Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Dark Web Kingpin’s Plea to Save His Girlfriend | Locked up Abroad

Starting point is 00:00:00 So I decided to use the school that I was teaching at as the import destination for the packages that I got off the dark wet. When the postman brought it, he asked Ashley to sign for it, even though it wasn't in her name. And bless her heart, she did on the day of her trial. He didn't even call me. I just got an email that said she was sentenced to death. It's only 21 years old. She'd never been in trouble in her life. I was born with a ruptured eardrum.

Starting point is 00:00:28 So I learned to speak as if it sounded underwater. And so I had a terrible speech impediment that precluded me really being socialized when I was young. That led to a lot of issues, speech classes until I was like 15 and whatnot. And it led to behavior stuff, you know, because after you get picked on for so long, then eventually you realize, you know, whether it's right or not, that violence becomes a possibility to stop the the bullying. And yeah, pretty normal life except that until eight and parents divorced. And then overnight, just all situation changed, went from four bedroom house in the gated community to sharing an apartment with my mother's sister and sharing a bedroom with my brother and my sister

Starting point is 00:01:18 in a bunk bed. And that was the first time I lived in a place where, you know, when I went outside, the kids didn't look like me. And actually the first weekend that we went outside, On Saturday, my brother and I to scope out the neighborhood, we found a group of those kids playing football. My brother finagled it for us to play. I didn't really talk much because of my impediment. And we were playing in the street and some minutes passed. And eventually the ball came to me. And I realized I didn't really understand the rules of the game.

Starting point is 00:01:47 So I kind of froze and stood there. And a little black boy came up and stripped the ball. And in my defective manner, you know, I'm like, hey, who cheated, you know, something like that. And yeah, this little boy, I just never forget. He just stopped jogging back to the other group of kids, dropped the ball, came back, looked at me. He was shorter than me. So I was looking down at him.

Starting point is 00:02:09 I didn't know what was happening or what to do. I just was staring at him. And then suddenly without Warren, he punched me in the face. And that was the first time I'd ever been hit, you know, like in the face or anything like that before. So I didn't really know what to do. I just kind of stood there shocked. And he stood there for another moment or two. And then boom, he just started laying into me with his fist.

Starting point is 00:02:28 backed me up into the gutter, fell down on the gutter, started kicking me. And then as suddenly as it started, he just immediately stopped and turned around and started jogging back over, picked up the ball. And they started playing the game. Like, nothing happened. And my brother was just over there on the other side of the street, just looking at me laying there in the gutter. And that was the first time we'd ever gone outside to play in my new neighborhood.

Starting point is 00:02:50 And so, understandably, I got a pretty quick education on the difference between where I had been living in the new environment where I was at. that now. So, you know, that led to five middle schools and seven high schools. From what? Just from moving or just, just fighting? Yeah, I had a lot of, because I was usually one of the only white kids. Right. And so there was a lot of people that would try to, you know, pick on me because of that. And I, I wasn't, I don't know. You had multiple issues. Yeah. Well, I don't really know if I had issues. I mean, the first, well, you're white. I'm saying you're white and you had the speech impediment. So it's not like they don't already have a

Starting point is 00:03:32 reason. It's not like you're not already different because you're white, but you're white and you've got another issue. Yeah, no, it was definitely a big issue, you know, because most my friends were all black and Hispanic, pretty much all of them. So I dressed, spoke, listened to that kind of music, hung out with those sorts of people. But when people didn't know me, you know, they would say something like, hey, Cracker. I mean, that literally happened to me the first day I went to some school. And there was only one other kid in the school that was white. And I saw in that morning at breakfast when three other black kids came behind him and they started taking the food off his tray and flicking his ear and pushing his head. He didn't do anything.

Starting point is 00:04:08 I suspect that they probably assumed the same would happen to me. And yeah, this black, I never seen him. I never had any interaction at all. He was in another class line coming in as my class line was leaving. And he just said, hey, Cracker with a hard R. And so I immediately said, what's, oh, no, he said, he said, what's up, Cracker? And so I immediately said, what, and I said, what? And he said, what? And he stepped out of line. And I stepped out of line. This is the first day, the first day of school. And so he started walking towards me, like a line, you know, an easy meal. And he got about arms reach. And I just, I just reached my hand out like a paddle with everything I had. And I just slapped this boy right across the face, slap hurt around the school. And so he went back a few feet, caught himself. He was obviously bewildered that that. had happened, but, you know, that shock and surprise turned into anger, and he lowered his head,

Starting point is 00:05:01 and he charged at me, and we ended up fighting right there in the middle of the hallway in the school, and I got suspended 10 days on my first day of school there. Did he get suspended too? He did, and it's interesting because when I came back on my 11th day, nobody called me Cracker, but lots of people called Vega. Right. So that's kind of like the environment that I grew up in. I went to school and I went to high school in.

Starting point is 00:05:26 And then after high school, I went to the Marine Corps infantry. Okay. Why did you go to the Marine Corps? Well, because in 12th grade, I was at a ditch party and my friend Black and I were riding back to school after smoking. So we were pretty stoned. And I missed the turn and I tried to make the turn and I didn't see a car was behind me. We got T-bone and I panicked because I was 17 and we were out of school and I was high. And so I just drove to school.

Starting point is 00:05:52 And of course, the police took me out. class like 15 minutes later and I was going to be charged as an adult and the Air Force said that I would have to wait until that was rectified before I could enlist and the Marine Corps said we'll take care of it for you. Okay. So I ended up in the Marine Corps. I had an 87 on the ASVab and for some reason I chose the infantry which needed a minimum of 30 or 33. So that's how I got the infantry. Okay. But I mean, why did you, why the military? Just as you didn't want to go to college. You didn't want to go where you were. Well, I didn't.

Starting point is 00:06:25 I mean, we're talking. I did not have a very good education at the time, especially with math and science. There was very limited opportunities for me if I was to stay. I didn't really have any idea what I could do, you know, work at McDonald's or something like that. And so I thought that the military would provide me an avenue to have opportunities in other places, other things. I didn't have anything better to do.

Starting point is 00:06:48 I was rambunctious. I was fit. And a lot of my family's been in the military. So it just seemed like a good, a good fit at the time. Yeah. I mean, if you don't have a clear path, I think it is a good, it probably is a good fit for people that don't have like, hey, I know I want to sell insurance for a living like my father. You know what I'm saying? Like, if that's it, well, then, but if you're like, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Starting point is 00:07:10 It's high school. I'm graduating. What am I going to do? Then it's a, it gets you disciplined, right? Like it gets you thinking. That's the thing. Because of how I grew up coloring outside the line so much, I was very good at people. pretending. I was, I actually got a meritorious promotion. All that's to say, I was very good at

Starting point is 00:07:28 pretending to be a robot, but I was, I never switched my, my mode of thought, my individual nature, my questioning attitude. And that actually led to tremendous problems when I was in the fleet. You know, I got sent to the brig for 56 days for fighting, my corporal. And there's just a lot of aggression, a lot of fighting, because I came from a very street culture. My, my, my drill. instructor, my kill hat, Sergeant Montaubo, the last thing he said to me leaving boot camp when everyone was doing the congratulations is you got to leave that thug shit behind, thattles, you know, and like that frog kind of raspy voice I can't do. So yeah, you know, I was, the person that's sitting in front of you now is quite different than, you know, who I was when

Starting point is 00:08:15 I was 18 just because at 18, I had a very ignorant worldview and education. So I always think the military to me is a lot like prison because there's a ton of guys in prison that have been the military. They all say it's very similar. And one of the big things that makes your time go so much better when you go to prison is stop questioning what they're asking you to do. Just do it. Because it's constantly, you're constantly like, why are they, if they did this, this would be a better way. Why are they? This doesn't make sense. Stop it. You'll, you'll drive yourself nuts doing that from now on if they said, hey, we want you to wear your pants on backwards and you're going to hop in a line all the way to the chow hall. What your thought process needs to be is, of course,

Starting point is 00:09:03 I don't know why we weren't doing that before. That's a great idea. And it doesn't really matter because in three days from now, whatever it is they've asked you to change and do, they'll get tired of it themselves and they'll change it back. You know, so stop questioning. Don't write up a bunch of, don't write up a bunch of complaints. Don't complain. Don't bitch and moan. Just do it and wait for it to pass or get used to it because your opinion means nothing. You're right. I wish I had that mentality, but at the time, I did not. And so it definitely made things more challenging.

Starting point is 00:09:32 I know. It's horrible. It's horrible because you walk around just angry all the time. So obviously, I didn't do very long in there. As soon as I finished, I immediately went to university. And that was just, you know, five years living on a sailboat, sailing around. And then as soon as I graduated. Wait a minute.

Starting point is 00:09:52 That way, what is that? I mean, you said you went to the university. Yeah, I was in university, but. Was it on a sailboat? No, I bought a sailboat from an older gentleman, and I rebuilt it from the keel up. And then I took it solo sailing around like the Northern Bahamas and things like that. And I was living on it, of course. But then when I graduated university, I got an offer to go teach in Micronesia in the middle of the Pacific.

Starting point is 00:10:17 And I had a sloop rig, so it was about 28 feet, which obviously is not something that you would want to. take across the world to Micronesia. And, of course, it would probably be a six to eight-month trip. So I sold the boat. And then I went to Micronesia as a volunteer. Hold on. Colby, do you know where Micronesia is? Yeah, me neither.

Starting point is 00:10:37 I don't feel bad then. No, no. It's, if you've heard of the Marshall Islands, it's to the west of them. It's south of Palau, north of Fiji. I'm not. Okay, Fiji. Okay. All right.

Starting point is 00:10:49 It's like in the middle. I mean, Hawaii's a few. thousand miles away. It's absolute, it's just so gorgeous, but it's extremely free. There's not really any rigid structure there at all. The police drive down, dirt roads, in the back of trucks, chugging a sigh, you know, Japanese imported beer, people strip naked and middle of downtown, drunk, screaming, belligerent, big alcoholism, problems, plans, plans. people that shoot the slingshots with nails through the school fences. So it kind of sounds like a raw, dangerous place.

