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The journey of Phoenix Police Department officer, Lauri Burgett, into the underbelly ----------------------------------------------------of Mexican drug cartels inside United States’ borders is a defining portrait of a female officer who put her life on the line and beat the odds. Ten years ago in Phoenix, Arizona, detectives in the Robbery Homicide Division of the police department received phone calls from anonymous sources that people inside the city were being kidnapped for ransom. Family members went to the police to ask for help with these ransom demands. The number of cases skyrocketed. Early investigations pointed to something no one in United States law enforcement had ever seen before.
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Mexican drug cartels were importing a tactic that they used well inside their own country; however, it had never been utilized in American cities. The ransom demands were high, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The department assigned one detective to look into these cases and report back.
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Lauri Burgett, a seasoned, street cop working undercover in narcotics, was a rising star in the department. Burgett was forced to take maternity leave after doing a buy and bust eight months pregnant. A military brat, with a keen sense for high-level investigations, Burgett beat her husband, a fellow cop, out of the job.
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The HIKE unit was at the forefront burgeoning US-Mexico related crime th included human smuggling, home invasio ransom kidnappings, gun crimes, a Transnational Criminal Organizations.
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HIKE’s success is attributed to stro intelligence sharing and innovat strategies developed through Task For partnerships with local, state, and feder agencies and supported prosecution fro the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
of hat ons, and .
ong tive rce ral om .
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y r o t S e h T Meeting with family members and tracking down leads, Burgett soon uncovered that the Sinaloa Cartel, which had a stronghold inside a section of Phoenix called Maryvale, had executed kidnap for ransoms, and had taken over the human trafficking trade. Informants spoke of so-called drop houses,” where twenty to thirty immigrants were kept for weeks at a time, while cartel operatives secured more money for their border crossing. The response of the Phoenix Police Department has become legendary inside law enforcement circles. This ten-year inside story is being revealed for the first time in a 6-part mini-series called Ransom City.
The investigative documenta tell the origin of the story called the H.I.K.E. UNIT, Home Kidnapping Enforcement, thro and cinematic recreations. T close-knit, undercover offi penetrated the cartels ope our borders and secured pro 2015, after dismantling the ne Phoenix, the H.I.K.E. UNIT u disbanded.
This success story during the is more important today co controversial political clim where border security, the b wall, and immigration are national topics.
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ary film will y of what was me Invasion and rough dramatic This group of fficers deeply erating inside osecutions. In networks inside ultimately was
e War on Drugs,” onsidering the mate of 2017, building of a e hot-button,
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e v i t a r r a N The The narrative will be told from first-person accounts from the undercover officers, criminals, and cartel henchman who were prosecuted. Ransom City is a true life Sicario meets Traffic. The strongest character who is revealed in this journey is Lauri Burget. She had the most dangerous job in her police department, and built a successful, special forces team that ultimately destroyed human trafficking and cartel cells in Phoenix.