Julian Dorey Podcast - #336 - BREAKING: CJNG Cartel is Abducting Women, Forcing C-Sections & Selling Kids | Katarina Szulc

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

SPONSORS: 1) GhostBed: Use Code "JULIAN" to get extra 25% off GhostBed Sitewide: https://ghostbed.com/julian 2) HelloFresh: Go to https://hellofresh.com/JULIAN10FM and get *10 FREE MEALS* w/ a Free Item for Life! WATCH KAT'S PREVIOUS EPISODES: EPISODE #264: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5v03TtAAVy2Tyn59UZJma3?si=5fcb302eaadb41f7 EPISODE #313: https://open.spotify.com/episode/28hhtlB0rWuFRo0IsfFha5?si=d6d5e0186bfe4c8b PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/JulianDorey (***TIMESTAMPS in Description Below) ~ Katarina Szulc is a Mexico-based freelance journalist focused on reporting on Cartel Activity. KATARINA's LINKS: Substack: https://katarinaszulc.substack.com/?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web&r=3h3gxb X: https://x.com/katarinaszulc?lang=en YT: https://www.youtube.com/@katarinaszulc/featured IG: https://www.instagram.com/katarinaszulc?igsh=eHViMnZnNWExNmk4 FOLLOW JULIAN DOREY INSTAGRAM (Podcast): https://www.instagram.com/juliandoreypodcast/ INSTAGRAM (Personal): https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey/ X: https://twitter.com/julianddorey JULIAN YT CHANNELS - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Clips YT: https://www.youtube.com/@juliandoreyclips - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Daily YT: https://www.youtube.com/@JulianDoreyDaily - SUBSCRIBE to Best of JDP: https://www.youtube.com/@bestofJDP ****TIMESTAMPS**** 00:00 - Intro 01:30 – Emergency Pod, Pregnant Women Kidnapped, Infants Sold, CJNG Link, Juárez Cartel 10:27 – Border Impact, Babies $100K+, High-Level Sources, Poor Neighborhoods, Victims Mutilated 24:11 – Babies Sedated?, Buyers?, Blurry Details, Kat Afraid, Gov Contacts Fired 32:35 – Kat on Radar?, Cartel Ladder, Redline, Juárez Unsafe 47:02 – Tell Story, Two Villains, Buyers Aware, Leads?, Ethics 52:53 – Kat’s Method, Families Anonymous, Stop Scaling, Trump? 01:02:05 – Gov Miss Buyers, Epstein-Level Upset, Trafficking Market, Emotional Toll 01:10:17 – Changes Little, Zona Divas Murders, Trafficking Origins, S3x Work 01:21:02 – Extermination Camps, Organ Harvesting, CJNG & Chapitos, Absorption, Chapo’s Son 01:30:20 – Faction Status, El Mayo Plea, No-Paperwork Transfers, US Wants Intel 01:35:47 – MX Backdoor, Intel Planes, Weak Crackdown, Capital Punishment 01:45:29 – CJNG Camps, Mencho Hiding, FTOs, US Tracking, Leadership 01:55:08 – Mencho Succession, Sinaloa Infighting, Narco Rapper, Canada Fentanyl 02:06:48 – Canada Link, Head Honcho Myth, No Crackdown, Julian Anti-Death Penalty 02:12:47 – Kat for Capital Punishment, Catch & Release, Raise Price 02:18:08 – Ryan Wedding Story, Andrew Clark, US Wants Wedding, Sorting Truth 02:29:42 – Kat’s new documentary show 02:35:48 – Kat’s Work CREDITS: - Host, Editor & Producer: Julian Dorey - COO, Producer & Editor: Alessi Allaman - https://www.youtube.com/@UCyLKzv5fKxGmVQg3cMJJzyQ - In-Studio Producer: Joey Deef - https://www.instagram.com/joeydeef/ Julian Dorey Podcast Episode 336 - Katarina Szulc Music by Artlist.io Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is by far the worst story I've ever covered. So I got in contact with a Mexican law enforcement source who told me that in Quares, Mexico, young, vulnerable women are being kidnapped towards the end of their pregnancies, held at a trap house, and then their babies are being taken out of them to then sell these infants to Americans in El Paso. There's a lot of desert and barren land, and you know how that goes? Dozens of victims. What I've been told is that Halisco New Generation Cartel is where, running this operation. These guys have managed to absorb power at a rate that we've never

really seen before. But I never really got into the nitty-gritty of how evil this cartel is. So, I'm used to seeing insanely sick. This is a whole other level. Cat Schultz back for round three. Kind of an emergency podcast here. You've covered like 40 stories. Yeah, but in this case, I'm here at the port of Vancouver, a hot spot for... Hey guys, if you're not following... following me on Spotify, please hit that follow button and leave a five-star review. They're both a huge huge help. Thank you. I don't know if that other stuff you can talk about yet in the future. Yeah, I can.

Okay, so we'll talk about that too. You have some cool stuff coming up that you're going to be doing. But you just broke a story that, like, stopped me in my tracks because... You clocked it right away. Oh, my God. It's, it is... I mean, I'm used to seeing insanely sick shit with the cartel. Even for the low lives that they are, this is a whole other level.

So let's just start at the beginning. Yeah. the basis of the basis of what the story is and how you found out and what you found out since. Okay, this is by far the worst story I've ever covered. So basically, I got in contact with a Mexican law enforcement source who told me basically right off the bat that women, young, vulnerable women in Juarez, Mexico, which is right there along the El Paso border. are being kidnapped towards the end of their pregnancies, held at, like, a trap house, essentially. And then their babies are being taken out of them by, like, rudimentary caesarian section by what is believed to be a certified OBGYN who is performing these operations to then sell these infants to Americans in El Paso. Do the Americans know where they're, what they're buying?

is the problem, right? Because when I got this information and it was from a very reputable source and I corroborated before I even put the story out there. Because when I got this and I saw the images and I was reading all the details and listening to all the details, I was like, holy fuck, this is the worst thing that I've ever heard. And you know, like, we see cartel violence and I'm covering it constantly. But this was a new low. And so when I got all the information, my first question was Who are the buyers? And do they know what's happening and why are they buying these kids? Like, is it illegal adoption?

Is it human trafficking? How much are they buying the babies for? And do they know that these babies are being taken from the mothers in cold blood? Buying babies at the beginning, regardless of what, like, what the fuck are you doing? Well, here's the thing. If it's illegal adoption, like, and, okay, let's say ideally that the buyers, are people who are dying to be parents and they are under the impression that they're going through some private, small adoption firm based out of Mexico. I don't believe this to be the case.

Stefano at All Source News, him and I sort of made a bet because he believes that this is the case. I don't think so. But let's say in an ideal world, that's what's happening is that these are parents who are like, oh, we've secured a baby. We want to build a family. First of all, I think if you are getting a baby like through a legal, like if you believe that this is legitimate, you should not be a parent in the first place because how fucking demented do you have to be to not see through this? Second of all, even if you have a fishy feeling that maybe something is up, again, you should not be a parent because how selfish can you be to take a baby from a woman who died because she was kidnapped for this baby? So what I've been told is that C.J and G is running this operation. For people out there who aren't familiar. The Halisco New Generation cartel, which is the most expansionist and powerful cartel and violent cartel in all of Mexico.

And I would say in Mexican cartel history, like these guys have managed to absorb power at a rate that we've never really seen before, to be honest. And since they're uprising, they have shown and proven. just how violent they can be, even towards innocent people. There doesn't seem to really be a code. And when I've done a lot of reporting on CG and I've always spoken about how they're very powerful, they're very violent, and they're very intelligent. And the leadership seems to be very intelligent because they know how to absorb cartels or smaller mafias and gangs within Mexico or like make an alliance like they did with the Chapitos

recently. Define Absorbed, by the way, like outside of making alliances, like what else could that mean? Basically, you go into a region where maybe the resources for the local cartel or mafia gang aren't super strong. You tell them, we're going to put our guys in. You guys are still going to make money. But essentially, this is C.G and G territory. You guys can use our name, which a lot of these smaller mafias and gangs like to do. Because it gives them kind of like a backbone.

Yeah, it gives them power. So it's like we're four letters. We're CJ and G now, even if they're not technically CG and G. But that's how the absorption kind of starts, right? And so I'm being told that this is run by CG and G. And like I was saying, I've always in my reporting talked about how powerful they are and their power dynamic in Mexico, but I never really got into the nitty gritty of just how evil this cartel is.

That's for a multitude of reasons. The first one being because I don't want to get murdered by them and they don't seem to have a code of ethics. Like, women are dying. I mean, you guys laugh, but let's talk about, like, mob history. It used to be like no women and kids, right? This is a whole, this isn't mob. This is, this is demented.

Terrorism. I think it's like beyond that even. They're a business, too. Like, it's like, I don't know what's worse. But you know what I mean. Like it's, it's sick. They're sending fentanyl across the border to us. They're apparently doing whatever this.

It's just like, okay, so this is another thing, right? If we compare it to fentanyl, when I interview cartel members and when we talk about this, a lot of them believe and say, well, I'm not directly killing these Americans who are using fentanyl. I'm just providing a product that there's an insatiable appetite for. In this case, they don't have that excuse. like you are literally holding a woman captive and keep in mind i'm told that these victims now this has only been going on for a couple months only as in like you know but that's horrible that it's already been going on for that long there's dozens of victims i've told it's less than

a hundred how do you how do you know this because i was told by a source in law enforcement so they knew the better question is there's an investigation going on it was only a couple months ago How did they know it wasn't happening before that? Because that's when this got flagged. And it appears as though these babies are being taken across the border with fraudulent paperwork. And so this is how authorities sort of became aware of it. The crazy part is they didn't become aware of it because, oh, pregnant women are going missing and turning up dead. You would think that that should be enough of a motive to launch an investigation.

Unfortunately, in Juarez, there's been a crisis of missing and murder. women since the 1990s. I think it started in like 1993 was like the first like big headlining case of a young woman who turned up dead. And over the course of the last couple decades, it's been like, is there a serial killer or serial killers in Juarez or why is the femicide so bad? And I know people get triggered when I say femicide, but it's like if innocent women are being killed simply on the basis that they're a woman or that they're pregnant, you can take

the baby, that is femicide. Like, of course. Get fucking wrecked. Of course. So, and it's vulnerable, like, you're telling me that a 17-year-old pregnant girl is going to be able to defend herself against a couple armed guys who come up and are like, you're going to give us your baby. Come on. So, basically, this operation is full-fledged, and it's CG and G, and they're obviously working with elements of La Linea or the Juarez Cartel. Do we know what kind of money is exchanging hands or?

It's like in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, because essentially, these babies are making up for the gap of the lack of drug and human smuggling from Mexico into the United States. Because the border is more secure now? But now we get babies across the border. So this is a thing that I want to bring up because I think it's really critical to talk about the fact that everyone is so concerned about securing the border. And obviously, I've talked about that in my reporting too.

But this is where the whole argument comes in of, well, what if we just decriminalize drug? or, you know, we just secure the border, it stops. These guys will always find a way to make money. And when the border, when this administration first was like, we're going to lock down on the border, I was under the impression that extortion would go up, crude oil theft trafficking would go up, and also the agricultural shit that we've talked about, right?

I was not expecting this to be the way that they were going to fill that financial gap. You said hundreds of thousands of dollars per baby. Baby. So these Americans are not, they're well off. And that's why it's very hard for me to believe that these people do not know where it's coming from. And you know, I feel bad that, okay, so I reported this story with the bare bones information that I had, okay? What's your reaction when you get that phone call? Are you like, fuck you, no way at first?

at first yeah i didn't believe it well it's not that i didn't believe it at first i was like you know i'm on the fence because that's typically how i am when i get these types of tips especially because there's a lot of bullshit that people will try to send my way and i'm at a point now where i typically can i can weed out the bullshit pretty quick and so when i first got it i was like I don't know. And then I talked to multiple sources who could corroborate this and everyone was like, yeah, this is happening.

And we're, I obviously don't give away your sources but like are you getting people that are on the ground in wars? Are you getting other law enforcement officials? How are you triangulating that without revealing? Yeah, I don't want to say that because I really can't reveal this source whatsoever. It goes really high up.

Okay. On both sides of the border. We'll just leave it at that. Okay, that's good. Because, okay, and why, right? And I know that people are going to ask this because then people always say, like, your sources, trust me, bro.

Here's the thing. With this type of coverage, there are real life implications. Okay, this is a real investigation. These are real young women who are dying. and real infants who are being trafficked. So, yeah, I'm a journalist, but I'm also fucking human. So at the end of the day, do I want to see justice for these women?

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promo code julian at checkout that link is in the description below that's ghostbed.com slash julian promo code julian upgrade your sleep with ghostbed the makers of the coolest beds in the world some exclusions apply see site for details So I won't say anything if that means compromising the investigation, even if that means that, oh, maybe the audience will trust me more. I can reveal more information. I don't care because I don't want this to happen. It's how you got to be?

