Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Real Life Scarface Survives Attacks & Make Millions...

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Ian Pedersen shares his life story and how crime helped him make millions. His story crosses paths with Shaun Attwood, Sammy The Bull, & Many more. Get 15% when you use my link https://buy.ver....so/cox , this will auto apply the code "COX" when clicked. Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. Ian's Links Forward Momentum Podcast-With Ian Pedersen  https://youtube.com/@forwardmomentum-1 IG @The_Real_Ian_Pedersen FB https://www.facebook.com/ian.pedersen.1 Website SourceCBD.com Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7 Send me an email here: insidetruecrime@gmail.com Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content? Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime 📧Sign up to my newsletter to learn about Real Estate, Credit, and Growing a Youtube Channel: https://mattcoxcourses.com/news   🏦Raising & Building Credit Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/credit 📸Growing a YouTube Channel Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/yt 🏠Make money with Real Estate Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/re 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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 As I'm getting up there, I see the lights coming. 253 stitches. Those guys were the crew of Sammy Gravano. You'll never find me saying anything illegal on the phone. So in Walk, Sean Atwood, you'll call me tomorrow and tell me if you want to cooperate or not. Deal. Stuck out my hand. He didn't know what he was shaken to.
Starting point is 00:00:19 He had no idea what he was shaken to. I think we all have incidents in our life that change us. When I was five years old, I was my birthday, and I was walking outside. I remember looking at my birthday cake and walked outside and we had a pit bull out back. His name was Tarsus. He was on the chain for the first time in probably the summer, hot summer day out. It's hot as hell in Arizona, like 120 degrees. And I walked out back and he had his face in his bowl and just turned around and boom, hit me like a ton of bricks.
Starting point is 00:00:52 And so I don't know if you can see this scar right here. Right. ended up hitting me and biting me pretty good, ended up getting rushed to the hospital and 253 stitches, completely ripped my face apart. I think these moments change our life significantly. I actually don't have a picture of myself looking back without this scar. You know, it's basically my memory of myself. You know what I mean? And I'm actually happy because, you know, as usual hearing the story going through life, you know, we all become who we are by, I think, certain defining moments. And that was a little one that was going to set the course for me.
Starting point is 00:01:27 Growing up with a big ass scar on your face and growing up not as big as the other kids was something that always pushed me to want to try a little harder. You know what I mean? So in our little town, you know, in many towns across the United States, people bring in many different things. And this time they brought in psychedelics. And for me, it was red sunshine with some psychedelic. and I tried it and it was an amazing experience you know you seem to go over everything that you
Starting point is 00:01:58 already know your mind you know your mind is at a state that you seem to be going over everything that you already know you can't think about let's put this way you can't think about anything that you haven't already thought of so you're in your mind you'll probably be going back over for whatever reading things that you already know is you're doing them I get in the car I do this I say hello to my friend, and you start to realize in a more present way that you're doing something. And you may realize that you're doing something in a way because you're doing it a more present way, that maybe you're doing it in a way that is either incorrect for how you feel. You know, it's a contemplative substance, you know.
Starting point is 00:02:41 And so I would say it presents the journey inward. I thought it was very interesting. And so probably for the next few periods, like a month and another month or weekends, me and my friends would, we would trip. We would all get together and trip. And I ended up meeting a guy by the name of Maya that came to town. And he then was supplying the entire town. Okay. So, I mean, are you selling?
Starting point is 00:03:05 Did you start selling it? Well, that's kind of the window right there. So I'm hanging out with the guys. I'm not really, you know, I'm not just involved having a good time, just on the peripherals. Just a kid. Yeah, just a kid, you know. And I meet Maya. Well, Maya is a serious dealer.
Starting point is 00:03:20 Now, he's only a year, year and a half older than me. But Maya's living on his own. Maya's from the northwest, Washington, San Francisco area. And, you know, he's dealing significant amounts. I started picking up sheets from him because, again, at the time, you could probably get a sheet for $200. That's $2 a piece because you're getting 100 units at the time. So this is my— So I'm five bucks.
Starting point is 00:03:46 So this is my introductory to business school at the time. I started selling just single hits to people. There's little parties in the weekend. We got little bonfire parties and stuff like that. But I'm not the type of guy to break it up and to put it into little baggies or anything like that because I'm risk-averse. Right. You know, a lot of people like to take risks. Just like my father, incredibly risk-averse.
Starting point is 00:04:11 You think that people that do things that are, you know, risky, they're either. They either do it in a stupid way. But they do it in a calculative way. I lean more towards the calculative way. If I can't get it done within the high 90th percentile, I'm not touching it. If I don't have at least 89% of, you know, in my head and I factor in all the factors that I'm not even, I'm not even looking at it. And that usually being the high 90th percentile success rate where I feel like I can do something. So start breaking it down.
Starting point is 00:04:38 But I don't do it like everybody else. I'll keep it in my book at school, but I'll break them up into little pieces and have them already ready and only have a certain amount on me. exposure, always wanting to just risk, you know, I mean, even as a kid, you know, at risk averse, not trying to get into any trouble, you know, so. Yeah, I mean, you're thinking, so just to be clear, you're thinking I want to have, I want to have an amount that says I'm a user and not a dealer. Yeah, if I just have enough that I go to school with and I have enough to get through the day, and I can get rid of it quickly, and I've got it broken up into pieces that are ready to serve, just the, it's a little piece of paper for anybody has never seen it. It's not coming in liquid at the time and typically is not distributed that way. unless you're getting it from some of that's really, really in the scene, you know, and it's actually very difficult to lay and to work with.
Starting point is 00:05:23 So paper is much more convenient. So these little pieces of paper, and I would break it up, and I remember in my mythology book, I had a mythology book, and I would break it up into there, and people would come and see me in the courtyard, break it up,
Starting point is 00:05:34 and they'd be like, what do I do with it? You take it. You know what I mean? You'd take it right now. And I could easily just get rid of it, you know? So this is my, like, little introductory. People are now tripping at school. And basically getting people,
Starting point is 00:05:46 getting people to experience you know some people would freak out without a doubt some people couldn't handle some people didn't understand that it was changing their perspective or that they were seeing things in it in a different light it doesn't make you see things you don't start to manufacture visions you know it just starts to kind of twist your brain a little bit to where you're thinking in different ways so long story short I like the fact that I can make a little bit of money with it but we're also getting into into swag at the time Mexican brick that comes across the border.
Starting point is 00:06:18 So for me, my first lesson was getting a pound away and learning about breaking it down. Okay. So you get a pound at 64 quarters. You can sell those for 20 bucks a piece. And if you can break that down, you're at 1240. So you take a $600 pound that you can get typically on front because, again, that's the way the system works. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:06:38 Because there's so much of it. Right. People are looking typically to front it. So I remember getting my first pound from a guy by the name of it. of Joel Chamberlain and the only person, the only names that I'll mention today are people that are passed away, essentially. But Joel was the first person that I got a pound from. He was a friend of mine's older brother. He was also in the scene doing his thing, but I didn't really deal with him. But he was a friend of my older brothers, and so he knew I was cool. So anyways, ended up getting
Starting point is 00:07:08 my first pound from him and breaking it down. And I thought I was going to be, again, this is the first little step to be in, I guess, an entrepreneur. I thought, I'm going to do it different. Everybody sells a seven gram sack. That's, you know, there's 448 grams in a pound. So, you know, seven grams, 64. I say, I'm going to do an eight grams. So I'm going to give just an extra gram to everybody, you know, a little marketing because everybody else sells the same one. Right. But I want to do something a little bit different, you know. So I do that, but I don't realize that if I do that, I'm losing out, essentially, a percentage. So if you break that down already, I'm maybe 20% down.
Starting point is 00:07:49 So then I'm going to smoke some. Me and my friends are going to roll up the big blunts, you know, and by the time I'm all done with it, even though I think I'm doing good marketing, I'm probably just going to make enough money to pay the guy back. Right. So I end up going through that for a little while. And despite the fact that I'm trying to come up and trying to do well, I'm not really doing anything, you know.
Starting point is 00:08:11 So, I end up moving along and getting into, this is where the rave scene starts to happen a little bit more. Now I'm in high school, probably my junior year, and we're going to rave parties. Psychedelics are a big thing, so we're all going to the rave parties. Everybody's doing psychedelics. I'm not really, you know, I've sold some, I'm not, I'm not a dealer at this point, really. You know, I'm just, you know, doing my thing. end up getting into the scene a little bit and connecting with a friend by name R.J. He has a connect with a guy that he works with and funds him to do certain projects.
Starting point is 00:08:53 RJ is out in the streets and this guy is kind of behind the scenes. And the reason I mention him is because I'll end up working with this guy later on. So I end up hanging out with R.J. And RJ, we go to Tucson maybe sometimes on trips to pick up. pick up trash bags full of bricks. Interesting things about picking up weight, counting money. The first time I'm ever learning to count lots of money. So we're sitting there counting thousands and thousands of dollars in his car.
Starting point is 00:09:24 I remember telling me, face it, face it. I'm like, what do you mean face it? You've got to face the bills. Got to face the bills. Won't take it unless it's faced. I'm like, bank? But yeah, apparently face the bills. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:09:34 That's the first thing I learned in the industry is you face all your bills. you know what that means you you put them face the face like a bank yeah like a bank would want them okay face them you'd you flip the bill face over because if it's all mixed even if the same denomination they just don't take it like that right you know what i mean okay i'm not exactly sure why you know i mean it's just but i guess you know the ban you know a professional you know a little professionalism you know so the first time i'm learning you know what i mean counting you know six seven eight thousand dollars in the back and then boom we're rolling with a trash bag. No, I'm just a kid. I have no vested interest in this. I'm just hanging out
Starting point is 00:10:11 with my friend. We're just cruising. But there's a trash bag, literally sitting in the back of the car. Because if you get pulled over, it doesn't mean, it doesn't matter if it's in the trunk or if it's in the back. You're done. You're done. You might as well have it in the seat next to you. You know what I mean? Like, you're done. You know what I mean? And it's actually hilarious because RJ would at times, of course, if we were carrying weight drive normal. At other times, when we sometimes have weight, you know what I mean? He'd be pulling four lane changes in Phoenix. I don't know if you've like, you know what I mean, without, you know, just blatantly,
Starting point is 00:10:43 you know what I mean, driving kind of crazy. Just a wild kid. Me and RJ end up linking up in Phoenix with his guy named Schooley. He was the type of guy that used to throw rave parties down in Phoenix. We talk a lot about crime on this show, but let's face it, some of the biggest crimes are committed by the government. You've heard the story before. Big Pharma swoops in to take control.
Starting point is 00:11:05 Now, the FDA is trying to reclassify NMN a natural compound in foods like broccoli and avocados as a pharmaceutical drug. Why? Because NMN is so effective they want to turn it into a pricey drug, keeping its health benefits out of the reach of most people. It's likely they're setting the stage for Big Pharma to profit, making it hard for us to access something that could dramatically support our life. The truth is, I lost over a decade in federal prison. So I want to stay as healthy as long as possible. I'm 55 years old and I'm not ready to slow down. I stay active, eat right, and do all the things that we're supposed to do. But that only gets you so far.
