Transcripts For CNN American Pain 20240706

Newsroom. We begin this hour with more Breaking News. Yet another shootdown of a highaltitude object, this one confirmed a short time ago in the skies over the yukon in Northern Canada. President biden and canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave norad the order to shoot down the object early in the day. A u. S. Fighter jet successfully brought it down. Its not clear if this latest shootdown is related to yesterdays downing of another object off the northeastern coast of alaska. That was near the canadian border, nor is it clear if its related to the chinese spy balloon that was shot down last saturday. Arlette saenz is at the white house. The president was just making some remarks to some governors there in the white house a few moments ago. Doesnt sound like he took any questions or made any remarks there. But obviously this is top of mind for the administration after what you and i were Reporting On Last saturday which was the shootdown of that chinese spy balloon. And now these latest downings, one object yesterday in alaska and another one today in canada. Whats the latest over there . Reporter well, jim, President Biden and canadian Prime Minister took that incredibly rare step today and jointly authorized the shooting down of that unidentified object over Northern Canada. This marks the third time in just the last week where the u. S. Has had to shoot down an aerial object over north america. Just to walk you through a bit of what weve learned this evening about how theyve been tracking this latest object. According to the pentagon, norad first detected this latest unidentified, Unmanned Object over alaska on friday evening as they monitored it and tracked where it was going. It did cross into canadian airspace. At some point today, President Biden and canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both spoke, they had both been monitoring the situation for the last 24 hours. And they ultimately decided out of abundance of caution they wanted to follow the advice of their merl leader and authorize the shooting down of this object. At this point once this operation was under way it was ultimately an american f22 fighter jet that shot down this unidentified object over canada. Now theres still so many questions about what exactly this Object Entailed including the size, its origin, and its purpose. And a few moments ago the Defense Minister of canada talked a little bit about what they know at this moment. Recovery operations are under way, and will be supported by the Canadian Armed forces in con junction with the rcmp. This coordinated operation will allow a further investigation into this object. We have no further details about the object at this time other than it appears to be a small cylindrical object and smaller than the one that was downed off the coast of north carolina. There is no reason to believe that the impact of the object in canadian territory is of any public concern. Reporter now theres some details that she shared there that they felt were different from the object that was downed just last week. Its also worth noting that the object that was over off the alaskan coast yesterday and then today, that those were flying at about h40,000 feet. There was some concern that there could be some impact for Civilian Aircraft. To recap, theres this object today. Yesterday there was another unidentified object near the coast of alaska that President Biden ordered to have shot down. And then just one week prior we were here talking about that suspected chinese spy balloon that was off the Carolina Coast that President Biden had ordered shot down, as well. Now there still are so many questions about these latest two unidentified objects and who exactly they belong to, whether its a country, a private entity. Right now what the focus will be is on the Recovery Missions for both the one that was shot down today and the one shot down yesterday to try to determine as much information as they possibly can about their origin and also the purpose. All right, arlette saenz, we know youll stay on top of it. Thanks so much. Joining us to talk about this, transportation analyst mary schiavo and Inspector General for the department of transportation. Where do we begin . Lets start with some of the information that was coming from the Canadian Defense minister just a few moments ago because i have i listened to that Press Conference, and i had lots of questions. First of all, this Canadian Defense minister said that the object that is i guess of interest here in all of this, that was shot down over the skies in canada earlier today, was cylindrical in shape. That was the the exact word she used. She said cylindrical in shape. She said it was flying at about h 40,000 feet, going back to the conversation we had earlier, you cant have objects flying that low, could get in the way of Civilian Aircraft obviously. But what is your sense of it listening to that kind of information, particularly the shape of this object that is very odd. Well, its very odd. You know, if youre looking for a traditional balloon or an aircraft. Throughout history there have been many cylindrical flying objects. Okay. Not to mention there have been rigid formed dirge bells. They dont have to be a Gossamer Balloon so to speak. The fact that no one has reported that the object took evasive action it suggests that perhaps it was not being remotely controlled, perhaps it was moving with the winds, et cetera. But right now could be a lot of things, not to mention as mentioned before, it could be a rigid form of a balloon or other object that had been used both by the United States and other countries in the past. I guess one of the questions that i have is why is it here we are about a day more than a day after this object was shot down off the coast of alaska. We still havent been told any information as to the specifics of what that object was. And you know, then we have this other object shot down today. Its very peculiar. Right. I can tell you from firsthand experience since ive been up here working in alaska for about 2. 5 weeks on another plane case, air crash case, the weathers really bad. Not bad per se, theres just a lot of snow, its a bit windy. Its very cold. Its very foggy. So between snow and the fog and youre trying to land on they said it was an ice pack, an ice island. Even for our great, you know, aviators and seafarers in u. S. Military thats tough. So the weather here is rather obscured so to speak, and the snow is coming down heavily in anch anchorage. It may just be that they cant get to this object in a safe way and that this is just a dicey kind of operation to go and inspect it because what natasha bertrand, our National Security reporter, was telling us earlier on in this program was that the pilots who were trying to fly close to this object in alaska yesterday were having different accounts, offering different accounts as to what they saw. So i suppose the elements to your point might be a factor in all of this. Right. Visibilitys rather poor. I mean, im working very close to an airport, and believe me its all ifr, instrument flight rule operations. Planes are taking off, they disappear into the clouds very quickly, especially with snow coming down. So the fact that the pilots couldnt identify it, particularly if it was for example a rigid form of an airship, you know, a dirgible, they wouldnt have seen that the last couple decades. I think that theyre having difficulty actually getting eyes on and the equipment that they use to shoot them down obviously does not depend upon human eyes to have eyes on. They have the ability to do that, you know, with their computers. So i think that the visibilitys a big issue up here. All right, mary, thank you so much for springing into action for us. Weve added an additional hour of cnn newsroom this evening. We appreciate it. Paula newton joins me on the phone. Paula, i guess you and i had just a brief couple of moments to parse through what the canadian Prime Minister was saying in the Press Conference. I want to reiterate what she said just about 2 0 or 30 minutes ago, that this object was flying at about 40,000 feet. It was over the yukon territory. And that it was in it was cylindrical, a small cylindrical object which obviously sounds very strange. But as mary schiavo was saying, there might be some perfectly fine explanations for that. Your impressions as to how much information youre getting from the canadian side of things were not getting a lot from the american side at this point. Reporter yeah, and if canadian officials wanted to get ahead of this obviously because it was shot down over canadian airspace and was up to them to make Thyselese Pronouncements Ty what was shot down, what was going on, the fact that it was shot down 4. 