Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Ian Heinisch's Foreign Prison Nightmare | Locked Up Abroad

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

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Colombia, Venezuela, Aruba. We would package the kilos, we'd swallow them, turning $900 into $100,000. They jumped on us, secret police. I get thrown in general population. God started to call on me and put this dream in my heart. You're going to get out of here and be a UFC champ, proclaim my name of the world.

Came up in a middle to upper class, nothing like a crazy bad childhood. Like most people would think when you have a crazy story, you know? Some people go through some crazy adversity, but I just, man, got in trouble all the time. I had this crazy energy. inside of me. And at a very young age, I started to get kicked out of class. Just little stuff. My parents didn't know what to do. So they took me to- What little stuff like fights or just

fights, ditching class and just like hyper. Like I was just messing with people all the time. Just like this crazy. So they took me to the doctor and the doctor said, you know, he's got ADD, ADHD, right? Put him on pills. And I come from a long line of addiction like my dad, my uncles, my cousins, like all struggle with addiction, alcoholism, like generational curses. So instantly, hooked lost my relationship with god and just went all in on party and then and uh still was a very successful wrestler a couple of times state champ national champ all-american you know i was doing my thing in wrestling and had a very bright future i was i remember i'd be cheating off these like super smart girls and then they would call my name and they'd be all mad at me and i'd get a letter from like

stanford handwritten letter we want to give you a full ride scholarship and they are just like losing their mind because, you know, wrestling was getting me some big opportunities, but I blew it. I got expelled my senior year. A year before that, I was driving home from a party before a wrestling tournament, drank a couple bottles of Southern Comfort, fell asleep behind the wheel, drove off the road, missed a sign by inches, and a telephone post by a couple feet. And that was one of many times that God had spared my life. I woke up with the tires still spinning, drove off the bank in the snow, I mean, is this like, do you got a DUI or? I just took off running.

Oh, okay. Well, how'd you get, how'd you get expelled? Called the car and stolen. What? You said you got expelled your senior year. I thought that was it. Fights in school, basically ditching a lot of class, drugs. And then I, it was a stupid reason to be honest.

I drove my dad's truck to school, his roofing truck. And they searched me for drugs and they found a big knife. And, you know, it was kind of when things are starting to get crazy with Columbine. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, they took that very serious. We fought it to the end. But then at the end, it was just, I was a habitual offender. My wrestling coach sent me out.

He's like, dude, there's nothing I can do. And he was a good man and Tim Otman. And I was like, I don't know. He's like, you're expelled, bro. I left the school, just started partying full time, training a little bit. And I made my way to senior nationals. You have to be a state champ to qualify for this big tournament. It's like the Super Bowl of your high school career.

only state champs from all around the country go. And I willed my way into taking fourth place and had a line of college recruiters trying to get me to go to their school because the first three in front of me were already signed. Full ride scholarship to Boston University. Then when they found out I got expelled, of course, you're not getting that. So I got a full ride scholarship to a Jucco College in northern Idaho. Okay.

Yeah. Did you end up, I mean, you got expelled. What did you do, get your GED and then go? Yeah, I got my. my GED online. Okay. Yeah. So what happened?

Did you graduate? I mean, you went to, you were wrestling. You just said you got into college. So did you go through the whole thing? I got my GED and I got a full right scholarship to a junior college. Right. Did you get like an AA and go on to a state college or? No.

So I rolled up to junior college, checked out the campus. You know, they do like these like three days like check out the campus. The boys take you. to have a good time, rolled up with my two crazy buddies and got arrested the first day. At this, at any point during this whole fiasco, like, are you thinking yourself, maybe I need to, I got to straighten up. This is not going well. No.

At that time, it was just increasing. And I'll tell you what, I was walking down the street, drunk, and a bike cop rolled up on me, ID me, obviously wrote me drinking underage. I ripped up the ticket, wrote me a littering ticket. Then I ran and he wrote me a evading arrest. And then I spit on the cop car because I was so drunk. I fell over. They caught me.

And then I spit on them and they wrote me a disturbing the piece. Luckily not assault on a cop. So I'm back in a jail cell. My wrestling coach bails me out. And I'm like, dude. Like, you know, when you try to leave, you try to run from trouble all the time. You know, going further in my story, I posted bail and fled the country. But the trouble continues to find you.

You got to really deal with that internally. and I wasn't ready to do it then. I ended up going back there. I would wrestle good. I would party good and not any school. So within a couple months, it was done. My parents, it was 2008. They had lost their house.

They got divorced. They couldn't sell their house. The bank took it. And now I came back to Colorado and I'm like going through this like crazy whirlwind. And, you know, I was like, man, I had these petty warrants for my arrest. And then this girl from Canada that I used to date in. In high school, she moved over to Canada. She said, hey, you want to go to prom with me?

I was like, yeah, sure, let's go. So she flew me to Vancouver. I went over there. I fell in love with Vancouver. And so I was like, I want to stay here. I make this crazy, you know, this, we didn't have chat, GBT, but I made this crazy resume, like with state chant wrestler, like, and like made up all this stuff. I threw it on Craigslist.

This guy says, come downtown Vancouver. So I show up in this big building, this high rise, go in there. And I don't know if you ever seen like boiling room. Yeah. Yeah. We just talked about boiler room. Yeah. So you know when,

gosh, what's the actor's name? I'm so bad. Ben Affleck. When he does. Throws the keys? Yeah. We just talked about this. Yeah.

This is the last episode that was filmed. Really? Yeah. So he does this crazy thing like, do you want to be rich? This and that? Like throwing money around. And then I was sold.

And we were selling fixed rate contracts for natural gas going door to door. Okay. And he had me believing that I was saving. the world, even though we were locking people in at a premium for five years, but we'd show them these graphs of how gas always goes up. And I was making killer money, two to four grand a week. As a 19 year old, I moved way up in the business, and I was like top five in the business.

And man, I didn't work out with the Canadian girl, or she's American, but the girl I originally went out there with. So I started living with these Guatemalans that I met on the beach. And, you know, seem like stand-up guys. We were having fun. That sounds like that sounds bad. So one day I'm knocking on doors, doing my thing. And, you know, I was still crazy at this time, right? Like, now I was able to go to a club legally because he was 19 in Vancouver.

And if I didn't sell anything by noon, I would go have a pitcher of beer and I would sell better at the end of the day because I just, I guess that liquid courage. So I knock on this chick's door. There's five girls. They say, hey, oh, he's cute. And they pull me in. So I'm like dancing with her. And this girl's in the corner crying. And they're like, oh, he's cute.

Come over here. She just broke up with her boyfriend. So I'm like dancing with her. I sign up everybody in the room. And then they're getting me drunk. And then finally, you have to have this meeting after work. So I roll up and I give the contracts. And I was like, I got to go.

And I remember my boss screaming at me. And I took off running. And the girls are like, you have to drive this girl home. She's too drunk to drive. So I was like, all right. So I drove her home way far from Vancouver. and we get in the house, we're drinking a bottle of wine because she sold wine for a living. And all of a sudden I hear boom, boom, boom, boom on the door like the police.

And I was like, who is that? And she's like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And she gets up and she looks and opens the, she had like a curtain. It was a duplex. And so her front door was like a sliding glass door. Very strange setup. So she opens the curtain and it's her ex-husband. And so he's freaking out pounding on the glass.

I'm going to kill you, like talking crazy. Then he sees me and goes berserk. And he's like, get out here. I'm going to beat your ass, all this. So I walk up to the door. I'm like, you want me to come out there? He's like, yeah. I was like, you want me to come out there?

He's like, yeah. I slide it open just like six inches. Boom, popped him right in the nose. He goes down. I jump on him. I'm like choking. And granted, his two kids are sleeping in the house with his ex, with his ex-wife. So I'm just giving him a slap.

He's like, bro, go home. You don't want to do this tonight. Trust me. Boom. grabs me in the balls and twists and I just snap. So I lift him up and I hold him over this two story building and he's like, no, no. And I hear the girl, she's like, no. Obviously she doesn't want me to hurt this guy.

So I throw him down, grab him by his pant leg in his collar, walk him to the flight of stairs and roll him head first. And he gets up and he's all injured. He gets in his truck, drives away. I'm moving with this chick 11 days later. Sounds like a perfect situation. It doesn't sound like there. There's going to be any issues at all. I mean, this just shows you the mind state I was in.

Like, I was just, I was 19 at the time. She was 37. And we're great friends now. Like, so there's no animosity or anything. She's doing her thing. But yeah, I was just, I was like, my mind was exploding because she goes and takes her kids to school. I stayed the night there.

I'm just like, these Canadian chicks are crazy. Like, I could be like anybody. I'm just chilling in her house. And anyway, she came back and I had. of a living situation that wasn't working out. And I was going to move in with the Guatemalans. And so I ended up moving in with her. And I don't know why they're moving in with the Guatemalans makes me laugh.

It seems, that seems insane. I don't know why. I'm sure they're great people. They're great people, man. But they come in later in the story. So I'm living with her about six months goes by, making good money, playing stepdad, you know, this totally twisted big deal. But it was fine at the time I had my car.

And all of a sudden it was like 8 a.m. And I hear boom, boom, boom. And I'm like, oh, this dude's back, you know. So I roll up in my underwear ready for round two at this guy because it sounded like the same knock. Open the doors to immigration police. So he had been like spying on me, found out I was working illegally. And in between that time, I went back to Colorado just to see my family. And when I came back, I flew to Seattle and tried to Greyhound across.

And they really look at you there. and I had DUI, all this stuff. So they stopped me at the border. Then I posted up in a hotel. Then I tried to walk across the border. And they like came at me and they were like, we're going to let the dogs out. Stop.

They were like, if you try to come back again, it's 100 days in jail, guaranteed. So I called the girl that I originally went there with and her mom picked me up and drove me across the border. So now I had this like rap sheet of trying to break into Canada. So they take me to jail, obviously. Four days. It was a Thursday. Friday was holiday.

So you know, you're sitting in that holding cell through the whole weekend. So I'm freaking out. I'm on Xanax because I forgot to mention when I was 19. They prescribed me an absurd amount of Xanax. Right. Which is crazy because I was all hyped up on Adderall. Right. Good old big pharma.

So I'm in this jail cell freaking out, coming down with these withdrawals. And I remember it was when Kane Velasquez fought Brock Lesner. And they've gave me my Xanax because they have to if you freak out. And then the girl came to the court on Monday, posted $5,000 cash to bail me out. She bails me out, takes me to her house. I'm like, stop real quick. I want to take some shots to tequila. I'm sad, right?

I got this life that I thought I built this good job. And now I know I'm going to get deported eventually because I'm working illegally. I tried to sneak across the border. All the deal. And she ended up talking to the girl that I originally moved out there with. And she said that I was like hooking up with her when I was living with her. So she was really mad. So it was this whole drama.

So when I was all messed up, the girl's like, yeah, I was hooking up with my ex-husband's wife or our ex-husband's friend while you were locked up. And I was like, what? Because I came home and I had a big pack of ecstasy and it was gone. And she's like, yeah, we took him. So I like snapped, tore up the house, just like drunken raging and anyways, just passed out. She takes her kids to school the next day. And her kids are freaked out because obviously I was just being wild.

