[2014] Eyes Pried Open: Rookie FBI Agent

by Vincent Sellers

  My supervisor had pulled me aside and told me, “While the Attorney General’s safety is important, your safety is more important, and if bullets start flying, just protect yourself, even if that means jumping in the nearest ditch.” Throughout the visit, I was armed and constantly wearing my vest, and I thought that if violence erupted, I would fall back on my training, which would be first to take cover, and then fight back. Fortunately, there were no threats during his visit. Regardless of expectations from my management, I felt an incredible sense of responsibility for the Attorney General’s safety, and I was relieved to see him board his plane alive and with no bullet holes at the end of his journey.

  During the several day visit, I had to devote all of my time, twenty-four hours per day, to the protection detail. Prior to being assigned to the protection detail, I had purchased tickets to see one of my most admired movie icons: Ray Harryhausen. He was speaking in San Diego about his stop-motion movie techniques and would be signing books and showing off some of his famous movie props. Since I had to miss the event, Jennifer went in my place and even managed to get a book signed for me. His death in 2013 saddened me; I will never get to meet the man responsible for creating films that fueled my childhood imagination. I saw how the FBI could be all-consuming, and felt bad for those who have to skip family events due to the demands of a career in the FBI: children’s plays, graduations, and weddings are all at risk to be missed by FBI agents.

  CHAPTER 34

  Assaults on Federal Officers

  The FBI famously was depicted in the X Files TV show as investigating UFOs and other strange phenomenon. While I would have been thrilled to be chasing UFOs, I unfortunately spent much of my time investigating what are called “AFOs”, which stands for an Assault on a Federal Officer. While AFOs could involve any threat or harm to a federal official (including judges or employees of any federal agency), these investigations typically were related to Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who were attacked or assaulted when attempting to arrest illegal aliens.

  Since my squad was located in San Diego right next to the border, we had a large number of AFOs to investigate. Most of my squad mates absolutely despised getting a call related to AFOs; it did not take long for me to experience first-hand the long hours and remote locations involved with these investigations.

  AFO investigations are typically conducted first at the scene of the assault, and then at the nearest border patrol checkpoint, which usually has offices and holding stations where victims and suspects can both be interviewed. The incidents usually occur in areas where there is no border fence between Mexico and the United States. The fenced portion of the Mexican border with California stretches from the Pacific Ocean for a number of miles eastward through the populated border areas around San Ysidro and Chula Vista, and is an effective deterrent to illegal crossings and activity. It is heavily patrolled and monitored, making illegal entry difficult. There are other methods that the criminals rely on, such as smuggling people and illegal drugs in vehicles, or digging elaborate tunnels that stretch from buildings located in Tijuana to buildings on the US side of the border. Although there is no single foolproof solution to the border issue, there is no question in my mind that the fence has significantly deterred illegal crossings and related activity in the San Diego border vicinity. However, the fence has an adverse impact on the more remote border areas. Criminals naturally flock to areas without a fence; much like what would happen if a dam was only completed halfway, the water would simply flow around the sides. The open sides beyond the border fence are in remote areas that can require hours of driving and hiking to access.

  Understandably, mere mention of a border fence brings controversy and immediate comparisons to the Berlin Wall and Cold War oppression. The reality is that illegal aliens cross the border on foot in unfenced areas, only to be subjected to the harsh conditions of the desert. They frequently die of thirst, exposure, and heat exhaustion. A border fence certainly does not come close to fixing all current immigration issues, but it would have an immediate positive impact. Ultimately these fences have helped improved the safety of both US citizens and illegals by stemming the flow of foot traffic across the border. The United States is virtually powerless to combat the violence and drug related challenges in Mexico, but we can absolutely do a better job of protecting our own country by completing the fence along our southern border, and investing in the people and technology resources that are necessary to truly secure the border.

  One evening my supervisor called me and said that an AFO had been reported, and that he had picked my squad mate, Special Agent Mark Landry, and me to handle the investigation. We convened at the FBI office and then drove out to a United States border patrol checkpoint southeast of San Diego, which took approximately one hour of driving on small winding roads to reach. By telephone we learned some rough details about the incident. An officer attempted to stop a vehicle at the checkpoint, was unsuccessful, and became tangled in the seatbelt of the vehicle as it pulled away. The officer was able to run alongside the car and free himself and escaped without injury; despite not being injured, the action of the criminals was technically an assault on the officer. A high-speed chase ensued from the checkpoint, ultimately ending with the subjects being arrested in Chula Vista, California. The Chula Vista Police Department successfully and safely stopped the vehicle, and the subjects were returned to the location of the checkpoint so the interviews and investigation could be conducted.

  Mark and I made the lengthy drive to the checkpoint, and as I watched the desert landscape and mountains pass, I selfishly could only think of how late it would be before I was able to go home. I knew we would be arriving at the scene at about midnight, and that these investigations can take many hours to complete. The professional side of me knew that this was a serious investigation, but another part of me realized that nobody had been seriously injured, and I was somewhat resentful that people who were probably illegally in the country had turned my sleeping hours into waking hours.