5 hours ago now. They were going through the debris field to try and ascertain what it is. I think there were a couple of significant things, and i think and the Defense Minister saying that it was at 40,000 feet. That gives us some explanation as to why they decided that it had to be brought down. Were showing a map now of yukon. That is a huge territory. She said it was shot down in Central Yukon. You know, its going to take a while to determine where it came down even though they im sure they have line of sight on it. But obviously to pick it up and analyze it, this is going to be a joint operation. It is obviously Canadian Forces right now that are doing that kind of investigation right now. But in conjunction with the rcmp, canadas National Police force, and in fact the fbi and, you know, u. S. Forces, as well. So was it the same kind of object that was shot down over alaska by the United States . Might have been. I think many questions right now would be that the minister, anita anan, went out of her way to say this is an unprecedented action on the part of norad to shoot Something Like it down over canadian airspace. The question she did not answer was whether or not they had seen objects like this before in their radar. She went on to say obviously that theyre going to be beefing up their surveillance there. That does involve an entire new Security Infrastructure up there that they have been working on for years. Also want to point out something that secretary austin said after meeting with the Defense Minister in washington just yesterday. And that he referenced the increasing assertiveness of china. Now while they were talking about china because of the spy balloon that was shot down off the Carolina Coast, at issue is that they know they have other actors in the arctic, russia being just one. And they do see a more robust Defense Structure that needs to be put in place there. But i thought that language was quite strong on the part of the secretary, saying it was anita anan together that its this assertiveness that bothers them. So certainly a menacing factor now. Three objects, high altitude, and taking action on all three. And paula, one question i wanted to ask you, maybe whats getting in the way of all of us getting some more information as to what is going on with these two objects, one in alaska and one in canada, is the weather. And mary was just alluding to this a few moments ago, that the weather is quite awful right now in alaska and getting aircraft, rescuers, i guess Military Personnel to retrieve that piece of equipment, it just might be difficult because of the weather in terms of where it went down. Might that also be the case in this area of the central part of yukon . Absolutely. Thats absolutely, jim. No one should underestimate that challenge. Im glad that mary described that. The main issue with the weather is they cant be too careful. It can change literally in an instant. So at one point where you have had visibility instantly then you do not have visibility. And so they dont want to put any lives in danger, obviously, but also whats the point of going out there if you do not believe that you actually have line of sight . Now while they would have certainly picked up the location of where some of the debris fell, if youre talking about miles and miles in terms of the debris stretching on for that kind of distance, you know, you want to be careful when you go up there, and you want to make sure youre doing it in adequate weather so you can retrieve everything. This may take several days. Obviously as has been pointed out, it then needs to return to labs, right, in the United States, in canada, so they can have a good look at it and get some forensic detail as to what it actually was. But absolutely, jim, no one should underestimate how difficult it is to run these kinds of operations in that weather and in those kind of extreme circumstances. All right. Hopefully theres not too much snow, and we can get an eyeball on things soon. Paula newton, thank you very much. Well take a quick break. Well be right back on all of this. The Breaking News coming into cnn, the shooting down of another unidentified object over canada. Earlier today the Canadian Defense minister just wrapped up a Press Conference in the last half hour or so describing the object as cylindrical in shape, but that it was flying at about 40,000 feet, as was the object shot down off the coast of alaska yesterday. More on all this when we come back. Just sold the car to carvana. Whwhat . All i had to do was answer a couple questions and got a real offer in seconds. Then, ththey just picked up the car and paid me right on the spot. Sell your car at carvana dot com m today. Life. Doesnt stop for diabetes. Be ready for every moment, with glucerna. Its the number one doctor recommended brand that is scientifically designed to help manage your blood sugar. Live every moment. Glucerna. 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[woo hoo ] ensure max protein, with 30 grams of protein, one gram of sugar and nutrients for immune health. Lets try the tissue test. Ooof, still yellow. Theres toothpaste white and theres crest 3d whitestrips white. Whitestrips safely work below the enamel surface for whiter teeth in 3 days, guaranteed. A zillion times whiter crest. vo when you love the environment, you work to protect it. The Subaru Solterra electric suv. Subarus first allelectric, zeroemissions suv. man weve got some catching up to do. woman sure do. vo built to help you protect the environment as you explore it. Love. Its what makes subaru, subaru. Back with the Breaking News. The Canadian Defense minister says the shooting of a highaltitude object in canadian airspace is the first time that norad has shot down an aerial object. Natasha bertrand joins us on the phone. What was norads role, whats the latest in terms of what you can tell us . Theres a lot of Unanswered Questions this hour. Reporter yeah, jim. Thats for sure. So according to the pentagon, this was a joint action that was authorized by President Biden and by the Prime Minister of canada, Justin Trudeau, who authorized u. S. Fighter aircraft assigned to norad to work with canada to take down that highaltitude airborne object over Northern Canada today, over the yukon. And what were told by the pentagon is that norad had detected the object over alaska actually late friday evening, and then two f22 fighter jets from alaska monitored the object over u. S. Airspace, and then tracked it as it went into canada. Now this was obviously the u. S. And canada working very closely together because obviously we have seen these kinds of objects floating around in the area over the last several days. Just yesterday the president authorized the shootdown of yet another object that was flying over alaskan airspace. That was shot down yesterday about ten miles off the coast there. This one were told they just wanted to wait and monitor it because it was first spotted over alaska, and they did not feel like it was the right time to shoot it down immediately. So they waited to see where it was going. Itdented up going over canada it did end up going over canada. U. S. And canadian fire jets working together under the norad hat, they worked together to bring it down. It was ultimately a fighter jet, a u. S. Fighter jet that fired that missile that took out that object over canada. Jim . All right. Natasha bertrand, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Retired air force colonel Cedric Layton is back with us. You thought you were leaving for the evening, but like the line from the godfather, we pulled you back in. Let me ask you because the Canadian Defense minister had this Press Conference about a half hour, 45 minutes ago, and some of what she was saying was intriguing. And feel tfree to throw cold water on suspicions going on as to whats happening. She described this object as flying at about 40,000 feet, similar to what took place in alaska, so that brought into the equation this issue of civilian aviation safety. That it was shot down over Central Yukon. And that it was cylindrical in shape which sounds curious, and i talked to mary schiavo, analyst, earlier, she said there are cylindricalshaped objects flying around from time to time, so its not that strange. What is your assessment as to what were hearing from the canadian side of things, were not hearing a lot from the american side at this point. Yeah. I think thats partly, jim, because it happened on over canadian airspace, territory, its only right that the canadians are the first ones to talk about this and discuss this in this way. Mary schiavo is right about cylindrical objects. There are a ton floating around in space now. Well over i forget the number, over 6,000 objects i think that are flying out there that are orbiting us in various stages of decay and all of that. But for this particular object, it takes me back to the first Spy Satellite thats went up in the early 1960s. Many of them were actually cylindrical in shape. So it leads me to believe that there is a possibility that this might very well be perhaps an imagery effort, imagery collection effort. Lower altitude, lower flying surveillance craft of some sort exactly, exactly. So you know, if we take the designs of the 1960s and advance them, you know, what, six decades, you can see that there are some possible similarities there that they may want to use some kind of a an imagery Collection System that goes in and takes pictures of things at a lower altitude than a satellite would. So its in many ways, this might be an ingenious way of collecting intelligence. Might be an ingenious way of collecting signals data. We dont know that to be the case. It doesnt sound like there was an Antenna Array on this system, but you never know. This is something that the forensic analysis is going to have to piece together. And if its this cylindrical shape, that might go to what natasha was hearing from her sources which was that the pilots in alaska couldnt figure out what this thing was doing, and sort of had different assessments as to what it was doing. If its the same type of object as the one that was shot down over canada. Right, exactly. And one other thing that was interesting about natashas reporting is that a lot of the several of the pilots said that their equipment was jammed by the system. In other words, that there was electrical magnetic interference with their Radar Systems or their weapons systems. That part is not clear exactly which systems were