The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell - How Mexican & Chinese Cartels Control Illegal Marijuana Cultivation In America Using SLAVE Labor

Episode Date: March 9, 2025

In this explosive episode, investigative journalist Jorge Ventura takes us deep into the hidden world of human smuggling, cartel operations, and the growing influence of Chinese organized crime in the U.S. border crisis. Jorge exposes the shocking realities behind: - Chinese nationals paying $35,000 to cartels for illegal entry - The cartel’s secret deal with China to smuggle fentanyl precursors - The life-threatening dangers of crossing the Rio Grande - New York City’s $8M/day migrant crisis & taxpayer-funded flights - The brutal exploitation of migrants in illegal marijuana farms - The Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang’s growing presence in Mexico - Lost children, mass graves, and the failure of U.S. border policies - The shocking role of corporations relying on illegal migrant labor - Speculation on U.S. military intervention against the cartels Go Support and Follow Jorge! News Coverage: https://www.newsnationnow.com/author/jorge-ventura/ X: https://x.com/VenturaReport IG: https://www.instagram.com/jorgeventuratv/ This Episode Is #Sponsored By The Following: RIDGE! Upgrade your wallet today! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code CONNECT at https://www.Ridge.com/CONNECT #Ridgepod POLICYGENIUS! Secure your family’s tomorrow so you have peace of mind today. Head to https://policygenius.com/mitchell to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save! Join The Patreon For Bonus Content! https://www.patreon.com/theconnectshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chinese nationals are paying cartels $35,000 per head to be smuggled into United States illegally. So essentially the Chinese, they were getting the VIP treatment. Every raid that we hit with San Bernardino County, all Chinese national control. L.A. County is going to be 90% Mexican and San Bernardino is now being run by Chinese organized crime. There's some agreements where the Mexicans are not going to let the Chinese operate in the marijuana black market industry. and in exchange, the Mexicans are to get the chemical precursors needed to make fentanyl. Jorge Ventura is the country's leading independent journalists covering the southern border crisis and the cartels. He's embedded himself with human smugglers on both sides of the border,

talked to countless migrants, border patrol agents, and cartel members themselves. There's a lot of noise going on right now in the media and on the internet, but I can tell you, nobody knows more than Jorge. He sheds fascinating light on President Trump's recent crackdown on the border and how Mexican cartels are adapting, including by allying themselves with Chinese cartels inside of the U.S. to create the biggest illegal marijuana operations America has ever seen. Not to mention, source all of the precursor chemicals for fentanyl that is still entering this country every day,

despite an unprecedented assault by law enforcement. You can check out more of Jorge's work for up-to-the-minute news on everything cartel-related on News Nation on YouTube and Jorge's Instagram. This episode will give you the chill. It is absolutely fascinating. Ladies and gentlemen, the cartel expert, Jorge Ventura, right here on The Connect with Johnny Mitchell. Mexican cartels are setting up illegal marijuana operations,

water stealing shootings, homicides, and these cartel guys would actively threat Americans. The victim tries to get out of the car. The suspects in the car pulling back in. That vehicle entered through past U.S. Border Patrol and past American law enforcement. Well, thank you for being here, dude. I love what you're doing.

there's a lot of different opinions about what's going on down there. I personally never am inclined to believe what the government or the mainstream media is telling me. Because I was down there in 2023 and 24. And I saw what the border looked like. It was fucking hard to get across back in 2023. They were charging like 10 grand for crossings. So, you know, so what has changed now? What's different like today?

down there. So I was recently just in Eagle Pass, Texas. So for folks who don't know, Eagle Pass is in South Texas, small community, maybe like a population of like 20,000 people. But the past four years under Biden, it was probably one of the deadliest and then one of the largest hotspots for migrants smuggling. So that was an area that was seeing hundreds of people cross illegally. And a lot of days, it reached in the thousands. Back in December 2020, 3,000, that was an area that was largely responsible for the, I think that month finished with 260,000 migrant encounters. And a lot of that came from that Eagle Pass area. I was on the ground there. And I remember in just one 24 hour day, I saw up to 5,000 people. So it was just, it was, I mean, there's

no other way to say it was a complete disaster. And the other kind of aspect that here is, is also the straight on the local resources. So when you have that many bodies crossing illegally, the thing is, is Eagle Pass is separated from right across the Mexican border town of Pedres negative is that Rio Grande River. From the outside, the Rio Grande looks like, oh, I could swim through it, walk through. It seems super easy. So me as a reporter, I always want to embed myself in the story as much as I can. So when I would go into those waters, those currents were so strong that there was a few times

