Shawn Ryan Show #007 Drug Cartel / Narcos Expert Ed Calderon

[Music]. all right. it's finally here ed calderon. is on the sean ryan show and yes we've. read. all 2282 emails. requesting why the hell is ed's episode. not been released yet. but before i give it to you just a quick. word. from our sponsors.

this episode is sponsored by vigilance. elite. that's me head over to. vigilanceelite.com. hit the training tab we have over. 100 videos of tactical training. and prepping [ __ ] too where we teach. everything from how to politely remove. somebody. out of your way you might be creating. some issues.

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fastest growing cartel in mexico was his. new generation cartel. grew exponentially in influence in power. not just in mexico but in the us during. the cobot epidemic. one of the biggest money makers outside. of drugs. is trafficking human trafficking of all. kinds. we live in a country where people are. talking about reparations for slavery. when there's actual slavery still yeah.

in this country. during training they would get a dog. that they would you know take care of. for a few weeks. they would sleep with and feed and all. this type of stuff name it. and that they would have to kill it and. eat it why is china's interest in mexico. so. becoming so strong uh it's your achilles. heel as a country. sinaloa cartel runs a lot of their. distribution with some of the local. black. gangs in a place like chicago so we use. them by proxy. i was covered in blood my clothing was. covered in blood.

my sneakers my socks feel. in my toes. [Music]. welcome back to the sean ryan show. this is episode double o. seven to kick things off i want to say. thank you to all the patrons out there. we have an overwhelming response on. patreon which is supporting the show. and some news with that we will be.

taking two volunteers. from our tier three group and i'm going. to put them through a mindset. challenge so if you're on tier three. maybe you'll get picked. two volunteers we're looking at. hopefully mid-december moving on from. that. thank you to everyone who left us an. itunes review. if you can't support us on patreon. please. at least take one moment go to itunes. leave us a review that really helps us.

with the show. with that being said hit the like button. leave a comment and it's time to. introduce. our next guest double07. double 07 is a mexican american. immigrant who did it the right way. he immigrated to the united states to. evade. the mexican drug cartel he is considered.

an. expert in the space of narco trafficking. and mexican drug cartels he's a real. world macgyver. he is tsa's worst [ __ ] nightmare. he's seen it all and been face to face. with the cartels in the most real. vivid dangerous ways possible. ladies and gentlemen please allow me to.

present. senor ed calderon. [Music]. well ed i am [ __ ] super excited that. you're here man. um we've been trying to get this going. for. several months now and uh finally. finally hit a date that works for both. of us. but um you are. like the current narco. expert and uh and.

americans i think everybody but. americans are. completely infatuated and interested in. in that subject matter and there's so. many shows out. and documentaries and it's been like. that for a long time. and uh to include myself so. i can't wait to you know dive into some. of that stuff. and um me personally a lot of people. don't know this but. i lived in columbia for almost.

almost five years and uh. and uh was addicted to cocaine down. there. and and uh kind of immersed myself. in that narco culture because i was so. i got more addicted to the rush of being. around it. uh then i was the actual drug and um. and uh i kind of like to you know. compare notes to. some of the stuff that you've seen and.

some of the stuff that i've experienced. uh in uh on a low level and. um being around that kind of [ __ ] and uh. so. anyways i'm super [ __ ] pumped you're. here man i'm excited to be here man. so yeah but uh i always start everything. out with a gift okay. so what. first off always hear if it's ticking. i always drop the cell phone far away. from it right on the radio.

yeah that's what they do right that's. how you know what somebody. oh thank you looks like uh. yeah that's that's cool thank you for. that. yeah you're welcome oh yeah some gummy. bears. all of it all about that right there. thank you for that man feel free to dig. in. that's pretty heavy i don't know where. that may be.

oh look at that. look at that thing right there hmm yeah. i wonder what this fits. it might happen to fit that right there. but uh i listen i did a ton of research. on you and uh you have this thing for. golden guns. well i mean it's i think it's a mexican. i mean some for some reason i think it's. the aztec and a little bit of the. spaniard mixed into there. the first enhanced interrogation in in.

the. in the american continent was done by. the spaniards. burning the feet of moctezuma so he. could so they could. you know make summer could admit where. the gold was hidden no [ __ ]. so i think i think it probably it stems. back to that uh. gold lust you know that's beautiful. thank you for that that is a. that's an amazing piece right there yeah. well uh. so yeah that goes to a 50 cal desert. eagle. gold-plated and uh so i figured you know.

the first break we take i haven't broken. that thing in yet so uh we'll jut out. back and. ah blow some [ __ ] up and uh. you know see what she's made of but uh. have you shot one of those. yeah i have uh i actually uh i found. two of those guns in a water barrel. somewhere in baja that were traced back. to the fast and the furious uh. debacle way backwards um.

they're they're very sought after by. some of the higher-ups. uh on both sides of it uh there was a uh. uh army general that used to be. part of the presidential protection. detail that would carry around one of. those things. no [ __ ] you know they usually the. officers in the army in mexico don't get. height requirements so the guy was. pretty short you know. so he carried one of those in a the. leather holster underneath the jacket. you know. why i don't know he's trying to make up. for something probably yeah.

why not but it's a it's a it's a pretty. interesting one. gold guns have a long history down there. um from celino sanchez and his 38th uh. commander uh commando gun to. el chapo's uh famous uh uh pistol. that had his uh ford's 100 uh top. 1000 number on there um yeah. is it like a status symbol it is. uh that's how you know who's in charge. or who's who are the higher ups in some.

of the cartel parties. you'll see those gold guns floating. around it's kind of more of a sinaloa. thing. each of the regions in mexico have their. own thing. um i don't know exactly where that comes. from. but uh there's a cult uh to uh forbidden. satan sinaloa. it's a guy with a mustache and basically. mexican robin hood. is the clearest way to kind of describe. him.

uh back in the third of the century he. was a famous bandit that would rob the. rich people coming in through the town. and i mean he would the loot that he. would get from them would be handed out. to the. townspeople uh eventually he even pushed. his luck too much and he got shot in the. leg. um he knew he was he was almost going to. be caught. the government put on a uh 10 gold coin. of. reward for his capture. and uh he told one of his best friends. according to the legend he told one of.

his best friends to turn him in and get. the money. and disperse it to the town's people um. so he was hung from a tree and the order. was not to bury him to leave him there. to rot. no [ __ ] eventually. somebody in the town prayed to him. because. when he was alive he would help out the. townspeople with money and whatever. uh one of the townspeople prayed to him. uh said you helped me in life now help. me in death and i'll and i'll make sure. to bury you and uh.

that was his first miracle. he fell down from the tree and each of. the townspeople. uh instead of burying him they just put. a rock over his body eventually. a pile of rocks there which later on. turned into his grave. and later on turned into a shrine so the. whole gold thing is kind of related. i think it's probably related to that uh. 10 piece of gold. reward that was uh set up for him so. it's an interesting kind of a.

probable link to the whole gold. fascination how some of these things are. used status. symbols damn that's interesting. well ed your number uh. double oh seven so yeah it's a pretty. big episode. nobody read too much into that though. yeah right. but uh so you consider yourself a. non-permissive environment specialist. yeah and uh. you run an instagram page ed's manifesto.

and uh you teach courses on you know how. to blend in. how to survive um how to escape and. evade. and uh it's it uh after talking with you. a little bit it seems kind of like. a hodgepodge. class full of of of. of skills that are um. seem to be very resourceful and uh. and uh i think that is fascinating i.

actually wanted to go to. your course in cincinnati yeah that was. when we were gonna try to do this first. and i didn't do it because i needed to. prepare for this. but i do want to go to one of your. courses and get that experience. i mean it's it's hood rat [ __ ] yes i. mean. i wish i could call it something cool. like field craft or. or tradecraft or something like that but. it's realistically. it's me going and doing a class and. recounting the experiences and the.

conversations of all the people that. i've kind of. had to meet talk to converse wit and. learn from. during my whole experience uh in mexico. working for the government. uh interesting thing actually the the. ed's manifesto tagline came from an nsw. guy that i trained with. no [ __ ] so i would always have a. moleskine notebook that i would write. down things. in as far as like class notes yeah not a. very common thing for mexicans to do. that. so i was i was in coronado uh training. with uh.

ncis guys some of them were former team. guys. uh they were doing a combat medical. class for us. so like the first time i saw a. tourniquet or the first time i would. train how to pack a wound was there with. some of those guys. um and there's like what are you writing. in your little manifesto was the thing. that he kept asking no i'm just writing. some notes right. i'm just kidding i'm just [ __ ] with. you so that's where the tagline has. manifested actually came from. that's cool um i've always made it a.

point to collect and. take down notes and record and anything. i see of interest i would always kind of. uh. collect um from conversations with. people that we would detain. um i never made the mistake of. dehumanizing my enemy. i think that's a that's a common mistake. that i see a lot of people do. uh what i mean by dehumanizing the enemy. it's not about uh. celebrating him it's not about emulating. him it's about learning from them so.

example 15 year old um fernando. 15 year old fernando is the guy that. just. the kid distributes cocaine to. cocaine and heroin to a lot of the. people that. travel into one of the uh the the sonar. rosas or the. the tolerance zones in tijuana that's. where all the um. prostitution takes place right legal. prostitution allowed prostitution. uh we're on him for a while we finally.

caught him you know. caught him slipping he was buying a cell. phone for his girlfriend. and that's where we got him handcuffed. him. put him in the car he got free of the. handcuffs. ran a few of our guys caught them. and a few of them wanted to beat him up. i said. calm down grab them took them back to. the car. zip tied them and handcuffed them this. time and asked him. how did you get out of those and he. proceeded to show me.

right yeah he used a small piece of. metal from uh. from a street sweeper street sweeper. bristle. um and he would always carry a mat like. a rare. magnet or a magnet to pick some of those. up and he would always hide him on his. person. and then he would grab the handcuff. itself and flip it to the side. so it looks like it's closed but it's. actually open. those two tricks i learned from him i've. been showing across the country just. some high-level people and some. low-level people and they always get.

amazed by it. yeah and i always say i learned this. from a 15 year old kid. you call it hood rat [ __ ] but all it is. is [ __ ] real [ __ ] that actually works. that uh. people have come up with and and you've. documented it all and put it into. you know your manifesto how many. different uh. like roughly in an estimation or maybe. if you do have an exact number but how. many different. types of these skills. do you have documented i mean.

i have i have a lot of vhs tapes of some. conversations i have with some of these. people. yeah i have some a lot of digital. recordings of some of the conversations. i have with some of these people. i have pictures and and moleskins uh. related to. uh hood rat fortifications on some safe. houses. to uh you know steel water. and steel doors meant to negate the use. of an angle. grinder or or of a battering ram. basically the water reverberates the the.

pressure on the steel. and i typed up all those notes and. pictures and stuff like that that's i. gather i have no idea how much i have. but i. i i don't i don't hoard it a lot of. people hoard that stuff i've shared some. of that stuff pretty openly on my social. media. yeah um and uh every time i get a chance. to train with or. uh go and advise and some in some. capacity. um some unit some group some uh. group of people like i gotta i got the. opportunity to show some of the stuff.

that i know to some of this at the. secret service academy to some of those. guys. um specifically how to hide things that. are non-ferrous and non-magnetic and how. to smuggle things through points of. security. and it was surprising some of those. simpler things surprised them how some. of those were unknown. but that's kind of the point behind most. of the stuff that i do i want to. put this into the hands of people even. the public. general public itself people sometimes.

get afraid when i share something that. to them was secret um. an example of this is the i shared a. picture of a. zip tie restraint homemade zip tie. restraint. with an angle cut in the inside of them. so when they would put them. on the angle cut in the zip tie would. stab into your wrists. now that was pretty unknown to the. general public but it was widely used in. mexico by some reduction groups. the reason they made that that way is.

that a lot of these guys. um and actually got to see an open. laptop. and doing some site exploitation stuff. down in mexico. and i got to see their browsing history. which was fascinating to me you know. what what are these guys looking at and. uh. youtube uh escaping of asian videos. people escaping from zip ties doing the. classic uh bursting. uh method to escape from them so they. decided to put. angles in them so they when you try to. do that you would hurt yourself and or.

basically commit suicide now that is a. product of evolution. they are evolving they're changing the. way they're doing things yeah. and you and and we as people that share. some of that stuff. are better served educating the public. about some of these things. yeah so they can see how deep the hole. goes. and they can counter that uh preparation. that the bad guys have or the. counter guys have to what we are going. to plan to do. to counteract that and if we find. ourselves in a situation like that.

that's a small example of it but uh. things are evolving out there um people. are. people that have a lot of training in. mexico like some of the people that i. used to work with. are now working for the cartel yeah. um things are shared online. and immediately get distributed to every. single terrorist network. out there in the world and also most. intelligent services as well. so that stuff gets propagated and shared. and.

it's a free-for-all when it comes to. information yeah about new tactics of. all. you know because of that but the example. of hong kong protests were using lasers. it all it took was their action now they. change the way people do things. yeah so you know some of those lasers. you can source on. in places like alibaba you know and you. can modify them easily by some of the. stuff you see on youtube. so that's a quantum leap over how they. weaponize. basically focused light yeah it's.

fascinating to see that. how how an idea spreads. like a virus in a way um the same thing. with all the criminal methodology that i. kind of share and expose. um they see something that is they get. horrified and surprised by it oh ed. why are you showing the criminals this. no they already know it. i'm showing the people that live safely. in the confines of whatever community. they are a part of that have never. been exposed to this i'm sharing this to. them so they can see how deep the well.

is. right so they can keep their kids close. so they can put a sign on the well. that the well is deep um. there's like i get a lot of so a lot of. the negativity they get is usually based. on the whole. you shouldn't share this openly yeah um. that but. there are things that i don't share. openly and usually things that i've seen. that are kind of reserved or kind of. really. i haven't seen that much out there but. once i do i try and share some of those. things so people can see what they are.

you grew up in tijuana mexico. and uh you started your law enforcement. career in 2004. yeah um and uh doing my research it. sounded like you were. actually you were in med school you. wanted to be a doctor. yeah and and it sounded like your law. enforcement career was. kind of something that you were doing. just to get you by. uh while you're in med school and then. you go on to say that uh it took a very.

different turn. and uh yeah so. um 911 where were you when i wha what. what did you do after 9 11. i was in the military awesome uh. that was completely like beyond the. scope of my. i didn't want to do anything weapons. related. i didn't want to serve i don't want to. do anything like that 911 happened and. it turned the economy into. it put the economy in the toilet along. the border region specifically in. tijuana.

which lives off the border right. border times went longer because of all. the new security precautions and the. border was actually closed for. the first time in like in recent history. was during 9 11. uh that affected my family's business. and my own. ability to kind of maintain myself um. and i couldn't afford to stay in medical. school. uh so i had to look for options right. i saw an ad in the newspaper that they.

wanted. young unmarried uh no kids uh. bilingual young men. for government work um i thought it was. going to be. community policing or some sort of. information analysis type thing and. all of a sudden i was going through. paramilitary training and getting my. hair. shaved off by a bunch of mexican gothic. guys. and i don't know what it was in for yeah. there was this open door when we go in.

there the academy that i went to was a. regional academy. it was basically a refurbished prison so. they made this prison. in in the in this uh in this. hillside and they discovered after they. made it that there's a lot of fog there. so it didn't it wasn't an optimal place. to put a prison. but a police academy you know they can. they can get away with that so it was. not good enough to be a prison but they. turned into police account which is. fascinating yeah um.

we were treated uh they told us at the. start um there was this. colonel there he said we have two things. for you. bon iver which is bread and dick. and guess what bread ran out two days. ago so all you're getting is dick. right uh they had this open door policy. there you can just walk out if you. wanted to you wanted to quit. and they treated us like human refuse. for about. two months two three months basically.

while we were going through that that. the fbi background checks were being. done. polygraph exams uh background financial. checks uh they were looking into our. families. and a lot of people would get pulled out. during the whole process. so just backtrack it real quick so were. you all. you were already being fed into. uh like almost an elite unit of the. the other police force right from day. one yeah. they were they were training us up to do. something and i didn't know exactly what.

that was but i was getting an idea. because of the. you know type of people that were. training us yeah um. but i thought it was going to be an. analysis job listening to phone calls. maybe translating stuff that i would. hear. somewhere in an office somewhere and all. of a sudden i was getting handed a. handed a ballistic vest a block and a uh. and a g3 rifle. just told to go on they would give us a. badge and then they would tell us. just don't put it on this will get you. killed if you see this badge.

so yeah it was it was pretty. badly organized the training was very. low quality. i remember getting trained how to shoot. a. beretta 92 fs pistol a 99 millimeter. 92 fs pistol and i shot 20 rounds out of. it. while going through training basic. training there [ __ ]. and when i got out i got a glock inside. of a case. and i've never seen a glock before like. looking at this thing like where's the.

safety. like where's you know i was like trying. to figure this out. um it was that that type of [ __ ]. [ __ ]. low-level training and and you know the. the. you make fun of the guys to get the. ak-47 shot around them. to get a mcqueen into combat yeah i was. one of the guys on the ground getting. shot with that ak-47 around to get him. to all it gave me was bad hearing yeah. uh that's a good way to make death and. dumb people um. but that was that was what we had that's.

what that's that's. that's what they had to give us right. damn um that uh that lasted about. a little bit over six months and then it. was off to the races. uh and stepping into uh. a ledge the beginnings of what turned. into the drug war. like the major part of the drug war how. bad was uh. how bad was the how how bad were the. cartels at that time.

they were pretty bad but it was it was. it was the beginning of the modern. fractioning which. turned into like the worst parts of the. drug war. um this was right before felipe calderon. uh the the the conservative to the right. president. basically declared open warfare on the. cartels. this was the president before him was in. power he was starting to. push for some of these policies and all. of a sudden we had. 2006 rolling around and kicked off it.

