The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell - Gang Leader Exposes the Dark Truth About Texas Prisons

Episode Date: July 26, 2026

Anthony Sanchez shares his raw journey from childhood trauma and Houston street life to serving more than 10 years in the Texas prison system—and ultimately rebuilding his life after release. In this powerful interview, Anthony explains how poverty, abuse, addiction, gang culture, drug dealing, violence, and the prison environment shaped his early decisions. He opens up about losing his mother to a cocaine overdose, carrying a gun as a teenager, selling drugs, facing aggravated robbery charges, and receiving a 16-year prison sentence at only 17 years old. Anthony also gives an inside look at Texas prison politics, racial segregation, Tango Blast, corrupt correctional officers, contraband, violence, and the survival mentality required behind bars. After his release in 2022, he transformed his life through barbering, entrepreneurship, public speaking, social media, and community outreach. This episode is a story about crime, prison, accountability, redemption, rehabilitation, and the possibility of changing your life after incarceration. Go Support Anthony! IG: https://www.instagram.com/illuminating777solutions/ This Episode Is #Sponsored By The Following: Betterhelp! Don’t let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/connect Mood! Head to https://mood.com, find the functional gummy that matches exactly what you're looking for, and let Mood help you discover YOUR perfect mood. And don't forget to use promo code CONNECT when you check out to save 20% on your first order. Join The Patreon For Bonus Content! https://www.patreon.com/theconnectshow 00:00 Introduction: The Wise Child & TDCJ Gangs 01:36 Street Life, Gangs & Human Psychology 05:59 Growing Up in Houston: Family & Trauma 10:09 Community, Gangs, and Early Violence 16:38 Petty Crimes & Getting the First Gun 20:26 Teen Hustle: Drug Dealing & Street Lessons 25:49 This Episode Is Sponsored By BetterHelp 26:51 Isolation, Family, and the Drive to Hustle 32:32 Getting Caught: Robberies and Arrest 41:40 Trial, Sentencing & Prison Reality 51:20 Prison Survival: Racial Dynamics & Tango Blast 01:01:48 Earning Respect and Violence 01:06:28 This Episode Is Sponsored By Mood 01:08:10 Structure Within the Gang 01:18:16 Prison Riots, Rules & Protecting Your Own 01:33:15 Conscience, G5 Isolation, and Self-Reflection 01:44:00 Corruption & Abuse in Texas Prisons 01:55:55 More Corruption, Inmates & Officer Crimes 02:07:32 Final Years: Violence, Survival & Coming Home 02:20:00 Reintegration, Community Work, and Success 02:27:18 Staying Free, Building a Platform, and Giving Back 02:33:34 Closing Thoughts: Change Is Possible Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They called me the wise child growing up. That was my nickname. I was in the streets 24-7. Dongoblast is the leaders in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. They're the biggest, most ruthless game. Every time there was a smash out, I volunteered. Every time there was a riot on front line. It's either go, kill these motherfuckers in the child horror.

Get killed by these people. I beat up a sergeant. I beat the shit out of them. They handcuffed me, took me to the back, and almost beat me to death. Anthony Sanchez is a former shock caller for the Tonga Blas. the largest and most violent Mexican prison gang in Texas. Anthony grew up without his parents in the slums of Southside Houston, and when he was only 17, he caught a 20-year prison stretch for aggravated armed robbery.

What you're about to hear are some of the wildest prison stories ever told on this podcast, the relentless violence, the stabbings, the beat downs, the homicides, and corruption so deep it's hard to believe this happens in America. But I promise you it does. and Anthony took part in all of it. As a young man in his early 20s, he rose within the ranks of the Tango Blast to lead whole prisons filled with hundreds of loyal soldiers.

He eventually calmed down, though, educated himself, and got paroled in 2022. Nowadays, he's a successful Houston businessman and community activist. Make sure to follow him on social media and connect with him if you're in H-Town. This is a fascinating story, and I'm so excited for you guys to see it.

It's the great Anthony Samp. Sanchez, right here on The Connect with Johnny Mitchell. When I was in G5 captivity, my biggest lesson was a man's conscience is his worst enemy because it's going to eat at you. When you're in, let's say, for instance, a tiger in its natural habitat, when it sees its prey, its natural reaction is the attack on its prey. But a human being, it's not our normal instinct to attack another human being. These are learned characteristics that we learn, and now we're going into the human psychology. We go around these groups, and you go inside the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and you grow up in the underserved community around blacks, poor Caucasians,

and we grow up together, but you go in prison, it's a tribe-like mentality. You'll see a Caucasian go with his people. You'll see the African Americans go with their people, and then you'll see the Hispanics go with their people, because it's a tribe-like way of thinking. And I think that's like the biggest problem because now you're dealing with pride, ego, and emotion. So dealing with multiple emotions,

multiple personalities, you become a product of your environment. The situation is like this. You get a hot cup of coffee. You set in a room eventually it becomes room temperature. We become products of our environment. And are you familiar? you're with Huey P. Newton. I am. So Hughie P. Newton had a book called Revolutionary Suicide, and he speaks about reactional suicide, about our environment. Basically, you get a ghetto chilled child,

and I'm speaking on the hot cup of coffee now, you get a ghetto child, and guess what happens? He's in a broken household. He don't have a mom. He don't have a dad. Or he's molested as a kid, or whatever the case may be. Now he wants to seek suicide. or death, but don't know how to do it. So he goes out, robes, steals, and does the most heinous things. And people say, oh, he's a criminal. No, he's not a criminal. He's actually a victim of circumstance.

No one has to be born in this life. No one has to be born in poverty. And then if you go a little deeper, the educational system has failed the underserved community. We're not as privileged as if you say you go in Houston, Texas, you go to schools in River Oaks. We're not privileged. We're public schooling.

And then we go to these schools and we start living this life of crime because all we see is the neighborhood is, guess what everybody's doing? They're gang banging. They're selling drugs. They're pimping holes. And this is what we think's normal because we don't have no positive role models. We have false community leaders. You got people talking about I'm jeered up.

I'm a gangster. I'm an OG. But, bro, you are. You are dope being. You having little kids do your dirty bidding for you. And everybody's talking about, oh, I'm the king of the hood, but you don't own no real estate in your hood. How the hell you're the king of the hood?

You're a bum. And that's the problem. And then you got these kids, and I was one of them kids that went out and started doing crime, and guess what happened? Nobody told me aggravated robbery holds five to 99 in the state of Texas. All they need is he said, she said, you could get away with the crime, but guess what? If someone points you out, hey, that's a rap.

You're going. You're going to the pen. So you are like somebody from Mars could look at you and your teeth and say, oh, this cat's from Houston. Yeah. Is this your real hair or did you get that tattooed? It's tattooed. Okay. Yeah, it's tattooed.

It's pretty awesome. Yeah, it was at a time when I got it, I didn't think I was going to ever leave prison. You have some people who go in prison. They'll go with five years, get 45 years. and the things that I was doing in prison, I never thought that, man, I'm going to come home. So I tattooed my whole body. So you were prepared to just be in there.

You weren't on some like, I'm going to get some good time. No, I'm an aggravated offender. And TDCJ, if you have aggravated cases, you have to do 50% of your time. And the thing with being a gang member, they tell you, man, our main priority is to make sure you go home. They don't mean early on good time. They mean not in a body bag.

So tell us about childhood. So, man, growing up, I grew up in Houston, Texas. I'm a first-generation Mexican-American. My people immigrated over here trying to give me basically an opportunity of freedom. Where are they from in Mexico? They're from San Luis, San Luis, Maca Walla. Okay. Yeah.

So they came over here. They immigrated over here. and during the time I lived with my mom. I lived with my mom, my dad and my mom were separated. I had three older brothers. And I was always back and forth. My brothers were a little older, so they were there, but I'm always with my mom, right?

And my mom, she was basically a prostitute. She was a prostitute. She would stay coked out. She would beat me. She would abuse me. And this is what I thought that love was at the time. in my later years because of my childhood trauma. But, like, seeing everything going on,

I didn't understand it, but I knew, hey, my mom's getting money. She got this rich white guy named Rick. She's breaking them for thousands. He's over here buying me gold chains. They're taking me to mansions. I'm like, I'm loving it. I don't know. I'm calling about 20 people, dad, thinking they're all my dad.

Were these mostly rich guys? They're all rich. They're all business owners. Oh, so your mom was a badass hoe. Yes. With all due respect. No, my mom knew how to break a motherfucker. My mom knew she had looks.

She looked just like Selena. She thought she was Selena. She knew that she had looks and she used it to her advantage. And you got to understand, like, man, in today's society, women get sexualized, right? They think that all they have is their body. And women are not taught in this day and error that they're more than their body. They have a mind. They could grow.

They could evolve. they could be great. But, like, if you go look at the media culture, they tell you, like, Cardi B, you got to shake ass, you got to strip, Megan the Stallion, you got to suck dick, you got to do all this shit. And I think that's what's happening with this generation. But me growing up, experiencing it,

I see my mom doing all this. And around the time I was seven, she overdosed in front of me. She overdosed in front of me on cocaine. And I was young at the time. time. And even though my mom did a lot of drugs was high, she was, we were very religious. We're Mexicans. So we're Catholics. So we pray. So I think this was like one of the first instances that I rebelled against God. It was like my biggest rebellions because I seen my mom lying

on the ground blood coming out of her mouth. And I knew I should call the cops. But at the time, you know what I did? I got on my knees. I prayed to God. I said, man, please, God don't take my mom. I thought that if I had faith of a mustard seed, that God would save her. And I was praying, praying, praying. My brother's coming. And they're like, man, what the fuck?

And I remember when my brother hits me, wow, man, get your motherfucking ass in the room. And now they're calling the cops. They're calling their sister. I'm crying at this point. Like, man, what the fuck? I just got hit for no reason. So I'm in the room crying. man, long story short, man, she ended up passing away.

She was already dead, they said. She'd been dead on the ground. The whole time I was praying she was dead. I could have called the cops. I could have called 911. But I think that a part of me knew that she was high. I didn't want her to go to jail. And I was like, okay, what's my next best resort?

Prayer. Did you blame yourself later on for her death for not calling the cops? I actually blame myself, and I blamed God at the time. I had a lot of hate in my heart, and I end up going to stay with my grandma. And my grandma speaks nothing but Spanish. So I'm what they call a coconut. I'm brown on the outside, white, on the inside. I don't know no Spanish.

They say you're an Osabo kid. And growing up with my grandma, my grandma's really religious. My grandma did everything for me. I could say, like, we weren't rich. I remember going to the church every Tuesday to pick up bread. We were walked, and I'll be like, oh, their church is just giving us stuff. The whole time, you know, we're getting free food. And growing up, I was like, okay, I have, like, a pretty normal life.

It was my uncle, my grandma. My dad wasn't in the picture. He was in and out because he was strung out on drugs. He was, I don't know what drugs he was doing, crack, coke, smoking weed. I really don't know. He was, I didn't know at the time. So he was in and out of prison? No, he wasn't in prison.

He was just strung out. Okay. My dad, he was never a criminal. He was a functioning addict. You could say he was a dope fiend. He was one of them dope fiends that they work and they'll pay for their supplies. But he never committed crimes, but he was never around. He was always chasing that next high.

So I didn't have a father figure. I didn't have a role model. My only father figure was my uncle, and my uncle, I'm not his kid. But he did work. He provided a household for us. And he had his own life. And he tried to discipline us. He tried to talk to us.

And how are you going to do that with four kids that ain't your own and you're trying to raise us all? And me being in the hood, we're on the southeast side of Houston. And I'm going to school, and I'm not understanding what's going on in this neighborhood. I'm not understanding that you have gangs. You got different sides that plex with each other over different colors. Who are the gangs in southeast Houston?

So you have like southeast crypts, crypt cartels. You got PBLs, Brown Pride gangsters. And it's like you have a lot of stuff happening. Me, I'm not in it, though. I was never a gang member. So during the time, I'm like just, I'm going to school. I'm kicking it with my friends. I'm a good kid.

I love school. I loved reading was my favorite subject. I always try my best to be the best, because I always felt like, hey, like, I got to be greater than everybody. I'm Mexican. I got to embrace it. Because even though I didn't speak Spanish, I understood it. And my grandma would always tell me.

you're Mexican. Have pride in yourself. Have pride. You got the bloods of kings and queens in you. And it stuck with me. So I always try to educate myself. But growing up, I'm like the hot cup of coffee. You sat in the room eventually becomes room temperature.

And my first interaction in the streets, I could say I was around how old, like 11, 12 years old, and had a good friend. He was my best friend. His name is Michael. He was an Asian. Because across the tracks, you have to Vietnam refugees. So he was a little Asian boy.

And he calls me, and he's like, hey, y'all, man, they're not letting me cross. They're trying to jump me. So I go, I get my little mongoose. I go over there. I got my uncle's screwdriver. And I go, I'm like, who? Like, this is our neighborhood. Like, I ain't going to let no one bully you.

That's my boy. And growing up with brothers, you know they're going to kick my ass. You better fight. And even with my mom, when she was alive, my mom used to beat me if I ever went and complained to her and said, hey, someone bullied me at school. You better fight. She woke my ass. So I learned quick, I need a fight. Were your brothers in the street?

So my brothers were semi in the streets. They weren't. They actually got raised with mom and dad. So they had that family household. But just like me, we're all abused by our mom. We're all beating, we're abused. Our dad never hit us. I could say that.

He never disciplined us. But our mom was very abusive. And when I say she beat us, she beat us until we're bleeding, swollen eyes, broken noses. There was a time that I remember when I was, I had to be like five years old, six years old. And I remember she picked me up from my dad's. So we're driving in her truck And she's like, hey, we're going to play a game You're going to see if you could fly

She opens the corridor and throws me out While she's driving And I hit my head and I start rolling I'm crying And she gets out, she gets me, are you okay? And it was like stuff like that That we all had experience Oh, so you were used to violence

Since a little kid Since a little kid I was used to violence, and like I said, I was abused as a child. I was abused. So you had a screwdriver on you, and now you're about to become the violent one. Yes, it's because I went over there. I remember going, and I try to talk to the person first, like, try to go by, and he went up to Michael. Like, I already told you, you can't, you ain't passing here, like, woo-woo.

And I go over there, and I'm like, nah, like, this is our neighborhood. like we go wherever the fuck we want. So he pushes me and I don't do no talking. I stab him. I stab him one time he looked at me shot. What you think he did? He took off front and we're kids.

