The Infiltrator on Amazon - Blues was there IRL...

[mmc45414]

If you start a thread in general I'll tell you a couple funny anecdotes. I don't know if it would be considered too far off topic in this thread.

Over in the Movie/TV I mentioned I enjoyed this.
https://www.amazon.com/Infiltrator-B...he+infiltrator
and Blues mentioned that he had been involved in the case and suggested a separate thread. As they say on the maps at the rest stop, You Are Here

It was weird seeing Bryan Cranston, as I only really know him as Walter White (was he ever actually in anything else?...) on the other side of the law, very deeply undercover. I think acting as a "craft" is a wee bit over rated, but for my mind to accept the same guy at both extreme ends of the spectrum takes some craftsmanship. Apparently he wanted to avoid being type cast like Ned Beatty after Deliverance.

[UNK]

Over in the Movie/TV I mentioned I enjoyed this.
https://www.amazon.com/Infiltrator-B...he+infiltrator
and Blues mentioned that he had been involved in the case and suggested a separate thread. As they say on the maps at the rest stop, You Are Here

It was weird seeing Bryan Cranston, as I only really know as Walter White (was he ever actually in anything else?...) on the other side of the law, very deeply undercover. I think acting as a "craft" is a wee bit over rated, but for my mind to accept the same guy at both extreme ends of the spectrum takes some craftsmanship. Apparently he wanted to avoid being type cast like Ned Beatty after Deliverance.

I enjoyed that movie. I'm looking forward to this.

[Rich@CCC]

It was weird seeing Bryan Cranston, as I only really know as Walter White (was he ever actually in anything else?...)

Bryan Cranston was Hal, the father figure on Malcolm In The Middle, a Fox TV sit com for many seasons. He was a a comedic genius and I was truly surprised to see him as such a believable bad guy in BB after watching him as the off center, weird Dad on Malcolm

[breakingtime91]

Great movie... Blues, report for story telling..



Report....

[Chance]

Bryan also played a lot of monsters on old school Power Rangers. Dude's got range.

[walker2713]

Bryan Cranston was Hal, the father figure on Malcolm In The Middle, a Fox TV sit com for many seasons. He was a a comedic genius and I was truly surprised to see him as such a believable bad guy in BB after watching him as the off center, weird Dad on Malcolm

Not to mention five episodes of Seinfeld, Saving Private Ryan, The Lincoln Lawyer and many, many more....

[blues]

Thanks, mmc, this will be a bit of fun and a walk down memory lane.

First, let me just say that like most here, I've enjoyed Bryan Cranston in past performances, especially "Breaking Bad" and the recent "Sneaky Pete" series. I did think he was a little long in the tooth for "The Infiltrator" but that's just an observation as opposed to a criticism.

I adore Amy Ryan as an actress and have ever since The Wire and Gone Baby Gone. She did a creditable job playing the late Bonni Tischler in The Infiltrator. I think she can play any role and pull it off.

Bonni, who was the SAC of the Tampa Office (U.S. Customs, Office Of Investigations), later came down to Miami where she was our SAC.
She was definitely an acquired taste and not for everyone. She had no problems berating folks on their fashion faux pas, as she considered herself quite the "bella figura" and fashionista. (Tastes and opinions differ.)

She and I sparred a few rounds on a variety of issues. On one occasion when I was the "duty agent" for the day, which meant manning the phones and taking any number of requests for investigative purposes or things that needed doing...she felt that that meant you were her minion for the day and over my objections sent me to have her car washed. I voiced my objections but she overruled and off I went to the drive through wash.

I came back with her antenna lying in the back seat and when she saw it I informed her, truthfully, that since it didn't retract that it was snapped off by the rollers in the car wash. (Last time I was used to get her vehicle cleaned.) C'est la vie.

Another time, on an arms smuggling case she asked my partner and me why we hadn't bloodied up the target of investigation who was complaining to her about harassment and being pushed around physically when we did a search of his home and business. My reply to her was "and you'd have backed us up, of course" to which the reply was "crickets". Nothing further needed to be said. Talk was cheap when asses weren't on the line.

Okay, to the matter at hand.

Operation C-Chase was based out of the Tampa SAC office. Since BCCI, (Bank of Credit & Commerce Int'l), and some of its star players, (bad guys laundering money for the cartels and Manuel Noriega), was located in Miami, they sent a collateral request to our office which asked for our assistance serving subpoenas, executing warrants and generally providing assistance with the investigation.

Oddly enough, and unbeknownst to anyone, a few months before receiving this request for assistance, my wife was hired by this bank as an administrative assistant. She used to call me at work, sometimes in tears, telling me that she (virtually) didn't do anything all day but sit around with a bunch of the Latinas who were teaching her Spanish and spending their time on odd jobs. She was very frustrated.

I told her something didn't sound right about what was going on there and recommended that she begin looking for another job in banking or elsewhere. (At this point in time, other than an inkling I had no knowledge of wrongdoing at the bank as it wasn't something we had been working on.)

