Locked In with Ian Bick - Inside a Latin King’s $250,000 Post Office Scam | Brandon Alvarez

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Brandon Alvarez breaks down the $250,000 post office scam he ran as a Latin King, how the operation worked, and what led to his downfall. #FinancialFraud #ScamExposed #PostalScam #MoneyLaundering #TrueCrime #WhiteCollarCrime #LawEnforcement #CrimeAndConsequences Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://convictclothing.net/collections/convict-clothing-x-ian-bick Timestamps: 00:00:00 Growing Up in Brooklyn: A Different Era 00:05:04 The Role of Fathers in Childhood Development 00:10:19 Struggles and Survival as a Teenager 00:15:16 Credit Card Fraud: The Unforeseen Consequences 00:20:00 Navigating Cash App Scams and Frauds 00:24:52 Inside the Foot Locker Scam 00:29:44 Exposing a Government Fraud Scheme 00:35:22 Sentencing and Legal Challenges 00:40:23 Life Inside a Mississippi Prison: Chaos and Survival 00:45:01 Life Inside Prison: Adapting to Cash App Economy 00:50:28 Navigating Tax Responsibilities in Marriage 00:55:11 Gang Dynamics in Federal Prisons 00:59:46 Preparing Mungo: A Unique Prison Dish 01:04:24 Prison Fights and Reputation 01:09:10 Life Inside an Open Bay Dormitory 01:14:07 Overcoming Temptation and Staying on Track Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yeah, that's my dog. Yeah, shout out to Sos another Connecticut, resident, and you're from Connecticut. Yeah, well, I'm from New York, but I've been to Connecticut since I came home about two and a half years ago. Okay, why Connecticut? Because my wife's from Meriden.

Ah. So we met in Florida, and then when I got locked up, she moved back to Connecticut and pretty much I came back up to. Way different world out here than New York. Yeah, it's a little slower. Much slower.

Yeah. But at least you got an Uber at a decent price compared to New York City. Yeah, no, yeah, definitely, definitely. When I looked early at 9 o'clock in the morning, it was like 40. Then when I looked at the game to leave, it was like 70. Yeah, they changed the prices all the time. Yeah. Where in New York did you grow up?

Brooklyn. Brooklyn. My dad's from Brooklyn. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Well part, you know? I don't know. But you'll probably run into him.

He comes in and likes to watch the episode, so you might see him and you can ask him. At least I think he's from Brooklyn. I tell people he's from Brooklyn. Brooklyn. Who'd you grow up with? I go with my moms and my sisters. No dad in the picture? No, I mean, my real dad, I don't talk to him. I have a stepdad.

My mom's not with him no more, but that's still my father. My real father, I don't talk to him. I mean, it's funny because my real father's a detective. Is he really? In Florida, so. Wow. And, you know, I haven't spoken in about like 17, 18 years. What did your mom do for work?

She worked for the Board of Education. Like the New York school system, I guess, you could say. She worked with autistic kids. My dad worked for the New York school system, too, in a Spanish Harlem. Oh, yeah? He was a teacher and then, like, an administrator later on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a rough job.

It's a rough job. It's a rough job. My mom's supposed to see some crazy stuff. Yeah, it's a rough job. My mom told me some stories, too. Yeah, kids coming to school with weapons, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So, did you guys have money growing up?

No money. No, I don't know. I grew up. Like, my mom did what she could do for us, but I'm not going to say we grew up poor, but we definitely was like, you know, you got low, middle, high class. It was like at the top of the low class,

so right below the middle. So we weren't poor, but we didn't have, you know, we had food. You know, my mom had, she worked and got government assistance, so we had all that going on. You know, the one thing about New York is that the government assistance, they help anybody out. It's not like, you know, Connecticut.

They don't care. Since I've been Connecticut, I've seen homeless people, and they don't, they don't help doing nothing at New York. This is a vast majority of people. It's easier to get help from the government. How was a neighborhood growing up? Well, I grew up in Bushwick. So Bushwick is a...

Now it was all gentrified. It's all like hipsters from like Cali and Seattle and the West Coast. When I was growing up, it was all Puerto Ricans and Puerto Rican Italians and blacks. And it was pretty rough. It was pretty rough. What do you mean by rough? Like, gang infested it. Like, I don't really know how to describe it.

Like, if I don't even know how to describe it, like, if I don't, if I don't take you through here now, it looks nothing to what I'm describing it. It's all, you know, condos and lofts and all that stuff now. But when I was growing up, it was cracked dens. It was wild. It was wild. Were you left on your own a lot as a kid? Not really because, so my mom, so we lived in like a, I guess, which I would call a three family house in Connecticut, right, for a second, third floor, whatever.

We lived in the first floor, me and my mom, my sister, but my grandparents lived right next door. they live right across the hall. So my mom was around. My grandparents were around. What were some like morals she raised you and your siblings with? Morals, I'm number one is don't lie. Don't ever lie. That was a big thing in my mother is you can't trust a liar.

A liar or a thief. So, you know what I mean? That was the main things. And pretty much like, you don't need money to be happy in life. You know, I didn't follow that one because, as you can see. I don't think you followed a few. Few of the rules. But my mother tried the best she could, but you know what I mean?

But like, you got to play the cards you're dope. I mean, some people are blessed. Some people aren't. I was just blessed to have a family, so. You feel like you got a lot of love as a kid? I used to get disciplined a lot. But if you're actually my mom now, she was like, oh, I didn't hit you. I used to get disciplined quite a, I was the only boy.

I had two sisters. So whatever they did, I got discipline for her. I was the middle child, so. There wasn't the wins. I wasn't a baby. I wasn't the first one. How would you describe yourself back then? Real rambunctious.

That was real, real, real, real active, real wild, real, all over the place, off the walls. Where do you think you got that from? I have no idea. Because I look at like, like, like, the little bit I do know by my father, he's a real calm person. So I know it was from him. Probably my uncle, I have my uncle's been in and out of prison. And a lot of the things I've done was to model myself after him. my mom's brother. So, you know, he was in, he did. When I was a kid, he had got sentenced

since the 12 to 15 for conspiracy to commit on robbery in Georgia. So he was locked up from my whole childhood. Do you think not having your dad in the picture played a big role on your childhood? 100%. I mean, listen, I know one thing's for sure, two things for stirring is a boy needs a father. Guarantee, like, you need, you need a father. You need that, that a woman can't teach a man how to be a man. Just a fact of life. kids now? I have a nine month old and then I have an 11 year old. Oh, congratulations. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Do you look at parenting differently now compared to your childhood?

I mean, my wife is still kind of schooling me on it because me, I'm real, I'm real like my cheese, I'm real like strict, like, oh, there's got to be this way, it's got to be that way. My wife is more the loving one, so she tries to tell me to go the same 90s where you can be, you know, parenting has changed a lot. You can't discipline the kid no more, you know. it's a child abuse now. So, you know. Do you think discipline helps a child? It didn't help me, so, no.

So why would you even want to them? Exactly. You know what it is, too, it's just sometimes, like with my son, especially, because he's 11 years old, so he's going through, like, the adolescent phase. So sometimes it's like, I be like, yo, like, I just, I want to smack him up. Like, yo, bro, what are you doing? But my wife is the one that, she's the voice of reason in the house. Talk us through, you know, middle,

school, high school, were you attending school at all? Were you going? So, this is, so in the sixth grade, I got into some problems. Like, I got, jumped by some, with some gang members. So my mom called my father, my sperm donor,

I was just putting it like that. She called him. And he came and got me. So for four years, I lived with him in Florida. So this is the part of why I rebelled. So she sent me off to him. I was living with him. He was really, really, really strict.

I'm talking about, like, military boot camp, you know, wake up this time, eat this time, take a shower, this time. Homework, like, really, like, really cataloged. And I lived with him. I did my middle school out there in Florida. And then I did my ninth grade out there before I came back to New York because I can't do it no more. I was like, I don't want to be with this guy. I don't want to do with him. He was just too, like, like, like, he would ground, like, like, what I mean?

Like, he wouldn't hit me, but he would mentally abuse me. Like, no, I would start. He would starve me. If I did, like, if I got, like, a C in a class, he would ground me for, like, seven months, six months. He, like, he would have me just go home, eat, do my homework and pretty much read books all day until I go to sleep. So he was kind of rude. And I saw I call my mom and then, I was like, I can't be here. Can you, like, send me a, gave me a ticket to come back because he bought me a ticket.

But then, then from there, a lot of other, like, shit just went downhill. Looking back on it now, do you wish you stayed? with your dad? Maybe, and I talk about this, I said, you know, maybe if I would have said my father, I probably would have turned out different. Because once I came back to New York at 15, I'm ready, at a level I want to be in the streets.

I started gang banging. I mean, I started fucking, I got arrested at 16, like, for the first time. You know, I've been in prison a few times. I've been stabbed. I've been put in the coma, so. Do you think being too strict as a parent is just, can be just as bad as being not strict enough.

Yeah, if you're too strict, you're driving away. Because now, especially a boy, you know, a boy's in a challenge what you're saying. Oh, don't do this. No, why can't I? I'm going to do it now. He's going to challenge everything you have to say. And I feel like if my pops was a little more lenient,

and I got to experience a certain thing, because he had me trapped like a dog, like a pit bull in a cage. So when I finally got released and went to New York, I didn't know how to act. I was out of a cage. I had freedom. I was roaming the streets. come home two, three, four in the morning.