Like what the fuck this motherfucker just stabbed me. Did you get him good? I got him pretty good. It wasn't enough to kill him. No, screwdriver. That just hurts really bad. It just hurt really bad. It poked him, it penetrated,

made him bleed a little bit. That was like a prelude for what was to come. Yeah, and from there, like, I didn't know that, guess what? I didn't start a lot of bullshit in the hood because this guy was affiliated. And that's where I think that was the biggest effect on my life. That's where everything transpired to the streets. Now, hey, like, if they fuck with you, hey, we're going to ride on them. It's straight like that.

And it's because I had people that I called my cousins. But they were my real cousins. There were just people from the block, from the hood that heard about it. That, oh, you just stabbed a gang member over here, and they're talking about whooping you because their big homies talking about it. And I transpired to something else. And growing up, I could say that it was more like, okay, I see this person. He's a little older.

He's probably like 18 years old. He's a young adult. And then you have somebody like 30 years old. And they're considered, oh, geez. They got their cars. You think that they have the most fucking money. And I didn't know it then that these motherfuckers are straight dope fiends. They're using all the youth, all the kids to make their money.

They're telling us, hey, look, they go knock on that door real quick. See if anybody's home. So I go knock. And ain't nobody answered. They're going to go kick it in. They go steal all their shit. I'm just a person knocking. I'm the kid.

If we're riding around and we had drugs, guess who's holding it? I'm holding it. I'm a kid. Guess what? He said, they're just going to let you go home. You're good. So we're over here. We're smoking.

We're chilling. I'm thinking it's cool. Like, I'm with the homeboys. Like, this is what. what it is. And if anybody fuck with someone from my block, it's on. Like, it's, it's, it's plex. It's like this.

And I never got into, like, gun violence until later. Hmm. Like, I could say, like, everything, we're jumping people, we're fighting left and right. And the first time I ever got a gun, I think I was around, like, 13, 14 at the time. I remember I was in a swimming pool. So it's me, one of my homeboys, we got some females in the swim pool, we're in Broadway Square.

And like I said, the gang violence, right? I didn't know that I'm not allowed in certain areas still. I'm thinking, like, I'm good. I'm with my homeboy. They come, they jump over the fence, and they start stealing all our clothes, stealing our shoes, everything. So I jump out, and I end up getting jumped by about like eight black people at the time. Some of them are a little older.

Some of them, they're like 20 years old. Some of them are like 16. They're all older than me. But they're like, they beat the fuck out of me. I got my clothes, though, because they didn't worry about my clothes. They dropped the clothes to whoop my ass. And I guess a lady came out and started screaming and they took off front. And my other homeboy that was in the pool with me,

he ran in his boxers and I don't know where the hell he went. So that was the first time, like, something happened to me. Now, I remember I went to this blood. His name was Dee. He was a drug dealer. He saw all the weed to everybody. And I told him, like, man, they don't whoop me. And he's like, man, come here.

He gave me a $357. He said, give me $50. It's a snub nose. He said, give me $50. That's a sick gun for a fucking 14-year-old. Yeah, he's like, you're good. They ain't going to fuck with you no more. That's how you got to protect yourself.

And he told me, rule one of the game, never leave the house without packing a gun. You got to stay strapped. You got to stay ready from getting ready. You're getting caught slipping. You're an easy lick, you're easy prey. So that's how I got my first gun. And when I had the gun, it gave me power.

And ain't nobody fuck with me. Everybody knew I was strapped and everybody knew I was going to pop something. I'm not doing no talking. I'm not doing no fighting either. I don't got to fight no more. Like I didn't even have to shoot. Like I do is draw down on you and you're going to get your mind right

and you can go tell everybody in the hood, hey, little motherfucker's strap. I don't got to do nothing. All I got to do is pointing at you. And you're going to walk away because nobody wants to lose their life. Everybody talks about, oh, I'm going to do this. No, man, if I pull a gun out on you,

nine times out of ten, you're going to walk the fuck away. And so you were pulling out on older dudes? Everybody, everybody, right with you. they talk stupid, I'm drawing down on them. Man, rewind your self for you won't get hurt, and everybody in the hood knew, hey, that little motherfucker's strap. And that was the first time I ever had a gun, but that was the first time I felt like,

man, I ain't got to get jump no more. I ain't got to get whooped no more. I got some power now. All these older motherfuckers, all these people thinking, man, I'm going to get their mind right. And at the time, I was still kicking it with the heart. homboys and people I fuck with. And we're doing like little petty crimes.

You could say like we'll go breaking people's cars and shit like that, right? Or like we'll do like a little bit of like we'll hustle, right? And we had the meanest hustle. I remember when I was in middle school, there was only like Reggie and you know what KB is? Like kind of. Yeah, but it's just some good ass Reggie. So we used to go to these smoke shots. like 420, and you get these little tobacco drops.

And you have like cherry, mint, and stuff like that. So you get you a QP. You drop about like 10 drops on it on the whole QP. You start breaking it down, let it sit overnight, putting the little baggies, and now it's 20 a pop, 25 a pop. You just turn Reggie into some Kush or some KVs. We're calling it hydro. Yeah.

It's hydro. And everybody at school, like, they buying it. They loving it. man, this shit tastes like men. No, you just a dump fuck, you're a lick. Yeah. And I could say, like, I have never been a slave to my addiction. You know, most people, they're slaves to addiction.

Me, I think it was beneficial to watch my mom overdose and see what it did to my dad to know, like, I don't want to do drugs like that. I might have smoked weed, but I ain't ever been no dope. And some of the people that did incorporate knowledge, in my life, like Homeboy Flacco, he told me at a young age, man, either you're going to love the drugs or you're going to love the money. He's like, what the fuck I look like giving another man my money when they should give it to me? So that always stuck with me.

So I was never like adult feeling. I wanted money. So as I was hustling, I remember, like, people used to pull up on me. It would be like 20 of us. We're all chilling. You got everybody from school. We're chilling. I come pull out some coke now.

I bust it down. Give everybody a line. I'm not taking no fucking line. I don't do coke. My mom died from Coke. Everybody. They take a line, guess what? They want another one.

Now I'm praying on their addiction. Guess what I want? You buy a 20. I'm selling it. I'm hustling. I'm not like y'all. Some of y'all got daddy and mommy. Y'all privilege.

I like your Jordan. Give me them. I like your gold chain. Give me that. I like your phone. Give me that. You got some money? So I made it into like a hustle to get what I want.

And when I started hustling cocaine, that's what made me separate from the homies. Because even them, even the older ones, they're slaves to their addiction. And I realized, like, they're addicted to cocaine. And it was so easy to give them a line, give them a bump. And guess what? they're going to come back all night and I'm popping them. And then even then I'm cutting the fuck out the Coke. Do you think Coke is the most prevalent drug in Houston?

Seems like it's rampant. This day and error, I think it's crystal meth. Right now I think meth, adderals, and all these newer drugs, I think that's the most prominent drug that's going around. That's what I think. But I don't know. I'm not in the streets no more. Yeah, it just, it's a cartel city.

It's a hub for all the wholesale shit that comes across the border. So I feel like it's just awashed, flooded with everything. Yeah, honestly, Houston, you don't know who to believe in Houston. Houston is a city of Vanessa. You know what they say, right? Vanessa is a blessing. You got to be street smart. You have to get the gap.

You got to know how to talk. If not, man, we're going to sell water to a well. You easy pray. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. We talk more openly about mental health now, which is a good thing. But still, for many people, it can feel hard to ask for help. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform with over 30,000 licensed therapists and more than 6 million people served globally. They've got a 4.9 out of 5-star rating from over 1.1.1.5-7.

1.7 million client reviews. BetterHelp does the matching for you with a short questionnaire so you can focus on your goals. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists any time. I've actually switched therapists before on BetterHelp, and now I've with a guy who I've been with for years and can't imagine not going to. Don't let that stigma stand in the way of getting support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp. BetterHelp.com slash connect.

That's BetterH-H-E-L-P.com slash connect. So you always had the gift of gap, right? They called me the wise child growing up. That was my nickname. Everybody in the hood, that's the wise child, because I was always, I was hustling. I didn't move with a herd. I knew everybody in the hood.

Everybody knew me in the hood. Like, man, that's a little antho right there. But I was always by myself. if I started, as I got older, I started doing all my crimes by myself. I didn't need nobody. I felt alone in life. I was looking for a way to escape. I wanted to die at a point.

I contemplated suicide all the time. I was an angry child. I felt like, man, why does everybody else have this? And I don't. Why are my people struggling? And they get to come to school, have their moms or dads, drop them off. They come to school. They got their arms.

iPhones. I don't even got a phone. I got to buy mine for family dollar, a little flip phone. And they have nice shoes, and I used to get clowned on. I used to get bullied a lot. Oh, you got the strawberries, you got the shacks on. You got, you got your clothes are too big. Because I'm wearing my brother's hammie downs. My pants are too big. So it looks like I'm sag. No, it's not that I want to sag. I'm wearing what my family could afford. Yeah. But you're to sell Coke at a young age, that takes some smarts. Most people can't do that. I think it's the people I was around, and I think, man, my dad taught me how to sell. My dad, he was in and out my life, but I could say this. My dad, he used to be a hustler before he was adopted.

My dad's the one taught me how to cook up work. Oh. He taught me how to cook up work. He taught me how to cut it. He taught me how to skelly. He taught me how to feel it. flip it. Talk about crack.

Yeah, he taught me how to flip crack, but the majority of the thing I was selling, I was selling coat. But my dad, he taught me how to cut it. He taught me how to make a profit off of it. Wow. And my dad actually brought me a lot of clients, too. My dad, hey, here, I'll break my dad off an eight ball.

He's going to come bring me a lot of people. He's like, man, I got some friends that just their rebar that are coming in from town. They're going to need a lot of coat. boom, I'm going to get them high all night. I'm going to give them 20s, 20s, 20s, and then I start cutting it. They're not going to tell the difference.

They're already fucking high. You're coming all night. I'm going to make you come more. Now you're feeling. And now I'm praying on your addiction. You really knew the hustle. Yeah. I knew the hustle.

I knew the game. And seeing my dad taught me and then seeing how it affected my mom at the early age because I'd be with my mom when she was going to pick up her drugs. So seeing all this as a child, and it just made me, like, a product of my environment.

And I could say, like, man, I was lost. I didn't know who I wanted to be. I didn't think that I had a way out. I was like, man, I'm going to die, or I'm going to get rich. I'm going to get super fucking rich. I'm going to get super rich selling drugs.

and that's all I was doing. I was hustling. I was in the streets 24-7. I was on the corner selling drugs. I was networking. I was in the little can'tinas at the bars. And people don't tell you. Them little can't be careful for them.

I remember I went to a little canteena on the telephone. I'm thinking I'm serving everybody. Man, I didn't know they're already selling drugs in the motherfucker. Say, I'm young. I'm bleeding their customers. I didn't know I'm stepping off. people's toes. Luckily, I was young. I was a kid. They just, they just beat my ass and took my money. Yeah. Other Mexicans? Yeah, they're Mexican, Mexican. They're Mexican. Because you know,

who owns those cantinas? Yeah. Connected people. Connected people. They took me to the back. They took me to the back. They got me. They even took my gun from me. Did they give you the tabla? They scraped your ass? They just kicked me a little bit. Kick me. Kick me. Fuck and took my jewelry, took my money, took my gun. told me hey don't come back don't come back we're letting you make it right now and they told me because I'm a kid that I don't know no better

Did you ever get any big connections Did you ever get connected with you know border brothers or anything like that? Oh no You know you got a lot of people talk about Oh I'm connected with the cartel My brothers

Man most of the times nine times out of ten They're fucking lying bro They're fucking lying they're full of shit Everybody says, oh, because they're connected with a Mexican, it's the cartel. No, it's not the cartel. Man, look, I'm going to tell you this. The people that are moving the weight and moving the drugs are the people you least expect it. They're not fucking going to come pull up in a car.

Man, these motherfuckers are the least people. You think they're just family men, and they're the people you least. You're never going to see them. They're going to be at the house. You're going to think that you're getting a pie or a cake. The whole time is fucking drugs. You're going to think that they just gave them a car, the whole car stuff. You've got people that have cap in their rap.

That's going to be, yeah, I'm connected with this person. They're not connected. People just want that facade, that image. And especially in Houston, you've got a lot of people like that because they want that strict credibility. But I did have connections. I had a homeboy. His name was G.

And biggest fucking drug that are in the southeast. Everybody knew him. He had the gray charger on swingers, the gray lack on swingers. Everything wholesale for me, right? I'm paying what's it called 400 ounce a coat. Good Coke? Yeah, good Coke. It's going to whip up.

Boom, it's good. And this is like 2009, 2010. And like I'm getting K-Pack. Max of exos. I'm getting fucking Doady. I'm getting everything. I'm getting lean. I'm winning.

I got the connect. I got the plug. And Gordo, he ain't going to go sell nickels and dimes to anybody. The fuck are you, bro? That's little money. Gordo, he's going to fuck with me. And the reason why Gordo fucked with me so tough is that my dad used to work with him. So he knew my dad.

He knew the story with my dad. He knew what my dad. that was moving weight to his downfall. So it's like he showed me a lot of love. He showed me a lot of fucking love. Yeah, you know all the tricks. You're raised with cocaine and violence. Yeah.

This is the perfect combination for something not good. Cocaine was like the, I pistol up so much people behind cocaine. These dope things, they get serious. Like, it's not like selling weed, like selling weed people would be happy. But like selling cocaine and being young, I was little. I was like, I was always skinny,

but I was short. Man, I was like a normal, typical Mexican. They thought I was a little Guatemalian, so people always tried to, like, handle me, rob me or something. Pull out that burner. Give them what they're looking for. Pissed up them a couple times.

They get their mind right. Yeah, so your customers tried to take advantage of you. Yeah, they thought I was just little that they could take advantage of me, take me down, and that started like the violent street, because I will pistol up someone

and they'll go back and go tell their brothers or somebody a whole different story like I just robbed them. Not telling them like, bro, you's a dope fiend. Use a dope fiend. I've been serving you all night and bro, you're over here talking about oh, like, bro, like give me, front me, front me.

I don't want to front you. Or then you come and try to short me on some money and like, nah, bro, this ain't what it is and you think, oh, I gave you, I've been fucking with you all night. Like, bro, I need to bless your game. Now, bro, I pistol whip you, and I take the dope back. Like, bro, like, I've been blessing your game all night.

And it caused a lot of fucking trouble. It caused a lot of trouble. And people were fucked up about it. But everybody knew. Man, don't fuck with him. He got that burner. He's going to pop that hole. Because everybody knew I was a high head.

I thought, like, ain't nobody going to fuck with me. Do that make you feel powerful, pistol whip in a grown man? Yeah, it did. Because these were people that. they, in the hood, they thought they were OGs, that, oh, they got little youngsters under them. But their little youngsters, y'all got that fucking Jack Mac, I'll pop you. Y'all little youngsters, guess what?

