- 5/29/2025
#CinemaJourney
#BuildingBad
#BuildingBad
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:01A strange vessel is seized in the Pacific Ocean.
00:05How was this bizarre yet impressive craft deployed in a massive drug smuggling operation?
00:12Authorities discover hundreds of stolen vehicles at the Port of Montreal.
00:16This was the largest car ring bust in Canadian history.
00:20The investigation reveals that high-tech criminal ingenuity
00:24has turned Canada into one of the world's leading suppliers of black-market vehicles.
00:28Cops raid a drug lab in Missouri.
00:32And find an innovative new way to cook methamphetamine.
00:36The meth that was on the streets was lower cost, better quality, and much more addictive than it had been before.
00:44The world's most inventive criminal minds.
00:49Lawless ingenuity, born out of greed.
00:52From back alleys to the high seas.
00:55Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
00:57Secret structures.
00:59Custom-built vehicles.
01:01High-tech innovation.
01:03What happens when engineering genius ends up on the wrong side of the law and starts building bad?
01:10Building bad.
01:11On June 8, 2019, United States authorities on patrol in the international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean spotted a strange half-submerged vessel moving through the waves.
01:23Approaching the boat at high speed.
01:24The Americans were stunned by what they encountered.
01:25It's going to be hard to get on!
01:26We're going to get on!
01:27We're going to get on!
01:28It's going to get on!
01:29International waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean spotted a strange half-submergent vessel moving through the waves
01:37Approaching the boat at high speed the Americans were stunned by what they encountered
01:42This was a huge makeshift handcrafted submarine and the bizarre yet impressive vessel was not the only discovery
02:03It had an armed crew of four and three tons of cocaine concealed inside
02:08This is a vessel referred to as a narco sub and it was intercepted by the u.s. Coast Guard
02:15There have been rumors about cartels using homemade submarines since the 1990s
02:20But nobody in law enforcement circles had ever laid eyes on one until 2006
02:27Clearly these types of vessels have been extremely successful in evading authorities
02:32Especially when it's believed that more than a hundred had been built by the time of this subs capture
02:41Colombia produces more than 70% of the world's cocaine making it by far the biggest supplier on the planet
02:48The United States is the global leader in the drugs consumption
02:51Spending over 28 billion dollars in cocaine annually
02:55It's a match made in narcotics heaven, but the ongoing challenge for the cartels is getting their supply
03:02into the huge American market
03:04Historically cocaine has been transported by every means of conveyance you can think of by land air and sea
03:11from cars and trucks to private jets and cargo planes to fishing boats and large ships
03:17With so much money on the line criminal organizations were willing to do whatever they could to get their hands on the cash
03:23During the 1980s go fast vessels or gfv as they are known to law enforcement
03:31Became the preferred mode of transportation for the median cartel and their associates
03:37They range between 28 to 48 feet in length and could travel almost 60 miles per hour in ideal conditions
03:44These kinds of speed boats could be easily acquired without raising any suspicion
03:48They were affordable and were small enough that they could operate outside the commercial transit and immigration systems
03:54A small crew or even single driver could get the job done if they were careful to avoid radar and coast guard surveillance
04:03Artisanal boat yards began popping up in the jungles of columbia and other cocaine hot spots of south america
04:09These were off-grid sites where amateur boat builders could modify and outfit go fast vessels to maximize speed cargo capacity and radar evasion
04:19The gfvs being pumped out of these boat yards were so successful that in 1999
04:25They contributed to the creation of the joint interagency task force south which united every u.s military and law enforcement branch and 15 separate nations
04:35It was such a problem for authorities that the branches of the coast guard created their own high-speed inflatable boats
04:42That were accompanied by armed helicopters to try and stop them
04:47With the new task force in place and agencies coordinating their efforts go fast vessels were easier to track and capture
04:54Authorities were seizing millions of dollars in drugs and cash from these vessels every year
04:59Traffickers needed something fast but less visible like a submarine
05:04But how these highly surveilled criminals get their hands on an actual sub?