Starting point is 00:11:31 And it is to a degree. But it's also just the most amazing kind of place, the scenery, the islands, the freedom. I mean, I was there for a few months, and I wasn't smoking when I got there because, you know, you get all the packets that say, oh, you can't do this and this. It's super Christian and against the cultures. And so I was there with the other volunteers drinking for a few months until I was getting a ride home from the grocery store from a taxi guy that offered, ask if I smoked. And so when I found out that he had some joints on him, I started buying joints from him for a little bit,

Starting point is 00:12:06 but on a volunteer stipend, I was smoking a lot. So I decided to ask him if I could go to the source. And so I was thinking I would go to some guy that had, you know, like an ounce or maybe a pound. And this guy took me in his little beater car to another part of the island near the Japanese lighthouse off the main road, which is just like a sandy road. There's no concrete or anything. And some guy named Ando, I think, he had a whole wheat farm right off the main road. As soon as we drove in, there's just a forest of woodplants from, you know, saplings all the way to eight foot tall trees. And so I started buying trees from him in Guambrose rice bags. And then

Starting point is 00:12:46 I'd hang them up in the shower and let them dry out. And then I'd take half myself and the other half I'd sell to the volunteers and the other expats on the island. What are the volunteers? What are you doing? We were teaching the volunteers I was with. We were teaching at a high school that was, you know, like out of the 70s. Yeah. Yeah, it was to even find chalk some days was kind of like, you know, begging for crack

Starting point is 00:13:11 because there was just no supplies. Right. No AC, no books. Spit all over the walls on the floor because they chew beddle. That's like their drug out there. It's something, a nut off a tree. put tobacco in it with coral and they chew it up and then it's some orange spit comes out. So it's all over the classroom, all over the floors, all over the walls, all over the sidewalks,

Starting point is 00:13:29 all over the buildings. It's like a bat cave with the guano. And it turns their teeth like red. And so you'll have all these high schoolers with red teeth. And a lot of them don't have teeth. And it's a sign of prosperity for them to have gold teeth. And so some of the most sought after young girls were like had mouth full of just gold teeth. They didn't really have any real teeth at all.

Starting point is 00:13:51 So it was, What is happening? It was, it was a different, different kind. Bro, this is like something out of like, no, it was like,

Starting point is 00:13:58 Dune or something. This is like a whole other different kind of, you ever see Dune? Oh, no. Oh my God. It's like the Harkin'on planet. It's like everything's like normal, but it's a totally different culture and you start to realize like this is,

Starting point is 00:14:16 it's insane. It is, but then they had like a mixture because all the kids dress like 90s, crips and bloods with like the bandanas and the clothes and the boom boxes and just like gangster acting kids but they're living on this just tropical island it's just spectacularly beautiful spectacularly that's wasted on them they don't they don't yeah i understand so you know but i was there for 10 months during the hurricane and during lots of stuff that happens and um after that of course lots of stuff went on i what are you teaching in the school sorry you still didn't

Starting point is 00:14:50 you're teaching. Yeah, sure. They wanted me to teach math. Okay. So I was trying. Your strong, your strong subject. Yeah, well, I went, I went to university for biology. So by that time, I was pretty strong. I did get a proper education and university for science and math. But yes, they were, you know, I mean, I don't think we ever got past fractions. Yeah. Honestly. So I love that TikTok where there, that comedian where he says, like, imagine being a teacher. This is someone coming up to you saying we need you to teach math to student to young children okay do they want to learn no they do not want to learn it is your job to make them learn it without them wanting to learn like Jesus that sounds impossible that's the thing because the school only went

Starting point is 00:15:38 from 815 to 1215 because they were too poor to give the kids lunch so like the kids couldn't stay there because they would have anything 18 to 12 that's it so it's only like four hours When you're working all day, it's easy to reach for an energy drink just to get through the day. There are times I drink two or three of them during a podcast just to make it through, and then I'd crash. That's why I decided to try Ultra Pouches. I've been using them recently, and they've been a nice change. There's zero nicotine and zero caffeine, but they still help me stay focused when I'm working long hours. Ultra uses plant powder ingredients to give you smooth, steady focus without making you feel wired.

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Starting point is 00:16:48 Let them know inside true crime sent you. Wow. And then the rest of the time, we were just out, you know, exploring the islands, hanging out, going to beaches, parties, different stuff like that. Okay. Are you guys getting paid? We got a stipend. I think it was like three or 400 a month, but not really.

Starting point is 00:17:06 You know, it was just kind of volunteer so I could get out of the states. I didn't want to be in the states. I wanted to get out. I wanted to start traveling. And that was the fastest opportunity for. me to get somewhere else and then while I was there I got an opportunity to go to Nepal to to live at a monastery outside the capital and teach monks English and so the idea how bizarre this is I mean this is a white kid who grew up in the in the ghetto yeah basically and if you were to tell him

Starting point is 00:17:35 at a little 12 years old or 15 years old listen in 10 years from now you will be living teaching monks English in Nepal. You'd been like, the fuck out of here. Like, what are you talking? I'm probably, I never, I'm a problem that never live in this neighborhood. Twelve years old is how old I was when I got my first charge, assault with a deadly weapon. Okay. I was 12 when that happened.

Starting point is 00:17:58 But yeah. What was that story? What is that? How'd you miss that? There was a kid in my neighborhood named Daniel. We were friends, but because of my speech impediment, other kids at school found out and started making fun of him for it. So he didn't want to be my friend anymore. And then he started talking about me.

Starting point is 00:18:14 And so then we decided to have a fight down at the gazebo, but he knew karate and I didn't. So he won pretty handily. So then we decided to have another fight. And this one was going to be a two on two. So my Puerto Rican friend Juan came over to the apartment. And while we were there getting ready, I just thought it would be a good idea. I was like, why don't we take weapons? You know, that sounds like a good idea.

Starting point is 00:18:34 So Juan took a bat and I took a big rusty kitchen knife. And we went over to this kid's house, this apartment. And we met in the back of the woods. and they were both out there and we were both out there. And then when they saw us with our weapons, Daniel was like, hold on a minute, let me go and get ours. And so I was like, I can't do that. I'm not good up doing voices, but my little squeaky speech impediment.

Starting point is 00:18:57 I'm like, yeah, okay. That makes sense. It's only fair. We have weapons. You guys go get yours. We'll wait here while you get your weapons. And so Daniel left. The other kid was sitting there just looking at us and we're looking at him.

Starting point is 00:19:08 And then all of a sudden, some giant bull of a man runs around the corner of the building into where we were at, charges at my friend Juan, picks him up like nothing, throws him against the side of a tree. So he wraps around the tree and like his ribs are all messed up. And so as soon as I saw my friend Juan wrap around the tree, I dropped the knife and then just started bolt. You know, I just started running. And Juan started running. And we went back to my apartment and very shortly after the police were there. And, you know, they charged me with assault with a dilly whip. And even though we didn't get to the fighting part. Right. I guess because we were all. sit there ready to fight, but the dad came out there. It was Daniel's father, who happened to be

Starting point is 00:19:48 a Marine Corps infantryman. So anyway, yeah, that was that, that was that I had lots of, I got into a lot of, uh, of problems, had lots of court cases. That court case actually got dropped because we went three separate times and they never showed up. So then they dismissed it. But I did have a lot of court cases before I was old enough. And that hit and run was the one, the first time I was going to be charged as an adult. And that's why I decided to go with the Marine Corps. And then after I, at the States. I didn't really have any law trouble because these places that I go to, they're so free. They're not police on every corner trying to get you for something. Like I told you, the police are literally riding down the street of a pothole-filled road, laughing hysterically

Starting point is 00:20:26 drunk off their asses. They're having a great time. You're not worried if I'm over there smoking a joint. They don't care, you know. So yeah, I made it to Nepal to go to this monastery outside the Capitol and the foothills of the Himalayas. And it was absolutely gorgeous. And I was there, I only had to teach two hours a day, Monday through Friday, and the rest of the time was on me. I had free room and board. And so, you know, Nepal is a beautiful place. And when I got to Nepal, I met a really great taxi driver, Sanjay, I think his name was. And whenever I get to new countries, usually I'll ask the taxi driver if they know where to get from, because I like to smoke marijuana. I'm not a big drinker. And taxi drivers always know where things are at. And so

Starting point is 00:21:10 he told me that marijuana wasn't popular, but they had hash. And I'd never tried hash. And so this taxi driver took me to Tamil district to this hotel that he had and his friend owned the hotel. And we went up to the top of this hotel, $7 a night for the room. And he had this big bag of hash with a big brown brick in it and a shisha pipe. And that was the first time that I got to try hash. And of course, the first time I hit it like a pipe and it had all the tobacco. So I was spluttering. And, and saliva and everything coming out of my eyes and my nose. And then, yeah, I was shown how to hit the pipe properly, and the next time it went well.

Starting point is 00:21:52 But I took that hash with me to the monastery so that when I would not be teaching at like night, I could go up in the hills and camp in the tent under the stars and smoke a little hash and hang out. But my first day at the monastery, my first morning there, I went up to eat where the monks, the head complex, They eat in this room, beautiful room, all these windows overlooking this mountain, lush green. And when I got there, there was another American volunteer named Wyatt, and I was replacing him. And he was the only person there that could really speak English. And so, of course, I sat with him, and he was giving me the lay of the land.

Starting point is 00:22:26 And so he took me up to where they make food. They have a dish called Sampa. It's like Tibetan high wheat flour. And he was showing me how to make that into these dough balls that are actually the only vegetarian food I've ever eaten that are really good, because of course, it's a Buddhist monoccur. It's strictly vegetarian. You can't even bring meat onto the premises. And I'm a huge carnivore. So I went from eating meat every meal to having no meat at all. And that was the only food that stayed with me. But while he was showing me how to make this Saampabal, there were these flies that were kind of buzzing around. And they were distracting me during this breakfast meeting, 20 monks all inside, very loud, chattering, very jovial. People are having a good time. And suddenly without thinking, I just reach out and I smack one of the flies. dead because it was distracting me and why it's continuing to talk to me. And it takes a few seconds to realize that, like, there's no sound at all anymore. And when I looked up and I looked around the room, every single one of those head monks with like their casserobs and the saffron thing

Starting point is 00:23:26 and the beads, they're all looking at me intently. So something had clearly gone wrong. And then Wyatt leans over. And he tells me, you're not supposed to kill anything here. So I'm like, oh, my God. You know, I killed this. fly of my first time in this place with all these monks. And so I had to get up and, you know, hands in the prayer position and bow to all these monks and apologize for killing the fly and promise I would not do anything like that again. The rest of the time I was there. But it was ingrained in me like a tattoo, and it was an amazing place.

Starting point is 00:24:01 And the monastery there, Adzon Monastery, is one of the most expensively furnished places. I've ever been in my life. And I was at Nortar Dome before it burned down. It was just, it's a shimmering center of worship that is really just, I can't, I can't speak enough about how impressive it is. Nothing, nothing from Wayfair. No, they, I mean, the front doors were like 30 foot tall mahogany with giant brass knockers. And you walk in and these giant statues, silver-plated, just red marble.

Starting point is 00:24:41 I mean, just, and what I found out was what was crazy to me is so Wyatt, he was taking me across the mountain to this other village, Parping, because where we were at, Dali, didn't have any stores. And so as he was taking me to Parping, I was asking him, like, you know, about the monasteries. And that monastery, and every monastery, apparently, they only survive through donations. So some extremely rich person is giving them hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a month because it's a giant place. 500 plus monks, multiple buildings, just the food alone every day for them to have. It's just quite the undertaking. So it's just a really different kind of life over there than Western. And I will say that my whole time there, I never saw not one act of malicious behavior from any of the children. It was just the epitome of what you would think good children could be.