They come to buy for me. Their sisters, their girlfriends, who they buy them from, they buy them from me. And if you weren't doing drugs, you're going to start doing drugs. So it's like, growing up, it was like, hi, everybody knew. Everybody knew what it was. and it was like a domino effect and it started like it started getting bad I could say

like where there was like drive-bys on my house me almost dying multiple times when I happened you got shot I never got shot but I got shot at and it was just like certain situations where I was like damn God's looking out for me and every time my phone someone's talking about

Your day's number, bitch, you're going to die, bitch. We're coming for you. And at the time, what was real popular in Houston, man, you know what PCP is? Mm-hmm. Man, I will get fried the fuck out sometimes. I wouldn't do it a lot. So I'll get fried out and get these messages.

I start clipping. And my bad habit was when I was fried out. And people are ill. I would get evil. I will feel like I'm a demon. And say I have a relationship with you. I've been selling you ounces and everything. But you're not from my hood.

I don't even know you. I'm going to sell you some fucking bacon soda. I've been, I've already sold to you like 20 times. I'm going to hit you for a couple thousand today. And if you want to smoke, I'm with all the bullshit. And this is how the PCP had me thinking. This is why people want to kill me even more. And then it got even worse where I was selling exos.

I would go to Walgreens CBS. And you know the multivitamins, like the Popeyes, the Transformers, the Freplinstones. I fucking put them all in a pack, give you a K-pack. Here's a thousand X-O's for a thousand. Oh, you had a common. I would fucking bleed them. And then they had the capsule exos at the time.

You know what that was, right? So they had these capsules. and I think they didn't know what Molly was at the time. Oh, yeah, it's like the Molly and the capsules. Yes, but I think that they'll make you hallucinate. They're fucking good. So they're going for like 20 a pop. Me, I will go to the store and you know them fucking,

them pills, the fucking horny peels. I'll get them pills like the extant pills. The rhinos? Yes, I fucking pop them here. It's going to have you all. So you were selling dick pills, gas station dick pills, pretending it was ecstasy.

Yes. Oh, my God. So you went from drug dealing to just ripping motherfuckers off. I didn't rip everybody off. Only the people I didn't like because at the time, like I said, I was fried the fuck out.

And these people, my thoughts were telling me like, man, fuck this motherfucker. He's too easy of a lick. And there's been multiple occasions. I'm fried out. I'm over here doing a business deal. We're over here.

We're fucking, I'm over here getting the thousands of annex. Next thing I know, I know I got a pistol to his head. Taking everything from, I just burned my connect. Right. So my name started to get burned in the streets. Like, hey, like, the motherfucker ain't no good.

He's hitting licks on everybody. He's hitting licks on everybody. He's hitting licks on him. He don't give a fuck. But I still had my main connect with G, and he always kept the 100. Like, I ain't ever burned him. He's from the hood.

Everybody else, they knew. I don't know y'all. I met y'all either at Slick Willys or something, because there was a pool hall I used to go through. I used to bleed out of there. And everything was happening so fast at the time. And I started taking Xanax. And that's when it really started like getting bad.

And I could say I started getting addicted to Xanax. I would wake up in the morning, take five Xanax up to 20 a day. I'll be barred out. I'm thinking I'm normal the whole time. I'm just robbing everybody like crazy. And I remember this is what, like, led me to go to prison. Because I'm like 16 at the time. I'm going to high school.

I'm going to Houston Can. Everybody knew me at Houston Can. I've been in alternative school, CEP, the JJAP. And every time I went to one of these schools, guess what they're for? They're for drugs. They're for drugs. I'm a drug dealer. That's what I'm doing.

I go to Houston Can and what you think I'm doing? I'm bleeding the block And I remember There was somebody from the hood I knew him And He came by my house Him, his brother actually did And I remember him telling me like, man, what's up, bitch?

I ain't seen him in years, though And at this time, like, I'm in a whole different mindset I told me, bro, don't call me a bitch It's like, bitch, right? You tripping? I said, you want to smoke a blood? He's like, yeah, come on.

So I go in the house. I'm going to go get the burner, right? I just went, I used to go to these gun shows and buy all these exotic weapons, like nunchucks, these fucking samurai swords and these tiger claws because I was ambassadinated with Bruce Lee.

So you know what I grabbed, right? Probably the nunchucks. Nah, bro, I grabbed the tiger claws. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to cry them motherfuckers. So I come outside, he's like, I slice this bitch ass With the tiger claws

They're running, screaming, they burn off whatever My dad actually stopped me from killing them I do it right on my grandma's property They weren't expecting to coming My daddy, what the fuck? He was quick, he was outside cutting the grass Boom, they burned off whatever And I go to school the next week

And while I'm at school, his brother pulls up on me and they try to like jump me outside the school. You know what I do, right? Because they jump out the car. It's his brother and a couple other people. You know what I do? Bro, I pull that motherfucking burner out. You know what they all did?

They were winding themselves and got the fuck out of them. They jumped out the car. They got back in the car. I got in my car. I burned off. So I'm like, now I know his brother's coming to the school. When I pulled out the gun, the teachers and the staff was like,

hey, hey, hey, I jumped in the car, I burned off. Locked the door on their bitch ass. So I'm like, if I come tomorrow, they're probably going to search me. Because I know they see me point a gun. So I'm a huge collector of knives and stuff. So I got this badass knife that if you hit it, it fucking pops out big, right?

And it's like one of them, like, I don't know what you call it, like a switch blade where you just pop and it pops, but it's a big motherfucker. fucker though. So I'm like, I'm a stab this fool. So I'm over here stalking him. He don't even know I'm stalking him. I'm like, man, this shit's taking too long. So I go put the knife up in the classroom behind the, behind the textbooks. And I pull up on him. I say, hey, he turns around. I take flight on them. I start kicking him in the face. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. They come,

they grab me, they slam me. I'm suspended. I'm suspended for me. I'm suspended for me. I'm suspended for school. So I'm like, I'm like, I'm suspended for a week. I'm at the house hustling. I'm good. So I'll go back the next week. And this time, my first baby mom was pregnant at the time, right? And she comes up to me and says that some other little kid was like, he's lucky he wasn't there or he would have did me and told her that. I'm like, oh yeah, he told you that. So I'm leaving school and we're right by like an auto zone or a discount tire, a discount tire. So I see him, I guess he's waiting for his mom or dad to pick him up. You know what I do, right?

I hop out the car, draw down on him. He's with his little friends. They take off front him, but he froze. He's seen death. You know why I do right? I pistol up him a couple times and split his motherfucking week back. Get in the car, I burn off. Like, duck boy, like you talking all reckless.

Guess what? He ain't doing no talking. I'm going to give you what you're looking for. I gave him what he was looking for And Two weeks passes I don't see none of them I'm like I'm good

He comes up to me the same kid I pistol up And he's like Tomorrow after school I want my one with you You know what I do I take flight on him I pop him in the mouth What you mean tomorrow after school

Must be stupid So I take flight on him I didn't know that he had 15 motherfuckers jumping me right then and there. They all came out of nowhere. I didn't know I was that hated. So I'm getting jumped. I'm, like, I'm getting jumped.

I'm not getting beat up too bad. I'm just, boom, bump, bump, bum, boom. Trying not to get hit too much, right? They expelled me from school. So this time I'm around like 17 when I'm getting expelled. All this is transpiring. And now I'm like, I'm at the house all day. I ain't got nothing to do but the streets.

I have a lot of people saying they're going to kill me. I got a lot of people who know where I live. And I'm like, fuck, I'm full hustling. I'm strapped the fuck up like Vietnam, though, too. And long story short, I remember I was serving somebody at the store. I was coming home. My child was already born. It was like three months after this.

My child was already born, and I didn't see my son. I'd never seen him. I barely got him. that same day. I barely got him. I only held them for about like 10 minutes, and I went to go here to stain, and I came back.

And they're like, hey, look how I ain't told my neighbor. His name's Raoul. He's like, hey, let me hollad you. He's with somebody that I don't know. I know he's from the hood. I'm like, man, what's up? And he's talking about, hey, like, man, you know that girl, so-and-so,

the one that drives his car. I'm like, nah, because I really don't know who the fuck he was talking about. But he comes at me left, like, I dogged his sister out. Basically, like, I one night stand at her and I ghosted her. Like, truth is, I didn't know the guy's girl. And I'm like, bro, like, you're tripping. He's an older dude than me. He's, like, in his 20s, right, early 20s.

And I'm like, bro, like, you're tripping. He's like, man, I'll beat your bitch ass, woo, woo, woo. I said, look, you need to rewind yourself. Don't you know who I am? I said, Ro, you need to tell them who the fuck I am. I don't go to fuck who you are. So what do you think I do? I draw down on them.

I draw down on them. I ain't doing no talking. I said, well, what are you walking back for? What are you getting scared for now? And I hit him in the head. And it was just one of the times because usually when I hit a stain, my guns off safety, and usually I keep it on safety.

I had my finger on the trigger. I hit him in the head and the gun goes off. I'm shocked at this moment. I freeze like, fuck. All my neighbors, everybody's out. It's broad daylight. He's holding his head and I'm like, fuck. Bro, already ran.

I'm like, fuck. I go in the house. I give my baby mama the gun and I'm like, I got a gold. laws for the come. Did you hit him with a bullet? Yes, it grazed them because when it hit him, it... Yeah, and you probably took his hearing out too.

Man, I don't know. I just know there was a lot of blood. I was broke. I was shocked. I was shocked like, fuck, because that's not what I wanted to happen. That was not my intention. Have you ever shot somebody up to this point? Mm-mm. I never shot nobody. I'd just been pissed with him. Right. And it was a scary experience for me. And, like, most of the times, like, truth is, like, I pulled out a pistol on people and everybody's going to be like, oh, I'm on demon time, and I just go draw down on people,

walk people down. Man, most of the times the shit that I did, I did out of fear. I did out of fear. If anybody says, oh, they just did it because they're just savage like that, oh, bro, nobody's savage like that, bro. Most of the times we do shit or harm another human being gets out of fear and self-preservation. And that's what all it was. Like, bro, I'm not trying to get beat up in the hood

where everybody else thinks they could take advantage of me. I'm selling drugs. I have to set an example that, hey, you're not going to fuck with me. Because if you let one person do it in the hood, you're easy lick, you easy prey. So I'll go outside. I'm going to run.

Man, there's so much motherfucking laws around my house. So I just get a cigarette out. I start smoking. I walk in the middle of streets. They're all drawn down. on me. Get the fuck on the floor. Put your hands up. So I'm like this. Like, y'all tripping. Like, put the gun down. I said, bro, I ain't got no gun. Like, you're tripping. Now I'm at the crossroad. So there's two streets like this. I'm in the middle now. I just,

bro, they're coming from all directions. I'm on the corner house. So I'm going this way. They're already. Bro, the one from the back comes, tackles me. Boom, they drag me, beat me up a little bit, put me in handcuffs. So now I'm in handcuffs, and I'm like, fuck. They're like, man, woo, woo. I see the guy in the ambulance and shit like that. And then I see where I'm owing them. They're like, yeah.

Telling. Point now you, yeah. Even all my neighbors. All my neighbors. I'm like, yeah, of course. They wanted you gone, man. You're a fucking menace. I'm like, damn.

I'm like, okay. Like, it is what it is. I'm going to try to beat the case. It's going to be self-defense. I was on my property. Two people came at me. I defended myself. I felt threatened.

So I'm thinking I'm going to beat it. So I had this lawyer. His name's Ricardo Rodriguez, real, real good lawyer. And he comes visit me. He's like, man, it's good. We'll get it dropped. They don't got the gun. By the way, do they charge you with, yeah,

do they find any guns in your house or anything? No. My dad didn't let them in the house. Oh. My dad told him. get the fuck out. Get the fuck off our property. You need a warrant.

Gee shit. Do they come back and search or no? Fuck no. Fuck no. They had all the witnesses and they have the marks. They don't need the gun. They already got everything they wanted.

So he's like, man, we got action to beat the case on self-defense, but like, bro, you're going to do time regardless. The best thing I could do for you, I get it dropped down. do a little bit of time, or I could get you probation like five years. Or I could get it dismissed.

Hopefully, like, we run it and we say we want to go to trial. It's two people on you. Technically, you're still underage. You're still a child. They're older than you. What's two adults coming up to a little kid for him? So I'm like, I, we could play that role. Let's get it.

He's like, yeah, we're going to go for a dismissal. He comes back a week later and two weeks. later, guess what he tells me? He calls me. Like, yeah, you got court today. I'm like, for what? I thought it was next month. He's like, well, you just been indicted

for multiple aggravated robberies. Some past shit? Yes. They indicted me for multiple aggravated robberies. What were the circumstances? I guess somebody pointed me out and said I robbed them.

I was finally in the system. They have my fingerprints on one of them. And he said, she said, I actually got indicted for four aggravated robbers. Four aggravated robbers with a deadly weapon. And just people pointed me out of a photo ID. And were these like victims of... No, there were businesses.

People on the streets ain't going to say, I robbed them for their drugs. You'd be surprised. Yeah. But you don't come from where I come from, the fucking lily white state of Oregon. I was sitting in there with so many dudes who were like, yeah, I robbed this fucking meth dealer. He called the cops on me. I'm doing 15.

I'm like, you could do that? That's crazy. So were you, you were holding up businesses? I actually robbed the car loans. And we buy a go place. Oh, like. And then look. Same day loan places?

Yes. Because that was like the thing back then. You hit and they're sorry. talking about you hit for like 30,000, 50,000. Because they got a lot of cash, yeah. I didn't hit for that much. That shit, I don't know if they're going on a specific day or what. I only hit for a couple thousand.

That shit was sad. That shit. It wasn't worth the time I got. So they got me for that because they got to buzz you in them places. I didn't have a mask on. I went in and robbed them. I left. And then some of the robberies, the God honest truth, I didn't rob them people.

it's fucked up the way the system works. Somebody went around, like, it's a big conspiracy. Even my lawyer told me, they couldn't point me up from no face picture. Only a side view, not even the one with my tattoo on my neck. Only a side view, like someone was like, hey, this is the person that robbed you. And it was like coercing people to point me out. They couldn't point me out. They missed a lot of my pictures.

They pointed me out one time, but that was sort of. strong enough to indict me. Wow. And it was crazy. He told me they're weak. They're weak. He said the strongest case is the car loans. And he said, I don't even know how this is a fucking case.

It was a family dollar. He's like no money was taken. The gun was never pointed at nobody. The lady said you try to rob her. It's the family dollar in my neighborhood. I go there every day. The lady said I try to rob her. I was barred out.

