1 00:00:09,500 --> 00:00:12,600 My name is Fausto “Tato” Cattaneo, 2 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:17,200 and I used to infiltrate drug cartels. 3 00:00:25,500 --> 00:00:30,000 All young people have dreams. 4 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,180 My dream was to become a pilot. 5 00:00:34,180 --> 00:00:41,000 My parents ran a nice restaurant in Graubünden for 50 years. 6 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,400 And then something terrible happened, 7 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,500 the death of my sister at a very young age 8 00:00:48,500 --> 00:00:53,950 which had a profound impact on the whole family. 9 00:00:53,950 --> 00:00:59,650 I became interested in police work. 10 00:00:59,650 --> 00:01:08,200 I got a degree in forensic sciences at the University of Lausanne, 11 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:14,700 and eventually I came to lead, within the judicial police, 12 00:01:14,700 --> 00:01:19,800 a department that specialized in two things 13 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:26,650 infiltrating and combatting organized crime. 14 00:01:26,650 --> 00:01:40,400 If you're waging war against any enemy, you must understand out how that enemy is organized. 15 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,750 The same as in sports! 16 00:01:43,750 --> 00:01:53,200 So it can be done, but it requires undercover work. 17 00:01:53,200 --> 00:02:02,800 Once the operation is over, you should be in a position to show very clearly and precisely 18 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,800 how a criminal organization operates. 19 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:12,200 This is the most important result of any undercover operation. 20 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:19,400 Like international business, organized crime has representatives around the world. 21 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:23,200 As was the case in the “Pizza Connection”. 22 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:31,400 I, a Sicillian crime boss, send to Switzerland a guy who has to open a legit business. Perfectly legal! 23 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:33,650 Such as a restaurant for example, 24 00:02:33,650 --> 00:02:37,950 financed by Sicilian mafia money. But… 25 00:02:37,950 --> 00:02:46,950 this restaurant will serve as a reference point for the Sicilian Mafia in Switzerland, 26 00:02:46,950 --> 00:02:52,750 and if I’m the guy operating that business then I have to do everything the boss says 27 00:02:52,750 --> 00:02:56,700 If for some reason I don’t do as I’m told, 28 00:02:56,700 --> 00:03:03,600 my entire family back in Sicily will be killed. 29 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,400 That’s how organized crime works 30 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,660 not just in Italy, but around the world. 31 00:03:10,660 --> 00:03:13,800 You can make mountains of money, millions… 32 00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:19,150 We’re talking about laundering money of criminal origin 33 00:03:19,150 --> 00:03:24,800 coming either from a hold-up, or the sale of weapons and drugs. 34 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:28,660 There are many ways of doing this, countless ways 35 00:03:28,660 --> 00:03:32,995 but the easiest way is through real estate. 36 00:03:32,995 --> 00:03:39,180 Another system is the creation of several offshore businesses, 37 00:03:39,180 --> 00:03:45,200 or creating a huge number of connected companies, the “Russian Doll” method 38 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:56,660 making it impossible for investigators to ever find out who the real owners are. 39 00:03:56,660 --> 00:04:02,690 The first and hardest step is gaining the trust 40 00:04:02,690 --> 00:04:05,100 and let me tell you, as an expert in the matter, 41 00:04:05,100 --> 00:04:14,700 gaining the trust of a high-ranking operator in the criminal underworld is not easy. 42 00:04:14,700 --> 00:04:23,180 It’s a game where psychology plays a very important role. 43 00:04:24,100 --> 00:04:28,800 A cop has to know the territory in which he is operating, 44 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:34,450 so let me tell you about the Locarno region. 45 00:04:34,450 --> 00:04:38,900 There’s this little town named Ascona 46 00:04:38,900 --> 00:04:43,700 people used to call “Little Las Vegas”. 47 00:04:43,700 --> 00:04:52,500 In a region of only about 30’000 inhabitants, Ascona had over 30 night-clubs. 