Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Operation Odessa: The Wildest International Crime Story

Episode Date: August 29, 2026

From being on America’s 100 Most Dangerous list to escaping the Russian mafia, infiltrating the U.S. under a fake identity, and working with cartels to smuggle helicopters and submarines — this is the insane true story of Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg. Hear how this ex-Navy diver became a top club owner, an international arms dealer, and a key figure in one of Miami’s craziest criminal eras.⁣ ⁣ Ludwig's links⁣ https://meetmrtarzan.com⁣ https://www.instagram.com/meetmrtarzan/?hl=en⁣ https://www.facebook.com/meetmrtarzan⁣ [e-mail] ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code COX at https://Mandopodcast.com/COX #mandopod⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout.⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7⁣ ⁣ Send me an email here: [e-mail]⁣ ⁣ Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content?⁣ Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Follow me on all socials!⁣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/⁣ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart⁣ ⁣ Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox ⁣ ⁣ Check out my true crime books! ⁣ Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF⁣ Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM⁣ It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8⁣ Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G⁣ Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438⁣ The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K⁣ Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402⁣ Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1⁣ ⁣ Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!⁣ Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX⁣ ⁣ If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:⁣ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69⁣ Cashapp: $coxcon69 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was in a hundred most dangerous people in the United States. I'm the mission guy. I'm looking for the mission and I need to complete that mission. And we're ending up in the secret base. Here's torpedoes. Here's the missiles. I'm going to buy this for $5 million. But I told Tony and Juan that I'm getting this for $10 million.

I'm a strong guy, you know, young looking to make some money. And two guys came from New York, from Brooklyn to Russian guys. and they were called to take over, to take money from somebody who owed money. Somebody borrowed the money, and it's a big amount. And that time, 70,000 Deutsche Mark. Collections. Yeah, to collect the money.

And they didn't want to do work themselves. They kind of hired me. I was a strong guy, you know, and kind of fearless, and I needed the $2,000 that they offered me. But I did know that the guy that I put, in the trunk of the car and extraordinary money. I didn't know that he was ahead of the Russian mafia in Berlin. I didn't know that.

They knew. I did know that. Well, the old story can end up very good. The contract was put on my life in Italians. I mean, did you let the guy go? Did you put him in the trunk of the car and drive around a little bit? I put him in the trunk and we took out into the forest. And I was planning to keep him there until they're going to bring the money.

for, you know, ransom. They're going to pay the money that he owed. But like I said, I didn't know who is the guy. And those guys who recruited me, they knew who he was and they let him go because they said he's not going to run away. Now, in Germany, they have banks are closed from two to four afternoon. They have like, you know, fiesta. They're going to sleep.

They're having lunch and going to sleep. Really? And then we made a deal. We're meeting by the bank and center of Berlin around 4 o'clock. And I just made the right move, a military move, you know, like 10 minutes before that I stepped out of the car just to absorb to see from outside. And then three like Mercedes came with Italian guys baseball bets. And they destroyed the car and beat the shit out of those guys. And good that I run away.

and I run to our apartment, but I knew those guys going to tell where's our headquarter, grab my clothes, and I was trying to get down, you know, from the third floor by the stairs, and I already saw them running up. And I just went upstairs, went to the roof,

jumped from one roof to another roof, because the houses, so they're kind of close. And from the fourth apartment building, from the roof, I went down, by the elevator, took the taxi to the airport, and flew to my cousin to Kern. And I kind of was hiding there in Kern, and a cold friend of mine. And he lived in Copenhagen, in Denmark. And I called him, and I said, Gregory, I have a little problem.

He said, please don't tell me that you, this guy who beat the shit out of the head of the Russian mafia in Berlin. I said, but I didn't know who is the guy. They gave me a work, but they didn't share with me the info. And he said, well, you have a problem. They put the contract on you. They're going to kill you. And I said, my God, I said, I'm 21 years old. Let's do something about something can be done.

And a friend of mine flew from Denmark to, from Copenhagen to Berlin, made arrangements. And he told me you need to fly in. And publicly, publicly you need to apologize. and then kind of they're going to leave you leave. I was actually thinking, what about a heartfelt apology? You know, something like really, my bad. Well, no, no, but it is a way, it was a way for an apology because I really did know.

I mean, it was unknown to me who is the guy, which they understood. Yeah, Russian mobsters aren't known for being very forgiving. Well, you know what? If things make sense, that's true. Things need to make sense. they do have a big heart if things make it's not like Italians but the Italians were working for the Russian mom in the time in Germany anyway I got in a very beautiful mention you know

that I was drove by my friend from airport and a lot of Italians were there can everybody look it was scary moment and the guy came out sat by the table and I stood up and I said listen I do apologize I didn't know who you are and I just did this job. I got hired and he said, listen, I heard about you and we wanted to hire you because we heard good things about you and we wanted you to be in our crew. They were doing armed robberies, you know, the jewelry stores in Italy and all over the Europe. And they needed me. And I actually would go and work with them because the money was good.

But it didn't come to me. we understand this thing happened before they invited me to the crew. I apologize and the guy said that, okay, he accepted apology. The only thing that I cannot live in Berlin any longer, I need to move out of Berlin because he said he's not going to accept that we're going to meet somewhere and some wedding or birthday party or whatever that he doesn't want to see me in Berlin. Right. I accepted.

And actually it was kind of felt a little at ease, you know, felt better. And then when I was walking from the room, one bodyguard, he's, you know, huge guy, he said, hey, you. I said, oh, my God. Oh, fuck, I did wrong now, you know. And I turned around and he came to me and he said, this guy, you know, the boss sending me a present. And he gave me two gold rings. The one that I actually went to make money, you know, I needed the gold drinks to buy him from my wedding.

and he gave me a present for me and my wife to gold rings. It was incredible. It was kind of very, I always were thankful to him for that, you know, that he was generous after what I did. And that's how it started, but again, short version. In that time, I had the Israeli papers and to stay in Berlin was almost impossible. and I did the fake papers, I made a fake passport,

and that's where I got my name, Ludwig, because before it was a Leonid, and then I got my papers for the Ludwig Feinberg, and I found a political asylum refugee camp. You know, the refugee went for political refugee camp, and I went inside. It was protected by a job, German police and you know that in the time Berlin was cut in a few pieces.

That'd mean part of Berlin belonged to German, part of Berlin belonged to Americans, part of Berlin belong to Russians, and then the French and the England, everybody who participated in a war. And for me, I was supposed to go through the all security, you know, you know, like a CIA. That meant through the CIA, which didn't detect. I have a false paper. I went through M16, MI6, the English security service. They didn't detect it.

I have a false paper. To Germany, I passed all the stations. And this is all just to be able to stay there. Exactly. Yeah. And they said that, okay, I can stay there. And I was supposed to get already German papers, you know, the German housewise. And the lady who was running that close.

refugee camp she was the SS lady she spoke Russian because she spent a lot of time in Russian jails he hated Russians and you know I was skinny blonde because I was in the Navy I was diving a lot you know and because of the hair when you dive the hair is getting a little blonde you know because of the how do you call what do you have in the tanks salt water chlorine oh maybe chlorine No, no, no, in the tanks. What do you breathe? The oxygen?

Oxygen. The oxygen is, you know, make your hair blonde. Okay. Anyway, blue eyes, skinny, blonde, you know, and she was telling me you're real German, Ludwig. Yeah. And I said, yeah, I was a real German. Anyway, everything went smooth, okay.

I started doing work. I started doing this. And what is work? You remember before we start talking, I like smart people, you know, because you're asking the right question. Work is a very interesting situation where the work happened. I needed to come up with the idea who I wanted to be. That means basically you could choose anything who I really want to work. Now, I've finished military service.

Who am I? my killer, boxer, professional, what. And decided I knew a little bit in electrician. And I said, let me be electrician. I went to that lady who was making fake papers. I paid 200 Deutsche Mark. And she made it. I finished some kind of courses for the electric electrician.

And I'm an electrician. And for two years, I was working as electrician in, in St. Petersburg, Russia. And I went to that government entity, you know, who is, I don't know how it's called exactly. And I applied those papers, and they took me, they took my, you know, the name and everything,

and they said they're going to find the job for me as electrician. And they gave me a check. It was a check for average amount of money what the electrician made in the time. I received the check 1,800. hundred, Deutschmark. And when I was coming down, I met a friend of mine, you know, who was standing right there and he said, hey, man, how are you doing? Hey, what profession you took? And I said, electric. And he said, you fucking dumb ass. What do you mean? You're going to work in a

factory who's going to deal with you? And in that time, you know, the social level, social letter was very, very important. Hypothetically, if I'm an electrician and you doctor, we cannot hang together because you're talking with the doctors. Right. And me, I'm working as a, you know, in the factory. I'm hanging with the guys from the factory.

Blue collar. Blue collar work. And I said, what do you mean? Who could I be? He said, choose anything. You can be, you. How about the dentist? They're going to make your dentist.

A dentist? I said, I do not understand nothing. He said, it's relevant. You don't need to understand. I'm going to teach you how to be a dentist. I said, no, no, no, dentist, I'm a little scared because I'm physically. I was so strong that when I was walking on the street, I had the feeling that I'm going to come to the tree, take the tree and pull that out.

I was very, very strong physically. And I was taking a, you know, glass, a shot glass to drink vodka. I could break the glass in my hand. Happened. And I said to my, no, dentist, no. And I said, and what profession you took? And he said, I took a profession. I'm a gynecologist.

I said, what do you mean, ganyacologist? I already have extensive experience. Exactly. And he was, you're not going to believe. His profession, he was working as a steward. Stuart that means, it's like stewardess, you know, how would he call this, fly attendant. Yeah. But he was in a train.

He was, you know, train attendant or whatever, you know, who was serving. in a train tea or was serving some food. And he said, man, I saw so, so much of that stuff. And he decided to be a gynecologist. And he became a gynecologist. And he said, but no, no, hold on. How about you're going to become dental technician? And I said, is this easier?

He said, much easier. I went to that lady, paid another 200 Deutsche Mark. And she made that I finished Moscow Medical University. and that I was working as a dental technician. Now with those papers, I'm going back to that office. And I didn't want that lady to see me. I'm standing in a different window. But Germans, like I said, they're very,

they told me, no, no, you need to go to that window. That's your window. I went to that, and she said, hold on a second. Three days ago you came here with the papers that you're electrician. I said, yes, that's true, but it was a hobby. electrician, my hobby. But I am a dental technician. And of course, I gave her the paperwork.