I was in there. I was walking around eating shit. They got me on video waiting in line, and I went to put my stuff there, and I was going to pay, and I'm over here looking for my money. I pick up my shirt. She sees the gun, takes off front,

and I walk out. Like, I was a bit stripping. I didn't try to rob that lady. That was their strongest case on me. Because they had the video, and they said he had a gun on them. And they charged me for aggravated robbery. That's what they got me with.

So I'm like, man, look, I'm not like, we're going to have to take some of these, I didn't do this shit. He's like, I, they're off for 66 years. I said, bro, I'm not signing those 66 years. That's older than me. So we set up for jury trial. We put a motion for discovery, a 90-day speedy trial. Let's turn up.

If I'm going to do 66 years, I might as well do life. Let's turn it up. If the victim don't show us up, people don't know. that case gets dismissed. Two of my cases that supposedly I robbed the ones that I actually didn't do, the victims didn't show up.

Of course not, because they know their fucking lie. Yeah, I got them dismissed. So my lawyer tells me those were the easiest. Now we got these. He said, like, honestly, the car loans, like, it's a gamble. It's a gamble. The victim shows up, you're fuck.

They don't. You're in the clip. So all it would have taken was one victim to be like, he did it. Not the video evidence? All they need them to show up. But I mean, is that all this state had on you? Or did they have the video evidence? No, they have the video. Oh, God.

But you really can't just see too much. You really can't just, like, see my face clearly. Did they have DNA? Do they have fingerprints or anything? They have fingerprints. So he was like that, but that's circumstantial evidence. I could have went in there and sold some gold. anything.

The family dollar they got me clear on video but no money was took and they even said it in my report, my transcript nothing was taken and I end up

talking about man, I never been locked up, I've never been a juvenile man, give me something I can do give me something I can do give me parole or something or give me 10 years. He's like, they're not trying to budge.

Wow. He's like, their last office is 30 years. And he's like, the only way you could get less time is something called a PSI. And he's like, I wouldn't recommend it. What they call a PSI in prison is called, please stick it in me. You go out the mercy of the court

and you basically confess to your crimes and say, I did that, give me what you want. I didn't know you could put a cap on it. I didn't put no cap. I went five to 99. The A could have gave me 99 years. So I went in front of all the victims. I apologize.

I apologize. I said, man, I did that. Even the ones that you didn't do it to? No, those were dismissed. Okay. So when they offered me to 30 and I signed the PSI, the DA hit me with something called extraneous cases. every robbery in a 20-mile radius

that a Mexican, a Mexican mail did it, they cleared their docket on me to try to enhance my case. On my PSI, they're trying to give me 99 years. I'm like, fuck, like, what the fuck does this mean? I'm telling my lawyer, he's like, man, they're just, they're being shady as fuck, they're trying to throw you away. He's like, just know I'm going there to fight for you.

I told you, I didn't recommend this. I felt like we could have beat the aggravated assault and trial. I felt like we could beat the family dollar one and we could have cop. But you're going to do what you want to do. I know you're tired of sitting here. So I'm like, I go, I tell the victim at the car loans, man, I apologize. I look the lady dead in the face. I apologize.

Like, I didn't harm nobody. I didn't kill nobody. I understand that I cause psychological trauma and I take accountability for it. and I apologize. I apologize to the lady at the family dollar. I'm like, I come in there every day. I come in there every day, like, you know me. Like, I wouldn't even try to rob you,

but I'm sorry that I made you feel any type of fear because I was under influence. And the guy that I shot, I wouldn't understand and told them it was self-defense still. I let it be known. Y'all came up to me. I was minding my own fucking business. And I even laughed on the stand, too,

because I'm like he's bigger than me and they're like is this the guy that was bigger than you and I actually had a growth spurt in the county shit because I was short

I was only 5 5 when I went to the county I was only 5 5 I had a growth spur now I look a little bigger so I'm like yeah that's him he went I'm not going to apologize to him

because actually like you actually did come up to me. The judge, man, he actually, I could say he gave me my greatest blessing. I told him, I'm not signing nothing older than me. Just give me something I can do. I'm 17. He gave me 16. And I think that was the greatest blessing I could get. The DA was trying to give me 30. And I was happy with it. I was happy with it. And yeah, that's what happened. That's how I, end up getting my 16 years sentence. Wow, that's 17 years old. But that's enough time to where you can,

if you have the mental ability, you can turn yourself around, but you still have life left. Yes. So you did 10 or 11 off of that? I did 10.5. 10 and a half. I did 10.5.

And the thing is, like, growing up in Houston, you grow up with different demographics. It's very diverse in Houston. So I grew up with blacks. I grew up with poor Carb. occasions, like, we're all in the hood together. We're all struggling together. You go in prison and, like, you don't know what to expect.

They don't tell you it's a tribe-like mentality. People go with their race, their people. It's very racial. Prison was the first time I seen racism on a major scale from every end. It's not, oh, the whites are racist, oh, the blacks are racist, all the Mexican. No, everybody's fucking racist. It's a tribe-like mentality. If you're not there people, it's fuck you.

If you're not there, people, fuck you. And it's straight like that. And it's racism on the major scale. So I think when me going into that environment, not knowing I've never been a gang member. I only been in the hood. Going in, I didn't know what to expect, honestly. I was just, I was quiet.

My first couple years, people thought I was retarded because I didn't talk. I stayed quiet. I knew the rules of the game. There's creels, look, listen, learn. observation is key. I observed everybody. I observed to the people who they fear,

why they fear them, what do he do? The way he talked, the way he commanded respect. Or this person, oh, he had all the drugs, so all the flunkies are looking for, to look up to him because he has the dope. Or they're scared of him because he's loud and he could fight. I stayed studying. I stayed quiet my first couple years.

But I could say when I went in there, I win and in the county you hear stories and the main story you hear if you ain't blasting, you ain't lasting. When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere,

and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when West Jetting welcomes you on board. Here's to West Jetting since 96. Travel back in time with us. us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. What does that mean?

Man, dangleblast. I got first introduced to dangleblast in Harris County. And truth is, I wasn't going to join the blast. I was in the county. I bought a couple homeboys. I beat them up because I felt like they're racist. They all, they stayed to themselves. And me, I'm from the hood.

I'm from the south side of Houston, southeast. Like, bro, like, I'm not with that. I'm never been a gang member. I'm not with what y'all doing. And I did my time by myself in the county. I fought hard than the bitch. Hey, I could hold my own. And at a homeboy laced me up, tell me what the blast was about.

And it's a homeboy speedy from the north side. He laced me up, told me, I was like, aye, I was feeling there. Actually, like, he was a youngster like me, too. So I'm like, I, so I go to TDC, and I go to Garza West. And that was the first time I could say I felt deprived and degraded. The reason being, it's not normal in today's society if you see a gentleman or a woman and you tell them strip-ass naked. You strip them naked, you tell them turn around, squat and cop.

And that's what they do to the inmates. That was the first time I could say that I felt like less than... So that was the first thing I could say TDC started chipping away at me. Taking all the ego, taking everything to make me nothing. You could go in there and think that you're the strongest mentally. But they sexually assaults you like that. That's sexual assault. If you do that in the world to somebody, you're going to jail for sexual assault.

Because guess what, if you don't let them strip you down ass naked, and you got a lot of people talk about, man, I ain't never let nobody. strip me down you, full of shit, bro. In TDCJ, they will fucking mace you, spray you, cuff you, fucking pull down your pants and fucking cavity search you. They don't give a fuck. The time I went, there was no cameras in TDCJ. It was a free-for-all.

The laws did what the fuck they wanted. So when you hear people that get on these podcasts, I ain't never, man, you're full of shit. You got cap in your rap. Well, they do that everywhere. They strip search everywhere. They've been doing that for a long time. But you, I hear stories of these guys talking about, man, I ain't never stripped down.

I'm a man, bro, you're fucking, you got cap. This was the first time I felt, I felt less than. I felt like they don't took my manhood. Because somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn't right. And then when they started going in my cell, searching my stuff, I felt what it felt like to be robbed. Slowly chipping away at me. I remember going up to Sleepy, and I tell them, like, they're like, the blast comes up to me.

You don't go up to the blast. That's the thing. People get the misconception that you have to do this and that. No, the blast, Dengue Blass is the leaders in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. They're the biggest, most ruthless gang in TDC. But every Mexican coming through, they go through a system. You're coming through on the Edis. I'm from H-town. I'm from Houston.

I, let me see your paperwork. What's you in here for? Give me your spin number. Check out, home boy. Go run his name. They're going to make sure you ain't no fucking chomo. Because if you're a chomo, you got to go. You can't have no bad paperwork. This episode is proudly sponsored by Mood.

If you guys caught that episode with John Norris a few weeks ago, he describes how disgusting and toxic and poisonous the black market cannabis is on the streets of the United States right now. That's why Mood is so crucial if you're a cannabis user. Over at Mood, they believe cannabis should be accessible, affordable, and convenient while supporting American farmers. Mood is your go-to online destination for federally legal hemp-derived cannabis grown on small, pesticide-free, family-run farms right here in the U.S.

no big giant cartel operations. Just small batch cannabis grows. Mood makes it super simple. Shop all your THC gummies, edibles, pre-rolls, flour, and more. All ship discreetly straight to your door. And one of the things I like best about mood are their gummies. They have options for whatever vibe you're trying to get to, whether you want to unwind and go to sleep, get focus. feel happy and euphoric or enhance sexual intimacy.

Mood has you covered. Lately, I've been loving their sleepy time advanced gummies. Super smooth and perfect for that mind-soothing calm at the end of a long day. I actually don't take magnesium anymore. I just take Mood, Sleepy Time, Advanced Gummies. Head over to Mood.com right now and get 20% off your first order with promo code Connect.

That's Mood.com, Code Connect, C-O-N-N-E-C-T for 20% off. Try them today and discover your perfect mood. Who would you say to Tango Blast? Are they mostly cats like you, like Mexican Americans? Or is it all? Is it Mexicans from Mexico? Is it a mix? So Tango Blas, it's four cities.

Four cities, one mission. Houston, Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth. We're the city boys. On certain units, you have Wessel, West Texas, Tango Blas. Some units, you have Baisas. You have Baisas with Bayequals. Those are our primes like our cousins. And it just depends, but you have the four horsemen, the city boys.

And you're the most numerous of all the gangs and the races? Every gang. No gang could dominate us. Due to the simple fact, we have strength in numbers. We have strength in numbers. And the majority of times when a Mexican comes in, guess who they want to be. They want to be Tango Blas.

They want to say, man, I got this star on me. Because they hear the stories. And it was the first my encounter with Tango Blas was like, hey, I want to get down with the homeboys. They asked me, like, what you want to do? You're going to get down. What you're going to do? I'm like, I want to sit back.

I want to see how you all orchestrate before I make a life-changing decision. The blast ain't going to force you to get done. down. It got to be in your cordi. It got to be in your heart. You got to want it. Truth is, they don't need you. You're just another number to them. We got a lot of people. Who the fuck are you? There's nobody to us. And I told them I want to watch how they orchestrate. So Homeboy Sleepy, he started lacing me up on what the blast was about. Why we do it? Dangu, it means together against negative gang organizations.

Blast, be loyal, and stay true. Boro Tango Blast, 1622. So the Tango Blast originally was a gang to protect you guys, to protect Latinos in Texas prison. That's what it still is. It's only in prison. It's not out here in the streets. If you have anybody that ever says there's the blast in the streets,

there are old dope-feme that ain't never had shit in life and felt like there was somebody out there, in there, and comes out here and tries to become somebody. And it's like I said previously, you have these old dope queen in the hood trying to get these kids to do something. Don't judge your whole people because of one bad apple, because you got people that were affiliated

that came home and they're civilians, their family men. Look at me, I'm a family man. I'm not out here fucking gang-banging or nothing like that. All this is a portion of my life that I hate to talk about that I wish I could take back. But God uses my story

to empower people to show that, hey, if I did it and I survived and I could change my life because I'm a fuck up. Anybody could change their life. So it's different than La Jemé, the Mexican mafia, who are operating

the street to prison pipeline. The way, like, certain organizations Like, you'll have like a lot of, they call them bombers. They orchestrate outside and inside. And they run by a chain of command. They have rank. They have lieutenants, sergeants, captains.

The blast, there is none. We're a democracy. Everybody is equal. Nobody's better than nobody. Can't nobody, while I was in prison, couldn't nobody just give me a shank and be like, hey, go stab them. I would have told him, man, fuck, you suck my dick.

You go do it. The fuck you're asking me for. And that's how it is. And that's what made me, like, resonate with the blast because it wasn't a gang. It was a prison revolution. The greatest prison revolution that ever occurred. It spoke against the injustice,

the extortion, the rape, and the violence against the Latinos and the Mexican people. And me, remember, I told you, my grandma instilled Mexican pride in me. I grew up listening to stories of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa. So I was thinking I'm a revolutionist.

Yeah. So at this time, I'm in prison. I get a ship to Willoughcy Unit. I'm on Willa C.U.C.A. Because Garza West is diagnostic. You're only there two weeks. They go basically do your blood work, make sure you ain't got no fucking AIDS or like STDs.

They shave your head and they fucking, they ship you off to your unit. I go to Willisie, a C.C. I go in there and they tell me, man, what's up? Where are you from, homeboy? I'm from H-town. They're like, what you're going to do? I said, shit, I'm going to blast because now I already been laced up.

I know what I got to do. So I'm a homeboy. They're like, they're like, I. They check my paperwork. Boom. Homeboy Drew's like, shit. Let's run them. Another homeboy is like, now we've got to put him on probation period to watch and make sure he's

homeboy material. Another homeboy said, nah, fuck it. The quicker he get blasted in, the quicker he get blasted out of a piece of hole. I don't give a fuck. They took me to the back, tore me off the frame. So I'm like, aye, I paid my check. It's a two-on-one-one-forty-five seconds. You'll have some people say, oh, they don't do heart checks on transfers.

Well, the transfer I was at, they ran me a heart check. They ran me a heart check. They beat me up. I was on the bunk for about two weeks, healing up. They called a mandatory wreck. All the homeboys got to go to a wreckyard. So boom, I'm on the wreckyard. They're like, shit, we're going to set it off.

So it's the blast and the bayucos, because we have a baisa. We have a treaty over there. We rock together. Then they tell the older horns, that's Sanato. Tangos, they get all our tangles together. And they say, hey, we're going to air out all the Lettras. The Lettras are Mexican mafia. We're going to air them out.

They ain't going to walk no more. If we had one rule, they weren't allowed. to recruit and they're recruiting. And what time it is? At lunch, we set it off. Lunchtime came. I was the first wing that set it off. Who was front line?