was like there was bad stuff and. violence happening. uh but he basically militarized and put. all every. basically gave a white uh uh a white. card to. governors across the country to do. whatever they had to do. to go after the cartels. so that's when things really got. interesting. there was a lot of fractioning going on. with high level cartel guys being. grabbed. and the one cartel turning into two.

allegiances being tested around the. country and and uh. kind of the violence being orchestrated. by. cartel on cartel and also government on. government. so you would run into a town where the. state police was on the payroll of one. cartel. the local municipal police was on the. payroll of the other cartel. and the local uh military barracks were. on. on the payroll of another cartel so it.

was. you you trust no one uh like the smoking. man and the x-men. and the x-files used to say that's what. it was. first lessons that i got was trust no. one damn. when uh when calderon took over in in. 2006 uh from the research i did. uh it sounded like that was like a. [ __ ] switch got flipped. yeah and uh i read that they estimate. over 250 000 uh.

people have been murdered those are. those are official. numbers so it's probably more yeah also. they don't count the people that went. missing. yeah uh body disposal turned into an. industrial effort. in places like uh uh tijuana where. the famous stew maker uh was uh. was active uh so what happened is that. the. philippe colorado basically federalized. the efforts against uh drugs and. he put the military into the fight and.

he also. took uh certain elements of the police. forces and embedded them with the. military which was some of the stuff. that i did. because we had wrestling powers in david. and also we knew our way around some of. the places where they were operating. [Music]. so one of the one of the places where i. worked was in baja. and um i got to see the stew maker and. actually like. actually got to meet him and talk to him. um.

the stew maker uh was in he was employed. by the scene. by an elements of the sinolog cartel. he used to actually work for the tijuana. the ariana felix cartel. uh but he there was a split that. happened and he went over to the scene. alongside. he said that he was trained how to get. rid of bodies by israeli specialists. that the cartels brought in to train. them. right um and that was like suspect when. i heard it and it sounds like. something's kind of made up. but then i saw some elements of actual. experience and.

craft and what he was doing. so he basically made caustic soda to get. rid of the bodies with a lot of stuff. you can buy on. you can buy at any hardware store i. didn't didn't uh. didn't get in a lot of attention because. he was uh he would always dress like an. albany like a worker. like a construction worker um. he would you know make his caustic. mixture. put a body in there without any clothing. on he would cut. grid patterns on some of the tattoos and.

the face to get rid of that first. and he would dump that into a sand. grater and get some of the solid pieces. and put in the next batch. that's a sign of craft somebody somebody. showed him that. so you know makes me wonder um. the amount the amount of people that he. got rid of as far as the bodies go. is unknown you know there's different. estimates out there. i don't know like nobody knows but a. whole generation of young people.

disappear in that uh in that city. yeah what uh what what are some of the. estimations. five thousand five thousand [ __ ]. people that's one of the numbers i heard. one guy he got rid of 5 000 bodies yeah. he never murdered anybody though he said. he would they would just get he would. just get bodies brought in. in a scene out of uh out of auschwitz. uh where he was found there was a room. full of shoes and clothing. that was creepy as hell to see him and.

all those shoes and clothing belong to. somebody. and uh they just made that these bodies. appear. um one time i was uh working with one of. the older guys. so there's a generation of guys that. were on when when i went in. that didn't go through some of the. security protocols that i went through. so some of them were more on the shady. side than others. there's no such thing as not being that. being a cop in mexico or not being shady. somehow. yeah even i was kind of shady maybe i.

don't know. uh but one of the older guys um i was uh. we saw this there was this pedestrian. bridge and they had. three bodies hanging from it right. and i stood there like that's horrible. that's a horrible cruel thing to do well. the older guy said. the body's a gift should be thankful for. it. and i didn't really i didn't kind of get. what he meant. so what do you mean man that's horrible. no i mean at least the family's going to.

get a body to bury and cry over. the body's a gift bam. that in a place where that hanging a. body from a bridge. is a sign of kindness. yeah well that's a that's a different. kind of hell. that that that can put some [ __ ] into. perspective. [ __ ] man how long uh. how long after your how long into your. career or do your law enforcement career.

on tijuana did did it take for it to. become. real where. as soon as i got out probably the second. day on the job. uh we we were uh we were kind of spread. out. uh uh in this in in baja state. and uh i got to see. me immediately the the the uh no [ __ ]. given by the cartels.

so i remember me and probably. eight other guys moving through downtown. tijuana. in uh full kit uh driving around in some. marked vehicles and um getting the order. to stop. from the lead car that was in front of. us and we put and we parked the side. and everybody ran out of the cars and. adopted. defensive positions and uh. a convoy probably i'd say probably.

somewhere. 15 vehicles just passed right next to us. all of them a few of them armored uh. all of them with ak-47s some of them had. federal police uniforms some of them. have army uniforms. we didn't know who they were we're. getting calls from the uh. from the 911 service they have down. there from the municipal police that. that they were caught they were. municipal cops but they clearly weren't. you know. cops so we just got in a you know. mexican standoff with them. didn't nobody shot around but they just.

passed by us. we called for for support uh from the. local police and. and nobody showed up so how many of you. guys were there. probably nine nine what's that two cars. that's two cars yeah and they had 15. [ __ ] vehicles. yeah so we that's when i realized that. there's no winning here. not not like this [ __ ] man there's no. winning well not like this. and um.

why do you think there were no shots. fired. they didn't felt threatened by us they. didn't have any fear. so they just passed by and they actually. went to a local. little restaurant there and adapted. positions around it. that had dinner and then went back to. your car and left. no support came on our end so it's one. of those. that's when you realize how [ __ ] you. are and how. no support now there's just no backing. there. this was before the philippe calderon. administration.

um slowly but surely things change. we started getting more support started. getting more vehicles. more people coming in we started working. directly with the military and directly. with some. federal uh operational uh. police forces eventually getting fear. put into the the opponent the enemy the. cartel guys it took. it took some time at the start of it it. was just hopeless just hopeless.

yeah going through the motions um. a few i think uh took about a year into. it that a few of my friends were killed. they used to they used to rent out. hotels for us to stay in. and we had this buddy system going on so. if you wanted to go outside you had to. have one of your. one up buddy system right but you would. have to inform. that you were going out they didn't. inform they went to the store. thought it was easy so they crossed the. street went to this uh. convenience store and they got picked up.

by. some cartel guys dressed as federal. agents they had the blue uniforms and. everything. with the patches everything like down to. every detail. uh and they were you know they were. taken the zip died. um and put into a van they were found. 24 hours later one of them had his id. screwed to his forehead. uh they were being hunted. yeah you know that's that's when like.

paranoia um. less than a year that's less than a year. i came out of there in a generation of. 32 people. and a lot of them are gone uh. but those were the first really close. ones to me that i saw. sleep but just leave in a horrible way. um they're all young.

you know like i knew i knew like i just. been to a. to a party with the girl then i met the. girlfriend of one of them. and it was it was a thing i told him get. down and don't marry don't get. girlfriends because. you don't want to leave widows no. interest. just for perspective it's a. it's a thing to be ashamed of or to hide. if your profession is a cop or at least. it was back then. yeah so because we're not the depending.

on where you were. cops are you know despised yeah. um so what what would a typical day. look like what was your mission. depend on the time of my career like uh. some of the harder. hardcore stuff i was attached to a uh. a director uh by the name of lieutenant. colonel izaola. uh for for for the first uh part of his. uh administration is directing us.

he's the one that really changed things. like he was our. uh he was the guy you know. i always equate him to a general mathis. type individual. he was a lieutenant colonel that came. out of the war college in mexico. a career officer. went through a bunch of experience and. eventually. at in the directorship out of the group. that i worked for.

he led from the front you know i didn't. have any any specialty training uh. protecting somebody but i got assigned. to his uh security detail. at the start of his uh at the start of. his uh. turn as a director and i went out. patrolling with him. in tijuana that was probably one of the. most. life-changing altering experiences um. there's a scot. you see this guy he refused to wear a a. um. a lanyard uh um a strap on his rifle so.

he'd carry his ar in his hand. you know like a cowboy nice. um you walk out of these vehicles and. every now and then would stop a. high-level cartel guy and he would walk. up to him and like i'm here now. i'm in charge so you better you know you. better get. [ __ ] together isn't coming after you he. would have these meetings with the whole. group and just say. uh i want villains i want i want to. fight fire with fire. if you're here for romantic reasons.

just get the [ __ ] out of the room uh i. want. bodies not detainees did you like. working for him. i mean i think uh. he treated us like dog [ __ ] but we felt. the support yeah he was a very much a. villain. he's got your [ __ ] back he was very. much a villain but he was our. villain yeah that's the feeling we got. the loyalty. for that uh for that uh we would always.

see him in the front lines. uh we did this uh raid on his compound. in baja where they uh. guns drugs everything was going on. stolen vehicles uh money. uh falsification they were falsifying. bills and it was insane compound we. found out there. um and uh they actually had a line in. there as well which. that's interesting part of the story uh.

but we went there. all of us have basically approached it. from different sides and i remember. approaching it from the beach and we. were kind of walking towards this uh. compound that had a base a bunch of. bungalows there. uh some of the bungles were actually. rented out and some american families. were staying there. unbeknownst to them there was all this. stuff going on around them. uh so um i remember being very low to. the ground and hearing some. rounds go off and stuff like that and. just. being very low kind of approaching this.

place and just looking to my sides and. seeing this. this uh superhero character in the form. of lieutenant colonel he's all. just standing there you said the rounds. are coming from. like uh you can't make this [ __ ] up um. uh we we hit this place and you know he. was. with us throughout it's not he didn't. you know and. hide somewhere or go to the background. and he was with us for. all of it you know it's a probably one. of the longest uh.

longest days as far as kicking doors and. then i had in my life. there's a bunch of bungalows each time. we would hit one there was people and. there's weird things and their guns. whatever you hit all these bungalows at. the end of it there was this weird door. like a steel door with a refrigerator. with a bunch of uh. suckling frozen suckling pigs in it. i was like what's going on here right i. remember i had my mp5 with a light on it. one of the one of the uh the streamlight.

ones the first one is the yellowish. light yeah remember those. i don't know how we live with that stuff. and turn on that yellowish light you. know. with these really expensive batteries to. get down there. um open the steel door and just. go in there and in the corner like. something out of a movie. this furry object just stood and turned. around i could see its. lights his eyes light up with the light. it was a lion. they had a lot of lions they had a pet.

lion. because cartels. did one of those you got a [ __ ] mp5 i. have an mp5. i'm not one of the last things i thought. about was shooting it. yeah i just wanted to get out of the. room that was my whole thing. ran out of the room close the doors. it's like and then we have to the whole. thing about now what do we do with this. lion right um lieutenant colonel ladies.

and gentlemen what's in there it's a. line. okay don't open the door. right um calm collected guy. i mean some of the things that we. experienced were completely out of this. world. i never saw him bad and i right. um yeah that was that was. i think he was instrumental in and. turning the fear. on the side of them yeah he had about.

eight. or nine assassination attempts on him. during his time. uh working down there [ __ ] uh the last. one took it took the. took the use of his legs i shot him in. the back. um he's confined to a wheelchair now but. he's still. he's still very much a dangerous person. uh he's still very much a motivated guy. he's made a run for uh uh. for office uh for the mayor of tijuana a. few times. actually i've supported him uh during.

these runs. even out yeah yeah uh he's one of those. he was one of those guys that never. acknowledges people. you know he's like one of those leaders. that any small hint of a pat on the back. is just behind him yeah uh. but uh he shared when i was uh. when i was uh started getting a bit more. notoriety. he shared something of mine on his. social media i said oh this man used to. this this. this one of the guys that i used to work. with should listen to him he's talking.

about some of the work we did and that. was like a. insanely surreal yeah uh just. acknowledgement of mine. that was awesome that was the beyond. awesome. and then you know and then i then i went. uh over there and talked to him and he. humbled me back again what's your name. again. yeah yeah when you guys were doing when. you guys were conducting these raids. uh like this one that you were just. talking about for example. how many guys are with you and how many.

guys. uh were on the cartel side i mean. something's usually somewhere in the. numbering in the 30s or 50s on our side. if it was a high level thing and. somewhere around 50 and 100 on the. cartel side depending on where we were. and what we were doing. there were a lot of times we were. outnumbered completely outnumbered. surrounded. we had to basically adopt a defensive. position and just wait it out. uh until until the cavalry came in. usually in the form of. the in the army or the the marines.

depending on where we were. okay so you guys would take a target. down and then. and then basically hand it over to a. yeah uh yes specialized unit yeah so. we would find things that were beyond. the scope of our ability to guard or. keep or move. like a [ __ ] lion yeah like a lion or. like a lot of cocaine or a lot of wheat. or a lot of guns and a lot of people and. then we'd call in the military and the. military would come in and grab it.

and there was back then there was a. political thing so. the military they wanted they wanted. people to get more confidence in the. ability of the military to combat. that the military was combating some of. this stuff the thing is that the. military was not equipped to combat some. of this stuff. uh they didn't they weren't uh they. weren't a viable police force. but they wanted to gain more confidence. so a lot of the jobs that we would get. we would find would say hey we found all. this stuff. let the military you know take it yeah. that was a lot of that going on back. then.

and there was a lot of corruption as. well um at high levels. uh recently the uh the head of the. national security uh. administration or police force in mexico. under the calderon administration was. arrested for cartel ties. so i mean again trust no one. yeah trust no one so digging back on. that we. we would uh you know sometimes we. would go after certain things and they. would be called off. so that that makes you think yeah right.

uh but i was just a cog in the machine. you know boots on the ground. yeah that's all i was how often were you. guys going on rage was it every night. twice a night every night every night we. would get something of interest and. off we went or we get anonymous reports. of. armed people somewhere or whatever. and uh it was basically a race to see. who get to. get to get there first or it was a race. to see. what we could find first right so um.

it was a nightly thing a bunch of the. people that i used to work with were all. addicted to the same thing. adrenaline um they they all wanted to be. in it they don't want it to be. some people were coming off a shift and. they were they would hear something was. going on and just flip that back on. yeah um there's something to be said. about the people you meet and you relate. and with uh under some of these. conditions there's a weird bond that. happens. with people so we took everything. personally that would happen to each of.

us. so things like having um going off shift. and. whatever happens i'm fine people would. rush in. even on their breaks you know but it was. a nightly thing. we would get uh specific things that we. would go after. specific people or we would um. call him down there would pull the. string could find a guy with a cell. phone. and the cell phone had him with an ak. gold ak on it. on it and that would lead us to.

somebody else and that would lead us to. a house. and that would lead us to two water. barrels buried with a bunch of guns from. fast and the furious in his backyard. and that will lead us to somebody else. and it was sometimes. one one thing would turn into a couple. of three nights of just. raiding hitting houses at once. was there always shots fired sometimes a. lot. a lot of times i was i was in a few big.

ones. uh there's a famous one like. it's like uh people can look this up. there's a lot of footage of that. uh la cupola was basically a castle-like. structure house in tijuana and had a. giant dome on top of it looked like a. mosque. there was a report of armed people. inside of it so. responding units went there and they. start getting fire from. on top of that uh cupola structure so. high vantage point. all the advantages um so they.

got pinned down uh some of the. some of the federal police showed up and. then we showed up we had g3s back then. so they were pretty good at shooting. people. from some that were hiding behind. uh bricks yeah uh. some of the other guys had ars and stuff. like that so. it was an interesting um back and forth. in the in that regard um back then. the all the police units showed up.

like from the federal to the state to. the local. and finally the army showed up with a 50. cow. and this is the same fight yeah how long. did this go on it's probably. took probably like four hours maybe four. or five hours. and this is in the middle of tijuana. there's a there's a there's a. daycare center next to it jesus so we're. evacuating some of the kids out of the. daycare center. uh this time we i was uh protecting a.

a high-ranking politician so we had. access to. armored suburbans sort of bringing in. the armored survers to see if we can. evacuate some of these kids. um it was a [ __ ] show. everybody was shooting nobody knew who. like. some of the people who were showing up. there were cops wearing civilian. clothing including. us so it was a [ __ ] show. um eventually it subsided and on the ins. i uh. opened up the some of the doors and the. army uh broke in and opened some of the.

doors. uh to this place and uh on a fully. uniform the municipal police officer. stepped out. it's like i jumped the wall from back. then let's go through here and like. all of us were like that guy's probably. part of that. over there so he immediately got bagged. um and when they went in um. a lot of the uh all the it was basically. a place where they were keeping abducted. people that they were. ransoming out and a lot of them got you. know shot in the head.

uh and some of the guys that were inside. shooting out. put zip ties on in handcuffs and. pretended to be abducted. yeah i remember somebody commenting on. the fact that. the smell gave them away they would pick. them up and they would smell. freshly fresh you know not you know not. like somebody's been sleeping. in the same clothing for months yeah and. also they. didn't have any raw risks with the. restraints so they immediately got.

bagged and tagged too. a bunch of them were cops no [ __ ] yeah. police radios and we would use uh. sat uh satellite radios matra systems um. and they had those there too it was. apparently encrypted and very secure but. they had them. when you were trying to evacuate or when. uh you and your team was trying to. evacuate the children out of the daycare. uh. is there like a mutual respect between.

the police and the. cartel on sparing them or just not that. will they try to exploit that and then. uh like what a lot of. um what a lot of like what al qaeda will. do is they will look for targets. opportunity that are [ __ ] easy. that will make headline news yeah and. then uh. try to uh twist it so that. it makes it look like i mean you did it. i mean there's there's pictures online. about that uh. firefight you can see some of the uh.

some of the some of the agents basically. just two kids on. each hands just trying to extract them. rounds were flying everywhere nobody was. respecting anything. uh they they were in a fight for their. lives were cornered so you can. that was all they were up to um you can. see them trying to snipe specific things. like. we had the helicopter flying overhead. and you could see them trying to. hit that thing out of the sky um. yeah i mean there is there is they do.

