Ed Calderon

00:04Welcome back, Ed. Good to see you again, man. Thank you for having me back. Well, I'm I'm happy you're back, but I'm not happy that there was a motivation to bring you back based on the violence. You know, the violence that is going on between uh the cartels and it was the Mormons, and then there was we were just talking about this uh other person that got shot because they ran What did you Explain that again? They were ran a cartel roadblock? Yeah, basically in Tamaulipas a lot of cartel groups actually make uh they build their roadblocks in the on the state and local roads. And according to what I've heard from some of the people that I know there, uh this family uh ran one of those roadblocks. They didn't know if it was cops or not and they apparently decided to run the roadblock and they cartel guys shot them. What should someone do if they encounter a cartel roadblock? Uh slow down.

00:56Um I mean if if uh if anything, I would probably avoid traveling through those areas. That's the number one avoidance. Um usually, you know, and I've actually gone through some of those myself. Really? Yeah. And it's uh it's all about They're all They're all They're looking out for the for rivals moving through their territory. They're looking for government personnel maybe spying on them. And uh usually it didn't Usually they'll just shake you down for some money and they'll uh let you go on your way unless you have a 4x4 truck that they can use for their, you know, their own purposes, which is Oh, they might take your truck? Yeah. Uh there uh specifically in Tamaulipas uh 4x4 trucks are a commodity for them. They use them for their ongoing, you know, turf war. Oh, right. Especially someone else's that they don't mind getting shot up. Yeah. I mean most of

01:44the trucks that you see what that are up armor or they have the rifles on top are usually stolen vehicles. Um all of them are stolen vehicles and a lot of them are, you know, Americans crossing into Mexico. Some of them are Americans crossing into Mexico and just getting you know, their truck stolen. Jesus Christ. Is that that's a real common thing? It's It's It's It's starting to be pretty common. Um I recently saw a case of an of an apparent abduction uh in uh in in Tamaulipas. Um You see the video and and and the cartel guys come out of the car. They grab the the the the owner of a of a pickup truck. They get him out of the car. They take his cell phone, leave it on the sidewalk because they're they're aware of all the SOS technology. And they take him inside inside of another car and they take the truck. And you thought you know, you you would think, you know, it's it's because he

02:33did something or he's he's he's involved in something. They let him go a few blocks later and just took the truck. It was all about the truck. Wow. Yeah. It's resources. You know, they're just acquiring resources for their for their war, basically. Nice of them to let him go. Nice of them to let him go, you know. It's not always the case It's not always the case, but it's pretty uh I think most people in America are just now waking up to the chaos that's going on down there. I think that uh the Mormon assassination was a real wake-up call. But I think people are paying much more attention now. I mean, we've We talked about this. When was the last time you were on? It was like 5 months? Something like that? A lot of the stuff we talked about those 5 months ago uh kind of that's how things progressed. We actually did mention the Mormon communities down there, which was kind

03:22of eerie. Yeah. And I I we talked about the possible designation of of cartels as terrorist uh a terror groups. Yeah, you you had an interesting take on that. So, Trump was saying that they were going to designate them as terrorist groups and that they were going to have military action against them. Yeah. And then there was some sort of negotiation with the president of Mexico. What do you What do you think went down there? So, I mean, this is just, you know, from what I see and from how things traditionally happen down there, Mexico is currently uh has a current currently a a leftist president down there. He's very to the left. Uh so much to the left that he um he recently gave Evo Morales, the deposed leftist uh president of uh Bolivia, uh asylum in the country. Um and there's been a lot of, you know, pro-left political stuff going on in Mexico, basically. Um

04:19As soon as the designation threat by the US came down, there was uh some sort of negotiation and a lot of things happened after after some US officials went down there and talked to the government. Among them, Evo Morales is out. He's uh he went to Cuba, apparently, and then went to Argentina. So, he's not going to stay in Mexico. Mhm. Uh former head of uh of uh public security under the Calderon administration, which is two administrations past. The President Calderon is the one that started the drug war. He was uh arrested for cartel involvement and uh basically for receiving money from the cartels. I saw that. Yeah. Um he was going through his immigration process and he was actually asking for full citizenship and they got him on lying through the authority the immigration authorities. He said that he never received money from the cartels and apparently he did a lot of it.

05:11Right? So, all these things happened after after they walked back the threat of of designating cartels as a terrorist organization. So, there has been some action. So, they must have made some negotiation where Trump had said, "Listen, we're going to do this." And he said, "Hold up. Let's Let's talk." Yeah. I mean a main thing is a mo uh one of the things that this current president uh Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ran on was creating a national police force, right? A national guard is is what he calls it. Which had already kind of been done before, but, you know, change the name, change the uniform, change the packaging, and it's a new thing, right? Uh he want he wanted the army out of the drug war because the casualties uh were mounting on both sides and he said it wasn't a military uh shouldn't be a military operation. And he ran on a platform that was called

06:05"Abrazos, no balazos", which means hugs, not bullets, right? Oh, Jesus Christ. Amnesty for the cartels was basically kind of the main theme of that. Um So, he got into power. First thing he did, militarized police forces and created a national guard. And dissolve and tried to dissolve the federal police. Uh And most of that national guard uh force was uh designated to border patrol duties on the Mexican side. So, some of them went to the south of the border um south southern Mexican border and some of them went to the northern Mexican border, basically, to stem the whole illegal uh immigration crisis with the caravans. That's what kind of happened. And it was a kind of a uh a collaboration between the US and the Mexican government. Um So, that was one of the key points of collaboration that they had. And when this whole designation thing went up, that was kind of like a bargaining chip

06:59that the Mexican government had with the US. And the rest of the things that kind of transpired afterwards, you know, it's pretty interesting how a lot of things happened after that meeting down there uh and how they walked back the uh the terrorist designation. So, the terror terrorist designation would mean that Trump would have some sort of incentive to invade Mexico. Well, it would it would it would open up the possibility for military direct military action against Strikes. Strikes. Yeah. Drone strikes. without permission of the of the nation that strikes were going to take place. Also targeting finances uh or anything related to cartel activities would be targeted. Yeah, where do the cartels keep their cash? Well, um it's it's it's a it's right now it's a myriad of things. Um They diversified long ago. So, it's not like they're keeping buried cash in

07:51a in a container somewhere in the in the jungle like Escobar used to do, right? They're still finding some some like rotted cash from the '80s. Um They're They're putting their money in cryptocurrency. Uh they're Yeah, they're diversifying their their their investments in actual companies like legit companies. So, they're cleaning their money that way. Um real estate, hotels, uh property on the US side. So, they're also investing on the US side of the border as well. So, you know, money's it's it's not, you know, it's not under the mattress or, you know, giant stacks of cash in a room somewhere. What What kind of banks do business with the cartels? Like how do they negotiate that? I'm not going to say names, but there's been a few cases of pretty large banks that have been involved in in in money laundering for the cartels recently. People can look that up easily.

08:40Mhm. But you would think you would have a designate cartel you would have cartels designated as terrorists. So, now their banks involved in funding terrorism. Whew. So, that would change things. That's, you know, there's a lot of things that would happen. You know, some some of these consequen people talk about, "Yeah, designate them as a terrorist and send drones down there." Things that they kind of don't talk about is that if a terrorist designation does happen, uh most people seeking asylum in the US from Mexico now have the claim of uh of running from terrorists in in Mexico. So, so they can So, now they can claim that as far as a you know, asylum-seeking people can claim that now. It's a different thing. Um You know, the the main argument that a lot of people say is that cartels aren't can't be considered a terrorist terrorist group because they don't have political aspirations.

09:32The problem with that theory is that we have a lot of political killings by cartels in Mexico where they shoot the candidate of one side of the political spectrum because it's not good for them. So, they influence politics. They also pay off a lot of politicians down there. Um and they also uh examples of the new generation cartel from Guadalajara giving out uh Christmas gifts or groceries to the poor. basically doing hearts and minds type tactics in the area, are clear political movements, right? Yeah. So, you know, How does it Why is terrorism have to be connected to politics? Well, that's that's in classical The classical definition of that is of a terrorist group, that's what they're basing it on. I think the cartels and and and and narcoterrorism is a thing in and of itself. It's a new phenomenon. It should be terrorism should be reclassified to

10:24include, I think, you know, most people that live through that type of situation in that type of and and that type of area in the country facing some of these cartel threats that have fled it, we'll call it what it is. Yeah. It's terrorism. Terrorism. They're terrified. Yeah. I mean, that's literally I mean, who's more terrifying than the cartels? Yeah. Well, Um so, what's going on with the Mormons now? Is are they moving out of there now? Are they going to go back to Utah and just take one wife? Like, that's what it all started out with, right? Yeah. Well, they're fundamentalist group and they they went down there and kind of proceeded with their customs. Um I'm in contact with a with a few of the members of that family and, you know, I wasn't contact before, but when I went on here, they kind of like one of them reached out like, "Hey, what's going on?" Help us out. What do

11:14we need to do? Yeah. Um but then, you know, it was like a friendly hello from them from past interactions and then this happened. And, you know, I kind of advised a little bit, but that's, you know, that it's it's a mess. Um a lot of them a lot of them are leaving the communities down there. There's a lot of them down there. A lot of communities in Sonora, Coahuila, uh and um you know, they're leaving. They're leaving the area. It's just too dangerous. Yeah. Yeah, it only makes sense. I mean, they just don't have the arms, they don't have the tactics, manpower. Uh and and they're also in the middle of one of the most important regions in Mexico right now for a lot of reasons. Main thing is there's two things that are really really kind of happening in that region. One, the traffic the trafficking of fentanyl and heroin and all these drugs through one of the main drug routes up into the

12:10US. And there's a few factions fighting over that region, Los Salazar, which are a small cartel faction that has allegiances to Sinaloa Cartel. And the Linea Cartel, which has historically been in control of Ciudad Juarez. So, they're both kind of vying for control of the area. A few hours before the the the massacre actually took place, there were a bunch of firefights between these two factions in the area. So, one of the main theories is that these the this group of Mormons basically were case of mistaken identity, kind of driving into some of the areas where they were being protected by some of these people. You know, that's one theory, right? Uh the other thing that people kind of need to think about is that the largest minable uh minable deposits of lithium on the planet right now are a few hours away from where that massacre took place. Really? Yes. And that is, you know, not

13:09conspiracy theory theorizing here, but it's a pretty important thing in that region. And there's a lot of interest in that place and control for that space. And they're not mining it currently? There's There's a bunch of projects in play right now. Oh, so they've identified the deposits. Uh yeah. You know, people can look up the numbers, but it's it's the largest minable deposit of lithium on the planet. Wow. And there was some sort of deal in the past where a Canadian mining agency was going to have rights to it and the mining agency was bought by the by Chinese company. So, again, after that massacre, a lot of things happened, a lot of the negotiations happened, that probably that deal was one of the things that got killed after that situation. Oh, no. Right. So, it's it's it's it's it's an interesting area. There's a lot of happening there. That's going to put a

13:56tremendous amount of pressure on the cartels in some way, right? Well, historically any sort of any sort of mining operation usually has industry around it, which is perfect for the cartels, you know. Um extortion, protection rackets, um feeding the the drug use in the area from the workers, you know, that's Is there any way that you could see in the future the cartels being extracted from the positions of power that they're in now? I mean, or is this something that people in Mexico are going to have to live with forever? And I guess people in the United States as well. Or is this something that could be fixed? Um you you you've you've you've talked about before in some of your podcasts and I you know, I listen to them a lot. It's a great podcast, one of my favorite. Great one you're on, too. Thank you. You talked about legalization and how that would help. That definitely is part

14:45of the solution. And it is. It is definitely part of the the solution, legalizing some drugs. You know, not all drugs are made the same. Maybe not fentanyl, you know, but Yeah. but it that would help out some things. There's There's multiple things that could be done to to guide us towards a place where things could stabilize down there. And a lot of it is not going to be able to be done in Mexico. It's going to have to be done up here, right? Basically, you know, one you you have to take care of the US has to take care of the drug market up here, the illegal drug market. And certain things that have happened like legalization of marijuana and marijuana in some of the some places up here have changed the dynamics of what happens down there. Some for the better, some for some bad some bad things have happened. Um talking to uh my friend John Norris, who was on here as well,

15:35and comparing notes, seeing how a lot of the drug grows that are up here, the pot illegal pot grows that are up here exactly like the ones that I found in Baja 6, 7 years ago. And how some of that drug money made from those fields are is staying in in the US. It's not being sent back. So, that means you have an active growing cartel presence in the US that is US-based. So, I think that the one of the the problems that people have as perception is that that's a Mexican problem. It's a it's a US-Mexico problem. You know, you have border there. But the problem has two root causes, right? Social economic inequality and destabilization and corrupt government down there and a thriving illegal drug market up here and you know, those two have to be solved in in a in a combined way. How many members, when you combine all the cartels, how many members are we talking about?

