Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep 32 | Hunting LeRoux & His Criminal Empire | Guest: Elaine Shannon

Episode Date: February 19, 2019

Learn about the story of LeRoux’s criminal empire was cyber-linked by his own untraceable dark web and stretched from Southeast Asia to the Middle East to West Africa to Brazil and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales of arms, drugs, chemicals, bombs, missile technology and assassinations.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to it. And what is it? Chewing the Fat with yours truly, Jeff Fisher. Thanks so much for coming along for the ride today. Remember, you can follow me on Twitter at Jeff EMRA, Facebook and Instagram, Jeff Fisher Radio. And if you're referring to this, you can always hashtag it, Chewing the Fat. We've got some news coming up a little bit later in the podcast about some, a show that I want to do that will be posted on Saturday,

but we're going to record it on Friday. And so I'll have all that information for you, but I really want to hear from you on Friday, and we'll post it on Saturday. But let's start today with a couple of RIPs. Carl Lagerfeld, one of the most influential and recognizable fashion designers,

died yesterday at the age of 85, and really yesterday, probably today. He was, there's no exact time when they told you that he had passed away. But he's been struggling for quite a while now. He didn't show up to an event in January. The Chanel show in the end of January. And he didn't show up when they said he was suffering from tiredness.

When someone is suffering from tiredness, they are old. and don't want to leave the house and are sick. So, anyway, Carl Lagerfeld, rest in peace, 85 years old. He's made his mark in the fashion industry. And those of you that know my, well, I am fashion. And those of you that know the history of my fashion place in the world, knows that, you know, Carl and I are, well, you know, Carl and I are just like one.

Also, another rest in peace that I didn't realize. He died about 10 days ago, and it's very sad news. Bruce Williams, talk radio legend Bruce Williams passed away. Amazing. He was 86. He'd retired about five or six years ago when he was not on the air anymore. But I listened to him forever. And I met him once.

He lived in Tampa Bay. He was on the air forever. And his, you know, the final shows were just, it was his, um, his show of people calling up and wanting help with business, money, finances, all of it. It was, it was great. And it was so, he was such an old crotchety bastard the last 20 years. It was, it was just fun to watch because he would, people would ask him questions and he would try to give him answers and they would try to try to. to fight back a little and he was he wouldn't have it but i my favorite part of the bruce williams show was his producer was in i think new york but his producer was not with him in tampa bay he

he broadcast from his house so he'd sit down with his little dog in his house with his headphones and his and his uh his his his notepad and he would uh he would ask moniki his producer uh where they were going to and who they were going to speak to. And his headphones were so loud that you could, you know, he'd say, Monique, where are we going? And you'd hear, well, I don't know. Madison, Wisconsin. You're on the air.

Go ahead. It was so fun. You just don't, people just wouldn't do that anymore. And he obviously didn't care. I also loved some of his stories. I mean, he was, he was a mayor in, uh, in, uh, Jersey. He was a business guy. One of my favorite stories. There's two favorite stories that Bruce Williams told that really aren't, you know, exciting stories or anything. It was

just ideas of business and how he thought. You know, like his idea, a guy called him once and wanted to know about buildings and why he would, you know, he'd like to buy this building and pay it off and then he could try to save and buy another building. And Bruce was talking him out of that, telling him, look, why not just make a down payment on five buildings and make payments on that? And that way, you've got five buildings instead of one and make the payments instead of owning the one. You're making payments. And it was just, you know, that's the way he looked at it. Instead of wanting to own that one building, why not own five instead of one and just make the payments? And another thing was that he always believed that he could go to any

city in America and make a living. He didn't need anybody. He would just go to any city in America and he could make a living. And he said he could go to the city and he'd buy a truck and he'd drive around and do work for people and make a living. And one guy that would talk to him said, you know, I was thinking about doing that, buying a truck. And Bruce said, no, I didn't, he didn't say just buy any truck.

What he was talking about was a dump truck. You go to a city in America, get yourself a dump truck. And you could drive around that city and make a living, no problem, and feed your family. Absolutely amazing. Just the way he thought of it. Anyway, Bruce Williams passed away 10 days ago. Radio legend was around forever and sad to see him go. All right.

Am I done with Death Talk? Yeah, let's be done with Death Talk. Well, we're still kind of on Death Talk a little bit. New York City's Waldorf Astoria, one of the most iconic hotel. in the world closing. Closing indefinitely for renovations on February 28th. So if you want to stay at the Waldorf, you still have time, but you need to hop sing on it because it's closing down.

