Minnesota man caught in blind mule drug trafficking scam

(MUSIC INTRO) [00:00:01] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam. [00:00:04] Mariana van Zeller: He's a retired truck driver, and soon after his wife died, he started receiving these emails

saying that he had some inheritance in Italy. And this wasn't completely something that wouldn't be believable for him because his wife actually had Italian heritage. And he

thought, I mean, what do I have to lose? They'll pay for my flight, they'll pay all expenses. And so he decided at the minimum this can be a great adventure for me. (MUSIC SEGUE)

[00:00:32] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. Four years ago, Rodney Baldus tried to board a plane in Africa and deliver what he thought was a gift.

Instead, the 74-year-old is sitting in a crowded jail cell in Mozambique with little hope of ever getting out. His daughter, Nicole, terrified her diabetic father will die alone in Africa.

Rodney is what is sometimes called the blind mule, a victim who was persuaded to transport money or contraband for a crime gang, an unwitting participant in a serious crime. Rodney's

story, while dramatic, is alarmingly common. There's no good data on how many blind mules have been persuaded to leave the US and get caught up in criminal activity, but federal

authorities have issued many warnings about it in the past. In just one drug mule incident back in 2016, US officials said 144 mules averaging 60 years old did work for a crime gang. The

oldest was 87. When they can, FBI agents intercept would-be mules from leaving the country before the crimes are committed. But Rodney Baldus wasn't so lucky. And that's how

journalist Mariana van Zeller, host of National Geographics TV show, _Trafficked_, recently found herself in a Mozambique prison sitting across from Rodney. [00:02:01] Mariana van Zeller: So

the conditions in the prison were awful, and we actually saw videos and photos of Rodney when he first got there. He was sleeping on the floor in the corridor, because there isn't even

space for him inside the cells. You know there's rats and just terrible, terrible conditions. Some of the worst conditions I've ever seen. [00:02:17] Bob: Mariana investigates

crimes worldwide, often undercover, often in dangerous conditions. She's seen a lot of things, but she wasn't really prepared for what happened after she read an email she received

from Nicole Baldus, desperate to get someone to look into her father's situations. [00:02:36] Bob: So you get, I don't know, thousands of emails from people saying I think

I'm a victim of a scam. Would you help me? Right, you get thousands of these. Why did you respond to this one? [00:02:45] Mariana van Zeller: A few things. I think I immediately

connected to Nicole's story when she told me that she was very close to her father, that, and that uh her father was now in prison thousands of miles away in Africa. And my father lives

with me, I'm very close to my father as well, and funnily enough, he'd actually spent time in Mozambique. Uh we go, we come from Portugal, and my father lived in Mozambique, which

was a, a former Portuguese colony. And so when she told me that he was, her father was in prison in Mozambique, and that she was very close to him, and that she believed he was the victim

of a scam, immediately I thought, you know, my uh suspicions went up, and I thought, wait, this, this is not a story I've heard of and I really want to try and investigate and find out

what happened to Nicole's dad. And she had tried everything. Uh, she had reached out to everyone and everywhere, and hadn't been able to get anyone interested in this story,

unfortunately, so when she reached out to me, she said she watched the show and that I was sort of the last hope she had for anyone taking interest in the story and trying to get to the

bottom of what happened to her father. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:03:48] Bob: So what did happen to Nicole's dad? How did he end up in an African prison in a seemingly helpless situation? It all

began about four years ago. [00:03:59] Mariana van Zeller: He started receiving these emails from people saying, soon after his wife died, he, he's a retired truck driver, and soon

after his wife died, he started receiving these emails saying that he had some inheritance in Italy. And money, $10.5 million were waiting for him in Italy. And this wasn't completely

something that wouldn't be believable for him because his wife actually had Italian heritage and he thought that maybe it was connected to the family that she had in Italy, and

eventually he kept on, and to release these funds, he would have to pay a certain amount of money. And he kept saying that he didn't have any money, he's a retired truck driver.

And then they switched and they started saying actually, if you come to Africa to sign these documents, we will pay for your trip and then we will fly you to Italy with these documents and

they will release the money to you. And he'd never traveled abroad and he thought, I mean, what do I have to lose? They'll pay for my flight, they'll pay all expenses,

they'll even give me money for you know, food and everything else I need, and so he decided I really have nothing to lose and at the minimum this can be a, a great adventure for me.

[00:05:02] Bob: A great adventure, plus Rodney has something else in mind. He's never been a rich man, but as he approaches his 70s, he's thinking he isn't going to be able to

leave very much behind for his daughter, Nicole. There's a family farm in Minnesota, and well, things don't look good. [00:05:20] Bob: Here’s Nicole speaking with Mariana on

_Trafficked_. [00:05:23] Nicole: My dad, he thought that you know maybe if I can actually make this work, then I can buy the farm. That was his motivation was trying to save the farm, a once

in a lifetime thing. What if it were actually true? 70 years old, widowed, broke, living in the middle of nowhere, I mean he was a perfect target. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:05:53] Bob: And so