affected. But that is going to be something that theyre really going to have to assess because if these objects are doing things like jamming, then they become very dangerous in terms of not only commercial aviation but definitely Military Aviation because if these objects are jammed, you know, or if these objects are jammers, then they can potentially impact safety of flight. They can vector the result in the vectoring of aircraft to the wrong targets. All kinds of things like that. So they would need to be destroyed as quickly as possible or at least rendered safe to use a Military Term for that. Yeah. What is your sense of the fact that we saw this in dramatic fashion both yesterday and today, The Americans and want canadians sort of working in lockstep in terms of their tolerance of these types of objects flying over u. S. Or canadian airspace . There doesnt appear to be at this point an inch of space between joe biden and Justin Trudeau at this point now in terms of tolerating these kinds of objects flying over north america. Both seem to be saying they come in, take them down. I think the two leaders agreed that that would be their course of action. They both observed the first object being the chinese Surveillance Balloon. They said, okay, this is the one that were going to assess this, were going to see what it does, well let it fly over canada, well let it fly into idaho, montana, then into the rest of the United States all the way out to the carolinas. And see what it really can do. And once we do that, then well have a better chance of assessing the next systems. And that i dont think we expected it to happen that quickly, but thats the kind of thing that were seeing right now is that assessment being put to work. Now theyre saying, okay c, we done enough assessing, its time to get rid of these or find a way to prevent him from collecting data on us. And sending a message to whichever country is sending them. You can send them, were going to shoot them down, use them as target practice. Exactly. Exactly. It shows off our skills, as well. Absolutely. Colonel leighton, thank you so much. Thanks for letting us haul you back in for this expanded coverage of cnn newsroom. As we continue our coverage of the order to shoot down this unidentified object that was taken down over the skies of canada earlier today, well have more on this after a quick break. Stay with us, well be right back. Bs in fact. Now, you can trade inin those hats to help earn your grad capap. Your past experience can helelp you earn your degree faster and for less. Whenever heartburn strikes, get fast relief with tums. Its time to love food back. Tum, tum tum tum, Tums A Dental Tool is round for a reason. So is an oralb. 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Everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. So lets go. The digital age is waiting. Breaking news into cnn. We continue to cover the downing of an unidentified object earlier today over the skies of canada. We are learning that the faa right now is closing some airspace over montana for Defense Department activities. That is the latest coming into cnn at this very moment. Were learning the faa is closing more airspace over montana. Natasha bertrand joins us on the phone. What can you tell us . Reporter we are just learning that the faa has restricted some airspace in montana for, quote, National Defense airspace. And it is not immediately clear the reason for this, but the faa has made similar Flight Restrictions in recent days when operations took place to shoot down the spy balloon last week and the object on friday near alaska. Now cnn has reached out to the faa, north com, and the Department Of Defense for comment on this, but it is obviously very notable that this closure of the airspace over montana has happened roughly a few hours only after we saw that object shot down over Northern Canada. That object had originated over alaska and was flying toward Northern Canada when it was decided by President Biden and Justin Trudeau, the canadian tomorrow, that they would shoot it Prime Minister, that they would shoot it down. Unclear what the reason would be for the faa to be shutting down this airspace over montana. But of course montana is where we saw that chinese spy balloon enter the United States just last week, jim. And natasha, you made the point a few moments ago, but just to expand upon that, obviously the faa would not close airspace over montana for Defense Department activities if we were talking about the same object that was shot down hours ago over the skies of canada. So it appears, reading Between The Lines here, that we may be talking about a different object of some sort. Reporter potentially, jim. We dont have that reporting yet. We dont know why this airspace has been restricted. But yes, it would it would be very, very unlikely that this would be related to the shootdown of an object all the way in Northern Canada. It would be very unlikely because the jet thats were scrambled for that object when it was shot down was from alaska and canada. So this restriction over montana is certainly very interesting, and well continue to monitor it for updates. All right, natasha better brand, thank you very much bertrand, thank you so much for a long day of coverage. We appreciate it. Joining us now, coming back to us now, cnn transportation analyst mary schiavo. I hope you put on another pot of coffee. Were thinking about doing the same over here. Mary, of course, a former Inspector General for the department of transportation. The faa restricting airspace in montana for National Defense reasons. Weve not been given a reason at this time as to why that is. But mary, obviously they would not be doing this for some aircraft or object that was downed earlier today in canada. And we should note to our viewers, this is what the faa did before the chinese spy balloon was taken down off the coast of South Carolina about a week ago. Yeah, the faa is not known to willynilly restrict airspace. Obviously they do it frequently over important events like the super bowl. And you know, they did it through the with the china spy balloon, et cetera. So the fact that they are restricting airspace, and of course they can do it for Military Operations and do so, and they can do it for the president ial planes and other significant aircraft. But the fact that theyre doing it is pretty telling, and again, there are a lot of clues here. The routes seem to line up with the jet stream. So whatever whatever the military u. S. And Canadian Forces are getting, it does seem to still be following some form of the jet stream, although the one over the yukon would have been probably out of that typical jet stream. And in the airspace, yes, we can probably assume there is something going on there because the faa doesnt like to do that. Right. And also with us is retired air force colonel cedric leighton. Hes joining us with the discussion. And lets keep mary, as well, in case you guys want to play off one another. Sure. Colonel, let me ask you this, this is damn puzzling. This is just i think we need to pause for a moment and say this is just damn puzzling. You have an object shot down off the coast of alaska yesterday. Government hasnt told us exactly what it is. I know weather and so on. We have an object shot over Central Yukon earlier today. The Prime Minister thought this was serious enough to go ahead and shoot it down. Now the faa is restricting airspace over montana. Yes, these are significant issues, jim. And just to put everything in perspective, as mary was mentioning, these closures occur for certain reasons, but they are highly unusual in this sequence of events. And when you see what might be happening here, one of the possibilities is that there are more objects as were calling them right now in the sky that may be emanating from another country. They could potentially pose a risk to commercial flight activities. But they could also be posing a risk to Military Operations. And i think the issue here because were talking about montana, it seems as if there may be another pass being attempted over the Military Installations that exist in montana. And as mary mentioned, this is conveniently by the jet stream. It could very well be that, perhaps, this was an attempt to go along the same flow, the same course that the initial chinese balloon, Surveillance Balloon went over. And if thats the case, perhaps theyre looking at testing our defenses, okay, we responded in this way the first time around, but now lets try something that they may not be able to detect and go that way. So that is obviously speculation. But it is something that could possibly be happening here. And we might be seeing some type of Military Operation as a result of this. And of course there could be just a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this. Mary and colonel leighton, at the end of the day we may get an explanation that makes perfect sense. At this point we dont have a lot of information to go off of, only that we have had two objects shot down over the last, i dont know, 24 hours hisor sod the faa shutting down airspace again like they did last week, mary schiavo. Yes. In recent years i know it sounds like ancient history or a throwback to the hindenburg, but in recent years there has been a renewed interest in rigid wall dirge bills. Think of something more cylindrical, and their developments in those crafts in the United States, some in england, there were some some out of ukraine was very interested, and obviously not now. But there were a lot of developments for this. When you think balloon you think something thats just kind of floating along in