Operation Lost Wolf was a 2004 Buerua of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives investigation into a gun smuggling ring in my home town of Miami, Florida. A number of individuals were sending Bushmaster AR-15s and Norinco MAC-90s to the FARC; a group of Marxist Terrorists in Colombia that waged a fifty year civil war and has now become a Socialist Political Party running for office since they lost the war.

ATF released an eight minute video about this case. In it, Miami Field Division agent Ali Berisha explains in the video that he was the On Duty Agent (meaning he was on call even when off the clock) and was called to a flooded warehouse in Miami after two boxes of Bushmaster AR-15 lower receivers fell through the ceiling's foam tiles and broke a toilet causing flooding.

In the end, ATF found scores of Norinco MAC-90s and Bushmaster AR-15s along with tons of ammunition hidden in chest freezers.





This sounds all good right? The US Government is stopping the flow of guns out of our country to Marxist Terrorists that killed and kidnapped people along with supporting the Narco Traffickers back during the Colombian Cocaine Drug War.

As a member of the law enforcement community though, the methods in which ATF built their case is unsettling with me.

The question is how did ATF actually conduct the investigation and search of the premise to begin with. They state it right in the video.

ATF contacted US Customs & Border Protection and Immigration & Customs Enforcement to conduct a warrantless search of the warehouse since it was within the 100 mile Border Zone.

If ATF or Miami-Dade Police conducted the search, they'd need to get a warrant. All of Florida lies within the 100 mile Border Zone. Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont also lie entirely or almost entirely within this area.



CBP and ICE treated a privately owned warehouse as an extension of the US Border. Entered and searched the property without a warrant. And used the gathered evidence to build a case.

If ATF did that, it would be Fruit from the Poisonous Tree and any evidence gathered from the illegal search and seizure would be thrown out of court. But this is a case that shows parallel construction and the methods that government uses to sidestep it's own rules. Since CBP and ICE had extra-Constitutional powers (US Coast Guard has them too); any evidence they gathered was seen in the eyes of the court as legitimate and would not be tainted. This goes back to the Silver Platter Doctrine and Elkins v. United States. Prior to that case, Federal Prosecutors would used evidence illegally gathered by State or Municipal Law Enforcement in Federal Cases to prove guilt. But that ended to a degree.

But now with the rise of parallel construction, especially in drug cases run by the DEA. You see side steps being used by the government to build cases with evidence that under normal circumstances would be inadmissible in court.

And this was done prior to ATF's Gun Walker Scandal with Operation Fast & Furious in the American South West and Operation Castaway in Florida.

Expect more of this to go on since Congress is currently poised to reauthorize mass surveillance on Americans again.

So much for 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Same here.... I stumbled across the video today watched it. It caught my interest because ATF flat out mentioned a warrantless search through CBP. I've heard of the 100 mile zone but never saw it in action.

I think that's how they further justify traffic checkpoints and being able to search every car by being in the 100 mile border zone.

That has always been my understanding for CBP doing checkpoints and such. But ATF said that CBP was able to conduct a warrantless search since they treated the warehouses as extensions of the border.

"The Constitution is but simply a piece of stage prop for the theater that the Post Constitutional Banana Republic plays everyday when it comes to ruling over us serfs and plebs."


I don't see it getting any better in my lifetime-I think it will continue to get worse.I'm sure most don't have a problem with it since it's all about "catching the bad guys".

Something about giving up Liberty for security............

I think some jerk wrote that.

The weird part is that I bet they could have gotten a warrant because they already had some evidence that firearms of the type discovered by the other warehouse tenant were being smuggled out of the country. They trampled over the bill of rights not because they couldn’t do things the honest and constitutional way, but simply out of convenience as a matter of course.

Thanks for bringing this phenomenon to my attention. It makes my blood boil.  Congress needs to be purged until sort of shit stops.

Very interesting and an abuse of power. Everything is about precedents and allowing the BP and ICE to search a private business without a warrant opens up the ability to search private vehicles and residents without PC or a warrant.

Never ran into bushmasters in the hands of the FARC, it was almost always RRA's, at least in the Tumaco region.  The battlespace was owned by the Colombian Marines, who used various forms of Colt rifles, 727's and such, thus the FARC also used that style weapon.  Other parts of the country the FARC were using Galils, FAL's and of course AK's.

BINGO

Since they already discovered and had PC, they could have presented it to a judge for a search warrant but instead went the lazy route and trampled the 4th Amendment.

My understanding is that Border Patrol pulled the 100 mile number out of their ass in the early 1950s and have stuck with it. I could be wrong but I've never heard of a 20 mile rule for land.

12 miles is international waters but USCG can board any ship within the 200 mile economic exclusion zone.

Right. Just shitty policing. I think the more federal agencies hire outside of municpal/county/state LEO's, I think you'll see more of this.

I've always been taught, if you have PC, get the warrant unless exigency truly exists. Greatly preferred over sitting on the stand, getting shit on

Galils, didn't FARC also have some Israeli trainers?

https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-9505.html

The 100 miles thing requires what's called "border nexus" - as in a connection to some action involving crossing the border/bringing things in around ports, etc. - and exists because there are a lot of places where going 100 miles into the country is still the middle of nowhere and otherwise sets an arbitrary finish line for getting into the country where laws would effectively stop being enforced.  Kinda like the 8 years when ICE under Obama did nothing.

