July 21, 2021 • 24 mins
Once one of those responsible for the cocaine seized in Campeche is known, John Gibler contacts a Colombian journalist, who even met TRANSPORTISTA in person and considered him an encyclopedia of the narco world.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
On November twenty nine, twenty eleven, Judge Patricia's Sites stood
before prosecuting attorney Andrea Hoffman representing the United States of America,
and defense attorney in bettevol Minguez representing Luis Fernando de
Lui Castillo. The court can leaned at twelve or five
PM with the words case number one one two zero
(00:30):
three two one criminal United States versus Luis Fernando Bolstillo.
This was something of a problem. You see, Luis Fernando
Bertoluci Castillo does not exist, or at least not legally.
Hoffman informed the judge that Bertuluccio was an alias, that
the individual sitting there in the corps preparing to plead
(00:51):
guilty was indicted and arrested as Bertu Lucci, but Hoffman
told the judge his true name, we come to find
out after we had arrested him and brought him into
the United States, is Fernando blank Yosa. I contacted the
Southern District of Florida United States District Court to ask
if this hearing was recorded. The court reporter's office told
(01:14):
me that the transcript is the only official record and
no audio recordings of the hearing are available. So in
what follows, the brilliant actor Juquinkosio will read for blank Hill,
and I, sadly will read for everyone else. Judge sites
asked how the defendant would like to be addressed, and
(01:35):
both attorneys said he goes by blink Hill. The judge
then proceeded thus later, mister blank Yos she said, I'm
sure mister Luminguez has explained to you the purpose of
this hearing. It is so that I can hear directly
from you whether or not you have sufficient information to
make an informed decision that this is what you would
(01:55):
like to do, namely, lead guilty to counts two and
three of the indictment, and that you are doing this
freely involuntarily, that no one is forcing you to do that.
We need to establish those two things here in this hearing,
So that's why I'm going to be asking your questions.
Counts two and three of the indictment charged that Luis
(02:16):
Fernando Ruz Castillo first conspired to possess with the intent
to distribute a controlled substance while onboard an aircraft registered
in the United States, and secondly, that he obtained an
aircraft's certificate of registration by knowingly and willingly falsifying and
concealing a material fact, namely the true owner of the airplane.
(02:38):
The indictment charged that he did all of this lying
with the intention to transport cocaine into the United States.
The judge then said, I need truthful answers to the
questions that I ask because I rely on what you
tell me. So to underscore the importance of telling me
the truth, I'm going to please you under oath. They
(03:01):
swore him in and told him to take a seat,
and then the judge began, Please tell me your full name,
your age, and the extent of your formal education. He responded.
The judge then asked him about his schooling, training, his
pilot license, work experience, and current employment. Blenkio said that
he studied in San Diego, California, got his license in
(03:23):
nineteen eighty two, and worked as a pilot. He said
they was currently unemployed and that his most recent job
was selling airplanes. The next series of questions and answers
in the transcript are worth reading in their entirety. Again,
I'll read for the judge and Cocillo for Blenkio. My
(03:43):
full name is Fernando Blay Athenian and I am currently
fifty years old. I am abided. So you were not
flying planes, you were selling planes. I mean you were
not flying planes to make your living. You were selling
plane and maybe flying the planes that you're selling precisely
(04:04):
and well, I also had Well, that's because with the
other alias that I had, I was only flying, and
I had the license, and I was also doing commercial
jazz executive flights charters an area lamblance flights under the
(04:27):
pol name well, unfortunately, also under the name of Raoul
Jimenez Alfaro. How many aliases do you have the third
(04:48):
besides the other one, Los Antonio, Yes, only those your honor,
So there are three or other four? Ali is three altogether.
I'm a real name is a one that I mentioned
it Fernando Wait Unfortunately, Raoul Himenez Alfaro. Why unfortunately, remember
(05:15):
that plane stuffed with five tons of cocaine and campeche
cocaine is, if you will, the Starbucks of illegal drugs
where toad venom would be like the Utu Nati coffee.
If you've never heard of Utu Natti coffee, look it
up and be amazed. You'd like to try a cup?