definitely have elements of. you know uh hearts and minds. going on within how they operate in some. of these communities. and in some of the pla in some of the. places that we went after them they were. they were they were the police element. in the community they were. they were the guys that built the roads. they were the guys that built the church. that were the guys that would pay. for the college educations of some of. the kids there they were the guys that. built the school. um they were the guys i loved them.

yeah and that's that's that's true. across mexico there's a few places like. that in mexico. uh i did a uh i did a class. in uh sinaloa a few years back at. culiacan. this the the center of the senior law. cartel basically. um and i was driving through this road. it's a pretty rough road and all of a. sudden turn into a nice road. very well lit very well maintained and. somebody there told me this is the.

cartel built part of the road. so in a place like that you know who is. the governor. governor there yeah cartel guys or. um yeah some of these communities that. they built uh. the build around what they do were. pretty insane you know kids. kids rolling into a gas station with a. lamborghini murcielago. wearing sandals gassing it up and then. driving it up to. who knows where in the hills yeah you. know.

kids just running around with ak-47s and. like in the middle of town. um guarding somebody that was high level. uh this is this is the that's why i call. it the upside down. things are flipped in some of these. places yeah how long um. how long were you in that in that. element where you were doing. raids on a nightly basis probably. somewhere along probably nine years. nine years probably nine years of that. nine [ __ ] years. nine years old that's like two thousand.

what is that two thousand seven hundred. something raids. i mean i think that's just more great. well that's when we when we uh we talked. to last night at dinner so i talked to. you about. how's your knees and how's your back. because that's usually. that's usually what goes how much. mention planning goes into. one of these raids is it like we're. [ __ ] going yeah we're going. we're going figuring things out uh we. we gotta we got pretty good at figuring. out how things were built and how.

um a lot of the a lot of the housing. down there is pretty shitty. i mean it's a lot of the economic. housing is pretty. like cut and paced basically so we would. know how things were built. also a lot of the shanty towns that we. were working were very flammable. uh some of them were built out of. cardboard or just tarp. so you wouldn't know what what you would. get sometimes would hit. what apparently was a shanty town type. house and then would. end up in a marble floor four-story.

house with. um doberman pinschers that have. pedigrees. uh guarding the outside of it you know. yeah so we would never know what we. would get. uh some surveillance went into some of. the work we did. and we'd try and figure things out we. tried to prepare as best we could for it. um. uh but we just you know i remember just. experience would make us gather things. in what we would carry. so i remember hitting this house once. uh clear door there just went up the.

door started banging on it and. crowbaring it angle grinder eventually. we ripped that thing off and it was a. wall behind it it was a fake door it was. a fake front door. [ __ ] and we were like slow clap you know. just i mean you had to. you had to applaud that and uh. there's this secret door tunnel system. thing. on the back and they nobody was in there. when we got in there. uh it was the ingenuity base it was a. back and forth i didn't know what do you.

think yeah. um we would uh we would we would uh. would try and always figure out how we. would get into some place or how we. could get out of it also. you would go to some places and it. wasn't just that house it was also the. house next door it was also the house. over there. it was also the kids on the bike over. there had a smartphone that called. you that called any sort of activity in. there. so we had to do things like cut the. water supply the water. uh mains into some of these places that. we couldn't flush things.

would uh have to figure out the ways of. hitting everything simultaneously so. we'd have to spread out. communication was a big issue um. and also imagine going and hitting. several houses in the same. area at once crossfire's a [ __ ] yeah. and there's just no way to kind of to. kind of figure that out at times. so are most of these barrios uh are they. is the entire neighborhood on the. payroll some of them are.

you know or if they're not on the. payroll they're related to them in some. way. like blood related to some of the people. working there so it's in their best. interest to call in hey there's. yeah a bunch of weird cars here are some. people that are not from here moving in. with guns heading your way and not to. mention they're supporting the whole. [ __ ] community. sometimes yeah so again it's. it was losing battle yeah in a lot of. ways. i mean some of the success we had. the the president philippe calderon.

recently wrote uh. kind of a biography on on his uh term. and he specifically mentions baja as a. victory for him. and it did it was you know we. calmed things down in that part of the. country. it was one of the only successes that. that that uh. his whole you know counter-narcotic drug. counter cartel. effort had but it didn't last. yeah it didn't last well. that's huge that was actually my next.

question i was gonna ask out of. over 2 700 [ __ ] raids that you've. done. if you felt like you've made a dent and. uh. yeah but you did and then. it went back yeah so i mean um. the raids and then then getting to work. in. in as a bodyguard and an advisor role. advisory role for some. uh for a governor that worked in in baja. and then trying i'm just trying to.

figure out. you know all the all the effort that was. being put put into. uh finding these two large groups of. cartels that were fighting for the. richest drug route. on the planet that goes right through. tijuana. into the into california um. it's one of the richest drug routes for. a reason because it feeds the largest. drug market in the world. in the form of the us and specifically.

california. so you would hit somebody. high level sent him to prison and. the next day there's two more guys. setting up. um or you pacified this area. um and all of a sudden well there's no. competition here so other forces started. moving in discreetly. and eventually would revert back to the. same problem. um i think the.

i think the main problem is a lack of a. long-term plan. and when it came to all of that all the. plans were five. six years related to the presidential. term that was. currently in power so a presidential. term would end and everything that. worked. got discarded everything that didn't. work got discarded everybody would start. off from square one. you know an example simple example of. this. felipe calderon decided to militarize. the police forces.

so basically turn them into more of a. militaristic approach. to fight some of these cartels the guy. that replaced him said we're not going. to do that we're going to do something. completely different. so they made a new police force. and militarized it right yeah. and then the current administration is a. leftist guy. uh andres manuel lopez obrador. uh very to the left crazy guy um. not a very good president um.

he the first thing he said i'm going to. do completely the opposite of what all. these people have did. i'm going to amnesty for the cartels. brazos noble lossless policy which means. hugs not bullets. um we're gonna completely do something. different. and the first thing he does is he forms. a national guard force. and he puts the military in charge so. he's like this is the same thing again. right yeah so it's a systemic form of.

amnesia. every six years they forget everything i. just do it over again. and everybody that was related to. whatever efforts that succeeded in the. past. get vilified or get persecuted or. prosecuted. that's the thing that's happening now so. one of the governors that i that i work. with. a very honorable man like finding. somebody like that in politics in mexico. is a rare thing. but i trust that man with the with my. life in the life of my family if i had. to he's a very. stand-up guy i witnessed i witnessed his.

efforts he didn't hide you know. he really believed in what he was doing. and now he's being persecuted for. cartel ties which i know for a fact. they're bogus but it's a leftist. president. now and he's going getting and going. after all the. conservatives to the right uh. administrations in his best. that's the thing he's not addressing the. [ __ ] problem no. the easiest thing is to blame yeah who. was before. right so that's uh how long did it take.

for. uh it sounds like he cleaned up baja. pretty [ __ ] good and made it. a uh a massive it was it was the most. dangerous the tijuana was in on the most. dangerous cities in the world list. it was number one and it ceased to be on. that list after. [Music]. some of the efforts that i was involved. in and some of the people that uh. like uh like uh lieutenant colonel. lazola took charge of the local police. forces there. and he disarmed all of the tijuana.

police force and cleaned it up. which was an insane thing to do. um it dropped off that list and things. pacified. uh cartel's cartel members and cartel. convoys. ceased to be uh in the open thing they. would. like when i started you would see these. cartel fully armed car shell convoys. just in the middle of the day just drive. through the city and abduct somebody and. just take them and nobody would do. anything. he put fear into the equation um.

that that that in the open presence. stopped. yeah um abductions for ransom were a big. thing. in that in the city um that kind of. lowered and stopped for a while. and then things went back to normal. right. so much back to normal that more a lot. of protests started happening to get the. military. to go back to their military barracks to. get the police. to stop being militaristic and to turn. into more of a community policing force. so again bad times create bad times.

create. men uh strong men strong men. at good times and we went into that. cycle. yeah and now we're back again into the. whole tijuana's on the. one of the i think it was last year was. the most dangerous city on the planet. per capita. um and then there's a new generation. cartel. allyship with the tijuana cartel that is. fighting for control over tijuana with. the suno little cartel. and it's back to square one now damn.

seven eight people die every every night. in tijuana. damn related to the cartel violence. so kind of wrapping up your career um. you talk about kind of being recruited. by the cartel. um and i kind of wanted to go a little. deeper into that. and i would imagine that. you were recruited several times or had.

friend you had already said that you had. friends that have been recruited out of. the. out of the police or maybe the military. and into the cartel. i mean the offer was it was an offer you. know it was always hot they were always. you would always get intermediaries. approaching you know like hey and like. you know this is this is as much of. money. you know all it takes is for you to work. with us you know but you. it's it was obvious to anybody you know. as soon as you take. an offer like that you're you're owned.

you're theirs. if you [ __ ] up if you're not useful or. if somebody finds out you're working for. somebody that they're they're not a part. of. you'll either get arrested and get. killed. by the rival group that you're working. against. um or your career ends right. so i got a lot of offers a lot of them. never took any of them. um a lot of my friends and a lot of the. people that i used to work with did. or eventually will put would put into a. position where there was no choice.

plata or silver or lead colombian term. but it's. popular in mexico yeah another code for. it it was. one finger up and one finger down you. know what do you want you want to. you want plata bluma you know i want to. be on the ground or you want to. stay up here in the world of the living. um. i wasn't greedy there's a lot of people. that went into policing in mexico they. wanted to find a million dollars in. burying the wall or something or. uh or just be on the payroll of somebody.

i remember going to some of the meetings. uh at the office and seeing you know. some new hummers outside and some of. these guys don't. kind of scratching my head at it right. yeah um a lot of. a lot of us went through a certification. process called kalia it's an american. certification process. and with that you know a lot of. confidence exams polygraph testing all. this type of stuff all of us went. through it. um a lot of people got kicked out or. fired after they went through that.

process. uh which to us to me you know i passed. so. was i stayed on so i figured that all. the people that had passed stayed on. they were on the up and up. you know but people can be corrupted. like from one day to another. right so we were careful about. everything but. i felt a bit better that everybody was. going through it. administration ends somebody comes. another administration comes in. and a landmark case declares everybody. that was fired based on the polygraph.

exam or the confidence exams. as unconstitutional and all of a sudden. you have six years worth of people that. were. kicked out of the job coming back into. the job. their their wages being paid forward. and you had people that were suspected. of seeing the law lower cartel. participation. in the office now back at the office. so uh. so it got really bad. um and you know.

basically brought into the office all. the the the work that i was doing. um ended i got an offer. to work for a single side of it. basically. they told us hey remember you're working. here yeah. well we're gonna work against these guys. over here only and we want you. to come in and okay let me think about. it. basically we want us to work against one. side which means you want us to work for. this side. yeah i resigned that day.

and there was just no getting out of it. or squirming out of it or going. somewhere else i didn't have any. all the people that i knew within high. level government were gone because the. administration changed. all the people that i knew when the. leadership in the office were moved. around and. i just had no choice so i. went uh went outside i got my. resignation printed out. signed it handed everything in in the. duffel bag. handed in my mp5 my gun my badge. everything radio.

uh got myself into a car called some of. my friends my american friends. um actually two uh two of them went down. there. kind of helped me out to get out of. there uh marines. god bless the united states marine corps. um. and they helped me cross the border and. uh. you know um family in tow by this point. which was uh that was probably the. hardest part. um i had choices uh in the u.s that i.

didn't have it in mexico. yeah it wasn't a choice that i took. lightly and it wasn't. something that i wanted to do at that. point but i didn't have a choice. down there at that point um most of my. friends didn't have that choice. and a lot of them actually you know went. uh got out of the job and. seeked employment elsewhere yeah do you. keep in touch with any of those guys. no it's a it's it's one of those things. where. like uh it's not doesn't serve anybody's.

interest to make contact with these. people. um i mean there are people that i work. with for years. uh i slept on the same floor as them. eight out of the same two in kansas then. yeah um. and i went to some other birthday. parties of their kids and uh. now i see them rolling out there in some. luxury vehicles. getting 12 thousand dollars paid to them. every two weeks. as a salary um and working.

for some of the most powerful drug. organizations on the planet with a lot. of government training on their side. a lot of american government specialty. training on their side. um and just basically upping the game. we just went through the most uh lethal. year to be a mexican in the. country's history the most violent year. in our history. this past year and this year is going to. beat that year probably. um and it's being fueled by people. like me that went into that fight got.

all these uh. all this experience all these skills and. they're basically toss into the garbage. yeah. as they would then flip to uh you know. the whole. career path was just non-existent then. that's what's fueling some of this fight. as well you know some of these people. just. what what else am i gonna do right yeah. um. none of them had the the opportunity. that i had so and i don't blame them. realistically i just can't blame them.

yeah um. yeah but a lot of them are out there. well i'll tell you what let's take a uh. let's take a quick break and then. when we come back we'll kind of talk. about the structure. of uh. some of these guys and you know and then. and uh going to that.

there's a lot of people looking for land. these days. as we continue to uh. lose our freedoms so we're on our way to. look at a piece of property. out in the middle of nowhere and uh. this particular piece only sits on. an acre and a half i believe 1.5 acres.

[Music]. all right ed we're back from the break. and uh i want to kind of go into. some of the structure of the cartels and. uh and then i got like a hodgepodge of. questions that are just a bunch of. random [ __ ]. but um. you kind of talked about how fast they. bounced back um. after the after the uh political leaders. change. uh with a different strategy and just to. kind of put that. in perspective for the audience.

i read something uh when i was it may. have been a documentary i can't remember. but it was talking about a. a family that was running basically like. just a small family. cocaine operation out of mexico uh. sounded like maybe five to ten family. members. and within a few years that had grown. into. a cartel organization that was over a. hundred thousand. uh with over a hundred thousand members.

of that cartel. and uh so just to kind of put that in. perspective. for the audience on how [ __ ] big that. is. that google employs 108 000 people. so within a few years um. they grew that cartel into basically. an organization as [ __ ] powerful as. google. and uh the only way they could have done. that is by the demand. um which is one of the first things i.

want to ask is. how much of that demand is coming to the. united. states versus canada versus europe are. we the number one consumer. yeah i mean yeah yes so consumer the. the u.s market is what drives most of. the growth. that some of these organizations have. most of it comes to the u.s. a lot of it actually goes to places like. europe um. a lot there's been a recent upsurge in.

nautical uh trips between. um you know latin america into places. like africa. then get unloaded in africa and then get. uh sent over to europe right that's. that's one one of the routes that it's. taken. canada as well i mean it's a growing. drug market canada has one of the. fastest growing drug markets out there. right now so a lot of that is fueling. some of these smaller organizations. growing right.

another thing that's fueling them is. their ability to also. make a living off their environment. mexico itself. is a giant drug market that's a lot of. that's one of the things a lot of people. don't talk about as well. um tijuana is an example of this. and most of the killings are happening. between. uh rival uh cartels in tijuana. killing off the local sellers. of each other sides so most of the.

people that die. during the night in tijuana is like. seven to eight or something like that. every night. they're in different sales points in. tijuana where they're selling there. locally. so that also feeds their organizations. uh they all. they also have money within legitimate. businesses. from um you know there's a few tequila. companies out there that have been. linked. to people like el chapo's family okay um. so it's legitimate money growing out of. some of these. i think uh george clooney sold his.

tequila company for about a billion or. something like that. so you can imagine some of the money. being made. legally through some of their uh. influences and some of the properties. they can buy with some of the money. generated from trafficking drugs into. the us they sound pretty diversified and. i want to get into that in a minute but. you were talking about. uh a lot of the violence in tijuana is. is cartel on cartel and the way i just. took what you said is they're killing. each other's lowest level.

yeah nice yeah they're their most. exposed level which is their sales. points local sales points. so how uh how are they identifying each. guy. like before so you follow the user is. you follow the user yeah and they're. pretty easy to spot. you follow the user and uh there's a. i mean i'm sorry about the french that i. keep saying you know those bad words but. they're. the words that we used to use when we. worked if you want to find somebody. find where they sleep work and [ __ ].

when i say [ __ ] i mean where they. partake in their vices. so like even we would follow the people. that were you know we recognized as. users we'd follow them around and we'd. immediately recognize sales points. so uh. traditionally most of the sales points. in in. in tijuana specifically they're all kind. of on. the outskirts of the city like in the. eastern part of the city or some of the. older uh older parts of the city that.

are on the hillsides. city juan has a river going through it. so that's where most of the downtown. more. developed parts are so people want to. buy they go into the hillsides and then. come back. well good so that's where most of the. killing is happening mostly. you know again sales points and they. identify each other because you know. and grab a junkie off the street where. are you buying it over there that's not. one of our guys. okay i guess what i was uh. kind of going towards is do they have a. any specific markings for.

different cartels like no uh they're. they're. they've become very good at not doing. that. uh from tattoos they used to there used. to be a big culture with criminal. mexican criminal. organizations having tattoos or markings. of some kind. uh we would find people that had. like spots where they mechanically or. chemically remove. tattoos and it was like a standing order. within some of the organizations. yeah so they're very good at that and. detaching themselves.

from some of these uh sales points okay. so. uh the the high level distributors will. give them to. give the loads that are going to be sold. in different ports of parts of the city. to somebody else that is unattached. to the distributor it's like a waypoint. so they'll give them that and they'll go. and hand it over. and somebody else will get the money so. they attach those two points. all communication goes through paper. notes. and or cell phones that get changed on a. daily basis that type of stuff.

okay so but they're they're they're very. good half of bookkeepers. i mean they're like if you miss 20 pesos. hour you're cut. over the day you're gonna get a visit by. somebody. so good uh it just seems like. killing each other off you know cartel. versus cartel. uh the turf war or whatever uh it is. that's going on and why they're trying. to eliminate each other. uh just said you know one organization. grew to a hundred thousand.

uh a hundred thousand. person strong cartel within a few years. and it when an organization's that. [ __ ] big. you there's no way i've i i feel like. there's no way you could possibly know. who's on your side who's selling drugs. for. cartel x and who's selling drugs for. cartel why. so they they they divide themselves up. into cells. basically so an example of this what was.