The property was bought from Hilton Worldwide by a Chinese insurance company for $1.95 billion. and they're going to have a big major overhaul. Now, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and who doesn't love the New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee, is working to preserve parts of the interior, and the insurance, the Chinese insurance company, Anbang, has agreed to comply. We'll see how that goes.

But they're going to reportedly change most of the rooms in the Waldorf, into condominiums. So good luck, God bless, to the iconic Waldorf Astoria. And this is definitely in the death story pile, the death story fat pile. The Australian rodent, the Bramble K. Melamese, they're extinct. It's a little brown rat.

they have now been recognized as extinct. And according to this story, it's the first known demise of a mammal because of human-induced climate change. Stop it. Stop it. But that's what they're blaming it on in Australia. Climate change.

Now, they've tried to breed these animals, these rats, and it didn't work out. Sorry about that. But they're saying that the impacts of climate change on the K, including repeated storm surges that killed off the rats, killed off their food sources, it just happened quicker than we ever anticipated. And we're blaming it all on climate change.

Isn't that special? I'm guessing that the world has enough rats in it. So the Bramble K will be okay. It will be okay without the Bramble K rodent. Now, Australia, though, is big on the climate change initiatives, and they want to hit their mark as part of the Paris Agreement. So what they're doing to help the globe is they're going to plant one billion trees. And they hope that by planting one billion trees, it will help them reach their target with the Paris Agreement.

Good luck, because we just don't have enough trees on the planet. And apparently, we don't have enough rats. And as long as we're into the Death Watch corner of the fat pile, pay less shoe source. Payless shoes is closing all 2100 locations across the United States as well as its online store. I mean, this is just weird, weird. Now, the liquidation began this past Sunday, the 17th of February. But their quotes, we expect all stores to remain open until at least the end of March and the majority. majority will remain open until May.

The process does not affect the company's franchise operations or its Latin American stores, which remain open for business as usual. Now, the Topeka, Kansas-based company has more than 3,600 stores worldwide. Locations outside the United States will not be affected by the closure, and the online store is no longer accepting new orders. Really strange. So they're still letting the franchise stores and the stores outside of the U.S. be open for business and be accepting, you know, shoe orders. But you can't go to the Payless.com shoe store to buy shoes online.

Do they not realize that it's an online world? I mean, they must have got, they must have got shot down from Amazon or something. I mean, shoes are being sold all over online. and buy shoes, any kind of shoes, wherever you want online. So it's kind of not surprising that pay less shoes would close down their stores, but you'd think that they'd kind of want to hang on to the online presence, right? Weird. But good luck and God bless.

All right, I've got to talk to the toy guy. I mean, we've got to get the toy guy on. I mean, we have the Toys R Us news that, you know, they liquidated after bankruptcy. And now they're in the process of reviving some of the process because of former executives. They went out of business after the disastrous 2017 Christmas season, closed 900 stores. Now, executives and creditors have since formed True Kids, Inc., which holds the old stores. It holds all their intellectual property, including the names, toys are us, babies are us, and advertising mascot, Jeffrey the giraffe. Now, the brands generated over $3 billion in global retail sales in 2018.

Now, they became, remember they're going to start setting up in Kroger stores. They've got a deal of partnership between Toys R Us and Kroger. There's a huge consumer demand for the trusted experience of Toys R Us and Babies R Us. So good luck. with that. We've got that going on. And then also this past weekend, which would have been fun to be at it, ended on Tuesday the 19th, which is the day of this recording of this podcast. But it went from Saturday to the Tuesday. The 116th North American International Toy Fair in New York. Oh my gosh, it would have been fun to be at. It's the largest toy fair in the Western Hemisphere, or at least that's what it's billed as.

More than 30,000 people attended. We've got to talk to the toy guy. I've got to get the toy guy back on here. So the size of the U.S. toy industry was around $28 billion in 2018, according to the Toy Association, which is actually a decrease from 2017 by 2%, but still a decrease. Now, some of the toys that were included that we saw at the North American International Toy Fair, Wicked Cool Toys is launching a line of streamer-themed figures, including one of Uber popular gamer Tyler Ninja Blevins.

Lego's new Hidden Side sets that can be paired with an AR app. Hasbro's Nerf showed off Blasters inspired by the hit video games, Fortnite and Overwatch. And of course, some of the other trends that we're looking for is unboxing 2.0. where, you know, the packaging, of course, is key part of the toy experience. That's been, they've been trying to ram that down our throats for quite a while now. And there's some big anniversaries this year as well. Sesame Street, 50, Barbie, 60.