(05:38):
I still haven't you might be hard pressed for locale
nearby vendor. In fact, you probably have a much easier
job finding a tiny plastic bag of coke. For cocaine
is available pretty much everywhere in most cities and towns
and countries across the world. It is mostly produced in
only three countries, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, though in recent
(05:59):
years Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina have all increased their
relatively smaller cocaine production. A leaf that can only be
grown in the Andes gets processed and mixed with all
kinds of chemicals and kerosene, and then gets further processed
and altered and finally turned into either a fine white
powder or crystal chunks that millions of people will pay
(06:22):
hundreds of dollars to inhale. The United States government says
that this harsh concoction is bad for you, and you
must be protected from it, and so it must be
made illegal, And then, because so many people still want
you to have this bad stuff, it must be made
the target of an all out war. America's public enemy
Number one in the United States is drug abuse. In
(06:46):
order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary
to wage a new all out offensive. I've asked the
Congress to provide the legislative authority and the funds. The
fuel is kind of an offensive. This will be a
worldwide offensive dealing with the problems of sources to supply
as well as Americans who may be stationed abroad wherever
(07:08):
they are in the world. It will be government, why,
pulling together the nine different fragmented areas where within the
government in which this problem is now being handled, and
it will be nationwide in terms of a new educational
program that we trust will results from the discussions that
(07:28):
we have had in order to defeat this enemy which
is causing such great concern, and correctly so, to so
many American families. Money will be provided to the extent
that it is necessary, under the extent that it will
be useable. That was Richard Nixon in nineteen seventy one
saying it be a war and he'd fund it like
(07:50):
a war. But then a funny thing happen. Every time
the United States government pumped hundreds of millions dollars into
its war on drugs, the production and distribute of those
drugs grew, and the number of people enjoying them also grew.
It turned out that the war was the very best
thing for the business. This, however, created a few marketing problems.
(08:13):
How to sell the idea of the war if everyone
can see that the war makes the business boom, arrests, arrests,
and it turned out murder. This, in fact, was probably
the point in the first place. You see, now the
United States government could arrest and kill its enemies at
home and across the world and say, look, we're fighting
the war on drugs. We're keeping you safe. And with
(08:37):
arrests and murder as commodities themselves. The drug war also
created a lucrative marketplace for information about ones competitors. And
since everyone in the business knows this, everyone lies. And
because there are remarkably savvy people involved in this industry,
the top executives become very good at lying. And to
(08:59):
be good at means knowing how to blend truth and
lies together in dazzling combinations. Fernando Blencio Sena, a man
with at least three false identities, would seemed to be
adept at this particular entrepreneurial skill. Perhaps that is why
he writes of himself, my lies make me special. In
(09:23):
January twenty twenty one, colleagues at Thetive reached out to
me about a curious individual they've been interviewing using a
clandestine's cell phone from inside a prison in North Carolina.
The man claimed to have worked as a pilot, entrepreneur
and air logistics coordinator in the international drug trade for
some thirty years. My friends at the Dictive made a
(09:45):
podcast in Spanish and wanted to know if I'd be
interested in working on a sister podcast in English looking
into this man in his story. Sure, I said, but
I need to do my own investigation and see what
I can find. The Dictiva invited the legendary Mexican actor
Arquinko SiO to read the English translations of Transportista's quoted
interviews with me, and well, do you know me? I
(10:08):
went for it. My name, unfortunately, is John Gibbler, and
this in a sense is Transportista episode two. Unfortunately Raoul.
(10:36):
That day, in November twenty eleven, Fernando Blancio Sign was
preparing to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge and to
the relatively lesser crime of falsifying information for aircraft certification.
Name is Fernando. He was cooperating with the DA and
thus had reason to believe that he would get between
a three and five year sentence. Raoul he menes Alfaro, however,
(11:00):
was by then a name linked the various airplanes busted
flying cocaine out of Venezuela, including the locally well known
Cocaine One. The judge, however, didn't seem to notice. Prosecutor
Hoffman knew at least some version of blank Hill's involvement
with the DC nine, but apparently had decided not to
pursue any charges related to the five plus tons of cocaine.
