When working a complex case for a client of ours, we identified a large counterfeiting organization operating in a country spanning three states and involving several dozen individuals who were selling large amounts of counterfeit products of our client’s brand each month. During our investigation, we conductors repeated test purchases to be used as evidence by the authorities.
In conjunction with the civil police from the country, we arranged to purchase a large quantity of the products – so large that the heads of the organization in each of the three states agreed to gather at one location at the time of delivery to collect the cash personally – in excess of US$100,000.
The case proceeded like clockwork. The three subjects arrived with the counterfeit products, and the police placed them all under arrest, taking them back to the station to be processed. I was invited by the police to be present during the questioning.
At the station, I saw the subjects begin working the police, at first to determine if they could buy their way out of their situation, and then to determine who it was that had organized their arrest. After a short exchange, the chief of the division asked me to wait outside in the hall because the subjects were complaining that a non-law-enforcement agent should not be present during questioning. Reluctantly, I left the room and remained in the hall where a dozen or so members of the media had arrived smelling a story.
Approximately 15 minutes later, the chief invited me back into the office, leaving his door open so the media could hear. He proceeded to introduce me by name to the defendants, stating that I had organized the investigation and requested their arrests on behalf of my client. He then told the defendants the name of the hotel where I was staying – in the presence of the media – in case they needed more information.
With my name and hotel location now disclosed fully to the defendants, I excused myself from the room under the pretext that I had to call my client. I immediately existed the building, hailed a taxi, checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport, taking the first flight out that would get me back home.
When my plane landed, I rang the chief and called him out for giving the defendants my name and the location where I was staying. He laughed and told me I was being paranoid. I also rang the hotel, who informed me that several people had come by asking for my following my departure. Two days later, I learned that all three defendants had “escaped” from jail.
Despite their “escape”, the raid was still considered a success. We had removed over US$100,000 in counterfeit products from the market, and those products were ultimately destroyed by the authorities in our presence. And while I was forced to work with agents from that same unit on other occasions, I never trusted them again.