Locked In with Ian Bick - I Was Moving Pounds of Weed in New York — Then I Ended Up In Prison | Jared Callahan

Episode Date: July 5, 2026

Jared Callahan grew up in New York with a father who was an illegal marijuana grower — and when your dad runs the operation getting brought into the business isn't a choice it's a family tradition. By his teens Jared was already selling pot and by the time he was fully in he was moving pounds and running a serious flipping operation that brought in real money. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Jared tells the complete story — from growing up with a marijuana growing father to getting into the business as a teenager to his first arrest and New York state prison sentence to getting out and trying to stay straight until a probation violation pulled him back in. Then the feds picked up the case and federal prison followed. _____________________________________________ #arrest #prison #truecrimestories _____________________________________________ Connect with Jared Callahan: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BeDSQfkAZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Teen Who Discovered His Dad's Drug Operation — Then Built His Own Empire — Full Story 01:28 How He First Discovered What His Father Was Really Running 03:54 Getting Drawn Into the Drug World as a Teenager and What That Really Looked Like 05:50 His First Deals and the Friendships That Changed Everything 08:40 The Escalation From Small Time to Major Player and What That Required 13:03 How His Brother Got Pulled In and the Family Impact That Followed 18:24 Street Life and the Near Death Encounters That Should Have Changed Everything 25:03 His Reflections on the Consequences He Watched Pile Up Around Him 32:27 Losing His Savings the Family Fallout and What Kept Him Going Anyway 38:54 Stepping Up Operations and What Moving to That Level Really Involved 46:42 His First Arrest and What Entering New York State Prison Really Felt Like 01:01:11 Life Inside New York State Prison and What Surviving It Really Required 01:17:01 Getting Out and the Parole Struggles That Defined Life After His First Sentence 01:37:57 Going Back to the Streets and How the Federal System Started Closing In 01:47:57 Moving Serious Weight and What Operating at That Level Really Looked Like 02:03:31 The Feds Closing In and the Deal Gone Wrong That Changed Everything 02:10:32 The Federal Raid and What Facing Major Charges Really Felt Like 02:18:09 The Toughest Decision of His Life — Snitching Loyalty and Survival in Prison 02:35:41 Living With That Decision and What That Weight Really Does to a Person 02:42:03 His Release His Redemption and What Giving Back Actually Looks Like 02:48:02 The Lessons He Carries and What He Wants Everyone to Hear _____________________________________________ To advertise on the show, contact [e-mail] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today grew up in New York with a father who was an illegal marijuana grower, and when your dad runs the operation, getting brought into the business is practically a family tradition. By his teens, he was selling pot. By the time he was fully in, he was moving pounds and running a serious flipping operation. He ended up getting caught, did New York state prison, got out, tried to stay straight, and a probation violation pulled them back in, and then the feds came for him. His name is Jared Callahan and this. is his complete story. Where'd you grow up, Jared?

Schenectady, New York. What was your upbringing like? Middle class. I was a good kid. Both parents at home, I was born in Schenectady, St. Clair's Hospital. I played sports. I didn't get in much trouble. Not until later years.

We, both my parents were in the house. My mom was probably the backbone of my family. My dad worked a lot right around 15, 16 years old. You know, that's when things started to change. That's when I started to hang around. You know, I was playing sports. I played football. I played baseball.

Right around 15, 16, I started to hang around a different group of people. And, you know, I could see at that time in my life, things changed. And I always, you know, I tell my sons, especially my youngest son, that I saw him get in a couple situations. And that's when I made a big change in my life. because my worst, my worst fears were that my kids followed in my footsteps. So that was my main force and main motivation to change. And, you know, so for me, when I saw, like, my youngest son Landon,

I saw him get in a situation, and I thought to myself, if I don't step in, Because I used my own life. I love my father. Me and my father are like best friends. But I think that was the biggest issue was that my father was like my best friends. I'll start with he, my father grew weed and right around that age, about 15. You know, I maybe 14, probably 13. I started to realize what he did.

I remember going to my mother and I think I found some marijuana and he would have friends over the house and stuff. They would come over, they'd go in his room, they'd leave. Now, he was always involved in my life. You know, he tried, you know, he coached baseball one year. He was the commissioner for football. But he, you know, he had a lot of people over, and I kind of suspected something.

I remember going to my mom about it. She's like, you're going to have to ask your father. I asked my father, and he was straight up with me, told me what it was. I remember it really affected me. It really bothered me. But then as a little bit of time went on, planted some seeds in my head,

I remember the first time I went in there and I stole a little bit of a stash. And me and my best friend, his name's Casey. Anybody saw me back then? I was always with Casey. I consider him my brother. And his father, I think, you know, same thing. So we started smoking weed.

and I was around 13, 14 years old. And that's where, like I said, big changes in my life. And then I started realizing other people were getting into it. So I started selling, I would take weed for my father and sell it to people. That's where it all kind of started. Now, why did it bother you that he was growing weed and selling it? we i just you know i i wasn't because it was drugs you know and when growing i think in school then you know you you're there's no especially back then you know it's a different time now uh with

especially when it comes to marijuana but back then it was drugs and it was like my dad does drugs and it was a big you know it was it was um it was traumatizing to me i think And until it wasn't. And I think it's a different time now, especially when it comes to marijuana. But eventually it wasn't a big deal. What year was this? So the audience knows. Okay.

So we're going, this is probably 92 or 93. I was about, let's say, 15, about 15 years old. So I would steal his weed. we would smoke it. Eventually you start meeting different people because now you're hanging around a bunch of different people. A lot of the kids I was hanging around with before that

was kids from school and kids that were in the sports. Now me, Casey and my brother because I forgot to mention my brother we're starting to hang around a different group of people. You know, and you're talking about fighting, drinking, smoking weed,

burglaries, things of that nature. And now, now, you're meeting people and I realized, oh, you know what, I could take some weed, I can sell it, I'm making money. Now, I come from a middle class household. I went to school with a lot of Italian kids. It was probably mostly Italian kids and a lot of them had money. Now, we didn't not have money, but we weren't, I just remember going to school and seeing

kids, like when school would start, dudes would have Jordans on. and I think at the time there was guest jeans and cross colors and I think Carl Kani maybe. And I just couldn't forward them. You know what I mean? I'd get maybe one pair of sneakers and would never be Jordans. It would be like maybe Bow Jackson's, which is, you know, great. But I think when you're around people that are, they have more than you and you don't,

it kind of affects, it affected me anyway. I think it caused me to want more. And I think this is what I'm trying to say is like, so I started realizing I could make some money with the weed, started selling the weed, started, you know, putting money to the side. Eventually, you know, by starting to know different people, I found people that I could buy weed from. So I started buying weed.

I think I started with a quarter pound. I would piece that up and I would sell it. I wouldn't double my money, but I'd make some good money. And eventually it went to half pounds, pounds, started meeting more people. So by, I don't know, I think right around when I graduated. So I graduated high school. That's probably about 16, 17. I was, by then I was selling, you know, I was getting pounds,

maybe two, three pounds at a time. I'd break them down and I'd sell it like that. And as you get into the game, you start seeing the players in them. You know what I mean? So I would keep my ears open, see who's doing what? and now that I got that, I got to find a better connect. And I would just, you know, I would, you know, look around, look around. And eventually I found it.

I think whenever you're looking for something, if you look hard enough, you'll find it. Eventually that led to me copping 10 to 20 pounds at a time. Back then it was, I know a lot of people, you know, they smoked a good weed now. Back then, everything was brickweed. That's another thing. Well, I used to take my father's weed. My father grew it. And it was really, you know, it's, you know, the good heady weed, I think they call it.

It was nice and green and stunk and it was real sticky. And at the time, everybody was used to the brickweed. So I would literally, nobody wanted homegrown then. It was so weird. Now it's, it's the opposite. I would actually push, I would like squish it down and make it look like brickweed just to sell it. Because nobody wanted the home, they thought homegrown wasn't as good. and it was actually better.

Just weird. Something weird, I remember. And eventually, I was, I started a cop in 10. I met a guy. The dude, the dude that I met ended up on America's Most Wanted. His name was Jeff McGee. He ended up killing a cop. That was a crazy situation.

But that was later on. after a while I kind of outgrew him and I met this another guy and you know as the time's going on I'm growing I'm growing I'm meeting people I got different people buying it and and I just started just to I remember the when I you know at first it was just to get my truck on the road to get a few you know some better clothes and eventually it led to me seeing a bigger picture and I started to saving. And I think, like, when you get caught up in that, it brings money, it brings respect, and it can be intoxicating.

And it was for me anyway. And, you know, I just, before I knew it, I was, you know, I think I was in over my head. And it led to, you know, it led to a prison. a lot of things happened in between that time. My brother, when we were younger, my brother, my brother was always a little more wild than me. And he got kicked out at high school. And I think where my brother, when he got kicked out, my mother was like focused on my brother.

And I was always doing well. She didn't really know what I was doing. and I kept it hidden from her. And when she focused on him, it kind of let me, it freed me up to do whatever I wanted to. He ended up getting locked up in Berkshire Farms. It's like a lockup for like adolescents. And he ended up doing two years.

That in itself is a crazy story. We had gotten like a big fight. And he had a kid in the head with a hammer. And I think they charged him with it because he was only 15 at the time. They charged him with like attempted murder. But he got broken down. He ended up getting two years in Berkshire Farms. But my mom focusing more on him and thinking I was doing all right,

gave me room to do whatever I wanted. So, you know, so he gets locked up. You know, I'm selling weed. And, you know, my father. father was like, I love my father. He was like my best friend, but I think that was the biggest issue. I think that's where, I think that's like with my son. We're close, but I know like I got to be a father. I can't be a best friend. There's got to be a line. And that line gets blurred when you're just friends. And that's what happened. And, you know, I began selling weed for with my father. And he would smoke.

with me, my friends, drink with us and party with us. And that's something I will never cross that line with my kids. If you wear prescription glasses, you know the struggle. When you need sunglasses, you can't just walk into a store and grab a pair off the shelf. You need prescription lenses. And that usually means making an appointment, spending a ton of money and waiting weeks. That's why I ordered from Zeni. I got a pair of prescription sunglasses that I literally keep in my car wherever.

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What did your mom think about that? I don't think she liked it, but it wasn't really much she could do. My mom And, you know, my mom's Awesome. She's definitely, like I told you, the backbone of our family.

She would do anything for us. And it was tough. Eventually they split up. It wasn't then. It was years later. But she didn't like it. And, you know, I remember us, you know, being in, we had a room in our house

and a lot of my friends would come over there. We had a party in the back room. You know, just drink and smoke weed. And I remember my mom's just saying like, you know, because I always wondered like, you know, why she kind of let us do that. Because in her mind, she'd rather us be home and in the house than out and about doing that.

And it made sense to me. It definitely made sense. but I don't think there was much she could do. And she had gone through so much with my brother Dave that just me being home and her having, like, her eyes on me was, you know, helped her deal with it. Eventually I ended up getting my own apartment. And that was like, so this is around 96.

I'm like 15. I got my own apartment. and I'm just, you know, I'm doing my own thing. And there was, so my brother, he, he was locked up for, from when I was 15 to, no, I think it was, how old was I? 16, he was 14. So he came, he came home when I was, when he was 16 and I was just graduating from high school. and we went up to, we would go up to, uh,

Lake George on Memorial Weekend. There was a, a crew of us. We would, I mean, we were probably like 30 deep up in Lake George and we got, I mean, we would drink and getting fights and it was, uh, it was wild. He had just came home and we got enough fight. And he got, he got hit. fight goes you know fight happens he got hit hard and I'm like yeah you know you know you're you know I was you're all right he's yeah I'm good I'm good you know he wasn't good but I

now explain that later and um so you know we go back to where we're all hanging out we're all right there by the McDonald's in downtown in lake George I mean everybody from Schenectady would be up there people from other places it was it was a wild time and we would I remember I had my car and had the doors open, we had rap playing. He, uh, we got in like two more big fights. And the end of that night, he was supposed to go home with a friend of mine and my cousin. And I don't know what ended up happening,

but I had a, I had a room. And we got in the room about 20 minutes later, I got her knocking the door. This kid's like, yo, your brother, your brother. You know, your brother's unconscious, so I come running out. and he was right by the drive-thru at McDonald's, and my cousin's holding him, and he's out.

I mean, he's unconscious, my cousin's holding him. He had gotten a fight with a kid, and it was like slippery, slipped and hit the back of his head, and he ended up going to hospital that night and had, like, he had a fracture on the back of his head, on the side of his head, and he was in bad shape. He was, I mean, he was out of it. Real delusional, he would cut.

come to and just say stuff that didn't make sense. And he ended up going home that night. My parents ended up up there. And then that night I went to find that. I actually, so this was up in Lake George. I think they bring him to somewhere in Glens Falls. So when I was with a bunch of kids, we left, this is that same night. So I left to go back to Schenectady.

On the way to drop one of the kids off, I drove by where I knew this kid lived and found him. And I ended up attacking him. You know, I kicked in his car, jumped on his, on his hood. And this was actually more a weekend. That was my birthday weekend. This was a real bad weekend. A bunch of things happened that weekend.

Smashed his hood in. And he, like, took off. I jumped in the car. We took off. And at the time, I was living in this apartment. It was my buddy's father's house. So we get back to the apartment. and I had been a lot of fights back then.

