CNN - Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies - Series 3 (2019)

Hear the true stories of the agencies keeping us safe, as CNN Original eight-part series "Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies" returns for Season Three. Each episode explore the true stories of America's covert operations told firsthand by the agents who lived it, while getting unprecedented access to the riveting and secret world of espionage.
Hosted by former U.S. Congressman Mike Rogers, Declassified is an eight-part docuseries that gives viewers unprecedented access to the riveting and secret world of espionage. Agents who personally experienced, or even influenced and managed the events, comment on them. The series allows viewers to look into the mysterious world of espionage in a previously unimaginable way.
The third season of Declassified chronicles the missions to target America's biggest threats including war criminals, Russian spies, drug cartels, a Russian arms dealer and hackers.

Produced and Directed by Domini Hofmann ; All3Media America with Cable News Network, Inc.

Part 1: Tracking Terror: The 9/11 Subway Plot
The NSA and FBI work together to thwart an Al-Qaeda terrorist plot to blow up the New York City subway on the Anniversary of 9/11.
To mark 10 years after 9/11, Al Qaeda was planning an anniversary attack on the United States. An Afghan American named Najibullah Zazi was trained in Pakistan how to make bombs to be used on the New York City subway system. But Zazi and two other Americans were arrested by the FBI on the eve of the attack, and Zazi later confessed.

Part 2: Buried Secrets, Unbreakable Codes
The FBI works alongside the NRO to stop a potential spy from selling classified secrets to an enemy nation. Soon they discover the spy, has buried the classified secrets all over the east coast and the only way to recover the stolen documents is to decipher a series of elaborate codes.
Before Edward Snowden's infamous data breach, the largest theft of government secrets was committed by a man whose intricate espionage scheme and coded messages were made even more complex by his dyslexia. His name was Brian Regan, and he would become known as "the spy who couldn't spell." An informant passed on a series of coded letters to the FBI, which sent Special Agent Steven Carr on a hunt to identify the sender, and authorities eventually tracked down and arrested Regan in September 11, 2001.

Part 3: The Merchant of Death: Viktor Bout
With the help of an undercover source, the DEA's Special Operation Division launches an international manhunt to capture one of the most prolific Russian arms dealers in the world, Viktor Bout.
His global network has changed the way modern warfare is fought. Bout's vast enterprise of guns, planes, and money has fueled bloody slaughter in Africa and aided both militant Islamic fanatics in Afghanistan and the American military in Iraq. The end only came in 2008, after an elaborate sting operation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration saw Bout tracked across multiple countries to a luxury hotel in Bangkok where he was caught on camera agreeing to sell undercover U.S. agents.

Part 4: The Terrorists Next Door: Operation Smokescreen
After the FBI discovers a Hezbollah terrorist cell nestled in the suburbs of Charlotte, investigators work to unravel the web of criminal activity to prosecute the first material support for terrorism case in the United States.
Hezbollah was engaging on covert militant, criminal, and terrorist activities, and over time their operatives became increasingly sophisticated of moving money and stolen or counterfeit goods around the world. Some of the most surprising of these money-making schemes took place in the United States, where a Hezbollah network was operating out of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Part 5: The Norte Valle Cartel
In a classic, follow the money investigation, an elite team of unconventional investigators work together to take down one of the most violent and dangerous Colombian cartels of the 1990s, The Norte Valle Cartel.
Colombia had witnessed the bloody rise and fall of the Medellin cartel, and the powerful rivalling Cali cartel. A third Colombian cartel emerged in the 1990s to take the crown as the kings of cocaine. The Norte Valle cartel was as ruthless and formidable as Escobar, made up of hit men and assassins from the Cali organization.

Part 6: The Spy Game: Russian Espionage
After a suspicious rise in Russian diplomats visiting the State Department, the FBI works with the Diplomatic Security Service to follow mysterious radio frequencies. The agents soon have a national emergency on their hands when they discover that the Russian government has successfully planted a listening device in the building.
A highly sophisticated listening device in the State Department was found in a conference room, where senior level officials held important meetings. After its discovery and taking precautions, FBI agents left the bug in place so they could observe a spy at work. After the agents surveillance Russian embassy attache Stanislav Borisovich Gusev was detained, and expelled. But decades later the mystery remains, who installed the bug.

Part 7: Hunting War Criminals
After mass genocide is committed during The Bosnian War, the U.S. and NATO lead an international effort with Joint Special Operations Command to go after one of the most notorious war criminals the world has ever seen.
Back before 9/11, Bosnia was the most active deployment on offer for such special operations units. The American-led intelligence operation was code-named Amber Star, and involved special forces, intelligence agencies and police officials from five countries. The objective was the capture and delivery for trial of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the political and military wartime chiefs, both accused war criminals.

Part 8: Operation Firewall: The Takedown of Shadowcrew
During the early years of the internet, the United States Secret Service conducts a groundbreaking mission to take down one of the first criminal hacker groups - Shadowcrew.
Shadowcrew's centralised marketplace for carding activities was the brainchild of Andrew Mantovani. The group operated websites trading in stolen cards online. In 2004, the Secret Service arrested more than 28 individuals as part of an undercover investigation. The suspects, located across eight states and six foreign countries, were involved in a global cyber organized crime network.