Dexter: Original Sin Filming Locations: Laura's Cartel Dock
The
location: Laura's Cartel Dock
Q.
What is it supposed to be on the show?
A. A secret cartel drug processing facility,
Q.
Where is it supposed to be on the show?
A. In or near Miami, Florida, on the docks near a shipping container facility (probably on Dodge Island) .
Q.
When did we see it on the show?
A. We see this location in Episode
6, of Season 1, when Harry sends a reluctant Laura Moser on a dangerous
assignment to gather information on the Estrada drug cartel.
Laura is wearing a wire, and Harry and his partner Bobby are listening in, while parked in a white van nearby.
She meets
with members of the cartel near a huge stack of shipping
containers, and is led into the bowels of the drug-processing operation.
Once
inside, she is confronted with the bloody sight of a member of the
cartel tied to a chair, who has obviously been beaten and tortured.
While she watches helplessly, they use a large bolt-cutter to chop off
the man's finger.
For a
moment it seems as if she is also going to fall victim to cartel
violence (almost prompting Harry to intervene), but instead she is congratulated on joining the group.
Q.
What is it actually in real life?
A. A pier-side combination of a gypsum storage facility and a nearby container terminal.
Q.
Where can I find it in real life?
A. They filmed this scene near the same place where they filmed the geodesic dome murder scene that appeared earlier in this same episode: on Pier D, in Long Beach, CA.
In fact, the van is parked only about 650 feet away from that geodesic dome, on the northeast edge of the pier.
The longitude/latitude coordinates where the van was parked are approximately: 33°46'10.2"N 118°12'44.1"W .
The stacks of shipping containers, which are also seen in this scene, It's not aggressive are located nearby, about 1,600 feet southeast of the dome, on Pier F, at what Google identifies as “Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT LLC)”.
Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?
A. I could
tell from the scene that it was shot on a pier or dock at the harbor.
And I knew that they had been filming down on Pier D in Long Beach for
that geodesic dome murder scene in this
same same episode. And I also knew that, when possible, they like to
film multiple scenes in one general location.
So I took another look at that dome area on Pier D.
What stood out for me in the scene was a huge pipe running near
the left side of Harry’s white van, which was taller than Harry’s
van. The van itself seemed to be parked on a platform at the edge of the pier (and very near the water) .
So (using Google Earth for a 3-D view) I looked for that large pipe
along the edges of Pier D, starting my search near the geodesic dome,
and I spotted the pipe about 200 yards northeast of the dome, on the
north edge of the pier.
Once I did that, I took a closer 3-D look at the surrounding structures
and details, comparing them to what was seen in the scene and was able
to pinpoint the exact spot where the van was parked. And here is a Google Earth 3-D view of that spot
And the giant stack of colorful shipping containers nearby was hard to miss.