Starting point is 00:25:38 And so I just lived there as a teaching teacher for three or four months going into the, okay, before I jump into Thailand, there's another, one more story that people seem to enjoy a lot. While I was in the temple, I noticed the wall, and it looked like gilded wallpaper, but then I saw over in the corner there were two painters. And so I walked over to them, and I introduced myself. And I found out that these two men, they were from Bhutan, Bhutan, the country of Baton, was super cool in itself. But they had been painting the wall of this monastery by hand for three years, three years. And so I became friends with them, Tashi and something. But they invited me

Starting point is 00:26:22 to go out with them on a Friday night to the capital, Kathmandu, and I accepted. And my thought is, if anyone invites you out on a Friday night to the capital, that you're going to go out for, you know, drinks or clubs or something. And I had read about Kathmandu nightclubs in the party life. And I I'd already been to Tamil District a few times, so I was expecting a lot of fun. So I get with these guys, these two guys, we meet at the bus stop because, of course, there's no English. And these buses, you have no idea like, what is this bus? Where is it going? When does it stop?

Starting point is 00:26:51 What do I need to get on? So they were there, and they told me the bus to get on. 25 cents to go from where we were all the way to the capital. And that I realized that the taxi driver had grossly ripped me off. But that's beside the point. So we get on this bus that's packed full of people so tight that the person has to use his butt to push us in. And the tops of the seats are filled with all kinds of like live chickens. There's chickens in there, squawking and all these people.

Starting point is 00:27:19 And so we start going up the mountain and then back down to the plains of Kathmandu. And oh, my God, when we started going down this mountain side towards Kathmandu with no guard rails, okay? I couldn't even speak anymore. I was multiple times in utter belief that we were going to careen off the side of this precipitous cliff that's hundreds, if not a thousand feet or more to the ground. There's just no hope of survival. And I'm looking around at all these people. I'm like, these people have to have to be like feeling what I'm feeling. The anxiety.

Starting point is 00:27:54 And man, they're just like talking and this and that. And we finally get like to kind of the low lands, like the worst is. over. And I finally look at these two guys, Tashi and I don't know, Sanjay or something. I'm like, were you guys worried at all? And they're like, worried about what? I'm like, oh, my God. Like, it's just incomprehensible to believe that that kind of thing happens regularly that people don't even think about it. So we get to the Capitol and we go and we meet two other of their friends, also from Baton, and we go to this restaurant and we're having a dinner and I'm thinking we're going to get drinks and they get sodas. And I'm like, all right, you know, it's still kind of early.

Starting point is 00:28:29 It's not dark yet. So I get a soda. And then after dinner, great dinner, you know, all these momos and whatnot, Dow But traditional Nepali's food. Then we start walking and I'm like, okay, like now it's time to go. So where are we going to go, guys? Like, where are we going first? And one of them tells me we have to go to the temple. And I'm like, that's the name of the club? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:50 I'm like, I'm like, what? Is that the club? I'm like, what temple? And oh my God, this name they told me it had to be 30 letters. There's no way that someone could tell you that. and you can just remember it off the top. So I'm like, where are we going? And they say,

Starting point is 00:29:02 blah, la, la, la. And I'm like, okay, you know, I'm not really sure why. And so I follow them to this temple. And we get there. And by now it's, it's dark. And so we start walking around this temple. And I'm thinking we have to walk around, you know, once so we can do whatever and then go to the club. And it's 45 minutes.

Starting point is 00:29:21 And we haven't done one lap, you know? And it's getting like nine o'clock. And so finally, I'm like, hey, guys, like, when are we going to go to the club? It told me. They said, no, we have to walk around this temple 13 times because it's some kind of holiday and it will wash away our sins for the whole year. And so that's what we're going to do. And so I'm like, oh, my God.

Starting point is 00:29:45 I don't feel like these guys have 13 laps of sins in them. That's number one because they just seem like so pure, you know, so innocent kind of like children, but they're grown men. But it was inconceivable. obviously I start feeling all these feelings, oh my God, like this is what we're going to be doing all night is walking endless loops around this giant temple I don't even know the name of. So I try to put a brave face on it, you know, because when in Rome, do as Romans do, but by about 3 a.m., you know, I'm out. I'm like, look, guys, I'm not even Buddhist. I feel like, you know, my sins are feeling pretty washed away at this point.

Starting point is 00:30:23 I'm going to go over there. There's like this, I don't know, cement thing going over. around this God never-ending circumference temple. And there's all these, I think they're worshippers that are sleeping there. Because obviously they're tired of walking on this endless loop. And so I'm like, I'm going to go over there and put my jacket over my head. I'm going to sleep when you guys finish come and wake me up. And they're like, are you sure?

Starting point is 00:30:45 Like, you know, it's like obviously they're acting like it's very strange for me to do this. And I guess it was to them. But I'm like, yes, absolutely positive. I'm going over there. And so I go over there. And I, you know, I take my shoes off to sleep. my shoes, I put my jacket over it, and I sleep. And twice I get woken up by hands trying to hand me money. And I'm sure they must have been shocked to see like some Caucasian face come out of there

Starting point is 00:31:09 and saying in English, like get the hell away from it. You know, like leave you alone. But around that gray of dawn, the gray time of dawn before it's really light, it's so kind of dark, you know, I get woken up and they tell me that they're done. And they're obviously, they're not pleased. Like you can just tell their whole, you know, obviously I've offended them pretty greatly. But I didn't care at this point because I felt like I got hoodwinked, you know, you invite me out Friday night to the Capitol. And this is, you know, you can't possibly think that I knew what to expect. Exactly. So it's a, so we both, you know, we could both be upset. So anyway, I turn and I'm like, I'm hungry. Where can I get some food?

Starting point is 00:31:41 He turns like five meters, 15 feet away. There's like a kiosk selling yesterday's momos. So I go and I buy a momo. And when I turn around, not 15, 20 feet from where I had been sleeping, which, by the way, okay. in the light of dawn, it was absolutely filthy. I was sleeping on grime, on just disgusting. My whole side of my body was just covered in grease. It was just terrible. And all those people I thought were pilgrims. They were not pilgrims.

Starting point is 00:32:12 This was in 2015, 2016, one. And so it was after that giant earthquake. And so they were all refugees that had nothing. And I looked and there were five lepers, real life lepers. in a little circle sitting there falling apart. We're talking about no leg, just a bandage, and not like a nice white bandage. It's brown and yellow,

Starting point is 00:32:37 and it's leaking pus or whatever fluids onto the sidewalk. The dogs won't even go near, but all these people are teeming around the outside of this little circle. A woman, I looked at her, and I know, I know it's not polite to stare. But I had never seen it, except in books. And when I look, I was frozen, 10, 15 seconds. It's just eyes staring.

Starting point is 00:32:58 And this woman, no nose, just a hole. God. Just a hole there, you know, just falling apart on all their hands, the nubs. And everything was leaking. They're like leaking out of these orifices. And I was so overcome, you know, that I immediately went to the Bhutanese painters and their friends. I was like, did you see this? Like, have you seen this?

Starting point is 00:33:19 And they were, you know, like, yes. You know, we've seen that the earthquake has brought many problems. And I was like, oh, my God. And then they told me that they were going to go to another temple. I wasn't invited. And so I asked, I was like, okay, I'm still trying to get over the lepers. Just help me get on the bus so I can get back to the monastery. And so Tashi, he took me back to this bus.

Starting point is 00:33:42 And he left me not even 10 feet from the bus and went back. And in between that 10 feet for me to get on the bus, suddenly this woman comes up holding a dead baby. It looked dead. I mean, it was just like. this little famished body with a big head lulling with its neck back in its arms. And she's holding this baby out to me. I don't know what she's saying. And she's like obviously she's distraught.

Starting point is 00:34:10 She doesn't know, you know. And all these people, again, all these people are teeming around this. Like nothing is happening. And I grew up in Atlanta. And again, I grew up in a lot of bad neighborhoods. And so I had a thing, you know, I don't generally give money to homeless people. But oh my gosh, I reached into my pocket. pocket and all the money that I felt, you know, in my pocket, I just reached out and I put it in her

Starting point is 00:34:30 hand and I just turned away and I ran onto the bus and I just put my head in my hand, man. I started to cry because it was so, I was just so overcome by those emotions. And the worst thing, well, it's not the worst thing, but then to finish it off, when I got back to the monastery, the Momo that I had bought gave me food poisoning. So then for the rest of that weekend, I'm in between throwing up diarrhea, wondering did this little baby die, thinking about the And it was just, and the boots of these painters with their invitation out. And I was just like, oh, my God, man. What a, what a weekend. What a Friday, Saturday. You should have, should have, you should have finished those laps. Should have finished those laps. Yeah, probably should. The U.S. is looking pretty good about this point. You know, right? Poor people in the USA or other Western countries have no concept of poverty. Yeah, no. And the poverty that I saw there. And what's interesting is a lot of the poverty I saw there that people don't seem to realize or they don't really care that much.

Starting point is 00:35:25 because, like, when I was at the monastery, the little villages around, they're all built on the side of these slopes, very precipitous slopes. And they're just like little fats or mud huts, maybe one light bulb hanging in. And you know, yeah, but the people, oh my God, it's like everywhere I went, people are trying to invite me and bring me inside and give me rice or give me food. And we're doing charades because they don't speak English and I don't speak Nepalese, you know, Therang depo yimpe, you know. And so it was just they have so much happiness and so much community. there. I guess that that kind of takes away. But yeah, the amount of like a poor person in the U.S. would be middle class, you know, with cell phones and cars and things like that. So, so yeah, Nepal was definitely a cool place, but I was a volunteer there as well. And eventually I needed to make some

Starting point is 00:36:15 money. And that's when I got an opportunity to go down to Thailand. And so same thing, teaching and when I got down there, I realized I was in a loser's place. I was in a dead end. I was in a place where Westerners go to die. And, you know, like the guy that was there, other guys, Westerners, Farrongs, Thai people call foreigners forong. That's what this is. Forerner, right? It means foreigner, but it can be derogatory. Yeah. But you're just a Farrang. It doesn't matter if you've lived there 30 years. You're still a Farrang. And so the other Farrongs, you know, they're younger than me and they're already got brown teeth and pot bellies and, you know, It's just like, this is not, you know, the money's not right. The kids are the opposite of the monks.

Starting point is 00:36:55 It's just, you know, it's like the ones that don't want to learn. They don't want to be there. You're basically just like there for pictures. You're the white guy so they can charge the parents more money for their kids to go there because we have American teachers. So I decided this isn't what I want to do. There's got to be a way out. And I looked around for an opportunity. And that's when I discovered the French Foreign Legion. And so the French Foreign Legion, it's an international, you know, military group in France that anyone, one can go to and you just show up and you try out. And if you make it, you make it. If you don't, you don't. And so I decided that I would go into the French Foreign Legion because my whole goal after university was to figure out how to get into medical school. I went for university or for biology. I left the States. Now I'm trying to figure out how can I get into medical school. So I thought,

Starting point is 00:37:40 well, if I do the French foreign Legion, I can be a medic and then maybe make it in that way. So I spent about six months in Thailand. I got myself in shape and then got, uh, got, uh, got some money saved up. And once I finished my contract, I went to, I was just thinking of the woman I work for, this Thai woman named Anne, Anna, that was a whole other character. But I went to France and I landed in France and I spent about two days going around Paris, seeing the sites, again, Notre Dame and other things before it got burned down. And then I went on the morning of the third day. I walked from where I was at my hotel because I wanted to see more of Paris to the Fort de Nijon, which is the intake.