05:08It's not like there were decommissioned u-boats floating around
05:13Deep in the jungles of south america the cartels got toward constructing submarine prototypes
05:19Traditional subs were made of heavy metals welded and sealed to withstand water pressure
05:24But this construction made them heavy and highly visible to radar and the narcos didn't have access to the necessary materials
05:33Even if they wanted to pursue a similar design
05:37What they did have at their disposal was a stock of speedboat hulls motors and materials like plywood fiberglass and other synthetics
05:46That could maintain a lightweight structure and were already proven to evade most detection systems
05:52So they experimented with wrapping existing gutted boat hulls in fiberglass
06:00Unfortunately these submarine designs weren't 100 percent watertight due to their makeshift squared access hatches
06:07But they did create the illusion of a submarine even if the vessels could not be fully submerged
06:13They just needed them to sit low enough in the water that they could travel more discreetly
06:19The simplest and most low tech solution to get the vessels to sink lower into the water was literally to weigh them down
06:26They would load them with cargo until they sat as close to the surface as possible without going under it
06:32And the more cargo they delivered the more money they could make so it was a win-win situation
06:37Weighing some of the vessels down further were massive fuel tanks that could give them a range of over 1 000 miles
06:46Depending on what kind of motor was used in the construction
06:51When it came to the engines the boat builders could make one of two choices
06:54If they maintain outboard motors commonly associated with most speedboats the easiest design choice
06:59Mid-sea refueling and maintenance would be more difficult and the low position of the vessel the water risked the engines flooding
07:05Alternatively the motors could be encased in the fiberglass shell too effectively making them inboard motors
07:14Which is resolving the crews access issues but raising a new dangerous one toxic fumes
07:23Sadly there have been a number of cases of crews dying at sea due to these ventilation issues
07:30These first narco subs known to law enforcement as low profile vessels or lpvs
07:36Have the shape of classic power boats or yachts but were far from luxurious
07:41They were crammed and hot with a crew of two to five men there were no galleys no bedrooms only a porthole and a shared toilet
07:49If you were lucky
07:51These were purpose-built one-way trip vessels that maximize cargo space engine power and profits
07:57And their overall hydrodynamic design painted finish made them much more difficult to spot let alone capture
08:06Even after the fall of the median cartel in the 1990s the remaining players in south and central america
08:13Understood the importance of these vessels to their business model
08:16It wasn't long before they were churning out roughly 100 homemade narco subs a year
08:22A huge reason why these designs were so successful is the fact that they had a self-destruct feature
08:30And were scuttled or intentionally sunk as soon as they were offloaded at their destination leaving no evidence behind
08:38That's pretty genius
08:39By 2009 the u.s. estimated that they were only able to intercept 14 percent of cocaine shipments via narco sub
08:49In response federal prosecutors in florida started to invoke a little known law which allowed the arrest of smugglers caught in international waters
08:59The expanded scope of the u.s. authorities posed a major threat to the cartel's ability to avoid arrest and prosecution
09:07They would have to go back to the drawing board and devise a new and improved vessel design to stay one step ahead of the law
09:15Something had to be done
09:17With speed in mind they turned to references like the cigarette racing boats of the 1960s
09:22Famously fast needle fit designs that cut through the waves rather than bounced over them
09:28So boatbuilders got to work making their vessels longer and thinner to take advantage of that hydrodynamic design only fully wrapped
09:34This version of a narco sub averaged 65 feet long with a 1.6 ton cargo space
09:42However, one was discovered that measured an extraordinary hundred feet long
09:4710 feet wide and a carrying capacity of up to three tons
09:52That's an impressive haul of product
09:55Known as very slender vessels or vs vs
09:57These designs could support three or more motors either inboard or outboard to take their speed to the next level