Of course it was me. We had the speaker. He was actually one their ranking officials in our pod. It was C3, Charlie 3. And I remember it was me and Geico from the valley. And then you had homeboy ears from the tone. We tell them like, like, bro, like, you know your people fucked up?

You got to go. We're giving you an option to leave. And I give it to the old guy. He's like, takes his glasses off. He goes just like this. Hey, man, you know I can't do that. Y'all got to do what you got to do. His other homeboys are ready on the door trying to leave.

So we checked light on him. We start killing them. And we gave it to him. We set it off. The law's running about a shoot. Guess what? They can't. That pot set it off.

That pod. The whole unit set it off. We already set up the whole unit. By the time the laws get them, they're on the stretcher. They're gone. Wow. We're going on lockdown for about 30 days. They shake us now.

We're back. Everything's going good. We're back in action. Can I ask you this? If there's no hierarchy within the blast, how are orders given? Orders are not given. You have a speaker because we're a democracy. We choose our speech.

speaker. And the way our speaker is chose on his chumpa, his head, the way he talks, the way he conducts himself. Is he a good representation of us due to other gangs respect them? If there's a situation, is he going to escalate it or de-escalate it? How is he going to handle our problems? If somebody fucks up, what's he going to do? Is he a whole? Is he a real homeboy? And everybody could say, oh, I'm a real homeboy, I got a star. Just because you got a star on, you don't make you a homeboy. A real homeboy. A real homeboy, guess what?

You got icy whites on. You follow all the rules. And when it's time, you put it in work. You volunteer to put in work because you're a real homeboy. You know it's not a free ride. And each unit has their own decision-making. Each unit has one speaker for the whole unit, and then each pod has speakers. Okay.

each wing. And then you got speakers for the whole wing. Mm-hmm. So. So that's as organized as it gets. How do you guys do dirt in terms of, like, making money and hustling and, you know, drugs and all other rackets? When it comes to the money, like I said, it don't, like, people think, oh, the blast does all of this. No, it's not like that.

It's not, like, if someone's doing business selling drugs or doing something, they're not supposed to be doing in prison, that's him doing it as a man. It has nothing to do with the blast. He's just a homeboy. At the end of the day, the blast is not a gang. You're a man before anything. You did that as an individual.

So the point of the gang, the point of the organization is to what exactly? To protect our people. Got it. So if he wants to do business, someone fucks him over. It's not going to happen. Like, we're not eating off of him.

Homeboy is making all the money. He's sending it probably back to his family. It has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with us. He might sell and smoke with a couple of homeboys, but it has nothing to do with us as a collective. Nothing. It's strictly there to keep you guys from being victimized.

Exactly. Would you ever victimize other groups, though? No, we don't victimize other groups. We're like the police in the system. We police our own. We police the other thongles if they fuck up. We make sure that everything's abided by. Let's say, for instance, another tango.

It could be a different tango, like the Paisas, the Mexicas. They get into it with the bloods or crips. Guess what? The blast is going to step in. We're not going to let a black gang attack the smaller gangs. We step in. Hey, y'all stole their shit. Guess what?

We tell the Paisa, he needs to clean it up. You need a fight. You'll need to discipline your people. Y'all need to give that shit back and y'all need to discipline your people. Oh, y'all don't want to. Tell the Paisa, hey, bite them. Now we're going to set this bitch off, right?

When they think it's a one-on-one, no, we're going to fucking stab you now, bitch. Like, we keep order. Everybody knows. We keep order in that. Just through sheer force and threat of force and your numbers. Our numbers.

Our numbers and our violence. Because they know. like if it really comes down to it, everybody's going to say, man, MSA's going to poke something. They're not going to fight. They're going to poke something. And then you'll have some people be like,

oh, there's some holes. They ain't going to do. All they want to do is stab. They don't want to fight. But when we always sets off, we're not the ones running, and we're always the ones standing tall at the end. Were you guys poking people?

Left and right, all the time. All the time. Where are the shank? like in Texas units. There's different sizes. Porn size, porn size dick. Yeah, like this.

You got some like this. You got all sorts of stuff. You make out of plexiglass. You can make out of toilet paper. You could, we get the steals from the doors. You steal in a slot. It's like if you got samurai swords,

we'll fucking put it through you. And you'd already poke somebody on the streets. Yeah. So it's like. Back when you were 12 years old with the screwdriver. But this is different. This ain't like that. is way, way different.

It's a whole different experience. And don't know d'angu blast, we keep order, though. We keep order. We're not going to let no one come extort our people. That's not going to happen. You're not going to extort the Mexican people. You're not going to exploit them.

You're not going to rape them. Nah, fuck no, bro. We let Solano, say if you're from Houston, you're Solano. Man, hey, I'm from H-town. You fall under the blast. hey these are the rules of the compound hey conduct yourself for respect keep yourself clean

don't get in debt someone fights let us know if you're going to get in the fight so two homeboys make sure they don't jump you and do your time south trouble so if you're just a solo Mexican non-gang affiliated you're safe in Texas prisons

from from extortion and rape and and being and violated. Yes. You're safe. Wow. You're safe unless you just, you fuck up. The most of the stories that you hear of someone getting hurt in prison, bro, you

fucked up. You did something you weren't supposed to do. Or you were a drug addict. You were on drugs and you made yourself a victim. You put yourself in that predicament. We're not going to go fucking hound people. We're not going to. No, we're not doing that.

That's the misconception where people would be like, oh, we're the blasts. is we're not. Like, that person put himself in that predicament. Yeah. I mean, I can't let you sit here and say, I've heard so many stories from people that have done real time in Texas units, and all I hear is, man, the fucking blast

puts in work on their own people. Yes. Like on Mexicans. No, we run the hardest heart checks. We're probably the only gang that does a heart check. I don't even talking about heart checks. I'm talking about putting the knife in somebody. All the time.

It's normal. But the way we do it, like we are the leaders. We police our own. Like, we're real strict about that. What are some of the rules? Some of the rules. We're going to say, don't eat with Bamos or other organizations are racist. People will be like, oh, the Mexicans are racist.

They don't want to eat or drink with blacks. No, you know why that rule is in place? We don't mean just blacks. We mean Mexican mafia, PRM. Bistolettos are used, we mean everybody. The reason being, there's a history behind it. There's a drink in prison in TDCJ called the Pretty. The what?

A pretty. You never heard about that? So people crunch up like barbells, candies, and throw it inside the copy. But it's an old school booty bandit drink because they used to crunch up pills, get their cellies. Hey, here, man, have a drink, drink with us. they fuck them yeah it's a roofy

it's a prison roofie they'll do it in their food crunch come on let's eat sell sellie come on let's chill that's why the rules are in place

there's a reason why we have certain rules because we're here to protect our own we're here to make sure hey you don't get rape so if you're sitting with an op

or they're not going to sit with us they're not going to sit with us they have their benches we have our benches guess what another rule is stay clean don't catch that pussy

the homeboy fights you better be there if they jump on you better set it off and it's not really rules they're really morals on how to conduct yourself as a man you can't get high in the day room no no smoke and having tuna attacks like you can't be doing drugs

like you can't make us look bad you represent us You don't represent you no more. You represent us. Conduct yourself as a man with respect. People come in as a young kid. They won't listen to their dad, their mom, but when they come in, they're going to listen to the homeboys.

They have no choice. You're not bigger than the program. I don't care who you are. You think that you, King Kong, as well, we're going to get your mind right. And you can't have bad paperwork. You can't have bad paperwork. You can't be no fucking sex offenders.

And that's the thing. Like you'll have you'll have people come out right now and swear to God their super thongrel blast. Bitch, you're a fucking chomo. You're not fucking blasting. Because people want that fame, that street bane. Because they think, oh, we're the biggest city.

He's like, oh, bro, we check paperwork. We don't accept sex offenders at all. If somebody says, hey, the way the blast works, let's say that you're a homeboy. And you're like, hey, man, I want to go Christian. I'll change my life to God. Guess what, man, we're happy for you, homeboy, and go do that. We're going to let him go.

But you know what's going to happen, though? If we see him fucking smoking K2, we ain't got no choice but to cut that star off you. Because we let you go because we want better for you. We want better for our homeboys. So tell us about the star. So we all use things to represent us. You have the Astro Star.

You have the Dallas Cowboys star. You have the Austin star. And you have the four-word star on you. It's the famous symbol. You got all four on you? I got all four on me. I earned them. You got to earn it.

It's not a free ride. You got some people, they only get one star on them. Like, because they're from Houston. Oh, they got the Astro Star. And they couldn't get the DeTown star because guess what, homeboys from D-town would say, bro, you drag out my city star home. me. There's a lot of cityplexing and the blast too

every now and then. We've got to discipline and shut it down. But it's like that. Man, the homeboys got to respect you. You got to earn that. And then most importantly, like, you got to earn the E on Houston. You got to earn that. You got to earn that.

You got to earn Puerto Tango Blast. Like on the back of my head, if you see, I got 1622. Some people only got 822 for Houston Tango Blast. I got Puerto Tango Blas because I don't represent a city if you, they tell you like this if you say, why you want to get down with the blast

because they're going to ask you, if you tell them oh, to rep my city, they're going to tell you, well, you're going to rep your city solo because it ain't about a city. It's about a principle greater than ourselves. And we do it for the cause. We do it for our people. We're a Puerto Tango Blas.

And... So how'd you earn your stripes, your stars? by being a real homeboy. By being a real homeboy, like, honestly, like, I went in there, I hit my first ID unit. I hit my first ID unit. I put in a lot of work.

Every time there was a smashout, I volunteered. Every time there was a riot, if we lined it up with the Morenos, if we did anything on front line, there was never no, because it's optional. Like I said,

We don't force you do anything. If they say, hey, man, shit, man, Homeboy fucked up, man, I got it. I'm going to handle it. People thought I was retarded. I was doing all the work. I was putting in all the work. I got it.

Because I wanted these stars on me. I was putting in all the work, hitting people with dominoes, hitting people with cups. Like, we're splitting people's wig back, left and right. Hit people with dominoes? No, you get it in a sock.

You put a shitload of dominoes and you whack them like whack them old. Yeah. And that's what I was doing on a day-to-day basis. Every other day I'm doing something. And it's just, it became normal to me. Like, this is like, that's why I tell you, like,

human beings were not violent. It's an adopted characteristic. A lion is violent in its natural habitat. But a human, guess what? He's like, he wants to be friendly, but in that environment, there is no friendly. Are you familiar with McAbelly the Prince? Yeah.

Maccabelli said, you can't be good when everybody else is bad. Because guess what? Everybody else that's bad will kill you. Like I was a good kid in prison. My biggest life-changing experience in prison was I was in G4. I hit my first ID unit on Clemens, Burning Hill. What does an ID unit mean?

It's a real unit, like red brick units. Okay. So this is like a... This ain't transferred. This is where people, life sentences, they're never coming home. It's a real unit. I went. I remember the homeboys called me back, and they're like,

hey, look at a puppet. I'm like, what's up? They're like, man, the Moreno's they stole homeboy's shoes at the shower. We're going to set it off at the child hall. So we were at about 20D. They start passing out fecal's shanks. So they give me a shank like this fucking big. I look at it.

And at that moment, I want to be like, I'm scared. I'm not going to sit here in line. I'm scared. Hey, bro, y'all want me to fucking stab someone right now? I thought all I had to do was fight and be a homeboy. I'm good. Nobody told me about this part.

I'm fresh on the unit. My first riot on the transfer unit, I fought. I didn't kill no one. So I'm going to be seeing this. And I want to be like, hey, bro, like, nah, bro. You got anything smaller? I look up at them. And all these motherfuckers are looking like chucky dolls.

They're laughing. They're smiling. So at that moment, I'm like, let's either go kill these motherfuckers in the chahaw or get killed by these people. And that was the biggest life-altering situation for me in prison. And I know after lockdown, it did affect me. It did affect me. Everything I did that day affected me.

So what happened that day? We set it off in a chahawaw. We went fucking stabbed everybody. Every black person in there. So you hit somebody with that big asses? knife? Yes. Everybody did.

We're making them run. They stole homeboy's shoes. They stole from a blast, and guess what? We gave it to them. We didn't do no talking. We didn't say, hey, discipline your people. No, guess what? We said, we're setting this bitch off.

We're sending this as an example. So you went in and just started stabbing every black guy. I didn't set it off. We all went over there. Boom. Homeboy hit one with a pitcher and rest. They're like, go, any black guy. person you see stab him.

That's what it was. How did that feel? It's more like a popping noise. Like a popping noise and you hear like it's like a popping noise. It's so weird feeling. And we all go run around. We do it.

How many people did you touch? Honestly, bro. I hit one a lot of times until Homeboy grabbed me like bitch like the fuck come on, let's go. Like you're tripping like get the fuck up. Because I never been in a riot, like a real riot like this. I thought like I've got to just go stab him a bunch of time.

I had to be like, I don't know. It was a new experience to me. And they started spraying the gas, everything, boom. We all get down. That's it. Everybody lays it down when the gas happens. Luckily for me, a homeboy grab me. Come on.

Boom, I'm already out to chow hall. He might have saved you from killing that guy too No he might have saved me from killing that guy And he saved me from getting an extra charge And guess what I didn't get G5 that day I slipped through the cracks Some homeboys stayed

They were running around acting bananas stabbing everybody We're going on lockdown And I think that was like the biggest thing It's because like I remember going in the cell And like

trying to wash my hands and I didn't feel clean I didn't feel clean and I was like I threw up I'm not gonna say that I stomached it and that night I struggled sleeping and it was like

it was it was an experience that I would never forget so it was kind of a perfect situation for you to get down with the gang because you stabbed the shit out of this guy huge knife and you got away with it. Yeah.

So now it's like you got stars. No, I didn't earn my star yet. They don't give me a star for that. That's badnatory. I thought you didn't have to do it. No, because it's a riot now. Okay. All right, so you have to do it if it's a riot.

Now the rules are changing. The rules change because it's a riot because it involves one of our homeboys. They try to steal from them. They stole from them. Now it affects us. Now it affects us. it's mandatory. We're all setting it off because we protect our people.

And if you refuse to go, it's like they're going to get you. Oh, you're smoked. You ain't a homeboy? You're smoked. You're going to get it. You can't be like, oh, he needs, no, you're a part of it. So it kind of contradicts itself a little bit, but they don't tell you that at the beginning. So I know that was like the biggest thing for me. And after that, I volunteer for everything. And everything I did, I was scared to do. But the only time a man could be brave is when he's scared. And like, bro, I'm going to tell you, every time I ran a heart check, every time I did a smash out, every time I did something, I had the need to grow up.

And I was like, I'll get nervous. My gentleman will pump. I'll be scared and I'll do it. I learned how to use fear as my motivator. I learned how to harness a base emotion and push forward. And after a while, like, you do it for years and years, it becomes numb. You start having fun. Everybody starts laughing.