Starting point is 00:11:44 That's when I started looking for an NMN supplement. Something backed by real science. After some research, I found cell being by Verso. It's loaded with NMN Resveratrol and TMG. These ingredients work together and are proven to boost your NAD levels, which basically is the fuel that powers the trillions of cells in your body. I've been taking cell being for a while now, and I've noticed a huge change. I feel sharper, more energized, and just younger.
Starting point is 00:12:12 While NMN was recognized as a safe supplement, the FDA made a decision that will make it harder for you and me to get this powerful compound unless we're willing to pay pharmaceutical prices. It makes you wonder who's really benefiting from this change. Don't wait until it's too late to support your body with something that could change the way you age. Click the link in the description box or head over to Verso, V-E-R dot-S-O,
Starting point is 00:12:38 and use the promo code, Cox, for 15% off your first order. Get it while you still can and take control of your health before the FDA and Big Pharma take it out of your hands. So we're connected with the guys that are essentially throwing the events down in Phoenix.
Starting point is 00:12:53 And we would go down there and I would just go with RJ and deliver packs, which essentially packs of mushroom pounds of mushrooms and or GHP at the time you know for a period of a year and a half i'm with rj every day we're just you know we're either going to ray parks in california meeting people going to tucson um just cruising around you know doing he's dealing and i'm hanging out with him you know enjoying ourselves uh so we end up going um to schoolie's house and um you know when you're in a
Starting point is 00:13:24 situation that can immediately turn bad so We're in a house, and I know this guy is one of the main dudes in Phoenix. Well, not a house. We're an apartment, but I know he's one of the main dudes. And he's no longer alive, this guy's schooling. He's passed away as well. But sitting there, and we've just brought in, I think RJ has two gallons of the GHP, which was conspicuously brought in these moonshine containers.
Starting point is 00:13:58 Right. You know, so it doesn't look like. You know what I mean? You know. So it looks like something else that's a little. Or like you could put kombucha in or something. You know what I mean? But they're very conspicuous.
Starting point is 00:14:08 They're like, I don't even ever seen a moonshine container that these big, thick kind of like cement looking huge casks, you know. And in walk Sean Atwood. Oh, okay. There you go. And so Schoolie is his guy. And I think he's referred to him as Skinner. I've never heard him refer to him as Schooley. But Schooley, we call him Schooley because he had schoolhouse productions, which was
Starting point is 00:14:30 an event company that would throw these rave parties. So inwalk, Sean Atwood, baldhead, people would call him English, Sean. We used to refer to him as British Sean, and I'll clarify again, because Brits don't like to be called English, because they're British, not English, you know. So he walks in, lambskin jacket, bald head, and immediately him and Schooley go into the kitchen and he pops out 13 ounces of peach glass. I don't know, which is the earliest of amphetamine at the time, like, which is what everybody's probably, I'm not in that scene at all, but he whips it out and says, oh, I just got this 13 ounces. He just flew back from Los Angeles.
Starting point is 00:15:13 So he was just flying back from one of his connects that he used to have his main connects out there, I'm sure, for his other guys, not trying to put you on blast. Sean, I know your career is already done and you're on to bigger and better things, but I remember you recalling and saying how it spelled like peaches and was stinking up the plane and it did it literally you could the odor you know right here so i'm sitting in this apartment um just waiting for the door to get kicked in because this the type of apartments you're just waiting for somebody to kick in the door with a shotgun right because they know that you live there and they know that you have plenty of drugs on hand at any given time so you're not thinking the cops you're thinking oh yeah oh not the cops at all
Starting point is 00:15:49 i'm sitting there thinking i want to get the out of here because i know exactly i mean at any time do you know what i mean and yeah and he ended up getting rolled later on in the bathroom of a club. I think... Who did? Schoolie. Yeah, he got his teeth knocked out over about... I think it was about five or six G's,
Starting point is 00:16:07 because I remember meeting up with him, his girlfriend and RJ, well, me and RJ, but Schooley didn't want to... You know what I mean? Right. You know what I'm saying? With his girlfriend and their black Mercedes two-door. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:16:20 Okay. Anyways, so later on, probably... Three months later, we're in a club called Club Freedom. So I'm hanging out with my good friend GP at the time, God rest his soul, and RJ and my girlfriend, Jessica, at the time. And we're there enjoying ourselves, having a good old time. My friend GP is wearing this J5 shirt, Jurassic 5, this hip-hop group shirt, and it's like a blue shirt with a big yellow J-5 on the back. So it just kind of gets a lot of attention, right? And so he comes up to me and he says, hey, this dude came over.
Starting point is 00:16:56 to me and say he wanted to buy some pills. Well, I don't have any pills, but I don't know RG does RG does he has any? I was like, well, yeah. So I, you know, you got it? He's like, yeah, okay, cool. So I said, go over and talk to him and find out what he wants. So he goes over, and he talks to him and the dude's like, yeah, he's pills, you know what I mean? So I said, talk to him over there, but don't bring him over here, right? Next thing you know, I look up and the dude's standing there with my friend. And my friend, GP, I'm not exactly sure why, but, and I'm not sure why he brought him over, and likely the guy saw that we were over there. It's like a two-story club, and, you know, he's on one side.
Starting point is 00:17:35 It's like a big opening. You know what I mean? You know, like, you know, because of the dance floor. Yeah. You know, and so we're on the perimeter. We're on one side. He's on the other. Anyways, he comes over and it's this big old dude, right?
Starting point is 00:17:46 He's like, you know, I get some pills. And I was like, so looked at RJ and he's like that. And so I was like, well, how many can I get? And I was like, how many you want? And he's like, how many you got? Now, this is, when you're a kid, and anybody asked you that question, you've got to be about the dumbest person to answer. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:18:04 How many you got? Okay, you know what I mean? I like your shoes. What size are they? You know what I mean? I'm about to take them off you. You know what I'm saying? Anyways, but, you know, young, so how many you got?
Starting point is 00:18:15 Are just like, I'm about 200 on me. You know what I mean? 200. He's like 20 piece. Boom. Okay, four. You know what I mean? Agreed to four G's, you know, four.
Starting point is 00:18:23 Right. We just, you know, you don't, you know, $4,000, you know, you just say four. You know, I mean, okay, boom. See, I would be thinking police. No, not thinking police. You know what I mean? The tattoos, you know what I mean? And this is at the 90s, bro.
Starting point is 00:18:35 Yeah, yeah. I mean, even now, now all... Law enforcement had tattoos. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, military. Yeah, hell yeah. You know what I mean? And they're your best friend, and they're the dude at the bar, by the way.
Starting point is 00:18:45 So, you know what I mean? You know, I'm selling you. They're, you know what I mean? So it counts out four grand? No. No? No. No.
Starting point is 00:18:53 He grabs my wrist, puts his hand on my wrist. wrist like this and says, I'm an undercover cop. See? The police are outside. This isn't true, though. It's all bullshit. Sorry. You're coming with me.
Starting point is 00:19:10 And I look at him, and I'm holding the pills in my hand in a cellophane. You know, a cigarette cellophane goes about this tall. Holding all the pills to the top, unsealed. You know, you could seal the cellophon back in the day. I don't know. You know what I mean? Yeah. You're probably in prison.
Starting point is 00:19:26 They probably seal it and keyster it. I don't know what I do with it. Anyway, I'm just joking. But anyways, I'm holding the pill, and it's open, and he's got his hand on me. And I just say, what pills? And I just go like this with my hand. No motion, just drop them. And you can just see all the, just, I mean, I didn't tell, I don't know, I just dropped it.
Starting point is 00:19:43 You know what I mean? What pills? And immediately my friend GP, my man right now, put his hand on his wrist. So he gets your hand off my friend. and immediately we're in the club there's tons of people around immediately i slipped and turned right had just enough time to get out of there right boom and i don't know what's happened right now my friend gp and but they it was just long enough to distract them because they didn't they didn't go at it or anything and then boom i'm upstairs run down the thing dip downstairs and i go downstairs and
Starting point is 00:20:16 i see this at the dance floor everybody's dancing i know i can't i see the corridor to get out there's no way like i know that i still And thinking, if I try to go out there, he could have a dude out there. I mean, like, why wouldn't he have somebody running a point? Right. You know what are you thinking it? Are you thinking he was a cop at this point? No, no, not at all.
Starting point is 00:20:33 No, dude, no, bullshit. I could tell the dude, they're outside. No, that. You know what I mean? You just, you could feel it. You know what I mean? You came in here by yourself, right? You could feel it.
Starting point is 00:20:42 You know what I mean? He had another dude standing with it. Oh, did he? Oh, no. It wasn't just him. No, it was two fuck dudes. You know what I mean? But I didn't, that dude had kind of like, he wasn't standing with him when we first came up.
Starting point is 00:20:51 Right. But once he had his hand on me, that dude all of a sudden was there. You know what I mean? So I ran downstairs and I was out and got down to the bottom and I saw a guy that I knew. And this is actually hilarious because, again, I wasn't a dealer at the time. I had tried to sell like, and I'd done it at school, but I tried to sell it once at a raid party. And I wanted to go dance. I got into break dancing and like seriously like into the music.
Starting point is 00:21:13 And, you know, it was just more into the culture of it, right? So I saw this kid His name is John or Johnny I can't recall his name He's wearing an Adidas hat And I'm like dude I'm in some shit right now I'm not the type of guy to be
Starting point is 00:21:28 Like just trying to explain to him I'm not the guy I'm not usually the guy Because I'm not my friend RG I'm not the guy that's dealing constantly at the shows But I need your hat right now You know what I mean
Starting point is 00:21:38 And he gave me his hat It was like this blue Adidas hat And back in the day Ravers We used always wear our hats Like this So I put it on and just started You know what I mean? Just dancing, boom.
Starting point is 00:21:48 And then I see dudes swarming all around on the dance floor. Like looking for me. They think that I'm somewhere in the club because I haven't left yet. You know what I mean? And I'm dancing, dancing. And then I find that I see them dip and kind of go the other way and I get it clear. And I just break for it. Get outside.
Starting point is 00:22:02 Get outside and get outside of my friend car. RJ's out there. GP is, I don't know where he is. And my girlfriend, I'm like, go back and get the pill. She's like, where are the pill? I'm like, they're on the floor. She goes back inside and she's crawling around the floor. floor with some girl. Everybody's dancing. I have no idea. And there's hundreds of pills on the
Starting point is 00:22:20 floor. And she's crawling on the floor trying to get all the pills back. You know what I mean? She doesn't get like 80 of them back. You know what I mean? And a 200. Yeah, oh, God. You know what I mean? My friend took a, he took an L. You know what I mean on that one, you know? But yeah, just crazy stories. And it turns out those guys are the same guys that rolled schoolie. Those guys were also, interestingly enough, the crew of Sammy Gravano, Sammy the Brogavon. Bono Sons, if you're, as you know, the most famous guy that was a hitman for John Gotti, living in Scottsdale at the time, running the ring. He was rolling all the dealers in all the clubs and taking market share.