16:35That's that means it's pretty hard to put a number on how I will say this. More than a million? I will say this, they defeated the Mexican army in Sinaloa. Yeah, that was bananas. Yeah. When they captured El Chapo's son and then the army gave it back. Yeah. They're like, "Here you can have him back." Well, it Sorry. Uh the that whole situation and it was like I remember that was happening and I was getting asked questions about it and it was live. It was all all of a sudden just popped off, you know. Um Basically, supposedly official story from the Mexican government is that they send a special police unit to capture him, right? Which is completely false, I think, because you don't send 35 agents to capture one of the the heads of one of the biggest Sinaloa Cartel cells, right? So, it's pretty much by chance they spotted this party. People were armed there, they went

17:37there, all of a sudden El Chapo's son is there. So, you think they just stumbled into him? There's a I I posted a video on my on my feed of the capture of of the of El Chapo's son. You can see it and you can see the surprise and really how the agents are kind of uncomfortable or are fearful of what they just stumbled in on. Um imagine US agents stumbling on one of the America's Most Wanted individuals up here. They're going to put him on the ground, they're going to handcuff him. Mhm. In the video, you can see that they point their rifles at him and he calmly takes out his gun and hands it to somebody inside of the inside of the house he was in and walks out and kind of tries to negotiate with the people outside, the federal agents that are trying to arrest him. And you can see that the agents are like, "Oh, what did we stumble in on?" Oh. Right? So, that happened.

18:30They grabbed him, they reported back to Mexico, they captured him, they started to announce the capture. And his brother, um uh his half-brother Archibaldo, basically called in all of the reinforcements from all surrounding towns and regions in Sinaloa and it was flooded with a bunch of armed cartel guys. All of Sinaloa was. Wasn't there a video of the government people and the cartel people talking? Yeah, there's it's on my feed. You can you can see it if you want. It's uh it's basically a an army unit that was being sent to reinforce security in in Culiacan being surrounded by cartel members. Yeah, is this it right here? Yeah. That's it. Um obviously, the guys running around with a vest and wearing skinny jeans are some of these Sinaloa Cartel members. Um And they just talk it through. I mean, uh they're outnumbered and also there was there's talk about uh

19:30there's a there's a specific community out there in Sinaloa where all the army families members live and they were apparently being held hostage by cartel guys as a bargaining chip. So, So, all these guys that we're seeing here, they're dressed in civilian clothes with the vest, those are all cartel guys. Those are all cartel guys. Jesus Christ. And that that They're shaking hands with everybody. Well, you know, Hey, what's up, homie?" I mean, they Again, we go back into the whole What What is the fight they have in them, right? Mhm. Sinaloa Cartel was basically surrounding some of their communities and holding holding their family members hostage. So, that went out over the radio. So, as an army member going in to fight the cartels, you know what? I'm out of this fight. Yeah. So, they raise their hands. And so then they release the hostages, everybody backs out. Yeah.

20:18I mean, there's they they defeated the Mexican government, basically. Uh anything they went up against, you know. Um they surrounded the city. Usually, you'll see classic classic Mexican cartel activity. They close off the streets going into the city by burning uh semis and trailers and stuff like that. So, you would see all these burning semi-trailers in the region. So, if you want to move in, you can't. And if you want to use your helicopters, the cartels have anti-aircraft capabilities. So, uh they broke out a bunch of people from the prison, just taking advantage of the whole chaos. Uh you you you could see there's a few other videos with there's uh armored trucks with uh 50 cows and Madoozas on the back of them, just moving around the city. There's no way There's no way you can This is a breakout state prison. You know, took advantage of the whole chaos

21:13and just, you know, let's just let's uh let's break some of our friends out. Whew. All right. So, just pure chaos. Uh eventually, they let the government decided to let him go. That's the the official story. But according to the people there, there was no government saying let them go. There was like the guys holding him said, "You know what? It's not worth it." Yeah, that's one of the uh the uh technicals, as they call them up here. Yeah, dump trucks. They armor plate the sides and you know, put somebody out there. I got to imagine being a person living there. What else is That's what I'm trying to picture. Like what life is like for the civilians. Yeah, most of these videos are all done, you know, by civilians. So, there's a certain normalcy in some of these cases, especially in Sinaloa. It's part of it It's It's part of the uh culture there. And as far as sides go, you know, "Hey,

22:04the army's coming to save us." That's not usually what people Some people in some of these communities think, you know, because the cartels are those are guys in charge. So, Sinaloa always been like that Like how long has it Sinaloa has traditionally been been a cradle for like the origins of some of the some of the more successful cartel heads, right? Isn't that where Julio Cesar Chavez is from? Yeah. Yeah, he is. Yeah. And you know, lot lots of lots of Anybody that's anybody in Sinaloa has some sort of relationship to the cartels because they're part of culture there. No way getting around it. Had a surreal experience once when I went there. I did a class out there. Um and the uh was running down this bumpy road. And then all of a sudden, just flat, beautiful road. Oh yeah, this is the cartel part of the road that they built. It's like, "Okay." Uh

22:55Wow. So, it's like sort of like the mob in Vegas in the in like the '50s and '60s. Exactly exactly, but it's now in there. Way more hardcore. Way more hardcore. Yeah, some of their grave They have a uh Jardines del Humaya is called is the narco cemetery they have, and it's basically luxury condos. They look like I mean, I went there, I thought it was a church and it turned out to be a tomb. Wow. All right. So, the the opulence and the money is just over, you know. And and how they move around, they roll around in vehicles with guns and nobody does anything because they own the city. What can be What are they planning on doing? Does anybody have any plans or is it just they're just accepting this? Well, you know, you you you you get a lot of rhetoric about uh collaboration. Yeah, that's That's Jardines del Humaya. All those are graves. Some of them have CCTV video inside. They have air

23:50conditioning, you know, alarms. Those are graves. Those are grave sites. And the cartel guys heads go there on the Day of the Dead, have music, live bands, shoot their AKs into the air. Nobody does anything. Wow. Jesus Christ, this is crazy. Yeah. I mean, the opulence is I mean, to just seeing it, you know, it's it's like having several Escobars in one place. You know, it's not you know, it's like a lot of a lot of cartel heads are from that region and a lot of their kids grow up in that and you know, the opulence is amazing. Like is this going to grow? I think it is. I mean, it's I mean, I don't think it is It is growing. You know, again, going back to my friend John Norris and having seeing his experiences up here, uh finding all these illegal drug grows in in in in in public lands, it's growing. It's growing over here, too. Yeah. So, you Roots. Yeah. So, um

24:52I think that a lot of people have to think about. A lot of these cartel guys have their kids up here. So, they they made their money down there and they sent their wives up here. And a lot of these kids that were born in the late '80s, early '90s, coming of age up here with that cartel pedigree. So, and they're US citizens. US passport. So, you're going to you're going to see some sort of shift. And you know, they're coming of age. You get experience, you get, you know, a handoff of reins from the older generation to a newer generation. You're going to see definitely it's definitely growing. It seems so crazy to watch because it seems like it's not discussed nearly enough. And it it seems like if it keeps getting stronger, like what we saw with El Chapo's son being released, like what is What's to stop them from taking over Mexico entirely? Well, I mean, you you you would have people

25:45arguing that already has in in different ways. So, I think another thing that people kind of have to kind of figure out and realize is that there's factions in Mexican in the Mexican government. So, you will see a federal government that apparently is being paid off by a very specific large cartel group. And then you'll see state governments that are of different political uh party influenced uh paid off by other cartel groups. So, you'll see, you know, military units moving on a town and the state police blocking their way to get in there because they play for different teams. All right. Whoa. Um you know, there's there's a lot of talk right now about uh Felipe Calderon's tenure and how his head of secure head of public safety was on the payroll of the Sinaloa Cartel, which actually came out during El Chapo's trial. So, now we're talking about basically a

26:38federal police force that was on El Chapo's side. So, he had free rein to grow and do whatever he had to do in that region with the support of the federal government in a way. So, technically, you know, who's in control of some regions. And and realistically, some regions of Mexico are completely in cartel control. Now, we discussed this on the last podcast, but let's give people a little just a recap of this just so people can understand your position. When you first started working on for the with the Mexican government with this, it wasn't like it is now. Uh it was So, But give give everybody just a rundown of how it went down. So, I I went to I went to work for for state government down in Mexico, in Baja, specifically. And uh This was in This was 2004. Right? Right before the start of the official start of the kickoff of the drug war as as as Kickoff. The kickoff.

27:40Uh but there was you know, the official start was when Felipe Calderon came into office and said, "You know what? Gloves off. Going to go after the organized crime, right? We're going to send the military into into the onto the streets and they're going to head up spearhead operations against the cartels." But before that, things were happening still. You know, Sinaloa Cartel was growing. There was a rift between the Sinaloa Cartel and Tijuana Cartel. Fragmentation. Cartel heads were being killed and one cartel changed into three. All this fragmentation. And then, you know, they they basically militarized the war on drugs with Calderon. Came in militarized the war on drugs. Immediately, you started seeing that drug drug enforcement efforts were being put towards a single or a group of cartel groups, but not the but not a major one like Sinaloa Cartel. So, you start seeing how they were

28:35basically taking sides. They were breaking up the competition. That's what you would gather from, you know, it look like progress. Yeah. And and also, El Chapo has been built up into this mythical figure. Like he was the head of the Sinaloa Cartel. He's the main guy. That's not true at all. He was an operator for the Sinaloa Cartel, but not the main operator. You know, there's different theories and and and and about who is actually who was actually in charge or the brains behind the whole operation. When you say Sinaloa Cartel, it's not one group. It's several It's a federation of several criminal groups, enterprises uniting and working in conjunction to put drugs into the into the United States. Well, one of the things they do is put drugs into the United States. They do a lot of things, but that's one of the things they do. So, you know, certain people There's a

29:23lot of people out there that theorize that El Mayo Zambada, which is El Chapo's compadre, who's still out there, is the actual head of the Sinaloa Cartel and has been since the start. Uh but you see how some of these people become celebrities. And as soon as somebody becomes a celebrity like El Chapo, who escaped from, you know, custody a a few times, you know, under, you know, pretty interesting situation I mean, it's pretty interesting situations. Uh now the government has a celebrity that can go after so they can point at that guy. That guy is That guy is a bad guy, right? So that you saw a lot of that, a lot of theat- theatrics around him as far as him being the head of whatever, you know, group or operation was. But at the same time you start seeing, you know, the DEA and and the and the US government uh con- decorating and and putting all these awards on a guy like Luna, who was

30:13the guy that got arrested recently, who was head of security in Mexico. And now all of a sudden he's now Now he's not, you know. He was recognized by the US government as being a player for the good guys and now he's arrested. So you start seeing all these, you know, different interests, different political uh political kind of um movements around the drug war and what that turned into. And uh you know, you know what You don't know what to think, right? Each and each also each US administration has changed the way they do things in when it comes to the drug war. And it also benefits certain groups down there. So, you know, who knows realistically. Yeah. It's just you know, I went to Chichen Itza I think in 2000-ish, 2002 maybe, 2003, somewhere around that time. And there was no concern. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's a different time. But that's But that's 16, 17 years ago.

