The Binge Cases: Denise Didn't Come Home - Betrayal on the Bayou | 4. A Sign of Good Faith

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

Chad’s luck is finally running out. The beginning of Chad’s downfall centers around Frederick “Boobie” Brown. He’s a high level drug trafficker who drives a $240,000 Bentley and provides dope to dealers all over the South. Chad says he’ll let Boobie walk free… if Boobie does exactly what Chad wants. Subscribe to The Binge to get all episodes of Smoke Screen ad-free right now. Click ‘Subscribe’ at the top of the Smoke Screen: Betrayal On The Bayou show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. A Neon Hum & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. Chad played informants like pawns and pissed off his fellow agents.

He cut corners and worked around the clock to become a legend. Chad was on top for almost two decades. But it would all come crashing down in 2016, when two men on his team turned on him. Chad would get hauled into DEA's internal affairs, and the feds would go over his career with a fine-toothed comb. It was a sprawling investigation. A ton of people would have the chance to dish the dirt on Chad. Some were his allies, tried and true. Others said that Chad had derailed their lives. And some were just trading up. As Chad said himself, if they snitch for you, they'll snitch on you. Informants snitch up, they don't snitch down. And Chad was going down.

And I know we're kind of jumping around, but I want to go back to how you initially were contacted by Chad Scott. This is a recording from the federal investigation. Part of that file we're not supposed to have. It's one of the interviews that landed Chad in big trouble. Asking the questions here is Douglas Bruce from DOJ. This is Senior Special Agent Douglas Bruce with the United States Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. And answering the questions is Booby.

Frederick Brown, inmate number 09982-078, last name Brown, B-R-O-W-N. You might remember Frederick Brown, Boobie, from episode two. He's Chad's informant. They worked together up until Boobie was pulled over with a suitcase full of cash. Boobie was arrested and went to prison. That was May of 2015. Now, almost a year later,

Booby's sitting down with a team of feds investigating Chad. The tables are turning. Because as good as Chad was at getting people under his thumb, he didn't always dot his I's and cross his T's. Booby's word will help land Chad in prison. I think the last time we spoke, you were on your way back to Houston from a deal here in prison. I think the last time we spoke, you were on your way back to Houston from ADO here in Louisiana. Yeah, let's start there. The first time Boobie came into Chad's crosshairs was the 4th of July weekend in 2013.

Boobie and his wife Tigress drive from their home in Houston to New Orleans for Essence Festival at the Superdome. Essence Fest is a music festival that celebrates Black culture. It's been going on since the 90s. That year, Janelle Monae, LL Cool J, Solange, and Beyonce all took to the stage. On their way back to Houston, Booby figures he'll do some work. Booby's a high-level drug trafficker. He supplies dealers all over the South. And he makes do some work. Booby's a high-level drug trafficker. He supplies dealers all over the South, and he makes bank doing it. Their ride this holiday weekend is a $240,000 Bentley.

Booby calls one of the guys he supplies, Sammy Michelli. Sammy and his brother are dealers on the North Shore, Chad Scott territory. Sammy owes Boobie money, and Boobie's checking in to see if he can do a pickup on the way home. I met him at the gas station back there at the gas pump, which it got cameras up there and everything. And he gave me a bag with $20,000 in it. But as Boobie's leaving the gas station with $20,000 in cash, he gets a call from a friend.

He said Chad just went and busted Bodine, which is Sammy Michelli's brother. I'm like, for real? He said, man, yeah. I'll let you know what's happening. Remember, if agents find money tied to drug dealing, they can seize it. Booby really does not want to get caught.

He's been in and out of jail for most of his life. He just got out of prison about a year ago. When he got out, his wife Tigress told him they only had two months of rent money left. Booby has just started rebuilding his business. He mashes the gas. He's heading west over a bridge by Baton Rouge. He's trying to make it out of Louisiana, where it would be easy for Chad to grab him.

He gets another call from his friend. More bad news. He's like, man, they got Sammy. They got Sammy. I said, what? He's like, man, Chad just made Bodine set up Sammy on the phone. I'm like, what'd he do? He's like, man, he told on his own brother. I'm like, damn.

Boobie knows about Chad. He's heard the rumors. He's heard that Chad can just come get you and lock you up. And your choice is either to work for him or go back to prison. So I said, man, y'all need to tell that man I don't have nothing to do with that. Because I know I read his stories about him, but I ain't never think he was like what he is. This time, Boobie and his wife make it safely home to Houston.

