Danny Jones Podcast - #19 - One Step from Pablo Escobar | Anonymous

Episode Date: September 2, 2019

Get Skillshare free for 2 months: https://skl.sh/koncrete Discussion with a man who spent 10 years in prison for selling coke in Miami in the 80's. On this podcast we talk what it was like working close to Pablo Escobar, Miami drug business in the 80's, and spending 10 years in federal prison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are finally back on the Concrete podcast. It's been a two-week break. It's been slow around Concrete for the past two weeks. Got some changes. Some changes. We've been going through a lot of changes. But today's special guest, you have spent over 10 years, over a decade in the federal penitentiary for trafficking cocaine in the 80s. You were a part of the cocaine cowboys.

Boys days. After what? The cocaine cowboys. You were after the cocaine cowboys, but you went to prison in the 80s, right? A little bit in the 80s. The tail end of the 80s. Well, wait, this is our, we got to officially introduce our guests. Okay, so our guest today is, on the concrete podcast. He wants to be held anonymous, so he's wearing a bright orange ski mask. Yeah. And we're going to go by the name Johnny Appleseed. Johnny Appleseed. So Johnny Appleseed. Old Johnny Apple.

Are you originally from Florida? Not born here, but raised. Raised in the NFL. Where are you originally from? The Northeast. So how did you end up in Florida? I was a child. I had no choice.

No choice? So your parents came down here? Moved down here at three, about three or four. And you originally moved down to South Florida or Pinellas County? Pinellas County. Okay, okay. And how did you originally get involved in the drug world? Where did it begin?

Take us to the high school days. The drug world began in the high school days. Probably ninth grade, right here in a beautiful Seminole. My friend, skater, I was a skateboarder, surfer, that type of, you know, bad, bad, bad guy that put a skateboard in the locker. A lot of like us, just like us. Yeah. Exactly. But I missed first period always

Because, you know, it was Hash time under the glass Speak a little louder. It was hash time under the glass. You got a raspy voice, so speak up. Johnny Boy's a little raspy. Johnny's a little raspy. Went out last night, okay.

Yeah, yeah, but don't tell anybody. All right, so yeah, tell me again how you started and got involved in the drug business. Started selling hash, blonde Lebanese hash, then it got to black char hash and then it just took off from their marijuana. The gold bud back in the high school days was gold like his shirt. Ooh.

I mean, gold, gold. Weed? Weed, yeah. Okay. Weed. And then that floated on for a while, probably about six, seven years. You know, then high school ended, you know, escorted me out. They said, we've had enough of you.

You got to keep out of high school. Of course. They said, Johnny, we've had enough. Yeah, I said, Johnny, take your board and go on. down the hill. And how old were you in this happen? Probably about 16. 16 years of age. 16 went right in.

So what happened as soon as you got kicked out of high school? What did you end up doing? Straight into the drug world. Bam! Straight, you were already in the drug world because that's the way you got kicked out. The hardcore drugs. So that's when you got introduced to the hardcore drugs. Hardcore drugs.

Which is what? No, it was marijuana. It was marijuana for the first few years. Okay. Got introduced to the boys in Miami, the keys. And it was all marijuana then. So that's the only thing you did for money. You never had, like, a...

No, I worked. I worked. I worked, like, restaurant jobs and, you know, odds and ends, construction, that type of stuff. Did you ever do commercial fishing? No. Never? Where was the marijuana coming from back then? It came from Columbia.

Okay. It came from Jamaica. The Jamaican Thai. But everybody was into marijuana back then. And it was so different than the Coke world. back then there wasn't all that killing and fighting and all that crazy business

you know people you know they treated it like a job it was like a regular job you know yeah but once the 80s came and the coke started blowing everybody stopped the marijuana and got right into the cocaine and then came the boat racing

wait wait didn't you tell me that you were one step away from Pablo that was in mid to late 80s started boat racing This is down the road. This is down the road. Okay, so you got involved in southern Florida. You eventually went down to Miami. You moved down there?

Moved down to Miami, Upper Keys, all in the whole area. And why did you move down there? Who did you meet that convinced you to move down there? To get away from here because I was in too much trouble. Oh, okay. You just moved down there just because. Not because of drugs just to get away. Well, that's where the drugs are coming from.

So I figured I just... So you go down there and... Hook up, meet some guys. through my roommate up here. We started going back and forth. It was so cheap back then. So cheap. $19 round trip from Tampa to Miami.

For flying. Yeah, for flying. Round trip. How much? $19. Dollars. God damn. Fly down.

Car in the airport from their family. We look like rock stars. Go to Skip's rock and roll club on Madeira Beach. That was a famous place back in the day. grab a date, fly down, look like a hero, and come back like a zero. So are you bringing it back on the plane with you, too? No, no, no, no. That was a fun time.

You're just traveling down there. Okay, so let's go back. You moved to Miami. Moved to Miami. And who did you start, who did you meet, who got you into the business? Like, what did you start doing for work when you first got to Miami? Sending weed. It was all wheat.

Okay, you were sending it to. Where were sending it to? People were coming and picking it up. From where? Pick it up. They're from all over. Like all in the middle of Wisconsin. People are coming from.

They're coming from New York, Texas. I mean, all over. We're just loading their cars and sending them up the road. And I did load a couple and drive myself. You drove. You drove to Wisconsin. All the way to Wisconsin. How much we did you go?

You have 10 minutes from me to tell you the story. I'm just kidding. How much we did you have on that trip? We had a pickup truck with a pickup truck. with a camper on the back, we took a pallet of wood. Five sheets on the bottom, reel, five sheets on the top reel.