(11:23):
Blank Hill says he actually sent, not planned as sent,
but sent from Caracas to Sioda del Gardamin in April
two thousand and six. That two eleven plea hearing in
a federal district court in Miami was the first time
blank Hill's real name and his three false identities were
publicly linked together. Perhaps the DA did not want to
(11:48):
draw attention to blank Hio's past activities. At that time,
they were negotiating with Vicenta Sambala Niebla, son of Ismael
Sambala Garcia, one of the most powerful drug trafficking executives
in the world. Blink Yo could provide detailed firsthand testimony
to be used against Sambala niebla testimony that might have
seemed more valuable to the DA than finally putting a
(12:10):
name in a conviction to a five year old drug bust.
It was shortly after this, sometime in twenty twelve, that
blank Yo first got in contact with her. Reius, a
Colombian journalist and author was won numerous awards, including the Pulitzurprise.
Dreyus was then and still is the director of the
investigative journalism unit at Univision in Miami. When I first
(12:33):
reached out to Rey's in early twenty twenty one, he
was surprised to hear that I was working on a
story about blenk Yo. I'll come back to that. Dreius
was also, especially considering his surprise, very gracious and helpful
in speaking with me. We had a long initial conversation
in Spanish, but then spoke again recently in English. I
asked him how he had come in contact with blank Yo. John. Actually,
(12:56):
I don't remember exactly when I made hill. I found
a memo in my files from May two thousand and
twelve in which a source I guess talked to me
about him for the first time this person said that
black Hill has an explosive scoop information regarding then Mexican
(13:22):
presidential candidate Andrea Pionieto. They told me that black Hill
was a pilot for a chapoos man in charge of
political figures who were in the payroll of the drug traffickers.
He also said black Hill was the former boyfriend of
Panionieto's wife. He told me the pied that blank Hill
(13:46):
has information that may derail the presidency of Panionieto because
drug trafficking. I was told blame Hill reach an agreement
to sell this story to Lopez or A or the
rival candidate in Mexico for one million dollars. A million
dollars please told me that he first published an article
(14:09):
about Fernando Bertoluci's arrest in the Dominican Republic. He thinks
that blank Him might have written to him from prison
after seeing his article, but he can't remember. By early
twenty twelve, however, they'd exchanged several messages and letters and
spoken on the phone. I finally got in contact with
blank Hill. He was willing to talk to me, so
(14:30):
he also raised a visit to a very remote fair
detention Center in All Day Louisiana. That was the weekend
of June first, two thousand and twelve, and following his recommendations,
I arrived to the jail with a bag full of coins,
(14:53):
thirty dollars in coins to get lunch from the vending machines.
Blank Hill wasn't in his early fifties. The jail gym
was not doing a very good job for his belly.
A very well manner well as spoken person. He called
(15:14):
me mister Reyes, never by my first name. His friends
called him al Coppy. The first thing that impressed me
was his amazing memory. He is an encyclopedia of the
history of drug trafficking only in Mexico worldwide. He remembers
(15:35):
the names of all the cartel bosses and his lieutenants
from the seventies, the exact dates of his dangerous detailed
numbers of all the planes he flew, and even the
nick names of the Colombian drug traffickers. But he also
(15:59):
remembers three names of politicians, lawyers, artists in sports stars
who were involved with the cartels. I found that he
loved barbecue chicken wings from the vending machine, so while
(16:20):
he licked his fingers. He was very choultic, talking, jumping
from one topic to another. Maybe because I was the
first person who visit him in jail, he could un stopped.
Not too long after that visit, RAYS had another chance
(16:41):
to see Blank You in Miami, the only rather briefly,
in August six twenty twelve. Blank He had a sentencing
hearing in Miami recorded in November twenty eleven. He adleted
guilty to two of the charges against him and not hearing.
The judge asked him multiple times if he was making
that plea freely, without having been pressured, and he said yes.
(17:04):
The judge asked him if he felt his lawyer had
represented him fairly and informed him of all his options,
and he said yes. The August sixth, twenty twelve hearing, however,
was in response to a request by blink Yo to
change his plea. Blink Yo argued that he did not
receive adequate information from his attorney before making his plea.
(17:26):
He arrived that day with a different attorney who had
immediately asked to be removed from the case, and found
a very disappointed Judge Patricia A. Sites calling him a liar.
She quoted to him from his own testimony, saying that
he was quote completely satisfied end quote with his attorney's services.