But it's only a matter of time before Chad figures out who's supplying the Michelli brothers. A couple months later, Boobie's in the kitchen with his wife cooking when his personal phone rings. And without looking at the number or thinking about who it might be, Boobie picks up. He said his name is Chad Scott. And I hung up. And I looked at her. I said, man, a DA named Chad Scott just called me. She said, uh-uh.

They're freaking out. The phone rings again. Boobie passes it to his wife like it's a hot potato. He told her, tell Boobie he need to get in touch with me or I'm going to lock his ass up. So I'm like, damn. So she's like, okay, I'll let him know. So after that, we just sitting around just looking in the day. This is when Chad makes a move that's outside the lines, not by the DEA rulebook,

and it gets him exactly what he wants. Chad calls up one of his super informants in Houston. The informant's name is Jabbar Watson. He's a guy Boobie knows well. Jabbar has a couple of nicknames, Texas Black, number one stunner. He was a successful drug dealer, the kind of guy Boobie wanted to be. And Chad gets Jabbar Watson to vouch for him. And I get a phone call from Jabbar Watson. And he like, Boob, I said, man, what is going on? He said, Boob, your name, I don't know. I was just told to give you a call.

I said, but Jabbar ain't did nothing. He said, man, you know how it is, Boob. You did some, you know what you did. I don't know. I was just around here just doing what I do, and the man called me and told me to get you a call. I'm like, God, man, man, I ain't did nothing. He said, man, just call the man and see what he gonna do.

He ain't gonna lock you up. Just be truthful with it. I said, all right, man. Damn. Technically, Chad isn't supposed to be doing this. Confidential informants are supposed to be, well, confidential. Exposing their identity to other drug dealers is risky, usually subject to a lot of paperwork.

But this is Chad's winning move. This will get him booby, a new high-level informant who would lead him all the way up to a cartel. But this would also kick off a chain of events that would reveal the way Chad and his A-team worked with informants, and it'll expose things he did that were straight-up illegal. All the people Chad fucked over are going to start talking to the feds. They'll tell a story about power, betrayal, and the to start talking to the feds. They'll tell a story about power, betrayal, and the inner workings of the DEA.

And we're a fly on the wall for all of it. I'm Feynman Roberts. And I'm Jim Mustian from Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment. This is Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bike. Episode 4, A Sign of Good Faith. Jabbar Watson, Chad's super informant, convinced Boobie to get on the phone with Chad. This is October 2013, right after Chad first made contact. I said, when you want to see me?

You know, he's like, soon as possible. I'm like, when? He said, can you be down here tomorrow? I'm like, yeah, I'll be down here tomorrow. Booby and his wife, Tigress, get in their truck. Chad says to meet him at the New Orleans DEA field office. It's on the south side of Lake Pontchartrain, right at the foot of the bridge that takes you to the North Shore. New Orleans DEA shares a building with a Marriott. We've been there.

DEA offices are on the upper floors. There's no signage. You've just got to be in the know. On the bottom floor it looks like a hotel lobby. Lots of glossy white stone that may or may not be marble. There's a little Starbucks. It kind of begs for a tongue-in-cheek Google review. Coffee was fine, but what really wakes you up is being thrown to the ground by feds. Anybody can stay at that Marriott, but the DEA sometimes uses it to stash suspects. I'm not giving away any secrets here.

You can type in DEA on Google Maps if you want to look at photos. Anyhow. They made my wife stay, like, in the lobby area, and they took me up to a floor where they punched the codes in and all that there. Carl and Chad sit him down.

They see potential. Boobie's a career drug dealer, and he has that gift of gab. He's funny, likable, great at making a plan. So that's why even though Chad had the Michelli brothers, he wanted to get Booby to work for him. Chad and Carl tell him that people he's been working with are going to testify against him,

and as part of Booby's cooperation, they need to know his dealings. So Boobie admits to trafficking powder cocaine. This admission is what Chad has been after. Chad uses it as leverage. He says that Boobie can either work for him or accept time behind bars. I'm like, man, how are you going to just lock me up? I ain't did nothing. He's like, well, for now, you just let us know that you sold drugs. I said, yeah, but you said you just wanted to know. But he's like, well, I'm going to give you a chance to work it off. Give me your supply.

But Chad's bluffing. He didn't have a case on Boobie that he could take to court. Lying in an interview with a suspect, that's a tool of the trade, not considered misconduct. The bluff forced Boobie's hand. Boobie has self-incriminated. Before you admitted to him that you did sell drugs? Again, this is Douglas Bruce from the DOJ. He comes up a lot in the Fed's recordings. He's a good interviewer.