The whole inside was hollowed out. Filled it full, 600 pounds, but band strapped it down and drove all the way to Wisconsin. Damn. Long drive. Got up there, put the money in, and drove back.

How much money did you make on that load? That was only like, for me, only like three or four thousand. And who were these guys and where were these guys from? These guys were South Florida guys and the guys up north were like, who knows? I don't even remember how we met them, but they're good. South Florida guys, were they Hispanic? Were they white?

No, no, they're white. White guys. Okay. Like rednecks. What happened then? What happened next? So you do some trips with those guys and then what? Trips of those guys.

That lasted a while and then everything slid from marijuana into the cocaine. How did that happen? Started in the boat racing world. The boat racing. The mid offshore power boat racing. You're like, you got this weird kind of whisper going. Sorry, Johnny boy. It's just hard to talk to there.

85, 86. 85 to 86. So boat racing is popular down there. You transitioned from marijuana to cocaine because of. Who was in the boat racing world. Okay. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Well, we race one season, met all the guys.

Are you about those long cigarette boats? The super long? Yeah, long, and the cat boats. Okay. The ones that go around the buoys and they, like, flip over, they go so fast, they do, like, straight up pitch pulls. Sort of like over here in Clearwater. Okay.

But I met Captain America. He was, like, our main connection, a Cuban guy. He was a Mary Alita. His name was Captain America. America? Oh, his boat name was Captain America. Omar.

Oluscaray. Omar, Aluscaray. He's not with us anymore. Rest in peace, Omar. Yeah, goodbye, Omar. But, um, met him. He's a for Miami. Talk with more of like a full voice.

He was our connect in Miami. Our big connection. Okay. The street price was... And he raced speedboats. Like, he was his name of his boat. He had his own team. You got to have money to race those fuckers.

Yeah, he had a ton of money. But he was selling. drugs. And he was Mexican? Or, wait, You said he was Cuban, Cuban, Cuban, okay. Merilito came over in the boat lift. But he was smart. Engineer, got the houses in the gables,

houses in upper keys, you know, a million-dollar race boat. Damn. With the puller and... Omar was multi-millionaire. Multi-millionaire. He was direct connect to, you know who. Pablo.

The guy named Pablo. Mr. Escobar, himself. Garvia. Yep. Direct connect. So if the street price was 20 For what? For just a kilo?

For a key? We were already 3,000 ahead. So we were getting it from him cheaper already. By getting it from him. He was us. So how much did you sell it for in the street? So you're getting a key from Omar for what? 17.

Yeah. For 17. We're already 3,000 ahead. Right. All right, got you. Street price is 30 or 20. Street price is 17. You're getting it for 17 from Omar.

So we're already ahead of the. How many of these things are you slinging? More than I can handle. Really? Every time I go to this little shop, they put a double bag in their car. I don't want a double bag. Just take it. Gringo take it.

They gave me more than you wanted? Always. Oh, always. Really? One or two double bags more. I don't want any. And you told me like, I don't want that much. I don't want it.

Just take it. Pay me when you can. Really? And bring me Rubio Sita. What does that mean? Blonde hair, blue-eyed chicks. That's all he wanted was blonde hair, blue-eyed chicks. I come to the keys and party

Oh my crazy Crazy is going down How old were you? 24, 5 and 6 26 year old, 25 year old In Miami rolling around Pulling up to Pablo's right-hand man's house And he's throwing duffel bags in your car

Duffel bags full And okay so how much money Or how much cocaine are you selling every week And how much money are you making? It varied. gone on an average. I mean, is it a key a week? No, well, key a week. Fucking 10.15. 10.15 kilos a week. You're moving. And I'm sending shit all through the mail, all over.

So you're making over $30,000 a week just in, just in your fee? Probably somewhere. Somewhere. Off the top. But, I mean, you know, as fast as it came in, it went out. Right. You're spending as fast as you get it. Yeah, limos every night. What do you buy in? I mean, hookers. I mean, you didn't have to pay for the blow. The only good thing is cheap.

Oh my God. We were on fire. I'd make a thousand. It's been ten. It didn't matter. Wow. How long did you and Omar work together? So he went for a trip to Panama and never came back.

Probably about two, three years. You went to Panama with him? No, he went with some beach to go see supposedly Pablo. So I'll be back in a few days and he never came back. So why was the race boat? Why was the raceboat industry or why were, you know, the speedboat racers so tied into the cocaine business? Because I think my take on it is because the Cubans could speak Spanish, number one, the Colombian, with the Colombians. Right, right.

That was part of the thing. And it just took off from there. And they could transport it fast on the boats. So the only speedboat races were Cubans? No, no, no. There's all Americans. There's every kind. But I'm saying the ones that were in the drug world.

were Spanish speaking. We're Spanish, yeah, mostly Cuban. So do they use these boats to go back and forth, or what? I mean, those boats don't go long distance. No, no, they did some, but mainly it was just, you know, air drops, you know, or. I'm trying to figure out how they got from. I'm trying to figure out the connection for the speedboat races to the cocaine.

I don't understand the connection there. It's just, they just had the money and that's what they were into, was racing boats? Or were they were moving down to the boats? They're into racing boats And they had a lot of money Money through the Coke I mean

Right And the boat The boat business is The boat business The boat business is a good money laundering Business It's a good way of money That was like the Don Arano story

That makes sense I saw that The Don Arano story from cigarette Who's? Don Aronot Who's that? The guy who started Cigarette racing boats

Oh okay Was Don Arano He was part of that whole That was a little bit before me but the main players were the Seahawk racing team Willie and Sal, Willie Falcone and Sal McCluda They were the big boat racers They were the big boat racers

When did they come into the picture? They were in early 80s After Omar disappeared No no no during the whole time Before Omar They were all friends Everybody was all friends in boat racing world Like we're in Key West

Ofshore races and they ran out of some party goods. Somebody would send a chopper up to Miami, pick up a Johnny or two, and fly back to party on. Really? Yeah, these guys had money. They didn't care.