Rodney gets ready for that big adventure. [00:06:04] Mariana van Zeller: And so he left, he traveled to Mozambique, and he spent a couple of days there. A man came with a briefcase full of

documents, inside the briefcase was al--, were also, was also some candy that they said was going to be, that he'd have to give as a gift when he arrived in Italy to the people that

were processing his inheritance. [00:06:21] Bob: But that gift wasn't a gift at all. And that little package would quickly turn Rodney's life completely upside-down. [00:06:31]

Mariana van Zeller: And uh when he arrived at the airport in Maputo to then travel to Italy, his, they found out that he was traveling with 10 pounds of heroin that was inside these, this

candy, it was wrapped inside the candy, inside candy wrappers actually, there was no candy inside, it was just heroin. And as Rodney says, he had no idea that there was drugs inside, and he

was immediately arrested. [00:06:52] Bob: Immediately arrested and quickly sent to trial and... [00:06:57] Mariana van Zeller: His trial lasted only one day, no investigation was done

whatsoever, it was a one-day trial and he was sentenced to 18 years in prison. [00:07:04] Bob: 18 years in prison. For a 68-year-old man in frail health, it amounts to a life sentence.

Conditions in the overcrowded prison are terrible, but Nicole does what she can to help her dad. [00:07:19] Mariana van Zeller: They only serve what he calls a very terrible tasting porridge

at the prison, so in order for Rodney to actually get healthy meals or anything outside of porridge, he has to pay somebody on the outside. So there's a, a woman who makes his food

that Nicole is actually the one who pays for her to make the food and bring it into prison. [00:07:38] Bob: It's been more than four years since Rodney was arrested and convicted on

drug charges, and Nicole's efforts to help free her dad have gone nowhere. But an email to Mariana catches the journalist's eye, and after months of discussions, Mariana decides to

travel to Minnesota to meet Nicole and talk about the story. [00:08:00] Bob: What was it like to meet her? [00:08:01] Mariana van Zeller: You know she opened the door to her house. We had

our whole crew walk into her house with big cameras, you know, set up the interview, and then to finally sort of sit down with her she was very nervous at the beginning. You know I remember

walking into the house and the first thing I did was just hug her and spent a few minutes just hugging her and immediately she started crying, I became very emotional as well, and um, and

then hearing her tell her story when we finally sat down for the interview, and to see, I mean and to know how hard it’s been for her. But at the same time what a relief it was for her to

finally have somebody who was interested in hearing her story and with the hope that, that it could help. [00:08:39] Bob: Nicole tries to explain her father's state of mind as the crime

unfolded. [00:08:44] Bob: Here’s Nicole again on _Trafficked_. [00:08:48] Nicole: I was. I was, but I think once they said that they would pay for it all, that's what got him. Are they

going to fly me halfway across the world if this isn't real? I understand where people perceive it as, well he should have known, but my dad was going through a lot of emotional stuff.

He was really lonely. [00:09:06] Bob: As Mariana starts to absorb all the circumstances around Rodney's arrest, it becomes clear, much more is going on. For instance... [00:09:15]

Mariana van Zeller: And when he arrived in prison, he found out there were two other, one Canadian and one American in the same prison as him that had fallen for the exact same scam.

[00:09:23] Bob: And, and one of them was within hours arrested at the same airport, right? [00:09:27] Mariana van Zeller: Yes. He had been arrested two days before. I mean he'd been

arrested the same day, but he'd been given the drugs, I believe, two days before. [00:09:34] Bob: The complicated legal situation Rodney's in becomes even more clear as Mariana

retraces Nicole's steps through the standard legal processes there. [00:09:44] Mariana van Zeller: Nicole showed us all the email correspondence that Rodney had with the scammers, and

also with the lawyers. Um, at this point, I believe Rodney was on his third lawyer, uh, second or third lawyer when the trial actually happened. All the previous lawyers had asked for

exorbitant amount of money and Nicole couldn't pay, and so it came to that the lawyer that represented Rodney during the trial. And again, the trial ended up lasting only one day, but

the lawyer started communicating with Nicole before the trial and telling her that in order to free her dad, she would have to pay him $5000 so he could bribe the judge. [00:10:19] Bob: A

$5000 bribe? For the judge? Nicole feels completely helpless, half a world away from her dad in prison. And Mariana decides the only way to really get to the bottom of the situation is to

speak to the criminals who trapped Rodney. But how in the world would she find them? Well, she does have their email address and she decides to lay a trap of her own. [00:10:46] Bob: So

eventually you get to the point where you write to Rodney's scammers, and you pretend to be a relative, I think, right? Someone who's, someone else who's interested in the

story and you want to pick up where he left off with the inheritance. Do you, what do you think are the odds that, that someone writes back and you, you get somewhere with that? [00:11:03]

Mariana van Zeller: Very little. I didn't think that it was actually going to happen. We decided, myself and my, uh the produ--, my producer, so we decided, okay, we're going to

try and reach out to this pers--, to this, we had all the correspondence that Rodney, all the emails that he received and we thought, well let's try and write back to some of these

emails and see if anyone replies. And they did. [00:11:22] Bob: And they did. The criminals who lured Rodney to Africa now think they can do the same thing to Mariana. [00:11:31] Mariana van

Zeller: And so we started communicating with them and then through our investigation we found out that a lot of these groups operate out of South Africa, which borders Mozambique and there

is a large community of immigrants, of Nigerian immigrants that live there, and real--, realized that the drug trafficking operation and the, these scamming operations sort of go through

many times eith--, either go through South Africa or their South Africans then go to Mozambique to, to traffic drugs. And so when we started realizing this, we decided, okay, we have to go

to South Africa. And in communicating with these scammers, while they are still believing that we are somewhat related to Rodney, we told them that we were going to be in South Africa and

we'd like to meet them in person. Again, at this point we thought, okay, they're communicating with us, but there's no chance that they will actually say yes to meeting us in

person in South Africa, but they agreed. [00:12:20] Bob: Rodney's criminals or at least whoever is behind the emails that lured Rodney to Africa, have agreed to meet with Mariana.