(17:50):
Judd Sites then had a very long, sealed side conversation
with the lawyer then representing blink Yo, mister Urbano. When
they returned, Judge Sites summed up her opinion on blink
Hill's request to change his plea in no uncertain terms.
I'll read here from the transcript. The concern that I
have for you, sir, is that you either all faced
(18:13):
lied to me under oath when I took your plea,
or else this document that you filed and that you
signed as a lie, and you need to have a
very serious self examination, sir. You may think you are smart,
but right now it's not coming across that way, and
you are coming across as someone who has no integrity,
someone who will say whatever he wants to say because
(18:35):
he thinks he is smarter than everyone else. Sites interrogated
Radis as fellow journalists and a Columbian lawyer claiming to
be there on blink Hiell's behalf, and then promptly tossed
them out of the courtroom. Yes would publish an article
two days later with the headline it to Apple's pilot
breaks with the US government. The article addresses the intrigue
(18:57):
regarding blink Hiel's break with executing attorney Andrea Hoffman and
her accusations against blink Ho, but does not mention the
DC nine of the one hundred and twenty eight suitcases
Raise kept in touched blink Ho, using him as a
source for background on various stories he was working on.
Blink Yo at the time did not want to go
(19:18):
on the record until several years later, in the midst
of all the hoopla around the arrests and escapes and
re arrests of Joaquin Kuzman, Louira il Chapo, when Blinkio
decided to tell his story to Raise, or so he
said to this point, after hours of conversations over the years,
blink hh was reluctant to go on the record, so
(19:41):
I had to use his information as a background for
my stories. He was good and he helping me to
connect dots and identifying people in the NARCO won. Remember,
he has been behind bars for more than ten years,
so he stored almost the entire federal prison system, meeting
(20:04):
for long days and nights in their cells with Mexican
Colombia and Venezuelan convicted dog traffickers issued one telling the details.
So he kept telling me that one day he would
let me have the scoop of the story about one
(20:25):
of his airplanes that got in trouble. Well, it was
a DC nine that landed in Studad Carmen, Mexico with
five tons of cocaine in two thousand and six. He
said that the operation was somehow infiltrated by the CIA.
(20:45):
The interviewing the record for this story never materialize. I
introduced Blank Hill to Venezuelan reporter who did a good
piece on the case of this airplane and the corrupted
connections in Venezuela where the plane took off. So when
(21:05):
we were preparing a special program about El Chapo Guzman,
I convinced Playing Hill to go on the record. My
idea was recording him from jail by using his voice
over with a video and image. As the people from
the Making a Model documentary did greatly. He was very helpful.
(21:29):
He not only described Guzman in his different stage of
his lives and basically he explaining how the air force
of the Sinaloa Cartel operates the procedures to land a
small playing in a clandestine truck of the Sierra Madre,
the international routes of the drug trade, and how they
(21:51):
refueled the planes on error. He explained that step by step.
But days before we were going to the program, Blak
him a step back and he said that he will
not authorize the interview. He sent a letter in legal
terms arguing that the revelation of his sustainments will put
(22:14):
him and his family in risk or something like that.
Despite that I have his authorization on the record, I
decide not to use the interview. Then I learned that
he has been in contact with several reporters offering his
life story. My conversation let me to wonder why blank
(22:37):
Hill had reached out to the detective. If he had
previously stopped Phrase from using his interviews a blank he
had done something similar with other reporters. Would he try
to pull out from his commitment next time. Ransportista is
(23:01):
that detective production with Exile Content Studio in partnership with
iHeartRadio's Michael Dura podcast Network. Directed and narrated by John Gibbler,
Transportizza's voice by Jaquinkosio, editing and sound design by Ferrando
La Rosa and Pedro je Garcia. Reporting by John Gibbler
Emanuelarios produced by Juli Gonzalez. Voice recording by Ugo Merino
(23:26):
and Rene Garcia. Transportisa's interviews translated by Carla riz Argais.