ATF doing ATF things.  They consider a shoestring a machinegun and a scrubber pad a suppressor, so is it any surprise they fuck up everything they touch?

The majority of my arrests when I was uniform was PC. Now in plainclothes; EVERYTHING is warrant.

Israeli train the FARC? LOL

Israel supplied the Colombian Government with Galils and now the Galil ACE. The FARC got their guns either from the Cubans supplying Soviet made arms, the black market, or theft.

Well if you arrested them, you would have to transport them.  

Yeah,might be a jerk,but he's right.

It gets abused all the time and the people do nothing (except for reelecting the majority of the same ones over and over).Pretty much just a piece of paper.........

? Wat... looks perfectly legal to me.
Someone ? called About a shit load of guns after they opened the door to investigate the flood or cops show up because alarm is going off due to flood..and investigate...makes no difference. Entering the warehouse given the circumstances is perfectly legal. The evidence is in plain sight.
Unfortunate circumstances for the bad guys.
Cops see it and say looks a bit odd. May or may not be anything to it. Not really our deal as nothing is going on here with other persons involved but they notice altered serial numbers on the receivers...call ATF. ATF comes to take a look and finds odd circumstances. Does some invesigating and finds non resident aliens names popping up associated with the warehouse, along with what appears to be altered serial numbered firearms prepped to ship and potentially converted to FA. Continues to investigate and it all unraveled.

Pretty clear...Reasonable suspicion and probable cause to suspect a crime may be committed or about to be.
Inspect further and investigate all they want.

IMO.. CBP involved to get after the illegal aliens and ... duh.. CPB, as Federal agents just happen to be directly involved with the illegal import or export of anything across our borders.

Unless there is a shit ton of information missing.. good job guys!
Bad guys got nailed.

Saw the first misuse of punctuation and decided that the wall of text that followed wasn’t worth my time. If you’re an American, learn English.

FUCK THAT!

Transport.... like in my car?

NO THANK YOU!

ATF had legal access to one warehouse.... not the rest. Hence they call CBP to do a warrantless search instead of actually getting a warrant.

That search would have been deemed a good search in 1789 by the framers of the constitution same as it was deemed a good search in 2004.

Doing a border search on a facility or warehouse that deals with international merchandise is G2G.

ETA: spelling and grammar

The Colombians bought tooling, and produce their own these days, both rifles and a BHP clone called the Jericho.

Were there any Israelis with the FARC, I do not remember anything like that, but the IRA guys were the ones that gave us the most trouble.

Hi, Mr. ATF Man!

This thread has gotten more replies than the two threads from 2004 when the story broke.

Ali Berisha was here on a non-immigrant visa and was in the export business.  He was in business with partners who were also here on non-immigrant visas.  Sounds like a good way to invite CBP into your life.

His storage space was located in an area well known for both legal and illegal imports and exports.  Previous seizures and arrests had taken place in that area.

Was the whole case carried by this initial seizure, or did the feds actually further the investigation to include CI's, T III surveillance, sting operations, search warrants and indictments?

 The BoR part of the constitution is interesting.  The anti-federalists worked under the assumption that a federal level of government would, by its nature, usurp power and become tyrannical  over the states and people, right?

If so, what's the point of even writing the BoR if it was guaranteed to be crossed out one by one?  They could have just as easily not written it and have the same outcome.

From that angle, it does not appear that the BoR was written to only protect those rights, but moreso serve as a checklist, if you will, that we can use to keep perspective.  It's like a scorecard we can use to know when the game needs a change.

So yes, people do nothing, but one day we can pull it out and see that there aren't any left  Without it we would hem and haw forever.

Maybe I misread the OP but Im pretty sure that any law enforcement officer who is certified and/or deputized under Title 13 (i think) has the ability to search any package, vehicle, person, that has a border/international nexus.  Essentailly anything coming into or going out of the country.  Typically this is done at the border but doesnt HAVE to be.  For example if an airplane is flying into Dallas airport direct from Mexico, anything and everything on that plane is subject to search by Customs/border patrol/ice.  Once that plane has been searched upon landing from another country then the rules no longer apply on the next stop in St. Louis for example.

Flashback triggered!

"Pursuant to the provisions of 19 U.S.C. 1401(i), and appropriate redelegations, and by agreement with your employing agency or service, you are here by designated a Customs Officer (Excepted) without additional compensation."

Sgt. Floridacop USAF
Military Customs Inspector (Excepted) Tampa District  November 19th 1992 (valid for 1 year from effective date).

I just saw this quote and searched it to see who said it.  lol  I like it.

Any body think that they chose names like Fast And Furious and Castaway, so that if the operations ever came to light,  people would glaze over if they heard about them.

IIRC, 80% of the population lives with 100 miles of the physical border.

If you add in international airports, bonded customs warehouses, and free trade zones, all places where CBP has jurisdiction, I bet it rises to 95% of the population.