How did you meet Willie? Willie Falcone? Yeah, through the boat racing world. And then I met him inside. In federal prison. Oh, my God. But he's a serious player. He's out.

They just caught his brother. They were looking for him for, I don't know how many years. He was like the money man. They caught him in Orlando. like maybe eight, ten years ago, right in Orlando. And they made billions, not millions, billions, billions. Did I say billions of the B?

Yes, with the B. With the B. But I mean... Willie made billions. Him and Sal, Sal's doing life. He's done. I think there's like 11 murders in the case. Oh, no, Willie got out of that.

Oh, my God. Yeah, 11 murders. I better watch what I say. Holy fuck. And you're 26 years old in the middle. So wait, is this... Right in the prime middle of it all. Have you seen the cocaine cowboys documentary?

Yeah. Is this in the middle of all that, when all those murders are happening? It's sort of... Right around that, but a little bit to... They're the left and we were to the right the boat races were. But that was, at that given time, the godmother of cocaine... Griselda. Griselda was involved with all that, and she had her hit, man.

But we... That was like... I went around all that area. That was like... So you never met Griselda or you heard people. They're too crazy for me. Too crazy. I don't know if the crazy was going to be there.

She killed everybody. Yeah, she killed everybody, and then she got whacked when she went to Columbia. Did any of your friends get murdered? Any of your close friends get murdered, like, murdered, like, in Miami when you were doing all this? No, no, no. No, okay. Just prison times. Because that documentary made it seem like it was a bloodbath in Miami.

No, it was a bloodbath. It was a true bloodbath, but I wasn't involved and all that. I mean, from the marijuana change to the cocaine, marijuana was, like, mellow. You go to bed at 9, 10 o'clock. Yeah, chilling. Yeah, chilling. Sell a double bag of weeds a lot different than somebody banging on your door at 2 in the morning. I'll whack it out on blow.

Because they always want more, right? Oh, always want more. But even if you're in a bigger level. And marijuana wasn't as lucrative as cocaine because it was a lot bulkier. It took a lot more space, right? Sure. So, okay. What was the quality of the cocaine back then compared to not?

compared to nowadays. Don't remind me. Johnny boy doesn't partake anymore. Right, right. But if you did. That's what it looked like. Can you see this? Yeah.

The salt lamp? It looked like if you took a tarp and just scaled it, shale the shell off, it was just like sparkle and just like, oh, Johnny boy's sweating. Mr. Apple Seats hot over here. I get a sip a drinker. It's apple time. Holy shit. So what happens after Omar doesn't return?

Then what do you do? That's your main connect, right? Yeah, that was our main connection. And you're flying all around, you're flying all around the state, all around the country, with all this cash in your pocket. Shipping it in the mail. Shipping it in the mail. You're just living in a life life.

You were just living. I didn't know nothing about credit card. Just cash, cash, cash. You could fly anywhere, anytime under anybody's name. They didn't ask for ID back then. I was like, O.J. Simpson running to the airport. It's Mark Avnet It's Mark Avonet

I'm late Here you go Mark Here fly first class Oh my God That was crazy So yeah then what do you do when your Kinexcon? Connectscon it all starts slowing down And Johnny Boy got in a little trouble

How'd you get in trouble What happened? Took a kilo Nobody brings dope into the keys I took a kilo Two kilos and to the keys. Why?

To sell to somebody. How did you get them, though? Because Omar was gone. No. I found another connect. You always keep one or two more connections in your main, you know. Yeah. But I took it in.

Why did you take it to the keys? You just knew you could get rid of it. That's where the buyer was. And this guy gave it to somebody. He got set up and calls me with the feds. For another one? No. calls me and says they don't want it.

It's going to pick it back up. Yeah, and I said, I'm not taking that thing back. I mean, that thing is beautiful. I mean, it was nice. And he's taping me during this whole time. I don't know that. I just told him, drop on the ticket. I don't care.

I'm not taking it back to Miami. So I call my buddies in Miami, another set of Cubans. And said, hey, I'm bringing it back up. See in 45 minutes. I go to meet the guy. Because he didn't want to, because they didn't want to drop on the ticket. Yeah, he didn't want to drop in the ticket, but he's setting me up. Right.

He's already setting me up. I pull up to a fast food restaurant. So you come to pick it back up? Pick it back up. So he told you he got in trouble? He didn't tell me he got in trouble. He called. And so he calls what later that day?

Oh, so he got caught after you gave him the kilo. Exactly. And then they basically got him to set you up. Yeah, exactly. And so they're telling me to meet me back at the same place. Okay. I go in. And you said no.

You said, no, I'm not going on. No. No. No, I said, I don't want to take it back. Drop, it's nice. There's no reason why it's taking it back. I said drop on the price. I don't even care.

I'm not going to drive out of the keys. It's easy to drive into the keys. It's hard to drive out. Go back to pick it up. Okay, so he didn't want to drop. He said, no, I don't want it. So you agreed to go back and get it. Pick it up, yeah.

Okay. And then, shoot, like swooped in. Where were you? Where was this? A little, on U.S. Highway 1 and a little fast food restaurant. What fast food restaurant? What a dairy queen? I think it was dairy queen.