  We finally arrived at the checkpoint where the subjects were being detained. The scene was located on a two-lane highway that runs in the vicinity of the California and Mexico border. The checkpoint is in place to prevent people referred to as “coyotes” from picking up illegal aliens who cross the border, who are then taken into sanctuary cities, such as the San Diego suburb called National City, where the local law enforcement refuses to participate in enforcing federal immigration laws, and are essentially granted a free pass from being deported.

  Through the course of the investigation we were granted access to view the videotape of the incident, and it was indeed a terrifying scene to witness. It reminded me of the late-night extreme shock videos on TV that do not always result in a safe outcome. Fortunately in this case the officer who was involved had no visible injuries, although he was clearly and understandably shaken up. After seeing the video, putting myself in the shoes of the agent who narrowly escaped with his life, I realized that the FBI really did need to be there to ensure that this case would be advanced and presented to the US Attorney’s Office for prosecution. I knew that we needed to take a stance and not allow anyone to just waltz into our country and endanger the men and women who work so hard to protect legitimate and legal citizens.

  We learned more about the subjects involved with the case; they were two Hispanic female US citizens who were in their late teens. They had picked up two illegal immigrants near the border and were attempting to drive them to a safe location in the United States. After reviewing their criminal histories, we found out that the two females had prior records of being arrested for illegal alien smuggling. They had managed to wriggle their way out of charges on eight previous occasions, which seemed to indicate not only a serious pattern of bad behavior on their part, but also serious failings on the part of our justice system. They had been set free and were
allowed to commit the same crime a ninth time, when the result easily could have been the injury or death of a law enforcement official.

  The other two occupants of the vehicle were from Mexico. They seemed scared and clearly they had just been along for the ride during the incident. They had probably paid thousands of dollars so that they could be taken into the United States, and instead were caught and would ultimately be deported back to Mexico. They had possibly given up their life savings and everything they had trying to make it into the United States, and this was the result. Although it is not the place of an FBI agent to judge, I felt my anger directed much more towards the girls than toward the illegals they were trying to smuggle into the United States.

  Unfortunately the illegals did not speak English. My wonderful squad mate, Janet, who always amazed me with her positive and pleasant attitude, even when called in the middle of the night to assist, drove out to the scene so that she could translate and perform interviews of the Spanish-speaking illegals. I realized the significant resource drain on my squad from this one incident, and could mentally envision the number of incidents that I knew that frequently occur along the United States border. Prior to joining the FBI, I had never thought about the FBI having to expend resources to combat illegal immigration. That was Homeland Security’s problem. In this case the FBI sent out three of only eight squad members to perform an investigation, which resulted in days of paperwork and follow-up action, meaning that several days of precious time were not be available for us to spend on other critical investigations such as bank robberies, fugitives, kidnappings, or extortions.

  The scene of the incident was at the same checkpoint where everyone was being held for their interviews. At one point during the evening, I witnessed a Border Patrol car peeling out of the parking lot racing down the highway. I later saw ambulances and fire trucks coming down the same road, whizzing by the checkpoint at high speed. Word quickly spread that a van with approximately ten illegal immigrants had approached the checkpoint, had turned around, was noticed and pursued by the Border Patrol, and then took off with a high-speed chase ensuing. The driver lost control of the vehicle on a perilous curved section of the highway, and plunged down a ravine approximately one hundred feet. According to the responding officers, there were bodies and carnage everywhere. Clearly there were additional significant resources being drained from not only the Border Patrol, but also medical personnel.

  During my time in San Diego I would hear about multiple additional incidents that were similar to this. Vehicles crammed with people that crash while trying to flee from law enforcement were not uncommon. These dramatic events would be a headline new story in most areas of the country, but along the border these horrible occurrences are hardly noticed by media outlets.

  We conducted a lengthy interview of the subjects. The hours slowly ticked by. We finally concluded all of our investigative activities at about 2 a.m. and headed back to the office. I headed home to get a few hours of sleep, and upon my return to the office at 7 a.m., I learned that my fellow agent had stayed up at the office all night. He was trying to finish the paperwork so that the records would be immediately available for the United States Attorney’s Office to file their case in federal court. This was just another example of the dedication that FBI agents exhibit.

  That late night at the border patrol station showed me what I call the true “Wild Wild West.” I immediately gained an appreciation for an incredibly difficult job in harsh and dangerous conditions that agents in the United States Border Patrol do on a daily basis. I could see that in the law-enforcement community my job was relatively safe, with clean conditions and a desirable location. And while I could not afford to buy a home in Southern California, I was well-paid relative to other law enforcement positions; while I had my share of justifiable complaints, I was certainly in an enviable position from the perspective of most law enforcement officers. This learning experience also helped me to conclude that the true cost of illegal immigration is incalculable. Actions by the dedicated individuals in law enforcement are not going to fix this problem; ultimately, it comes down to the leaders in Congress and the White House making the tough policy decisions that will address immigration issues head-on.