the jet stream. However, and and jump in here because im sure the military knew about this does this, too, and you can control them by changing the altitude. So if you have equipment that can tell you where the winds are and what Altitude Winds are going certain ways, you do have some control of an unmanned craft that may not have a power source on board. I remember one of the pilots commented about the one in alaska, that he or she didnt see a power source. But you do still have some control over balloons through altitude. Okay. Okay. Im getting some new information. Just got in my ear and said do i have this correct, gentlemen that the faa has reopened the airspace, is that what you said in my ear . I believe thats what i was just thats correct, okay. The faa we are told has just reopened the airspace over montana in the last several minutes. We were told they had closed the airspace over montana. Lets take a quick break. Lets take a pause, take a breath, and well have more on the other side of the break. Stay with us. This valentines day, give the gift of s shine. At zales, the diamond store. Lets try the tissue test. Ooof, still yellow. Theres toothpaste white and theres crest 3d whitestrips white. Whitestrips safely work below the enamel surface for whiter teeth in 3 days, guaranteed. A zillion times whiter crest. Ma ma ma ma [clears throut] for fast sore throat relief, try Vicks Vapocool drops with two times more menthol per drop , and the powerful rush of vicks vapors for fastacting relief you can feel. Vicks vapocool drops. Fast relief you can feel. Welcome back. We continue to follow the Breaking News as the faa has just reopened airspace over montana that was closed briefly as far as we know at this hour for Defense Department ur pur department purposes. Paula newton with us now. This comes after an unidentified object was shot down over the Central Yukon earlier today. But this Breaking News just came in to us here in the cnn newsroom in the last 15, 20 minutes, which is that for a brief period of time the faa closed airspace over montana. But that airspace has been reopened. Were obviously trying to get to the bottom as to why that occurred. What more can you tell us . Reporter well, given whats gone on today look, were approaching five hours now that the canadian government says that that now third highaltitude object was shot down. So jim, earlier in the day when we were seeking information from norad, when we thought perhaps there might be more than one object, norad came back and confirmed that there was one that they were observing. Shortly after that we heard from Justin Trudeau saying that, indeed, that u. S. Fighter planes had been scrambled to go and shoot it down. But only after both u. S. And canadian aircraft had been up there observing it. So then there was this issue as to whether or not there had been yet another object that they had observed. Now even if it had happened for a short time, i want to bring up a tweet from matt rosendale, a representative in montana. And he confirmed that he says he was in direct contact, you see it there, with Northern Command in monitoring what could possibly be another object at that northern border and that airspace, as he says, had been closed, and that they were going to observe it again in the morning. What does this mean . Does it mean its no longer a threat to commercial air traffic, but radar is still catching something there . Its all quite a mystery. I will say in a lengthy Press Conference that the Canadian Defense minister had, at her side was the chief of Canadian Defense staff. So this will give you an indication how serious this was. The fact that the Defense Minister herself had said that it was cylindrical, that that object that they shot down was at about 40,000 feet, that it was much smaller than the one that was shot down over the carolinas, off the coast of South Carolina, by the u. S. Military. But also that it was unprecedented, right. The first time in her knowledge that norad had done Something Like this jointly with the United States and canada shooting it down. Now in another part of the Press Conference, the chief of the Defense Staff kind of indicated that while it was cylindrical, that there might have been some kind of a Balloon Apparatus involved, as well. I dont know if he misspoke or if he was knew something because we do know, jim, that on that object that both canadian and american aircraft had eyes on it for several hours before Justin Trudeau ordered it to be shot down. Look, very intriguing in terms of whats going on in montana, and whether or not this could possibly be now a fourth. And i want to caution, as im sure you want to caution, as well, we have no idea that it is another fourth object, and we have no confirmation of whats going on here in montana. Thats exactly right. The last thing we want to do is add two plus two and get 22. We want to get to the bottom of this. Were going to wait as the facts come in and report them to you as they happen. Paula newton, thank you very much. Well take a break. Well be right back. Together we support immune function. Supply fuel for immune celells and sustain tissue health. 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Its the number one doctor recommended brand that is scientifically designed to help manage your blood sugar. Live every moment. Glucerna. Were carvana we created a brand new way for you to sell your car go to carvana answer a few questions and our Techno Wizardry calculates your cars value and gives you a real offer in seconds well come to you pay you on the spot then pick up your car thats it at Carvana Suffering from sinus congestion, especially at night . Try vicks sinex for instant relief that lasts up to 12 hours. Vicks sinex targets congestion at the source, relieving Nasal Congestion and sinus pressure by reducing swelling in the sinuses. Try vicks sinex. The death toll in the earthquake in turkey and syria is now over 28,000 people. The u. N. s aid chief is calling it the regions worst disaster in 100 years. Despite all the devastation, rescue crews are still finding and saving people trapped in the rubble nearly six days after the earthquake. Cnn has the latest from istanbul. Reporter were seeing the rescue effort continuing across southeastern turkey. And indeed in northwestern syria. While the death toll continues to climb, there have been some glimmers of hope with survivors still being rescued days after mondays deadly earthquake. Today one young girl and three or four years old was rescued after being buried beneath the rubble for 1 3132 hours. Her father was also rescued. There were pleas for his wife who he said was buried and still alive. That is what people in turkey and northwestern syria are facing, many waiting for news of loved ones and relatives buried beneath the rubble, hoping they still survived days on after the earthquake. Of course there has been a real focus on the aftermath and the impact this has had on those survivors with aid pouring in from across the globe. And there has been an enormous aid effort here in turkey. Weve seen volunteers distributing aid at centers here in istanbul. Weve seen ships carrying aid and even medical supplies departing from istanbul just today. There has been a real focus, as well, also on northwestern syria where it has proven so difficult both logistically and diplomatically to get aid to those areas most in need in the rebelheld northwestern territories. Today the United Nations says at least 22 aid trucks were able to cross the border from turkey into syria. Also here in turkey there are questions mounting over accountability. The turkish Authorities Say that they are now carrying out an investigation that theyve already carried out some arrests of people they believe they are Holding Accountable for negligence over the construction of nowdestroyed buildings in parts of southeastern turkey. Jim . Thank you. For more information on how you can help victims of the earthquake in turkey and syria, go to cnn. Com impact. We have a list there of great organizations and resources for you to take a look at and do your part. Coming up, history will be made both before and during the super bowl. Well explain. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. woman what would the ideal Weight Loss Program look like . No hunger, no cravings, no isolation, more energy, lasting results, and easy. Is that ssible . It iwith golo. These people changed their lives with golo without starvaon dieting. Whether you have 100 pounds to lose or want to shed those final 20, try golo for 60 days and never diet again. uplifting music with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. And when you book and pay throug youre covered by our happiness check out angi. Com today. Angi. And done. Wondering what actually goes into your multivitamin . At new chapter, its innovation, organic ingredients, and fermentation. Fermentation . Yes. Formulated to help you body really truly absorb the natural goodness. New chapter. Wellness, well done. Introducing the new sleep number climate360 smart bed. Only smart bed in the world that actively cools, warms, and effortlessly responds to both of you. Our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. Proven quality sleep. Only from sleep number. I screwed up. Mhm. I got us tmobile home internet. Now Cell Phone Users have priority over us. And your marriage survived that . You can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. Oh i cant hear you. Youre froze ladies, please you put it on Airplane Mode when you pass our house. I was trying to work. Were workin it too. Yeah work it girl woo i want to hear you say it out loud. Well, i