And the good news is about Barbie, which they don't mention here, which we found out, that they're going to start having the handicat barbies. You're going to have the Barbie in a wheelchair and the Barbie with the prosthetic leg. So that's good news coming from the North American International Toy Fair. Great news. All right, let's go to the break room, get a drink, and see some of the headlines in the break room, shall we? Oh, man, that is good. All right, well, we're in the break room.

Let's talk a little bit of space. Okay? So we have, did you realize that, uh, Scientists have discovered 300,000 new galaxies. The team of astronomers from 18 countries, they're hoping that this obviously could unlock some of the universe's biggest secrets. Okay, well, maybe it will and maybe it won't, but the sad news coming from Mars,

has won ventures. You know, the company that behind, you know, they want to colonize the red planet and they want to do their reality show and they want to have people show up. And yeah, it's over.

They're not doing that anymore. Nope. It's being considered now the Fry Festival of Space. That's what it's being called. Is it documentary coming? You could bet a documentary will be coming. Yeah, this will try to, all the people that are owed money, they'll make a documentary and say, that's all you get.

Break it up between yourselves. Sorry. It was supposed to send four amateur astronauts and one-way trip, 2023. Budget had $6 billion. $6 billion was the budget. I'd like to see their personal bank accounts, how that came out of that. We can't make the show, but, you know, yeah, I know. I've still got the yard guy, though.

Don't worry about that. Now, you know he's still got the yard guy. They're not giving up the yard guy for this. So just to be sad for that because the mission is over. And maybe we'll try it again. Maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't. I don't know.

But those of you that had plans of hopefully being part of the reality show, eh, eh, good luck. God bless. We also have the opportunity for a new, Supermoon. I thought we just had the stupid super moon. That was a red moon. What?

That was a red moon. It was supposed to be a super moon. Blood moon. That's right. It was a blood moon. But that's still part of the super moon family, right? I think it is. But this one is a snow moon.

All right? It's the second super moon of the year. It's the second super moon of the year. See, so it's in the super moon family. This one's the snow moon and the other one was, well, the blood moon. It's also going to be the brightest. All right. So the full moon is now called, like I said,

well, it's been called by the Native Americans, and I hope I'm not appropriating their culture or anything by calling it the snow moon. That's what they call it. Don't ask me. Because it falls in February, and there's usually heavy snowfall. Thank you.

It's also known as the hunger moon because it's traditionally arrived at a time of lead. eating yeah so we've eaten all the food we had stored from the fall is it ever going to be summer again no oh look there's a full moon oh that's a hunger moon that bastard snow moon we can go out and hunt in the winter maybe find something in the winter so uh it happens today February 19 2019 it'll be brighter and It's going to be the brightest moon you've ever seen in your life. In fact, it's going to be so bright, you're going to be a year and I want to shut off the lights.

Cities could save a lot of money. They just shut off the lights now because it's super moon night. Is your wife going on and take pictures? Oh, yes. You know, she's everywhere. Now, let me see if she'll be able to see it, though, because maybe the hunger moon, I don't know where you can, where you're going to get the best shot of it. Let's see.

If you have trouble seeing the super moon snow, super snow, oh, it's the super snow moon. okay tonight because of the overcast skies oh in March 21st we have another one March 21st we have the worm moon what the hell is going on with this moon stuff

come on all right so when do I see okay so it starts early early in the morning being that's only going to be 221,681 miles from earth that's good perfect I mean that's like a hop skip

at a jump. The closest distance will take place at 407 a.m. Oh, it already happened. 407 a.m. today. We already missed it. What? Oh, no. Oh, no.

I didn't see any pictures of the great snow moon either online. What's going on? It already happened at the closest. We didn't see any great pictures of the snow moon. People were too hungry to get there, the hunger moon. Lean eating or two minutes to get there. Now, let's see, though the moon will look larger and brighter than normal starting tonight, which was yesterday, and then again on well, so it's going to look bright again,

but it's not going to be the actual full, fullest super snow moon as it is. What the heck? How come we didn't know this? I should have been up at 407 a.m. We're taking a picture of the super snow. Moon people. Good news at Walmart, too, when you're shopping at Walmart. And, you know, look, I do, you know, shop at Walmart from time to time.