  CHAPTER 35

  Kidnappings

  During my time in the San Diego FBI, we received an average of one reported kidnapping every one to two weeks. Out of about fifty kidnappings in the San Diego area that were reported to the FBI, all but two had at least some involvement or tie to victims, families, and subjects who were not US citizens. The two cases that involved only US citizens both had ties to illegal activities in Mexico. All cases pointed towards broader issues of our lack of immigration law enforcement and to a porous border. Not once while I was in San Diego did the FBI get a call that most people envision when they hear the term kidnapping. There were no little girls trapped in wells being held captive by psychotic killers. There were no Silence of the Lambs type of cases.

  Kidnappings in San Diego tended to follow similar patterns, not unlike what we observed for bank robberies. Quite frequently at the end of the day on Friday, or possibly early on a Saturday morning, the FBI San Diego office would receive a call from a person saying that a relative had been kidnapped. The FBI rightfully prioritizes kidnappings over other investigations, because a life may be hanging in the balance; the FBI always places the safety and the welfare of citizens (and non-citizens) ahead of all other concerns. During my experience in the San Diego FBI office, I saw that the kidnapping problem is rampant, and that dozens of agents could be dedicated full-time to investigating kidnappings and still not have the resources needed to thoroughly pursue all leads and provide the type of response that most citizens assume the FBI will provide if they pick up the phone and report a kidnapping.

  For every reported kidnapping while I was in San Diego, I estimate that another ten occurred which were never reported to authorities. The small percentage that are reported are usually not known to law enforcement until several days after the kidnapping occurs. The reason for these surprising figures is that family members who report the kidnapping are often profiting from illegal activities that their kidnapped family member is engaged in. Kidnappings in the San Diego vicinity were commonly related to drug dealing, typically with a specific debt to be collected as ransom money. This is often an oddly specific amount, such as $153,000, for example. An oddly specific amount alerts law enforcement that a drug debt is likely to be involved, since the ransom amount is not a “round” number, such as $100,000. At other times, ransom amounts would be for several million dollars, and much like the process of negotiating a leather purse in a Mexican market, a deal could be struck between a victim’s family and kidnappers when the right amount of pressure was applied and kidnappers were convinced that the victim’s financial resources were completely tapped. In some cases, I saw ransom demands negotiated down to as little as 10% of the original asking price. However, in those instances, the chances of getting back a kidnapping victim alive were even lower than 10%. Negotiating on the price seemed to have little impact on the chances of a safe return of the victim. The rampant kidnapping problems in the San Diego area highlighted the extreme reward and risk associated with the drug trade.

  There were several additional complexities that impacted the kidnapping investigations that I was involved with. Victims typically carried unregistered cell phones sold in Mexico, family members were usually based in Mexico, and despite whether the victims or relatives were US citizens, the FBI was legally obligated to help them and pursue criminal charges whenever possible. While the FBI has no jurisdiction to perform an investigation in a foreign country, if telephone calls for ransom were made from Mexico to the United States, that triggered the legal mechanism within Title 18 of the United States code to pursue an investigation. Family members knew that FBI agents could be trusted, so when they became desperate enough, t
hey would come to the United States for help because they did not trust their own law enforcement entities. In most cases, the FBI agents’ hands were tied in pursuing a fruitful investigation since surveillance, cell phone tracking and monitoring, and other aspects of the investigation could physically only occur in Mexico, yet FBI agents generally were not allowed to enter Mexico to perform those tasks. Frequently the family who reports the kidnapping would specifically not want the FBI to report the kidnapping to the Mexican authorities, since the Mexican authorities were often corruptly tied in with the drug cartels. If a kidnapper instructed the family not to work with the police and word got back to the kidnappers that the family was working with the FBI, then the odds of successfully saving the victim became slimmer.

  Not only were victim’s family members frequently not US citizens, but they often could not even speak English. Translators had to be brought in, and communication was difficult. When interviewing relatives of kidnap victims, I often witnessed a sudden onset degree of deafness or lack of understanding of the translator; this conveniently would occur when they were asked questions such as “Is the victim involved in the illegal drug trade?” or “Are you involved in the illegal drug trade?”

  Criminals are aware of the limitations placed on law enforcement from an international perspective. Criminals use the border to their advantage by hopping back and forth between the United States and Mexico so they can evade law enforcement on both sides. There are tens of thousands of people and cars travelling between the two countries on a daily basis. The ability to stop illegal activity appears to be a losing game. The best criminal deterrent that the United States has is to build an effective barrier or fence and embrace technology to help verify the legal status of those who are travelling between the two countries, including facial recognition, fingerprints, and eventually DNA analysis. While I see this as more government intrusion (which I am generally opposed to), failure to do more to secure the border eventually will lead to failure of the country.