And she looked at Germans, there's so, you know, particular that, let's say, if you have a paperwork and you're giving her and it says the one who gave you, he's black. It's irrelevant that you white. The paper said it's black. That means you're black. Maybe you black inside. You know, maybe you black somewhere. But you're black.

And she took the paper and she took my check $1,800 and gave me a check for $2,800 as an average salary of a dental technician. Okay. And that's it. And then after a while, two months passed by, they send me a letter that we're waiting for you in dental laboratory, show up and start working. They found you a job. They found me a job, yeah. And then I went to my first job. And I told him that I was ice skating and I fell and I hit my head.

Here I remember and here I do not remember too much. And I said then Russia was completely different thing. Teach me, guide me. And would they start, you know, with that, you know, I need to mix that stuff for the models, you know, the plaster or whatever, how you call this. Yeah. And but I did know that the molds. The mold. Yeah, too for the mold.

And I start mixing. that material, but they didn't know it's fast. Fests. Dryes fast, yeah, yeah. I try a few times and that sticks left inside that material. Anyway, they kept me for three days and they told me out. But the next laboratory, I already knew how to mix. And the next laboratory, and the next laboratory,

the seventh laboratory, I become highly professional. I was teaching people how to be a dental technique. technician. And when I end up in some point in New York, I bought two dental laboratories, one in Queens, one in Brooklyn. That was very, very good. I was the best of it. Because me, you know, when I'm taking something, I'm doing it or I'm not doing, but if I'm doing it, I'm doing this 200%. Yeah, I say you're all in. Exactly. Well, and then what followed, uh, that old lady that was making false paper for everybody. She got caught by somebody, you know,

somebody told on her, she got caught. And that old lady just to make sure that she remember everybody who she gave the false papers, she was writing all the names and the telephone numbers. And around 800 people were arrested, including me. And I was arrested. I was put in jail, and I was, It was one of the oldest jails in Germany in Berlin is called Moabit jail.

It's around jail, Moabit. And I spent other six months and there came time I could defend myself. And I made a tremendous story that because I was going with my story that my father was German and he died in the Russian jail and anyway, I didn't even need the lawyer. I defended myself. myself and you know 12 12 people that were in the jury after my story they were crying with the tears like that you know and they let me go they believed my story I made up a story and they believed it but the story was good I almost also

cried the story was very very I like to you know to to make believable stories and anyway they got released And I needed to go every month to sign until I'm going to get some type of paperwork. And I wasn't waiting too long. I met some girl and her parents told me, let's move to Canada. And we moved to Canada, to Toronto. We moved to Toronto and everything actually was okay until... How old are you at this point?

21. Okay. Yeah, 22. And then we moved to Toronto and then in Toronto, I realized that again, kind of a little fuck-up happened. And the girl that we were together with, she was an infamaniac. And an infamaniac, I saw only in the movies, you know, on the movies, you don't meet too many in infamaniac.

Did you meet any infamaniac? No, no. I met. I happen to be like, with me, a lot of things happen, you know, that nothing. Do not happen to any other normal people. And the girl were an infamaniac. And I needed to perform every four hours. You know, she was waking up, like, you know, 10 in the evening, and the next time it's 2 in the morning.

And then it's 6 o'clock in the morning. And then it's 10 o'clock. I couldn't work any longer. It's hard to work a regular job. Yeah, I was going to bring a lunch to work. And we're having sex in a lady's room or in a man's room or whatever. It's a sickness. You know, it sounds like a little fun from the beginning.

I want to feel bad for you. Do. Please do. And it was a tough. I mean, a tough situation. I run away from her. I run away from her to New York. And in that time in New York, my mother lived in New York. My father lived in New York. My brother lived in New York. And I came to Little Odessa in Brighton Beach. I came to Little Odessa. And then I found a lot of people that they knew from Israel. And one of the guy who actually, was one of the main guys in my future story. You know, his name was Gregory Royzies with the nickname of Cannibal. They were calling him cannibal because one time he got arrested on Brighton Beach

and he was kind of talking back and forth to the policeman and then he bite a piece of the nose of the policeman. It was a very true story. You know, he bit of a nose and they called him cannibal. And this guy played a big role. He put me to work in a furniture store as a driver and, you know, carrying furniture, putting the furniture together. In the time, I did know that I started working for the Gambino family because the owner of the store was a cousin of Jiangati. Okay.

And I was doing, like I said, when I'm doing something, I'm doing good and I was doing great work. And after a while, it was a very famous story. I don't know, you probably never heard about that. It's called Pizza Connection, that all the Italian pizzerias were selling drugs and they were collecting the money and then because they were making deliveries of pizza anyway, they were delivering everything. And the FBI wire the whole place.

Exactly. And I was working for that syndicator as a pizza connection. I had upstate New York, but I was supposed to go and collect money from all the pizzeria and to bring to my boss. And Italians really didn't like it, that the Russian guy collecting the money from them. But I was a very trusted guy. And then after a while... Are you still putting together furniture?

Say it again? Are you still putting together furniture? Yes. Oh, okay. Yes. I actually enjoyed it, you know, because I always said to myself, why are people paying for gym? here I'm getting money and I'm carrying a furniture. My master of who is huge. I like the job.

And I mean, it was difficult, but I learned English. I learned this. I learned that it was cool. And in some point, the owner of the store called me and he said, we do have a situation and I need you help. And he told me that they bringing from Italy a lot of furniture and putting this in the warehouses. And now, by the time, already a few Russians. furniture stores open.

And they didn't wanna buy from him the furniture. And he asked me to help him to make those guys realize that they do wanna buy furniture for my boss. Anyway, we did some arson jobs. At least three stores, I'm responsible for burning three stores. And it was like, again, I liked it because it was a military operation,

not that much of money. You know, I was missing the operation. I was missing to be involved in something interesting. And it was dangerous, a lot of adrenaline. Yeah, I was to say, it's the few people I met in prison for arson, like that's a serious charge. It's not like a three-year stint. Like, these guys are getting 15 years.

Yeah, but I never got caught for that. Right. Never got caught because we were doing very, the right way. We were going to the restaurant. We were spending a lot of money in a restaurant. We were ordering very expensive food. We were throwing money left and right, and then we were once in a while going out to smoke a cigarette.

And one of those going outside to smoke cigarette, we jump in a car, wear a black clothes, you know, black hood and going to the furniture store, making holes, putting the gasoline inside, you know, start burning. And then I was telling the rest of firefighters doing the rest of the jewellers, doing the rest of the jewellers. They're putting all the foam inside and the water and they're destroying completely everything. Right.

They kind of work together. Sometimes I wouldn't want to share my money with the firefighters because they actually were doing 70% of a job. And then you go back to the restaurant. Yeah, exactly. He was here the whole time. Absolutely. We did this pretty good.

And there's no cameras back then. No, of course, nothing. We're talking about 82, 83. You know, nothing there. Then it came a time that I become kind of a little more famous in a Russian community. And people came and offered me to take over a few places to start extorting money from businesses. And we started extorting money. You know, I remember first time I came with a crew of four guys.

We came with the hammers. Went to the stores of supermarkets, small supermarket on Brighton Beach. came to the owner and I said that from today he's going to pay every Friday a thousand dollars and the guy said get the fuck out of here and we broke whatever possible in the restaurant with the hammers destroyed completely and next Friday he had enveloped with a thousand dollars and we didn't hurt anybody you know it was kind of it was kind of a game you know as as long as in my opinion I didn't hurt anybody physically you know that was that was good And this is the Russian mob in Brighton Beach that's shaking these guys down?

Or is it just you guys? No, no, no. You know what? Very difficult to say Russian mob. We were holigans. You understand? Russian mobs were into the millions. They were robbing insurance companies.

They were robbing, you know, government. They were robbing. Yeah, they're doing like pump and dump scams, real estate schemes. gasoline, this, that was for kids. What we were doing is peanuts. What is $1,000, you know, for four guys a week. I mean, it's nothing just to buy nice clothes, you know, nice shoes and socks. And that's it to take your girlfriend out for ice cream.

You get 10 of those guys paying and just a lot of money. Yeah, we didn't add more than 10 guys. Okay. I mean, we had, you know, it was not kind of that we took over New York, you know. because actually it was something to learn. You know, I'm always saying it's a big mistake to call Russians mafia. Mafia is Italians. Italians is organized crime, organized.

Russians is disorganized crime. You understand a lot of people can go and extort the same guy because it's an organization who's saying, yes, you can extort this. I open a video store. in Brooklyn on Shipset Bay. And I opened a store, 20 minutes after opening, I had the guy washing my window. You know, on a little letter,

and I came out and I said, how are you doing? And he said, hey, Leo, my name is Charlie. I said, how are you doing, Charlie? I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm cleaning your window. I said, good, but you didn't ask me. And he said, I'm not supposed to ask you. He said, that street will belong to my grandfather.

There is the street belonged to my father. Now the street below to me. I don't need to ask you. I'm coming and I'm washing for $5 a window every week. I said, are you sure? I'm the owner. He said, no, no, no, it's not up to you. And I tell him, Charlie, take you fucking let me get out of here before I'm going to break your legs.

And Charlie said, hey, Lee, are you sure? And I said, I'm sure. I get the fuck out of here. Anyway, coming next morning, my window is broken. Calling insurance, police, making a report. I'm paying $800 deductible. Insurance paying $1,200. I know by the middle of day, they're putting my big window.

It's a video store. They're putting my window. 15 minutes passing by. Charlie standing with a small ladder and washing my window. I'm coming out, and I said, Charlie, listen, I'm not born yesterday. I understand the story.

I understand the situation. But let me tell you, it's a new sheriff in town. Russians here. And he said, Leo, you don't understand. The street belonged to my grandfather. Now it's my. You cannot understand it. I said, Charlie, before I'm going to break your legs.

That's the last time I'm telling you that. Next time you're going to be crippled. Child, they said, no problem. Left next morning, I'm coming. Smashed window. Police making a report, paying $800 deductible, and now I'm already $1,600 down the hole. The insurance said that I'm a high risk.