You know, so maybe if you would have given me a little bit of freedom, I probably would have been, my life probably would have turned out differently. So when you got back, that's when you started getting in a gang activity? Not before when you got jumped, you weren't in that life? I was 10 years old. Okay.

I ain't know nothing about. Teen needs kids at age, you know. Yeah, I don't know anything about that. I was a little square at that time. I don't know nothing about that. How did you get recruited into that life? So this, so. I have family, so I was a Latin king.

So, and I'm not going to say I still am. I still am, but I'm inactive. So let me put it like that, I'm an inactive member. So I was a Latin king. So what happened is, is I was, I used to want to hang around with them. So I used to go to like the pool hall. I just hang around with them, just chill. And I was just like a friend.

And then I found out I had family that was in it. And I right there sealed the deal. I was like, I'm going to go all in. And I still, and I still active 15 years. 15 years I said active As a first crown A second crown

A third crown I held rank In prison Out of prison Why do you get arrested For the first time at 16 My first charge Was a robbery one

With a fire room With a tense of harm And that was gang related Yeah gang related But we beat it because we went to Grand Jury And so I don't know how So in New York

When you go to Grand Jury They have seven days to indict you Or they got to drop the charges So they didn't have enough evidence because they tried to charge nine people with one robbery with one firearm. Can't do that.

How are you going to charge nine people for a robbery with one gun? So that got dismissed. How did your mom feel that you were in gang? She kicked my house. She kicked you out. How old were you and you got kicked out? 16. Where'd you go to live?

I was bouncing around home to home. Just with other gang members? Yeah, well, yeah. Some other bros I bounced around. I did that for like seven years. How were you making money? I was hustling. I was hustling.

I was scamming. This is when the credit card thing started again popping. It's like 07. So people started getting credit card numbers, cashing out on gift cards, checks, going to cashiers and casting fake checks. Anything to survive,

for me, robbing Mexicans. That was a big thing we did in New York. In Brooklyn, especially, like, we would catch a junk Mexican on a Friday after they got paid to rob them.

And with a gun? I would just whoop their ass. It would be like three of us. We'll jump him and rob him. Not anything I'm proud of, but... You think you had disregard for, like, other humans at that age? 100%. All I cared about was that I had to survive,

and I was going to get it by any means necessary. Now, the credit card numbers, how would you get those? I had a friend that was real... He used to mess around with the dark web, and he used to get it from the dark web, man. What we used to do... This is when Bitcoin, I really first came out. the Bitcoin's very cheap.

With Bitcoins, we will buy numbers on the dark web. And that's how we were getting credit card numbers. And we had a printer, and we would print the numbers onto a regular card. This is before the chips and all that. So it was just a swipe. So we printed on gift cards and run wild. How much would you pay for credit card numbers? Like, was it a certain amount for a certain amount?

Not so how it was. It was per number. So it would be like $5, $10, $15. but before you when we bought the numbers they would have like a percentage of if it was going to hit like it'll tell you like 98% like 10% like it'll give you the pros and cons like which ones like American Express right you can't get American Express because they were not gonna they were not gonna they were not gonna they were not gonna work oh the numbers wouldn't yeah like American Express like they had something that that that they had like a certain safety protocol like if you stole someone's the American Express and tried to swipe it they would lock the car so it wasn't it wasn't worth buying it so would there be some times you bought a number and there's no money, like no credit limit? They didn't work. Because if the person's credits maxed out or something. Yep. Yep.

What's happened a few times? So what kind of purchases are you making with the credit cards? A lot of it is online digital stuff. We'll get a multiple PO box. So it doesn't trace back to you. But don't you have to put the person's billing information in? So just the zip code. Just the zip code.

And how would you know what the zip code was? It would tell you when you bought it. When you bought it, we'll have all the information. And how did these numbers get delivered? like on the dark web. Is it an email? I have no idea. No, like to you.

Oh, no, we would just, we would just purchase them and we would have to save the link, like save the files into our computer. Okay. And then you give it to your printing friend. He prints it out. Yep. 100%. And then that was the start of a long list of things.

Because from there, that's when I saw, oh, shit, I can make X amount of dollars, like if I'm moving kilos and get not knowing it half the time. Yeah. Did you prefer scams over drugs? Yeah, because when I was selling, when I was selling, at the time I was selling weed, because, you know, it was like 0-8-09, we was really illegal. So I was, I don't smoke. I never smoked.

So I was selling it. But I wasn't making the money. It wasn't coming fast. It was moving really slow. As opposed to when I started doing the credit cards, I could make $1,500 in a day, $2,000 in a day. And that's because you're buying product and then selling it? Yeah, like we would buy iPhones. When the iPhone 4 first came out.

buy an iPhone. We'll open up a business account. Say like we had your social. My name's X, Y, and Z. This is a social. I would like to open up a business account where AT&T, give me 10 lines. So the only thing we have to do is pay for the iPhones out of pocket, but we'll just pay for the taxes.

So you'll pay for, you know, at that time it was like $100 an iPhone with the taxes. We'll pay him. Then we'll give it to a middleman who would then send him to overseas. He would send the phones to his country. And then he will pay us. so he'll piss. So what we were doing is we was paying 100 for the iPhones. He would give us 400 for the iPhones and he was selling for 800.

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Wayfair, every style, every home. It's eight along that line. Would you guys ever use the credit cards to go out to dinner, buy groceries or anything, or is that too low-scale to risk? Now, we've done that too. We've done more like takeout. Like, oh, let me go on. This is for Uber, East End Door.

That was a thing. It was let me go call Domino's, for example, get them a credit card number and get the full delivery stuff like that. Now, is it one charge in the cards burned or can you use it multiple times? So there's one card I have. had that I've used I used like 85 to 90 times I kept maxing it out maxing it out like I kept everything if I pay cell phone bills electricity bills like I really that was one car that that was that good but doesn't that trace back to you if they see who's so so not so this is so this is when I learned

I paid my cell phone bill with it I paid off the phone and everything five months later I guess that person disputed it so it came back to my account that I had to pay all the money like so I paid $2,000 off. And like five months later, it came back to my T-Mobile account that the $1,000 I paid, it pretty much like it was no good. So now I've still owed T-M-O-2,000. So they didn't necessarily care about who stole the card

rather than the charge was no good? Yeah. Okay. So there's no, like, checks and balances on that aspect of it. Yeah, nope. Unless you got caught with, like, maybe this card in hand. The card in hand, so, you know, that's happened before, you know,

I have got caught a little. because once technology got more advanced, it became easier and harder at the same time. And by what that means, it was easier to make money, but it was harder because now you're up on it. The feds are up on it, too. You're learning. The feds got people that are learning too.

And they know what's what and what's not. You ever feel bad that you're maxing out on someone's credit? Now I do because my credit shot. So now I'm like, damn. Like, I've had people, like, like, like, I've had people I have to dispute transactions that I didn't do. So now, as an adult now, I'm like, damn, like, I really messed up somebody's life. Yeah, you're, you know, I'm grateful I never messed up my credit when I was going through my stuff

because it would have been hard to get out of. Yeah. And my case didn't affect my credit at all. See, but you know what's crazy? Because I think mine of your case is kind of similar. You had postal, right? Yeah, I had postal inspectors. Mine was postal, too.

It was federal? Federal, yeah. It was a poll. And this is when I found out when I went to court, when I, I, I, I, I, after I got caught stuff that they say postal inspectors are the ones that do the best investigation. Yeah, they're thorough and they only take certain cases and a lot of it is like fraud, yelling stuff, mail fraud, that type of stuff. Exactly.

So when I heard you talk about it, I'm like, yeah, this is similar to what I did. So tell us about some other scams like the checks. All right. So in 2015, I went to, this is what I'm doing, now we're doing iPhones heavy because iPhone is, the iPhone 6 is out. So, you know, we would go. So I had a friend that would make fake IDs. this is before you can now you can scan the IDs

until they're fake before, back then you can look at it and be like, all right, this is ID. So we had a friend that would make us fake IDs with like, this is my picture with your name. I'm Ian Bick. This is me. You know, and you go to the Apple store with hey, my name Ian Bick, here's my ID.

I would like to buy nine iPhones on my business line. So we were doing that. So I went to Chicago. First, I went to PA, I had a few stories up in the East Coast. Then we went, We drove to the Midwest and went to Chicago. What so happens, the area in Chicago went to, like, outside of, it was like suburban Chicago,

was called Naperville, which is the safest place in America. We didn't know that. So we're in the Apple store, and we're trying, we're buying these iPhones and stuff, and we gave them the IDs and stuff. They said, all right, we back in one minute. When they came back, they came back, when they came back, as they were coming out with our IDs, the cops were coming in, and they arrested me, like, three of my friends by identity, theft and possession of frozen the tools. And that was a state charge?

That was a state charge. But don't you need the person's social security to open up the phone line? Yeah, so we did have that too. How would you get that? Well, I was the middleman in that one. I wasn't the mastermind. I don't even know. I know you could also do it with like EIN numbers, like employer identification numbers.