She comes back, jumps full mouth. and just starts teeing off on me. Boom, boom, boom. And the only thing I remember, because if you ever taken a bunch of Xanax and drinking tequila and all those things, you're like, you're zonked for like a day. And I just remember whatever I was happening to me,

I wanted to stop. And I like woke up holding her down. And like, I finally could open my eyes. And I was like, she's like, you're crazy. So I grab her like most expensive bottle of wine and just take off towards the beach. And the cops pull up, cut me off. I roll over the hood.

I apparently I came out the cops, which if it was America I would have got shot and they they beat me up man swollen black eye I remember just kicking you think you Americans can come here and do this wham I mean they let me have it I got to the court or I got back to the jail they come and interview me and I'm totally messed up this crazy story like because I didn't want to sell out my boss because he was paying me under the table so I was like I was a cage fighter I met her on the internet and I made this crazy story up I was like, just talking belliger.

I was like, whoever ratted me out, I'm going to sneak back across the border and get him and put him in the ocean. Front page of the Vancouver Sun, boom, they printed out. And it's just me talking crazy. I'm still a little bit out of it. A day later, they put me in front of a judge. The lawyers, like, don't say anything. I'm like, stamp right up.

Your Honor, I would like to speak. And he's just like, oh, my gosh. And I was like, I know I am in trouble today, but I'm only like this. this when I drink and do Xanax and I will not do it anymore. And she's like, Mr. Heinz, you are a threat to Canadian society. You will not walk another day in our country. She's like, you were going to be locked up with no bail until you were deported back to your country.

And boom, I got walked away in handcuffs and the Canadian girls in the stands with their Canadian accent. Ian, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll never forget that. And we're cool now. Like, she came back out to Denver later and it was all cool now. So now I'm deported back to Denver, Colorado, back to square one.

There's worse pace to be deported from. You know what I'm saying? I was going to say, who's trying to break into Canada? I did eight months in a Canadian jail, which was surprisingly rough. Okay. Yeah, it was actually because it was like, I mean. I always heard, it's funny, you talk to one person and they'll tell you how that they're jail, the prisons are rough.

And then you talk to somebody else and they're like, they're super sweet. I think it's more like the time is sweet because you can they normal white collar guys, they let out. But you weren't an immigration holding, right? No, I was in GP. Okay. And I was in Vancouver. And I was, you know, I was taking my Xanax.

I was just like, dude, I just want to get out of here. And it was like six to eight months. I forget the stretch. It seemed long. It was like, when are they going to come? Like, let's go. And the first couple days I'm in there. I'm popping Zanx.

I'm just all out of it and stuff. and apparently I use someone's toaster that I shouldn't use. So these guys roll up in here, slap me across the face. I'm up, like, ready to go, and there's two guys with knives. So then they're like, you're going to obey by our rules and this and that. Because, you know, it's like the Hell's Angels type crew. And I was like, all right, man. So in my mind, I'm just like, I'm going to get these dudes.

Like, I'm just waiting for the right time. And actually one of them came up to me. And they're like, yo, this other dude's calling you a yank and he hates Americans and this and that. And he's like, you got to go handle him. So I roll up in there, open up the cell and just like, honestly, it was probably just someone they wanted beat up because this dude didn't have any business running his mouth. So I just pieced him up, slammed the door, walked out. He comes screaming, ah, pounding on the door to the guard. We all go in ourselves.

They shut it down. And the guys who actually slapped me are down talking to the guard. And I'm like, oh, they're going to put me in the hole. Let's go. And they actually stood up for me. And they were like, we have no idea who did it. And so after that, it was pretty chill. But I was even surprised it was like super political, you know?

You can't sit on these chairs. You can't use this toaster. This microwave is only available at these times. You know how it is, man. I'm shocked they had a, I've never been in prison where they had a toaster. But, you know, every prison is different. Some states they have like video games and TVs in their cells and like none of that. Nowadays, they got like iPads.

Like they're texting you. Yeah. They're watching movies. Yeah. Yeah. You know how sweet that would have been? So yeah, so I got deported, man. And I was really happy to get out of there. It was bad, man.

I went to my dad's house, opened up his drawer when he wasn't home. He just had all these drugs. I just ate everything. I wish he saw the picture. He said I looked so disgust. I was just passed down on his chair. I was deep in the drugs, man. Like, it was bad.

And I started to get sober. And I was like, okay, what am I going to do now? My dad is living in a condo. My parents are like broke now. like we like i got like i'm on my own which i already knew i was on my own but like there's no like falling back like parents can help when they can but it's like now it's like you need to figure something out well the guatemolans i met had their connections and the one especially the one i was like my workout buddy and the other one was like the the guy making moves and he would get these

super cheap excee pills about two dollars a pop and they were super good and we were sending them back to colorado to a connect i had and we were just testing it out in the mail and it worked so I was like, hey man, I called him up. I was like, I was like, let's start sending me out. Let's try it. So he started sending 2,000 pills a week. He would vacuum seal them and in a box and then put carbon paper and it would be the whole outline of the box and you put art in it. FedEx. Ship me out 2,000 a week. I started going to the raise. I started finding connections and it just started moving super fast. And I'm obviously partying my ass off at this time. and all the sudden

and I got my Bitcoin story he's like the Western Union started to freeze the money we were starting to send it back I would use like this chick Hey here's 50 bucks send this Western Union and I'll come with her All of a sudden they start freezing the money from my area to his area Why just too much money flowing back it looks suspicious And and who knows probably they had issues before They were super like a pain Western Union

And so he was like hey man buy this thing called Bitcoin and you could send it to me and I was like what is it he's like it's kind of like a stock goes up and down I look at it was 17 cents and I was like I don't understand 17 cents for a Bitcoin yeah do you imagine if I bought a hundred bucks and just forgot about it anyways a lot of people have Bitcoin story that's mine I was too ignorant to try to like understand what this was right that wasn't my mindset then even though I'm huge in crypto now right but so he's like all right I got a solution I'm gonna send a guy down with 100,000 pills and you just give him the cash and when he's when you when he's done i'll drive the cash back up and i'll

send the next guy down so now he's sending he's giving me 10 boats a week and we're going out to these raves right and i'm giving a hundred to like five of my boys i'm walking around i'm like hey you need pills you need ex you need x you need x and then when they would i would point to the guy hey green shirt hey black shirt and sometimes secret police would grab me right and throw me on the wall search me and i'm like i'm just messed up man i don't even know what i'm talking about because I would never hold. I was the mouth and I would point the people. At the end of the night, we'd all empty our wallet, our pockets and we'd just be a mountain

of cash. And then it started to be too much where I would just send people in. So I was just wholesaling it. And we started hanging out with these girls. And it was kind of a little strange with the one. And she would come up to me and we never told her we sold, but she's not stupid, right? We're partying all the time. She sees what's going on.

But she's like, hey, my buddy wants a boat, right? which is a thousand and I was like I don't know what you're talking about and then she asked again and then she asked one more time and she told me a price that he's going to pay which was super high and I was like well will you drive and she was like yeah so I was like all right let's go I sat behind her seat I was like if she gets pulled over I'm pushing it right under her seat I don't even know like nothing about her and we pulled to this McDonald's and this dude opens the door a sketchy looking dude kind of you know and I could just see like a little shake and he didn't have enough money I could just tell right away it wasn't enough cash so I didn't know if he had

out in his pocket. I was just like, this doesn't seem right. Pull out of here and go to the McDonald's drive-thru while we're doing this deal. And why the drive-through? I just didn't like to be like a sitting duck. You know what I'm saying? Like he got in the car and we just sit there and he gets out. I'd rather it look like someone's getting in my car and we're going. Yeah, yeah. And there was a McDonald's over there. So I was like go through the drive-through while we do the deal. Because it just felt weird. And at least I felt like I could like maybe run or something or I don't know. That was just my instinct. So she pulls out and she starts to drive. Car comes up. Boom, big SUV. Smashes in the front, smashes in the back. This dude jumps out like freaking G.I. Joe

on the hood. Pistol pointed out of us, I get thrown out of the car, thrown to the ground, pistol to my temple. I remember staring at this like half broken Walmart sign and I'm just like, dude, I am in big trouble. Did you kick the drugs underneath or do you have a chance to kick it underneath the seat? Oh yeah. Oh, okay. I was going to say because to me that's her car. It's under her seat. I don't fucking know what she's doing. It was a setup. Oh, I know. So was she wired?

I don't know because she ended up going to jail. And she ended up, I like, I don't exactly. Like were they setting her up? You understand what? You're saying? Like, are they setting her up or she's setting, if she's setting me up, she's probably got you on wire. If they're setting her up, you know, or setting you, I'm sorry,

if they're setting you up, then they may not have you enough on you to where you can say, hey, that fucking shit's in under her seat in her car. I don't know nothing about what's going on. But you're saying it's too much. My theory was that she got in trouble in California because she just had moved out here. Okay. And she needed to like get someone to get her sentence done or reduced. Right.

Okay. But she still ended up going to like jail from what I hear. Well, you still enough, you know, she might have got to reduce. She's still got to go. I think she came out and got more trouble. So she got some time. She got some time. And so it was an interesting situation because then they went to my grandma's house where we were posted up or my grandma's apartment.

She lived in New York. And thank God she never came back and saw it. But these guys came in and cut pillows. I mean, they tore this apartment apart. Like the movies, like ripped pictures off the wall. They found like another 3,000 pills, like 30,000 cash. All this stuff. I mean, they just took everything.

And all they reported was X. I mean, they took like ounces and ounces of weed. Like, I mean, they just, they cleaned shop. And so went to jail, got bailed out. And I was like, dude, I am not doing prison time in my golden years. I'm 19 years old. I'm like, I'm getting out of here. So I went to the post office.

I was like, I don't know if this is going to work. They issued me a passport. And I was like, they sent it to my house. I was like, this is insane. I hopped on a greyhound. I said goodbye to my family. I went from Colorado to Indiana. I said goodbye to my family there.

I was like, yeah, I'm just going to go backpack Europe. They're like, oh, cool, have fun. And then I took a train from Chicago to New York, say goodbye to my family. my family now they knew and they were like freaking out go turn yourself in and my dad actually supported it he flew out there he's like he's like good luck man he's like I wish you the best he's like I'm not going to say anything that's going to stop you right he's like I'd rather you not be in prison too well how much time did you think you were looking at I was looking at 4 to 8 okay but I mean if if I it was probably my first offense yeah but at that at that age it seems like

forever and right and the thing was I couldn't do probation I wouldn't do probation and I wouldn't do jail. So there was really no other option. It sounds very familiar. Because me? I'm running. Because I, I had all these little charges. I had a D-D-U-I, which was a different incident. I fell asleep. I actually pulled over and went to sleep, which I thought was responsible. I should have helped the keys. Yeah. I found that out. So I got a D-W-A or whatever, DUI, and I had some drug charges and I just keep failing drug tests. And it finally came to the point where I went to the judge, brought in a national champ trophy, set it on the podium. And I was like, I just need to go to jail because I can't do probation. And she gave me 10 days. She cut me and I was like, I want to do my wrestling career. I just can't do it. I can't afford it. I can't drive up here. Like, you know, it was, probation is a revolving door. Right. Probation will make you hooked on the system forever, especially if you can't like, go straight. It will if you, if you're unwilling to stop doing drugs and out and get alcohol. It will. Some people successfully go through probation.