In this type of coverage, it's very sensitive because, like you said, when I get this tip, at first it's like, okay, let me really look into it. once I corroborated it with the people that I did I was like I was very sad honestly because I always put myself in the position of these women and you and I have actually talked about this on the first episode when I covered things like this it's like you think of it like being in that type of position and knowing that you can't get out and you're going to meet a death and you there's literally no escape and you're going through whatever torture you're going through and i i cannot fathom what that would feel like and then on top of that being pregnant and being so young it's like from what i've heard when you're pregnant you're like mother bear mode right like you have to protect it's it's biological and so imagine being held captive for your unborn baby and knowing like there is nothing you can do about it and then being in Juarez where you know no one is coming to look for you and then on top of

that knowing that after all is said and done there may not even be an investigation into what happened to you or where your baby ends up have any fan you obviously this is a new racket as you've pointed out it is yeah these are obviously very poor women who are being targeted right they're all from poor neighborhoods and they all come from low socioeconomic backgrounds so have any families of victims made any attempts no no and i didn't expect him to and they won't um there's a major fear of retaliation and there's also just a lack of even understanding of how to go about this imagine growing up in an environment where you are so used to seeing injustices and then something this severe happens to you i think that a lot of these people are just

completely disincentivized from even trying to seek justice because they know that if anything it will just result in further injustice like you see these mothers who go looking for their missing children and then they end up dead then what and then no one's investigating them now you have two dead or missing people and no one to look for them so And then if you're coming from a low socioeconomic background, and when we're talking about poor, like I don't know if that's politically correct. I don't care.

When we're talking about poor here, like these women are like, they do not have anything, which is why they are the perfect targets for this. Yeah, of course. And they're young. They're young. A lot of them,

I'm under the impression that a lot of them are like, single mothers, right? So like they're pregnant. They don't, there's no, like, father figure in that picture. I wonder, maybe I'm totally off base here, and I don't even know if you would have any access to be able to even get this information. Yeah. I wonder if some of these girls are getting pregnant at the hands of guys who are in the cartel. And then they're like, oh, I don't want this kid.

No. So actually, one of my questions was, are these girls, like, going out with the people who are running this operation? And also, are some of these girls saying, I'll give you my baby for money. And they don't know that they're going to die, right? That doesn't appear to be the case. On what, how were you able to rule that out if you can't answer that? It's part of the investigation that these women are being kidnapped against their well. The babies are being taken against their will and the women are ending up dead and their bodies dumped with literally, this is so graphic.

And this is what killed me. We have to tell these stories because people need to understand what is happening here. They're literally being dumped like completely. cut open. So the way that the babies are being removed, the babies are surviving. And of course, because the babies are the product here in this operation, right? So there's an OBGYN, but there is no medical care for the mother, obviously, because I think also the goal is to kill her. But it's so rudimentary the way that they're performing these surgeries. And a pro's doing it, but it's still rudimentary. Oh, because it's like, hurry the

fuck up, get the baby out, make sure the baby's alive and we're going to kill her anyways. So if you really, like, if we're thinking about this, like really black and white, that woman is like the vessel for the product. It doesn't matter that when their bodies are found their guts are literally

hanging out and it's just like battered and they're being found like fully naked, just completely. Have you seen this? Yeah. and I wish that I haven't. Yeah. Hadn't.

It's shit like that where I don't know. It's different. I've seen a lot of violence, right? You see all the time and being in Mexico, you see like bodies hanging, murdered bodies. And a lot of time, men or like women who were shot. But this is so different. Yeah. This is so evil.

It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. I don't really have a, I mean. Because it's a perfect victim. That's what that's a perfect victim. Yeah. Like I've talked about this before. Like in the case of like Valeria Marquez, you know that TikTokter, TikToker who was shot on TikTok live? Yes.

And she was allegedly dating the guy who was a plaza boss for CJNG. Now, a lot of people were like, well, that's what she gets for following the money and like a criminal. So in my opinion, I believe that people don't have to be perfect victims in order for us to have sympathy or compassion for what happened to them and that they don't deserve that, right? Yeah. But in, so in that case, she had ties to a criminal life and there was a possibility that something could have happened to her for these women, not the case. Like, they are simply existing, probably working a regular job, trying to get by, trying to help their families fell pregnant maybe like lack of um sexual health education or just you know being in

whatever relationship we know how it works pregnancy and in poor communities it's a thing and then ending up in this situation like that that's a perfect victim so then when i'm seeing that and thinking just how helpless this girl that and you know most of them are younger than me yeah you're talking about You've been talking about like 17, 19, 20, 21. That I can't imagine, like, if I think back at my 17-year-old self in my brain, first of all, being pregnant, but being in a scenario where it's like I'm trapped in some place with some unknown men and I know they're going to kill me and I'm freaking pregnant and what are they going to do with my baby? What are they going to do to me? I cannot even imagine what that would be like. can we pull up joe just a map of Juarez so people can also get bearings with where we're talking about

have you been able to get information on where the bodies are being well I want to come back to that but where specifically they're crossing the border it seems to be just through the regular border crossing from Juarez to El Paso and so they have yeah so they have a team or there are people part of this ring conducting this operation who are creating fraudulent documentation so health records for the baby adoption paperwork and they're just driving them across

yeah in suits I don't know exactly like how but think of this right human trafficking is one of the hardest like trafficking humans

is one of the hardest things you could do So there you go, that's Chihuahua. Yeah, Joe has the map. And Ciudad Juarez is right there, right, by, right under El Paso. West Texas and I guess that's New Mexico up there, right? Mm-hmm. Anabra. Okay. And how big is, that's a pretty big area.

That's a few hundred miles, right? Yeah, and there's a lot of, like, obviously, desert, like, and barren land where they find a lot of clandestine graves. Oh, yeah. It's honestly, like, the perfect, and it's a border town. Mm-hmm. And you know how that goes. So are they... sorry we're jumping around yeah let me go back to finish that thought so if you think about

trafficking or smuggling right humans is one of the most difficult things that you could possibly smuggle or traffic because you have an identity you have people who know you like there are so many components yeah they're living um it's completely different than trafficking a kidney or trafficking 20 kilos of cocaine yeah easy yeah but a human is different now think of an infant who requires who's just born the mother is not there and it requires constant

care and in some cases probably medical care and you're crying all the time too you know well I I have a feeling that they're sedating the babies come on how the fuck else yeah is that even like is that even healthy to do

to them at all buddy you're asking about like if this is health the talk link about the operation that we're talking i understand that but you i would think half of them might they might over sedate they might not even make i think they're being super careful because this is the this is the product i'm glad they're being careful about that oh my god you guys know we're not laughing because it's funny it's so fucked up it's just fucked up um so i think yeah a lot of what they're doing to make their operation easier is probably not healthy or safe but i think they're doing what needs to be done in order for this baby to survive at least survive until it

gets into the hands of the buyer who by the way like it doesn't seem like there is much attention on who are the buyers and that's my first question and that's what I want to know and I'm sure that anyone watching that's what we want to know because what differentiates this from any other cartel problem we talked about now Americans are implicated this is not just a Mexico problem them. These are Americans who are fully implicated in cartel and funding cartel operations. This almost seems maybe I'm definitely

thinking this way too oversimplified. So let's bring it back to reality when I say this. But like, yeah, they're making fake documentation for these kids and stuff. But can't you run like a I don't know, some data tracking set just to see

like who was born in a U.S. hospital and then suddenly if you see a family of means, that has a child that's unaccounted for from a U.S. hospital. Is that enough without violating constitutional rights to conduct an investigation? So that's what we're all trying to figure out because also there has to be some sort of legitimate adoption paperwork on the American side, right? So how is that happening?

But again, and this is why I'm sorry, like I'm giving bare bones on this, but had to break this because we know it's happening. The ins and outs of exactly how the operation is happening, again, I have been. bare bones with that and of course that's because it's an ongoing investigation and it's fairly new and it's really fucking tragic so that's what i want to figure out who on the on the american side is implicated how are these infants ending up there now put the illegal adoption aspect to the side right if this is human trafficking which i believe it is then the paperwork doesn't have have to go that far up the pipeline why not because these kids are not they're well first of all

this has only been going on for so long so we can't even talk about like if they're going to school or whatever like that right but if they're being put into the hands of criminals who are going to use them for sex trafficking or oh well yeah in that case or like um infant organ harvesting oh i know it's sounds fake like i no no it doesn't that's the worst part it doesn't sound fake at all i wish it did infant organ harvesting this is what kills me because the story is about babies you know my my friend remi adeleke had him on the podcast back in july 23 i think i put those out in September 2023, but he's a Navy SEAL, former Navy SEAL who's done a lot of work around the world on human trafficking. And he's also an actor and director. And he made a movie

called the Un-Can we Google this, Remy Adelaque, the Uninvite, No, that fuck. Human Trafficking movie? The unexpected. And it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, shows a backward chain of how organ harvesting happens. And it takes you from some wealthy couple, you know, at some hospital in Mexico with a doctor coming out and saying, your son took the heart, he's gonna be okay. And I'm like, oh, thank God.

And it takes you all the way back to the beginning, to the person that that came from. And I say this because, not that this makes it any better, but it was a full-blown adult who was taken in this case, like it was a Yazidi from the war zone he was telling the story as things really happened like when they were part of the genocide back in the days when ISIS was coming up but like you're talking about that same thing and i'm picturing all the scenes that he showed in graphic detail which is important that he showed it in the movie it's hard to watch but people can watch on youtube you should you know

and i'm thinking about that now with an infant and somehow it makes it that much worse i know It's because it's just like a complete innocent being. Yeah, it's got no... Completely defenseless. So it's like human nature to care for that, not do all of this. Yeah, this is the worst story. And I'm still digging for it. So I'm going to Juarez this week.

We'll have been there by the time this goes out. Yes, this is not coming out before. Are you worried about going there, considering that you've publicly talked about this story now? Yeah. And actually last night, the structure of security, the police force and sort of local government in Juarez shifted. Some people were let go, people who were very honest, and actually, like, if I had a problem, I likely could have called and said, hey, you know, there's a problem. and they would have helped me out. That doesn't exist anymore.

Sorry, we just had one thing in there that couldn't be on camera, so we're back to what you were saying. What I was going to be asking you was why aren't, obviously those people were just let go yesterday, but before then, where were they on this investigation? Like if there were people who- Oh, investigating it. Okay, so meaning, all right, this gives me some hope in humanity,

even though they just got let go. There are within the police force, government, whatever, within Juarez, there are some people who really do care and are trying. Yes, to dismantle this. But they're trying to stop this. Yes. You may have heard of Hello Fresh. They send chef crafted recipes and fresh ingredients to your home.

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FM. One per box with active subscription. Free meals applied as a discount on first box. New subscribers only varies by plan. So hit my hello fresh link in the description below to get 10 free meals and a free item for life. Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four piece french toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's taxes extra. Do you think they were let go? Because they were starting to uncover this? 100%.

They got too close. I think that this was kind of, it was brewing to get to this point for about two years. And then it kind of came to a head. But I also want to clarify that no one that was like let go and all of this was anywhere near the source of information that I got this from. Just want to clarify that. Because I feel like people might think, But I think that these individuals were doing their job properly and got too close to something. I don't actually know if it was like this very story, but it could be.

But I'm these, this, it's like separate. No, I got you. I understand. And you also got to be careful. But these guys actually like weren't my sources. So I'm just trying to like make that clear because then I don't want to see retaliation where it doesn't belong either. Right. Right. Have you gotten, have you heard from people, I don't know, connected to the situation or have even heard things that you're on the radar of like CJNG or people there where they're like, we don't like what this girl's reporting?

No, I haven't heard of that yet. But as I was saying, that could change. Hopefully it doesn't. Um, but because my reporting was very much like talking about the internal structure and how powerful they are, I don't think they at any point would see me as a threat because, uh, in public, I was kind of, um, flaunting the muscles for them, flexing the muscles for them, right? Like telling people, this is the most powerful cartel. This is the most violent cartel. They want people to know that. Yeah. But now this, uh, does not paint anyone this story doesn't paint anyone in a positive light obviously and so this is the type of story that journalists could get flak from hopefully i'm exempt from that who knows we'll figure that out but um at the end of the day i think that anyone who is part of this operation would inherently know that it's wrong and i would hope so um i don't know i i can't comprehend it because there's truly no amount of money that could possibly ever make me understand, like, how you would do this. I can't believe, though. I understand that... Like, the drug trafficking, like, the luke-drug trafficking is very lucrative.

I get it, okay? Honestly, I get it. And I've seen videos of, you know, I've seen $200 million in cash and, oh, my God, and we're bawling out. And it's like, all right, I get it. You want to be rich. this is so different than that this yeah

what I can't believe this is what's not clocking to me I understand that business ain't a booming like it was like during the Biden years where you know you could walk across the border and have a burger with the patrol while you're dealing drugs I get it that it's not like that

but we are talking about transnational organizations that still are moving significant, significant drugs around the world and into the United States still through other means, not even just through the border, maybe their profits are down 5, 10% or something, big whoop over the last seven months. They're that desperate because of that little of a lot, like a bad quarter, that they're going to start moving infants

that they cut out of women to make a few hundred, Like, maybe it's just because I'm a normal human being. I don't understand why that's the first thing they're going to. It's also the highest risk business. And you want to talk about something that if the cat gets out of the bag too much with the American public, that is the kind of thing that could lead to people in the American public being like bomb the whole country. You know what I mean? And do shit like that. Well, when I posted this story, that was the response that I got.