31:10That's so recent in terms of like human history that a region changes so radically, so quickly. Well, it's it's it's there's a lot of things happening, you know. Um There's a lot of interest China has a lot of interest in Mexico. And um you go back and you see some things like I'm sorry. Um you see things like the um the whole um how some armed groups started popping up uh in Mexico in the Michoacán area fighting back against the cartels. The uh the whole It was like a series like a documentary on them. The The autodefensas they would they would call basically like vigilante groups. And then you later on you realize that they were all fighting for basically protecting or inc- or working around security for illegal Chinese or mining in the area. Whoa. Yeah. It's all It was all about uh Chinese or mining iron ore mining illegal Chinese ore mining mining Chinese ore miners, they just made a

32:14deal. Yeah. And then, you know, let's we can get in on it. So let's arm all these guys and we're we're we're protecting our communities, but they were There was a lot of that going on. Not all of them. But a lot of There was a lot of shady stuff going on in the region when it comes to that. Now you see things like the stuff that's going on in Sonora. And there's a lot of lithium there. That's pretty valuable thing, you know. Sonora is a place that a lot of hunters go. Yeah. Sonora has these big hunting ranches and it's like it's famous for giant mule deer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's I've been up out there hunting myself and it's a it's a beautiful It's a beautiful part of Mexico. But that seems like a sketchy spot to venturing into. It's It's perfect because it's It's perfect for them because it's rural so there's nobody around. Uh But if you were like a guy from Texas

33:04want to drive your truck down there, do a little hunting. I mean my my recommendation is this, if you have a 4x4, don't don't take it down there. Take it in a Yugo. But we do have the largest population of American citizens living outside of the country in Mexico for some reason. Really? Yeah. In all throughout Mexico? Yeah, I mean all throughout Mexico. fun down there. A lot of people like Cabo. People love Mexican food. Yeah. Yeah, there's there's There's a certain chaotic freedom in Mexico which I being some a child of Mexico and then moving up here and seeing you guys talk about freedom, not that freedom. But but there's there's I I I get the I get the draw, you know, and some of these communities down there are pretty safe. Uh but some aren't, you know. They're safe until they're not safe. And safe until they until they all of a sudden you're in the middle of a

33:57someplace that's going to be disputed which is I think is something along the lines of what happened to some of these Mormon communities down there. Mhm. You know, you're on your you're in the middle Your community and your movements are in the middle of our route. Could you please get out of the way? What's the ceiling on this? Like if if they can continue to grow, I mean, it's it's really Is it possible that we're looking at a country that might be completely run and overrun by criminal organizations and drug sellers? Some parts of it are already. So what I think is going to happen is you'll see escalations. Uh a clear sign or a clear group that is like a a sign of things to come is the is the new generation cartel. The new generation cartel is a cartel that was uh used to be called Los Matazetas. It was basically a an armed enforcing group that Sinaloa made to go

34:53after their main rivals, the Zetas, which were originally members of special Mexican special forces that said, you know what? We're going to be cartel guys now and cartel enforcers now so they whole sort of history. Um These It was a militarized group that was form- formed to go after them, right? And their whole kind of play was that we're going to be against extortion, against abducting people, against affecting the community. We're going to enforce the law in our communities, but we're also going to move drugs through here, right? But that's, you know, that's kind of their thing. So you see this group start kind of growing in the region and right now it's pretty big. It's rivaling the Sinaloa cartel as far as power and and and reach. Uh but the way they do their things is militarized. It's very militaristic and kind of paramilitary and kind of reminds me a little bit about of

35:45the like the uh the FARC groups in Colombia. Uh hearts and minds. They go into the communities. They're community policing in the area. Uh they originally said, you know, we're aware the government wants to fight drugs here in the region. We agree with their fight, but we are also going to fight against these guys that are affecting community as well. And they have like groups of people They have uh they have training camps, little militar- militaristic training camps where they recruit people. They take them there and they're being trained in in guerrilla warfare, shooting and apparently there's some SF guys from the US that that advise them. So that's the that's the next thing. The ex- the the the escalation of simple ragtag group of cartel guys enforcing the region to an actual cohesive paramilitary group now trying to vie for control not just of the of the drug

36:38routes, but also of the populace and the confidence of the populace has in them. So it could turn political at some point, right? It just seems like it's the genie's out of the bottle. It I mean it is I mean it is in a lot of ways, you know. Um And going after it just as a, you know, drug enforcement issue is not, you know, It's so much bigger than that. Yeah, it's uh cultural. It's economic. You know, some of these kids I posted up some of these uh cartel soldier kids who are 12 years old. Gold-plated guns. Gold-plated guns, you know. Uh they don't have an op- they don't have options in their lives. Right. It's It's that or nothing. So It's either awesome life or short awesome life. Extreme poverty. Short awesome life. Yeah. Short awesome life or extreme poverty. So that's one component to it. Another component is systemic corruption as a society from who knows when, you

37:32know, it's always been a thing in Mexico. People that grew up down there, you get stopped at a red light and you're like, can I pay the fine here, you know? People that are from down there will be aware of this. Yeah, show you the show the paperwork, you slide that thing in there, you know. That's, you know, that's part of the culture. That's affecting a lot of things as well. You know, people don't pay attention to the small rules so the big rules don't matter, right? Um and just being next to the largest drug market on the planet, you know, and having money, firearms, uh rounds going down, and fentanyl that is being fabricated in Mexico now and some of the Chinese fentanyl is making its way through into the US kind of filling the voids that some of the drug market has right now. So they're making fentanyl-laced fake fentanyl-laced pills that are going to that are being put into the US

38:22and fentanyl-laced heroin, right? So that's where they're going towards now. That's why you see this epidemic up here. And a lot of the things traditionally kind of focused on pot before it was legalized in a lot of regions up here now is heroin and fentanyl. So it's actually kind of accelerated the production of the more harmful and dangerous drugs. In In some ways, yes. I mean they had to find another, you know, it was it went pot, um meth, and now fentanyl-laced heroin or fentanyl-laced pills. See, and the problem with the idea of legalization is that if you tried to be the person who says, "Hey, folks, we need to legalize drugs here in America because we've got this problem with the cartels." Politically, that's suicide. Yeah. No No one I mean even though it it's probably right, It is I think it is I think it is very right. It's one of those things that's so

39:18counterintuitive that most people are going to go, "You're crazy. You're going to make my kids hooked on drugs." Well, I'll say this. I I was I fought in the drug war. I literally a drug war veteran and if I had a white flag, I would hand it over to you, you know. It's like I that it's a useless fight. I I got to destroy pot fields. Realistically thinking about all the effort and all the blood, I'm like, it's just pot. Yeah, and it's so quick to grow back. I mean that It it is it is a fruitless fight. Fentanyl uh heroin maybe different drugs uh Fentanyl in particular is uh but a lot of that fentanyl is coming from China. Mhm. It's not a Mexican thing. Oh, yeah. A lot of people that are making uh or producing fentanyl in places like Mexico are from China. Setting up laboratories in Mexico. So So it's a it's a Chinese Mexican US problem as well. God damn. What can be done?

40:17Other than the legalization, what can be done? I mean how does And unless the United States literally goes to war with the Mexican cartels and you you made a face talking about that. I mean I'd say designation is one of I think designation should It's It's going to happen. A terrorist designation. It's going to happen. I mean again, we just saw the murder the massacre of Mexican They were dual citizenship nine people. Kids, women. It's not uncommon for that to happen to Mexican nationals. It's pretty uncommon for that to happen to American nationals down there. And that woke up woke up a bunch of people, you know? Mhm. And now we another recent murder of another American national, you know, kid with his parents down there. You know, people will say but just don't go down to Mexico. But but but but some of these people, you know, live down there, have family down there, have

41:09communities down there. Um and it's just ultra violent. Uh you know, people have to wake up on this side to realize this problem is not going to get any better. This problem is not just a Mexican problem. It's a US Mexican problem. And uh you know it'll get to a point where it's going to be you know, I I think in my lifetime it's going to be some sort of armed intervention in Mexico at some point. Really? So you anticipate almost like an a civil war? I I think something's going to happen in Mexico that's going to destabilize it so much that the US won't have another option but to put boots on the ground probably. That's I think that's that's where we're headed. The problem and again another another of the problems is that the government is part of the problem. So you can go down there and negotiate with this government but 6 years later it's going to be another government. And

42:01you got to renegotiate with them. Yeah, and also you you palm grease. Yeah, and then you put all your faith in the military and the military gets compromised. You put all your faith in your in the Mexican Marines and then they get compromised. And now who do you who do you have? Right? So it's a stomach. Don't tell that to Trump. He'll He'll use that as an excuse. We can't count on them. We're going in. I um I mean I wonder where it all goes. Cuz it it is obviously growing very fast. It's obviously huge, incredibly powerful. And and And it affects I mean I'm I'm up here now and I could see the effects of it up here. Uh walking through LA seeing all the needles on the ground um uh going to Seattle seeing the same light brown fentanyl fentanyl laced heroin that I saw in shantytowns down Baja. It's like wow, so this is where it kind of ends up. Yeah. So you you and you see the effects of it

43:05throughout. So you know, you you you realize quickly as somebody from both sides that I am you realize that there realistically there's no there's kind of no border when it comes to this problem. This problem this this this problem doesn't respect a border wall. Right. Right? Uh Submarines will go around it. Tunnels will go under it. Drones will fly over it. Um and it's a it's it's a problem that just keeps you know, producing an effect. And I think the majority of the United States citizens are completely unaware of the complexity and the depth of the problem. Yeah, I mean it it it it is it it's it's also I think most people seeing the Iran thing right now most people know more about that going off going on halfway across the world Yeah. than what's going on just you know, a few hours away. That's what's crazy to me. It's like you know, we're we're invading countries