They're not going to insure me any longer. And they came, put the window. and 20 minutes later Charlie standing and washing my window I couldn't believe this and I came out already with a baseball bat and I'm aiming and I want to break his legs and what I'm doing like that

I see four guys coming from a guy like big guys coming to me say Leo oh don't you understand that belonged to his grandfather and now is Charlie Street paying him that fucking $20 a week I said what do you mean 20 he said five

You said, no, no, five it was before. Now it's a 20. That's organized crime. I had that store for three years. Three years, I paid $20 a week to clean the window. You understand? That story with the Russian mafia, it's a made-up story. Maybe it's not exactly a name for that,

but like I said, it's a whole against. And the people that's stealing big money, you know, from a government or whatever, it's the business people. The dirty business people. I've been using Mando's whole body deodorant, and let me tell you, you can use it anywhere. Pits, balls, thighs, and even your feet. Mando's powered by mandelic acid.

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Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Once again, that's shopmando.com and use the promo code Cox. But not mafia. It's not something like I said, again, organized. A couple of people like me and you're getting together. And I'm telling you, hey, let's wrap the studio. I want to steal the microphone. You're going to steal the camera.

Are we mafia? Me and you are mafia? We're just thieves. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's it. That's why it's wrong to say. But anyway, in some point, they put me to be a collector for the Italians.

I was collecting money from the Russians and breaking a lot of things. I didn't touch the people, but I had a friend of mine big, big dude. He was beating the people up. And then in some point, one day he didn't show up to work. And I went to see him. His door was open and he was shut. And that was the kind of ring to me at the time to move on. Did you ever, was there a specific reason?

He just, he got shot. He got shot by somebody. They never found who he got shot by it. But I actually knew that somebody from the people that he bid the shit out. Yeah, yeah. Caught up money. Yeah, just somebody paid.

back and the other way they could shoot me too but we kind of you know I didn't touch people I told it for me it was kind of important you know to stay stay back with that and I decided I went to talk to Gambinos in that time and I said I'm planning to move to Miami and I said hey a green light you have go in green light we're behind you I had very interesting situation I was given a present in some point a furniture store in Italian area in Bay Ridge, New York. And I hired a salesman who speak Italian because majority of the people spoke only Italian. And I remember we had the story that some old lady, but almost we were closing a story.

The old lady came and she was arguing with my sales guy and his name was Vinny Vincenzo. And I said Vini, what do you guys arguing? And he said, the lady won a mattress. I said, sell her the fucking mattress. And the guy said, no, she wants this for free. I said, what do you want? She wants this for free? She wants this for free.

She wants this for free. She wants us to give a mattress now. And when her son going to come from college, he's going to pay. I figured out the guy went to college in upstate New York, someone going to come. But it was irrelevant. I have so many mattresses. And they were refurbished mattresses. She needed twin size, you know, small mattress for 25 bucks. What the hell?

And I put the mattress on my van, and I delivered it. I put down her bed. She gave me a hug and gave me a kiss. And she was so thankful. And she said, the son, gonna come, I'm gonna pay. But I never saw the son that me, I mean, it was, you know, I moved out from that store. I sold the store.

And then I already had the video store. Two years later, some guy like a Luca Brazzi, walk inside his store. Huge, mother. fucker, you know, like look up, you know, like a, like that, you know, a square face. And he said, hey, who is Leo? Oh my God, again, those fucking Italians. And I said, now I'm a Leo.

And he said, hey, Leo. And I want to shake his hand. And the guy came and he gave me a hug that in the back of my back, I heard, you know, my, my, all the ribs, he almost broke my wrist. That was the son of that. lady. Okay. And I said, hold on a second. You're like around your 50s. What college? He said, Hey, Italian call a college is a jail. Jail is a college for Italian. We're going to college. Anyway, and he said, oh, you and said, come on, you don't know me nothing. And he became my good

friend. He was coming every week, Wednesday bringing me coffee and a bagel with a cream cheese, and we were talking, you know. And I was telling him, I only knew his name was Frankie. And I said, Frank, what are you up to? What are you doing? And he said, well, I have 80 different businesses. 80 different businesses. I already kind of understood what he's doing. But I did no cookies.

Frankie, Frankie, Frankie, Frankie. And then I remember they hired my rent for $1,000. And I was very, very upset because, you know, I was renting those cassettes, you know, the black cassettes for the VCR. Yeah, yeah. If you remember. VHS.

VHS. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how many of them I need to rent 500 more times to get this for $2, you know, to make the rent. Yeah, I was very upset.

And Frankie came and I told him a story. He said, hey, Elio, give me five minutes. And he went over there and he said, I spoke to a guy. He made a mistake. He made the mistake. And the lower your previous rent to $500 less. They made a mistake. I spoke to them.

I explained. I said, thank you, Frankie. And then I was kind of back and forth, he were helping me a few little things over there. I had one serious problem in Bay Ridge. It's kind of a long story, but it's end up that I went to Frankie, and I said, Frankie, you know, my partner in some point borrowed the money from Italians. Now they couldn't find my partner,

and they came to me to ask me for the money. and told him that I owe them $60,000. And I said, I have nothing to do with that. I never took the money. It was not for me. My partner took, but they cannot find a partner. They're trying to get the money from me. And Frankie said, I gave me three days.

I said, take it three days. And then I'm in my video store, a phone call and somebody crying, Leo, please come here. That's the guy who was trying to get the 16. thousand dollars for me. Right. He was crying on the phone and then and I said, oh my God. And he said, please come here to my store in the Bay of Rich.

We need to talk. And I said, oh, fuck. What a situation. And I called my wife and I said, honey, I'm taking off for a month vacation to Aruba. And she said, what is the problem? And I said, the problem did I spoke to Frankie and Frankie went over there. I don't know what they did. But the guy is waiting for me.

he's throwing. I said, doesn't sound very good. And my wife said, hey, go home, grab the shotgun, take your friend with a machine gun, grab another two guys with the machine guns and go there and settle things. I said, I'm too young, to die.

I'm 24. 24. And she said, no, no, no, no. Go and finish this. My wife. Yeah, she sounds like a gangster. She is. And I want to tell you something, and it was incredible story. We went to there now i'm going to try to explain to you and you're going to see with me it's a movie movie

it's a limo big limo standing in front of the store and it's a home hardware store and uh big limo and it's claw blocked by the two mercedes you know from the sides i'm walking inside the store and the owner of the store the guy that was trying to get you know from the sides i'm walking inside the store and the owner of the store, the guy that was trying to get $60,000 for me, he's on his knees, and he's bald.

And his blood coming from his head right here, coming, the blood comes here. And he's standing on his knees. And a guy the same size like this one standing on his knees, a short guy, you know, with a big tie, you know,

with a big revolver like that. Revolt, huge. And the long term, you know, and on the bottom, how do you call this thing that you... Silencer. Oh, no, no, no, yeah, yeah. The laser beam or the... No, no, no, no, the thing on the top.

On the top of the gun, you have the... How do you call this? Oh, the sights? When you aim, you're looking at this thing. Yeah, I... A scope, scope, whatever. And he's hitting him on the head with that scope. You understand?

Oh, okay, okay, yeah, yeah. He's hitting him with a thing, and the blood comes. comes out and the guy tell me, I see him, and then his wife in the end of the store with the guy who's holding a shotgun, and another guy with a shotgun by the... I looked and I said, oh my God. And that little guy tell me, hey, yeah, Leo, I tell a story, how come you owe him a $60,000? And I told the story, I said, I never took the money from a guy. I did know about that money.

My partner probably borrowed from him. And took off. They're trying to collect from me. And he told him, Antonino, is this a true? And he said, yeah, but they owe me money. And the guy said, okay. Now, Antonino, you owe you oh, $60,000. You owe you, you owe you, oh, you owe you, oh, $60,000.

And a pain now. Now Italian guy, that one who's underneath with the blood, he's telling his wife, he's screaming to his wife to bring the money. That's what I understood. Now, she's going downstairs and didn't sell her, you know, and coming out, and I see the picture. She's coming, holding $60,000 in a hand, like that. And she comes, and before she's giving me the money,

she's spinning on the money, and she tells me, that tomorrow, they're going to find you in the pieces and a trunk of your car. And in that moment, click, I said, I'm not going to take the money. They don't owe me nothing. And I said to the little guy, you know what? I don't want the money.

Let him have it or take it for a franc. That's how I walked out. Everything was peace, nothing. And Frank got the $60,000. He was very happy. They shared between the guys, you know. But he was doing that sort of thing. Yeah.

One day after we were friends for almost a year, one day he didn't show up on Wednesday. And a friend of my called me, he said, you need to look at the New York Times. You know, in that time, was no internet, you know. Yeah. And I looked in New York Times, and it was, then I realized the name.

His name was Frankie Santor. He was a captain for the banana family. And he got killed. They shot somebody from the maid guys, some guy by the name Carmine, and they were sitting in a restaurant together. And they shot Frank. They shot him just because he was sitting next to the guy.

Yeah. Yeah, Frank, it was incredible guy. I always have his pictures, you know, and his pictures with me, an incredible guy. And it was a good friend. And I want to go to a funeral and they told me, don't go. It's going to be FBI all over the place. And I didn't go for funeral. And then, like six months later, it was his daughter, Sweet 16.

I was invited. And me and my wife went for us with 16, and it was a strange commotion when we kind of walked in. People start moving, moving. And then I realized it's a line of 10, 12 guys on the right-hand side. And when I was passing by, and I'm 24, 25 by then, I was passing by, everybody was grabbing my hand and kissing my hand. And I took my hand, you know, I felt so uncomfortable.

And then they were kissing my hand. And I said, what is this? and they said the respect to Frank. Frank said that I'm like his family, like his brother, and they all paid respect to me. Later on, they helped me a lot. We did a lot of things. Those people still alive, don't ask me nothing about those people.

I cannot say anything. But it's incredible. That's a story to me. That whole relationship came from you just giving a mattress. Yeah, but that's how it is usually, you know, those little things, the relationship started. And of course, I miss this guy a lot. Anyway, then in some point, when my partner got killed,

I realized I want to move to Miami. And in Miami, I had a good reason to move because my grandmother came here to get married. My grandmother was 93, and the husband was 95. And they got married, and I'm always trying to make sure. I said, Grandma, be honest with me, you get married because of the green card. And she said, no, because I got pregnant.

Well, I lived here for a while, and then my life, you know. What was a plan when you moved to Miami? I didn't have no plan. I just want to run away from New York. It was run away from New York, run away from a second wife, and into the third wife. The gangster? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That seems like a, oh, no, that lady was a very special lady. She was married before me to a guy who got 25 years for the armed robberies, you know, and she kind of lived a very heavy-duty life. Very interesting life, too. And I moved here.