10:06Some could even make a 2 000 mile trip from colombia to mexico or guatemala in only four days
10:13For a while these vessels were effective
10:16But they weren't perfect and there were always people lurking in the weeds looking to get in on the action
10:22Experienced speedboat driver oscar moreno ricardo seized the opportunity to make some major profits
10:29He capitalized on his criminal connections to try his hand at boat building and he quickly earned the nickname the king of narco subs
10:38Boatbuilders like moreno saw a market for fully submersible vessels and their work was so in demand and respected that they were able to work with
10:45A number of different drug trafficking organizations looking for other design options
10:50The cartel began experimenting with traditional tube-like submarine vessels made out of fiberglass and the results show promise
10:59Once they had a fully airtight superstructure they needed to add ballasts
11:05These are controlled cavities that allow a vessel to take on or release water to affect its buoyancy
11:12This gave narco sub drivers the ability to control when and how they surfaced to load and unload the precious cargo
11:22These fully submersible vessels or fsvs could travel between one to three meters below the waves while maintaining the safety of the cargo
11:31The first attempts at fully submersible vessels ran on diesel so even if the body of the vessel was the water
11:38The engine still required some kind of intake and exhaust system that had to sit above the water so that the engine wouldn't choke or flood
11:48These designs were known as snorkel subs because of the mast or pipe that remained above the water
11:55Snorkel subs were so successful that authorities were only able to intercept five percent of them
12:00When thirty to forty percent of drugs coming to the us were arriving this way
12:06The cartels dogged ingenuity and financial investment in the development of narco subs was paying huge dividends
12:14These narco subs cost an average of one million us dollars to construct and that price tag can sort at two million for the larger versions
12:22But they carry hundreds of billions of dollars worth of product on every voyage
12:27So clearly the potential profit outweighs the investment and the risk
12:33In 2022 colombian police captured oscar moreno ricardo the rumored king of narco subs hoping that his arrest would be a major blow to the cocaine trafficking system
12:43But by then narco sub design knowledge had spread throughout the smuggling community and it was unstoppable
12:51The high seas game of cat and mouse between the cartels and authorities continues
12:56On april 2nd 2024 canadian authorities seized nearly 600 stolen vehicles bound for international black markets at the port of montreal
13:17With an approximate total worth of 34.5 million dollars
13:21This was one of the most valuable stolen car seizures the world had ever seen and the largest in canadian history
13:29This wasn't the result of a tiny crew that was just really accomplished this was a massive
13:34coordinated effort including local thieves
13:37Allegedly bribed officials and organized crime groups with their fingers in all the right pots
13:44For decades car theft has been a growing problem in the entire country in 2022 in toronto alone more than 12 000 vehicles were stolen in a single year
14:00That number translates to roughly one car every 40 minutes
14:07It's gotten so bad that canada is known as a supplier country in international car theft circles
14:11So how are car thieves in ontario nabbing so many cars that end up halfway around the world in the blink of an eye?
14:20Theft became a problem almost immediately after the car was invented
14:25Some of the earliest models didn't even have full doors let alone locks so anyone could just hop in turn the ignition and take off
14:33But as cars became more commonplace car manufacturers had to adjust to the criminal threat
14:40Vehicles were modified to have features like removable steering wheels and in 1910 the key was introduced even though they weren't widely used until the 40s
14:50From keys and locks and eventually alarms and trackers automobile technology has evolved right alongside crafty car thieves
14:59They figured out how to pick locks jimmy doors and hotwire the latest models for a quick getaway by mastering a specific set of physical skills
15:07But things were about to change
15:10In the mid 2000s technological advancement in car design led to the invention of digital keys
15:16Which allowed drivers to open and start their vehicles with the push of a button?