Anyway, there came a point in time when along with some of my partners from the money laundering group I was in at the time, we served subpoenas on BCCI at the request of the Tampa office. Their attorneys tried telling us that the subpoenas were improperly worded and executed and I told the attorney that I'd be back at 3 pm for the requested documents. If they weren't there I'd arrest him and he could argue the language and propriety with the magistrate. The documents were there.

Based upon the evidence obtained, the Tampa office obtained search warrants for the physical premises of the bank, which included the office and records of the gentleman portrayed in the movie (who was the guy my wife actually worked for).

At the time of the search I recused myself from further involvement in order to avoid the possibility of even an appearance of conflict of interest.

One of my partners, a former ATF agent and a bit of a lovable head case, is at BCCI during the search warrant and calls me in a panic.
"Blues...I'm going through a rolodex here and your wife's name is in it with your home address and phone numbers. Do you want me to tear it out and destroy it?"

"No, don't do anything you knucklehead. She works there and she doesn't have anything to hide. Just leave it the fuck alone and put the rolodex back."

I can't recall now if the arrests were made contemporaneous with the search warrant but when my wife saw her boss being taken out in cuffs on TV she yells over to me "that's the guy I work for".

I call the Tampa office and explain that my wife may have knowledge useful to the investigation as we just learned her boss was the primary target at the bank.

A couple of case agents and assistant U.S. attorney came down to our apartment on Key Biscayne to discuss the case and get the inside info she could provide. Little did I know they had a UC apartment about two blocks from me.

When other folks from the bank were subsequently interviewed by agents based upon her information, and they learned that her husband was a fed, needless to say there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

(The book goes into much more detail than the film...but it hits many of the high points despite a few things being changed for dramatic effect.)

And that's pretty much the salient part of my involvement in that particular case, one of many large, multi-national, long term and complex investigations I had the privilege of being involved in, (besides my own), during my career. The work could be very rewarding...except for the times it wasn't. I guess like most things.

Hope you find any of that remotely interesting or entertaining.

[blues]

Operation Cornerstone was another case we worked in Miami through innumerable days and nights over a period of a few years. This went on primarily during the period I was working out of the Florida Joint Task Group, a task force composed of U.S. Customs and DEA special agents.

I can't even count how many sleepless overnights were spent on surveillance of huge cocaine shipments as well as the members of the trafficking organization. Eventually, the investigation came to fruition which resulted in numerous seizures, arrests and convictions and was a huge feather in the cap of U.S. Customs and DEA with the support of other state, local and federal agencies.

[mmc45414]

Hope you find any of that remotely interesting or entertaining.

Yes, I have been a salesman most of my life, so this vicarious shit is always fun.

Reading between the lines, it seems as you would hold the opinion that the movie remained close enough to the facts? I have been finding stuff like this (and Narcos, yada), that is based on significant events, to be pretty entertaining.

Crazy that you wife ended up working there just out of coincidence, but I guess as prevalent as the trade was in that area during that era maybe not such a stretch.

[blues]

Yes, I have been a salesman most of my life, so this vicarious shit is always fun.

Reading between the lines, it seems as you would hold the opinion that the movie remained close enough to the facts? I have been finding stuff like this (and Narcos, yada), that is based on significant events, to be pretty entertaining.

Crazy that you wife ended up working there just out of coincidence, but I guess as prevalent as the trade was in that area during that era maybe not such a stretch.

I was disappointed with the film only in that it embellished some things and left out others but in two hours you'll never get a book's worth of info squeezed in. Overall I think it told the tale pretty well if a bit disjointedly.

Banking and the drug trade in South FL were a match made in heaven hell.

Back in the day when we'd follow "smurfs", (those who worked in illegal financial transactions of under $10,000 to avoid reporting guidelines), we'd follow them from check cashing locales, cell phone retailers, money forwarding services etc, back to their money houses which we would sit on for days or weeks until we could identify (and follow) those who would show up laden with heavy bags of cash and then follow them to their own sources and eventually take them all down.

Money (like drugs) was hidden in any type of conveyance for shipping across borders. Anything from cans of food to fruit, to flowers to appliances to cars etc. Drugs in,...cash or commodities which could be sold in South America,...out. Anything that could be hollowed out or filled could be used. Imagination was the only limitation. The bad guys would rather throw the money away than have their network intercepted and incarcerated.

This cash, (a bit over a million), was discarded in a dumpster by some (drug) money launderers before I hit their known locations where I only netted about a half million. When I flipped the main guy, (and his attorney), they gave up the location of this money. The dumpster was just about to be emptied into a sanitation truck when I arrived with my partner and halted them...



The most I've ever seen and had in the trunk of my car on the way back to the evidence room, (riding solo, no less), was $10,000,000.00. (100 bags of $100,000 each being sent on an aircraft down to Bolivia from Miami Int'l Airport.)

Drugs are very big (and lucrative) business...as is any contraband, such as weapons, munitions or restricted military equipment. I worked all those areas while employed by U.S. Customs as a special agent in various groups.