And especially because of all the rhetoric that's been going on lately. And it's like my most asked question, like, should the U.S. invade Mexico? And I'm always like, no. But this is exactly the type of thing where it pushes that type of agenda. But which is why I think it's so important to keep mentioning the American part in this, like the role that Americans are playing here because they are the buyers. And it's different than drugs, okay? Because it's different than drugs.

addicted to something with drugs it's different and you are okay you're buying drugs you're injecting yourself or you're smoking the shit okay you are buying the baby a woman was like it's just it's a fucking shit show it is so different and i think people will understand that i don't really have to like of course hone in on that i think it's anyone with half a brain would understand that um but i also think that there could be perhaps a power play here too sure where yeah they're filling some gap of of monetary loss but also someone who's part of this ring managed to put this whole operation together and now look put me in as your big dog because look at what i got going on and that's typically how it works in the hierarchy of cartels particularly in cj and g when you're

proving that you can traffic like a boss or like make a bunch of money and you're not getting caught for whatever you're doing that's how you move up in the hierarchy of the cartel this is this is one thing though that even if you look at the most cynical aspects of the history of this where for example you have intelligence that's been involved in these organizations i've had people sitting in that seat who had to go inside the cartels and allow them to continue to do business this is one of those hardcore red lines though yeah 100% like I swear to God

if I found out that I don't know some fucking CIA idiot knew this was going on and was letting this happen yeah because this is not like oh you know getting the arms to the Contras and moving the cocaine and this is so different

but we like I don't know if that's I don't yeah I'm totally obviously there's no proof of that at this point but I'm saying like if if I ever found that out all the people out there who are like dismantled these places I'm like well there's your argument like how could you ever

and I'm not again they're hopefully they're not but like there just has to be a line somewhere I'm sorry that's just it's just like this one just made me so sick this just made me so sick

I don't know how you can even cover this because like you have to see it too You're going down there, you're talking to these people, like, makes me sick from my armchair up here. It's definitely not ideal, but the, when I got the tip to, I was kind of told, like, you do a good job at covering missing and murdered women. Like, you do, your reporting service justice for, like, women and kids. And we talked about this, like, that's the goal here. That's what got me into it. Yeah.

So, yeah, I always say this. But I choose to do this, so it doesn't matter how it affects me because at the end of the day, what these women are going through is 100 million times worse than me just seeing it and reporting on it and maybe being in a risky environment to gather the elements of the story. But they deserve a voice and they deserve people to fight for justice for them. And if I can in some way be the messenger to ensure that the people start taking,

the people who need to take the action start to take that action, great that's the goal and I know that you always kind of met me about like well Kenny you need to like value your life don't die be careful yes I know that but at the same time look at what the fuck is going on and if I don't talk about it and it means okay I'm gonna be in danger if I have to you know in order to do this so what well it's very brave of you but also no it's not it's just very very human i just it's i think that most people would do the same thing i just go and do it it's i don't think most people would do the same thing just no i think people do agree though if they

if they had the capacity whether that's like mental physical whatever it is and a low fear threshold in order to try to help this matter they would i think you're giving a lot of people credit that i hope they could live up to but i'm not sure if they would because you go down into the belly of the beast with it and that you know like you mentioned going down there now i mean you said it not me but you are going down there and and it's not safe right now it's not safe the people that you said you could call within law enforcement at war as just all got fucking you know night of the long knives down there what kind of with without revealing security details or something like that but like are you taking some security precautions yes of course

Okay. Yeah. I wouldn't, this is not something that I would, uh, for lack of better words, raw dog like I have with previous assignments where I just like go in to the belly of the beast and I'm like, hope for the best. My mom protects me from above. But and like, oh, you know, I'll be in at this time and I should be out at this time.

If not call this number to whoever, right? But this is a situation where because the stakes are so high in terms of of the story and it's a very dangerous region yeah i'm taking security precautions the whole team like it's very much oh you're going on with a team too yeah yeah we're not doing this alone anymore we can't and that's also partly thanks to you because you know there's more exposure now so i can't just go like incognito anymore because the people who are in these regions who may be involved in it or who know about it they watch my shit so i i don't want to take that risk because also like another thing and when we talk about the valuing the life like then if i die or something

happens to me then i can't do the job right so that defeats that's what i'm saying i'm like you're doing and you like you and i were talking off camera in generalizations about stuff so i i think this is okay to say but like you're doing a great job and that's awesome and like even since the first time you were here we recorded for the first time in October 2024 we put it out in January but that was almost a year ago now like you've come such a long way with the scope of things you're reporting on and the sourcing and the level and the types of stories obviously that you're breaking which is amazing thanks but like you are and I'm sure you already have but you are going to run into situations sometimes where perhaps because of your hard work, you get access to some... To shit that I wish I didn't know. Of course. And sometimes, as much as it might be like the biggest story ever, and it could also even help some people,

it's the kind of thing where you have to make some long-term calls, not just for your own ability to still be alive and report on things that matter like you are right now, but also for, you know, sometimes you report on things and i'll just use an old example like el chapo he gets reported on and then he gets caught and it's like oh el chapo's gone well now you made a fucking power vacuum and it's a fucking mess you know what i mean so and that's the shitty reality it's like you don't we're not dealing with a situation where the biggest story you look at is like oh i can cut off the head of the snake there's fucking 40 heads to the snake yeah it's a so what i'm saying is long wind of way

saying like you're in a tough position where once in a while you may have to like say hey if i wanted to like poke the bear on this thing i could but i'm going to pass on this because it's better to live another day and actually like kill the other 10 bears over here with stories that i'll be alive to tell you see what i'm saying and i fully agree because there are things and we've talked about this that i've held off on reporting yes um and if truth be told if i had reported on some of those things that I held off on and I something happened to me because of it then I wouldn't be able to report on this story where the stakes are really high and the collateral is really bad that's exactly right so this is so much more important right this is this is the mission where it's okay

I've received some information because I've managed to embed myself with the right people um and gain trust on all sides here and now the public can be informed about what's going on so that, like I said, the right people in power can do something to seek justice. Because that's the goal here, right? You have to tell the story for people to care, tell people why they should care. And I think that this is one of those stories, like, when I'm generally reporting on murdered women internationally,

like there's this level of empathy and compassion that we're getting. from the American audience because the majority of my audience is American. Yeah. But it's very fleeting. But then there will be like a case that like this, that it really does tug on the heartstrings. Because it's like people now understand, even though this isn't happening in my backyard, like as a human being, these are babies, these are young mothers, and these are American buyers. Yeah, my backyard's buying it.

Yeah. backyard is is part of this operation funding it and so to me when I look at this story as a whole of course the people like evil villain number one is the ring that is running this operation and started this evil villain number two the people buying it buying the babies I agree and I and I just see I hate um having to like go into depth with stories like these because then there ends up being some speculation but i still like i don't get too in the weeds to impact my reporting at all what do you mean by that like there's speculation with it like i start to think about what could

be going on and stuff but i think that because of the knowledge that i have in terms of like this whole realm of of uh issues i i can my intuition is pretty good so i can understand like what could be the reality of this situation. I feel like I'm speaking in code to you right now. No, no, it's fine. I understand. So, like, for example, in this case, I don't think that the buyers are unaware of where these babies are coming from. And I just can't, like, seem to hit that home enough because that's, I feel like there needs to be American eyes on this.

Yeah, if you're, especially once you told me what the pricing is here and everything and the fact that there's, pricing on it. If you're getting handed an infant from some dude in a suit and handing them $100,000 and the infant has fake paperwork, you know. You know everything.

Fuck you. Even if you don't know exactly you know. It doesn't take a genius to get like a weird feeling. Yep. Your gut there's no way even people with a room temperature IQ like you know. There's just there's no way you don't That's what makes it sick.

That's why I have a hard time believing. And when I first broke this story, I talked about that this could be a legal adoption. This could be human trafficking. That my source said, you know, some of these people receiving the babies may not know. Now, in my reporting, you know, I went through all of that. But then when you sit with the story, like your perception changes on a story, especially of this high stake, when you first break it versus when you sit with it and really start to think about it. this is the kind of story that like keeps you up at night right you're just constantly like thinking about it and thinking what could be going on and the more that i thought about it and continue to think

about it i'm just like i don't think that these kids that these babies are going to a well-meaning family who wants to expand their family and has been like dying to have a baby and like went through any means possible i mean sure i know that some of the um high volume international countries that were like top providers of like international adoption for the US cracked down on their adoption laws and so parents who want to adopt it's become harder for them yes but i just don't think that these are the people who are i don't know i don't know so it's and and that that makes it if that is the case and and that speculation is even mostly correct it makes it a pure productized infant human trafficking operation that on the

other end includes the worst things whether it be organ harvesting like we talked about earlier or even sick or twisted shit like that to where these children probably don't even live past infancy and those that do wish they wouldn't that's what we're talking about yeah and it's only been going on for a few months so it's hard to know like how long these babies are surviving after do you have plans to try when you are down in Juarez and he leads even to try to privately get a hold of potentially family of potential victims of this yeah but if it means putting them in danger I won't do it even if it's like oh this really added to the story and it really gave context i won't do that because imagine like you've already been through enough yeah a hundred

i i don't i don't blame those people at all they're they're in a situation where anyone apparently in the government that would have helped them is now gone yeah and that's how and that's a that's just a that's a that's a sign to them being told shut the fuck up if they didn't already know that already they live in a country that's war torn apart by these cartels and effectively run by them at every level and they have no economic means they've already had to protect them One victim in the family, like if the average family is another five people, are they like, well, all five of us want to die too? I mean, it's people out there like, oh, how can you say something? Dude, put yourself in their shoes.

It's not. See, in this, with this type of story, unless someone seeks me out and wants to talk, I won't push for it. Because also, I don't like, and a lot of journalists disagree with this and don't operate the same way. I don't care. I don't like having to convince someone, especially someone who's been a victim, to interview with me or to give the story. I don't think it's ethical. You don't think it's ethical? No.

Because you're already, you know, you're kind of, and I can be very, like, convincing with some people. It's like, come on, just tell me. Or let's talk, or we can talk. But I don't want to do that to someone who is already, like, in a vulnerable position. and then it could make life worse for them. I've learned like a very good lesson with this type of thing over the course of the last few years, which is like, how do I say it? Like even if you think that you can have a positive impact with whatever you're doing or

whoever you're talking to, you still have to consider that it could have a negative impact. That's right. And if that outweighs the potential positive impact, it's better off just to stay out. of it where it gets weird work it's really weird from like an ethical perspective if we're talking about this is like i can't even imagine i've answered this question if i were you but like trade-offs in that position meaning okay if i talk to this family of the victim or whatever there's an i hate that we have to talk like this but just bear with me there's an x-percent chance that something really bad could happen in them as a result of them talking.

But if I do it, there's a Y percent chance that this story blows the fuck up. Forget if that helps my career or not. I'm not talking about it for that. Yeah, for like the actual, um, understanding. And then potentially it saves a, you know, Z number of future victims, which is a large number and puts a, puts a cap on this. It's like, no, the former still outweighs it. Because I was taught, um, by like a journalist that I highly respect, um, if it impacts the person's livelihood or life,

don't do it. Can't. Talk for me to argue with that. I'll stand my ground on that. With a criminal or a politician, will I be like, come on, tell me. Oh, yeah, yeah. Fuck yeah.

Fuck yeah. But if it's like a, but in this case, if it means that I'm, you know, their livelihood or their life is at risk, I won't do it, even if it means like, oh,

other people i i'm not gonna get someone to play jesus here like this is not no we're not doing that um i would i would never want to put someone in that position because i don't want to like i don't want something bad to happen to them second of all selfishly selfishly yeah i would um i would feel fucking horrible forever and ever and would not be able to live with that if that happened there's just no way even if it meant like oh well we saved 20 women 20 pregnant women you're going to think about the one 100% because that was like completely my fault so I would just never do that in the first place I don't think it's ethical at all are you well that's why I actually don't like when some journalists will like go into these types of hostile environments and pay these types of people to talk to them I've never paid for interviews because first of all I don't want people to be like working like putting on a show and second of all I think that for a lot of these people yes money is a very appetizing incentive. Like, it's something that they need.

And I think that that's a bit exploitative. On the journalist's side, I would never do that. It's like, if you're not going to talk to me for free because you want to get your story across, it's done. So, yeah, could I probably go and find family members of these victims and try to convince them to talk with me or hand them a couple bills and say, talk to me, they would probably do it.

I actually have no doubt that they probably would. I would not do that. What if you just, this is probably too simplistic to look at it, but if you made them an anonymous source, meaning you didn't say, like, I don't even know what effect that would have, though, if you couldn't say it's a family of a victim.