Starting point is 00:22:59 And we were just one of the kids that after that, boom, you got pills in the club and roll you. Was he on, was he in witness protection at the time? He was in the witness protection program. This is way before any of this came out. He's in the witness protection program. him. His sons are running a crew. I don't know exactly what the situation was with these dudes. Obviously, they were his son's crew. You know what I mean? Sean had speculated there were some biker dudes that may have been contracted out. He said his name was Gordon because I asked to do what
Starting point is 00:23:29 his name was. He said, Gordon. Yeah. Who knows? Yeah. Maybe, I mean, did they ever get those guys ever get arrested that you know of? I assume that their entire crew. I didn't know. Yeah, I assume that all those guys rolled on each other and you know what I mean so after a high school after graduating high school I say well you know I want to grow kind budd what if I do what's going to happen I might as well look up the laws and find out so if I grow over 99 plans it's federal and I'm looking at 20 plus years if I grow under that and I have a certain amount of weight then I'm looking at state laws I'm looking at in a zero tolerant state Arizona in the 1990s pre-medical um two to five for your first defense if you get caught with over 10 you know what I
Starting point is 00:24:15 mean I know it's nothing it's it's child's play you know what I mean I can do that Matt did that standing on his head it's not worth unpacking I know seriously you know what I mean still you're still sitting uh you still shit McDonald's by the time you get out there you go there you go so I decided to find out what the limits were and really what I was getting myself into because you always want to you know look before you leap most people don't, but I'm the type of person. Again, incredibly calculative. I'm going to come back to look before you leave. You know what I'm saying? So I go into this endeavor with a friend of mine. At first, we were growing small plants and then we learned to grow trees. That's what I learned,
Starting point is 00:24:50 essentially. If you take a plant through its full life cycle and a cutting, put it in a cutting chamber for about two weeks, you pull it out and veg it for two months, you can get a plant that's going to be about this tall. It's going to double its size based on the variety. it could triple it, you know, depending on Indica or Stifah. But in this case, we're growing on Afghani-based Indica. We're going back to the Afghani, we're talking about these Afghan genetics. And the strain was called blueberry, and it was essentially the first, some of the first strains that were developed specifically for cancer and for people with end-of-life cancer pain,
Starting point is 00:25:31 because it was that strong that overtaking morphine, you could use this cannabis. And you could still function, though. very short, I start to learn the cultivation process. And now, of course, we've got to sell it as we start to grow it. We've got to figure out who to sell it to. And I'm, of course, I know plenty of people. But I know a couple of guys that I feel can take on the opportunity. And again, I'm not the type of person to just go, I'm not, I'm not 16 anymore. I'm not selling sacks. You know, I'm not, you know, I'm not that type of person. You know what I mean? I'm well past that. I'm already past the court, you know.
Starting point is 00:26:05 Well, how much are you producing? Well, in the beginning, our first plant, we probably got two pounds off of, or not a plant, our first set of plants, maybe four plants. We got two pounds off, maybe eight ounces off each plant. Right. But the key was finding somebody to distribute it to. Because if you could even find a pound of kind bud in 2001, in Arizona. Right. It was in one place. Super expensive. Super expensive. It would be $4,800 minimum. You know what I mean? For me, I found two guys that I knew these. twins, and I won't mention their names, they're twins, and really solid dudes. And I would only bless them with it, straight up. These are the only guys that I would deal with. So as just a younger person, I mean, let's see here, it's 70, 88, 98, I'm 20, you know, just 20 at the time, you know, and working at a restaurant, still doing my thing, obviously. But then now, I've got these two guys that'll take pounds off of me for $4,000 a piece. And I'm giving them a good deal, you know what I mean, at 4,000 apiece.
Starting point is 00:27:11 And so I end up working with them for the next probably six months to a year as we build things up. And these are the type of guys that are dependable, type of guys you want to deal with. Type of guys, when you do a deal with them, maybe you leave a nice gesture. My friend used to like to drink Bombay. He's like gin, so I bring him a bottle of Bombay-Safire gin. You know, do good business, right? You know, have a little bit of, a little bit of, like, a little bit of respect, a little bit of love in it. So we move on.
Starting point is 00:27:44 We're doing great with the operation, and it's my first taste of success, making, getting into that five, six figures, you know what I mean? Which is great. You know, for just some guys that are making money, four or five pounds, doing our little every bi-monthly thing. They're picking up two pounds. For me to see, for me to see, you know, to see $10,000 from a bank. It's one thing. You see $10,000 just getting a quick payment. $10,000 in the streets is like this. What do you mean to see $10,000 from a bank?
Starting point is 00:28:14 From a bank. $10,000 is like, it's that. Okay. $10,000 in the streets is like this. Oh, okay. It's a bunch of ones and fives and $1. There's not ones, but it's fives and $10, and some 50s. And hopefully give me some hundreds.
Starting point is 00:28:28 But hey, they weren't paying in hundreds. You know what I mean? It's that. Right. You know what I mean? And so I was going, you know, and it felt good to be a young guy. Yeah, that's why it's. It's always whenever you see these guys with the duffel bags, you know, and they say like,
Starting point is 00:28:41 it's a million dollars and it's a duffel bag this fucking big. It's not, no, a million dollars, no, if, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, really, it's, it's it's not that much at all. It's, it's, it's, it's, I'm going to say, we had, we had six or seven, it's a hundred, ten stacks. Yeah, we had six or seven hundred, ten stacks will stack out. A hundred thousand and probably a shoebox, yes, but it was all hundreds, so. Yeah, yeah. But, uh, it's always, you've never, you've never, you ever watch a movie and they have like two duffel bags
Starting point is 00:29:06 Oh, yeah, the way, yeah. That's got to be like three or four million. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you just weigh. I mean, as you know, a bill weighs a gram. You know, a bill weighs a gram. You just weigh it at that point in time, you know. So how long do you get in more houses? Not at this time. So this is my first introduction. But I have I have learned at this time how to be an A grade cultivator. I'm putting out some of the best product in Arizona without a doubt. I mean, there's, Probably nobody touching what I'm doing, and I'm doing it with love. See, my girlfriend comes back from New York. She doesn't want to be in New York anymore. 9-11s happened. Right. She decides that next, it would be like the next summer or something, I think, which would be about right timing.
Starting point is 00:29:50 She decides she wants to come back. And so she's going to live with me, but we're growing. So lay down some foundational rules about growing and doing anything illegal. Don't live there. Well, you kind of have to in this case. Well, you kind of have to You have to have somebody living there Which I would learn later on
Starting point is 00:30:11 Okay, you have to have somebody living there Right. All right, which I would get that I would pick up on that one But if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself Okay, and I do know that You know what I mean, without it down So she comes back and we're living together And I've been with her for
Starting point is 00:30:26 Fow, gosh, four years at this time Five years, four or five years. We're totally in love You know what I mean? I was in love with this girl And my hun friend occasionally, like, would have to pick her up or something to work or something if I was busy doing something or, like, on a run maybe, right? Right. Because he didn't, he wore daytime landscaping, like, he'd write down the road from where you pick her up, you know. So my friend who was not attractive at all somehow thinks that my girlfriend is going to like him. Right.
Starting point is 00:31:03 So he starts to really like, he starts to fall in love with her. You know what I mean? Like we're all living together and he's like falling in love with my girlfriend. But my girlfriend at the time, as we're getting closer to a large harvest, started feeling more uneasy about staying at the house. Right. Because there's a lot of illegal activity going on. I mean, nobody's coming over. And here's a few rules.
Starting point is 00:31:26 If you have a girl house, nobody comes over. Nobody comes over. Like you don't have friends. I had my friend GP I mentioned. He was kind of one. wondering, my best friend, why I hadn't invited him to my new house for like a year. It was starting to get kind of like, what's going on, yeah. Hey, I'm up in the village, and I'm just doing a job.
Starting point is 00:31:43 I was going to drop by. No, man, you know what I mean? Like, like, a good time. Yeah, sorry. You know, and a girl would be something I would completely recommend against. Never have a girl from where you're doing it either. Because I've seen the girl get with another dude and then you're getting robbed or the girl, something happens and you're getting rolled over, you know, police, you know what I'm
Starting point is 00:32:03 mean like it's it's again taking things out of the equation you know and i obviously i was with this girl for years and she had been you know she she was a role a quote-unquote roll dog so she was not gonna you know what i mean do any of that stuff and she certainly wasn't the type to do anything like that but uh she ended up moving um back to my parents house temporarily which was like 10 miles away and then she felt awkward just staying kind of my parents so she ended moving back to her parents house she's living down in phoenix at the time and i ended up, um, hooking up with this girl, brought the girl back to the house. I just wanted to be with a girl. My girl wasn't there. I, you know what I mean? But I love, like, lonely. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:32:43 And, you know, to my fault, I brought another girl back. We were, we weren't, we weren't together, but we were together. You know what I mean? Like, still in spirit. I, you know what I mean? But she, you know, I made that mistake. And I did not have sex with her, but my friend before I could tell her, because, again, I was like, ready to marry this girl. And I was, I remember talking to a friend of him. I'm like, shit, I got a guy to tell her. I want to marry this girl. He's like, don't tell her. My other friend was like, don't tell her. And I'm like, I got to tell her. Like, I'm going to marry this girl. I want to be totally up front with her and tell her that I brought this girl back into my room. We didn't have sex, but I did play around with her. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:33:17 He ends up trying to probably proclaim his love for her. She does not hook up with him. He tells her that I have hooked up with this other girl. I do not have a chance to even be honest because I think I'm being honest with her when I tell her, but she's already knows. And so I It completely ruined that relationship, and I learned a great deal about honesty. We're, again, a year and a half into this operation. We're just ready to clock our largest harvest, probably 25 grand. You know what I mean? Maybe, I don't know, a good six pounds or something like that.
Starting point is 00:33:45 Maybe 24, probably six pounds, you know. Long story short, I come into the room and the whole room has been taken down. All the plants that aren't – we're 30 days away because it's a 60-day cycle in the main room. And he has taken down all the plants. hands. Killed them all. Just, he didn't save a single, he did it while I was at work. He didn't do it. He didn't save a single genetic. And I, you know, hard I'd work to get those genetics and in, in, five, and pheno hunt those genetics and essentially isolate. And how many, we went like six generations in, because essentially every time you take a clone from a clone from a clone and you're selecting from the best batch, you're isolating the best genetics from the plant. Why did he do it? Because I didn't know he had already told her and proclaimed his love for her and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and knew that it was going to come down with me and knew that I was going to be leaving. That maybe I would call the cops on him.
Starting point is 00:34:42 I don't know what he was thinking. You know what I mean? Like, he was probably thinking that I would get pissed and, like, rat him out for the operation. He knew the operation had to be done because he was doing some behind the back stuff. Right. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I was devastated. And it couldn't get those genetics periodically leading up to 2010.
Starting point is 00:35:04 I probably ran two or three different houses where I would find somebody. I would set them up. I would bring in the genetics, pay for all of the equipment, and say, you grow it, you cultivate it. We'll come in at the end, we'll trim it, and we're going to split it 50-50, and I'll move all the product, and I'll bring you back the 50%. You know what I mean? So a good deal on both sides, but one has a huge risk factor on one side and one has a huge risk. factor on the other person that's growing it should never be selling it if you're the grower never ever should you be the seller does that make sense yeah because what happened with those
Starting point is 00:35:37 other operations they worked out oh yeah they went all right i mean some dudes take some pills and they they they don't know how to water correct and it's never ever ever perfect and now yeah i mean you're depending on other people the stoics have a philosophy are you familiar you probably read some Yeah, Stoke philosophy. Yeah, I'm sure you read a lot of philosophy. If it depends on someone else, it gets zero percent of my attention. If it depends on me, it gets 100 percent of my attention. And if that makes sense, then a quick short narrative for you. You know what I mean? Depending on others is in Camby and Achilles. That's why services are so difficult to scale. If you sleep hot at night, you know how disruptive that can be. Whether you're having trouble falling asleep, you're waking up. You're waking up. sweating in the middle of the night or all of the above. That's where ghost bed 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
Starting point is 00:36:37 that adjust to your body's temperature, every ghost bed mattress is designed with cooling in mind. So whether you want a plusher mattress that cushions your shoulders and hips or a firm option with exceptional support, your ghost bed will keep you cool and comfortable all night long. When you purchase a ghost bed mattress, your comfort is guaranteed. You can try out your mattress for 101 nights, risk-free, to make sure it's the right fit for you. Plus, they offer free shipping, and most items are shipped within 24 hours. If you're not sure which ghost bed is right for you, check out their mattress quiz. You'll answer a few questions and get a personalized recommendation.