43:58that are really barely affecting us that are like a 17-hour plane flight. Yeah. I I think I think the I don't know. Again, I don't I don't want to be Ed Adonis and predict stuff. Ed Adonis. But uh the the fact that we have a lot of lithium in Sonora is going to be a factor for things like to clean it up. It should be, you know. Should be. It's pretty important. It's a pretty important resource. Yeah, but if they can't hold on to El Chapo's son how the That's that's why I think the US going is going to have to you know, put boots on the boots on the ground down there. Wow. Now if you had to make a bet like if there's a betting line in Vegas like how many how many days or how many years from now would there be American soldiers deployed to Mexico? I I'd say 5 years maybe. Whoa. Within 5 years. Really? I mean we we are on we just passed this this past year has

44:55been the most violent year in Mexico in recorded history. Really? And it's the first year of the administration of this new president, right? Who's been trying to Hugs. Hugs hugs not not bullets abrazos no balazos. You know, this instead of that. Uh his it's been his first year and you know, hey give him a chance. He's he's he's he's doing whatever you need to do. the most violent year in history. Cut the guy a break. Exactly. That's what they say but then I go down there and I have a lot of a lot of my friends that are still down there, people that I've trained still down there and I hear from them directly. Like I have some young kids that are in the gendarmeria which is like a federal police force that patrols all of Mexico. And some of the federal federal police guys they tell me like Ed, we're they they they said or you sign the new contract to be the Guardia Nacional

45:49and lower your pay and all of your all of the stuff that all of your benefits will be gone. Or you just stay on here in limbo and just stay at the base. And a lot of them are staying at the base. So it's nothing nothing's nothing's nothing's being done. Well, I imagine that if it seems overwhelming and it seems helpless and it seems like the cartels are just taking over and they're making a shitload of money and you're not making any money. I mean that that is the real crazy thing about it, right? They're if the the government is asking people in this sort of already compromised situation and environment asking them to work for a small amount of money to go after people that are making a tremendous amount of money Yeah. and you're going to be at war with these people and these people they're basically your neighbors. Yeah, and also you go there with a federal uniform as part of the

46:42federal government. You go into a community where you the federal government doesn't do anything for them. Right. The church is made by the cartels. Cartel made the road. Christmas was brought brought to you by the cartels, you know, um they they are the good guys. So these guys come in here like who are these guys? What are they doing here? We're not going to So that's you know, it's it's it's it's it is it's a it's a mess. It's a mess. Wow. But could boots on the ground actually fix anything? I mean I'm not a I'm not a I'm not a military expert but uh there has to be some sort of outside force that is completely uncompromised by cartel money and influence. How long before they compromise those people? Well, when you put the Marines on the border a few of them got picked up on smuggling people uh from the border. So Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's It's also it's a different war

47:41field because a lot of you know, a lot of our war fighters and law enforcement are have some sort of blood ties to Mexico. Mhm, of course. Well, not only that I was just watching some video where there was this guy who is a US veteran been deployed overseas, fought for this country and his mom was getting deported. And he said he felt betrayed. Like here here he is in America his his mother brought him over here, had him over here. He's a US citizen and they're deporting his mom. Cuz if his mom was a a danger or a problem. There's a community of army, marine and several veterans that are deported veterans that live in in places like Tijuana. That's crazy. Uh That is crazy. You fight for the country, man. You get a DUI and you're But how nuts is that? It is pretty nuts. You fight for this country. You you literally risk your life and there's out there that haven't done a

48:34goddamn thing, been mooching off the system forever and they're citizens and you're not? Yeah, I mean my perspective and my life life path, you know, when I came up here I want to I want to earn it, right? I don't know. I came up here motivated, wanted to do a difference, work. Uh and apparently you know, I've had I've had some you know, static in my in my endeavors. Uh my kid was born in the US and uh parented our mom's American, right? When I went to to the hospital to pay for uh the the the insurance part of it they laughed at me and said you shouldn't pay any of this. You're Mexican. You just can claim benefits. Right? That that was in California. So that was like oh, but I I can afford it. Nah, you should just you should There's ways around this, you know? And that's when I knew you know, there's America and there's California America. Right? California America's different?

49:34Yeah, California America's very different. It's a subtle blend? Uh I mean there's there's ways around stuff, you know, there's free stuff, you know, get it get it get at it, you know, you know, it's a weird Yeah, again, I traveled across the country just get to experience different parts of of the US. You know, I I spent New Year's in Kentucky. And that's pretty interesting. Yeehaw. Oh, it's I mean, I like it, you know, maybe it's like a it's like a white Mexico. Is it? Yeah. How so? Uh, people were shooting guns into the air on New Year's Eve, that's pretty Mexican, you know. They do that in Texas, too. Oh, well, you know, again, you know, I don't know. It's it's It's not good. Some lady got shot. Oh, it's completely responsible. driveway, a grandma, with her family, and the bullet fell out of the sky and hit her in the chest. Yeah, when we when you would come, we

50:21would park underneath the the bridges in in Baja to not get, you know, there's Firearms are legal in Mexico. And then, you know, you see tracer tracer rounds just going off. god, like tracer rounds. Okay. You know. It's it's it's again, Mexico is a weird place, you know, that's why I call it the upside down. You know, um you know, there's there's there's a chaotic freedom to Mexico, which I get. I mean, I love I love Mexico as a country, as a culture. I don't like the government, though. The government is just, you know, at all levels, it's just, you know, it's not a good Well, it seems like it's always been that way. I'm reading this book about Kit Carson and the the Old West, and when the United States you know, conquered parts of California and and took over parts of California and and the West from Mexico, and it was crazy back then. Yeah, yeah. And they were they were talking about

51:18the the chaos in in the Mexican government and the Mexican military back then, in the 1800s. Yeah, yeah, I mean, so so people are kind of figured realized if if if you want to be an officer in the in the Mexican army, uh, you have to go through war college, and there's different ways to go about it, but there's a lot of hereditary stuff going on. Hereditary? Like, hey, my dad was your general? Okay, you know. There's there's a lot of that going on. Also, the the army down there has a monopoly over selling guns. There's only one gun store in all of Mexico, and it's run by the the army. What? Yep. One gun store in all in all of Mexico, and it's run by the army, and you have to fly to Mexico City to to get a license and to procure a firearm legally. if you live in the Yucatán, you have to fly to Mexico to Mexico City to get a gun. Which makes which basically makes the only options

52:13buying a gun on the black market or or flying over there and expending all this money, so there's a now it's a class, so only only people that can afford the plane ticket and to do all this process are the ones that can have guns, so it's a that's class, you know, the class is involved in there as well. What kind of rights do you have with guns versus the United States Second Amendment? Is it similar? so the constitution the Mexican constitution allows for guns for self-defense, but a lot of amendments and a lot of corrupt governments down there said, you know, maybe you're not a good idea to have this here. So, progressively throughout Mexican recent Mexican history, it's become more and more strict, right? Certain rounds aren't allowed, uh, certain calibers aren't allowed, and this the the just plainly, the sale of firearms in all of Mexico is just relegated to a single

53:02gun store in Mexico City. So, you can't carry them without a without a permit. And to get a permit, you have to know somebody that knows the presidente or a general or something. It's pretty about all those gentlemen we saw in that video just walking in front of those government agents with with guns? Why didn't they arrest them? They should have They should have, you know, well, the only the only people that that respect those laws are, you know, law-abiding citizens. There was a case in Veracruz of a old man, a former army guy, old older gentleman, uh, he his son tried to get abducted, some something like that. He had this old Mauser rifle, and he shot dead one of the guys that was chasing him, was trying to abduct him. He was arrested for the the firearm possession, and And the Mauser is what Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly used on JFK. Yeah. That's a old ass gun. Well,

53:56there's a lot of weird old ass stuff down there. You I mean, as far as the stuff that gets handed over or just the weird exotic firearms down there. Uh, a lot of people call Mexico the US's garage, and like the like garages, you just find weird stuff down there from old World War era pistols and explosives to uh, new stuff. Like, there's a a friend of mine uh, that works for the government down there, told me that they found a bunch of uh, parts for a minigun in a in a house somewhere down there. What's a minigun? It's basically a Remember that Go Remember that Terminator 2 movie? Yeah. That thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty hard to get, you know, one of those. Uh, apparently, there's one out there somewhere uh, on a vehicle of some sort. Oh, Jesus. It's basically a obliterate everything. Well, we talked about the Ed Holder Fast and Furious deal last time that you were

54:54here, and that to me still is one of the most bizarre cases in in the history of an undercover operation that doesn't make any sense at all. Yeah. They sold guns, like literally sold working guns to a specific cartel down there. To try to so they could track them, or I don't remember what kind of argument that was. But it the the the interesting part or if you want to go into the, you know, questions that they benefited a single cartel, the Sinaloa cartel. That's the that's the thing, you know, that's most of the guns went to that. If you had a guess, if you were a conspiracy theorist, like put on your tin foil hat, what do you think that was all about? Uh, they would probably as a as a as a nation, you would probably want wanting to only worry about a single threat as far as cartels and not a lot of cartels. So, they empowered one cartel. Yeah. Really? I I mean, we're that was

55:51coming off the Patriot Act era Bush era thing. I remember vividly people putting Geiger counters in some of the drug tunnels that we would find. So, they were worried about nukes getting put into drug tunnels at at some point during during that whole post-9/11 era. So, it would make sense that if you are worried about national security, you would want to not worry about a lot of cartels, maybe focus on one, support one, and just keep us in the know. Do you think this was a covert operation in sense of that the Sinaloa cartel was not aware that they were doing this to empower them to eliminate the competition, to strengthen one group cuz they just knew it was inevitable that someone control There's a lot of people that are now coming out after the the whole There's a lot of things that were said at the Chapo trial that are that would lead somebody to believe that

56:45there was some sort of official support from the US government to the Sinaloa cartel as far as them having deals with these this cartel specifically to keep things to keep them in the know about things happening down there. Uh, supporting them to be that be in a position so they can keep control over their region, and basically as an information group so they can have have a clear eye and ear in a chaotic area like Mexico on the bad guy's side. That's what I That's what I gather from it. Jesus Christ. But that kind of it's it's it's almost like they feel like it's helpless. Like, they have to do something like that, that they have to do that because there's no way to fix it. So, what you got to do is kind of try to manage it or move it in certain directions. Well, there's there's there's there's all like every now every now and then I post some stuff up about that type of

57:40situation, and everybody goes, "Well, the CIA has been running drugs into the US for years and using planes and stuff like that." There is there are instances of CIA involvement in different stuff down in Mexico that, you know, are pretty obvious now from the '80s and the and the '90s uh, as far as supporting certain groups or just trying to keep tabs on these people, but, you know, I think we're coming to a point in our history where a lot of these people are dead, a lot of these people are in jail, a lot of these people got book deals, and a lot of these people are talking, and you're you're I mean, it's interesting seeing some of the stuff that is coming out now that in my time, when I was active, would have gotten you in a hole probably somewhere if you talked about it. Wow. So, there is definitely I mean, I I I my mind was blown when I was seeing El Chapo on Netflix.

