Locked In with Ian Bick - Drug Trafficker Reveals Cartel Ties, Brutal Federal Texas Prison Survival & Shocking DEA Takedown | Bryan Calcott

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Former Drug Trafficker Bryan Calcott shares his journey from working with the cartel to surviving the brutal reality of Texas federal prisons. Hear the details of his run-ins with the DEA, the life-or-death challenges behind bars, and how he was ultimately taken down by law enforcement. #DrugTraffickerReveals #CartelLife #PrisonSurvival #DEAOperation #TexasPrisons #TrueCrimeStories #CartelTakedown #CrimeAndPunishment Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Bryan Charles: https://www.instagram.com/bryancharles79?igsh=MThjNDl4aG1jcXA3NQ== Thank you to our sponsors this week: MyBookie: Go to https://www.mybookie.ag/landings/mbszn/?affid=8927and use promo code LOCKEDIN to sign up for free and double your first deposit up to $2,000 plus a $10 Casino Chip. Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Childhood in Various States 00:06:46 - Fear of Losing Everything 00:12:56 - Transitioning into Criminal Enterprises 00:19:31 - Dealing with Drug Law Enforcement in Texas 00:25:49 - The Grand Conspiracy and Wrong Decisions 00:32:41 - Improving Vocabulary Through Reading Defense Books 00:39:22 - Confrontation and Respect in Prison 00:45:14 - Observations on Gang Dynamics and Prison Hierarchy 00:51:23 - Resilience and Redemption 00:57:31 - Opportunity and Obstacles in the Job Market 01:03:47 - Taking Responsibility for Change and Transformation 01:10:08 - The Airport Encounter 01:16:05 - Family Harassment and Legal Troubles 01:22:15 - Legal Troubles and Entrepreneurial Success 01:28:37 - A Billion-Dollar Idea Hindered by a Record 01:35:17 - Climbing the Mountain of Life 01:41:53 - Safe Travels and Farewell Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brian, welcome to Lockton, man. Pleasure having you from Lake Tahoe. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Glad to be here. Yeah, it's an honor, man. Thanks to Dan Izzo for connecting us. And he texted me your story.

You just reminded me about when looking at it. I was like, holy shit, we need him on the pod. Yeah. And I know I say that about a lot of guests, but every story we have is just so crazy. So, yeah, again, thank you for coming out here. Did you grow up in Lake Taco? No, I was actually, I was born in Texas, born in Abilene. My father was a pastor.

So after we left Abilene, we went to Oklahoma where he went to seminary. And then he had his first church in a small town called Aline, Oklahoma. And then we moved back to Fredericksburg, Texas, and then Pekas, Texas. And then when I was about 10 years old, we moved to Wachung, New Jersey, which is about 45 minutes outside of New York City. So I've grown up all over the place. I grew up West Texas, my best friend Rex, his family had a ranch. You know, we were out there shooting guns, riding horse. doing things like that.

And then when I was 10 moved to Jersey, it was just absolute culture shock. And was there till I was about 18 and then went back to San Antonio, Texas, went to college there. And then when I was 22, that's the first time that I got incarcerated and went to a federal prison for five and a half years.

Yeah, Texas to New Jersey is night and day difference. Well, especially West Texas. This wasn't Texas, San Antonio, Dallas, big city. This was West Texas. I mean, I remember going out on the ranch and Rex and I, I was nine, he was 10, and we would literally be given the keys to a work truck. It wasn't like we were just driving on the ranch property either. We'd be driving on county highways having to go to different pastures, drop off hay, drop off salt lick, you know, a nine and 10 year old driving a truck shotgun in the center for rattlesnakes. That's just how, that's just how it was, you know what I mean, in West Texas, the 1980s.

And then move into New Jersey, especially Wa Chung, just absolute. just immense wealth, preppy, unbelievably preppy kids. It was definitely culture shock. And it's kind of crazy to even bring that up because that is really, I'll get to it, but that's really kind of the seed that led me to ultimately becoming incarcerated. When we were in Texas, my father was a pastor, we didn't have a lot of money, but it still came with cloud, especially in a small town in Texas. If your father was a pastor, was in like gifted and talented classes. So I had all these external validations, you know what I mean, telling me that I had worth, telling me that I had a place in my community. And when we went to New Jersey, all of that meant nothing. And I didn't think

that any of those kids were smarter than me. I didn't think they were better looking than me. They sure as hell weren't tougher than me. But I felt inferior for the first time of my life, all because we didn't have money. And it's been a long road learning all these lessons. but ultimately I trace, you know, my, you know, going in the wrong direction at times in life back to that point of feeling inferior because I didn't have money. And I was on the run for three years trying to avoid a second prison sentence. And it wasn't because I was scared to go back to prison. It's, you know, I'm sure you can attest to this. It's not that you want to go back, but you just, once you've been, it's just kind of like, fuck it.

You kind of numb to it. You know you can do time. You know you can survive. So I wasn't scared of going back to prison. I was scared of getting out of prison and not having money because money was just so tied to my identity. And it's kind of crazy, you know, how they talk about in life, how, you know, the one thing you're trying to avoid, the one thing that you're just so fucking scared of, that's the one thing that if you really want to learn the lesson, you need to learn and you really want to grow and step into your full potential. that's the one thing that you have to do. And so I fought long and hard to try to make as much money as possible.

I was on the run, you know, save it up, do this, do that, all these different things. And even while I was on bail, you know, I was talking about my meal prep business, where I felt like I had something with that too, you know, so when I got out, I'd be okay. You know, I'd have money. I'd have an identity. And it just didn't matter. Like, the universe just stripped me fucking bare. I mean, just absolutely took everything.

And it was only from that moment that I really just dove into a different level of self-discovery and really was able to understand, you know what I mean, like just what led me astray. Because I'd been told, you know, like I said, I was 22, I was on the dean's list about to go to law school. And people were just looking at me like, how the fuck could you throw that away? And, you know, even when I got out the second time, you know, I reached a point two where I just said, fuck it. and, you know, kind of threw everything away, and it just really just bothered me. And I didn't understand why I could have, you know, everybody telling me that I have so much potential and then just take it, you know, and flush it down the toilet.

And so it was that second incarceration where, like I said, the universe just laid me bare, took every last thing from me where I really, you know, it's, you know, from there, all the bullshit is stripped away. All the band-aids that you tried to place on the wounds are all gone. and you have no choice but to face the reality of yourself. And it's hard as fucking hell. I mean, I remember laying there in a fetal position feeling like, you know what I mean? I couldn't fucking move.

It was just so overwhelming. And that's a place that I think a lot of people run from because it is scary. But you have to go through that to truly understand yourself and build a real foundation that ultimately becomes, you know what I mean, your real identity. So the reason why I ended up in prison twice was literally just, you know, chasing an identity that I felt was taken away from me when we moved from Texas and went to New Jersey. And I just thought that identity, you know, was just completely and totally tied around money. Hey, everyone, it's Ian. And I just wanted to say thank you for supporting this podcast. Remember leaving likes and comments on YouTube and reviews on Spotify and Apple helped tremendously.

Before we get further into this episode, I wanted to shout out my bookie for Spoky. sponsoring today's episode. MyBooky is an online sportsbook with live betting. Get started today by going to my bookie. com website slash locked in and using promo code locked in to sign up for free and double your first deposit up to $2,000. Plus, they'll give you a $10 casino chip. With football season just starting, there's no better time to sign up for MyBooky.

More details to come later in this episode. Yeah, you know, that's so relatable what you were saying about being afraid of prison or not being afraid. When I got out and I was on probation, and even to this day, I'm not afraid of going back. I'm afraid of losing what I built, but if you had to go back. So on probation, I'm working my way up in a company and grinding and going the top. And I realized, like, when I went to prison the first time, I didn't have credit. I didn't have a car. I didn't have an apartment.

So when I, you know, went to prison, I didn't really lose anything. But when you get older and you have a family or you have a, you know, tantal. tangible things and you're building something, that's really the fear of what you can lose by going to prison. And I didn't really think about that until you brought that up. That's a scary aspect of it. Yeah, no, it is. I mean, a lot of people tell you, too, getting out is scarier than going in. You understand?

It's like, I mean, going in is fucking scary, especially when you're younger. You have no idea what to expect. But you kind of, all right, cool. You know what I mean? If I do this, I don't have to worry about getting stabbed. If I do this, I don't have to worry about, you know, all these things that people are associate with prisons. So if you're smart, you know what I mean? You can learn how to navigate prisons where you feel like you're safe. You know, you're going to get fed three times a day.

You don't have to make rent. You're going to have a job. You're going to have all these things. So in one sense, it just removes all of the stress and you don't know how the real world operates anymore. And so when you start thinking about getting out, you're just like, oh, fuck. Like, I'm going to have to find a job and make rent and, you know, do all of these things that you don't have any experience with when you're locked, you know, locked up. So then when you get out and you're like, okay, I crossed all these barriers, I've built this foundation. And then it's just scary as hell to think, oh, it can be taken from you again. I think it's just the PTSD also. I mean, I think everybody goes to prison just being ripped from your life like that. That is absolutely a traumatic

experience. And it's sad because unless you're doing something to actively deal with it, you're going to carry that with you a long time so that, you know, fear of not necessarily going back, but the fear of losing everything is absolutely related to that experience of just being ripped out of your life and having everything taken from you in a moment's notice. Yeah, when you're on probation or supervised release, especially on the federal level where it's very strict, it's scary because they have way too much power over you for a little thing. Yeah. And I like I see state guys that come on this show who are on probation parole and they had a way easier time.

than what I did on federal for a fraud case. And these are like, you know, some of these cases are, you know, dangerous cases or anything like that. It's just the range between federal and state is so different. Yeah. Well, it changes to state to state. So my case was out of New Jersey and they transferred my state case to California. And so I was on parole under California supervision.

And it was pretty much a cakewalk. I mean, I had to go in once a month. they'd piss test me once every three months, maybe showed up to the house a few times in the beginning. But overall, it was pretty laxidical. It wasn't as laxadaisical as federal supervised release, but it was still pretty laxadaisical. But I would talk to guys that I was locked up with in New Jersey

and they were just telling me horror stories about what they were going through. And it was just crazy. You know what I mean? The difference. The other thing, too, is California just doesn't give a shit about weed. I remember my parole officer was looking at my case and they were just like,

you went to prison for 109 pounds of weed? Like, the fuck? Like, that wouldn't happen over here. And it's crazy because that was my reasoning. The whole reason I got on the plane with 109 pounds of weed is because I was first thinking, like, it's a manageable loss, you know, whatever.

It's $300,000 worth of weed. It is what it is. But I was thinking, too, it's fucking probation. You know, it is what it is. I wanted a faster transportation system. So, you know, I was risking something. but in my mind, I just really wasn't risking prison. And so plane went from Oakland to Teterboro and got off.

The DEA was there. And they, you know, were asking me questions. I knew my rights. And I said, am I being detained? And they said, no, you're not being detained. I said, well, I'm free to leave. And they were like, yeah, you're free to leave. And then the agent in charge, he would start asking me questions again.