I moved, actually, to Kendall. That was my first place where I moved. What year was that? It was 88. I moved to Kendall and was, I was looking for job and found, you know, I did not so many Spanish

talking people here, like almost 90%. And they were asking me, do you speak Spanish? The Royal Canadian Legion is celebrating its 100th anniversary. And now our change has a $2 coin to mark this milestone. Honor the Legion's mission

to carry forward stories of service and sacrifice to new generations. And their dedication to supporting veterans and their families from coast to coast to coast. Celebrate this enduring legacy. Find the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion $2 coin today. And I said, yeah, because I knew a few, you know, a few, few bad words, you know.

I was, they checked me, you speak Spanish. Say, yeah, putta, la granta, whatever, you know, myrda. And happened to be that everybody speaks Spanish here. I got a job in some company and they fired me after three days because I couldn't speak. And I went to that guy, one of that rented the house here in Kendall and I told him, listen, I need to give the house back. In that time, I rent two-bedroom house and 88 two-bedroom house with a pool. It was $600.

That was the time to leave. And he told me, listen, let's make a deal. Do you know how to paint? And I told him, you got lucky. I'm painting all my life. And I said, how smart you need to be to paint? And he said, I'm paying like $1,500 to paint three-bedroom apartment. Would you paint this for a thousand? Did I want to steal 500 for myself? I'm talking open to you.

And I said, well, let me try. And I went to Home Depot, paid $25, take three-hour course of a painting, and I become a very famous painter. And they told me what to buy, what material, what paint, what this, whatever. And I painted an apartment for two days, two days and two nights. I actually slept over there. I painted an apartment, make $1,000. I calculated.

I made $200 a day. I rent a house for $600 a month and I made $200 a day painting and I said something is wrong here he went, he checked, he liked it and then I took second apartment to paint I painted second apartment and I already had the brushes

the paint was so good thick at the little water that it was enough to paint another apartment and I made $250 a day I said un-fucking believable. I love this country. America is a country of opportunity.

It's incredible to make $250 a day to paint. How's this? You know, I couldn't, the meth didn't come to me. And then I took the third apartment, and I made again $250. Then I went to some Chinese guy, bought a little pickup truck, old pickup truck for $200. Went to downtown Miami, you know,

under the bridge where was all the cute. Cubans and Haitians standing over there looking for a job. And I screamed, three people for paint and three Cuban guys jump in the car. We went, I showed them the work, get them sandwich, bottle of Coca-Cola, and went to South Beach. I was sitting, drinking a cocktail on Salt Beach, and I said, wow, water country. And this day, they painted, of course, in one day, you know, those three Cubans. I made $500. And next week I opened a company called Progressive Maintenance

and we'll start making money. It was doing great. Everything was beautiful, life started getting better, you know, start doing completely everything possible here repairing. And then met some guy. He was a general manager in one of us three clubs. And he was from England. Met the guy.

and we both shared that we had the dreams to open a nightclub. And we decided to open a heavy metal nightclub. But we did know that we chose the place in Haileia. By Hailea. Halea, it's only 100% Cubans. And we opened a heavy metal club over there. And when I saw after a week that nobody, not one person showing up, I said to myself, no, no, let me get away from this, you know.

And I, and, um, would you, did you switch themes or what did you do? No, I just said, I don't want to be involved. And, you know, I realized I started asking people, Hialea, like, you don't know where is Hialeah. It's like a hundred percent Cuban, but you understand what can I have a metal. If it would be a salsa, Bacotta, I don't know, merengi, maybe, but anyway, but anyway, uh, I left, but, uh, the guy who rented us that place, uh, uh, the guy, uh, you rented us, that place. His name was Bill Seidel. Bill Seidel was a very wealthy man. He owns in that time Bill Seidel, Nissan, Bill Seidel Suzuki, Bil Seidel Mitsubishi, and then in Atlanta, I think he owned

Chevrolet and some other cars. Very famous guy. And he called me one day and we spoke and we become very, very friendly. And over the time, this guy become like my father. You know, like a father figure and then he was helping me I remember he said called me to his office he was calling me boy and he told me boy get you ass here and I will come to his office he said listen I want to make a millionaire out of you two things never asked me for money to borrow and listen to me religiously I'm just going to give you example what is this religiously when I start already making some money and I'm what 26 27 no 28 by now yeah and I start making

money I went and I got myself a bike you know like ninja X-10 Kawazaki you know speed bike and I loved it me long hair build night girls were you know standing in the line for me and I loved it so much and then one day I end up in downtown Miami I'm stopping in a red light and this guy standing in his convertible Rolls-Royce. And he's looking at me and he tells me, boy, is this your bike? I said, no, Bill. He said, just in case if it's yours, you're going to sell tomorrow.

I said, he has Bill. And I sold the bike after a week ahead. You know, that's called religiously. And when he called me to his office, he told me, sit down, take a piece of paper pen, put the ad in Miami Herald, again in that time all the newspapers, put the ad in Miami Herald, one man junk, another man treasure. To me, as a Russian, did make no sense, zero sense.

If I would read that, add one man junk, another man treasured, I just would kind of pass by and are meaningless to me. But for the Americans, mean something, and three, four days I was sitting by the phone. Then the phone rang first time, and some guy told me, did you put that? I said, yeah.

He said, come over. I have 10 boxes. I closed the gift shop. I want to get rid of this. I went and I got 10 boxes of brand new stuff. Then somebody else called, then somebody else called, then somebody else called.

And in about two months, I had six trucks driving with the name, I called this Tarzan House of Bargans. And six tracks were picking up stuff all over Miami in Fort Lauderdale. So, well, real quick, since you mentioned Tarzan, like, I was kind of waiting for that to evolve. Had you already had the name Target?

I had the name. I got the name Tarzan in Israel. I had the long hair, and I jump, you know, for the picture of the class. You know, end of the school, I jumped from a second floor. And I still have this picture. Can show you that picture now. And I jumped and somebody said, wow, you look like Tarzan. And I didn't speak no Hebrew.

And one day I needed to go to a hospital. And the lady from school took me to a hospital and asked, what's his name? When a lady said Tarzan. And they put in the hospital Tarzan. And then Tarzan, Tarzan, it became like, when I went to the military service, I got my paperwork and it says Tarzan, you know, and my last name. And I said, hold on, guys. I cannot go with the name Tarzan.

And they said, we cannot change. all their paperwork on the name Tarzan. And I've been through the military, you know how many high-ranking officers I met who came just to meet me because of the name Tarzan. And I have till today people, my friends, who doesn't even know my real name.

They're only calling me Tarzan. That's kind of with me. I mean, I could have changed. I could have, but, you know, just always the name with me, everybody liked the name and it stuck. Yeah. Yeah, well, I've never met anybody with the nickname Tarzan.

But everybody knows the name. Yeah. You know? So you had the trucks. I had the trucks picking up all this. Picking up the stuff and bringing into the warehouse. And I opened a flea market. And it was, I was start making good money.

We're talking about 89, you know, the whole year I was working, was doing good. And then Bill called me and he said, hey, Tarzan. He was calling me Just Tarzan. He was telling me, Tarzan. Let's go. I rented my place to some redneck, and he's opening a strip club over there. Let's go with me to Grand Opening.

And I said, Bill, I'm all dirty. I'm in a warehouse all day long for me to go to Kendall, to change, and he said, no, no, no, let's go. Come over, I'm waiting for you. Anyway, I came to him, we went to Grand Opening, the strip club, and in the Grand the opening day in the evening, the owner of a strip club got into the fight with one of the customers. And the police came and they separated them and the owner got arrested.

And me and Bill, we came out, you know, from the building. And Bill is asking officer, he said, son, for how long this gentleman is going? And the policeman pressed the button of the computer. And it's like, he said, Bill, he's wanted in 18 states. Credit card fraud, check frauds, these frauds, that he's had, he's going for a while. It built on to me and said, boy, take over it's yours. That's how I become owner of a strip club.

I wanted the club almost 10 years. What was the name of the club? In that time, I remember, but I renamed it because, I renamed it to Porky's because the original movie was filmed in, and I loved movie Porky's. Right. And it was filmed in Miami, you know, that location. And I called the place Porky's, and it was so outstanding.

And it was incredible. And, of course, I hired a lot of guys and people and very good people. And then came to me, you know, Italians sent from New York some guy, some kid that was running away. He was involved in a shootout and a beating of a guy in Queens. and they sent this guy and he become like my manager, my right hand. His name is Fat Tony. One day I'm going to tell him about this guy.

I hope we're going to have a podcast together with him. He's a hilarious guy. You know, very, very funny. Anyway, I become the owner of a street club and things got very, very interesting. after a while I become president of the strip clouds of Florida in that point. And then there's an association of... It was the right now they not exist, but in that time we get. And then I open a third in the world porn site.

Then I open a swinger club. Is the strip clubs making that kind of money that you're... So many. Okay. Incredible. Incredible. The girls dancing, the selling liquor, customers, you know, drinking liquor, the girls paying to work in my club and things were incredible. Very, very nice.

And money was coming from everywhere. Bill were introducing me. I remember we were sitting in his son wedding and it was a separate table and Bill came to the stage and said, I want to think, you know, Chief Police of Miami, Mr. Anderson, that he came to a wedding of my son. I want to thank Senator Clayshaw. I want to thank Congressman Lehman. I want to thank Tarzan. I want to thank because we all were sitting.

It was the time to live in Miami. It was a lot of fun. We're going out, me and Madonna. vanilla ice and I remember I almost threw out Sting from a club. You know, he was trying to be nasty. I came to check his ID, you know, we knew it's sting, but I came to check his idea and he was not happy. And I remember he signed my T-shirt, you know, he signed a T-shirt, you know, for Tarzan. And I gave present to somebody. I didn't care about Sting, you know, he's a nice guy probably, but it's not my, I'm not fan. A lot of people famous came.

Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neill came to my club. A lot of Russian musicians. Then I opened a Russian restaurant. When I opened a Russian restaurant, it was a really cool story about the swingers, you know, because I opened a swinger club. And the owner of my restaurant calls me and he said, listen, some strange things just happened. Some guy came and they want to book a party for swingers.

So Swingers in a Russian restaurant. I said, hold on a second. Let me talk to him. And he gave me his telephone, and I'm called Paul. I said, Paul, how are you? My name is Tarzan. You know, and I have a great news for you. I just opened a Swinger club.