Production supervision by Nando Vila and Alvarosespedes. Associate producers Alonso
Aguilar and Alejandro duran Igo Riquezoro is the creator and
executive producer, along with Daniel Eilenberg and Esakli. Executive producers
(23:47):
for iHeartMedia are Conald Byrne and just Seal Bunzes. For
more podcasts from iHeart, is that the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
On November twenty nine, twenty eleven, Judge Patricia's Sites stood
before prosecuting attorney Andrea Hoffman representing the United States of America,
and defense attorney in bettevol Minguez representing Luis Fernando de
Lui Castillo. The court can leaned at twelve or five
PM with the words case number one one two zero
(00:30):
three two one criminal United States versus Luis Fernando Bolstillo.
This was something of a problem. You see, Luis Fernando
Bertoluci Castillo does not exist, or at least not legally.
Hoffman informed the judge that Bertuluccio was an alias, that
the individual sitting there in the corps preparing to plead
(00:51):
guilty was indicted and arrested as Bertu Lucci, but Hoffman
told the judge his true name, we come to find
out after we had arrested him and brought him into
the United States, is Fernando blank Yosa. I contacted the
Southern District of Florida United States District Court to ask
if this hearing was recorded. The court reporter's office told
(01:14):
me that the transcript is the only official record and
no audio recordings of the hearing are available. So in
what follows, the brilliant actor Juquinkosio will read for blank Hill,
and I, sadly will read for everyone else. Judge sites
asked how the defendant would like to be addressed, and
(01:35):
both attorneys said he goes by blink Hill. The judge
then proceeded thus later, mister blank Yos she said, I'm
sure mister Luminguez has explained to you the purpose of
this hearing. It is so that I can hear directly
from you whether or not you have sufficient information to
make an informed decision that this is what you would
(01:55):
like to do, namely, lead guilty to counts two and
three of the indictment, and that you are doing this
freely involuntarily, that no one is forcing you to do that.
We need to establish those two things here in this hearing,
So that's why I'm going to be asking your questions.
Counts two and three of the indictment charged that Luis
(02:16):
Fernando Ruz Castillo first conspired to possess with the intent
to distribute a controlled substance while onboard an aircraft registered
in the United States, and secondly, that he obtained an
aircraft's certificate of registration by knowingly and willingly falsifying and
concealing a material fact, namely the true owner of the airplane.
(02:38):
The indictment charged that he did all of this lying
with the intention to transport cocaine into the United States.
The judge then said, I need truthful answers to the
questions that I ask because I rely on what you
tell me. So to underscore the importance of telling me
the truth, I'm going to please you under oath. They
(03:01):
swore him in and told him to take a seat,
and then the judge began, Please tell me your full name,
your age, and the extent of your formal education. He responded.
The judge then asked him about his schooling, training, his
pilot license, work experience, and current employment. Blenkio said that
he studied in San Diego, California, got his license in
(03:23):
nineteen eighty two, and worked as a pilot. He said
they was currently unemployed and that his most recent job
was selling airplanes. The next series of questions and answers
in the transcript are worth reading in their entirety. Again,
I'll read for the judge and Cocillo for Blenkio. My
(03:43):
full name is Fernando Blay Athenian and I am currently
fifty years old. I am abided. So you were not
flying planes, you were selling planes. I mean you were
not flying planes to make your living. You were selling
plane and maybe flying the planes that you're selling precisely
(04:04):
and well, I also had Well, that's because with the
other alias that I had, I was only flying, and
I had the license, and I was also doing commercial
jazz executive flights charters an area lamblance flights under the
(04:27):
pol name well, unfortunately, also under the name of Raoul
Jimenez Alfaro. How many aliases do you have the third
(04:48):
besides the other one, Los Antonio, Yes, only those your honor,
So there are three or other four? Ali is three altogether.
I'm a real name is a one that I mentioned
it Fernando Wait Unfortunately, Raoul Himenez Alfaro. Why unfortunately, remember
(05:15):
that plane stuffed with five tons of cocaine and campeche
cocaine is, if you will, the Starbucks of illegal drugs
where toad venom would be like the Utu Nati coffee.
If you've never heard of Utu Natti coffee, look it
up and be amazed. You'd like to try a cup?