You know, it's part of my life. I'm a fan. I'm a fan of the Supercenter stores. You walk in, they built a new Walmart, not far from my house. This bad boy, you get anything in the world you want there. And it's beautiful. It's brand new. It's beautiful.

You walk in. I mean, the ceilings are high. It's just, it's gorgeous. And now in Florida they've started a new A new task All you people have been complaining about Walmart's not paying you enough And you can't get benefits And you've been a you know

All they want me to do is be a part-time cash year And I'm complaining that I don't get $15 an hour And I want full-time money Yeah well they've got They've got new robots scanning the aisles Now at Walmart and Florida They're just going to take stock. Let's see what's on the shelf.

What's selling? What they need? Oh, we need to order some strawberry banana jello. Boop. In the system, it goes. And it does make it. It makes the same sound as when you get the alert that my podcast chewing the fat comes on low. Boop.

And you don't have to, plus you don't have to have the manager or anything. You just check with the robot on the prices. I need a price check aisle to. 39 cents. I wonder if it just automatically goes. into the PA system. This is Robot 10. 39 cents.

Oh, it's going to be all throughout Tampa Bay, too. I got to go back home. Tampa Bay still has something home. I miss Florida. Why don't you just go there then? Because I'm working here. There's no possible way to get to. That hurts.

That hurts. Remember the, hey, since this is kind of like death Tuesday, we've covered a number of deaths of things dying, we covered Carl Lagerfeld, we covered Bruce Williams, The iconic Bruce Williams. We covered the rat that's extinct now in Australia because of climate change.

But remember the iconic World War II photo of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square? And that was the iconic photo. Well, that guy, George Mendoza, just passed away. 96th birthday. Well, he was close to his 96th birthday. So technically he was still 95. but you know he was getting up there pretty close to 96 we at that at that age 94 95 96 who cares right you're in your 90s you're gonna make it to 100 maybe but

george no is the answer but he's gone but that's iconic remember people tried to rob him of his of his due too of that picture a lot of people like like this would be something that I would do this is a guy that nobody really knew who it was so you take credit for it like yeah that's me You know, like when you watch movies and you see extras walk by in the movies That's me I was in that movie right there That's me right there

Look look look pause it That's me And so a lot of people tried to beat George Mendoza But eh, nope He came through and said no No no no no no no That's me And you can go ahead and do your little facial recognition thing too

Because that's all me I know people are getting all wound up As long as we're in the break room We're talking a little bit of love And iconic kissing and stuff Stephen Tyler 70 years old from Aerosmith. I love him, right?

Stephen Tyler, he's 70. He doesn't look 70. He may feel it, but he doesn't look like it. People are all wound up at Stephen because of his 30-year-old girlfriend. So? I mean, so what, that his daughters are older? Bless his heart, as what I say. Okay?

I mean, these guys, Stephen Tyler, the Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, these guys, they have lived the dream, man. They have continued to do so. And they're probably going to go to the Paris Museum, which is now going to open its door to nudists. And it's good. Every time you want to go to a museum, you think to yourself,

if I can only just walk around naked to view these pieces of art, that would be so good. I can't even enjoy these paintings because I have clothes on. Well, So now the You check your clothing at the cloakroom

And then you can wander the halls at the The museum in Paris And just to enjoy the experience of you and others Naked Walk wandering through the museum In fact, I'm willing to bet This is just off the top of my head now I'm willing to bet

That you'll spend more time looking at the guests then you will at the artwork. You may be pretending you're looking at the painting. Oh, yeah, that's fascinating. That's fascinating. Did you see the dark-haired lady with the answer? I did. I did.

Don't look. Let me tell you're not looking. But look at that guy right there. Oh, my God. That's what you're going to do the whole day. Now, they're going to tell you that you're not because you just want to share the experience and be one with art.

Shut up. I wonder if they're going to allow cameras. I'm sure they'll say, they won't, but are they going to shut off all the security cameras and everything? We're going to get footage. I want footage of the nudists perusing the Parisian museum of art, enjoying it naked. Oh, that sounds so good. All right, before we leave the break room, one last story for the break room.

Eddie Murphy's Coming to America. All right, one of the greatest movies of all time. In fact, it may rank in my world as the best and funniest movie of all time. Hangover, the first one is up there quite a ways, but it's not as good as Eddie Murphy's coming to America. Now, there's a sequel coming out. It's supposed to be released in 2020. It's going to be funny because it's Eddie Murphy.