58:32Because a lot of stuff that was going on in that show is fictionalized stuff that I went through myself. So, it's like, this is on Netflix now. How accurate was it? There's some pretty good accurate parts. So, there's a there's a character in that show called uh, Sol We're talking about Narcos, and we're talking about the Mexican version of Narcos, right? Cuz it the Colombian first. Yeah, there there's a Narcos is pretty good. There's a there's a El Chapo series on Netflix as well. is? Yeah, it's in Spanish, it's very popular, but it's pretty accurate. There's a guy in the in the in the Does it have subtitles? It does. Huh. Uh, there's a guy in the show Conrado Sol is his name, which nobody would people were trying to figure out who that was, is basically a government guy that had a deal with El Chapo, and they both kind of escalated in power. It turns out it was Luna, right? So,

59:21this show was showing him the character uh, El Sol, which depicts Luna as a corrupt politician that was working security, was working both sides. And all of a sudden you went recently, a few months a few weeks back, they arrested the guy. Wow. so the show was kind of predicting it. Do you think that the show had anything to do with him being arrested? I mean, it probably put it put the idea in the side guys to people to ask questions. You know? Yeah. That's weird that shows actually do do that, like saving Surviving R. Kelly. That's what got him arrested. I mean, everybody knew he was peeing on people and like 20 years ago he was peeing on little kids. Yeah, it and now it gives people like it it's interesting. You see you see fictionalized forms of stuff that happened down there. The Narcos show as well is another thing, you know, see fictionalized things of how some of

60:13these powerful cartel groups kind of originated themselves in fiction. And now that is in the public kind of domain as far as collective knowledge, so people start asking questions. And some of these things are apparently people in power also ask questions as well. Jesus Christ. It's just it's so strange how popular it's become. You know, and it's such a popular focal point of fiction as well. And and and fashion. Yeah. El Chapo's picture with uh Sean Penn. Yeah. The shirt was like fire. Everybody wanted that shirt. You know that Conor McGregor like wore something to mimic it when on purpose when he was in the press conference for Rafael dos Anjos? Did you know that? Yeah, I I I heard something about it. He stood in the same stance. Like look at him. Look at him. I mean, he's doing it on purpose. It's like a subtle nod to El Chapo. Yeah, I mean, he's a he he El Chapo has

61:11achieved legendary status. For sure. Now his kid that was freed by the the the cartel down there he was wearing a scapulario, which is like a it could I don't I don't know if you can see it in there. It's an interesting just bit piece of cultural thing from Mexico. Like what is going on in this video that we're watching right now? the gun over he what his personal gun over to one of his bodyguards that was not even these guys don't even care about him. This is a head head head head camera thing and they're putting everybody out there and personally, I would put everybody in zip ties and on the ground, personally. So these guys all have guns drawn and there's people inside with guns drawn at them. And they realize they realize who they have now, so they're like should we forcefully put him in cuffs? Should we not? So how do you know that they're realizing this right now? Is because of

62:01the language? All of these I've went through a lot of the same training that they went through and I did a lot of this type of stuff and all of them would have been in zip ties on the ground. Who is this girl who reached out and grabbed their guns and put their guns down? There's comp there's there's fear in these people. They realize that they messed up. Oh, Jesus. Right? So that's what, you know, people question. And are are these streaming this video live? They they they have their head cams. a head cam and they're streaming it not well, it's not, you know, they they they they they they have it recording it and it it gets sent back to the command post. So when he was moving around, he had one of these on. This is a scapulario, it's called. It's like a religious Catholic iconography thing. What is yours? What is it? Uh this is a Santa Muerte one, right? It's

62:49like a holy death effigy. So he had that on? He had his was a Santo Niño de Atocha, which is like a Catholic Christ baby saint they have. As soon as that picture of him went on online they were sold out all throughout Sinaloa. Everybody was wearing that they have to work, you know, they work. Those work. Because it got him free. Got him free. There he is. There he is. That's the that's the scapulario, Santo Niño de Atocha. Handsome guy. Yeah, that's it also an interesting cultural thing. Uh the the occult part of it where that that Santo Niño de Atocha shrine is right now it's probably most popular shrines in Mexico or that one because they work. And then you go to the holy death shrines down there as well. And you you see how how both sides, both Mexican government forces and the cartel they they both venerate kind of the same saints. So it's that's again, that's a weird

63:46kind of a thing. They share that faith. What is that picture of his truck down there, Jamie? You have some wacky truck? No, it's just a regular truck. Uh I so yeah, that's one of his with bullets. Uh he gave out cars on Christmas. He as a like he did this party to any like townsfolk where he was How many cars did he give out? I have no idea, like a lot of them. There's there's pictures of the El Chapo's son gives out cars on Christmas and there's a bunch of cars there. You know, again, who who who are you like who who are you going to go towards him or the government, you know, he gives me a car, you don't give me anything. Yeah, they they like you said, hearts and minds. They're really Hearts and minds. And and and you know, they they they pay for college education, so there's a whole generation of lawyers, a whole generation of doctors. They pay for immigration procedures.

64:42So hey, you want to you know Yeah. I'll pay for your immigration, but you know, I'm going to call in some favors later on, okay? Wow. So that's you know, that's that's how that's how they grow. It's full on mafia Yeah, I mean, they they learned that One day I'll come to you. Al Capone uh you know, Scarface you know, all these things are kind of venerated by them. That's kind of their cultural backing that they have pop cultural backing. They they kind of look to the mob era guys as influence or as inspiration. You see you know, insane paintings of uh The Godfather or or Scarface in some of these safe houses where these people are, right? And you're like, "Oh, okay." Or you see cartel influenced series for Netflix. Like there's one called La Reina del Sur, which is about a a female cartel head. Um the the the lady that that stars in that show was the one that took Sean Penn

65:41down there to meet El Chapo because El Chapo was Oh, no. was a fan of that show. Right. Really? That's how it got going? When they finally caught up to him, he had the whole series on DVDs at his safe house, which is pretty humanized him a little bit. Oh my god, that that whole scene with Sean Penn going down there and writing a story for Rolling Stone was uber bizarre. Yeah, well, if if they get the the terrorist designation, he basically went down there to meet with a terrorist. What happens to him then? Is it all retroactive? I don't know. I don't know. But they he helped get him arrested in in a sense, right? that whole commotion put eyes on on the movements of El Chapo by the Mexican government. Why would El Chapo agree to do something like that? He was a fan OF THE SHOW. THAT SEEMS SO CRAZY THOUGH, DOESN'T IT seem crazy that he was willing to take

66:37that kind of a risk? And take a photo with Sean Penn and that that actress? Well, What's what's her name again? Ca- Ca- Ca- Ca- del Castillo. Yeah, right there. He was Chapo's probably banging that, right? If I had to guess. There's rumors. There's rumors of of of of a meeting, that's about it. I don't know anything else. If I had to guess, I would say yes. But it's just the whole thing. Look at Sean Penn smiling. Hey, here's my friend the murderer. Well, I mean, um I I get the I mean, I've I've heard some of the the stuff Sean Penn said about, you know, Chavez in Venezuela and stuff like that, how he's pro-Chavez and stuff like that. And I have people, friends of mine that live in Venezuela under that regime. So he's he's a pretty cookie guy. He has some pretty interesting ideas about possibly be that informed. I don't know. I mean, how you you really have to have boots on the ground to

67:32understand what the you're talking about. I mean, you have to be there for, you know, if you want to know what's going on in Venezuela, there's so many different stories. My friend Abby Martin's been down there multiple times and she gives me a story that's so different than anything that you're getting in mainstream news and she goes there. She goes there and talks to people. Yeah. Spends time. I have a there's a there's a resistance group that is based in the US that works down there and you know, they put up videos all the time. Uh of people picking up garbage and trying to recycle garbage to feed themselves in some places. Instagram immediately takes all those downs, right? Really? Yeah. Why does Instagram take those down? I have a lot of that going on as well. When I post something completely news related about something and it and then get shadow banned or things just go down

68:22depending on what I post up. Like weird things. Um posted up uh a a Venezuelan people throwing rocks at this armored vehicle and one of them I think one of them got run run over and that got taken down. I didn't show the the the part where he got run over, but just the people protesting. And how would that get taken down? It got flagged as support for a hate group or something like that. Support for a hate group by showing the news? Yeah, or showing a picture of cartel and again, I don't post anything graphic on my feed because I don't want to get banned, but I'm still shadow banned, right? Well, you showed that one, by the way, Ed Manifesto. That's how you find it. Ed Manifesto. That's that that's Ed's page. Um you posted that one where you you saw a guy getting abducted by fake cops. Yeah, yeah. And Yeah. Did that one get pulled? Yeah, it did. Yeah, all of the

69:18all of the recent Sinaloa video ones are are all were all pulled off the Instagram account. That's why I had to re-upload them all. I just don't understand their logic. I mean look I can understand them saying caution some of these images and videos are sensitive you know like with some bloody things and things on those lines. Something changed in the algorithms a year back like when I was on your first time I was on your show I got obviously I saw a spike. Thank you by the way. But all of the pro second amendment pages and people like there's a guy Crispy Yeah. He also he he got a lot all of a sudden all of us started seeing a lot of his stuff flagged. Yeah his stuff got taken down. Yeah. He got I think he got a there was a photo of him with Donald Trump that got taken down. Yeah. That makes sense. Or I think it was Donald Trump Jr. Like what the is wrong with you people? Just because

70:13you don't align with someone politically you can't take down photos and you can't pretend that he's posing with Hitler or something. Like what the is wrong with you? It's it's uh it's the people can report things anonymously I think and Yes. And if you hurt my feelings there you go. So if there's enough people that flag your video and say this is hurtful or this is they don't even look into it they just pull it down. Yeah. So who do you think is doing do you think this Mexican government is doing that? Do you think it's the cartels that are doing that to your page? think it's mostly Americans that have sensibilities that are completely beyond my comprehension. That see a gun in a in a picture and they're afraid of the gun and it's a terrorism they're supporting terrorism hate group report that picture or video. Well I could understand how some of what

71:01you're reporting on truthful as it may be would be disturbing to people to find out that truth. But you got to let people do that. I mean I mean what if Instagram wanted to I mean do they want to put parameters on what kind of truth you're allowed to Yeah. distribute? So just for people to get some context I I do work for two two magazine companies and I do do articles. So in that regard I do provide news in in in in in in certain ways. But when I post something on my page it's a personal view of something. I purposefully don't go into graphic material because I don't want to get flagged. But sometimes there's always people with a certain affinity to when they see a gun in a post or when they see an animal being butchered for something like in in in a picture or when they see hunting related stuff or when they see some sort of I remember posting up a picture of the make Tijuana

71:57great again hats that they were making down there. Red hats that said make Tijuana great again when the caravans went into TJ and people started protesting the caravans in TJ. That got flagged. What? That is so crazy. Yeah. If you want to confuse if you want to make people angry and confused just wear one of those hats through the airport. Yeah well a lady got maced in the face for wearing one that said make Bitcoin great again. Yeah. Some guy maced her in the face. Yeah I saw I saw I saw somebody walk down walk in an airport with a make hentai great again hat. Make anything great again. You got you can't do it. It's too close. Yeah it's too close. I mean you know that the hat you know red hat. I have never seen anything more divisive in this country. I mean other than like a swastika or something like overtly disgusting. I I I started my immigration process when he got elected. Oh no.