Her Burger King, one of the two I walked in, made a phone call You walked into a Dairy Queen You got a pay phone call Yep, made a phone call Walked out And next day there Guns are all over me

Cops everywhere Surrounded As soon as you make the phone call Right after How many cops? Do you even see your guy? Didn't see my guy You just get off the phone on his cops

Yeah, probably calling him I don't know Walk back out Cops everywhere Front, front, back, all around guns drawn. Fuck. They put the cups on,

and, you know, Johnny Boy, a little crazy. How old are you now at this point? Probably 28. 28, okay. They say, Johnny Boy, you have two choices here, and they're

surrounding me. They put their guns away. I'm cuffed up. They said, you can either, we can take you to Miami, and we can go to jail, or we can call some of your friends, you know, and set them up. And Johnny Boy says, I think we got three choices.

He said, three choices. And this is FBI, D.E.A. and local police. They say, what do you mean, three choices? I said, I could run and you can shoot me. And I said, get him in the back of the car and get them out of here. Johnny, boy, you're going to jail. Oh, no. Yeah, that's what I mean.

They took you to fucking jail right then there. Right there. And then, when then I went to a little substation in the upper keys, and it's a very small place, four cells, I see people I don't know the first cell, people I don't know the third cell, guess who was in the next cell? The guy that I was selling, the kilo too, yeah. The guy didn't set you up. Even after you snitch you out?

Yep, they took him to jail. He went to jail. All you do is keep his mouth shut. Johnny Boy would have got him an attorney. When they were, when they were setting people up, when they would tell somebody that we'll work with you if you can snitch out a couple of your friends, they would get those people, that person a rat, and then they would just not honor that. They would just lock them up.

Well, they'd just for a little bit, right? For a little bit, and then they let them out. Oh, so they would actually do something for them. They would work with them. Because do you know your set up as soon as the cops come? I knew. I was done. But do you know you're set up by that guy?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what's the son. So when you see him in there, you know he set you up. I said, what's going on? Why would you do that to Johnny Boy? Yeah, and what's he said? Keep your mouth shut, and you could have got out on Bond and maybe an attorney. What could he say?

He knew he was, you know, caught right? He knew that we knew. He knew that we knew. And what did he say to you? Like, nothing. I'm sorry. Older guy, you know, older than Johnny Boy at the time. So how much time do they give him?

I'm not sure to tell you truth. I got five. So you get five years? Five years. Five years. It's for one kilo, five years? How much would you get now, you think? For one, if you were in trouble about the snow,

about the same, there's guidelines. We had Tampa Tony on it, but he got busted with, like, 10 keys for his first charge. And never know the charges are different. You have guidelines to follow. But this guy was an idiot. Keep your mouth shut and get out of them behind. You know, work it out from there.

So what was prison like, you're 28 years old for five years? Where's the prison? In Miami? No, no. Well, you go to a holdover. Right. You go to like a holdover and then you travel around.

What's a holdover? Holdover like a federal facility. You're doing that weird whisper thing again. Okay. Sorry about that. Johnny voice a little. Harched. We had to cut you off very quick because your mask was getting too hot and you needed to get a more breathable mask.

So you wouldn't sweat so bad. It's a little hot in here. Are you feeling bad? better now, Mr. Appleseed? Yeah, Johnny. All right, so let's go back. We want to go back to when you're moving the cocaine. So, yeah, before you got locked up, were you getting high on your own supply?

I mean, that's like one of the cardinal sins in slinging, and sling dope is don't get high on your own supply. Well, they say that, but when you have so much cocaine, can you really do it all? I mean, you have a double bag with 10 kilos in it. Right. You know how long it would take to do 10 kilos, whooping it? You die. I mean, yeah, a lot of a supply in McDonald's straw.

Ronald McDonald will probably be chasing me down The red-headed guy Yeah, yeah, I know he is No, but yeah, the Coke was so good back then You didn't need a lot You know, we'd stay up all night, party and Let's go back to the boat racing world Yeah

For a little bit You know, the boat races all had to take physicals and all up The doctor at the end of it all Start telling all the drivers and people in the boat Yeah Lean back We got to see inside your nose. They're doing so much blow.

Because they know everybody's on below. In the boat. It's on blow. Really? Oh, just, they take their own little bottles. Who was, now, who was drug testing them? The Association, boat raising world. Like, like, being on cocaine or whatever.

Being on cocaine would affect your driving. Well, I mean, you're driving. You can't drive fucking NASCAR and be on cocaine. The drug is a different air. The drug was so good. So everybody knew that smoking coke was bad. Now they call it crack, I think.

Is that what it's called crack? Yeah, it's called crack. Back in the age. Were you guys ever smoking it back then? Nobody was supposed to smoke it. Everybody knew that. But I'm not going to lie, Johnny, boy, take it wild a couple of times here and there.

What did they call it back then? Free base! Free base, right? It wasn't crack back then. Yeah, nothing free about it either. It's called free base. No. Free base, yeah.

But I was like, Richard Pryor, they bring it back. I never really cooked it myself, but they bring it back and had ether involved. And that's how Richard Pryor, the comedian, caught on fire. Really? Yeah, he's trying to put ether on it, like after the Yon. And his rig blew up or something, right? Yeah, something blew up.

He's on fire. Richard Pryor was Free Basin? Oh, yeah. It's a very known story. Oh, I didn't even know that. Yeah, he's like, the cops came, the fire department came or something. He was in the house cooking up, and it blew up. No way.

That was the ether blew up. And then a few. Good band back in the day. Casey and the Sunshine band, remember? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Casey, heavy on the smoke. Heavy on smoke? Heavy on the smoke?