You could do EINs too, but we did it was so. Knowing what I know now, it would have been 100% easy. We're doing it with socials. So I guess my, the guy I was working for probably had a person on the inside I was giving them socials. I don't know the logistics of that because I was just out there I was out there on Front Street getting the phones. Matter of fact, you can't even look it up. Like the case, the case was on the news and everything. But now the phones, until they're paid off, they're like inoperable. You can't even use them. I mean, you can, but

you have to have know somebody. Someone's got to have, like, for iPhones at least. They got to have, like, you know, a MacBook. They got to have something Apple to be able to crack it. Do you know anything about, like, the ATM scams and whatnot? Did you ever get into any of those? like how people would pull people's numbers off the ATMs. That's interesting. When I wanted to at one time, I've seen a lot of that. Just like the PPP stuff. I saw a lot of that stuff too.

I hope you avoided all the PPP stuff. Yeah, because I already was knee deep into my federal case when all that happened. That was probably a blessing. I didn't even dabble in that. But when I was in the feds, there was a bunch of people I was with that was locked up for the PPP stuff. Yeah, I mean, we had a roommate that was telling us, me and my buddy had a roommate, he was like getting a cash app for like 25 grand because he signed up for that and he was able to keep like five grand and like keep me away from that that shit catches up to you it's crazy and

then you get those cash app do you know anything about like those cash up scams and stuff people always message you like oh give send a hundred we put an extra zero something a thousand back stuff like they i've heard of it i've never now i've never i had a friend that shot that was dumb enough to do it and the person just took his money and then i see these accounts on facebook they're like let me know if you have wells fargo let me know if you have chase like drop in. That's when you, so that's when you have those big accounts,

what they would, because I've been a part of those too. What they would do is they would have a check, whatever, and check from the bank, and they're going to write, however, $10,000.

These checks are good checks. They're going to write $10,000. They're going to put in, the deposit bank out. You know, depending how long you have the bank account, it depends on how long the money's going to clear. So there's a new bank account,

it's probably not going to clear, but if you have the bank account for a year, two years, and they're clearing like two days. So what happens now then is they'll go with shoe to take the money out. you got to get on 50% or half of what they put in. I just feel like there's more of a paper trail with scamming than there is drugs. There is.

A hundred percent. Like, man, I live on paper at the house. I should have brought it. But me, I got, like, I'm on the camera. Like, I'm on the post office camera. Yeah. My dad, you know, he's a caterer and he had someone email him say, hey, I'm going to send you a deposit for X amount for this party I want to do.

And they send the check in the mail, but it's two grand more than what the deposit amount is. So they email him, oops, I sent two grand more. Can you just deposit it and send me the two grand back? And the check turns out

because he called the police after. It turns out to be like some corporation. They stole the check. And the scam was once you deposit it, you pay over, you give them the balance. So they get the two grand. But then he would have been guilty.

Like your father? Not knowing, because I had a, again, I was locked up with a guy that he gave his friend in a $10,000 dollar loan in North Carolina.

And he was that $10,000 a loan, his friend bought drugs. He still got locked up for it because there's a certain charge, federal charge, that is like funding, it's like funding drug activity, which is crazy.

So if you're like, hey, if you're like Brandon, I need $10,000, knock on, let you go to $10,000, and you decided by a kilo of it and you get arrested,

I'm implemented because I lent you the money. I just feel like you could kind of tell when things are a scam. Like when I got emails or messages, I know, like when a brand deals a scam or anything like that. No, I've learned that lot too. Like, people email me and someone I don't even,

especially I don't even know. And just email me, hey, You want to make X amount of dollars. I don't even, bro, stay away from all that. Like, you would think these guys would get smarter with how they type. Like, having someone more normal, like, make it seem more normal. You could just tell.

I guess not everyone thinks that way. Or have you ever had, like, a person? You still communicate with people in prison or not? Some people, yeah. Have you ever had, like, a person that's your social media, and you know that's your people's. But the person that's messaging you is not that person. They'll be like, oh, well, you know, I'm doing bad. Can you send me, you know, $100.

But then when you found that account, it'll be like a new account that create it and then the message you from that from like a new company created yeah like as your friend yeah i don't really get those but i mean i feel like you could kind of tell when someone's a fake or not like when they're sending you stuff like and you just look at their followers you look at their favorite if i just had this one i've had the other page as a friend and now you you request me from two more pages or i'm not i'm not sending you nothing so what was like a typical day when you were in like the height of the scamming at that age what did you do Like what time you're waking up?

What are you doing with the money? We up at 8 in the morning. The money, we was more or less... I'll get some water real quick. The money, we was wilding. We were going strip clubs. We were going to strip clubs. We was going out to eat.

We was living like a real, like a real lifestyle. Like a real lavish lifestyle. But that wasn't even... I made money. In the year, I was doing that, I made me like $100,000. which, you know, it's a lot of money. For a teenager, yeah.

For a son, it's not working. I'm 21, 22 years old, 19 years old. I'm making, that's top dollars right there. But the thing about it is that if I knew everything I knew now, bro, all the money I've made, bro, I'd be chilling, bro. I'd be chilling. And the thing about it is, is I didn't learn from that time and then the next time I didn't learn.

I got more money and I spent more money. The more money I made, the more money I spent. I don't know once I bought like seven pit bulls for a while I don't even know why I bought the dogs for what did you do with them I sold them but like I don't know why was the purpose of buying them I lived in the I lived in the projects I didn't need I didn't need no pit bulls Did you ever work like a regular job as a kid? I worked a foot locker okay I worked the full locker while I was scamming

Oh while you were scaming I was scamming footlocker too How did you scam foot locker like I would have so if I was working the register I would have my whole would come in with the cards and he bought like seven eight pairs sneakers and we started and then we were selling them on the credit cards so how is that really a scam on the gift cards really it was the fake gift cards it wasn't the so you're not ringing it through the register i'm ringing through the register what i'm trying to say is we did it with the fake with the fake credit cards with the numbers that we want from the dark web but technically that as a a foot locker employee yeah i had no knowledge went through yeah i know so i know not if they asked i had no

knowledge so okay interesting wow so and then those shoes they're getting sold and at full price or you guys market it so if they're 190 like back then jordan jordan's were coming out 190 we're selling like 160 oh that it just goes down by 30 bucks and people are buying them and i'm going to say why because after these jordan sell out now they're selling in these resell stores for $300 so are you going to buy 160 you're going to sell out spent 300 yeah i was always curious about like like the shoe reselling business. That's a big market. Well, now it's kind of died down, like, from what I've seen.

Because, like, the sneakers don't even sell out no more the way they used to. But, like, when I was a filagher, there was a big market in that. Big market. Because we're getting 30% off. So, you know, by policy, we weren't allowed to buy sneakers and sell them. Some people did it anyways. They will buy Jordan's 30% off on 190s. It's like $140, $1,000, something like that.

They will buy it. Then they'll resell for $300. Well, how would they know? No, no, they wouldn't know. That's what I'm saying. This is before, this is right around the time, like Craigliss and all for up, starting to really get popping. So, you know, the only people that I caught were the ones that put them on social media.

Oh, I got these X, Y, is it because believe it or not, these big corporations like Full Locker and Dick Sporting Goods and all. They have people that their job is to look at employees' social media and see what they got going on. Yeah. What was your favorite scam to pull off that most lucrative? too. The one I got went to the feds for. All right.

So tell us that story. What happened? I so. And how old were you? I was, this happened at 2018. So I was 27. So I was a cab driver.

I was driving cab taxis in New York. I was still on parole for an identity theft shit. So I was still on parole from that. So I'm on, I meet a guy in my taxi. And he's like, he's like, I'm going to pay a hundred dollars. Wrong trip. Take me X, Y. So we're right to write around.

I already know he has money. So, you know what I started talking? Because if you look at me, you can see I ain't a cop. I got tattoos everywhere. The way I talk, you're like, all right, you know. I'm like, yo, like, what's good? Like, I'm trying to get money. Like, what's up?

And he's like, he's like, oh, we'll talk more. And he's taking, because I take my number. I took the number. Call him. He was like, for like, four days straight with his driver. Just taking him all over. And I was taking him to the post offices. But at the time, I didn't know why.

I'm just taking him to different post offices. You know, and he's just, he's him one other guy. he's just sitting in the car with me and a guy is going out this white guy's going out the post office all right, whatever you know, I'm not thinking of it

so we go then we drop to Long Island to somebody over there that they would job sent out to do, pay the money, whatever. So I'm like, I'm like, I want to be down.

Like, at that time I was struggling with bills. So I'm not want to be down because this is what we're going to do. We're going to go in the post office. We're going to give me these checks. We're going to sign, like, your neighbors are going to be

this check has to match ID. We're going to sign, you're going to buy stamps. The scheme was buying stamps with fake checks. So I was buying rows of stamps. So a roll of stamp at the time was $50. Once I got comfortable with whichever post of I was in, I would say, let me get a box of rows. So now that's 100 rows of stamps, which is $5,000.

Paying with the check, run a check, I'm doing me the rows of stamp. We would then sell that box for 35. 100. Right? So like a stamp, a stamp dealer or whatever and somewhere I don't know like some Jewish guy.

And out of 3,400, I would keep two. He would take 15. We was doing that every day for six months. Now, I thought back in the day you could actually exchange stamps for full price because I remember guys in the feds

would send their stamps home and you just bring it the post office they give you full price. You know, we were buying in front of post office with fake checks. Yeah, but essentially. you could have just returned them to somewhere else and got the possible. I don't know nothing about this.

