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When Karls Monzon heard about a lack of security at airports around the country, his gang of non-criminals pulled off the country’s largest airport heist to date at Miami International, exceeding Goodfellas in dollars and eluding the FBI with more flamboyancy than any other major theft in U.S. history.
The “Heist” series on Netflix features three fascinating true crime stories “chronicling three of the biggest heists in modern American history, as explained by the people who pulled them off.” Each story is told over two episodes
Unlike the JFK Airport heist, where 13 people involved ended up dead, no one was shot or killed in the MIA robbery. Monzon’s crew made away with $7.4 million after avoiding detection at an airport warehouse on November 6, 2005. After his wife Brandy suffered two heartbreaking miscarriages, he was desperate to find a way to fund an expensive adoption.
“Karls and Brandy were desperate for a child, and she had two miscarriages, so they want to adopt but can’t afford to,” explains director Martin Desmond Roe. “Of all our stories, they have easily the most tragic rationale for why he gravitated towards crime.”
“The Money Plane” episodes, which premiere Wednesday on Netflix, share how twice a week, a flight carrying $100 million landed at MIA in 2005. With the money sitting in an unguarded open warehouse, Monzon watched TV crime shows to plan and get away with the crime for months before getting caught.
This case includes law enforcement tactics led by FBI special agent in charge Scott Rivas, who first approached author and producer Chuck Malkus, a classmate at Columbus High, for this story. When Monzon was released from prison, Malkus, who is an executive producer for The Money Plane episodes, connected for projects including a book.
“With storylines more colorful than the JFK airport theft, including a kidnapping and an extortion plot, there are plenty of reasons to watch Netflix beginning Wednesday,” says Malkus.
After being sentenced to 17 years in prison, Monzon was able to knock off seven years due to cooperation on the kidnapping crime. Today, Monzon is rebuilding his life and Rivas, after retiring from the FBI, solves other crimes as a private investigator. Malkus, who also serves as an expert witness for law firms, has two additional record true crime projects with scripts written for feature films.