Starting point is 00:38:20 for the French Foreign Legion. And so I went there and I got stopped at the gate. They asked me for my passport in France and French. And I gave it to them and they took me inside, put me in a little waiting room. I was there by myself until lunch. Did you speak French? No. I was using duolingo to learn before I got there because I knew when you get there,

Starting point is 00:38:44 they only speak to you in French. Right. You know, so I did practice, but no, I'm not a Francophone. So I was there. They got, once about three or four other guys showed up. Then the gendarme came in and he took us to get some food, good meal. And, you know, I was fortunate. I had some money saved.

Starting point is 00:39:02 But a lot of the other guys that were there that they seemed like they maybe hadn't eaten in a while because, you know, they ate like wolves. But we didn't get rushed. We got taken to after that to the back of the base, a three-story building. They took us all the way up the stairs to this hallway. And then they put us on a pull-up bar. No one failed. You had to do, I think seven is the minimum. Or they just, if you fail anything, that's it. They take you immediately to the gate. There's no money. There's nothing. You're just whatever. You're just done. So I passed the pull-up bar. We went to the computer room. We had to do some weird test, like three-hour tests with shapes. And it's just weird. It was very strange test. And then right after that, another gendarme read off the names. And only myself and another American made the cut. Everyone else immediately got sent out to the gate. We had a guy on here, Tyler, uh, Taylor, uh, Taylor, uh, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, yeah, uh, same thing. He's, bro, I'll say, we'll have Colby'll send you a link. This guy's a character. Yeah. I mean, is it, it's not gold teeth. It's, no, he's got a, uh, is it all at the bottom there, are they gold or they silver or, or white gold, all white, I mean, he was in the Marines, he was in the, like he, he, he had, he had, he had. He was, he's an insane character.

Starting point is 00:40:22 But he did the same things. Like you said, you go, you knock on this door, you have to wait. They bring you in. They have you do all these tests. Yeah. So, I mean, to jump through because it's, it's just leading back up. Eventually, I made it down. I made it through the cut.

Starting point is 00:40:37 I made it down to Obanier. And then two days before the final selection, I got my last meeting with the psychiatrist. And I was in there. And he was, it was odd because I had special paperwork. because apparently no one had ever trying to join the Foreign Legion with like a university degree before. I had a four year degree in biology. And so it was very strange. And the psychiatrist is looking over my file.

Starting point is 00:41:01 And he's like, you know, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't put you through. But is this what you really want to do? And while I was sitting there, you know, I just I said no. Because I had remembered in those weeks, you know, all the constantly being hungry and being yelled at for no reason and rushing around and doing all these. assinine things. How old do you at this point? I was 30. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:41:26 You know? Yeah. So again, you kind of, oh, and that's another thing. I was the oldest person there as well. So I'm with all these like young guys, the maturity level. It's all different. And I was going to have to live five years in the barracks. And I'm like, you know what?

Starting point is 00:41:39 I was on the beach in Thailand a few months ago. I think I needed to come and do this because of the way the Marine Corps ended. But now I have. have closure and I can put the past to rest and focus on the future. And I decided to leave the French Foreign Legion after a month or so and to go back to Thailand. And that is when I got an offer to teach at an international school on an island called Kosanui in the Gulf of Thailand, biology, chemistry, and physics for the high schoolers. and that's what put me in the location where everything, you know, as far as the dark web and with Ashley and the trafficking and everything came to be.

Starting point is 00:42:26 When I first started living there, I didn't know where to live. So I found this little hole in the wall that ended up being right down the street from all the prostitute bars. So like every night, three, four in the morning, it was just like, boom, boom, boom, boom. And like, oh, my God. And so luckily, I was able to find this. What's the boom, boom, boom. The noise, the music from all of the old guys and the people that don't have social skills to go and utilize the Thai hookers. And I just didn't realize because in the daytime, it's very different.

Starting point is 00:42:55 These places are closed. And then at nighttime, everything changes. But I was able to find through a friend at the school, there's a place in Kossan we called La Maie. And in La Maie near Banyan tree, which is a very very. high-end resort. There's a little access road and it's got a bar there called Chalet Rock Bar where you can go and you can buy at the bar and it's just sick. You know, they got the hammocks and it's right there in front of La Maibay Bay and it's a really sick place for people to go and hang out and enjoy the sunset. And there's houses

Starting point is 00:43:33 Chonsa Wan Villas are there and so I asked B, the Thai bartender that spoke really fluent English, if there were any places around that were open. And he said there was one, one little house up on the hill. And so I asked him if he could, if he could show me. And he took me through a bunch of yards and roads and up and down. And we got to this field with elephant grass. And then at the end of this field perched on this ledge, overlooking La Maibay Bay, million dollar view, million dollar view. You just can't believe it. There's this little sea-shide shack. And of course, it's dilapidated. It smells like mold. There's really nothing in it. But I asked him how much it was and it was within my budget.

Starting point is 00:44:13 it. And the place, again, the location was epic. It had tremendous privacy, tremendous space. It was a huge property right there by the beach. And so I saw the potential immediately. And I said, this is, this is where I want to stay. And so I started to rent that place. But I was poor. I was working as a teacher for this international school. And, you know, you don't make a lot of money. And on the weekends, I would go to these places. For example, there's a place called, Eden Bar on the island of Copangan, which is next door, that has parties that are that are epic in the sense that they change your life. Like if you go to Eden Bar, you'll never forget that you went to Eden Bar and you'll always try and go back to Eden Bar. And to get to Eden Bar is a journey

Starting point is 00:45:00 on its own. I mean, I would have to take the boat over from Kosanwe to Copangan, get off at Don Sack Fury, drive down to Hadron Beach, park the bike, find a taxi boat, take a taxi boat up to Hadd Wahn Beach, get off that boat, and then walk until I made it to this rickety bridge made with bamboo and poles and probably no nails. It's just gravity holds it on the reefs with the breaker waves right beneath it. And at the end of this rickety bridge is an epic, absolute paradisical spot called Eden Bar where every Saturday night, except during the rainy season, they have these raves that are they defy your imagination. I mean, not only just the way they have it set up, but at the bar they sell in a L-E, mushroom shakes, of course, all the alcohol,

Starting point is 00:45:54 the people, because you have to get there by boat, there is no police, there's no police, you know, it's it's completely self-managed. The people there are just a medley of rich, successful backpackers, bohemian, everyone together. And why, While I was there, I went, and it was my first time because I'd never tried MDMA before, even because I grew up in Atlanta and all my friends were black and Hispanic, and a lot of black and Hispanic people have very bad attitudes about anything that's not weird or cocaine. So I carried those same attitude, except for, yeah-o. Except for Widen, Yale.

Starting point is 00:46:36 So I was following that mindset until I got over to the, this place, just this Eden bar, and they were selling Molly at the bar, and I got four pills for a thousand bought a pill, which is like 10% of my teacher's salary for just these, and I took one, and I waited like 30 minutes. I was just people watching, because I went to this place by myself. I was still new and trying to find, you know, friends and figure things out. And it's really kind of impossible to describe the wave of euphoria that rose within me like a tide, and it washed away all feelings of self-doubt, all feelings that would cause a person to have any inhibition about approaching another human being and having the most intimate, real, joyful interactions and conversations as if you had known this person your whole life. Okay, but it's just like a magic because it just suddenly rose within me.

Starting point is 00:47:39 And immediately I looked and I saw this beautiful looking girl and there was nothing holding me back. And I immediately went and approached her. And it was like I had an Oscar screenwriter from Hollywood giving me the perfect lines coming like just with no, no hesitation. And so within two minutes, she's dancing with me. Within 15 minutes, she's asking me if I have anything. I give her some of my magic. And we have the most amazing sexual relations that started with kissing and went outside to the rocks. And then we drug ourselves back to the bungalows.

Starting point is 00:48:20 And oh, my God, it was just like a revelation. And that was my first time I'd ever taken this substance. And so I knew now that it existed, but I also knew it was expensive. and I knew that it was cut to shit. And every time I would go to these parties, I'd just the way that I dressed, the way that I look, people would come up to me and they'd say, hey, do you know where I can get anything?

Starting point is 00:48:40 Can you know, blah, blah, blah. And of course I didn't. I was just like they were. And that was kind of how things went for a few months. You know, I could only afford to go out once or maybe twice a month, have a great time. But then the rest of the time, I'm just like this poor teacher that's teaching all these rich kids.

Starting point is 00:48:57 And it's just like there's got to be something else. And one day there was. I don't remember exactly where I saw it, where I read it, but I read an article about some sort of internet that was parallel to the regular internet. And they called it the dark web. And that on this dark web, you could procure anything that you wanted, including the same sort of party drugs like MDMA or acid and things like this that they had at these just. amazing places that I would go to, Guys Bar, Eden Bar, you know, backyard party. There's just, there's such a little jungle party, waterfall party. There's lighthouse party. My God, these places, they just, they're unbelievable. But it just a light bulb went off in my head because I realized that

Starting point is 00:49:49 there was a way for me to cut out the middleman because you would utilize, this is back in 2017, you would utilize a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin, which at the time, of course, I had no idea what it was. Most people didn't in order to do this all online. And you would get these things straight to you. And so that is what gave me just a light bulb moment, an Edison moment. And from that day, I spent about six months doing research, reading everything I could, figuring out what I had to do. I went to a used computer store. I spent 6,000 bot on a used laptop. Then the IT guy at our school, this English guy named Mike, great guy, I went to him and I basically finagled it so that I was, because he was into Bitcoin. And I said that I would like to get my laptop set up so that I could

Starting point is 00:50:39 do Bitcoin investing without anybody knowing. And so through Mike and through my own research, I was able to get this old secondhand laptop set up with a bootleg version of Windows. There's this thing called Hoonix. It makes your online activity basically anonymous. There's VPN gate. It's run out of a university in Japan so you don't have to pay anything. There's no backdoors. I figured out PGP encryption so that you're able to send encrypted messages to people.

Starting point is 00:51:11 And only if they have the key, can they decrypt those messages? and then they can re-encryp the reply and send it back to you. So it's a super secure method of communication. And it took months for me to figure out how to make all of this work together so that I could even access the dark web. Once that happened and I was able to access the dark web, then I had to go through more weeks of trying to figure out how to navigate it. Because on the dark web, they don't have websites like Facebook.com or Google.com.