15:21For seasoned thieves these keyless systems were a major and loud pain in the neck
15:28Since most of these models came with standard factory installed alarms
15:33Keyless systems are based on short-range radio signals the key or the fob is a transponder that picks up and responds to
15:42A signal from the car and when it's engaged the car verifies that unique signal or serial number from the key
15:50And if it's a match the doors open if you don't have the key you don't have the car
15:54Thieves needed to invent something that could intercept and interfere with that communication
16:01The problem was that these key fobs had a range of only a few feet meaning the keys had to be next to the vehicle for the system to work
16:11There were plenty of desirable cars parked along suburban streets and in driveways
16:15But the keys to these cars were more often than not locked safe inside the house
16:19So they had to figure out a way to boost that faint signal from the key inside the house so that it could reach the car
16:27Tech savvy criminals started turning household items like wires and antennas into their own portable radio systems
16:35That could trick cars into thinking their keys were present
16:39They were a simplified two-part system that required an amplifier and a transmitter to be used in tandem
16:45Crews worked in pairs one person stood next to the car with the transmitter that was picked up by the receiver of that car
16:55The car then issued an authentication challenge to that transmitter assuming that it was the car's key
17:02Then that challenge was sent to the other thief's amplifier device
17:07The other thief stands near the front of the house
17:10Which is probably where the key is and waves that amplifier around trying to get the car and the key connected
17:16So once that signal reaches the key and the key signal goes back to the car
17:20Bang you're in what used to take 10 to 20 minutes to get into that car now takes less than 30 seconds. It's pretty impressive
17:29Over the years the success of these systems has made them so popular that they can now be bought online for a relatively low price
17:37These modern versions are a lot more sleek they're less conspicuous they're easier to use
17:42But they all have this one major basic problem and that is that you never get the key
17:47So once the car is running it works, but if you turn it off or if it runs out of gas
17:52It's dead because without the key you can never start it again
17:57This presented an issue for thieves that needed to be addressed
18:00But as it turns out technological advancement on the part of car manufacturers solve the problem for them
18:09All new cars have onboard diagnostic systems or obd
18:14These car computers have standardized digital ports beneath the dash
18:19Getting access to these ports provides real-time interactive data about the vehicle
18:25These ports have proven to be a major vulnerability
18:30A quick google search will show that portable professional tablets with obd cables are readily available online for around a thousand dollars
18:40While much more expensive than the simple relay system when used together
18:45The relay attack gains access to the car and the obd tablet
18:49Tablet overrides the key issue by reprogramming a dummy fob in minutes
18:58In january of 2022 a six month long investigation around toronto led to the recovery of 217 vehicles hijacked using obd systems
19:08Though police charged 24 low-level people in connection with the seizures the major players could not be identified
19:16This issue of organized car theft was so widespread that some car owners had their vehicles targeted three or more times
19:22And many have even had their replacement cars stolen
19:27Car owners looking to prevent theft invested in everything from enhanced surveillance systems to retractable driveway bollards
19:34And even low-tech solutions like the club
19:37Enterprising themes needed to come up with more efficient workarounds
19:41That didn't require multiple steps like relay or reprogramming attacks
19:46It's easy to assume that those improvements in design are great for the consumer the person that buys the car but
19:52That internet of things approach to design has had a lot of accidental and unintended consequences and car thieves have always been very quick to jump on any opportunity
20:03By studying new schematics and vehicle design plans they figured out a new bypass system
20:10Similar to the obd attack except it doesn't require key access to enter the vehicle at all
20:17Now it's just one centralized attack from the outside
20:23Modern cars especially luxury models are designed with smart features throughout to make the user experience smooth connected and enjoyable
20:32This means that most major components of the car if not all have been designed to communicate and connect with the cars overall computer system
20:39And a majority of those connections are all inside the car
20:43But there is this one major vulnerability that the car thieves found and that was
20:49the headlamps
20:51Smart thieves figured out that behind the headlamp modules of modern cars is an access port to the controller area network bus or CAN bus
21:05The central network that allows communication with the vehicle's smart components
