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>> It's 0:100 hours Pacific Time.
In Riverside, California the clock is ticking on a new day.
A day that'll see literally tens of thousands of air and Marine movements
across and within the borders of the United States.
Most are routine, well-documented, perfectly legitimate.
A handful, however, are more suspicious, sinister and potentially deadly.
They travel in secret but they do not go unseen.
This is AMOC, the Air Marine Operations Center,
a center of excellence within U.S. Customs and Border Protections Office of Air and Marine.
And here every hour of every day the men and women of AMOC stand watch, 24 hours on the line.
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>> The Air Marine Operation Center is the nation's law enforcement air interdiction center.
It's working with the intelligence folks are able to do targeting.
It's working with the investigators and we're able to connect that with law enforcement
and making sure that we're getting them in the right place at the right time
to put the handcuffs on the bad guys.
>> But making that happen is getting harder.
Throughout the night, detection enforcement officers monitor over 250 sources,
ATC and approach control radars, military radars, satellites, aero-stat radar balloons
and a variety of airborne surveillance,
including P3 Orion Radar aircraft and predator unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS's.
But as important as the resources and technology are,
it's the knowledge and experience of the people watching these screens that accomplish the mission.
They represent different agencies: CBP, Coast Guard,
the Federal Aviation Administration, the Air National Guard.
And different backgrounds.
They are dedicated, skilled and smart.
And today, as every day, they know that somewhere
hidden among the thousands of legitimate radar signatures,
there will be something wrong.
Something that demands a closer look.
>> What our folks are doing every day, they look at 8 to 10,000 targets
at any instant in time in trying to pluck the needle out of the haystack.
>> So every exception is regarded as a potential threat.
0600.
The morning watch team arrives.
Detection enforcement officers, the communications group and Intel specialists.
>> It's very chaotic some days, most days as a matter of fact.
Obviously if you're working a watch which would be providing the support to the floor,
you're going to be using the AMOC system.
Additionally we use a variety of different databases in order to provide the information we need.
>> The intelligence team makes the work of AMOC unique.
AMOS, the Air and Marine Operation Surveillance System,
is the most advanced law enforcement air and Marine surveillance system in the United States.
This state-of-the-art technology, together with real time analysis,
communications capabilities and years of combined experience
make AMOC Intel among the most effective in Federal law enforcement.
>> 950, this is Omaha 1-0.
I've got a group of 12 at position
>> 10:46 hours.
High above the Rio Grande, an unmanned predator bee out of Arizona patrols the Southwest border.
Below shadowy figures wait in the cover of the underbrush for a quick sprint and a promise of illegal entry.
>> I've tried to coordinate with Omaha 3-2-0.
Stand by.
>> The pilot of the UAS finds he's out of radio contact with the CBP team aboard a nearby Black Hawk U860.
So he turns to the communications capabilities of AMOC to direct this interdiction.
>> 950 at 3-2-0, go ahead.
>> Omaha 3-2-0 from X Ray 950.
Received a report from Omaha 1-0 of a group of 12 individuals northeast bound at the following location.
>> The trickledown effect of them coming in illegally, it's everywhere.
No one prospers.
So you're protecting them as well as protecting U.S. assets.
>> 950, Omaha 1-0's reporting agents are on the scene.
A group of 12 are in custody.
>> Omaha 1-0, X Ray 950.
Copy all agents on the scene.
Subjects in custody.
Over.
>> 13:50 hours.
>> POTUS is in D.C., will be...
>> In the watch briefing, the supervisor gives DEO's their assignments
and the team hears updates from communications and intel.
>> All right, let's go to work.
>> At each station, DEO's hand off to the incoming team with a quick summary
of the morning's activities and the watch goes on.
Into the evening hours traffic over and around the continental U.S. builds:
general aviation, commercial and military aircraft.
Domestic and international vessels.
From Bar Harbor to San Diego, United States airspace and border waterways
will see over 150,000 operations in this day alone.
It's a lot of movement to conceal criminal activity.
A lot of haystack for the needle to hide in.
>> Supe!
>> Yes?
>> I got a primary.
>> 19:40 hours.
>> Looks like he's going towards Tucson.
I checked Nogales
>> The DEO in the Southwest station is tracking an unidentified target over Western Mexico,
just minutes from the U.S. border.
In consultation with AMCO intel specialists and law enforcement advisors,
the supervisor determines that this is a possible short landing.
The aircraft lands in Mexico close to the border
and offloads its illicit cargo to be transported into the U.S. in vehicles or on foot.
The best place to stop this operation is where the plane touches down, before the contraband hits the road.
>> Get ahold of the officials from the Mexican government.
>> Roger that.
>> With a call to the liaison at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, the wheels are set in motion.
Telephone, radio and satellite communications enable instant access
to units of Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations,
Border Patrol, the Air and Marine branches, local and state law enforcement,
as well as agencies of the Canadian and Mexican governments.
>> We have 186 UHF radios, 58 VHF radios, 5 HF's and 5 sat-coms.
Also we have a total of 264 no-rad and FAA radars that get fed into here.
>> With the powerful communications tools of the AMOC,
law enforcement agencies throughout North America
can coordinate operations that strike at the very heart of this deadly trade.
>> Supe, Mexican government just called and said that reportedly the aircraft crashed
and there's preliminary reports that the aircraft may have been torched.
Ground units have apprehended one pickup truck.
They have an approximate amount of 900 pounds of marijuana.
>> Good job.
>> 21:58.
The watch changes once more.
Throughout the hemisphere the work of the Air and Marine Operations Center
goes on around the clock every day of the year.
Today's operations are done, criminals are caught, potential terror attacks are thwarted for another day.
The skies are safer, the borders more secure, but the job never stops.
Tomorrow is coming and with it another skirmish in the battle,
a different threat on the frontier, another 24 hours on the line.
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