And Eddie is still really funny and I love him. And he's going to make this really well. But can it be done? Can it be done? Because in today's world, there's so much in that movie that doesn't work in today's world. What scene is not appropriate for today's world? I mean, they talk about coming to America to get their queen. What's wrong with that?

The dad, I mean, James Earl Jones is, you know, the king of this country that doesn't exist. You kind of forgetting their skin color. Can you really be bad if you're that skin color? With South Africa, then I see a problem with that. And they talked about, you know, one thing, Queens got a lot of it. Queens got a lot of them. I love this.

I can quote everyone. I know you can. I know. I'm trying to make you quote. I freaking love this movie. And my wife hates it. I know. I saw it this morning on her Twitter.

She was yelling. Oh, she did? Oh, my gosh. She tagged you, Elvis, Max. Yeah, because see, where she gets mad is that we've, and we have talked. I may have talked about it before here. You know, she gets mad because we just go.

You quote the movie instead of watching the movie. And we continue throughout the rest of the day, no matter what we're doing. It doesn't matter. My son works. Any line works great. Ashane what they did to that dog. Hey, you boys, we got a little bit of an insect problem. You boys are from Africa used to that, though.

I do like the barbershop scene. Those are great. Those are great. All of them are great. and you know yeah your rents do do they drop the N word on the end of it I know you're conscious I don't think so I'm trying to think they do because I know that barbershop was pretty salty but I don't think they do no they do not so that that's a good that's a good

they don't think they do um I don't think they do which is good I mean I'm okay with it because there was no parts McDowles was great well stop taking a picture and I move up to fries That's what the big bucks kick in. Come on. That's classic stuff. And Soul Glow? Oh, man.

The whole family with the Soul Glow stain on the sofa at the party. Good stuff. Good stuff. And the sister, I mean, it's all. So it does, I guess it does, right? I don't know that I've worked out. It still stands good. It doesn't have anything that should.

You know, messed up. You know, messed up. You know, that PC stuff. It wasn't rated. That's a good question. Probably, I would say PG-13, right? Coming to America. I'd just say that every time, whether I'm on a microphone or not.

It's R-rated. What? Come on. Why is it R-rated? No, that's strange. I wonder why that is R-rated. Because they don't have any, really, they don't have any sex scenes. Right?

and there's no real swearing. Well, he does say F you. The barbershop, there's a scene in the barbershop. There's a scene in the barbershop. FU and FU. Who's next? Oh, and that's the thing. I learned that from Steve Days

that in order to get R-rated, you have to say, if you say more than two F bombs, you get automatically audited. I believe that. And so right there, I mean, that scene alone has three. But in today's world, come on.

According to this, one scene with three Fs, means nothing. That's like that's like mom and dad at the dinner table. Right? It's not even close. Come on. Those kids hear that at the playground.

According to this, it has more F words and other epithets. Oh yeah. Well, he does, that's right. And he does say when he's outside singing and the guy's hollered at him and says F you. F you too.

He's so happy. Yeah. And on sex scenes, it has three out of five stars. What? What sex scenes do they have? You see the bare breasts. And that's the beginning scene when the ladies come out of the bath.

Yeah, yeah. I always thought you had sex with your bathers. I know I do. I love bar bar. They're talking to the little elephant runs by. I love bar bar. And it has three out of five on drinking drugs and smoking. Characters are shown drinking cocktails and beers at the bar and at home.

Man, got to do overtime when they're in the bar looking for a wife. That's what you're probably is. You're looking for in the wrong places. You know when you find a good girl. It's a church. That's what I would be right here. Wow, it was in theaters in 1988. I know.

I know. Like a thousand years ago. I was not even born yet. It's right. Right. I mean, it's just amazing. I wasn't either. But that's why I fell in love with it.

I fell in love with it in, what year did I fall in love with it? In 99 when it came on DVD? A couple years ago. A couple years ago, you know, when I was 10 or 12? Wait, wait, wait, wait. So it came on theaters in 1988. and did not make into DVD in 99?

Oh, DVD, yes, VHS. They had VHS tapes, yeah. Duh. So you weren't born yet. My son works? He's got a little bit of insect problem. Boy, some have to be used to that. But I know there's so many,

I could just quote the rest of the movie now. I just want to go through the entire movie. When he comes in and she's hopping up and down, like what she's got to do what he says, and she's hopping up and down like a monkey. He just looks at the camera, the Eddie Murphy look. And then dad comes in. Ah!