21:11On february 11th 2024 a car owner rushed out to her driveway when she noticed one of her car headlights turned on
21:18The thieves had hacked the CAN bus system of her Lexus by disconnecting the other headlamp
21:25Car theft has become a billion dollar cash cow for organized crime groups with very little downside
21:31And it's getting worse from 2023 to 2024 car theft and car related home invasions in toronto rose a staggering 400 percent
21:43But to be this successful it can't be random this is made to order crime
21:50Scouts identify potential target vehicles then those vehicle ids are sent to higher ups who decide if the car is needed by their end users
22:02Once the buyer is confirmed the car is scheduled for pickup by any means necessary
22:07Then within 24 to 48 hours it will end up in a shipping container at the port of montreal bound for international waters
22:15It's shocking to car owners and infuriating to police who have had very little success stopping these thieves
22:23Another problem is this isn't just profitable for the criminals insurance companies have had to jack up their rates
22:28It's unclear if they're making more money as a result
22:31And then if you look at the companies that make and sell cars well, they're making and selling more cars
22:37So there are a lot of people making a lot of money off of this problem
22:41For now coordinated police efforts will continue and concerned car owners will do their best to protect their property
22:51But until insulated well-paid major players of organized crime groups can be identified
22:58Cars will continue to go missing from the streets of toronto only to be found on the other side of the planet
23:05The nearly 600 vehicles stopped at the port of montreal in 2024 was a serious blow to organized car theft
23:13Doubling the number of seizures at the port for the year
23:15But it's anyone's guess how many cars are still getting through successfully
23:35On february 2nd 1993 police raided a bizarre drug laboratory battlefield missouri and discovered a scene unlike anything
23:44They had ever witnessed before instead of beakers and Bunsen burners
23:48They found garbage bags full of used cold medicine jars of kerosene lighter fluid and a strange yellowish cake in the oven
23:57It looked more like a messy garage than anything else
24:00But this was a newfangled meth lab
24:03And a man named bob piolette was arrested on site
24:07Until this bus police understood methamphetamine production to be a highly scientific process
24:12Which required a complex setup of laboratory equipment tools and glassware?
24:18Even the large-scale super labs of the 1980s run by biker gangs like the hell's angels or the banditos
24:24Still required relatively traditional lab setups in the barns their warehouses where they operated
24:30And given the specialized nature of the work they knew to employ actual chemists to execute their technical process
24:36So how did this highly specialized chemical process go from major laboratories to illegal tabletop trailer setups in middle america?
24:48Methamphetamine is a stimulant that can be snorted smoked or dissolved in liquid to be injected
24:54It causes a boost of energy and alertness that can last for many hours
24:58Unlike other drugs like cocaine and heroin meth doesn't originate from any plant at all
25:05It is a purely synthetic 100% lab created product that's part of what makes it so tricky
25:11Plant-based drugs are a little bit limited by their ingredients for cocaine you have to have coca plant
25:17For opium you need poppies, but meth has no geographic limitations
25:23And that also means a lot of those ingredients are more affordable
25:28Methamphetamine was first synthesized in 1893 by a japanese chemist and it was used as a prescription medical treatment for asthma and narcolepsy
25:37But meth's use became more widespread during world war ii
25:41After a german pharmaceutical company created an over-the-counter version of the drug that was distributed to troops to stave off fatigue
25:49While useful in the short term for engaging the troops meth was highly addictive
25:55Its off-book use exploded after the war and by 1970 the drug was outlawed in the u.s
26:01Even so demand never waned and that was especially true in the economically depressed rural areas of the u.s like missouri
26:10Though he had never received a formal education bob piolet grew up with a well-used chemistry set
26:16In the late 80s likely motivated by the proliferation of meth in his community
26:21Piolet became interested in the drug's chemical makeup
26:28His curiosity led to some casual research at the southwest missouri state library there piolet accidentally discovered what would become his solution
26:37While reading some nazi era research papers about amphetamines
26:41The papers inspired his experimentation and the eventual name of this new meth process
26:48Known as the nazi method
26:51Piolet's new method was a remarkably simplified three-step process that could produce high quality meth in a fraction of the time
26:58With a simplified tabletop setup some commercially available ingredients he was done
27:04First over-the-counter cold medicine the active ingredient pseudoephedrine was crushed in the coffee grinder