So I learned that, you know, to, when you're getting a fight, you can make a report. And if you make a report, you don't have to press charges, but you make a report and they make a report, usually the cops will just say, if you both press charges, you're both going to jail. If not, we'll let you both go. So as soon as I got home, I was with my girlfriend,

and who is my kid's mothers, and I'll just, I want to respect her privacy, but I'll refer to her as my girlfriend. and I told her, call the police, just call to police and say, and I told her, just say they hit you. So she does, she calls them up, and I remember when she called, she was like, I think she said something, they're like, wait, because she gave her the address,

she's like, yeah, there's a cop on your way there now, because this guy must have obviously called the cops. So they roll up, the cop, I went outside to talk to the cop, and my girlfriend says you know told him that and they had the kid was in the car and she said uh yeah you know told them that the kid hit me she told the cop the kid hit him kid hit her and you know I had told her to do that just just so we didn't get arrested but I didn't but the kid was like nah he had us had me arrested anyway and I because he what I found out is he wanted his car paid for. I did a lot of damage to his car. So we ended up both getting arrested. I remember

being a host. I'm like, yo, what, what's up with you, man? He's like, he's like, nah, you mess my car up. And I'm going, we could have handled that elsewhere. You're going to have me arrested? And he was like, so he had me arrested. He got arrested. Uh, they let, I think I, my uncle came to bail me out. I got out and bail, went home that same night, and I'll get back to what ended up happening with that. At the same time, my brother was at home and he wasn't doing well. So my mother's dealing with that. I get home to the apartment. And that same night, so I got my brother's situation going on. I got the situation. I just got arrested. And I think that was one of my first, they arrested me for an e-felony because of the damage to his car. My first felony

the arrest. And then that night we got a bunch of friends over. So I lived in that apartment with two other guys. I was dealing out of the apartment. This was 97. I remember playing his day. Biggie's album came out. Capona Noriega. I can, you know, when I think about times, I can remember the albums that came out. Back then, there wasn't social media. You had to buy the CD.

CD would drop. We'd go get it. But at the time, Capona Norie was hot. And so it was Biggie Life After Death. And we're all sitting there We're chilling. We lived in an upstairs flat. I remember sitting and now these flats, when you would walk up the door,

you would walk in, now you'd be in the dining room. Down the hall, there'd be room, room, bathroom here, and then the kitchen. Then there was a big arc. There was another part of the living room, a porch.

I'm telling you all this because it means, well, I'll describe this. you understand. I'm sitting there and I hear we hear the door when you would open the bottom door you'd hear the top door kind of you know

muffle and I heard my boy went to check who it was because nobody really came over at the time I'm dealing but I would do unless you were a good friend you wouldn't nobody would come to the house

I would drive around and deliver stuff and we hear a muffle at the door and I remember I just seen a dude come through with a mask And he puts a gun to my boy's head, backs him up the wall. He's back the fuck up.

Excuse me my language. And then another dude and another dude and another dude. I was like, whoa. You know, when it first hit you, you're like, you know, your heart's beaten. And it's like thinking somebody's dressed up. And then you realize this is real. So I remember my bedroom was right there. So I run in the bedroom.

I shut the door. Now there's like three, four other people there. And I remember there was two girls there. One of my roommates had a girl over and her friend. because I can remember feeling so bad for them. And I remember the door, the guy's like, open. And they were speaking Puerto Rican. The dude was like, open the door, open the door.

I was like, fuck. Open the door. Get on the ground, get on ground. He puts me on the ground. He's got everybody on the ground. Everybody's at gunpoint. I mean, every one of these dudes had guns. It was either five or six dudes.

So they're, they just got us at gunpoint there. They're going through the house, and they're speaking Puerto Rican, speaking Spanish. And I remember one who goes, yo, whose house is this? Whose house is this? And, you know, they wanted to know who was, you know, who was, they were looking for my money and looking for my stash. I found out later because there was a kid there who knew these guys. And, you know, I raised my hand. I was like, right here.

He's like, yo, where's the money? Where's money? And I was like, bro. Because he had a couple bucks or something he took out of my pocket. And I had some money stashed. And I didn't have much there, though. I think I had like a pound of weed. And dude was like, yo, if I don't find out, you're going to die, bro.

You're going to die. So he's going through, going through. And he didn't find no more because he already had what he had everything. And I remember him coming up on me. And he's like, oh, I told you, I told you. And he said something to the dude. And the other started arguing with him. I remember I can remember this plainest day.

Put my head down. I was like, I remember. thinking about my grandmother. My, I called her granny. She had just passed away. I remember thinking, I'm calming. Because I thought he was going to, I really thought they were going to shoot me. And then the next thing I felt was, like the back of my head, bang.

And I remember my boy, Jim, was right next to me. And I remember his face and the way he looked at me. And right when he hit me, you ever get in the shower and the shower, the water hits your hair and it comes down. You feel the water, the warm water. well that's what it felt like but it was blood and I remember looking at his face he had blood spatter on his face I looked down there's already a little puddle of blood everything started getting dizzy and then uh I thought he shot me and then he get everybody up they threw us in that room and they bounced

and I everything started getting wobbly and I was like yo what the f he was like yo he gum-budded you and I still got this scar on the back of my head so they leave and I'm telling you this story because there's more to this. Just remember that situation. I'll get back to it. So, so that, the next day comes, you know,

we, actually, we end up, somebody called the cops. And I think the cops came, they did not, and they didn't care. They didn't, because they already knew, kind of knew what was going on.

Because this house, we had an upstairs. And upstairs, we had like pool table. We had, like, a little bar. There would be a lot of people in and out partying. And not so much like a, you know, I wasn't selling out of the house.

I would ride around and sell drugs, but sell weed. But, you know, the neighbors had been complaining. And when they arrested me for the kid's car for the e-felony, I remember seeing up on the dashboard. It said drug activity, I think it was 10, 14, O'Sulli Tavon, or something like that. And I just remember that. And I'm thinking, oh, they think, you know, because there's so much going on.

anything you know we're selling out the house or whatever so when they came there they really didn't give a shit they were like yeah you know it's what happens when you're doing what you guys are doing they didn't care man back then there was no they didn't have any cameras on their on their um the cops didn't have cameras and stuff and um i think they said some you know they were just talking a lot of shit they leave um my so i the next day i go to my mind i got my head wrapped up i'm you know i'm thinking like wow i can't believe that just happened. There was two girls in there,

had nothing to do with this, you know, that life that we were living and they were, they didn't know what the hell, you know, I just remember feeling so bad for them. And,

uh, went to my house. My brother was still out of it. My mom ended up bringing him to, uh, back to the hospital. He ended up having fractures on the back of his skull, on the side of his skull,

and his brain swelled up. And he went through that for like a week or two. He was, you know, even the doctor was like, He could have permanent brain damage. And I think it did affect him, and I'm going to get into that. So that ends up happening.

Time goes on. We stayed in that apartment. My boy that I lived with ended up getting a 12-gauge, and he had birdshot in it. You know, birdshot is like pellets. Or not pellets, but they're, you know, like small bea-bees. So he has that in his room We would lock the front door About a month and a half later

Because that happened That was a memorial weekend So right around the end of June Or it might have been the first week of July 1997 I came You know I'm running around doing my thing I come back to the house

And I would go We started using the back door Kept up like a It's the front door. You know, how the stairs go up, we would put, we jammed like a two-by-four in to keep the door jam so you couldn't come through. And I think my roommate's girlfriend came over. He opened the door. She was supposed to put the stick back and didn't.

Now, all of a sudden, so I'm in the house. She comes in. Now, the door's not locked. And just so happens, I'm, you know, I'm grabbing something to go make some runs. And I look down the hall and I see a dude. pop his head out and he looked you know he looked Puerto Rican so my roommate peeps this I mean he's right when he sees this dude he knows something's wrong because we do you know like I told you I did I never sold drugs where I lived I never did that I would run around how was a delivery guy

that was basically how I worked this time at this point in in my life he peeped that he so he's he's already running to grab that gun So I walked down because I'm like, and now he just got his hippie. I was like, oh, what's up, man? He's like, yo, I need some weed. And I'm like, nah, I don't have nothing, man. He's like, now you're going to weed?

I'm like, nah. Now, he's basically in the house. Now, I'm walking into the dining room. There's an arc in the wall. And I said, I'll give you my beeper number. Back then we were using beepers. We didn't even have cell phones, man. It was crazy.

So I went into the room. I grabbed a piece of paper. And by the time I did that, I hear back the fuck up. So I'm standing like this. There's an arc in the wall. I can't see beyond the wall where he just walked up. And then that's where you would go down. There's a couple rooms.

And that's where my boy, Mike, just went in to grab the 12 gauge. And I'm standing right here. And now the dude's got the gun on me. And he's like, yo, put your hands up. I got my hands up. I'm like, oh, just chill, bro. He's like, he's standing about right there. I got my hands up.

And now there's a, I can see where I'm looking, there's a couch there. My other roommate's dead asleep. He sleeps through this whole thing, which is crazy. The door's open right here, and I can see the windows open. There's no screen or nothing. And we're two stories up. And I used to be a skinny kid. And I forgot to tell you that.

Growing up, I was a real skinny kid. When I first got locked up, I was, I think I weighed in at Buck 38. I was just skinny. I was fast. and I think that's you know what made me I think I had a complex I had like

you know people look at a little skinny guy I got a lot of fights and especially when I was drinking and I was skinny I think I had a complex and but I was very athletic very fast and

I made these guys got his gun on me and I saw him And I don't know if he saw my boy Mike, and that's why he started. But I sensed like he started getting, I just sensed something was going on it. So I, I just, soon as he looked that way, I book, thank God he didn't hit me. But I book, I'm running straight for that window. I'm jumping out that window. So I'm running like this.

And what I didn't know is he was, he was seeing my man with the, either he saw his man walking up. And just as all the. So I'll tell you. What I did and what happened when I did this. So I run, I jump straight out the window. And as I jumped out the window, I kind of grabbed the window. The window still did like a flip out the window to break my fall, broke my fall. As I'm coming down and hit the ground, I didn't know they had a dude out front at running point.

I hit the ground. He pulls up. He shoots three times. Now, the guy's house, it was my boy Stu. It was his father's house. his father was downstairs on the couch with another dude those bullet holes went right through past their head and I'm laughing just because I'm thank God

didn't hit nobody but so the bullets go through his head and I remember my father I was saying to me my father was a hunter and he always said you ever get shot at zigzag man your best chance and I just remember sim saying it and I remember I hit the ground popped right back I mean I landed right on my feet man and it sounds crazy But this happened. Hit popped up.

He's shooting. I started running zigzag. I run to the back. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair.

With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca Every style, every home. I hear a boom! So I run and I'm, like, in your mind that he's right behind you, but the guy didn't chase me. And I, and I, and I, and I,

Have to believe he didn't really shoot at me and he shot up just to shoot or he's a real bad aim Because if I'm standing up straight, he shot about 10 feet above my head through the window Because you know how you got to walk up to a porch and then you got the window So the bullets went through the window. I go to the back. I'm behind a car. I look, there's nobody there. And at that time I look up and I can see into the window into the kitchen.

I see my boy Mike like with the gun like saying something. So I'm like, all right, I'm wait a minute, wait a minute. I don't hear nothing, see nothing. I run up the back. He's like, yo, yo, I hit him, bro. And I'm like, what? So what happened was,

so when all that happened and I went up running, there was another dude that came in. Now, they didn't have masks on this time either, which was kind of crazy. And the dude, so the dude had a gun on me. There was another dude, and I don't know if there was other guys or not.

There was a guy out front. There might have been one other guy. But the other dude came up in those old houses, because it was an older house, you have the trim. So when you went from the dining room to the hallway, there's a bathroom in the two rooms, you have trim that comes around, you know, that goes around. It was like big wooden trim.

And this dude posted up on here because he saw him with the gun. So Mike came out with the gun and the dude like pulled it, and he jumped back in the room. And he said what he did was he just pulled the gun out and shot it. Kind of like went out of his hands and it hit. So this dude's sitting here like this. It hits the trim like right next to him and ricochades. So it didn't hit him directly in the face, but it takes a chunk out of the wall

and all the shrapnel of the wood and all the BBs right in his face. Because you could see where he was standing. Like when we went up there later and looked and you looked at the sheetrock in the wall, you saw the outline of his head where the guy was standing. And he started like screaming. and the other dude that was with him grabbed them and they were out they left uh the cops came obviously now under new york state law as long as your gun i you know i don't know what would happen if the gun was illegal but luckily the gun was totally legal what we did we didn't break any laws they

came in we were fearing for our lives if he shot and killed them wouldn't even been a charge now if it's if the gun's illegal i don't know maybe but um yeah they came and they like another it was I think it was the same cop that had been there prior. And he's like, yeah, man, you guys are getting what you asked for type. You know, that was his basically his attitude. And I remember scrambling, like, because there was stuff in the house and we're, like, throwing everything upstairs and stuff. And that was just a, that was a crazy situation to happen.

And, you know, like, I think we talked a little before the podcast and I told you, I want to make it real clear to the audience that, you know, I'm, I've done a lot in my life late, you know, as of, you know, the last couple years to forget about this, especially me and my kid's mother. My life has been, you know, centered around my kids. I made all my changes in my life because of my kids because, you know, I always thought, like, you know, everything I did when I ended up catching my bid was I got to deal with that, you know. And, you know, as I had, as, you know, as I got older, having my kids and realizing that, no, you know, when any time they went through something, I would, you know, if it was a bad, I felt that, man, like as if it was me. And I realized how many people I hurt, especially my mother, my kid's mother, and my loved ones that, you know, they did those bids with me. You know, anything that would happen, you know, it would affect them.

And I'm telling this story, you know, so I can, I'm telling this to, to, so people, you know, others that can relate to me. Or even youth that can, if they're, you know, ever thinking about doing something like this or they're already involved in this, can see these, these are the consequences of these actions, man. This is just one little incident. There's tons that things have happened because of my, you know, my lifestyle. And I'm hoping, you know, when you listen to these stories that you take from this and see what this brings, that could have, I could have got, somebody could have got killed. And that was because I dealt weed. Those guys were only there to steal my weed or steal my money. And everybody else had to be affected by that.

And, you know, I just, back then, you don't, I didn't. I didn't think like that. You know, I thought about, oh, I'm on to get money. I like the money, the power, the respect that comes with it. And I was very self-centered and selfish. And that's all I really cared about. Loved my family. But I didn't, you know, I didn't really think about how it affected them.

I always put myself first, I think. I think that's the biggest change in my life is that, Now I put my loved ones first before I do something or try to do it. I'm not perfect. So going back to that, after that situation, I ended up, did I go back to my house, my parents' house? No, I end up getting an apartment somewhere else on my own. My roommate, my other roommate, his name is Mike, he slept right through that whole thing.

I mean, I can't, I don't know how, but I remember him waking up. and we're telling him what happened. He's like, well, the cops are coming, and it was unreal. The crazy part, that story is the guys that did it. Because that dude got, after he, apparently, he went to the city. They were wanted. We didn't know who they were.