Starting point is 00:37:14 Even better, our listeners can get 50% off site-wide for a limited time. Just visit ghostbed.com slash coffee. 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 site wide. But to move on with the grow houses, again, depending on other people is a challenge. So off and on, I would mess with it, you know, the grow houses and keep a couple going. But again, two to three people that were semi-dependable throughout time, you know. moving on so my real opportunity came out of a bit of interesting tragedy so in 2008-9 the love for cultivation
Starting point is 00:38:08 came back a little bit I had some opportunity to get some really good genetics it was working with some guys that were cultivating at the time they were getting amazing genetics and I had lost the last genetics that I had. Because again, to start from seed and to do all, it's such a true, so you've really got to get verified genetics from somebody that you know puts out a good crop, you know? So I met some friends through my brother when he was out at the time, and they had amazing genetics. And they were some of the best, working on some of the best cultivating genetics in Arizona at the time. So I ended up getting some of these genetics, and I started working with them.
Starting point is 00:38:50 But at the time, I had an opportunity to link back up. Remember how I mentioned the guy with my friend RJ, his guy? There was a dealer that would fund my guy. We'll call him an angel. He had an angel, right? And this angel investor would call him. He would fund him to the tune of, you know, tens of thousands of dollars to pick up product and RJ would do that. Well, R.J. ended up developing a huge ketamine habit.
Starting point is 00:39:19 I ended up getting in touch with his guy through a friend of mine. I end up start moving some product in our town. And then I end up going out for a little pickup to start to pick up a little bit more. And again, I like to say that I don't like to do things in any way that I think I can get in trouble for doing them. Let's say, you know, calculative. You know what I'm saying? take all the risk out of it. So I could have easily just went out to California, a person, let's say, let's put this in the third person. A person could easily go out to California and pick up
Starting point is 00:39:57 20 or 30 pounds of chronic worth, you know, final street, 100K, 100 and something plus. You know what I mean? Now, they could drive back with it, and chances are you're probably not going get pulled over you know you can get a rental car you can dress nice of which i learned from people to do that you know you definitely don't don't want to look the part as we talked about do you get pulled over oh no no a person a person might do a person might do that but i would never do that i would never drive that is because even the chance let's just you know the one time you do you could do a hundred runs right but the one time they catch you you're going to pay back for all those runs So I got to go out and pick up some weight, so I go out to see my guys, and I go out and I have some very good friends out in L.A. that are willing to host me so I can meet, have a house to place to pick up the weight, right? They're very kind, lovely people. I love you guys. You know who you are. My friend has once called me the Walter White of cannabis. That's kind of affectionately what he notes me as with my exploits and past exploits, with not only cultivating specifically and moving into the research as a medical hemp research.
Starting point is 00:41:13 but that's that's now we'll talk about then so moving to pick up the 20 pack a little introductory lesson and just picking up wait so you got to go meet the guys they pull up in a car you're meeting people you have never met before right as they pull up two dudes get out hippie looking black dude just wearing it you know what I mean his name's peace okay you know what I mean you know And I won't mention the other dude's name because that's his probably, that's his, is a, is God-given name. So anyways, I meet peace and friend, right, which are, which like kind of like number two, the one dude is basically like a number two to my dude. You know what I mean? They do all the major distribution.
Starting point is 00:41:57 They meet the guys that then fan out from L.A. across the United States and distribute all the product. Right. So, dudes show up, meet them. you look at each other to make sure you're good you give each other a hug you feel each other out you know what I'm saying you're not just you know because you're really both everybody's trying to feel the situation and you can just tell I'm sure you can tell right
Starting point is 00:42:20 with somebody's being no I got a wire worn on me and for like 10 minutes after it took me about 10 15 minutes to realize but after you started thinking about yeah yeah if I had walked in the room thinking it I would have caught on right away well here's a lesson for you everybody is wearing a wire right that's how I feel no no I'm gonna tell you right now if you're
Starting point is 00:42:41 even doing anything illegal and this is why if anybody that's watching this wants to go back 15 years you'll never find me saying anything illegal on the phone never it's either I'm gonna see you there where are we gonna meet right I will talk to you when I get there where are we meeting for lunch you know what I mean what do we there there's no you know I mean, anybody that, and anybody that then chooses to talk, you know what I mean? Or if you're in person, it's a person and you're doing a deal with somebody and they're reiterating, like I said, what you're doing. Oh, oh, so it's 2000, right? Oh, so for the pound, are we going to be able to get more of these in the future? You know what I mean? I wouldn't say anything. I'd be like
Starting point is 00:43:21 Tony Soprano, oh, this pie is good. You know what I mean? You just don't say anything. You know what I mean? And I've had people try to, and that's why going through the situation that I'm going to tell you about, why I am here to tell the story. story today in good stead. So long story short, get on the train, but not the L.A. Union Station train, because there's a ton of security there. So you get on this little train station, there's nobody there. You're riding with Amish people and some black folk. Because it's run into Detroit and Chicago. Not a lot of people take the train anymore, you know. So would I take the train
Starting point is 00:43:55 looking like this? Would I take the train looking like, you know, with the baggy pants? No way. Take the train wearing the Ralph Lauren sweater. looking kind of like, I'm not really that threatening. And if I wanted to be cool, I just couldn't be that cool. I wanted to be cool, but I just couldn't be that cool. You know, and, you know, if it's a duck, you know, if it walks like a duck, it's a duck, you know, and we know the police profile and security. And they got about 30 seconds, any person in authority to kind of look at you and suss you out, you know.
Starting point is 00:44:33 And so my friend was even kind enough, who I love, my man Pick, which is in his real name. My man was able to give me these glasses. His mom didn't name him pick. Right. Horn rim, looking like Malcolm X's white cousin. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Perfect.
Starting point is 00:44:49 You know what I mean? Get on the train. Now you've got to have luggage. You've got to have your luggage attached, little tags. And then you put your name on them. You don't write any false shit. You know what I mean? You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:44:59 The new BMO, V-I-Porter MasterCard, is your job. ticket to more, more perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO VI Porter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bimo.com slash VIPorter to learn more. It's your luggage, you know what I'm saying? If you don't put the tags on, they go through to make sure that the tag is on the luggage. If they don't see a luggage tag, guess what they see? Somebody's trying to run some product because people do that.
Starting point is 00:45:40 But the only thing it says is, please notify a security representative if you see something suspicious. Well, there's nobody to notify. It's 9 o'clock at night when I'm getting on the train. And again, let's make sure that we're going to make it safe. We're driving overnight. We're going through the middle of night. We're going to be entering a train station in Flagstaff, Arizona at like 3 in the morning. Now, unless somebody's waiting for me and knows that I'm coming, there's like no chance that I'm going to get in trouble, right?
Starting point is 00:46:09 And very little, right? So I get the weight. I go inside the house, getting ready to plan my trip, which I just talked about, and I have to wrap it all up because you can't just carry, you know, 20 pounds like it is. So you've got to get a food sealer, you know, those little seal meals, and you got to seal every pound. And you take a pound that's like this big and you break it down into a flat brick like this. and then you put it into another sealer, you wash your hands, right? Then you wash the bag and you put it into another seal. You put them in the shower and take 20 pounds, wash them all.
Starting point is 00:46:43 Because guess what? You could put them in all these nice sealed bags that nobody could smell, that no dog could smell once you triple seal it. But guess what? You get some resin on the outside of the bag, and a dog will pick it up right away. And you're, you know what I'm saying? So now you can pack up 20 pounds.
Starting point is 00:47:01 you know like I said around 100k you know what I mean you know full full net you know what I mean and you can carry that in two little bags get on the train and you're cool as a cucumber you know what I'm saying just trying to blend in you know what I mean trying to be the mark on the train you know and heading back to a college which is perfect so now you get to Flagstaff and you're only 45 minutes north of your house so what do you do then you could you could have your car all you got to do is just drive down this two lane canyon pretty safe chance I mean I've never seen police officers in that canyon. You think I drive my car down there with 20 pounds? No. No, son. You know what I mean? Only a fool would touch down on the streets with weight like
Starting point is 00:47:43 that. You know what I mean? So, what do you do? Well, you get somebody else to do it for you. You get a shuttle. You get a cab. You ever seen a cop pull over a shuttle bus? No. You know, they just don't do it, not unless there's somebody really doing something. You ever see a a cop pull over a city bus? No. No. Hmm. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:48:08 Yeah. So you get a shuttle and the shuttle whisks you right to your safe area. You know, and the shuttle driver's talking about, I don't know what he's talking about. Like, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:48:19 Like he wants to be cool. And he has no idea. And you don't look like the guy. You know what I mean? You're just, you know what I'm saying? You know? And then you make it back
Starting point is 00:48:25 and you're able to start breaking it down, you know? So something that goes for 18, or you get for 18, get it there for 15. But here, 18, you know what I mean? 18 and then, what, 32? So you're making probably 15 on each.
Starting point is 00:48:40 Each month, a person could just easily distribute 20 of those. One person could take two a week. You're dealing with five different people. Now, again, you're not dealing with too many people because if you're dealing with too many people, you're risking not knowing who you're dealing with. So, long story short, we do that for a good little period of time, you know. And I go on a couple of trips.
Starting point is 00:49:01 I have to do a couple to prove myself, but now I'm getting Dejorno. Delivery is dejorno. You know what I'm saying? Right. It would always come in these military, you know, those military, like laundry bags. Right. There'd be five of those in there. You know, so you're talking easily, you know, 100, 120 pounds that are being moved across.
Starting point is 00:49:18 It's kind of makes me think of big mail bags. Yeah, yeah, no, and it's easy. It's like, and nobody can really tell. You know, I remember getting it and pulling out of the trunk. I was like, oh, you guys got my laundry? You know, I mean, oh, no, and I'm walking in L. You know, my friend's ghetto apartment complex. I'll say, I had a Pulp Fiction.
Starting point is 00:49:34 You know what I mean? You know, those, you know, where Bruce Willis lived, you know what I mean? Yeah. Anyways, so I'm doing great, and we're eating steak, you know what I'm saying? You know, my wife and I, you know what I mean? Like, we're doing our little trips. It's just me, her, and my son. You know, I'm not, like, bawling out hard.