I successfully went through probation after. After. Later, which I'll get there. So I hopped on a flight, JFCK to Amsterdam with like $2,000 in my pocket. When they raided my grandma's apartment, they tore everything except there was a slipper that I owed a guy a couple grand. And I put it in a slipper. And that was the only thing they did not find took that money. I was like, cha-ching.

I bought myself a ticket to New York, or sorry, to Amsterdam, and a couple of family members are like, hey, here's a couple hundred bucks, have good, have fun backpacking, you know, this and that. I was like, thank you, I really need this. Got to Amsterdam, got locked up first day. How? Why? So I got off the plane and I said, look, what can I do that I can't do when I'm in America? And like all the fear had me, like even when I would sleep, man, I remember just like every night of sleep was on the run.

Like I was running it. It was always the dream would always end the same. I would be running jumping through and I would get to this cliff and I would look and the police were coming and there was and I would jump and right before I would hit and I would wake up like that like in this dream continued to happen until two weeks of being in prison. It went away forever and So I was on the run. Yeah, you got arrested. You said I was on the run. I was having these dreams but then when I landed, I said, you know what? I'm a backpacking Europe. That's my mindset. What can I do that I don't do when I'm in America? Went to the liquor store, bought some absinthe. I was like, this is cool.

I've never drank this. Saw it in a movie. And then I went to the coffee shops. Hanging out with some Canadian guys, they're like, oh yeah, we're going to this club tonight. And they told me the address to it. I don't know for some reason that really stuck in my head. And then I went around and this Russian chick was like,

hey, come on this vacator and I'll drink with it. you and I was like okay and I didn't even understand what she was saying and then at the end she's like actually I don't drink but you can have my shots that's the last thing I remember and uh apparently I just fell asleep on the street or I don't really know I woke up in jail and I was like dude are you serious didn't make it 24 hours didn't make it 24 hours and like I said it's like when you I was running for my problems but I wasn't dealing with the core and uh so I I wake up and I'm like police officer please i'm a stupid american i am so sorry i am so sorry please give me a second i was like begging and obviously he's like are you sober you're you good i was like i am sober i'll never do this

again i'm such a stupid american he's like all right all right all right we'll take you back to your place he's like where are you staying and the only address i remember was the club and so i was like i just told him that address he drove me straight to the club three in the morning walked out of the police car went right in the club and i was like europe is insane i was like europe is crazy and I was like, okay, I got sober the next day. I was like, I need to do something. I'm running out of money. So I called my cousin in New York and he was like,

hey, I got this friend in Belgium. If you want to go stay with him, maybe you can get on your feet and get a job. I was like, cool. So I hopped on a bus and I was literally out of money to the point where I was like, I'm going to have to start robbing people. And the next day it was. Because that's the normal.

That's the go to. Like, that's what normal people, like, bro, like, I'm going to start. That was your thought process. But it's got to start robbing people. Had you robbed people before? Yeah, it was robbing. drug dealers. And the crazy part was the next day before I left, this dude comes up to me. And he's

like, I sold you a bunch of glass night. You didn't pay me. And I was like, I don't know who you are. And he was following me. And I was like, dude, Amsterdam is sketched. I like ran and cut some corners and got away from him. And I was like, get me out of here. So I got on that bus. And I went over to Bruges, Belgium. Okay. Real quick, how long have you been here before you ran out of money? because when you landed you had a few thousand right yeah it was probably only like three weeks oh okay yeah i thought it was it sounded like it was like a couple days and i was like a couple days like no it was it was a couple weeks and i mean i was like i was pickpocketing people at uh or not pickpocking but like at the hostels i was staying a hostel's like 12 bucks a night 12 euros a night

you know okay and uh you know i had to get some money to get on the train so i was you know going through people's stuff you know not proud of it at all not proud of really much of of anything except the end of the story, which we'll get to. But I made it to Belgium. And this guy took me in. He's like, cool. And so I'm walking around and I'm like, man, I need to get a job, right? I pull out my handy resume that has my wrestling credentials and I'm going around. Because people are like, there's no way you can get a job. You don't have a work visa. And I was like a go get her. I was like, I will get a job. I'll get a job less than 24 hours. And I'm walking around. I go to this Irish pub and this guy's looking at and he's laughing. And he's like, all right.

He's like, you can work in the kitchen. He's like, we're. Where's your work visa? I was like, oh, it's coming in the mail. I was approved. It'll be here. When it comes, I'll let you know. He's like, okay, cool. So I'm working here.

Two months go by. And he's like, hey, man, where's that work visa? And I was like, oh, you know the mail here. It's just terrible. I was like, but he's like, okay, well, if immigration comes hide in this closet. And so I was like, at that moment, I knew what it was like I. Yeah. And so six months goes by.

Everything's pretty normal. You know, I'm drinking this really heavy Belgian beer. So I'm still drinking pretty heavy, but I'm holding down the job, you know, and nothing fancy. This crazy English guy starts working at the restaurant bar. And one night, the guy leaves just me and him there. And this guy's crazy. Like, he has no family. He's just like a drifter.

He met a chicken, or he met a Belgian chicken Tenerife and moved to Belgium with her. And he's just a wild dude. And so I'm shutting down the restaurant. and then I come downstairs and he runs the bar and a hen party comes in of like 30 chicks and me and him are like let's go we're supposed to shut down the bar but we end up parting with these chicks all night in the bar just drinking from behind the thing didn't charge them like we just like turned it into like a house party the dude comes in the next day freaking out prints out the the Vancouver Sun newspaper that I'm in and he's like you're a criminal

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spectrum. In a world of clickbait and echo chambers, having access to all perspectives is more important than ever. That's why I love ground news. It helps me cut through the noise and stay truly informed. And right now you can get 40% off the vantage plan for unlimited access. Just hit the link in my description, ground. dot news backslash inside and start seeing the news differently today. You guys rob me this and that. And we walk up, we're like, dude, just pay us our salary and we'll never see us again. And he's like, no, no.

So we just like, grab it. And we're like, just open it and pay us. And he pulls it out, gives us our cash and we disappear. And I talked to him like, dude, what are we going to do? And he's like, don't worry, mate. I got, I'll get us a job in England. And I was like, all right, let's go. So we hopped on a ferry.

and we went over to England. Okay. So we landed in England. I didn't know his idea of a job was us painting this empty apartment in the middle of nowhere in England in the north near Sheffield. There was no electricity, no running water, no carpet, and no furniture. So it was basically a shell of an apartment that we painted in the day and we'd camp in at night. Because I had my backpack. Right.

Like I was like, like I had my backpackers backpack. Like I looked like a backpacker. So I was like, dude, I can't do this, bro. This is like terrible. Like I'll take my chances anywhere else Like I'm not doing this And he's like all right He's like he's just like a hustle

He's like all right let's go to the clubs And we'll get a job And I was like all right let's go So we roll up this club's like we can't pay you guys We're like listen we'll work for free tonight And if we do a good job we want money tomorrow And he's like he's a all right let's see it We filled this club of because it was like a PR

We go around hey ladies come on come on in And we just like push him in push him in All right three months of this I move into student housing. This crazy English guy tries to rob the safe. And I was just like, dude, I don't even know this guy very well. And he disappears. He goes on a complete bender.

And I actually met up with this guy. I fought in UFC England, London. And I remet this guy. And he's been on like five episodes of Life by the Vow. Or not Life by the Bow, below deck. Oh, life, okay. Live By the Vow's a fishing show that I watch. But below deck.

Yeah. So this dude is like crazy guy. If you watch his show, it's probably freak you out a little. But anyway, so he disappears. And I'm working at this club, right? And I'm like, all right, I work at the club. I got a good scene. I'm living in student housing.

You know, everyone's pretty nice here. So I call the Guatemalan. I was like, bro, start sending me shipments over here. And he's like, cool, done. So he starts sending shipments. So I go back to the clubs. And I'm like, all right, let's try this again. Now, if you've ever been to England,

I have. they do the dirtiest drugs. Okay. They do like M-Cat and like it's like plant fertilizer and like, like, it's just like they do a bunch of whipits and stuff. I don't know if it's going to say. I don't know what idiot that is. It is some weird stuff, bro. Whippets is that's the, is it the like like whipped cream?

Yeah. I was going to say, yeah, it's like healing or what's in the thing. Yeah, it cuts the blood cells off to your brain. It's just. And the X that they get. They would take like 20 pills. Their jaws would be typewriter chewing their face off. And I'm like, dude, this is not like it.

You take one pill. You're going to be good for four hours. Trust me. So we go to the clubs. I give this English dude. He's like, give me four. And I'm like, dude, they're five euros or five pounds. You know, and it's expensive to them.

They're like, dude, it's usually at one pound. I get a two pound. I have connections. Who do you think you are yank? He throws four in his mouth, chews him up and swallows. And he's got like scars. He looks like a hoodlum. Like, what's it called?

Like, the soccer players, like, like crazy guy, you know? Skinhead, like, you know, like a Manchester United fan or something. And I'm looking at this dude. I'm like, this dude is about to be lit. And he comes back over in the club and is like shaking me. He's like, you sold me fake stuff. You yank. You sold me fake stuff.

And I was like, bro, get away from me. And so he was like, following me around. So I was like, here, take another four on me. And he pops it and choose it. And I was just like, dude, this. dude and he's like looking for me to try to tell me next thing you know he's on the couch just like like he couldn't even move i walked up wham slapped him i was like i was like now tell me it's fake now tell me it's like i love you bro listen man and like and like in an english accent and i was like

this is a bad place and there was like pakis pakistan people that were like running the drugs there so it was just it was like interfering and then they got word that i had like the best stuff and everyone was trying to get it. Finally, I just found one guy. I just wholesale it to him. I was like, this is not a good scene. I feel like something's going to pop off here. At least I had the senses to get out of there. So from the English guy, I heard there's a beautiful place in Tenerife, the Canary Island, Spain. So I was like, that's what I remember. I was like, I want to go to the beach. So I booked a flight. I got out of England. I flew to Spain. I walked down the beach. I was like, man, this is paradise. I was like, there's like beautiful women,

beautiful beaches. It's like so nice here. So real quick, I took geography in Florida. Okay. So I don't know where the Canary Islands are. I've heard of them. Who is, you know, is that a possession of Spain? Yeah.

So I would say it like this. It's islands off the coast of Africa near Morocco. Okay. So geography-wise, it's like Africa. I know where Africa's. I know we're Africa's. I know where Africa's. It's run by the English.

Most of the islands, but it's Spanish. Okay. At least when I was there. It could have changed. So it was paradise. I walked down to the clubs and I was like, dude, there's just a whole club scene here. I walk up and they're like, I was like, are you guys hiring? They're like, yeah, you're hired right now and like start PR in.

Why didn't know that basically they pay you in drinks? You get eight drinks when you work, four drinks when you get off and you get one year old per person you bring in. Okay. Three months of this, bro, full blown alcoholic. Right. Like, I mean, I was like sleeping in the four, waking up. shaky. I feel like you were full-blown alcoholic pretty much before this.

Like it sounds like it sounds like this was like next level. Okay. This was like every moment I was awake, I was drinking hard like liquor. Right. Doing drugs. Whatever drugs came, I would just do them.