Woo. Hey, so what other celebrities are around, like, back then? Back then. You see, like, party, and you're out there partying. In Miami, it was like, that was the Madonna air. I mean, I didn't see her doing it. It was all that kind of air. I mean, all the clubs were.

Are you seeing, like, football players and stuff? Well, down there, I really didn't know that many football players, but everybody was partying back then. Everybody was partying. I'm talking about the mayor was probably just like New York. Remember what was that guy's name? Oh, the guy in Canada. Yeah.

He got a car smoking crack. Yeah, yeah, that guy. No, but Miami in the 80s, it was just, once the 80s in the drug world slowed down, they put all the laws and started arresting everybody, like half the bars and Fort Lauderdale went out of business. Really? All the drug money. It was a bar.

It's called Sundays on the Bay. It's still open. All the dopers were. some of these guys bar tabs for a Sunday afternoon is $8,000. I remember exactly. For a bar tab. For a bar tab. For a bar tab.

In the afternoon. Johnny Boy, one night, did partake in the party with the boys. And they reminded me, hey, don't you have to run these two kilos up to Palm Beach? Damn, you're right. Johnny Boy's got to get all ass. I'm driving on 95. Fade and just ready to fall out Johnny boys are fucking tired

I said damn What am I tired about I reach under the seat Cut a window Bow bow bow bow bow Hit the road It was like the fucking wild west huh Oh super wild west

Met my connect Usually had a little system We'd go eat lunch Buy some clothes shoes Whatever Yeah And I just Here's your shit

Give me the money let me get the freak out of here. Oh, my God. It was the Wild West. People were ripping each other off, shooting. I mean, it was just like, if you didn't. People getting their arms whacked off for a Rolex for the machete. That was just a stoplight.

If you're a convertible and have your Rolex hanging out, somebody's going to get it. And they would just machete your fucking arm off. Yeah. That's the crazy crack people they call them now. But back then it's just like they were just whacked on the freebase. It was so strong. Jesus. It was very strong.

Ten times as strong as it stuff that they smoke now. I'm not really sure because I don't really smoke it. Yeah. Johnny Boy did partake one time. Wow. All right, so let's fast forward back to when you got locked up. Then you met the guy in the cell block three that ratted you out at the Dairy Queen. Cell Block three.

The guy who rotted you out of Dairy Queen and now you're in Cell Blah through. Also a Pablo. Was his name really Pablo? Yeah, his name really was Pablo. But he was, um... Where's he at now? I'm not sure. Probably, probably dead.

Then they took me to Miami. They took me to Miami? Miami. To Miami, you wait there, get sentenced. And federal... Then you get five years. How long do that take? Months.

You go over months, months, wait for all that stuff that happened. But then at that time, all the guys in the upper keys, all the Coast Guard station, is in Alabama. So there was a whole error when all the Coast Guard guys, we got in trouble. They, um...

We'll call the smugglers, and say, hey, we're heading out in 20 minutes. Boatload of stuff floating. Get out there and get back. Grab what you can and go. And then they get broken off. They get some money. Coast guard guys.

Yeah, Coast guard guys. They all go. They would tip off the pickup guys. They pick up. So you got 20 minutes to grab what you can and go. And they would pay the Coast Guard? Or they would just give them Coke? Pay them cash.

Pay them cash. Yeah. Wow. And they got busted? Yeah, they got about five or six. No way. The late 80s, a whole big pair. Jesus.

But they didn't tip off the dope dealers. They grabbed some coke, slip some under their vest, and they'd sell it to somebody that they trusted. Johnny, we got in a couple of those. Did you really? They were going for 24 to 26. Coast Guard guy had it.

I paid $8,000. Sold it that afternoon for $25. I gave him a deal. It's like a thousand off. 25. That's where you call home run. Wow. And that happened a few times, but that's once in a while, you know.

Yeah. And then what happened when you went to court and you got sentenced? Five years. Did you have an attorney or? Yeah, attorney. So appointed? No. You paid a guy.

And then I had a state case run with that one too. Well, just a state case. Damn it. That was cooked too, wasn't it? Yeah. You had two cases at once? Yeah. We missed this one.

What happened to this one? This one was, I was meeting somebody, and there was a fluke. Total fluke, if you know what that means. I was just the wrong place, the wrong time, and it was state. But I think I would have beat it. But I already got a Fed charge, so they just ran it together. They didn't care. Right, so you were in the wrong place, the wrong time?

What happened? Dropping something off in the lower-kid. Do you not want to tell us what it is? No, it was Coke. How much? That one was two kilos. And how do you get popped on that one? Wrong place, the wrong time.

Why, the cops just randomly show up or what? They were next door and thought something was going on. They were watching the place or something. They really weren't watching it. They just stopped us. The guy in front of me was the buyer. He took off. He got to go.

Stop me. Start search. It was a legal search, but what can you say? After they exceed the two kilos, you know, you're going to jail. That was it. It seems like you can do this interview without your mask on. I mean, you... Do you want me to take it out?

Yeah, you can take it off. Do you want to take it off? I don't think... I mean, all the stuff you've been, you went to prison before you did your time. I mean, are you, what are you afraid of... Why do you want to hide your identity? There's still...

There's still people around. No, no, no. I'll get after me, but there's still some active stuff going. We'll get to that. Just because you're telling all these stories. You're kind of worried. No, but all the people... Yeah, you should keep your identity in.

I think I should do. Yeah. Oh, man. There's no reason for the people to know who Mr. Johnny is. So you got sentenced to five years. Five years. Where did they ship you off to after Miami? Shipping off to North Florida, went to federal prison camp.