His style is like compassionate dad who knows exactly what you did. The information that he shared with you, was it information that you believed to be true, the information that he had against you? Yes, yes, yes. So you knew in your mind he could put a case together on you, no problem. That's Michael Gannon, better known as Mickey, from DEA's Internal Affairs. A whole roomful of feds are sitting in on this interview, listening to Booby's story. Yes, and...

Is that why you admitted it? Yes. Chad got a drug trafficker to walk through the Marriott lobby and admit to dealing. That's mostly above board. You could see that as outstanding police work. But Chad doesn't stop there. So when he said you had to bring some cases to Louisiana, did he give you any kind of paperwork to sign

and have you sign up as a confidential informant? No. At no time, so we're clear here. They took no photographs of you, they took no fingerprint cards. At no time, you know, you didn't sign any agreement about what a confidential informant does or anything. You did none of that. Is that accurate? That's accurate, yeah.

Boobie has never officially signed up as an informant. It was just a shake hand, like, man, I'm going to hold you to your word, if you're a man of your word. And I'm like, now when I get to doing this, what you going to do for me? You know what I'm saying? He's like, I ain't going to lock your ass up. I'm like, okay, I'm going to get to working then. Booby has to deliver an unspecified number of drug dealers

to Louisiana. The only thing Chad promises Boobie in this handshake deal is that he's not going to lock Boobie up. Chad has all the power. Boobie doesn't know it yet, but he just wrote a blank check. And as time

progressed on, you know, it was the promise that, you know, he going to let me go. And I'm like, man, you for real? He's like, yeah, I'm going to let you go. But you got to make me some cases. So you took that as an offer to stay free out of jail? Of course. It's not only his word, but it's also a good dude, which is Jabbar. You know, he like, man, he can do what he want.

You know, that's the big dog. We call him the big dog. And you heard that from Watson in the past? Yeah. Yeah. You know, he's like God down here. Whatever he says, go. Keeping Boobie off the books is against DEA policy.

There's nobody checking in to see if their relationship is professional. It's all on Chad's terms. And what he says goes. We've heard there's a word for this kind of off-the-books informant. A ghost. Some official informants are working off-time, snitching to avoid the inside of a federal prison. Others are paid by the government. No informant gets a clear, straightforward deal. This much information in exchange for that much time off your sentence. But when you're a ghost, it's even more ambiguous. You never get arrested or charged with a crime. The credit you're earning is made up.

And furthermore, nobody has to read you your Miranda rights remind you that anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law tell you that you have the right to an attorney booby sat in that room self incriminated and secured his fate Chad cut corners so that he could get exactly what he wanted with no hassle, no negotiation, no paperwork. The corner that he cut, it may have been small, but that's where Booby's rights were. So with all the pressure in that room, Booby gives Chad what he's asking for,

the name of his supplier. It's somebody he knows from their neighborhood in Houston, a dealer by the name of Edwin Martinez. As a teenager, he started getting locked up on marijuana charges, and he built out his network in prison. He's smart and willing to beat a man within an inch of his life. Edwin is not the kind of guy you want to betray. That month, Boobie starts working for Chad.

He's luring smaller drug dealers to Louisiana so that Chad can bust him. Boobie and the A-Team try to make a plan on how to get Boobie's supplier, Edwin Martinez. One day, Boobie goes to meet Edwin at his shop. There's a garage in the back where Edwin gets the drugs and a front waiting room where the buyers come in. Boobie comes in the front door, and Edwin shows him what he's got. And he's like, man, what can you do with this here?

He showed me 10 kilos of heroin. 10 kilos of heroin. They're brown or grayish. Some bricks have an emblem on them, LV, like the Louis Vuitton logo. Booby tells Edwin he needs to go out and test the heroin. But at this time, it really buys some time. So I called up Chad. I tell Chad, I say, hey, Edwin over here at the shop, man, he got 10 keys.

I had to run. And you need to send somebody over here to just run in there. He like, nah, you know what we deal here. You got to bring him through here to get your full credit. And I'm like, man, why don't you just bust him with the whole team? I'm like, fuck. Chad doesn't want to pass the case over to DEA Houston, so he pressures Boobie to bring Edwin and the drugs to Louisiana so that he can bust them. If the bust doesn't happen in Louisiana, Chad doesn't get the credit. But by DEA policy, Chad shouldn't have prioritized doing the bust on his turf.