that I almost got completely swept away. And I've witnessed migrants being swept away, babies, grown men swept away in those waters. And so they were getting so many illegal crossings under Biden at that time. when I was speaking with the local sheriff, he says, Jorge, right now, we're getting a drowning per day. That's our average. He's like, we're basically every day

having to call first responders, pull a body out. He says, we're pulling so many bodies out. They had a call at the state of Texas to put like a whole freezer trailer. And that was kind of like the tipping point because that made me realize of like, you know, the news was saying border crisis,

but this was really humanitarian. And in that area, ended up turning into one of the deadliest spots. I just left that. area, I just spent about four days back in Eagle Pass. It's already a complete 180. So, do President Trump's executive orders?

Governor Greg Abbott has deployed a lot of resources with Operation Lone Star, and Mexico has also stepped up their efforts on their side. The crossings have absolutely plummet. So I was in an area of the Eagle Pass, so between Eagle Pass and also the town next zone in Del Rio. As of right now, their illegal crossings

are under 50 a day. So it goes from, you know, it's kind of remarkable to see it under 50, where under Biden, I was seeing thousands go through that area. So it's kind of been a complete shutdown. I was there yesterday when, and I was witnessing there was like hundreds of the Texas National Guard troops there, they were actually being deputized by Border Patrol. So what that means is for the first time ever, this kind of had another layer to the story

is Texas National Guard troops will have the legal authority. So if you're a migrant, you cross illegally, they can now detain and then arrest you. Where before they actually didn't have that legal authority, they always had to rely on Border Patrol. So they were kind of sworn in as feds. Yes. Even though they were National Guard. That was just yesterday. We witnessed hundreds of them.

So it's already been like a complete 180 on its immigration story. What is the, why was it so easy to get across the border and Eagle Pass under the Biden administration? Assuming you could get across the river and not drown. Why was it so easy to get in? So Payless Negus is one of the border towns that is not heavily controlled by cartels. It's controlled by smugglers, but it's more controlled by the corrupt Mexican law enforcement. So some others were paying off law enforcement, and they essentially would allow migrants to reach the banks of the Rio Grande. Now, a lot of migrants got to pay this niggers by taking what was called nickname now, the Train of Death La Bisi.

I'm pretty sure you heard of it. It's more famous for going to Juarez. But a lot of migrants do ride that, and they get pretty close to, like, the outskirts of pay this niggers. And then from there, they'll just either take vehicles or literally just be walking along the road. And they'll get to one of the shelters kind of stash houses that migrants put them into. and then they'll literally, because under the Biden administration, migrants just had to reach American soil to be apprehended by Border Patrol. So they would just literally cross right there.

Mexican law enforcement completely allowed this whole scheme to go on for four years. So these were people claiming asylum. Yes. Okay. So they would get across the border to American soil and then they would turn themselves in, essentially. Basically, just to kind of explain it for the audience, so they kind of get kind of the breakdown of everything is,

when Biden came into office, border patrol instilled what they call the counter, the catch and release policy. So under Trump, I covered Trump a little bit when I was a student journalist. A migrant would cross it legally, and as soon as they see border patrol, they would run for their lives, of course, right? That's what you would imagine. Under Biden, I remember, I didn't know about this,

but when I got to the board for my very first time under the Biden administration, which is back in March of 2021, I was in McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. I ran into a group of 300 migrants in the middle of the night, and 300's a lot of bodies to see. And I was shot because when I went to go interact with, with the migrants, they were all looking to turn themselves into Border Patrol. And I didn't get it at that time because I'm like, wait, what?

Aren't she supposed to like run away? And what we learned is under the Biden administration, they didn't obviously announce it. There was the catch and release. So meaning that if you're a migrant, you cross illegally, which is breaking U.S. law, you reach American soil. Border Patrol would apprehend you. They would process you. And likely, within 72 hours, you were then paroled into the United States, meaning you were

released. Most of them are released what they call the NTA. That's a notice to appear. It's a future court date. At that stage, migrants had court dates within six months to a year. The illegal crossing got so bad and got so overwhelmed by the telling of it of the story. We were running into migrants that didn't have court dates until 2029. Right.