That's where the boys from Wall Street and banker, you know, and you play handball. Easy, easy, camp. It's camp, low, medium, and penitentiary. You don't want to go to the penitentiary. You're at camp I'm in a camp The lowest The lowest of the low

Yeah Why do you get sent there Because you got no previous charges No previous No violent charges No violent charges But I worked my way up to a low Got out

I got in trouble You know camps You can do anything You can wear the clothes You can have watches And then Cell phones Right radios TV

Do you make anybody interesting When you're there Oh At the camp Next to mine North Florida It was softly camp Who was at that

And was a pretty famous guy and at my camp but that one was um one of the guys from studio 54 ian schrager he was from shreger hotel group he was that they can't you remember shregor no no telano and miami it was like 1012 properties all around the country probably before my time yeah it was before you remember studio 54 you remember that no you don't remember we heard of yeah yeah michael jacks and right everybody blondie you know all these people were hanging out there. That was when cocaine was glamorous. They made it like

the rich people were doing it. The super people were doing it. Wall Street. Wall Street. Yeah. I was with the Wall Street with his kid. Leslie Roberts he was there in my camp. His uncle owned Alcoa still being traded on the stock market now.

I guess he scammed him out of like I don't know how many millions. But he had jet flew around. Wow. Lived on some lake in Booker Overton. I mean, he was a shister, totally a shister. He shistered some of the drug dealers out of their money

after he'd already been in trouble inside, telling him how to trade stocks and this and that. Wow. I guess once a shister, always a shister. What was his name? Leslie Roberts. Leslie Roberts. The Wall Street Whiz Kid.

The Wall Street was the black guy? No, no, no, white guns. Okay. There was a Netflix documentary. There was a few other guys. There was a couple guys. A lot of bank robbers, but nonviolent. You know, no shooting.

We had the Reebok bandit. The who? Reebok bandit, they called him. What did he do? He would go in the bank, real athletic, jump right over the counter, clean the doors, out, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and jump right up when they had their print of a Reebok.

In and out. In and out. And they finally caught him. Then Gainesville, the baby bank robber. goes to the vault, comes out, shoots the camera. He's lucky. He only got nine years. Shoots the camera.

Rick is a computer. Running out of the bank, the di-pack falls out. They think it's pros. Really, it just fell out of the bag. So they think, oh, these guys are professional. He's the baby bank, Robert. A little picture of his baby face. It's 17 years old.

Wow. He was there. That's crazy. So you were only in that camp or whatever for five years. No, about three years. Only three and five. Because you're holding for a while before you get there. Yeah, three on five, the guidelines change.

Now you do 85% of whatever time it is. There's no good time. There's no, you know. Or back then. Now, now. 85%. What was it back then? It depends on where you fell, where you fell and what time you got in trouble and all.

They all got out all my friends. You weren't just like a pawn. in this whole thing you were actually like people actually waited on like you were no were you an important piece of the puzzle or were you just like a pawn no a lot of people were pawns but you were you were a pawn right yeah you were you were you were you were expendable exactly everybody is in that business yeah everyone you see what happened everybody is Pablo what happened to him didn't we Pablo mm-hmm but um yeah everybody's expendable in that business, everybody.

So you get out and all your, get out, all your buddies are doing the same. Give me a half a kilo for me to keep. Soon as you get out. What happened the day you got out? What happened the day you got out? What happened when you first got out the first time? It got out.

Twelve friends of mine were waiting on me. Pick me up at Miami airport and it was on. So what do you mean it was on? Party and drink. I got kicked out every bar. The day you got out? Day you got out. So the whole time you're in there, you're not thinking I'm changing.

You know when you get out, you're going right back to the same shit. You think that. And then when you get out and you have nothing left, they hand you half a kilo, keep that for you, make the money. No. Get back on your feet. The other kilo burn and churn,

we need some money for that one and you're back on. Bam! 14 months, 12 months later, click, click, get it again. You got busted again. Yes. No, wait. When you first got out.

When you first got out, and they were all basically like treating you like it was your heart. homecoming. Were they basically like we're rewarding you for not ratting out anybody or like not stitching out? They were happy that you didn't roll on anyone. These were guys that I met inside. Okay. But all my friends outside were still the same. But most of my friends outside were not dope dealers. You're not worried about them thinking that you snitched on anybody or anything? They know I didn't. I was only the one kilo. So the only guy I could have snitched on was nobody, really. Okay. So what did you do for the, what did you do for the couple of, the year after you got a party?

the year after you got out, what'd you do? Sold a cleaning product and some tanning oil as a front and got right back in the cocaine business. All-purpose cleaning product had a van. Why? Because you have to get a job or what? Oh, yeah, you always have to have a job. But I was already back at the show.

Oh, I mean, are you on parole? Yeah, on parole. So you get out on parole? On parole. And you have to get a job. Have to get a job. Okay. So that makes more sense.

Johnny boys running it all around, selling a cleaning product, and blow at the same time. And you're already a decent salesman anyway, so. Yeah, I guess. I guess my product was good. You're like 31, 32 now. The cleaning supply is good. Cleaning supply is real good. Going wide open.

Top gun sales guy. I think I got an award even. Next scene out. Bam! You get back on. How long are you on parole for? Why? Somebody rolled in four years.

So you're on parole for four years after you get out. Yeah. And you get popped within the first year. A little bit after the first year. A little bit after the 14 months, you said. Yeah. Stupid. Kids stay in school.

Explain me how you got popped. Yeah. So how does that one go down? Somebody set me up on that one. Again. Again, that's the only way. The feds have a 97% conviction rate, meaning that if I got popped with the kilo,

and said I wasn't guilty and wanted to fight it. If you lose, they're going to give you the top of the guidelines. Say you get nine or ten. If you fight it, you get four or five. If you say, I agree, I'm guilty. Why is that? They want their conviction.