We found this out later that they ended up going to the city and got caught because of the wounds he had to his face. And then they were wanted for other stick up. and burglaries and they all got like tons of time we didn't have nothing to do with it that that was they got caught for like I think they did a supery motel they they they robbed like a friendlies they they were they were a bunch of stick-up kids and they got caught and had nothing to do with us I ended up seeing a dude on TV later in the news one day and I was like yo that was the dude so going back to my brother here so this was like a month after so my brother so my brother

situation. He, you know, at this point in time, he's a little better, but he started dealing with, started having paranoia. Like, he got real paranoid about it. He had a girlfriend at the time. And I remember sitting at the table and I'm eating. My mother had made some food and I was over the house and he was living there. I had my own apartment. But I would be home. I would always go. I was always welcomed home. I always had a bedroom at the house. and you know i was always seeing my dad because me and my dad were you know doing what we do and um my my brother i sit down with my brother and my my mom sits down now at the time we were going out with we were both i was my girlfriend's sister was going out with him and he says uh you uh he he he he uh blamed me

he thought I was messing with his girlfriend, which was crazy, which was, like, she's like my sister. Like, it was, he was paranoid. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And then my mother really believed him at the time. This is before he had too many. Later on, we realized what it was. But, and I'm like, nah, I was like, mom, you know,

she started to believe and we got, we ended up getting it. And me and my brother didn't fight much, like physically. I, we had two fights in our, in our life. And I remember one was back when we were, We used to ride bikes everywhere, and we got in a big fight at McDonald's, and, you know, I plunged him, and gave him a black guy, and he hit me in back of the head and broke his, broke all his knuckles on my head. And then for pictures that year, he had a black eye in his pictures.

But that was like the only, like, we did not fight physically. My father always said, you know, blood is thicker than water. You look out for family. You never, you know what I mean? So, but this, it's just pissed me off that. My mother believed them. and it was so far-fetched. And then he said, yeah, and I know you and you,

and he mentioned a couple other people. We hung out with it, and you all triple-teamed her, and it was just real crazy stuff. And it wasn't normal for that. You know, it was just, it was weird. So we ended up fighting. We went, you know, right in front of my mother, and I think my mother got pushed,

and I just, it wasn't something I condone because my mother's everything to me. And that was the beginning of my brothers, I'll say mental health issues. And I don't know if it was from that injury because it was, you know, he had come home only a couple months prior from the, from Perkshire. And then that situation happened with his head. And then only about a month later, I don't even, that was only a couple weeks later. he started having paranoia. And that's just the beginning of it.

I mean, it gets, it gets pretty wild. So, you know, he's living home. And my brother ended up having, right around that same time, he started using cocaine. And he may have been using crack to, you know, crack cocaine. You know, he eventually does. I don't know at that time period, if he was or not. by this time I'm making a lot of money I'm I'm selling I'm probably grabbing like 10 to 20 pounds every week

and you know I got a couple of people you know I wasn't dealing I probably had a couple people buying pounds off me but I was you know half pounds quarter pounds pounds pounds but I'm I remember by this time I uh I probably I had a good amount of money I I I think the year prior, I made my, and I remember I counted my first 100,000. By this time, I probably had three, four hundred thousand saved up. Now, I didn't know exactly how much it was. I would, I would, I think a lot of people don't realize back then when you, there was no cash app. There was no, there was a lot more cash. You know what I mean? Now it's funny. Even now when I'm walking, I always use a card and I never have cash. I mean, I go to tip somebody. It's like, I can't even tip them.

Like back then it was I had such an issue. What do I do with this money? Where do I hide it? You know? And at this time, I had it hidden in a punching bag. So I would take out, I had the punching bag. It was in the attic. So in my parents' house, they had like their bedroom.

And then there was like this door. And this door is real important later when I get to one of my arrest. So this door, my mom had it set up. it looked like a window because she put like curtains on it. So if you walked in that room, you would just think the way everything was set up, you'd think it was a window. Unless you really took that because she had like one of those things that go, what they called?

It was curtains. And when you twist it like that, it opens up blinds. She had a set of blinds and then she had the curtains over it. So it looked like a window. And that was in her room. So in there, I went in there. and it was like our attitude. It's above the garage.

We had a lot of things stored there. And there was an old puncher bag in there. And I pulled all the punch of back stuff out. And I stashed the money in there. Put the punch of bag stuff back in there. So one day I must have been putting money in there. And my brother saw me. And I had to have, I never, so a year prior, I had made my first 100,000.

That was in 96. This is 97, a year later. And I'm, and I was, I was making good amount of money. I was making probably, I don't know, I'd say 20,000 a week at that point in time. And, you know, I would, and I didn't, I was real, you know, a lot of people calling me cheap, but I was just really good at my money. And I would watch people spend money. I never was, I was, I was always thinking the future.

I always thought, you know, I'm going to make this amount of money, you know, always had a million on my mind. Once I make a million, I'm done. I'm going to use that through the right. thing, do, you know, get legal. That was always my plan. So at this time, I'd say I had a four, maybe, it could have been four, it could have been five, could have been six for all I know, but it was a good amount of money, man. I had that in that, in that, uh, the, the punching bag. I put money away one time. I think I remember when it was. And if my brother was home,

he must have saw me do it about a week so a couple days later now he was he was having issues man he was really he was saying weird stuff he was just like incoherent things like things that just didn't make sense

he was paranoid that had been going on for a while this was probably right around the end of the summer it was a couple months later maybe even September he disappears. Nobody knows where he is and he has no money because my brother was love my brother, man. My brother, a lot of people would be uneasy around my brother. He's a bigger kid. He's probably like 6'4. He was always pretty big. I was skinny. I always got along with everybody. I mean, even in school,

I never got in a lot of trouble in school, had a lot of friends, got along with every group of people. I mean, you know, if you talk to everybody I graduated with, they probably, you know, from one, from who I was in school to who I became probably two different people. I like to say it's that, you know, my alter ego, which everybody called me Rue. It was actually J. Rune and it was Rue. And I always say that is my alter ego. That's that guy that did that. And Jared's, you know what I mean? And he's, so he's, he's, we can't find.

them. We're worried about him. We're looking for him. He was having crazy thoughts. And I go to my neighbor next door. This guy, Phil. And Phil, I used to smoke weed. He was good friends with my dad. I'd sell him weed and shit. It's funny how many people you end up when that opens up to you. You find out, wow, everybody.

It was, everybody smoked the weed. It was unreal, the amount of people you meet and find out. but he said yeah I seen your brother because now he's gone for three four days but he's got no money we didn't think he had any money he says yeah he was up now if you if my parents house

at the time if you that garage that was talking about you can get into that through the window he said I see him with a ladder up there going through the window I looked at him I said when

It was about three days ago. That's when he disappeared. I said, I knew it. I fucking knew it, bro. Yo, I'll never forget that. Anyway, I go in the house. I, my heart's beaten. I go in there.

Everything looks fine. I unzip it. Not a fucking dollar. He took it all. Every single dollar, gone. He didn't even leave nothing. Nothing, man. Oh my God, I remember that.

That was, that was tough, man. I'm surprised he left you the bag. Yeah. The punching bag, you mean? Yeah, I mean. Well, that's what it was. It was just, I, it was all stuffed in there with the, in the punching bag. It was like, you know, like a puncher bag.

And I took all the, the, the stuffing out. Yeah, but to transport the money, like you didn't want to just grab the whole thing. Well, later on, because, you know, a lot of people, how do you let that go? I'll get to that. That was everything, dude. Like, he took everything. Like, I had, you know, I had money in the, at this time, you know, anytime I had, I wouldn't put anything illegal in the bank.

I knew better than that. But I would always put, like, anything for birthdays or anything legal, if I, if I worked, or everything legal would go in the bank. I'd never spend a dollar. I was, I was really good with money. I was, people would say cheap, but it was like I would sacrifice, you know. I was looking towards. a future. I always thought like that. And, you know, like I told you before, I bring up like the kids

having better sneakers and more clothes. And look, it wasn't like, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I was broke, but when you're around a lot of people that got more than you, it just feels, it feels fucked up. You know what I'm saying? And I think that's what, that's what planned the seed in my mind. And at that time, I don't want to go off track. Let me keep telling you this story. And I'll touch more on that. And so, when I realized that I remember calling my mom and I told her what happened like because we were trying to figure out where

where could he be you know because she was really worried about him because of what was going on mentally and and he and he was getting in the drugs and he took all that and bounce you know he came back I don't know how long it was before he came back

I don't I only dealt weed I always said, you know, when I got into that, was like, I'll never sell coke, you know, that's, I always said, that, that's, that'll bring the cops, you know, weed, you know. And I remember that's when I first started, like, because he took everything and I was just, like, and I had dealt with, I was, I was starting to get, you know, sell a lot of weed, man, and I knew a lot of people, and everybody did, at that time, a lot of people were doing coke,

hitting the clubs and I remember I ended up I end up dabbling and selling coke then too and um you know I got in my mind I got to make it back I got to you know I got to hustle an overtime and I was going against what I believed because I didn't I didn't believe in selling that I still you know I think it was wrong I should have never did that and which will to my arrest and going to prison. So he ends up coming back. I had really planned to hurt him. And my mom begged me not.

I remember about a month and a half comes. And what's crazy is I really don't, to this day, I don't think I've just kind of let it go. Like, that's my brother and I love him and it is what it is, man. Like, it wasn't easy. and, you know, it's still, it's always in the back of your mind, but my mom, I was going to, I had said to my, you know, me and my boy, I was like, I'm going to break his, I'm going to break a kneecap.

So he remembers it. Like, I really was going to do that. And my mom begged me not to. Just, you know, she, and she, like I told you, my mom is, all right. And I couldn't, I had to, I had to do that for her. And I didn't. And he came back. He was at the house.

and, you know, it was, I don't know, it was a tough situation. It was, and he got into drugs, and he got into drugs. And he says that he got, he went down, he went down near the city, got in a, you know, we were young too. You got to remember this is, he was 17 at the time. I was 18. Maybe I was, we were in our teens, early teen, or late teens. And, um, he said, he.

said that, you know, that he was in a hotel room, that he met people there and somebody stole the money. And I'm just like, you know, it probably is what happened. But I did end up finding some money, nothing near what he took. But I remember finding a couple, like three Gs under the couch where he was staying in the back room and he started getting really, like he was getting high at that point. He ended up buying a tech nine, which was, he had this big fucking gun in the back just crazy shit and um and he was losing his mind and i was getting worried about my mother because it was getting worse along with the you know so now he's he's he had his mental shit going on he's using drugs that shit don't you know a lot of that mixing that together man

it's it's not a good thing and um so i'm doing my thing you know i'm focused on making some of this money back and i'm now you know i met some of someone somebody else, you know, I, coming into this, I was going to do my best to keep names out of it. Just because my, my worry or what I care about is like, if I say this guy's name and he's got a kid who doesn't know, and he hears that, I don't want to affect kids, youth, because I'm doing all this to, you know, build something to help people. Do you know what I mean? I'll just,

the guy who I was dealing with, who I ended up dealing with, his name was Lance. That's when I made my next step. My boy, Stu, introduced me to him. Stu was another good friend of mine who was in the same lifestyle I was in. And he comes into play years later

with my Fed case. So he introduced me to this guy. That brought me to the next level. Now I'm getting... I... He, uh... And I, like a... I can't remember if he fronted it to me at first.

But I'm... I end up getting... I'm getting 50 pounds at a time. So it's... I'm getting it cheaper. I'm getting more. And that allowed me to, you know... So if, if, let's say, you're getting it from this guy

at this price. Now I can give it to you at this price, and now I'm getting more, I'm dealing with more people. So money's, I'm making money even quicker. So this is right. So this is late 97. So from 97, rest of 98, I'm selling Coke, selling a lot of wheat. And I made a lot of money in just that period. I mean, you know, what got to me, something about me is like when I do something,

because I never meant to get that big. And I knew getting, you know, starting to, when you're, when it starts to take off like that, you know, I knew a matter of time, something was going to happen, you know, I mean, if you go into that thinking you're never going to get arrested, then I think you're, you're, you're kidding yourself. You know what I mean? So I didn't want it. Of course, you don't want to get arrested.

But even like when it came to me working out, when I focus on something, I go, you know, and I'll put everything in. I'm a workaholic and a perfectionist. And I just took off. And, you know, looking back, I always said to my, why couldn't I just be okay with this? or I didn't need to, you know, get it, you know, wish you could have just slowed down and how do you, or just stop, but I always say, and I would tell me, how do you stop making that type of money? How do you, like, literally, like, for me, it doesn't make sense.

Even when, even when I was warned from, you know, people were warning me. I'm trying to think, is there anything I missed? leading up to that that I wanted to share. So I'll get to my arrest then. So fast forward it now. I'm making a lot of money. It's like, let's see, I got arrested in February on my father's birthday. February 5th, 99.

So this is like, I remember that morning I got up. I get arrested. they raid my parents' house. Now, that week, I had just picked up 50 pounds. I had moved home when I was, I had got an apartment and I got evicted because somebody kicked in the door and the landlord flipped out. I ended up moving back to the house. I was only going to stay there a little bit.

And I was worried about, you know, I was also. worried about my mom because my brother was acting lowly, you know, at this point, he was off the hook. So I moved home for a little bit. Remember I took off that night or that morning pulled up to where I got arrested and I got, you know, I got, I pulled in, got swarmed. Dude pulled me out, smashed me against the ground and they arrest me. It was a Rotterian police. I remember sitting in a holding cell and one detective said you're in a lot of trouble Jared

I was like all right you know he's you know I think he read me my read me my you know all my charges and it was just I remember the anxiety and everything hit me

I was like true yeah so I'm in a holding cell they put me like this little holding room it looked like a look like a closet real little, little small, no cameras, nothing. And I remember the detective that came in was a football coach. And he started telling me, oh, you know, talking about football. And I was just like, look, man, no disrespect to you, but I want my lawyer.