Starting point is 00:51:42 It's like 3FW, 30 more letters and numbers. Dot onion. It's just completely random. And so you have to figure out how can I find where these sites are, what are the links? And then when you use the links, you have to get through all these DDoS attacks and all this stuff because the governments are trying desperately to prevent you from making it this far. And then one day I finally made it to dream market. And I logged on and it was like looking at eBay or Amazon, but everything was drugs. it was a cornucopia of everything that you could imagine, all set up a nice list with reviews

Starting point is 00:52:20 and pictures and prices and where they're located and where they shipped to, and I couldn't believe it. And so my first order that I ever placed was for five grams of champagne Mali, five grams of Mali that I ordered from a Dutch vendor. And when I did that, because this had been like six months in the works, and I had to give Mike bought for Bitcoin, and I had to get a separate hard drive because back then you had to download the entire blockchain before you could do any transactions. And so I couldn't use the old laptop because it would have filled it up. So I had all this like space age equipment so that I could access what I was doing. And once I finally did and I shut down the computer for like two weeks, life went back to normal.

Starting point is 00:53:15 I really didn't think about it until the end of school one day when I went in for some supplies in the office and I just thought on a whim, oh, let me check. And when I look through the boxes at, yeah, I should mention that. So a big problem on the dark web once I figured out everything was, okay, well, where can I get the packages sent to? obviously you don't want to send packages of highly illicit goods to your house, especially in a place like Thailand, which is renowned for their strict drug laws. So I decided, again, kind of light bulb moment, ah, I teach in an international school. They have like 100 expat teachers. Every day,

Starting point is 00:53:57 they're getting packages that come from all over the world. I could easily use a fictitious name. It'll go into that room. If anyone finds it, they want to. know it's me because the way that I ordered it, no way to trace it. So the only way I could get caught is red-handed. And so I decided to use the school that I was teaching at as the import destination for the packages that I got off the dark web. And the first package came in and I saw it and my heart dropped and I couldn't believe it. And it's like someone was burning a hole in the back of my head because I knew the Thai receptionists were in there, even though they weren't paying me any attention. They had no reason to. But I immediately dropped everything that I was doing,

Starting point is 00:54:37 and I put it in my backpack, and I went to my little house in La Maie that I ended up calling Coral Hill after doing a bunch of stuff to it. And I opened this package in the back of my room, and sure enough, there's five grams of just rock, crystal rock. No, when you would go to the parties on CoSemwe and you'd buy Molly, it was always sand. It was always look like brown sugar. Now I had rock crystals, and you opened the bag, and it smelled like cake, cake batter. And so I immediately called my best friend Evan, who lived in the same neighborhood as me, and I told him to come down. He's the only person that knew what I was doing. He was my best friend, and I told him my idea months before.

Starting point is 00:55:18 And then I never mentioned it again until that day when he came down, and I showed him. And that's what started at all. You know, I got those five grams, and we decided that I would sell three, and two, we would use, between our friend group. We had a really great group of friends. And we would go to this place called Doodubau, a local place right on the beach that did really great parties every Friday night. And I would try and start selling my wares there during the party. And that first night, we went to Doodubau. We, there were some Russian guys that I knew, and they knew that I was a teacher. And so when I went up and I told them that I had Somali,

Starting point is 00:56:00 they spoke in Russian. I'm not exactly sure what they said, but I'm sure they were incredulous because they were laughing until they came and I showed them what I had. And then, yeah, they bought a gram. And then we and my friends had taken one. And again, it's really hard to describe the kind of feeling that you get when you take Molly, especially if you take Molly that's pure and unadulterated. It's just a state of bliss.

Starting point is 00:56:27 And so my friends and I, these Russians, we all started to experience this bliss, which led to other people to notice and to find out why they're having such a great time. And then another guy, Augustine, came over. And then, you know, I sold him the second. I don't remember who I sold the third one to. But that was the first night that I went out with what I had. And I basically made, if you were to buy a gram of the cut, Molly, it was 3,000 bot. So it's about a hundred. hundred dollars and I was letting mine go for two thousand five hundred bot which got cheaper later on but I basically in that little short 30 minutes I made all the money that I had invested and some

Starting point is 00:57:13 extra and I was having just a fantastic time and all my friends and the party had blew up to such a degree that it quickly led to a reputation around of doodubal being kind of like a new a new spot. And in the months to follow, it became one of the most popular places on Samui because in those months, and I just, I reinvested everything that I got because I had a job. So my monthly finances and everything were paid through my school salary and everything that I made from selling the party drugs, which I do want to mention, you know, I'm not a fan of drugs per se. there's a distinctive line between what I would call, you know, party drugs or loser drugs. These are things that like H or soft or yay or, you know, the truckers, what the truckers like.

Starting point is 00:58:09 Ice. Yeah, ice. These would be, you know, prescription stuff, pharmaceutical stuff that I would consider to be soul-destroying and ruining of the body and relationships and communities. And so I never participated in, you know, in selling anything like that. I sold, you know, Reifer, I sold Molly, I sold Kay, you know, Katie. I sold Lucy and I sold, you know, the pill form of Molly as well. And so I was just into the party to give people great experiences, great times, multiple people at my parties. They took stuff.

Starting point is 00:58:47 They met people and now they're married with kids today. You know, so I like to think that I was more of a medicine man than a drug dealer. But regardless, banana banana, that is how I got started with the dark web. And then by my third order, I ordered so much that I wasn't able to get rid of it in Kosanui, because I was still fairly new. I was a teacher. I was very concerned about people knowing that I was involved in something and that it could jeopardize or get me arrested. I was very at the beginning much more cautious until I figured out the lay of the land.

Starting point is 00:59:32 And so when I got that third order in, then I got Evan and I to go over to Copangan, and I took all the stuff over there. And we spent four days going to Eden Bar, Guy Bar, Jungle Bar, Floating Loy Bar, to these amazing places. And I just, I basically would go to each party with different bags filled with party drugs taped underneath my groin so that I could make it past the security. And then once I make it past the security, Evan was my eyes. So whenever I would be doing deals, he would be looking around making sure the Thai people aren't watching you because you have to be really careful when you're in these places

Starting point is 01:00:15 because that's how the Thai people make their money. I mean, you go to these places and you can buy whatever you want, and it's very expensive and it's very cut. And that's how a lot of these people make their money. So, of course, if the Thai people discover that you're in their parties trying to undercut them, then, you know, you can disappear. And there's lots of people that that's happened to. You just, they'll just kill you. And so, you know, it was go to a party, spend two hours, make one, maybe two rounds, and then leave. And then that would be a night.

Starting point is 01:00:44 And then the next night do the same thing and the same thing. and the same thing. And after that four-day trip, when we went back to CoSanui, I had $8,000 in my pocket, which was like almost four months teaching salary or five months teaching salary. And that's what really, I mean, that's what really led to me pursuing what I was doing on a much larger scale. Before that, I was just kind of, you know, friends. And then after that trip, I decided to go in heavy. So, but did you keep the job? Because, I mean, the job is kind of crucial to where these things are being mailed.

Starting point is 01:01:22 Exactly. So all I had to do was a good job. And thankfully, I was able to do a great job. All the students love me. All the administration love me. I did lots of labs. I did lots of things that were extra. I never missed any days.

Starting point is 01:01:39 I never gave them any reason to suspect anything was amiss. and so, and they also handled my work permit, and obviously that's where I was sending in the packages until a few years later when I opened up my restaurant, and then I could use that. So, yes, it was imperative that I worked at the school, and there were times when I went out to parties, and I didn't even sleep. If you sleep hot at night, you know how disruptive that can be. When you're not resting well, everything else feels harder. Your focus, your mood, even your recovery.

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Starting point is 01:03:27 See site for details. You know, I just came in and worked the next day. And that was a routine that just kind of, you know, teach your tea. I was teacher tea. And then so, but I mean, you're bringing in like your, your income is, I'm assuming, exploding. Yeah. So, again, the first few packages were all spent on reinvesting to get bigger packages. But then once I started making that kind of money, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars, then I finally started to buy things that weren't necessity.

Starting point is 01:03:59 I had a door, a metal door installed because when I was in Mississippi, be selling reefer, there was a home invasion for, black dudes came in the house with guns drawn and tried to take my life away. And so after that, I wanted to make sure it couldn't happen again. So in Thailand, when I was selling another time, then I invested in a steel door from America that only opened outward so you couldn't kick it in. And they had to bring jack hammers and knock out a bunch of mason there. It was very expensive, but I felt very good after it was installed. And so the house was very, was very significant. secure. The windows had, you know, everything on them. And I just bought, you know, all new furniture, all new clothes, all new electronics, vehicles, jewelry. I went to the gold store with a backpack

Starting point is 01:04:53 full of cash. And I just, I should have bought Bitcoin at the time, but I just bought lots of, lots of gold, gold bracelet, gold rings, little gold bars. And when I was at my house, property, obviously I didn't want to keep all this stuff in my house because, you know, if the police ever came, then you're caught right-handed, you know? And so I, like the pirates, I dug a hole in my property. And inside the hole, I put a bucket. And then inside the bucket would be tupperware. And then each tupperware would be a different, you know, substance. And then those were, of course, covered in the bucket so that, you know, moisture and stuff wouldn't get to them all in bags. And then I had another hole on the other side of the property, same

Starting point is 01:05:38 setup and that's where I kept all my cash, euros, bought, gold, silver, dollars. So I had two holes in the ground. And whenever people would need orders or would come to my house, which wasn't often, the only people that would ever come to my house were people I was close to that I did a lot of business with or close friends. Then, you know, and by this time, Ashley was involved, so I'm probably skipping ahead. But she would stay inside the house with them while I closed all the curtains. and then I'd go out and bring whatever I needed to back inside, or if I got a package in, of course, while I was breaking down the package, my house was filled with substances.

Starting point is 01:06:15 But whenever I wasn't actively breaking down packages or distributing them, everything except a little bit of reefer and eventually a little bit of Katie, because Katie is a pretty nifty substance. And I didn't learn about that until a few years after I was, involved in what I was doing through another friend who worked for a ridiculously rich scoundrel named John who put me on Katie. And so then, yeah, Katie and Reefer were pretty much the daily. You know, I could go to school and teach on both, knowing whatever, no. When did you mean, Ashley?

Starting point is 01:06:58 I got invited with a bunch of my friends. We went down to Alpha Gay Bar, because I have some friends that are gay. and so we went to Alpha Gay Bar for their Halloween costume contest. And then while I was at this gay bar, a friend Alicia brought this little blonde girl to me. She introduced me. I was all in my mask and stuff. And I actually was smitten when I saw this girl. And I kind of couldn't find anything to say, but I had my mask on. And she probably thought I was being rude.

Starting point is 01:07:30 And so she actually was like, well, it's nice to meet you, I guess. and then she turned and walked away. And that was the first time I met Ashley. So there was another party at this house. I went downstairs and the conga line formed in the kitchen. And Ashley was there with Maggie and some of her other friends, including this girl named Clarice, who was very unattractive personality and physically did not take care of herself very well either.

Starting point is 01:08:00 And so I'm serving up these people and the girls come up and they're like, I don't really know what I want. And so I'm having to explain things because, well, if you haven't done it in this amount of time and you're only this big, you should probably get this one, but only take half because otherwise you're going to. And this girl, Clarice, that's with Ashley, she's like, we got it, bro. It's not our first rodeo. I'm like, okay, you know. And so I sell them the hynichens or whatever, and they go off and they're doing their thing. And I'm around the party and I'm having a good time.

