Eyes Pried Open

by Vincent Sellers

  We heard on the FBI radio that the primary arrest subject’s location was still unknown, and that the other arrest team was not successful. This was considered to be a high risk arrest scenario, largely due to the fact that the subject was a trained federal agent with law enforcement tactics and firearms training. That is certainly not the type of person that I wanted to get into a gunfight with. The SWAT team had been deployed to perform the arrest of the main subject due to the high risk of violence. When they could not locate the subject, the FBI used surveillance including vehicles and air support. He had changed his work schedule, which led agents to fear that someone had tipped him off. However, later in the day the subject finally returned home and was arrested by the FBI without further incident. To me this arrest was particularly interesting because it was law enforcement arresting law enforcement. I wondered what the dynamics would be during the arrest. I wondered what the experience would be like talking to someone who was supposed to be on our side, but who had defected to the other side. Little did I know that I soon would have a major case involving a law enforcement officer who had gone bad.

  On the surface, the arrest and search was fun and rewarding. I arrived at home exhausted; I had been up early, had adrenaline pumping, and had been in a stressful situation that I was not used to dealing with. I later realized how extremely relieved I was that it was over, but I was also proud to have participated on the arrest team and helped bring criminals to justice.

  CHAPTER 27

  Run for the Border

  One of my first occasions to visit the San Ysidro international border crossing, which separates San Diego and Tijuana, was due to a fatal shooting involving ICE and a drug cartel. Late on a Wednesday afternoon I was notified about the incident. One of the violations that my squad was responsible for investigating was assaults on the federal officers, which were always referred to as “AFOs.” We did not know any details except that there had been a shooting that had resulted in the death of a subject. Our supervisor directed three of us to head to the border, to report back on the situation, and then to receive further instructions. I ran out of the FBI office, hopped in my car, and sped towards the border (every time I made the drive to the border, I could not help but think of the popular Taco Bell slogan at the time, which was “Make a run for the border!”).

  The San Diego office is located about fifteen miles north of the border. The busiest border vehicle crossing in the world is the San Ysidro crossing where Interstate 5 runs into Mexico. As I sped down I-5, I could see that traffic was backed up worse than usual. Over the radio I learned that the entire border crossing point had been shut down. This meant that there would be tens of thousands of stranded motorists waiting for the border to reopen.

  FBI cars typically have a siren and flashing lights, which FBI agents rarely have the opportunity to use. However, in this case, I was directed to use all means necessary to get to the border ASAP, including using my car’s flashing lights and siren. I took great pleasure in flipping on the lights, turning on the siren, and driving on the shoulder and even the median at high speed. I was enjoying my drive like a kid enjoys speeding along on a shiny new bike down the street for the first time.

  As I flew down the highway passing, thousands of stopped cars, I finally reached a point where traffic had been diverted off of the Interstate, leaving the final few miles to the border free of all vehicles. I took out my badge, slowed down, and without stopping I was motioned through by the California Highway Patrol to the eerily empty multi-lane Interstate highway to continue my journey to the crime scene. I had several miles of I-5 completely to myself, and I had a valid reason to speed. So I sped. For any driver to have miles of traffic-fee Interstate, especially for one of the busiest highways in the nation, is indeed a rare treat that I likely will never see again. I successfully tried to just enjoy the moment, and tried not to think about the stress and uncertainty of the situation that awaited me when I arrived at the border.

  As I rolled up to the crime scene at the San Ysidro border, I showed my credentials to a group of officers who were engaged in what appeared to be an intense discussion. This border crossing is a gigantic complex that stretches across several acres, and features an extended pedestrian bridge for foot traffic, with dozens of lanes for traffic outbound from the United States and Mexico. Incoming traffic lanes are even more numerous, with seemingly countless booths that accompany each lane. The entry into the United States must be something akin to entering Disney World for those who legally pass through this particular crossing location. I found an empty parking space, located my senior training agent, and learned the details of the incident.

  As we wandered into the vicinity of the crime scene, we walked past rows of cars that were stranded and unable to be moved because they were considered to be part of the crime scene. I also saw dozens of drivers who were being held as potential witnesses to the shooting. We continued to stroll along the line of cars until we entered an area commonly referred to as “no man’s land,” which is a small strip of land that is approximately fifty yards in width. This buffer zone sits directly between the United States and Mexico, and technically does not fall under the jurisdiction of either country. As we walked up to an area concentrated with law enforcement officials, I saw a sport utility vehicle that was bullet-ridden, with the driver’s door ajar, and a body hanging out of the driver’s seat with arms dangling into the roadway. Clearly the driver had been shot and killed in this fatal incident. I had previously never seen a real dead body “in the flesh” outside of a funeral home. Despite being exposed to numerous videos at the FBI Academy that depicted horrific fatal accidents, and even though I had watched several of the 80s Faces of Death (reality “gore”) movies, this was a new, creepy, and sobering experience for me. I have the same or slightly greater morbid curiosity that most people have; I was tempted to gawk and stare as if I were a member of the general public driving by a tragic accident. But after a very brief view of the scene, out of respect for the dead, and to uphold the professionalism of being an FBI agent, I turned my attention away from the body and began to work with my fellow agents to scope out the aspects of what our role would be in this investigation.