Oh, he got so pissed off. And he left. Should have been it. I sat in that, I was at that police station for 12 hours, maybe 10 to 10, 12 hours. They would send in detective after detective after detective after detective. Now, let me get to what happened. So when they, when all that happened with my brother, I put a bunch of money in a safety deposit box

and I will just say that. It was in my mother's name. And for me, that was, you know, that was, it was around $100,000. And that had been, you know, my plan was, if anything ever happens, that'll be there. And if I ever have to run or something. Well, my brother must have knew about it

or heard about it. And he was getting high. and I think he slipped up and said something in front of these guys, you know, in front of this kid that ended up setting me up. So he knew about it. So what happened was there was a kid that came over to the kid that set me up's house who was setting him up. So he would go there and what's crazy is the kid came over there

to buy like a half pound for $800 and my brother and another kid robbed him. took the money and was the cop's money and they i this is apparently what happened and they didn't even care they sent them there the next day and no i and what crazy means is that nobody thought that was the kid shows up again you know this kid's house he calls me for called me a couple times i i had like three or four sales of the marijuana and then and then i don't know if that's when they ended up arresting him. But the fourth time he calls me and says, at this point in time, I had stopped selling Coke, I believe.

And he said to me, you know, can you pick me up, pick me up a half gram, like, you know, just for his head or whatever the case may be. I was like, yeah, yeah, I got you, bro, I got you. And I remember going to get that for him. And what I, you know, when I put together later was, I think with just the weed sales, I doubt I would have even went to prison. You know what I mean? I didn't have any, like, I forgot to tell you with that whole situation,

that E- felony, I got arrested for the kid's car, he didn't end up showing up for court, and it ended up getting dismissed. I just ended up, he ended up suing me. I had to pay him like a couple thousand for his car. So I never got convicted of that. I think it got thrown out. I think I played with disorderly conduct.

That's what happens a lot with, you know, you got a fight or something like that. and I believe, you know, by them charging me with that, when I bring that Coke over that, that's a criminal sale, that's a be felony under their old Rockefeller laws in New York, and you have to go to prison. There's no getting around that. So I had the one Coke sale and then the weed sales.

He, um, I remember the detective said, you know, they kept trying to get me to tell him that my mother put the money in the box and then my mother knew about it and they were just ham. I don't know. No, no. That was, that's all they were, you know, and they would, so what they would do is one would come in, I tell them, I want my lawyer. Once you say that, you're not supposed to talk to you again. And there's no cameras back then. They could do whatever they want.

And so they would send another guy in and another guy in. and another guy. It would always be a different guy, kind of like deniability. I, I, that was my guess. And,

and they kept one, and they would, question about that and who, where did I get my weed? And by this time, the dude, I told you, the reason I bring that dude,

Jeff McGee up, he was arrested for, he murdered a cop, well, they apparently murdered a cop. He was, he pled guilty to it, was on America's Most Wanted.

Oh, they raided his house, found guns and bazookas and vests and they caught him in Canada. I think he's doing life in Georgia. But I hadn't dealt with him in years, you know, and I think I'd sort of, because I'd been there 10 hours. They were asking the same questions.

I just wanted to go. I could not, I remember being so relieved once I went to the county jail so because I could just lay my head down, man. Like, because, you know, you're hit with, you know, It's so dramatic, and then they're asking all these questions, and it's, I just wanted to get out of there, man. And I remember saying to them, yeah, I got it from Jeff McGee. And they knew I was full of shit.

And I'm just like, and finally they were like, you know, they knew it was a lost cause. I wasn't going to give them what they wanted. They put me to county jail. I didn't have any bail. I ended up getting a lawyer, which a lot of people, people, you know, had used his, said his name.

What I didn't know was that he was real friendly with these guys, you know, with the Rardi and police. But, you know, I was, it was green. I didn't know much about law then. And I wish I got a different lawyer. You know, you think, you know, being that he worked with, because I think he was, he was, he was supposed to be a really good lawyer. But, uh, when I told him, so we have. hire him he ended up getting a bail hearing and my bail was like 100,000 my grandma bailed me out and i remember her saying charry they must have the wrong guy you know because she you know she

saw the one like i told you there was the one side of me and she didn't see this other side and my mom hid it from her she didn't tell her much about that um and i remember her just thinking like i i still got the letters she wrote me and i remember reading those letters and I got sentenced, there was a school there that kids watching. And she was like, oh, that was so awful that those students saw that. But that's later on. But I end up getting bailed out. And, you know, they took $130,000.

They took the car. They raided my house on my father's birthday. Now, remember when I told you about the room and it looked like a window? they knew about this too this this this this came out they weren't happy I told I just picked up 50 pounds so I had 40 I broke so I would take 10 pounds at a time I had broke that down ahead they found like I think a half pound left in my closet another 30 something thousand in the closet and I had another 40 pounds now this is brickweed I don't know if anybody knows like the brickweed is like they come in a lot

of it's from Mexico and it comes in like a brick and it's wrapped up when you get it it's wrapped up in cellophane and have a lot of times I'll put like a coffee grinds around it it's supposed to mess up the dog's nose how I don't know if it does or not but it was still mostly wrapped up and and there's no heat in that attic so you got it looks like a window now there was my dad said there was like 10 12 cops in the house the dog was in the house they went through the house he knew the weed was there I knew the weed was there

and I remember sitting there like I'm just waiting from to come in here tell me about how much they just found I never found it bro the dog was in there too like they never found this shit I mean it sounds crazy they did not find it

and I remember when I got bailed out so you know my dad ended up grabbing it and doing whatever and he helped me out and, you know, I told a couple of my close friends, you're young, he's stupid, you're talking. Somehow they got back to the detectives. I remember Kure, that was my lawyer.

I didn't really want to say the name, but whatever. His name was Steve Kurey. He calls, I think he called me or my mom or one of us. What the hell? What? And is this true? Was there a bunch of weed in there that they missed? Oh, they're all pissed off.

And I'm just like, oh, my God. That don't help. You know what I mean? So, yeah, they missed that, and I don't think they were happy about that. I ended up getting a two to six. They wanted me to get a four to twelve. What came in the play was the money that in the CD deposit box. There was no proof that it came from me.

So when they take money from you, it always ends up, I think the DEA takes it no matter what. And you have to put up 10% of whatever they take. So if they take a million, you'd have to put up 100,000 just to fight for it. And then if you lose whatever the court fees cost, you'd have to pay. So there's a whole process of fighting for money. So we went through some of that process, and they found out. And part of my plea was that I forfeited that money or my mother had to forfeit that money and I forfeited the money in the closet and that they would agree to two to six.

And I jumped on it because originally they wanted a four to 12. They didn't want me to get. They, you know, and it's crazy when I look at my son, I was that age. I was 19 years old and I'm thinking, you know, how bad they did not want me to get shit. You know, I thought I was going to get shocked. They did not want me. You know what shock is? Yeah, like the boot camp type program.

No, and I'll get into that because they did send me there and how that works and stuff because that's, that's pretty, pretty cool. It's pretty cool to hear about, but I'll explain it. So I end up plea into a two to six as long as I forfeit the money and forfeit my car and some other things they took. and my mother forfeits to $100,000. That was the big deal because they called him right up when they saw that I put in to, you know, I was, he had showed him, look,

I'm about to file this. Okay, wait, and I think they were worried that we might get the money back. I don't want to get into why, but there was reasons. And I got two six. So now what, I'm going to back up a little.

And the reason I told you about my brother And, you know, I told you, you know, my goal is to, you know, coming on here and telling my story is to build something where I can help. Whether it's people, whether it's youth, troubled kids, PTSD, mental health, addiction, anything that has to do with crime and prison. And, you know, we've looked into maybe starting on a podcast. And I've already talked to a couple people who would be willing to come on. And one is a ex, he was in combat. He has PTSD and he really wants, I mean, he's looking forward to it. Another one has to do with mental health.

My brother wanted to come on in mental health. He's been to prison. And, you know, I just think by telling that, you know, telling these stories, the information, you know, connecting people with people that can help or answer questions is just something I think to give back, man. You know what I mean? Because I spent so much of my time, you know, breaking the law, living a lifestyle that was harmful to others that I want to give back.

And I take religion and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ very serious. And I think it's something that he would want me to do. So with that said My brother Why I was out on bail And this is where This is hard man Because you know

You asked how my mother felt about my father And like I don't think there was much she could do And my father hasn't You know My father He ain't perfect But he was You know

You know But he ain't a bad guy either You know And And, you know, I think when my mom married my father, she knew who he was, you know, and that just comes with it. And, but what she had to deal with between me, my brother, and my father, I don't know how she did it, man. Like, that shit kills me, man. So, uh, I'm out on bail.

And, uh, I'm sleeping. I remember I got a job at Golup. It's, you ever price shoppers around here? I don't think so. Price choppers, like Hanifords? No, it's more like New York. What do you, what do you? I've heard of them, though.

Like, it's a grocery store. Yeah, I know what they are. Right by where we live is a big goal up that supplies all the price choppers, which, and there's a ton of them in New York and our surrounding areas. And I got a job there. And I remember, I think I was working, I don't know, I got home and I was taking a nap and. I wake up to a bag of money. What the fuck? I look up.

It's this kid that hangs around my brother. I don't want to say his name. I don't know. I know. I'm going to just keep his name out of it. It was a kid. It was my brother's co-defendant. I'm looking at it.

And then I realize it's got the bands around it from a bank. And I'm like, what the fuck? He's like, yeah, you know what it is? You know what it is? And I'm like, Yo. So I get, I mean, it had to be, I think it was like 30, 40 grand. I'm like, yo. So now I'm, you know, I'm getting up and getting dressed. My father's there. And, you know, they, like I told you, a lot of people were comfortable with him and stuff. There's a couple of other people there. And I'm like, yo. And he's like, yo, turn the news on. Fucking bank got robbed. Trust go bank. I'm like, what the fuck? And they're talking about it. Dude, about 6'4 ran in. It was, had lipstick. on sunglasses, a wig

and like made a threat about a bomb took off with the money. I'm like yo so now my brother's not telling me he did it but I'm not stupid you know what I'm saying so

I'm just like trying to comprehend this now in my case there was rumors that there was rumors that there was a lot more money and there was money buried and stuff so i mean just that is what it is right so i said to them like yo i don't like they're right i'm like what do you guys you know what's up that that money might buy so i ended up uh helping them out and i i gave them some money and i ended up uh burying that i literally buried that and uh they went about their business man you know

So we knew what, you know, I, not too, so a couple, so that happens. They don't get caught right away. But the kid he did it was stupid and running around with his car. And one thing led to another. And about two or three months later, my brother gets arrested for robbing a bank. So I'm out and bail for that. He gets arrested. We get him bailed out.

I helped that. and he ended up getting a two and a third to seven. And I don't want to get into so much of it because I plan on having, when I, you know, I'm in the process of trying to get this podcast together and I wanted him to be my first guest. I wanted to get a little bit more into what happened with him, his mental health issues, his addiction issues.

He's been sober now for 13 years. And I'm super proud of him, man. And, uh, because we, you know, It was rough, man. He's been through some rough thing. And, you know, using on top of that makes it worse. But I'm proud of him, man. And that was rough on my mom.

So that blew up. That was all over the news. He gets out on bail. I'm out on bail. I ended up getting sentenced. I think it was September. I know. It was October.

then October. Now, at this point in time, I'm thinking I'm getting shocked. He ends up, now, he was originally arrested for first degree because he got, so he got the same lawyer I did. And this dude did his, he did pretty good with him. So what happened with him was he ends up getting arrested for first degree robbery. Uh, they indict him on second. And then he puts a motion in because he made an indirect threat instead of saying I'm going to, He kind of, the idea was he went in there and was like, they're going to blow us up. If you don't give me the money, he was trying to, and he was dressed up like a girl. He had a wig on and sunglasses.

And I guess the idea was like someone made him go in there. And by him saying they, instead of saying, I'll blow you up, it's an indirect threat and doesn't constitute second degree. And that makes it third degree, which is nonviolent and a lot lighter sentence. Because you're talking two to third to seven is a defil. five to 15 to C so he ends up with a two and third of seven I think he had a couple of their charges so they let him plead a two and third of seven

but the C felony got you know what I mean got dismissed and so I got locked up first at this point he was before that happened oh man I wonder if I should let he had this spring

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Are you one of those media strategy people? scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social, let me introduce you to fans. And they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip, they stay for hours. They don't move on. They manifest. They're not a demographic group.

They're fans. Spotify advertising. You're among fans. I'm going to save that story for him. I would just focus on your story. Okay. Let's focus on them. I got you got it you got it I just if I ever go off course just direct me man because I get

yeah the audience wants to hear your story okay so so I end up getting locked up I get it to I get the two to six I think I'm going to shock and I get in the county and when you get sentenced before you get when you're out in bail you don't spend much time in the county a lot of people if they don't get, you know, if you don't get bail, you're stuck in the county. So I got, so I, you know, I got sentenced right away. I got sentenced. Turn my, you know, right there. Turn myself in the county courthouse is connected right to the county jail.

So they take you right there and walk you through this tunnel. Boom. So I'm in there. Now, I have never, at this point, I've never really done time. When I first got arrested, I was in there for two weeks, got bailed out. And now, you know, I'm 19 years old. 20 years old, green,

don't know nothing about bidding, man. Now, a lot of my, like all my, the dudes, when I told you, right around 15, when I started hanging around

the other people, like different crew of guys, they all got locked up. And that's when I kind of said, look, man, because they were into burglaries and stuff. So I saw them all get locked up, all end up on parole,

all on paper. I'm talking about every single one of them got a charge, like got caught up. We're doing like a lot of burglaries and stuff. And I, uh, I knew that ain't the way, man. And so I started, that's why I got into, you know, the weed thing, my father. And so I kind of knew what to expect because they all had been in, you know, the county and stuff.

But I wasn't there long. Went right upstate. So I got sent to Austin. And I remember, uh, because I, you know, I was younger writing rhymes and stuff. and I had a I wrote this little rhyme I told Land about it

like and it was just just another number in Tims and Greens locked down with thieves drug dealers and fiends with similar schemes and dreams to get cream

and thugged out war stories experienced on the street and that just wraps up like what you get in there all right they hand you Well, first, so you're getting all stirred. And when I got drove down there, it happened to be,

the guy driving me down was a friend of my father, grew up with my father. And he was like, yo, Callahan? I'm like, yeah, he's like, I know your dad. He knows my mom, too. I mean, he was like, I see him to this day. He's a good guy, man. And he's like, you know, and he had heard about, my case was really publicized, so he had heard about it and stuff.