We're joking. You split somebody with dominoes. You throw them in the back. You're laughing about it. Like, you see the way I hit that motherfucker. Everybody's joking. You became like them, Chuckie doll. Exactly.

And I remember I became numb. And then one day I started talking. I was on Clemens Unit, and everybody looked at me like we're having a big junta. And I always hated how one person would feel like to have seniority. Oh, I've been gone 30 years, or this is my fifth time down, I'm an OG. Me, you know what I did with my time? I read a lot of books.

I read books on Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Hitler. I read books on literally everybody. I love history. I've read psychology, sociology, economics, business. And then I read, like, my favorite is classical literature, like Alexander Dumas is my favorite artist, Arthur, like the Count of Mona Cristo or the Lady Camilla. I read Tess in the Uber Villes.

I read Stuck by Proclus, Airstrials, or estrato, so I actually, I educated myself. So everybody thought I was dumb or just a crash dumb because I'm always volunteering. We're having a junta, and I look, and they don't know the whole time I've just been observing, and I speak up, I talk, and everybody looks at me. Because every time we have junctas,

you always got the same people talk, and everybody just, some people don't want the fame or the limelight. They're just there, do their time, be a part of their homeboys. Me, I speak up, and I speak with reason and logic, and I speak with authority. And nah, because I know everybody else is thinking what I'm thinking, but everybody's scared to go against popular opinion.

Nah, fuck that. Everybody looks at me like, what the fuck? Nah, I feel this way. What's the boat? They side with a homeboy puppet. That's one that everybody's looking. at me like, okay, like, Homeboy got a head on his shoulders. And they used to always see me reading books and be like, man,

Homeboy, Popeye's a psych patient, always reading them weird-ass books. All I did was read. That's it. Read, work out. Read and work out. I didn't smoke K too. I read and work out. I started speaking up on shit.

If I, I'm not going to keep being used as a crash dummy because you got this old-ass fucking dope thing that feels like he's better than me because I'm, I'm fresh in the system and only been gone for four years. And he, this is 20 times fucking down. And he feels like he's an OG. Like, you're not an OG. Like, bro, I'm just as human just like you. I'll speak up against you.

And a lot of people started relating. They started agreeing with me. Eventually, I started speaking for Hapto Union on B-Row top. But they say heavy as the head that wears the crown. They don't tell you what happens when you get power, when you're in a position. Not everybody's meant to lead. And at the time, I wasn't ready.

I really wasn't. Because you're still a young guy. You're in your early 20s? I was hot-headed. I thought we had a rule of violence because I was watching how people do it. But to make how Hitler said you'd rather be fair than love, how to rule with an iron fist.

Like if you look at my whole body, I got revolutionist on me. I got Malcolm McElner. I got Napoleon, I got Zapata, Pancho Villa, Julius Caesar, all tattooed on my body. I thought I was a revolutionist. I thought I was the voice of the people. I tricked my mind into believing. I was fighting for a cause.

And at one point in time, I felt like I was a God. I felt like I was a great orator that I could speak and sway to masses and bend them to my will. You ever heard of Frederick Nietzsche? Yeah. He has a book called The Antichrist, and he speaks on the world of power. I felt like I was bending people to my will. So you were really shawing at a certain point. Yes.

Wow. And you're young, so you're directing probably older dudes. Older people and younger. Wow. And I'm not telling people what to do. I'm just doing reason and logic. You can't argue it with a little street sense. and I made a lot of bad decisions that I wish I could take back.

I made decisions where, man, I had done got people G5 because I felt like this person needed to be smashed out where we needed a set an example when, honestly, we could have just made him leave. What is G5, man? Basically, he got caught, fucking stabbing him or hitting him in the head with dominoes. and in reality, I could have just told him leave, like, catch out, bro.

Oh, so you ran somebody off to... I could have ran him off. Instead, I guess what I'm saying? He got to get smashed. We've got to smoke him. So you got life-flighted out? Got life-flighted out. Now we lost a couple of homeboys because of my decisions.

And around 2017, around December, they hit me with organized crime for participating as a member of Tango Blast. As a usual day, we thought that we were going to smoke someone. I told him like, hey, bro, don't go. We're like, we're just going to give you a discipline now. Come on, come to the day room. I sent two homeboys to jump them, and I always been the type of person.

The way to gain power is like how Caesar did it. You go out the front. You don't leave from the back. So when they started jumping them, I was the first one to hit the guy with some dominoes, split his wig back, the rest come. They follow. That's a strong leader.

We drag him, we throw him. We think he's dead. This is one of your own? He was a solo that we fucked with. He ended up still in a 50 ball from the bloods. And we told the bloods we're going to handle our people. He's Mexican. We think he's dead.

We throw him in the corner and he lived. Motherfucker lived. They come get me. I'm confirmed. Guess what happens? G5. I'm in G5 captivity. They shipped me off to Giblo Ashunit.

And that was the most traumatic experience I ever had. Because a man's worst enemy is his conscience. It eats at you. Everything that you did, everything that you've done, it's going to affect you. People say, if you don't feel nothing after, committing crimes, everybody has a conscience. Everybody has a conscience.

So it ate at me constantly. And I contemplated suicide every day in the box. And you know how Hitler had the concentration camps? G5 is like a concentration camp in G4. And Ghiblois. How so? Because you're in a cell, a still cell. It's almost zero degrees.

It's freezing. It's so cold that your bones hurt. And then you just hear knocking, like, constantly. Any little sound that fucking makes you go crazy. I will beat up my cellmates for no reason because they'll wake up one day and they'll eat like this. I didn't want to have a cellmate, so I beat them up and make them catch the slot. But it'll like you'll get to you.

Everything you did. And I could think that time it made me self-reflect and made me grow. It made me grow as a man and realize, like, what the fuck I'm doing ain't right. What the fuck I've been doing ain't right. I felt convicted. And it ate at my soul. Like, I go home, like, being home now, I go home and look at the letters. I sent my uncle, my grandma.

And I don't never want to show nobody them letters. because they're real dark. Can you describe some of what you were saying to them in those letters? I'm speaking, like, are you familiar with physics? Somewhat? So quantum physics says time and space don't exist. The only reason they exist in this reality because of gravity.

We're moving at the speed of light. That's why time is slowed down. We're moving like a photon. So the way I will write is how I'm speaking right now. And it's real poetic, but it's real dark on understanding the mysteries of the universe, understanding who you are as a person, what you are, why are you within this realm of existence. And it's an urge in a battle to fight your inner demons and who you are. And at that place and time, I found out who I am.

I found out who I am. I could say that I conquered death. Because everybody, most, majority of people go to G5, they kill themselves. They hang themselves. We go to war. You start playing with your shit in there. It's bad. Wow.

You lose your mind. Because it's so isolating. It's so isolating. And the shit, like, you go to war with people. Like, I play doing my own shit. I thought I was Indian. Like your own ducky, you mean? I would shit in a cup and pee, mix it, let it sit for two weeks,

get a wire from the SSI, do it, use the plastics, pop the slot, and shoot at the enemies if I'm plexed up. Or I'll make shit bombs and spin it and throw it out another cell. I'm sorry, you said, I thought I was Indian? Oh, I don't know how, you don't realize how funny that was. Yes. They do play with their... shit over there in India. It's true. They're not afraid of some ducy to shit in a river or bathe

in a river that's being shit in. Yeah. But when I say an Indian, I mean like because you use the elastics from the belt and you make it like a slingshot. Right. Like a bone air. I see. That kind of India. Okay. Yeah. Got it. So I think like in that moment and error, it took a lot of mental capacity, a mental strength. And man, I want to to think my uncle, because if it wasn't for my uncle, I'd have killed myself. Because I would write them. And my uncle and my brother, my older brother, Xavier, they would send me books. And I would read, and that was my way to escape.

Where one man lived one life, I lived thousands of life. But it made me find out who I am. Like, you could ask an average individual, who are you? What are you? You ask me, I tell you, I don't come from any particular time or place. My spiritual being lives out its eternal existence outside of time and space, and if in my thoughts I plumb the depths of the ages and stretch my essence towards a mold or being distance from what you perceive, I become what I desire to be.

Here I am a noble traveler. I speak, and you're so crills in recognition of the ancient words, a voice so long silent within you responds to mine. Here I am, a noble traveler. So you're a noble traveler? It's a metaphor. I'm anything I want to be if I control my thoughts. I believe Andrew Carnegie,

he said a man who possesses the ability to take possession of his own mind is justfully entitled to take possession to anything he deems fit within this reality. You control your truth. thoughts, you control your world, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions. It was a battle of will, the mind over the flesh to kill my base emotions and have sympathy and be empathetic and take accountability. It was a lot of self-reflection. It's like the story of narcissists. When he looks in the puddle and sees his reflection and love themselves so much,

It was like that, but it's deeper than that. You look at yourself from the glass, and you find yourself. And I came out of there. How long were you in there for? I was in there for about a year. I came out. I went through G4, but I was never the same. And I felt like I went a little crazy in there.

Did you, you didn't get charged? No, I didn't. The guy ended up going home. He only had like two months left when we did it too much. Oh, man. So I end up going, going out, and, yeah, it was just different. I still spoke my mind, but I spoke for positivity. I didn't speak like, oh, let's set it off.

Let him catch out. And people would be like, think, oh, he's weak, he's soft now. No, because I know what it costs. And also, mercy is a show of power, in my opinion. Like when you can hurt somebody, but you let them go, there's something really noble. About it. Even Caesar said it, Julius Caesar.

He said when he was bringing out back the Roman council that betrayed him, he said, we're going to rule with mercy, not fair. And he let them back in and pardon them. Wow. Me, I came out and I would speak and I would vote and be like, hey, like, just let him catch out. That's it. He's no good. Like, we're not doing all this.

If I would go speak with a different gang, because I started ending up speaking for the whole unit on Gibb Lewis. And that's a high security unit. I'm speaking for all the blasts on Gibb Lewis. Wow. And instead of sitting off riots, guess what? I delegated, I de-escalated. I brought peace and order with words. I made it mandatory that all the homeboys had to go to school get a trade.

Mandatory workouts. Like everything, like you have to educate yourself. You're not going to be here in the dorm all day. You have to take a class. Some of the homeboys try to buck me, like the older ones that had life for the ones that have been bucking down five times. They will always try to go. But you're not going to book the program.

If I got the majority of boat, man, we're going to whoop you. We'll smash you. We got the vote. I got the vote. And don't get me wrong, I couldn't pass everything. There's some votes that I lost. I always brought up issues that were beneficial. And that was my mission because at that time when I got out of G5,

I didn't want to blast no more. I didn't want to be a homeboy no more. How far into your stretch were you when you got out of the hole? I was already eight years in my stretch. Had you lost any good time? Or there is no good time because it's violence, right? Yes. You've got to go before the board.

Yes. Parole board. Okay. So you're eight years into a 16. I was halfway. I was already up for parole. I got denied. Shocking.

Yes. But I was like, I already, I didn't want to last no more, though. I didn't like, I don't want to be a gang member. But I know my morals and my ethics were not. let me leave because my conscience, like I told you, my conscience, I felt like I didn't do my due diligence if I didn't leave the younger generation coming in and let them get misguided how they misguided me. Because everybody, like, some only got five years, are trying to go home.

Right. Let them go home. Like, what the fuck are we doing? And it caused a lot of, like, tension, stuff like that. and we lived in peace. Everything was good. Eventually, they shipped me off. They sent me to Ferguson unit.

They sent me, they shipped me off because they said I couldn't control my people. Because the blasts, they're saying we're always having issues. Truth is, I set off a riot where there's a zero-tolerance zone. So you don't set off a riot in the church. So I set off a riot with all the horns in the church. over a Solano's glasses from Dallas. I told him that we're going to go talk about it, but I already knew they were on some bullshit.

So we just flushed them. The person that stole the glasses, we gave it to him. He beat the shut out of these guys? Yes. So it was another Mexican gang. Some of his homeboys weren't feeling it. He had the Solano's glasses. The Solano's been fighting multiple people for his glasses.

They're not giving it. up. So I told them, like, I, we're going to go talk about it and see with your speakers and homeboy, not that much people. I told all the homeboys to go. They only came a couple deep, like four people. We don't smoke you off the fucking compound. I just want the main people off the compound. And it's just like, that's what made the GI say, you got to get off the unit. Like, because, like, there's just certain rules in prison you don't break. You don't bring gang violence in the church. Right.

I brought gang violence in the church. And so the administration of the prison knew that you were running things. Yes. And we're letting you until you did this. Yes. Oh, wow. Man, look, the officers know everything that's going on.

They're not dumb. They know everything. Like, the officers bring in all the drugs. Like, the officers be fucking, sucking, prostitution. Killing people? Killing people. Man, I don't got beat up before by the officers.

Speak to that. Speak to that. Speak to some of the corruption that is so fucking crazy amongst the staff in Texas prisons. Well, people don't know. In the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, man, like I said, they strip you down, they get and beat you up. Most of the violence that's happening in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, you know what it's behind the officer?

Say one inmate would start something or cuss her out, cuss her out, cuss a female officer out. She will go tell them, oh, I'm going to lock all y'all down if y'all don't handle y'all people. So now everybody's going to go kill this guy Or it's going to cause a war Between the blacks and the Mexicans Right Because this officer said that Because no one wants to go on lockdown

We want to stay watching TV Right Shit like that But she's not supposed to do that She's supposed to That's breaking the rules of the staff They break the rules On top of that

They bring in all the drugs And then they try to blame it on the inmates Like we're the ones fucking Bringing in the drugs No, y'all stuff your pussy You're put it in your fake weed You're all bringing the drugs. We're locked up.

We don't have no access. How do you think we got a phone? Because you don't fucking, either the COs put it in his ass or she put it in her pussy. Yeah. She's getting fucked by an inmate. You're getting fucked by an inmate. They go, some of these officers go looking for the inmates. They go looking for the inmates.

They act like they're just the flyest things since airplanes. You'll have these females walking like they're just walking the wrong way. Like trying to swing their ass. like passing STDs around everywhere. Wow. Yes, like it's the corruption, like officers get paid off. If you have a case, you go tell the captain, I'll give you 500, throw the case away, so I won't get you five.

That case will go away. So an inmate can pay a captain in a prison to make their case go away? That's what they do all the time. Because people don't know, these captains, these lieutenants, these wardens, you know where they live? They live off state funding at the fucking prison. They have houses over there living rent-free. They're living rent-free off of taxpayers' money.