Starting point is 00:49:50 You know what I mean? You know, I mean, come on. You know, making like 20, I don't know. You could do the math. You know what I mean? At 20 packs a month, fronting them off, always easy, fronting them off. getting 32, three to 32, so I can make 12 to 14, you know what I mean? And I wasn't breaking any of it down. Occasionally cutie pies, quarter pounds will call them, you know what I mean, here and there,
Starting point is 00:50:10 you know. Doing well. And then, of course, well, the other shoe has to drop at some point in time. So I'm working with a friend of mine. I'm still working as a chef at the time. I've worked for this restaurant and owner for about six years. Never missed. a day at work. You know what I mean? It's a solid employee. I'm the time running the line as a chef. And running packs, not out the back, but, you know, constantly setting up, you know, sending up my deal so I can keep my things blown. My like little five people, people I trust. Well, I go to drop off a couple of things kind of happen and culminate.
Starting point is 00:50:54 It begins with a girl that I'm working with is going to a company party and she's getting packs that she's bringing in because she's from California. And she had mentioned to me and like, you need some weight, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, no, I'm good. But by me saying I'm good, she knew that I was good, not like I didn't want any. Right. She's like, well, what are you getting them for? And I was like, well, I'm getting packed for, I'm getting packed for cost.
Starting point is 00:51:16 I'm not going to buy your packs that are coming out here. And you're, you know, what I'm charging for people? You know what I mean? Anyways, she gets busted on the way to a company party with a bunch of sacks. This little town, you know what I mean? They probably smoke some weed. and got pulled over, you know what I mean? At night, the cops are very, like, super predatory, you know,
Starting point is 00:51:34 they're like on the side of the main road. You know what I mean? Profiling and, you know, if you look like you're not squared away, you know, they might check you out, you know, especially in the night, you know. No, I know. Some people, they call it doing their job. Go ahead. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:51:49 Yeah. Well, or I call it profiling a certain area, a certain, but with that being. And they happen to catch this shit with bad. I was pulled over and searched seven times by the time I was 19 years old. You know how. She were selling dope, but... Well, I looked like the guy, but there were... Yeah, yeah, I know, yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:07 Anyways, so... Of doing well, and I, again, mentioned to her just in passing, because she's a server at the restaurant, and then, you know, time goes by. Then I go to drop off pound to my friend Doe Boy. Shout out Doe Boy. And... Anything I ever did, I did it in such a way that you wouldn't see it.
Starting point is 00:52:33 So if I was delivering, I mean, I'll put on a shirt and a tie for you. I'll put on, you know what I mean? Like, back then, I would, I would try to not look this, you know what I mean? Like this, but more like businessy. And I used to carry around a briefcase. Right. And that's what I used to carry my weight in. And so I go into a business.
Starting point is 00:52:49 And these people were business owners. So I go and see them. We go on the back. And it never looked completely, you know, you might guess, oh, what's he doing? What's in there? but you have to know, and unless somebody's going to say, or you're going to catch that person with something, there's really not a lot you can do about it.
Starting point is 00:53:05 You know what I mean? So, long story short, I'm visiting and dropping off at a person's house, and I always, even, no matter where I am, I always make sure I'm covered. So I pull in my car, and I pull in up in front of his house, blocking his front door. It's in my truck at the time. But I get the out of this side, and I put it in,
Starting point is 00:53:27 I used to like to carry a refrigerator bot, like a little lunch freezer things, you know, like keep your lunch cold. Yeah. A little, like a lunch bag. And that's what I would put them in. You know what I mean? You could just barely fit one in it, you know what I mean? And then I could also put that underneath my hood of my car, which any time I was driving even around my town, I'd pop have it in the hood of my car. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:53:50 Yeah, you got to check the oil real quick. You know what I'm saying? People aren't even thinking about it. I don't know why. I actually had surveillance watching me while I did it once, and they had no idea. I'll go on to tell you the story. This is hilarious. So, yeah, I drop off the pound.
Starting point is 00:54:09 I have no idea at the time. There's an investigation being run on the house next door. So here's my friend's house, the house here. Across the street is the narcotics task force. running an investigation on this house next door who's selling this, right? They've got a snitch, a snitch by the name of Sean Reese, the one-tooth bandit who we used to call the one-tooth bandit growing up. And I realized why he snitched on us because we used to call him that. He used to say, he must be dead already too.
Starting point is 00:54:50 I don't know. Actually, you know, I heard he got new teeth and he's in New Mexico, but he had those, like, real bad teeth from the mom let you have the bottle all day and the teeth never grew in. You know what I'm saying? You ever seen that? Or the teeth never grow in? No. It's from a mom that let the baby just sit on the bottle or a pacifier and never, like, and their teeth don't grow in. It's always like, so we'd be like, I remember on probation once or on, like a work crew thing back in the day.
Starting point is 00:55:13 He was on it, and he'd gumming down the sandwiches and, you know, we're making fun of him. And I understandably, I get why you did it because we were mean. You know what I mean? You know, but I heard he's got new teeth and he's living in New Mexico. You know what I'm saying? Good for him. Yeah, there you go. Hopefully the new teeth, you know, I said him on play.
Starting point is 00:55:30 But he ends up, and the reason they find out is because he picks up some, he comes in and picks up some from this guy, who I went to school with. And then he comes over to my dude and double teams it, picks up a sack, double dipping, picks up a sack of a sack of him. Two investigations, sets up these two dudes in one. and then asked to do, yo, where are you getting this from? And do-boy had to say, I'm getting it for me in, you know, small town, maybe want to be cool. You know what I mean? I'm getting it for me. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:56:05 Anyways, but I got a lot of respect for dough boy because he didn't say anything. He got rolled on. They hit him coming out of the bar. Again, they're going to catch you slipping. He liked to drink. They pulled him over coming out of the bar. Of course, he had a little and a pipe on him. Went back to his house because if they catch you with something like that, zero-tolerant state,
Starting point is 00:56:25 they're going to come back to your house and they're immediately going to get a warrant, hit his house, found almost a fresh pound. I'd probably dropped off three days ago because they're running an investigation. You know what I mean? I get a call. This is a friend of doughboys. He just wants you to let you know. He got busted.
Starting point is 00:56:43 And I'm like, I don't know. Who's calling me, first of all right? Do you know what I mean? And I was like, okay. Is he all right? He's like, I think he's going to be all right. And he's like, I'm kind of like a lawyer. I was like, who are you?
Starting point is 00:56:55 And he's like, I'm like kind of like a lawyer friend of his. You know what I mean? He said he just wanted to let you know. So looking back on it, you probably told somebody in jail that was getting out maybe to, hey, call this number, tell this guy. You're getting out right now? Yes. I don't know if it was that or if it was them calling me and fishing. Oh, that doesn't seem.
Starting point is 00:57:18 I don't know. But I felt, I felt it was genuine. And I said, thank you so much. I didn't say anything. You know what I just said? Thank you so much. I hope he's all right. You know, which I genuinely do.
Starting point is 00:57:27 He's a good dude. He's always been a good person and an honorable person. It did not snitch on me. Did not give the list of 10 names that they ask you for. You know what I mean? When they roll on you, they ask you. And I will go into this. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:57:40 So, um, Dough Boys Busted. My name has probably been mentioned by this other girl. I don't know this yet. I have no idea about this yet. But this is all kind of, you know, And then, you know, as they would say, my name is ringing in the streets, you know what I mean? Like, I'm supplying, you know, potentially, you know, allegedly, I'm allegedly supplying 20 to 30 pounds of chronic a month to this little town and valley.
Starting point is 00:58:07 There's, you know, little town, you know, and if you can think about how many people smoke, you know what I mean, in this little town, I'm generally supplying most of the people. And anybody that knows, I'm breaking down it from five people. and those five people are all in different towns or in different sectors. You know what I mean? Long story short, getting ready to go to work one day. And I've got my studio equipment, you know, I got my little shirt, SM7B, you know what I mean? You know, got my nice setup. I got making some music.
Starting point is 00:58:40 And I hear dog barking, my dog. and I was smoking a joint, you know what I mean? Put my joint down, put it at, you know, sat in the ashtray or whatever. And I go out and I walk out. And I'm just assuming it's going to be some regular person. And the music had been loud, so I didn't really hear all the knocking. I just my dog, Des, Des, get back telling my little dog, my little miniature pincher. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:59:04 Not fear stalk or anything. And, man, I open up the door. And there are four or five men. Maybe, you know, five narcotics officers standing on my porch. One's got the battering ram, and they got their name of their narcotics task. I'm not going to say what it is, because I'm not, you know what I mean? I'm not going to go into the, you know what I mean? It's the local narcotics task force.
Starting point is 00:59:30 They run a, they run the entire valley in our county. And immediately shut the door and lock it. And then boom, boom, boom. Sheriff's Department, we're going to knock it down. And I just like, pf, opened it up, let them in. Boom, they come in, right? Now, I'm surprised as hell.
Starting point is 00:59:59 Now, there have been a couple things leading up to this. One time, there was a car that drove by and was taken. It was all the dope that led up to this. No, no, no, there's a couple things. And it's all the sales and the drug dealing? Yeah. Yeah, the selling of high-quality cannabis goods pre-market ahead of the curve, we can call that. So I had seen what, okay, so I live in my rear room here.
Starting point is 01:00:25 I've been basically doing illegal shit since I was, you know, 15, 16 years old. Right. So I, even to this day, when I drive, you'll never catch me, you'll never get me for a ticket or anything like that. I live in my rear room here. It's just something that you build up from years of not wanting or waiting for an officer to get behind you so you can hide your. Always at least like carrying someone on me. So I'm always a felony because it's a zero tolerant state. So like just living like that.
Starting point is 01:00:52 And it's a minor shit, you know what I mean? But again, like the levels of paranoia. Like I pretty much have PTSD from always doing that, you know, and having to be fear of the law. And never really having a, I have had a respect and have met a few really good police officers. And I love the police officers in our town because it's a wealthy town and they don't prey on the individuals in the town. Right. You know what I mean? It's a different thing.
Starting point is 01:01:14 You know, they pull people over for tickets, you know, like speeding tickets. That's it. But long story short, yeah, they roll in. And I'm like, what am I going to do? But I know that I don't have any weight on me. Because, again, collateral damage. Think about what's going to happen. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:01:34 Now, again, we had some things leading up to this. somebody had drove them by, and somebody was like blatantly taking a picture as they drove by. Like they pulled up and we're outside and they're like, he, king, like, you know, they weren't trying to hide. So I thought, my wife thought maybe they're taking a picture of the house next door. A suspicious car down the road one time when I was walking to go see a friend, you know, that lived in the neighborhood. But apparently I've been under surveillance for three months, and I really had no idea.
Starting point is 01:01:58 Right. Whatsoever. You know what I mean? They don't do their own surveillance. This is a key point to the conversation. They hire out and subcontract their surveillance to PIs. And those P.I. Departments often have people that have to issue bench warrants and summonses, right?
Starting point is 01:02:19 They have to issue a summons. Right. You know, the people that bring in, they're like, are you been served or whatever? Yeah. Right. Okay. So we get a call from a little bird. and I cannot say who my wife does she gets a call and essentially it's to the effect of hey
Starting point is 01:02:40 some people have been getting busted in town did you hear about this person that got busted and it was from a family friend person well that person may have been related to this company that was running the investigation on us. So we were able to essentially, a couple of days before that happened, literally, the week before that happened, maybe three days before, get a phone call that said,
Starting point is 01:03:19 some things have been happening. Did you hear it? And it just, it wasn't them saying, hey, something's going to happen. They were just highlight. It was a weird.