And I said, you're asking me questions in a manner that, it's making this take longer than it should. I said, so you're purposefully creating a delay, which constitutes a detainment. So I'm going to ask you one more time, my being detained. You're not being detained. And so he just took up my ID,

took a picture real quick, said you're free to go. So they kept the containers. And so I left. They tailed me into the city. I was able to ditch them in the city. Finally, they got the drug dog to show up. The drug dog hit on the containers. And they called me up and said,

you know, the drug dog hit on the containers. We need to come, you need you to come turn yourself in. And I was just like, oh yeah sure I'll be right there and was on the run for three years but the feds were just like we don't want it it's a weed case so it went to the state of new jersey and the state of new jersey especially Bergen county New Jersey anything over 25 pounds you're going to prison whether it's your first sentence or not you're going to prison and so the fact that I had been to prison before made it even

juicier. The fact that I was on the run for three years made them want me even that much more. And then a couple of the guys that I was associated with, they were just friends. We really weren't doing any business together, but they were connected to the Shrimp Boy Chow case out of San Francisco. That was a really big deal. There were state senators involved, big FBI investigation, et cetera, et et cetera. And, you know, she would stand up in front of the judge and say that I was associated with that case. You know, just anything they can do to make it as sexy as possible to justify, you know, giving you as much prison time as possible. So it's, you know, all of those things coupled together made that second case, you know, sexy in their eyes where they were just like, you know, let's give them as much

time as possible. So when I got on the plane, I just thought that was in no way, shape, or form of a possibility. But it differs state to state and it sure as hell differs state to federal. So. How did you go from, you know, a guy wanting to go to law school, I guess, to become a lawyer, I'm assuming you wanted to do? How do you transition from that into a criminal in essence, you know, to put it straightforward? So I was in Jersey and, you know, I went to high school in a rich place why my family didn't have money and I just recognized the opportunity. I'm not scared to go into New York. And this is, you know, New York back in the 1990s, like Harlem, all those places. buy weed from. It was crazy. But I wasn't scared to go in there. So I would go in there. I would buy

weed for cheap in the city, bringing out to Jersey, sent it to a whole bunch of rich preppy kids and started making money that way in high school. I've always been, you know, if I see an opportunity to make money, I'm just, I'm going to take it. It was weed. I didn't feel guilty about it. So I, you know, would sell a little bit of weed here and there in high school. It wasn't pretty much how I was supported myself, but it was just kind of like secondary income. And when I went to Texas, and started going to college. I smoked weed, so I was just around people. And San Antonio is the largest land trend shipment point for illegal drugs in the United States.

85% of the trucks that enter into the United States go through the way of Laredo, which then goes through San Antonio. So San Antonio is unlike any city in the United States. And there's just so many trafficking opportunities because it's a source city. So I got there right at the end of 1997 and you could buy a pound of swag for $350. And at that time, a pound of swag was going for $1,200 in New Jersey. So I was there maybe a couple months and anybody could get pounds of weed in San Antonio. I mean, you can get whatever the hell you want back then.

Like I said, it's a largest land-trans shipment point for illegal drugs in the United States. So it took me about three months of being down there. Yeah, I was going to school, but I recognized an opportunity. So it wasn't large amounts. but, you know, send like 10 pounds here, 20 pounds there, things like that. Wasn't my main source of income. It was just something secondary. If an opportunity came up, I would just jump on it.

Then I started going to a lot of raves and just recognized an opportunity. I also was very, you know, at the time, like, MDMA itself is not dangerous. MDMA is actually a very safe drug. But what they sell as MDMA can be dangerous when you mix two chemicals together or of specific chemicals mixed with MDMA. And so I didn't want to overdose. And so I started doing a lot of research. It was a website called danceaf.com and you could literally see what kind of pills you were taken. So I would always buy pills before I went to rave so I could make sure that I knew what I was doing. And whenever we were at raves, I just felt like it was my duty to let people know, hey,

these pills are going around. They're 2CB. Don't mix them with ecstasy because it's dangerous. and it just got into selling pills that way because people would come to me, asked me for advice, asked me to get them pills because they knew that I was actually looking into it because I didn't want to overdose, didn't want to see other people overdose.

So I got into selling a bunch of pills at raves, then recognize another opportunity. There's like small college towns all throughout Texas and I could go out to a small college town in Texas and show up with like three or 400 pills and get rid of every last one in two or three days. So I was in college, you know, making, I don't know, $3,000 a week, something like that, which back in the early 2000s for being

21, 22 years old, that was good money. And I met this girl and her family was from Mexico. And I mean, she was Mexican-American. She was born in the United States. But her family was not just from Mexico, but her family was from a small town that was essentially the capital of the Gulf Cartel. And at that time before all the other cartel, before El Chapo and all of that, the Gulf Cartel was the cartel. That was the strongest cartel after the cartels toppled in Colombia, and Colombia lost power and the power for the drug trade went to Mexico. It was the Gulf Cartel that was basically the first cartel that reigned supreme after Colombia.

And her family was right there in, you know, basically what I said, the capital for the golf cartel. So we met, started dating. She saw that I sold ecstasy. She didn't care. You know what I mean? She'd go to raves. Did ecstasy with me too?

And her brother-in-law was going to prison. And her sister was concerned about having a source of revenue when he went to prison. And my ex and her sister, they would tell, they would tell each other everything. And so my ex went with me to Miami one time to. try to buy pills because I was always like go to the source get it cheaper so I went to Miami to buy pills and my friend at the time hooked me up with his cousins and his cousins basically ran one of the like craziest hoods out there in Miami at the time and so when I was out there doing the whole ecstasy deal with him he asked me if I could get keys of cocaine and

I was just like it's fucking San Antonio of course you can get keys of cocaine and he told me you know if you bring him here I'll give you 25,000 for him at the time, a key of pure cocaine in Texas was like 15,000. So I'm like, God damn, you know what I mean? 10,000 a keys. Like, I'll take five a week. So I was thinking like, holy shit, $50,000 a week. Fuck. I didn't do it, though, because I really just, I didn't want to sell cocaine. I kind of knew in the back of my mind that, I mean, at any point in your life, but especially in your 20s, I mean, you start making $50,000 a week. You're just sucked into that lifestyle. I mean, you're not just going to sit there and say, oh, I'm going to do it once. I'm going to do it twice. No, you're

sucked into that lifestyle. And especially with someone like me who, you know, my whole identity was just tied around money. So I think maybe subconsciously in the back of my head, maybe that's why I really didn't explore it. But then my ex came to me one day and was just like, I think, you know, the ecstasy stuff kind of slowed down. She's like, I think you should, I think you should, you know, ask, you know, my brother-in-law and, you know, ask him about some keys of cocaine and start selling them. So I was like, all right, cool.

So I went and I spoke to him and he told me straight up. He was just like, dude, I'm already going to prison. And he goes, I'm not trying to insult you. But I think if you got caught, you'd snitch. And so he told me no. And I was just like, I respect that. You know, even though I told him like, no fucking way. You know what I mean?

You're already going to prison for six and a half years. You got kids. I respected that. So I went back to the house. I told my ex. I said, he said no. And she was like, all right. Then I'll never forget.

at the pink Nokia 6600 phone and she went over there picked it up went into the bedroom shut the door came back like less than two minutes later and just nonchalantly just stood on the counter and said it's done and it was just that it was her and her sister you know what I mean talking so her sister obviously told them like hey you know what I mean you got to um you got to start giving them keys and you got to worry about the family we got to have a source of income we got to be able to tax them etc etc So I had a guy in Lubbock, Texas that I had sold quite a few ecstasy pills to before. And he had asked me about Coke. And so I told him like, hey, I can get keys now.

And so he was just like the trial run. He was her brother-in-law and his friends just testing me out to make sure that I was trustworthy. So I was bringing him keys up there. And he was a confidential informant for a drug task force in Lubbock, Texas. because he had gotten caught in September of 2001. I got arrested in July of 2002. So he had gotten caught in July of 2001, became a fucking snitch

and was working for a confidential, you know, I was a confidential informant on a task force and at the same time was selling Coke on the side. And so he sold Coke to a confidential informant that was part of the same task force that he was working for. And so the DEA was just like, fuck this dude, you know what I mean?

Like, we're going to fucking stick it all the way up his ass. And so they had that confidence. financial informant, introduced him to an undercover cop, and he started selling directly to the undercover cop. So he told me the guy needed a key, went up there, and as soon as I fucking saw the dude, I was just like fucking cooked. Like, you could just tell right away. And it's just, you know, in that moment, just sheer fucking panic. So he had the key and everything. He pretty much did the deal.

I kind of saw the guy at that point. It was just like, fuck, you're here with the fucking key. I mean, even if I said, no, I'm not going to sell it to you. I knew what the hell was about to happen. So we left where we did the deal, start driving down the road. And you see, you know, like a cop here, cop there. There's a Jeep Grand Cherokee in front of us with just four dudes, big ass dudes, sunglasses on, sitting all stiff, just looking forward, you know, all bad actors.

And it's just like, motherfucker. And so we went to go get on the highway. And it was like a big circle loop to get on the highway. And they stopped right in front of me. and I just instantly fucking knew. So I popped up on the curb to go around them. They rammed the car into me kind of in the side, didn't take the car out.

I got back on the road and just went all the way around. As soon as I got on the highway, I just flipped around on the median and just gunned it. Just got the car up to like 130, quickly as possible. Got off at the first exit and just right left, right left, right left, right left. And got away from them, but there was actually a spotter plane, a little Cessna,

that the DPS Department of Public Safety would use for tickets. And they were, you know, providing support. And so they saw where we were and came, you know what I mean, arrested us. It's Lubbock. So there was no fucking bail. Federal system everywhere is different. Some places look at it. Like they're not going to try to interfere with bail in Lubbock at that particular time.

If you were there on a drug case, they would say that you were a threat for running. And so it was no fucking bail at all Was there for about six and a half months is what it took to get Get a sentence, got the plea bargain, all that And it was seven and a half years my first you know what I mean first offense And this is the one where they said they wanted you to snitch but you didn't and yeah that was yeah during that whole process It was fucked up man I had a you know public pretender as they call them and up there like the courtroom work group it's very, very established.

And even the private attorneys, they're not going to raise hell. Even if they have, you know, even if they have them beat on your case, they're not going to raise hell on it because they have 20 or 30 other clients and they're going to make them pay on those other cases. And, you know, I kind of knew. I remember my criminal justice class where the professor was talking about horse trading, as they called it. And I remember going up after class and asking him and saying, you know, is this the norm?

and he said, yeah. And I told him, I said, I'm not fucking doing that as a defense attorney. I said, I'm going to raise hell. And he looked at me and said, you might want to consider another profession. So it was crazy that I had that conversation with him. And then I was up there seeing it happen, you know what I mean? Like right in front of, right in front of me. And my own attorney was trying to scare me, trying to get me to snitch.

And I remember my father told me he called her up and was having a conversation with her. Like, you know, what are you doing for my son? Doesn't make her doing anything. And her response was, I got him the first opportunity to squeal like. a pig and he didn't want to take it so there's nothing else I can fucking do for him. And she was pissed at me because she had a conversation with me. And she told me, she said, unless you snitch on your girlfriend and her family, you're going to do 15 years in prison.