could switch us to xfinity. Those smiles. Thats why i do what i do. That and the paycheck. While Football Fans will be watching the chiefs and eagles during the super bowl, theres going to be a huge team watching them both on the ground and in the air before, during, and after the big game. Cnns rosa flores takes us inside super bowl security. Reporter what are u. S. Customs and Border Protection hngt, a kc135 strato tanker, and an f16 Fighter Jet Doing over glendale, arizona . Theyre tasked with guarding the skies over super bowl lvii. With nearly 200,000 fans expected for the big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the philadelphia eagles, security is a multiagency effort. What types of threats does the fbi prepare for when it comes to the super bowl . Yeah, a wide variety. Anything from active shooters to explosive threats, ied threats, bomb threats, suspicious packages. Reporter from this Operation Center the fbi alongside more than 40 federal, state, and local Law Enforcement agencies will use these 360degree cameras to have eyes on every inch of the stadium. Scott brown is the federal top official in charge of security. I was in new york for 9 11. Ive seen the devastating impacts of terrorism on our soil. I am deeply committed, as are all of my partners, to making sure we dont have an incident like that here. Reporter sky patrol is in the hand of the air and Marine Operations. When youre patrolling, what could they be looking for . Were going to look for anything out of the ordinary. Anything from smoke to disruptions. Reporter air and Marine Operations will be able to fly over the stadium during the big game, but no other aircraft will because the faa will be imposing a Flight Restriction thats 30 miles wide. Those Flight Restrictions will be enforced by norad, the north American Aerospace defense command, with these air force f16 fighter jets. Since 9 11 weve been able to safely escort any aircraft thats violated restricted airspace. Reporter norad is taking me to chances. This kc135 strato tanker is part of the fleet on hand. This aircraft can carry up to 200,000 pounds of fuel. There are ten tanks on board, including some on the wings. And it can refuel an f16 midair in minutes. It prevents us from having to return for fuel on the ground. So its absolutely critical. Reporter the Fighter Jets Refuel from a receptacle thats right behind the pilot. And my job as the pilot is just to remain within the basket in a safe, controlled, stable position. Reporter if the faas Flight Restrictions are broken, norad or cbp air and Marine Operations will engage. In the event of a criminal event, our role is to bring special Response Teams to the scene. Reporter the message from Law Enforcement to anyone thinking about committing a crime during the super bowl is simple dont do it, youre going to wind up in cuffs. Reporter cnn, glendale, arizona. For the first time in history, an allwomen team will perform the annual Pregame Flyover to kick off tomorrows super bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the philadelphia eagles. The team will commemorate 50 years of women flying in the navy. The first eight women began Flight School in pensacola, florida, in 1973. According to the navy, the aircraft in tomorrows flyover represent the capabilities of the Carrier Airwing of the future. The Fly Overnormally comes at the crescendo of the starspangled banner signaling that the action is just minutes away. Cant wait to watch that. That will be some show. Stay with cnn for the latest on the object shot down over canada. Well bring you updates as we get new information as it comes in. Thanks for joining me this afternoon and this evening. Im jim acosta. Cnn will be back tomorrow with more news on all of this. So stay with us for that. We appreciate it. American pain is coming up next. Have a good night. Testing, testing, one, two, three. Sir, you got the headphones part there . Yes, this is the doctor. Am i looking for a parttime job . Hi, this is dianna. Im looking for a medical field. You guys want to [bleep] around . Youre going to [bleep] need Pain Management. I walked out of the door. You make a lot more money doing this than you do doing plastic surgery. My doctors average is about 1. 89 a year. Oh my god. Thats great, chris. Hello . Christopher . Yes. Hey, its the service office. Whats wrong . You need to come home right now. Theres some people at your house who need to speak to you. Hello . Hey. Theyre in the house, baby. They have dogs and the fbi is here. Its not a [bleep] joke. Baby, you know i love you, right . Yeah, i do. What do you want me to do . I dont know, chris. Baby, im [bleep] im [bleep] why are you [bleep] theyre going to put me in jail for a long time, babe. A long [bleep] time. You just need to relax, chris, and you need to think of a [bleep] plan. Im just going to kill myself. Dont do this. Dont be stupid. But you need to think of something, and killing yourself is not the answer. You cannot leave me here by my [bleep] self to deal with your dirt. This was the cause of our epidemic in this country. Florida was the epicenter. And the biggest ones in the business were the george brothers at american pain. The george brothers did not start the opioid crisis. But they sure as hell poured gasoline on the fire. They became the largest streetlevel Distribution Group operating in the entire United States. Nobody put more pills on the streets than they did. Nobody. They created a blueprint for how this is to be done. And they were operating in broad daylight. The scale of this enterprise, i mean, it was enormous. You had addicts streaming in from all over the country, thousands of miles just to come to florida to get drugs. When you see whats going on inside that clinic, your jaw just falls to the floor. I got your pills in the parking lot. Chill out, man. Ive been on the job as a Special Agent for over 20 years. And ive seen a lot of crazy. But this was just [bleep] crazy. You couldnt make up the stuff that happened in this investigation. Strippers and White Supremacists running medical facilities. Mri from the back of a strip club. Criminal operations coming in from appalachia. Doctors carrying guns under their lab coats. Only in america. Okay, cool. Were good. Can you hear me . Yep. Oh, are you recording already . Yeah, yeah, i started the recorder. Okay. This call is from a federal prison. You know, this documentary is called american pain, right . I think so. Thats the working title. I think i was a pioneer. Do i say that . I dont know. I think i was, yeah. Yeah, well get to all that later. But for starters, lets talk about growing up in florida. It was 1980. She gained a lot of weight. The doctor said, youre getting too big. They didnt realize that there were twins. You know, they showed you those ultrasounds. They didnt look like anything to me. We moved to wellington. I had a lot of success in the building industry. Wellington is more upscale than a lot of communities. Its really known for horses and polo. Prince charles played polo in wellington. I mean, there have been some famous people. It was a great place for them to grow up. There were lots of kids, lots of families. You had fourwheelers and gokarts and all those sort of things. Their sibling bond was so close. One would say something, and before he finished, the other would laugh. Then id say, why are you laughing . He didnt, you know and hed say, well, i know what hes going to say. I had them doing pushups when they were little. We stressed exercise. They were great tennis players, tremendous athletes, and they were on the math team. They won Palm Beach County mathematics contest, along with another kid thats in prison with them called theo. Chris and jeff were about eight or nine years old when their mother and i got divorced. I met chris and jeffs mother in 89, and i early on noticed that they were a little difficult. They were out in a wooded area, and somehow they started a brush fire, which actually turned into a small forest fire. It was sufficient that the Fire Department had to be called. They were there for a day or two putting it out. Yeah, i wasnt real keen on that, especially because i was a firefighter. Ended up getting Community Service for it, nothing major. They couldnt be together more than five minutes without fighting, and they couldnt be apart more than five minutes without wondering where the other one was. It was like a lovehate at the same time. Although they competed against each other, you did not want to separate them. If you picked on one, you picked on two. Chris and jeff played hockey. What do you think drew them to hockey . Denise said, im not going anymore because the parents sitting in the stands with us started complaining about the boys. Hey, right there. How about that . Get off you . Goodbye. Some parents got very mad with them. Off off off they didnt understand the twin thing, and i had to explain it to them. With them, it wasnt always a relaxing time. For sure. About the trouble we got in, i mean, there was a lot of trouble. You want me to list, like, every charge . Their father usually would get an attorneha get tm off wits nothing more than Community Service. So they really never had to pay the price for any of their antics. Their father told them the police were stupid because if they were smart, theyd be making more money. I think they just thought they were smarter than everybody else, and they could get away with everything. We were getting in fights and working out, bodybuilding, and we just wanted an advantage, so then we started doing steroids. I sort of guessed it when i started seeing them bulk up. And when i confronted them, i was like, dont