I see you're getting along. So good. Isn't he playing Simba's dad on the new live action Lion King? Is he? I mean, it's possible. It wouldn't surprise me. But James is getting up there now too. James is a guy that's about at the age that we talked about yesterday,

where he's about getting those interviews where he's going to say anything he wants. That's the guy we need to look to is the James Earl Jones. Right? Because what's James Earl Jones? He's probably what, 81, 82 now? 88. Oh. He's there.

He's there. And he has long past prime time. We need to get an interview with him because we start getting him going down the road of, yeah, that guy wasn't very nice and just have him go off. Although James is pretty smart. He's been in a lot of, he's probably too smart for that. we can try all right so let's take care of a little business

let's find out on Friday I want to have some people call in and give us their DMV stories and we'll post it on Saturday but I want to take your calls on Friday afternoon and post your DMV stories now we told a couple of DMV stories

yesterday on the podcast and then we finished up with Chris Cruz DMV story today not on the podcast and it won't make this podcast today, but you will hear it on Saturday. Because I want you to call. So do they need to call this number or do we need to have them call the big number?

That number. Whoa, whoa. Do not give that other number. Don't give that other number. What number are you going to give? I just had it ready in case. No, you can not give that number. Why can't I?

I can do what the heck I want. I know you can. But if you do say that number, I'm going to bleep it. So give that number right there. 888 727 B-E-C-K. See, I just bleeped it. So they didn't hear anything. All they heard was 888.

Fine. 888-90-3033-893. 888-9-0-3033 on Friday afternoon from, what do we just decide? Noon. 1 p.m. Eastern. Yeah, noon central to... 3 p.m. Eastern. Three hours?

What are you trying to kill me? me? I want to give them a nice, you know, you just got done eating lunch. Do you really want to talk to Jeffrey after you got eating lunch? I know I don't. I know I don't. So, all right. So, uh, one to four Eastern, noon to three Central, and you can work out the rest of the time zones on your own. So, uh, Mountain Time, go. I don't live in Mountain Time. Why do I need to worry about Alaska Time? Go. What about East of the Rockies, West of the Rockies? Messical time, go Call your international operator

Get your access code Then dial 1 888-90933-d Dancing Queen So Friday afternoon I want to take your calls And I want to hear your DMV stories Good or bad Good or bad

Now most people I'm guessing Have experiences that are not really so great But I do want to hear stories. Now, I will, I've got a couple that we can talk about. I know Chris has got a couple plus. Chris has got an update from what we talked about yesterday on his DMV story. And so I want to hear some bad stories. I want to post this on Saturday. So hopefully we know the DMV is closed on so they'll be able to listen to us. They'll be able to listen and perhaps learn a lesson or two on how to help people without being DMV dicks. Oh, did that? I don't want to push people in the

wrong direction. So without being DMV. douche workers employees that lose the care of the people and only care about their job and their paycheck and the rest of the people they don't care about

and if any representative are listening on Saturday maybe you could use this as an excuse to be like privatize the DMV and you know if you work for the DMV let's say you call in sick on Friday because I mean it would be a big surprise

that somebody from the DMV you would call in sick. How dare you? How dare you? Or you're out. You take a lunch break and you go out in the parking lot and you smoke your cigarettes and you have you a little snack and you take your break and what's supposed to be an hour is usually an hour and a half.

But that having been said. So you take your lunch break and you call 888-90333-93 and be a part of the show and tell us your side of the DMV stores. That'll be fantastic. Let's hear your side of how you appear to be disingenuous. Appeared to be hateful, appear to be angry at life. But it's only the people on the other side of the death that are causing this. Not you.

You have family and friends and just want to get home to barbecue. I want to hear that side too. It's only fair. Both sides. Only outside. So Friday afternoon. One to four, Eastern. Noon to three central.

The rest of the time, I'm not playing that game anymore. just figure out your own time zone. Chicago time, go. What time? Chicago time. Chicago is central. You got it. Already done, noon to three.

Mountain time is 11 to 2. You want something else for me? I do. Pacific. 10 to 1. 10 a.m. to 1. So if you were in California, you work at the DMV,

I mean, you got plenty of time. You don't even open. I was going to say, are they even open? So anyway, I'll tease it again tomorrow. We'll tweet it and we'll tweet out the numbers and we'll let you know. We're just giving you, I just want to give you a tease today. I definitely want to hear your DMV stories. And we'll just make it, we'll turn it into the Saturday podcast and we'll just listen to DMV stories.