And I just didn't even hesitate and said so be it. And her head snapped back. She couldn't fucking believe it. She was just absolutely shocked. And it's, you know, the statistic is something like 85% of people in the federal system fucking snitch. That's why the conviction rate so high. Yep, absolutely.

So if you're one of the 15% it doesn't fucking snitch, they, they, just throw the book at you. And then the other thing, too, was they really wanted her family. They thought that it was, you know, if I would open my mouth, that it would just open up, you know, some bigger, some bigger, grander conspiracy is ultimately what it came down to. So were they looking at her as like a cartel type family? They thought you were the leeway into them. Absolutely. 100%. I mean, her father was, you know what I mean, facing like a 20-year fucking sentence. They goddamn well knew, you know what I mean, who her and her family was. So they were looking at it like, oh, this is, because this is, this is, this is Lubbock is a town of 200,000 people.

This isn't San Antonio, Texas, where anybody that gets caught with a key is somehow tied to the cartel. This is Lubbock, Texas, where it's 200,000 people you could call it. And it wasn't just that it was a key, because there's plenty of keys in Lubbock. It was that it was a key, and it came all the way up from San Antonio. And they knew, you know what I mean, who she was, who her family was, things of that nature. So they just, you know, thought it was, could just open the door to this big, huge grand conspiracy. What happened to her? Did she stick with you that prison sentence? No, so she was actually in the car when the deal went down. She did like 18 months.

I'll never forget it too We had a knockdown dragout fight The day before I told her I said there's no fucking way In hell you're coming You know what I mean I don't kiss she was like

Oh you know Justin You've done deals with them so many times It's not dangerous And I was just like You're out of your fucking mind And it's crazy Because the only reason That was even an issue

Was because there was these massive thunderstorms in San Antonio It was July 4th The day we got arrested And it was like July 2nd And third, there was just these insane thunderstorms so much so that they canceled school. And so she didn't have school. So she wanted to take the ride with me.

And I was just like, there's no fucking way. And then she threw it in my face. I got you the fucking key. You know what I mean? All right. All right. Whatever. You want to come?

Fucking come. So she was actually in the car when it happened. So that's, you know, another big reason why they're just like, oh, shit. You know what I mean? It's obviously tied to her family. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my bookie. Let me put it like this. Remember how we used to keep things interesting during those long prison stints with sports bets. Especially when football season rolled around, ramen noodles and mackerel's were like gold.

And we'd be scribbling bets on scraps of paper, praying the COs didn't catch on. Well, now that we're on the outside, it's time to upgrade the game. Forget trading fish packets for a win. My bookies got you covered for online betting. Quick and easy. No noodles necessary. and to kick things off, they're throwing in up to $2,000 in bonuses. I mean, when did we ever get that kind of deal on the inside?

So why stick to the old hustle when you can bet like a pro? It's time to play smart, not hard. And now that football is back, winning season is to at My Bookie. They've got everything you need to cash in, starting with weekly, risk-free boosts on Thursdays. When you're bet, you're golden. You lose, no sweat, my bookie refunds your wager. But that's not all. Jump into their super survivor and squares contests for a shot at hundreds of thousands in cash prizes.

This is your chance to win big. And with MyBooky Plus, the more you play, the more you win. Unlock exclusive promos and rewards every step of the way. Are you ready to turn this football season into your winning season? Bet with my bookie now. Whether you're a season pro or a first. time better. There's something for everyone to win big this season. All you have to do is visit my bookie.com. website slash locked in and use promo code locked in to sign up for free and double your

first deposit up to $2,000 plus a $10 casino chip. That's my bookie.com website slash locked in and use promo code locked in to sign up for free and double your first deposit up to $2,000 plus a $10 dollar casino chip. So was her case federal too? Her case was federal too. Where did they send her? FCI Bryant. Okay.

Yeah. And where'd they send you? FCI Bastrop. I've never heard of that. And I actually, actually, what's crazy is nine months, six months before the case happened, about nine months before I got there, I actually went to FCI Bastrop with her to visit her father because her fucking father was in federal prison at the time. What a family.

Oh, it was fucking crazy, man. What did your dad think about all of this, like dating her and or did he had no idea? They, they didn't have any idea. I mean, I was going to college. She was going to college at the same time. If you looked at us, you wouldn't think, oh, here, I mean, whatever, we were ravers. I guess you could look at us, you know, and tell that we were ravers. But there's no way you'd look at us and say, oh, wow, you know, they're involved in the drug trade, etc., etc.

She didn't, I mean, she dressed like a normal pretty, you know, 21-year-old. So there wasn't any tall-tail sign. So I don't think there was anything for my parents to really pick up on and say, oh, wow, look what he's doing. The other thing, too, is, you know, I was going to college. I was on the dean's list. So I was obviously trying to do something to build towards a solid future. So you wouldn't necessarily think that I was into those kinds of things. Did you get automatically kicked out of college when that happened?

Well, it wasn't automatically kicked out. It just couldn't go and, you know, finish classes. But I actually, when I got to prison, I lucked out. I had a mentor there, Steve. And Steve was a college professor, had a PhD in art history, just an absolutely brilliant individual. He was actually the first person in United States history to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for only drugs. Everybody up until that point, there had been guns, there had been violence, there had been something else. He was literally the first person on the books to get sentenced to life in prison without parole for just drugs.

And he had that sentence for 12 years until it got overturned. And he ended up doing about 17 years. He was from San Francisco, really interesting guy, college professor, philosopher, artist, but one of the biggest drug dealers in the Bay Area in the 1980s. I actually have to reach out to him, see if you can get him on this podcast, because he is just a fascinating individual. So he was my mentor. And I remember, I remember people told me like, oh, yeah, that guy over there with a weird hair, he has a PhD. And I just instantly was just like, wow, really? And because when this happened, I was very critical on myself.

I thought, you know, this was fucking stupid. I didn't have to do this. So what am I going to do now to better myself and actually get something out of this experience? And I said, I'm going to read every fucking book I can get my hands on. I don't care what the subject is. I'm going to treat this like school. I'm going to read books for eight hours a day. And so I really tried to get the best out of the experience.

So when I found out that there was someone there, there was a former college professor, and, you know, had a PhD. I just instantly latched on to him. And I told him about my experience, and he looked at me and he's just like, write your professor's a letter. And so I wrote them a letter, and they actually came to visit me while I was in federal prison. and they helped me, like I started doing research on prison gangs. Steve got me reading the New York Review of Books, which he was like, and if you want to know about good books that are coming out,

this is like the premier intellectual magazine of the English-speaking language. I read that. Yeah, and so I started reading that. And he got in it because one of the things he had me working on was history and improving my vocabulary. And he said, if you can get through even one article in the New York Review of Books without having to go to a dictionary, he said you've improved your vocabulary. And so I started to love the articles and just loved, it's just amazing all the different subjects from science to history to politics. And then one day he said, bring me the degree of books.

So I brought it to him. And he flipped to the back and showed all the contributors and most of them are college professors. And he said, come on down to the library with me. So he went down to the library. And I forget where it was, but he showed me. He said, there are all the addresses from, you know, all these colleges were their professors. And he goes, I've been a college professor. He goes, how you go through your.

mail, you look at the return addresses. He goes, all of your mail has to have, you know, federal prisoner, you know, FCI bash drop on it. He goes, what do you think they're going to do when they're just going through the return mail? And they see that. They're going to be like, what the fuck is this? He said, use it to your advantage. He goes, start a correspondence to these people, said, you never know where it can lead. And so I started corresponding with a lot of different, like I'd read their articles, I'd read their books. And I started corresponding with a lot of different professors. Got all the way up to Dr. Allison Liebling. She was in charge of the Cambridge School of Criminology at the time.

And I read her book and wrote her a letter, told her about the research that I was doing, you know, things of that nature. So it was, I mean, it was fucking hell. I can't sit there and say that it wasn't hell. But it, I'll never forget it. I was walking the track with Steve one time. And he was talking about getting a life sentence in prison without parole. And he goes, you know, if I was having a conversation with God before I was born.

and I was telling God the kind of life that I wanted to live. He goes, this wouldn't have been it. But now that I've lived it and I've experienced it and I've benefited from it, even if it has been a living hell at times, he said I wouldn't go back and change a thing, is what he said. And I've only recently, in my 40s, gotten to that point in life with my identity, my happiness and things of that nature where, you know, I'm not happy with the, harm that I've done other people and how I've hurt other people. But I can say I'm happy with myself. I can say that every, you know, experience of just outright hell that I've been through

I've learned from and ultimately become a better person. So if I was having that same conversation with God, I wouldn't say, hey, I want to go to fucking prison twice and be on the run and all this shit. But now that I'm in this position where I'm at right now and I can honestly say that I love myself and I'm growing to love myself more and more every day. And I know that I'm a product of all of those experiences. I wouldn't go back and change it. Now, was this a low or a medium they sent you to? The FCI Bastrop was a medium low. There was a medium low there and they had, um, they had a camp there. It's, it's right outside of Austin. So you didn't see too much gang activity then in this. Oh, no. Oh, there was. Oh, hell yeah. I bring it up because I was in Oklahoma City during transport.

and all of those guys are gang-affiliated going to like the Texas federal prisons. As soon as you get there, if you're Mexican or you're black, they come up and they say, who are you running with? What car are you in? There was kind of different. It was majority Mexican. So the Mexican had all their different cars. You know, some of them were outright gangs, Mexican mafia.

That was the biggest one. And then a lot of them were tangos. Tangosanonto, that was like the biggest one. So if you were Mexican and you got there, it was instantly, who are you running with? And the Mexicans, they had all their own individual groups. But in the same time, if it came down to a conflict with the blacks, even if it was two Mexican tangos that hated each other, they would still group together as a racial group to fight the blacks. And it was majority Mexicans.

So the Mexicans ran the entire prison. and it was very, very, very political. The blacks had their own gangs and their own tangos, but it wasn't as delineated as the Mexicans because they had to act more as a racial group to have numbers to be able to deal with the just massive influence that the Mexicans had. And the whites were pretty much just on the fucking sidelines.

I think there was like a few Aryan circle guys there, but there wasn't any real white gangs. The white guys were all just trying to, you know what I mean, sit on the fucking sidelines and not get involved with anything. So when I got there, the whites didn't approach me because normally like you get there. And even though the whites, the whites weren't really a gang per se and they really weren't running together. You know, other white dudes would come up, give you shower shoes, give you deodorant, give you toothpaste, things like that. And I think why they were kind of confused with me is because I got there.

late at night and instantly went to the cell. It's kind of like a dorm style setting. Instantly went to the cell and then as soon as the doors popped, I went out and I found my ex's father. And so people knew, you know what I mean, who he was. He ran with the fucking Pisas. They knew he was cartel. So people are like, damn, who the fuck is this white dude that just got here? And he's instantly talking to this PISA, you know what I mean, that's associated with the cartel. So I think that I think that the whites were kind of just You know like okay, I guess he's associated with him

Whatever it was so nobody really approached me I was pretty much by myself for about the first maybe month and a half two months And I was living in a cell with a black dude named Shabazz And Shabazz was a fucking character he'd done like 12 years Certified just piece of shit Murdered someone you know would brag about it But he was going to going home. And he was definitely very manipulative with me. And he wanted me to stay in the cell.