what's happening at what was happening. in tijuana back in 2008. uh they had a sinaloa cartel had a cell. in. tijuana and they had a lieutenant that. was in charge of the cell that reported. directly back to sinaloa. to the head of the cartoon law cartel. which was not el chapo by the way. as as a lot of euro us media and a lot. of mexican media wants to make him out. as the head of. you know cartel well chapa guzman was. probably. number three or number four in the in. the whole scale of things he was not the.

head of the synonymous cartel no sure. but that we'll talk about that later if. you want uh but what they usually do is. they send out. like a lieutenant to run a cell. he gets fed money he gets fed guns. and he gets fed instructions his task is. to secure drug routes. to attack any sort of rival rival. enemies or people that are going to want. to gain control over. any sort of illicit or illegal activity. this includes human trafficking.

this includes um objection for ransom. this includes. a stolen vehicle trafficking from uh. from the us into mexico or even in. mexico when they steal some of the newer. vehicles. and traffic in some of the uh the cars. themselves or the clone. the serial numbers and send the cars all. the way down to southern mexico and. actually come up with different. paperwork for them. so that that their their whole purpose. is to report directly back to the.

to the to the head of the cartel uh to. control uh. to control distribution to control these. illicit activities. and to tax people right. um they have several arms within that. cell structure. the enforcement arm cecarios. the guys that go out and kill people the. guys that go out and intimidate people. the guys that go out. and eliminate the competition they have. whole sales of people that just. every night they go out there hunting. rival. distribution networks of rival cartel.

guys that's their whole deal. right um the reason why they're hot. these cars are hard to get. is that they they drive around and roam. around without any guns. they find somebody that they want to get. after and there's. two ladies old women probably in their. late 60s. drive up to them and hand over the guns. that they use. they use them and they get handed back. to these old ladies and they. these old ladies are inconspicuously. just moving about the city. with a troll of guns in their cars or.

they just dump them. right so that's the enforcement arm of. it and then there's the uh distribution. and security arm of it uh this. distribute they distribute the uh the. drugs they take care of distribution or. movement of. loads of drugs going into the u.s and or. money coming down from the u.s. or recently there's been an uptake in. precious metals being trafficked from. the us. into mexico as a way of payment instead. of money. so like uh gold basically.

so there's a whole administrative. distribution part of it where they move. money to the us money from the us and. guns from the us and drugs up into the. us so there's a whole thing there. then there's the administration side of. it you know people have to keep tabs. over numbers it's a lot of money it's a. lot of numbers. um there's a lot of people going around. and and. figuring out what percentages of money. are being. uh taken in at certain times of the year. so they can ask questions at the.

second time so like when the kova thing. hit sales dropped. so that kind of freaked some of these. cartels up and then. they started uh figuring ways of getting. around some of the. lockdown measures by actually going. door-to-door and distributing their. product. no sure so they developed this uh. drug uber basically right in some parts. of the country. so you have your your enforcement or. security arm you have your distribution. arm. or um distribution arm and uh.

and you have your administration arm. administrative arm and then you have. this at the center of all this there's. the the figure of a. lugartaniento or a cartel leadership. um he usually has other underlings that. also perform leadership tasks and. sometimes these underlings. don't know each other or don't have any. attachment to each other so like a cell. within a cell. okay so we would get somebody that was. in charge of a group of. 40 sicarios and all he had was a. different phone that would be handed to.

him so he could get instructions. how are they broken up are they broken. up by region yeah so. like uh tijuana that one when i was. active tijuana was divided up into four. pieces. there was there was a playas near the. beach. there was a there was a center el centro. or the old. and the old federal colonia which is. like that's one of the richest. drug markets that's where the americans. walk in to buy some of their. drugs and then move back uh back to the. us. uh the east side of the city where a lot.

of the uh the trafficking. uh from within mexico like large stroke. loads would come be stored there and. then would get uh. put into vehicles put on people put into. tunnels. all that stuff that's kind of the main. main part of the activity there um. and uh some places like this as the the. older colonies and the places like la. mesa. aguertas all these other other parts. where they would have their houses where. they had. whether they would party where they. would hide so you'd have these divisions.

and each of these divisions had their. own kind of like head guy that would. know. everything going on there he would have. the police on their payroll. the he would have the investigative. police on the payroll. he wouldn't have people who he would. know in the media. that would cover up things for them he. would. pay for certain election processes of. the local representatives so. again the they were more connected than. the. self than the phone company there you. know they had all these connections. everywhere.

yeah that's how they worked um backing. up. real quick sure you were saying. lieutenants uh are kind of in charge so. a lieutenant. of a cartel in a region would be in. charge of. multiple streams of revenue which is. mainly drugs and then sex. trafficking car theft uh. whatever else then they are also in. charge of the sicarios. they're also in charge of the the the. trafficking routes. so this almost kind of sounds like maybe. a corporate or maybe even a franchise.

model. yeah where each lieutenant owns. or maybe doesn't own but is in charge of. uh his business model. yeah and then they have the exact same. business model. all over [ __ ] mexico yeah does that. include uh. is it run the same way in the united. states. yes uh yes so. more so than a corporation it kind of. reminds you of.

some sort of underground government. like because they they not only provide. money sometimes for things like schools. and. and people's immigration processes or. lawyers or they also police some of the. communities. so there's some communities that you. know something gets stolen they don't. call the cops they call the cartels. that's why you see a lot of these videos. popping up online. cartel guys giving the board uh. against uh uh some on some of these guys.

they lower their pants and just you know. go to town on them and they're that's. corporal punishment provided by. a quasi-narco government that is working. at parallel with the government okay um. so that way that's i think that's more. equated to. how they act of course they're a. business yeah and they. just like the government taxes they tax. as well so sometimes they task certain. companies for protection. so there's a bunch of mining operations. going on along the northern border in.

mexico that all they're all taxed by. cartels depending on where they are. so they can continue operating in the. u.s side. you get some of the same structure not. as overt again they can't be as overt up. here because you still have. you still have a working government you. still have uh. you still have a police force you still. have a federal police force that has. that isn't anywhere near as corrupted as. other parts of the world specifically in. mexico. so there's this they work with fear here. uh but in the same way you they have a.

single. lieutenant or cartel head that runs the. operation very much like they did down. there. with us with a with an armed branch or a. enforcement branch or security branch. that goes off and does things for them. to distribute to a distribution branch. that takes care of money loads going. down to mexico maybe a buying arm or an. administrative arm that. that just gathers things like ammo or. guns or whatever. the people back home want you know. sometimes clothing.

sometimes the weird things like clothing. or the latest and greatest uh. jordan shoes will get smuggled right. where the. in the drug tunnels where the drugs come. into the us some of the some of those. luxury goods might get smuggled back. into new mexico. uh because somebody sent a shopping list. over right. um but they're they act differently here. in the us. the distribution arms in the u.s are. usually done through other. third parties not in mexico that's not. the case so. distribution down there is done by.

locals they they gather people that work. for them as distributors. up here in the u.s you see a lot of uh. motorcycle uh gangs being utilized. uh by cartel's distribution uh. as distribution or local gangs chicago. is a good example of this. senior law cartel runs a lot of their. distribution with some of the local. black. gangs in places like chicago so they use. them by proxy. because they're they're aware that. obviously i'm not going to. get a mexican guy that works for me.

that's loyal to my cartel to distribute. this drug. in this community where he doesn't look. or talk like the people there yeah. so they're smart about that so they go. through secondary people like that here. in the us that's kind of what changes. and. how they operate here so these guys that. they're creating their own uh. they've they have created their own. [ __ ] government. essentially yeah and they're supporting. their local communities. and they are on both sides of the border. are acting as. essentially they're acting as law.

enforcement in mexico. and so these guys are probably [ __ ]. chomping at the bit right now for. the police to be defunded right here in. the u.s because they're going to take a. major [ __ ] role in that. i know for a fact that most of the. places where police police. presence is lower or basically a. non-existent because of the current. situation. i know for a fact that they've taken all. the advantages to move. product to move guns to move and do and.

clear out whatever they need to do. in this in this time of the great law. enforcement pause. that the country's going through so. they're being extremely [ __ ]. proactive with that. so think about this. the largest fastest growing cartel in. mexico was his. new generation cartel grew exponentially. in influence in power. not just in mexico but in the u.s during. the coba epidemic. senior law cartel was struggling to get. fentanyl for their product.

they actually had to smuggle it from. american ports down to mexico which a. load was captured in. in the tijuana to feed their apparatus. the the reason why that happened is. because the new generation cartel. controls. the pacific side ports in mexico. in places like lima right so their. distribution was clear and easy. you know china was sending their stuff. they were getting their product and they. were growing exponentially. uh so the pause only affected you know.

law enforcement. in mexico was also kind of paused a bit. uh but they grew exponentially with the. with the shutdown. also the senior law cartel's uh. capacity to meet demand lowered their. capacity wasn't. was uninterrupted and they've been. working. on growing on their influence in the u.s. side for years. there was a recent operation they nabbed. about 86 of them or something like that.

by the dea. including uh including uh one of uh. one of one of the head leader of the new. generation cartel's uh. kids right so they've been growing under. like underground here in the u.s for. years and they're. the that uh hit they had was. nothing yeah they didn't even put a dent. in it they're growing. um and again the fentanyl heroin. drug market now a bogus fake pain pills.

coming out of china. also coming into the u.s right. um. i wanted to get into this but [ __ ] it. we'll do it now uh. china i uh when i was doing my research. it sounds like china has taken a major. interest in and. the cartels in in mexico. and uh i've operated around china. overseas several times and uh those.

[ __ ] are. just as ruthless if not more uh. than some of the cartels um and uh. they also play by my no rules. why is the interest in china or uh the. why is china's interest in mexico so. becoming so strong. uh it's your achilles heel as a country. it's your number two. largest consumer of american products in. the world it's a very. stable place that's getting disabled.

destabilize even more. so this this whole weird thought process. that americans have that. the cartels are getting their fentanyl. from china from some sort of criminal. element within china. like let's be clear nothing comes out of. china nothing happens in china without. chinese state being involved or. knowing about it this is a place where. big brother is the real thing right. everybody's monitored. you saw it during the kobe shutdown you.

saw it with the way they're handling. handling the uyghur population so. nothing coming out of china. is coming out of china without them. knowing so so. all that fentanyl being brought out of. china into mexico that's going to be. being put into heroin or some of these. fentanyl. fabrication sites that are being found. in mexico now. with clear instruction by chinese. um laboratory specialists that's not a. private entity that's not. the triads or that's not a criminal.

activity that's a state. chinese state-sponsored activity it's a. clear state to anybody that kind of. looks into this. yeah um the you know one thing is. regional this destabilization that's. usually that usually happens when they. want something from that country. so one thing happened politically in the. within within the u.s and mexico. relationship. uh the trump phenomenon right. trump came into office and said we're. gonna take a lot of our business out of.

mexico. and bring it back that was one of the. things here that that. he said that was going to happen and did. happen a lot of businesses. uh took their took their plants and. american business took their plants and. companies out of mexico. um instead of it affecting mexico in a. negative way. chinese plants and chinese companies are. planted them immediately. no [ __ ] so something happened. in that interval where somebody on this. side figured out that probably a mistake.

and things started balancing out. interesting thing to note. we currently have in mexico will left. this president that has opened. chavista as open maduro supporter. but somehow there's an open and like. really friendly relationship with the us. when it comes to the president and trump. and the president down there. i think trump is very much aware of the. danger that mexico was in with the. chinese influence and the foreign. influence within the country. um another factor that doesn't get.

talked a lot about. is that mexico has probably the largest. mindable deposits of lithium right on. the border. in china uh china through a com. through a canadian company will actually. won the rights to mine that a few years. back and their mining rights got. cancelled. and i'm not you know going to go into. alex jones territory. right but i mean the the the conspiracy. part of it. uh right where that mining where that. mining discovery was made. that's where the the the mormon massacre.

happened. so it's a it's a key place and things. happen there. yeah it's a very strange kind of. environment for all the influences and. all the. pushing and pulling that's happening in. that area um. some of the people that i've talked to. um. in the security field some of the people. that i've talked to in security field. outside of the friendly. neighbors of the us like uh in mexico. there's a lot of cuban. uh intelligence uh services uh service. operations going on.

all over the place just like places like. venezuela. you can see a clear partnership and. influence with china there. right it's in their best interest to. gain ownership and control over a place. like mexico which is going currently. going through a. through a lot of bad stuff a lot of a. lot of crime. a lot of destabilization there's whole. swats of mexico that are controlled by. cartels. the new generation cartel i think in a. way is. a product of that outside influence it's.

the only cartel that grew. during the cobot epidemic shutdown that. tells me that there's some sort of. outside influence from china there. are you seeing a lot of um are you. seeing a lot of. chinese coming into mexico and kind of. setting up shop. the the largest uh one of the largest of. the cash seizures was. done uh on a guy uh jen li segon it's a. chinese mexican national. uh somewhere in the vicinity of a. hundred million dollars cash found at. his house.

he was trafficking fentanyl legally. uh and meth precursors into the country. under some some sort of paper work. legality so there's some shady stuff. going on there how long has this [ __ ]. been going on. with china as soon as as soon as the u.s. got a taste for meth i think that's. probably the start of it. when was that 10 years ago probably a. bit more further back than probably 15. years ago. 15 years yeah then there's there's been. this this has just been exponentially. growing. um is it is it weird uh.

how do i phrase this. are you seeing more and more chinese. people is it becoming like a common. thing. one of the largest communities of. chinese. nationals are are growing all along the. border. wow right so i mean i'm again this is. this is i'm not this is not something uh. that's not something the realm of the. conspiracy. yeah like if you can this is clearly. happening uh.

out in the open in a lot of in a lot of. in a lot of regards. and people can research this and see if. they see it for themselves. to deny that the largest cartel in. mexico is. grew during the covet epidemic because. they clearly had a supply chain from. china yeah is to deny what's right in. front of your face. to deny that uh more and more narenko. made. military-grade stuff is popping up in. print places in mexico. is also missing something that's in.

front of your face. um and to deny that uh so. how many people die from fentanyl. related uh issues here in the u.s. tons um if you want to. confront a military the u.s is a. superior military force. how can you corrode that. it makes perfect sense generation the. thing with china is they're [ __ ]. extremely. effective don't wait at whatever they do. they have a lifetime president.

yeah one one one being they don't. they don't [ __ ] play by rules either. yeah and uh you know china will come in. and uh they'll open a whorehouse. immediately to start gathering. intelligence because. people are gonna go to the [ __ ]. whorehouse they're gonna [ __ ] a chinese. hooker the hooker's gonna milk them for. information the information gets to. where it needs to go and it happens like. that. that's a cuban intelligence services. that are operating all over central. america and. specifically venezuela that's how they.

act right that's. they're they're people are playing. checkers with these guys that are. playing chess. and they play the long game that's. that's something i think the u.s doesn't. get. example china has a lifetime president. yeah cuba has a lifetime regime with the. castro. with the castros they're playing a. really long game. against uh a a. a country that has elections.

and politics change every every every. every uh. every four eight years you know and uh. and they see that the the clear line and. divide so. i mean there's blood in the water and i. think i think they can smell that. everybody's taking advantage of it yeah. and uh. i got again foreign eyes but i'm new. here. i'm trying to earn my way into becoming. an american. um but i still have that outside.

perspective. people getting offended by you know the. the whole chinese virus warding or. or china isn't the villain and the. country and. people kind of coming into the defense. of that people within the mva. that wanting to speak up about china. because the. chinese are the best uh one of their. best clients as far as buying some of. the rights to. watching some of these nba games disney. i mean you know you can't say anything. wrong but.

how surreal is it. that you can't speak uh critically about. china. if you work for the nba i mean that is. outside of the um that's outside of the. realm of what i thought. being an american was yeah right so. i don't know it's a weird time but i. think that's. they're clearly waging some sort of. long-term war. campaign against the u.s and.

mexico is being utilized as a as a tool. for that. yeah interesting with the fentanyl. uh going back to that uh i always what. are they putting the fentanyl in. uh heroin heroin and also. now they're they're they're building up. building or making. uh fake pain medication they're kind of. basing it off some of the. pill designs and very badly made seen. some pretty good ones. uh coming out of mexico in the past few.

years back when it was active they were. crudely made. but you know somebody hands you some. pain medication in a dark room somewhere. and you take it. you don't even know what it is yeah um. so usually some of the heroin that's. being grown in hillsides out there. a weird phenomenon happened california. legalized marijuana colorado. a lot of places are kind of following. soon in the u.s so the the demand for. marijuana went down it's not over though.

there's still there's still traffic. marijuana into the u.s. which is pretty surprising but uh. a lot of the hillsides that were covered. with weed back then. are now covered in poppy fields but the. thing is that some of these hillsides. have been. grown that stuff that stuff has been. growing in those hillsides for. decades so the heroin yield and the. strength of the heroin isn't. anywhere near some place like. afghanistan. or some of the stuff that comes out of. the you know asia.

uh it's actually very low quality and. strength so. the cartel said you know just put. fentanyl in it to. give it a kick it just seems kind of. counterproductive because. heroin is already so [ __ ] addictive. you know and then. and then when you do hear of. you know people overdosing on her own uh. a lot of the times you know comes out. that it was laced with fentanyl. yeah so it seems it's uh i mean i'm sure. there's a reason for it but in my mind.

i'm like why would you do that because. you're killing the [ __ ] consumer. which seems to be bad for business. well well you know they they they they. they shifted to the methamphetamines for. a while like as their main thing. and methamphetamines and cocaine uh but. then they realized how much of a. grassroots effort there was in the us to. make your own. and i didn't like that yeah so they saw. this perfect storm and window to just. dedicate themselves to. heroin fentanyl put them together.