Yeah, and they're hustling just like the inmates are hustling. They're getting money in the prison. You got some of them driving around in Corvettes. You go, I could see their house from outside my window. Guess what? They make the inmates build all this fancy things, right? Like, because they have the welding program. Why are you building barbecue pizza?

every week. Where are they going? They're selling them for $10,000. They have the inmates building stuff and the warden takes it goes, sells it. I don't know where. You got eBay. eBay. I mean, guess what? You got them using us for slave labor. It's slave factory. It actually is. Like, most of the food that we eat, it's from prison. Like, man, I'm going to tell you a crazy story. Because I was in prison during the time we had a host squad, right? You don't know what whole squad is? So you ever seen them old slave movies Where they're walking in the field long as fuck?

Yes. So I'm right there. I'm marching my first time, right? I remember they're making us plant these little seeds. We put them in the ground for miles and miles and miles. We're doing this from four in the morning All the way to six in the afternoon. Like, do we got to hit the ground for hours.

I was there during this time. They stopped it roughly around 2016. 16, 17, because people were dying and falling out. Like 2015, 16, they said, oh, you can only be out until 3 in the afternoon because it's getting too hot. But they still had it. Then they cut it off completely. But I was there when we're doing this, right? And we're planting these carrots.

Tell me why I pull out of carrot. I planted Monday. Wednesday I pick it. The carrots have my body size. We pull it from the ground. I don't know what the hell they're feeding us. that's insane how that doesn't make any sense i don't know i don't know how you could plant something and two days later it's it's bigger than me you can't you're pulling carrots that are already

no i planted them there was nothing in that ground so they're using like steroids or something and this is what they beat us and well it's it's what big agribusinesses use like montanto they use so much chemicals that how do you buy a how do you go to the store and a tomatoes the size of a basketball It's not natural. It's all the shit, the hormones, growth hormones. They're doing something, and they feed it to the prisoners. They feed it to us. And then, like, on some of your meat, if you work in the kitchen,

it says not for human consumption. Well, you know when COVID-19 happened, you know who were the first test dummies on it? With the vaccine. Who? All the prisoners. I was the crash dummy. Guess why?

Because if you didn't get that vaccine, guess what? You're staying on lockdown. Wow. Y'all staying on lockdown or y'all getting shipped off. Y'all going to the other side of the unit. You have to be vaccinated. And then if you got a vaccine, you got an ice cream.

Fuck, bro. We were to crash dummies. They're going to try to do that shit to society as well down the line. Watch. And then what's even worse is like the medication y'all get out here, we're to crash dummies for it. They test medication on them. us, psychosetics on us.

Like they try to dope everybody up. They try to dope me up in there, try to say I was bipolar. I try to take an anger management class. And they brought me in to a psychiatrist and they told me what books are you reading. They're more worried about what books

I'm reading. What's that have to do with me being bipolar? Right now, know in every book I'm doing and then try to dope me up. I did not take no pills. I'm not bipolar. I'm actually very conscious. Yeah, you're just a crazy motherfucker. Yeah, I'm not.

No, I'm not even crazy. I was just, I'm playing the hand I was dealt. Like how I told you, Maccabelli said, if I wanted to be good, everybody would have killed me. I'm just trying to survive. That's a God honest truth. I was just trying to survive. I never wanted to do none of that.

But guess what? If I didn't do it, guess what? They were going to do it to me. Yeah. So, like, I'm going to save my own life, but human beings going to save his own life. before anything. Yeah.

I mean, the feds need to come in and just clean the Texas prison system out. They need to arrest these fucking wardens and these directors and these prosecutors.

No, they need to, like, go in Texas and see what the fuck they're really doing. Because it's like all the violence, everything going on in there, man, prison will be

a safe haven't for some people. People could educate themselves and there really could be rehabilitation. But there's not because the Texas system is broken. It's broken. Everything going on in there, there is no rehabilitation.

They don't force you to go to school. If you don't sign up for school, they don't give a fuck. I feel like they should force everybody to get education in there. Everybody should be forced to go to school. Everybody should be forced to educate. Keep everybody busy. You got people sitting in the cell all day having tuna attacks. What are tuna attacks? Now, right now in TDCJ, there's something called

paper to them. People are bringing in sheets of paper. The officers bring in sheets of paper that are sprayed with a chemical. It could be sprayed with braid. You don't know what it's sprayed with. And they're smoking paper and paper to inmates. They're fucking dying in TDC.

It's a pandemic right now going on. And the officers are bringing that shit in. And it's like, because there is in TDC right now, you can't send no mail in. Yeah, everything is digital. Right, so how are you getting sheets of paper in? How are you getting mail? The officer's paper.

Yeah. The chapel. The chaplains, yes. Them chaplain are be corrupt. They'd be really corrupt. The shit that you see happening, it's not like there is no real reform. There's no real reform. It's a money-making operation.

For people to get rich off of fucking people's family members. Why do you think so many people die? They kill inmates. You know, I could have been a lot. a victim in TDC. When I was on my transit unit, how I got G5? I got G5 because I beat up a sergeant. I beat up a sergeant. I beat the shit out of them.

They handcuffed me, took me to the back, and almost beat me to death. I was supposed to get a free row charge. They read my rights. The warden comes telling me I'm going to get free row cases. He looks at me and it's documented. You go look at my paperwork. He says, oh my God, call the medic. Because I look deformed.

Because they took me to the back and beat me. where I was deformed. My family had to come see me all the way in the valley in Raymondville, Texas, and my face was deformed. So they were stomping you out. No, they had me in handcuffs and slammed my head against the wall, the cement wall, multiple times. Beat my body, head to toe. Had me cuff. I still got the marks on the cuff right here.

Yeah. On the cuff on my hand. Tattoo can't even cover it. and beat me up until I was deep-armed. I was screaming. And while you're handcuffed and you can't fight no more, you're going to scream. I didn't know what else to do. I want to help.

I screamed. I ain't going to lie. I screamed like a bitch. I was in pain. I was screaming. My people came seeing me. My grandma was crying. That was the worst feeling.

Because they almost killed me. I didn't get a free world case. The warden had sympathy. He documented everything. They got pictures of me. So they decided they were like, don't give him a charge. Because look what we just did to. Send them G4.

They didn't even G5 me or say me. Send me G4. They waited two months, had me in isolation for two months to hill up before they sent me to the other unit. And the other unit was even more corrupt. They had the whole squad sergeants. They would beat up the inmates. They will beat up inmates. I didn't see people why they're picking it.

If you're going too slow, they'll tell you hurry the fuck up. You're not harrying the fuck up. They'll make you pull out the gun. Because the whole scotch sergeants have their guns pointed at you, make you eat dirt, say, I fucking kill you right here. Make you eat dirt. Hey, M.H crying, grown-ass man crying on their knees. It's fucking 100 degrees.

We've been out here for six hours. We're dying. You're making us eat dirt, like literally. And they're all laughing. Hey, because if you don't eat that dirt, they're going to shoot you and say you try to hit them with Aggie. Yeah, and everybody knows. Like, that's the corruption.

and I was there at a time where, man, the blasts would start beating up the officers. If they stopped one of our homeboys in the hallway, all the homeboys would stop because they were beating up our people. Yeah. They were killing us, killing us left and right. I didn't seen inmates get grown off fucking two row. And they said they committed suicide, right? Suicide because they didn't have no cameras.

Now there's cameras in TDC. They put them around 2017, 18 for safe prison. But when I was there, inmates were dying. Wow. And they're still dying because they take them to the back where there's no cameras. And they fuck them off. They fuck them off. Say, oh, it's a drug overdose.

No, you're fucking killing these motherfuckers in the back because y'all know on some of these old units there's no cameras in the back. So stuff like that's happening on the day-to-day basis. And people will say, you know, there's always a couple of assholes that are like, well, don't go to prison. Okay. but you're in prison. You're serving your time. Right? Like if you file for bankruptcy, right?

Or if you owe a credit card company, a bunch of money, right? What happens when you can't pay? Your credit's fucked up. You're punished. So you're already in there doing time. You're paying your debt. But to add on torture, it's like, just imagine if that was your family member. Doing a righteous time that they deserve to be.

doing and they're being treated like that. It's, you know, people, it's some ho-ass faggotry to excuse the abuses by the, from the people that have all the power. Yes, and you want to know even the worst. You're a bitch and I don't want you as a fan. Suck my dick. Fuck up out of here. But you want you hold my pocket faggot. That's why you watch every week. You want to know the worst part. Remember I was telling you about the sexual assaults? Some of these officers so fucking gay They will make you strip out naked And fucking tell you

Split your asshole The same officers and put their fucking flashlight In your ass looking at your bowhole Make you squat for about a good five minutes I'm fighting, bro Send me to G5 I'm beating up an officer They're weird bro

They're weird They're weird they do that Well you know what it is They're just human beings And they're humans that are from the same horrible neighborhoods that the inmates come from. And when you give these people power, it's just power.

The thing is, you know, some of these officers, like for some reason, like the units I've been on, like in Willisios, like a lot of Mexicans. On Clemens Union and Basoria, nothing but Africans. Nigerians, I've heard it. Africans, Nigerian, I don't know why. It's because they have a deal where they get citizenship

if they work at this prison for so long or whatever. Texas has a deal with them. And they'd be the worst ones. They'd be trying to act like they do voodoo on us. Like, for real, like, they'd be weird. They'd be weird. And they'd be like the main one stripping us doing that gay shit on us.

Yeah, I don't fuck with that, bro. And then you Gibb Lewis, Gibb Lewis, it was just like, honestly, Gibb Lewis, it was a lot of corruption. Every altercation is over officer. Ferguson unit where they ship me Worst prison I ever been on You wonder where they send all the crazy Motherfuckers, the baby eaters

I don't even know why they sent me over there I didn't even got a case like that They sent me over there and everybody's weird as fuck I don't see people doing blood sacrifices On some super demonic shit cutting themselves Calling up demons I don't know where the fuck they got bats from But they found the way to get bats

And you just like see the weirdest shit And they all move like reptilians It was weird, bro That was the weirdest unit You have people getting raped constantly over there And it's just like you're there Like you see it, you just You don't see nothing

Wow And that All the worst stereotypes of prison Are actually true in places like that In Texas? No, they need to actually investigate Ferguson unit Yeah Ferguson unit, they need to investigate it

on what they do to the inmates over there, what the officers do to the inmates, what the inmates do to the inmates, because they let it run them up. There is no order over there. They said, oh, we got so much programs. No, they're not. So not even the tango blast has pullover on Ferguson?

On Ferguson, it's a renegade unit. The blast, we got our benches and stuff like that. But when I say it's renegade, man, it's just different. It's different. It's a, it's, people are dying. They're dying, but when I say it's different, like, it's just weird. Like, it's just weird as fuck the shit that you see.

Did you ever get, have a, besides the times that the cops beat you up, did you ever have like a life and death situation in there? Like, did you ever get poked? Oh, no, nothing like that. Jumped or anything? Nothing like that. Every unit I go to, I get jumped. The blast jumps you every unit.

Even if you had juice in the other unit? Yes, you're going to get jumped. Because you're going to come in and they're going to tell you ain't a homeboy over here. You got to get re-jump. That's a hard check. It's a hard check. It ain't nothing.

Anybody could pass it. Anybody. If some people would be like, oh, anybody could pass it. All you got to do is fight. Bite have heart. Anybody could pass it. Because guess what?

The quicker you get blasted in, quicker you get blasted out. The hard part is when it's time and it gets real, don't drop that fucking piquel. because I don't see people drop it and freeze up when it gets real. I don't see people like fuck. Like, bro, it's their first time. They're going to freeze up.

Some people freeze up. You got to be ready when it gets real. You got to, hey, man, I'm going to do it. So because once people get in a certain mind frame, people start praying on other people. Believe it or not, they're going to pray just to smash him out to have a story to tell. I want to whoop him just to say I did that. So it goes on, but I was blessed by the grace of God that I got a lawyer named Mary Samoa. And she actually got me home. I paroled.

So you got a parole lawyer? Yeah, I got a parole lawyer. I wasn't going to come home. I had three felonies I caught in TDC. I got one for money laundering, assault on an officer, and organized crime. Okay, yeah, so talk about that. You got all these free world charges. How did you beat those? Or what happened with those?

Did they give you more time? No, they didn't give me no more time. It's because, like, they just document it. Okay. They just documented, like the money laundering. What was going on with the money laundering? Were you hustling in there? I wasn't, I'm not going to say I was hustling, but, like, at the end day, like, if I'm going to make some money, I'm going to make some money.

Like, it's too fucking easy. I'm going to bleed you. I'm going to bleed you. You're too easy, and guess what happens? Talk about extortion? Nah. It's like you have a lot of fucking drugs. Like if a female officer comes up to me and says, hey, man, you're blasting.

I see the star. I'm like, yeah, she's like, hey, look, I'm trying to make some money. I'm going to bring you something. I, how much you want for it? Of course I'm going to do it. Then I'm going to give it to another homeboy. I'm going to tell him, I issue me some commissary or something. I can't help it that the female officer offered it to me.

So that's stuff that happens. Like, they come looking for the blast. you're blasting because they know we do good business. They come asking for us and me, I got stars on my face on the back of my head. They came up to me. Something about you're blasting. Yeah, I'm blasting. And guess what?

I went. I gave it to a homeboy that likes to hustle. Me, I like reading my books. Just put some commissary on my books. And that's why I got money laundering. That's the God honest truth. Because I had his family send me money. And guess what? They're on his visitation list. What kind of drugs was it? It was fucking K-2. Synthetic marijuana.

Yo, that is a first. I've heard a lot about staff corruption in prison, but them walking up to you. No, that's what they do. Like, because they know, look, everybody knows. They hear stories, but they know Mexicans do good business because you can't do bad business as a member of Thangoblast.

You do bad business. We're going to handle you because our image. That's why they come up to us. The officers come looking for us. They come looking for the stars. And shit, I don't know what you're going to bring me. Boom. She brings me some K2 because I guess one of her relatives in the world used to be locked up, told her how to get rich.

Okay, here, here, homeboy, give me this much. She wants this, give me $500 on top of this. I know you're going to make a shitload. I had the fucking female officer bring me a pound before. Of K2? Yes. And that looks like a pound of bud, right? No, she compressed.

Okay. Like it was so much. I don't even know how she compressed it like that. And they fucking have their fucking, you know, the weave, right? Right. It didn't her hair. Black girls? Black girls.

Nigerians and shit. Not Nigerians. Nigerians hard to finesse and break. But yeah, like that. That's how I got the money laundering. So I'm like, I didn't know the dope came in there. I'm like, I'm not even doing this shit no more. I'm not finessing these holes.