So we were running into Venezuela and be like, oh, I don't have to see a judge for like 2028, 6 to 5 years out. So that was kind of like the biggest, the biggest lesson is that because once the catch and release was instilled, migrants just knew as soon as I reach American soil, I'm likely to get released. in the US. Yeah. So and they said a couple million people got in that way, but still another six million were smuggled in and didn't turn themselves in for asylum.

This is where I pushed back on the stats because in 2023, I was down in El Paso and I was in a stash house and I just interviewed some migrants from Chiapas. Okay. These are Mexican guys. And they're like dude, we've had to pay smugglers, I think 12

$12 for three attempts for them to cross them over the wall and then get them past the checkpoint. They had already been apprehended twice. This is all under Biden, by the way. And this was our last attempt as part of this like migrant smuggling package to get them across through the checkpoint. Because they'd already been crossed over the border.

That sounds pretty fucking difficult to me. So I just, yeah, I'm, I'm not sure aside from the asylum seekers that that program they'll let a bunch of people in. I think it's pretty hard to get in. Why else would coyotes be able to capture $8,000 to $10,000 per head to cross if it wasn't difficult? You know what I mean? Every, it also depends nationality. So if Mexican national because of the agreement with the United States, they're like the super easy to like deport and return.

So Mexican nationals, they are like, are the ones who likely view smugglers more because they're looking to enter as what it was, was board patrol calls them. Godaways. So that's where they enter the country illegally. They're not detected. Right. And they're not apprehended. So they fall under that got away category. And that number could range of like how many Godaways got in because Border Patrol still doesn't even know that that true number. Right. So normally you will see like Mexican nationals, even then migrants from Central American countries because that's also the agreement. So like El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, those typically would have used the smugglers to like, they all view smugglers every nationality. But I'm saying is those are the ones who are looking to not be

apprehended because of that agreement. Also, many of these Mexican nationals probably already have a deportation under the record or they already have some type of criminal record in the United States. So that leads them to do that. If you're a Venezuelan, as long as you could just touch American soil, you are likely to get paroled. Also, why is that? Because I mean, this is just under the Biden administration, they were paroleing Venezuela and nationalists. The other kind of angle to this, too, is if a Mexican national is if he comes in illegally, let's say he's a, criminal in Mexico, it's easy for Border Patrol to easily look up his, his background information. It could be like, oh, this guy's like cartel of the Gulfo or connect to a Mexican mafia,

this guy committed a homicide in Mexico City. The issue with these other countries, especially, you know, we'll touch on them, but like a country like Venezuela, where we had millions of Venezuela nationals, Venezuela doesn't have an agreement with the United States to share a database. So meaning like if a Venezuela national, this is just a complete example, Jose Enrique crosses illegally. Border Patrol is going to run his information to the background checks, but Venezuela doesn't share a criminal database.

So it doesn't check out that this guy's likely a train that I would gang member. And we saw that trend repeat over and over again where these train that out with gang members come in illegally. Nothing flags them in the system. Even like a year later, they commit a homicide in the United States. And the most famous case that I think, like,

highlighted to Americans across the country was a Lincoln Riley trial because you had this guy Jose Ibarra crosses illegal. the kind of the hotspot for the Trinidad All the corridor was Juarez El Paso. Right. He comes in illegally. Border Patrol apprehends him.

This guy is breaking the law. But Border Patrol under the Biden administration is kind of forced to do a parole him into the country. Then that guy will have a court date. So Jose Ibarra comes in illegally, doesn't check. No red flags in the background. Of course, he's Venezuelan.

So we're not getting any data. Jose Obarra gets released into the country with a future court date, NTA. Jose Ibarra, then makes him his way to New York City on our funds, taxpayer money, and he stays at the Roosevelt Hotel for about a year.

So for about a year, he's living for free, taxpayer-funded Roosevelt Hotel. Then New York City Mayor Eric Adams gets so overwhelmed by the amount of migrants that are arriving. I think the last number I read was New York City was spending around $8 million a day

in migrant care. So that's when New York City ran that campaign where they were like, hey, migrants, we'll literally buy you a one-way ticket to anywhere in the world, but you can't say. in New York. So then Jose Ibarra takes a taxpayer-funded flight to Atlanta, Georgia, where I believe six months later he ends up killing 22-year-old nursing student, Lincoln Riley, in the middle of the day. And then through investigations and the trial, we find out that Jose Ibaro was a train that

a gang member of Venezuela and likely probably committed crimes of Venezuela. That makes sense. So these countries that other than Mexico and a few Central American countries, they're just, we just don't share any information with them. We don't have any diplomatic ties with Venezuela. Like Salvador comes in illegally, man. It's easy for, for U.S. to look it up El Salvador, glad, shares that information, especially under a Buckelian administration. They'd be like, oh, MS-13 gang member, no, you'll stay in detention and then we'll put you in removal proceedings. Venezuela, we had no idea.