It put Boobie in a tight spot. He's in a meeting with his supplier, looking at 10 kilos of heroin. He's trying to turn it in, and Chad is making it harder for him to do that. There's no telling what Edwin would do to a snitch if he found out. There's nobody from the DEA watching out for Boobie or helping him figure out his next move. So now I'm thinking in my mind, what I'm gonna do, what I'm gonna to do? What I'm going to do? So I end up buying like four of them with my money.

I paid $200. I bought four of them. When you bought the four, what did you do with them? I took them home. Okay. I ain't never tell Chad, though, but I took them home.

And then what did you do with them? So I sent them to Atlanta. And you sold them for how much? $70 apiece. For those of you keeping score at home, Boobie just made $80K. No taxes. And this is where we run into a little road bump.

Drug dealing while being an informant, technically it's not allowed. But Boobie's source of income is selling drugs. Booby may be working for Chad, but he's not making money as an informant. He can't pay for dinner with a get-out-of-jail-free card. And a second thing. In order to set up these busts for Chad, Booby has to establish trust. He needs some transactions to go well.

Buy and sell good drugs at a fair price with no one getting arrested. To work with a DEA agent like Chad, Booby's supposed to be out of the game. But in order to produce for the DEA, he's got to keep selling drugs. Jabbar Watson had warned Booby about dealing on the side. Jabbar got caught that way, and he served time. He, like, telling me don't get caught dibbing and dabbing. He, like, uh... And explain what dibbing and dabbing means. Still working. Still selling drugs.

How does the DEA expect informants to sign up and immediately stop dealing? It's confusing. We've asked a lot of DEA folks about it. Here's Chad. Well, listen, first of DEA folks about it. Here's Chad. Well, listen, first of all, I mean, to think that you're going to work drug cases with guys that aren't involved in the game is, you know, DEA likes to, they want you to have informants, and then they want you to, they want to separate themselves from it. I mean, at the end of the day, yeah, we all want to hope it's not happening, but realistically, how are you going to get there if they're not involved? So Boobie's making money on the side with Edwin Martinez, and it comes up in conversation with Chad.

He's like, man, you really can't do that. I said, man, what you want me to do? You threatening to lock me up. I got to do what I got to do. I'm in Rome. When you're in Rome, you do what the Romans do. He's like, well, I don want me to do? You threatening to lock me up. I got to do what I got to do. I'm in Rome. When you're in Rome, you do what the Romans do. He's like, well, I don't want to be your jail cellmate, but you need to stop that. It's not exactly the same as telling an informant to stop dealing and presenting an alternative.

What it amounts to is, don't get caught. But this plan is working. Edwin's impressed with Boobie. He's gaining trust. Boobie got out of prison with almost nothing to his name, and now he's earning. He's thorough, and he knows how to test heroin to see how much he can dilute it to maximize his profit. Here's Boobie's supplier, Edwin Martinez. He talked to the feds, too.

Frederick Brown wouldn't take them unless Ed at least took a four. So meaning that they can make four keys out of one key. So if he didn't take a four, he wasn't buying it. He would never tell me. You know, I would go to thinking, man, this guy, because, you know, they were making a bunch of money. Like Brown was a, he drove a drophead Rolls Royce Ghost and a Bentley Muslin brand new. So he was making a whole bunch of money. And Edwin's not doing so well. This is where Booby finds an in. He offers to sell heroin for Edwin if he can get the kilos to Louisiana.

And he's like, look, I have a client and I know you're hurting right now. So if you want, you want to get in, I'll send two. But you got to send some with me. Send another two. I'm like, I don't have money to put two keys of heroin. I said, but I could probably get one. He's like, well, get one. If anything happens, I'm responsible.

He's like, how far we got to go? I said, man, we got to go to Slidell, just right outside New Orleans. You got somebody to drive. He's like, won far we got to go? I said, man, we got to go to Slidell, just right outside New Orleans. Dude, you got somebody to drive. He's like, won't you get your driver? I'm like, nah, because I'm knowing in my head I'm going to feed him to Chad. So I'm like, man, find a driver in his own. You responsible for it making there. And once it make it there, I'm responsible for the sale and getting the money back. He said, all right, bro, I got you.

