OUT
OF THE FILES: UNUSUAL CASE HISTORIES
Busting the Biggest Band of Cable Pirates in U.S. History
02/02/05
Consider: a Jersey
City street vendor who sold hot dogs, relish, and "hot" cable
box de-scramblers. A crook who "innocently" told our undercover
agents, "The only way the FBI could get me is if they were standing
right here, right now watching me do this." A corrupt lawyer who
crashed his own car and even shot himself in the neck—just to
get out of entering a plea in court.
They're all
part of "Operation Cable Trap"—a strange case from
our files that smashed what turned out to be the nation's largest cable
piracy ring ever.
At the center
of it all was Joe Smith*, a Florida crook with ties to the
mob. For years, he sold illegal cable boxes that unscrambled signals
and provided "free" cable service. His partners in crime?
Corrupt cable company insiders who provided the boxes, other thieves
who stole them, technicians who modified them, and crooks who sold
them, to name just a few.
We learned
of the ring in 1991, when we got a tip about that duplicitous hot dog
stand. To bust the ring, we created "Prime Electronics & Security,
Inc." in a 2,000-square foot warehouse in Kenilworth, New Jersey.
We filled it to the brim with cable boxes and staffed it with undercover
agents and a local police officer. We didn't have to wait long for
our criminal customers to come calling.
To unearth
all elements of the scheme, we even agreed to help the crooks launder
their illicit proceeds across the world. As a result, we soon
turned up a massive money laundering operation based in the Cayman
Islands, which led to another major investigation—“Operation
Hot Money."
Smith's pirating
days came to an end in 1995, when he ordered up a thousand cable boxes
from our "business." At the same time, agents in
many other states executed 39 related search and seizure warrants on
his criminal partners. Ultimately, we seized $15 million in ill-gotten
gains from the ring.
These cable
pirates didn't have to walk the plank, but they did land in the brig. In
the end, 34 members of the ring were convicted—including Smith,
who pled guilty. The investigation also generated dozens of spin-off
cases involving not just money laundering, but public corruption/bribery,
insurance fraud, and bank fraud.
The case had
more than its fair share of fascinating details. Follow this
link if you want to learn more. And go to our FBI
History webpage to read about more interesting cases from our files.
* -- Not his real
name. Photo: Two members of the cable ring arrange a deal.