It'll be fun. And you can be part of the Chewing the Fat podcast. And you can be part of the Chew-Come on, man. You're welcome. Every so often here on Chewing the Fat, we like to delve into a little bit of crime and criminal activity. I mean, you know that from listening to the podcast. Just a little? Just a little, just a tad.

And today we've got Elaine Shannon, a bestselling author and a veteran journalist, specializing in national security, organized crime and terrorism. We do love organized crime. We've done like El Chapo coverage for the last a month. And her latest book, Hunting Larue, starts with a man named Paul Calder Larue.

And they have a list of just some of the crimes that he was, that he was, that he was charged with, and it's like 22 on the list. That's it. Just 22. I mean, he makes, I mean, really, El Chapo, nothing. Paul's got him beaten. Elaine, what prompted you to, you know, get into starting to write about Paul? Because I'm guessing, you know, he didn't say, sure, go ahead, Elaine, write about me.

No, although I look forward to meeting him whenever he shakes free of the prosecutors up in New York. But I was working on a, I was in Afghanistan. I was in the war writing about the heroin trade that's going on underneath the war and that pays for it. It sure does. And I would love to talk to you about that as well. Oh, let's do that. That is fascinating. Because on top, look, I know, I know your latest book, and I will get to it with Hunting Leroux. But it's my understanding and what, I mean, I'm absolutely positive you've done more in-depth than I have. But my understanding is the way the country is set up with the drug lords.

I mean, we start from the growers, and then we go through about two or three different levels before it gets out of the country, and it goes through different hands, and it's all being treated like that. I mean, that's the way they survive, right? Well, that's the only industry. It's paying for all sides of the war.

When I first got there, a guy who was investigating the money, which is what I cared about, which is what everybody cared about. Of course. We have a self-funding war here. It's going to go on forever. Wow.

That was in 2010, and I lived there for two years on and off with the police and the DEA guys and the Treasury guys and the FBI guys and gals. And sure enough, it wasn't going anyway. The potholes were still there. The graveyards were still there. The rubble was still there. And everybody in power on all sides was getting rich. That's just embarrassing. On our dime and killing our troops and killing our allies and killing innocent.

people. And, you know, who doesn't want to get rid of the Taliban, but I didn't see any way we were going to do it the way we were going. I mean, it's, it's really embarrassing. And I think that the time has come, I don't, I know that we should, I don't know that we should actually have been in there to begin with. That's another argument. But since we are, it's time to get out. I mean, I don't know. I don't know that we've done any good at all. uh, speculates that you've been there, uh, eight years ago, and we're still playing the same, the same treadmill. We made a lot of the wrong people rich.

And that's how I got into this, uh, book. I was looking at some of the biggest criminal players in the world and how they invest in chaos. They invest in war because war is good to them. They make money off it. They sell arms. They can run all the drugs they want. and drugs have a huge profit margin, it's good for them to have countries in chaos with weak or no government. Well, one day I heard about this strange guy from out of Africa who was on his own, he was an entrepreneur,

he was a solo act, he had created a cartel with his chair and his laptop, and he had a few people around him from the gig economy, but he'd done it all on his own. in the cyberspace virtual world. And I said, well, I've got to find out about him. Yeah, no kidding. This is a new thing. And so as you start digging in, we talk about this book, actually, as I was starting to go through it, is, I mean, it's meant for me to be watching it on a big screen, either in my family room or at a theater. And you will.

You will next year. I understand. Michael Mann is making a film of it, and no one could do a better job. Boy, no kidding. He's got that passion for detail, for authenticity, unlike some of the Hollywood people who make it all up and create these dystopian realms. Yes. I like those movies as much as the next person, but my life and the people I meet are so interesting.

I don't really need to make up a family. of the sea world here. Right. You ask what Leroux was the worst thing he was doing? I was just thinking about that. The most interesting and frightening things about him is where he was heading. He was creating an Amazon-style everything store that would deliver chaos and cruelty to every place on the globe.

Amazing. He was building a base in Somalia. He had it half done, where they would ship armed. including pretty big arms all over the world, anti-aircraft weapons, bombs, RPGs, all of that stuff. I've got pictures of them. He had cannons. He was building an invisible city, a self-contained base with an airstrip that would accommodate cargo planes. He already had one cargo plane.