So Boobie calls up Chad, lets him know about the deal. They're all in separate cars, so when they hit the road, Chad's checking in with Boobie on the phone about every hour. The bus goes like clockwork. When the convoy gets into Chad territory, a state trooper comes out of nowhere, and they pull over the car with the heroin. Boobie has screwed him over, but Edwin doesn't know it yet. They meet up at a Burger King. Here's Edwin. Me and Frederick brought him up, and he's blaming it like, man, he took off with the dope. I'm like, he didn't take off with the dope, man. The dude got stopped. He, oh, you're going to pay me. You're going to pay me. I said, man, I'll pay you. If he stole it, I'll pay you. But he was making all this up, like, you know,

like really real, like he was mad. But come to find out all along, it was all his plan. Edwin drives back to Houston that night. He finds out that when the driver got pulled over, the trooper found the drugs and arrested him. Edwin's trying to figure out how this could have happened. The next day, my mind's messed up. And I'm like, man, what just happened? What just, you know, still trying to take everything that happened. I'm a little smart. You know, I ain't the brightest guy. I ain't the smartest guy in the world. But I'm like, it can't be nobody but Brown or me. I didn't do it, so I had to be Brown. Brown set this up. Brown set it up.

They lost three kilos, two Boobie paid for with his own money. Getting an informant to use his own funds, that's not kosher in the extreme. Totally fucks with the incentive structure. Edwin and Boobie have lost about $150,000. And remember, Edwin was not doing well before this all went down. Me and Brian get into it over the phone. And I tell him, I know you set it up. I said, you set it up.

You had to set it up. And I knew he had set it up. All along I knew, so set it up all along. I knew, so we fall out. Edwin still has three kilos of heroin left, but he's feeling paranoid. He wants out. A friend of Edwin's convinces him to hide the drugs until they can give them back to the seller. Edwin packs the three kilos into a car with a hidden compartment,

and the friend drives him over to their secret storage room. Later, I call him and tell him, let's go get him, and it's kind of in the afternoon, and he's like, oh man, I don't feel good about it. I said, man, I didn't give him back, so we're gonna go get him. So they go back to the storage room to retrieve him. And they're not there. We're like, what happened? Oh, I don't know. I said, man, get this guy over here. Edwin suspects that his friend has turned on him. After all, the friend had suggested they hide the drugs, and he was the only other person who knew where they were.

So Edwin beats the shit out of his friend, pulls a gun on him. Later on, he'd find out that he wasn't just paranoid. His friend had been working for the DEA. With respect to the drugs, the three kilos, did you ever recover those? No, never found them? Could you answer audibly for the recording? Okay.

Did you ever receive any information, stories, rumors, anything about what happened to them? Chad said they recovered them out of the storage. He said they went in there and took him off. Okay. Edwin says he got out of drug dealing for almost a year, starts trucking. But he gets caught dealing again, threatens another dealer with an AR-15. Long story. When Edwin's behind bars, Chad convinces him to start working for him. He told me, I'm the only agent that has ever got a 95% reduction in the United States of America. And all the guys back there say Chad is a god over here.

Chad says, you're going home tomorrow, you're going home tomorrow. So Booby brought his supplier to Louisiana. This is what Chad had asked for in their first meeting. You might think that Booby has fulfilled his end of the bargain, right? But if you work for a DEA agent like Chad, being an informant might never end. It's a purgatory between being free and behind bars. He's not being paid, and the credit is all subjective. You just have to do whatever the boss tells you if you don't want to end up in prison again.

So Chad asked for something more. A set of bitchin' wheels. Booby delivered one of his suppliers to Chad. But according to him, Booby was far from being a super informant. Booby was never fully, what I would say, a fully cooperative confidential informant. He was going to do just enough to keep me happy and stay in contact just enough to keep me from pursuing his arrest. Boobie had a lot of potential. He's a great talker and had connections in the Houston drug world.

But Boobie was mostly feeding Chad low-level drug dealers. He was reticent to give him anybody with name recognition. So after they do a bust of one of these small-time guys, they have a little chat. He was like, it's a nice truck. How many miles you have on it? I was like, almost 100,000. He's like, golly, you done killed the truck. I said, that's all right. It's still a good truck. That's my baby.