And he said, oh, my God, congratulations. We're in Dural. And he told him, incredible. I said, Club Silk. And he was so happy. And he said, wow. And I told him, listen, Paul, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my Swinger Club.

First of all, we give every couple, you know, free bottle of champagne. We're giving free condoms. We're giving, you know, whatever you need. We have a latest porn library, and we have the latest movies. And sometimes, you know, porn stars visiting my place to throw a show and I have a great connection in a porn industry. And then for some reason, the guy got quiet, you know. And I'm a good salesman.

You know, my mom said I could sell snow to Eskimo, you know. Right. And the guy is not buying it. He's not biting. And I said, Paul, you're not happy with something? And he's telling me, no, no, I heard what you said. That's good. Congratulations.

But we would prefer a Russian restaurant. I said, oh, my God, after everything, I told him, they would prefer a Russian restaurant. And I said, how many people you are? And he said, we have 50 people. I said, oh my God. Paul, I cannot even imagine 50 people in my restaurant. And I'm walking in and 50 people fucking on the dance floor. I said, I cannot picture it.

And he said, fucking. We're not fucking. He said, we're swing dancers. Oh. Kind of didn't go the right way. A lot of interesting stories, a lot of fights, a lot of shooting, a lot of drugs in the club. In that time, you know, it was a drug cowboys. And people were coming and spending a night, then $15,000, $20,000, you know, those drug guys.

And the club was doing great. Everything was beautiful. Everything was. And then at some point, Bill presented me a boat, 42-foot. Tempest speedboat and then we had some problem with the engines and he told me oh I know this guy go and repair in his place and that was Juan Juan owned the Fort Apache Marina in North Miami in Ventura and with a boat I went to Juan and we met and we started talking and he got interested that I have a strip club and I interested in what he has back and forth back and forth back and

for it and then I saw a few helicopters on his table in the office and he said I'm looking for the helicopters and I said I have a connection to Russia and what time at what point had the Soviet Union collapse at that? Like where are these

helicopters coming from? Oh he was looking all different helicopters to get because in that time Juan was looking to get I didn't know that he was looking not for the helicopters in that point in that point he was looking for the turbines from the helicopters.

Why? Because they were using the, they were putting this in the speedboats. The turbines from the helicopters and the speedboats were flying. That non, the coast guard would never catch them. Okay. They were flying those boats.

They were going, what, 90, 100, 100, 10, 20 miles an hour on a boat, on the water. They were flying. So he's building boats. And selling them to smugglers. Exactly. To bring to what? To go out and meet, meet.

No, to deliver. Just to, and they what? So they take the, they take them out and they meet like people from or, uh, or, um, Columbia. They, they load them up and they speed them back. Because they're not, a speedboat's not going all the way to Columbia. No. It's got to, they got to meet somebody.

Correct. And then be able to outrun the Coast Guard at that time. But in that time, you know, they, they were doing this. boats they were taking 10 speed boats and they were putting them on such a short lead you know from each other right and putting lights on the first boat on a less boat and then you know you from the side you look like a big commercial vessel you understand yeah yeah and then let's say the airplane were passing by and they said oh we see the commercial vessel you know going slow towards Miami and those guys had all the radio

stations and everything. And then the guys said, we're not expecting any boat right now, you know, commercial boat going towards Miami. And then they said, okay, let's send the Coast Guard to check what is this. And then when they were listening, that course guards were coming close, they were cutting all the cables turning towards Miami and 10 boats going on a high speed towards Miami. And back then, this is the 90s, this is the DEA had just been started.

Exactly. That means. They don't have boats. Maybe two boats were getting caught. Yeah, yeah, I was going to say they don't have... They had boats were making to the shore. I think initially the coast guard, they didn't have the boats to catch anything at that time. No, no, no.

It wasn't until later that... But then, yeah, they start bringing... They start bringing drugs. In that time, in Miami, you know, you could knock on any door, especially in the area where it was my club. You knock on any door. And you just could ask old ladies,

excuse me, lady, you have a kilo? I said, yeah, I have a kilo, have a couple of kilos. You know, because everybody, because they was knocking on every door, and they were stashing everywhere. It was so much in Miami. Like I said, I mean, I swear to God, I asked a mechanic.

I was saying, Angel, do you have a kilo? He said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I have in my office. A kilo, I don't need it. It's right there, you know, you can grab a kilo because we were giving, selling, you, or whatever. Everybody had a call. And things were, doing good, club were doing good, everything was doing good. And when I met Juan, Juan told me,

listen, how about we're going to look for some helicopters in Russia because they were cheaper. And we decided to go trip to Russia. Me and Juan, we went to Russia. We saw the helicopters, then we saw some other things, some other things, some other things, and back and forth, back and forth there, remember, we came back to Miami and Juan said, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine, let's go. And we went to Apaloka Airport, took a little jet and flew to Cancun. We said, we're going to meet the guy in Cancun. And we were sitting in a restaurant, you know, having a couple of tequila. Some guy came to Juan, spoke to him, and Juan said, let's go. My friend is waiting for us in Ecuador. He said, we in Mexico. But the airplane was right

there waiting for us. We went to the airport. And the airplane took us to Ecuador. We went to Ecuador. By the airport, we found some place, some bar or whatever. We were waiting there. And then some guy came to Juan and said something. And Juan said, we need to fly to Venezuela. I said, what is this all about?

You know, like we're flying all those countries. Anyway, we end up in Venezuela, in Caracas, in Hilton. And that's where I met Tony. time and I love that guy he's incredible guy funny smart always talking very funny that did the you know I love this guy I mean he's intelligent but I was he wanted is that why you're so he's wanted exactly Tony was wanted he was running away for over 20 years from government from the from like the the US government yes okay because Tony was Tony was private pilot for

For Pablo Escobar and Tony was one of the people who was in charge of some areas or some countries where they delivered drugs. Do you realize this at that time? No, of course not. I didn't care who would, you know, he was a super guy, I liked him. I mean, it was.

The relocating, the going from one guy, that would raise some questions. No, no, of course, but who cares? It's fun, it's at fun. It's at the, you know, sugar with a cherry on it. Exactly. It's excitement. It's something interesting. I'm always looking for those operations, like a military operation. You know, it's cool. And I love the guy. And Juan was a very cool guy. And we all hit together three of us, you know, it was a lot of fun. And Tony asked for some Russian motorcycles. And me and Juan, we took off next week to Russia to look for the Russian motorcycles. And we got like 150,000. made the deal to buy 150,000 motorcycles. We sold them in Ecuador and Argentina.

We bought them $100, $100, $70 a motorcycle. And then ship them back. Yeah, in that time, Yamaha, equivalent, Yamaha cost 1,000, you know. And we sold, we bought them. Then we went back to Russia and we bought bicycles, you know, $2 bicycle, and we sold them to Mexico, 100,000 bicycles, to Mexico,

to Mexico for, you know, we bought for $2, we sold for $10. And all of this is because the Soviet Union has collapsed. Collapsed and everything for sale. Right, right, because they're going under. Exactly. Then we got order for dump trucks. And it was a strange order for dump trucks because we bought dump truck $14,000, equivalent dump truck, you know, it was cost in New York $100,000.

you know, have you do the dump trucks. And then. And you're paying 14? 14,000. And what are you selling them for? We were selling them for 50, 60, you know, something decent price. But not that. That was the first time that I got a little bit confused because I asked which way we're

going to deliver the dump trucks to Colombia. And Juan said by the airplanes. That's a hell of a. we're going to fly dumb trucks in an airplane. It's like the weight of a tank. No, not only. No, that was not the problem. The airplanes were delivering that.

The problem, who is delivering dump trucks on the airplane? You put it on a boat, this, that, to make it cheaper, but they didn't care. And the flight costs like $300,000 the flight. I said to buy dump trucks for 14, to fly them for 300,000. something didn't match there. You guys have money to burn.

Who's burning money like that? Here we go. And then I said, Why would you spend $30,000? Why spend $300 unless money's not an object? Exactly. Because then I start to realize that we're working for somebody very, very big. Because next time where we met, it was a question of we can deliver six helicopters.

And we actually delivered it now we knew how to find. fly the down trucks, we flew the helicopters. That was the preparation to fly the helicopter, to see where it's going to go, how it's going to go, who's going to check, who is going to, you understand? That was the preparation. I'm always telling an interesting

story that we see a lot of movies. We see a lot of movies about drugs and cartels and Mexican cartel and Colombia and cartel and everything, but you know what? Nobody tell us hypothetically, you're the sniper.

You're a good sniper in military. You finish your military service. You finish your four years, five years, eight years contract. What do you do? Yeah, there's not a lot of calling out, or not a lot of necessity for a sniper in civilian world. Very good. Where do you think the snipers goes?

I mean, I'd like to think they become police officers and security. Kind of. A lot of guys from special forces, special engineering, a lot of guys who is creating military operations from the headquarters, a lot of radio guys,

IT guys, they're getting hired by the cartels. And we're talking about not only American military, we're talking about European military, Russian, Israeli. Everybody, I saw people in the cartel from all different countries. They have like the own military. And did you ever saw the movie about that?

No, but I know I've written, I've written several stories about the cartel and I know that the original Zetas. Exactly. They're all military people. Yeah. They're creating military operations. That mean army fighting against army.

That mean the DEA or FBI or whatever. They're much less equipped or much less than that army over there. Mm-hmm. They're always in a lose, lose situation. You understand? That's why so much drugs, because they equip much better. They're working for a lot of money.

I mean, how much officer of the FBI officers are salary? What, $5,000, $7, $10, $15, $20. How much is a month? What, a month? Yeah, we're talking about... Yeah, I'd say... I'd say initially they were probably starting around 60, maybe after five years or making $90.

Probably. Special agent? Those guys making $15. $50,000 a month. Yeah, yeah. Their salary, $50,000 a month. Now, who's better?

Who is trained? Who is motivated? Right. You understand? Now what I'm trying to say. Now they're getting all this Russian equipment in. Exactly. Now those guys start getting even more and they start asking this, this, this.

Yes, we deliver six helicopters to Cali. And the helicopters were made for transporting the drugs. because when we were ordering the helicopters, we asked to put more tanks for the gas and to rip the seats and all that equipment. And you understand that means to make it lighter? And the six helicopters end up, it published this position, you know.

They got them. And in some point, me and Juan, we flew again, and then we went to don't want to get too much into that story but we went into the jungles and we met the people and people ask if this is any slightly possibility to buy a submarine.