Suddenly this story is much bigger. Mariana is on her way to South Africa. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:12:39] Bob: When they land, Mariana first heads to Rodney's lawyer and, well the first thing

he says is that he basically thinks Rodney's guilty, that only a child would have believed that inheritance story. And as for the $5000 he'd asked for to bribe the judge, well his

first reaction is, what bribe? [00:12:59] Mariana van Zeller: I asked him about, and I have the copies of the emails, so I asked him about this. He denied it and he said that the money was

for his fees, but obviously I have emails were it very clearly stated that he was asking for money to bribe uh the judge. [00:13:11] Bob: And then Mariana and her team turn their attention

to getting access to Rodney. [00:13:17] Bob: Was it hard for you to get in the jail with your cameras? [00:13:20] Mariana van Zeller: Yes, it took months, and we were told that we were the

only camera team that had ever been allowed to this uh high security prison called Nashapa, which is just on the outskirts of the capital Maputo. It's an overcrowded prison. It was

built for 800 inmates, and it has about five times that. And you know terrible conditions; the prisoners sleeping on the floor, just awful. [00:13:39] Bob: But after a while, Mariana and her

cameras are allowed into the prison to meet Rodney. [00:13:48] Bob: And Rodney is, he's in his 70s, right? [00:13:51] Mariana van Zeller: Yes, he uh, he was arrested when he was around

68, I believe, and he's now 74. [00:13:56] Bob: What was your impression when you talked in the place? [00:13:59] Mariana van Zeller: They had um, moved Rodney, obviously he

wasn't in his regular cell. They had moved him to a, a nice room, uh air-conditioned room where we were supposed to do the interview with him. And he had a translator with him, another

inmate who, who was South African, who spoke English and Portuguese, so it helped him, helped translate for, for Rodney, and was there also to sort of support. Rodney has trouble walking and

his uh, he has uh diabetes. He has a, a slew of health problems, and he was not in, you could see his health was deteriorating. [00:14:31] Bob: It, it's still, it, I feel like I'm

just walking right into a nightmare that I, I don't even know if I want to hear the next details you're going to share with me. It's horrible. [00:14:38] Mariana van Zeller:

Yeah, it terrible, terrible. [00:14:41] Bob: But Mariana does get to sit down and hear Rodney's side of the story from across a prison table. [00:14:46] Bob: Again from _Trafficked_.

[00:14:48] Rodney: I did not expect to end up in this situation. But here I am. I admit I'm naive, that's what I'm guilty of. I'm not guilty of being a drug trafficker.

(MUSIC SEGUE) [00:15:14] Bob: As they talk, something strikes Mariana early on. Rodney doesn't seem all that interested in Nicole's efforts to free him from prison. [00:15:24]

Mariana van Zeller: I think Rodney hasn't been very lucky in his life. I think that he has a wonderful family and that's um, you know I, I think he feels lucky about that. But

he's had a hard life. I believe he had, you know he, he was a truck driver, he then fell ill and had to retire. His wife died pretty young, and he's had a bunch of unlucky things

happen in his life. And so when this happened initially, obviously, he tried his best to prove his innocence as much as he could, but there was a sense that when I met him that he had just

sort of decided that this was his fate. And it was nothing he could do. And even talking to us, it took some time for Nicole to convince him to talk to us because he didn't see an

upside to it. He said he had tried to speak to so many lawyers and so, you know, and to the Embassy, American Embassy in Mozambique, and that nobody he felt was really willing or willing to

help him. And so he didn't see any upside to speaking to us. [00:16:20] Rodney: And they said, "You're a drug smuggler, you're a drug runner." And I said, "No,

I'm not." But nobody believed a word I said. I will die here. I have no doubt about that. [00:16:42] Bob: Um, but the, the fact that this, this man is, is so sort of beaten down

that he's, you know his, all his hope has disappeared, that's just so striking to me. [00:16:52] Mariana van Zeller: It is. It's, it's terrible because that the only

thing that you have going for you in a situation like this would be hope, right? Hope that things are going to change and somebody's going to believe you. And that um, you know that

you're going to be able to be released and and go home. And in his case, I just felt like he's lost all hope and yes, that he's just, he believes he's going to die in

prison. [00:17:17] Bob: But Mariana did not come into the prison alone. Her crew had cleared the way for Rodney's daughter, Nicole, to visit her dad. [00:17:25] Bob: Here’s that moment

from the show _Trafficked_. [00:17:28] Mariana: Did you ever think that you'd be coming to Mozambique, you'd actually be here one day? [00:17:32] Nicole: Absolutely not. It's

still not real. [00:17:37] Mariana van Zeller: Nicole Baldus has made the 9,000-mile journey from small town Minnesota to Maputo, Mozambique. [00:17:45] Mariana van Zeller: What has he said

about you, you coming here? [00:17:49] Nicole: He was told me, do not come here, many times. But I told him that it's not up to him anymore. I just want to hug him, you know. Feel him,

he's still on this planet, you know, it's been so long, four years is a long time to go without being a parent that you're used to seeing almost every day. [00:18:14] Mariana

van Zeller: Separated by thousands of miles, this is the first time that Nicole has embraced her father since the morning he boarded that fateful flight to Mozambique. [00:18:23] Rodney