48 00:04:52,500 --> 00:04:56,400 And you could encounter all sorts there: wealthy people packed with money, 49 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:02,000 criminals, minor delinquents, traffickers big and small… 50 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,000 I knew them all! 51 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:13,660 One evening in the early 80s, I saw some very interesting Bolivians there. 52 00:05:13,660 --> 00:05:23,200 They happened to be the daughters of the King of Cocaine: Roberto Suarez Sr. 53 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:29,660 Back then, the Suarez Organization produced tons of cocaine paste 54 00:05:29,660 --> 00:05:37,500 and their most important client was Pablo Escobar of the Colombian Medellin Cartel. 55 00:05:38,100 --> 00:05:46,000 At the time, like most of South America, Bolivia was a dictatorship. 56 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:54,400 The King of Cocaine had one of his accomplices, Garcia Meza, elected president of the country, 57 00:05:54,400 --> 00:06:06,950 and put together a private army composed of former Nazis and led by former SS colonel Klaus Barbie 58 00:06:06,950 --> 00:06:12,660 who was the general of the Suarez group’s private army 59 00:06:12,660 --> 00:06:15,750 known as the Fiancés of Death. 60 00:06:15,750 --> 00:06:21,100 They were more powerful than the Bolivian army! 61 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:23:660 I met him 62 00:06:23:660 --> 00:06:31,100 and I met his second-in-command, a young neo-Nazi named Joachim Fiebelkorn. 63 00:06:31,100 --> 00:06:42,800 That guy had a restaurant at La Paz filled with Hitler memorabilia 64 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:50,200 The organization conscripted every single cocaine leaf producer in the country 65 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:55,100 and forced them to sell Suarez their harvest at a fixed price. 66 00:06:55,100 --> 00:06:57,200 Those who didn’t… 67 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,900 Hundreds of people, farmers, were killed 68 00:07:03,900 --> 00:07:12,800 because they would not sell to the organization. 69 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:19,400 Because you needed those leaves to then make cocaine paste. 70 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:27,200 And then Suarez needed a way to move huge amounts of money to a safe place. 71 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:34,660 Back then, the world was not as globalized as it is today 72 00:07:34,660 --> 00:07:40,900 so moving the money to Switzerland was no easy task. 73 00:07:40,900 --> 00:07:45,200 Suarez’s daughter had travelled to Spain 74 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:50,300 and in a nightclub in Madrid, she met these two Swiss guys 75 00:07:50,300 --> 00:07:53,000 two insignificant delinquents... 76 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:56,400 But they happened to have a clever brother, 77 00:07:56,400 --> 00:08:05,000 who worked in a Swiss insurance agency and did business with Swiss banks. 78 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:13,200 And that’s how they found a way of transferring all that dirty money to Switzerland. 79 00:08:13,20 --> 00:08:25,150 Through friends in the DEA, we went to Miami and met Suarez’s son – Roberto Suarez Jr 80 00:08:25,150 --> 00:08:33,180 who had been studying in California, where he had gotten an army pilot license. 81 00:08:33,180 --> 00:08:43,500 So we arranged a meeting, through the DEA, for the purchase of 600kg of cocaine 82 00:08:43,500 --> 00:08:47,100 as a first transaction to establish a relationship. 83 00:08:47,100 --> 00:08:53,800 And in a safe, in Miami, we left I don’t remember how much money. 84 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,450 I think 4 or 5... maybe 6 million dollars. 85 00:08:57,450 --> 00:09:04,660 And then, one day, we went by plane to Bolovia to coordinates the cartel had given us 86 00:09:04,660 --> 00:09:10,000 and arrived at this clandestine landing strip near Cocha Bamba 87 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:22,500 Junior was there with his private plane, and the Fiancés of Death oversaw the whole operation 88 00:09:22,500 --> 00:09:26,660 and at the end we said “see you in Miami” 89 00:09:26,660 --> 00:09:35,200 He was supposed to come open the safe with the money 90 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:40,700 because we'd set up an account where you needed two keys to access the safe. 91 00:09:40,700 --> 00:09:43,000 Unfortunately, he never