He wanted me to stay in the cell because anybody else who moves in the cell, he would have conflict with them. And he couldn't, you know what I mean, try to, you know, use them, manipulate them, do shit like that. And I knew what the fuck he was doing, but I knew he had like two months to go. And so I was just like, you know what? I'm going to tough it out with this dude. It's two months. And then the cell is mine. And I can decide who moves in the cell because that's how it worked. So Shabazz was about to go home and he told me that this other black dude when he left was going to move in the cell, Duke. And I said, Duke ain't moving in the cell. You know what I mean?

Like, this is my fucking cell. Like, you don't get to make that decision. He's just like, oh, I don't know. That's just what Duke said. So I was just like, all right, whatever, he's not moving in. So of course, Shabazz being the manipulative fuck that he was, he went and told Duke that. So I was laying on my bunk. So Juke came in and tried to, you know what I mean?

Like, check me. Like, I'm moving in. So basically stood up and was like, you want to fucking get down. We can get down. you know what I mean between moving in this fucking cell and juke really wasn't you know what I mean a bad dude he was just trying to test boundaries with me and so he kind of saw that like all right you know what I mean

like this dude ain't gonna be a pushover and he's like whatever we'll talk about this later so he walked out to cell and then right after that the dude who spoke one of the dudes who spoke for a tango tango sananto however they fucking say it's been so long Juanio he opened the door and he was just like yo home boy he's like why don't you fucking run with us because I pretty much hung out with all the Mexicans from San Antonio.

I really didn't associate, you know what I mean, with the white dudes and all of that. And they were cool about it. There was one other white dude that was running with them. And I'll never forget. He was just, you know,

your home boy, why don't you run with us? And I was just like, I mean, can I? Like, I'm fucking white. He's like, yeah, man, don't worry about it. I was like, all right. And so he shut the door

and went over to the cell that Juke was in. Shabaz was right there too. And he looked at him. He goes, yo, he runs with us. And just walked away. And I never forget to look on Shabazz's face because Shabazz knew at that fucking point.

Like, motherfucker, they're ain't a goddamn thing you can say to me. You think you're going home in a week. You know what I mean? You keep causing this fucking drama and they'll fucking handle it. And so Juk, you know what I mean, knew about that too. So Shabazz moved out. A couple people from San Antonio moved in. And that definitely made things easier.

Still very political. I mean, there were conflicts with other groups. You know what I mean? There were conflicts one time almost with the fucking Mexican mafia right before we were about to leave because I got the ARDAB program. So I got a year off my sentence. Then you got to be in there for nine months. Something happens. You go to the hole. You don't get that year off your sentence. And I want to say maybe had a months to go. And all because of a fucking gambling book that the Mexican mafia was trying to tax, it almost turned into a fucking riot.

And I remember thinking like, God damn it, like this helped me out my whole fucking bid. And here it is. I'm about to lose a year off my sentence. You know what I mean? Because it is fucking shit. But it was like that's federal prison in Texas. I mean, I remember the poker table. These were all like, you know, a lot of cartel fucking drug dealers. These were not street level drug dealers. These were big motherfuckers. And the poker table, I don't give a shit what time of day it was, whatever it was.

There was $10,000 on that poker table at all times. You can go to Vegas, you know what I mean? And there's poker tables that don't have $10,000 on it. And sometimes there'd be more than that. And they were all, you know what I mean? Just drug dealers with a lot of fucking money all. from the border. And the drama that almost happened was this guy's name was Big Pops. He was a white dude. It's from San Antonio. He was a bail bondsman. There was an IRS agent

investigating him and he tried to fucking kill the IRS agent. Yeah, he's another one. Oh my God. But he was just a gambling motherfucker. And he had a book in there. Like he was the bookie. And there was, because I remember one of my cellies would actually like tally the book for him. And I remember one time we were going through it. And there was two hundred. $140,000 worth the fucking bets in there. You know what I mean? Like that's a big book, whether you're in prison or whether you're out of prison. There was guys in there doing $5,000 bets, $10,000 bets, $20,000 bets.

You know what I mean? All of that. Now, they're not using cash. No, no, no. It was all money exchanged outside. The poker table was stamps. You know what I mean? But still, like stamps still had a monetary value.

So you could look at it and say, hey, there's $10,000 on there. But the book that Big Pops ran, that was all money exchanged outside. And if someone didn't send that money on time, there would be ramifications. Yep. But you know what, though, for the most part, big pops was smart. He knew who had money and he knew, you know what I mean, who didn't. It was a, you know, a bunch of big money drug dealers that got a thrill off fucking gambling in prison. So, you know, there was times where, you know, pops paid out $40, $60,000.

He'd have his people on the outside world, you know, go meet those people. And there was times that he got paid $40 or $60,000. What's your view on prison politics? Because you're someone that's smart, you know, you had a good head on your shoulders. Did you find it silly because, like, me going into prison? I'm like, this is so stupid, half of these rules. I liked it because, well, it's kind of like damned if you do, damned if you don't. For the most part, it kept things really chill.

If you were out on the yard and somebody did something to you, it was disrespectful. If you just got in a fight with them right then and there, you could actually get a discipline because you don't know that dude might owe someone from the Mexican Mafia $1,000 and you get in a fight with them and he gets shit. shipped off, you know what I mean? Now the MA dudes coming after you for the $1,000. So people knew that. And it's just, you know, if we're out in the yard and you disrespect me, rather than you and I getting in a fight right then and there. I mean, it still happens. It's fucking prison. But for the most part, you go back there, you go tell your people, they would go talk to your people and they would talk about it. And if it was like, yo, Ian's in the wrong, you would get a discipline. You know what I mean, for being in the wrong.

So it really kept things in control. But then it could erupt into a fucking riot. So it's kind of like rather and just being kind of mediocre, even keel, it was just there was nothing going on or there was going to be a fucking riot going on. So it's, you know what I mean? I mean, I definitely, I don't want to say I liked it, but I definitely appreciated it just because you knew for the most part where you stood. And you knew that if you were in a car, you know what I mean, that people just couldn't come up and fuck with you. And a lot of, you know, a lot of the white dudes, even though the white dudes were staying on the sidelines, there was, you know what I mean, a lot of times that people would fuck with them just because, hey, you're white, you're not in a fucking car. This is majority Mexican, you know what I mean? And then after that black. And I mean, it wasn't, you know, horrible shit getting taken advantage of, but it still was, you know, some fucked up shit going on. So I loved being in a fucking car. And I mean, like, some of those guys are still, you know what I mean, some of my closest friends to the, this day. But yeah, I mean, looking at it, you kind of look at it like, oh, it's fucking kind of crazy.

Doesn't make sense. But that was one of the things when I was in there, I started doing research on because I thought it was very fascinating how there were gangs, which had a hierarchy. And there's a hierarchy. You're the leader. The leader tells you to do something. You have to fucking do it. And then they look at membership exists inside prison and also outside prison.

And then they had the tangos. And the tangos were getting together so that ganges. can't have an influence on us. And it was more of a democracy where you got together and you decided who was going to speak for you. And there was no hierarchy where, you know what I mean? One person could tell you what to do. And so I came up with my own operational definition and I called them conflict groups because they were ultimately groups that were geared around, you know, the threat of conflicts. So I wanted to come up with a different definition rather than just calling them gangs because a tango isn't a gang.

it's clearly separate. But then it was interesting to see how the Mexicans were, you know, every Mexican in there was either part of a gang or a tango. And they could act like different groups. But then if it came to a racial dispute with the blacks, they would all get together and they would act as a racial group. So I came up with three basically definitions of one was a racial group, one was a tango, and one was a gang. And how there was kind of this, you know, fluidity between how, you know, you could have groups. that were clearly separate. One's a gang. One's a tango. But then they could come together as a racial group because there was another racial threat. So I thought it was pretty fascinating to

sit there, you know, kind of read up on prison research and gangs. Tocovus is the go-to for premium handcrafted Western boots. Stop by any store location for a warm welcome, a cold drink in hand, and a truly one-of-a-kind shopping experience. Let our friendly staff help you find your new go-to boots, whether your first bear or your 50th. Finish things off with a complimentary boot brand to make them extra special. Come for the boots, stay for the good times. Tocovus, Forever West. And then just observe it, you know, happening right in front of you.

And it's amazing that you were doing that at that age because the guys I ran into that were that age in prison because I was around that age were there for guns, you know, drugs. Like they were caught up in a RICO case. They weren't the kingpins or anything. And they were just trying to fuck up their time. Yeah. Like getting into trouble. They were riding with whoever. If the leader of the car said, hey, go do this.

They're the hitman. They're going to do it. So to have that mindset, you know, it's completely different. Were there tangos where you were at? Never heard of that before. Yeah. That's a real Mexican thing. It's not just Mexican, but pretty much like Texas too.

Yeah, I didn't really run it. There were Mexicans at the F-Fortex where I was at, but they were. I thought you were. here in Danbury. I don't know. You were in Jersey. I was in Danbury, Fort Dix, and then I went all the way to Wisconsin, to Oxford at the prison camp there. But the Mexicans here were like low-level, drug guys, 10, 15 years, no violence among the Mexicans. It was only the blacks that would have the violence. Okay. The white guys kind of did their own thing, stayed out of the way, and then you had so many chomos because it's a big chomo compound. And then Danbury's more ran by like the Italians, the Italian white guys. But I struggled because no one, everyone automatically thought I was a chomo because of my age. Okay.

I never got approached by a car. I never got taken care of. Okay. So when I started getting into trouble with other cars, there was beef among the car leaders because they were like, why didn't you look after your own people? Okay. For me, they should have went up to me, checked my paperwork. did whatever, because I didn't know shit about prison politics. Yeah.

So it got dicey. Yeah. But then eventually they hashed everything out and stuff. And the Connecticut car is so small at Fort Dix. Okay. There's like... So then was it a Connecticut car just white people or was it anybody from Connecticut was a car? Yeah.

So at Fort Dix it was New York car, D.C. car, New Jersey car, and New England car, which was like Massachusetts and Connecticut. And it didn't matter if you were white, black or Hispanic. If you were just... That's crazy how different it is. Wow. And the Spanish kind of had their own car, I think, but some Spanish were with the New York car. So I think they got to choose. But it wasn't necessarily race related at Fortix at all.

It was more location geography. That's interesting. Yeah. And that differs from like California. And then like in Texas, like what you're talking about, it's completely different on the East Coast. And then when obviously you're at a camp, there's no politics at all. There's no cars or anything like that. Yeah. It's just kind of like the hierarchy of who's been.

they're the longest and who the head orderly is that's called like the shots. Well, that was, it was definitely different going to state prison in New Jersey because federal prison in Texas, high up, a lot of Mexicans, cartel, big money drug dealers, you know, white collar crime guys. So just the caliber of criminal you're around was completely and totally different. And state prison in New Jersey was just low level, you know, drug fiends pretty much. There was a drug dealer in there. They were barely drug dealers, and it was majority black.