Like it was, it was a sad moment. I couldn't even afford 30 euros to sleep in a cockroach-infested apartment with three other dudes. I was then sleeping on the beach. I was sleeping on park benches, um, you know,

couch surfing and I was at one of the lowest points of my life. these uh columbians that actually the son was from miami i had known him from like the clubs and met him a couple times he said hey gringo come live with us man we don't want to see you living like this they took me in like family still are like family to this day but the columbian dad sat me down after like three months working out eating healthy like feeling like a normal human again and he's like hey gringo you want to go make some real money and i was like yeah i do he's like Columbia and that's when we started taking the trips Columbia Venezuela, Aruba and we would package the kilos, we'd swallow them and we'd bring them back. But the first time he sent us was the

sketchiest. Okay. Yeah. How does that work? Like how did that? So the first time he was dating a chick who had relatives in Cali Colombia, which Cali is like kind of like ghetto. Like it's not really touristy. And it's in like the mountains. And so he sent me and his son down there. And we, We like meet these people we've never met, which I'll send you the B-roll. And they took us all the way up into the mountains. And I'm looking around and like everybody sees me and it's just like looking at me. Like I'm in the river. There's this beautiful river.

It's like out of the jungle book. Like it's so beautiful. And I'm sitting in the river and the guys are talking to some people that are like going further up in the jungle. And I'm just like swimming. I'm like, this is paradise. And all these kids like like I remember like 14 kids circled me and they were just staring at me. There's never seen a white boy. I was going to say there's not a lot of six-foot tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed people in Colombia. That's crazy.

Not in the mountains of Cali's. And I was like, hey, where's the God of the beach? Probably anywhere. Right? Or are there? I mean, there's. He looks like a German bar room for all the way. Yeah, I was going to say, you know, you, I was, exactly. I mean, definitely now I hear Colombia is a lot more, like, there's a lot more tourists. Yeah. Metropolitan. Yeah, it's really, but back then, especially where I was at, like, these kids were just like, mind-blank. And I had a sombrero on and I looked at him. I was like, I was like, don't stay out of the garija.

And like, that's like the like cartel that makes the blow. Like I eat like over there. And I was just like, oh dude. And so like put my sombrero down and like went over in the corner tried to not be seen. It's just like, dude, they'll just kidnap someone. And we're,

and we keep driving around. And it was some sketchy things. So we came down the mountain with kilos. They're putting in the blender, grinding it up. They give us some. And I'm like, oh man, I, I do. lines back home you don't know me this and that like they're like don't do a line do not do a line of it and i'm like watch this and i like do a big line of it bro i was like i double-aaked my buddy put

them through a glass table and we like went to this crazy party and then it was like the craziest feeling ever followed by the worst feeling ever like my jaw was like and and like my hands were curling up like it was just like i was trying to just drink their a guar diente to just feel normal because it wasn't cut it was just so pure or it was just such of who no i mean that is it because it was pure it was just pure it was straight from the jungle it was like 98% pure okay like if you do pure below it will like eat your nose away like you actually want it to be cut one time not like how they cut it in america but like if you're doing like the pure from the jungle it's so like acidic that it will just like completely like burn through your nose cavity that's uh appealing yeah

It's a terrible drug, man. You get, like, 10 to 15 minutes of, like, this insane endorphin rush and energy, and then it just, it just crash. It just crash. And it's, like, everything tenses up, locks up. So I was in a bad way, man. I was like, all right, I got to never do a line again.

Just do, like, a bump because that was, like, out of control. We were partying with these guys. You hear gunshots on the street. It was, like, it was, like, dirt road with piles of trash, and you would, like, see homeless, like, in the trash eating it. And then there would be, like, just, like, a beautiful girl just come out of nowhere. Like it was such like a, there was like chickens and stuff like that.

And then there would be like you go to the gym and there's just like beautiful girls doing like like squats. Like it was just like this is such a crazy place. So we go to the park and we're smoking this jay. All of a sudden I look up guns pointed at me. It's the military. And I was like flick it out. They searched me, took my money, took my shoes and bounced. Just got robbed by the military.

Yeah. Because they don't, I don't know why. I hear they steal a lot of people's shoes. So, um, anyways, so this is our first time trafficking. This is sketchy because I'm not even wrapping my own stuff. Like I'm a pure mule on this run.

But I'm with the, the son, you know, who was my boy. So I'm like, we'll be good. We swallow it. And it was weird,

man. They drove us back to the mountains. When you say you swallow it, so they wrap it like, so it's like, 10 gram balls, like the size of my thumb. Okay.

So you don't really swallow you just like put it in with like some yogurt and just and it just goes down. And you swallow like three to five every 30 minutes. So you got to wake up like eight hours before and you try to get a hundred. So you're swallowing them and then you get on a plane or where are you going with these and how quickly does it go through your system? Because at some point you're going to shit this out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So if your flight leaves at 9 a.m., right? Right.

Or we usually get around like 11 a.m., right? You'd wake up at like 4 a.m. and start going. Okay. You'd swallow like three, walk around a little bit. Swallow another three, walk around a little bit. You would want to eat chips, and you'd feel terrible because it's so much plastic. And they would put this, like, shiny paper on the end of it. And then they would put like this soft plastic around it.

So it wouldn't, like, cut you on the way down. and the Colombians told me that this paper would make us pass the x-ray. And I was like, I was like, I was like, I want to believe it, but I've never, like, I can't verify it. So, um, sound like a good party copy. Yeah, it's, I was going to say that I don't think anything's going to pass the x-ray. Well, we got a guy that we paid off a guy. The guy at the, you're going to be good. The guy at customs, he's on the payroll.

You'll be fine. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. You'd actually be surprised. No, I'm sure. but I mean a lot of times that's what like they say that so you feel comfortable you go in that guy pulls you over searchers your shit and you're like okay you're going to jail and you're like no no no where's the guy that's on the payroll yeah exactly they what they will do too they will sacrifice people they will be like hey man I'll pay you like 10K to bring them back like half a kilo which is like stupid and then they'll put another guy with like five kilos in a suitcase and they'll anonymously tip off that there's someone on there so the police will jump on the guy with the half a kilo the other guy and the other guy and the other guy goes straight through. Like they are sacrificing people like that all the time.

It happens all the time. That's so dirty, man. Can you believe that? To take someone's life, years of their life. Like, there's a lot of like... They're drug stealers. I mean, their cards, cartel. What do you expect?

Yeah, yeah. They're not... You do some evil stuff. That's an evil drug. And it was so... We're about to swallow the night before. They drive us back up to the mountains. I'm like, what are we doing?

They wouldn't tell us. You're like, oh, I'm like, dude, I'm about to get. get trafficked. Like, I don't know what's going on. And I'm like, tell him what I was like, I'm about to jump out of this car, bro. Like, what are we doing? So we get to the river. And they do like some like weird like Santeria stuff on us, like whipping us with sage and like praying.

Like it was weird, bro. And then we drove back down in this freezing cold river. And I remember waiting the night before I could not sleep good. The movie Blow comes on and an American gangster comes on. And I'm like, I do not want to watch the end of these movies because they get caught. and so we wake up swallowing my buddy has a little bit harder time swallowing it and my the guy the Columbia we're calling him and he's like he's like hey man

swallow a couple more and I'll give you this much more money and I'm like all right all right all right so we swallow and then we head to the airport drink whiskey right after totally forget that you have them in you you're just a drunk tourist going home right go to the airport and yeah we passed through about the fifth trip the fifth trip the fifth trip so in the beginning i just did you it was only like six seven thousand euros which how much which is a lot for me it was like 10 gs let's think that i mean not for not for the risk but the risk was and the first one was scary to because like the one was staying in me forever and it finally came out and it was like soft like it was ready to break and when i came

home i got definitely ill sick from the first time and i was like at the the gas station like buying a beer And I was like, dude, I'm going to die. I think one's breaking in my stomach. But it was just this like illness because I was in the river and the stress and swallowing all that plastic. It was terrible. But then I was like, all right, I know what to expect. And we're going to wrap our own stuff.

I was like, I will never eat nothing that I don't wrap. And we're going to extra do it. So we extra did it. We went down there, me and the dad. And we started doing it together. And we were bringing them way more. And, you know, I was keeping some. So we would be able to go to the club and make a lot more money.

You know, we could sell it. basically $900 a kilo bring it back to Spain turn it into two kilos it's still stronger than anyone else's stuff and you sell it for 35,000 euros you're basically turning a $900 into $100,000. That's a good rate of return. Yeah, it's a good margin, but it's still for what you're doing, it's sketch. Yeah. Yeah, and it's not, I mean, yeah. What happens?

Well, I think we're about to find out what happens. if you get caught. Whatever do you get caught? So, yeah, so it's the fourth trip, right? And I'm going through the airport. And now we kind of got a rhythm, right? We know what we're doing. We would go to Columbia for a month,

go back to Spain for three months, and then come back. And this black guy comes up to me in the airport, and he's like, Dami Supassorte, and I'm like, no compendezter. I act like American. And he's like, pulls out the badge, secret police.

Give me your passport. Opens it. He's like, oh, you like Colombia, huh? Yeah, you like. it and I was like yeah I have a girlfriend here he's like yeah sit down holds my passport and I was like oh dude beautiful girl next to me sketchy looking dude next to me and I'm like I look to the girl I'm like hey where are we going she's like tells me in Spanish to x-ray and I was like dude at this moment and I did I had no idea I was like maybe I would get four

years in a columbian prison nine to 12 years in a columbian prison that was it that was game over for me thank you lord that I did not get caught in there so I walk in and it's this x-ray and I'm doing everything I can to not think about what's going to happen to me because like I am the most nervous I've ever been in my life like I have a kilo sitting inside my stomach and I'm going to the x-ray in Bogota Columbia so I'm just trying to think of like fun times and just put my mind in a different place I walk in this room it's this room the size of your podcast studio big machine I walk in there it's like a treadmill push me through and I'm like

looking at them like just like in like pale and they're just like getting one d s and your hinesh have a good day and i was like fingerprint sign and the shot of adrenaline that hit me after that was like oh i got like i felt like i could jump and touch the ceiling and i just walk and i was like don't look crazy right now don't look crazy and i just walk walk and i go in the airplane and like the plane's about to take off and leave us i walk in the airplane i see the columbia guy and he's like like looking at me he's like you good you good and i was like i'm good bro I'm good. The paper worked.

No way. The paperwork. Stop it. The paper worked. Dude, that was so crazy. But it was bad because we started to get cocky, right? What are they going to do?

Take us to the x-ray? Listen, we've heard this so many times. The worst thing was, I got away with it. That was the worst. So now it's like, okay, now we're going to throw steroids on it because, you know? Yeah, because what's the worst they can do? Take us to the hospital, or I mean, x-ray us? Yeah.

So a couple trips go by. we make this trip to Aruba, right? And we usually never fly directly back to the Canary Islands. It's always the mainland of Spain, Madrid, Barcelona, then Tenerife. But this time, we couldn't find the work in Aruba, which we usually can find. It's a little more expensive there, but it's like, it's not good to keep going to Colombia. You know, you want to mix up the location. And we went to Venezuela.

That was pretty crazy, too. And I passed the X-ray again in Venezuela. So now we're in Aruba and we finally find the work. We keep extending our stay, which could have brought up some red flags, right? We were there two weeks and we moved it to another two weeks and another two weeks. And we were like, all right, we got to go if we don't find it. We found it. And we wrapped this stuff up and we swallowing it.