He was building a seaport. He was bringing in containers of arms. He had built a mercenary team of ex-NATO soldiers, ex-American soldiers, ex-Americans. soldiers, some Canadians, some white South Africans, and he was seriously considering an offer to have them Mount a coup in the Seychelles. The only reason he didn't do it is because he thought they'd get kicked out before they made it permanent. He was considering kidnapping wealthy people all over the world, particularly in the beaches

in the Pacific and holding them for ransom. He was cementing relationships with the most powerful crime networks on Earth, including including the Colombian cartels, the Chinese triads, and the Sinaloa cartel. And he was cultivating the Somali pirates, the insurgents in the Philippines, warlords, power brokers, and Asia, Africa, South America. I mean, the man was building his own global force. That's right. And it sounds like something Austin Powers would want to combat, but he was dead serious.

And he was determined to create chaos throughout the world and get as much money as he could. he was considering selling women. And then, you know, the usual organized crime things, online casinos and drugs and all of that. But what frightened me about him is his ambition and his brain power. He could have done a lot of what he set out to do. And really did do plenty of it. And so when you start looking into it, and I know that, you know, he's now been, you know, incarcerated and arrested.

Your story takes us, you know, begins with the takedown of, of Paul, of Leroux, and five other associates, right? Yeah, actually, 10. I was thinking that it was, I was thinking that six of them were all like timed at the same time, right? There were 10 arrests timed simultaneously. Wow. Okay. In five or six different parts of the. That had to happen that way because these were trained mercenaries a lot of them,

or professional organized crime guys. It was his North Korean mess team and his mercenary team. These are all people who are trained to get in and get out and disappear. And so the thinking was if we don't get them all at once, and they might have a signal, which would be one of those negative signals, signals if you don't hear from me by 8 p.m. disappear. Right. So they had to get them all at once, and it is amazing what they were managed to do.

They were in Estonia, they were in Phuket, Thailand, and they were in Monrovia, Liberia, and they got them all. I mean, that's great for law enforcement, no question. And very, you know, that's a difficult doing when you're crossing different countries and different international borders, that's for sure. Yes, especially since they did it all legally. And that meant they had to get the countries where these guys were on board and go through their legal processes and not just kidnap them the way the intelligence agencies do sometime.

They wanted to bring them to court in New York City, and the only way to do that was to do it fair and square and legal, the old-fashioned way with a warrant. And they did it. Amazing. I'm actually so proud to actually hear that in today's world because we hear of so much happening without those things. Now, I'm sorry. For me, it's a good news story because I believe in law and order.

The good guys won, fair and square. So what do you think brought him down, the same as always, just greed? You know, was he trying to be too big? Because it seems like he was in a pretty good space where he could have ridden it out for a little while. It's if he'd just step back a little. That's right. I mean, it's the seven deadly sins, but it's more than greed. He had already churned through sales of $300 million from his pharmaceutical company,

and he had a lot more in gold. Nobody knows how much money he's got stashed around the world. What did him in, I think, was his crucial. curiosity. He is probably either a genius or close to it, and he absolutely had to know what other people were doing, and then he had to top him. So when the DEA guys figured out, they got into his head somehow, and they figured out that what turned him on, what excited him, was the idea of getting with the best Colombian cartel on the planet, because he thought that the Colombians were the gold standard. They did it better than anybody else in the days before the

internet and cell phones and all that. If he could get with them, he could make this alliance, and then they could go to the moon figuratively. He was just desperate to know what they did and what they knew that he didn't know. And so he did a stupid thing and he showed up at the meeting. So it's so fascinating. Elaine, I know we're up against the clock today, so I won't keep you too much longer. But I know Michael Mann, the legendary filmmaker, Michael Mann, wrote the forward. And the book is out now, available wherever fine books are sold, wherever you can get it, wherever you can find it, pick it up.

It's called Hunting Leroux, the inside story of the DEA take down of a criminal genius in his empire. And you've heard a little bit about this genius in his empire in this interview. Is there one thing that you walked away with in writing this book or maybe in some of your travels that you think, wow, this guy, if there's another guy like him in the world, we're in trouble? And I think there is. That's what I walk away with. This guy had a fatal flaw, which is his arrogance and his curiosity. But the next guy who knows how to use the Internet, and we know that there's a dark side of the Internet, and we're starting to see it. There are other people out there that are just slick or smarter and a little bit more patient, and they're doing it.

Scary, really scary. So before you let Michael Mann put these images in your head, get the book, Hunting Leroux, and put your own images in your head. Elaine, thank you very much for joining us on Chew and the Fat. I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Jeff.