  The simple fact that the vehicle’s position was in “no man's land” could have created significant legal and jurisdictional issues between the United States and Mexico. In this case, the vehicle was physically positioned closer to the United States border, and I surmised that the Mexican authorities, who were also observing the scene from their side of the fence, did not want to have anything to do with this mess. It was amazing to me that only a few feet separated the American agents from their Mexican counterparts, but working directly with each other would be very difficult because of the language barrier. This was the first of many occasions that I would see not only physical but language and cultural barriers that separate the two countries, and in light of the drug-related violence that has resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Mexican citizens, having barriers to isolate the United States from Mexico did not seem to be a bad thing under the circumstances.

  As details emerged, we learned that there were several overlapping investigative jurisdictions, including the San Diego Police Department, San Diego Sheriff's Department, US Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI typically is the lead agency for shared investigations, especially when crimes are border-related and involve federal agents. However, in this situation, no federal agents were injured, and due to the nature of the shooting and the responding organizations, the case quickly developed into an effort lead by the San Diego Police Department, with the primary federal assistance coming from ICE.

  While the FBI tends to dominate the imagination of the media and the press, the reality is that more specialized law enforcement agencies are often much better equipped to handle some investigations, such a
s this shooting,. The FBI is efficient at coordinating massive large-scale disaster response across multiple agencies, but for specific criminal cases the FBI frequently offers a supportive role rather than directly performing investigative steps. Police deal with shootings on a daily basis, and while this particular instance involved federal agents, the circumstances were not unusual and logically fell within the investigative territory of the San Diego Police Department. As representatives of the FBI, we were happy to stand aside and let the cops do their work, which would not only yield a high quality investigative process, but would expedite opening this critical border crossing up. In chatting with some of the Border Patrol agents, we found that they were amazed to see the border crossing closed; none of them had ever seen this happen during their entire careers. They reported that the only other time the crossing had closed was the day John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in 1963.

  We also began to learn more details of the shooting from the Border Patrol agent witnesses. Apparently a drug runner had driven across the border coming from Mexico into the United States. An undercover narcotics unit had gained intelligence on this vehicle, and our agents had slipped in behind the vehicle and followed it as it drove into United States. The driver of the suspect’s vehicle apparently “made” (spotted) the undercover car, and elected to turn around and try to head back to the safety of Mexico. He exited the highway, crossed an overpass, and began to head back southbound on Interstate 5. At this point the agents in the undercover unit realized that the offender was trying to get back into Mexico, so they radioed ahead to agents at the border and alerted them to try to stop the vehicle before it could re-enter Mexico. When leaving the United States at the San Ysidro crossing, the lanes from Interstate 5 feed directly into Mexico without having any physical barriers or checkpoints. The United States does not limit who is leaving the country; traffic is only slowed by scattered concrete barricades that physically separate the lanes right before they enter Mexico. In this instance, the agents quickly fanned out between the lanes of traffic and began to look for the vehicle that was approaching. The agents spotted the vehicle, waived their arms, drew their weapons, and shouted for the driver of the vehicle to come to a stop. The driver knew that he would be home free if he could just make it across the border, so he made the fateful decision not to stop. The agents who were on foot did not benefit from the usual protection of guard stations. They were confronted with the life-threatening situation of having an approaching vehicle that was being used as a deadly weapon against them.

  It is impossible to know with complete certainty if the driver of this vehicle intended to try to kill agents, or if he merely thought that the agents would jump out of the way and allow him to enter Mexico. Regardless of the driver’s intent, the agents opened fire on the driver when it appeared that there was an eminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to themselves or others in the vicinity. The driver’s door was pummeled with gunfire from agents, the vehicle coasted to a stop in the no man's land area between the two countries, the driver managed to open his door, and he slumped to the ground as he drew his final breath. The extreme violence of the shooting made a huge impression on me, and probably contributed to my recurring nightmares involving shootings and death.