Boobie's truck, his daily driver. It's a special edition Harley-Davidson Ford F-150, white with all the bells and whistles. Leather seats, GPS, DVD player. It's a nice truck. Chad tells Boobie that handing over assets will make him look good with the prosecutor. You got to give me this big fairy tale, you know, so I could tell the prosecutor, you know what I'm saying, how you out here working and you're doing a good job. You got to give me something now. I'm like, I got you, I got you, I got you. I'm like, what do I need to

trade? He said, whatever you feel like it. But I sure like this truck. I'm like, shit, you want a truck? Drug cops can take possessions that are bought with drug dealing money. It's called seizing assets. In theory, it's supposed to take the profit out of drug trafficking. But Chad does this other thing. Chad gets drug dealers to voluntarily give him assets. You can imagine that it'd be hard to get a drug dealer to just hand over the keys to their car. But Chad was able to do it, and he's not humble about it. When it's a voluntary

surrender in a voluntary situation, which not many agents even do or pull off, which means Frederick Brown agreed to surrender a vehicle to the New Orleans Field Division. If this sounds like bribery to you, it struck us that way too when we first talked about it as a team. But it's not. Seizing assets, even the way Chad does it, isn't a problem at the DEA.

I like, shoot, you won't destroy it. Like, no, it's got too many mileage on it. I say, shoot, you won't destroy like now it's got too many mileage on it. I say, shit, I could get you something. He like, what can you get me? You know what I'm saying? I say, shit, I see. Chad lets Booby know that this truck has too many miles on it. Because

in the realm of assets drug cops can seize, cars are special. They're the one thing agents can take from drug dealers that they can turn around and use as a work vehicle. And driving a new swanky car that belonged to a drug dealer? That's one of the status symbols for DEA agents. You can imagine what the DEA parking lot looks like. But in order to get this truck in his hands,

Chad knows that everything has to be just right. A car with over 100,000 miles on it probably wouldn't stay at the DEA. It would be sold or given to local law enforcement who'd drive it into the ground. Point is, it wouldn't be Chad's work truck. So Chad tells Booby to start showing good faith, prove his commitment to making cases, being a good informant, and Boobie comes through. He buys Chad a similar truck at auction, F-150 Limited Edition, red inside, but this one has less than 7,000 miles on it.

Boobie pays $43,000 for the truck. He takes pictures and sends them to Chad. He's like, yeah, that's nice, that's nice. I said, I'm going to put a watch in there too. I'm going to put a Rolex in there. The following week, Chad's up in Houston at a water skiing tournament, and he calls Boobie to see if he can pick up the truck. And this is a moment to pay attention to.

Because even though Chad used a former CI to talk boobie into turning snitch, never signed him up as an informant, turned a blind eye when he dealt drugs, let him use his own money for a setup, lied and told him his case was with a prosecutor, those are all things that just sometimes happen at the DEA. The only crime he got charged with on that laundry list was the next thing he did. So next week came, he called me up. He's like, where you at? I said, shit, I'm around. He's like, I'm out here in Cyprus. Bring the truck. Chad picked up the truck outside Houston, but he wrote Louisiana on the DEA seizure form. That lie was the crime. You're going to hear a lot about it later in this podcast. Here's Chad himself.

I was in Houston. I picked up the truck. I transported it back to New Orleans, logged it in. There's evidence recovered in New Orleans. I see both sides of it. As I sit here today, I wish I would have checked a different box. But nothing that I did with regards to that truck was with any criminal intent. Next time on Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bayou. Boobie falls out of Chad's good graces.

He was already just like, Boobie, why are you fucking lying? You know what I'm saying? And he's like, I said, man, I ain't lying. I started crying. I'm like, man, I ain't lying. I'm telling you the truth. And he's like, I don't care about you no more. But it doesn't mean that Chad is done using him.

Did you think at the time that you guys were encouraging Boobie to lie on the stand? Um, I didn't know. But this time, Chad is going to get caught. Booby's going to tell the feds all about it. He said, you sure you're going to know him? I'm like, man, just get me up there and I got you.

He said, okay. He just told me to just make sure I bring my A-game. He's going to get me on this trial. That's next time on Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bayou. Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bayou is an original production by Mian Hong Media and Sony Music Entertainment. It was written and produced by Odelia Rubin. It was reported by me, Feynman Roberts,

and my co-host, Jim Mustian. Our editor is Catherine St. Louis. She is also Neon Hum Media's executive editor. Our executive producer is Jonathan Hirsch. Sound design and mixing by Scott Somerville. Theme and original music composed by Hansdale Shee. We also use music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound. Our associate producer is Anne Lim.

Our intern is Zoe Culkin. Fendall Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Samantha Allison. Alexis Martinez is our podcast coordinator. Special thanks to Stephanie Serrano, Mia Warren, and Kate Mishkin. And to our DEA consultant, Skip Sewell. We couldn't have made this show without the support of our legal team, including Lauren Pagoni, Rachel Goldberg, and Allison Sherry. I'm Feynman Roberts.

And I'm Jim Mustian. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. Thanks for listening.