There was a lot of, you know, Hispanics in there. But, you know, same thing. Just not a lot of white people. And that was, it was definitely more racial. I feel like it was easy, though, because I was in my 40s, where kind of, you know, the younger crowd that was really kind of getting into trouble, et cetera, et cetera. I guess they didn't look at me like that.

And then plus I was just like, motherfucker, I've done five years in the feds. Like, miss me with that fucking bullshit. Like, if you want to fucking come test me, come fucking test me. Yeah, to respect that. Yeah, 100%. So they just kind of understand like, all right, like this dude isn't going to fucking back down. He's no bitch because I remember people would try to, you know, kind of test me. And I just tell him like, bro, I've done five and a half years in the feds.

And it was instantly just like, all right, my bad. Like, I'm going to leave you the fuck alone. Like, come on, man. Like, I'm not. This isn't my first fucking rodeo. I know exactly what the fuck you're getting at. I know exactly what the hell you're trying to do and miss me with that bullshit because it's not going to fucking happen. So when you got out that first time from the Fed sentence.

Did you ever imagine that you'd go back to prison? What was your mindset? Fuck, no, man. I, from the moment I got arrested, I remember sitting in the back of that car telling myself, never again, I will do whatever the fuck it takes to never go back. And I held to that commitment for the longest time. I didn't waste one second when I was in federal prison. I read so much. I told you everything I did.

I got out, went back to school, was on the president's list. and had everything going for me. And I thought that I wanted to go to graduate school. I thought I wanted to do a PhD in criminology because there was about 12 ex-cons at that point who had PhDs in criminology. And I said, you know what? I want to go get a PhD.

I want to be a college professor. But I also felt like I'd have my youth taken from me. And so I said, I don't want to do it just yet. I kind of want to take some time off and enjoy life. Because you go to graduate school for four years. I mean, you might as well be in prison. Shit. And then after that, you know what I mean?

Like thinking about starting a career. And so I remember I went to visit my sister. She's a chiropractor. So she was going to graduate school in San Francisco. And I went to visit her for my birthday. And I just absolutely loved it. It wasn't the shit show that it is now. It was actually an amazing city back then.

So just absolutely loved it. Went back to Texas and just said, I want to move out there. And I wanted to move out there because I wanted to enjoy life. I felt like it just had so much taken from me. But I also, before I went and made it in the academic world, I wanted to see if I could make it outside of the academic world. And I was looking at Craigslist and I saw there's all these, you know, high paying jobs, $100,000, $200,000. And I said, fuck, and I want to go over there and I want to, you know what I mean, get a high paying job. And even though I don't want to make it a career, I really want to be a professor and get a PhD, I just want to prove to myself that I can make it in that world.

So I moved out there. and the first job I got was at a portion of Audi dealership. And I remember everybody told me, oh, you're crazy. You're not going to make money right now. And I was just thinking, it's like, you don't know me watch. And so my first month, I made $10,000. My second month, I made $10,000. And my third month, I had about $15,000 worth of deals in about the first four days that I was just about to close.

And they came down to my desk and they said, hey, the owner needs to see you upstairs. So in California, you have to have a sales license. And how it works is you go to the DMV and get your temporary sales license and you can sell cars under your temporary sales license. And they go through the process, doing the background check, things of that nature. And I thought, like, I went to prison for selling drugs. Like, I don't steal. You know what I mean? Like there's nothing, I wouldn't think that selling drugs would have anything to do with selling cars.

So I didn't think that they wouldn't give me my permanent sales license. Well, they deny my permanent sales license and it was crazy because the assistant manager and the manager never told the owner that I had a record because they didn't know if you would care, but they were just like, look, you have what it takes. You're a fucking badass. Like you know what you're doing. So we're not going to tell him. And he found out because they deny my sales license and he called them up there. And he said, is there anything we can do to help him out. And he said, if we have to hire an attorney ourselves, whatever it is, you know, a statement from me. He said, do whatever it takes to, you know, make sure that this man can work for us. And he signed my last check, called me into his office, shook my hand and said, I'm so sorry that, you know, I have to do this. But my hands are tied. And he said, if you ever get this, you know, taken away, said you always have a job here. And I went to my car and I fucking cried, man. I literally cried. Even talking about it right now, it almost makes you want to fucking cry. I was so proud of myself. I felt like I, you know, was a man to his word.

You know what I mean? I said, I'm not going back. I'm going to do everything at fucking 10. and I found a job that I loved. I found an employer that, you know, appreciated me, loved me, saw value in what I did. I had customers that enjoyed me too. I had a customer that told me like, the other car is kind of cheaper. We kind of like it better, but we just want to buy a car from you.

And I loved that job, and I was so proud of myself. And to have that taken from me because of my record. And it's not like I was a pedophile trying to get a job in a fucking daycare center. I can understand that. You know what I mean? It's just like it's not like I got convicted of fraud and was trying to get a job in a bank. I got convicted, you know what I mean, for selling drugs, trying to make money. And there's no fraud, nothing of me being dishonest.

And so it's just, you know, taking my sales license, it just said, fucking, it destroyed me. But I can be a resilient person. And I just stopped and said, you know what? I'm going to turn this into a fucking blessing in disguise and I'm going to go out there. I'm going to find something fucking better. Fuck it. This is just a universe pointing me. in the right direction. Got my resilience back, got my strength back, and started looking for other

jobs. And I got a interview, it was a group interview with AXA Financial Services. And I remember it was a group interview. There were guys that had just graduated with MBAs from fucking Wharton and Michigan and all this shit. And the guy who was doing the interview, he was late. And he came in and he said, he said, I'm not even telling you guys this to entice you and make you want this job. but I'm not exaggerating. I just closed a life insurance deal that is a $400,000 commission paid out at once up front. And he goes, this is the kind of job that this is.

And so I'm just sitting there like, holy fuck. And he broke it down and said, look, 93% of people don't make it past their fourth year, but 98% of people that make it past their fourth year never do anything else. And he goes, if you get this job, you're going to make $100,000 a year for the first four years. He said you're going to work six days a week, 18 hours a day. You're going to fucking hate life. but if you get past that fourth year, you start getting all that compounded effect,

you start making real money. And so he was telling us about the job. It was a group interview. I forget what the question was, but he went around the table asking us various things. And the whole time I was just thinking, like, I mean, whatever, it was a cool experience, but there's no fucking way they're going to hire me.

I'm a, you know, felon. I have a record. These kids have MBAs from some of the top business schools in the country. And so he said, all right, you know, that concludes the interview. We'll reach out to you guys, let you know if we want you to come back in for a second interview.

So we got to, up. We were all leaving. And he walked around the table and he came up and he just kind of like tap me on my elbow and he just, you know, kind of gave me the look. I was like, hey, come over here. So, okay? So he just kind of let everybody clear out. And he looked at me and he goes, you have what it takes, man. He goes, you are going to be successful at this fucking job. He said this job will make you a millionaire. And he was, he's like, I'm ready to hire you on the spot. And I'm just sitting there thinking like, holy fuck, like could not believe it. And I'm sitting there thinking like, sucks that I lost a job at the portion of out of the other shit. But I knew if I just held

on. I could turn this into something better. And I just told him right away. I said, I have a record. I've been to prison. You know, just got to let you know that. And he goes, I don't care. He said, if you can get bonded and you can pass the series seven and the series 63, he said, I don't care. He goes, you are going to succeed at this job. And couldn't get bonded because of my record. So once again, you know, another door slammed in my face because of my record. And that started to break me down. And that started to, you know, even if it was subconsciously in the back of my mind, start to think like, eh, you know, do I want to get back into doing things? Because it was California.

It was Northern California. This was California's fucking just gold rush days. I mean, millionaires were made overnight in the weed game. And so the guy that I moved out there with to California, he had a friend who knew guys, he had a friend who knew these guys in California. and his friend Joe wanted to try to make money off of them. So he called up my friend Rob and said,

hey, do you think you can find anybody up there that can get, you know, 100 packs? And let's see if we can make something in the middle off these guys. And so Rob was having that conversation with Joe. And Rob was my roommate. You know, we moved from Texas together, San Francisco. And Rob came to me and was just like, hey, I know you don't want to get back into this.

But could you, you know, be my consultant? I've never done anything like this before. Could you kind of help me, point me in the right direction, et cetera, et cetera? And so I was just like, all right, whatever, you know what I mean? I won't get involved. I'll point you in the right direction. Even though in the back of my mind, it's just like on a federal fucking level, you're still part of the goddamn conspiracy.

But I was just thinking like, okay, you know, I won't touch anything, won't get dirty, et cetera, et cetera. And at that point, like, I was broke. You know what I mean? Like I had had a job in probably six, seven months. It was, you know, I could have gone back to working in a restaurant, but I just didn't want to fucking do that. I was just thinking like, no, you know, I came out here to have something better.

And so that went from being a consultant to just, you know, being the motherfucker that was doing everything. And I remember I did one trip to Texas, just got rid of 20 pounds real quick. It was just like a trial run, made like $10,000 real quick. And I told myself, like, okay, that's it. I just needed to recharge the bank account. I'm not doing anything again. I have my hearing coming up with the administrative law judge. I know I'm going to get my sales license back.

Because once they denied my sales license, I filed an appeal. And it took, it's like eight or nine months until I finally got the hearing. And so I remember, I think it was probably like a week. I had just gotten back from Texas, made that 10 grand. Then it was a week later. And I had that administrative law hearing. And I was just like, all right, perfect fucking timing. Don't ever have to do anything like that again.

I got away with it. I made 10,000. I got enough to, you know, hold me over. and I went to the administrative law hearing, defended myself, embarrassed the fucking state prosecutor, literally fucking embarrassed them. The people in the courtroom stood up and fucking clapped, shook my hand as I walked out,

because I just sat there and made a passionate case for myself. And the one thing that the administrative law judge should have considered was were there signs of rehabilitation. And my whole argument was I got out, I made the fucking president's list. I'm standing in front of you right now. fighting for this sales license because I want to be a legal contributing member of society. If I didn't want my sales license, okay, fine. You know what I mean? It's like you could sit

there and say, oh, you're going to go back to selling drugs, but I'm here fighting, you know, fighting for this, pleading for it. And he brought up a few things at case. So I can't really remember what it was. But, you know, I asked him, like, are you a criminologist? Do you really have expertise in this field to really say whether or not I'm rehabilitated or not? Yada, yada, yada. but she fucking denied it. And I'll never forget leaving that courtroom. And I remember just taking off my tie and just thinking, fuck it. And it was just like gloves are off.

I don't fucking care. It is what it is. Fuck them. And that was, you know, I definitely believe that there should be criminal justice reform. I think that the criminal justice system gets a lot of things wrong and makes it difficult to be a contributing member to society. But the reality is is that I can't change the criminal justice system.