I'm just now I got a high. This is my high, right? I'm doing it every day. And these checks are legit? And these checks are these checks. They were real check paper, but with a fake routing and the account them around it. So how would it scale? What was their checks and balances?

How would it scan? So they were running through and the check would say it was good. But by the time it got to whatever office it got to, whatever headquarters it got to, that's when that's when they were realized it was fake. Oh, we got. So, you know, matter of fact, on my paper, he even says, they says, I did 87 checks at approximately $350,000 that I took from the government. And you're going in there, no mask, nothing, no cup, no disguise.

You're just going in. Just running in. So this guy that approached you to do this, you didn't know him at all, right? I didn't know him. And what was your cut? My cut, since I was the one going in, I would get, I would get, it was like 60-40 split. So I guess whatever made I get 60 he get 40 Was there ever like a close call when you went in there?

So this is yeah So one time I went to this post office And they were taking forever Usually they don't take that long taking forever And I'm like you know what They gave me the stamps And as I'm walking out I see a guy following me

And having a car He takes a picture of the car So it happened he was like the district supervisor For that location So from there That's when things started going downhill So Around May of 2000 in

18 of somebody was arrested in connection to the conspiracy scheme. This is what his paperwork says. CW1 is what they put him as, which is I guess criminal witness one, confidential witness, whatever. He got arrested for unrelated charges, and then for full immunity, decided to give up what we had going on.

How did he know? So I'm assuming the guy I was working with had people he was talking to. I never met nobody else. So they came to my house December of 2018. I never forget it. Like 30 marshals on the roof, guns.

It was... And at this time, I already had stopped doing it. I'm six months clean. I'm not knowing what's going on. I'm thinking I'm clean. They came in my house and they knocked on the door. And I saw when I saw them, I was like, what?

They're like, you Brandon Alvarez? I'm like, nah, that's not me. And they're like, this ain't you? And they shoot a picture of me. I'm like, yeah, that's me. And they came in my house and had my phone sit because I had just set my alarm because I used to get up at 5 in the morning

to go drop taxi. They came around 4.35 in the morning. So they had set my alarm, and around that time they came in, my alarm went off. And then they grabbed my phone and said, oh, this is evidence. It took my phone. So I'm like, oh, so then they put me in like in this, and the waist, the shackles from the waist around the wrists and the legs.

And they put a mask over me, like a black bag. Why? I have no idea. It was the most craziest thing I've ever experienced. They put me in the car, or I guess the suburban. They took me to the, to the, to MCC. MCC. They took me to MCC.

At this time, Takashi 6-9 has just got locked up. So they're dealing with him. He's upstairs. This is around the whole time. So I go and I go because the first judge, see, I think, is a magistrate judge, right? So before I go see him, they have me in the office and they're like, yo, we just, oh, they're like, oh, Mr. Arvarez, we just locked up your co-conspirator. I'm like, what are you talking about?

Or Jermaine Anderson, we just got it. We just locked them up in Philly. He's on the way up here now, too. They caught us both at the same time. They hit us both of at the same time. And that's a guy that was in the taxi with him. Yeah. So they locked, um, they sent a lawyer in.

He's like, oh, I'm just letting you know you can get like 30 years And this is, I'm like, what, 30 years for what? Like, like, oh, for the stamps I'm like, bro, you want you to talk about I'm like, bro, my lawyer's like, yo, yeah, you do because you're on camera. And we got phone recordings

and we got text messages. So I'm like, oh, shit. So, like, what a matcher, Judge? Being that, it was my first federal offense, they released me with a PRO bond or $75,000 with four financial, responsible party signature.

So if, you know, if I got, if I decided to run, whoever signed on that I had to pay, pay, pay whatever it was, they had to pay. So they released me. So this is when I started learning about the PSIs and all that. When they had, they interview you, how was your life, and are you a drug addict and all this other stuff, they interview you well.

But me and my co-defendant can have no contact to each other. So my lawyer, telling me that, oh, well, you got to, you know, we want to take, we should take a deal because, you know, Jermaine Anderson is taking a deal. He's taking his plea first. So I'm like, at this time, I'm like, what do we take a plea for what? So, so on the point system, right? I'm trying to remember what it was.

So being that I had like two felonies on my record, I was like four points each. I didn't have a GED. I was like another point. My age was another point. know how they do your point system, right? So they're like, right now where it sits, you have a mandatory, not a mandatory minimum. You have a recommended minimum of 24 to 36 months. But once they did the point system again, it dropped to 18, 24 months.

So when I went to court, at this time I'm going back and forth. I have a pre-trial officer who I'm seeing every week. She's, you know, she's drug testing me. I got to show pay stuff so that I'm working, show my bank accounts, all types of off-the-wall stuff. So when I go to get sentenced in January 2020, it was right before COVID, I go to get sent to January 2020, my co-defendant is not there. He took his plea deal without me. So pretty much he pretty much implicated me in the case. He pretty much say, yeah, I did this, but he did this with me.

So right there was over. I was like, yeah, I did it. Why can I do? So when they're sentencing me, she's like, I'm going to be honest, Mr. Alvarez, because you know, you had to get letters. I had mad letters from different lawyers, from different teachers and employers and, like, stacks of letters. So they were trying to get me home confinement.

She wasn't having it. She was like, listen, even though nobody was hurting this crime and this is a victimless crime, the victim is the United States government, and pretty much we don't play that. So I'm not going to give you the max, but I'm going to give you the minimum of 18 months. You're going to, you're recommended to serve your time close to your home in New York. Coming April 2020 for coming to surrender.

COVID happens in March. Guess what? Now I can't, not have to surrender. So I'm out on the streets for like another 11 months. I'm going to Florida. I'm acting the full. I'm doing all the types of stuff, dumb stuff. My lawyer calls me, he was like, oh, we got a whole.

We got a place where they're going to send them. I'm like, where? It's a bloody Beaumont. Why all the way in Texas? I have no idea. So they send me, I guess, I want to think because they have my paper as an active gang member, they send me to an active gang yard. I wanted to go to Fort Dix.

That's where I was. So I've heard, and I'll hear your stories about Fort Dix, but I've heard, so I heard stories about Fort Dix. It's lit. It's not really too crazy. You would have gotten to trouble over there. That's true. Guys are doing literally scams in there off the phone.

So I'm like, Beaumont, I'm like, why so far? They're like, we don't know. So I'm like, all right. So he's like, you're going to turn yourself in August of 2021. All right? You're going to turn yourself in. You're going to turn yourself in. Well, what end up happening was, I can't make it in Texas.

I was in Florida. I started to turn myself into Semino County, which was the county. It was a county jail that had a federal section for federal inmates. And we had the orange jumpsuits in there. And the rest of the jail had like blue jumpsuits. So from, There, for me, the rest, you know, is, I'm traveling to jail to jail. So I'm in, I'm in Seminole County for 30 days.

They call it the break tank because that's the only place where there's no TV, no nothing. You're in like, cells without doors. The cells don't have doors. It's walls. You're in your room, is walls. And the inmates connects you and the other people are upstairs. But there's no TV. There's nothing there to do.

They got tablets. But the tablet. They didn't really nothing to do on the tablets. You did, but that's how you do, that's how you do your video visits on the tablet there, right? So 30 days there for like six months. There's nothing going on. There's no TV.

There's no wreck. There's you're just stuck in a room like this. Like picture this or like out there and it's 30 of y'all and there's nothing going on. You're going crazy. You're going, bro, you're going crazy. I'm like, I can't do this. If this is the next 18 months it's going to be like, this before I knew what the fed was like.

Because I had a lot of, I had a lot of misconstrued. I was misconstrued about what the Fed's like. So you hear stories like, oh, Camp Fed is. You know, it's not like what people are saying it is. The Fed is just as bad as state prisons. So from there, six in the morning on my 31st day there, they're like, Mr. Alvarez, they call his names, whoever's leaving. We got to take the bus to Jacksonville, Florida, which is two and a half hours away.

From there, he put us on a plane. This is the diesel therapy. Did you go through the diesel therapy? I went on Connery, Oklahoma City, baby. All right? So this is what he sent me to, right? So, but see, you went to the actual federal transit, right? Yeah.

They sent, so they wasn't doing the federal transit anymore. They sent us to the core civics, which are the private prisons. They sent us to Oklahoma. It was a private prison. So the guards there were like security guards. They didn't care what. I mean, it was like gladiators who wants to, because you had me 18-monther with someone that's doing three licenses.

That's all together. It was a different animal. So we go to Oklahoma City, and now you got a quarantine for 14 days. Right? So now you're stuck. One hour out of day you're coming out. Like you're really like you're in a max. So I'm, so you're there.

You're not really going on because, you know, everybody's waiting to see what they're going to go next. So I'm there 14 days. We couldn't even get a commissary. We didn't even get a commissary. So for Oklahoma City, they shot me to Mississippi to Tallahatchie County. Now that's where I saw, like, that's where I saw the cell phones. That's why I saw the CEOs have, now I mean.