Baldus: It’s good to see you. [00:18:27] Nicole: At 42, I still daddy's little girl. [00:18:33] Bob: That moment, now there are no dry eyes anywhere. [00:18:38] Mariana van Zeller: You

know the moment that we brought Nicole into the prison and seeing her after four years of not seeing her father hugging him, was you know one of the most emotional experiences I've ever

had filming this show, or in my life actually. [00:18:54] Bob: But the reunion doesn't get them any closer to understanding what really happened to Rodney. For that, Mariana is going

to have to meet with the criminals and try to get some real answers. They arrange that meeting very carefully. Remember, Mariana is pretending to be a family member trying to collect

Rodney's inheritance. [00:19:14] Mariana van Zeller: And so we organized a whole sort of undercover operation where I had several undercover cameras with me, and we had a, a security

team because we'd been told, again and again that these, these groups can be very, very dangerous, so I had two security people with me watching me, and I went into this place to, to

meet this, this person that, you know was rela--, that had scammed Rodney. [00:19:37] Bob: The team wires up the hotel lobby with cameras, installs a hidden camera on Mariana herself, and

arranges to sit down with Rodney's criminal in as public a setting as is possible. Private security guards are waiting in the wings but, as he walks in, right away there's a scary

curveball. [00:19:57] Bob: And so you set up all of these safety mechanisms because someone had said to you, whistleblowers are getting killed, there was no equivocation there. So you know

this is dangerous, and the first thing that happens when he walks in is he asks you to move to a different spot. That must have thrown you off. [00:20:11] Mariana van Zeller: Immediately. I

mean immediately. I think, I'm not sure if he does this every time or if he was suspicious, but this is where you understand that these guys are not amateurs. They've done this

before, they're very good at what they do, and uh, he'd agreed to meet me in a public place, it was in the lobby of the hotel. I told him that I was staying at that hotel, even

though I wasn't, but again, another thing he did immediate, first he asked me to move to another locate--, to another table which, yes, threw me off, because we had the whole security

team in place watching me at that location. We also had cameras filming me at that location. So moving to a new table was not ideal. And also, as soon as we sat down, he, he asked me if uh,

he wanted to see my passport, which also threw me off, because he wanted to make sure that I was the person who'd been communicating with him. And uh, and I wasn't prepared for

that. [00:21:00] Bob: So many of the cameras will no longer work, and Mariana is farther from her safety team than she should be. [00:21:07] Bob: Were you scared? [00:21:08] Mariana van

Zeller: I wasn't, I don't get scared in these moments. But I was nervous. I wanted to make sure that I was doing Rodney's story justice and that I was going to be able to get

what I needed from this person to prove that Rodney was, in fact, innocent. So I was, I was nervous, I was shaking, but I wasn't particularly scared. [00:21:28] Bob: Shaking but not

particularly scared? Okay. As they talk, Mariana makes sure she's talking to the right person. [00:21:37] Mariana van Zeller: When I mentioned Rodney, he says he knows who I was talking

about. He knows that, I mean that he'd been connected, he's been, he'd been one of the people in a group that was emailing Rodney all those times, and he's connected to

that group 100%. I have no doubt. [00:21:52] Bob: And what Mariana learns from the conversation is that there is an entire network of criminals who spend their time luring Westerners to

Africa to either get their money or to use them as mules to move around drugs or other illegal contraband. She leaves the meeting with a secret video that should help prove to anyone who

sees it that Rodney is innocent, but she needs to do more to understand the crime gang. So she reaches out to other people in the underground crime world there. [00:22:22] Bob: You start to

immediately find some sources and, and one of them says something to you that really sent chills down my spine which is, once they've hooked you in some way with one of these emails, it

could be all sorts of stories, but once they've hooked you, I'm the one in charge. I'm controlling you. That just struck me, it's such a dramatic thing to say. I'm

the one in charge. I'm controlling you. [00:22:40] Mariana van Zeller: Yeah, you become a my puppet, and you do everything I want, and that is in many cases, uh what happens. And when

they realize they can't uh sometimes, which is what happened, it seems that what happened in Rodney's case, that they then sell, even if they can get some money from you, after

they've told, taken away all the money they can take from you, or they scammed you from all your money, eventually a person is left with no more money to give and they then sell them,

they sell the victims to drug trafficking groups that then use these victims as drug mules. It's really terrifying. [00:23:13] Bob: Crime gangs manipulate victims systematically, steal

as much of their money as they can, and then sell their identities to other crime gangs who know how to manipulate those innocent victims into becoming mules. And when they're arrested,

like Rodney, the mules face a legal system that is often entirely unsympathetic to their plight. Mariana and Nicole head home with a lot more information, but without Nicole's father

who remains behind in prison. [00:23:42] Bob: When you leave there at that point and you have your head full of all of the road blocks to helping this person, it strikes me that there would

have been a moment where you would have thought, well we can't help you either. I'm going to give up. What makes you then travel international destinations thousands of miles away,

what makes you confident that you can get more of the story? [00:23:59] Mariana van Zeller: I think it was actually the opp-, the opposite happened to me when we visited Rodney in prison.