showed up. 92 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:47,500 He'd signed a waiver for a friend of his to go in his place 93 00:09:47,500 --> 00:09:54,000 and when that guy showed up, of course, the Americans arrested him on the spot. 94 00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:04,000 In Bolivia, the Garcia Meza government was growing unstable 95 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:09,500 there was a mini-revolution, and everyone began to flee. 96 00:10:09,500 --> 00:10:15,120 Fiebelkorn fled to Buenos Aires 97 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:18,000 and the Argentinians arrested him. 98 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,500 We went down there to talk to him 99 00:10:21,500 --> 00:10:25,000 We gave him two options. 100 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:33,200 Either stay in an Argentinian prison for 30-40 years 101 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:42,400 or get out after a few days and work with us. 102 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:49,900 We interrogated him for a whole week and he told us these unbelievable things 103 00:10:49,900 --> 00:10:53,660 which we verified and turned out to be true. 104 00:10:53,660 --> 00:10:01,800 That his boss, Klaus Barbie, who was wanted for genocide by the French authorities 105 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:09,200 had come to Switzerland with a diplomatic passport under the name Klaus Altmann 106 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:13,660 been officially greeted by the Swiss government, red carpet and everything 107 00:11:13,660 --> 00:11:19,000 and bought I don’t even remember how many Pilatus-Porter military aircraft 108 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:23,150 for hundreds of millions of dollars, along with other military equipment 109 00:11:23,150 --> 00:11:30,500 all paid for with dirty money from sales of cocaine. 110 00:11:30,500 --> 00:11:35,660 I spent 3 months in Miami when the trial took place 111 00:11:35,660 --> 00:11:44,000 and I remember that when I arrived at the airport, a DEA colleague told me 112 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:53,660 “Tato, we’re going to have to be very careful because we’ve been told... 113 00:11:53,660 --> 00:12:00,800 that the Suarez group have sent killers here to eliminate you.” 114 00:12:01,660 --> 00:12:09,400 We went to a hotel, a Holiday Inn, and every week we would change rooms or floors. 115 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:15,000 My friend from the DEA gave me a gun, and told me 116 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:25,400 "If somebody enters your room without permission, kill them.” 117 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:33,200 And I said “what if it’s a hotel employee bringing me a whiskey or a coke?” 118 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:37,350 But he said "shoot anyone who comes in unannounced!" 119 00:12:37,350 --> 00:12:44,660 When I asked what would happen next he said that would be their problem, not mine! 120 00:12:44,660 --> 00:12:54,800 Imagine sleeping with a gun under your pillow for 3 months... 121 00:12:54,800 --> 00:13:06,800 It was terrifying. It almost broke me psychologically. 122 00:13:08,100 --> 00:13:18,660 After 3 months of trial, and despite the proof that Suarez had sold us 600kg of cocaine 123 00:13:18,660 --> 00:13:20,000 Something he'd admitted to himself! 124 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:29,750 He insisted that he hadn't known that the drugs were meant to be sold on US territory 125 00:13:29,750 --> 00:13:36,500 so the court found him not guilty. 126 00:13:36,500 --> 00:13:38,660 You know what he did then? 127 00:13:38,660 --> 00:13:41,350 In front of the packed courthouse... 128 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:47,900 3 times! 129 00:13:48,700 --> 00:13:56,660 A few years later he died in shoot-out against the Bolivian Police. 130 00:13:56,660 --> 00:14:02,950 Back in Switzerland, we arrested his whole family, except for Suarez Sr. 131 00:14:02,950 --> 00:14:10,180 His wife was hiding checks for millions of dollars under her clothes 132 00:14:10,180 --> 00:14:20,300 Barbie was arrested in Bolvia, extradited to Lyon, judged there, and died in a French prison. 133 00:14:20,300 --> 00:14:26,900 In Switzerland, there was a parliamentary investigation 134 00:14:26,900 --> 00:14:37,750 as well as a parliamentary military inquiry 135 00:14:37,750 --> 00:14:39,600 It was a huge scandal! 