27:11The resulting powder was then doused in methyl alcohol likely in the form of windshield washer fluid that would evaporate
27:18extracting or isolated the ephedrine
27:22Next you take some chemicals that you can find in farm fertilizers
27:25You mix that with chemicals that come from the inside of a commercial battery all that goes together to make something called meth oil
27:31And that oil is mixed with more ether passed through a coffee filter and what you end up with is this set of crystals
27:39That can be crushed into a powder
27:42Police and law enforcement had hoped that his arrest in 1993 would put a stop to this kind of experimentation
27:49But they were too late
27:51Piolet's recipe got out and mom-and-pop meth labs began
27:55Exploding across the state turning its already dense drug landscape into a meth mecca
28:02Because of Piolet's breakthrough trailers garages and kitchens became viable tabletop labs
28:07pumping out small batches of meth in only two hours without a heat source
28:20The 1990s were marked by more and more busts as authorities found hundreds of new homemade meth labs each year
28:27And it wasn't just an issue in Missouri across the country
28:30New cooks were trying their hands at meth production using Piolet's system
28:37At the time meth was selling between ten and fifteen thousand dollars a pound
28:41It was seen as a low risk high reward endeavor that could be executed with only a few cheap legal household ingredients
28:48And a readily available supply of cold medication
28:52Even when the product was less potent or inconsistent the customers weren't picky
28:57But for authorities it was getting out of control beyond lab busts
29:01There was an influx of dangerous chemical fires and issues of child endangerment as producers became more brazen with their setups
29:09By 2004 the meth crisis led to 24 000 seizures of meth labs 3 000 of which were in Missouri alone
29:18In response to the rising crisis in 2006 the u.s government instituted nationwide limits on the nazi methods active ingredient pseudoephedrin
29:30The combat methamphetamine epidemic act had an immediate cooling effect on the meth industry
29:37This method required about eight packages of cold meds to make half an ounce of meth
29:42But with that new law suddenly brands with pseudoephedrin were removed from public shelves
29:48They were either with the pharmacist or they were locked behind glass
29:50And besides that customers are limited in how much they can buy at once or how much they can buy over a 24-hour period
29:56Some states are even now requiring a prescription to get cold medicine
30:02There is no doubt that this was a major blow to the meth economy
30:05But the steady pace of criminal innovation was not going to let this be a death blow
30:09Cooks and users had to adjust if they were going to keep up with the lucrative demand for meth
30:15To maintain operations communities of independent meth cooks coordinated their efforts to gather supplies
30:20They started working with runners called smurfs who were responsible for navigating the local and state retail situation
30:27A smurf was the face that went to multiple sites stores and even states to skirt the legally imposed limits and cold medicines
30:35Employing new faces made it much more difficult for authorities to identify questionable purchases
30:43Smurfs were less obvious and it was hard to distinguish one smurf from another let alone from the average customer
30:51And each cook was working with between 10 to 15 smurfs at a time adding to the complexity of the system
30:57Over time some of these smurfs evolved from simple runners to small-time suppliers
31:05They amassed stockpiles of cold pills that could be sold at a major market to the cooks who relied on them
31:13But the addition of smurfs wasn't enough within the next few years a new portable lab modification hit the scene
31:20This was a one-pot meth production method that worked with only a couple of pseudoephedrine pills and a large bottle
31:26The method was called shake and bake
31:30It required a sealable vessel that could hold at least one and a half liters of volume
31:35Often a used two liter pop bottle where all the required ingredients including the pseudoephedrine and various household solvents were added
31:43mixed together or shaken
31:45This was dicey this chemical reaction needed to be watched carefully you had to burp it every few hours to prevent the bottle from exploding
31:54But eventually what you get is market-ready meth and it's efficient and it's contained
32:01But that shake and bake method is way more dangerous than previous production styles
32:04Because that mixture can easily burst into flames at any point in the process if it just gets exposed to oxygen
32:11Even so the portability of the shake and bake method was very appealing and meant that it could be done literally anywhere at any time
32:19Even when driving in a vehicle the product potency and quality definitely varied
32:24But this innovative method still led to another major spike in meth lab busts
32:32On march 1st 2013 police raided a mobile home on the outskirts of mountain grove missouri