(05:38):
I still haven't you might be hard pressed for locale
nearby vendor. In fact, you probably have a much easier
job finding a tiny plastic bag of coke. For cocaine
is available pretty much everywhere in most cities and towns
and countries across the world. It is mostly produced in
only three countries, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, though in recent
(05:59):
years Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina have all increased their
relatively smaller cocaine production. A leaf that can only be
grown in the Andes gets processed and mixed with all
kinds of chemicals and kerosene, and then gets further processed
and altered and finally turned into either a fine white
powder or crystal chunks that millions of people will pay
(06:22):
hundreds of dollars to inhale. The United States government says
that this harsh concoction is bad for you, and you
must be protected from it, and so it must be
made illegal, And then, because so many people still want
you to have this bad stuff, it must be made
the target of an all out war. America's public enemy
Number one in the United States is drug abuse. In
(06:46):
order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary
to wage a new all out offensive. I've asked the
Congress to provide the legislative authority and the funds. The
fuel is kind of an offensive. This will be a
worldwide offensive dealing with the problems of sources to supply
as well as Americans who may be stationed abroad wherever
(07:08):
they are in the world. It will be government, why,
pulling together the nine different fragmented areas where within the
government in which this problem is now being handled, and
it will be nationwide in terms of a new educational
program that we trust will results from the discussions that
(07:28):
we have had in order to defeat this enemy which
is causing such great concern, and correctly so, to so
many American families. Money will be provided to the extent
that it is necessary, under the extent that it will
be useable. That was Richard Nixon in nineteen seventy one
saying it be a war and he'd fund it like
(07:50):
a war. But then a funny thing happen. Every time
the United States government pumped hundreds of millions dollars into
its war on drugs, the production and distribute of those
drugs grew, and the number of people enjoying them also grew.
It turned out that the war was the very best
thing for the business. This, however, created a few marketing problems.
(08:13):
How to sell the idea of the war if everyone
can see that the war makes the business boom, arrests, arrests,
and it turned out murder. This, in fact, was probably
the point in the first place. You see, now the
United States government could arrest and kill its enemies at
home and across the world and say, look, we're fighting
the war on drugs. We're keeping you safe. And with
(08:37):
arrests and murder as commodities themselves. The drug war also
created a lucrative marketplace for information about ones competitors. And
since everyone in the business knows this, everyone lies. And
because there are remarkably savvy people involved in this industry,
the top executives become very good at lying. And to
(08:59):
be good at means knowing how to blend truth and
lies together in dazzling combinations. Fernando Blencio Sena, a man
with at least three false identities, would seemed to be
adept at this particular entrepreneurial skill. Perhaps that is why
he writes of himself, my lies make me special. In
(09:23):
January twenty twenty one, colleagues at Thetive reached out to
me about a curious individual they've been interviewing using a
clandestine's cell phone from inside a prison in North Carolina.
The man claimed to have worked as a pilot, entrepreneur
and air logistics coordinator in the international drug trade for
some thirty years. My friends at the Dictive made a
(09:45):
podcast in Spanish and wanted to know if I'd be
interested in working on a sister podcast in English looking
into this man in his story. Sure, I said, but
I need to do my own investigation and see what
I can find. The Dictiva invited the legendary Mexican actor
Arquinko SiO to read the English translations of Transportista's quoted
interviews with me, and well, do you know me? I
(10:08):
went for it. My name, unfortunately, is John Gibbler, and
this in a sense is Transportista episode two. Unfortunately Raoul.
(10:36):
That day, in November twenty eleven, Fernando Blancio Sign was
preparing to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge and to
the relatively lesser crime of falsifying information for aircraft certification.
Name is Fernando. He was cooperating with the DA and
thus had reason to believe that he would get between
a three and five year sentence. Raoul he menes Alfaro, however,
(11:00):
was by then a name linked the various airplanes busted
flying cocaine out of Venezuela, including the locally well known
Cocaine One. The judge, however, didn't seem to notice. Prosecutor
Hoffman knew at least some version of blank Hill's involvement
with the DC nine, but apparently had decided not to
pursue any charges related to the five plus tons of cocaine.