136 00:14:40,660 --> 00:14:45,660 The money for those 600kg of cocaine was laundered 137 00:14:45,660 --> 00:14:50,150 through a financial company named FIMO, based in Chiasso. 138 00:14:50,150 --> 00:14:55,950 They'd laundered tons of money linked to Italian corruption, 139 00:14:55,950 --> 00:15:00,400 like dirty money linked to Silvio Berlusconi. 140 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:06,200 Judge Giovanni Falcone and I wrote a 14 page report 141 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:14,660 and faxed it to then Ticino DA Carla Del Ponte. 142 00:15:14,660 --> 00:15:21,600 In 1993, she decided that it wasn’t enough to go on and dropped the FIMO investigation. 143 00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:33,400 Later, in April 1994, just like that, she was appointed Attorney General for the entire country 144 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:42,800 and from that point on she used her power to cause me all kinds of legal troubles 145 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:51,200 She investigated me for a so-called “economic and political espionage” 146 00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:58,660 and only once I was able to publish my book did her successor decide 147 00:15:58,660 --> 00:16:04,660 that I was indeed completely innocent of the crimes Mrs Del Ponte had accused me of. 148 00:16:04,660 --> 00:16:08,660 In Switzerland, my book caused a huge scandal. 149 00:16:09,350 --> 00:16:14,750 I had begun an investigation in South America 150 00:16:14,750 --> 00:16:17,750 in Colombia, Bolivia and Brazil 151 00:16:17,750 --> 00:16:24,120 which was then a very important platform for Colombian cartels. 152 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:30,820 I was investigating a huge cocaine trafficking operation, with weapons smuggling on one side, 153 00:16:30,820 --> 00:16:34,660 and large-scale money laundering on the other. 154 00:16:34,660 --> 00:16:41,000 I knew that in Rio de Janeiro, certain jewelry stores 155 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:48,050 served as public relations or covers for criminal organizations. 156 00:16:48,050 --> 00:16:55,000 These Businesses were legal and functional, but served as fronts for illegal activity, 157 00:16:55,000 --> 00:17:01,660 drug trafficking on one hand, money laundering on the other. 158 00:17:01,660 --> 00:17:05,150 That’s where I met my wife! 159 00:17:05,150 --> 00:17:10,700 She helped me translate wiretapped phone conversations. 160 00:17:10,700 --> 00:17:24,200 The organization planned on sending 5 tons of cocaine to Europe, through Italy. 161 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:33,660 Unfortunately, this huge investigation was completely thrown out the window. 162 00:17:34,660 --> 00:17:40,800 Informers began sidelining me from the investigation 163 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:45,000 in order to engage in all sorts of illegal business of their own. 164 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:46,750 And what happened then? 165 00:17:46,750 --> 00:17:57,200 Corrupt French and Brazilian cops sold hundreds of kilos of cocaine 166 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:03,200 cocaine that came not from the cartels, but from the police’s own seized stocks! 167 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:08,400 We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars here! 168 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:14,900 That criminal organization had at its disposal tens of offshore companies. 169 00:18:14,900 --> 00:18:23,300 I documented all this, and denounced it to the Swiss state and magistrates 170 00:18:23,300 --> 00:18:27,150 but because these criminal acts had been committed in part 171 00:18:27,150 --> 00:18:32,200 with the help of members of the Swiss government 172 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:36,200 my accusations were discarded like trash. 173 00:18:38,500 --> 00:18:42,700 In Switzerland, nobody discussed this publicly, as usual. 174 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:51,660 I worked a lot with attorney Dick Marty, a man of great courage and integrity. 175 00:18:51,660 --> 00:18:59,500 Thanks to him we helped my wife escape from Brazil. 176 00:18:59,500 --> 00:19:08,150 Friends hid her in the greatest slum in South America, 177 00:19:08,150 --> 00:19:12,660 La Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro. 178 00:19:12,660 --> 00:19:16,500 We made this really complicated car journey to avoid being followed, 179 00:19:16,500 --> 00:19:23,750 we stayed there a couple of days, in hiding, 180 00:19:23,750 --> 00:19:29,800 then we travelled all the way to Foz do Iguacu, 181 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:32,400 the region of the 3 borders. 