You know what I mean? Well, see, like, with anonymous sources, these are people who still understand, like, all the people that I've spoken to anonymously, they still understand that there's somewhat of a risk and also i have been very good at protecting these sources right but because this is such a vulnerable and like it's a victim i wouldn't even want to take that chance with them and also when i'm talking to criminals or people within high levels of government who are giving me anonymous information they're not going to go and be like yeah yeah i talked to this

journalist and told it right but these people might yeah these people might trust the wrong person and so it's not even about trust in myself at that point it's do i even trust you to protect yourself after we do this i don't know there's a lot of elements that go into it's heavy questions you got to ask at every layer of this there's not like a moment where you're like oh i can get not easy yeah not easy you may not even you i i would say that do the different sources in the know who you speak with are they concerned about a copycat syndrome happening here with other cartels oh we haven't even i haven't even talked about that like i have no idea i don't think so i would hope not but i also didn't think that this would ever happen in the first place but well yeah i mean that's a good question

this is one scenario where this becomes one of their means of I mean that would be the worst case scenario you would hope that this would be like the one scenario that was like al-Qaeda with ISIS where al-Qaeda was like yo we're not that bad you know what I mean we're like sinola was like I listen we do fentanyl we don't we're not doing all that we're not doing that like you would hope that this might be the one place it is but unfortunately all of these cartels have a track record of if it's like you know the quote if it bleeds it leads

and find another one where it says if it pays it weighs or whatever like they're they're gonna follow money and if they see something like this making millions of dollars they're gonna follow suit I think that's why they're they're trying to nip this in the butt right now

like the investigate like it's there are people who are trying to put a stop to this immediately before it gets to that point I would hope that it doesn't. But what the fuck do I know? I never thought that they'd be doing this in the first place. Why?

All right. This is going to get to some politicization or whatever here. But even though this is brand new, it is brandly sick on every level. Now that it is a story and clearly based on what you've been able to say publicly, what you've reported on publicly, and I'll say this. what I've heard from you privately, very clearly is unfortunately legit and has legs. Why hasn't like Trump of all people who's declared the cartels terror organizations, why has he not talked about this yet? Or does, or has this even at his desk yet? I mean,

I would think this would be like the, he'd be tweeting up a storm about this. This is the ultimate, like, do you see why we got to kill all these people kind of at referring to the cartels kind of moment like what why has that not happened you reported this what a week and a half ago something like that this is brand new right i i just broke this story and i think that for a bit this was pretty need to know i would not be surprised um if in the near future that there is the administration make some comments about it and they whether they know about it already or not unclear can't speak to that yeah but that's certainly going to be coming and i think that the reaction is going to be really interesting because

in an ideal world what i hope to see is all right we're going to collaborate to dismantle this ring, and then we're going to go after the Americans who were funding this. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a feeling that there may not be a hard push on the American buyers. I just feel like for some... Why do you feel in that way? I don't know. I feel like they might miss the mark a bit with that.

And, like, to preface, I'm always critical of, like, any... you know politicians or how policy is run i just think that it would be like a this this massive upset and i'm maybe i'm just worried because also with these types of stories i i start to really think deeply and stuff like that and i'm like i hope that whoever is buying these babies also faces whatever um the firing squad to start prosecution yeah from the u.s administration and i mean at the same time to be fair there has been like somewhat of a crackdown on americans who are profiting off of our funding the cartels like we saw it recently i think we talked about this in the last episode that we shot together about that american

family from idaho who was buying the stolen crude oil yeah so then boom they're like facing justice system great that's oil though i know these are these are people Yes. And I mean, to me, these charges would look like aiding and abetting and like literally cooperating with a terrorist organization. Like if you are an American and you bought this baby, your court case should reflect exactly what you were doing. 100%. And if you are a part of an organization that's doing the trafficking, it's even on a whole. whole another level meaning on on on on the american side here because i think it was egg called around when he was in here it was it was very broad i want to try to if i remember some of this incorrectly people put it in the comments and i'll i'll draw attention to it but he was saying

the largest black market in the united states is human trafficking which includes everything and includes you know uh i mean human trafficking is human trafficking is human trafficking But, you know, more low-level prostitution and things like that, but it also graduates all the way up to the sickest things like this, of which he was saying, he's like, why are we not talking about the fact that that stuff is way more rampant than we're comfortable talking about at dinner parties? Like, why are we not talking about that at law enforcement centers as much? Why are we not doing something about that? Because he's like, to your point as well, he's like, a lot of people on the other ends of these say they're not from other countries. sometimes they are but like a lot of times it's people that live in this country yes yes and that are from here and we're born here but also this is a very scary topic and you want to know

it's funny for the longest time um people asked me a lot why don't you cover the human trafficking stuff and i actually said for a really long time i was like i'm never going to cover human trafficking why did you say never scared um it's scary like it runs so high there's always so many people involved um the operations are typically like very airtight professional and there's so much money involved that i was like i'm worried that if i do something like this that this is where i would face some sort of like violent retaliation or like i would face threats so when this story came to me i was like i guess never say never fuck yeah well i mean and it's brave it's brave you to do it but It's someone does have to do it and has to draw attention to this stuff.

And that's what I'm saying. Unfortunately, it takes the most salacious worst examples really hitting home for the entire scab to be opened up. You know, and so all these other things that are happening as well in the human trafficking department that involve the cartels. And more specifically, though, involve people here on the other end running it and buying it and doing that in order to draw more attention that you have to do something. makes people go, whoa, woo, like that's here. And maybe something like this, if properly bullhorned, and we're doing our best here to start that, you know, maybe that could draw the attention. I just, the worst part about human trafficking is to me, I mean, there's a lot of worse parts,

but one of the worst parts is the pure psychological capture. that legitimately happens to the victims so in this case an infant actually isn't a good example i'm talking about people who are older and can talk and you know whether that be an older child or even an adult yeah and it's like you know for example how could someone get on a commercial flight with their trafficker and not say something to someone because they're completely psychologically brainwash and tortured and threatened under the control of that person who is a sick total sociopath to the point that they can be emotionless and not react and seem like everything's cool, that they will get on that flight and pretend that they're the wife or the daughter or something and go along

with it. And I don't think people appreciate enough how much that can happen to anybody. This isn't like, you know, well, some people are going to be more likely, no. Like if you get in that type of situation, they know how to threaten you and poke just the right buttons to get you to the point of absolute fear and surrender, that's what's going to happen. And unfortunately, it happens all the time in America. Yeah. I mean, it's very easy to invoke fear in someone who's emotionally vulnerable and take complete control of that person.

I mean, even you think about it like a good example of this, it'd be like in your personal life, if you think of any like sort of toxic relationship you've had, whether that's romantic or friendly or with your family members, where it's like, this person scares me and I hide things from them. don't know what to do and when I'm around them it's like you freeze right but why do you keep that person in your life because you're being like emotionally manipulated right so imagine someone you you include drugs in that mix you include money you include sex you know the whole fucking gauntlet of what encapsulates human trafficking and it's run like a business and then also violence

um how do you expect people to get out of that or to ask for help because these people are being told that you ask for help, I am all knowing, and I will fuck you up and your family. And you know what really, really, and you're fighting the wins of this right now with any story, let alone this one, what really doesn't help right now is when you have a story like Epstein so out in the open where, you know, he was just his own sadistic fuck and all the people hung out with him. They're fine. don't worry about it and his victims who many of whom are just incredibly brave and have spoken

out for years about this in in many cases there's a lot of women who's spoken out for years they continue to and it's it's sick because it feels like they're screaming into an abyss and yet we are all also aware of it we all hear it like everyone knows the Epstein story we know it's all bullshit but it's literally gone to a point where people are desensitized by it exactly that's my point and it's like you're desensitized not only by what happened because you've talked about it so many fucking times that it's like oh yeah right the guy that rape women and and little girls like that's sick that that even gets to that point for some people but it's also like you're desensitized by the lack of justice and you're like oh i guess if you're powerful enough that's just

how it works just how it works yeah which is another reason why like i was like i'm never covering this shit because it will not change anything if anything it will just do harm um because people are like yeah we know it happens it's scary it's really bad but there's no justice that comes of it um the people who are involved in it run really high up the food chain yeah what does little me and you going to do about that now that you have began to begin to cover this story though and and really look deeply on this have you in the course of your journalism and reporting learned more about the other types of human trafficking tactics that are actively being used by the cartels in general be it cjng or other ones like what other rackets are going on right now to be honest a lot of it is a lot of it

is um mostly like prostitution and then like kind of enslaved prostitution is what i would call it i don't know if that that's nice you always laugh at the worst enslaved i'm not even last it's just like we're thrown around these terms like it's completely demonetized it's like no that's fine i'm just like i'm demonetizing this episode myself like youtube's not going to i will demonetize it's like it's sensitive subject matter but it's like oh enslaved prostitution that's better like that's that's almost like what where we're at with this there's a really good um series on netflix it was done by a production company run by two female journalists and it's called zona divas and it basically takes you through how women were being brought into mexico uh by some really powerful businessmen um

with like you know criminals and synonymous right and then they're being brought in from like like Venezuela, Colombia, into Mexico to work as prostitutes. They had to, quote unquote, pay their debt, which obviously never disappeared because they were like being offered work. So it was like, hey, you want to come and make a bunch of money. We'll pay for your flight. We'll pay for your accommodation. You start working as a prostitute. You pay us that back. But obviously over the course of that period, you're incurring more and more debt. And then a lot of these women kind of started to band together and they wanted to go independent. Then they were turning up dead. And so this, to really understand, I think, how this human trafficking works starting all the way from South America up into, you know, Central North America, you know, the whole gauntlet, that's a really good series.

And it was done by some incredibly reputable journalists that I really appreciate. What was it called again? Zona Divas. And that was the name of the page where you would go and solicit these prostitutes. it was shut down but it still exists under the name VIP Boutique VIP Boutique Bougy right I mean it's modern day even more fucked up

indentured servitude that's what they're doing yeah you know the history of that like this is worse but same concept I am I have like a big problem with this type of stuff because I feel like um this is like hot take but um in like the u.s. Canada whatever there's been like this movement to really be like sex work is empowering and freeing for women but then when you're in my line of work and you're

seeing like just how enslaving it is it's really hard for me to like to buy that notion um because these women are like dying for it they're being impregnated they're like forcefully they're being beaten up um they're literally like their physical health completely deteriorates um it is actually the most complete opposite from empowering in any sense um and so i always kind of want to bring that up when i talk about this because yeah like i don't know it just bothers me so the the human trafficking and the sex trafficking this has always been a thing and these girls are brought into Mexico from like Colombia, Venezuela, very top countries for that, Brazil. And then a lot of them are even sent into the U.S. A lot of them work in Mexico City. A lot of them work in border towns like

Tijuana. You'll see, right, go by the Hong Kong. And then like I said, they have to pay this debt. They're really not making much money. And then if they want like what this series shows is these these women who tried to go independent because they were making money you know they had their own clientele list the men in charge were like killer she's done she's done and uh most of these guys who are responsible for that they're free but that's the least surprising part of your story sadly but you know i believe in your freedom to make decisions about your life and I believe in free speech very strongly, right?

Makes two of us. Okay. So I think if you want to go start in Onlyfans or if you want to be a porn star, you should be allowed to do that. And if you want to go, which by the way, there's a whole, obviously, dark side of the porn industry where it's literally human trafficking.

It's so bad. Let's focus on the not side of that where someone just freely decides to do that and you know whatever and you want to sexualize yourself online and other people are free to watch that it's a part of free speech it's a negative but you know i i i think you can't draw the line anywhere where free speech is my point that's fine that said though you mentioned a few minutes ago in another context desensitization that happens in society and then how other things carry the ball downhill from that yeah especially let like let's pick on only fans and that whole culture and whatever i fucking hate that shit i've never been on it the

and i never will go on it i don't understand it i don't understand how a guy can go on that and think that there's any sort of connection with this person but then again there's guys who are falling in love with ai's so yeah i mean you know i i i guess whatever whatever floats your boat but that that culture and that desensitization plays into the lack of, I guess, what's the word? Like the lack of outcry and, you know, we need to solve this type of situation that pervades hearing about even trafficked prostitution rings and stuff like that. people are like oh you well you know like there's you see what i'm saying there's some sort of like desensitized tie that kind of turns people's brains off where they don't realize just how serious that stuff is because they're so used to just see an ass and titties online and my like

opinion about this outside of being katerina the journalist but just katerina is i think that that overt open sexualization and perversion has like further enforce this notion that like women are sexual objects and like if you go to a strip club in Mexico City and these girls are like giving blow jobs it's like fuck yeah who cares there is no sense of understanding of where that all started and why that's happening because also we're just constantly being fed sex all the time and it's just like so blatant like I open social media and first of all, I'm always getting comments. I will literally report on something

like this and someone will fucking have the audacity to comment and be like, do you have an only fans? Or when's the only fans coming? Yeah. So, that's what you get reduced to as a woman anyways. Okay? So first of all, slap in the face. But then second of all,

it's like you're just constantly being fed sex in a way that it's like, you don't, it's not even natural anymore. It doesn't make sense. And then that, I think, perpetuates violence. This is like, obviously just this is outside of scope of my reporting. But I've seen it, too, in my reporting and in talking with women who are victims of sex trafficking, yeah, whatever, for sex labor, whatever it is that they're doing.