(11:23):
Blank Hill says he actually sent, not planned as sent,
but sent from Caracas to Sioda del Gardamin in April
two thousand and six. That two eleven plea hearing in
a federal district court in Miami was the first time
blank Hill's real name and his three false identities were
publicly linked together. Perhaps the DA did not want to
(11:48):
draw attention to blank Hio's past activities. At that time,
they were negotiating with Vicenta Sambala Niebla, son of Ismael
Sambala Garcia, one of the most powerful drug trafficking executives
in the world. Blink Yo could provide detailed firsthand testimony
to be used against Sambala niebla testimony that might have
seemed more valuable to the DA than finally putting a
(12:10):
name in a conviction to a five year old drug bust.
It was shortly after this, sometime in twenty twelve, that
blank Yo first got in contact with her. Reius, a
Colombian journalist and author was won numerous awards, including the Pulitzurprise.
Dreyus was then and still is the director of the
investigative journalism unit at Univision in Miami. When I first
(12:33):
reached out to Rey's in early twenty twenty one, he
was surprised to hear that I was working on a
story about blenk Yo. I'll come back to that. Dreius
was also, especially considering his surprise, very gracious and helpful
in speaking with me. We had a long initial conversation
in Spanish, but then spoke again recently in English. I
asked him how he had come in contact with blank Yo. John. Actually,
(12:56):
I don't remember exactly when I made hill. I found
a memo in my files from May two thousand and
twelve in which a source I guess talked to me
about him for the first time this person said that
black Hill has an explosive scoop information regarding then Mexican
(13:22):
presidential candidate Andrea Pionieto. They told me that black Hill
was a pilot for a chapoos man in charge of
political figures who were in the payroll of the drug traffickers.
He also said black Hill was the former boyfriend of
Panionieto's wife. He told me the pied that blank Hill
(13:46):
has information that may derail the presidency of Panionieto because
drug trafficking. I was told blame Hill reach an agreement
to sell this story to Lopez or A or the
rival candidate in Mexico for one million dollars. A million
dollars please told me that he first published an article
(14:09):
about Fernando Bertoluci's arrest in the Dominican Republic. He thinks
that blank Him might have written to him from prison
after seeing his article, but he can't remember. By early
twenty twelve, however, they'd exchanged several messages and letters and
spoken on the phone. I finally got in contact with
blank Hill. He was willing to talk to me, so
(14:30):
he also raised a visit to a very remote fair
detention Center in All Day Louisiana. That was the weekend
of June first, two thousand and twelve, and following his recommendations,
I arrived to the jail with a bag full of coins,
(14:53):
thirty dollars in coins to get lunch from the vending machines.
Blank Hill wasn't in his early fifties. The jail gym
was not doing a very good job for his belly.
A very well manner well as spoken person. He called
(15:14):
me mister Reyes, never by my first name. His friends
called him al Coppy. The first thing that impressed me
was his amazing memory. He is an encyclopedia of the
history of drug trafficking only in Mexico worldwide. He remembers
(15:35):
the names of all the cartel bosses and his lieutenants
from the seventies, the exact dates of his dangerous detailed
numbers of all the planes he flew, and even the
nick names of the Colombian drug traffickers. But he also
(15:59):
remembers three names of politicians, lawyers, artists in sports stars
who were involved with the cartels. I found that he
loved barbecue chicken wings from the vending machine, so while
(16:20):
he licked his fingers. He was very choultic, talking, jumping
from one topic to another. Maybe because I was the
first person who visit him in jail, he could un stopped.
Not too long after that visit, RAYS had another chance
(16:41):
to see Blank You in Miami, the only rather briefly,
in August six twenty twelve. Blank He had a sentencing
hearing in Miami recorded in November twenty eleven. He adleted
guilty to two of the charges against him and not hearing.
The judge asked him multiple times if he was making
that plea freely, without having been pressured, and he said yes.
(17:04):
The judge asked him if he felt his lawyer had
represented him fairly and informed him of all his options,
and he said yes. The August sixth, twenty twelve hearing, however,
was in response to a request by blink Yo to
change his plea. Blink Yo argued that he did not
receive adequate information from his attorney before making his plea.
(17:26):
He arrived that day with a different attorney who had
immediately asked to be removed from the case, and found
a very disappointed Judge Patricia A. Sites calling him a liar.
She quoted to him from his own testimony, saying that
he was quote completely satisfied end quote with his attorney's services.