Speaking to Rodney, speaking to Dennis Hawkins, the other, the Canadian who's also in prison, who was also a victim of the scam. Speaking to Rodney's lawyer, or former lawyer, and

understanding exactly after reading then going through all the emails that Rodney received and all the history of this scam, I really became convinced, I had no doubt in my mind that Rodney

was innocent, that this was an innocent man in prison. He'd fallen victim for, to a scam, and that he wasn't the only one. That there are Americans out there, elderly Americans all

around the world that have been victims of, of this scam, the drug mule scam as it's known. And um, and, and that made me sort of really want to understand and try to expose uh, this

scam. It's a scam you know that even as a person who's reported extensively on scams, I hadn't really heard about this one in particular, and to find that in the one prison I

visited, that there were two, you know, three men who were victims of this scam. Um, it just made me imagine how many more there were out there, and what I need to expose this scam.

[00:25:03] Bob: I know you did a lot of work on this, however, someone hearing this story or watching this episode can't help screaming at this moment, if you can connect to someone who

was part of Rodney's crime, why can't US government officials, why can't the Embassy, why can't local officials, why, why is no one else doing this kind of investigation

to help Rodney? [00:25:24] Mariana van Zeller: Not even trying, that is exactly, and this is why this became such a personal story for me. You know why, there is always as a journalist

you're investigating a story and, and um, you know I always become attached to the stories I tell. But I, in this one it became very personal to me. I mean the fact that it started with

a plea from a daughter, a cry for help from his daughter in Minnesota, and that it was, it took me on a trip all around the world, and you know to eventually meet Rodney, it just became

very personal to me. And, and, and the more I found out you know how, I mean it took time, but it wasn't that difficult to expose the story, and to realize that Rodney was inno--,

innocent. And the more that happened, the more I realized that nobody was remotely interested in, in helping Rodney. I mean not even the American, definitely not the American government,

even though he is so clearly innocent, and no one is trying to help him. And that's tragic in my opinion, and, and I, I still believed that once this episode aired, and it's now

been 8 months since it's aired, 9, 10 months, um, that once this aired that somebody would watch this and would try to help Rodney. And I've sent numerous emails to many people,

including you, which is why we're here now, asking people to just, here's the link to the documentary, please watch it and please try to help Rodney. And so far, you know he

hasn't really received any help. [00:26:47] Bob: This, this show hasn't had the impact that you thought it would. [00:26:50] Mariana van Zeller: Uh it has not. I've received

dozens of emails and messages from people all over the world, including Mozambique who want to help. We've been, we've contacted lawyers, we've contacted people in the

government, but he's still in prison. [00:27:04] Bob: And as we make this episode, Rodney is still in the same situation. [00:27:09] Mariana van Zeller: He is, and his, again, his

health is deteriorating, um, Nicole is sort of losing hope, and it's, it's heartbreaking, it really is heartbreaking. I wish and I, I'm still hoping that things will change.

There are things happening behind the scenes, but not enough has been done. [00:27:26] Bob: And it's important to understand, Rodney's story is remarkable, but not that unusual.

Americans are often lured around the world into situations that have them becoming unwitting members of a crime gang, and sometimes ending up in terrible prisons. [00:27:43] Mariana van

Zeller: Just the fact that the one prison we visited, there were two other Westerners, a Canadian and an American who'd gone through the same scam, I think is telling enough as to the

amount of people that are out there, Americans, victims of this. I actually was able to connect to somebody who works in a prison in Brazil, I can't disclose exactly where, but and I

asked him if he could find out if there were any elderly Americans who were saying that they were victims of a scam. And he was able to tell me that there were at least three that he knew

who were there, who were in prison for drug trafficking and who said that they were victims of scams. So it's, it's very difficult to know exactly how many are out there, but

again, just the fact that I have you know the numbers that I, that you know the fact that in the prison we visited, there were three and there's reports of others out there, it leads me

to believe that there're you know hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the same position as Rodney. [00:28:35] Bob: Hundreds or even thousands of Americans living in conditions

just like Rodney? As we've said, there's no way to really know, and by the way, we also don't really know anything about the behind-the-scenes work that's being done to

free any of these victims. But to get as close as possible to understanding, our next guest has been involved in US government effort to track down crime gangs and help mules. He's Arun

Rao who spent many years at the Department of Justice. He's now a partner in a DC law firm named Mayer Brown. [00:29:07] Bob: How common is it that criminals use these unwitting mules

in order to move money or ill--, illicit products around? How common is that? [00:29:13] Arun Rao: It's sadly common. You know the, the particular scam here is known as an inheritance

scam. But it's really just a flavor of what are more generally known as imposter scams. These are basically scams in which a fraudster pretends to be someone they're not. Sometimes

it's a lawyer, sometimes it's a banker, sometimes it's an official of some, of some type from a foreign country. And you know what they're trying to do is get the victim

excited about a potential windfall. They may use legitimate looking legal documents as part of the scam. [00:29:49] Bob: So just to put a fine point on it, why is a money mule in

particular, or any kind of a mule, an important cog in a, in a criminal network in a far-reaching scam? Why do these criminals need mules? [00:30:00] Arun Rao: Well, they have to move items.