And none of them are happy. And I think a lot of people, men, fail to understand that. She does not want to be there. I can literally guarantee you that even if she tells you she does even if she's happy with your money or you know makes you feel whatever type of pleasure no woman wants to do that

I could I could put my life on that and I personally know people of course as we all do who do only fans or have done this whatever outside of like the monetary gain all negative impacts and nothing good that comes out of that

I understand and I can understand being in a situation where you feel like that's all you can do. And I, like, I'm not vilifying any of these people, but it has completely changed the public perception of sex, sexual violence, and then sex trafficking. So then when you have these women who are absolute victims to the core, they're not even being viewed as that by the public because everyone is so fucking desensitized yeah we we talked a lot last time in episode 313 when you heard the second time you were here about Cj NG and some of the background and the rise up there so people want to get all that you can go back there and we talked about Sinaloa too I think

we did we did but as far as like all the backstory them I don't want you to have to regurgitate the whole thing but they are particularly alarming not just because of the story you're now reporting which is a whole different level but because of the speed with which they have gathered the power and size and scope that they have you know we talk i i think it was with you we talked about like the well what was it maybe that was actually with johnny mitchell actually we talked about the basically kill camps they have set up the extermination camps yeah yeah yeah We did talk about that.

That was, okay, so you and I both did that too. I'm pretty sure. I don't, I've talked to so many people about this. This was the story where the, they tried to make it seem like these were recruitment camps, but really they were these like extermination camps where people were forced to go there. And I actually tying this all together would not be surprised if some of those camps were being used for organ harvesting. And I know that there is an NGO that's lobbying in Congress that those camps. camps were actually being used for Oregon trafficking. Now,

but let's take a break because I have to be so, so bad. Okay, we'll be right back. All right, we're back. The thing I was going to ask right before we went to the break was, first of all, CJNG and Cinello are in like a war, right? No, well, okay, it depends which faction we're talking about because... All right, let's break this down first. There's technically like three factions of the Sinolo cartel.

You know, it's very fragmented at this point, but let's talk. about the main ones, which is El Mayo's faction and El Chapo's faction. We've talked about this on a lot of episodes. But essentially, because El Chapo's faction was, or the Chapitos, his son's faction, seemed to be really struggling with this infighting, the civil war that broke out following El Mayo's kidnapping and, you know, him landing in the U.S. last summer. The Chapito seemed to be struggling. C.G and G. Halisconi, Generation Cartel aligned with the Chapitos, basically saying, we're going to help you guys win this in fighting. If that means, then, you know, we have access to trafficking routes and whatever

financial gain that they can get out of it once the war is over. To me, when I see something like this, it's telling more a story of absorption, like I said, than being like, we're going to help you win this and then when you do win this you guys are cj and g right there's only one you know kind of head honcho left within the chapitos faction which is ivan one of all chapo's sons and from what i can tell and from people who i've spoken to in the u.s government that is the guy that they want to get right now like if we were to put you know make a list of all the most wanted whether that's, you know, El Mencho, Ivan, Archibaldo, Ryan Wedding, whoever it is, I would say Ivan is the top of their list because that means that they have essentially fully dismantled

the Sinaloa cartel. Now, the issue with that, and I keep going over this, is that means that CG and G will essentially have power, or at least this is how I foresee it, in Sinaloa. CG and G, right now, I would say, has power over all of the Mexican states. Cinella was a bit iffy, right? Because it's being called publicly an alliance. And we have seen videos. And I'm being sent stuff all the time where you see these C.G and G guys

fighting alongside the chapitos in the mountains. You know, they're shooting. Fighting alongside. Mm-hmm. They're going after a Mayo's faction. They're working together. But it seems as though there's obviously a broader agenda here and that's to completely absorb that that the sinolawa cartel that faction of it at least

which would probably extend into all of it um and i think that this is like a perfect example of that like the hydra right you cut off one head and two more evil ones grow back because if that means cg and g is like the all-powerful cartel knowing just how violent they are that's a very very scary future for Mexico and for any like innocent people who have to live amongst this now I'm sure a lot of people would say and I understand this is well when there is total control and there's no fighting over territory we're living in peace yes but that doesn't take away from the fact that there's still so much violence going on and there are so many people who are being targeted by the very cartel that is in power at the same time that this is all going on though because like people sometimes

And I'll speak for myself, too. We get lost when we talk about El Chapo's sons because there's multiple scenarios going on. Obviously, El Chapo is in ADX. His other son, Ovidio, is in U.S. custody. And he's cooperating. He's cooperating. He is allegedly the guy who helped put together the El Mio sting. Yep.

Right? But you have free another son, Yvonne, who's in the middle of this whole hot war, whatever you want to call it. Ovidio and Yvonne like what's obviously they're not in communication I guess because he's in prison but what's the are they coming at it from different

angles or are they both working on the same kind of team here? I'm sure they're working on the same team I don't know I don't talk to Ovidio and Ivan that often but I'm not exactly sure

what it looks like I know that Ivan is essentially constantly on the run like I don't think his life is great right now um Ovidio is openly cooperating and then like 17 of his family members were led into the US remember we spoke about that last time um which I thought was so ridiculous negotiating with terrorists right what what is literally now but like what what is what is the cart like what do the cartels back and Mexico think of his cooperation? Do they think it's a part of... He's a rat? Yeah.

He's a bitch and he's a rat. Yeah. Of course. But they support Yvonne, even though that's his brother and they get along. Well, anyone who's under the Chapitos faction is going to just continue to work for whatever faction they were already under. But they may think they're working for rats. Yeah. I mean, there's not going to be any respect for that.

And who knows what Ivan is telling these guys, right? Well, that's also, you think about it. If anyone were ripe to be recruited. into another faction it'd be the guys that are a little on edge yeah yeah and not to mention one of the individuals who was put in charge

from C. Jinji who was put in charge of this whole alliance he goes by El Hardinero the gardener I'm not sure but I spoke about this last time you didn't but he basically they they call him al Jardineiro because he's like

to make the mountains flourish and you know the whole thing but he has a very loyal following within cj and g and so this is i think why their absorption of power also works very well because you see like this really strong sense of loyalty and like i don't know like patriotism for the leaders of cj and g um and of course you see that for almancho but then you also see it for like right-hand men so like al-hardinero is one of them he has a very loyal and strong following to him um and so this is also a very powerful and violent person who now is in charge of this alliance and would likely spearhead whatever this alliance could potentially eventually turn

into um but i think that when it comes to like the respect for ovidio i mean just look at any criminal landscape no one is going to support someone like that that's what you would think yeah and i think his family was able to come into the states because if they stayed there, they would be dead. I mean, look at En Mayo, he's saying, I'm not talking, I'm not talking, because he has a lot more to lose. He's got a bunch of family in Mexico still. What's the latest on his case, El Mio?

That he, I think, oh, he pleaded guilty two counts of drug trafficking. I don't know the exact ones. I think it was like two counts. Yeah, we can pull it up. You can pull up the exact details of it, but pled guilty to that. um his lawyer publicly said that he's not going to be talking he's not going to be giving any names

like and myo is not going to be cooperating and the thing about myo is he actually always was known as like this like man of his word like traditional like values so values like you know in the landscape of what we're talking about it's just funny i know it is because it doesn't add up right exactly um but he yeah he's saying he's not going to talk do I believe that I don't know and a lot of people have been asking me this lately

and it almost just seems impossible for him to not talk let's see I have Joe's got up here can you search up El Mayo please All right El Mayo Plea deal

yeah yeah that's it co-founder of Sinloa cartel, Ismail Elmio Zamada Garcia, pleads guilty to engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering. This is August 25, 2025 from the Justice.gov. Ismail Zamada Garcia, also known as El Mayo 75 of Sinolaoa, Mexico, pleaded guilty today to being a principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise. The Sinolao Cartel, the cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world. In addition to a racketeer influence and corrupt organization, RICO.

charge, the foreign terrorist, this foreign terrorist committed horrific crimes against the American people. He will now pay for those crimes by spending the rest of his life behind bars in an American prison, said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. Today marks a crucial victory in President Trump's ongoing fight to completely eliminate foreign terrorist organizations and protect American citizens from deadly drugs and violence. Today's plea is a proud moment for the FBI and its partners as the founders of a notoriously violent drug trafficking organization, one that engages in an array of illegal activity, including murder and corruption, faced the consequences of their actions, said FBI director, Cash Patel.

Yeah. So something really important to note here is that he's facing life, right? Yeah. Mandatory minimum or whatever it is. He's not looking too good either, so, yeah. Yeah. Oh, like, don't put that in. No, it's, it's all right.

That's fine. So he was kidnapped and brought to the U.S. So he was not sent to the U.S. under the U.S.-Mexico Extradition Treaty. That treaty exists to essentially extradite criminals, Mexican national criminals, who have committed crimes against the Americans, like it said in that press release, right? None of these fugitive transfers, so let's talk about El Mayo. It was obviously a kidnapping. Then there was a bunch of guys who were transferred in January that included Karo Kintero,

who was accused of killing DEA agent Kiki Kameren. and then just most recently a week or two ago, 26 guys, right? Modern day guys, you're not talking about the old capos anymore. All of these people were sent to the U.S. without the extradition treaty paperwork. The extradition treaty paperwork and the agreement, essentially the crux of it, is to avoid the death penalty. So none of these guys, if they're being extradited, the death penalty is off the table. Why? This is a rhetorical question that I'm going to answer. Why were all of these individuals sent to the U.S. to face the justice system not under the extradition treaty? And yet none of them are getting the death penalty. Because the U.S. is looking for information. They don't want these guys dead. Because when Caro Quintero was sent to the U.S.,

I was like I very openly said he's not getting the death penalty even though he could have because there wasn't they weren't sent under the death penalty and I had people say of course he's going to get the injection of course he's getting the death penalty why would you do that like this is an oracle of information yeah absolutely not and then it was it came out just a few weeks ago none of these guys are getting the death penalty most of them are getting life um and that's so much better, right? And then Obidio, he's probably only going to get like 10 years or something. Now, what happens at the end of those 10 years? Is he going to stay here? In the U.S.? Yeah. Fuck, yeah. You think buddy's going to go on back to Sikuliacan and live it up? So we're going to let him stay here. El Chapo's son. He's going to walk out of prison. It's going to live in Westchester County, New York. I don't know if that's where he's going to live. I'm getting more like Riverside, California vibes.

So we're just going to let that happen. Probably. I mean, you guys let his family in. I think 17 family members. Oh, you can say you guys because you're Canadian. Hey, you're here as our guest. That's nuts. You would think they'd deport his ass and just let the wolves have him. Not if he gave them a bunch of invaluable information.

If he gives him a bunch of invaluable information, congratulations. Your prizes, you don't get life in prison. Now figure it the fuck out. Well, what did you say last time? crack a few eggs to get the shelves. Crack a few eggs to make an omelet. But I'm saying the omelets already made. We already made the omelet.

You got your 10 years. You get to be out. Go, run, be free. It's, you know, like, in the movies when, like, the guy in a prototypical movie, when they, like, nurse the animal back to health, oh, my God, go, be free. And they let it go. And then, like, a fucking falcon eats it. Like, let that happen.

Yeah. You had your chance to run away. If the falcon got you, you're not good enough. boss up why has he got to live here so his dad's already buried in 80x which I'd rather be dead

than be there you don't think it's nice 80X that's where they sent that guy Andy caught oh yeah there's no like jacuzzi and golf courts I don't think so

okay so listen this is where this is this becomes very problematic because president gloria shienbaum of mexico has obviously given the u.s this wide open back door to prosecute these criminals right yeah how is that relationship going um publicly well clearly publicly she keeps saying we're going to maintain Mexico sovereignty we are not allowing any U.S. intervention in terms of dealing with this whole issue. And she's like, right back here.

Exactly that. That's horrible for a podcast because no one could, who's listening could. Yeah, but if they were watching, I made a move like, yeah, just, just give it. Shut up and get the fucking. Hop in. Nothing to see here, people. That's what's happening. And so that's why these guys are being transferred, these, they're being called fugitive transfers or expulsions.

They're expelling. They're not extraditing. They're expelling these guys. That's why that's happening without the extradition treaty. But she's saying, no, no, no, no, no, no U.S. intervention. But here you could take them quick, right before nobody looks, you know? Right. And then also there are, like we talked about this before, and it's just so shocking to me,

how openly those U.S. intelligence planes are flying over Mexico. We don't do that. There's no U.S. intelligence planes. Blaine's down there. Girl, I have it on my Twitter. I know. They're getting awfully careless. Yeah, to the point where I feel like it could disrupt the integrity of whatever

investigations they're conducting. Because if I... Intelligence? You think they're conducting investigations? They're not the investigating type. Whatever intelligence they're gathering to be handed over to the investigators. Got it. To clarify.

Right. And so essentially, what I think, though, when we look at how the U.S. is negotiating with these guys and sort of giving them, oh, have life, give us information, we can bring your family and don't worry about it. And you know what? You will be the old? We're just going to put you in time out. That's nice. It's a slap in the face to any American who has obviously, like, lost people or whose lives have been affected by the fentanyl crisis or, like, the drug crisis. On the other side of that, anyone who was a collateral victim to cartel violence in Mexico.