Because it looks good for them. Because they want to fill up the prisons? Well, the prisons are full. But they never want to lose at trial. Exactly. They don't want to lose. And that's where they have 97%. Is that for like packing statistics on like the war on drugs or is that for filling in prisons?

And why are they so incentivized to to convict all these people for drug cases? Well, they want their conviction. They want the conviction number one. It's not just the fill. That's a big, it's a money machine. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, prisons are run for profit. And there is prisons.

There is prisons that are run by separate, not by the government. Right. You can, like you can go buy a prison. You can invest in a prison. We can own our own prison. Yeah. And you get money per inmate from the state. From the feds.

Yeah, right, right, right, right. So you have an incentive to fill it up because you get a certain amount of money. I do remember Noriega was at the holdover in Miami. They called him pineapple phase. Noriega? Noriega. Yeah, he was a big cocaine dude there. Oh, yeah.

Huge. He had his own private cell. It wasn't allowed. population. They walked them at night. I mean, you go outside at night, but he had, like, a room probably half as big as this. Nice.

You know, probably his wife, a lot of, I don't know if she's allowed to spend the night or whoever she was, supposed to be his wife. Yeah, once we get your claws in you, you're done. And then you had already, you'd already been in prison for five years. They caught you again. What was it like when they caught you the second time? Was it guns out everywhere? Same, same as the first time?

No, same scenario. Just arrested. Where do they pick you up in? I get popped at, again, another fast food restaurant. I think I should stay away from fast food restaurant. But I'm at a fast food restaurant. They whip in, check the guys in front of me. They had money in a thermos.

They got away. They checked me. They kept the two kilos. It's a state charge. That's when they had me in custody. Then the guy rolls. And then they just came and put the charge on me. That's what happened.

The first charge was just straight. I forgot about that. Yeah. Johnny Boy gets a little mixed. So, So now how much they get? Now what they pop before? Another five?

No, they popped me four. They wanted to give me, um... Five years? No, they wanted to give me ten years. Ten years a second time. Ten years. And then you... I did eight.

I did seven on ten. Seven on ten. Seven on ten. Wow. Seven years. When Johnny Boy realized he's in trouble again... So you missed the 90s. All the 90s.

You didn't even, you weren't even out of prison during nine... From 91 to 99, you were in prison. 90. Yeah. whatever it's, no, about 92, 92 to almost 2000. Wow. All the 90s. Things did change, you know, not too much, yeah, but, you know, we already had cell phone and all.

Just the technology. Okay, so you're in for the seven, are you going straight after you get out on this one? Going straight. You're going straight. Going straight. Done with it all. Change your surroundings, change your people. Mm-hmm.

Didn't I meet you after that? You were a little older and wiser. I met you when I was like 17 years old. Wow. No, no, no, I was older than that. I met you when I was like 19 or 20. Because it's my 21st birthday. Yeah.

21st birthday. I was about 19 or 21 I met you. What happened between then, about 10, 15 years ago, until where to where you are right now? So Johnny Boy's been good all this time. Got rid of, quit doing all the dealing for the millionaires, just stepped away. The drug business is gone. Drug business is over, totally over. Johnny Boy, quit doing drugs.

He's trying to live the healthy lifestyle. What have you learned from your lesson in dope dealing and being in the cocaine cowboy 80s and 10 years in prison? After 10 years in prison, 80s are gone. What's your message to young kids growing up, maybe tempted to get involved in the drug game, the drug world? What would you say to him? It's so crazy now.

Stay in school, but there's one saying that holds true. It's not what you know. It's who you know. Is that true? That's very true. That old myth? It's not an old myth. It's not what you know.

It's who you know. You can step stones and get way far ahead if you know the top people in which I think, Danny, you know a few top guns around town yourself. I do. I do. Thanks to you. I got introduced a lot of top guns. You know, I met our buddy Ben, who's no longer a sociologist. with concrete.

Full disclaimer. He is no longer associated in any way, shape, or form with concrete or any of its subsidiaries. I met him through Mike the Fish guy. Mike Bush. Mike Bush. You know Mike Bush. A.k.a. Bush, aka Bush Wacker.

Bush. Mike Bush used to buy Johnny Boy and his friends beer at the Causeway Lounge many years ago. Do we got any crazy stories we skipped over? What were we talking about? We had a few crazy stories. The Don Cesar. We missed the Don Cesar. The Rambo story.

We missed that whole story. Yeah. Have you ever been to the Don Cesar? Yeah. The Don Cesar, the Big Pink Building? Great intro. Great fucking segue. Hey, the Big Pink Building?

Down by Pass a Grill? Yeah, that one. Okay, yeah. That's the one. Yeah, yeah. I went down there with a friend, many years ago. It was a... It was a...

It's one of the biggest It's like one of the most iconic landmarks in Pinellas County Yeah definitely It was a surprise Costume birthday party for one of the Hubbard Right across the Hubbard? Yeah, one of the Hubbard's? The people who launched John's Pass?

Yeah, yeah, that same family I forget who it was Me and a friend went down there It was like we're in the Rambo era So we dressed up with Rambo And had bands and hangar and age And you know, took a certain party It was like Halloween.

Halloween, but it wasn't Halloween A costume party for birthday though We go down to the Don Cazar Me and a friend named Gilbert Everybody knew him He was a bouncer at Skip's rock and roll club Go down there dresses Ramba Took a certain family member

Mind car made it look like a tank Go down out by the pool He screams All right all bikini tops off He pulls a hang grenade We're throwing black cats Firecrackers are going off The police come.