and a bunch of people that were on. opiates already in the. a lot of the a lot of the crackdown that. went on in the us against uh. prescription opiates that were left. without a product. yeah and it was a perfect storm for the. cartels to kind of fill that void. do you think this is gonna create any. do you think this is going to create any. problems with uh. afghanistan and mexico now that they're. getting into the opiate trade. because that's the number one well i've. been when it comes to taliban.

al qaeda that's yeah isis i've been. researching. and anything so just to be you know. clear and open about it uh i have. friends. all over mexico a lot of them people. that i used to work with uh. and they're still active within law. enforcement in mexico some of the people. that i've trained like i still. go down there and train uh members of. law enforcement. and uh and then some of the security. forces. so they anything that's weird gets sent.

to me. like from horrible videos to uh. farsi translation books found in the. desert somewhere. uh so i've always been always on the. lookout for anything. middle eastern in mexico yeah um and. interestingly enough. it's an open order within most of the. major cartels that run. operations along the border to not touch. anything related to. islamic extremism or islamic anything. why is that because they're they don't. want to.

they're they're afraid of the word. the designation they're afraid of the. terrorist designation. that's something that puts fear in them. okay that's something we thought we. all those i thought it was coming after. after that family was murdered on the. border and it's. sorry for saying mormon massacre. american massacre there. they were american nationals. you know and they also had mexican. citizenship.

i don't care if they prayed to the moon. they were american and also they were. women and children. yeah i thought that was coming i. i heard the designation i heard the. pressure coming on and i said that's. that's i think that's going to change. things but it didn't was walked back. you know again regional stability i'm. sure there's a good reason for that. um but uh they're afraid of it so they. don't want to touch anything related to. extremism i mean there's probably a few.

cases of them kind of slipping through. the cracks or some. smaller cartels helping out uh some sort. of muslim. group or something like that but it's. mostly like a touchy subject with them. they wouldn't. any anything that smells of it they. won't touch it or they will they will. take care of it themselves. it's not good for their business um. so i don't see that becoming a problem. uh. but uh who knows uh this this is. called uh people are moving more freely.

uh in and out of mexico now. again the government is losing a grip on. in sports of entry. it's declining in some places we saw. this with the uh. culiacanaso incident where the. government forces captured one of el. chapo's kids. and were basically beaten by the whole. of the sinaloa cartel. yeah so you know who knows i mean it. could be something on the horizon. it'll be interesting i mean they're. definitely dipping into their products. by er into their.

profits by now and and the funny thing. about. um them as they only use that. to fund their intention yeah. you know and uh we know their intentions. and. if they can't uh you know if that takes. away from. the money that they're dumping into. their intentions. then i mean [ __ ] man it could be. something we'll see in the. like it could be something on the. horizon yeah um. again i think uh mexico is getting worse.

there's there's no if ends about it um. and people blame the cobot epidemic as. far as the economic downturn. that's going through i mean the. incompetence and the. the the death spike and the violence in. mexico flared up way before that. yeah um and again it's. it's it's it's a clear the proxy war. happening. in mexico between you know two major. uh forces you know.

american interests and chinese uh. probably chinese sponsored state. interests in mexico. roughly how many different cartels uh. are down there i mean it's different. numbers like hundreds. probably somewhere in the hundreds you. know uh. five of us can form a cartel then we can. be named. like a cartel and we named an organized. crime. group and work in a town and we're a. cartel that just dedicates themselves to.

this town so there's a lot of them small. ones. uh but mostly all the small ones by. proxy work for another bigger cartel. so yeah there's a lot of there's a lot. of small ones that just hold control. over. certain parts of certain parts of the. country how many main. cartels are that i'd say there's two. major ones that people need to. keep an eye on worry about the new. generation cartel. jalisco a cartel that originally was. formed as a as an armed enforcement uh.

elite wing to fight. the zeta cartel when it was still when. it was still active when it was still. the major threat for the senate law. cartel so they basically senola cartel. basically made these uh this matasetta's. group. to fight against the zetas and um. they turned into their own thing they. turned into a card they figured out like. that well we can be cartel ourselves. yeah okay let's so let's. gain control of the king strategic. control of.

places like guadalajara places like. kolima where the major ports are so they. basically. they basically became the owners of the. door for some of the precursors. and this was at the start of the shift. from cocaine. to heroin fentanyl. precursors for meth so they so they got. in. at the right time to gain control of. that they've been growing exponentially. and it's not uh. sonic cartel liked to see the law cartel. that flaunts their lavish lifestyles and.

gold guns and fast cars they're very. militaristic they're very low key in. some ways they've smartened up. yeah and they recruit they're always. recruiting. from military to police um. they have legitimate training camps out. there you know so we still see. we used to see these isis isis uh al. qaeda training videos with the monkey. bars you know. that's happening now in in mexico and. then there's actually. like camps with these guys go out and.

train. there's rumors of american uh ex. american military guys advising. them uh it's the only cartel in mexico. that's well it's one of the only. two only cartels in mexico that has uh. dominance over the skies over their. territories. so there's places in guadalajara where. helicopters don't fly because. they're afraid to get knocked down. they've already knocked down a few. um so they're they're an incredible. force to kind of face. yeah they have they recently got a.

crackdown from the government going. after them directly. which leads a lot of people to think. that the federal government in mexico. has a deal with sinaloa cartel. so there's some sort of effort being. done against just the new generation. cartel because they see him as a threat. um but they're growing there's not. there's no stopping their growth. um and you can see that a lot of that. uh growth is directly related to their. ability to get stuff from the pacific. side of the ocean. that's one of the main reasons why it's. growing wow.

you talk uh in depth several times about. the zeta cartel. and uh for those of you that don't know. who the zeta cartel is. uh they were started by. mexican mexican special operations guys. correct yeah uh. special forces is a a lot of groups. right now within the military claim that. title. uh back when they were the when the. zetas came about that's a that's a. generation of people. uh that had the guffe title a group.

mobile deforestation is basically an air. mobile. special forces group different breed of. people i. actually had and still have people that. i know that i. that i work with every now and then that. didn't go these at the route and. remained on different bleeder guys. mostly. college degrees and university degrees. some of them have master's degrees. all of them have language skills that. say you know these guys are special um. school of the americas trained um a lot.

of them have pictures in fort bragg and. some. crazy places and received some crazy. jungle warfare training in colombia. and other places uh in south america so. these guys are. these guys were monsters basically. um and they were on government salaries. which are pretty shitty yeah um. eventually. uh the gulf cartel headed at that time. by ocl cardenas guillen. decided it would be an interesting thing. to hire on some of these guys as.

bodyguards. so a former member of that group that. worked for his cartel said i'll help you. recruit them. um we went down there made the offer. made the offer. with money all them looked at each other. and said yeah. we're in empty out emptied out the. armory. filled their trucks left on patrol never. came back. so all of a sudden you saw this. high-level sophisticated. highly trained um sf group.

working for one of the major cartels in. mexico and then they split off and. became their own and then again. just like the matazette does from the. scene in locker i thought they figured. out hey. we're doing all the work we can be our. own cartel so they split off. they were labeled as being uh some of. the most ruthless. guys out there i think i think they're. being beat by the new generation cartel. now. really yeah but they were they were. ruthless they were. very cold calculated um.

like and this is this comes from. second-hand stories and. some some of the stories that i've heard. from some of the people that belong to. that unit. um they would have this thing where. during training they would get a dog. that they would you know take care of. for a few weeks they would sleep with. and feed and all this type of stuff name. it and then they would have to kill it. and eat it. after a time with random weaponry. crowbar. rock so like then if you didn't do it.

you would get kicked out. so that's the type of individual that. they were breathing right they were. they were um desensitizing these guys. and then all of a sudden. imagine you're this elite warfighter. with all this training. and all this oversight and all this. leadership behind you and rules. all of a sudden no rules yup. you're your own guy your you guys are. just. what are the local cops going to do with. the revolvers it makes.

it enables the uh the operator to reach. maximum potential yeah it was so they. were unchained. um one of the things that i don't hear. talked about much. but during a time the the zetas allied. themselves with the tijuana cartel. to fight against sinaloa so that doesn't. seem a lot of. enemies long enemies um and there was a. prison break in tijuana that was. a team level like the a team did it you.

know there's like i was working back. then. i didn't get to to to witness it but i. got there to see the after effect. uh tijuana prison um never seen the. movie ever seen the movie get to gringo. by mel gibson. that's based on that prison it's a very. old. prison basically the city grew around it. uh it's still active. it's been trying to get uh deactivated. for years but they haven't been able to. replace it completely.

a group of people dressed in a medical. guard and a few ambulances came to do. a weekly transport of some of the. members into their dialysis. it's like a there was a weekly thing. that happened in that prison. so everybody thought it was normal and. all of a sudden. precise uh precise uh precise sniper. fire at the guard towers took them out. explosives were used small frame charges.

and paper frame charges were used on. some of the doors. angle grinders and highly coordinated. escape from the inside and the outside. uh full body armor and some of these. guys. you know they they managed to take out. some high-level cartel guys that were. inside. in a very coordinated thing it shocked. everybody how coordinated it was. long-standing rumor is it was as zetta. guys. interesting little bit of information.

there. all of them were doing port down all of. them were poured down. coordinated port down guys all of them. were using m4. specific uh rifles uh. all of them had exactly the same kit in. the same place on their. other on their stuff so you know where. they came from i. said some reported as far as what's. being reported um. another small element that you can tell. these guys knew what they were doing. they had leg holsters some of them high.

oh [ __ ]. high leg holsters you know high yeah. drop leg. not the drop leg holster like all the. way down somebody knows. what they're doing all them had a high. leg holster uh just clearing the armor. on some of them and uh they're wearing. the lab coats to hide some of that stuff. and all of a sudden they start working. um is that this that's [ __ ] scary you. know i mean do you think that would have. been fixed if their pay would have been. better. i don't know in mexico everybody has a. price because.

these guys think it's the same in the us. you know i mean. guys aren't uh i mean yeah i've got. there are rumors of guys going down. and doing [ __ ] like that in in latin. america. but you know i mean we saw it big we saw. a massive uh influx into the contracting. world from. from the us military i mean you can work. us military. and kick the doors in and that's what. the guys want to do. they want to [ __ ] kick doors in and. they want to [ __ ] kill bad guys.

and they want to feel that rush and. especially towards the beginning of the. war you could do that exact same [ __ ]. job. um not necessarily with all the same. caliber people. but you could jump over on some of these. contracts and make. you could make an entire year's worth of. salary in one [ __ ] month. on certain contracts as you could in in. in an entire year at a unit. yeah and uh and so you know there's a.

price there too. and uh the only way. they tried to combat that was up the. reenlistment bonuses and. and so when i got out uh there were e7. and above i think was getting 150. 000 re-enlistment bonus but still even. that doesn't [ __ ] compare to the. money. no you know um uh. like uh salaries that i've heard from. the elite guys. twelve thousand dollars every two weeks. now plus they kept to keep whatever they.

find. oh so that's i mean. yeah a little extra instead uh also. americans going down there like i've. heard rumors from. specialty people going down and train. training people in mexico you see. elements of. of that and uh everybody says ahead they. laugh at the fact that every now and. then they find these 50 cows or these. long-range platforms out there without. any glass on them not these sites.

and they're like i mean nobody was using. that right. well one of the first things that gets. uh repurposed by the military. are the sites yeah eotech. no acog right so you get presented naked. rifle. uh one of the things we saw in some of. the long range we saw some long-range. shooting sites that were training. themselves up down there i would. see small elements of training and or. some sort of specialty. screws screws being painted.

on there so they know where they were. dialed in scopes. uh german glass uh. um spotter scopes found in conjunction. with the with the long-range shooting. scopes so they have the dope on their. gun. the dope is the calculations for that. dope cards written dope cards. well the first time i found one i know. what it was i i'd send it to a. to a marisol a friend of mine and so.

what what's this. does this make sense to you oh yeah. that's pretty cool where did you find. that. oh [ __ ] that's not cool um uh duct tape. one of the things that i saw once a duct. taped to a rifle. so duct tape next to a rifle with the. rounds on the duct tape. which is a. it's a very small detail that you know. people might not know. about that openly but it's a thing i was. like. that's interesting and a lot of these.

things i would share with people. that i would train with later on or. train us or i formed relationship with a. lot of the advisors that would come in. i had good english so i would they could. form a report and i would share some of. these things with some people up here. and they would like freak out with some. of the details that we're. seeing right now what i'm see we're. seeing is. military grade night vision like. the good stuff the 24 000 30. 000 stuff being found randomly in places. down there.

so that's what they're doing now cnc. machines making lowers um. suppressors high quality suppressors. being made somewhere cranked out. somewhere down there. by some people and basically ripping off. some of the major companies in the us. designs and remaking them down there. right so that's scary stuff so they're. uh. they're getting the best training in the. world well i think.

experience experience is a [ __ ] of a. teacher but she will never lie to you. when you pair that with having the. neighbor that has. some of the best war fighters i mean. like the best war fighters in the world. that also get a lot of experience. there's some sort of cross-pollination. there that happens and. you get you get some scary stuff yeah um. weaponized drones. that's we're seeing a lot more of those. so basically civilian. civilian raid weaponized drones with. basically flying claymores. flying around homemade claymores we're.

seeing a lot of those now. um the way the way they're utilizing the. drones themselves uh before. an event a criminal event so like. they're getting some of their uh. getting some of their tactics from. something from somewhere you know. it's it's pretty interesting seeing some. of those details and how they're. advancing meanwhile on the government. side. they're patrolling in uniform in marked. vehicles. in the same way they have been for the. past almost 25 years.

nothing's changed just change the. uniform change the logo but the same. thing is happening the same they're. operating the same way. there's no advance there so. so going back a little bit you were. saying that it went kind of from. marijuana to cocaine to. meth to heroin caroline lace with. fentanyl yeah coco cocaine's always been. one of the biggest cocaine marijuana. right. even poppies as well but yeah the.

fentanyl fentanyl and heroin. put together to make a solid product to. fill the void. uh within the the uh the basically the. prescription. opiate epidemic that you you guys went. through and there was there was a. crackdown on that end. so you found all of a sudden you found. this giant market where people want. to want that product so they fill that. void. um but it's not just that so the cartels. just don't dedicate themselves to moving. drugs around.

they also their local markets make them. money. uh you know protection rackets uh. again one of the biggest moneymakers uh. outside of drugs. is trafficking human trafficking of all. kinds. um from kids to women to. adults um you know we. we we live in a country the us. we live in a country where people are. talking about reparations for slavery.

when there's actual slavery still yeah. in this country. um i'm. you know california very liberal very. you know interesting politics there um. has a governor that has. a winery that did not shut down during. the cobot epidemic because there is. their employees were essential yeah. essentially endangered. endangered and dentured slaves from.

mexico that have to work. right oh [ __ ] so anybody experienced any. salad shortages. shortages in the u.s and california. during the covert epidemic. you wonder what that is one bunch of. mexicans working in those fields. illegally but legally yeah that's that. that is what that's what's happening. that's a form of slavery it's a. clear-cut slavery right now. happening in the u.s and all these. people are put into this country. by criminal groups that make a [ __ ] ton.

of money off. granting that ransom ransoming them. uh to their families that are already. settled here in the us. so let's say you want to come to the us. and i'm a coyote. i'm a smuggler i report back to a cartel. because i can work if i didn't. um you're going to pay me whatever money. you can make 5. 000 maybe 8 000 depending on where you. want to cross. and what type of security you have as.

far as being able to. live in the uh being able to. successfully cross. or i can just go the you know the weird. way. and instead of crossing you physically. through the border to jumping the border. i can find a local like for you that has. that already has paperwork that. lives legally in the u.s rent his id. rent his license rent his car drive it. down to mexico. pick you up act like you're drunk and. you can't speak and just passed out in. the back seat. and and share the legal legit paperwork.

with the uh. guy sitting there in immigration you. know let you pass. and then give those ids back to the guy. that rented them out to me. yeah that's one way or i can fly you to. canada. and you just walk down yeah that's those. are a few ways that people get through. but there's a cost to it sometimes. people can't. fill or pay that cost some of the people. you see in arizona new mexico those. places where. you find them in the desert and uh the.

coyotes are crossing them they can't. afford that service. so they get uh so i'll give you credit. we're to have to work in certain field. and certain farm for a certain amount of. time. or your family that's already settled. out there has to pay us. basically a ransom for you. arizona is a is the abduction capital of. the u.s. why do you think that is yeah why did. they find people. you know in in basically. conditions of abduction yeah.

human trafficking is a very real thing. it's a very horrible thing. also just in danger indentured slavery. is an actual thing that's happening. right now in the united states while all. these people are protesting. uh for reparations or for for problems. that happen if you. you know a while back yeah things are. happening right now you don't see. anybody protesting. uh governor newsom and his uh winery. that's open during the co-epidemic for. private events.

you don't see any of that you know it's. it's uh as a mexican. i i see these things and i'm again. i scratch my head where where the. attention goes and what the. where the eyes go uh it's one of their. biggest money makers people trafficking. into the us. is something that feeds the cartel. criminal organizations in the u.s. just like drugs but it's one of those. things that doesn't get talked about it. much. when it comes to smuggling uh immigrants. into the u.s.

what is the why does everybody want to. come here. is it because because uh we're. supposedly. land of the free and they want to live. the american dream or is it because they. want to get the [ __ ] out of mexico and. they have no choice to survive but to. come over here. both both both and yes. the the when i'll include myself. we believe in the dream we believe that. this country.

provides an opportunity for people like. me that have nothing. and i had nothing when i came here all i. had was. thank god i had friends. all of them were military guys and. nsw member uh reservist dan. stanfield he was one of the guys that. gave me my first uh. it gave me a lot of help and. opportunities to be in the u.s.

a bunch of marines again for some reason. i'm surrounded by them and i thank god. for that but i had nothing. you know now i'm sitting here with you. and. i have an audience and i go around the. country training people. and i get to make a living off that and. i support uh i support my daughter. in that way um i could not have. what i'm what i have here back there. and if we if i would would have to stay. back there i would be dead right now.