Because I think for a lot of them, I remember when Trump first declared cartels his FTOs in January. And like I spoke to so many people and such a broad variety of people in Mexico and from across all regions. And everyone was like, finally, someone is cracking down on the bad guys. and then in practice, that's not what's happening. It's not. No. I mean, not if you're negotiating with them. Do you think it is?

All right. I don't. Yeah, there's like a crackdown, but it's not what, like, people really, like, the substantial crackdown they thought. So you think, and I'm not saying this, like, to be funny or overgeneralized, but. I think they should have got the death penalty? With that logic, because we're not chopping. their heads off literally and instead we're just bringing them here and putting them in a cell it's not the same not at all i'm a firm believer in capital punishment you are especially for someone

who has done something inherently objectively wrong and cost the lives of thousands of people yeah people come at me for that all the time they're like how do you know how could you not you see half the shit that i've seen and you would be a believer too no i i i i don't know i i i don't understand what you're saying. I just think that the jump, like in your mind, the jump, and I understand why you're cynical about it, but the jump from being so cynical as to like, well, they're not doing that at all because they're just bringing them here. I mean, they're taking the, to defend it, they're taking the pieces off the board. They're extracting information from them and they're giving them no future with the exception of all video. I don't like that. But. Right. At the same time,

I do understand that. It's like, okay, they're getting information. they're going to get trafficking routes and they're you know they're going to gather information to perhaps tackle more individuals truth be told i don't think any of these efforts are going to have like any lasting impacts why because this is like this perpetual beast that will always continue to grow and find new ways to adapt to whatever tactics law enforcement or the you or whoever is using against them or to try to figure them out or to try to dismantle them or hinder their operations um everyone always asked me like what's the solution there is no solution so so why do you cover it if there's no solution why do you cover it if it's not going to end

ever because wouldn't you also want a job like job with job security That wouldn't be in my top 1,000. I'm joking. That's not, yeah, I'm being facetious. The point is that because then you look at the other stories that like are like the women in Juarez story. You feel like you can help limit the damage. That can be, you know, there needs to be a stop to that. But in terms of being like, we are going to dismantle every single cartel that we have designated an FTO,

it's just like so out of the realm. What you know and then also like what's the real agenda here because then you look at like Venezuela and how like the real target here is Maduro and they're using this whole like FTO designation to really just go in and like drone strike them yeah it's interesting that is interesting I'm not saying he's a good guy but that is an interesting backdoor tactic for sure yeah it's so much more beyond just like what we see it's this is not. a black and white topic it's very nuanced and so that's i in terms of like discussing solutions or like will there be an end that's so beyond my comprehension and this is what i literally live and breathe all day long so there's no way to simplify this whatsoever where is with your story like where's claudia shine bomb with this i would think this is the kind of thing that she would draw attention to i do not no why not because this is the type of story that's the type of story that she would probably bring up

in her morning press conference and say, unless there's proof, unless Katerina can show me who's killing these women and who's buying them, it's not happening. Because I think that the missing and murdered problem, missing and murdered women problem

in Juarez should have been declared a national emergency. I think something like this should be declared a national emergency. And we know it is happening. But she doesn't want to bring that negative attention. I think the only way that she would perhaps address it or like really kind of hammered down on it

would be about the American buyers because she also, you know, big proponent of the fact that like a majority of arms that are used at Mexican crime scenes come from the U.S., you know, there was that whole lawsuit. Yeah, the whole thing. So that if she's like, oh yeah, our cartels are providing it, look who's buying that.

Those are the real. villains she would say that and like yeah i agree to an extent but um i'm not entirely sure that she would want to accept like what's happening on the southern side of the border but like the whole country and she knows this the whole country thinks and knows that the fucking place is run by these violent organizations fighting each other and buying off politicians and killing the ones they don't like you would think that you're that you're constantly looking at through, and I hate to put it this way, but you're constantly looking through, you know, a trove to find a piece of treasure that you can say, oh my God, if I put this one out there,

people can't ignore this. You know what I mean? Something that's so bad and so beyond the realm, like you say to people, look, they're selling all the drugs to Americans. And the average Mexican goes, yeah, whatever. But you go, look, they're killing your own pregnant girls and selling the kids and Americans are buying them. That's like a, and it shouldn't, you shouldn't look at it this way, to be clear, but like, if you are trying to sell something politically is like, can we please look at this? What the fuck else? How are you going to get something more serious or better or horrible? You know what I mean? Well, we'll see if she, if she says something about it. Um, she brought up my reporting, I think, once before. And it was like, show me

proof. And I was like, okay. Hit me on telegram, bitch. you were you were saying though a little while ago right when we were going to break and we got off it after we came back but they might be doing like even organ harvesting at cjng yeah i wouldn't be surprised i mean though like because that's another story that i've been sitting like thinking about for a while right and when it first broke it was like all the news and everyone was talking about it and there was a lot of speculation around what was happening these camps, who was running it, why authorities weren't like deeply looking into it and investigating it the way they should. And then also the mothers who had found it and brought it to the public attention were vilified by the cartels and the Mexican federal government saying essentially that these women are making this up and they're sticking their noses in places that they don't belong. Super bad. Okay. But now, sitting on this story, it's like there were so many personal belongings there.

We talked about that last time I was here. And there were like no bodies. There was some indication of human remains and ovens that people were being burned in. But if I really look at it now with hindsight, it appears as though that this was like an operation for, yeah, Oregon harvesting. the training area was very rudimentary and certainly not what i had seen in other cj and g like actual training camp sites so and the people who seem to have been victims there and some who were survivors like their testimonies it doesn't add up to you're going to come here to become a cicario and fight for us right right thing um so yeah this goes very deep and so if and that

those sites that site that site that Ranchese Guerre in particular tied to CJ&G and now these infants are also tied to CJ&G so clearly there is no limit in terms of

what they're doing to run their business and that's very worrisome and it also worries me too that it's like okay yeah the U.S. is cracking down on the whole cartel thing whatever but we're not seeing much of a crackdown on CJ&G we're seeing sanctions

visas being revoked Oh, that's nice. We're revoking visas. Woo, what a feat. Yeah, what a win. Yeah, but it's not like, you know, no one's being kidnapped like El Mio was, but I guess it's kind of

like one step at a time. But I also don't think that like that Almayo capture was even like the best because then it led to so much fucking fallout in Sinaloa. And like I said last time, really feel for those people. why don't the thing i keep thinking in the back of my mind is like this whole power struggle between at least aspects of sinola and cjng who's the new bad boy in town kind of thing where they're

just trying to eat everything around them and they're fucking crazy and doing insane rackets that are sick even by cartel standards why aren't people who are actually truly loyal Cartel members of the Cinaloa cartel using their contacts, even if they're corrupt contacts, to get, I don't know, to get some of this information inside baseball about what C.J and G's doing back so that they can get their enemy off the playing field, like get them cracked down on. You know what I mean? Sick the fucking cops on them. Like, why aren't they doing that? There's so much to work with here. Okay, could be happening, right? But then also at the same time, with the amount of leverage that CG and G holds, who is going to have the balls to go and try to fuck them over? Because I feel like you go and try to fuck over CG, you get fucked double. Let's like look at it realistically.

Look at what they're doing. I mean, if you can still kind of work business as usual and you kind of have, you know, their blessing to keep operating, you're not at war. right just lay low right I got to think at this point someone like El Mancho I don't who would be more wanted than him

in the world Maduro yeah I don't think Maduro has the power he does yeah but they like want him bad I know they do but I'm saying like literally I'm forget what they want and who oh like let's talk about like like let's put let's put chess pieces on the table mensho runs cjng the fastest growing disease in mexico the most powerful cartel somehow

already doing the most insanely sick things that we've seen cartels do ever which again once again that's really saying something like yeah like after loszitas for sure i mean he's got to be the most wanted person on earth I mean, I don't think, yeah, I mean, he's, he's up there for sure. Yeah, he's like a fucking, like, mythological figure at this point because then you always have these rumors to that he's, is he dead or alive or what's going on? Is he just like living in complete hiding in the hills or something? Obviously, they have no idea where he is, but. Yeah, I think so.

You would assume this guy's not living in the fucking middle of Mexico City. No. I think it's definitely, it's probably going to mirror like the whole bin Laden. situation some compound you know yeah no i i i would assume that's probably about what it is it's just like what about the fact that we've declared them ftos and now maybe shine bombs letting some people in through the back door have you heard any information about i don't know u.s intelligence having more resources to try to find someone like this i mean it's like finding a needle in a haystack but If you track where those intelligence planes are flying, they certainly have their sights set.

I just don't think that they have the support of Mexican forces, or the government, rather. To take out El Mancho if they got them? Or whoever it is, whether it's like El Mancho or Ivan or Wedding, Ryan Wedding. Yeah, we'll get to Ryan Wedding. Yeah, because he's up there too. Yeah, they wouldn't have the support of the Mexican government to take out El Mancho. That seems... I'm sure that El Mancho, I mean, look how long he's gone without being captured.

I don't think there's probably a single person who's not received something from him. Right. To ensure that he's pretty untouchable. So do I think that there are people who know where he is? Of course. But I think that that would be a really big, bloody operation. Something like the operation you're reporting on, though, with the infants being stolen from the pregnant mothers and them killed.

Is there any way that something like that would be happening within CJNG without having the blessing of El Mancho personally? See, I don't know. I was thinking about this, too. It's very hard to say. I really, I honestly don't know. I asked a few people that question and I don't know if he knows that's going on or not I that's really hard to say and at the level it's happening where it's like just like the

dozens I say just but like that's too many for what this is but it's hard to say if he's in the loop about this yeah I'm not entirely sure and it like a lot of people are unsure about this so I yeah what's the leadership structure around him like do we know anything about it like do we know other players like who the number two is who the number three is yeah and I talked about el hardinero he's definitely up there um there's this another another guy sort of emerging they call him el yogurt I think we talked about this last time oh yogurt yeah I don't know the yogurt the yogurt I feel like I would remember that I don't know if you talked about that isn't that such a weird um alias yeah that's not what I would want to be called me either if I had worked that hard to rise up to the top of

this organization call me like the bat or you know something like that the bat yeah like the bat man yeah no like the like the bat like the bat i'm thinking like the bat like the covid bat yeah or or like that you know something like that don't call me yogurt like that's kind of gay you know what i mean like hey yogurt get over here you know it's like really like the shittiest alia is possible but he's fucking powerful as hell not powerful enough so the the understanding and knowledge surrounding who's high up in the cg and g hierarchy it's quite known and it also became more clear with this cj and g chapitos alliance because then right hand men were sent out to certain regions to conduct these operations and to make sure everyone is playing ball right so

that became very clear now do i think that there's really focus on these right-head men no and there certainly should be more because if at any point in time mencho dies or mencho gets taken out i think it's more likely that he dies than he actually gets captured um yeah i one of these guys is likely going to take over right and i wouldn't be surprised if one of the of these guys is even more violent and takes it to the next level so those sites need to be set on who is the potential next kingpin and what they're capable of yeah sorry i can't get over how funny you like the yogurt thing yeah it's crazy but like that's also been a criticism of of some of the strategy that seems to be playing out with trump post like fTO designation where he's

going like the kingpin strategy so to speak because again it's like you're cutting off one head but there's 40 heads yeah and then there's so much collateral damage that comes out of it which is that's what pisses me off because it's like oh we got my own now everyone go figure it out for yourselves fight amongst yourselves doesn't matter who dies in the process it's like invasion without the invasion yeah now sinola has still been doing like a lot lot of shit i saw you put out a video where they were dropping like 20 bodies off a bridge or something like that oh yeah what was the story there fighting is not i i don't know because i see the bodies all the time i'm not exactly sure which one you don't know which body yeah i'm sorry it's literally constant

and i i know that influencers lately have been targets of major attacks i'm not going to be able to find it amongst all the piles of bodies um but influencers lately are people with like heavy online presence um they're like really facing the brunt of it because a lot of these people were heavily aligned or laundering money we saw this happen with um el macabellico singer rapper he was he was just sanctioned by the u.s for giving 50% of all of his revenue from apple streaming to the sinolaa cartel oh yeah yeah yep you saw that right and then everything all his stuff was removed on apple music and stuff like that and i can only imagine like who's next in this realm because this is another thing right people will also come

for like these artists or YouTubers or whoever it is saying treasury sanctions mexican rapo rapper el macabellico over alleged cartel ties ties treasury said ricardo hernandez merdano who goes by the stage name el macabellico is a narco rapper associate with the cartel del noreste his concerts and events are used to launder money on behalf of the organization according to the treasury which said at least 50% of his royalties from streaming platforms there is are sent directly to the cartel fucking crazy yeah and so when i posted this what a lot of people were saying was like peso pluma's next for sarah he does next like all these really famous figures and i just it wouldn't surprise me and whether they're doing it out of yeah

I want to make more money, or it's forceful. Either give us streaming revenue or you're dead. And we've seen violence against artists like this since the freaking 80s, like for a long time. I mean, like, Chalino Sanchez was the notorious case of this where, you know, he gets the note. You've probably seen it. He's on stage. He gets the note, wipes the sweat, and sings. And people say that note was a death threat that if he kept singing.