Starting point is 01:03:29 call out of the blue person doesn't call or contact us regular we're not regular contact with them you know we would look back and realize that that person was possibly connected likely with that i don't want to go you know i mean into that agency right trying to tell you like prepare yourself because my wife's ex used to serve my wife's my wife's ex used to work for that company and serve summons okay but it wasn't him yeah it was yeah but it wasn't yeah but it wasn't him. Right. It was somebody else that was, that just kind of gave the, you know what I mean? And so they came to the house and they caught, uh, they caught me with 12 burnt joints, which was 12 roaches. Mm-hmm. But there was a little bit of a wrinkle. Um, they caught me with an ounce
Starting point is 01:04:22 of hash. Now, remember I talked about the hash before? I was making significant amounts of been processing significant amounts of hash at the time. And there was nobody in town with it. And I mean, nobody. You know what I mean? It's just, it's very rare. It's like an oddity. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:04:36 You just don't see it at the time. And that was getting around. And there's one more person because I had not been introduced to somebody, but my same friend doughboy had told me that somebody else that I had known from school wanted to connect. I ended up connecting with him. And I ended up only hooking him up with first and button, then the hash. But I never did in hand-to-hands. Because, again, these are some rules.
Starting point is 01:05:05 Everybody is an undercover, literally. The person that you're talking to was wired. You're being watched. You're being surveilled. Right. You know what I mean? So if you take this into account, you're likely, nobody's going to see you do anything. So after three months of surveillance, and we'll get back to me sitting in the house after they've raided.
Starting point is 01:05:22 After three months of surveillance, they could not figure out whether or not I was really the guy or not. Because they came into my house and I had a little bit of hash. But here's the problem. In Arizona at the time, hash is still a narcotic. Right. It wasn't legal yet. We're still pre-legal cannabis. Right.
Starting point is 01:05:37 And it's listed as a Schedule 1 narcotic, which is right up there with Hapamine, anything you could think of up on a lot of level. Here's the problem. If you have more than seven grams, because in our state, the scourge of methamphetamine, if you have more than seven grams of any narcotic, it's a minimum two and a half years in prison. I can't help you. like there's there's just nothing we can do it's two and a half years in prison and you clearly have it i have an ounce i've got three times that amount i got four times that amount they got a search warrant
Starting point is 01:06:06 and you've got it on you and i'm not a hundred percent sure if they have a search warrant at this time in the heat of the uh in the heat of the you know what i mean you don't ask you the world let me see the you know what i mean you assume right you know um and so he's got me dead to rights on this And he, you know, he sets me down in my daughter's room. My wife, I don't know, has already been pulled over. She is in a police. She's, she has a narcotics officer driving her car, and she is in the back with our kids. She had just left.
Starting point is 01:06:41 It was my daughter's, it was January 29th, 2010. And I know that because my father's birthday was on January 28th. And I think, God, that they didn't come during her birthday party. Right. I think they had the respect to do that because they wanted to try to work with me. you know what I'm saying. Long story short, I'm sitting in my daughter's room with three of the narcotics officers, one who was very attractive, who was not with us.
Starting point is 01:07:09 And he sets me down, he says, you know, I, I know we didn't catch you with too much, but we got this hash, and I don't know what to do about it. You know what I'm saying? You know, we, you know, and you know the narcotics is over seven grams, he says, and, you know, and he's kind of, you know, car salesmanning the situation, you know what I mean? And the car's got, you know, 40,000 miles on it. And, you know what I mean? Anyways, I said, I don't know what to do about this, you know, and says, you know, you, you know, maybe, you know, you could help us out.
Starting point is 01:07:41 You know what I mean? And I'm like, well, help you out. And what am I going to help you out with? You know what I mean? He's like, well, you already got dough boy. Yeah. Well, yeah. He's like, well, you know, you, you, you know, you, you, you know, you give us, give us a list of names.
Starting point is 01:07:54 You know what I mean? I'm like, why would I want to do that? He says, well, you know, again, you know, we could be looking at some, some serious, you know, two and a half, you've got your kid, you know what I mean? He's got me in my daughter's room for dramatic effect. Yeah, yeah. You know, he didn't sit me down in the living room where we were at earlier. Right. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:08:09 He's got me in my daughter's room, you know what I mean? Like, that's going to, you know what I mean? I'm sure for somebody looking at 20 years or something they probably, you know what I mean? But anyways. You're looking at two? Yeah, two and a half. Yeah, come on. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:08:22 And again, so he's like, well, yeah. maybe you can just give me a list of the names, you know, and I'm like, I don't know anybody. And I don't. At this time, I mean, I know my people. Oh, fuck you. You know what I mean? Come on. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:08:33 He's like, well, you don't know anybody. And at this time, he's not found the weight. He knew he was going to come and find the weight. Yeah. So he was hoping for a lot more than this. He was hoping for 20 packs. Oh, 18 packs. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:08:45 Yeah. You know what I mean? And I had just had a fresh delivery. I had to fucking 18 packs still sitting somewhere else. Yeah. But you always keep it somewhere else where they can't just run. a investigation on. They can't just search. And you always keep it with a square. Because if it's with a square and they leave their house and they don't have dope with them, you can't pull them
Starting point is 01:09:02 over in. There's no way. Yeah. You can't pull them over. Search the car and say, oh, I got to with this. No, no, no, yeah. You just, you know what I mean? You know, some grandpa, you know, a square. You know what I mean? Maybe they don't even know it's there. Remember Ray Leode and Goodfellas? They take the guns to, to the mom's house. Oh, yeah, yeah. Why are we always taking them to my mom's house? She says, you know what I mean? Always put the, you know, I don't know if you remember that scene. They go in the mom's garage or the helicopter Dr. Fallon? Yeah. You know, they can't search their house. They're not, I mean, you know, they're likely, they have to get a warrant. To get a warrant on somebody else's house that hasn't committed
Starting point is 01:09:32 to crime, hasn't done anything, you know, is next to impossible. Right. You know, you know, so long story short, I'm not feeling too bad. You know what I'm saying? He's like, well, you know, this is going to be pretty serious. You know what I'm saying? And he's like, maybe he'll give us some bad guys. You know, I'm like, I don't know any, I'm like, come on, I don't know any bad guys. Like, you know, I'm like, I'm a good guy. You know, I'm like, I know any bad guys. You know, and so you can see he's kind of like running out of steam. He's blown is popcorn fart of a bust. No offense. You know what I mean? And he's trying to lean on me like the car salesman with this is going to be a big thing for you. You know what I mean? I just said,
Starting point is 01:10:05 well, you know, like that scene. Have you ever seen the 25th hour? Yeah. Love it. Yeah. Well, you know, Judge, I do have shingles and it is a chronic medical condition. And and I really only use this as my medicine. And I don't have any baggies and I don't have any scales. And, and, you know, it's going to be legal in like four months. Actually, the legislation just passed already in November. We're just waiting for them to write the legislation. So, you know, I literally said this to him.
Starting point is 01:10:42 Right. Do you know what I mean? Like, you know, like, I'm talking to him like, the judge. Oh, you know what I mean? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it was hilarious, you know what I mean? And you can see he was discouraged. And at that point, he could really, you know, he's like, well, you're the guy.
Starting point is 01:10:57 And I'm like, I'm not the guy. Doe Boy was the guy. Because he already got Doe Boy. You know what I mean? I'm like, Doe Boy was the man. And it seems like it makes sense. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:11:06 Anyways, so he wants a list and I'd just say, I can't help you. You know what I mean? He says, well, I'll tell you what. This is hilarious. All right? He says, you tell me. me whether or not you want to cooperate tomorrow i'll let you go to work nice guy so i'm like you've just raided my house i'm sitting here and i'm pretending like i don't know like i've not read every crime
Starting point is 01:11:28 book like i don't know you know i mean like i don't know like i don't know you might me a tell on somebody oh do i work for you like so do i work for you i don't know you know what you know like just you know pretending and he's like so look i'll tell you what talk tomorrow and you tell me if you want to cooperate or not and i was like it's my fucking let me out right I said, what? He said, you give me your word. You'll call me tomorrow and tell me if you want to cooperate or not. And I looked at him.
Starting point is 01:11:58 And I was like, deal. Stuck out my hand. I put it out so quick. He didn't know what he was shaken to. He had no idea what he was shaken to. And I'll go on. And I'm a man of my word. I shook the man's hand.
Starting point is 01:12:16 And I promised him I would call. call him the next day at 10.30 and tell him if I wanted to cooperate or not. So what did I do? I pretended to go to work that night, which was up this town, like a town outside of Cottonwood where I live. They have to go up this little town. So I put on all my chef's gear in black, because I'm planning to be in black that night anyways, because I'm going to need to be in black, get in my car and I drive up, and I make sure that I'm not being followed. and on the way, I've got one of my guys that I supply to that lives on the way to where I work at in this town in Jerome. Make sure I'm not followed. Boom, dip in, because it's a two lane.
Starting point is 01:12:57 You know what I mean? Dip into his house, and I roll up, and I'm like, dude, he's like, what's going on? I just got busted. And he's like, you know what I mean? Like, waiting for the cops to come in. You know what I mean? Because, you know, you just tell somebody you just got busted. What the fuck you're doing here then?