you know how bad this stuff is for you . And they said, oh, no, no, we get the good stuff. On some Discussion Board on the internet, i found somebody in yugoslavia that i could Western Union money to. Theyd put the steroids in, like, vcr tapes. I would use some of them with my brother and then sell some of them to my friends. The names it was shipped to were always fake names. I had a shift at a local business in west palm beach, but this time i went in and picked up the package, and i was walking out. All the agents, you know, came and arrested me. It was his first felony offense. Chris got the jail that lets you out to go to work and then come back. Work release. And he would come to work for me at majestic. We were building 100 homes at a time, a 40 million business. We put a lot of pride into the business, and chris carried that pride with him. I took a job working for chris and jeffs father. Me and him became pretty good buddies. We were both into the same type of things. Going to ufc fights. We would do it together. Mosh pits. Just banging and elbowing and kneeing and having fun redneck style, i guess. Emerald city, its just, you know, your standard strip club. Chris would show up with his 500 in singles pretty much every night to see her. I came to florida when i was about 19. New hampshire was no good for me. Everybodys hooked on something there. Thats why i ran away. He was big. He was handsome. Had an expensive car and sounds like hes fun. She was probably the prettiest girl in the strip club, and she was great on the pole. We spent the night, and it was, you know, ever since then. From that moment on, they were never apart. Here comes my posse right now. So our contractor this week is john george. We did a tv show, extreme home makeover. Chris and jeff both worked on that house. That was the height of majestic homes. The market was red hot. And then, of course, you had 2007 to 2008, a catastrophe. To see it collapse was sad. When the Housing Market crashed, i started working with my brother. I had no idea he was even a twin until i saw his brother. Like, how do you leave that out . Isnt that weird . This call is from jeff. An inmate at a federal prison. Whose idea was the pain clinic . Well, im sure chris probably said he started it. It was my idea. More of the ideas person, and hes a great operator. Im probably more creative. Hes more of an intheoffice workaholic type person. But our First Business partnership was a Hormone Replacement Clinic that prescribed testosterone, hgh, called south beach rejuvenation. South beach rejuvenation was basically a front for a legal steroid clinic. Its telemedicine for steroids. I was a patient. You would get a blood test done, and you were automatically approved. I dont even think the doctor looked at it. You would get a list of pretty much any Anabolic Steroid under the sun. And two days later, you got a box of rigs and all the steroids you wanted. It just came right to your house. I was looking to buy competitors to expand south beach rejuvenation. And dr. Overstreet had a good little setup in miami. Dr. Overstreet, hes the one who brought the pain clinics to chris and jeffs attention. He told jeff the big money was at the pain clinics. Anything to do with Money Perks Chris and jeffs interest. For a doctor, he was young at 38 years old. He was like a bohemian type guy. Dr. Overstreet absolutely just wanted to make a quick buck. He wasnt trying to cure cancer. He was pretty much just content doing what he did, combing and working his flipflops and bahama shirt with a medical coat over top of it. We decided to become 5050 partners, dr. Overstreet. My brother and i were equal partners. And what we each had was the responsibility to open up one office at first. My clinic, South Florida pain. And his office, east coast pain. And we split the profits. We walked down to the tax collectors office, gave him 36, and he basically gave us this license to deal drugs. No questions asked. Subway footlong for free. Like the subway series menu. 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Only at vanguard, youre more than just an investor youre an owner. That means that your goals are ours too. And Vanguard Retirement tools and advice can help you get there. Thats the value of ownership. I had no idea. I thought it was going to be like a regular Doctors Office. Elevator music playing and a couple people sitting out there, not a line all the way down the street. The very first day, i was like, [bleep] man, were not even open yet, and theres people waiting, scratching their neck, drinking Mountain Dews and smoking cigarettes. It kind of reminded me a bit of a trap house, you know . After being open for about three weeks, we got a phone call from dr. Overstreets wife. She said hed been in a car wreck and flipped his jeep over a cliff and died. I only knew him for a few weeks. He was a really nice guy. I started hiring additional doctors. But everything ended up working out fine, and actually better, because he was a 50 partner. So i made actually more money with the new doctors. The new doctors get paid per patient. Also, i would pay the doctors 1,000 a week to use their dea registration to order medication for our inhouse pharmacy. No ones doing the same business model. We made it real easy to get the pain medication. I was 23 at the time. I owned half of a grow house. I was selling kilos of cocaine. I was doing all kinds of crazy dumb [bleep] my buddy that was living at the grow house started getting strung out. I said, what the hell are you doing, man . He goes, these. He said, theyre roxys, oxycodone pills. The mbox is what everyone called them. He goes, man, theyll [bleep] you up. He lost a crop of pot because he was just so messed up. He couldnt maintain it. So his way to try to pay me back was introduce me to this doctor. When i went in there, he told me, try to touch your toes. Oh, i cant. Yeah, youre messed up, man. He gave me 180 Oxycodone Tablets the first visit. And the second visit, he upped me to 240. I mean, it was just so simple. Id never sold pills. And they were gone within a matter of a day or two. I was like, holy [bleep] i just made 3,000 doing nothing. In most states, theres a central database. If you went to a doctor and tried to go to another doctor and get a schedule ii narcotic filled, its going to alert them. Its going to alert the authorities. Its going to alert the doctors not to see you. Its going to alert the pharmacies not to fill it. Everyone knew that florida didnt have a database at the time. You can go to as many doctors as you wanted to. I mean, everything was little, small, [bleep] storefronts, one doctor in each one, until the george brothers came out with their first, you know, big clinic. It just exploded after that. Well, they had a license from the state of florida. So you thought they were a legit pain clinic and you didnt think twice about it. And then when they opened, it was a rush of people. The lines were wrapped around the building every morning. Theyre fighting and theres needles all over the place. And at that time, nobody knew what was going on. It wasnt on the news. The first tip that got us over there was some crazy behavior that was going on at a mcdonalds. There seemed to be traffic going from one side of the street to the other, and there was a sign that said pain clinic. Anthony and i parked across the street and watched for a while. It was shady times a million. It was bizarro world. Anthony said, im going to go find out whats going on. I had brought a couple of packs of cigarettes because everybody wants to bum a cigarette and then they want to talk. He came back to the van and said, theyre all getting drugs. We saw as soon as they hooked up with these pain pills, they would go to their cars and use. They were snorting it and shooting up right in daylight. It was like everywhere you started to look, now that you saw it once, youre like, theres another car, theyre doing it. Theres another car, theyre using. None of it was normal. Ive never seen the likes of this Doctors Office before. You know, im a construction guy, i swing a hammer. I dont think there was anybody with any medical office experience, let alone any medical training. As we expanded, we needed a lot more people. The Hiring Process was completely different for male and female employees. Male employees were usually friends. The female employees, we would start by placing an add on craigslist. We like to joke around and say that they only really hired attractive women, but i didnt really i didnt know that at the time. I was initially the only person in the pharmacy department. I would take the prescriptions that the doctor wrote, and i would fill the medication. I didnt know What Roxicodone was. I didnt even know it was like this big thing. I enjoyed going to work every day. We were all young, we were all immature. It was like a frat house. Remotecontrolled cars and helicopters, and theyd fly around the office and shoot each other with slingshots and tasers. Throwing knives, chinese stars stuck in the ceiling. Swords and shields for the occasional sword fight. Refrigerator full of beer, shots of patron. Just anything that you ever wished you could do when you were a teenager, we did it when we were supposed to be adults. In a Doctors Office . In a Doctors Office. I got a bunch of alcoholics here already starting to [bleep] drink this morning. Thats retarded, chris. Do i need to be involved in this . I dont know, do you . Do you have any patients there . Yeah, we have patients here. We realized that we needed to put more standards in place, so we hired a consultant. I had a very interesting career, i think. I was the senior investigator in the miami office, a Group Supervisor and a program manager. I retired, my wife decided she wanted a divorce. She got half my pension, so i had to pick up some money somehow. And thats how i got involved with the pain clinics. I met one of them, one of the george brothers. Now i dont remember which one it was. What was your impression of him . A businessman. He knew nothing about the drugs, but he had doctors for that purpose, and he hired me to keep him straight. So it became a little business for me. I would do like a mock deatype inspection. I had a checklist. They have to have signs posted. They had to follow all the rules of pharmacy. Labels on the vials. Recordkeeping. Inventories. Physicians can justify writing for any drug they want, as long as they have standards for proper documentation. The highest level of safety you can earn . Subaru. When it comes to longevity, who has the highest percentage of its vehicles still on the road after ten years . Subaru. And when it comes to value, which popular brand has the lowest cost of ownership . Lower than toyota, honda, or hyundai . Subaru. 