>> it's like the federal government putting crack cocaine in candy machines. it's that easy. >> this isn't just a drug bust. it involves tax fraud, and your refund is at risk. the price of life. >> the worst is not being able to watch my kids grow up. >> locked away for a crime he didn't commit. >> what did they give you when you got out? >> nothing. >> revealing investigations. fascinating characters. stories with impact. this is "cnn presents" with tonight's hosts randi kaye and drew griffin. >> good evening. more than a month after whitney houston's tragic death, a toxicology report reveals drugs, indeed, played a role. >> the news does not surprise someone who knew houston all her life. a man she referred to as uncle sam. >> sam moore. you probably know him better as half of the '60s singing duo sam and dave. best known for their hit "soul man." yet a drug addiction brought him to the bottom, devastating his life and career. >> his life intersected with whitney houston in many ways through the years. and at the end, he hoped to help bring houston back from her addiction. don lemon has the story. >> reporter: it was february 12th, 2011. a year before whitney houston died. a pre-grammy party. >> miss whitney houston. >> reporter: whitney was back. back from years of erratic behavior and drug use. ♪ walk on by >> where's the voice? >> you're saying she couldn't sing? >> yeah. ♪ when i wake up >> reporter: rock 'n' roll hall of famer sam moore was in the audience. and old houston family friend, he and his wife, joyce, knew the girl everyone called nippy growing up, was in trouble. >> she came in and she looked over and she saw me. and i said, nippy! hey, baby! she fell on her knees. i said, don't get on your knees. she's sweating. i said, joyce, she's high. >> reporter: high on drugs. far from the girl he first met decades earlier. >> i thought she was the cutest little thing! oh, my god. pretty. >> reporter: moore's career was just beginning. part of the singing group sam and dave. with chart toppers like "soul man" and "hold on, i'm coming." ♪ i'm a soul man >> reporter: he was traveling and performing alongside gospel greats aretha franklin and houston's mother, cissy. >> i remember her. i even saw the first "seventeen" magazine. i said, look it here! oh, my god, look it here. >> reporter: whitney came to call him uncle sam. and as quickly as moore watched the girl he called nippy rise, he watched her fall. it was the early '90s. >> when i first realized that she was using, i saw her on tv. she always was perspiring. she was doing this to her face. wiping the sweat. >> reporter: at that moment, he knew she was an addict. he knew because sam moore was an addict himself. on the streets of harlem in the 1960s, sam moore's nearly deadly descent into drugs began. >> we were sitting in there. and he said, come with me. took me right down. went to one of the stalls in the bathroom, and he had this little package. white powder. >> reporter: the white powder was heroin. and it didn't take long for sam to get hooked. his habit soon cost him $600 a day. and while he still was able to perform, the money soon ran out. he became desperate. it got so bad that you would send your girlfriend down. >> mm-hmm. prostitution. you use everybody. you use everybody. you penalize everybody, you use everybody. >> reporter: since sam was still a superstar in those days, he was surrounded by people who for 15 years fed his habit. >> it was much easier to have the yes men. most of the time he'd go and get the drug or the dope for you? >> reporter: why didn't you die? >> you think -- almost did. that's what really did the turnaround for me. because i started od'ing everywhere i went. >> we went out to eat. and he nodded into a plate of food. >> reporter: sam's wife, joyce mcrae, dated him in the '80s when he started to hit rock bottom. she convinced him to seek help and start taking a drug that blocks the high you get from heroin. soon, he was off heroin for good. now, 30 years later, sam is back, performing at the apollo theater. ♪ >> reporter: and it is where he is reminded of whitney houston. the theater was the sight of a memorial after her death. a death sam knows all too well was tough to prevent. >> if they want it, they're going to get it. don, you've got enablers. you've even got parents. they know that their child is doing it. that person is the cash cow. so what are they going to say? >> reporter: and making it even more complicated, joyce's belief that whitney's own family helped fuel her habit. >> members in whitney's family, immediate and extended, that had their problems with drugs. >> reporter: it's a claim supported by monique houston, whitney's former sister-in-law. the family declined to comment and did not respond to our questions about these claims. >> i feel that if they had addressed the problems and gotten the proper support about how to take the tough love steps, all this -- these addiction issues wouldn't have snowballed. it came to a tragic ending. >> reporter: tough love that sam moore hoped he could have given whitney that fateful night one year ago. but her entourage pulled her away too quickly. then, he says, he talked to whitney's cousin, dionne warwick. >> i said, dionne. she's struggling, man. this ain't cool. she said to me, malicious gossip, sam, what are you doing? i'm just telling you, she's getting high. sam, stop. stop. you're starting rumors. there's nothing wrong with her. >> reporter: warwick's spokesperson says dionne didn't feel it was her