  This shooting was my introduction to the violent Mexican criminal element that is associated with drug smuggling. It is an ugly business, and numerous people get killed, ranging from innocent citizens to drug cartel members. Big money is at stake (in the tens or even hundreds of billions of US dollars), and the cartels do not hesitate to take action to cash in on the multitude of high risk but high reward illegal opportunities that are available. This incident was also my first exposure to how criminals use the Mexican border to their advantage as a shield or safety net; they can commit a crime in the United States and then easily escape by simply getting back into Mexico. I would see this pattern repeated numerous times during my term in San Diego.

  After spending several hours standing around and relaying messages back to our supervisor and management at the FBI field office we wrapped up the evening. The news media was present, complete with reporters and helicopters, and it was interesting to be part of the scene and gain an insider's perspective. I always thought that an event such as this one would be an enjoyable part of being an FBI agent. It definitely separated the job of being an agent from the average day job spent in a cubicle. But as the hours slowly piled on, one after another, my excitement at the crime scene diminished and I longed for my wife, pets, and comfortable bed. I finally trudged through my apartment door well after midnight, scarfed down some food, and went to bed to sleep a few hours before the challenges of the next day began.

  CHAPTER 28

  Big Bear Prison Transport

  FBI agents do not have nine-to-five jobs. Criminals do not work “business hours.” That is a given that is understood by everyone who enters the profession. But what I did not realize was that there would be days that would begin as early as 2:00 a.m. and end long after the sun went down. And some days would last for two sunrises, without a wink of sleep in between. Just a couple of months after arriving in San Diego, I had the opportunity to experience one of these extended long days.

  The FBI has investigative authority over many different violations, ranging from bank robberies, to kidnapping, to terrorism. Compared to violations that other agencies work, the FBI is incredibly broad in scope. Often, jurisdiction of criminal matters between the FBI and other entities overlaps. If the investigation is purely related to drugs, then it is typically headed by DEA. However, there are often cases that involve a number of different criminal charges, and usually these more complex and varied investigations are performed by the FBI. Depending on the evidence that is available, the FBI often works with the US Attorney to aggressively pursue charges that are not immediately related to the primary offense. For example, for organized crime cases, there may be drug charges and related charges that can be applied. However, frequently the FBI relies on wire fraud and mail fraud charges to put criminals behind bars. The FBI takes the common sense viewpoint that it does not matter technically what the offense is; as long as bad guys are off the streets; that is what is important.

  The FBI in San Diego had a long-term investigation of gang activity. One gang in particular was known to be funding their operations through transport and sale of methamphetamines, simply referred to as meth. Meth has moved to dominating the illegal drug trade, much like crack cocaine ruled the drugs of the 80s and 90s. Meth has already destroyed an untold numbers of lives, probably numbering in the millions, either through addiction, serious injury, or death. One of the biggest impacts of meth is that many people across the United States have elected to create their own meth labs, resulting in horrific chemical burns and sometimes death, not only for themselves, but family members, innocent bystanders, and law-enforcement officials. TV shows popularize the notion of “average Americans” getting their cut of the drug trade; Weeds and Breaking Bad were two of my favorite shows that dealt with the topic. But fiction is one thing; the reality and raw harshness that surrounds the illegal drug trade is not something any “average American” would want any part of if he or she were adequately informed of the inherent dangers of this lifestyle.

  For this particular case, the FBI had identified approximately thirty subjects who were known to deal meth. Arrest warrants were obtained and a date was set to round up the criminals. One of the arrest warrants issued was for a female in her late 20s who was living in the Big Bear Lake vicinity in California. Big Bear is located approximately two hours northeast of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Mountains. It is a common vacation destination for many Southern Californians, known for having a beautiful lake set amidst the gorgeous Sierra Nevada Mountains. The area has a reputation for having an outdoorsy “vacation getaway” feel, which is quite the opposite of the usual criminal setting of poverty-stricken inner-city ne
ighborhoods. While other agents were tasked with searches and arrests in the San Diego area, I was selected by my superiors to participate on the Big Bear arrest team.

  The arrest plan called for the arrest team to convene in Big Bear at 4:30 in the morning. Multiple people from multiple agencies, including the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Division of the FBI, would participate in the arrest. The San Diego FBI would ultimately be in charge of the arrests and related searches. My part of the plan involved arresting one of the female subjects, and then providing the in-custody escort and transportation for her back to San Diego, where she would face charges. I was assigned to work with a fellow female agent working at the North San Diego County satellite office. We agreed to meet at 2:00 a.m. so we would have ample time to make the lengthy drive to arrive in Big Bear on time. Although I lived close to the office, I had to wake up by 1:30 a.m. to get geared up and be on time. I knew I was in for a full day, entailing hours of driving, a high-pressure arrest scenario, an intense and important search of the property, and finally a lengthy prisoner transport.