And, of course, what other inmates? That's why I saw the cash apps. Like that's where I saw like oh And because people that were there They came from other federal prisons They would get shipped to other spots So the people that were there That's when I like

That's when I saw what like How the feds like It gave me a glimpse Of what I was gonna see in the feds I don't know this is crazy So they had And that's why I got to fight over there too That's why I got my first

Fight in prison Like this bid was in Mississippi Because the guards don't do nothing The guards are in the bubble And I'm talking about like We're breaking the doors So what we're doing is When it's locked on 11 o'clock, people are putting, they're taking a sock,

tying or not in it, and putting it where the door locks. When the door closes, you can pop the door open with a sock. So now inmates are popping the door open, and people are drinking hooch, they're drinking moonshine, all that other stuff. People are getting high. They're taking some boxes. People are acting in a fool. People are stabbing each other.

It was crazy. It was, like, really, like, it was. And the guards didn't come in. It was like, you were on your own. They'll come in after everything was done. If you were on the floor dying with your guts out, they come in there right there after to scoop you up. It was, bro, because you did with guys from Cali.

You there with, you know, the Surreggios, MS, bloods, crips, kings. You there were all these other types of wild criminals. And it's crazy because, like, you think, like, damn, I'm going to hit me 18 months. I'm trying to chill. I ain't really trying to wild out. But you got these dudes that got 18 years. They don't care if you're there for 18 months.

You know what I mean? They don't care. So, you know, I was there for, like, six months. It was cool, though, because I didn't want to be there Because, like, the cell phones and all that stuff And, you know, you know, the commissary day was fire. The commissary every day was fire, bro. We had, like, the best conversation I ever had there.

But from there, I was there, what, six months? Then they came and got me in the morning and said, you know, from there you're going to get prison or whatever, right? So they took us in a bus from Mississippi to Beaumont. That's eight hours on a bus. Shackled up. So when I get to Beaumop, the first place you go through all receiving, you got the guards there, you know, take off your clothes, squat, cough, all that good stuff.

Switch your clothes, I'll take your picture, whatever. So there's a dude there that he's been there already, but he just has to go to court and came back. I'm like, yo, what's his spot like? He's like, oh, you know, he's like, just, it's different. I'm like, so at this time, I heard the feds clicked up by states, right? We're in that prison. They weren't clicked up by states. They're clicked up by race.

There was no states It was like Oh I'm from New York I was You were Paisa They were the biggest gang They were like 900 Paisas there You were Tango

Which is a Texas gang You were With the blacks With the whites And that was it There was nothing Or you were Solano So you know

That was And if you're white You can't run Solano Because The whites got around With the whites And if you're black You got around

With the blacks So it was different So as soon as I hit the yard So as soon as I hit the As soon as we went through because we quarantine for seven days there. Then they shipped us to whatever unit we were going to. So soon as the door opens, you got like eight different people there, guys.

You know, where are you from? What you're rep? I mean, like, everybody from different cars trying to see who's who and what's what. Let me check your tattoos. Let me do this. Let me do that. So I'm like, oh, like, this is different. Like, and the CEOs is just in the day in their office.

You got the, you got the inmates with the, with the book. Like, oh, we're going to see. We're going to be here in this bunk. You're going to be this bunk. You're going to be this bunk. I was the first time I ever seen. Like, I've been in prison a few times. in the state.

It's not like that in the state. The inmates don't run nothing. It's all COs. And the fats? Boy, that was a different. Then the white boys, like, I heard you talking about the white boys before and stuff. Like, so I heard four dicks.

They don't check paperwork, right? When I was there, they did. So you was in a low, right? Yeah. See, this is what I heard from people that were in four dicks. The white boys are the only one that I checked the paperwork. And the reason is because most white boys that come in are either Chomo's or rats. Yeah, that's very true.

So they said the white boys, any spot you go to, they say the lows of the lows, the white boys are going to check your paperwork because they don't want no chomels around them. You know what I mean? So when I walked in, my paperwork, I checked too, because I came in our gang time.

I came in on gang time, so they were like, oh, we're going to check your paperwork. So, but there was Chomo still living in the unit. But the Chomos couldn't leave their unit. They couldn't leave their cell. Like, you know, but it was weird.

Like, it was weird. Like, we had other people, like other shot callers from other cars doing business with the, almost. Like, I guess whatever business they were doing, chief cakes, whatever.

So it was stuff I never seen before. So now you got somebody giving me, you know, I was running with the, I was running with the, I was running,

I was king, but I was running with the Puerto Ricans as well. Puerto Ricans was like, all right, here's your bag of, you know, I mean, you got soap,

get your slides, do some soups in there, some rice. I mean, give me a bag and stuff. And the thing is, I didn't get them physically paperwork.

They checked me on Pacer. I don't know if no Pacer is. Yeah. That's the new thing they're doing now. So, you know, I get to the spot. I got mass stamps too, right? Because I'm hearing stamps is currency, right?

Nobody wanted the stamps. Everything was straight cash app. Wow, it switched to cash app. Everything is cash app. You hit the yard. You want a cheesecake? $5.00 cash app. You want a fucking taffy, $5.5 out of cash app.

Look, all my tattoos I got done. I got it in prison. I had to pay the cash app. But what if you don't have a cell phone in there? They let someone let's use it. And then you sign in the cash app. Or you call your wife. Like, I used to call my wife, like, hey, babe, can you send $20 here, $50 there, $80 there?

And, well, it was different. Like, my time flew by because it was, it was different. The only thing that sucked is that it was still mid-pandemic. So, you know how, in the feds you can be in the yard or a day if you want. Well, with the pandemic, it was only off to be in the yard for two, three hours a day. And then we didn't, we didn't eat on the main line. We had to eat in our units. So we go to the mainline, pick up our food, and come right back to the units.

So that was all that going on. But it was definitely different, bro. It was definitely different. It was an experience I'll never forget. What were the final charges you got charged with and pled out to? A conspiracy to defraud the United States government. Pretty scary. It sounds scary, right?

Well, I found out my sally got caught with four bricks of Coke, and they gave him 10 years. And his four bricks of Coke is the same amount of money that I made, and I only got 18 months. How long were you doing that scam for? I was doing it from like December 2017 to like June 2018 So it was about six month run the seven month run Then I stopped then I got locked them in December

For six months yeah And what was the final dollar amount Well I noticed I got a pay restitution $228,000 and $650 dollars Is what you personally made Is what I've made No no I made about a quarter of a mill a little under that.

But I have to pay back $250 or something like that. Probably with court fees. Yeah, I have to pay back 10% whatever I make month. I work a regular like, I work at Harbor Free. I work at a regular job.

And I got to pay back 10% every month. I'm on a 20-year payment plan. So you're, it's 10% of your gross? Yeah. Okay. A monthly gross, yeah.

How much does that come out to a month that you're paying a restitution? 300. Is it? Does that hurt you financially to pay that 300 month? It definitely does. And I got kids.

They got a family. Are you off paper now? Nah. So you're still on paper? I get off in August. So when you get off, will you still pay that 10% or does it go to a different dollar amount? Nah, it's still 10%. I'm on a 20-year payment plan.

If anything switches, I got the one who's in charge of the finances for the Southern District in New York. I got her contact information. If I need to change, I could just email every day. You know, I lost my job. Is there a way that we could, whatever? So that 10% is what the judge ordered? Yeah. Okay.

And then. around. There's no waving it. There's nothing. But it goes past your supervised release. Yeah. And what happens after 20 years? Then, you know, whatever I pays what they keep and whatever I didn't pays, it's pretty much wiped off. Isn't there an option for them to redo it, though, or no? They didn't tell me that. She just took a 20-year payment plan, but...

I pay $1,000 a month. A thousand a month? Yeah, man. How much restitution they got you for? The total was $4,000, like, $82,000. My co-defendant only... He wasn't even a real co-defendant. He was uncharged.

What? And he testified. Yeah. What? And then they gave him immunity and a state misdemeanor in exchange for testifying. And your charges were a conspiracy, too? No, mine was a bunch of, I took it to trial, fraud, money laundering. You lost the trial.

Yeah, I lost some of the charges. They gave him the max? So, no, I got less time than before my plea deal. It's pretty crazy. We have paid lawyer, though, right? Yeah, paid it first, and then he went CJA, like with the feds. It's like they pay for it. Is it pro bono?

Yeah, but he gets paid by the courts. Yeah. But my business partner only had to pay about $34,000. They came up with some weird number. It was silly. But I'm down to, I got it down to like $350 right now. I'm cruising. I paid about $60,000 restitution last year for the year.

That's ridiculous. Did they get us coming? They got us going, bro. I'm cruising, man. But it's still never enough for them. But hopefully this year I put another big chunk in it. My goal is like between this year and next year, done. So it's just one less thing more.

They got me for 20 years. Unless I won the lotto, they got me for 20 years. Yeah. I just filed taxes this year and they took all my federal taxes. Yep, I haven't gotten a tax return. They gave me state. But the cool thing is, yeah, now that I'm a business owner, I don't really have a tax return like that.

You're not in that bracket no more, right? Well, like when I was working at Whole Foods, I would always have a tax return. Now, you know, I pay just what I owe. I'm not overpaying, you know, so there's no return. Like when I got my tax bill, like last year, my tax bill was, it was like 16, 17, $15,000 because I didn't pay any taxes a year before because I was I worked for myself.

So I just paid that tax bill. So I didn't overpay anything. So there's no return back. That's crazy. How does it affect your marriage? Like with the financial amount? Is she responsible too? Like when you're married?