(17:50):
Judd Sites then had a very long, sealed side conversation
with the lawyer then representing blink Yo, mister Urbano. When
they returned, Judge Sites summed up her opinion on blink
Hill's request to change his plea in no uncertain terms.
I'll read here from the transcript. The concern that I
have for you, sir, is that you either all faced
(18:13):
lied to me under oath when I took your plea,
or else this document that you filed and that you
signed as a lie, and you need to have a
very serious self examination, sir. You may think you are smart,
but right now it's not coming across that way, and
you are coming across as someone who has no integrity,
someone who will say whatever he wants to say because
(18:35):
he thinks he is smarter than everyone else. Sites interrogated
Radis as fellow journalists and a Columbian lawyer claiming to
be there on blink Hiell's behalf, and then promptly tossed
them out of the courtroom. Yes would publish an article
two days later with the headline it to Apple's pilot
breaks with the US government. The article addresses the intrigue
(18:57):
regarding blink Hiel's break with executing attorney Andrea Hoffman and
her accusations against blink Ho, but does not mention the
DC nine of the one hundred and twenty eight suitcases
Raise kept in touched blink Ho, using him as a
source for background on various stories he was working on.
Blink Yo at the time did not want to go
(19:18):
on the record until several years later, in the midst
of all the hoopla around the arrests and escapes and
re arrests of Joaquin Kuzman, Louira il Chapo, when Blinkio
decided to tell his story to Raise, or so he
said to this point, after hours of conversations over the years,
blink hh was reluctant to go on the record, so
(19:41):
I had to use his information as a background for
my stories. He was good and he helping me to
connect dots and identifying people in the NARCO won. Remember,
he has been behind bars for more than ten years,
so he stored almost the entire federal prison system, meeting
(20:04):
for long days and nights in their cells with Mexican
Colombia and Venezuelan convicted dog traffickers issued one telling the details.
So he kept telling me that one day he would
let me have the scoop of the story about one
(20:25):
of his airplanes that got in trouble. Well, it was
a DC nine that landed in Studad Carmen, Mexico with
five tons of cocaine in two thousand and six. He
said that the operation was somehow infiltrated by the CIA.
(20:45):
The interviewing the record for this story never materialize. I
introduced Blank Hill to Venezuelan reporter who did a good
piece on the case of this airplane and the corrupted
connections in Venezuela where the plane took off. So when
(21:05):
we were preparing a special program about El Chapo Guzman,
I convinced Playing Hill to go on the record. My
idea was recording him from jail by using his voice
over with a video and image. As the people from
the Making a Model documentary did greatly. He was very helpful.
(21:29):
He not only described Guzman in his different stage of
his lives and basically he explaining how the air force
of the Sinaloa Cartel operates the procedures to land a
small playing in a clandestine truck of the Sierra Madre,
the international routes of the drug trade, and how they
(21:51):
refueled the planes on error. He explained that step by step.
But days before we were going to the program, Blak
him a step back and he said that he will
not authorize the interview. He sent a letter in legal
terms arguing that the revelation of his sustainments will put
(22:14):
him and his family in risk or something like that.
Despite that I have his authorization on the record, I
decide not to use the interview. Then I learned that
he has been in contact with several reporters offering his
life story. My conversation let me to wonder why blank
(22:37):
Hill had reached out to the detective. If he had
previously stopped Phrase from using his interviews a blank he
had done something similar with other reporters. Would he try
to pull out from his commitment next time. Ransportista is
(23:01):
that detective production with Exile Content Studio in partnership with
iHeartRadio's Michael Dura podcast Network. Directed and narrated by John Gibbler,
Transportizza's voice by Jaquinkosio, editing and sound design by Ferrando
La Rosa and Pedro je Garcia. Reporting by John Gibbler
Emanuelarios produced by Juli Gonzalez. Voice recording by Ugo Merino
(23:26):
and Rene Garcia. Transportisa's interviews translated by Carla riz Argais.
Production supervision by Nando Vila and Alvarosespedes. Associate producers Alonso
Aguilar and Alejandro duran Igo Riquezoro is the creator and
executive producer, along with Daniel Eilenberg and Esakli. Executive producers
(23:47):
for iHeartMedia are Conald Byrne and just Seal Bunzes. For
more podcasts from iHeart, is that the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
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