And I remember when I got in there and I heard him say, he's like, You know, I know this guy. I know his father. You know, take it easy on him. Because when you get in there, they're trying to intimidate you. You know, they're loud. They're screaming. And the dude did.

He was kind of cool to me. And I heard him screaming on the other dude. Not like shock, but, you know, they're letting you know they don't look around, you know. And you got a strip. So they got every county you can think of is lined up. Like, dude, you're holding like a thing that's Schenectady. And they got like Dutchess. County and Ulster County and

what are some of the other one? Columbia like every county is like lined up there was like two of us there was like three of this county three we're all lined up now like strip strip everybody's county let's go motherfuckers so everybody's taken now we're all standing

I mean ass cheek to ass cheek to ass cheek butt naked I mean it's a wake up call man like this is what it is man and there's a shower heads there's like 10 shower heads and they hands you this it's a cup of like it looks like syrup

and that's like to kill lice and they hands you that and it's cold that water's not warm man I'll never forget that and they pour it on your head rub it in

and there's some guys are just rub it in so everybody's rubbing it in you're real quick and you're going from shower to shower as you're doing it shower shower shower half the suds are still hanging off

you's still wet everybody's are hanging out now you're uh you're now they got you going to the i think they give you your underwear they give you underwear then they give you your greens i can't remember when they have you cut your hair if they they have you cut your hair then they give your underwear greens but they can't do that naked so it's something like that there's a line of it and either they cut your hair then they then you do the the shower and then you put your you give you your greens you get dressed but they have a

you know you're like cattle man And that's when they shave you everybody. It doesn't matter. The only guys don't get shaved is like if you got a religion, like a rasta religion and you got proof. You can't just say your rasta. Otherwise, they're shaving that off. And I remember getting everything and I get dressed and they give you like a bag.

So you got your state boots, your state coat, your number, your year. I think what else did they give you? That's pretty much everything. Underwear, boots, coat, number, year. pants. Oh, and the sneakers, they give you those real cheap, like, they look like Converse. And they suck, man. They're horrible. And the boots are stiff and hurt. I remember weighing in, I was 138 pounds. I was a skinny kid, man. And I was young. And I looked, you saw them pictures. I looked young, bro. I was a young-looking kid. I, and, um, I was,

but, you know, I think that's why I had that little complex of being tough, having always be tough. And it was the 90s. 90s were, you know, it was all gangster music, and it was all about being tough and respect, and it was a different time, man. And, uh, so I remember getting in there.

A lot of kids my age, a lot of younger kids, but I was, back then, I don't know how it works now. They had, like, a lot of, like, everybody would talk about green correctional facility and Washington. And I believe one of them, a lot of the, like at this time,

Man, I don't know if you, like, I, because I've listened. There was, there's not many guys that were from New York State Prison on your podcast, but I, but at that time it was glad. They called it glad at your school. And I caught the ass end of it. Like, it wasn't as bad as when I came in, but it was still pretty. But during the 90s, there was a lot going on with, like, the bloods and the Latin Kings were at war. And dudes, you ever heard of a buck 50? Yeah.

We get to, you know. And I can remember. man getting in there and going and walking through reception and they got you like walking through the line and just seeing and it would be like every third dude had a had a scar every third this guy walked the scar on his face scarring his face scar on his face it was very common and uh it was still it was still kind of wild then but what they ended up doing was it got so bad then and it was this is when new york state there's 72 new york state prisons at this point in time wasn't yet it was like a year into my bid new york state hit 100,000 inmates it's the most it's ever been

it's ever been that much since i had just missed when i got a rent when i caught my bid there was no way of getting out of it if you had if you had unless you snitch if you had a coke sale you're going to prison you can look it up the penal law there was no way to it's it's a way to get around that. You're going to prison. You might get shock if you get as long as you're, if you're bought, you could get three to life. Like let's say you got caught with like a ounce or more. I think at that time under the Rockford Laws, you could get a, there was an A2 and an A1 felony, but an A2 you could get three to life. You could still get shock. So you could get a three to life and get shock and be home in six months. It usually was more because you'd be in the county

and it takes time to get in there. But once you started shock, that's a six month program. So it usually was eight months, nine months, depending on how long, you know, whatever your county stay was plus the six months. There was no drug court yet because I don't know if you've heard of drug court, but in New York State became, so what ends up happening is Pataki was the governor at the time because we would do you got your patakis on. That was your like, you know, state shoes. And the inmate population hit 100,000. And at the same time, that's when smoking. And I remember when I first got in there, you could smoke. And I hate smoke.

I've never smoked. And I'm talking about cigarettes. But when you first get in there, you're getting a top bunk. And I went to a medium. And in the mediums, you had 90, the cookie cutters. Now there's a lot. You have 72 state prisons. I'd say half of those are cookie cutters.

And what I mean by that is they all look the same. They're like this 90, they look like a house, right? And then it's just got the rooftop. And it's cut in half. And you got, that'd be A dorm. So you got A, B, A1, and A2. Right? And the next one would be B1, B2.

Next one would be C, C2. And there might be up to H, J, M, depending how big the place is. So if, if, at one, so all one sides would go to wreck for like, like an hour. And then the next would be, that would be movement. Then it would be the B, then two side would go to wreck. It was never together unless you were in the honor dorm, you could go to both. And I'll get to that because I ended up in the honor dorm at the end of my bid, which because I was so into working out.

So Alster was like the cookie cutters. And at the same time, so half of the prisons, they had 90-man dorms. They passed a law that they had to get rid of. So in that 90-man dorm, so it would be 90 on this side, 90 on that side. there'd be 180 inmates in each one of those housing units, right? And all the movement would be outside. It was like a cul-de-sac. And then at the end would be the mess hall, right?

I'm telling you all this because there's so much more to tell you, like, in certain spots, it's a mile walk. Like, you've got to walk a mile to mess hall. And, like, Franklin was like that. Wyoming, when I did my violation, that if you're in the back, that's almost a mile to mess hall. they got rid of the middle so they would have like you know how you got your bunk so you have bunks all the way down the wall and then in the middle you got them head to head there'd be a

wall in the middle and then bunks all the way down the middle and then bunks all the way against that wall and that'd be 90 men they passed a law there that's too many guys in one bunk or one unit that they had to get rid of all the bunks in the middle. So it made it 60. But at the same time, the immediate population was higher than it's ever been, and the prisons were overpopulated. So they had to figure something out. And this is when stuff started changing.

At that same point in time, drug court came about. They made it easier to get shock and work release, which I'll get into why I got disqualified. and and then drug court came about. So that was an alternative to like someone like me, first time, you know, first time I may have got it, but maybe not because of how the money part of it and how I was a, you know, if you had just a sale

and you were just, you know, you were using it, they'd definitely give you drug court. In my case, I could be arguable whether I would have got it or not, but I was a first time felon and most likely would have got it. So anyway, I just wanted to describe all that, which I thought was a pretty cool, you know, pretty cool to know. So I ended up, I was in Ulster. I ended up getting sent to, now I'm, when you would have a shock, so to be shock eligible, you had to have a three, back, they changed the way they sentenced you. So if you had your first time felon, we'll say it's an e-felony, you get a one to three.

if it's a second time felon on e-felony you you would get a one and a half to three so you're so the first number would be uh one-third of the last number the second a second time felon the first number would be half of that last number you see what i'm saying so i was a first time felon two to six see how that's the one-third now if it was my second felony i would have got a three to six you see what i'm saying so i'm trying to why i even tell you that but i mean that's That's how the sentencing goes. Now, they, so being a first-time felon, nonviolent, and my first number was smaller than, was three or smaller,

I was automatically qualified for shock. So what they do is they'll send you to shock. And shock is like a, they send everybody to Lakeview Innix. That's the reception for shock. but it looks just like a prison. There's nothing different about it. And if you can, now you go there once, that's when they start digging into everything else.

They dig into your medical history. They dig into your mental history. They dig into how, like certain, like health. And if you could just, like if you had like a health issue that would disqualify you, but they do that there. So if you have, so like I said, if you're, if you have all the, you know, nonviolent crime, you're eligible from your bid, which is three or less on the first number, and you're under 40 years old, you automatically get sent there. So I got sent there.

That was a crazy story because I got, so I was in Ulster. I get in there, I get my number and everything. I'm there for two weeks. The night before we leave, they served Gulash, man, and I'll never forget this. And I got cool with this one. kid. He was a blood kid. He was cool as hell. We just were the same age and you get talking because everybody, you know, everybody's like, you know, it's a new thing. Or you younger

it's first, you know, a lot of us are first time and you know by the number and, uh, he was like, I'm not eating this. I took second servings. And I remember sitting that night I'm sitting on there and I had just got commissary, which was stupid

because we could have been moved any time and I remember giving away half of it because I was like so sick because we got packed up and then I got it and I couldn't take it with me. So I had to give some of it away and now I couldn't even eat it because my stomach's rumbling. I don't feel right. I ended up about two in the morning. I remember jumping off the bunk and there was a kid on the lower bunk that I was cool with too because we had all like us. There was a group of us. We're all around the same age.

We're all talking. I jump off the bunk. I remember he jumps out of his bed. I startled him. I'm run. I'm puking, I'm on the toilet. I must say got food poisoning. Now we're packed up.

I don't have none of my stuff. We're leaving in the morning. They get you around 6th morning. And I'm like, this is crazy, right? So I remember I must have went to the toilet three times at night. And then before we're, so now we're calling us to get us movement. And I remember going on the toilet and just pushing, bro. And it's coming out of me like pee.

And I'm thinking this is going to be bad. because I know New York's big, man, and Alster's down, you know, down this way. And we're going to up near Buffalo. So that's an eight-hour ride, okay? And they do back roads because they don't, you know, they always do some weird shit. And what I didn't know is they had to stop somewhere. That ended up being 16 hours in that bus. And they had me shackled to this dude.

I feel bad for this dude, bro. I was hurting, man. So I remember getting on it, like I told you, I'm just trying to squeeze everything out because I don't want to shit my pants. I know, it's crazy, but I'm just being 100. So I'm in the, I'm on this bus. I'm shackled to this dude. It's Christmas time.

I remember seeing Christmas lights and being sick to my stomach. I love Christmas, man. And what I didn't want, what I forgot to tell you was I, I just found out that my, my girlfriend was pregnant with my first son, Kai. And, uh, I'm like, all right, cool. I'll be home, you know, before, you know,

she didn't tell me, she didn't want me to stress. Like, she got, pregnant was out in bail and so i'm thinking i don't i'll be home you know i just found this out so i'm kind of like oh my god but i'm excited to you know and it's christmas time and it just and uh we're going to uh we're on our way to uh lakeview and we stopped at uh summit it was called that was another so they have a lot of um a lot of these shock don't have fences and stuff i I think you said you were in like a minimum, right? Yeah, at a camp.

Yeah. Same idea. And everything, you know, and I remember, that's where everybody wants to go. But my age, I wasn't going, I was under 21. I was going to be in Lakeview. And I was getting into telling you that my age at the time, they were sending a lot of, like, the adolescents. And a lot of people talked about, yo, you don't want to go to Washington or green

because a lot of the, you know, there was a lot of bloods and a lot of gang going on there and a lot of younger kids. There's a lot more violence when you're dealing with younger kids and adolescents. And I was over the, I was 19, so I just missed that cutoff. And we end up in that, that ride ended up being 16 hours. I remember we sat at the summit for, we sat there for eight, was it, it was an eight hour drive. We sat there for like six to eight hours, just sitting in that van and being shackled to this

guy. And I remember my guts going. man and I'm like oh my god I'm trying to hold it in and I know I'm gonna fart right so I know it's coming man but you ever been in a plane and how the like air is getting sucked out I I know this is crazy story I gotta tell you though because this shit was funny as hell bro and so I know I can feel like the air is getting sucked out so would suck in here and probably blow out somewhere else and I'm like trying that and I fart and it and I hear the dude up near the front

oh man you fucking smell man he's talking to his thing he's like yo it ain't me and everybody and I'm thinking that can't be for me and then in a little while it happened again same thing happened I'm thinking holy shit man

this dude every time I far is getting sucked out and he's blowing this dude which I thought was just funny man but I guess it ain't funny it's kind of fucked up but um just a funny side note

so anyway we end up getting to you know, everybody talks about when you get to shock, they're going to try to sun you and they're going to talk shit and try to scare you, intimidate you, just to get you ready. Well, they weren't supposed, it wasn't supposed to be a 16-hour drive. I guess something happened to the bus. We were supposed to change buses. Something happened. Something went wrong.

We got there two in the morning. And the CEO was like, yo, you even said to us, we usually give you the spiel. We just want to get you, get you in here, get you into bed. You guys are lucky. And they did. They weren't too hard on us. Got us in there. And so it begins.

So I'm thinking I'm going to shock. You know, so I'm, and they don't, so when you're waiting to get into the real shock, they're giving it to you. Like, you've got to sit a certain way in the mess hall. You got to eat everything on your plate. And some of these dudes that are working the mess hall, they will purposely give you too much food because they know what's going to happen to you. Dudes are just, you know, they're playing jokes on you, man.

like and you'll see dudes think it's great and then they got it now they'll make if you don't eat everything they literally make you put it in your pocket and carry it around it's it's it's definitely uh it's a different place man and um i ended up getting denied i think i was there about a week or whatever and because of assault charge i think that's what i might have pled due with um with with that situation with my brother in that car and i had got an assault and it got, I got denied, and I was just like, and from what I read, like, I don't know, there was, there was, like, I, I was trying to debate it and it wasn't happening, and because I, I, I, when I pled to that, I got it sealed, and somehow they saw it anyway, and it never really got sealed because my lawyer ended up, you know, my peoples ended up calling them like, yo, and this, and he said, yeah, they didn't seal it for some reason, and I got disqualified. And, and, I was just like crushed because I already had my mind like, oh, God, just do this. And so they sent me to the shock annex.

And I remember because I was there when the ball dropped. And that was when everybody thought that the computers would go wacky, right, in 2000. So I remember, and right then I got the, because you could get the tapes. You'd have a tape cassette. You can get tapes sent in it. And I had Dr. Dre 2001 sent it. Everybody wanted to hear that. And I remember getting that, man.