We go to Venezuela directly to Spain this time. And we land in the Canary Islands. And me and this guy, we act like we don't know each other because it's not a good look. if me and him are like he's older Colombian gentlemen and I'm white boy so we walk through they see me I'm the only white boy on the flight hey you come in the office and this has happened one other time they question me what are you doing here why do you keep coming back here I was like I have a girlfriend and they're like uh and like I pull up my wallet no credit cards just cash just like 5k cash or something and they're like yeah that's sketch and I was like I got sent western

unions and they're like rich people don't do that yeah so my girlfriend comes in verifies that she's with me and then they let us go and we walked down to the car and the Columbia made a bad movie should have hopped on a taxi and got out of there he waited for us in the car garage right when we met up boom they jumped on us secret police I'm just running my mouth to them I'm like I'm like I'm a tourist here I spent money here this is my girlfriend she's crying her eyes out because she's involved in this now and they're like all right we're just gonna we're gonna they didn't have an x-ray because it's such an old airport so they took us to the hospital

Well, that x-ray is a little bit stronger. So we go there and they put the plaque on the wall that I don't move. And I'm like, and they're like, no, no, do not move. So then they laid me on the bed finally where I couldn't move and they took it. And I was like, and then they were like looking at it and they're like, all right, man, we don't really see anything. We're actually really sorry, this and that. We just have to have the doctor sign off on it. This and that.

I was like, yeah, that's right. I was like, you guys should be paying me for this. I'm like, this is complete crap. You're traumatizing my girlfriend. This and that. this beautiful doctor throws it on the screen. And she's like, uh-uh. You have drugs.

You have balls of drugs in your intestines. She told me in Spanish. She's like, what is it? What's the drugs in it? And I was like, no. And she's like, no, it's Seguro. And I'm like, no, no, no, it's for sure. And finally, they were just like, I ate Chinese food.

And like, shut up. Boom. And, yeah, that was rough, man. I stayed in the hospital for three or four days. They took my girl out of there. She was crying her eyes out. She went to jail. She missed picking her kid up from school.

I felt terrible. I was like, let me sign stuff to get her out. She has nothing to do it. She doesn't even know we're doing this. And they're like, yeah, you have to pass all this stuff first. Columbia guy made a big mistake. He told him the exact amount that we had. I was going to pinch off like 10 and just like hold that and get a nice come up in jail.

But he told the exact amount that we had. And I was like, dude, why did you say it? And because I told them 10 less. So they were mad at me. And they made us drink this nasty laxative. And it was just like, I was pissing out my ass, bro. Like day two, no nutrients. I was like dying.

And they like came up with a needle. I was like, get away from me. And they're like, she's like, it's just nutrients. And I was like, just give me food. And they're like, no, it'll break in your stomach. It'll make it break. I'm like, I was like, and I didn't want to be like, like well I've done this like 13 times and it won't like trust me I know what I need and so finally

it was like day four I was like all right what is that I was like I was like I need it because it was like I was like I was going to die like it was like green coming out and we had to like they'd like watch us every time it was so bad bro and I was sleeping in every 15 minutes he wake me up can you go yet can you go yet because they couldn't go home apparently or something like no they didn't take shifts finally I passed all the drugs I come down to the jail sign a piece of paper they let my girlfriend go thank God. Bless their heart. And then I get thrown in general population.

In the Canary Islands. Okay. Me and the guy gets separated. How bad is the Canary? How is bad as bad as that? It can be very bad depending on where you're at. Just because there's like, all right, the good parts about it is you get your own clothes, street clothes.

There's activities if you're well-behaved, like lifting weights, boxing. But if you get a psychopath, there's a lot of weapons. like like a lot like you can get crazy fights sprawls break out um and you get a vis-a-vis which is like a conjugal visit once every two weeks nice so right you you can live like you can arrange it you know if yeah if you have a girlfriend you know what I'm saying like it's you you can live life in there like if you have a wife they let you go if it's a girlfriend you have to like prove it or do like phone meetings for like 12 weeks you're you can live life and then and then and then you can take to the next level so but yeah I mean dude I'm

sitting in I'm hearing people screaming alarms going off they throw me a bag in there I look in there and there's condoms and loom and I'm like what is this place like all this weird stuff like a toothbrush and like five condoms and loom but I didn't know you they could do these like conjugal visits I'm like right I was like bro what is this place I was like this is I was like and then right when we walked in they're all like yes a cuckolo like look at that out look at that like so like and they separated me so I was like I was like ready to go bro but actually a lot of them were more talk barked and bite and I just went in there man stayed to myself

and it was crazy though about four months in they're like hey we're gonna test you for tuberculosis and we're going in there and they're like sticking this needle and if it blows up you have tuberculosis and I'm seeing these like Moroccan dudes that I've been hanging out with they're blowing out I'm like, you just threw me in a holding with like, with all these people with tuberculosis. Because half of them were from Africa. Yeah. And I was like, this is crazy.

So I had to choose in there. There was a way I could continue to do drugs. There was all these pills they'd give you. Or I was like, dude, I have to change my life, right? I started to sober up and come to this realization. I had this epiphany. I was like, dude, I'm not meant to be here. Like I woke up in the middle of the night, looked at myself in the mirror and like,

scream, scared the death out of my roommate. And I was like, I'm done living this life. Like, it was like a pinnacle moment. So I started training. I went up to the wrestling program, and it takes three months to get in. I showed him my ears. They let me in day one. I was like, let's go.

So I started wrestling, fell in love with wrestling again. They had a kickboxing program, started doing that. And I was just like, I started going to church. God started to call on me and put this dream in my heart. He's like, you're going to be out. He's like, you're going to get out of here and be a UFC champ, proclaim my name of the world. And I was like, let's go. So every day my goal is to train my mind, body, and spirit.

I had never read a book in my life. All I would do is read books, read the Bible, train, and learn Spanish and go to church. Like it was like, it was like training camp had begun. There was a really good kickboxer in there. He would beat me up a kickboxing. I beat him up in wrestling. I was like, dude, let's help each other. Let's do it.

We started training. He got released and the next day a Muay Thai fighter came in. I beat the team that came in from the streets, a professional team of Lucha Canaria, which I have a picture of. They put me in the newspaper and I gave them this crazy story. I was like, I love, done jiu-jitsu. I've done wrestling, but I love nothing more than Lucha-Canaria. And I was like, maybe I'm going to have a career here.

The president of the federation of Luch-Kinari wrote the warden a letter and said, keep this American here. When he gets out, we're going to sign him with a contract. And like, these guys are making money doing this. I was like, this could be a career for me. The next time the warden came up to me, he's like, you better not talk in the newspaper anymore.

They're like very, like, racist. Like we're the best at our sport. No American's going to come in here. Another team comes in. We beat the team, me and this other crazy American. And we're getting in fights. They pair me up with this guy from Chicago. And this dude is crazy.

Like he did eight years in a Chicago prison. And then he is done five years in a Spanish prison. And he is just like this crazy white boy, like just been in the game. And he is giving Spanish dudes slap collecting drug. money, like just doing like we were making wine. We started to make wine. And we went out and beat this team. I talked to the newspaper.

He's the type of guy that when the guards wouldn't give them what they wanted, he would go up to them and he would say, because he started like brawls before. He was like, you give me this or I promise you there's going to be CNN helicopters over this. And they're like, what? And he's like, I promise you there'll be helicopters over this prison. And then he would just walk away. And like he actually had the guards like scared.

a little bit of him because like he would do crazy brawls because there's broomsticks and he would go in with broomsticks and do these words so anyways me and him they moved us away real quick they found out that was not a good idea me and him beat this team i talked to the newspaper and i was like i love luci canary i was doing the whole thing they put a picture of me in the newspaper the warden came in through a thing in my face she's like get out of here pack your stuff you're getting out of here right now like they were pissed that i did that my girlfriend was visiting me and And then one day, she called me and said she was going to be there tomorrow. And I showed up to the thing.

And they were like, she's not here. And I was like, what? And I called her and her number was off. And it was like three months later, it was like, it was literally like the movie below, I had a visitor. And I was like, oh, who's that? I walked to the phone visit. And she's like, Ian, I can't do this anymore. I just had to tell you face to face, put the phone down and walked away.

And how much, have you been sent? Sentenced yet? I stayed in there a year and a half without being sentenced. And they could keep you up to four years, which they would do to a lot of foreigners. The good thing is, if you have under a kilo, which they only put, I had like 400 grams, which I was cool with. All right. Because apparently they kept a little bit. They pocket a lot of that stuff.

You get three to six years. If you have a kilo to a million kilos, six to ten. I was like, bro, I should have, because I met this French mafia. a guy he had a hundred kilos on a boat and i was like man that's the gig and he got out suited than me started paying all these people and next thing you know he's walking a free man so after a year and a half i went to court and they said you got three and a half years all right if you and if you i was like all right i was like three three years six months and i was like okay and thank god right if you get caught in america columbia oh yeah yeah yeah yeah what

What, 10 years? If you get caught in Amsterdam with a kilo? They give you eight months in jail and they let you go. Because it happens all the time. Yeah. They would be filled there. So you had two more years to go? Or do you have a good time?

So I had, I was about a year and a half in. I was looking at doing about another year and a half to maybe to, you know, if I had to do the whole time. And I get this bag thrown in my face. Pack your stuff. You're getting out of here. I was like, all right, let's go. pack my stuff. I'm throwing chairs. I'm like, this is, because they were, I had a friend there was bringing me contacts. I had my terrible vision. And he was maybe putting some money on my books.

And that was like my whole life there. I'd been living there for two and a half years before. So they shipped me. They caught everybody to the north of Spain. And this is crazy, man. It was like cops and ski masks. We roll up to the airport. You can't even look up. They walk up, make you take your shoelaces off. They dig their fingers through your mouth. And then they put you on this airplane. and you're just like this head down every time you look up wham they'll smack your head and it was like it was like these cops were not messing around it was like secret like uh police or like i don't even know the like they were like a special branch in the government that would because there was like rapist

terrorist drug dealers like big people on this 150 people shipped to the north of spain they flew us to the north of spain we got there like these guys are like kicking their shoes off because they were super racist to the Canarians. Like, you're speak Castiano, which is like the normal Spanish because they speak like Canarians. I remember this dude kicks his shoes off when they finally left the handcuffs off

and tries going out to police and they just wham, cut his ear and half. Like, and I'm over here just trying to eat a baloney sandwich and there's like a brawl going on. And it was wild, man. They were throwing me in with like terrorists and like all these crazy people, but they mostly thought I was Russian,

so I didn't have any issues. Then I got to Leon Spain, the north of Spain, finally, after three months, was able to call my parents. I'm good, this and that. Like, they moved me. They don't give you any phone calls. They don't let you call when you're moving or in transit because you could try to have someone intercept you.

