RaNsom City

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SIZZLE REEL

Episodes

STORY

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.

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.

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.

The HIKE (Home Invasion Kidnapping Enforcement) unit was at the forefront of burgeoning US-Mexico related crime that included human smuggling, home invasions, ransom kidnappings, gun crimes, and Transnational Criminal Organizations.