I was so happy just to sit down to hear new music. I mean, that was like the highlight of your life. And annexes are like just like a holding spot. It's not somewhere you're going to do a bit. So it's not, you don't got like what you would get at a regular prison, which is so much better, you know, weights and movement. So I'm in there. I remember they took the clocks off the wall so we wouldn't know when the ball drop

because they were worried about shit going crazy. Do you remember the 2000 bug they said it was going to happen? I mean, I was five years old. Yeah, I know. Did you ever hear about it? That's what they thought would happen. Gotcha. So we didn't even know when the ball dropped or anything.

They were, we didn't even know what time it was. And there was a lot of snow up there, man. You're out there near the Great Lakes, and it's just, and I don't know if you realize this, but in New York, majority of the prisons are upstate New York. and that's a big deal because you got to think right and they do that for a reason i don't want to get into that whole uh you know conspiracy but there's reasons why they put those prisons out there uh whole towns are built off that and so you you know you get and i'll tell you that was the

biggest difference i saw in like this the state and uh federal is the different is the different is the way the COs treat you. Up there, you got a lot of, you got a lot of guys that just have never been around. I mean, they don't, all they know are inmates, right? And they're mostly white. And they live up north. So, and they're dealing with a majority of minorities that have been in trouble. So you get, you see what I'm saying?

You get that, you get a lot of disrespect. And they're very disrespect. up there and I mean you know even when you're at you I need toilet paper what do you want me to do about it and you know what I'm saying that that's that that is and that's not every one of them you know I've met some good COs that were you know they would treat you like a human being but for the most part you didn't get treated very well and you know I think it's I think has a lot to do with where these are located and the type of people that you're dealing with them who aren't around a lot of cities or minorities.

So you get a lot of isolated, you know what I'm saying? And anyway, so I ended up getting sent to, I was in Lakeview Annex. I got sent to, I got, I ended up, they transfer you all over the place. And so I ended up getting sent to downstate. I was there for a little bit. I went to Auburn. I went to a couple more spots. I can't remember where I went to.

But I would spend like, I remember when I went to Auburn, that place was, Auburn's really old. It's a, max. And I remember being on the bottom tier. And,

I mean, I remember thinking to myself, there was, you see roaches running down. They had windows. Like, it looked like a wearer. house. Like when you looked out the cell bars, we were looking at a wall and there was like windows and

some of the windows were broken out and there's birds flying in and out. And I'm thinking, it reminded me of like around the corner would be like the, you know, like demons throwing like coal in a fire. You know what I mean? It was like that setting. It was, it was, it was just, I couldn't imagine doing my bid in that place. But I ended up going to Lakeview. Now Lakeview, Riverview. Riverview was so that I was in that hub. Riverview, I think it's Riverview, Cape Vincent, Ogdensburg, because they got hubs in New York.

So you'll get like, like the Mohawk hub will be like Marcy, Oneida, and there's like a couple more. And then maybe Gwanda. I don't even know if any, some of these got shut down. But the one I went to was Riverview, and there's Cape Vincent, Ogginsburg, Watertown. I stopped in Watertown and then I was in for a little bit. And that's like an old Army base.

It's all blue. And then I end up in Riverview. No, I'm in Riverview. And I'm 138 pounds. I'm green, bro. Like, I don't know how to bid in. And at that point in time, like I was telling you, we, you know, we, uh, we, when, like, when I was coming up in school, we were like the first grade, like, we started listening to hip hop.

We were like the first kids in my school to wear like starter coats and dress like hip hopish, you know what I mean? And a lot of people didn't like that. I mean, we got fights over that and stereotyped over that. I wore big baggy jeans. I sagged my pants. I wore tims. You know, I'm, that's the, you know, that's how we dressed.

Everybody I hung out with. And we were kind of like the first grade to start doing that. I would say. And, I was going with that? I'm sorry, man, lost my train and thought.

But, um, oh, and, you know, a lot of people call us wiggers, you know what I mean?

And, and rightfully so, I get it. That, and that became a little issue, like I didn't have many problems in prison, right? I learned real quick how to bid,

man. And there's a, there's a way to bin, there's a way not to bid. And I get it, so I get into the Riverview. And luckily I got in a dorm. Now, the biggest difference, and I'll get into this, with the Fed time and state time.

State, there's not a lot of white dudes at all. And I think in the dorm, the first dorm I was in there happened to be, I remember there was three, these three kids, People probably know who this guy is, too. Frank White, he was a white Latin king. That's why he's pretty well known. I mean, dude's my age going back in ways.

And then there was this kid, Mikey, and horse. And they kind of like took me in. You know what I mean? I was younger than them. And I remember the dude, and this was the shock to me. And something that bothered me was like in the state. And this wasn't like this. in the feds. And there's a reason for it. And I'll get to that. And it's because of being in cars.

But there's no cars in the state. All right. And in the state, it's, you know, everybody's pretty much New York. And, you know, they got upstate, you got, you know, city dudes. But they, it's very segregated. And this is the one thing that kind of bothered me because there was a dude there from Schenectady that I got cool with and you know I I ate with him I broke bread with him and that became an issue because he was black and I and that was the it just it didn't you know and these guys told me like man like listen bro like you know we'll look out for you but you got to listen to what we're telling you like you can't do that here it's just the way it is man it was hard for me to accept that you know and uh it ended up being a little bit of an issue

That kid's name, he ended up getting killed and disconnected. His name was Spoyder. I ended up seeing him later on in life and stuff. But anyway, so that was the one issue I had. When I got cool with the dude, Frank Way, he was a Latin king. He introduced me to this kid, Toro, King Toro. And, you know, I got cool with Toro. now Toro ends up getting moved you know I start and I that's why I kind of you know I started working

out and uh because they had like a lot of they had nice uh weights in the state right they had a you remember them white bubbles riverview had like a bubble it looks like a it looks like a big white balloon and it has all weights in there it was not I mean it was nicer than some gyms and I started working out man and I started reading everything I could about working out and eat in and and I just realized I was never eating enough and how much protein I needed. And I'm eating all three meals. I was eating with these guys. We're throwing in together.

So I was there about two months. And I had to take, you had, there was a program there. What was it called? Was it Ardap or is that the feds? Ardap is the feds. What? Oh, no, KSACC. KSAC.

KSAC is, yeah, Ardap's the feds. KSAC is the state. So I had to take Kasek. They didn't have it there. So I got moved. I was there about two months and then I get moved. It was just a coincidence that I ended up getting moved right in there and Toro was in the dorm I was in.

And he took me, oh, eat with us. So I would throw him with him and a couple dudes, like two Dominican dudes, Toro, me. And, you know, I would just. throw my share in, they would cook and they cook good. They taught me how to cook. And to this day, I can cook up something nice with like state, like I, I, we were eating good, man. Like that, some people don't realize how good you can eat in there if you got the right stuff, got a hook up in the kitchen and stuff. And, uh, I worked out. I ate and I got pretty, you know, I came home.

I gained, I went up state 138 pounds. I came home 225 pounds. How much time did you end up doing? 18 months. 18 months. Because you get a, so I went to my merit board, they call it. So I had a two to six. And I forget how they calculate it, but they give you like two months. They do give you like a merit board. And I didn't think I was going to make it. I remember going there.

So I did everything I was supposed to. I did the, I did the, the KSAC. I don't think it's KSAC. KSAC is when you go home. It's a drug program in the state. I can't believe I can't remember it. Was it KCase? Anyway.

I did that program and then I hadn't got any tickets because I told you I focused on working out and that was it and my son Kai was born when I was in there and um how old are you when you got out? I was 21 or 22 just turned 22 and what was your plan? I um just to stay out of trouble man and I end up doing pretty well

I ended up going to the honor dorm worked out, got out, or no, I wanted to tell you this part. I went to my merit board and I didn't think I was going to make it because they said to me, they asked me about money being buried. I told them they got all my money, man. I thought for sure they weren't going to let me out. And then did he did. I made it and I ended up going home. I got a job right away.

You know, my kid's mother is the best. best and didn't put no pressure on me. I went home to my parents' house. Parole was tough, man. Like, I ended up getting a job at Renna Center out of all places. And back then, they didn't hire felons, but my boy was working there. He's in one of the pictures I showed you. And he's like, dude, just come. We'll see what happens. And what happened at that point in time, they didn't do the background check. So I got the job. And like I told you, that the money was such an issue that. This guy's name was Jack Ray.

Everybody knows him. I was Schenectady. So I'm in there and my boss doesn't know about my background. And I didn't tell him, but I had already been an asset to the company. I did it really well, you know. And I remember when Jack came in there with his badge out and his gun, he's a big dude. He's like, hey, Callahan, come here. I'm like, this fucking guy, what?

you know and then um my boss had seen it and by then he was he didn't care and told him the truth and uh fast forward real quick i uh i ended up i ended up getting promoted and um taking over the store it was good money i was making about 80 grand a year there with with the uh bonuses and i got a store of the region I went out to celebrate and I got drunk and I got in a fight and I got arrested for an assault charge

and he didn't even violate because I had been doing well I'd been out almost two years he didn't violate me he said look just go you know go when you first get out they make you get into whenever you have drugs on any type of drug sale or anything

they make you do a drug program when you get out like an outpatient maybe do that and I had already did it when I got out but he made me do it again so I did it everything was going fine and he came into my work and said I got to violate you man and I'm like and I knew if I got violated I wouldn't be able to get back into this job

because there was a guy that had the store in Amsterdam who had left he had charges he left and when he came back he uh they wouldn't give him the job because his background came up so I didn't get to I ended up getting violated and I knew that I wouldn't uh that job wouldn't be there and I was very very bitter over that because the charges end up getting dropped I I um it's weird how it works when you get violated

because he ended up violate me for being out after curfew so I couldn't fight that and I got violated I ended up getting a 90 day violation which only starts once you you cop to the violation So I had been in there for like a month or two, copped at a violation, and then I went to Wyoming, and I did another 90 days there. That's where it's like a mile and a half to chow. And I ended up getting lucky and getting pulled up to one of the dorms that were right next to the outside clearance dorm, and it's right next to where everybody eats, got real lucky.

Anyway, I did my 90 days. I came home very bitter, and it was my own fault. you know, but I kind of looked at it like, you know, I end up getting, in my mind, it was more like I got violated, and it makes no sense. Like, you took me from a job and I just, I blamed others for my actions, you know, I still wasn't, you know, thinking back on I was wrong. And I got right back in the cell and we, so I came home. I was very, very, bitter. You know, I blamed, I blamed, uh, basically blame my parole officer. And, uh, I know today I'm wrong. It was my, my fault, my actions. And, uh, I had right from my violation knowing that I

couldn't get that job back had it, my plan was to go, and I only had about, I think I had a year and a half left on parole at the time. This is 2004. But I didn't mention when I was on my violation, the guy I was getting my weed from, because he never got arrested. I never, I didn't snitch on him. I didn't say nothing. Never mentioned his name. His name was Lance.

He got murdered. And, but I still had, I had plans to just get right back into it. Kai was, my son Kai, that was the, other thing that was, you know, I remember getting my violation. Now I have a son, so that hurt a little bit. That violation stung more than my first bid because, you know, I, even though he was born when I was locked up, I didn't, you know, I didn't have a kid. So now I think I started right off with getting, I think I went and got 10 pounds right off

the rip. And I was staying at my girlfriend's house. And I remember being in the bathroom, the, I remember being in the bathroom, the, I was, It was, now this is when beasters were coming. And I don't know if you were familiar with beasters, but beasters are, it's a, it's a weed that comes from Canada.

And, you know, it's like really round. It smells kind of like cheese. There's no seeds. But I ended up getting 10 pounds of like some good, it was like, it was good middies. And I, uh, I remember the dude, told me to uh he was like yo turn on the uh the shower let the the steam go it'll help like puff it up and and you know make it a little bit more moist because it's real dry so i'm doing that right

i'm in there i'm playing around with it 10 pounds i got in like this tote and i hear ding dong the fuck who's that i hear do do do do do no i've only been home a couple weeks Callahan. I'm like, oh, fuck, it's Jack Ray, man. I got this weed right here. I got 10 pound. I'm like freaking out. So I'm just, I just, I remember my heartbeat and I'm sitting there. I'm not saying a word. And he left. I was like, holy shit. Anyway, I remember I was like, I can't keep this up here. I remember bringing it and I would be down in the cellar and I would do it down in the cellar. And I, uh, I, I remember I started dealing that. And I was, It's just like, you know what, I'm learned from last time. I'm not, I'm just going to make enough to, you know, I'm not going to go, you know, I'm not going to go gunhole, you know. I'm going to be, I always said, slow and steady wins the race. So I'm going to be, I'm going to take a slow. And that just never happens with me, man.

I'm always like, I just, I go and I go and I go. And I got to be bigger, better, and better. faster and that's just the way it works man and one thing led to another i i ended up what happened was i remember i'm just doing that i'm selling ounces and and i'm breaking down pounds and this guy got busted who was was like a big dealer around the way and he was supplying everybody with the beasters when that happened remember i mentioned my boy stew he had come to me he's like yo bro there's an opportunity here, man. And I'm like, you know, he's like, look, I got, I know somebody.

We can go see him. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, all right, what's up? So we took a ride up to Syracuse. I think with the first trip we took, we got, because, you know, I still had some cash. And I think we bought 25, I don't know, 20, somewhere around that. pounds and that shit was gone before we got home like we were making

cut with us it was gone before we got home flipped that went right back up we got more and then eventually not too long after that we were getting anywhere from 50 to 100 pounds brought to us and that just set the stage for what it led to and you know for a long time me and him were you know we we had done our thing together um you know during that time you start meeting people and you hear who's doing what I had gotten that before and so you know who some of the players are and there goes my mind again if I can get the right price if I can get enough I can go to him and get him and get him and and that's what I did man and before you know it we we just we had it locked man we just everybody was getting weed from us and and that's when I saw money like

I had never seen, you know? And I think it was, it was about many months it took. I ended up getting a store. I had a clothing store. I was still on parole, but it was, I was, I was about to max out. And my brother, you know, my brother had, did his time and came home. and he had gotten to, I don't know if he was on, he had violated parole and didn't report.