They have to move money sometimes in the case of financial fraud. Other times they are looking to move drugs, and so um, the use of individuals from uh, individuals that uh, these

fraudsters don't know, acting at the instructions of these fraudsters is a way for them to, to obtain financial proceeds and really get profit from their schemes. [00:30:26] Bob: But

some it involves the challenge of moving money overseas for example, right? Or just moving money from one account to another; sometimes it's less suspicious if a random human does it

than someone who lives overseas. Maybe there's some other reasons why they, the criminals use mules as well. [00:30:42] Arun Rao: Yeah, I mean I think you know to take a step back,

foreign scams often rely on assistance from individuals, you know, at least initially located here in the United States. And that is essential for foreign fraud schemes to be able to, you

know, to successfully go where the money is, which is frequently US victims. And so again, the use of these types of money mules is a way to, to again, to profit from these schemes. The

term, you know, originated, uh, in the narcotics world. And sometimes you hear the term blind mules, um, I'm not sure if you're familiar with that. [00:31:18] Bob: Hmm-hmm.

[00:31:19] Arun Rao: These are folks who are, who may be acting unwittingly which may uh, be the case in the example that you've described. Sometimes these individuals, for example, are

transporting drugs that had been planted on them, or that are in a bag that they're carrying, luggage. And you know the question um, becomes in these kinds of cases, whether this

person is, should be held culpable for, for the conduct that they've been engaged in. There's a concept known as willful blindness. Sometimes you hear it called conscious

avoidance, and that's a judicial doctrine that expands the definition of knowledge, right? What it means to know that one is engaging in illegal activity. And in a case of willful

blindness, we're talking about a situation in which someone is accused at least of closing their eyes to the high probability that something is true, that, for example, they're

carrying a bag that's not candy, that's, in fact, drugs. And so in federal courts, oftentimes in a jury trial you'll see an instruction uh for the jury that they may find a

defendant acted knowingly, and thus, you know, could find them guilty if they find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was aware of a high probability that, for example, drugs were

in a bag or in a suitcase, and that they deliberately avoided learning that truth. [00:32:40] Bob: But back to Rodney Baldus, does Arun know of other people in the same situation? [00:32:46]

Bob: Have you heard of Americans actually traveling overseas in response to something like an inheritance scam, and getting themselves in this kind of trouble? [00:32:53] Arun Rao: Yes, I

have certainly uh heard of this before. It is sadly, sadly common. There have been incidences in, in Europe, in Spain of Americans traveling, and again, being found with drugs, and the, the

story is very similar to the one that's laid out here. It's uh, you know a series of discussions back and forth about some kind of benefit. Sometimes it's romantic, other

times it's financial. But in cases where there is inability to extract financial, to extract money directly from the victim, that's when you'll see these situations where they

will try to entice the individual to come, to travel, and to, and to then transport narcotics or other illegal items on behalf of these fraudsters. [00:33:38] Bob: These folks actually

bought his plane ticket and bought, bought a hotel room for him and all that, so this actually seems to me to be like really, really sophisticated and also, you know the networks enough to,

to have at least gone to that extent to, to get him to go to Mozambique. That was really striking to me. [00:33:53] Arun Rao: Yeah. I think the sophistication is, is certainly worth noting.

When I was at the Department of Justice, we increasing saw fraud schemes targeting vulnerable victims that were being operated by organized crime, and so one of the things we did was to try

to take some of the tools we've used in investigating drugs, violent crime cases, including for example, the RICO Statute and making sure that prosecutors were considering that,

particularly where these scams are, are occurring abroad. [00:34:23] Bob: Are there thousands of Americans in jails overseas as the result of scams through the years? Is this an incredibly

rare event? I mean how, how would you express the scale of the problem? [00:34:33] Arun Rao: I don't uh is the honest answer. There are certainly are a number of high-profile incidents

of which I am aware. I don't know that I'm able to put a number on that, but really, you know, any American held abroad for a lengthy period of time in connection with one of these

scams as a victim is, you know, one too many. And so, you know, I think it's a, it, it, it's a significant problem and then with respect to fraud generally, right, setting aside

folks who actually travel abroad and then are incarcerated, in terms of the monetary losses here, I think it's staggering. You know you hear reports of losses up into the billions of

dollars and I suspect that that's an undercounting. That there is a lot of shame associated with being victimized in these types of scams, and so I think, you know, law enforcement, US

government has long suspected that these crimes are also underreported as well. [00:35:29] Bob: I feel like I've heard stories for years about FBI agents even uh living abroad and, and

