0:01

In. The spring of Twenty Seventeen, a

0:03

police corruption scandal rocked the city

0:05

of Baltimore and the heart of

0:07

it was an elite undercover unit

0:09

called The Gun Trace Task Force.

0:12

American. Scandal is a podcast from

0:14

Wonder He. They take the a

0:16

deep into the most infamous scandals

0:18

and American history from presidential lies

0:21

to environmental disasters and corporate fraud.

0:23

Their new Season looks at a

0:25

Baltimore Police unit that was supposed

0:27

to get guns off the streets

0:29

and reduce violence in the community,

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but they operated with little oversight

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and instead became a breeding ground

0:35

for rogue cops. Federal officials uncovered

0:37

a team that was abusing their

0:39

power, leading to the officers been

0:42

charged with robbery. Extortion, fraud, and

0:44

selling drugs seized during police operations.

0:46

Some were quick to dismiss the

0:48

arrest as a case of a

0:50

few bad apples, but an investigation

0:52

with later reveal a culture of

0:55

corruption that was systemic within the

0:57

Baltimore Pd and had been for

0:59

a long time. You are about

1:01

the here: a preview of American

1:03

Scandal while you're listening. Follow American

1:05

Scandal on the Wonder He app

1:08

or wherever you get your podcast.

1:26

It's March two thousand and sixteen

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and Baltimore, Maryland Sergeant Weighing Jenkins

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sits behind the wheel of an

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unmarked police car, scanning the sidewalk

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as he drives down a residential

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street and the northwest section of

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the city is mid afternoon. And

1:40

outside Jenkins window only can see

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your local kids walking home from

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school while some older folks in

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the neighborhood sit on porches watching

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the cars go by. It all

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looks perfectly quaint. A Jenkins knows

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that in the City of Baltimore,

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things aren't always what they seem.

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jenkins as the leader of an

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elite play closed unit within the

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Baltimore Police Department. Unlike most

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cops, Jenkins and his team don't have to

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wear uniforms or respond to 911 calls.

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Instead, they go out into the streets

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looking for signs of illegal activity, and

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when Jenkins is leading the mission, the team

2:15

usually finds what they're looking for. And

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after a couple of blocks, Jenkins spots

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something. Up ahead, a

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black man in his mid to late 30s

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is getting into a minivan with a backpack

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slung over his shoulder. In

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Jenkins' experience, any man over 18

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wearing a backpack is suspicious. So

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Jenkins radios to the other officers on his

2:36

team. It's go time. Trailing

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behind Jenkins is a second car filled with

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the other officers on his team, and

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at the sound of Jenkins' signal, they speed toward

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the minivan and block it in from the back.

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Jenkins follows, blocking it in from the front.

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Officers spring out of the second car,

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swarming the minivan while Jenkins watches from

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the sidelines. Within two minutes,

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two officers signal they've got a hit.

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One officer holds a giant bag of cocaine in

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the air. The other holds up

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thousands of dollars in cash. Jenkins

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grins. They've clearly picked up

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a major dealer. Now it's

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his job to pressure this dealer into naming

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his supplier. Jenkins loves his

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job. Jenkins walks

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over to the minivan, his broad

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shoulders straining against his t-shirt. He's

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in his mid 30s with a wide face

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and close cropped brown hair. He

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nods to one of the other members of his team,

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indicating for him to put the driver in the back

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seat of the van. Another

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officer hands Jenkins the man's wallet

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and car registration. Jenkins

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studies them as he climbs into the back seat

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next to the dealer. Jenkins

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slides the door of the van shut

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and pulls out the driver's license from

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the man's wallet. Mr. O'Reece Stevenson, am

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I saying that right? Yes sir. Oh

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good, good. Mr. Stevenson, my name is Wayne

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Jenkins. I'm a federal agent. Jenkins

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isn't a federal agent, but he frequently tells

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drug dealers that he is to pressure them

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into flipping on their suppliers. I

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thought you were BPD? No, I'm a

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Fed. I knew this deal was going

4:11

down today because it came across on a wiretap.

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But here's the thing. We don't really care about

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you. You're not the target of

4:18

our investigation. We want you to connect.

4:21

Oh, I'm no snitch. Yeah, everyone says that

4:23

at first. You're looking at serious

4:25

time. Now, let I ask you a

4:27

different way. If you were going to rob a drug dealer,

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who would you choose? Oh, no, I'm not

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playing this game. Okay, all right, fine.

4:34

You don't want to help yourself out? That's

4:36

your choice. Let me ask you something

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else. What's your address? 4100 Heathfield? Did

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you just lie to me? Because that's not what

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the car registration says. Huh? Huh?

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Fine. All right, don't answer me. It doesn't matter because

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we have your house keys. We're

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going to go over to your house, your real house, and we're

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going to search it. Oh, what? My

4:56

child's mother is there. We could arrest her. Is

4:58

there a reason we would arrest her? There's

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probably some coke at the house. And

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how much? A few kilos. What's

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a few? Three, four? I don't know,

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seven or eight? Jenkins'

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eyebrows race. That's a serious

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amount of cocaine. Any guns, cash?

5:15

Yeah, and the safe? All right, well,

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thank you for that information. I'm going

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to call my supervisor and we're going to execute the search

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warrant. Jenkins

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steps out of the van and pulls his cell

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phone from his jeans pocket, but he does not

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call his supervisor. As Jenkins walks

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away from the car, he scrolls through his

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contact until he finds the number for Donny

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Stepp. Stepp has been

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a friend of Jenkins since childhood. He also

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moonlights as a drug dealer. So

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when Stepp answers the phone, he and Jenkins

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agree to a scheme, one that's going to

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yield a lot of money for both of

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them. This isn't the first

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time Jenkins has done this, nor

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is he the only one in the Baltimore PD

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with the same idea. A

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lot of guys in his department have been making a lot

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of money. ideals like this. And

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they've even gotten department commendations along the

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way. But Jenkins feels confident

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that as long as they all play it

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safe and continue to produce arrests for the

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department, there's no more