So I went to report. I only had two months left, right? I go to, and now I'm selling a lot of weed at the time, but what I didn't know is that, you know, they already knew what was going on. I had a, a weed sale from like a year prior for like an ounce of weed. And I had, someone had warned me, some kid had set me up.

for an ounce of weed and I cut them off, changed my number, and it never led to nothing. Now, just remember that's, you know, that's sitting there. I go to, now, and my parole officer must have known this because he said to me, he goes, what you're doing now is going to bite you in your ass later. I remember him saying that to me. I just, I didn't, I remember, why the hell he'd he say that? But he said, you need to get your brother in here. I'm like, I can, he's like, what your brother?

Where is he? I know where he is. I'm like, look, I don't know, man. and he's like, well, then I'm going to have you come in here every week. And he did. He had me coming here every week. And I, somewhere along the line, I got pissed off. And another guy was running in, running with went on the run.

So we ended up, and I'm, and I'm dealing a lot of weed at the time, man. And we ended up staying in this loft. And I'm selling weed out of the loft. I'm running around tons of money on me. I mean, in a. book bag it was very very reckless and but it just goes show you like i don't know when to stop you know what i mean so that was um 2005 what ends up happening is they uh they they end up getting my brother um they got found him somewhere in a hotel he was using and um they ended up just because i only had two

months, I think it was less than two months. They ended up just writing me off because I remember we were in this loft and the dude I was staying with in the loft had a girlfriend and I said, we can't tell anybody where this is. Like I got all this and I can't, you know, I had, I mean, a lot of weed, a lot of money. I said, you can't have, you know, he and I also had a gun, which I shouldn't have had. That came, that's the same gun they got me with in my case. And And I don't like guns. And he had to, I wait, I, I, uh, and this is where I started to use too. Was that lifestyle.

Like I, like I, what I didn't mention in all this is I always was kind of just a drinker. And when I started getting into, um, selling the second time, I, uh, the pills started, I had never even took a pill up until I was. until I came home from that violation. And I remember everybody was eating the Vicodins. And I worked out. I worked out my first bid during when I was working at Renic Center. I was in the gym all the time.

Then came my second bid. Or then came my violation. I hurt my back in between there. I remember coming home. My back hurt. There was a kid I was cool with. He said, he came over. I ended up getting like right when I came home,

you have to work. So I got a job at like a warehouse just to keep my parole satisfied. And he was like, yo, because I was telling him how bad my backer. He's like, try one of these. And it was a Viking and took two of them. And I said, whoa, whoa, where the hell? What? Yo.

It was like the best feeling I could, the best way I could describe it was like, you know, in Christmas morning, that euphoric feeling, when before you open up presents when you're like eight years old i got that same feeling man and you know and i remember just saying okay you know i would take them on it started with just on the weekends and eventually it led to like during the week and eventually it was an everyday thing and i really didn't know that i didn't know much about them and i didn't realize when you don't have them after you take them for a while that you'll get sick and uh eventually it led to like uh Dudes were getting the oxies.

You had the little oxy 20s, 40s, even the big green 80s. So, you know, I ended up catching a habit. And I was taking those a lot. And I remember the first time I didn't have them and how sick I felt. But while we were on the run, we were doing that. Because I was wanted. He was wanted. And he had that girl come.

And she had, she had, she had, been doing heroin, I believe. And she got caught or something like that. And I told him, yo, well, we didn't know that yet. So when I saw her in the loft, I was like, yo, I'm getting out of here. I ended up finding somewhere else to go. I left. And I remember trying to call him.

And we had gotten a fight, me and him gotten a fight over this. And I remember calling him and he wasn't answering. And we went over there. And I could tell he ended up getting caught. He ended up calling me, collect. I talked to him. He was like, yo, you were right, man. I'm so sorry about that.

Like, it ain't nothing, man, whatever. But that's when he told me, he was like, dude, they maxed you out. I'm like, how do you mean? Because I'm thinking I'm still on the run. I'm like hiding out. Like, me and having, I had a lot of runners around me at the time, man. And like, you know, and I had do it under my wing, I'd have dudes running for me here, running for me there.

at this point in time I mean this kind of what I ended up doing was getting hotel rooms I would get hotel rooms and have the people up north come down and bring me like anywhere from 75 to 100 pounds

sometimes 200 anywhere around there whatever they had and they would come down I'd meet a hotel room and then I'd start calling people and they'd come pick up or I'd have my boy somebody I was rolling with, bring it to them. Do you know what I mean? Like, then they would have their runners come down. So through somebody I know, he had,

and there was a couple different people doing it. So I, and at this time, I'm making a lot of money. And I'm a kid I know, knew a kid who knew these people. So he's like, look, they're going to come meet us. There's a couple of people that they're going to pick. something up but they got you know it's a certain connect and we all met and i remember you know i had a big chain i had big diamond rings and and i came in with a big bag full of money and um i think the lady said get his number or whatever and i looked over at her like so we're all waiting there and she's

giving everybody stuff and she's like like give me your number you know so boom i threw her my number and that's how I hooked up with the people who I ended up getting in trouble with. And although this, you know, I made a lot of money with them. This is what led to me going to prison in the fed. So she throws me, so I throw her my number. She calls me and they end up, you know, I met. Now, at first I never met them again. It would always be their runner.

So I meet their runner. He'd come down, you know, And like what's crazy about this is when you're grabbing, okay, at the time, this is beasters, right? These are coming from up north. These are 23. At the time, I think they were like anywhere from 2000 to 3 to 23, from 2,300 a pound. And they were going for 26 to 28. So you'd make at least 500 for everyone you sold.

And I'm getting at least an average probably 100 to 200. every two or three days. So it's add enough. And it's common faithfully. And, you know, and it's time consumed because when you meet them, you've got to count all this money, man. And that takes a minute.

And they're all, we'd always do it in five stacks of $5,000. You know, and they'd have to count on account. And so it's a couple hours it takes. And you're in this hotel with them. When I started, so this goes on for a while. So this is 2000. Let me see. I got a busted in 07.

So this is like, it's probably like I dealt with them for about a year, year and a half. So this is like 06. And everything was going good. Everything was going good. I would see them. You know, everything's going good.

And then one, now it was like a family. a mother and I bring you those statements remember those statements I if you look at them there's the mother and she had two sons and then there was there was the runner I dealt with and then they had another runner most of the time it would be the runner he would come down and meet us once in a while the younger brother came so the one time this the younger brother came he they got caught going back and what I didn't know is they you know they took they only only found money on him, but it was a large amount of money, and that's when he first used my name.

I think he told him my nickname. They know, you know. I think they put it together who I was or had my nickname or something, which was Roo. And I remember them, one of them telling me that happened, so we took a break. I think I went to Florida. My dad had moved down to Florida at the time. I went to see my, because my parents had split by this time. I went down to Florida, stayed with my father for a while.

I came back, dude called me, said everything was good again, and I kept dealing with them. Somewhere along the lines, they started like I would get, a lot of times these are sealed. So like they drop, let's say they drop, we don't weigh them. You know, there's so many. They're just, they got these, they used these big hockey bags. And all their trucks had, so one of the trucks, you would take your ID, it looks like a like a music bottle

you know the 12 inch wifers you'd put it in the like the side of it and it would open up and it would be like just hidden box everything would come out and they had that in like every one of their trucks that was part of like the big part of their case was like they knew a guy that was doing this for them or whatever

so they would be in big hockey bags because a lot of them play lacrosse or hockey. or something like that so and they're heavy man you got a hundred that's a hundred pound you know and each one so that's 200 pounds and uh they'd be in um like uh solid not sullophane but they they like um they seal them so i i never we got to the point where you start knowing each other and you're not weighing them no more and even the the one runner would come like for a while when we weren't doing anything it got dry because a lot of times dealing with those dealing up north during a certain time like when the water because everything goes over to St. Lawrence River.

So when you have when it becomes like in between like when it's not frozen it's just icy. So when it's frozen, it's snowmobiles. When it's not frozen, it's boats. But when it's in between it gets dry because nothing could come over. So there's a period of time where you got to wait for everything to melt so they can go over with boats. So sometimes during those periods, there'd be nobody, nothing going on. And that kid came down and stayed with us. So he knew a little, he knew, if you see the statement he wrote, you'll see that he knew a whole lot. And he ended up dealing with somebody else too. And that, I'll get to that. So when he came down, or when they started coming down, about three to four months,

before we all got arrested. I would, so you call, I give you 10 pounds, him 10 pounds, 10, him 20, I'm getting calls back. You know, everything's off a half ounce. Everything's off a half ounce. I'm like, what the, so, like, what? I'm letting them know, yo, listen, all these are, they're all off, man. I'll take care of it.

Well, that happened for the next couple months. That happened every single time. What I didn't know was they're getting pulled over. they're getting like one of their guys got pulled over once I got all the discovery when we got busted the guys were getting pulled over

getting money taken they got drugs taken they were trying to make up for that by doing that with me so I was getting kind of pissed by this time like I told you I had a goal which was a mill

I think I had already surpassed that And I was like, I wanted to, my second son was about to be born, my girlfriend was pregnant. And I was like on the verge of like, you know what, this is it, man. And I started getting in, I told you, I was getting into the pills. I was using, wasn't thinking straight. And I ended up, and I was getting, you know, I think it's more that I wasn't thinking

straight plus they i felt like they owed me a lot of money and i'm like the only way and i know myself the only way i'm going to stop is if i just i can't have this connect i can't know when this type of money is there i can't i have to uh so i came up the idea to uh take weed from them this became a big part of the case they came down and met me and there's a place where i used to meet them and there was a a dude i dealt with in albany who would take a like a little bit of like a large sum. So I told him to meet me there that he needed a large sum. I parked the car that I was using.

They gave me, you know, in the case, it says, I don't know, 35 pounds. It was, I think it was a lot more than that. But they gave me, they gave me the weed. I went around the building, jumped in my boy's car, and left. So this time it was the, it was the mother. She was part. She was like the head of the, it was the mother and the two sons. There was an older son and a younger son.

And what I didn't tell you was the younger son wasn't involved anymore. And because when he got caught with the money, the brother broke his nose. And when I did that, she lit the car on fire. She fucking lit the car right on fire, right there, right there in Albany. And she took pictures of this. Now, they had been, now, they had been. They were getting pulled over left right now. If you know the feds, the feds will, they're not, they're going to watch you and they're going to let you, they're going to build the case on you.

And every time they pull you over, let's say they pull you over 100,000, they know it's about this many pounds. They pull you over this many pounds. They can add that up. They don't want to get you for the bus. They want to get you under conspiracy. So they're going to add it up and the punishment's harder. And that's exactly what they did. They were building the case up so they can say, we can definitely say you were dealing with this much, this amount.

and her phone had been tapped and when I got my discovery I had a I had a it was this high of just I remember going through and it was all them talking and because of this incident what I did they just went crazy on the phones and they're there being watched and tapped and they're talking left and right they were they were talking about killing me talking about I mean they said everything uh putting hits out on me and um What ended up happening was when they got arrested. So they got, so they got her, they intercept, like in the statements, when you read them, it says that they intercepted the calls of her burning the car. And they all wrote statements. Now, they didn't have much on me. They didn't have, like, they didn't have, they didn't catch me with nothing. They didn't have a sale.

And what they did have was they had. they had that one call that night that I called her. They had even been following them with a helicopter. If you look in the paperwork that they had been, they followed them down to like a hotel about a couple weeks prior to this. And they couldn't, they saw, they thought they saw me come into the hotel. But I ended up, we noticed a car. And I ended up leaving out of the back door and they lost track of me.

And they couldn't, they weren't sure if it was me or not in the paperwork. but they ended up all writing statements on me and that led to a supersede and got arrested and they arrested me a couple of days later on a superseding indictment and we all ended up up north and then they reigned, I think they rained me there and then we all ended up into a bus together.

I didn't realize at that time that they had all, wrote statements on me. Had no idea. I wasn't sure what happened exactly. I just... So they bring us to Albany. There's a...

I ended up getting the best lawyer in Albany which is Terrence Kinlan. His son's the DA Albany now. Lee. And I remember it wasn't long at all, man. I mean, the feds... They put this together, perfect. He...

So I hired him on like a Monday By Friday, he was visiting me, and he's like, you know, and I'm thinking, all right, I could fight this. I don't know what they could have. And he's like, you're not fighting nothing. I'm like, well, you know, he's like, I have, I think he had one, two, three. There's the one kid didn't say nothing, but the mother, the two sons, the runner, and then two kids I know. So I had three, I had five statements against me. I don't, um, I wasn't going to say nothing about the two kids that I know.

Uh, it is what it is, man. But the main ones that hurt me were those, those three, you know, they were collaborating. It was, you know, they minimized their, um, involvement, but they maximize minds. The feds when they arrested them made it like, we only want him. You know, he took, you know, he, because they knew. knew what they were, they knew everything they were saying on the phone. You just, the way they were talking, like, they didn't care. You don't do that. I mean, they knew everything, man, and they used that against them and told them, look, we just want, we want Jared, man. He, you know, he's a, you know, he stole this.

And they fell for, wrote statements, and what ended up happening was he's like, in her one statement, She said I put a gun to her head. I never used a gun. I didn't do shit. They knew she was lying because of what she was said on the phone. They knew the real truth, but they played it like that was the truth to get me to look bad. So they would fall for, yeah, if we write statements, like they were going to go home or something right then and there, which didn't happen. So this is where I was approached with a decision to make.

And I knew how to, I know how it's prison works. I did a state bid. And I knew how the feds worked that. You got, if you, your paperwork's not good, that's like your license. The state wasn't like that at all. You can, no, nobody really asked you for your paperwork. There's no cars. And the feds are a whole different story.

So what ended up happened was he approached, my lawyer said to me, they want you to cooperate. And I wasn't, I was like, nah, I can't do that, man. I can't. And he's like, well, you know, they, you know, they, I, and that's when he told me about the statements and he had to, as soon as I got back to the county, or as soon as I got back to myself, they had, the next day I had all the statements, all the paperwork. He had everything delivered to me.

I looked at him. I, I, I, I, I, they moved, because at the time, I was on. one side and the one kid was on the other. And I could talk to him. They moved him right after that. But I knew he was a diabetic and I knew he went down to the infirmary. So I put in for a sick call. I ended up seeing him down there and I asked him about it.