Starting point is 01:08:26 And about an hour later, Bianca, B, she comes down. And she's like, those bitches got sick. And I'm like, what bitches? I start thinking immediately, I thought about Ashley, and it's so strange because I'd never really spoken to Ashley still. But I thought about her because, I don't know. She just got some aura around her. Because when she was in the line, like with her friends, she was the one that I was, even though I didn't really speak to her. It was like I was drawn to her.

Starting point is 01:08:51 It was kind of strange to describe. But I immediately was like, oh, no, did that blonde girl get sick? And so I'm like, who? And she's like, I don't know. Just come upstairs. And so I go upstairs with Bianca. And we go into this bathroom, and it's that Clarice girl, the one that's like, it's not my first rodeo. It's fucking on the, by the toilet.

Starting point is 01:09:10 She had thrown up in Bianca's bed, thrown up all in the bed. And now she's on the toilet. Her arm all slick with vomit and vomit everywhere. And, you know, and Ashley's in there. And Ashley's, she's not saying anything. She's just getting like a rag and she's wetting it and she's putting it on her head. And I'm in, and I'm noticing this as I'm in there like, what the fuck? Like, I told you to only take half.

Starting point is 01:09:32 When's the last time that she ate? 15 hours ago, I'm like, fucking dumb bitch. Like, there's nothing that you can do now. She's just going to be sick. You need to just give her water in an hour go downstairs and try to give her some food. But, like, you guys are fucking this party up. It's like this other person's birthday party. And, like, y'all are fucking up.

Starting point is 01:09:47 She threw up all up in the bed. And so it was like this thing. But Ashley, she was just acting like this little nurse, man, just going about, helping her friend, even though I didn't like the person. And so we were leaving. And Bianca, you know, she jibb. Silly bitches. You know, it's up to, like,

Starting point is 01:10:03 like this as we go back downstairs. And as I was downstairs, then Ashley, she came and I was sitting outside on the patio. And I was smoking some Canadian chronic. And, you know, at the time, chronic was something that was extremely hard to get there in Thailand. And so when Ashley came and sat down, I offered her, you know, the joint if she would like to hit it. And she was, you know, I guess trying to be cool. And so she did and she took it. And of course, she started having a coughing fit, you know, the nostrils and the eyes and everything. She's like, this is a tie. And so, you know, that was kind of a nice icebreaker. And then we started having a conversation. And it was the first time I got to talk to her, how old she was, where she worked, where she was from, who she's friends with.

Starting point is 01:10:50 We were really hitting it off. It was a good vibe. And she was very attractive. And so, and then her other friends came down. And so then the conversation kind of ended. But before that happened, I asked her if she'd like to come and have a conversation with me at Chalet Rock Bar, my house later on that week. And she agreed. And so that was the first time I saw at the party. And then when I went to Shalei Rockbar, I was sitting down with this girl in the evening around sunset and we were having a conversation. And that's when I found out she was only 19. I was 32. And it was very strange because I didn't think she would be that young because she was living in Thailand, working as a teacher at an international school. And she told me that she was reading philosophy like Alan Watts and she was telling me all this stuff and and she was so mature

Starting point is 01:11:37 and the way that she thought and the way that her soul, the way she bared herself and her soul and she carried herself, it was just such like a click. It felt so, so comfortable and so right that then I invited her to go to Chris's villa party and I took Ashley and Ashley is from South Africa and she was only 19 and she's not poor but she's not for money. and obviously this was her first time out in the world and seeing things. It was like a deer in headlights. It was like she couldn't, she was amazed. She couldn't believe that she was going to these places.

Starting point is 01:12:13 And it was such a good feeling to be able to share that with someone that was experiencing it only for the first time, especially someone so sweet and so innocent and so loving and affectionate. To give an idea of the kind of life, you know, where we're at, it's like I show up to the party, this giant estate, giant estate. just and so the first thing when I get to any party everyone wants me to immediately serve them so it's like I go up in the room I drop my stuff off I go down into the kitchen and I start to serve and you know I'm hooking everyone up with whatever they want for really great prices I go back up to my room where and there what's her name there's this Russian or Ukrainian woman great body terrible teeth she's got

Starting point is 01:12:59 another friend there, blonde, also very attractive with fine teeth, and they want, they want some pills, and they don't just want pills, they want to have a threesome. And I'm trying to explain. I'm like, well, I can't have a threesome with you right now because I came here with this other girl. Look, her stuff's right there. And she's, you know, she has like this Persian kind of, and she puts her hands together, and she's like, Tristan, why you say no? And I try to explain again, and she's like, it's okay. She can join too. You know, and so, like, that's the kind of environment I'm in. It's, like, just very sexual, very freedom, lots of substances,

Starting point is 01:13:36 lots of, you know, just, like, fun, just fun. But I had to turn that specific experience down because I knew that Ashley would not be okay with it. And I would not be okay with corrupting her like that at that time. So I had more of a second day. So, you know, I had to politely say, no, Palina, that was her name, the Russian. Paulina. So I had to say, you know, no, and she was very disappointed. And so, but I'm with Ashley, and we're just, we're spent a lot of time together. And we were also on substances that, again, make it so easy to connect and to let your guard down and to just really vibe in a way that's

Starting point is 01:14:16 very hard to do unless you've known someone for a long time. And so that night at my friend Chris's 30th birthday at this giant villa with all these crazy characters and all this crazy commotion going on is the night that Ashley and I started to become official. And then, you know, from from then on it was just more and more seeing her, given her her first experience on Lucy, you know, given her first experience with many things, taking her to many places, letting her see things, and just showing her a whole new life. And, you know, it just started going from there. Yeah, we had really, it was like a rock star life.

Starting point is 01:15:00 Man, we were together like two years. I mean, two years, we're just, you know, living a rock star life. I'm taking her, you know, on Christmas. I took her over to Kotow, another island, rented a villa, you know. Bless her heart, she's working at this school, making just a little bit of money, saving up to buy me some presents. You know, I took her out to, I forget the name of the streets. It's in Cotale, Sirey Beach, near Sirey Beach.

Starting point is 01:15:27 And I took her and I told her, just start going into the stores and anything that you like, just put on. And if it looks good, just get it. And, you know, don't look at the price. And, you know, and it. And so we ended up going back to this villa with all this new clothes and bless her heart. She threw it on the bed and she's so sweet. And she's like, I know it's wrong to covet, but this really does make me so happy, you know. and then like going and like a kid in the leaves, you know, like roll her up because, you know,

Starting point is 01:15:54 because then when I took her to the places with me, she presented herself like me because every time I went places, you know, I had lots of stuff. Yeah. You know, and so she felt like she couldn't measure up. So I just took care of her. She was, she was a princess. You know, we'd go to Jam Bay and I'd buy the whole menu, you know, whatever, for whole menu for all of our friends. She never had to worry about anything. She just, she lived a protected life and a bubble of paradise. That's what she did. All she did every day, she just, I gave her a bubble of just happiness. And, you know, what ended up happening is I went to school for biology and I knew that I wanted to go into medical school and I had to figure out how I was going to be able to do that.

Starting point is 01:16:40 Obviously, with selling the drugs, I was able to make the money to afford it. And now it was time for me to go. And the problem was that Ashley had got fired from her teaching job because another woman was competing with her for a promotion, but Ashley didn't have a four-year degree. So she got fired. So then I decided the only way I could get Ashley to stay there was to get her a work permit. To have a work permit, I needed a business. So I started a restaurant, an American breakfast and lunch restaurant, and I taught her how to do everything. And I put her in charge. And this little restaurant for tourists was how she got her work permit. And it also, because I knew I was going to be leaving,

Starting point is 01:17:21 and I knew that I wasn't going to have to be selling the way that I was, but that still it's such a great life when you can have friends and a great, you know, you had your health and you have money, and you can go out and you can do Molly one weekend, and the next weekend you can do Katie and the next weekend you can do Lucy. Or you could go out every weekend and drink, you know, and see how healthy you look after a few years, you know, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco and stuff like that.

Starting point is 01:17:43 But my way, I wanted to always have a way to procure the substances that bring such happiness. And so having a restaurant, another business, would allow for me to have an import site other than the school because obviously when I left, I couldn't use the school anymore. So COVID started happening. Of course, we're all aware of that nonsense, the madness that was COVID. And so, you know, I ended up leaving to go to medical school. I went to Ukraine because I was planning. planning to be an out island doctor anyway. I never wanted to live in the States. I was going to go out in the Pacific and be a doctor out there. So I went to medical school in Ukraine and I left Ashley. She moved

Starting point is 01:18:23 into my house on Coral Hill. She was the manager of the business. I had employees and the chef and she was 21 years old and she was living a dream life and Co-Same Lee. But the problem was after about 10 months of the COVID lockdowns, they locked down the airport. So there was no tourist, no tourist, not much money. I was losing thousands and thousands of dollars every month. After 10 months, there was still, you know, not any end in sight. I think it was eight months. I think it was eight months, actually. After eight months, there was still no end in sight. And so I decided that I needed to try to order a package that would, you know, give some leeway. So I ordered 250 grams, again, of the Mali. And, you know, I had ordered hundreds of packages over years. And there was never

Starting point is 01:19:11 any problem. But this package, for whatever reason, when the package postman brought it, he asked Ashley to sign for it, even though it wasn't in her name. And bless her heart, she did. And then 10 minutes later, the police were there. And I got a call. I was in an internal medicine class, and my phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing. So I went out into the hallway, and it was her. And when I answered, I could tell something was wrong, but I didn't know what. And so I was asking her what's what's wrong you know what's wrong and then she finally told me the police are here and uh and uh i i asked what happened and she told me about the package man and that he asked her to sign for the package and i asked her i said did you sign and it was it was like a silence and then she

Starting point is 01:20:08 whispered yeah that she had signed and then it was like man it was like It was like a supernova collapsing into a black hole. I just dropped to my knees in the hallway. Oh, man. I just collapsed in on myself. But I had to be strong because she was on the phone and the police were around her. So I tried to put a brave face on it. And I told her, you know, that I would get her out of it.

Starting point is 01:20:43 I would help her and to just wait. and I would go to the apartment right now. And she was so brave. And she asked me if I was all right. And if I was safe, she was thinking about me even when she was surrounded by all that. And so I, well,

Starting point is 01:21:02 I don't know. The package isn't in her name. Like, she signed for it. Well, I mean, I could sign for a fucking package. Like,

Starting point is 01:21:08 it's not in my name. If it shows up in my house, I mean, oh, you got a package? Oh, yeah, you sign for it.

Starting point is 01:21:13 Like, that doesn't mean it's mine. that's mine. She signed for it. And then, you know, things work a lot different in Thailand and the U.S. So about 12 Thai police officers took her to an unmarked like a government black house with no interpreter, no lawyer. And they basically coerced her to let them see her phone. And on her phone, she was a conversation between her and I. It was very explicit about doing business with Fred. And so they got that. And then in the shop, she had left packages from previous

Starting point is 01:21:48 from the previous package of a hundred Molly pills like a tester package the package the substance wasn't there but the package was there so it's obvious she's signing or accepting packages and then they went to

Starting point is 01:22:04 her house my house and then she didn't have everything in the holes okay so So, you know, at that point, talk about the lawyers. You know, I called Mike Green, Michael Greenberg, and he told me he could do everything, get her out, you know, on bail. If I paid him three or $4,000, I forget, if I wired him the money, he'd be there on the next plane.