72:56It's it's it's been a trip you know. I I don't know. Like if you are Mexican born citizen and you want to become a United States citizen obviously it's very difficult. It it but so married to an American having American kid that's how I went through the process myself. And you know I got a green card. The the thing is that when he got elected everybody said you know what maybe our time to get a green card is going to get be less and less so let's all try and get one. Mhm. So what would take normally six months took two years. Oh wow. So in those two years you can't leave the country. So if you what happens to people that are illegal over That's what's up about it right? So like there's people that came over here illegally 20 30 years ago and they've done no crimes they've been an integral part of society they've had great lives but they they can't pay

73:49taxes they can't vote they have to live undercover. Yeah I mean they're stupid. They're they're you know and they do provide you know they do provide they pay taxes through other Well through sales tax buying things. But they're not paying taxes they're not but if you made them citizens you would make money. Yeah. Well it's not a popular view. It's a stupid view. Yeah. It's it's stupid that we have these people and they're permanent illegals. Yeah. And they will be here until they die illegally and we know they're here. Like how about work with what you've got? Like you're already you're doing your best to stop the border traffic great fantastic. But listen let us forget about the past. These people are here. They're here and they're a part of our community. Like how you how are you going to deny them citizenship to the day they die and they're still here? Well legal

74:41immigration that's like I went through is hard enough. Yeah you got to find some American lady. That shit's difficult. You got to get lucky. Yeah I did and you know but it it was a hard process. It's it's it's it's a difficult process to And you speak fluent English. I yes that's another thing. I saw people in the line with me you know that did not speak a lick of English. But they were from a country that had a quota and they're great they're fine. Like Holland or some From a country that has a quota so they're great but you're you're not you're not It's hard for Canadians man. I have friends from Canada that have come over here and try to become citizens. It's a grind. Yeah. And and and and don't get me wrong I love this country. I've been I'm new here and I like what I see. I don't like where it's going in some places. What don't you like? I don't like

75:38I mean I left my country because I couldn't defend myself from the bad people out there. The second amendment thing. Second amendment is it's a beautiful thing. You have no idea how beautiful that thing is till you don't have an option to have it. That's one thing. Uh I like the opportunities this country provides. I've had a lot of opportunities I would never get anywhere else. I like the you can actually work the work you put in matters here. Um I like I like how it's segmented and different. You go go to Tennessee and you meet people out there and they're great people you know there's some you know people have preconceived notions of what some part of the country's are but I loved it. And then you go to California and you meet people that are on the same boat as I was and they're forgot completely what Mexico is and they're completely Americanized. Americanized and they're

76:25completely against you as a new as a new person here. Really? Yeah. So you find that like Americanized Mexicans are or or like second third generation Mexicans the worst? Enemy of a Mexican is another Mexican that's a classic that's a classic that's a classic Mexican saying and it's true. That that's a classic Mexican saying really? Most of the negativity negativity I got from being on your show the first time was from Latinos specifically Mexican Latinos. What was the negativity? What was their criticism? When I talked about how Mexicans protested the caravans going through Tijuana and wrecking their city. That was viewed as a extreme to the right or conservative viewpoint apparently. Yeah but that was a fact. But yeah that apparently facts don't matter. Oh that's so silly. But that's people that's that's a good that's a good example of people that are not

77:17there. Yeah yeah. They're talking about it. You're not saying you didn't make a value judgment saying that those people coming through were protested by Mexicans and needed to go back to wherever rice paddy they come from. You didn't say any of that. No so so this is what I saw when I when I talked about it. It's like experience that I was in I was in TJ for a while when that was happening. By the time a caravan goes through obviously a lot of those guys were gang members a lot of them were not all of them a lot of them were covered in tattoos. It's pretty hot outside wearing all of them wearing hoodies. Cameras came by the females and the children were being put in front paraded in front of the media. Anybody that was there you could see the circus that was going on. And then a lot of the a lot of the camp encampments they would they would you know litter the encampments with needles

78:06on the outside. One of them was next to a school that had to be closed down. A niece of mine had a kid in there and the school had to be closed down because it was next to one of these encampments. They would protest and close down lanes. Most people that live in TJ some of them are Americans and they commute so that's affecting their livelihood. Yeah people that work on tourism in in TJ livelihood went down. So the fact that these people came in and disrupted all that whole thing. And then you would see these Californian you know hippie American guys come down there and do puppet shows for these people and hand over donations in the form of canned food blankets and stuff like that and then you would see these guys go to back door and sell all that stuff in the back and just getting money for whatever they were going to use the money for. We would laugh at it but it also you

78:49know it's pretty disheartening. Having that point of view online because I started posting some of this stuff online for people this is what's happening. And that was like no no no you're going against the narrative. yeah. The narrative and the and the people that are talking about you going against the narrative have really no idea. They don't care about the truth that's what's crazy. The absolute is thing. So if you're against the if you're against this caravan going through Tijuana and affecting your you're probably a Trump supporter. That's that's that I'm like So simple. I can't even vote up here yet you don't have to be a full citizen to vote, so that doesn't even factor in on that. Oh god damn, it's so crazy. What else about America bothers you? Uh I think uh You know, there's there's definitely this tendency in America that I see the youth in America. Like I like I have

79:44I have a weird mental comparison of seeing my nephews down there playing soccer um going out and getting into trouble, uh going to cockfights, which is probably pretty dangerous, but they go to cockfights, stuff like that. And I see kids up here on their tablet you know, playing games, video games, uh getting offended by something, you know. Down there you can still punch somebody in the face if they get into your face in the school. You're allowed to do that in school? I mean you there's there's you're going to be some issues, but it's fine, you know. You know, there's there's still that, you know. Up here it's gone. All that's gone. You're going to get into some issues. You're probably going to get kicked out of school or something. You know, you see this weird uh Pussification of American children. Safe spaces. Don't say that. That's politically incorrect. Pussification?

80:29I don't know. What's a good word for it? What's the Come up with a politically correct word for that that has just as much kick and I'll use that. I don't know. They can't. It doesn't exist. It It's the pussification. Yeah. I mean and and Like when I came up here the like the first year I was up here uh I saw the California gun laws change. Like I got to see the weird California compliant rifles come to the range and you have to push a button to release the magazine and Mhm. Yeah. And make it more difficult to reload. Yeah. So strange. Well, I mean if if if if uh I've never seen a California compliant gun in the hands of a criminal myself. Right? So, why why are the good like the good citizens following the law? Yeah, the idea that you're just going to handicap law-abiding citizens and that's going to somehow or another save lives in mass shootings.

81:28And here's the the other thing about you and I'm waiting for this to happen, but it's just not happening. They're never addressing people using psychotropic drugs. They're not They don't address that. All those school shooters, all those mass shooters are all on drugs. They're all on some kind of psych drugs and there's there's no mention of it whatsoever. Like what what is the action of these things? It's all about the guns. And the guns are a huge issue. I mean the fact that these people who are up Yeah. They that they have access and they can get access to these guns and they can wind up shooting people. Yes, that is one issue. Security is another issue. There's another issue and that's mental health and that's the that to me is the biggest one because without the mental health issue, you don't get mass shooters. And that's a interesting thing we when I get people

82:14in conversations about the violence in Mexico and you know, perspective. Mexico cartel guys, you know, go into a town shoot up a bunch of people and it's pretty horrible. Uh but on the Mexican side we only had one school shooting that like a notable one. Right? And it was mentally ill kid when he took a gun to school. Right. And our as Mexicans we look at what happens in the US in schools and we're horrified by it. That's like completely, you know, horrific. Isn't that amazing? It's again, being on both sides, I'm just trying to figure things What about pharmaceuticals being prescribed to children in Mexico? Is it similar? Not at all. Not not at all. I mean we're we're so behind in some in some instances as far as you know, there's I didn't know about PTSD till I came up here or or TBI, Really? Yeah, I didn't know anything about that. When did you learn about TBI? When I

83:06started talking about We should say what that is. Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries for people like about it I learned about it from talking to most of my Marine friends that were coming back from They're like you had like what you're describing that your feeling sounds like TBI. Really? Yeah. You should get yourself checked out. And then you go down there and they're like ah you're you know, things would happen and people would get, you know, it's just drink get a few days off take a few shots of tequila, you're fine. Get back at it. Well, that's the old school mentality. I mean that's what they had to deal with in World War II and Vietnam and Yeah, yeah. But you you've got I mean when it comes to that, but mental health down in Mexico there's like it's not it's not anywhere as far as medicating it, kids being diagnosed with things like autism

83:56autism is a thing that I only recently kind of heard about 15 years ago. In Mexico? In Mexico. And what about um antipsychotic drugs and all these different drugs that you're seeing that these a lot of these school shooters are taking? in Mexico it's not a thing. You know, people think that it's pretty permissive in Mexico they can get any drug if you pay somebody off. The thing is that a lot of these uh psychiatric level they're they're not they're not available down there or people that you can go to and you're like, what do you want? No, this this is not available here. So, it's not a part of the culture like it is in America. no. Yeah, in America it's such a huge part of the culture that people want that people are constantly wanting to take something to take the edge off or take something so they could feel better or take something to you know, to just to just to alter their

84:45state and the doctor will prescribe it to them. And then the pharmaceutical drug companies are just raking in the cash from it. So, it just becomes a part of reality. Yeah. The there there was a few people like way back when I first started you know, things were pretty lax when I got in. Uh you know, they you would get, you know, you're not tested for cocaine and whatever. But um some people would go to Oaxaca and go on mushroom trips like some of the veteran guys that would go through whatever. There's a there's a place in Oaxaca and in Veracruz where they go up into the hills and get some of those they call them veladas, which is like a basically going to midnight and they would smoke these mushrooms and take them and they would come back apparently fixed some of them. That was like the story, you know. Uh it was pretty good for them to work their things out. Well, John Hopkins is

85:34they're doing studies on on psilocybin and there's been studies done on psilocybin with troops with PTSD and that they they've found that that it does help them. MDMA is another one that MAPS is doing all these studies with MDMA and troops coming back with PTSD. Yeah, um I mean a lot of this stuff has been around for a long time now there. Like like I remember the Beatles and members of the Doors went down there to Maria Sabina. Uh and the Well, they found out about it was a Life magazine article from the 1950s that was one of the first really mainstream Do you remember if you could find who wrote that? It was a Life article in the 50s. I'm trying to remember the the guy's name. Wasserman? Wasserman. I feel like it's Wasserman who was one of the very first guys to sort of mainstream psilocybin mushrooms and it was because of Mexican tribal cultures.