right um. the the vision or the dream of what it. is to be an american. and what it is to live in the united. states is something very real. and tangible to people in mexico so. there's an element of. believing in that the land of. opportunity the land of. the free and and also you know and. when i say when i when i when i. personally say the land of the brave. it's uh that bravery comes with uh. safety. i can i can express something like all.

the things that i'm saying in this. interview that would get me. shot in the face yeah where i'm from. uh i could say all these things openly. and share with an audience i can. i can do that where i'm from so that's a. very true thing and again. completely from an outside's perspective. it blows my mind that i can do this here. um but a lot of them are free fleeing. from mexico because of the torrid. conditions that are in some places. not all mexico was a [ __ ] as uh.

the people up here like to say there's. some places that are amazing that some. places that do. have a quality of life that is superior. to places that i've been here in the us. uh you know like i went to uh i went to. uh. i went to detroit you know a few months. back and that was pretty shocking. from the third world and i'm from tj and. i said well man. this is rough right yeah uh i know that. i know not. not the whole of the u.s is detroit but.

but some parts are. right so i don't judge the whole country. for what i see there. the problem is that mexico does have a. rampant problem with this type of stuff. and it's growing. and it's in a lot of places uh. traditionally guanajuato the state of. guanajuato was one of the safest parts. of the country i wanted to retire to. guanajuato when i was. older and now it's one of the most. dangerous states in the country. with a rampant drug war going on there. over control. um so yeah people moving up here and i. could see.

again i talk to people that are going. through the process themselves illegally. that's another thing i went through the. process legally and it was. not easy yeah and it was long. hard on my on myself and my family and. i feel like i earned it. some people don't go through that. process. and they uh they live better than me in. some ways. right so that's an interesting con.

that's an interesting perspective as. well. um you know i get called a lot of things. like uh. you know trade race trader and all these. things usually from. second or third generation uh mexican. americans. that's usually who usually gets uh where. i get most of the hate from. uh none of them have have actually gone. through the process themselves. yeah so i speak from pure experience. uh there's definitely a promise there's. definitely an attractiveness to moving. to the u.s. i would not want to be in any other.

country i feel like uh that. this is probably the best place to be. and i want to keep it that way. well i'm [ __ ] proud to have you here. man i really am and uh. like i'm glad you made it out of there. and i'm glad you're here and. and uh and uh i [ __ ] know dan. yeah yeah i know dan so we'll have to. talk about that. yeah talk about dan dan and kelly. offline i don't know kelly. yeah they're pretty they've been pretty.

helpful with my whole uh process. that's awesome man again patriots. most of the people that have helped me. out contrary to popular belief. a fresh off the boat immigrant to this. country. and all the help that i had was usually. from patriots. and usually from service members i don't. know why maybe it's because of what i. did. maybe it's because of some of the. relationships i formed when i was. working down there. uh but it was it's been rough man.

it's been rough and it's hard i'll say. this again. the worst enemy of a mexican is another. mexican. and i've experienced that here several. times over with some of the people that. are up here. or have been up here for a few. generations there's something about her. you know there's something about us that. we just don't you know give give each. other a hand for some reason. doing my own research and kind of. looking into how everything's run. it seems like a lot of sayings and a lot. of the uh. a lot of the way business is conducted.

through the mexican drug cartels. uh seems to be a model. that they may have picked up from the. colombians from you know back in the. 80s and 90s um. [Music]. even the sayings you're using uh i. listened to. uh i think it was you talking about the. cemeteries and how. um how the cemeteries are split and uh. i mean that's the exact same [ __ ].

thing you have all the. in colombia you have all the you know. the uh. the community politicians and. and all of police chief of police buried. on one side and on. directly across the street is pablo. escobar's [ __ ] tomb. and uh it's it's fascinating to me to. see. like uh it kind of changed like that and. i heard you say uh that a lot of the.

uh cocaine was going. uh actual like growing was going up to. mexico. and they also i know they also pushed a. lot down to bolivia. and peru as well but with that being. said. if the colombians pushed the cocaine up. to. mexico uh which. seems to be uh extremely [ __ ]. powerful uh. way more powerful than them uh what are.

the relations like. uh right now it's down now it's going. the other way. it's gone the colombians would come and. um. show mexicans how to do their thing like. back in the 70s and the 80s. and probably early 90s now it's the. other way around now there's legit. cartel influence in places like columbia. that was directly at the source like. you can see you can see enforcement and. ownership all the way down there. i'm not saying they're replacing all the.

local organizations but there's clear. influence going the other way from. origin points to all the way up so some. of the stuff that is being grown or. taken outside of colombia as far as. growth cocaine growth is actually funded. and supported by. mexican organizations because they see. the potential. to move production out of it right. they're looking for ways to. expand and modernize there's cartel. influence in northern africa. you know there's no shit's gone all the.

way over there uh there's a cartel group. that. a cartel uh cell that was captured. somewhere in. australia or the indonesia or something. indonesia and they were trying to figure. out a way to provide a. a a. source for some of the high level heroin. coming out of that. region into back into mexico and then up. into the united states. so they're looking to expand they're. like they're internet they're. international. basically uh but what i see now is.

uh mexico is taking a lead with all that. when it comes to all that. from the origin and the production to. the transfer to the transfer to even. now in the u.s to the distribution side. of it which is that's pretty telling as. far as their influence. on this side um yeah the. pablo escobar is that's the guy. yeah you can see you see him referenced. and you see some of the things he used. to do down there being replicated in. places like mexico.

interesting little connection there. pablo escobar was a follower. and a very deeply devoted follower of. the the santo nino natocha. it's a saint it's basically an image of. g of a. child a child like jesus that was. venerated in spain during the moorish. invasion. it was basically the saint of the. persecuted. um so pablo escobar would venerate del. santo nino datocha. when they caught el chapo guzman's kid. and seen the law recently that past.

year and the whole mess happened where. they beat the mexican army. uh on his neck on a scapular santo nino. la tocha. no [ __ ] right so overnight that saint. that saints uh stock you know rose if. you wanted to buy. a scalpel or santo nino latocha in. mexico at that time. hard to find like that one it's like the. most sought after item. so it was a revelation that it worked a. miracle happened. you know this guy escaped.

federal custody you know the whole of. the sino-law cartel came in and just you. know. defeated the army in a miraculous event. so they [ __ ] love them. yeah that's a escobar escobar. iconography gets found in cartel houses. and safe houses and places like that all. the time. uh memoirs books pictures tattoos of. escobar that. he was like the guy that they they all. modeled himself after. now now we're now we're making our own.

legend. our own mexico's making their own legend. uh their own um. their own figures like escobar with. people like elsinore. cielos with some of the people that were. involved in the whole kiki camarena. situation. that are some of them are still alive. and are actually still active out there. uh you know so so that kind of legend. continues on. in in in in that way and it's also being. propagated by things like netflix. yeah so another interesting thing you.

kind of think about is. you know narcos the original narcos made. pablo escobar. even more known yeah i was equated to. the movie la bamba can you remember the. movie la bamba. i just i didn't see that obama was. basically based on this uh 1950s uh. singer mexican american singer who died. in a plane crash. right richie balance and every time i. say richie balance or lubamba everybody. remembers lou diamond phillips they.

don't remember actually richie valenz. they remember the movie about. the singer not the singer in a lot of. ways. uh people that might have not grown up. during the whole uh. um the whole thing with uh pablo escobar. or the whole situation around pablo. escobar. never knew him all they remember is the. netflix series. right all they remember is the serious. narcos. and it's in there it's in the youth it's. in the music. it's in the culture it's in the narco.

culture which. again it's one of those influential. things you want to talk about uh. hey when you were a kid you watched gi. joe cartoon made you maybe. some way convince you to join the. military later on in life. maybe you saw a movie about some sort of. badass military operation. or something i don't know that might. have convinced you to go into that line. of work. well now there's not a lot of that but. there's a lot of uh narcos narcos mexico. going on right now. a lot of kids quoting some of the show a. lot of kids going into the culture. wearing the clothes wearing some of the.

regalia. uh who's your hero de los cielos. bach who's your hero chapel guzman yeah. that's a different it's a different. thing you want to talk about propagating. you know again freedom of speech. entertainment enjoy what you want. um but let's say tomorrow. cartels are declared a terrorist. organization. so netflix would now be showing shows. glorifying to.

a terrorist network wouldn't that blow. your mind. you know but it's a thing you know uh. it's uh it's it's it's an interesting. it's an interesting influence uh and. transference of. colombian uh medellin cartel and. and how some of them operated back then. how pablo escobar turned into this. figure. and now how that's moved into mexico and. that's turned into another different. monster bigger monster. monster i mean it's [ __ ] scary you.

know i mean uh. even though that the fact that they've. adopted the model where they. you know give back to the community and. they might seem like they're being. generous when. hearts and minds i mean essentially all. they're doing is getting the populace. hooked on the [ __ ] tit and. they're getting free [ __ ] they think. they're generous they fall in love. life's [ __ ] easy for them and these. guys can do whatever the [ __ ] they want. yeah and combine that with the fact that.

how well-funded they are. and then you bring in the training. factor and how effective they are. i mean it's [ __ ] uh this is going to. be impossible to stop. well you talk about everything again. somebody. somebody very famous told me once never. read the comment section. yeah but i have to sometimes right yeah. so every now and then i get these online. operators uh. talking laughing at some of these cartel. guys without any sights on their rifles. um but can you see a.

you know see this is ar platforms maybe. a draco. little thing like that and they laugh at. it oh like. you know you live in a gun-free part of. america you know actual free america. you get to shoot a lot of cool guns. invest in your guns and all that stuff. and you see a lot of people online. that are influencers and shooting. instagram really fast and. you know all the stuff on their guns. most of those kids in those videos. cartel videos without any sights on the. rifles are actually going to drop more.

people. in their lifetime than most of these. instagram shooters. yeah because they live in a live. environment you don't need a lot of. position when you just pray wildly into. another group of. people that you're fighting yeah uh. ambushing. um you know the bad guys pick the time. in the place. you know the good guys have to prepare. at all times for that reaction. and you have to [ __ ] fight with rules. exactly against somebody. that has no [ __ ] and he has and he's. going to get a lot more experience in. his lifetime probably. yeah i don't mean to to glorify them i.

don't mean to say that they're better. uh that they are something to be. respected. but i think if you dehumanize the enemy. i think if you. laugh at them or you discount them. you're dead already or underestimate. them i don't. underestimate anybody yeah um i've seen. i've seen 12 year old sicarios with. over four or five skulls on their. you know on their repertoire as far as.

the people they've killed 12 years old. 12 year old yeah 12 year olds when it's. a 12 year old kid is that a choice that. that 12 year old makes. or is it more like uh maybe. the hey we can't get close to that guy. uh you your little brother he's. cool right yeah he's fine come again. no good so he's just a product of his. environment. so this i mean child soldiers. of africa yeah say child soldiers you.

immediately think africa but you don't. think yeah it's right down there. it's like right across the border child. soldiers yeah. chelsea cardios no no um. and also kids at night in mexico. sleeping in their beds. probably eight nine dreaming of growing. up and being. in the back of one of those trucks with. an ak man that's bad news for being the. next el chapo. talk about the the the corrosion.

of the culture just like uh you black. lives matter. uh defund the police all these things. happening up here. nobody wants to grow up to be a cop. anymore yeah yeah. nobody wants to grow up and be a doctor. they want to grow up to be el chapo. yeah you know they want their next their. they want their next netflix series they. want the. they want uh sean penn to fly down there. and you know. be on the cover rolling stone you know. that's what they want. um again imagine if tomorrow.

they get declared a terrorist. organization now you have a picture of. sean penn. shaking hands with a terrorist yeah but. again. that perspective is all skewed when it. comes to uh. the sicarios of the assassins um. and you mentioned how uh how religious. mexico is as a country yeah. uh with catholicism and everything like. that is um. are these guys still religious i mean. you talk about the desensitizing too.

and so but the the the the center. the the sensition i i shared those. the zetas those are different those. completely different animal. different breed of people highly. educated. trained military those are those are. more mechanical. it's like us gone bad yeah i mean yeah. that's. i mean it's if you want to see you know. what you could become if you know that's. yeah but i don't know you see certain.

elements of religion there but not. not like you see in some of the sicarios. that are kind of made. uh what i mean by made is every cartel. has their own kind of internal. narco culture going on in there some of. them pray to different saints. some of them pray to different forbidden. saints santa marta. the figure of death that is basically. that basically infuse them with the. power to. or the authority to you know what i know. you're catholic.

uh but you're under the protection of me. the holy saint of death. so anything you do under my protection. god's not gonna know about it so you. have. clear field to do what you need to do. holy [ __ ]. right so that's that's like that's the. the the the base of the faith when it. comes to santa marta. and something weren't there like people. think santa marta is like a catholic. thing it's. old older than any sort of catholicism. in mexico. if you kind of look at it. santa marta this figure of a skeletal.

figure with a robe on it that's what she. turned into. during the 80s and 90s. but she used to be the skeletal figure. with supple breasts and a skirt of. snakes. and two hands like that she used to be. quat lique the mother goddess of the. aztecs. so if you think about it the only. surviving veneration of aztec. religion still in practice is santa. marta. and it's a practice that's that has.

faithful within police forces within the. military within high-level politics. and the sicarios that's that's a lot of. them actually venerate her. when i first started working a lot of. the older guys that i worked with. prayed to santa marta they took me to a. santa marta shrine and we. again we offered a remember offered her. a bottle of uh. patron i was like hey you gotta get a. bottle and i. grabbed that cheap ass bottle you know i.

said no. no you need to get her something that. you would drink or else it's not. it won't matter right and i was freaking. out you know. i raised catholic and i was like what. the [ __ ] am i doing put it there. and the older guy said this is something. that the other guys pray to and fear. so you need to imbue that fear within. you so wear this. scapular where you use this i learn. about this iconography because it's. going to be used against you so learn it. now. do these guys uh get ritualistic at all.

like yeah in colombia or in medellin. specifically. a lot of the assassins before they go on. a hit and how they do a hit. uh nine times out of ten there is on a. [ __ ] moped. uh you know drive up stitch up but they. will all go prey at his very specific. uh church the uh. the significance of the left hand the. significance of the left foot. the significance of of coming out of the. ground out of the grave. um there's there's a lot of ceremony.

that goes on in some of the. more occult and kind of deeper levels of. some of these rituals and some of the. both on the police side because a lot of. these uh government organizations that i. used to work with and sell a lot of. police organizations that i used to work. with would take those things and view. themselves with them. so i don't know to equate it like. people snipers in vietnam eating locally. and dressing locally and smelling. locally that kind of thing. so you know people say hey are you like.

a practitioner of santa marta. because you wear all that you you kind. of use some of that regala yourself. uh it's our version of a captured isis. flag. so we keep what we we keep what we get. basically um but some of the rituals. that i used to see some of these zakaria. guys do when some of the guys that i. work with and police forces. silver was very significant for santa. marta. um probably because it has something to. do with.

judas or maybe it has something to do. with uh just the availability of silver. in northern mexico and a lot of parts of. mexico is a very. very rich silver producing thing uh. but you would uh when you would come. into a job a new job you would get a. one silver coin like a silver peso. and somebody would lean into you and. tell you in your ear when this job is. over you'll get another one. and the other one will be on your eyes. or in your pocket it's up to you to pick. which one.

right so that's like a ominous moment. yeah that we would get and when you. would uh get in any sort of leadership. position i was a. the highest i went was a regional sub. commander. and the only reason the reason i didn't. get commander was because i was too. young. and i got a silver coin at the start and. got that ominous warning. and i managed to get the other one put. in my pocket and just here you'll stay. here this time. um you know cecarios will wear silver. they won't wear gold because they think.

gold is uh. attracts too much attention from the. devil which is kind of like a. it's a weird that in mexico the devil is. a different character it's not like the. devil up here which is in direct. conflict with uh. god uh the devil and the devil in mexico. is very much. kind of the it's he's a counter force. but he's also a tool that god uses to. to get people so somebody's doing. something nefarious out there he won't. want to attract attention of the devil. although he used he'll use the icon the.

iconography and the veneration of. santa muertes to conceal his acts and to. give him authority over life and death. basically. and that's something outside of the norm. so you see a lot of ritualistic stuff in. there. silver grips on the guns um. silver uh skull caps on the boots silver. silver skull rings um. silver um rosaries. uh with the black stones with skulls on.

them. you know there's a lot of iconography. out there that could be kind of look at. kind of. tell something about the people that's i. do some classes with law enforcement. kind of familiarizing themselves with. that type of stuff but. it's not out there damn well uh. i think that pretty much covers kind of. uh the structure of the uh. cartels and and uh and and. a lot of that kind of stuff that covers. that subject so uh let's take another. break and then. then we'll come back and and wrap things.

up. well. my fires kind of suck. but my gummy bears don't.

head over to vigilancelead.com. buy yourself a bag of gummy bears. and if your fires suck too get yourself. a vigilance lead beanie. keep those grapes warm. enjoy the show.

all right ed back from the break again. and uh we're gonna wrap this thing up. but um i want to cover two things and uh. the first one being how do you cope. with all the [ __ ] that you've seen we. talked about. uh some of the stuff you've seen we've. talked about. uh you know the disposing of bodies and. some of the gruesome stuff that you've. seen the cartel do.

down there we covered the fact that. you've. gone on two thousand seven hundred. [ __ ] times. there's no numbers like that they're. just a blur years of blurs i don't know. i don't know how many of those. well you know nine years that whole. experience uh. humor yeah big part of it i think one of. the things i always recognize with all. the people that i meet that have. you know people like you that have an. experience base uh. other people like that hadn't kind of.

went through their own thing. a certain commonalities that i see in. people like that. um humor is one of them usually i could. tell a lot about somebody if. they don't have a sense of humor you. know they take themselves too seriously. there's something. there's something a mess there yeah um. humor is one of those big things that. has helped me out a kind of. it's a good mask yeah it's a good. cloaking device. humor um it helps get through the misery.