The only thing I can change is myself. And even though there might have been influences that were a contributing factor to me going down that road again, ultimately it's still 100% my fault. And it was me choosing to be weak. It was me choosing to be frustrated that ultimately led me down that path

of going back to prison again. So I would love to advocate for criminal justice reform. I would love to talk to criminal justice professionals and really share with them the experience of what an ex-con goes through when they're released and the kind of things that will help them and the kind of things that will point them in the wrong direction. But ultimately, none of that matters if the ex-cons have the right message. And that's just kind of the philosophy that I live by now is only focus on the things that you can change and the things that you have complete and total power over. And that, the only thing you really have is yourself. And it doesn't matter how the cards are stacked against you. It doesn't matter how much shit is just being showered on you.

You can still choose how you respond to it so that you make the right decisions. So for the longest time, you know what I mean? I was angry with the system and tried to place the blame externally. And the only thing that happened was I got angry and angry and nothing fucking changed. And as soon as I accepted person, responsibility, that's when the anger went away and things started to change. And it's, you know, like they say in life, you don't forgive for the other person's sake. You forgive for your sake. And as soon as I had that moment of saying, you know, but ultimately this is my

fucking fault. I am the one that's responsible for this. That's when I took power back over my life, you know, and have been able to make, you know, just leaps and bounds of changes and short, you know, periods of time. It's what it, you know, ultimately comes down to. So, So that eventually led me to getting on the plane where it's just, you know, started making shit tons of money and just fucking lost myself. And my entire identity was tied up in money. And, you know, next thing you know, you're on a plane with 109 pounds of weed and, you know, getting interviewed by the fucking DEA. And then I was on the run for three years until they caught up with me in Colorado, got the chain back from Colorado. 17 days in the back of a fucking patty wagon.

Absolute insanity. We ended up in ADX Florence, Colorado, picking somebody up. I couldn't fucking believe that. I was just like, what are the fucking odds? 17 days, get back to Jersey, got back to Jersey. Initial bail was a million dollars. And then got it down to 350. And then once it got it down to 350, you know what I mean, made bail.

But, you know, once it's time to pay the fucking Piper, if you've been on the run, they make you fucking pay. Why did you change up your ammo of, you know, going to... Texas. Why did you go on a plane to begin with? Oh, because New York was where all the money was. Like, I initially started going to Texas because that's where I, that's where I knew people, but I also knew people in New York. And Texas was different because Texas, you could go sell weed, but you could get rid of, you know, a hundred pack a month. And you'd have to front it to everyone. Nobody was sitting there with like COD. New York was different. New York, I don't give a shit, what you showed up with. You could find people that, boom, they'd cash you out on the spot.

So it's just a much quicker cycle of going back and forth. Now, this is after 9-11. How were you able to bring it on a plane? No, so it was a private jet. Oh, you would rent it yourself? So that was the first private jet that I ever fucking did. And you rented it or you bought it? Oh, rented it.

So that was cost effective to bring all this product over on a private jet? And you just throw it all in, what, the cargo area? So what happened was, so I initially was using the fucking mail. and I don't even want to say how much I would fucking send because you know it's past the fucking statute of limitations you still don't want to throw that in people's faces but so I went and got a training manual for the United States Postal Service

and learned what they were trained on to look for for packages in the mail and so I said I can change all this up and so I fucking changed it up and people could not believe like the success that I had like they were they literally could not fucking believe it I lost one box. And like I said, if I told you fucking how much I did, I'll tell you off camera.

You know what I mean? You'd be like, what the fuck? I lost one fucking box. It was just this fucking amazing system. But it was dependent upon factors that weren't scalable past a certain point. And I was making great fucking money just sending weed over and getting rid of it to my guys. But I had a bunch of friends in California that I was getting weed from. and they saw, you know what I mean, my success.

And they said, do we want to hire you for transportation? And so it was just like this other opportunity just on my lap where I'm just like, holy shit, I can literally double my income just from getting into transportation. And I had another friend who told me about a guy he knew in L.A. that brokered private jets. And he had always wanted to see if it was possible to use private jets to get it back to New York. And, you know, I knew plenty of people that were doing it. You just have to know what the fuck you're doing.

Like, you're going to fuck around with private jets. You better know. And so I went down there and I met the guy, told him the situation. He just said, look, dude, all you got to do is wire me the money. We booked the fucking jet. I give them the story. You don't have to speak to anyone. I'll literally fly it from L.A.

I'll get you on the plane. It's all good. Don't fucking worry about it. And I'm a pretty skeptical person. You know what I mean? Like, I don't really believe a lot of people. But this guy seemed like you knew what the fuck he was talking about. I trusted him.

So I was just like, all right, cool. So wired him the money for the fucking jet. Took the weed, put it in, you know, the containers that people, like they travel with, you know, they have amps in, like kind of like bands, equipment like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, put it in there. Put non-disclosure stuff on there because I thought, you know what? I'm going to have legal paperwork on me that says that the contents are protected by a non-disclosure agreement. So I don't even know what's in there.

I can't even tell you what's in there. So I was just thinking like, all right, if they ever do fucking ask me, it can be like, boom. There's non-disclosure agreements all on the outside. Here's the fucking legal paperwork. So I had all that on me. And the thing of it is that the dude that booked the jet, turns out he was a fucking idiot. Two things happened.

He was a fucking idiot. And the pilot was a snitch for the DEA. Right? So he tells the jet company that it's four guys going to New Jersey for a golf trip in fucking December. December 12, 2012. And it's like, this is really the best story you have. Who the fuck goes from sunny California to cold-ass New Jersey in the middle of fucking winter for a golf trip?

That's your first thing like you're fucking stupid. But he was just trying to come up with a story like, oh, they have golf bags and luggage. So we need a plane that has an undercarriage to pack all of this. He didn't want to tell them that it was equipment to make them suspicious, supposedly. Well, he was trying to make money off the trip. So he found a cheaper leg that was a dead leg. So what dead legs are is if there's a jet in Oakland and they need to get it to Teterboro because they have a paying client over there in Teterboro, that trip of flying from Oakland to

Teeterboro is it's going to be a negative expense to them because they have to pay for the fuel. So they're willing to sell that flight out for cheaper because it's a dead leg because the money making client is over here. And so he found that plane. It was just like, oh, fuck it. He was going to make like an extra $10,000 off me. And so he was just like, all right, fuck it. I'll make it work. And so I get there.

It's a small plane. There's no undercarriage. Here's these two big-ass containers that took, I don't know, 20 minutes to get into the fucking jet. And the whole time he's there, he's like, dude, it's okay, man, don't worry about it. Like I booked these guys all the time, blah, blah, blah, all this bullshit. And I'm just sitting there like, all right, like whatever. I'm just like, it's $300,000 with the weeds, a manageable loss, whatever. It's probation.

It is what it is. And the whole time, the pilots on the inside, calling his fucking DEA contacts. because they get 25% of street value, whatever it is. So if there's money or drugs and you're a snitch and you tell them and it's $400,000 worth a weed, guess what? You just made $100,000. So there's an incentive for it. So plane takes off Oakland and Teterboro.

We land. It's night. And how it works in Teterboro is, the jet kind of comes up to the hangar. And then they have like a little, kind of like a mini shuttle. They take all, you know, the containers off. and then they drive you around to where your car is waiting. And as they're driving me around, I just see it. And there's this port authority fucking cop cars everywhere.

And there's just, you know what I mean, a shit. You can tell their cops. I'm just like, motherfucker. Here we go. And so as soon as the shuttle stops, door opens, four DE agents get on. And the Scudis, that was his name, fucking lion's sack of shit.

He gets on. And, you know, he's always, trying to get you know, you sit there trying to feed you bullshit. He's like, oh, you know, we're here with the Port Authority. We're looking for weapons, et cetera, et cetera. And I was just like, well, if you were looking for weapons, wouldn't you want to stop me before the plane took off? You know what I mean?

Like, I've landed. If I have weapons, like, I'm not going to hijack the plane anymore. Like, what the fuck am I doing? And he was just like, oh, well, uh, and I was like, bro, I was like, drop your fucking shit. I was like, I know you're here looking for drugs, all right? I was like, just fucking get to it. He's like, oh, no, we're not looking for drugs.

And it's so funny when you read the write-up and the report how they try to say that, oh, that was a suspicion that you have drugs on the fucking plane. It's like, how the fuck is that a suspicion? Because I can call you on your bullshit. I do what the fuck you were doing. And so he tries to ask me if he can look inside the containers. And I say there's a non-disclosure agreement. There's the fucking paperwork you can look at it. I don't have the legal authority to even give you permission to look inside those containers.

Oh, but you kind of dude, you know, trying to talk to me. And I was just like, dude, I don't. and I'm not going to. So I'm going to ask you, am I being detained? Oh, no, no, no, no, you're not being detained. And I said, okay, then I'm free to leave. He goes, yeah, you're free to leave. But I just got to ask you a few more questions.

You know, like, what's your name? And so I told him my name and he'd write down a B and then write down an R and ask me another question. And that's when I told him. I said, you're making this take longer than it should. You're stalling on purpose, which constitutes a detainment. So I'm going to ask you one more time. Am I being detained? You're not being detained.

Then I'm free to leave. I want to leave. And he goes, okay, fine. and he takes out my ID, takes a picture of my ID, and he says, you're free to leave. And he says, but we're seizing the containers. And so I said, okay, so we got off the shuttle, and I turned around and I said one more time,

I said in front of everyone. I said, I am not being detained, correct? He goes, yes. And I said, but you are seizing the containers. He goes, yes, we have the right to do that. I said, okay, fine. So took off, had an SUV waiting for me, and he was like, where to?

I was like, dude, just get into the fucking city as quickly as possible because I knew they were tailing me. and I was just thinking like if I get into the city I can create some fucking confusion because at that point I was just like gotta get the fuck away from gotta get the fuck away from so went all the way downtown

got out of the SUV like I just had to carry on just jumped out it at the fucking light and then it's because I knew there was a subway station over to the fucking subway station and went down got on the subway I didn't even know where the fuck it was going I was like I just got to create distance

and I remember this dude like right as the door was closing ran on and sat down um beside me or no the door wasn't closing because i fucking got off immediately um sat down beside me and it was just kind of like looking like this and you could see his chain with this badge right underneath i remember i was just kind of like caught eye contact with me and i was just like really dude i was like come on and i just fucking got up and just ran um ran out of the subway like right as the door is closing he fucking followed me went up and got in a taxi and um somehow lost them in the taxi i don't fucking

I have no idea how, but I lost them in the taxi. And I remember I was staying in Connecticut at the time. And I had a Jeep SRT up there. And I called my boy and I said, do not fucking ask questions. Take the fucking Jeep. Put it behind this bar because it was this bar where if you walked in the front, you could walk out the back. And I said, put the fucking Jeep behind there.

Put the key in the fucking gas tank. I said, don't ask any questions. Do it right now. And he said, what the fuck's going on? I said, just go fucking do it. So sure enough, he did it. So I had the taxi drive me all the way up there. And I literally, like, gave them cash and just ran out the fucking taxi.