I'm not going to be one of these persons that say, oh, I fuck the female officer. I never fuck a female officers because I'm scared of STDs. Yeah, and those bitches are full blown. They're fucking everybody. You put your mirror on the run late at night. And a female officer's there,

she's sucking one person dick, another person's dick. She's going down the road giving head. Prison is just a cesspool of the worst, most disgusting people in society. Ew. Like this was... Honestly, though. I'd probably let her suck my dick.

If I was in there long enough, get over here, girl. No, I couldn't do it. I couldn't. And so then, so you had these charges. You beat up an officer. Organized crime, the money laundering. Okay. So then how the fuck did you get home?

I had a real good lawyer. Her name was Mary Samoa. She told me, I got denied. She said, get your line class back. I'm going to get you home. What does that mean? Get your... That means to get my custody level back.

To get it to G2, to get the S4. Basically, that's a trustee status. I got an S4. I can't get an S2 because that's the outside camp. That's to go outside the gates. I'm an S4. I'm a trustee. I haven't caught a case.

She got me home. I think the parole board must have seen what I see in you, like a good dude. Nah, but. Smart dude. Proof this, though. That lawyer was a bad motherfucker, though. But what can the lawyer do unless it's corruption,

unless they're literally paying off the parole board, which I'm sure you can do. Because they go speak on your behalf. And the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, you're not allowed to plead your case for you. You can't. You just, I'm up for parole. Okay.

Oh, so you don't even go before people to talk. You don't go before. The only time you go before, if you have 30 years in the system. Okay. Then you could go before. I bet there's some corruption involved in that. Like, I bet, like, the board of lawyers in Texas has a deal worked out with the parole board.

Like some, because that's a whole industry. Parole lawyers are in Texas. But the thing is, not every parole lawyer is good. No. Some of them, like, they just take their family's money. Like, you'll, in the system, you'll hear, like, which lawyer actually, like, they actually go advocate for you. Right. Because they'll be calling your family.

hey, I need these letters, I need this, I need that. They don't tell you a whole list. Some of them be like, okay, I'm your lawyer. I'm going to represent you. Send me what you got. They don't go call your family as for a character witness. Like my lawyer, she actually got my uncle on the phone with the parole people. Wow.

To give a statement. Yeah. To talk to like one of the head people doing the votes. Like, hey, this is his family member. This is where he's paroling to. He has stability. his uncle says that he could work with him when he gets out. He has a job.

He has this. He's not going to be an issue out here. He's not violent. And then what did you done in prison? You learned a trade? You became a barber? No, I learned how to cut hair with a common razor. I never got a trade in prison.

Oh, okay. The only thing I got accomplished in prison was self-education. And I took a class called Toastmasters, a public speaking class. I've heard of that. I think it was in Oregon. I took toastmasters and I got my GED. That's about it. That's all I ever did.

Wow. That's not very much for catching three additional charges and being in there for violence. I was always in some bullshit. But the God honest truth, the majority of the things that happened to me and I got in trouble for in prison or like if I was involved in it, it was always behind someone else. like me by myself, I wish I would have been solo because I don't know, I would have been by myself just chilling post stuff. I'd have done my time easy.

I probably would have made my first parole. I've just talked to guys that did time in Texas for weed charges, and they didn't make parole their first three or four times. So I think it was definitely your uncle and having a good lawyer. Yeah. And just being lucky, you had a fair parole board.

I had a fair parole board, and I have like amazing family support, honestly. They got my uncle, my grandma. Prison taught me who's really for you. And people in the streets don't give a fuck about you. Ain't nobody going to send you no J-Pay, no commissary. They ain't going to give a fuck about you. You're out the way, out of thought, out of mind.

Man, your people that love you are going to be there for you. And I think that was like it taught me a lot. It was self-reflection. Even my baby mama, she went in my head. I didn't see my son or nothing. Like, nothing. So when did you come home? I came home.

June 6, 20, 22. Okay, so you're still on paper. I'm still on paper. Yeah, I got a couple more years, but you're doing great, dude. I'm doing great. You took the city over. Talk about what you're doing, man.

So basically, like, I came home. After reintegrating back into society after 10 years, it's hard as fuck. A lot of individuals tell you, man, it's easy and stuff like that. No, people are going to judge you. They're going to discriminate against you. They're going to try to tear you down, and they're always going to try to bring up your past because of what political correctness. You got to fit a certain image to make it in society.

They're going to tell you, no, you can't work for me. You got to aggravate a case. You can't do this. You can't do that. So me reintegrating back into society was a struggle. Nobody would hire me. I end up saying I know how to cut hair. I'm just going to cut hair.

I started being a barber cutting hair. My second week out, I made a video saying, hey, I'm giving out free haircuts for. for the youth, for the kids. There was a lady. She's the biggest influencer in Houston. Her name's Grizzly to Hood News. You ever heard of her? I think so, yeah.

She actually took my video, posted it. Had 9 million views. Guess what? I had over 200 little kids outside the school. I was like, what the hell? And then I remember, like, the instructor telling me, hey, you can't do that on our campus.

This is an establishment, because they charge for the haircuts. I'm thinking I'm just doing a good deed, right? I'm like, basically wants me to go out and tell everybody they got to leave. So you know what I do, right? Bro. Pulled the gun out.

No, bro, guess what? I had a lot of resistance out here. A lot of people try to, like, tear me down and make me try to go their ways. You know what I said? I pulled out my credit card because I ain't ever been dumb. Told you I've been reading financing.

My uncle been working on my credit while I was incarcerated. I got an 820 credit score. I could spend over a fucking 20,000 on it. Hey, run it. And I pulled out my little camera again. I was going to post it and tell Grizzie to post it. Guess what? You should have seen their face.

I ain't never been the type to bow down. I don't bow before no man but God. They looked at me. They started talking amongst themselves. Say, I cut everybody's hair. Had all the students do it. The next week I made a post on social media. I told everybody in the hood, because I'm from the southeast.

I said, man, I could help you all get in school for free. This college offers grants and scholarships. You finish debt-free. I got 348 people enrolled, all from the hood. Yeah. Week after that, 216. The owner of the college came up to me. Guess what he said?

He said, look, I don't know who the hell you are. He's like, but I got people with degrees over here that do my mark. my marketing and stuff like that. And they don't even bring me this much enrollment. He's like, I want to show you something. You didn't do this for money. You didn't do this for, you did this because you want to help people. He's like, I understand their morals.

He's like, that's why I don't charge people to come to my school. But because you did this, he put out $1,000. Say here, this for you. Gave me $1,000. I didn't have no money. I was broke. I was catching the metro to school. And I had to wake up early in the morning,

catch the bus at 6 o'clock and be at the school early in the morning. I'm catching it from the south side. I'm on the ankle monitor. I'll be at the school before it opens and be there all the way until it closes. My P.O. stretched my hours. If it was raining, I went to school. If it was cold, I went to school. I caught the metro.

I found the way. I didn't make no excuses. Some people make excuses about everything. Oh, it's raining. I'm not going to go do it. No, if you want something, you're going to go do it. And it's like I said, it's a mind thing. That's why you have to train your mind.

If you say I'm somebody, everybody says I'm worth a million dollars. Show me you're worth a million dollars. So me, I'm like, okay. Like I feel like I'm going to accomplish. Adversity, man's reaction to adversity to find who he is, guess what? I've been through the struggle. I ate 25 cents soups.

This shit ain't shit out here. I'm happy to be alive. I'm happy to be free. And I'm going to be something. The owner of the college offers me a job. Pulls me to the side. Tells me, hey, man, I see what you're doing. I see, like, and I'm cutting hair at this time still.

And he's like, I want you to work. I want you to work for me. I see that you're doing events by yourself. Like, you're just, like, you're full blown on it. I'm doing social media right now. Marketing. Like, I like what you're doing. I respect it.

I like your heart, too. So I'm like, I'm getting paid only. What? $11 an hour? I'm happy for my little check and it was hard for me to even go get my first check from because I felt like

I felt like, I felt weird. I felt like I was like going to the commissary line. I felt weird. I didn't even want the check. I was like, damn, they're just giving me this just to like, the hell is this?

It wasn't nothing, a couple hundred, like $200. And I was like, I'm happy with it, right? but it was something. I was marketing cutting hair, and people don't know as barbers, like how much you pay for a haircut?

I got a subscription. You don't want to know. A lot. Most people, haircuts go anywhere from $50 to $100, right? Yeah, yeah. So if you make $278 a day for 365 days, it's $100,000 in a year.

That's what my barber, he makes probably like $150. So look, you do 10 haircuts a day at $50, a pop, that's $500. You exceeded the $278. and then not including tip, you're going to make over 200 a year. My first year out of TDCJ, I made $300,000. Couldn't hair a market in myself. Way more than you made selling Coke, robbing people. And I hustled.

I did it legally. I did it legally. I built a whole platform of Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, monetizing it. Couldn't hear it. And it was hard for me reintegrating because people are disrespectful out here. people would try to shit on you, judge you, and they try to knock you off your pivot. But it's like you said earlier.

Real power is knowing I go fuck you up and split your wig back. But I give you mercy, I give you grace, because it's not worth it. What I look like going back when I know I have homeboys that ain't never going to come home. And plus you can now.

You're this public figure. You've built yourself up. People depend on you. So that's what I tell people, like make it to where you just can't build your life up to where you just can't go back to it. No, but I'm going to tell you this. It's still corruption to this day. I'm going to tell you why. I build a platform.

I do a lot of good. I do toy drives, all sorts of events, right? I help a lot of people. I help. I build a fucking amazing platform. And I was, I started to bend. Now I don't, like this is I started bending on social media because I will get mad and want to hurt someone. to all Ben and go off the gun and be like, man, look, check game.

One thing of real gangster nose, do, do, do, do, do, and just talk reckless sometimes. Or I would say something that's not gangster and be like real gangsters wear suits, because if you see me, usually I'm always in a suit and tie. And people will be like, that's not gangster, you're wearing a suit. No, it's a change the image and perception. But, like, doing all these community events, building a platform, people don't tell you you're always going to be a target on parole.

My parole officer told me one day, parole was a privilege. It's not mandatory. Like, I've been out here and don't get me wrong. I don't been, I didn't been tested in every possible way.

There was one point I had to show parole all my documents of where I get my money because I get paid 1099 now. Everything I do is a 1099. I don't get no W2. I do my own taxes. I'm actually very educated.

I do my own finances. I have my LLC, my DBA, my EIN. I am an established business owner. I'm a community activist. I work with the best immigration and personal injury attorney, Kim Bruno in Houston, Texas. I work with Northwest Educational Center, the oldest vocational college.

And I actually work, get sponsorships from car dealerships to do advertisement for car dealerships. because I generate over 400 leads off my social media. Yeah. I learned how to monetize every given second and be a master marketer. That's it, man. But where I fucked up was I speak up when I see some injustice happens. I went to City Hall and I went and made a demonstration.

And I posted it and got millions abused. And they tagged all the council members. What were you demonstrating? Basically, I went spoke up on how we need more resources within the underserved community. community, how they judge ghetto children and they're using their funds, the city funding for more policing. Police is not what we need. You want the crime rate to stop.

You got to think about the future generations. You don't got to think about right now on police in the state. You need to give more money for the educational system so our children can learn because they are the future generations. This generation, the God honest truth is already dead. They fucked up. The only thing is, you got to have hope for the future. I went and made a video, I posted it.

And honestly, man, next thing I know I'm on the ankle wonder. And that's when they told me, parole is a privilege. It's not mandatory. Yeah, don't save that revolutionary shit. Yes, and I'm like, no, I respect it. I'm like, okay, I'm not, I'm going to stay out of politics. I'm going to stay out your business. I'm not going to do that.

Like, y'all got it. Y'all got it. Like, I respect it. I don't want to go back to prison. Like, God has blessed me with abundance. I make a lot of money. How much time you got left on parole? I got one and a half more years.

That's nothing. I'm at the finish line. There you go. I'm above on all my fees. I'm like, I go, actually, they allow me to go back in the prisons and speak. Wow. And then I go speak every Thursday at the parole divisions all over Houston. I go to different ones and speak to all the inmates coming home.

And I help them get in school for free. Help them get a vocational trade. And my report with the parole board, everybody that takes my program and that I help over the city's reentry program, I have a higher reintegration result. They're not going back to prison. The people that come and I help, they become business owners, entrepreneurs, and they're established.

They're doing very well for themselves. Well, plug your social media. A lot of people I'm sure watching already know you, You're Mr. Houston, man. Yeah, they call me the Texas mogul. You're the Texas mogul. You're the Mexican J. Prince. No, I'm not going to say I'm not that dirty.

No, I'm not going to say the Mexican J. Prince because I don't consider myself a rapper or involved in the rap industry. No, I meant just like, you're just, you're one of those like. Influential. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like, if you, I wouldn't say J. Prince, I would say I'm actually. man, I'm like the Mexican Malcolm X. Cool.

That's way better. That's way better for me, right? It's because I speak for the people. I'm the voice of people. And I know some people don't like that. I say that. But guess what? If they don't like that, guess what?

Why ain't you doing it? You got a phone and a camera. You should do it. You should use your voice because everybody's voices matters. It's just some people scared to be heard. They're scared of people's opinion. You've got to have tough skin in the game. Last week I heard I was a dyke and I was pregnant on social media.

Wow, you don't look pregnant. Supposedly, like so. People don't tell you about the dark side of social media. Oh, that's all I hear. It's all I hear about is the dark side. Yeah, like they're going to come with so much propaganda that I was pregnant. I seen posts about my mom. They say I'm a Fed.

I do be asking Fed questions, but that's because I like to get the details, man. You're kind of a fascinating young man. And I really, this interview really surpassed my expectations. I really, really appreciate it, man. No, man, I appreciate you. I appreciate the opportunity. And hopefully me being on this podcast, that someone listens. One kid or someone coming home from prison or someone lost in life needing direction, hears it.

And they change their life. They think before they act. They know that there's a lot. that there's a better way because if I could make it and be successful without having to rob, steal, kill, because that's the easy thing to do. The hard thing to do is to go through adversity, accept it, and invest in yourself.

And if I could do it, man, you could do it. And if I could change one person's life, I do what God called me to do. And that's my greatest blessing. And I want to thank you for the opportunity to be on this podcast to tell my story and my testimony. And let everybody know, man, I'm not a gang member.

I'm not a gang. I'm actually against gangs. I'm against the past. Right now, we're in the future. And we're here for growth and development of humanity, of our people, because there's not a lot of leaders in this community. And we need platforms like this to show that reintegration and change is possible, that people can go through crowds and tribulations and prosper.

We need stories like mine and other individuals you had on your platform. So that's why I want to say, man, thank you. The pleasure is all mine. Go follow him. Go get inspired by him as I was today. Just listening to your stories. Anthony Sanchez, we'll see you guys next time. Take care.