182 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:40,950 There, between Brazil and Paraguay, lies the Friendship Bridge, 183 00:19:40,950 --> 00:19:46,500 which, at the end of every week, is packed with smugglers! 184 00:19:46,500 --> 00:19:51,800 So we drifted off into that river of people, 185 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:54,100 passed the border without anyone checking us, 186 00:19:54,100 --> 00:19:58,660 and across the border we took a bus. 187 00:19:58,950 --> 00:20:05,100 From Rio de Janeiro we travelled about 3’000 kilometers by bus. 188 00:20:05,100 --> 00:20:13,750 When we finally arrived at our hotel, a Hilton, we looked so disheveled 189 00:20:13,750 --> 00:20:21,800 that the receptionist asked us whether we could really afford a room... 190 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:22,950 It's true! 191 00:20:22,950 --> 00:20:26,300 We spent about 10 days in Asuncion 192 00:20:26,300 --> 00:20:29,200 we changed hotels a couple of times 193 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:33,950 and finally we took a plane to Switzerland. 194 00:20:33,950 --> 00:20:38,800 All of this drove me into such a deep depression 195 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:44,800 that I felt the only way out was to kill myself 196 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:46,660 and I used to think about that a lot. 197 00:20:46,660 --> 00:20:56,750 When I contemplated suicide I felt… relieved. 198 00:20:56,750 --> 00:21:01,950 If I’m still alive today, it’s because of my wife. 199 00:21:01,950 --> 00:21:08,200 We finally won this legal battle after 15 years of work. 200 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:09,500 15 years! 201 00:21:09,500 --> 00:21:27,950 In October 2015, the Federal Criminal Court ruled that everything in my book was 100% true. 202 00:21:28,660 --> 00:21:32,350 Throughout my career, I had received awards from the FBI, 203 00:21:32,350 --> 00:21:37,750 the DEA, Interpol, the Bundeskriminalamt... 204 00:21:37,750 --> 00:21:44,200 But when I look back on my long struggle against organized crime 205 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:49,660 perhaps it helped raise awareness in some circles, 206 00:21:49,660 --> 00:21:53,000 but not among politicians. 207 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,800 Today, the leading players are still the same! 208 00:21:55,800 --> 00:22:05,000 Worldwide, organized crime generates about 2 to 2.5 Trillon dollars every year! 209 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:10,100 And let’s not forget the link terrorism has to organized crime 210 00:22:10,100 --> 00:22:13,950 specifically when it comes to drugs. 211 00:22:13,950 --> 00:22:18,500 Where there are drugs, you’ll find terrorist groups 212 00:22:18,500 --> 00:22:26,660 selling either heroin or cocaine to buy weapons! 213 00:22:26,660 --> 00:22:35,660 Organized crime continues to exist because of corruption, 214 00:22:35,660 --> 00:22:43,000 and that's the greatest threat in the world, far more dangerous than terrorism. 215 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:47,950 Corruption is a colossal cancer! 216 00:22:50,660 --> 00:22:57,000 I don't believe we’ll ever succeed in eliminating corruption. 217 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:03,800 As the French say: the mother of all the idiots is always pregnant. 218 00:23:04,300 --> 00:23:10,500 I say that the mother of all corrupt people is also always pregnant, 219 00:23:10,500 --> 00:23:15,500 because she’s the sister of the mother off all the idiots! 220 00:23:16,100 --> 00:23:18,500 It's not funny if you think about it 221 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,800 But it's true! 222 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:32,000 In 2015, the Swiss Federal Court cleared Tato of all crimes and confirmed the facts related in his book 223 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,000 Tato passed away in February 2019 224 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:45,000 At the time he was investigating a money laundering network involving illegal arms sales by major European powers 225 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,000 "I'm fighting with all my strength, and will do so until my last breath!" 226 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:55,000 "Never stop, never give up, never surrender!" - Fausto Tato Cattaneo