Yeah. So I get there. First two days, someone tried, like, taking a chicken leg from me, blasted him in the lunchroom. Got two, two weeks, it was two to three weeks of isolation right off the bat. You can't let someone try you right when you come in a new. prison. Right. And man, I'm just losing my mind, bro. Like I was counting the cracks in the room. Were you ever in isolation? Yeah, but it was, it was, I was in the shoe for, I mean, multiple times, but longest stretch was like 45 days. And I'm sure it was vastly different than

this was Coleman federal prison. We have a, I have my own toilet, my own sink. I have my own shower. It's just me in the room. The, the cops are bringing me books. it was okay. Yeah. It was clean. Yeah, yeah. I would come in some cells and there would be pigeon nests in there

and it would smell like mold. Oh, my God. The only problem with that was it was so cold. It was so freezing cold. That was the, I mean, so I'm, you know. Where was this presenting again? This was a place called Leon's Spain. Is there air conditioning?

No, there's no air conditioning. And that was the hardest part about in the Tenerife because it was a lot hotter there. In the summer, you'd be so hot at night. You just keep waking up and wet a rag and just put it on you and just rub it on you. And I remember the ants were so bad. They would just keep coming in our room, keep coming in a room. I remember at one point I just surrendered and just like let them crawl on me.

And now I have like PTSD. Like if bugs crawl on me, I like freak out. And then in the summer, the water would burn your skin off in the shower. And then in the winter, it was like an ice plunge. So in the summer, you'd have to fill up a bucket. let it cool down for about half an hour and then a bird bath splash yeah do a little bird bath so but in leon spain it was just so cold because it's the north of spain and i was there in winter we'd have like four blankets it was just so cold but in this time in the cell i just start losing my mind i'm

counting cracks in the room i'm rolling up my bed i'm boxing i'm doing handstands i'm just doing all this wild stuff talking to myself finally i'm just like dude god if you're real i need you i'm freaking out right now and all i had was a bible that was in span And I didn't read Spanish at the time. And I was just opened it. And I, dude, I read this Bible like it was my first language. And God just, like, spoke to me and brought this peace on my heart. And I was just like, thank you, Lord.

Like, I just felt the tears rolled down my eyes and it felt the Holy Spirit on me. And I just had, like, two weeks of the most peaceful, like, isolation by myself. And it was just like, and I could never read in Spanish again after that moment. but it was like this empowering moment. And you would have thought at that moment I would have actually like turned to God, but it wasn't enough. So I found this boxing program.

There was like a Spanish champ there. I made all my activities, two activities, boxing, one strength conditioning. So I just kept my fight camp going. They would play all these mind games with you. That was like probably the worst part, to be honest, in the Spanish prison. Fights were not that bad.

There was definitely a lot of knowledge. knives, but you had, I would, I never use knives. I would rather use a broomstick. Like, come out me with a knife and I'll have a broomstick. I'll win that. And, uh, but the way that they would get you is mental warfare. They would send you a paper and be like, yeah, you're going to get out next week. And this is the CO or the, the prison. Okay. Yeah. So they would send you a piece of paperwork and you'd read it. You'd get someone to translate and you're like, dude, I'm almost going to get out. They're going to, they're going to expel me from their country. Thank God. And then a week would go by, you'd ask the guard, hey, what's going on with my stuff? Oh, menina. They would always tell me

menaana tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. And they would do this for like six months, bro, just playing game, send you a letter. Oh yeah, you're going to get out. I signed this paper finally that I would get, I would, couldn't come back to, I thought it was just Spain, but it was all of the EU for five years. They were like, do you want to sign this paper and we'll cut your sentence by one fourth. So basically instead of three and a half years, I was going to get like two years in seven months. And I was like, where do I sign? Give me it. So I signed it.

And then new papers, new papers, new papers. Finally, I'd get to the point where I was like, dude, I don't care. I don't. That was how you beat them. You don't care anymore. I don't care. Keep me here forever. Because they would get like a kick out of it.

They would love it. They would like call you, send you this paper and be like, oh yeah, you're almost going to get out. And finally, I'd just let it go. Two years and seven months. They put me on a plane. They took me to the airport, kept put me in a holding cell, walked me to there, took the handcuffs off me, walked me on the plane, gave my passport to the flight attendant. I was now a free man for the first time in two years and seven months.

And I was just freaking out on this plane. I was like, this is crazy. I was like talking to girls all crazy. I was walking around. Like, bro, like people were like, what is wrong with this guy? I'm like walking around, like feeling all good. And I remember I ordered every time they came over, I ordered a wine thing. I knew I couldn't drink, but I was like, I was like, I'm in for it when I landed in JFK.

When I saw those, when I saw those New York buildings, I just drank all three because I was like felony warrants. And I was like, in my mind, I was like, should I run? And I was like, no, 9-11. I was like, they're not, that's not going to work. Because I was like, I did not want to go back to jail. Like it felt so good to have a taste of freedom for 14 hours. And I landed, I walk up, handed my passport, scans. red or whatever.

They, sir, how long you've been out the country? I'm like a while. They're like, how long's a while? Five years. They're like, okay, come with us. Take me in the back. They keep me in this like holding cell for like three days, bro. I hear all these like immigration, like these like illegal aliens come with no documents.

And I'm hearing them scream. And like, there's some crazy stuff behind the scenes they do to these people that come with no documents because they're like, they want to know who they are. And they're holding you in the airport. In the airport? Yeah. for 48 hours. Okay. Then they get the call

that I have a felony warrant in Colorado and there's no bail. And I'm like, come on, let me out. And they were cool with me because I was who I was, but they would get so mad when people would come with fake papers. Because they're like,

who are you? And like, I don't know if they were beating these people, but I heard them screaming. Then they moved me to the Jamaica Queen's jailhouse. That was so bad, bro. I was there all weekend.

There was like, when addicts like puking in the toilet. I had this big Italian leather jacket that thank God, this Italian guy gave it to me. I, like, lived in that jacket, bro. I just stood there, and it was just the most disgusting holding cell. And people would come in, people would get taken out.

People would come in, people would get taken out. Finally, I'd go to the guard. I'm like, guard, what's going on? What's up? Like, I'm still here. 48 hours later, you're a special case. Shut up. So finally, Monday comes.

I go to court. The judge says, no bail. You are a fugitive, and you're going to Rikers Island. The lawyer, the public defender, pulls me in an office. She says, you are going to Rikers Island. need to go to protective custody right now and i was like what i'm not going to punk city right why why i mean why why do they want you to go to uh protective custody because i'm a white boy and rikers island i mean yeah okay yeah so i and that's what i thought i had the same room i'm assuming there's there's

white guys in new york right i mean there's there's got to be not in rikers not okay you'll get everyone every now i saw one guy And there was a super Irish guy in our cell too, but like he just was like mobbed up, you know? But so I'm like, no, I had the mentality. You throw me at the wolves. I'll lead the pack. And I start getting on this bus.

I get on this bus and we're driving. And I'm like, dude, this is actually an island. Like, whoa, this is like legit an island. And it's crazy. Dude, we walk in there and there's just, it's like a zoo. Screaming. Like all of a sudden someone's getting drug. down we all have to put our faces to the wall the guard comes up to my ear ha and i'm just like like bro

what is going like a white guard and i'm like this is crazy bro and i'm walking and the guard goes man you must be one tough white boy i said why's that he said we don't see your kind around here and i'm like you damn right i am and in my inside i'm like where am i like this is crazy like i was like because i was going to maximum security because i was a fugitive right so they throw me in there I get swarmed right away. Who are you? Where are you from? This and that.

Have a snicker bar under my pillow. Like, I'm just like, bro, get all this out. Like, I know all these prison tricks. You know, like, get this stuff out of here. Like, I don't want nothing. I don't want no issues. I don't want no problems. I'm just doing my thing.

So they see me shadow boxing in the cell. You think you fight? We fight for real on the streets. And you got the guards coming and throwing up gang signs to the inmates. And like I told you, they threw in an opposite gang member. and they just start beating this dude. I mean five on one. Just boom, boom, boom, dude drops bleeding.

And the guard sitting over here reading his newspaper eating a sandwich. The dude's bleeding out. I'm seeing a pool of blood. And one of the guys comes around and soccer kicks him in the face. And I was like, dude, I can't look at this. So I just start working out like a savage in there. And it was the hardest part of my entire prison sentence. The mountain I had to look over my back.

And I remember the first day I could speak Spanish, like fluent. I still can for the most part. but I was like living like where I only spoke Spanish. And there was some like, you know, obviously some Latins and I was speaking to them. And, you know, it was lunchtime the first day. And I was like, dude, this is bad because you have one, you have one outfit. You had another gang over here. And I was just like, dude.

And I remember a guy told me, he said, you tough, white boy, but lone wolves get eaten in here. And I was just like, man. And one of the guys that speak Spanish was like, hey, man, come sit over him here. It's like, thank God. So I kind of blended in for a little while. About three weeks later, I get called to go to court. I'm like, okay, good, let's get out of here. And to go to court, you've got to go through this process.

As you know, pull down your pants, squat and cough. They lock you up. They drive you to the courthouse. They throw you in this disgusting holding cell. They feed you nasty peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I sat there eight hours, no judge, no lawyer. And then they ship me back. And I'm like, what are we doing?

next day they do it again and now I'm pissed what are we doing? They say highness you're going to court the next morning and I said you ain't gonna I ain't going and one of the Latin guys he goes bro they come in with tasers trust me you want to go

so I'm just like fueling and they come in handcuff me they have tasers and stuff and I'm like look let's go and they take me the court they do the whole thing again they take me back and I get back there

and one of the game members is like yo we're using your phone today and I was like ain't nobody using my phone and we go in the back and this fight breaks out and do pulls a knife I drop him we get in this fight and uh you know the fight breaks up the Spanish guys actually stood up for me for a second because I was about to get rushed I took my shirt off and have my shirt my hand about to grab knives and um they break everything up, they put it in the cell. And the Spanish guy comes up to me, the Latin, and he goes, man, he goes, we like you,

but you ain't one of us. And they got an SOS on you. He goes, if my, my advice is go to protect a custody. You ain't no punk, go. And I was like, what's an SOS? Like, stab on site. And I was like, geez. And there's strength in numbers.

Like, it doesn't matter how tough you are. There's fucking, there's eight guys that rush you. And they're just going to stab you from everywhere. Yeah, it's not going to. Even if it was a fight, eight guys on one, it doesn't matter how tough you. you're gonna, you know what I'm saying? Even if you remove the knives, it doesn't matter.

There's eight fucking guys. But I would way rather them come with fists. Yeah, no, obviously. Because there's nothing worse than throwing and getting stabbed in the back or something like that. That's, you know, fortunately I avoided all that. Yeah, I was going to say, I watched a, uh, there was a black guy. There was like six foot four in, uh, in, uh, in Georgia.

And he, uh, big guy. decided, you know, you have one TV and it was all, and 80% of the cell, 90% more like was all Mexicans. And he was sick of watching like, you know, whatever, they're Mexican, the Spanish TV. So he finally decided, you know what, fuck this. And he got up to change it. They said, change it back. He said no. And he got rushed by like 10 Mexicans. He's, I thought I could take him. He's like, you know, they're little. He's, but there was fucking 10 of them. You know what I'm saying. There's just too many. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying is like the tough guy thing. Like, I get it, but that's great if it's one, two, maybe three, but when it's eight, fuck.

And then if there's knives. And they rush you with like three, four, five guys. Yeah. I mean, once you're on, then it's, it's too much. Three is a lot. Yeah. Three and then eight, four, it's like. And then if they have even three of them have knives, like it's over.