32:38And discovered a series of containers including metal chemical cans and plastic bottles fitted with hoses
32:44Four people were arrested and a total of 95 shake and bake meth labs were seized
32:49Today the largest seizure of its kind of estate
32:54Eventually the stressors and obstacles placed on small-time producers and the meth economy
33:00Slowed down independent production of the drug with major declines and busts by the mid-2010s
33:08Over that period even though street value seems to decline the overall market demand for meth hadn't changed
33:14If anything it had grown from a backwoods drug to a mainstream product
33:19While lab seizures and federal regulation interfered with domestic production
33:26South of the border cartels and organized groups were primed to fill the growing void
33:32They already had major drug production facilities and trafficking infrastructure
33:37So from a business perspective it just made sense
33:42In 2016 the u.s drug enforcement agency noted that mexican-made meth was coming into the local market and by 2019
33:49The majority of the meth available in the u.s had been made in these mexican super labs
33:55And that shift from shake and bake local to super lab mexican meant that the meth that was on the streets
34:01Was lower cost it was better quality and it was much more addictive than it had been before
34:13Meth production has come full circle from the days of bob pullet's innovative method
34:19And even though the man himself is gone and his system fallen out of favor his revolutionary ideas
34:25Remain an important chapter in the story of the war on drugs
34:31On april 8th 2009 the merse alabama a u.s flag cargo ship was sailing in the indian ocean roughly 240 miles off the coast of somalia
34:50When it was attacked by a small speedboat carrying four pirates armed with ak-47s
34:56Despite the unarmed crews efforts to thwart the attack using fire hoses and flare guns the somali pirates were able to board the ship
35:06They took captain richard phillips hostage on one of the alabama's covered lifeboats and demanded a ransom of two million dollars
35:13It was the first time that pirates had set foot on an american vessel in about 200 years
35:19Pirates are about one thing only and that is money
35:24So more often than not ship owners and their insurers just pay the ransom to make the problem go away
35:31You get these huge bundles of cash literally airdropped into the ocean by private security companies
35:38Pirates take the loot they release the ship the whole situation is resolved
35:43With a pretty high success rate and millions of dollars out there to be earned piracy developed into a major problem
35:50In 2011 two years after the alabama was hijacked there were over 200 pirate attacks in the waters of somalia question is why
36:02Following the collapse of an authoritarian regime in 1991
36:05hundreds of thousands of people fled somalia because of political instability and an ugly civil war
36:13Local warlords took control of much of the country and although there is a central government political affairs are often dictated by rival clans
36:23Schools are shut down hospitals are shut down the central bank hasn't printed any currency in over a decade
36:29And the majority of the cash that's in circulation is so degraded people just can't use it anymore so
36:35Somalis turn to the u.s dollar or even
36:37Counterfeit u.s dollars that are made by warlords in ungoverned regions
36:43On top of all the political and economic instability somalia is prone to natural disasters like droughts floods cyclones
36:51These things can have a devastating effect on food supply and people's ability to make a living
36:57Given all these challenges you can see why piracy is an attractive way to escape poverty
37:02People tend to associate pirates with old-time buccaneers like blackbeard or long john silver with his peg leg and parrot on his shoulder
37:10Flying the jolly roger and terrorizing the seas
37:13But today's pirates are quite sophisticated
37:16They're well-funded armed to the teeth and surprisingly tech savvy
37:20The indian ocean is a big place for would-be pirates locating a ship for potential attack must be like finding a needle in a haystack
37:32But like many modern criminal enterprises somali hijack teams are turning to technology to solve the problem
37:38What pirates do is set up a command center in the early days the centers were usually on land often in a remote coastal town called ale known as the world's piracy capital
37:51But as they honed their techniques
37:53The pirates realized that it was more advantageous to set up these command centers at sea on so-called mother ships
37:59They might hijack a medium-sized vessel like a fishing crawler and then use the onboard technology to locate ships to target
38:06For the most part they use the automatic identification system or ais
38:10The a is was created to avoid collisions at sea to make ocean traffic safer using gps and vhf frequencies to broadcast data to everyone involved
38:22So any ship's location its speed its heading those are all available to every vessel in the vicinity and they're even available on the internet
38:34Once a potential target has been identified
38:36The pirates have to determine whether or not it's worth their time and effort to attack the ship
