocaine

that was found in Falcon's house

that they passed around to all the jurors.

[salsa music playing]

On the three counts that were left,

conversations were different.

[man] How many say the defendants

are guilty? Raise your hands.

One, two, three, four,

five, six, seven. You're not sure?

[woman] I'm not sure. It has to do

with the statute of limitations.

[juror 2] There was seven of us,

including myself,

that were voting "guilty."

It became very heated because

one of the African-American jurors

stated that they were guilty,

because they were Cuban

and they had a lot of money.

[indistinct arguing]

Soon after that, there was

a physical altercation in the jury room

with Miguel Moya

and a young African-American gentleman.

All of a sudden, an older gentleman

said he was having chest pains.

And he was taken to the hospital.

I suspect that because

the tension was so high,

that he used whatever excuse he could

to be removed from that situation.

[sirens wailing]

[Jim] Pretty early on, they figured that

most of the witnesses couldn't be trusted.

[woman] I would find them not guilty

because those witnesses,

I don't rely on them. [laughs]

[juror 2] And we were left with one count.

That one count left,

we called the "Pegy count,"

which was related to Pedro Rosello.

[melancholy music plays]

I think the jurors gave him credibility

because you could see a direct connection

to the family.

Did I tell the truth?

Yeah. I did tell the truth.

I didn't lie about anything.

The jury room was divided.

The individuals

that were voting "not guilty"

all sat on one side of the table.

Moya continuously said,

"The government did not prove their case."

He refused to listen to testimony.

No matter what we said, he was adamant.

So, we were deadlocked.

We have a breaking story into NBC 6,

new developments in the trial

of two alleged cocaine kingpins.

From the defense to the prosecution,

the verdict caught everyone by surprise.

It was Sal who called me.

And he said, "We're going in."

And I said, "Good luck."

[quiet piano music playing]

[Chris] Falcon and Magluta

were brought out in their $3,000 suits,

but they're still manacled

because they're still in federal custody.

And they had an ashen look on their faces.

They appeared

as if they were walking to the gallows.

When the jury came back in,

Willy and Sal's family

were in the gallery.

Prosecutors were starting

to fill the courtroom.

Law enforcement officers

were filling the courtroom,

all the defense attorneys

scrambling to get back.

Moreno sits on the bench

and the verdict starts getting read.

[gavel banging]

When that first count comes across

[man] Not guilty.

first it's like a gasp.

Like of disbelief.

["You Should Be Dancing"

by Bee Gees playing]

Did they say, "Not guilty"?

[woman] Not guilty.

And then next count.

[woman] Not guilty.

That was astounding.

[woman] Not guilty.

- And next one.

- [man] Not guilty.

- Next one.

- [woman] Not guilty.

- And one after another.

- [women repeating] Not guilty.

[Jim] Both Falcon and Magluta

are almost unable to stand.

[repeating] Not guilty.

[laughs] It was shocking, shall we say.

Now, another example of law and order

gone haywire, in the minds of many,

it happened in Miami.

[reporter] Witnesses against these guys

mysteriously disappear.

Lawyers for them are paid

millions and millions of dollars.

Tonight, a jury has returned a verdict

against Sal Magluta and Willy Falcon,

saying, essentially, "They didn't do it."

[reporter 2] Relatives and friends

of the defendants

celebrated the verdicts

outside of Miami Federal Courthouse.

In all of Miami, they were cheering.

[cheering, applause]

[reporter 3] Outside the courthouse,

the shell-shocked government team

heard howls of joy

explode from the adjacent jail

and from supporters

of the defendants on the street.

[cheering]

They had been acquitted

and I said, "Get a load of this."

[laughs]

[repeating in Spanish] Thank God.

Because he returned my son to me.

For both Mr. Falcon and Mr. Magluta,

it was a long time coming.

It took four and a half years of work,

but finally, it came to fruition.

The jury rejected lying government

witnesses. That's it, pure and simple.

I mean, I was happy for them.

Was I surprised? No.

Not at all.

I was shocked.

I was shocked.

I was shocked.

[Juan] I was in my cell, one guard

knocked on my window and says,

"Hey, your friends got acquitted."

And I said, "Yes!" But then I go,

"Wait a minute, I got 12 years to go."

"These guys are walking out?"

"Maybe I should've stuck with them,

instead of pleading."

So they were right.

[reporter] Four year ago,

after both defendants were arrested,

they offered the US Attorney's Office

a plea agreement.

Our sources say

the men were willing to plead guilty

and turn over 40 million dollars

in exchange

for prison sentences of 20 years.

A deal that overly-confident

prosecutors rejected.

[Albert] On the night of the acquittals,

my wife and I clicked on the television,

and there is Kendall Coffey.

This is certainly

one of the most startling results

uh, that I can recall in the time

I've been US Attorney in a narcotics case.

[laughing] Kendall looks straight

into the camera and says, "Devastating."

It was a devastating defeat for everyone.

[laughing] Well, I fell off the bed.

[reporter] The night after the verdict,

in an incident

that became the stuff

of South Florida legend,

the rising US Attorney was so despondent,

he allegedly went to a strip bar

to drown his sorrows

and ended up

biting a lap dancer in the arm.

He's lucky he bit me. If he bit

anybody else, he'd have a black eye.

[Jim] The US attorney ends up

being forced to resign,

just adding to the embarrassment.

[laughs] Another one bites the dust

because of Sal.

[reporter] Sal Magluta spent four

and a half years in prison

waiting for

and then going through his trial,

but this morning,

after posting a $25,000 bond,

Magluta walked down the steps

to the courthouse and went free.

Sal Magluta grinned ear to ear,

then thanked God

and family and his lawyers.

We went to trial.

We did it the way this country

and this constitution was meant

and I just hope it's respected

and not retaliation.

And I just pray. There's a part

of me left inside with Willy.

And, uh, I just hope

that he'll enjoy this day too.

[reporter 2] Let's talk, though,

about Willy Falcon.

He's still facing

six federal firearms charges.

Because of that, he is deemed a flight

risk as well as a danger to society.

He is disappointed, of course,

but he feels that he has won the big one.

[reporter] Did you think this day'd come?

Definitely.

Only my faith in God and my family

and those that surrounded me

gave me that hope and that will.

[reporter] Vowing he'd be going

to church today, Sal was off.

[organ music playing]

It cannot be overestimated

how embarrassing

this defeat was

for the federal government.

This isn't the way

these trials normally end.

[Pat] I thought

it was a terrible jury verdict.

I thought it was completely contrary

to the evidence.

This was a really strong case

against Falcon and Magluta.

The evidence was overwhelming.

I chalked it up that this was

some terrible miscarriage of justice.

They got their a*s kicked.

They did.

There it is in The Miami Herald.

"Stunning win for Willy and Sal."

This is a major trial being handled

in a town

that knows the defendants

by their first names.

[Jim] Not only was this the biggest case

that had ever been lost

in the state of Florida,

this was the biggest criminal drug case

the United States government

had ever lost.

This was the greatest defeat

for the US justice department

in its history in its w*r against drugs.

Why? How? What happened?

That's the question

everyone wanted to know.

Did they really find them not guilty?

Or was there any hijinks

going on behind the scenes?

I felt very bad for the government,

because they had somebody on the jury

that was paid to work against them.

[dramatic music fades out]