It's done. Like you, you, you, you, you, yeah. You're smoked. Yeah. And there's nothing you can do, especially when, and the part that really freaked me out was the guards. Yeah, they're not, they're not helping. They're not doing anything. So it was kind of crazy, too.

we all kind of actually came together. Like, this is how crazy state it was. We were watching the Super Bowl, right? And all of a sudden they shut it off because they would shut us down at 6 p.m. And everyone starts freaking out, like turn on the Super Bowl again. And they're like, no.

And so everybody starts flipping chairs, taking their shirts off, smashing on the door, like full on riot. And we all came together, blacks, whites, like it was black, white, me, the Irish guy, and all the Latinos. And like some guy comes in and he counts us like this and then he turns the TV back on. I think they were legit counting to see how many people they would have to go against and they were like, no.

And so going back to where I, the Latin guy's like, bro, you got to go. I call the guard over guard. Take me out of here, man. These guys are going to kill me. I got to go. Protect a cut. See, let's go right now. I'll never forget it, bro.

F you white boy. Boom! slam my door shut. And that's when I was like, okay, there's going to be like four or five of them, but they have to go through this small door. So in my mind, I was like reading the art of war in there. And like, I was like, okay, I'm going to make armor. I'm making knives. Like, I was just up all night. I was like, I'm going to get them. And the Latin guy was like throwing me over Suboxin. So I'm like taking this stuff, tweak it out, like praying to God, like, please Lord, get me out of this. But if you don't give me the strength to beat these guys and like,

man, I was just trying to make weapons and everything I could. And all of a sudden, boom, door opens up and I'm like tweaked out jump up and I look and it's these big white boys and they're like Heinish and I'm like what and they look at me like like my mattress was flipped up all my sheets were everywhere it was like the whole cell was torn apart like let's go and I was like who are you guys and they're like US Marshall and I was like thank you God and man I was like let's go put him on walk me out of here and as I walk by all those guys like wherever you go we go and get you you and I was like my mom I was like coming to Colorado and and the guys like hey man you got any personal belongings anything at the office and I had all my passport all this stuff I was like nope let's go

let's go because they have everybody I mean there's people everywhere so we got on there and like I said they put me in handcuffs shackled like this hunched over for 11 days they drove me around 48 hours they drove me to Pennsylvania to Vermont back to New York 48 hours I was back in New York The heater was broken in this van and they drove through the night and if you know on east coast on February It is freezing there was literally ice we were shivered like this and we'd be like guard We're freezing our ass off help us or do something and they'll be like shut up or we won't feed you And they feed you three square meals a day of McDonald's and burger king They only would let us go pee every six

hours. So I quit drinking water because there was no point. One time I was like, dude, I am going to piss my pants. He goes, deal with a bounce-stall-gatery bottle off my head. And I had to like hit my knees driving and just piss all over myself, try to get in this bottle. It was like treating like an animal like more than ever in the Canary Islands. I was like, this is crazy. I'm in America. Like what is going on? They're doing circles because every state line they crossed, every jail they dropped off. They get paid more. So they were just doing circles all around the country. Every seven They were required to let you go to a jail and take a night, sleep.

But every time I would lay my head down, Heinzsche, you're on the next van. And so I never got to sleep. So I stayed up for 11 days straight. I was hallucinating. If you sleep hot at night, you know how disruptive that can be. Whether you're having trouble falling asleep, you're waking up sweating in the middle of night or all of the above. That's where ghost bed can help.

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and he's like, yeah, I'm an escape artist, man. And he'd just slip his cuffs and he'd just be chilling like this. And I'm like, then I was like, dude, we're cool, right? And I was like, you really think you could escape? And he's like, oh, for sure, 100%. He told me he escaped. He would put him in the back of a cop car handcuffed. He would push the, you know how the bar goes like this?

He would push a gap. He'd jump in the front seat and then unlock the door and slip the cuffs and get out. And he was like, I got a kid now, so I'm not going to escape. And I was like, tell me when you would escape. And he's all like chilling with his slip cuffs the whole time. And finally, and he would like put them on before they would come. And then one time there was an opening where they had the door open and they were taking someone in.

And he's like, now. I was like, wow, this dude's legit. But it was just like meeting these crazy people. I thought this one guy was going to die. It was so cold in the beginning part of it. We were just shivering. And we would just bounce at night like this, just bounce because you couldn't sleep. So finally I get to the mountains in Colorado.

They led us off of this jail cell and it was like this nice jail man. And they had bed sheets and a pillowcase. That's like so rare for us in prison. And dude, I went and I couldn't sleep. I had like crazy insomnia. Finally I went to sleep and I made it finally to my destination in Jefferson County, Colorado. And about three days of that, my mom posted bail and I was a free man for the first time, 2014 Valentine's Day.

How many felony warrants are you being held on? And this is all from the original, from the original ecstasy thing? Yep. A couple thousand pills, exes. So you still have to face those charges? Yep. That sucks. Like that's like, okay.

Yeah. So I know the common denominator of all the trouble was drinking something like i cannot drink and i was like i probably should go to church too i went to this church and it was like all they talked about was money and i was like i don't need church i got my relationship with god uh which the devil was lying to me because i needed a community around me to build me up and at least keep me accountable and and have fellowship but i just knew i couldn't drink i think i broke like three times um but i found this gym super discipline structure coach started training went four and o as an amateur really fast all night

knockouts, all submissions. Then he's like, all, you're going pro. I want eight and no as a professional. And now I'm in the fight of my life. My entire hard work is to the pinnacle of this fight. If I win in this fight, I go to the UFC. If I lose them in the back of the line. You're out on bond.

Right? No, yeah. Okay. You're still waiting to go to either, or what do you, I mean, do you know what's happening with the, you know what's happening there? Like, do you know what's happening there? Like, are you, are they giving you an offer?

Like, come to jail for five years or two or a year, anything? So what happened was when you post bail, there was like, it's not, it's not called, it's not probation, it's not parole. It's post-trial probation. Pre-trial release. Pre-trial release. So I'm on UA's. I got to go to classes.

I got to check in with all these things. I have to, like, be on point. and I was super clean edge. Like I was like, I am doing everything perfect. And so I was doing all these stuff and I was winning all these fights. My aunt was a social worker in that county. I finally had my court case

that was gonna give me my sentence. I went in front of the judge, showed them all the fights. My aunt got up and had a speech. She got me this amazing public defender and my fight coach got up and had a speech. I filled the entire stands with my whole MMA team. There was probably about 15 guys in there.

Everyone just sitting there like, you know, backing me. And the judge is like, well, Mr. Heinrich, since you haven't been in trouble in the past five years, we are going to give you no jail time, five years probation, no extra fines, which I already owed like 30 grand, and supervised probation. They had no idea that I was locked up in Spain.

Well, I mean, thank God the left hand I didn't know what the right hand's doing. Seriously. And dude, I'm telling you, I was pitted out. Like, I was so nervous. I did not want to go to jail again. So they gave me this probation officer. Did this happen before the pro fight

or the fight that could send you to the UFC? Yes. So that happened before. And okay, then I'm glad I'm glad I'm out. So I kind of skip that. I'm glad you brought that up because my dad's like, why don't you talk about that? I'm like, I just forget about that.

because it went so fast. It was probably about my third professional fight, and that's when I had my court hearing. So I had a really strong team behind me, because, you know, we delayed, delay, delay, delay, delay. And then we went to court, and we had all this ammo of like, look, this guy's winning fights. He has a promising career in MMA.

My coach went up and was like, he's going to be a UFC fighter. My aunt went up and, like, this is a good kid. He just got caught up in drugs and alcohol, and he's sober now. Boom, five years probation. They sent me to this Latina probation because you can get bad probation officers Oh yeah real bad bro this chick I was speaking Spanish to her telling her about my fight career

She ended up like one like fight posters and like we became like cool like I even wrote her an email after the end So after three years of probation She started she was just like I'm gonna end it early and The UA's they were making me do were They give you a thing and you go in the room so I did start smoking bringing fake piss. So what happened with the what happened with so one like you know the like you definitely got blessed you know I was blessed yeah but um what happened with the fight so you're gonna you're about

to do this fight and then you can go to the UFC yeah so I break out of probation right and now I'm full steam ahead like I told you I broke like three times drinking alcohol and I was like dude focus focus I was just trying to make myself focus I'm fighting Well, a year before this fight that I was supposed to win, I tore my LCL a week before the fight. Went to the doctor, wrote me 40 percocet prescription, instantly hooked. Right. Now I'm doing oxy. I'm smoking it.

I'm snorting it. I'm fully addicted to painkillers. When you're not living right outside of the cage, it shows inside of it. I went in that fight. Just wasn't mentally there. about submitted first round, was devastated. And I was like, man, Ian,

you really messed this up. You're addicted to drugs again. You almost had everything you worked for and it's going to be gone now. So I went on this camping trip and about six months into this drug use, I met Nate the Great Mark Corps.

It was a UFC legend. And he's a sold-out Christian, a pastor, and he's training with me. And he's like, dude, come to our Bible stay. So I'll go to his Bible study. I'll go to his church sometimes. And he wrote me this Bible, so he's like, go on a camping trip and just read this at some point. I didn't want to read nothing.

I went on this camping trip, I chopped wood till my hands bled. I went on this hike where we summited the mountain hit like 70 mile hour winds. My buddy almost died. I just wanted to feel pain. Finally, I went back to the campsite and I was devastated. I lost this fight. Like, I was so mad at myself. I was like, dude, there's no point of living.

Like, you're just going to be addicted to drugs and fail. Like, it was just like these voices in my head. And finally, my buddy's like, hey man. let's just read this Bible study. So we read it and it was challenging my salvation. It was like, you're not even saved. You have no power of God in you. And I felt offended at first.

I was like, who is this guy? I have my relationship with God. And then it smacked me like a ton of bricks. It was like, you were living as a hypocrite. You're doing drugs. You're hooking up with chicks. And you're bonded to this generational curse of addiction. And at that moment, I was like, God, if you're real, take my life.

Because if not, I'm going to take it. Because I don't even want to be alive. Every time I try to control it, I fail and end up broken and hopeless. And at that moment, man, I felt this peace that came over me like I felt in that prison cell. And this time I stayed to it. I went to church the next week. It was a baptism call. I felt so strong in my heart that God was calling me.

I went up and got baptized. As I walked in that water, it looked clear. When I walked out, I looked back. It looked black to me. And I felt God was said, there is your sin and your addiction dead. At that time, I was broke. I was living in my buddy's basement. I wasn't in the UFC.

I'd never pay taxes in my life. I was just a wild dude. One year later, I had met my wife, married my wife, broke into the UFC, broke into the top 10, bought a house, and was a taxpaying citizen for the first time of my life. So God just opened the blessings, and I was finally free from addiction.

It was a powerful moment. Yeah, so, I mean, not to say that, like, everything gets easier at that moment. You know, I've had some serious challenges, is health-wise. You know, my third fight in the UFC, I was number nine in the world, fighting the guys at the highest level. But thank God I met my wife, man.