when you're in the middle of it too. now this is uh i had this um. one of my closest friends when i was. when i was working his name was a. haramio. very infamous name i've kind of made him. famous. it's my way of keeping him alive uh. he was one of the older guys that i. worked with he was a mess. i mean he was a dumpster fire inside of. a dumpster fire. of a person but he was very loyal it was. a pretty good guy.

it gave me some of the biggest laughs in. my life usually unintentional you know. um he uh. he he'd always kind of basically you. know keep me. laughing um. you he would push me into going into. weird places and kind of getting out of. my comfort zone and. just just taking every day as if it's. the last one. um i went on some weird adventures. including one that included a donkey. show. which we won't get into but um.

and we would always get uh shit-faced. drunk every time we would uh come back. from something. yeah um there was a. there's a word that i've discovered or. learned about up here in the u.s called. ptsd. um it's not a word that we know down. there in mexico. there's no there's no concept of a. veteran. or or or a support network for people. that go through the experiences that i. went through a lot of the people that go.

through those experiences now there's no. there's no talk about that there's a. there's a sense of machismo uh you. you just take it you know it's fine you. know just don't go crazy. yeah so you'd get a few days off you. know you get uh you get to leave and you. would go get drunk. and come back and you would get asked if. you were okay and he would lie your ass. off and say yes. and just go through with it i'll just go. through the motions. um jaramillo was.

he went through a lot he went through. most of it with me and every now and. then he would go out and. the reason why we got along we're. completely different people. separated from by almost a decade in age. he had a weird fetish for 80s runchetta. music and he. more boots and you know weird he would. have wore the pearly shirts and stuff. like that. and he was into that whole weird cowboy. kind of culture. and i was not grew up as a skater kid. like punk rock and. completely opposite uh but we what we.

shared is that we didn't take ourselves. too seriously. we'd make fun of ourselves and. everything around us and every time we'd. uh. we would go out and you know partake in. some. festivities and get drunk we would get. i mean and we would try and get. comatosed. that's what we would aim after damn i. don't know i don't know if there's a. there's a x rating uh on this but i'll. share a small story about him it's.

it's a funny one let's do it. one of the times we went through a bad. situation once and uh. we were celebrating that we were still. alive. and we got leave and we got money and we. said you know what. let's just go out and just get blacked. out. we went out and got blacked out drunk. not blacked out we. conscientiously went back home after the. whole night. alone we were hunting for some sort of.

female. comfort but we were too much for them. you know. we went back to the house we were. renting we had this house where a lot of. us would live. kind of a safe house setting for us and. walked to the door and couldn't open the. door. uh we wanted to pee harm he was like i. got a p i got a p so we'll pee over. there and i'll pee over here. so i'm standing there really drunk with. my handgun a glock with a light on it. pointing towards the ground being i went.

out drinking with my gun by the way. this is mexico different country. different little san fran. and i hear harm you'll say oh no oh oh. like what's wrong harmonio oh. something's wrong oh something's wrong. i turn around and point my light at him. you know oh [ __ ]. again there's different times um. and he's he pissed his pants. and i was like what what's what.

what's the part of you there's something. wrong. yeah you peed your pants no no no. something wrong. i think my dick is blocked and i have a. hole in one of my balls. [Music]. what did exactly what i answered. i think my dick is blocked and i have a. hole in one of my balls i. didn't understa carmilla you're not. making any sense. so took the light off my gun.

a little closer he pulled one of his. balls out to pee. holy [ __ ] he pulled one of his ball he. was so drunk that he pulled one of his. best that's amazing. and he was worried that his dick was. blocked and he had a hole in one of his. balls. first off i had to explain biology to. them and. anatomy and physiology and it was. i laugh i've never laughed more in my. life how long did it take you to figure. that one out. that was it was it was a process there.

was a problem. let's retrace the steps here. he pulled and he pulled one of his balls. out anyway so. i laughed we left we were i mean i. laughed and he started laughing as well. and it was a solid hour of us. laughing out there um in the misty. uh morning hours uh kind of silvering up. with that laughter. and uh we saw some horrible stuff.

the night before and i was medicinal. yeah that was a moment uh i was. i was remember that moment because it. was. it was a form of escapism uh. we would you know just get numb. uh he was. he was uh he was he was one of those. characters you know the stories. just legendary stories about him um. he kind of taught me a little bit of.

that then i'd laughed her pardon that. humor. just not taking myself too seriously uh. i think uh probably the the. kind of most scary time or the most. dangerous time for. people that go through those types of. experiences. is the end um. the the bus stopping and letting you out. yeah while the party is still going on. on the bus yeah. and you get left on the sidewalk as the. bus moves away.

there's a way i don't like to think. about it you know the people that you. lived breathed ate with suffered with. blood with. are still on the bus yeah and you have. to. get out of the bus um. when everything stopped when i had to. leave the job and. all of a sudden being involved. being in the know being responsible for. all these people. them being responsible for me uh.

having homicide as a as part of your job. description. guns and grenades smoke grenades there. and. just living this life was kind of. surreal but it was the normal that was. my normal. for for years all of a sudden uh. you know last call. everybody out some people stayed on and. uh. you're not a part of it anymore and.

everything stops and gets quiet. yeah that's probably the most dangerous. and closest i've been to. ending i think yeah i think that. that's that's what a lot of people don't. come back from or can't escape from when. they. when everything stops that's a i don't. know it's like uh. when you're too busy to notice that you. got cut or when you're. when you're you know doing some sort of. you know maybe you're. training jujitsu and you've got.

something really extended somewhere it. shouldn't have been. but you're warm so you don't feel it. until you stop and then you start. realizing how screwed you are physically. and mentally yeah when you start. you start uh you start counting your. wounds. you start uh realizing how. um all of a sudden the family you had. around you and all of you shared the. same injuries maybe all. you say this the same outlook in life or. the same normalcy.

all of a sudden you're taken out from. that now you have to relate to people. that have never been through that. never i've gone through anything similar. to that and you realize. how abnormal you are yeah and how out of. place you are. in a simple setting as going to a. restaurant with your family and. trying to figure out what the best place. to be is um. you know trying to figure out who there. is armed or. being distracted not being in the moment.

and then. basically that being a sacrifice and. that being detrimental to your family. health. uh and all that comes with it. um sleep disorder uh. substance abuse you know alcohol. on drugs for some people. um not being able to find. not being able to find the right words. to explain to somebody.

like what there's no words to explain it. to somebody. you know i think alan watts. uh talks about poetry that's that's what. poetry is. putting into words what is unexplainable. um i do i do writing a lot of writing. and i try and put into words what i. can't explain. and uh like i couldn't find people that. i could you know. explain some of this stuff to until i. found you know a.

veteran community in in california when. i was when i moved up there and. started doing classes and meeting people. that had. uh service experience and i started kind. of. figuring out that i had there's a name. for what i had. that other people were struggling with. going to the store and going into an. anxiety or panic attack. at uh at a uh a restaurant.

because somebody was. doing something that manifested a. a moment yeah an event in the past. um i mean i don't know i don't know how. it's been for you. but uh when. when some of these things come back into. your headspace. it's almost like there's no time yeah. you're there.

you're here you're you're both like. everything's happening at the same time. and people around you don't realize this. you know something horrible you saw. something horrible that happened. and something you see and then the. environment triggers it and you're back. to. you're back there on your ear and. you express it through an anxiety attack. an outburst of some sort um. apathy uh in the relationship you might. be having at the moment with somebody um.

or you just shut off and you go sleep in. a closet for a few weeks. because that's your safe place yeah. um i don't know um i mean yeah. no i mean you just kind of asked like if. i went through it [ __ ] yeah. you know i went through it uh and i went. through. i went to uh therapy for twice a day. almost for three. three years or not twice a day twice a. week for three years. and uh and uh you know i still [ __ ].

struggle with it it gets better but you. know. um it's uh. you you got to be willing to invest your. time into it and and one a while. and want to [ __ ] pull yourself out. you know uh. i had a wake-up call and i tried to i. tried to kill myself in my car. in my [ __ ] garage and uh. i don't even uh remember it but. to be honest with you my whole [ __ ]. house should have uh.

gone up in flames but uh for some. [ __ ] reason it didn't. now i'll ask this question it's. something i hear a lot. that's not the easy way out for somebody. like you or somebody like me that try to. be alive and stay alive for that long. that's not an easy exit no i get this. easy out. mentality from some people don't. understand what that is that's actually.

going against everything in your being. in nature. yeah believe um. i've contemplated thought about and. maybe approached that a few times myself. my whole thing is that is completely. counter to the nature of what i am. and what i became during that whole time. where i was trying to figure out ways of.

surviving. and every time i hear somebody say that. they took the easy way out that's. i don't think that's true for most. people that went through some of that. stuff. um also the honesty and. being open to talk about this where i'm. from. you talk about what i'm talking about. right here this is the end of your. career. yeah you are local crazy. you are non-functional you're not to be. trusted.

um i i. i write i write some of these flashbacks. down at times. uh and i share them openly um. it's a very personal thing to share some. of that stuff openly yeah. um not easy again not easy uh it. helps if you talk about it it's like i. heard from a therapist. it does but it hurts a lot it's like. peeling off a scab. and showing somebody this is what was. under that scab so you can see it here.

you go. now forget about the scab you know. forget about the wound that you just saw. treat me like a normal person. it doesn't work that way yeah there's a. stigma to it and. i think the stigma up here in the u.s is. i mean there's more conscience. there's a bit more conscience about it. there's a bit more of a community and. supports. support around it and it's not that. that's not that's not something i had. when i was. going going through that down there. there is now. but there there it hasn't been around. for very [ __ ] long you know when i.

when i left the uh when i left the seal. teams there was none of that [ __ ]. and uh it was exactly what you were. saying was it was there a culture of. suck it up yeah absolutely [ __ ] yeah. there was there probably still is. the problem no it's better now but um. and and again i think uh. when you go back and kind of learn i'm. into history and i like. reading about other warrior cultures and. people that did. you know things that they had to do you. know ptsd has always been with us.

yeah it's been this is the this this. what you talked about your experience. what i'm talking about. we're not talking about anything new. this is the history of the world yeah. um but i think there's something. happened culturally. that separated us from how people used. to handle some of these things. or how some people would talk about some. of these things um. uh from uh you know spirit quest as they. used to come on or. finding yourself or you know going off.

on these. pilgrimages or whatever form they took. uh ceremony um you know as a. ceremony is simply um and performing. an act with a symbology just to convince. your. subconscious mind of something so. from going to mass and eating a cracker. that's supposed to be the body of jesus. and drinking wine it's supposed to be a. blood of jesus there's a symbology there. um to getting to get it get to getting.

handed a silver coin at the start of a. leadership position and getting told. that you're going to get another one. because you go into it knowing it's. going to end. i think some of those things are missing. and some of our. kind of modern way of approaching some. of these things some of these things. have been amputated from us. uh we're suffering from a phantom limb. syndrome when it comes to. uh some of these things and what happens. after like i grew up. having parties at the cemetery during.

day of the dead. and i get a weird feeling every time i. travel up here and i see. empty cemeteries with no people there. it's like. like a they're forgotten damn space. there's no relationship there. um i don't know um. i think that that whole culture of suck. it up be a man. uh go through it i i get that. [Music]. uh.

it worked it [ __ ] worked you know. it works when you're in it works when. you're in it. you know and then it makes you feel when. you're off the bus. when you're out you're [ __ ] yeah oh no. yeah my mom needs to say that whole like. i'll quote that i'll get that quote. again. um i went through a horrible of a few. bad situations but i think one of the. first ones uh. the war that i fought was at home.

with an enemy that spoke the same. language that i did. every now and then would share funerary. homes with the. enemy. the counter guys were burying barry. we're being mourned over. on that side of the street and we were. having our services for our guys over. here. so just it was different in that way. um i had a very horrible thing happen.

um very traumatic i lost a few people. and um i was covered in blood my. clothing was covered in blood. my sneakers my socks feel in my toes. and blood has a tendency to kind of dry. out and crust a little bit. um i remember i wrote the reports that i. had to write and. talk to the people that i had to talk. and i was like you know told to. to go to the hotel and wash up and come.

back the second day. i got in the car and drove straight home. like unconsciously just drove to my. parents house. i drove probably three hours in the. night straight there. i showed up some sometime in the early. mornings. and my mom opened the door oh she saw. no um she didn't say anything. she sat me down took my clothing off.

put in the washer and made me. maybe some coffee she didn't ask. anything. the next morning i passed out for a bit. and she asked me like what do you want. to do. i want to go home she said there's. there's no such thing as going back home. ed. uh either you change on your way back to.

home. or the home you left changes when you're. you're gone and you don't recognize it. when you come back. so she told me uh going back home is. that train has left the station there's. no going back home. so you have to figure out what that. looks like for you next. um it was very. mind altering you know she was a she.

lived through a lot herself so she was. very wise. sounds like it um she uh. she in her own way she told me to suck. it up. um i stood i stood up and uh. like i remember smelling my clothes. downy fresh you know. uh she bagged me at lunch got in the car. i saw all the missing missed phone calls. on my cell phone.

people were angry i went back and faced. the music. told me where'd you go so i just needed. i just needed a moment. i got reprimanded for leaving damn. but you know it it was uh i realized. that. um there was no going back home. so that gave me focus on going straight. ah surviving figuring out what that uh.

where that road would lead me that was. aimless it [ __ ] changes you. yeah how long did it take for you to. realize your mom was plugging right on. the money. that's a um. probably probably if you have a few days. after she passed away. she she uh. she struggled for a long time without a. few issues.

um and uh before she went she told me to. leave that job. leave that thankless job ed that's not. that's no longer the war you should. fight. that's not your war anymore uh she. passed away and uh. i did a lot of self-reflection again i. got two days off. to mourn my mom yeah. she got to meet my kid which i think was. that was.

very suiting to my morning process. and uh got everything kind of aligned. after that she passed away and. you know a few things kind of shifted. politically down there and i had to. leave. i kind of she gave me that push at the. end i think. i remember thinking back to that moment. and that kind of. wrote it down i've shared that on. i've shared that openly a few times. [Music].

i remember and every time i smell that. morning coffee i remember that moment. kind of brings me back to that. weird moment where there's no more. innocence you know. you're facing your mom and you're not. you're not what you were you know. yeah i know that feeling. sorry to hear that but uh you know. sounds like she was looking out for it. man. yeah you know but uh and.

sounds like she still is. after she passed she's she's always here. yeah uh. everything i do she's uh she's always. been like a big inspiration. it's one of those teachers that you. don't recognize as a teacher until. they're not. there anymore uh. one of the things she used to do and. pushed me too was the volunteer work and. um you know we would go and feed some of.

the uh. some of the people on the tijuana canal. and the heroin addicts. she gave me she gave me the eyes to see. humanity. even even at the lowest levels. um i remember one of the first. self-defense classes i gave. was through a church group that would. work with some of the prostitutes in. tijuana and that was my mom pushing me. to do that. uh you know all this cool [ __ ] you think. think you're some expert and stuff like.

that. go teach them they need it um. she gave me eyes um instead of. dehumanizing people i think that's one. probably one of the biggest things he. gave me was. the human factor so i can. i could relate to people and talk to. people uh. despite that they were trying to kill me. only a few. moments later you know i could sit them. down give them phone phone having fun. maybe a family member to tell them that.

okay. kill them a cigarette uh. give them a swig of tequila and talk to. people. um that's a that's a powerful armor that. she gave me with that. and it's something i've been using to. try and process that whole that whole. life that i left behind again. the world has ended for me a few times. over yeah so. um part of my process to kind of. there is no getting better there's no.

healing there's. there's learning how to live with things. um there's learning how to. how to find a new normal um how to find. a new center or a new base that's what i. think i'm kind of looking towards. and i've been basically on the road for. the past three years trying to find that. for myself. i've not found it yet. you're in it man what you're [ __ ] in. it right now. well this is a this is uh this is a this.

is that we all have these moments right. or we're trying to figure out where we. are in the world. what we're supposed to do uh i've been. pretty aimless for the past. probably two three years where i'm. trying to. figure out where i am um i travel on a. lot every. every couple of weeks i'm in a different. state you know whole waking up in a. hotel room. figuring out where you are when you are. yeah. that that when you are apart that's. pretty. interesting sometimes i dream vivid.

dreams about being back somewhere. sleeping in a hole something um. um waking up covered in cockroaches or. ants because i'm sleeping in a weird. field somewhere. um reaching for a rifle that is no. longer there. um um hearing karma haramiya. telling me that it's almost time to wake. up. hearing the radio uh sat radio.

beeping as it's charging in the. background. like tattoos in your mind uh you wake up. and you're. just brought back into here and uh. driving here seeing all the green. scenery. uh seeing that all the life around the. trees. make noise everything's green. everything's good everything's. alive you know and uh. just take this moment you're like what. where how did i get here.

right yeah and why right. um i think part of the answer to the why. is sharing some some of my experiences. with people and. having it resonate with some. i write these small stories i call fever. dreams. because that's what they are or like. weird. flashbacks into a past that i. sometimes i kind of question you know i. was like was i really.

was i really there and i write them down. and all of them are basically just an. honest uh expression of. something that happened and i've gotten. a lot of people sending messages that. they thought they were the only ones. they thought that nobody felt like that. um. they uh i gave them the words to. describe something that they couldn't. um that uh never being able to go back. home quote.

i i remember sharing it and a lot of. people. kind of responded to it and resonated. with a lot of people. uh i think probably that's probably half. of the. reasoning why i'm still here i think. there's a story within me that i need to. kind of share with people openly that's. and it's been very selfish as well. because that that helps me out with my. process. kind of putting some of these things out. well just you saying that right there. is gonna [ __ ] help thousands of.