I mean, I want to say yeah and no, but they told me. So I signed the, did you have to sign a forfeiture agreement too? Yeah, but there was nothing to forfeiture. Yeah, no, same thing on me. But the forfeiture agreement is they. that I guess if I, if I, if I don't, like, if I stop just paying and say, yo, if you I'm not paying more, then they can start taking certain things for me, I guess. And I think as long as you're paying.

They can't start garnishing stuff. Yeah, I think as long as you're paying, though, they can't really, I think their hands are, like if you're actively paying monthly. I haven't paid in three months, but. What do you mean you have paid in three months? My PO note, I was going through a little issue. So my PO knows, so she knows I couldn't pay for whatever reasons. So I'm going back to paying this month.

I lost my job and stuff. Yeah, they're a little more lenient while you're on probation because you have your actual probation officer. Yeah, she's the middle. She's middle manning it. So she's like, yeah, she's helpful. Yeah, but once you get off probation, you're on your own. That's when you got to really step up to the plate. Like, I'm not on probation.

I just pay it. How long were you on probation for? Three years. They gave me three years too. Yeah, and they don't really let you off early when you owe. They gave me three years. I try to get off a couple times. How much time you served?

27 months, 28 months. But you've served the full 28 to the door or you got good time when all that stuff? No, I had a 36-month sentence. So I did, yeah, so I did about 28 months. All right, so I had less time than me and you had a criminal record. That shit's crazy. Also, you also did double the double what I did. And you went to trial.

Yeah. So what happened to your parole when you were, because you were out on bond, they never violated you for that state case you were on? No, so I end up finishing that parole before I got sentenced. But they didn't jam you up for the new Fed charge? No, because I told them I wasn't, I didn't do it. I kept saying I didn't do it. I didn't do it.

I'm going to fight this. But being that I was on parole from Illinois, but it was interstate commerce to New York. There was nothing they could do. So they didn't really care. So walk us through the rest of your prison sentence. Was it easy going for the most part? Anything crazy happened?

It had his days. I mean, all right, so I got a story to tell you. So I was in a complex. So Fort Dix is not a complex, right? It's more like a compound. Yeah. You have a Campalo? Yeah, there is a Campa.

And that's it, right? Yeah, FCI is what, like Camp Low Medium or something like that? So I was in a comp. So I was in, it was Camp Low, Medium, USP. I was in one of them, you know, that Victorville, Coleman, there's only a few Fed prisoners in the U.S. that have complexes, they have every from camp all the way to the highs. So if something happened in the USP, the whole complex got shut down.

So when I was a, when I, when, um, we were all in the yard chilling, and they sent us all back in, lockdown, lockdown. So when people got in their cell phone started calling on other, like the USPs and see what's going on. So the Surynoes and the MS had gotten into war with each other over a soccer game. They killed two people. Two people died.

So now with that going on, the whole complex is locked down. They're taking all the Sourriños in the units, all the MS in the unit, and now they're shipping them. They're shipping their, you know, they're shipping it. They're shipping, oh, you're going here, you're going there. They're sending these guys everywhere because they want a full-fledged. You may have heard about it. It was in 2020.

They shut down every prison. Every federal prison in the U.S. got shut down behind that. There was no movements. I think maybe I read about that. They shut every from Cali to Florida, and Florida back up to Mass. They shut every federal prison down. That was in your unit? That was in my unit.

Every prison got shut down behind that shit. What happens when someone dies? Like after the lockdown, like do they clear out the guys? stuff. Yeah, they carry out his stuff. They are, you know, first they got to clear him out, you know, and they don't really tell you, even if you know he's dead, they don't tell you he's dead until after the fact. All right, when he died, he succumbed to his wounds, you know.

And now if they know, so say me and you, we're in a gang together, right? Me and you, Ian, we're in the gang, right? And they know, so it happens to me, and they know we're in the same gang and they know that you can possibly retaliate. now the heat is on you his his brother just passed away from another gang member now we got to watch Ian

because we don't know if Ian's going to retaliate like it's it's gone crazy like so like I said the biggest gang in there you know what Pisaz are you have them for dicks so Pisaz it's just Mexicans right there's a whole bunch of Mexicans

they except everybody they got white boys that are Pisas too and blacks and Cubans is ridiculous really? I didn't know that paperwork Pisces do not check paperwork you say you want to be Paisa, they take anybody in. They don't take no paperwork.

That's why they're the biggest gang. But the Paisa, they beef with Mexican Mafia and they beef with Texas Syndicate. You know, so certain yards, they can't walk. So what people feel to realize in the feds, if they know that you're in a gang and they know that you can't walk the yard, if they know that your gang is not allowed in that yard, they're not even going to send you on the yard. They don't throw you right in the shoe until they send you somewhere else.

Wow. Was Fort Dix active? Was there a lot of gang members there? Yeah, but it was, it's more like cars, you know? Like, I heard all these car stuff. Like, my brother did that bad time. My brother was in, he was in, he was in McDowell, West Virginia. He was in Coleman.

He was in, you know, a few spots. He was in Kentucky, Big Sandy. So I heard about the state cars. And I'm like, oh, like, when I got to where I was at, that was non-existent. Yeah, it's definitely different in every facility. The further west you go, the more political against. Exactly.

with the actual gangs. Like there's no Aryan Brotherhood or anything on the East Coast. Exactly. At least not where I was at. And that's what I'm saying. So, you know,

I wanted to, like one of my guys now, he's probably gonna call me later. One of my guys now, he's in, he was in Beaumont with me and they moved in Fort Dix. He's from the Bronx.

And he said he's loving it in Fort Dix. Like, bro, this is like the street. It's like the hood over there. Yeah, he's like, this is cake, bro.

Yeah. He saw me the unit and stuff, the door, like, this is crazy. I'm like, The guys I had here yesterday, one guy had just gotten out of prison a few weeks ago, and he'd FaceTime one of his boys in the joint. They're just chilling.

And he's like, oh, he's got a call during the interview. I was like, you're sure you don't want to bring? He's like, no, no, he's good. Bro, I'll tell you, like, I'll be speaking to certain guys and certain spots they're renting. And it's like, bro, they're living in the streets, bro. Yeah. Bro, I learn how to make, like, I learned how to make, like, jail prison nachos. I still make it in the house.

The best of cold nacho, yeah, with the with the Jack Mag. turkey sauce and all that stuff. You wouldn't believe how mackerel tastes on nachos. People don't get it. Bro, when I came home, I bought me. But my thing is, the stuff you find in the streets, it doesn't taste as good as this. It doesn't.

You can't replicate it. I have replicated prison pizza, though, with the tortillas and stuff. We've done that. We made, like, a BLT pizza. We've done things like that. Yeah, but certain things, just saying, like, like, like, I was trying to do pickles on the nachos. That's what I do.

I got a picture of my phone. So good. I do, I do, like, on my notch, I do, I do, like, pepperoni. I do summer sauces, you know, I'll cut some pico, onions, I make some pico, put tomato on it, put water with the cheese mix, smuggle of water, put the water on top, for fire. Yeah, my bunkmate used to make the best pickled onions, put it over the chicken on Thursdays. We'd smuggle the chicken back on the Keefee bog. The big bird on Thursday. Yep, get that, and then put it over rice with this pickled onion.

I barely ate chop. When I did go to chile, was Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday was Thursdays. Tuesday was, I think was it the burger or chicken patty? Chicken patty was Tuesday. Wednesday was the burger. Thursday was the big chicken. I didn't eat fish like that, so I didn't go for Friday. I hated that.

I didn't do the fish tacks. I liked the fish patty in some joints, but otherwise it wasn't good. And Monday was kind of like what? Monday was kind of weird. It was like chili fries and... Yeah, Monday was always bullshit. Tuesday would be the chicken patty.

And it was real chicken. Yeah. It wasn't like the chicken patty from school. It was a good chicken patty. Wednesday was either it rotated between pasta and pizza, I believe. Right? It was burgers, no? Oh, burgers, yes.

And night is dinner. Wednesday during the day was burgers. Yeah. Or cheese burgers some weeks. Yeah, exactly. Friday would rotate, I think, with pizza and fish. It would have there every other week, something like that. What we used to do...

The Friday dinner sucked. We would do what you would do with the chicken. So one of my cellies, right? I had a few cellies, right? One of my cellies, like, he had got a 25-year sentence. Coolest guy in the word and speaking no English. He was from Puerto Rico. He says, first time ever hit in the States was in the Fez.

He never came to. to America, but in the feds. You know, if you're on Puerto Goes a Commonwealth, you commit a crime there, they're going to ship you to the feds. We would smoke with a lot of the chicken, and he would make the chicken on, like, rice and the free-fried beans and, like, yeah, like the summer sausage, and, bro, like, some of these dudes are so talented with the way they cooked was, like, and everything in a plastic bag and the stinger, it's like.

We had microwaves, but, yeah. Oh, that was a real thing? We had microphones, yeah. At the camp in at the low. Yo, you know, it's crazy. I've had guys that told me they've been in the first 15 years, and he ain't never seen a microwave. Yeah, it's crazy.