making efforts to intercept US citizens, you know, when they got off the plane or, or just you know being aware. Is that, is that, is that the extent of the FBI and federal agents go and try

to stop these things? [00:35:45] Arun Rao: Yes, certainly. I mean I think you know in situations where law enforcement has a sense that an unwitting individual may be about to, you know,

engage in travel or is in the process of potentially meeting with, you know, with, with a criminal organization in connection with one of these schemes, there certainly have been incidents

uh that I'm aware of in which DEA and FBI agents have sought to intervene. Sometimes they don't find out until it's too late. Sometimes they are not clear uh as to what degree

of involvement and knowledge that individual has. And so you know these, these can be very, very difficult situations for that reason. [00:36:22] Bob: I think there's a natural

reaction to someone who watches the episode of _Trafficked _to say, well why can't the American government just get him? And it can be very difficult to, you're not dealing with

the US justice system when you're, when you're overseas. It adds a massive layer of complexity to these situations when you travel out of the country, right? [00:36:39] Arun Rao:

Yeah, that's, that's completely true. This is a global problem and it requires coordination by law enforcement around the world. When I was uh, at the Department, the Consumer

Protection Branch was in regular contact with foreign law enforcement partners sharing information, but look, in some cases the relationships were long-standing and well-developed. In other

cases, they were just starting, and with other countries, sometimes they're, they were nonexistent. And so you know strengthening those relationships is a big part of what has been

happening and needs to continue to happen. [00:37:17] Bob: But as those international relationships continue to lag behind where they need to be, we all have to be extremely wary of any

international financial transactions. So how can you protect yourself from being the victim of a terrible crime like this? [00:37:35] Arun Rao: You know the best thing in terms of prevention

is to try to, you know, think about online safety, uh at the front end, right? Uh if, if you are, or a loved one is engaging with someone, research that person's photo and profile,

right. Do some online searches to see if that person really exists. Certainly go very slowly, whenever you can, and, and ask lots of questions, and, you know, never, never send money to

someone that you've only communicated with online and certainly don't agree to transport items for others. And then, you know, conduct a gut check, right? Talk to friends, talk to

family, talk to some trusted individuals. You know, unfortunately, none of this is foolproof, right? [00:38:14] Bob: You know, and I guess it would be worth just spending a moment talking

about how uh, how blind mules come to be. So at this point, you know we certainly have told people enough times, if someone says you have a bunch of money coming to you, you should be

suspicious of that. Man--, many of these crimes don't, at least at first, involve that, that kind of money. What are the signs that someone might be trying to turn you into a blind

mu--, mule, that someone might just be trying to involve you in carrying pro--, like illegal, illegal products or, or transporting something that you, you might not realize that you're

transporting. What, what are signs people should look out for? [00:38:47] Arun Rao: Yeah, I mean I think these develop over time. It's not as you, as you know, these aren't

immediate requests that are going to be made by, by the fraudsters. And so, you know, one of the things to look for is are you being asked to receive money from people you don't know?

Are you being asked to forward money to other people who you don't know? Are you, are there other warning signs regarding the opening of bank accounts, things of that nature, that

strike you as not the typical request that you would get from a friend or family member. Those are the kinds of, of things that one should look for. You know the Department has uh, the

Department of Justice has had for several years a money mule initiative, and this is a dedicated period of time in which the Department focuses on warning individuals who may not be aware

that they are facilitating fraud, that, that they may be involved in illegal activity. And so it's sort of a first step, right? Rather than intervening with an arrest, law enforcement

will look at someone who is involved in suspicious transfers of money, suspicious opening of bank accounts, and send them a letter noting that the behavior that law enforcement is observing

is, is consistent with money mule activity, and that this person should be on alert. Those letters are, have been highly successful in getting people to take a pause, take a step back, and

really look at their conduct and question the people that they're engaging with. [00:40:23] Bob: Well in Rodney's case, they just told him to take a, essentially a bag of candy as

a, as a gift. [00:40:28] Arun Rao: Yes. [00:40:29] Bob: Right, and so, you know I, who wants to dispute carrying a bag of candy, but car--, carrying something across international boundaries

is, is a terrible idea almost always, right? [00:40:38] Arun Rao: Yes. Yes, um, particularly with someone you don't know well or have just met. And particularly where, you know, that

is the extent of your relationship, right? If your history with that person is that you've met them online, you've never met them in person, and you're getting these types of

requests, your antenna should go up. [00:40:57] Bob: And look out for people you care about who might also become a victim of this terrible crime. [00:41:04] Bob: How do I help someone who I

love, who I, I'm afraid might be at risk for this. How do I help them? [00:41:10] Arun Rao: You know, that's, that's a great question, and I think it starts with, with being

in communication with your loved ones, particularly you feel that they are vulnerable; having regular communication, having an understanding of what, who they're communicating with,

being sure that they, that you serve as a gut check for them, right, that they are talking to friends, talking to family, and taking time before they act, because frequently what we see in

these types of schemes is uh the creation of a sense of urgency, right? You have to act now, you have to, this is a limited opportunity. Or they create some sense of excitement, and you

know, talking to a loved one, or being that loved one for someone else, and, and being a, available for them is really important. So that's, that's part one. Part two is, I will,

although I'm no longer with the Department, I do want to flag a few uh resources that, that the Department of Justice has. One is the National Elder Fraud Hotline; it's