Because I thought they were still behind me. And just ran through the bar, ran out back, hopped in my fucking Jeep, and just started just tearing ass thinking that they were fucking tailing me. But I didn't know until I saw the discovery years later that I had lost them in the city. But when I was in the Jeep, that's when I get the phone call from Scudis. And he tells me, he goes, yeah, we just got the drug dog over here. and the drug dog hit, you know what I mean, notified us that there's narcotics in there. So we're going to need you to come turn yourself in. And I was just like, oh, yeah, yeah, sure, buddy, I'll be right there.

And was on the run for three fucking years, didn't talk to my family, you know, cut contact with all of my friends because I knew that's, you know what I mean, how they fucking hunt you. And had a U.S. Marshal that had the biggest fucking hard on for me, like you cannot fucking fucking fucking. fucking believe, man. Like, unbelievable. Years later, my family would tell me the stories, like all the shit that he would do to them. Like, my mother has Parkinson's. He would fucking harass her. My brother-in-law is from Ireland's hardworking contractor, really, really fucking good man. They cornered him a few times. We're like, you're going to get fucking deported. Told my sister, she was going to go to prison. The kids were going to get taken from them. And these were innocent fucking people. It had nothing to do with it, had no fucking idea

where I was and you know what I mean it's like my sister to this day if you ask her about it she'll start fucking crying because of how badly you know what I mean they fucking tormented her and harassed her and that's the part where hey I can accept person responsibility for everything I did but you know at what point do you really start to look at yourself and say god damn it was a hundred pounds of fucking weed and look what we did to this innocent family you know what I mean it's just like was it really fucking worth it and I remember when that son of a bitch got me in Colorado he came up and put cuffs on me. And I kind of heard some of the stories to like friends of friends. And I looked at him. I said, you're the piece of shit that's been harassing my family.

He's like, nah, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? And I remember I was sitting behind them and I was just like, how do you feel about yourself harassing a fucking woman? You know what I mean? With Parkinson's. I was like, how do you feel about yourself telling an an innocent mother that she's going to go to fucking prison when she didn't know, you know what me where the fuck I was. And he just, you know, didn't fucking say anything. But, you know, they're going to justify it in their own minds. And whatever, you know what I mean?

You could ultimately say that it's my fault because I'm, you know what I mean, the one that, you know, put them in that situation. But the reality is, is that you can't break the law to uphold the law. And they clearly broke the law in their efforts, you know what I mean, to try to fucking hunt me down. And he would make comments to my mom at times, like, oh, I feel like I'm chasing a fucking ghost. Where the fuck is he?

nobody disappears like this, you know, all these things. And to him it was an ego trip. 100% was a fucking ego trip. The case was out of New Jersey. But because my family and my residence was out of California, it got transferred to his list. And he was like the head agent in charge for Northern California for the U.S. Marshals. He put me on the top 10 most wanted list for the fucking Northern California. I was on billboards, like all this fucking crazy shit.

Had friends call me. they were like I don't know how to tell you this we were just trying by and we saw you on a fucking billboard it was on the local news all that shit you know just absolute fucking madness

for 100 pounds of fucking weed just you know it doesn't make any sense but to him it was all ego so he took the case looked for me for years couldn't couldn't find me

couldn't get one fucking lead and because he made no progress he had to give the case back to New Jersey and so my case was actually back in the U.S. Marshal's office in New Jersey, and they didn't give a fuck. Nobody was looking for me. So at that point, nobody was actively looking for me. I mean, it was a case, how it usually goes then is, you know, from time to time, they might

make a few phone calls, hey, here's a fucking active fugitive. But at that point, they just look at it like you'll screw up eventually and we'll eventually find you. But the marshal that was after me in California, he was in federal court for an unrelated case. And he hears a name in it's a very, very unique name. And he instantly goes, I recognize that name. That's an associate of Calcotts. So he went up to the prosecutor and he asked the prosecutor. He's like, hey, who's this Norge guy? What's his case he's on? She goes, oh, he's part of the shrimp boy chow case. You know, he's a big fucking weed runner going back and forth to in California in New York, you know, gave him the rundown on the case. You know, he's not really involved in it. He was, you know,

low level shit, blah, blah, blah. And so he asked for a copy of the indictment. So we got a copy of the indictment and one fucking part in the indictment, Nord and another friend, Gino, mentioned a Brian. One, like literally one Brian in the indictment. And because I read this report years later and the marshal just said, oh, I just, I knew it was Calcott. I knew it was fucking Calcott. And so he actually took out, had his DEA friend take out a DEA number on me so that

they could bill the expenses to the DEA. because at that point my case wasn't even on his fucking desk anymore. So he didn't even have the like budgetary authority to bill anything towards my case. So they took out another DEA number on me. And the first thing they did was they flew to New York and they interviewed Norge and Gino. And the fucked up thing is that that case that Norge was on, I literally bailed him out on that fucking case and got him his fucking attorney. And then that motherfucker years later had the fucking audacity. You know what I mean?

To fucking snitch on me. tell them where the fuck I was. And it was funny because for like a couple years, because I was on bail for three and a half years over there, had no idea how they got me. And then we filed another motion for discovery because they wouldn't admit that the pilot was a snitch. And so we kept on trying to get them to admit that, kept on filing for more discovery. And she said, oh, we just...

I'm Serena Williams, and I'm healthier on Roe. I've lost 34 pounds in a year with GLP1's diet and exercise. On Roe, you can access GLP1 options, including the first FDA-approved gLP1 pill for weight loss. Go to row.com slash journey to see if you qualify. 14 to 20% average weight loss in one year in non-diabetics with obesity or overweight with a weight-related medical condition

versus 2.2% to 3.1% in placebo R.X only. To stay informed about serious side effects, go to row.com slash safety. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did. and have one of your assistants assistants, assistants,

switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.

Got this report back from the U.S. Marshal's office, you know, in the DEA, here it is. And they didn't black out anybody's names, fucking nothing, just as clear as day. We interviewed Norge. This is what he said. This is what Gino said on and on and on. It was just fucking crazy how, you know, situation like that, they're not even trying to fucking, which maybe it was a mistake.

But, you know, there was a report of here's how you got snitched on by everyone fucking names and all. If it was a federal case, you probably never would have got bail because they probably would have deemed you a risk of flight. No, if it was a federal case, I'd never would have gone on the run. I would have gotten maybe 18 months. 100 pounds of weed in the feds is fucking nothing. Yeah, but you didn't know it was going to be a federal or not when you went on. on the run, right? No. Because a DEA did bust you.

No, I knew it was a DEA, but they had told me that it went to Bergen County. Okay. Because, and here's the deal. When we had an evidentiary hearing, the cop, he fucked up. He was on the evidentiary hearing, and they were asking him, like, you know, what happened, said, oh, you know, told no story. I just told you. And then he left, and we had a drug dog show up and the drug dog, you know, told us that there was narcotics in the in the containers and he goes okay then what'd you do but he goes oh we called

the federal prosecutor and told them that was marijuana and the federal prosecutor said no we don't want it and so then it went to the state of new jersey and said okay so then what happened so we went to the state of new jersey we got the search warrant then we opened up to containers and it's just like how did you know that it was marijuana if you hadn't opened the containers yet drug dogs don't signal you know what's inside they just let you know that there's narcotics in there so obviously they opened up the containers before the drug dog even got there. And the first attorney I had,

he didn't catch that on the evidentiary hearing. The second attorney that I had, he was a former federal prosecutor, and he told me straight up, he goes, I know for a fact they opened those containers because he used to be a federal prosecutor. He said, if you would have called me, and you would have told me,

a drug dog hit on the containers, we don't know what was in the containers, but the individual who had them has a history of cocaine. He would have said, I want the case. I'm assuming it's cocaine. If there's anything else in there, then we'll give it to the state courts. But at that particular point, he would have said with your history and not knowing what was in the containers, he said any federal prosecutor would have said, yes, let the search warrant go through a federal court.

So he said the fact that it went through a state court, they had already opened up the containers at that point before they had the fucking search warrant to know what was inside there, to know that it was weed. How old are you when this happened? I was 32. Oh, you were 32 when this happened the second time? Mm-hmm. Oh, so they still counted your first arrest then as a conviction on your record because it was only, what, 10 years? Well, yeah, I mean, I'd been off paper, but yeah, they try, in New Jersey, it's called a brimage plea. They were trying to give me a brimage plea.

The prosecutor was, and the judges kept on saying, go fuck yourself. We're not doing a brimage plea. This is weed. Like, we don't care. Okay, fine, he's going back to prison. But, yeah, if I would have gotten a brimage charge, it would have started it. 10 years. So you got five and a half. How much do you do on five and a half? No, so I got a seven and a half year sentence for the weed case. I ended up doing 18 months. That's it? Yeah, because of COVID.

Ah, so you got out early. Everybody told me that because it was my second bid and it was a seven and a half year sentence that expect to do about, you know, like three, three and a half. And then they'd give me parole. And it was right there in COVID. And they were just trying to fucking get rid of people. So I got parole after 18 months. And was your attitude different coming out of prison? I mean, when I was on bail, my attitude was different. My mother has Parkinson's. I was stuck in New Jersey for three and a half years. Her condition really started to deteriorate. And I wanted to help her. And so I got into nutrition. And one of the things I found out is that the information is only has value if it's applicable. And it just wasn't applicable to my mother's life. And so I said, you know what? I'm just going to make food from

my mom because ketogenic diets really help with Parkinson's. I'd learned that starting to study nutrition. And so I said, you know what? I'm just going to make the food for her. And I just got the idea for a keto meal delivery company while I was on bail and just like, fuck it. I'm going to do it. And it exploded in less than six months. We were doing 150 to $180,000 a month in revenue. in our first full year in business, we were, we did $2 million in sales. That was the first legitimate business that I ever taught. So it definitely, you know, taught me a lot about myself that I have the ability that, you know, here I am on bail, having all the cards stacked against me. And just because I decided to use my energies in a positive way, it's, you know what I mean, look, look what happened.

And so my attitude while I was on bail was, you know, everything that I told you about, the self-reflection, things of that nature had already started to come to the surface. And I had already started to learn so much, you know what I mean, about myself. But even though the meal prep business was started for good reasons, there was still some negative reasons in that I was still trying to have money from when I got out. That was the one thing that I was trying to avoid at all costs. I can't be broke again. I can't be broke again.

That's what I was just so scared of. And ultimately, it was losing that meal prep business, having everything taken from me again, where I said the universe just laid me bare and just allowed me to learn, you know what I mean, my greatest lessons. But it was, it was hard. Once again, I was extremely proud of myself. I was looking at myself, here I am on bail, had an ankle bracelet on, had to be home at 9 o'clock every day because they wouldn't let me leave the state of New Jersey.

and it was just like I started something from nothing and I was so proud of myself. We got approached by a famous doctor from Harvard. He was doing a study on ketogenic diets and we were going to get the contract to supply everyone with their food for the, and it's actually a famous study too. It's a very famous ketogenic study.

We were selected for that study to provide them with food and they found out about the case and I remember the doctor called me And he said, I'm really sorry, Brian, but I just can't get them to approve, you know what I mean, the funding for this because of your case. And he said, I personally don't care. I personally love your story. You know what I mean? And I love what you're doing.