people. you know and uh it's it's uh you know. that. the symbol the everything you're. describing uh. is uh like very similar to. what i've gone through and what a lot of. guys have gone through and it's uh. that i've worked with uh. or our colleagues you know and uh it's. i mean you're the uh you're the first. person i've had on the show that.

is uh you know that's an immigrant that. uh. fought a dif fought in a completely. different [ __ ] war. and uh saw a lot of uh we. we uh we we've seen a lot of some. similar things. you know and uh and uh the the. it's similar it's extremely similar. and um you know it does it takes a lot. of [ __ ] time yeah. it took me a lot of time uh but. i mean [ __ ] man just the guilt.

don't stop working at it yeah another. thing. the guilt you're here a lot of people. aren't. you get that every now and then yeah. like there's people that are very. deserving. people that are not [ __ ]. people that took care of their bodies. that ate healthy. and they're not here anymore with me at. some point. we got eaten up by it and i'm here and i.

don't take care of myself. no i'm a i'm a self. flagellate with a with uh with this. guilt. whip uh you know sleepless nights and. don't take care of myself at times. there's like a common thing i've seen as. well with some people. um but wanting to. to keep them alive somehow uh. maybe by stories maybe by naming. something after them or.

i know that that's a that's another. weird part of it. that guilt you feel every day. you could be you'd be a green field. petting an alpaca in the middle of this. green. heavenly field and thinking about. somebody. that you might have lost along the way. that might have enjoyed that. and you feel guilty about it you know um. i don't know we all process some of. these things in a different way but.

there's a commonality with how. i've seen a lot of people that kind of. went through the same things that i did. on how they process it you know what uh. i was i was. i was i always dig finding those. similarities. uh it helps me not feel alone. again selfish i don't know and i was. gonna catch myself when i start feeling. that way but. that's it's it's a as. talking about being around people that.

uh. that know that know the words to. that song you know and there's a song. it's a song that's all this time. you know um i remember sharing this uh. video. of this marine. uh dressed in his dress blues i think he. was a. native american i don't remember the. name of his nation. i was dancing with a wardrobe he stands. in with a spear and one hand and.

a shield in the other and. a lot of people were expressing how. beautiful that was. but i didn't know why. um he's singing this he's singing the. war. songs of this of his people he remembers. them. he remembers their weapons he remembers. their ancestors he remembers her names. and her ancestors. he is everything that they survived into. the point where he's dancing there in.

front of them. ed but he's dancing in the uniform of. the nation than to conquer. his nation yeah but he's alive. and he remembers his songs that went. before he remembers the weapons of their. people. uh he remembers the culture the warrior. culture like he has an attachment to. that. can you remember the songs of your. ancestors. can you remember the ways that their. spears were made. a lot of us suffer from that amputation.

that cultural amputation we don't. remember the songs. uh and i think the one thing i always. i've always kind of realized recently is. that. if you don't remember the songs you make. up new ones. and if you see the new guy coming in you. teaching those songs so you can get a. semblance of that. um remembering the ones that went before. that's the way you keep them alive and. that's the way you keep the new guys. alive. now um this helps. yeah we don't have drums and we don't.

have fireplaces but we do have youtube. yeah right uh so in that regard i. i really appreciate you doing these. thank you. this is the drum that a lot of people. are going to hear after. after we're gone there's a there's a. certain power in keeping some of these. the conversations alive uh i wish. i had some of these conversations at the. back of my head when i started. we didn't right well that's uh.

i think that's a there's a power in that. i talk to him. you know i talk to uh. my boys aren't here anymore and um. and the guilt you know i um. i try to think about if uh the roles. were reversed and i was them. and they were alive would i want them. feeling like that you know or what i. want them to [ __ ] enjoy. like what i want them to enjoy their. life.

and uh you know even just the fact you. know because that's what we're supposed. to [ __ ] do. you know uh you were just talking about. driving here and seeing all the green. and the creeks and. the animals and all that kind of stuff. and. uh you know that's what 99. of the people in this country see every. [ __ ] day you know what i mean. heaven is yeah they're happy people. and and uh and um you know with the. career paths like with what we chose.

we don't experience that and uh it takes. a long time to. to get to a point where you. where it's okay you can allow yourself. to enjoy. yup yeah um. yeah the people that leave get brighter. and younger in our minds they ever. notice that as well. yep um i remember some of the people. that i lost were older than i was. and somewhere along the lines of my. mind's eye and passed them along the way.

and they get younger and brighter um. yeah i i i hear them sometimes. specifically caramel. it's like a weird voice in the back of. my head. he's always advising me to do the wrong. things. to take one more beer to enjoy one more. song. to ask the girl to dance he's a sadist. yeah. yeah i want that he wants that he wants. to be a hedonist. he wants me to partake in all that and i.

think that's probably. part of my subconscious that just is. telling me enjoy. allowed to enjoy yeah i don't know maybe. it's a catholic guilt in me. built into me when i was a kid but you. know um. there's something about enjoying those. moments that you some of us you know. struggle with that every now and then i. catch myself in this perfect. moment um my kid. uh running around finding easter eggs.

laughing. this moment of perfect laughter. um ed why did you. you know there's a. it's a weird pain and happiness and that. not a lot of people can understand. one glider feeling a man.

i really am. i got one of those voices too he's very. [ __ ] behind you. that flag up there but um. you talk about shamanism yeah a little. bit yeah have you done any have you. uh yeah i mean it's mexico. we're we're all about it we have a. contact uh.

i come from a culture where we party at. the graves. during the day of the dead we sleep over. on gravesites. we have alters to our dead that. necromancy is part. of our culture which is you know. weird i heard from somebody up here in. tennessee once. he asked me if i was a christian i told. me i'm catholic oh. so you're not you know. um yeah very much a paganistic.

paganistic culture. um shamanism is a big part of it um. there's uh there's things called biladas. the lalas are basically like uh. they were made famous by a lady. savina maria savina like the beatles. would go down to mexico. when they were a lot when they were like. a thing and they would take these. mushrooms. trips now midnight mushroom trips.

uh psilocybin at the core of most of. that. um i've heard a lot of good things about. psilocybin and ptsd. uh i mean i've tried to i've tried the. pharmaceutical side of it. and it uh. it takes certain things from you when. you try and. you know get back to normalcy so i know. i mean i'm sure some people have. experienced uh.

taking some of those uh almost uh. pharmaceutical medications and feeling. like a zombie. or feeling like you're like on autopilot. or yeah. it's not you like in the back seat of a. car driving. from the back seat i don't know i don't. know what um. some of them have helped uh not all of. them. um i had a few people recommend. psilocybin. uh basically mushrooms uh micro dosing. and macrodosing.

um but actually having a process before. it doesn't it's not. mistaking them yeah shamanism. in different places you know they have. the the psilocybin and hallucinogenics. have. have a long history in warrior culture. like even. well if you want to talk about aztecs i. asked some of the aztec elite warrior. casts. would uh would go on hallucinogenic. trips before they would go out and do. whatever they did and when they would.

come back they would do the same. so i remember when i when i was younger. when i was younger. and uh went through a bunch of bad. horrible stuff. and one of my my vacation times i took a. trip down to southern mexico and went on. one of these veladas like uh so it was. spiritual. the shaman woman guides you into a. villada. it's like a 12 a 12 at night midnight uh.

trip with mushrooms um but one of the. things she was very clear about. was our intention at the start are you. here to have fun. are you here to feel funny are you here. to work out something. like what are you here for and then she. would. have us write down our intention in a on. a page. and then after that we would have to. physically write that down with our feet. in the form of a pattern on the ground. and a lot of us were exhausted because.

we had to travel on foot. on top of this hill there was always. some some weird symbology. throughout the whole experience uh. i think uh the what it takes you towards. is a comic like a clear honest. conversation with yourself. you know are you by yourself yeah you're. with people. but when that hits you're not with. people. i have a donor it's i again it's one of.

those things where i don't recommend. everybody. i think not everybody is meant to do it. uh if you have some sort of issues it. might it might wake awaken some things. that might be harmful for people. i don't think people should do it. recreationally i think there should be. some sort of people that guide you. through the process. that's what i've had and i think it's. it's helped me out. tremendously in in. figuring figuring and processing some of. these things. i don't know i mean the best way i can.

explain it is um. when you it's like a mental fog or. like a mental cobwebs you might have. and suicide and kind of take some of. that. away from that uh that process between. having something you know something or. an event that affected you in a very. deep way. and just having that event in your head.

doing circles and actually. inserting yourself in that event and. trying to figure it out by. reconstructing it maybe let's say. it's like uh it's like uh making a play. about something that you. had to go through and then as a director. going in there and. yeah this could be over here and i. should should have done this over here. but i can't change it so this is the. thing so i just figured i had to do all. this to figure out that. i'm in charge of my own well-being and.

it's stupid to try and. force something to change that can't. change yeah. so some of those processes i kind of. went through uh still what's happening. is. that i think it's a there's a lot of. potential there i. i don't think it should be illegal i i. think there's. you know there's more horrible stuff out. there the more i hear about it and the. more i read about it. i mean flaming hot ones flaming hot. cheetos should be illegal not suicide. i think that they do more harm it's not.

a it's not. again i don't think it's a recreational. thing yeah. i think uh i think our ancestors were. we're on to something with that i think. it's it's probably as old. as as old as we are as a species. um it does help it does help. would you recommend it i would. absolutely. i would again not recreationally and do. it with people that know what they're. doing. and be very sure about your intentions.

when you go through it. um i don't think uh. i don't think it's a i don't think it's. a it's a it's something meant to be done. several times i think it's something you. meant you're meant to be you're meant to. do a few times maybe. and uh a lot of us didn't do it at the. start to figure ourselves out before we. went through the fire. yeah uh but but i think if anything we. should do it at the end. after we come out of it uh.

it helps you process i think there's a. medicine in that. that's awesome man i've been thinking a. lot about it. but um let's move on. sure covered a lot of material there. and uh. lose me with one question and uh. how do we [ __ ] stop the cartels is it.

even possible. i think there is a. i think it's not it's it it's not a. mexican problem. it's a regional problem so that's the. first part of the solution. to recognize that we are not only. neighbors intertwined by. blood commerce. criminal organizations um.

we are a country that is very much. linked we're very much a symbiotic. relationship going on. and it's a regional problem so treating. it as anything else than that is a. problem. um also. i paid taxes up here now so i can say. this. every single person out there is an. american that pays taxes is paying for. the drug war. in different ways even though you don't. know it. a lot of your tax money is going down. there and funding.

companies that make a living off that. drug war keeping. its status status quo so. as an example when i was down there all. of my uniforms were bought over but that. that i would have to wear uh they were. all bought. through a specific uniform tactical. company that is american-based which i. won't name. but they make a killing off that uh drug. war. all the vehicles that we write we ever.

wonder why every. every police corporation down there. rides around in a pickup truck. there's a deal there's a vested interest. in there uh. americans need to demand that the. representatives. account for the money that's being sent. down there. outsourcing that drug war and why. things are getting worse instead of. better despite that the money and the. budget is getting higher.

that doesn't make sense yeah the way. they're fighting the war. is exactly the same way they've been. fighting the war since i started. yeah so there's something wrong with the. whole process there. and it starts uh it starts in the u.s. as far as the fight goes um. legalize marijuana federally. honestly it's not gonna do um it's not. gonna do any any difference now. may have done a difference back uh 20.

years back maybe 15 years back but right. now i think we're at a point where. cartels have moved on from that. substance so. realistically having that as a schedule. on one. substance federally that won't make a. difference if you legalize it or not. but i'd say legalize it. go after not only the money that is. related to that cartel by. the money the money that flows in and.

out of those organizations that there's. ways of. going after it that's not my specialty. but i realize that if you give the those. groups a designation as terrorist. i think the us will have more tools to. combat those organizations. and uh i think finally. there is no fighting the cartels without. going into fighting a systemic uh. corruption at high-level politics in. mexico. at all levels hmm there's no such thing.

you can't go down there and clean out. the cartels. and expect everything to go better. there is uh there is a snake with a. snake with two heads down there on one. end of the spectrum there's the cartels. and the other end of the spectrum is. politics um. these organizations can't subsist down. there without sort of some sort of. um help from the other side of that.

snake so. and it doesn't even matter if they're. from the right or the left down there. they all. they'll they'll respond to money so any. sort of help. or any sort of uh nation building as you. guys. as america calls it or any sort of uh. offer to help mexico is always going to. be met with resistance. because we don't want american. interventionism in. in the country and all that's going to. be pushed forward. and pressed forward by the political.

class down there because it's not in. their best interest. to get rid of the status quo so again. the problem is systemic yeah. i think there's no solution without. solving the problem at. both of those ends um i do believe that. there's going to be a time in a. a time in the near future where the. americans uh the american. america as a country is going to have. its hands forced into a conflict. within mexico there's going to be some.

sort of event related to. natural resources to foreign influence. i thought that event might have been the. massacre in the desert and sonora. the american child women and children. but i don't think that's enough anymore. um i think uh and that's a sad thing to. say that's not enough yeah. to force action that's not enough to. declare them a terrorist organization. you know hey ed they're not a terrorist. organization they don't have any clear.

political motives. yes they do you want to talk about. political killings mexico is the cap. world capital. of political killings cartels. assassinate political candidates cartels. assassinate. members of the press when they report. things that they don't want to be. reported. so they clearly have political motives. they clearly are. interested in having certain people in. certain places power down there. so it is very much an organization that. uh. that has that is politicized they they.

very much. work within political structures to. further their influence. and they hang people from bridges yeah. they cut heads off they burn people. alive. they torture people and put them on. videos that then get dispersed on the. internet. all the isis torture videos and. execution videos were inspired by cartel. videos that came out. before them so even. isis is taking pointers from these.

criminal groups. now and for some reason which is. probably related to. probably the influx of immigrants. seeking asylum. now having the legitimate claim of. fleeing from a terrorist organization. into the u.s um maybe that has something. to do with the. the us's refusal to name them a. terrorist organization. but i think they fit every single. description of that. of an organization that is a terrorist. organization and more.

um as far as uh you know al qaeda or. isis stuff like that. i don't see any of them operating in. multi-million dollar. businesses in the u.s yeah. i mean even um. even if everything you know controlling. the money. and all of that i mean that the the. longer or uh the longer we take to do it. you know china's right there and uh it. sounds like they've been there. a lot longer than i thought after.

talking to you. but um i don't know you know. uh it's very it's it's very. even with our military you know and uh. in the technology. that goes along with it it's very it is. almost. impossible to defeat an enemy. that does not play by rules when. you are forced to [ __ ] play by rules. yeah. and until uh until the.

general populace decides that uh. it's [ __ ] bad enough that we don't. need to play by those rules anymore. uh in my opinion it's never gonna. [ __ ] go away. so you better get used to it i i i've. i think the world has witnessed the the. power of the us military. and as somebody that's worked down there. and i've seen it up here and. have friends and been working that. around i know.

the us can change that landscape really. quickly if they wanted to. if they had the political backing and if. they had the. ability to do so it's not going to be. easy. this isn't an enemy that lives across. the ocean yeah. this is this is not an enemy that lives. across the ocean i've remember i've. heard conversations about what they. would do if. a full-scale invasion happened or an. armed intervention in mexico would. happen by us military forces.

and what the cartel's response would be. when they would. when they felt threatened um you'd hear. that again. this is by an organization that is not. labeled the terrorist organization. well if the us decides to intervene. we'll just randomly poison drug loads. going into the us. and create a health crisis in this. country that you have never seen in your. history. damn now imagine that reaction. um this is an organization that can take.

pictures. of uh people going in and out of. coronado. they have access to that you know that. area. they can take notes and numbers they can. go on social media. they can discover where people live they. can make you want to go back home. really quickly yeah they can get to you. it's not again this is not an. organization that uh. that lives in a cave system somewhere in. afghanistan.

these are guys that don't have their own. cell phone networks. these are guys that have operate. multi-billion dollar. business of drug trafficking these are. people that have tunnels underneath the. border. that could go put anything in there. right. it's not uncommon to back in the post uh. 911 era to that the americas would put. geiger counters in those drug tunnels. because they were worried about what. could get through. now imagine somebody is like an. organization that is not worried about.

that anymore. yeah all they're worried about is. retribution. that would be that would that be a bad. day i think. um it's not as easy as some people make. it out to be oh just send a group of. just send the. military down there we'll clean. everything up i think it's a. i think it's a it's a problem that if we. if you leave long enough to fester it's. going to. be it's going to snowball not a [ __ ] it. already has. it i think uh i think it went on within. our lifetime we'll see it.

it's going to be some event on the. border there's going to be some sort of. i think probably the sad thing is it's. probably not going to be even related to. american blood spilled and or. drugs that's probably going to be a. resource issue. but we'll see that intervention within. our lifetimes probably. i was saying five years and. i'm still at that five-year mark in my. mind i say five years because of the uh. presidency going on down there.

and the incompetence it's uh it's almost. comical incompetence as far as how it's. handling the drug. the cartel issue and the violence issue. and how it's each year is just becoming. worse and worse. so i don't know um i just know that's. just. no such thing as a mexican solution or. an american solution it has to be a. regional solution. and uh um i'm not expecting the u.n to. step in at any time soon. yeah well i think we're gonna wrap this.

thing up but um. i just want to say man i really. appreciate you making the trip and um. your story is [ __ ] amazing dude so. um this is gonna help. a lot of people especially with that one. segment and um. and uh and uh you know i know. it sounds like you're kind of still. searching for a purpose but i'm telling. you man you're [ __ ] killing it and. uh you probably are.

very similar to a lot of my friends and. um you don't. reflect on your own success and um. you know but i'm just going to tell you. you're [ __ ] killing it dude. and uh you're doing a great job and. you're spreading a. [ __ ] great message and and uh and. you're bringing to awareness to. [ __ ] that people need to [ __ ] hear. about so um. you know keep it up keep it up. thank you for the reminder sometimes i. need a kick in the ass to keep going.

right oh man well thanks for coming. thank you.