1-833-FRAUD11. And that provides support both for people who feel like they may be in danger of being victimized, and also if you think that's, that that's occurred. The sharing of

that information is critical because it allows law enforcement to maintain visibility on these kinds of constantly evolving schemes, and it, even if we aren't able to help those who

have been victimized, we may be able to help others down the road. [00:42:39] Bob: And if you or someone you care about has been the victim of a crime like this, it's really important

to report it to authorities. [00:42:47] Arun Rao: I think I would want to stress uh for your listeners, the importance of reporting these types of situations to law enforcement. And to

include as many details when you do so and keep all that documentation because those are the pieces of information that allow law enforcement to connect to matters that may, they may not

otherwise recognize as being part of the same scheme. And so it's, it's really important that when you or someone you love has been involved in one of these situations, you alert

law enforcement. There can be a sense of hopelessness sometimes that the money is gone, and so why bother? And you know, I would encourage your listeners to remember that in order to combat

this problem and to prevent others from being victimized in the future, we have to, we have to be prepared to share that information when we come across it. [00:43:42] Bob: Mariana is still

trying to get attention to Rodney's story, to his situation. As she mentioned, that's why she reached out to us at The Perfect Scam, and we are grateful that she did. [00:43:52]

Bob: I would suggest that all of us have an uncle, a father, someone we know who has lost the love of their life, is lonely, and when an opportunity for adventure comes up, they might just

say, why not? Why not? [00:44:05] Mariana van Zeller: Exactly. And that's what was so sad is in the case of Rodney, not even his lawyer who I interviewed believed that Rodney was

innocent. He said there is not, not even a, I think he said something like, not even a child would believe Rodney's story. So when that's the case, you know, it's so hard.

It's, he's in a foreign country where his own lawyer doesn't believe him, where there has been no investigation whatsoever done, no one is willing to help, help him. His own

government isn't willing to help him. And all he has is his daughter who obviously, and his family, who believe in his innocence and are trying desperately to get someone's

attention to at least try to investigate his case. That's all they're asking for. [00:44:43] Bob: It's important to understand the powerful networks that are behind crimes

like what happened to Rodney. You know we talk a lot about that on The Perfect Scam, that organized crimes have perfected methods to manipulate, well, anyone really. And the scale of crime

around the world really is staggering. [00:45:03] Bob: And I think this will shock people. The underground economy, the black market in the world is, is one-third of the economy and that

hurts everybody. So this Rodney Baldus story is a small part of a very large story. Can you just paint that picture for me? [00:45:17] Mariana van Zeller: Absolutely, yeah. So these black

and gray markets I've devoted my whole career as a journalist to investigating these black and gray markets, uh that they, they make up for uh 30--, around 38% of the world's

global economy. It's what economists call the hidden third. And yet they have a deep and profound impact on every single one of our lives, whether we were talking about guns or drugs or

scams, particularly scams which is a growing industry. I mean we're talking about billions of dollars every year being lost to scams and where the victims are mainly Americans, and

it's, even in my, since we started filming this, this series, _Trafficked_, we've started filming in 2019 and one of the first stories I pitched were, was about scams. It was the

lottery scams, and it took me some time to convince my boss at the time that this was an important story, that it was, in fact, a black market story, and at the time it's like who, the,

the idea was that scams, there were very few victims of scams and this would never be a big black market. And since 2019, as, as you all know as well Bob, I mean this, this scams have grown

exponentially and, and uh, and now again, it's affecting millions of people and we're talking about billions of dollars lost. And in many cases, we're talking about not only

losing money, but people in prison, um, teenagers losing their lives because of sextortion. It's a real crime and I think more awareness needs to be uh done, had for this. [00:46:40]

Bob: Well we are at great risk of writing off computer crime because there's often no, no blood that you can see, but stories like this show there's plenty of blood and plenty of

physical danger from, from crimes like this, right? [00:46:53] Mariana van Zeller: Absolutely, there's a real human toll. It's not just about money lost, it's a real human

toll. I've, like I've said, I've spoken to mothers who lost their children because they were victims of a horrible scam called sextortion, and uh and committed suicide because

of it, and, you know, people like Nicole whose dad, whose father is possibly going to, you know, die in prison and that there's a real human toll to this, and, and I think we all have

to be better at warning uh our parents, our grandparents, our children in talking about this and as journalists covering it as much as possible and making sure that this stops and it

doesn't, you know that this doesn't take another person's life. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:47:35] Bob: For The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan. [00:47:44] Bob: If you have been

targeted by a scam or fraud, you are not alone. Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360. Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on

what to do next. Our email address at The Perfect Scam is: [email protected], and we want to hear from you. If you've been the victim of a scam or you know someone who has,

and you'd like us to tell their story, write to us. That address again is: [email protected]. Thank you to our team of scambusters; Associate Producer, Annalea Embree;

Researcher, Becky Dodson; Executive Producer, Julie Getz; and our Audio Engineer and Sound Designer, Julio Gonzalez. Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to

podcasts. For AARP's The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan. (MUSIC OUTRO) _END OF TRANSCRIPT_