place to discuss houston's personal matters. sam stepped away. moments later, whitney's daughter approached him. >> here comes bobbi kristina. uncle sam! i said, hey, baby. uncle sam. i said, yeah, what? help my mommy. and before i could say anything, this guy literally pulling her away from me. >> reporter: a moment that haunts moore to this day. >> she was one of the greatest voices. ♪ and i >> and you knew what she was doing. why you didn't help her save that voice. she could have had a legacy. but where is it? it died with these people. that's the legacy. ♪ up next, playing to hurt. a bounty hunting scandal that's rocking the nfl to its core. is its passion. , scans the road to reveal potential threats, even helps awaken its driver if he begins to doze. so in the blink of an eye it will have performed more active safety measures than most cars will in a lifetime. introducing the all-new 2012 m-class. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. it's hugging my body. in less than a minute i can get more support. if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. at our semi-annual sleep sale, save $400 to $700 on our most popular bed sets. sale ends march 31st. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. it's said while baseball may be america's pastime, football is its passion. the men at all of the sport is violent by nature, but some players and coaches crossed a fine line that separates fierce competition from thuggery. the nfl has concluded that the new orleans saints have been involved in what's been referred to as bounty hunting. where payoffs were made for inflicting game-ending injuries on other teams' star players. just how did the bounty or incentive programs work, and how prevalent are they in the nfl? ed lavandera investigates. >> reporter: big games, big hits, big skin. nfl players rewarded not only for big plays, but for intentionally trying to seriously injure their opponents. an nfl investigation recently found the new orleans saints under the leadership of former defensive coordinator gregg williams had a wide-ranging bounty system in place from 2009 to just last year. "sports illustrated's" peter king has been following this story closely. do you think all of this is driven by gregg williams? >> i think gregg williams spurred a lot of it on. but i also think he had to have players on his defense who were very willing to cooperate and very willing to let this culture exist. i mean, sean payton, the head coach, and mickey loomis, the general manager, have admitted, and they're right, they lost institutional control of the defensive side of the ball. >> reporter: the saints' head hunting reportedly reached a fever pitch when one player, linebacker jonathan vilma, bid $10,000 of his own money to take out brett favre in the 2010 nfc championship game against the minnesota vikings. is this far and above beyond anything you've ever heard of in the nfl? >> i'll be honest. i've never heard of a team paying money, confirmed, to put a -- try to put a guy out of the game. >> reporter: while the saints' sweeping bounty system might be unheard of, former players we spoke to weren't shocked that there was some incentive program going on. was there a similar bounty program with the buffalo bills while you were there under gregg williams? >> what appears to be as a bounty program in new orleans is different from what i experienced in buffalo. in buffalo we had a pay for play, player-driven performance technique. you know, we had a way to motivate each other. we had a pot. you get fined if you show up late for a meeting. you get fined if you have a mental error during a game or in practice. and the players put money into the pot. from that pot, you're also rewarded for positive play. >> reporter: we reached out to the bills about wire's assertion there was a player-driven incentive program. the team tells cnn it's sticking by a march 3rd statement in which bills ceo russ brandon said, we are unaware of any type of bounty program occurring during gregg williams' tenure as head coach, and we would not have tolerated that type of behavior. in its investigation, the nfl found no evidence of other teams having bounty programs like the saints. but some veteran players paint a different picture. morton andersen spent 25 years in the nfl, and he is the league's all-time leading scorer. andersen says he was the target of a bounty as far back as 1987 when he played for the saints. >> it was an opening kickoff. we're playing the houston oilers. jerry glanville is the head coach. he's over there on the sideline all in black. walter johnson was linebacker for the houston oilers at the time. short set on me. his job was to put me out of the game. and he came -- as i come through the ball, my head is down. i'm still trying to regain balance about five yards down the field. and all i feel is a helmet in my rib cage. and i go flying the other way ten yards. i'm decleated. >> reporter: dazed and confused, andersen had to be helped off the field. and that's exactly what the oilers wanted, according to the long-time kicker. andersen says the player who targeted him was the oilers' walter johnson. and when the two eventually became teammates two years later, that johnson confirmed there was a bounty on andersen in the 1987 game. >> one of the first things i asked walter was, hey, why did you do that, man? he said, you know, i was told to do it. i said, what do you mean? he said, they gave me $1,000 and they told me to do it. i feared for my job. >> reporter: walter johnson wouldn't talk to cnn. but he did talk to his hometown sports reporter, joey martin, and denied he was ever paid for the vicious hit on andersen. >> as far as getting paid, he was vehemently denied that. he said, no, there's no way i got money from that. >> reporter: when you first asked walter about that hit, what did he say? >> you could tell he was a little bit remorseful about it. i mean, he didn't want to hurt morton. but if he had to do it again, hey, it's football. it's physical. and it's my job. >> reporter: what did he tell you that coach glanville told him to do in that game? >> just take out the kicker. take out morton andersen. >> i distinctly remember $1,000 being discussed. so his word against my word. >> reporter: coach jerry glanville told "the boston globe" a year after the andersen hit that when you've got a guy that good, you've got to figure a way of making him less effective. he missed two kicks, so i guess it worked. like johnson, glanville turned down our request for an interview, but in an e-mail denied johnson was paid any money, adding, at no time did we ever have a bounty on anybody in the history of my coaching career. never happened. never did. i keep hearing from a lot of people out there, they don't understand, what's the big deal? >> because the nfl players pride themselves on being such a fraternity. when we get together on sunday, boy, we go at each other's throats, but we're all brothers. i don't know any other fraternity where somebody tries to knock out and break the leg of one of his brothers. or do whatever to one of his brothers. it's just -- it's over the top. it's wrong. >> reporter: so wrong in the eyes of nfl commissioner roger goodell that he's dropped the hammer on the new orleans saints for their bounty system. the commissioner suspended head coach sean payton for a year without pay. he also suspended saints general manager mickey loomis for eight games this regular season. but goodell saved the worst punishment for the man at the center of the bounty scandal. former saints' defensive coordinator gregg williams. he's been suspended from the league indefinitely, effective immediately. it's being called the new crack cocaine of crime. thieves stealing your tax refund before you even know it. how do they do it? 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$1,000 for christmas in gift cards? >> reporter: police say the man they've pulled over already facing identity theft charges in another case is a known member of the infamous money avenue gang which specializes in this kind of fraud. not surprisingly, he's in no mood to talk. i'm just curious what you do for work that you drive such a fancy car. >> i don't know nothing about that. >> reporter: you don't know nothing about that? can you tell me if you know anything about identity theft happening around here. >> i don't know nothing about nothing. >> reporter: are you involved in any of the tax fraud? >> i don't know nothing about nothing. >> reporter: detectives craig catlin and rocky festa of the north miami beach florida police department will later charge him with buying these gift cards with stolen tax return money. police say here's the same guy on video at target using a debit card in someone else's name with a fraudulent tax refund on it. and, police say, he used that debit card to buy those gift cards that were on the front seat of the car. he's arrested for marijuana possession. but police later charged him with grand theft in connection with tax refund fraud. he has not yet entered a plea to either charge. how easy is it to do this? >> the fraudulent refunds are so easy it's like the federal government putting crack cocaine in candy machines. it's that easy. >> we already have one detective on the scene with an eyeball at the jewelry store. you guys show up. we'll need help over there. a car just pulled up. it's the target we observed receiving about 23 fraudulent u.s. treasury checks. >> reporter: police in north miami beach alone, with just 98 officers patrolling a city of 41,000, have seen over $100 million in tax refund fraud just in the last two years alone. it's big money. the criminals cash in those debit cards as quickly as possible. showing off their riches with expensive luxury cards. jaguar. porsche. bmw. mercedes benz. souped up sports cars with expensive rims. they flaunt fancy watches. diamond pendants worth $55,000. and other jewelry. this one inscribed with the words "money hungry." is this all about fast money, fast lifestyle? >> i think it is. the money doesn't mean anything to them because they can make so much of it. >> reporter: the fraudsters buy the social security numbers from insiders at hospitals, doctors' offices, even car dealerships. any place where you have to give your personal information. larry gomer, the interim police chief, says as soon as the thieves buy a debit card, they're off and running. >> they register the card in the name of the victim. they already have the victim's name, date of birth and social security number for the return they're going to file. >> reporter: when the tax refund hits the debit card the identity thieves call it the drop. the criminals then take the drop money to atm machines and grocery stores to get the money off the card as quickly as possible. as these police videos of suspects who were later arrested show. and while the debit cards are widely used for fraud, the criminals are so confident they won't get caught that at times they even have actual u.s. treasury che