Right. And then I said, fuck, this is incredible situation. I was going to say, I was just going to, I'm glad you said that. So I was just going to say, listen, that, you know, we talked about this before, right?

When we were talking about, I was saying, like, everybody's got a story, right? Like even the guy that graduated high school, went to college, met his wife, maybe they fell in love. Maybe there was a romance story there. It's like some stories are worth telling. Everybody's got probably an interesting story. Some are worth telling. Some aren't. And I was saying how I've always found criminal stories interesting.

But I'm wondering because even when I was committing crime, there were moments, just certain moments, not all. the time, but certain moments when I kind of stopped and thought, this is insane. Like what's happening right now is not normal. This is like I realized it became kind of surreal where you kind of look down at yourself and thought, what the fuck is happening? Like this is not a normal life you're living right now. Like at that moment where you realizing like, am I about to try and fucking buy a sub? Did I just ship in a helicopter?

Like this is insanity. You, yeah, whatever you're saying yes. it's acceptable, understandable, but I want you to understand. If you remember from the beginning, I said, I'm the mission guy. I'm looking for the mission, and I need to complete that mission.

To me, I didn't say nothing illegal, what I'm doing. Right. I didn't see nothing to buy a submarine. And it's like you're selling a car. I mean, in that car, somebody can transport weapons, body, these, that, whatever. I mean, kidnap people. I'm selling a car.

car right what do you do with the car it's your business to me mission was to get this to make it possible whatever can be done later with that it was not my well i'm not even saying that i'm not even saying illegal just the insanity of thinking i'm buying but it was incredible you understand incredible because it was wow when is the last time you heard somebody going and buying a submarine right this is this is i want to tell you i first time I realized the jeopardy first time. It's when the Colombian said, we're gonna give you carte blanche, that means unlimited amount of money,

go get and bring this to us, but we wanna see it's true that you can get this. Now me and Tony going to San Peterburg, we buying illegal paperwork that we, some scientists, And we're going to military base. You understand, in San Peterburg, exist an island that you cannot get to this island. It's kind of a secret island and only with a special paper

because the nuclear base, submarine base, it's right there on this island. Right. That means we need to take a boat from San Peterborough to get to that island. We need a particular paperwork. Now we get it. We bought this paperwork.

We bought those permissions. We got to that island. Now from that island, we need to go into the secret base. How do you go in a secret nuclear base? Can you imagine that? I mean, that is incredible. And we taking with us as a captain of the submarine retired, and a retired admiral and our existing admiral.

And we're all going in one car. And when the admiral showed the paperwork, you know, his badge in a base because the KGB was taking care of the security of that base. And they looked at us

and they said, who are those people? And they said, they're with us. Because Tony had African passport. Me had Israeli passport. If they would catch us for those paperwork, that would be kind of very not pleasant. And we

ending up in a secret base, we're passing through. We're going to the submarine. Me and Tony going down in the submarine, existing submarine, and I cannot believe this. You know, all the 60, 70

Navy guys standing inside, you know, giving us the salute and we're passing by through the submarine and the guy telling the captain say, here's a torpedoes, here is the missiles, here is this, here is that. I can't.

I cannot believe what I see. And I'm telling to the captain, and how are we gonna be able to buy this? And he telling me that he's gonna, we're gonna be able to ride to ride off that it's a leak, that submarine has a leak. But you understand the submarine has a leak. Nobody's kinda welding this, nobody repairing.

And it's sunk. It's the gun. That's how we could buy this, the sub. But this is a, this is an old, older Soviet diesel sub. This is the older, but it's existing, it's in a service. Right, right. But I'm saying are the missiles that are on there, it's torpedoes, but are the missiles that are on there, are they nuclear missiles?

Probably not. That was not a nuclear submarine. It was a, well, you could have a non-nuclear submarine. We would not, like I said here, we were trying to stay away from the weapons. Yeah. We were trying to stay well. We would just want the vehicle. And then I remember me and Tony, we're coming from the submarine.

I want to tell, from the bottom of the submarine to climb, we were climbing probably four minutes. It's a seven-story building. Right. You know, we were climbing to the top, and then we got to the top. Tony told me we need to take a picture. And I said, Tony, we cannot get a camera. It's a secret base. And he said, without the picture, we're not going to get the money.

You need to take a picture. And I came to the submarine commander, and I said, I have to take a picture. And he said, you can't. We're going to be all arrested. I said, I must. I said, I'm going to give you right now $200. $200, they were making probably in three, four months, $200, the captain. You understand?

I took the money out. I put this in his pocket. I took the small camera and I started taking the pictures. All the pictures I did. was a picture of the sub, whereas Tony standing in it, I took the picture. And then the problem occurred when we were living the base. Those guys called the headquarters. The KGB?

Yeah, and he said, we're not supposed to be there. We didn't have no entrance, and the guys said, we're not going to let you go. And me and Tony, we were looking at each other saying goodbye. Because to get, you know, me with the camera, with the pictures of the sub. submarine, it's a espionage. You understand you, it's 15, 20 years, especially in the Russian Joe. We were like really worried. But the captain came out and were fighting an admiral, told him, listen to me, you're a major. Open the gate immediately. You're getting order from the admiral. And the guy opened the game. Nice. We run away. And then we send those pictures

to Colombia. Can I real quick, can I ask a question? Like Tony's wanted internationally, and is he traveling on his own passport? No, Tony had 40 passports, you know, if not 140 passports. I should know that. Yeah, yeah, with a thousand names. And I can call Tony to find out. No.

I can call and find out how many passport he has. It's funny. one of my charges. I have two two of my charges, my fraud charges is application for a false passport and use of a false passport because I had I had almost two dozen passports issued by the State Department in different people's names. Amazing. So they're not that they're really not that difficult, exactly, but I've never gone to anybody that could make a passport and have it passed mustard. But then in other countries they'll they you know the same guy issuing the the legitimate ones is probably issuing the illegitimate ones.

It goes right in the computer. And so, and this was a long time ago. This was 20 years ago. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, he did a great job. And he delivered the pictures. And we got the carte bunch. We said that submarine cost $35 million.

And but I made the deal for $5 million, which. You made the deal for the admiral or the captain? Yeah. I said that I'm going to buy this for $5 million. But I told Tony and Juan that I'm getting this for $10 million. Because I was trying to rob it and, you know, five million to myself. And I did know, but Tony was trying to rob me in Juan, you know, and he told Colombians much more.

Tony was trying to wrap $10 million. Juan was also trying to rob, but he didn't have no choice because Tony was working with the Colombians. I was working with the Russians. Right. And Juan was in between. He couldn't grab anything. And the deal was almost done. You know, the biggest problem was we were supposed to take,

I found a captain who in 1961, if you remember, missile crisis, a lot of Russian submarines was standing right there in front of the port of Miami with the open torpedoes, you know, they were ready to shoot any boat. Nothing came out from Port of Miami. Otherwise, the Russians would shoot them because they were expecting some military ship is going to come. And the Americans knew the Russian submarine there. And one of those captains who came from Russia

and the submarine was near Miami and near Cuba, he's the one who said, you know, the way how to get here. And we hired the guy. He said he has another, he don't need the crew of 35 people. he said crew, 15 people are going to be good enough. So 15 people are just going to stay on the sub. Yeah. Yeah.

And they can do the work to bring the sub here to Miami. So the goal is to bring the sub to Miami and then be able to. Not to bring. That's what the government said. The goal was. To go to Columbia, pick up drugs, bring it back to Miami or somewhere. Yeah, kind of. Yeah.

Kind of. Okay. So your way. So what happens to these guys? So Tony's saying, hey, it's 35 million. They're going to give so much money at first. Is this like a wire or is this somebody with briefcases of money? No, they gave us, they gave us Black American Express, which was unlimited.

And the money was in Switzerland and Paribas Bank. So this is 10 million? No, it was a lot of more. millions okay they just said use whatever you need you know whatever we need we could take in some point me and Juan we came to Russia flying I had million dollar in my bag and he had a million dollar in his bag that was down payment for the helicopters nobody checked us what well what I was saying what I'm saying is like because in the in the documentary it says that I guess that Tony had

gotten at some point they had I don't know if these I think I thought it was like 10 million and Tony got the 10 million and takes off. Correct. At what point do you know that that happened? Oh, I didn't know that at all because I trust Tony completely. I didn't know that. But you see, Tony had insight information because again, it's a lot of things we know about the cartels and a lot of things we did know.

Some cartels are getting dissolved, some guys getting killed. And Tony got the inside information that cartel that were planning to get the sub is getting destroyed. And that's the reason he was, you know, he was able to grab the money. Cartel never forgive. Right. He felt comfortable. He felt like they were going to be wiped out soon. Exactly.

Is this Mexican cartels or Columbia? Columbia. Columbia. Columbia. Okay. It was a Colombian cartel because like I said again, we know or we think that. that we know how many cartels. Again, nobody knows how many cartels exist.

Well, they're fragment. They're constantly breaking off. They're not everybody have like a symbol. You know, we are Mexican or Colombian cartel by the name, you know, green dragon or whatever. Right. So, okay. Another question is, so where are you when you real, when you get the phone call, the money's missing? Oh, I did know that until the end.

heard about that because until when what do you mean until I got out of jail and I never heard about the money because I was arrested oh okay so I don't know that I didn't know that when were you arrested me I was arrested because you see I was bringing all the specs and pictures of the sub and everything it was on my table in the office in porkeys and in that time some undercover agents become my friends it was a Russian undercover agents a lot of them they become my friends and they were sitting in my office They're taking pictures, looking this, taking that, stealing my pictures. And I got arrested before anything it happened. So before the deal was even supposed to go through, what do they do?

They lightly knock on your door and ask you to come downtown? No, no. I took my daughter. I lived in Mystic Point in Ventura. And I took my daughter to kindergarten. And when I was living the kindergarten, I saw a police car with the two guys inside. Now in Miami, usually one guy. Now, when I saw two guys, it was gling, gling, gling.

And I understood that, you know, something is wrong. And I had two guns on me. And I took two guns put in a glove compartment. I had their license. And on the way, you know, they stopped me. Police car stopped me. They were checking my license, but I knew they, I didn't do nothing. I was driving slow.