86:27Maria Sabina was like the figurehead of that movement. Uh she was a lady that would do these mushroom trips to to to for people that would come up in the hillside where there she would take her on Was it Gordon Wasson? Ah, I was close. I knew it was something like that. Gordon Wasson. That's right. Yeah, so this was Seeking the Magic Mushroom and I believe this was What year was this, Channing? Um didn't have the actual It's I think it's in the 50s. Is it? Yeah, I typed in 1950 57. Yeah, okay. Maria Sabina left a whole legacy of that in Mexico. And she had a lot of people that learned from her and a lot of these people are all over Mexico doing, you know, healing and spiritual work. Well, that's the other thing about Mexico. Mexico has some You have some freedom. Like my friend Ed Ed Clay, he had a ibogaine retreat down there where people would go to get off of pills because it's one of

87:19the iboga is one of the best ways to get off of particularly opiates. Yeah, there's you know, there's there's enforcement is hard in a country like Mexico, so you're not going to have people trying to go inspect things in some of these parts. So, that's why there's a lot of places like that. You still to this day you can go to a place in Oaxaca where technically that's taking mushrooms is illegal, but they grow on the hillsides. Didn't they kind of like uh decriminalize a lot of different things down there? For personal use. So, the quantities now matter more than they used to. So, sometimes you would get caught with a certain quantity of something and that means you're selling it. And so, the How many grams of mushrooms can you have? Uh I have I would have to look it up, but Everybody has a different opinion on what personal use is. I mean I remember

88:08the first time I saw like a box a box of them and I'm like, what the hell are these? And you know, later on I figured out what they were and you know, they're they're a thing. They're a thing in Mexico. There's there a big thing in Mexico. Mhm. Um there's a lot of people growing them. thing to anyone who finds out about them. Once you eat them, they become a big thing. Yeah, yeah, apparently. They use them in rituals and all sorts of weird rituals down there as a as a doorway type of element. Like there's a there's a ritual where they do where they bury you alive in a shallow grave. Oh Jesus. Yeah, it's pretty basically a an isolation chamber. A really poor man's isolation chamber. Uh they bury you alive in the shallow grave with a rope with a bell on it. And they give you a bunch of mushrooms so you can think about things in there. And if you freak out, you ring that bell

88:56and you get pulled out. Oh god. Yeah. How you breathing down there? They got a tube or something? grave. It's just basically, you know, about that much dirt. There's a hole where the rope goes through. You're so you're kind of fine. Um but it's a it's like part of the death cult down there. They do that to kind of initiate people into it, but it's it's the They they take mushrooms. There's a bunch of weird stuff that goes on down there as far as the the use of psychotropics like mushrooms and other things to put people in the in that mindset of you know, accepting a very specific deity or truth out there. Mhm. Yeah. So, let's get back to what's up about America. I always like to talk to people that are that have come here from somewhere else and just sort of look at it with a fresh eye cuz obviously I'm I've been here my whole life. I'm I'm used to it. Yeah. And I'm third

89:48generation. Oh, you are? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, I'm my parents were second generation. My grandparents came over here. So, it's all I'm ingrained, you know, I'm in the system. I don't know. I'm blind. What else is up about this place? Uh I I I mean, um I don't know. I mean, I I when I travel around, I get to see different parts of America. And all of them, you know, there's there's certain certain places I've been called, "Ah, you're you're you're one of the good Mexicans at, you know, you're one of the good ones." I won't say what those parts of the country are, but I've gotten some of that, you know. Well, the the United States is almost like Europe. Where like there's all these different countries except they all speak the same language. Yeah. You know, like Europe has France and then they have Germany and you go over there there's this one and then

90:36there's Sweden and then it's all in this big landmass. Yeah. But the United States' landmass is contiguous and they all speak the same language, but if you want to tell me that Montana is the same as Florida, you're out of your mind. Well, uh I I take those comments in stride, you know. Uh That you're one of the good Mexicans? I mean, being racist kind of racial like that and just messing with each other is a thing Mexicans do that all the time, right? Uh so, I take it in stride. It's fascinating to me that people are second generation Mexicans up here take more offense to something like that. Uh Than than I would. Somebody say, "Hey, you're one of the good Mexicans." Yeah. Whatever, you know, it's it's to me it's like a thing I I take in stride. easier things get, the more people get quickly offended. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's a fact. Uh hard times produce Hard men. Hard men

91:28produce soft times. Soft times produce weak men. Yeah. So, when when I come up here, I see some, you know, softness in a lot of the society and a lot of feelings get hurt. Uh having to watch what I say as far as, you know, Joking around? Yeah. You I I I always tell this to people. First off, I'm from Mexico. I come from a Mexican education system. It's a third world country, so please take everything I say with that in mind, right? And then I go into whatever I'm going to say. And when you do like when you teach classes a class where I have a like I I recently did did a a conference with a bunch of bodyguards and security professionals that work internationally. I have to start with that one just to not offend anybody, you know. That's hilarious. You're teaching security guards and bodyguards and you have to worry about being offended. Every now and then you get somebody, you

92:22know what? You said something that Oh, Christ, you babies. Yeah. So, never read the comment section. Never never stay behind and talk to people, especially if they they look like they're they want to speak to the manager, you know. Oh, do do you get that when you teach classes? Every now and then I get some What do they say to you? Uh you know, I I think you I think your point of view is is askew because you work for the government down there and you weren't part of the like the poor class. I'm like, I wasn't part of the poor class. If you work for like where I work from, we're pretty poor pretty poor poor, right? So, like, you know, I wasn't middle class. I was pretty poor. Uh or or they or they try to tell me the realities of where I'm from. Oh, that must be hilarious. good. Yeah, that's pretty good. Ed, you're just fearmongering about Mexico. I go down to Rosarito all the time with

93:12my family. It's fine. Well, Rosarito's fine. Go down to Tamaulipas where the shooting happened and tell me the same thing. You know, it's perspective. They really say that to you? I can't imagine someone talk particularly talking to someone like you who's got like real world experience. There's there's people out there that kind of, you know. I I I believe you. I mean, I do believe people are so dumb. I do believe you. Yeah. Comment section. Yeah. Oh, don't don't go in there, man. But it is really true that it's the the people that live the softest, easiest lives that are the most offended and the people that have experienced like real hardship and seen real violence that are a little more hesitant to comment on things like that. Like that's that is possible. Yeah. That is real. And and that's one of the other things that I really think is good about your page and it really

93:59makes me angry that Instagram censors it is that you're giving real world perspective. You're you're showing real video of a lot of this stuff and you put it up with with also your educated experience on what these people are actually involved in. Yeah. And and it's I'm not involved in any news agency. And a lot of this like most of those videos came in through direct messenger Oh. phone from people that are out there. They had this happening here. Like, okay. Mhm. Yeah. Talk about it. Okay, I'll I'll talk about it. Um like when the Mormon thing happened, uh the the people the people that reached out to me to talk about it were part of the family and it was pretty surreal. And it wasn't national news when I posted it up. Right? So, there's some of the first like uh social media post about it that I could kind of I was trying to look for it and it was wasn't anywhere.

94:51So, I talked about it and like that that evening it went national news. And but most of it is directly from having connections and people out there that still talk to me. So, I always keep my ear open to that type of stuff. Specifically from that region because that's that's my thing. That's where I came from. Well, there's not a lot of mainstream news that's dedicated to this crisis dedicated to what's going on. It just it takes a big event like that to sort of break through all the noise and become a signal that reaches us over here. Yeah. Yeah. And it, you know, again, and things happen somewhere else and now all the attention that most people aren't focusing on right now. So, the whole what happened down there there Yeah, it's just crazy. Like I there's a giant problem right next door. You could walk to it. Literally. I mean, if you live in San Diego, it's a

95:3615-minute drive. Yeah. Yeah, like it's right there. But it's just to to me it's I love San Diego and I love going down there, but every time I go down there, I'm like, "You guys could walk to Mexico." Like this is so crazy. Like especially La Jolla. Like La Jolla which is one of the most richest parts of the country. unbelievably beautiful. Stunning views, gorgeous mansions. Everybody's driving a Mercedes. You're 15 minutes away from Tijuana. Yeah. And if you we have heavy rains in Tijuana, all of our sewage is going to go right through there. Really? Is that what happens? of the like recently we had major major rain in Tijuana. All of the sewage goes across the border to the to a Tijuana estuary. There's a there's a processing facility the US has on this side, but it can't manage all of that and they have to close all the beaches in the area. Oh. Wow. Which is again, it's fascinating

96:29how to see how they affect There's a There's a border wall there, but there really isn't a border wall. There's no border wall. You get in a boat. You row over there. It takes 3 minutes. Or you can parkour. Okay, I recently posted up a bunch of videos of people parkouring over that wall. I saw it. Yeah. Look, I admire ingenuity. I admire people that find solutions to problems. Watching that guy scale that goddamn wall like Batman. Yeah. I mean, it's it's amazing. Yeah, they're they're coming up with weird ways. Like I saw some people do using powdered titanium to to melt the bars on on on on one of the slats. Powdered titanium? I again, I had to research it. Basically, it's a powdered titanium burns at a very high rate and when you start it, it's kind of hard to put it out. So, they made this hole on and this wall with powdered some sort of powdered titanium mix. That's like that

97:17What was that that they were talking about with 9/11 where all the conspiracy theorists thought that it melted steel? God damn it. What about py- pyring or something? Pyrite. Is that it? A tenner something like that. Tennerite? The word just popped in my head. I don't know if that's the one. Yeah. Yeah, but I feel like that's the stuff that you blow up with. Right now they sell these things they call breach pens like and they there's there's the for tactical applications there are these pens that be sticks that you start and you can burn chains open and stuff like that with them. Really? Yeah. So, it's basically a ghetto version of that is what they're using, you know, in some of these places. And I know they I mean, the the wall as they're making it and speaking to some of the border patrol agents that that I that I know, it does a job as far as slowing people

98:03down. So, they don't So, there's not an overflow of people coming through. Yeah, IT'S NOT LIKE, "YEAH!" YEAH. BUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF IT was that? That's my Banzai? Yeah. What would happen if everybody if there was no border, everybody's like, "Fuck it. Mexico's United States. United States is Mexico. Have a good time." Yeah. I It would be chaotic, of course. For how long though? 10 years? I don't know. How long would I mean, once everybody got in? Yeah. That would be bad. people go there. I mean, if What if United States and Mexico came to a deal and they said, "Listen, we'll call Wasn't there a thing that they were going to do There was a North American agreement. There was like they were trying to do that with the United States and set up a single currency. Yes. Yeah. There's a lot of conspiracy theories around the Amero. Yes. There was something like that. Like they were

98:49going to do it with Canada where we're all going to become one nation. see I can see it with Canada, you know, but maybe not, you know, Mexico. Well, look, we could all spread all the good around. Yeah. And then also like look, Mexico's got some awesome spots. Wouldn't it be great if US industry moved in there? And lithium. Yes, and lithium. Maybe that's going to hold lithium. Well, Colombia did a great job in eradicating all the the problems with narcotics. I think it it it is well not all of them because they still have a guerrilla guerrilla group down there that recently the FARC that would went uh amnesty and then they they got active again, but they still there's still a lot of cocaine being produced there and Oh, yeah. But it's not nothing like when Escobar No. What did they do? Well, they were facing just a few criminal groups, large ones and Mexico is facing

99:38a lot of them. That's interesting. And they have the US right next door that is pumping uh money into the uh issue directly. They don't have to fly in. No. Yeah, it's not a long plane flight. It's a short walk. Also, Mexico is a pretty big country. I think people kind of miss that also. It's a pretty big country. big country. Do you do you remember when there was a CIA drug plane that had like several tons of cocaine on it and it crashed cuz the Mexican government wouldn't let them land and refuel? Yeah. Yeah. I mean all sorts of conspiracy theories are around. Well, that was a real CIA drug plane that had been to Guantanamo Bay at least twice. Like it was documented. Yeah. And they for whatever reason I mean I I I They're flying back with a lot of coke. Look at that. Look at all that coke. I imagine I imagine government groups everywhere have agents

100:29Cowboys. Yeah. Yeah, you have cowboys. When people try to say the CIA brings in drugs, no no no. It's people who work for the CIA realize they can make a load of money if they bring in drugs and they they pass that money around and they work it out, but the CIA itself does not bring in drugs. Yeah, uh customs customs and border protection agent agents and just Homeland Security as an agency has the most corruption charges as far as all law law enforcement agencies Do they really? Yeah, federal federal charges for corruption. Uh because they are on the border and there's a lot of money on the border. Of course, that's that's why, right? It totally makes sense. And uh you know, I mean it maybe it was a CIA guy that said you know, I can make some money through here. That's why. that was the whole Barry Seal's thing. That Tom Cruise movie made was it called Made in America, I think?