38:43The a is also provides other intel that they're after the ship's name destination number of crew members and most importantly cargo
38:52The more valuable and substantial the cargo is the more likely they are to have their ransom demands met
38:58Some pirate groups have taken it a step further in 2016 an unnamed global shipping group had its systems hack
39:06Pirates were able to access detailed information about vessels cargo allowing them to conduct targeted attacks
39:14Instead of taking over the ship for days on end and negotiating a ransom payment they take a totally different approach
39:19They come on board they move the crew into a safe area and then they go straight to the very crate
39:25They know from the barcode contains all the valuable cargo
39:29Then they steal the contents and they take off it's a quick hit and run just like an old-fashioned train robbery
39:36The hackers also downloaded information about future shipments finding out what high value cargo would be on certain vessels
39:42And when those ships were scheduled to be at sea leading to further attacks
39:45But hijacking and extortion is still the most common tactic used by somali pirates
39:53After establishing a ship's location and deciding that it's a worthwhile target they spring into action and launch the attack
40:01Generally, they leave their mother ship in several small open-air skips with powerful outboard engines
40:07Communication is important according to the attack. So they rely on high-end satellite phones and use custom-made gps systems
40:13Once the pirates reach the target they might fire warning shots with ak-487s or rocket launchers before attempting to board
40:22Hoping the captain slows the ship down in response to the threat making it easier for them to climb up using grappling hooks or rope riders
40:30If the breach is successful the crew gets rounded up and stashed away somewhere
40:34The next order of business is to disable the ship's communication systems and then bring that ship closer to shore or even
40:40To a receptive port like ale
40:45With a hijacking complete the business of negotiating the ransom begins
40:50The shipping companies are contacted via email or telephone and the pirates usually start out demanding outlandish sums of money
40:59The price almost always comes down during negotiations, but there have been some exorbitant amounts paid out over the years
41:05In 2011 a staggering 13 and a half million u.s. Dollars was paid to somali pirates for the release of a greek oil tanker
41:14after 58 days in captivity
41:17Once the ransom is paid the ship and its crew are released and the money is divided up among the perpetrators
41:22and shadowy figures who finance the operations and in a bit of robin hood generosity some of the money even filters back
41:29to the communities that provide safe harbor to these pirates
41:32Often the money is transferred through what's known as hawala an ancient informal banking system where no money changes hands
41:38directly between two parties but rather through intermediaries at either end of the transaction
41:43It's used in places where standard western banking systems either don't exist or are trusted
41:49The owing party pays an agent on his end and provides a password the payee's name and where they live
41:57The agent then gets in touch with a contact in the payee's city who completes the transaction by handing over the money
42:03Completely untraceable and perfect for modern-day piracy
42:06As attacks proliferated along the east african coast shipping companies and international authorities began to realize they had a serious issue on their hands
42:19A study in 2013 showed that piracy was costing the worldwide economy about 18 billion dollars every year
42:27So clearly something had to be done couldn't just sit around idly letting the pirates operate with impunity
42:37Many shipping companies took measures to protect their ships they armed crews hired private security and rigged their vessels with anti-pirate devices
42:45Like high-powered water cannons barbed wire and sonic weapons called long-range acoustic devices that caused ear splitting sounds
42:55NATO warships also began patrolling the waters where pirate attacks were happening the most
43:00And to some extent these measures were effective in reducing the number of attacks
43:03But they didn't go away entirely and recent data suggests that piracy may be on the rising end
43:11In 2023 there were a reported 120 incidents of piracy and armed robbery on the world's waters
43:18And the number of crews taken hostage rose to 73 from 41 the previous year
43:23While the stats may sound alarming it's worth noting that the numbers are much lower than they were back in 2009
43:31When the alabama was attacked and captain phillips taken hostage
43:34On april 12th four days after the alabama was seized navy seal snipers shot and killed the three pirates holding captain phillips hostage on the lifeboat
43:46A fourth pirate surrendered and was later sentenced to over 33 years in an american prison
43:51A tragic victory in the seemingly never-ending war against piracy
Recommended
44:14
|
Up next
45:03
44:40
44:08
40:21
45:34
40:21
47:07
48:54
1:05:50
42:01