And I told them I have a gun, two guns. And then two FBI cars came and kind of picked me up. And they told me, you know, they brought me to FBI office. And the first question they were asking me, where's the bodies? And I said, what buddies? We want to know where you were putting the bodies. Bodies of who? Who is missing? Show me some pictures.

I mean, did I kill somebody? Did I? You need to tell us where's the bodies? the bodies then you need to tell us this then you need to tell us that it was 12 agencies more it was a BID DEA secret service who else ATF integration ATF everybody want to take a piece of but and I didn't understood what they want because me yeah we will if you ask me did we we ever delivered drugs, yes, brought from Ecuador to Russia, from Peru to Italy. I didn't have

nothing to do with the United States. Never made anything in the United States. And in my opinion, the government didn't have nothing against me. They arrested me and they kept me four years without the trial. I didn't know that. Of course. They were keeping, they didn't have nothing against me. What are the charges, though? Oh, 31 count. Of what? What? Anything. Anything. Stolen, liquor, stolen, stolen money, fake money, prostitution, drugs. 31 count. Every lawyer told me

they want to kill you, bury you, then get you out, burn you, bury you, then get you out. 31 count. Who's getting 31 count? Right. You understand that? I mean, and I was face. minimum mandatory 35 years and but miracle a lot of miracle happened one of the miracles I I something very interesting happened you know I'm Jewish and it was such a guy by the name rab rabbi Lubavichi you know his name was the last rabbi

Schneiererson. And when he was alive, 770, I forget the name of the street in Brooklyn, you know, downtown Brooklyn. And I went to see him. I was waiting six hours in a line to see that rabbit, to shake his hand. And this rabble was giving dollar to each person. They were giving every day $300,000 away, you know, just because so many people were waiting to see him. to touch him that he was touching. And standing in the line, I bought his picture. And when I got in jail, I had his picture. And I put his picture on the wall. And I had my bunkie, you know, a guy who was with me, some Israeli guy who was kidnapped from Colombia. They had been a kidnep from Colombia for money laundering.

They came to Colombia and Cali said, Mr. Ellie, he said, yeah, you put the shot and kidnapped him, took him as a drunk driver or whatever. Listen, you know how many times people will tell me, like, when you were on the run, why didn't you leave the United States? I'm like, bro, you don't think they'll come get you. They'll go to a country where they don't have extradition. Give me, you know how many guys I meant that? Exactly. They kidnapped this guy and zero extradition.

And everything was cool. Nobody cared about. Extradition means that the country will pick them up for the United States. Non-extradition means the United States will just go in there and kidnap them. Exactly. That's how it works. They kidnapped this guy and actually we even had the same lawyer but then he lost and he got 20 years and he told me lose this lawyer. But in that time, I remember probably first time telling that story right now and the rabbi came in my dream.

In that time, Rabbi already was dead. He died from old age. And he came in my dream and he told me something. And I told him, Rabbi, you need to tell me this 10 times loud because I do not remember my dreams. And he's telling me 10 times loud. Waking up in the morning and I remember the dream. I'm calling the rabbi who was coming, you know, we have a Jewish rabbi from Aleph Institute, who

was visiting all the Jewish inmates and all jails bringing them, you know, for holidays. Yeah, yeah. They take care of them. He's taking care of them. They're praying together. And the rabbi, I mean, he came to me. His name was Rabbi Berkovich. He was running, you know, Habad in Miami Beach.

Amazing guy. Great guy. Helped me a lot. And he came and I told him, listen, the rabbi came to me. dream and he told me. And he told me something in Hebrew message. And Rabbi Berkovich telling me, wow, it's amazing. He said, million people would pay millions that Rabbi going to come to them in dream. And Rabbi only didn't come to you. He also spoke to you. It's incredible. I know whatever I'm going to tell you right now, sound like a fairy tale. But again, this is 100% true story.

And he wrote everything, he told me, tell me where he was standing. Tell me where you was standing. Tell me what he was wearing. Tell me what you were wearing. Tell me how he spoke to you. And he took all the information. And he left to New York. He went to talk to the high rabbis in New York in Brooklyn.

He came after three days. And he gave me a hug and he said, you didn't know, but you're the messenger. We get the message from a rabbi. It's incredible. He said, whatever you did, you're the messenger. And for that, in return, we already made the deal upstairs and you're free. What's the message? What did he say?

I'll tell you. Cannot tell you. And he said, it's incredible, but we already made the deal. And I said, listen, don't fuck with me. What do you mean? You brought the key from a jail or what? What do you mean? You made the deal.

He said, everything is done. You're free. You're going to be free. I'm telling him I'm already four years in jail, and I'm facing minimum mandatory, 35 years. Minimum mandatory, I'm facing 35 years. That means judge cannot give me less than 35. He can give me more.

I know what I'm just trying to explain to the people who is unfamiliar what is this minimum mandatory. Anyway, he said it's a, one thing, though. You're going to need to change your lawyer and you need to hire a Jewish lawyer because the God going to talk through the lawyer. I said, come on, man, stop fucking with me. Stop telling me those stories. God going to talk through him and he's going to talk through you and this one going to stop. Come on,

give me something that makes sense. Don't sell me that bullshit. And the guy said, listen, you're the messenger. You need to accept it. I said, okay, he said, we're going to bring you a lawyer. What do you think? Two days passing by, they're bringing me a lawyer. And I said, how are you? And the guy said, my name is Bruce. How are doing Bruce?

And he told me, well, I said, what kind of lawyer you are? He said, I'm a divorce lawyer. I said, excuse me? My case is I was in 100 most dangerous people in the United States. My case is one of the biggest case in the United States and you divorce lawyer? He said Oh, I'm also a sleep and fall lawyer.

Oh, I said, that definitely helps. I mean, now I'm for sure going to hire you. I'm telling Berkovich, what's going on with you? He said, listen, he don't need to know too many things. God going to talk through him. I said, you know what, guys, both of you, thank you so much. I didn't want to see them for a while because, you know, I got so upset and so angry.

At least don't tell me that bullshit, you know. I mean, we can talk normal. Anyway, by that time, I already fired my sixth lawyer. I had six lawyers. Each one of them was getting for me $650,000, $600,000, $500,000. They didn't want to take less. Me, probably I shouldn't say this, but if I would hurt somebody,

I would hurt all of those six lawyers who stole money from me. stole because all of them knew from the beginning how it was going to end up. They all knew how it was going to end up. They never prepared. They never were getting ready because they knew they're not going to win. They knew none of them told me they were robbing me. They're robbing people like every other lawyer.

I'm always saying every lawyer, especially criminal, and every prosecutor should serve in jail for six months. and then they're supposed or defend people or accuse people. But both of those professions, they must be in jail to understand what's happened in jail and how we're getting rehabilitated in jail. Because I believe that those motherfuckers

and those motherfuckers. You understand? I mean, it's a horror story. But again... Sixth lawyer, the personal injury attorney. A six lawyer and I'm with a personal. And I understood that I didn't have no more money. Because the government, what they do?

They arresting your money without you found. Nobody found you guilty, but they're arresting your money. That means they're arresting your money and you cannot defend yourself. Why would they arrest my money if I'm not found guilty? Right. Where's the logic to arrest my money? How can I defend myself without arresting, you know, without money? I mean, completely bullshit.

But again, Who am I? And I decided to talk to that sleep and full lawyer, you know, and tell him, what is my options? He's telling me, listen, I cannot take it to trial. I don't understand nothing about that. But trust me, God's going to talk through me. And I said, shut up. And then I said, okay, I said, go talk to prosecutor.

I want to cooperate. To cooperate, I needed to talk about Juan and what Juan was doing and Juan was motherfucker. Why? I've been in jail four years. For years, he didn't help my daughter. I had four years old daughter without medical insurance without anything. He didn't help me.

I was begging. I was asking, why wouldn't you give a couple of dollars, give $150, $200, for food, for this, for that. She was living with all different people. He said that his lawyer advised him not to give money. I said, you're not supposed to give money. Somebody else, somebody on the street can give it the money. Don't bullshit me.

And he never gave me. Some point he sent $500 a check and I returned this check to him. And I said, fuck you and fuck you. Or everybody who is around you over there. I was going to say, you know it's funny. What? Your lawyer's telling you not to help me my lawyer's telling me So if we're gonna listen to our lawyers yeah my lawyer's telling me to fucking cooperate against you

So if that's if that's what you're going oh my lawyers well my lawyer said to cooperate Anyway, in some point I felt kind of Bad about the guy because he's still my partner, you know I still liked him you know he's in fucking asshole, but they at some point I still kind of liked him and I spoke to his lawyers and their lawyers understood that they're going to cooperate and they gave me the

questionnaire what they're going to ask me and they gave me answers what I need to answer. Anyway, of course, prosecution did know about that that we're making a deal behind them you know, that's why I said in some of the interview that we outsmarted the government And then when I went to testify against Juan, I was answering exactly the way his lawyers asked me to answer.

And Juan won the trial. Right. He won the trial because I helped him to win the trial. I took guilty on something. That means we were charged on the same thing. I was guilty and he found not guilty on the same thing. In that time when he went to talk to my sleep and fall lawyer went to talk to a prosecutor. He told them that they want 15 years for me and they want the $12 million.

And they want whatever, you know, I had and they want, they took for me three houses, five or six apartments, seven cars. I bought my car from, from, from, from, from, from, from, from, from, Stewart had a Ferrari from Rhode Stewart. I had a motorcycle from Sylvester, you know. I had all those toys and they took everything and gave me only 15 years. Good people. Good people. And I spoke to my mom. My mom said, listen, you already four years inside without the trial. You're four years inside, probably good behavior another year and you just need to to make another nine years and that's it. Fuck, just another.

How does it sound? It sounds so fast, nine years. Can you imagine? Yeah, that's nine years. You understand me. I can't imagine. You've been there. You understand what is this tort, you know,

it's a long time. Long time, nine years. But I agree, I didn't have no choice. Yeah, yeah. And that's it. I pleaded guilty. Everything is blah, blah, blah. And then I needed to go to sentencing.

night before sentencing, I couldn't sleep. But I'm in federal jail downtown Miami, and I couldn't sleep and I knocked the door and the guy came and I said, can you lock me in a prison library? They locked me in a prison library and I'm thousand books over there and I'm going between the books and I'm finding a book, you know, checking, checking.