Starting point is 01:22:34 So I wired him the money. And the next morning, you know, he wasn't there. There was some Thai person there that was his associate. it. And, you know, obviously that put big red flags, but then he was able to get Ashley on the phone, so I was able to talk with her, and that sort of made me have belief in him again. And he told me that he could get her out on bail for $2 million. It's about $60,000. And that's close to what I had buried in the hole, the other hole, not the substance hole. So Evan had already moved back to the States with Darcy. He got Darcy, by the way. They have two kids now. And so I had to use my other

Starting point is 01:23:15 friend, Sergei, a Russian math teacher that I was in school with. And he was my Bitcoin guy the whole time. He was my Bitcoin guy. I was very careful about keeping my hands off things. So I would make money. I would take the money to the school. I would give the money to Sergey. Sergei would deposit the money in his account, minus his fee. Then he would use his trading account to buy the Bitcoin. He would send the Bitcoin to my wallet and then I would send it from my wallet to the dark web and then I would get the packages. I would flip the packages for the cash, give him the cash, and then repeat that. So I trusted Sergei because we were in business together. And I told him where he could find the money. And so he went to my property and he found the money. And I had this convoy of people,

Starting point is 01:23:58 go to the courthouse the next day with the $6,000, the $2 million. And Michael Greenberg had lied. he had lied. There was no bail. He was just trying to see if he could make a bunch of money for himself. And, of course, on the prosecutor's report, it had recommended no bail because she was a flight risk when she was. I had her passport, and I had people ready to take her on a boat to Cambodia. But they wouldn't let her go. They denied her bail.

Starting point is 01:24:27 And then they denied her bail again. So then we had to go to trial. And I had got about $30,000 paid out. And it was about a week or two weeks before her main trial, and I had to pay another $20,000. And then Sergey, when he found out that my passport was blacklisted, that I couldn't fly back to Thailand without getting arrested, then he basically absconded with the rest. Where were you? I was in Ukraine. I was in Ukraine.

Starting point is 01:24:54 I was attending medical school. Ashley was in Kosam-Wee. Did I miss that? Did you say that? You were in Ukraine. I knew you were in medical school. I don't know why I did not know it was in Ukraine. Yeah, no, I had a choice between Italy or Ukraine, but Italy wouldn't accept my four-year degree, so it would have been a six-year program, where Ukraine accepted my four-year degree, so it would have been a four-year program. Okay.

Starting point is 01:25:17 So I decided to go to Ukraine. I must have missed that part. I didn't realize you were in Ukraine. Sorry. No, I was in Ukraine. So, and it was at the height of, you can't come back. It was the height of COVID. Okay. They weren't letting any, no one could travel. So I couldn't come back. And then by the time I could come back, by that time my passport had been black. So if I did come back, I would have been arrested at the port of entry because Ashley, bless her heart. She's so young, surrounded by, you know, being told that she's going to be killed and everything.

Starting point is 01:25:43 Of course, she told them things. Yeah. You know, I don't. That's understandable. Of course. She was only 21 years old. She'd never have been in trouble in her life. So that's understandable, like you said.

Starting point is 01:25:52 So you were, you had to give $20,000 for the, you're about, she's about to go to trial. So Sergei absconded with that money. But luckily, I had put money in. Sergey what? Sergey absconded. He stole the rest of the money once he realized I wasn't able to come back and he would be protected from me. Then he took the rest of the money. Fuck, bro.

Starting point is 01:26:10 So then I had to sell Bitcoin because I did have Bitcoin. That was back when like Bitcoin was worth, you know, $20,000 or $30,000. So I had to sell Bitcoin to pay the trial lawyer, the same trial lawyer that like you said, took all that money and didn't do shit. Right. Because on the day of her trial, he didn't even call me. I just got an email that said she sent us to death. And holy shezes. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:26:35 And man, I mean, it's like, it's so bad because I can handle anything like that. You know, you could line me up against the wall and I'll say, fuck you, you know, as you get ready to pull the trigger. Because I've just had a, I've just had a different kind of life. But to think of Ashley, you know, just the sweetest kind of, you know, girl that's never had any trouble to be in that kind of situation, you know, just thinking of that night when they told her that and when they shut that cell door behind her and I wasn't, you know, I wasn't, because whenever I was there, nothing bad ever happened to Ashley.

Starting point is 01:27:06 You know, the whole time we were together, Ashley was taken care of. She was in a bubble. She lived a very, very great life. But I wasn't there. I wasn't there. I wasn't able to help her. I wasn't able to do anything for her. I was trying to do everything, but I was relying on other people.

Starting point is 01:27:20 And like you said, the other people, they were just looking out for the other people. They weren't looking out for Ashley. And so, you know, it was basically like $70,000 just pissed away, you know. I've heard this before where we've interviewed guys that literally like this lawyer is like, listen, I'm friends with the judge. We need 20,000, give me $20,000. I'll give it to the judge. He's going to let you go. And you give him $20,000.

Starting point is 01:27:45 And then you're calling and calling. And he just stops answering the phone. And you're like, okay, what happened to the 20th? And then maybe even if you have some, a relative, fly in, go to his office, get him. in his face. What happened in the fuck? They call the police and have you dragged out. There's nothing you can do. And then the next lawyer says, listen, I'll do it different. $15,000. I know the prosecutor. I'm going to give him 10. I'm going to take five. Already done deal. I've done this many times. I can give you some references. You can even call the

Starting point is 01:28:11 references. Of course, he gave you the references. They're like, no, man, I'm living fucking, you know, I live in wherever, you know, I'm from fucking Australia. I was had a problem. He did. I gave him fucking $15 grand. It was, and then so what you do, you give him the $15,000? He stops answering your call. What you say is what happened. Michael Greenberg went to Nopadol, went to chaos. And I paid three different lawyers.

Starting point is 01:28:34 And none of them did what they said. And Ashley ended up, she did. The last lawyer got the death penalty taken to life, life in prison. So I guess that's worth, that's worth something, you know. It buys time. It buys time. But then I was in the situation where like, okay, now, obviously, as soon as as Ashley was put in prison, I resigned medical school because I knew that that was done. So all the

Starting point is 01:28:57 years that I had to put working towards that was done. And now I had to figure out what can I do to help this woman? And so as I'm sitting over in Ukraine with my world falling apart around me, not like Ashley, she had it much worse, you know, single sales, 60 plus woman, one told it, no AC. I decided that I would go into programming so that I could figure out how to make websites that would share her nightmare with the world because, you know, enough people know, resources, attention, things happen. So I took the money that I had left. I went to Honduras, the island Roetan off the coast, and I started teaching myself how to code from nothing, never done anything like that, 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Then El Salvador legalized Bitcoin. That's what I was living off of. So I went

Starting point is 01:29:44 from Honduras to Bitcoin Beach, El Zante in El Salvador. And that's where I finished learning how to code basic stuff. I made the website freeashley.org. And I wrote a novel that came to me. You know, people say things just come to you. It came to me. And I wrote it and dedicated it to Ashley. And I sent it off to some publishers. And one of them thought that it was worthwhile, a traditional publisher I'd never paid or anything like that. And they accepted the book. And the website was out. And all these articles around the world, Bangkok posed Rolling Stone, media were hitting me up. I was doing interviews and all this stuff. And there was a lot of attention. And it was helping. It helped Ashley get better conditions and more allowances and things like that.

Starting point is 01:30:30 But it wasn't enough. And so I was about to go to Washington, D.C. and do a hunger strike. And two weeks before I flew out, Russia invaded Ukraine. And President Zelensky of Ukraine put out the call for volunteers. years. And a big part of what people criticize me for was how I could be so honest and be so forthwith about everything and say all of these things when I was in safety, you know, because I wasn't in Thailand and I wasn't where, you know, the Thai people could do anything to me. And so I thought that it would kill two birds with one stone if I was to put myself in harm's way to go over to Ukraine to help fight for other people's freedom so that other people could help me fight for Ashley's. And that was the mindset that led me to change by tickets from Washington, D.C. to crack out Poland. And then I flew

Starting point is 01:31:22 into Poland. And then I took a bus from Krakow to Lviv. And I presented myself at the city hall and told the very large Ukrainian gendarme that I was there to help fight the Russians. I didn't tell them the real reason. I was only going there to raise awareness for Ashley. That's the only reason I was going. And they took me to a school in a G-wagon, a Mercedes G-wagon. It's very strange. And they took me to a school that ended up being an intake center. And they asked me a Ukrainian colonel that spoke decent English if I would like to do after, they wanted me to verify my military experience. I just showed them a few pictures on my cell phone and that was enough. And then they asked me, yeah, because this is right, this is like a month after they need people. We need. And so

Starting point is 01:32:09 then they asked me if I wanted to do a one week refresher or like a five week or something. And I was like, I'll do the one week. And he was like, you know, after one week, like we're going to send you to the front lines. And I was like, that's fine because I was worried that maybe the war would stop before I had a chance to get Ashley's, I know, right? Before I had a chance to get Ashley's name out there. So I'm like, yeah, one week's fine. Again, I've done Marine Corps infantry. I did a little at the Foreign Legion, not much.

Starting point is 01:32:33 But like one week's fine. So, man, I wish I could do accents, you know, because. I was with this Cockney guy, Kenny. I might, right, like just the, gargling British and this other guy, J.T. Consumant Professional, 6, 4, 220, 27 years in the Canadian DoD. And these are all just fucking, these are all just from all over the world volunteering to come and be on the front lines.

Starting point is 01:32:58 Yes. And are the Ukrainians realizing like, I mean, no, you know, no offense, but, you know, and I'm not saying that the Ukrainians aren't doing well, They're doing phenomenal. Like, it's fucking amazing that, because in my opinion, it would be humiliated if I was Russia. You should have, should have swarmed in there and taken the whole country and you can't. You're basically, it's pathetic. Paper Tiger.

Starting point is 01:33:22 Yeah, it's pathetic. So, but I'm also thinking that initially the front lines, the front lines in any situation, good or bad, if you're winning or bad, it's cabin. You're, you're, you're canon fodder. Yeah. You're canon fodder. So to me, a better use for those volunteers is a media campaign. Not that you're not close to the front line, not that you're not in some skirmishes, but let's bring somebody to show the world that people are volunteering from all over the world.

Starting point is 01:33:54 So we need help. And people are coming, but we need more help. There was a media presence, but it just didn't make it to me. And we were fighting with the GHB. or it's kind of like under the CIA of the Ukrainian government. So we weren't with the regular Ukrainian soldiers. What happened is they put us into squads of foreigners that were led by Ukrainian commanders that could speak English.