That hurt. You know what I mean? It's just like, here I am once again doing something that I feel is positive. And it's, you know, making an impact in people's life in a very important way. We had cancer patients that were eating our food to stay alive. I mean, it really, really impacted me. And I was just so just, you know, proud of it that we were able to have that kind of positive contribution in people's lives with regards to their health. One of the most memorable moments of my life was one of our clients calling me up.

She had myself a number. I talked to her all the time, give her, like, nutritional advice. And she was crying. And I knew she had cancer. And I'm sitting there thinking, fuck, like, did we get her sick? Like, what happened? Because it's like, why is a client calling me crying? and she had just left her oncologist and our oncologist told her that she was in remission

and that he 100% thought that it was because she was eating our food and was in a ketogenic state. So she was literally calling me to basically say thank you for being a part of me being in remission and feeling like I'm going to fucking live. That just absolutely touched me where I said, okay, this is what I want to do. I love nutrition. I see how it's helped my mother with Parkinson's. I think it's the most important matter facing our. time. I even started a podcast called The Purpose Driven Plate, which was all about

regenerative agriculture. And the whole concept is, you show me what's going wrong in your life, and you show me your plate, and I'll show you the cause, and I'll show you the solution. And I firmly believe that about food. I firmly believe that about our food system. I think if you look at America and you look at what we've done to our soil and how we have depleted our soil, just raped and pillaged our soil. And as the soil has deteriorated, so too has our national character. As we've moved further away from nature and just go into an industrial way of creating food rather than a natural and regenerative way, our just entire character, not just as a country,

but just as humans worldwide has completely and totally deteriorated. So I came across all of that while I was on bail and just said, you know, this is absolutely 100%. what I want to do with my life. We, I got approached by a client who ran his own personal funds, called me up, said, how the hell does this food taste this good? What are your sales like? I told them what the sales were like. And he said, look, he said, I absolutely want to be a part of this.

I want to get you into this program. It's one of the largest business law firms in the world. This is what they do. It's not even really a legal program so much as it's a business development program. And so I was in the Goodwin and Proctor building. New York City and the New York Times building. And the attorney told me this is $100 million to a billion dollar idea. And the goal is to get you in every grocery store across the United States.

And that was less than 12 months, maybe less than 10 months since I had started that business. And that was the first legal business that I had ever started. So I was on cloud nine. I was just, you know, once I was just like, fuck, you know what I mean? Like I did it. Like, and of course you feel stupid. You think Jesus Christ, I would have done this when I was younger. never would have to go to prison,

wouldn't have to go through all of this, you know what I mean, all these things. But the, there was some conflict with the law firm because I told them that I would never relinquish nutritional, our control of the nutritional contents going in the food because I knew what they would try to do.

I knew that they would try to come in, cut corners, and that ultimately it wouldn't be the healthiest food as possible. And I just was thinking there's no fucking way I'm doing that to people that have cancer. There's no fucking way I'm doing that to people that are eating our food to try to stay, alive. So that created some conflict where they were really trying to get me to succumb to that and be like, look, we understand your position, but come on, you got to give some leeway. And I knew that if you gave them any kind of leeway or any kind of control that they would just take it and run with it. So that was

already creating, you know, some resistance on their part. And then they found out about the case that I was on bail and fucking dropped me. And so it was just like, Jesus, like once again, here we go with this, where that's the part that's just disheartening where, you're saying, okay, not going to do anything illegal again. I know I don't have to. I'm going to take all of my creative energies and use it for good. It wasn't even like I was trying to just make money in a legal way. I was trying to make money in a legal way that I felt had, you know,

just an unbelievable impact on people's health. And to just be told like, oh, no, no, you can't do that because of your record to have those two big opportunities, like a famous doctor from Harvard doing what is now a very, very famous ketogenic study. And we were going to get to be the meal prep company for that. And then to have this massive opportunity where this just insanely connected business law firm was about to take us into this business development program to get us in every country. I mean, every supermarket across the country. It just felt amazing. And it's just once again, slap in the face. No, sorry. You know what I mean? You can't do this all because of your record. It's disheartening. Now in the past you had let those experiences of being let down kind of bring you back towards that bad path. Why didn't you let this one bring you back down a bad path after person after getting out?

You got to focus on what you can control. It doesn't matter how many times life kicks me. It doesn't matter how many time life shits on me. How many times all these things happen that are outside of my control? It doesn't matter. I still am in control to how I respond. and those are the things that you have to focus on. In wasting your energy on getting upset about the things that are outside of your control,

it just leads to absolutely nothing. It leads to you wasting your time. It leads to you wasting your energy. And it leads to you making bad decisions. So, I mean, I would say that the slap in the face with being told that I had $100 million to a billion dollar idea and having that pulled from me like that, all because of my record, that was more disheartening than having my sales license taken when I was in the Porsche in Audi dealership.

But I had learned at that point that, hey, you know what? Even if this is a situation, I can still focus on what I'm in control of. I can still focus on my response to this. And I don't have to make a bad decision again just because I'm feeling, you know, oh, poor me, I'm doing everything right and when, you know, I mean, I keep on getting slapped in the face. I might as well make another bad decision. Ultimately, that's what determines the way you go in life. And so now I'm very aware of that. And I've started a marketing business now. Things are taken off like fucking crazy. I mean,

it really is, you know what I mean, encouraging where things are right now. But it's not all rainbows and butterflies. You know what I mean? There's still all days where you're just like, oh, fuck. You know, how do I deal with this? How do I deal with that? But I just stay focused on the things that I can control. And if that's what you stay focused on, then you retain your power and you don't give it to something outside of you. Does your record still affect you to this day in business and life relationships? Yeah, trying to get a place to fucking live.

Relationships, yeah, absolutely. You meet a girl. When do I tell her? You understand? And then my situation, it's like, oh, yeah, I've been to prison. twice Not just Not just once

It's like I mean if I was a girl Somebody told me like Oh you've been in prison twice It'd be like well fuck How long is it Until the third time You understand

So it's Bad boys are in though Yeah I know look at Yeah but the kind of girls That are in the fucking bad boys I've had enough of them So

They like the ones They have their shit together After prison Yeah Because any I think it's admirable Anyone that fucks up You know Goes to prison

And then comes back And gets it all back Plus some and has their life together. I think that's the attractive part. Absolutely. Well, it's one thing if you've been given a silver spoon,

okay, great, you have wealth, you have all these things, but you didn't fucking build it. You know? Yeah. If you've had... You've experienced pain. Mm-hmm.

You've had everything taken from you, and yet you still have it. That's respectable. My analogy is there's two ways to get to the top of Everest or the top of any mountain. You can get in a helicopter and get dropped off up there,

or you can climb that mountain. And if you climb that mountain, it's going to be the same view as the individual that got dropped off with the helicopter, but you're going to look down and you're going to have scars and there's going to be fucking blood

and you're going to remember every last inch of that mountain that you climbed. But every last inch of that mountain that you fucking climbed improved you and made you better and you look down and you're going to be ripped

and you're going to be shredded and you're going to be in an, you know, amazing shape in that lazy piece of shit that got dropped off at the top of the mountain in the fucking helicopter, what's he going to be like? And so ultimately, it's not just women, but it's just people in general. Not everybody has a helicopter ride to the top. Most of us have to climb that mountain.

So everybody's on that mountain slope right now. And some people freeze and say, this is too hard. I can't continue to climb. So the people that they're looking for, for advice, for motivation, are the people that have climbed that mountain and they're up on top and they're saying, hey look you can do this you can make it the person that took the helicopter up there what can they tell that person that's sitting on that mountain side they can't tell them a fucking thing oh climb back down go get a rich dad that can give you a helicopter and drop you off on the top of the mountain

you can't make that choice in life what you can choose in life is to get on that fucking mountain and it doesn't matter how hard it becomes you can choose to still climb and it doesn't matter if an avalanche comes a storm comes and you get knocked down off that mountain and there's some backtracking and you're injured and you got to take a break for a little while, you can always still choose to get back on that mountain. And if you continue to do that, you will get to the top. So the people that have been through that struggle, people that have been to prison, they tried to climb that mountain. They tried to take a shortcut. They got fucking caught, got knocked right back down to the beginning. And they dusted it off and said, fuck it. I'm going to

try again. And sometimes, like in my situation, you say, I'm going to try the right path, but oh, here's this shortcut. Let's fucking try this. And you learn the lesson again. And then you say, all right, you know what? I've had enough of this. I'm going to do this the right way. Ultimately, the shortcut doesn't really provide any real benefit, just like the helicopter doesn't really provide any real benefit. So I want to do this the right way. And ultimately, the journey is the goal. The journey is what defines you. The journey is what shapes you. The journey is what clears away all the bullshit. I'm not a religious person, but if you look at the Bible and all the Old Testament, what's the dominant theme in a lot of the verses? It's that the fire purifies the

gold. So if you're in the fire right now and things are burning, you just have to remember that it's the impurities that are being burnt. Once that fire is put out, the only thing that's left is the gold. And it sucks. You know what I mean? You're getting fucking burnt. But it's the journey. It's the process. It's clearing away all of the impurities. Now, most people in life, you'd ask them, would you have rather, you know, put college aside to take a risk where you're in the unique position where, you know, you took the risk instead of, you know, finishing college in a way? Looking back on it now, do you wish you didn't take that risk? Or do you, Are you happy with the way everything panned out?

I am happy with the person that I am right now, and I am a product of everything that I have been through. And to go back and change one thing means that I am a different person. And if I could go back and stay the same with who I am and eliminate the harm that I've done, the people that I've hurt, I would like to change that aspect. But the reality is you can't. And ultimately, I think that's the most liberating and enlightening moment you will have in life is when you actually start to love yourself and fall in love with yourself and realize that you are a product of the good with the bad and realize that even though there might be some scars there from climbing that mountain, you've also got your muscles and your health from climbing that mountain.

and that if you wouldn't have climbed that mountain, you wouldn't have that. So it's, you know, yeah, there's scars, but there's also muscle and strength and health that have come along with those scars. And the reality is that you can't get one without the other. And, you know, I think about it. You could go back and you could change it. And let's say I went to law school, became a successful attorney, had millions of dollars by the time I was 30, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, would have been satisfying, I guess, to build a law firm feel like you were doing something good. But, you know, I look at attorneys that are millionaires by the time they're 30s, millionaires by the time they're 40s.

And I don't look at them and see anything that I say, yeah, you know what? That's kind of who I wish I was. That's kind of, you know what I mean, like who I wish I turned out to be. And it really is the people that I respect the most in life are the ones that have just had life kids. the absolute living shit out of them. And they said, oh, fuck it. You lived to fight another day. And they've picked themselves up ultimately.

Run it back. Yeah, absolutely. Like, you know what? If you keep doing it and you make the right decisions, eventually, you know what I mean? You will be successful. Absolutely. So. Well, Brian, thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing your story.

And we'll have all the links where people could find you at and get in touch with you in the description of this episode. and again, thank you and safe travels back. Thank you so much, man. It's been an absolute honor.