They grab Rambo here. They grab Johnny Boy. They grab him. You're going to jail. Johnny Boy. They walk me out, throw me down, kick me, beat me up a little bit. Gilbert jumps in the pool with a straw like you see in the movies. Breathe and have a straw.

Where do you get the straw? I don't know where he got a straw. There's some girl's cocktail. I'm not sure, but he's breathing out. So he's hiding under the water. Breathing the straw. Hide under the water. It's a pool.

Johnny Boy, but he's under. Like they can't see the fucking guy. No, but people are full. People are scrambling. Police are called. They arrest Johnny Boy. Throw him down on the side. Say you're going to jail.

They put the cups on. Big old cop. Put the cups on Johnny Boy. You can't feel his hand. They take me to the police station, a little substation, St. Bee Beach. Johnny Boy's, you know, ready to get out of there. It'd only been there for like 10 minutes in my hand.

I couldn't feel my hand. I call the front. Johnny Boy calls the front and says, We got to let my client out. Keep going. And he's got to go to the hospital. So he released me on the R.R. Johnny Boy's family shows up.

And the rabbit? Johnny Boy was done. He shows up in the Hubbard bar. You can't keep Johnny Boy down. You get arrested and you get bailed out and go back to the bar. Right back to the bar. Bam. What year was this?

About 1985. This is before all the prison. We were all the cocaine. Wow. We were just doing it. I was supposed to get the cocaine cowboys guy on this podcast, the guy who made that documentary. He was actually going on here last weekend, but something happened.

I wanted to get the Don Cesar story. Don Cesar's story is over. But what we want to do is I want to ask you. Ask me anything you want. A couple of stories. Ask me whatever you want. I got all answers for you. My question to you is, you started a certain show.

And now it's turning back and biting you in the butt, and you're just a little guy scratching at the surface, trying to make some money and doing okay. And then these greedy millionaires, you know... Don't call them greedy millionaires. That's not fair. Well, I mean, you're right, you're right. But, I mean, they all seem...

Don't just assume people are greedy because they're millionaires. Well, they got that way somehow. But, I mean, when you offer them something, and then they just want more and then they want to shut you down. I mean, why don't you tell us that little story? Well, it's not the same. It's life for sale, that show. That's when you started.

That's the one I started. And you started this. I started this. All on your own. All on my own. Well, he helped me. He gave me some money. He helped me buy some equipment.

But he gave me actually one of the video cameras. He got me a lens. He got me a hard drive and stuff like that. Let's give that back. It's not that person is greedy. That guy's not a greedy person. That guy's actually a very generous person. And so the show started how many years ago?

We met and we started filming seven years ago and we started putting it on YouTube a little over three years ago. And about 2015 we started putting it on YouTube. And that show took off? The show took off. Like wildfire. Only after three years. So we started in 2015 and it didn't really take off like wildfire until summer of 2018. So summer of 2018.

2018 after I think it was season two started so after we did a whole season with like 30 episodes took a little break and then we did a season two and then about August of 2018 We did an episode where we went to a house for sale in Weston on the east coast near Deerfield and It was it was it was it was birdman and little Wayne's old house the cash money records It was their old house. We went there. That episode took off like a nuclear rocket. And that blew up the entire show.

Now every episode we were posting was getting hundreds of thousands of views. And it blew up my YouTube channel and Concrete, which was my media brand, which is my concrete. So I created Concrete. I created this. I had Concrete.com. I had a YouTube channel, social media or whatever. And I had kind of like a media company, right? Right. And I was producing Life for Sale underneath all of this.

So once Life for Sale blew up, it elevated my brain and my company. So now I was still creating other stuff. I was still doing interviews. I was still doing like other little series. I did a series called Deccans that followed commercial fishermen in Madeira Beach and like the commercial fishing industry, which also blew up. That blew up almost bigger than Life for Sale, but it was only four episodes. Wow. So really anything.

So what it did was it boosted. my platform. So he's involved. The show is about him, but you guys aren't making money. Nobody's making money. The first three, four years. First three years, nobody's making any money.

He's following around doing videos and self-taught, correct? Yeah, self-taught. Okay. But when I first put it on the internet, no one thought, everyone thought that was a stupid idea. This guy's like, fucking YouTube. I would, I guess, whatever, go ahead and do it.

I said, yeah, it'll be good. It could work. You're like his... It's kind of like his bastard. I was kind of like his bastard child for all those years. All right, let's wrap this fucking thing up. I'm getting tired. I want to make sure there's like a positive ending to it.

I want to make sure that young kids don't end up being a fucking idiot like you were when you were young. I was a total idiot. Stay in school and don't think all that glamour is there. Oh, yeah, it's glamour for a hot second. But the end of the road, the payday is not worth it. What do you do for work now, by the way? Let's talk about your glamour days. in the A's and you're making 50 grand a week.

I don't have to say exactly. You're a day labor. How old are you? 60. So you should be, let's just say you work a nine to five nowadays. Yeah, a regular nine to five.

You work hard work out in the hot sun doing day labor shit. I don't even have to get into all that. We just say you work a regular nine to five nowadays. And you're 60 years old. So you should, so the drug business did not pay off. That's what we're saying. It did not.

You should let your story be a lesson to to young people and to the youth people. You see all that fast money. Yeah. It's not going to happen. Run from it. It's an old saying. If it's too good to be true, it is.

That's exactly what San Patoni said. Yeah. If you think it's too good to be true, turn around. You're going to get ripped off. If there's any sort of suspicion, that it's too good to be true. It's over.

Awesome. Thanks for coming on the show. Johnny.