What an angel she was. Never had a speeding ticket in her life, just a godly, beautiful woman. And she was in functional medicine. And I had all these issues, man. I had like, I kept getting these skin things that I got in prison. Like it would just be like these, like, they call it follicitis, but they don't turn it the staff over and over and over again. And the doctors would just be like, antibiotic, antibiotic, antibiotic, antibiotic. Next thing you know, man, I had like blood in my stool. Like, I was messed up.

I went to her doctor and they're like, man, you're anemic and iron. You have a thyroid disorder, Hashimoto's. You have ulcerated colitis and just my levels. Everything was messed up. So I really had to get my health on track and obviously probably swallowing those kilos, you know, all that plastic that I was swollen could not be good um so i lost a couple fights and then i moved down to florida and i took a head kick and i've had these residual concussions before but i took a really bad head kick and uh man one month went by and i was like dude i don't feel better i don't feel any better i had light sensitivity um confusion uh anxiety like it was terrible and i was like i got to fight I got to get back to the gym.

I got to fight. So I would go back to the gym. I would try to drill and not get hit in the head. Boom. I'd get smashed in the head by someone falling into me, just stupid stuff. And I was like, man, what is going on? And, you know, I'm just trying to get back in the fight. I had booked a fight for myself.

I was like, this is the easiest fight. No disrespect to this guy. But I've been fighting top 10 guys in the world. And this guy was like, had a lot of losses. And I was like, I'll highlight real this guy. Let me get back in the winning column and get going. And one day I was driving to the gym and I missed my turn. I missed another turn.

And next thing you know, I didn't even know where I was. I didn't know what state I was in. I didn't know nothing. And I pulled over, man. And the anxiety I had, I was freaking out. I called my wife. I was like, at that moment I didn't care about fighting anymore. I just wanted to feel normal again.

And so I went back to the house and just had to sit in a dark room. Every 10 minutes of engaging in conversation, I'd have to lay down and take deep breaths and just let myself like reset. And that's kind of how I fell into crypto. how I fell into crypto. I started, the only thing I could do is go on the computer, go on the computer for like 15, 20 minutes, go take deep breaths, go on the computer. And I had made a lot of money on GMC. After I saw GameStop fly up, I threw like $5,000 in AMC, and I did like a 10x on it. And I was like, wow, like this is like legit. So I started looking

for other things I could make money on while I was in this healing process. And that's when I saw a crypto and I got into Doge. I got them in Theorem Classic. I watched it go up. I round-tripped it. And then I saw this meme coin. It was Joe Rogan's dog. And they were paying fighters with the taxes. They had a 50% tax on buys and sales, which is astronomically high. But nobody cared because they were throwing fighters cash. Hey, you get paid 10 Gs for your fight. We'll double it. Hey, you get paid 20 G's for your fight. We'll double it. Give us a shout out after. Oh, you need a car to go to the gym. We'll pay for that. I got on this space and I was like, I just have had the fight booked. I pay 10 grand for this fight camp. I can't even fight. I'm not going to get paid.

I only get paid when I fight. I poured my guts out on this Twitter space. Next thing you know, the guy hits me up on telegram. He's like, hey, man, we want to pay for your stem cells. And I had got a quote at Cellular Performance Institute, and it was 30 Gs. And I was like, man, that's a lot of money. I was like, I could afford it, but I'll be really strapped because I haven't fought. And I wasn't going to fight for a while. And I had my wife quit her job. She was all in on helping me with my diet, nutrition, and everything just along for the journey. So she could travel with me to all the fights. And they called me that I came in.

We're going to pay for it. And I had prayed to God. I was like, God, if it's in your will, make it happen. And I was like, what? You're going to pay for it? They're like, yeah, what's your wallet address? Boom, they sent me 10th or, yeah, 10 Ethereum, which was 3 Gs at the time. I was like, whoa.

And I was like, thank you, God. I called Cellular Performance Institute. And I was like, hey, I got Ethereum. They said, we take Ethereum for payment. Boom, transferred it right over. I was like, bro, crypto is on another level. I just paid for that. So I went all in on it.

And then we went to these UFC fights to watch the fight. I started to feel normal again. I went down and got the stem cells, started to feel better again. Where did you get the, I'm sorry, where did you get the stem cells? In Tijuana, Mexico, a place called cellular performances, too, owned by Ed Clay and Scotty.

Their partner with the UFC, they've been on the Joe Rogan podcast a lot, the best stem cells in the entire world. And, you know, I started to feel, it finally brought me out. How do you go down and get a treatment? Well, I feel okay. Does it grow hair?

Anti-aging, everything. I need thicker hair. That's my, that. And I need, I need like three inches. If I had three inches on me, I'd be run in this fucking country. Yeah, they do everything, man. Hair, I don't know if they could grow you three inches, but they could try. So I went down there and, like, I got back three weeks.

I already started to feel better. I was coming out of this fog. They would put 50 million stem cells in my brain stem, intrithically, a spinal tap, boom, right in there. And at the time, it was very, like, experimental. Now they do it all the time, and it's helping a lot of people. And finally, I felt good enough. I was like, okay, let's go to this UFC fight.

All these crypto guys are there. And then I went to these fights, and I met all these guys, Jake Gagan and B-Rutes. And, man, I just linked up with them, and we were, like, really cool. Cool. They got a picture with Dana White. That was the top of that coin. It was a buy the rumor, sell the news. It was a crazy night. Every fighter was saying, shout out to Marshall Roganino. Shout out to Marshall Roganenu. The UFC was so mad because crypto.com was their main sponsor.

And they're like, who is this meme coin? All these fighters are shouting out. Right. So they called it a complete scam, flipped out on everyone, said you're going to get fined if you talk about it again. And that was the end of it. But they were bonusing fighters, $30,000, $50,000 for fight of the night and then crypto.com started doing that it changed the whole game it was cool but then i partnered up with these guys and we started a crypto shark tank show and it just took off and um a crypto shark tank show what is that what is that so like uh if you have like a low cap meme coin which we deal with mainly which is like doge coin which but that's like the granddaddy of all meme coins you would come on the show and you get to pitch it for two two minutes and you have like a panel that

Yeah, me and us three. And then we all give our opinions. Sometimes we invest. Sometimes we roast them. Sometimes we just kick them off. And sometimes it's funny stuff. Where is that? On Twitter.

Okay. Yeah, it would be on Twitter spaces. So the show absolutely took up. Jake went and did his own thing. And Beiruts was the first 200 people to buy Shiba Inu. Okay. The guys fully retired, cashed out millions from $1,900. Bought Shiba, Enu, wrote that thing up.

be like if you bought Bitcoin with at the 19 cents. Shiba Inu, yeah. Shiba Inu did a million X in one year, the highest appreciating asset in human history. He was this like first 200 buyers of it. It's kind of like a lottery ticket, but this guy is a research guru. I mean,

this guy can research anything. He can find trends. All he does is research. So anyways, we learned some good marketing skills. And crypto's been able to pay the bills. I've been blessed, man. It was like one door closed and another door open.

And I've been just trying to get back to the UFC. I still have my contract. But obviously, I'm not going to risk fighting with what I had to go through. It was about a year and a half of not feeling right. I just got my third stem cell treatment and cellular performance institute. And I feel God has linked me up with a buddy that I used to do below with. And he was shooting. We were robbing drug dealers.

He disappeared. I thought he was going to die. That doesn't say the way you said that sound like. God hooked me up with this guy. Okay, I hear it. Well, I thought he was dead. I thought he was dead. And come to find out, he went to a treatment center that was fully like faith-based,

spiritual boot camp, no even detox. And after he did that, he went on, got completely sober, transformed a guy, went on four years of mission trip. He now has three beautiful kids and a wife. And he has a mission in Panama, like a church that he started. So I linked up with this guy out of nowhere. and we started going on mission trips together. And God has put it strongly on our heart.

We started a podcast now for testimonies. We want to hear the most powerful stories of God moving, Spirit and Truth Media. So, you know, all these people... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And what platforms is that on? YouTube.

On YouTube. Okay. Yeah. So we just started off the ground. But we want to do testimonies. We want to kind of do stuff like where we kind of like Mark does, where we would interview, homeless people or drug addicts, but we want to give them a way out.

Our goal is to buy a ranch in the next year, and we're going to make people who are in this treatment center work a hard day's on the ranch, and then we're going to make them train them in May at night, and it's going to be a spiritual boot camp, and we want to see full transformation, and we want to interview people on the street, whoever God calls us to, and offer them a way out. Say, here's a full scholarship. Do you want to change your life today? And follow their journey.

There's a lot more ideas like that. everything you can find on eunhynish.com. If you want to follow that journey, drop your email in there. It's something we're going to let everyone know what we're doing. And it's tough because my whole identity was in fighting. I spent 10 years of my life in fighting. I felt like, why wouldn't God heal me? Why wouldn't I be UFC champ by now?

Like, I was nine people away. There was only nine people in front of me to reach the pinnacle of the highest sport of fighting in the world and you know but the good thing was i realized my identity wasn't in that and god has redirected me in a new area and i feel even a bigger blessing coming and uh he's provided through crypto and uh i've learned a lot of marketing skills through that with the podcast and learning and now i'm taking this new journey on and god willing i would love to fight again but yeah but you don't yet that's not up to you like you don't know what his plan for you is correct that's your plan that's my

doesn't mean much that's my want right that's what you want that that doesn't mean that it may not be what's what's in store for you i know you know i know and i've realized that it was it it was a lot of pain to have that taken away from me and uh but i wanted to play in the nba yeah yeah that wasn't god's plan he took it real quick he took it real quick at 13 he said stop growing and i was like but what about the nba yeah um so yeah so that's that's my main mission now, man. I want to, I have a calling to help people that are so addicted to drugs, man, because I was so stuck in that and I was going to die. I just feel this calling that I can, through my testimony, through Christ, through the treatment center, through the Spirit and

truth media, I feel that I am going to be able to change so many people's lives and redirect their lives. And I mean, who knows, maybe they'll be champs. Maybe they'll do something so great. And that's been the calling. And like I said, it was a lot of growing pains. You know if you get something taken away from you that you work so hard for. But now I'm in a position that I've been just growing my brand, sharing this testimony. It's already affecting so many people on soft white underbelly. The comments are insane, the connect.

And now we're just growing our podcast up from ground level, which you know is very difficult. Yeah. Especially in this like very, but we believe God's, blessing is over it and we're praying the crypto market goes well we hope trump can lift these tariffs and just do it let us do our thing and uh be able to purchase this ranch in the next year if you guys want to follow this journey ian heinish dot com go to my website drop your email in there if you want to stay updated on it or you want to get involved as well as follow me on ian heinish mma on instagram and on twitter if you want to do crypto stuff check out the crypto kings on youtube and uh yeah follow the journey man

there's a lot of stuff coming this way and I believe God's leading it and I'm excited for this next journey. As you know, man, it's a journey when you hit the ground running after prison. And it's been a, it's been a good one for me. And I know it has for you. And it's cool to see people like us that have come from these rock bottom places where statistically we're not supposed to succeed and we come out and we do great things. Hey, you guys. I appreciate you watching. Do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button hit the bell so you get notified of videos just like this. We're going to leave all of Ian's links in the description box so you can click on it, go to his YouTube and follow, and Instagram, and Twitter and follow.

And I really appreciate you guys watching. Once again, please consider joining our Patreon. It's 10 bucks a month. It really helps Colby and I. Thank you very much for watching the video and please share it. See you.