You know, in Mississippi, we have microwaves, and that's how I will make, like, the baked potatoes. So, you know, I will cross up the salt cream with onion chips, you know, making it into, like, a paste. I put summer sauce pepperoni, ranch, cheese, rolled it up, and I brought a newspaper over it, and I put in the microwave for, like, 10 minutes. It's how they make, like, mofungo.

Yeah, like, it pretty much, they seem to make mofongo. Yeah, you know about the mifongo. That was the first real prison dish I ever tried. Someone broke me off when I was at the detention center and gave me a piece of mofungal. This is the best thing I've ever tasted. I was like, because I was wondering what they were doing.

They were rolling newspaper would be like a big meal. They'd spend hours preparing that. Yeah, like a lot of the Puerto Ricans, like one thing I'm not about the feds is the Puerto Rican, they really eat, they do everything together. That's why I like rolling with them because everything they do. When they were cook, it's 20 people cooking. Everybody's throwing it, whatever they got.

Now you got a big, you got leftovers for later. Like, how are you hustling in there? I wasn't. I was chilling. So how do you have money? My wife. She took care you? She didn't God.

You know, she's... How did you meet her? I met her in Florida. Oh, okay. While you were on... When I was on pre-chial release. Yeah. When I called my case, I was with another girl, you know?

And whatever, we had broke up. It didn't work out for whatever reasons, you know. And I met my, I met my wife with my wife now. I met her through, like, through mutual people. And then we just, like... What did she think about your case? You had to explain that to her. Yeah, I told her. My thing is, I told her, I'm like, listen, I'm with you,

because I went for like seven months before I went in. I'm with you now. I know you're going to leave me. You know, you start thinking like, you're going to leave me, whatever. Bro, she held the whole bid down. She held the whole bid down. You know? Because I didn't do a full 18.

I did 14. So out of the 18, out of the 18 with a good time, you do 15 and a half, right? But they had the first step back. Was you out after the first? No, they had just passed it when I was there. So the first step back is you get 10 days off for every month. program or something of that nature.

But being that there was no programs because of COVID, everybody got the first step that that was qualified for it. So that knocked off another month and a half of my sentence. So the timing starts on the moment you hit the BOP. So when I was in Mississippi, Oklahoma, I wasn't in BOP custody. I was in transit. If I had made it to be, say,

so if save if I would have turned myself in at Beaumont that August, my 18 months would have turned into, I would only do a year, a year and a day probably. And she stayed loyal that whole time. Yeah. No hall passes nothing. And I told her, too. Yo, it's funny.

I was like, yo, if you're going to do something, I don't want to find out about it. But she, yo, faithfully, phone calls every day. Cash apps. I'll rent someone's phone. So let me, like the cell phone. Whenever I call, then always to answer the phone. What did she do for work? At the time, she was working from home.

She had a remote job, like, doing, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, medical claims and stuff like, like, like, more or less like that. Like, you know, you, you work the home deep when you broke your leg. Now you want to fall to clean. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the level. Everything good in this world, stop.

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Taxes and fees extra. Seeful terms at mintmobile.com. Stuff like that. Interesting. So was it hard to readjust to life when you got home? Like, what was your mindset where did you want to get back into scams, hustles, the quick way out in life? Nah, I didn't want. So my first day, so, all right.

I went to my, so I had a shitty-ass case manager, right? I don't, you know, I don't know. Maybe you had a good one. Mine was garbage. I always had bad ones. Mine was garbage. He was like, you ain't got nothing coming. Like, I didn't even get half a house.

I want to see home. I ain't get a house. Like by the time To put me in for a happy house I was already a month for me getting released So I didn't get a half of house So my case Um

This I went upstairs and To see nothing Who's the other person There's a case manager And a counselor I want to see a counselor She's the one Whoever's the one I get you

The Greyhound ticket So I saw her She was the office secretary All right So that's what I saw She was all right So they bought my ticket like 90 months out But I had a

the real ticket. Like if I lost it, I was done. It was like a real I had to keep it in my locker or my real grand hunt ticket.

Shoals like you're getting released August 31st. I got released August 31st via first step act.

Now, this is $6.90 months out so anything can happen. You can catch another charge. You can catch a shot. I'm always

on a cell phone. I could catch a hundred series shot. It's over 41, 45 days. Good time. Out of there. You gotta put that shit up

when you get your release date when you're too well to the door? So here's the thing. So my cellie, this is another cell he had. He was a scumbag. Right?

So he would be like, yo, because he had like 10 years. He was like, yo, you know, if we get caught with the phone, just take the charge. I'm like, man, I'm not taking the charge. What do you mean taking charge? I'm like, I'm not. I won't even bunk with you. You're going to be trying to. He's like, y'all.

He was like, nah, because he's like, if I catch you, they're going to up my classification. I said, bro, that's not like a you problem. That's not a me problem. And he was like, yo, we're this what we're going to do? and he was like, man, he was like, yo, he was like, F you, whatever. I didn't pay him because he was my homie, so I ain't paid him to him. So he went around and told people, told, like, the, told my rep, the rep from my car that I don't want, that he called him out to fight and I turned it down.

So it was a big thing. So we both went into the janitor's closet. And we had the, I fought him. We fought whatever, but when we fought. Because I was like, because I was like, I ain't packing me up. I'm not getting packed out of here. So me and fought whatever, boom, boom, boom, we fought. and then, you know, I moved my, I move myself, whatever.

I move on the room. But I can't see, because a lot of people in prison, and you will know this, they're only for self. It's only what they can get out of you, right? So he thought, you know, because I was a cool-ass dude. I was, yeah, I'll take the 45 days. Nah, bro, I got a life out of here. You've been down six years already.

Like, you still got six years to go, five years to go. I'm not going to lose the 45 day because you don't know how not to hide your phone. And then go figure. I get released two months later, he gets popped the phone. Yeah, when I was like 30 days or 45 days out, nothing. How much you paid for your phone? Like about two Gs, right? Fort Dixie, I was about two.

But then at the camp, they're $200. And I was the wrong. I was hearing that guys in Beaumont camp that they were getting the phones, a buck 80, $250. They were coming back with Waterburger and Sonic. Yeah, we were eating good every weekend, man. We had, I remember. So you went to, so you went to, you ended up down to the camp.

Yeah, I got to a camp. I did my last full year at a camp. I should have been at a camp to begin with. Oh, yeah, because you should have. They did my dirty. They did my dirty because they said I didn't graduate high school and my, I was under 25. They count all that because we're under 25. I did graduate high school.

When you're under 25, you're considered more aggressive and more rambunctious. So like, oh, we're not going to put him in the camp. We're going to put him in a. Yeah, that camp was sweet, man. Her stories. We would have spreads, like literally tens of Mexican food getting dropped off, Chicago deep dish pizza, everything was not. I heard stories.

Like, anybody who. have ever met that's been in a camp. It's like, there's no wires. There's no. Yeah, no hooch. It's all liquor. Like people are drinking bottles. Yeah, like people come in with real Hennessy body.

I've heard stories like, yo, videos. I'll show me on Snapchat videos of dumping the camp, like someone eating real food, like Spanish platters. They were doing breathalizers so often because people were just getting drug casually. And then what they say, they say in the camp, I think, I don't know if this is true. Maybe you can clarify that. They say in the camp, if you get caught off the prison, it's not considering an escape, it's considered out of bounds.

If you leave the grounds. It depends where the grounds are. You know, if you're actually leaving the property, it's escape. All right. Like, if you're caught at a hotel and you miss count or something, but if you're actually just walking around, like the goal was if you leave the grounds and they call count, you just got to make it back out and get caught outside

because then it's just out of bounds. They'll put you in the hole under investigation and they'll let you back out. So that's what I've heard. I heard. I first heard of the guys because count, all right, so the night count was nine, right? Or nine was it or eight? Well, it was difficult.

I was in Texas. So it was 9 o'clock, and the next count was midnight, right? Yeah, but you could be asleep for midnight, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, so, yeah, because 9 o'clock was a stand-up count, right? Yep. It was shift-chating 9 o'clock with the two stand-up counts, right? Yeah.

So, um... It was, what was that, 4, 8, no, 4, 8 or 9? I think it was 9. I want to say it was 9, too. And then the midnight count, but between 9 and midnight, would that be the time people would just bounce and come back, or they'll leave after midnight? No, they would leave, so they would do, it would be 4 p.m.

count right before Chow. And then once they break, as soon as it gets dark out, after 4 p.m., then you go. Because then you come back before 9 p.m. I've heard stories. I'm like, I'm like, I'm behind the wall. I'm behind the wall. I'm behind gates. Sniper towers.

I'm like, I'm looking at something like, yo. Shit's crazy, bro. It's fucking. A whole other beast. They actually just closed down the camp I was in. And then I even heard of certain prisons. They go in Atlanta camp. Somebody got caught with a pistol over there.

They had to put the whole, the old jail on the investigation. Yeah, I heard about that too. It was only a matter of time before someone brought a gun in. It's crazy. You bring it every the O's. I had one bunk made at Fort Dix that he said when he was at the Atlanta camp before he got caught, he would break out and take his kid to the zoo. Once a week ago, the actual zoo and walk around at the zoo and then come back in.