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New truly Vodka Seltzer yeah, theres vodka in this as a business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind. So start saving by switching to the mobile service designed for Small Business Comcast Business mobile. Flexible data plans mean you can get unlimited data or pay by the gig. All on the most reliable 5g network. With no Line Activation Fees or term contracts. Saving you up to 60 a year. And its only available to comcast Business Internet customers. So boost your bottom line by switching today. Comcast business. Powering possibilities. We kind of looked to the doctors to see how far we could push it. The doctors didnt say anything or raise a red flag or even an eyebrow. Neither did the distributors of the drug wholesalers. I found most of my wholesalers online. They would send me a form to fill out. The pills would be mailed through ups or fedex. They would arrive in brown boxes just like any shipment. The patients had no idea. I imagine if they know, the delivery guy would never make it to the front door. Just one delivery could be worth over a Million Dollars on the street to a drug dealer. We bought medication from over 10 wholesalers, and every one had their own process. Some were very simple, where all i had to do was fax them or email. Others might send an inspector to the office, and they would send him. If the wholesaler wanted me to check on a clinic, i would do it. They would pay me a couple hundred dollars for each stop i made. I told them dont sell it. It said it on the report i gave them. If they choose to sell it to them, i did my job. When i speak to those guys, the biggest pain clinics, they say they never once had a problem getting pills. Thats true because if they were ordering, and i said theyre keeping good records, they can justify it in their documentation of what the drugs are being used for, and thats why theyre buying more. But wouldnt it be suspicious . You know, suspicious is not really defined in the law. Its a judgment call. Every week our Patient Numbers went up, and i never want to lose any business, so i tried to make our office as much of an Assembly Line as it possibly could be. Okay. Hey, doc. What happened to your hand . From all the writing. Handwriting just took too much time. Our employees helped get the charts ready and fill part of it out for them. The doctor had rubber stamps. It was my idea to use the stamps, and people liked that they can get in and out fast. Hello . Hey. Hey. The cops got a whole carload of our patients all spread out on the sidewalk. They got an undercover cop car. I always wanted to work undercover. I thought if youre going to be a cop, you should probably do the really cool stuff. Going into a house, buying a kilo of cocaine, doing a weapons deal or Something Like that. Okay, westbound now. Westbound to blue line. Soon all those deals became 50pill, 100pill, 500pill, 1,000pill deals. Its going to be 13 pills for 160. Counting out the money to the guy now. We have the signal. All right. Hey, your hands. Let me see your hands. Dont move. Cars were being stopped left and right. What did i do . Settle down. What did i do . Prescription after prescription. We got the roxys, we got the xanax. The explosion was almost instant. You could throw a rock and hit somebody with 100 blues. 414 grams. If the main ingredient in each pill is oxycodone, then you can weigh them all together. At that time, were still a local police department. We really didnt have the capabilities to really understand what was going on. All right. Well, i didnt know that the percocets with the oxys. Yeah. If you look at the ingredients in the percocet im going to start feeling sick soon if i dont have my medication. But you think, yeah, somethings brewing. The sun is so different down there. First morning, we were so burnt, we could barely walk into the Doctors Office. Florida was the neverending pill bottle. It was wide open. In the western part of kentucky, we were the biggest Ring Trafficking Narcotics from florida. I used to do, like, what you might call muscle work. I mean, some of the stuffs pretty horrible, for real. Prison school, thats where all the hookups are. Whitneys father, glenn, my uncle, he was in prison with this guy who had this hookup in florida. My dad and my cousin, red, started going to florida, getting roxys and bringing them back. And i started selling them for him. Roxys back then wasnt really heard of in kentucky. We had to give them away pretty much just to get them hooked on it. Prescription drugs, they sell good. Yeah. I started going to the doctor getting pledgings when i was 12 years old. Theyre a speed. In the 90s, i was selling dilaudid. It was a big one then. My brother glenn come by, and he said, do you want to make some money, some real money . Just ride up there with me to florida. South florida pain was the original pain clinic. The word on the street was they wrote the most pills, and they were crooked, and they were felons that owned the clinic. So you wanted to go there. We were buying them for 3 a pill, basically, from the george brothers clinics. And we would bring them back to kentucky, and wed sell them for 20 a pill. We would sponsor people going down there, like we would pay for their doctors visits and their expenses. And in return, we would get their prescription, and i would sell the hell out of them. Youre making 18,000, 19,000 off just one person. I would take van loads of people down there. I mean, we rocked it while it was there. I told somebody, and they told somebody else, and, i mean, there was hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Those drug dealers from kentucky were renting buses. Tree of life baptist church, the bus sat on it, and thats how he started coming down. They were all wearing matching shirts. If you get pulled over, no one suspects a thing. 3, 4 hey are you ready for me are you ready are you ready we got the house you did pods handles the driving. Pack at your pace. Store your things until youre ready. Then we deliver to your new home across town or across the country. Pods, your personal moving and storage team. Voltaren. The joy of movement. Life is uncertain. Everyday pressures can feel overwhelming its okay to feel stressed, anxious, worried, or frustrated. Its normal. With calhopes free and secure Mental Health resources, its easy to get the help you and your loved ones need when you need it the most. Call our warm line at 833 3174673 or live chat at calhope. Org today. I had just transferred to the South Florida highintensity Drug Trafficking area. We were part of the ocdetf task force. It was us, the fbi, along with the dea, other agencies, Palm Beach County sheriffs office, Broward County sheriffs departments, and local Police Departments teamed up. I was literally in the break room at the water cooler one day meeting some of our local Law Enforcement partners, and i told them that i worked Health Care Fraud for a number of years. And one of the Police Officers said, Health Care Fraud . Maybe you guys would be interested in looking at these clinics. Typically, we would be looking at cocaine, marijuana. Pills were never on our radar. Why are so many people traveling from outside the state to come here . This isnt like we had the mayo clinic set up here, where its the finest facility in the entire country. Youre talking about Street Corner poppedup overnight pain clinics. We decided to focus on the most prolific group. That would be the george brothers. On its surface, everything looked legitimate. These are real doctors. They have real licenses. They have real dea control numbers. And what looked to be a real clinic, so the question was, where was the crime . Where was the crime . The office grew. It brought more attention to the business. So the doctors wanted an mri. The mri would help us verify the patient who would have some type of injury. So if someone came in without an mri, wed give them a referral to an mri office. Which opened up a whole new realm of the mri companies. Within weeks, pete tendale, he showed up wanting to do our mri business. He was always working, hustler kind of guy. Premium tobacco, 4. Pete was involved in all kinds of different businesses. I mean, the guy was an entrepreneur. He started a Company Called faye imaging. And it was a mobile mri unit. Everyone knew that faye imaging was the place to go. First thing, youd go meet pete. Parking lot, pete. Its in the back of a strip club off 45th street in palm beach. While youre waiting to get your mri, youd go in there and