101:16in America. about bringing in drugs with the with cowboys that work for the CIA. Yeah, I mean when I was working down there in Mexico and I got to see different agencies that we would work with. All of a sudden we're like, "Hey, uh can you guys just uh go like look over there or just go go over there?" Like what's going on? And you would see like some sort of Okay, let's go. Like you didn't you didn't know what's going on, you know, but Plane lands, plane takes off. Plane lands, plane takes off. Nobody saw nothing. You know, money exchanges and just you know, that's and you're just an agent, you know, you're just in the background. Well, that's the thing that's so scary about what's going on with the cartels is that the quantity of money is so extraordinary now. It's almost like they can do anything. Yeah, I mean they have their own cell phone networks in some places.

102:06What? Yeah, there's there's been I we could have I knew, but they're What kind of coverage they have? They got to get pretty good coverage pretty good coverage in their areas. I mean they they they they dismantled some cell phone networks in the past. Also like uh whole cities with uh hidden cameras that are cartel controlled to see who goes in and out of the of the towns. Wow. Wow. Like so they So it's sophisticated. Oh, yeah. So Mexicans Mexican government is working with uniformed uh agents patrolling in pickup trucks in the back. And these guys are living in 2025 and using drones to to to surveil the the patrols in the area. And they're using their own cell phone network so they don't have to be worried about government tapping into their communications. Uh they're utilizing encrypted phone technology that is available now commercially throughout the world um to

103:01get around some of these things. Um and and they're and they're working they're constantly evolving in how they work, you know. I remember the first time I was working in in in Baja and all the cartel guys were were moving around in Suburbans dressed like federal agents. And they would look exactly like the legit federal agents or they were federal agents with the cartel guys. So you would Oh my god. So they'd be together. Yeah, and then we started working with the military and the military didn't give a who you were. They would stop everybody, shoot everybody. And these guys immediately saying, "Oh, now we're using taxi cabs to move around and different types of cars and we're going to paint the the the vans like uh taxi vans or we're going to move around in in ambulances." So they changed their tactics. So we were always after these convoys of Suburbans and now they're

103:49doing something else. So that's how they evolve. They they they just, you know, you're trying to go after them with a hammer and these guys are mosquitoes. Does it make you want to move to Canada? No, not not at all. That's the furthest you can get away from all the chaos. know. It must be going on up there as well, right? They they may also have a So uh I I interviewed a uh a a smuggler a coyote uh for one of the articles I wrote and um he um you know, asked him directly like, "What do you think about the the the border wall and the immigration uh uh policies of this current administration?" He says, "Oh, it's good for business, you know. It makes it seem like it's harder to put people in in the United States. So I mean that wall is pretty hard. Like how would you do it?" "I fly them into Canada and they walk down." Well, we talked about it before that the

104:44border the United States is a wall to Mexico. The border from the United States to Canada is a giant clearing that's 100 yd wide. It's real clear. You can see it. Like it's almost like they make it easy. Hey, just go right here. Yeah, I mean a lot of people that want to get to into the US. You hear you hear numbers from $8,000 to $15,000 depending on who you are, what you're trying to do, how you're trying to get up here. As far as being smuggled up and he's like uh pass Mexican passport, get a Mexican passport if you're Mexican, you will get you a Mexican passport. Uh we'll put $2,000 in an account somewhere. So if they want to verify if you're financially solvent, they will check that. And just fly to Canada and just walk down. And that's what we do. Well, Canada's super liberal now, too, with that Justin Trudeau guy. Super liberal. Yeah, so a lot of a lot of their a lot

105:36of their business as far as smuggling people, that's how they do it, right? Now instead of going through the desert, you know. There is that there is a lot of that going on now, too. Like some there's a lot of people from Africa African migrants coming into into Mexico. A lot of people from the Middle East as well, which is worrying for some people. Um coming in through Mexico trying to make their way up. Uh but it's pretty hard for these people now because there's a lot of security now on both sides of the border. Mexican why they not you now? And on this side of the border things are kind of more stringent. A lot of the people that claim asylum like a lot of the my caravan members come into the US claim asylum and say, "Okay, here's your number to wait, but you're going to wait in Mexico." So they get sent back. Oh. Even if they're not from Mexico, they would have to wait in

106:23Mexico, which is very interesting. Yeah. There's a lot of these uh immigrant waiting encampments in places like Texas and even even Tijuana. Just places where people get cross asylum, "Okay, here's your number. You have to wait in Mexico." They get sent back. Oh. Yeah. Man. Are you hopeful? Do you think this is going to work out okay? Oh, when you mean this okay, like you mean this This is what we're all talking about. Yeah. Is this going to become better, a better situation in the future or is it going to get more and more crazy? Is the United States going to become like Mexico? I think at a global scale we're we're we're going to need each other before before, you know, before too long. You know, you guys are going to need Mexico. And Mexico's going to need you. There's going to be some sort of situation we're going to have to come together, probably. You mean like a global war? I

107:16don't know. Could be. Oh, Jesus, Ed. I mean there's a lot I mean there's a lot of Chinese influences in in in industry in Mexico. Yes. As soon as Trump said we're going to when he when Trump was going into into office, he said "We're going to bring jobs back." You know, this whole thing. So a lot of factories American factories and businesses moved out of Mexico. And then the Chinese moved in. Instantly. Well, that's what's dumb about short-sidedness, right? Well, not understanding 4D three-dimensional chess, you know. There's a lot of moving pieces. Yeah, and and and you know, people can say whatever they want about the United States. Uh American companies in Mexico are pretty good companies and they're pretty good with their workers and their their ethics are pretty good. A lot better than China. A lot better than China, you know. Uh it's a it's a different it's a different game and

108:05you know, it's it's again you you you see the the these influences going into Mexico because they realize that Mexico is a valuable place for them to have influence in. Well, especially with what you're talking about with lithium. I mean with I mean with battery technology and green technology becoming in the forefront of American culture right now. I mean everybody wants electric cars. All these manufacturers, Ford, Mercedes, they're all coming out with electric cars. Porsche's going electric car now. Yeah, that I mean that's a big deal. Yeah, they need those batteries. Yeah, that's that's that's the next you know, that's the next oil that oil type situation is going to be lithium. And that's right next door. All right, so I think again I think uh as a second largest consumer of American uh products in the world is Mexico, second largest. So economies are intertwined. They have a

108:56lot of Americans living down there. There's a lot of blood ties to in within the country. Of course, Americans don't want America to be Mexico. And uh of course, a lot of Mexicans Mexico to be more like America. That's what would fix things. Increasing the opportunities and and making Mexico a better place. We need to make some make Mexico great again shirts. And yeah, and get get in fights at the airport. Yeah. I mean really if we're connected to Mexico, if Mexico was like Canada, where you know, like Canada is wonderful. You go over there. There's amazing cities. It's It's great. It's safe. It's clean. If we can make Mexico like that, then we'd have, you know, it would be better for everybody including Mexico, including the United States, everybody. Post line 11 at the border, you could see how businesses started failing in San Diego because it became harder to cross the border. Mhm.

109:55So you There's There's There's a symbiotic relationship with some of these border towns and specifically California is very dependent on some border towns in Mexico. Yeah, have you ever seen that documentary a day without Mexicans? Yeah. It'll shut this whole place down, man. There's nothing going on without Mexicans here. Yeah. That's why anti-Mexican racism is some of the dumbest racism in all of the United States but particularly for California. It's so stupid. Um I'm I I uh you know, I got to see how like in places like uh Fallbrook, California where the the avocado capital of the world cutting down all the avocado trees because there's the drought and there's nobody to pick them. Really? Yeah, there's less No one to pick them. Cuz less people coming up and it's harder to maintain like a you know, people they hire illegals and there's Holy These farms need to organize.

110:48Start working on border control. It's like the whole I don't know, man. I I'm I'm one of those people that believes in borders but I also believe if you're a hard working person who wants to do better, you should have an opportunity and I and I don't think a lot of people particularly poor people that aren't very well educated, there's not an opportunity. Yeah. They can't There's no reason for them to be over here. So if they applied for the United States citizenship, well, there's Well, why do you want to come here? Well, I want to come here for opportunity. Well, what do you have to offer? I'm you know, I'm a hard worker. Well, there's a lot of hard workers. I mean, that's really the attitude. Yeah. You know, and I think we all just got I mean, me, I got lucky. I got lucky my grandparents came here. They got lucky. That's all it is. It's just luck.

111:33And to deny that and to deny these other people this opportunity This just got to be a way to filter out bad people. Yeah. Maybe as technology gets better, we can recognize bad people better. Yeah. Um I mean uh I went through a bunch of questioning. They looked at my background. They got a lot of questions for what I used to do, right? They got to look at it and it's fine, you know, and I you know, I was like I I didn't you know, I didn't do anything wrong. So like I'm here. It's fine. But uh you know, there's a lot of people like again, the Luna Garcia Luna was here on a green card and he got nabbed when he went to process his full citizenship. So he was here for a long time. Wow. He should have just stuck with the green card. I would have kept quiet probably. That's why he's in jail, right? He lied to a to an immigration agent. That's one of the charges he has on him.

112:23Oh, wow. Right? So it's pretty interesting that people like him have spent a long time up here. Things like open secrets and you know, yeah, I mean again, not all not all Mexicans are good good guys, you know, not all Mexicans are good. I know. So you know, hard working people come up here like some of the people that that I've I've met out here that are kind of on the same boat as I am fresh in the country, you know doing manual labor, construction, working Kentucky I I I met a bunch of guys that were working on the Kentucky Derby or the horse stalls around them. All Mexicans. You can smell you know, the tortillas. The good food is usually you can smell, you know, you can you know where they are. Dude, there's a place if you're hungry. There's a place I don't tell anybody the name cuz I don't want to it up. Okay. There's a place down the street from here that like every time you go in

113:16there, Mexican soap opera's playing. Nobody speaks English. The food's off the charts. That's how I know. Lengua tacos. Yeah. Lengua quesadillas. Yeah, make organ meat great again. Yeah. That's another thing. Yeah. Organ more organ meat. Don't throw away the tongue. No. Don't throw away the tongue. The tripe? Yeah. Tripe? Tripe. Dude, I love liver. I eat heart and liver. That's another thing weird thing I see all this stuff you throw away from the animals. I know. They've never had menudo. Oh, it's That's that's sad. This place up here has menudo. Oh, it's off the charts. Uh the best hangover food menudo. Menudo. Right. Why How's that work? There's like a science behind that. Uh you know, organ meat. I don't know, there's a lot of nutrients in it basically. A lot of nutrients get stored in organ meat. And it's a soup so you get the rehydration from that.

114:04Yeah, and it's all the It's like a common thing in Mexico about liver specifically. Mhm. Uh I grew up on a on a pig on a pig farm and my mom would have this rule if you killed it, you have to eat it. So I killed a rattlesnake once and I was peeling it and the liver of the rattlesnake was the like a treat that she would give us, right? Really? Yeah. Raw? Raw. Woo. Yeah, it's pretty hardcore. Well, it's my mom was pretty hardcore. Okay. Sounds so. Yeah. But listen, man. Thanks coming here and dropping knowledge. We really appreciate you and uh again, Ed Manifesto is your Instagram page. Yeah, it's Manifesto Please everybody sign up. Go follow him. Check it out. Get yourself educated. Find out what's going on and tell Instagram to go themselves. What they're doing is rude. Is that Yeah. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you, man. Thank you. Bye, everybody.