Starting point is 01:13:10 You know what I mean? Like, I'm running for the cops. What are you doing here? You know what I mean? I was like, I just got busing. He's like, come in. in. You know what I mean? So I come in and I'm like, dude, I need to make some phone calls. I can't use my phone. You know what I mean? So I had my regular phone and I had a burner phone. Never use your
Starting point is 01:13:24 regular phone. I still have that phone to this day. I've had that phone for, I've had the longest running cell phone number of almost anybody I know at 23 years. Do you know what I mean? It's had a cell phone number for 23 years? Nobody. And that speaks a lot to credibility and to somebody that doesn't want to just disappear. You know what I'm saying? But I always had a burner because you use a burner. you know what I mean even on that you don't say anything you know what I'm saying funny story about the burner I tried to put the burner into a cup of water to burn it I'm starting getting texts like 30 minutes later those phones are nicer than my iPhone you couldn't put an iPhone in water all right hilarious I'm joking you know
Starting point is 01:14:02 I mean so long story short he gives me the opportunity boom well they find a little bit of money I like maybe a grand on me you know what I mean and the phone and they it was in envelope but I always write on the envelope car money or car savings like you always you designate because you can be driving through a place with 10k and if you don't have a designated reason for it they don't take it from you they could if they see it you know you'd have to be able to approve receipts and then you got to get it back you know it's a big deal um so long story short they take a picture of the cell phone and I can see I know the way they laid it out and they put the money out the cell phone they did it for a picture for their own evidence one thing they
Starting point is 01:14:42 did, which is hilarious, is they took my passport. I had looked for my passport. I don't know how long after that, and I never found it. I used to keep it right on my studio, which that passport was awesome, because I had Stamps, Mutual Khan, Guadalajara, London, Italy, you know, I mean, all over the world, you know what I'm saying? But long story short, he gave me the opportunity. So I go up there and I get on the phone immediately and don't go to work, which is the first time I've ever not gone to work is a no call no show we're getting close anyways um no call no show um you're fired but at this point i've got other things to do he's going to let me go and go to work well i'm not going to work i'm going to go pick up the wait and get rid of it because i don't know if they're going to hit
Starting point is 01:15:23 the house i don't know at this point i don't know what they've got he mentioned in passing when we're in the house he said i almost picked you up today coming out of such and such place so he knows where it is so he he doesn't realize he knows where it is but he knows where it is he was fishing yeah waited for me. He waited for my response. You know how you, if you say something immediately, you know what I mean? You, you bite. You know what I mean? I just, so the whole time I'm sitting there. He's talking. He's talking. He's talking. And I'm just sitting there like this. Just listening. Calm as a cucumber. Now my heart's racing inside. But in like I told you before, in any seriously sticky situation, I get super calm. I probably more nervous here talking to you than I am in a situation
Starting point is 01:16:04 getting rated. Like, I actually start to yawn. You'll notice if I'm really nervous, I'll start to yawn. It's like a weird reaction. But it looks good because you're not, do you know what I mean? You're totally chill, right? Long story short, um, go and, uh, wait till that night. I call my dude, my angel. My angel's in California. He sets me up with a guy in Sedona. That guy comes and meets me. Picks me up, takes me to another car because I can't. My car's like burned. I'm not going to be driving that around. Plus, it's like a bright red Chevy truck. Like, you know, it's very distinct, you know? So he gets me a car, which is totally straight, like an old man's paperwork. You know what I mean? Like a square's car. You know what I mean? So then we go and we set up a time so that we can
Starting point is 01:16:48 meet out at the spot so that I can go and get the wait. So this is probably we set up for maybe like nine o'clock at night. So we go and we have to park. I have to park the car. So like I pull off the main road and I pull off onto a side road, right? And I parked the car here. Well, it's not really in front of anybody's house. It's just kind of like nondescript on the side of road. I've got to run down this long, like, like an irrigation ditch. There's like six feet deep, seven feet deep, these huge irrigation ditch, right? And they run behind people's properties, you know, like water irrigation culverts. So I'm in all black in my chef's uniform because it's, you know, black on black. And I dip the car. And I tell my dude, I was like, come back in about 15.
Starting point is 01:17:33 minutes. We tried to time it as best we could, right? So I got to watch time. Boom, I go. I dip into the back place, pick up the packs. There's still 18 out of the 20 left because I just got in a fresh delivery. Put the duffel bag on. And now I've got to run back down the ditch. Huffing it down the dish. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Just sweating and really paranoid, running with a decent sentence on my back. You know what I mean? Anyways, I end up making it to, there's like an overbridge. So, you know, there's always a bridge that goes over a goalie, you know, because there has to be a bridge because it's, you know, a goalie, right? Anyways, I run as I'm getting up there. I see the lights come in.
Starting point is 01:18:10 And it's like 9 o'clock at night. It's in a pretty chill neighborhood. There's not a lot of police or not a lot of like anybody out. I come running up. And as I come running up, I can see the lights and I already have to go underneath the little bridge thing. It's a sheriff. Freaking sheriff out of nowhere is in like, you know, sheriff's SUV. What turns out when I'm assuming is I had parked the car.
Starting point is 01:18:31 there 15 minutes earlier, somebody maybe had called on this car, like being out. Right. You know what I mean? So he sees the car. So I come, I come running up and I'm underneath the bridge. He's literally pulling over. I thought it was going to be my dude and the lights and I ended up looking. It was him. He couldn't see me because I'm way, you know, it's seven feet down and then dark, you know, pitch black, dark goalie. You know what I mean? And I'm saying he stops on the bridge, literally stops. You hear the little break screech. And I'm just sitting there holding. the duffel bag and then I hear the and I see him the red from the brake lights start to pull off as he's starting to pull off anyways he sees the car so he's on the car right so he's trying to figure out
Starting point is 01:19:14 what's up he stopped for a second to see if there was something weird going on in the goalie hold he ends up making to the car he's still in sight I sneak up out of the goalie throw the bag right as I'm getting up out boom bag's gone I'm out of here run down the road And I have to still make it back like, I don't know, quarter mile back to where I'm back to my safe spot. Right. Where the weight was. You know what I mean? Because I can go in there.
Starting point is 01:19:40 You know what I mean? Anyways, long story short, ended up getting all the weight back to the dude. The dude picked it up like, I don't know, maybe like an hour later because I told him, I said there's a sheriff. You know what I mean? Keep it on the low. So he came back. Dude was able to get all his weight back. And to this day, I still have amazing credit.
Starting point is 01:19:55 You know what I'm saying? With the guy. You know, if you were still in business, everything was legal and that's all, you know, But yeah, so the next day, the next morning I got up, and I am a man of my word, I got up and I called the best lawyer I could find, which was the former, the former prosecuting attorney for narcotics for over 15 years for the county had started his own defense firm. And I went with that guy. I called him up. We got a $1,500 retainer. And I said, please let this dude know.
Starting point is 01:20:26 I've got a call with him at 1030. please let him know I do not wish to cooperate so just like the man of my word that I am I got on the phone with Brett and we got on a three way the gentleman and I said I'm on the phone with you I'm a man of my word and I'm here to meet with you and here's my lawyer and my lawyer said Ian Peterson does not wish to cooperate with you right boom so then we go back and forth so I got to meet my lawyer right and sit down and talk about the case right so again I haven't gotten arrested I hate to interrupt the podcast but I need your help have you been or do you know anyone that has been arrested in Polk County?
Starting point is 01:21:01 If you have, please contact me. We are desperately looking for guests that have been arrested in Polk County by Grady Judd. The last video we did actually got a million views. If you've been arrested, please go in the description box. Either contact me directly, my email's there, or you can fill out the form that we've got. There's a link to the form, my email address is there. You fill out the form or email me. We will contact you.
Starting point is 01:21:27 we're going to try and get you on the program. Amazing. You know what I mean? Thank you. You know what I'm saying? And basically, again, led the guy a little bit, but hey, I'm a man of my word. You know what I mean? I didn't agree to cooperate, but I didn't not agree. You know what I'm saying? So lawyers told him, we're going to not cooperate. Then this is where the car salesman stuff starts. So the guy is the leader of the narcotics. He's the narcotics detective. He runs the show. he's all my boss is saying that this is going to be a problem and you know if you don't cooperate we could maybe even push for more than the two and a half years you know what I'm saying you know my boss is really want to push for this and you know it's like come on like you know it's like the car
Starting point is 01:22:09 salesman guy oh my can I go authorize the free gear shifter for him yeah you walk in there and talk to the dude for a second about his weekend and go back and say yeah I can authorize the $500 off in the gear shifter you know I mean he doesn't run the cases you know what I mean but he's trying to lean on me, right? So the lawyer who I really thought was working with me ends up in the, we're meeting for breakfast. And he's like, so, you know, if you want, you know, we can just squash this right now if you just cooperate. You know what I mean? And I just stopped and looked at him. I just said, look, you know, he's still standing up at the time because I'm sitting at my table and he's like kind of getting up. And I just said, if you mention it to me again, we're done.
Starting point is 01:22:47 Like, you know what I mean? I'm not going to cooperate on this. It's going to go to a plea. Like, in all, like, we're not going to trial on an ounce of hash, you know what I mean? And even if I got to go, and even if I got to go and bite the bullet, I'm going to plea it out, my first offense. Well, even if you just drag it out until they pass the law. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, not that you didn't break the law when it was still illegal. Oh, sure. But I think that a judge would be like, fuck, you know, like I'm like a hammering.
Starting point is 01:23:14 And so I found out that's what they were doing with the hash because it was still a narcotic. And they hadn't passed this law called any extraction or. preparation thereof making hash traction shatter all these different cannabis extractions legal even when they made medical legal because i actually worked to bring in the medical program and launch one of the first state license dispensaries in arizona hash and hash was still technically narcotic and they hadn't taken it off the books and we actually had to work with the health department and with the state to change that law to make it to where it was essentially any extraction or preparation there of the plant right and that's what it said on the books for medical any
Starting point is 01:23:51 extraction or preparation thereof. So that would be that would fall into that category. But they're trying to clear, they're trying to kind of like get the low hanging fruit at the end before it goes legal. They're trying to clean up all these cases, you know what I mean? Which rightfully so, I get it. You know what I mean? They got their job and I had mine at the time, you know? So long story short, I've got to do a self-surrender. You did a self-surrender? No, or they just, they just, they put the, you did, they got you dead to rights. They caught me. I caught me with a dozen passports. Oh, okay. I'm not getting bond.
Starting point is 01:24:22 All right, all right. Yeah. So I essentially, I thought I was going to have to bond, so I'm ready. I've got a bond agent ready to go, and I'm ready to do myself surrender. I got money put away. I'm good. Thank you. Or what is it released on your own recognizance?
Starting point is 01:24:37 Is that what they gave you? Well, so we'll get to the story. ROR, sorry. Yeah, and I assume that possible would happen. So in my case, I'm waiting, waiting to find out. It's like right around Valentine's Day. Yeah, because that's here, I was busted. They came in January 29th, so now it's been about two weeks.
Starting point is 01:24:53 It's almost Valentine's Day. I remember this because the narcotics officer had a date and he couldn't meet me the next day for self-surrender. He's like, I got to, we're like negotiating my own day to come in and surrender. This is awesome. You know what I mean? I got to say, it felt kind of cool. You know what I mean? I'm not like, you know, I used to tell my wife at the time, my girlfriend at the time, you know,
Starting point is 01:25:15 you don't see me out here knocking over liquor stores of the born-to-lose tattoo on my name. Right. You know what I'm saying? Oh, no, that's from heat. It is. Yeah. I change it to my neck, but the chest, you know, I mean, it's, yeah, I'm here. I'm doing something. I'm doing it the, you know, in a calculative way. I'm not going to risk our family. I'm not going to risk. I may risk a little bit of exposure for myself. You know what I'm saying? But I do have to give it to my wife. When they asked her and they questioned her and they sat her down. You know what I mean? She didn't say shit. Right. You know what I mean? She's solid. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You know what I mean? So, so. And she didn't know. right yeah um so long story short uh let's see here um i'm supposed to do the self-surrender and then we postpone it and i'm being threatened with this felony and i'm gonna have to go in the next day um went and bought myself a nice new ralph lauren sweater so that i could see the judge in it and i'm all ready to be bonded out and i get and uh get a call from the lawyer that night he's like okay you sure you want to do this and i'm like yeah like we're doing this like we you know I mean, okay, I'll see you tomorrow morning at like 6 a.m. I got to show up to the county jail
Starting point is 01:26:24 because I want to get out. I don't want to stay in. So I've already got my bond set up so I can get in and pay my bond, whatever it's going to be to get out. Anyways, long story short, I end up showing up there at 6 a.m. in the morning and I'm waiting. And I'm waiting. And I'm waiting. And I'm waiting. And I'm like, this sucks. Like, I'm waiting now to get arrested. You know what I mean? So I call my lawyer and I'm like, what's going on? And he's like, what are you doing you didn't get my call and i was like what he's like you didn't get my voicemail i missed his voicemail okay ian it looks like they're not going to proceed with any charges wait for a summons in the mail so this is what makes me think they didn't have a warrant he thought he was going to come
Starting point is 01:27:06 and catch me with 18 or 20 pounds allegedly and i was going to fold immediately and roll on everybody and you know what i mean but instead he came with caught me with little than nothing nothing. I held my constitution, got a lawyer, which was a smart thing to do. And then I ended up waiting one year. Nothing ever came. I didn't get shit because it was already medical by then. Right. You know what I mean? So a little popcorn fired of a bus. He could have, he could have, I think he could have still prosecuted me on the, on the narcotics with the hash, but I don't, thinking back, I said, leave me with something. Because when he, they raided me and they wanted to leave, and I'm like, you're not leaving me with nothing.