Yeah, that's like a famous. meme yeah like it's universal at this point everyone knows it yeah so it's kind of funny though a lot of artists are very much become targets of this because they have access to so much money and they have access to so much money laundering potential so to say nothing of cultural influence by the way oh yeah that too of course and I talk about that all the time I get a lot of heat for that people say like you know it's not like that's that the music isn't the problem and the cultural influence like it's not a thing it certainly is sometimes yeah read the you know the lyrics are sending a message they're always sending a message whether that's consciously or not right

people are absorbing that especially people who are in positions where they may be considering joining this life or they're already surrounded by it or they have access to being a part of this yeah and it promotes like a sense of um yeah like it's like patriotic To a sense, like loyalty to this cartel. Yep. National anthems, if you will. For the shadow government. Yeah.

Yeah. There's no shortage of fuck-upery. Like, there's always some other angle where they have control. Like, we all talk about the government. We all talk about law enforcement. We talk about the military. We talk about the context in the United States. We talk about the organizations who support this and Biden on the other side of the United

And then there's always a new estuary where it's like, oh, by the way, yeah, they got that too. You know, it's that's where your idea of like, you're not going to end this shit cynically. It's like because they aren't like drug cartels anymore. This is an organized crime group through and through, a foreign terrorist organization working internationally. And the financial means go so much further beyond drugs, obviously, which was the headline of our conversation. And hopefully the story that continues to go out there because that goes so much more beyond fentanyl.

What's the latest with your home country, though, and the implications of the cartels? I know you've been reporting on that a bunch, obviously. Canada, We're one of the first people to talk about some of the fentanyl centers there and how that was going down. Yeah, and everyone was like, bullshit. And then it was totally true. Yeah.

What was it? They're like, we, you were the one who told me about the guy who was like, yeah, we could stop maybe 1% of it or something. Oh, like they check less than 1% of everything that comes into the ports. So what's the, how is this all blowing over to there now? What came up the other day? Something came up the other day in our, our. Oh, there was like a, a bus, I'm pretty sure. But the key here is that our borders are said, I have no control, pardon?

Tom Homan? No, Canada's because Canada followed suit with the U.S. because of the whole tariff threat. So we implemented a fentanylzar and a border czar. Canada's borders are said, I have no power over law enforcement or like the border, like, CBNs, which is like our border patrol so like don't look at me like i literally think he said like word for word it's like a south park episode and it's like so um i'm not in my department um okay and i just thought that that was so ridiculous because you know now that i you know i did all this reporting and then the administration came out saying oh yeah you know it's all coming through Canada whatever

And then a lot of people were like, especially people who didn't follow me from the beginning were like, she's pushing like Trump's agenda. And it's like, no, I was saying this. Like actually, uh, no. Trump's agendas, if in this case it's like stop drugs, that should be everyone's agenda. Yeah, I agree. It's fucking crazy. But anyways, so there was a, this case, Opinder Singh. He got picked up by DEA.

O'Pender Singh. That's not a Mexican. No, it's not. And I had been saying this. And they called him Thanos because he was like collecting all the... I don't know, like, is that Avengers or something? It's one of them.

Yeah, so... They're calling him Thanos? Yeah, does Thanos collect the stones or something? Yeah. So... Okay, I don't know. I only know Black Widow. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

And so... Opinder went by Thanos because he was basically... conducting a lot of the transnational relations basically you know collecting sounds like countries so he was the one in charge of essentially

communications between Canadian organized crime groups US particularly California based organized crime groups and the cartel and running all the precursors and the fentanyl and the meth between all three countries how was he doing this like what method do we know

sources and methods here trucking companies the ports um yeah it was mostly land and you call it maritime no yeah no that's right sea land and sea yeah so yeah uh that's that was what his whole thing was and then DEA got him nice job DEA love that for you gold stars for you um and so This was actually like really tied all my reporting together because this is what I had been saying, that these South Asian gangs based in Canada had been operating with the cartels and building these relationships since prior to the legalization of marijuana because BC Budd was the best marijuana and Canadian organized crime groups, particularly South Asian ones, brothers keepers, United Nations and not the United Nations that like you know is the international organization. You said that last time. I wouldn't put it past them, but you know. You said that same thing last time. I'm just saying.

You were like, the United Nations. Yeah, listen. Hey, that's what the head goes. So basically, he was conducting all of these operations. And some people in organized crime have told me, no, he wasn't. He was not the big dog. But in terms of a DEA Canadian, you know, D-A-R-CMP, collaborative campaign. capture. This to them was like their big dog capture. But as we know, or as I perceive, a lot of the

times when we're getting these press releases or getting this information of we got the head honcho or we hit this huge drug bust or we stopped this at the border, it's very much blown out of proportion. And I can really validate that because any time that I have reported on something like this i get messages almost immediately from sources within organized crime being like katerina for fuck sakes this is not this was this doesn't even touch the surface okay i'll tell you who the real players are or you know who it really is yeah yeah and so but at the end of the day it really it tied in what i had been saying um and it further showed that whatever efforts that have been implemented since I started reporting on this last year until now

are not really effective it's all still going on essentially business as usual and it doesn't help that our borders are said well I don't know what I'm doing here I have no Canadian thing I've heard in a while actually can you pull that up Canadian borders are I almost want to see him saying this Canadian borders are says I don't control RCMP it was something like that. I hope he said A while I said this. I don't control that A. We don't even like say that.

When have you ever heard me say that? I've watched enough South Park. That's that's what they say. Yeah, see, Canada's fentanyls are, this is. Oh, we don't have a video of it. So Sam Cooper. I have no authority. Sam Cooper is a great Canadian crime journalist.

Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you weren't lying. in. All right, so Ottawa's newly appointed fentanyl czar told U.S. officials in Ottawa, he has no authority to influence Canadian federal police or border agencies, according to an official with knowledge of the relevant meetings. For U.S. enforcement experts, the admission underline what they describe as the emptiness of Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney's high-profile

pledges to crack down on transnational fentanyl production and trafficking by Chinese and Mexican syndicates and underscored systemic failures in Canada's response to cartels exploiting the nation's ports, borders, and infrastructures. Ottawa's response this year to President Donald Trump's threat of fentanyl interdiction tariffs and making them the 51st state, including the high-profile czar position, promises to join cross-border gang task forces and pledges to strengthen border security has been described by U.S. and Canadian enforcement sources as largely performative, lacking both real authority and the baseline cooperation with U.S. counterparts needed to address

Canada's vulnerabilities. So imagine the borders are being like, yeah, I actually don't have any control over the border. Oh yeah, here's what he said. He said, quote, listen, I don't have the RCMP what to do. I don't have, I don't tell the RCMP what to do. I listen to what RCMP, CBSA, and other police services have to say, but I have no authority to direct them or ask them to do anything, one U.S. source recall. So imagine if Tom Holman said that, people would be like, so what the fuck are you doing here? Yeah, go clean the bathrooms. Like, get the fuck out of here. Um, but this, yeah, it didn't even really make a dent in like the Canadian public perception of what's going on, which sucks. Yeah. Um, again, like I've said before, there's been, like the fentanyl overdose death crisis in Canada is really, really bad. And so this isn't just some like he, he, who who topic. It has actual implications in the livelihood of a lot of people and the lives. So, um,

So essentially, there were these very performative actions that were taken by the Canadian government, I think significantly more than by the Mexican government, to appease the U.S., that did absolutely nothing. Perfect example here. Politicians being performative, I've never heard of it. Who would have thought? Yeah. So they're, in your opinion then, based on the fact that there's no organization. here whatsoever north of the border out over there in Canada we have our own problems here obviously

but up there as well like they're totally it's business as usual yeah and any of my sources in Canadian law enforcement they're always kind of bitching to me about it they're just like it's the same shit and it's growing and it's growing we have no resources we don't have the manpower they don't want to look into shit they don't even really want to cooperate with the US like we don't even know how to stop this and these are some guys who have so much intel and information and they just they can't do anything with it and i can i can imagine that that would be very frustrating and then i can imagine it would be frustrating when you have me i'm like yeah okay i'm going into the fentanyl lab run by the uh chinese and the mexican cartels and the indian guys uh in canada

and then everyone being like lies doesn't exist and then latinian law enforcement is literally calling me and messaging me being like oh my god yes we've been saying this and nothing is being done so it's safe to assume then minus the obvious immediate concern that more Canadians are now i mean fentanyl death is rising it's it's a huge problem that's increasing and that that obviously is a terrible tragedy for the population but it's also safe to say that because of the success of the labs that the cartels have been able to establish over the last few years there, they're establishing

a lot more, and they're doing it with impunity. Yes, 100%. Exactly that. Mike drop. Like, what where are they doing it, though? Like, in the foothills of the mountains, or are they doing it, like, in the back of the 7-Eleven? It's in a lot of, like, farmland regions

where there's, like, large properties. It's also in suburban area. were like a typical trap house and that's been happening for a long time in Canada Is that not? You have those and you have those in Canada? Yep, trap houses You got trap queens too?

Goal like what I did there God damn Get your shit together Canada Yeah I agree We gotta get our shit together here to be fair But like really come on And it's funny because when you ask me about You know like the capital punishment

And it's like, yeah, we do not have capital punishment in Canada. And so anytime I say, we got to bring that shit back because you have like child predators just walking free three days after they raped like 10 girls under 14. People are like, how could you say that? Yeah, this is one of the, and I understand your perspective because you see the worst of the worst and you see this so clearly guilty people. If you're talking broadly about capital punishment, the reason I have been. against it is because, you know, we got the best justice system here in America, but it's got his flaws like everywhere else and it falls short sometimes. And there are an inordinate number of people. It's not like 0.1%. It is more than that. There are people who are found guilty

of crimes in bad cases where they didn't do it and they're on death row. And sometimes they a lot of times they've gone to their death and been killed. And like the other side of that is I'm like, dude, if you get sentenced to life in prison, I think that's almost worse because you don't know how long you're going to live. Your freedom's completely taken away. I mean, if you're sent to somewhere like Supermax, you'd rather be dead every second of every day. The issue there then also becomes, though, it's like cynically you're like, oh, so our tax dollars are paying to keep them alive. And you just get to like live kind of in safety.

I mean, I understand the nuance to it, okay? And I know that a part of me, like, in the heat of the moment when I'm covering really tragic cases, I'm like, just kill this person. And I know that that's not good, okay? But I've seen so many cases go without justice, particularly towards just vulnerable victims, that I'm like, are you kidding me? And especially in Canada, it's such a problem because then we have catch and release. Like, you know, you bring the guy in, oh, he did this horrible thing. He's back out on the streets. Didn't you just report, like, point out one of those where there was a catch and release?

What was that? It was really sick. It was really bad. Oh, the guy. No, no, no. This wasn't a catch and release. The guy, I think, in Nova Scotia, which is like the East Coast of Canada, who raped, murdered and cut up like a teenage girl.

and then he went to jail for I don't know a couple like some years and now he's out in the public yeah I said that like a Canadian actually just now but yeah he's out but see that's a disgrace but see that's what I mean and I think that that also like um evokes like

a really strong emotion in me where I'm like well fuck you know what if we're not gonna even lock him up like just end it right so that's where that's coming from we're seeing just like injustice after injustice And that, of course, still exists in the U.S. But I think that the level of like impunity and lack of oversight in Canada and Mexico has made me more passionate about it after seeing so many time and time again. And we talked about this in the first episode of that little girl who was beaten to death by her stepmother.

And I was just like, that traumatized the fuck out of me. How many times do we see this shit happening over and over again? Like, how many times am I going to be on your show and be like, it just keeps getting worse, right? We started with that little girl. And now here we are talking about young pregnant women being murdered for their babies to be sold to Americans. No, I hear you completely. And like the the hypocritical side of like an argument with mine is that I see a story like Kane Velasquez. And I'm like, good for you, bro.