And he told me, no, I didn't do nothing. I didn't write no statement. I'm like, bro, you got to be straight up with me, man. I'm like, look, I just had saw my lawyer. And he sent me the statements. He's like, nah, man, they're lying to you. And I'm like, bro, I'm like, all right, man, look, I'm going to do what I got to do if you don't,

you've got to let me know what's up. And he wouldn't admit it. So I ended up, you know, we're having to really think about what I got to do. And I remember calling home and explaining the situation to my girlfriend. And she said, you know, in her mind it was like this. It was like, look, man, if you got a kid, you got one in the way, the other reason you're in there, and if you don't do this, then I can't, you know, I can't. I can't be with someone who's, you know, going to put that first.

And I'm telling her how tough it's going to be. She said, I don't care how tough it's going to be. You get what I'm saying? And I had to think about it, man. So I told what I ended up telling my lawyer was, look, because I'm not willing to cooperate or tell them anything else. I'll cooperate against the ones I wrote statements and that's it. And that's all I'll do. And he kind of said, well, look, I'll see what's up.

But when it comes to cooperate and you're supposed to tell everything. And otherwise, you might not get it. you might not get any, you know, the more, basically what happened was I was I was willing to only cooperate against them. They came back with, well, we can't guarantee any time. The only way you're going to get time off. And I wasn't even so much, you know, cared about that. But the only way you'll get time off is if, is if they go to trial. Because we already know everything. There's nothing that, you know, there's nothing you can give us. We would just, if they went to trial, you would have to take the stand.

And I basically agreed to that. I pled to attend the life because it was my second drug felony. And I, but I, they weren't, I didn't think they were going to go to trial. I really had no idea they would go to trial. And I thought for sure that I was getting to tend to life. And I remember, and it took almost three years. I was there, I was in county jails for like two and a half years. And then I remember I got called, they bring me from,

they sent me way out to Delaware County with a bunch of guys. We all went out there. And that place was a little weird. But we were out there for almost two years. They called me to Schenectady County. and then my lawyer let me know like it's going to be in like a week and these guys were going to trial and all I had to do was say it was yes what they had everything they had all the information I had to just say yes they did that because they when they told on me they were telling on themselves they

but, you know, they, they minimized a lot. But, and that's why I didn't get a lot of time off. So I played a 10 to life. I ended up taking a stand. Just the mother and the one son went to trial. And, I mean, it wasn't an easy thing to do. And I knew that that was going to be, it wasn't going to be easy in prison.

And I'll get to that. So I took the stand. they ended up blown trial I ended up getting sent to ferretin I ended up knowing a kid there now this is where it gets weird right so what was your final sentence then I ended up getting so what's crazy is so it was 10 to life because of the mandatory minimum

my guidelines and my history my criminal history put me at 63 months to 78 months by me cooperating I got a 5k1 and they but I I didn't give them anything, right? And just by, so what they said was, some people will go home. Some people, well, for me,

they just got rid of the, the, what's it called? The mandatory minimum and then sentenced me at the lowest end of the 63 to 78. So I got 63 months. So, I mean, you can look at it like, I got about three years off. and which which ain't bad but I don't know man you gotta weigh things out so it wasn't easy though in prison right

and how old are you by that point I was 28 so I get to prison but you know at this time I you know I know how to bid man once you know how to bid prisons is a little easier you gotta do the bid you can't let the bid do you and what I mean by that I just can't focus on the outside life. You got to, you got to just, I don't like visits. I'm not a, you know, because it slows my bid down. Um, and I, I just focused on what I can. But I got in there and I knew a kid there. And that was probably not a good thing for me because he was, he hung around with a lot of the Italian guys. He was from, I grew up with him. So, uh, he meets me in the yard. But he knows who I, you know, he knows,

I mean, I grew up with this dude, like grew up with him. and I mean he was he was walking out with the with the he was in the Italian car with the major one like there there are a lot of known names in that car and you know Ferretton's not you know it's a medium high it's a real prison I seen a do get I don't know if he died or not but I seen a do get a good I mean I seen a lot of shit there um I'll tell you I was with a I was with a guy to get back to that so I see him in the yard I walked the yard with him he He was like, yo, look, I'm going to put it in the car, da, da, da, da. And he's like, but, you know, your paperwork's good, right? And I told him, knowing what I know now and how this, how the feds work, like, I probably, if I did it over, I don't know if I do it. It ended up working out for me, but it took some time and it took. So anyway, he asked me, I'll get to it. he says to me,

look, I'm going to need your paperwork, and I said, he's like, you're good, right? And I'm like, yo, that's what I got to talk to you about. And he's like, what's up, man. And so I explained to him what I just told you. Like, look, I told him exactly what happened. And I said, and I got the paperwork with me. If you want to look it over, like, I'm telling you the truth.

Like, this is what happened. These dudes told on me, I only cooperated against the dudes that told on me. They don't know nothing about none. of the people I dealt anything with. Nobody else got arrested. I didn't go wear wires. I would, you know, I just was willing to call you. You punched me.

I punch you back. And they tried to say all kinds of other shit. If we read those statements, you'll see what I'm talking about. So, and I had him with me the statements. And he's like, oh, man. He's like, well, I appreciate you telling me that. Because I think I thought in my mind, look, I'm just going to be straight up because what I did.

A lot of people are black and white, man. They see like either cooperative, you don't. That's point blank period. And that's how most of these guys are, right? Or a lot of people will just go with those rules. But, but I thought, you know, like, you know, I'm just going to, I'm like, I felt like what I did. Like, I didn't, I was indicted because of them. Okay, they put me there.

I stepped to the dude. I asked him straight up, did he do this? He lied to me. if he just told me the truth and that he could fight these and what were they called recanted statements that maybe we could do some but he was he lied to my face they they lied to the feds i was like and i had two kids at home and uh if i if i chose to do the 10 years and because i want to had an easy bid then who then then more than then then who am i as a father i I don't know. It's a moral dilemma, I guess you can look at it, man.

Because I don't believe in snitching. And that's the funny thing. And he was like, I appreciate it. But I think by me telling him, it got around. I mean, overnight everybody knew. And like, it got real cold, bro. Like, real cold. Real lonely, real, like. And I always been a person that was cool with everybody. And people gravitate too. And, you know, I always tell, you know, like, I carry myself. well and that helped me later on because I earned a lot of respect in there I stayed on the weight pit I didn't like I told him like when I because he came to me right out he like he's like he's like look I'm pulling you in my car I you know I deal with these dudes but they're going to need your paperwork

and that's a nothing that's when I told him and he said the next thing when I talked to him he's like look man he's like I had to tell them what's up he's like and I can't fuck with you no more bro and we didn't talk and we still don't talk and um you know, sometimes I regret even saying it because what I found out later and how this system works, and I'm going to see, you know, you could probably relate to this, is that, you know, that got around to everybody, man. And there were people that didn't care and there were people that wouldn't even come 10 feet from you, like you had the plague, man. And I remember thinking in the beginning, you know, how long they could get through it.

or people that just think, like, I think a lot of guys in the feds, you have cars, right? And I think in the state you don't have that. So I've seen a lot of people get abused in the state. State was a little rougher because you might have a guy that's weak and can't hold their own. And unless they have somebody look out for them, they're going to get abused. Where in the feds, you can get in with your car. and now your car protects you as long as your paperwork is good. Do you understand what I'm saying?

There wasn't really that in the state. Now, what I'm trying to get to is I remember there was a kid in the dorm with us, and he was firm on my way, and I just remember thinking, I just wanted to get home. You know, my main focus was to get home. And sometimes I think people forget, you know, he hears I'm hot, like something sweet, you know what I mean? And it almost got real ugly for him and me.

And I just had to chill. And then I ended up in the halfway house with him. I almost lost my time in there, too. But what ends up happening is as time goes on, you know, a lot of people wouldn't talk to me. I ended up cool with a couple of dudes from around Albany. I worked out with them. You know, they never asked questions about the paperwork. I don't know if their paperwork was good or not.

But I carried myself well in there. and as time went on people got more friendly then little by little someone would be like yo what's up with you kid you know and then want to see the paperwork and I would show them and it'd be like damn I don't know man like you know and and that's what kept happening and as time went on I'd show more people more people and eventually one of the main guys you know hell he's all right and it kind of turned

And I started to get a little bit more respect and people, it changed. I can even tell you, there was a time where there was a kid in the program that we were in who did something that was like, and he had good paperwork and everything, and he did something that was kind of, because, you know, our DAP can be funny. And he did something that was kind of considered snitching. And his paperwork was good. And I'm walking with him. One of the main dudes came up.

to me like why are you walking with this dude and he knew what was up with my case so um it was uh you know it was it was tricky man and um the other thing that was that really bug me man was was how many guys i found out because now everybody knows this right so i would get guys coming up to me before they leave that everyone thought was good and i can't tell you how many times this happened to me. One of the main dudes that was like down with the white dudes came to my dorm or my cell. He was like, yo, he was leaving the next day and he said, just want to let you know, man. Like, I respect what you do it and being straight up about that. He's like, you motherfuckers don't even know. And he tells me everything. And I'm just like, just thinking to myself, like,

to me, what piece of shit? Like he does, like, because I, like, I don't know, man. It was, it was crazy in there. That, that, and then how many. How many? dudes got their paperwork like had somebody change it for them. You know what I'm saying? And then I'm thinking to myself, wow, man. So here you are, you're showing

this dude fake paperwork. You're hot as fuck. And now they're letting you in their little circle thinking everything's all good. And who knows what these guys could be doing? Like, that's crazy to me. And that's going on a lot more to people think, man, I saw a whole other side to it. And then I'm thinking to myself, how stupid I was to just

be straight up with everybody. But then it worked out for me. You know what I mean? Because of that. And how I carried myself and I had my paper, you know, I had all my statements like showing them. This is what happened. How much time did you end up doing in total? About five years. I did almost the whole time. Even though I got Ardap, I ended up, I was Schenectady goes to, so you go to half, so you get a year off your program when you take Ardab and then you get the six-month halfway house. Our halfway house was closed down in Auburn.

So everybody from Schenectady goes to the Albany and a halfway house. It got closed down for some reason. It's open now. And when that happened, they sent us to Syracuse. And because of that, Syracuse got overcrowded. So I graduated Ardap, should have been home. had to wait like for a date and in a process of waiting for a date a situation happened and I kind of told the kid like to keep his mouth shut so they took it as a threat he went

and ended up telling on me I got rolled back in and the only reason I got rolled back in because the doctor I think it was Dr. Redondo he was he liked you know he took a liking to me and said I got to roll you back you're going to have he's like normally I kick you out you get nothing. He's like, I'm going to put you back in criminal thinking. You're going to do that over. And if as long as you get that, you'll get your date. And by the time I did that and got my date, which was still crowded. When I got that, I only got, I don't know, I think I got like six, I don't know. I didn't get the whole year. I got like six months off. And then I was in the halfway house for like two months and then ended up home with your ankle breaks. What year was that?

2012. 2012? And you've been out of trouble since. Ever since, yeah. I got all, and then I had eight years of post-release, and I got three years early on that. That's another thing that the P.O.'s there where I had a good P.O. Pat and old, I'll give props to him. He even helped me get a job, man. Like, he was a good dude, and I got a job helping troubled kids at LaSalle. And their motto was about second chances. and I had the and they didn't really hire felons they could but they weren't and when I did you know I had

had just got out of RDAF so I had a lot of the lingo and and I just I interviewed real well with the lady she had me I ended up doing three or four interviews and then they called my parole officer and he said you know what I told her or post-release supervision it's not actually parole she said I told her you know your model's second chances you know what I mean and and she said you know that was it and I got the job and I got to work with troubled teens our troubled kids and I really enjoyed that man I really uh and could relate to these kids uh I remember uh I just I really enjoyed that what do you do now uh right now I got a part-time job uh I'd rather not say wear just because it's like a school and um i also do uh sell clothing online which is uh which is my main

income and it's been a blessing and um you know what um my son landed uh he played football at shallmont he uh i'm so proud of him um he uh he was you ever springfield massachusetts yeah the college so he was recruited by Springfield. He was accepted there. He ended up leaving. He pulled his hamstring the first week, came home. But I'm real proud of him. He's doing, he's got a couple online things going on. He's got Strive Nation. It's Strive Nation clothing, Strive Nation Fitness,

and Strive Nation part, he's doing music too. And, you know, he's a little entrepreneur, and I'm really proud of him. And I'm really proud of my older son too, because he probably took it the hardest when all this happened.

He was a daddy's boy. And, you know, what I didn't mention is how close I was to him. when I got ripped out of his life. He was seven years old. He was born in 2000, so 2007. And I'll never forget when I first got locked up. And one time I told you, I took all the wheat into the cellar.

He came down there. I didn't see him. And he saw me with it. And what's that dad? Salad. And I got him out of there. And I, you know, I normally didn't do things at home after that is when I would use like other, I'd rent, like, apartments or use the hotel.

I didn't like to bring anything home. And I remember saying to, I was on a phone, he was like, Dad, when you coming home? And I said, this is right in the beginning. I said, I don't know, man. He goes, is it because of the salad? I was like, oh, my God. These guys know a lot more that's going on than you think, man. And it's, it's, that's what kills me is, you know, the people around you and your loved ones

that get hurt from this. You know what I mean? What do you think is the biggest lesson that your story has taught you? That you affect everyone around you. That it ain't, it's not just you. You know, I thought when I was younger, it was always, look, I do the crime, I'll do my time. But everyone that loves you is going to feel that. You're not doing that bit alone, man.

They're worrying about you. I know that just because of my kids and when they get in a situation, or anything. I'm worried about them. I'm going through that with them. And everything that I had to go through, my brother went through, my mom had to go through that with us.

You know what I mean? And for that, to them, I'm sorry. I am so sorry that I put you through that. You know, I'm sorry to the community for the crimes I've committed. and from here on now, you know, I just want to, I want to make changes in people's life to help them. I want to help people. I want to help, you know, anybody I can in any way I can.

And, you know, and I think I owe that. You know, I owe that to my community and I owe that to my family, you know. And I don't know. That's it, man. Well, Jared, I appreciate you coming on the show today, man. Got it, bud. Yeah. I appreciate you having me, man.

I really respect what you're doing. I think it's awesome. Thank you for sharing your story with us. You're welcome.