Then I found a little tiny book that says, guidelines. I don't know why I even picked up that book. And I'm checking and I'm looking and it's interesting. One of the, half of the book, it says if they're catching you with something. And half of the book, if they're not catching you with anything. Now, the guidelines completely different. I was charged with 40 tons of drugs. charged, but it was a conspiracy. That means it was not there, the 40 tons of drugs. That means the guideline should be different.

It's called dry conspiracy. Dry conspiracy, but the drug were not even there were not planned. And I see the guidelines is different. And something hit me, it was a paragraph 49. Something hit me, and I said, it's incredible. Oh my God, I think something is wrong. Somebody lied to me.

Somebody are not telling me the truth. Something is definitely going on behind my back. Because guidelines are different. I'm nervous, angry, knocking back, you know, they're bringing me back to the cell, 5 o'clock in the morning, taking shower, and they're taking me to Fort Lauderdale Federal Court. My judge is a black judge. everybody told me that if somebody will pick up a judge handpick that would take this judge one of the fairest judge between all of them his name is wilkie ferguson today the federal court in fort lauderdale named wilkie ferguson after he's this guy and uh i'm going in front of the

judge and with my divorce lawyer and I want to see the picture. How is this going to work? I see everybody is there. My rabbi is also there. And then some Kabbalah guy came from New York. Older guy, Kabbalah guy. You know where there's a Kabbal? No. It's a Jewish Jewish secret mystery. You never heard. I mean, it's like Abraadabra something. Okay. Like a mystic. Mistake. Those people know how to do things. Read, Kamala, just checking. I mean, you're going to love what you're going to see.

Anyway, the judge come and he said, are you guilty? And I said, are you guilty? I said, yes, Judge, I'm guilty. Okay, you're guilty. And the prosecutor said, the plea bargain agreement is here. We are forfeiting for him this, this, this business and that. I own 23 businesses in that time. all different businesses, legally, making money, legally paying taxes, everything, 23 business.

They want to take all the businesses, my real estate, my money, my everything, and they're just giving me 15 years. That's it, not 35, good people. And then everything is done, basically, and Judge is saying a last word, and I'm getting up, and I'm so nervous that I'm calling my lawyer, and I'm telling him, Bruce, I saw today in the morning, paragraph 49, and paragraph 49 says that they're not giving me the right time. And Judge said, what's going on over there? And my lawyer turning around and proudly answering, because God's talking to him, saying, Judge, that gentleman saw today a book, and it says, paragraph 49, that, they charging you the wrong guideline.

And Judge said, paragraph 49 and what book? And lawyer asking me what book? I said, Bruce, I don't know what book. I don't know, some guidelines. I don't know what book, but I saw it. And the guy said, hold on, hold on, hold on. What are you trying to tell me? And lawyer said, he's sold something and explained to him what I saw.

Judge said, you know what? I'm taking 15 minutes recess. Find me that paragraph and present it to me. me, I want to look at it. And he's living. Me, we don't have nothing on a table. Nothing, empty table. And now my life is running in front of my eyes,

you know, I'm devastated. 15 minutes passed by, they're saying, court is coming, you know, we all got up, we all got up. Judge came, he's sitting in his chair. And he said, I'm proceeding. While I was in my chamber, I found the paragraph 49.

Everybody in court said, what? Judge found the paragraph 49? And my judge said, Ms. Fernandez, my prosecutor, get up. She got up and he said, Ms. Fernandez, when you were charging him with 40 tons of drugs, where did he get the amount of drugs?

And she said, Judge, we calculate it if you will take the missiles and torpedoes out of the submarine, the capacity of the submarine can carry 40 tons of drugs. Just said, what? That's how you got 40 tons of drugs in your accuses, Ms. Fernandez. And what if he would buy a Boeing 747 with a 100 ton capacity? How would you charge him? And she said, oh, Judge, I would charge him with 100 tons of drugs.

And I said, wow, really interesting. And what if he would buy a ship, Ms. Fernandez? I would charge him. And he said, you dumb, Ms. Fernandez. And she said, Josh, how are you talking to me? And he said, sit down. This is my courtroom. Sit right there.

people were in shock whatever was happening there we could not believe can you imagine judge is fighting with the prosecutor we were looking at and then Josh look like that me in my heart do do do do do do do I'm looking at him looking this looking and then Josh taking writing something taking this thing he said mister you're free to go

He let you let you go. So. So what was it? He gave you time served? Time served. So you found guilty, but time served. I signed plea, bargain agreement, 15 years. Right.

And he told me, you're free to go. I cannot even tell you what happened in my heart. First thing, the white thing can bloom. The first thing I did. I jumped over the table and I run to kiss the judge. Math, they hit me so hard. They hit me so hard. They pepper spray and they was beating me with those sticks.

And they arrested me again. They handcuffed me. I was running to kiss the judge. Nobody could believe what happened. I turned around and my rabbi said, I told you, everything was made up upstairs after you gave us the message. Honest truth that God going to help me, you know, everything what I do, that it's a completely true story. You never heard the story like that. You're never going to hear a story like that. You would not believe nobody in a court believe what happened.

Nobody could even anticipate something like that. I left. I asked voluntarily to be deported from the United States. I didn't want to live in this country any longer. After everything I found out, everything I saw, after all the garbage and the bullshit and lies and made up stories, after everything would happen to me, I didn't want to stay in this country one day.

I had the green card was revoked. I was supposed to get American citizens. Citizenship was revoked. Everything was revoked on a made-up stories. Everything was done to me. They knew exactly what they're doing. They were punishing me because I was a rich guy, successful guy. And I was a very good example to everybody.

I didn't do nothing wrong in the United States. Never bought drugs, never sold drugs, never did anything in the United States outside of the country. Yes, I am guilty. Yes, I can say this by now. I did things outside of the United States. We can talk and talk and talk and talk and we're probably going to meet again. I'm enjoying your company. You're really cool guy.

I see the way you're taking my story. I see that you're not, you're not. You're giving shit about that. I mean, and you understand me completely. I'm going to finish my story with one more thing. I was deported to Israel, where I wanted to be deported. I was flying with the handcuffs. I don't know, like I would be jumping.

I was free, but they transported me with the handcuffs. It's like almost 10-hour flight. and, you know, agent who took me, he was falling asleep and I was waking up, you know, pulling my, you know, the bracelet. 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 the night or all of the above. That's where Ghostbed can help. As the makers of the coolest beds in the world, Ghost Bed is your go-to for cooling mattresses, cooling pillows, and cooling bedding. From their signature ghost ice fabric to patented technology that adjusts to your body's temperature,

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Even better, our listeners can get 50% off sitewide for a limited time. Just visit ghostbed.com slash Cox and use the code Cox at checkout. Again, that's ghostbed.com slash Cox with the code Cox at the checkout to save a whopping 50% off sitewide. When they got to Israel, he brought me with the handcuffs to the police station and airport. And the officers right away told him, take the handcuffs immediately away from him. He is not guilty in this country. To Kov, all the newspapers, Israeli newspapers were full of a story. Our godfather came back.

The friend of Pablo Escobar is finally arriving. I mean, it was such a publicity for me in the newspapers that I didn't pay in any restaurant for three months. I didn't pay for the taxi, for the bus, nobody wanted to charge the money for me. Everybody were running after me just to take the autograph, you know, just for me to sign something for them because I was like a celebrity.

I opened a nightclub in Tel Aviv. And I was released in 1999. By the end of 1999, it was a new year. I received a call from my lawyer. He said one of the retired FBI agents wanted to talk to me. From the time I was released, till then it was three, four months. And then the guy called me, and he said, my name is Robert Levinson. I'm a retired FBI agent. I'm the one who started investigation against you.

And I'm retired and I would like to do me if you can do me a favor, if you can answer a question. And I said, why would I? He said, it's a private question. I have nothing to do actually with the case. And I said, go ahead. And he said, I need your opinion. I said, all right. He said, please, please. You probably didn't know about that. But in your case, we have seven dead bodies. I said, what are you talking about? And he said, after you were released from jail, your prosecutor died in age of 43.

Judge died of age of 42. This is all in a period three months. two FBI agents who was investigating you Darry in a car accident in Florida, Tompike. The guy who wrote the book about you against you will, Robert Friedman, died from a very mysterious disease. The main witness against you died on operational table.

He was getting operated and one of his vein got clogged and he died. I want to ask your opinion. I said, are you accusing me of something? And he said, no, you will not even hear? I just want to know your opinion. What do you think is happening?

I said, wow, right now it's explained to me. I said, you know what is a boomerang? You know, what is a karma? You know what I mean, Judge, I don't know, to be honest with you, Judge is the one who saved my life, the black guy. He said, no, but I said the rest is a karma. I spoke to Robert Levinson in 2000. In 2004, Robert Levinson was kidnapped by in Iran and was beheaded.

I'm going to finish my story today with that. It is something interesting to look into. Everything what it says is true. You can, you know, check, but I'm sure we're going to meet again. Yeah, I'm sure. What about your podcast? You're starting a podcast? I'm planning, you know what? Maybe you're gonna help us because you mentioned this.

I'm planning to stop podcast. I don't know if I can allow to say about my club and a bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, because you came back from Israel. Now you're back in Miami. Yeah. You started a new, it's a double club. Yeah, it's a double club.

A restaurant is gonna call Red Sucreux. Submarine. The club, it's a jazz and blues club. It's going to call Red Note. And it's going to be under one house place. It's going to be calling Mr. Tarzan. And starting my podcast and starting to work on some social media, some great group of people helping me.

And we're working together on some maybe book deal, movie deal. And like I said, again, hope to see you again and to be in some other different podcasts. But I would like people to watch, you know, meet Mr. Tarzan on social media. And I'm inviting everybody to a nightclub which called Red Submarine inside is going to be like a sub. Yeah. Great great food and a show. When are they opening? Planning to August, September.

Right now in the middle of building it. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate you, you know, I appreciate you. I appreciate you coming down. I appreciate your time. You're a great guy. And we love your podcasts.

And good luck with everything you do. Okay. My pleasure to meet you. All right. Nice to meet you. Thank you. Hey, you guys. I appreciate you watching.

Do me favor. Hit the subscribe button at the bell so you get notified of videos just like this. Also, I'm going to be, we're going to take all of Tarzan's links for his social media for the website for, um, his restaurant, we're gonna leave them all in the description box. You can go there, click on it, you can follow him, follow his YouTube channel. You can also go find out where the club is going to be.

Check it out, go by, have dinner, have a drink. Once again, appreciate it so much. Please share the video, thank you very much. See ya.