And I'm sick that he went. Didn't he get sentenced like five years in prison or something for that? Yeah. Just fucking crazy. Because like, but again, like that guy was obviously guilty. You know what I mean? mean and then it's like what about another case where the person's not and that's where my other argument comes in the initial one i had and i'm like fuck but you know yeah in a perfect world he was

the ufc fighter who tried to kill the guy who sexually abused his son and yeah and and like shout out to him but honestly yeah um i forget i was going to say. Sorry. No, but that is, oh, in an ideal world that you wouldn't have people facing that type of capital punishment that are, you know, innocent or that there's like any more so of a doubt. But also in a perfect world, you wouldn't have criminals walking freely or living their lives with any level of normalcy after having ruined someone's life. Right. There has to be an enormous price to pay. And I think that when you increase, the price you disincentifies the crime from happening that is another yeah because in

Canada the crime rate is really bad like random stranger attacks violent ones you've mentioned though several times today a guy that you and I talked about off camera and I want to get to some of the other things you're going to be doing here which I'm really psyched for you I think it's going to be really cool but you keep talking about Ryan Wedding yes who's actually a story I'm very very out of the loop on. And a lot of people are, which is ridiculous to me. Tell people who he is. Okay, let's pull him up because Ryan Wedding, Canadian Olympic snowboarder. He went from the slopes to the other slopes, to the other slopes, who is now a drug kingpin operating in Mexico and very, very well aligned with the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel. How? How did this happen? Yeah, okay,

well, let's... Yeah, there he is. Former Olympian wanted for running transnational drug Enterprise and ordering several murders added to FBI's list of 10 most wanted fugitives, U.S. Department of State offering a award of up to 10 million for capture. Former Olympic snowboarder and Canadian National Ryan Wedding, 43, has been added to the FBI's 10 most wanted list. Achille Davis, the assistant director in charge of FBI's Los Angeles field office announced today during a press conference in Westwood. A. Dick Davis was joined by law enforcement partners with the United States Department of

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Federal Policing, the Los Angeles Police Department, the DEA, Los Angeles, and U.S. Attorney's Office, Washington, D.C., Ryan Wedding, whose aliases include El Hefe, Giant, Public Enemy, James Conrad King, and Jesse King was born in Thunder Bay, Canada, and competed in the Giant Slalom Snowboarding Competition during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. At present, Wedding, is wanted for a allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to Canada and other locations in the United States and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder in furtherance of these drugs crimes. Weddings placement on the top 10 list marks the 535th edition to FBI's list in a Tories. Okay. I don't mean read off. Yeah. So essentially this guy, he comes from Thunder Bay, which is in Ontario, Canada, on the East Coast. And Thunder Bay has always been known kind of, it has a crime problem, a drug problem, but it's small.

And he then allegedly went to Columbia, like after his Olympic career, got in with some people, started drug trafficking, just went full, let's see how we can move this product. was so good at it went to Mexico and the chapitos were like you're really good at this let's bring you on and he's very well protected by them now uh source of mine in organized crime criminal source not trust me bro uh oh is this a guy we were talking yeah yeah yeah okay yeah I like this guy He's funny Yeah Me too

It kind of scares me But I feel like that's what he wants Yeah hey look You gotta get your sources Where you get them Yeah But anyway source of yours Has told me just how violent wedding is

So what he will do Is Fly out like to Mexico Chinese businessmen And Chinese people Or anyone really involved in the drug trade And be like You're going to work for me

We're going to use your trucking company or you're going to put up some sort of shell company to launder our money. And it's not a question. It's either yes or he literally, yes, incredibly violent. And so what I've been told as of most recently, he's not in very good standing with the like Chinese organized crime group because he killed someone in that group who was not supposed to be killed. is this someone that like exclusive that like she knows about that kind of thing i mean he knows everything

from that country it's possible it's possible i don't know um and so but wedding is is definitely up there in terms of the transnational drug trade but he's so under the radar i mean even you weren't like yeah i'm totally unfamiliar he's someone that people should certainly like he he's one that would go down in history is he operate like you explained it but is he based out of columbia and then dealing with the people in mexico based out of mexico he was at the beginning but like the way when we were talking earlier why did the context sound like he's in columbia because he started in columbia and then moved his way to mexico he made the right contacts he's really good at what he does um and his right right hand

man um andrew clark was just arrested and apparently he's singing like a canary to the dea oh let's pull this i hope we can say that yeah well i mean it's public information no that's not that he's singing well that's catarina here on julian dory podcast another one co-leader of transnational drug trafficking organization arrives in the u.s to face federal narcotics and murder charges. This is February 28, 2025. An alleged leader of a transnational drug trafficking enterprise co-helmed by former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, Ryan Wedding, has been sent the United States from Mexico to face federal charges, alleging that he ran a continuing criminal enterprise committed murder and attempted murder and conspired to possess, distribute, and export cocaine. The Justice Department

announced today, Andrew Clark, 34, a Canadian citizen who was residing in Mexico, was arrested by Mexican authorities in October 24 and scheduled to be a rain Monday on Monday in the United States District Court in Phoenix on charges contained in a 16-count superseding indictment out of the Central District of California. Alongside Wedding, Clark allegedly controlled a billion-dollar drug enterprise with supply routes that transported ton qualities of cocaine from Colombia to Canada by way of Mexico and Southern California from March to August 2024. Wedding and Clark allegedly conspired with others to export possesses. and distribute more than 1,800 kilograms of cocaine, in addition, using a network of

virtual currency wallets, oh my God, Wedding Clark and their co-conspirators transferred approximately a quarter of a billion dollars. Yeah. That's insane. From April to September 2024, in one day, investigators seized more than $3 million from one cryptocurrency. Well, that's a lot less than a quarter of a billion. I mean, where the fuck is the rest of it?

I mean, so this could potentially be like the Sammy, the. Sammy the bull to John Gotti. Yep. This is the guy. This is our guy. And I know that the U.S. wants to get him really bad. And I have heard that Mexico isn't really cooperating with this, not because they don't want to, because they just simply don't really see him as a threat. Why don't they see him as a threat? I don't know, but this is what I've heard. I mean, they picked him up and they gave him to us, right?

It said the Mexican authorities arrested him in October, right? Clark, not wedding. So you're saying that they're not helping on the arrest. They helped on this guy, but now they're not taking wedding seriously. This is what I've heard. God, that's so confusing. Like, that's literally got my brain twisted. They helped with this guy.

He's the number two. And now they got the big honcho who's got, like, by the way, the headline power, you know, that's not how you should look at it, but Canadian fucking Olympic snowboarder. I know, and that's why I don't understand why he isn't, like, people are like, holy shit, this guy, because what the fuck? What a name, too. So, I'm actually working on, like, a whole rundown of Ryan Wedding for my substack, like, to really, so people can, like, really, we're going to do a whole life timeline with a lot of exclusive information from people who actually worked with him at a certain point in time. So then you guys can be really locked in and understand how he went from one slope to another. do you have to watch i'm like scratching my nose too as we're talking about this you are going to be like is she his consumer no no no but do you worry about obviously the guy's very bad but you're getting

to people who have beef with him so how do you sift through reporting like that and figure out what's obviously real about him which is a lot but also then figure out what other stuff they other people might have done that they try to pin on him because they don't fucking like him? Like, how do you do that? Well, that's what I'm trying to navigate right now. Um, and obviously it's not easy, but it's a matter of talking with multiple

people in this atmosphere. And then, of course, there are certain things that I will report as this is a rumor and this is what I'm being told, but there's a lot of stuff that I can confirm that's very interesting, especially in his case. I think generally

as a person, this is just very very interesting. Oh, of course. How does he get, like, how do you go from that? I think he's just too smart for his own good. Like, he's a very smart guy and very powerful. I also think that he has a massive ego.

Well, that goes without, so, yeah. A massive ego. And it's just really funny because I was talking to someone about this, and I was like, well, two Canadians went down to Mexico to talk to the cartels, but we had very different motives. me and wedding oh yeah

that took you so long I was putting together the guy they arrested oh yeah Clark yeah yeah I was like why do they have different motives yeah that took a minute sorry it's okay God what an idiot third and last time

but but he like what's does he have family still in in Canada I imagine yeah have they talked to anyone not that i know well i'm i'm trying to get in there um and he's what and he's got a wife and a son and so in can no no no not in canada okay mexican and so your facial reaction is throwing me off you need to show that like he in canada bro he's going back and

So he's got, yeah, wife, son, Mexican, and then he's got, you know, the girlfriends throughout. They always do. They always do, yeah. Some real baddies, too, if you ask me. I mean, he's a powerful guy. Yeah, money talks. Money does talk. But like native family in Canada, brother, sister, mom, dad, I mean, they're not in the drug trade, but you're trying to.

You can read about it on my substack, Julian. You're working on it, right? Working on it. Head in the grindstone with this one. Are they embarrassed to him, I take it? You can read in my next book. God damn. You can't give me a little preview, like a little piece?

Because we're going to plug what you're doing is a big story with all this and the new thing in a minute. I want to have all the ducks in the row for this story before I really talk about it and get into it because, again, like there's a lot of pieces here. and I want to tell this story in the most fleshed out way possible so yeah we'll see

okay now you're you've been doing the show with ironclad now for some months it's great reporting you're putting out a ton of stories all the time on the ground it's been I think it's been really good content for you to get in a flow with your

reporting and getting it to the masses because it's consistent 20 minutes on the ground sometimes it's showing you literally work with sources and stuff so people can see that obviously there's a quote of anonymity as to who you're talking to but you know i i i think that's all great but now you know you started this whole journey going down there and covering the cartels in particularly and getting all these stories and getting entrenched across the different factions of the cartels in mexico but now as i understand it you're going to be expanding your scope and doing ironclads going to be back

you to do some full-blown in-depth, sometimes like hour-long documentaries around the world covering all different types of organized crime. Is this, did you always want to kind of expand to do? Yeah. Okay. I always wanted to do international coverage. And it's, of course, not easy, not simply just logistically, but also understanding context and nuance of the regions that you're covering.

and then acquiring sources and making sure everything is valid, right? So with borderline dispatches, the coverage really picked up some momentum, and people really seem to like it. Yes. And so then an Ironclad is really great because they very much support my journey as a journalist. in terms of how I like to tell these stories, and they are very much about that raw, honest storytelling and the high-stakes storytelling.

So I was like, you know what? Why don't we take the coverage international? And the support was there, is there. And so now, especially seeing how transnational all this crime goes, I'm hoping to take the viewers along to tell this story again, super unfiltered boots on the ground and show you as if it's from your own two eyes what the fuck is happening and how people are running these operations and then hopefully try to get some other coverage that I feel like is very polarized in the media as well so like gaza yeah

because i've actually had so many people comment to me about that and be like where do you stand and what do you think about the coverage and um That is a good sign to me. Like, it's a terrible situation. Of course. But to me, it's a good sign that people feel like they can trust me with going and telling that story. And it's going to be honest and it's going to be solid. One like that's really hard to do, though, because they're not letting in journalists.

Right. So that's why you have to find a way because those stories need to be told. Be careful. If you, with the amount of tragedy that's going on, Mm-hmm. What you can't do is keep press out. It's a pillar of democracy. Oh, I totally agree.

Unfortunately, they've done a very effective job of not letting them in. It's a disgrace. It should be, and it is being called out internationally. Obviously, we're talking about Israel not letting in the press to Gaza. If you've got nothing to hide, there's no reason for the press not to be there. I agree. There should always be free press. 100%.

In every area and crevice of every room. region so you know that's like an ideal one right because i want to you you know i want to go and get the coverage where there's stories to tell and people don't have voices or platforms which means you're looking beyond the obvious point here you're looking beyond just just organized crime organizations of which there's many stories that you're going to tell but you're looking at things where there are yeah that will stay where there's where there's tragedy and where there is another form of crime by the way where governments are doing things that are fucked up and you know that's you just got to be very careful because that I mean you already do a very dangerous job it's not like it's kind of hard

to get more dangerous than you are right now but especially going around to new places you've never been before oh it changes the game entirely but yeah the organized crime coverage will stay because I know that people appreciate that and of course that's what I've been locked into for the longest time now but I think that uh beyond the the content that i cover a lot of people also appreciate the way that i report and so if i have an opportunity to go and cover these types of stories and regions uh with the style and hopefully grit that i have when i go there um yeah i would really like to do that so we're looking to take the coverage international that's going to be great are you going to do if you do this

full substack thing on on wedding is there a story you can go get documentary wise i don't know if it's like in the middle of mexico or whatever where you can put something together on him to i hope so that would be cool it'd be really cool by the way if like you were able to put something together that's great that educates and obviously entertains people along the way that then results in some happening too. No, that's not my goal. I know that's not your goal, but I'm saying like if your actual reporting as a journalist getting the story, here's what it is, information comes out, then eventually leads to good things happening. Oh, tangible change? Sure. Oh yeah, no, I agree. I thought you meant like I put out the story and then they capture like the like Ryan Wedding. Um, which would be some tangible change.

I don't want to die. Um, but, um, yeah, no, that that is what I hope. And, that people, what I like is when people are very critical and they're staying tuned into global affairs and what's going on, even if it's not happening directly in their backyard. People need to care and be compassionate. There's such a lack of that and it frustrates me. So that's the goal here to keep people informed and critical. All right. Well, keep doing what you're doing.

It's been really cool to see you really increase the scope of stories you're doing over the past year. And now it's going to take a whole new level. So we'll have ironclad link down there. Also, when that gets up and running in a month or two, with the news stories, just let me know. And we'll stick that link in there as well for people. And we'll have all your socials. I know you're constantly putting out information on X, sometimes on Instagram, too, so people can follow you there. Anywhere else?

Substack. Yeah. Yep. That's about it. Don't go anywhere else. Well, thanks for coming in short notice to go through this. It's a really, uh... I'm glad that you brought me on for this story

because this was one that needed this. It is where we can give a bullhorn to stuff like that to get people's attention, we'll do it. I appreciate that. When you have those, uh, you're welcome back anytime. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Of course. All right, everybody else, you know what it is?

Give it a thought. Get back to me. Peace. Thank you guys for watching the episode. If you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button and smash that like button on the video. They're both a huge. huge help. And if you would like to follow me on Instagram and X, those links are in my description below.