Starting point is 01:34:19 And I can't speak of everyone else, but my specific squad was involved in basically infiltration, ambush, intelligence acquisition, and small-scale assaults. So like, you know, we did do assaults where we would try and take Russian-held villages, But it wasn't like we, the only time that we were ever with the Ukrainian regular forces was at the end. When we were in Sevadonatyrsk, it was a city that was cut off on all three sides and it only had one way that the Ukrainians were supplying it. And it was an industrial center, so the Ukrainians wanted to hold it. So we got sent from the south of the country all the way up there. And that's the first time that while we were moving into position, the Ukrainian regulars were there.

Starting point is 01:35:03 and they were all like teenagers and they were like white. Some of them were, you know, like one of the guys in the boat threw up, you know, because they were so petrified because we had to cross a river to get into this town. I'm jumping ahead quite a bit. This is like the end. But that's the only time we were ever around the Ukrainian regular forces. Every other time we were doing kind of like special, special. They had us doing like special ops stuff.

Starting point is 01:35:27 Even though I'm not special forces, the missions, which I can describe for you in graphic detail, would be something that you would expect like Rainbow Six to do. Right. And they had us do it because it's like, I told you. They just expect it. Like, oh, you're an American from the Marine Corps. Yeah, you can. You were in the Marines?

Starting point is 01:35:43 Oh, you've done this before. Yeah, exactly. I was a chef. What I was talking about? I drove a truck. Yeah, no. So. Which is funny because I was going to say, what is it?

Starting point is 01:35:52 Like, there's like for every one combat troop, there's like five guys or four guys in the back that. Well, I will say in my squad, everyone in my squad was, um, actually except for me, because I lied. I lied about my experience. I said that I went to Bakub, Iraq, so that they would take me because I needed to get in for Ashley. But everyone else had combat experience. I was the only one that Ash didn't have combat experience in my squad of 13 that ended up being called the Wovereens. I had no input on the name.

Starting point is 01:36:19 But yeah. So we showed up at this place outside of Leviv. It had been hit by a missile strike the week before, 160 plus casualties, buildings demolished, windows blown out. and they had us in these outdoor tents. It was still snow on the ground, and that's where I met the squad that I was going to be with. And, you know, there was a guy from the French Foreign Legion. He was the squad leader.

Starting point is 01:36:41 There was a mercenary named Dom, fucking Polish bear, the most racist, most massacist man I've ever met in my life. But he was my battle buddy. He and I were the only ones that used the AK-74s. And he was my battle buddy. So anytime we were out on a mission, we were together. When he was up running, I was covering him. When I was up running, he was covering me.

Starting point is 01:37:04 We did one or two missions every week, and sometimes we'd be gone for a week at a time, living underground, you know, no showers. And we would go out and have to do these kinds of missions, you know, assault missions. And, yeah, we never had a successful one every time someone got killed or shot or blown up or something happened. How long were you? I did seven months. When I got there, it was a month after the war. started and we had a 13-man squad and then by that October we were down to myself and three other guys and they were going to and then the problem was because I was there for Ashley so I had managed

Starting point is 01:37:43 to get in contact with Seth Hart from Rolling Stone and so he did a big article about our squad and about our missions and everything and he barely mentioned Ashley and after that article came out it was very factual, but it didn't make the Ukrainian military look good because, you know, then I was not able to join with another squad. They were basically like, you know, you've given us bad publicity. Yeah. You know, you're not here fighting for us. You're here fighting for, because they called me.

Starting point is 01:38:15 Like, I had to go and meet with like these private investigators and sit in this room. Like, we're right now with these two guys and they're going through all this stuff because they wanted, they want to see if they could charge me with something. Right. But when I explained why I was that. there and with Ashley and that I was fighting for her, like they're fighting for their country. Then they were still not happy, but they're like, okay, well, we're not going to like press, we're not going to put you in jail, but, you know, you're not going to come back with you. But it was fine anyway, because it was October.

Starting point is 01:38:40 It was getting cold. And I didn't know anyone. Like, I didn't want to go back to Kiev and have to join a new squad with new people because the other squads training was abysmal. I mean, we're talking like, you might as well just play Russian roulette because a lot of these other squads, they were, you know, like the National Guard versus the Marine Corps. Yeah. You know, it's just not not on the same.

Starting point is 01:39:00 And I didn't want to try and go join a new squad when winter's starting with people that I don't know after already losing everyone else. And now the high command is having problems with me because of the Rolling Stone article. Yeah. And so I went straight from Ukraine to Bali. And I tried to start a business in Bali and ran out of money before it got off the ground. And so then, you know, I had to leave. Bali after like 10 months. And I came back to the states and I made some moves with crypto and that

Starting point is 01:39:31 allowed me to go to the Dominican Republic. And I just always trying to start a business to be able to make money so that I could get Ashley out so I could help Ashley. But, you know, none of those, none of those panned out. So what is her family saying? Well, you know, her mother lives with in Bangkok out like she goes, she's been there for. few years now. So her mother is there to see her during visitation, to take her books, to take her food. Her mother does have anything to do with me, never has. And then the rest of her family are very poor, and so they don't have any means to really do anything. Her mom doesn't talk to you? No. And what about Ashley? Well, we used to, but then once her mother, you know, we've sent

Starting point is 01:40:15 hundreds of letters back and forth, but then once her mother moved up there, then, you know, that was stopped because obviously I'm the reason that her daughter is in that situation. Yeah, she's upset. Yeah, upset is an understatement. Yeah. So she, you know, obviously didn't want me to continue to have communication with Ashley. So I haven't spoken to Ashley in coming up to two years probably. Oh, shit.

Starting point is 01:40:40 Do you ever still write her letters? Well, no, because there's no way for me to get her the letters now. They don't have mail? There's a list. And only people that are on that list can send. Ah, so you're not approved on the list. I was on the list when Ashley was in control of the list. But when her mother took control of the list, I didn't make the cut.

Starting point is 01:41:01 So I send money every month for her commissary, but that's the only. And she knows. I mean, obviously she knows every month when she sees it, but there's no direct communication. And there hasn't been. And she's been in prison longer than we've been together. So when she gets out, you know, I don't know. It seems unlikely that she would, you know, want to try and rekindle anything. But I owe it to her because we had such a wonderful relationship.

Starting point is 01:41:31 We never had like fights or yelling or we never broke up. We were very much in love. And so, you know, I owe it to her to give her the choice. So I'm waiting for her to get out. And then she'll be able to look at everything that's happened and look at all of the things that have been done for her and then decide if she wants to start a new chapter. or right but you're saying can we set yeah i was going to say you're saying she's got a life sentence yeah yeah that was the last i was going to say you like she she started with the death penalty then it got down to life

Starting point is 01:41:59 then it got to 33 years and then we got her down to 12 years and now she qualifies for a royal pardon with time served so the worst case is she does another four four and a half years and she gets released best case is the king signs a pardon and she's released that day so i'm hoping that with the books that are coming out in October about her and my story and all of the other foundations that have been laid, you know, from websites to fighting in Ukraine, all the multimedia and everything that's been done, that it will provide the last bit of umph needed to get that piece of paper in front of the king of Thailand so that he can avoid having her go another four years, you know, in prison. But all she needs right now is the king's part.

Starting point is 01:42:45 a signature by the king and she's released. And so, you know. And she's already done. And she's done. And so how much time she's already done? Well, she was arrested October 8th, 2020. Nice, fuck, bro. That's what, six years, you know?

Starting point is 01:43:02 In Thai prison. It's not American prison. Yeah, I know. They don't even give her pads. Oh, I know. They don't give her anything. That's why I have to send her money. Otherwise, she's eating like fishhead soup and rice.

Starting point is 01:43:11 Yeah. You know, so. So, you know, she's, I don't know. You know, she's living in hell. She's been living in hell. I've been living in purgatory, which is much nicer than hell. And I'm just kind of waiting and trying to set myself up in the position now so that when she does get out, you know, I have an attractive life to offer. You know, again, it's not going to be Coral Hill in Thailand.

Starting point is 01:43:37 But I do have, you know, plans that are working up. And so I just am going to wait and see what happens and give her the opportunity to me. make the decision and then I'll base my future decisions off what she decides. Where are you living now? I just moved back from Puerto Rico last week. I was down in Fajardo doing work on the big boats down there as a diesel mechanic, but I can make a lot more up here. So again, because I know that within fourth Jacksonville at the moment, but I'm going to try

Starting point is 01:44:08 and go down to Fort Lauderdale or Miami where there's more money in the next six months or so. But yeah, I'm in the point now where either, you know, this book stuff is a home run and she's saved or I just have to wait the four years and make as much money as I can so that when she does come out, you know, I've got a place, I've got cars, I've got, you know, a nice, she can come. She doesn't have to work. She doesn't have to worry about anything. Or she can decide, you know, we had something for a few years and then this terrible thing happened and I don't have those same feelings anymore. And I'm going to go and do this and I can, you know, support her, give her some means to have that. to make that easier. And then I'll be free to try and find love again somewhere else. You know, I haven't been with anyone since she's been taken. I don't party. It's just crazy. It's like going from black to white or white to black.

Starting point is 01:44:58 Because the way I used to live versus how I live now is just completely different. So, you know, I don't really have friends. I don't do social stuff. I don't party. I don't date. I just work, learn, save, and try and make, you know, something happen. that's going to be helpful. And so, you know, that's where I'm at now.

Starting point is 01:45:19 Is there a way to donate? Yeah. So on the free Ashley, it's her mom. Like, when I, it just goes to her mom and then her mom uses it for their stuff. But on the free Ashley.org, it's got to donate. And then it goes right to the like, it's back a buddy, like the South African equivalent of GoFundMe. Yeah. And then you can just directly do it like that.

Starting point is 01:45:41 And so that, that's that. And then the other second thing would just be the book, False Positive, that's the book about Ashley and myself, of course, with lots more anecdotes. Yeah. And written in a very,

Starting point is 01:45:53 you know, when I'm explaining, it's, I'm not able to do the voices. I'm not able to remember exactly the jokes or, or a lot of the details that make it filled out, whereas that book does a very good job of giving people an immersion. Right.

Starting point is 01:46:07 So those two things would be the most helpful because both of those things give attention and resources directly to her mother and her by, you know, by through her. Hey, you guys. I appreciate you watching. Do me favor. Hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell so you get notified videos just like this. Also, if you want to donate to Ashley or follow Tristan and go to the website, we're

Starting point is 01:46:28 going to leave all that information, the contact information, the website, everything in the description box. You click on the links. You can shoot over there. You can donate. You can help her cause. if you're interested in being a guest, we're also going to leave the link to our website. You can go there and go to the Be a Guest page, fill out an application, and we'll get back with you as soon as we possibly can.

Starting point is 01:46:49 I really do appreciate if you know anybody that can help with the situation that's going on right now with Ashley, please do me a favor and shoot this video to them. You know, hit the share button, share the video. Really would appreciate it. My heart goes out to her. I really would think it would be great if we could help her in some way, even if it's, listen, even if it's five bucks. Thank you very much. See you.

Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Dark Web Kingpin’s Plea to Save His Girlfriend | Locked up Abroad

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