get a few lap dances. When theyre ready, theyd come in there and get you. I never went into the strip club, i wasnt old enough. I couldnt get in. I just got in the tube. He gave me the cd right afterwards with the image. And then the doctors report 24 hours later. Everyone that went in there had a herniation, a bulging disc. Something was wrong with them. And i said, pete, how does everybody have something wrong with them . And he said, lets just say my doctors look closer than other doctors. Everyone told the doctors on a 1 to 10, they were a 10. And theres no way that someone could read your mind and know if you are or you arent. They wanted to have medical documentation for things to cover their self. It was a facade. Every time that i went down there and spoke to the doctor, he played along with it. Like, he looked at the mri and hed say, well, you know, youre in extreme pain. Like, well, you need this much medicine. I mean, it just seemed too good to be true to me. We started to work with informants, some of the patients. They told us about whats going on inside the clinic. I used to work fraud cases. Committing fraud is just a matter of understanding the system and taking advantage of its weakness to commit a crime. And thats exactly what these guys did. We had to prove that the mri, the Patient Files and examinations were Window Dressing that allowed them to deal drugs legally. All florida pills right there. Theres another one there, South Florida pain. Roxicodone, xanax. When i first seen the first doctor, i was 17. We would just go see the doctor and come back, just like going to the mall. Yeah, a 40hour trip to the mall. Our business quickly grew from almost 100 percent local patients to about 95 percent outofstate patients. I was going in three to four times a week. Come home, kiss my husband, get back in the truck. The route i took to florida was i65 to i24 to 75 to 95, all the way to florida. I could probably make that trip right now with my eyes closed. A lot of people would go to i95. Id always go South Florida parkway. Whyd you go that way . Thats just the way i like going. Through kentucky, twoandahalf hours, tennessee, twoandahalf hours, georgia, eight hours, and then florida, six hours. On the way down there, it was always time crunch, like we stopped bare minimum. Well, we stopped for gas and stuff, but thats it. We stopped to see an alligator one day. It was coming up on there. We were looking through data from the dea. The george brothers and people like them got almost 90 percent of all the oxycodone manufactured in the entire country. Of the 20 highest prescribing physicians in the entire country, five of them worked at just one of chris facilities. Just in 2009 alone, they ordered just shy of 3 million pills. Those numbers were through the roof compared to their competitors. These are what they call red flags in the investigative business. I wanted my doctors to be the top prescribing doctors in the country. To me, that was an accomplishment of being number one, and that was really my goal. One free. 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Theyre following the life cycle of this pill from the day its manufactured to the end user. They were having to continuously up the supply to meet the demand, and the demand was very clear as to where it was coming from. Chris would stay in his office all day, doing whatever he did in there. Hello . Hey. Somebody called the cops. They told them that there was a fight in the parking lot. You know, i would be out dealing with all the zombies and would snap at him, smack him around as need be. Couple of hours into the day, i was not as nice as i probably seem right now, you know . Stay in till its time to leave. When he did come out and he would see me mistreating or being rude to a patient or Something Like that, he would jump on their side, you know, because you know, theyre just dollar signs. Ill take care of it. Hes just got to be a little nicer to patients, right . Yeah, like never says hi or bye to anybody. You know, he doesnt come in and say or welcome in there. Hi, welcome to the dope hole. Can i get you a syringe . They dont stop, dude. Theyre like literally like a bunch of [ bleep ] toddlers. Im trying to make it look as legitimate as possible and i got these freaking morons in a parking lot acting like theyre at mardi gras. Its a whole scene. The entire Adult Population of certain towns in kentucky or West Virginia or whatever would come down. People brought winnebagos and pulled out their lawn chairs and everybody hanging out at their car, smoking, drinking. When you pulled into the parking lot, it was a Family Reunion sometimes. There would be maybe six or eight people in my family sitting there. Oh, what are yall doing down here . I didnt know it was yalls time to come down here, who are you bringing . I believe weve created like a new form of tourism. We were basically the disneyland of pain clinics. Its not a good look. I was just waiting for somebody to come in and shut us down and throw handcuffs on us, you know . It never happened. It was unbelievable to me. And at the same time, the juice is kind of worth the squeeze, you know what i mean . At the end of the week, i had mri Companies Come and handing me 3,000, 4,000 in cash for all the people i sent in their direction. The sponsor would be like, i brought 10 people. How much is it going to cost to get them to cut the line . Im like, give me two grand. The people that worked the counters, every Single Person that came through gave them 50 to move them up. The patients would say, ill pay you extra if you fill my prescription first. And you know what the cashiers would do . Thats theirs. So i would start taxing them, every employee, 200 a day. At the end of every day, id have another stack, 2,000, 3,000 sitting on my desk. I was probably making 20,000 a week. They didnt have time to use a cash register. They literally had garbage bins where when they would take your money, they would drop it in there. These guys are all taking these bags like santa claus. Dollar bills flying around everywhere. They didnt give a s hhit about that. Literally, sack of money each. There wasnt a [ bleep ] cpa on staff. And of course, derek. He was enjoying those cash plays. Thats [ bleep ] free money, dude. Hello . Chris. Yeah. You know that Virgin Mobile guy, the billionaire . Whos that . He made his own speak faster. He made his own ship to go to the moon. The seats are 200,000 a person. But that aint that bad to go to space. Once word got out that there was money to be made, and big money, they popped up everywhere, like weeds. Starting my own clinic was easy. I mean, it was actually too easy. It wasnt until i met vinny when i realized how easy it was. I went into vincent colangelos clinic. I was doctor shopping. Im just sitting there filling out patient forms. He grabs my form, and he just starts checking. 10 on the pain level. This hurts, this hurts, this hurts. You got to tell him this. I was like, who the hell is this guy . And everyones like, oh, thats the owner. Thats vinny. Pill mill vinny. We hit it off. The next day, we went and met for lunch. He goes, you want to be a Business Partner . At that time, i drove a big jackedup truck, a yellow f150. And he said, i want your truck. Thats part of the deal. I said, i dont have nothing to drive. Thats fine, ill give you this mercedes. He had an addiction to cars. Hed be online buying cars. Every other day, thered be a semi showing up. Theyd open up the door, oh, thats that 1967 camaro. I forgot about that. He ended up having to go get a warehouse to house all these things. Vinny has always been a crackhead. Hes always smoked crack, and he went to prison for heroin. Came out of prison and was on probation, i think, whenever he started the pain clinics. His clinics were the most unorthodox, for sure. I mean, the one that we opened up had two pool tables in it. He said, we got to have the pool tables. I said, for [ bleep ] what . Its a Doctors Office. I realize, holy shit, if this guy, this guy can do it, ive got the shit. Are you certified in Pain Management . Why do you think so many people are coming from out of state to see you here . Because theyre from the bible belt state, and they cant get pain medication. The man who answered would not give us his name. We spent months working on this story because we knew something significant was going on. 96. Shop appliances now backed by the lowes price promise. If youre turning 65 soon or over 65 and planning to retire. Nows the time to learn more about an aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan from unitedhealthcare and get help protecting yourself from the outofpocket costs medicare doesnt pay. Because the time to prepare is before you go on medicare. Dont wait. Get started today. Call unitedhealthcare for your free decision guide. Voltaren. The joy of movement. Shop the valentines day sale and save on everything. Only at kay. I screwed up. Mhm. I got us tmobile home internet. Now Cell Phone Users have priority over us. And your marriage survived that . You can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. Oh i cant hear you. Youre froze ladies, please you put it on Airplane Mode when you pass our house. I was trying to work. Were workin it too. Yeah work it girl woo i want to hear you say it out loud. Well, i could switch us to xfinity. Those smiles. Thats why i do what i do. That and the paycheck. Arent there doctors in kentucky . I dont know. I dont think so anybody will help them up there. I was told by one of my sources that the guy that was running it was some guy named chris george. We waited and waited until we saw him, and we went for it