Because they say the Atlanta camp is in the city. Yeah, it's not right in the middle of the city. You're in downtown. So it's easy to go grab a certain of the eat. come right back. Shit's crazy, bro, when I tell people

these, like, I tell people these, like, it doesn't even sound believable. The stuff I've witnessed, like,

the stuff that, like, like, so I was in a low, so I was in dorms. I don't know, was Fort Dix, low dorms or cells. Fort Dix was,

12-man room, six bunk beds, and then Danbury was actual dorms. See, I, that's just, that seems cool.

I was like that. It was, it was a big room with just dorms. I mean, I mean, it had the walls in between each cell,

But it was a dorm with Open Bay. And, you know, we had a big bathroom. To the bathroom had a hole in the wall. And people would cook their hooch up in top of the roof. Yeah, Fortix was old bricks. So people, you would see guys, like, in there with a string and pulling it up through the bricks. Crazy. Yeah.

The CEOs would go in the walls to find hooch and stuff. It's a whole different beast in there. And the lack of security because there's no cameras. No cameras. There's one guard for 400 inmates. Crazy. There's one guard. After nine, he's running.

And both of you, like, the way I was, I was in S-A, so he'll walk back from S-A to S-B. Yeah, and then they would just yell, Bahando. And they would be a car. They would say, Baham, and us would be like, Chino. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of times you have, like, you have whoever's on the phone, we have a Selly sitting on the chair, sitting outside the room. And they have the, you know, they got the first, yo, Chino coming.

Everybody's starting to hide this stuff. It's crazy, man. Some guards would hold their keys at night to jam up, people. That's how one of my bunk baits got caught. There's that, too. There was guards that knew we had. There was guards that also knew we had phones. And they were perfectly saying, yo, walking down.

So, because they didn't want to do paperwork. We're walking down. So now it's like, oh, everyone. They want to chill. Yeah, hide your stuff. They don't want to be disrespectful. Because they know with the phones, decreases the violence.

All that stuff that decreases violence. Because people are too occupied. They don't want to lose their stuff. They know when they start taking phones away, that's going to increase the violence. More paperwork to do. Look, look, I was in an active game. year or then and it was almost like

for like a few months in a few months out it was it was peaceful it was peaceful but then you know the politics kicking you know somebody comes from another spot Ian just came from Fort Dix and Fort Dix you know we beef with the Paises but in this prison we're cool the Pice's but now you're coming with the mentality

of Fort Dix like oh you know we're gonna put I'm gonna beat up by someone I see him and now you bring that to that unit and now you'll tell somebody and get him aft up and now the peace just went from peace to no more peace Yeah. Did you ever rekindle your relationship with your mom after you got out? Yeah, yeah, no. Me and my mom, I'm cool now.

What'd she think about everything you went there? No. I deserve this, she says. You know, it happens. You know, when my first day out in Connecticut, she came to see me. She came from New York to see me with her husband. Can't see my first day out about me on TV and everything. What did your dad say about all this?

You haven't talked to him? My husband was 17 years. But he never said anything. in regards to this, sent you a text nothing? No. He just wrote you off. Yep.

How does that make you feel? I'm chilling. He doesn't want to see his grandkids. Granddaughter, no. Grandkids, no. Grandkids, nope. Grandson. So do you think you leaving Florida

was like a sign of disrespect to him that time? The first time? Yeah. Yeah. 100,000 percent. One thousand percent because, you know what it is? My father got five kids from four different females. He's not a good father.

My sisters don't see him. The only kid that sees him was my 21-year-old brother who I haven't met since he was three years old. I mean, that's the one I live with him. He's not a good father. I mean, it is what it is. When you got out, was it a struggle to find work? My first week out had got a job.

Oh, really? Where? Dick Sporting goods. Even with your record, the scamming type record? My first week, I never forget. My first week out, and my peer, to this day, I've been home two and a half years. My people tell me, like, yo, you're the only client I've had who, no matter how many jobs they've had, they've kept the job. I've had six different jobs as I've been home

But I've always managed to If I lose one Or I quit one The next week I'm in another one Why so many jobs So when I left Dix I was definitely seven months I left because It was after the holiday and stuff

And they were kind of hours So it wasn't enough So I left Dix I did Shepoli for like two weeks Walked out of that Can you do that From Shopoli I went to

I got two jobs from Shepo I went to 5 below And I worked at a gas station So I was working five below 40 days a week gas station three days a week I left five a local I couldn't do that either oh that's just too much then I got a job at Bob's warehouse

I don't know if you ever heard um the whole company just went out but they just went bankrupt yeah Bob's stores yeah they all went bankrupt I worked for the warehouse of Maryland their warehouse I was there for six months and I was in the gas station because they were going bankrupt they just laid everybody off and then I had to leave because I got caught doing something what's supposed to be doing like with like

infidelity problems So I left that And then I I got a job To like an agency Like a staff agency I was doing Data entry

So I was there for like four months And daily Then they like got rid of me Because it was It was you know It was It was temporary Then for now

I got Taco Bell But they were like three weeks I couldn't do Taco Bus I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend fast with anybody And then I went to Harbor Freight So I've been to Harbor Freight So I've been to Harbor Free

Like about four months now And I like it there that's good do you ever have temptations to you know go back into your bad ways yes because maybe you feel like you're in a rut 100% I do

how do you prevent yourself from doing that I look at the pictures of me in prison I want to do that again especially now because I'm on probation now you feel me I got 18 this time next time I'll do the same thing and maybe 24 months and it starts getting longer

I don't want that what are your aspirations in life as far as what do you want to do I really what I really want to do is I want to get my license suspended currently I want to get my license fixed and then I want to I want to get to truck driving I want to get my CDL I don't do like cross-country truck driving How long till you get your license back? I got paid for I got paid a thousand dollars Oh wow what was that for just tickets? Yeah, it was just tickets I caught during the pandemic Court it was you know didn't care about it went to prison I had to go to I had to go to court for all those tickets but I was in prison for the court date so

Yeah that happened to me I had all these speeding tickets I didn't care about and I had to pay like 3,500 bucks between reopen all them and then paying them off to close them. But I finally got my license back back in like a few months after I got out. I was able to drive again. And I am. Yeah, that's definitely what I want to do because I love driving. Like, I was a cab drive for like three years, you know. I did doordash and they postmates.

Like I like to drive. So you do have that hustle in you. You just got to use it for good. Yeah. What do you think is the biggest lesson you learned in all of this that you want to share with others? The biggest lesson I've learned is that, We're, we as people are, we're the author in our own book, meaning like we are in charge of our own fate.

Don't let no one tell you can't do it because you can't if you choose to. And by that I mean, it's like, yeah, I'm a felon. But whenever I hear a felon say they can't get a job, that's bullshit because look at me. Yeah, I'm struggling. I'm working for the man, right? But I got a job. I'm working legit.

No I mean? and, you know, and I got a good family support system. You're trying. That's all that matters. And I'm trying, you know what I mean? So, like, it ain't nothing to go back and rekindle relationship with certain people and make a quick half a million. But for what?

You know what? Not worth it in the scheme of things. It's not worthy. It's worth it in the moment. In the moment, it's worth it. You're having fun, right? But it's not worth it at the end. Because at the end, bro, the ones who pay is your family, your loved ones, your fathers,

your mothers, the kids, the wife. They're the ones. When you're doing that bid, like, who did you have with you? Like, who's a part of your life that was really in your corner when we was like your family, yeah. Like your mother and father, right? Yeah. When you're doing that time, they're doing that time with you. They, they're mentally, they're in a prison wall with you.

I mean? So, you know, you have any kids? No. See, if you had kids, that'll be like another thing. Like, when's daddy coming home? That's not. You don't want that. It's not worth that.

I mean, you got guys 40, 50, 60-year-old old. I've met guys that haven't met their kids, 37. I know. I have a lot of those guys on the show. I haven't even met their kids. I don't even know what their kids look like. The kids want nothing to do with them. It's crazy.

Not what I mean? And one thing I've learned is in the prison, a lot of the OG just to give a lot of good advice. Like, bro, this ain't it. They're saying it. I've been locked up since the 80s. They don't tell me, like, I've been locked them since before cell phones. This is not it.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, I was locked. The horse was locked up with, you know who the, you know the Somalian pirates? Yeah. I was locked up with one of them from Captain Phillips. Yeah, that actual guy. He's in a lot of people's photos. Yeah.

What do you get, 20 years, I think? Yeah, I think 25 years. I was locked with him. I was locked with another member of like the Gambino crime family. Yeah. Like, you mean some, I wasn't, but my brother was locked through with Bernie Madoff. Yeah, I had someone yesterday that was locked up with Bernie too. Yeah.

I think it was in Butler, North Carolina. Yeah. That's crazy. So you mean interesting people. Like, every day in prison was a learning experience. I was learning new things. There's a lot of intelligent people in prison. people with a lot of intellect.

Well, you know, don't discredit yourself. Sometimes trying is, or in most times the person that's trying is better than the people that are not. There's so many people that are just at home, I can't get a job, this and that. Exactly. And that's also too. Like me, like every day I try to, I try to be better every day than the day before. So I try to be better every day.

I try to get better, you know, better at life. That's great. Well, Brandon, thanks so much for coming on the show today, bro. It was a pleasure, chat. it up. Thanks for supporting the show. It's always fun when the guys that watch the show come on to actually share their journey too and inspires them to reach out.

Most definitely, most definitely. Yeah, well, safe travels back to Meriden and, you know, keep up doing you, bro. You already know, bro. Appreciate it.