Starting point is 01:27:48 if you braid me and leave me without anything, people are going to think I rolled. I was like, give me some paperwork. Give me something. Like, I literally said, give me some charges. Like, give me something, you know? Because again, and this is great to clear it up to this day because I was able to walk away from the streets clean and then move into legal cannabis. A lot of people, maybe not a lot of people, but a few people would assume he got busted.
Starting point is 01:28:14 He must have got rolled on. He must have flipped. I'm, I would be shocked if they didn't have a warrant. They had to have a warrant where I'm not showing up with a battering ram. No, I'm not, I, I'd like to highlight that in this little town that I live in. Okay. What? Things don't always go as.
Starting point is 01:28:34 Okay. Coture. We live in a, in a town where I was once searched. I was searched once in my car and pulled over and I tried to explain him. Why are you attempting to search me? I haven't done anything illegal. I'm not driving erratically. I haven't crossed any center lines.
Starting point is 01:28:49 I don't have a rear light out. I just had stickers on my car. They pulled me over on the freeway. And some kids over on the freeway on to search us, right? That cop told me when I said, why would you, what reason do you have? What probable cause do you have to search my vehicle? And you only said, he just looked at me and said, because I want to. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:29:07 And he did. And he did. And they will. And they do. You know what I mean? And so, yeah. So I never saw a warrant. When I asked for a piece of paper, he could have left me with a warrant.
Starting point is 01:29:17 warrant. They didn't leave me with shit. He didn't leave me with a Chinese menu. Right. You know what I'm saying? You've seen that one, right? With the Chinese menu. You know what I mean? In Training Day. Gives a lady like a Chinese menu and says it's the warrant. Oh, okay. It's a classic. You know what I mean? But yeah, I do not believe that they had a warrant. I believe that they came. You know, and they came all in undercover cars. They didn't come heavy. Like, they came in like all three nondescript. It was like a little geometro outside and like a, what was it, a Chevy, Tahoe But not these were, you know what I mean? They were like confiscated cars. But, and I will talk about this, is later on,
Starting point is 01:29:53 my brother would get pinched and arrested and put under a case by the same officer. He would later get his due. That same narcotics officer would catch my brother later on for hash. Moving forward, I think everything that we've talked about was building a skill set for me to be able to be a professional businessman and do things with honor and do things in the right way. So looking at, you know, somebody who is in that industry, you know, you think, like you were saying earlier, you know, you just get the way, you sell it, you know, you don't have all these other liabilities. You don't have to worry about typical overhead. You don't have to
Starting point is 01:30:39 have a retail store. You're not paying taxes. On most, most drugs and certainly cannabis, you might have a 100% markup, or a 50% margin, we'll call it, with that. So learning a little bit about the business and what mistakes you can make help you in the future with other businesses. So you learn about essentially budgeting. You learn about distribution. You learn about new markets. You learn about opening new markets. You learn about consignment, net 30s, net 15s.
Starting point is 01:31:15 I didn't know what a net 30 was. I'd been doing it for net 15. which is basically, we'll give you a product and you can hold on to that product for the next two weeks or 30 days, whatever the net is, and then you'll pay, you know. And these are all standard distribution deals, things that I would employ later on and realizing that, yes, where I succeeded in having a great product and being on time with my product and having a solid supply chain with that product, loss prevention, I mean, I can think of only, a quarter pound that I have lost, actually one pound and one quarter pound that I've lost in the entire time. You know, so you think about loss prevention, you know, as a store, you know. So those comparisons, I think, are interesting in what bring you into a modern business
Starting point is 01:32:06 and give you, I guess, the fundamentals for being able to do those standard things like budget, have your source, have maybe an, an, a supplier and a B supplier, you know, and all these things would essentially play a huge role, not just that, but of course my cultivation knowledge. So I've been living illegally, cultivating plants since 2001, probably about 10 years up until this point, off and on. And I've been busted for, or raided, but not serving time. And of course, beat all charges on that bust we talked about. But now I'm ready to take my skills. as it's just going legal and move into something more credible.
Starting point is 01:32:51 So my wife and I started the first Caregivers Company Association, Arizona, which is medical MMAZ caregivers, and this was pre-dispensaries, pre-legislation. So the laws had been voted in, but I like to be ahead of the curve and have always been ahead of the curve in many different things we could go into, but with this specifically. And so what became a nefarious illegal skill now is turning into something that multi-million dollar companies are looking for, huge investors are looking for that skill to cultivate because it's going to be legal and this is now the green boom and we're going to see this huge boom in the cannabis industry.
Starting point is 01:33:36 And so basically taking that illegal knowledge, I decided to open a business in the space. opened up a cultivation store, essentially like the ones I used to have to go down to you to get the cultivation products and opened up the first one in our town and ended up working with a dispensary, the first dispensary licensee at the time. They had just been given their license in doing some co-branding. And then they found out about my skills in cultivating, of which nobody had any skills in cultivating or any real skills in cultivating. And I was able to prove that by showing them product. From that time, I had my own genetics that I had been developing and essentially
Starting point is 01:34:17 working on over a period of time. And as a cultivator, you have your own genetics that you develop and you keep a mother for a year or two or you keep this genetic line going, you know, because it takes time, as we said before, and losing those genetics is terrible. I was able to take those genetics and essentially work out a deal with the first dispensary holder in northern Arizona to launch the largest state license dispensary at the time in Arizona at over 10,000 square feet. So this is a really interesting scenario for me because I've been living a constant,
Starting point is 01:34:52 a legal life with cannabis. I have been holding down jobs, of course, respectable person, but completely on the other side of the law. And now it is my job and responsibility in a new partnership to launch the state license cultivation to work with the city managers, the chief of police, the head of the SWAT team, well, the commander and chief of the SWAT team. He's passed on now, Jody McCut. She was an amazing guy and the entire city to put in some of these legal operations.
Starting point is 01:35:22 So I'm immediately from one side of the fence to the other, which is for me really, really hard to wrap my mind around because just a year ago, a year and a half before that, I'm getting, It was about two years. I'm getting arrested and charged with cannabis and nearly avoiding peril with those charges. And now I'm heading the largest state license cultivation in our area. I'm working with the most credible people in the town to do so. And I have the knowledge to do it, which nobody else does. I ended up working with an investor who was the professor of anthropology at U of A. He's most well known for. developing the human genome project. I don't know if you've known the human genome project where they map the genome. That was mapped out of U of the Anthropology Department under this particular professor's watch. And he was also a state legislator at the time. And so I ended up getting the opportunity to launch the cultivation on our area because he had an issue,
Starting point is 01:36:27 somewhat of an issue with one of the county attorneys for Maricopa at the time. and he was going to be risking some exposure because this is all so new and medical, and even though it's medical still, he was going to be risking some political exposure. So I ended up spearheading the whole thing, and I was the person that had and was most responsible for setting it up, running it, and of course bringing in all my genetics for it. Ended up setting that facility up and working in essentially the first research for cannabis. So this is really where I take all of the, the, the, love for the plant and really what the plant has taught me over time about myself and decide to
Starting point is 01:37:11 make a serious go at researching the plant. So my dad always told me to do your homework. And, you know, whilst I'm not a physician, you don't have to be a physician to understand plant physiology or the physiology of the human body and how this plant can affect it. And so over the many years, I've become the first and only that I know, at least in the United States, dedicated medical hemp researcher that essentially I give accredited medical lectures to physicians, DOs, MDs, PhDs, let's see here, have founded studies and work with children with neurological disorders, humans with neuropathic issues, work with cell proliferation, cancer, probably worked and touched almost every living being, including experimental research with rare white bengal tigers and lions
Starting point is 01:38:07 using cannabis treatments for cancer or for anxiety. An interesting scenario is we were working with one of the particular guests out of Africa Wildlife Park in Arizona, and it was a 130-pound albino boa with a 7-inch tumor that had grown. and they heard about our research and ended up meeting up with them and going out and treating the snake over seven-week period. And it's like the star of the show. It's a 130-pound snake that everybody, you know, gets to touch and see, you know what I mean, as well as some of the other animals and mammals.
Starting point is 01:38:45 And that seven-inch tumor over a seven-week period shrunk by over 85% to about an inch and a half and died. And so just interesting to see the effects of leaving size. Psychoactive, which is, hey, the weed gets you high, you know what I mean, to non-psychoactive beneficial cannabinoids and the plant physiology that can help people for so many different things. Blood disorders, arthritis, fibromyalgia, cancer treatments, as we're seeing right now, neurological disorders, MS, leukemia, and out of our little small town, we ended up launching our product and our story of this little girl, the miracle of baby Kirsten, she's known
Starting point is 01:39:27 online as and essentially taking that company from an $800 investment, and this is crazy, to over eight figures, as I was telling Colby. So we've done over $10 million in revenue, sold over one million units of our product over time in the past since 2016. In the meantime, I've started multiple other companies and we work in the space, but we've gone completely into non-ps psychoactive CBD research. And so that's where, as a medical hemp researcher, I'm out essentially educating physicians on the benefits of it and trying to really break new ground so that we can forward the industry.
Starting point is 01:40:02 We've been able to launch nationally, and we've been able to affect many, many different people. And we're also heavily involved in the pet space as well because it's branched out into helping pets as well. And we work with some of the top brands in the pet space. That was that Forbes article that you saw that I sent you over as featured in. So, yeah, so today to have been featured for our work. I thought it was going to maybe be on the cover of the newspaper or the cover of the news for something like you. Something, you know, either way, let's put that, it was going to be either way. I don't know if you've ever thought about that. Was it going to be either way you were going to be on there for something? Did you ever think about that?
Starting point is 01:40:42 I mean, no, I didn't. Okay, well, I did. I was hoping to fly under the radar or the rest of my whole life. Oh, boy. Well, I had a feeling that, you know, it was going to make a splash in something, you know what I mean? And end up, you know, hopefully it was going to be for something negative. And I'm glad that. it wasn't, you know, back to the future switch, you know, he's busted or to, he ends up launching state license facility helping children, you know, just a much better, much better, snitches, he snitches, you know, life's to choose your own adventure. You know, there's many different times in your life. And again, if I was looking at 20 years, I may have considered
Starting point is 01:41:15 as well. You know what I mean? I'm not going to take anything away from that. You know what I mean? You know, but, you know, I do believe that I made my own decisions and nobody else is going to pay for my decisions, you know. Hey, you guys, I really appreciate you watching. If you like the video, hit the subscribe button, hit the bell so you get notified of videos like this. Also, we're going to leave all of Ian's links in the description box. So you can just click on it, go straight to the website, go straight to the podcast,
Starting point is 01:41:39 and subscribe and follow and do everything that you feel comfortable with. Leave me a comment, share the video. Please consider joining our Patreon. It really does help us. It's $10 a month. We put Patreon exclusive content on the video. the site. So please check it out. Thank you very much. See you.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.