And it's not just Venezuela. Then we're getting all the- illegal immigrants from special interest countries. So, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, the amount of Chinese falls under special interest aliens where the government won't share any data so we don't know who these individuals are. Then they get released and we don't know the true intentions. So has now with Trump is that the remain in Mexico policy, is that now back in effect? So if all, if you line up at the border to get asylum, they now tell you to wait in Mexico while

you're awaiting your court date. Is that what's going on? Exactly. So that was first introduced under the first Trump administration. It played a big part in deterring. Yeah. And then as soon as Trump got in, they immediately reinstated that. So what's interesting about remaining in Mexico is the messaging,

So like if you interview when I was interviewing a lot of migrants for them that policy was like the end all because they were like well Why would we risk this huge journey to you know make it here to Mexico then travel through Mexico? Even when it comes to illegally cross just to be sent back even Essentially they would be forced to live in a Mexican border town where a lot of smugglers then took advantage of the vulnerability A lot of you know and it's such a difficult process to even get that asylum approved so a lot of migrants didn't see it worth it Some would stay in Mexico then start to work while others are you going to choose to return home? So the remaining Mexico played a huge role.

I think this administration, under the second time with Trump, is going to play a bigger role just because of the amount of, I mean, illegal immigration that Biden allowed under his four years. So the reign of Mexico is back and it's going to play a big factor

when it comes to. Now for Trump, as much as like the policies and stuff is important is the messaging. So like that's why you also see like the White House social media accounts. They're like blasting out these arrests. ISIS like gladly now like allowing some media right along.

It's like they're trying to get that messaging out there. Like if you come illegally now, you'll be sent back. So kind of remaining Mexico plays a role in the messaging aspect. Yeah, well, for sure. That's what law, half of the law is just trying to deter crime. It's trying to deter whatever you don't want to have happen. That makes sense. Yeah, half of Tijuana, we were down there a couple months ago.

I mean, the Zona Roja or Zona Rosa in Tijuana. Oh, Chinese. It's Chinese and Haitian. Yes. And they actually like it. A lot of people, they make lives for themselves. because a place like TJ has got a lot of jobs. Spring weekends are all about family, sunshine, and evenings on the patio.

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Now, if you're a Haitian guy or you're a Chinese guy in fucking Juarez or like Eagle Pass, one of these like shithole and it's hilarious fucking places, but on the Mexican side, that's horrible. That's when you're going to see a lot of these cartels start to prey on these guys. Have you heard about that happening? Have you heard about like forced recruitment by cartels? of these other than Mexican, you know, migrants or asylum seekers that are coming up. Have you, is there any information about that?

Not like forced recruitment into, into, like, their criminal organization. The biggest is, is just the amount of extortion and kind of kidnapping. So the, the area that we read into that the most was Rayosa, Mexico. So when I was in Raynosa, the cartel that operates out of theirs is usually the golf cartel connected with Matamoros, Mexico, too. And what migrants were telling us that as soon as that they would have, arrive in renaus. I mean, I actually went to a migrant camp where 90% of the people we spoke with work got in this scheme. So essentially what happens is they would arrive to Renoza, Mexico

within the first hour or two, instantly kidnapped, held in a stash house. They were actually brutally assaulted. And then they were forced to call their family members either back in their home country. Some of these folks already have members in the U.S. And they were forced to pay up to like five grand for the release. So we went into a, I work with another Mexican journalist fixer. where we went into a migrant camp there and like I said 90% of the people that we ran into got kidnapped by the golf cartel.

Almost same story. Assaulted, beat up, held in a stash house. What I was kind of shocked is that this was also happening with Russian nationals. So in that area of Raynosa was getting a lot of Russian nationals that were arriving.

The Russians were trying to enter kind of like the same way like the Ukrainians were allowed in under Biden where Russians, there were still like some red flags or they weren't allowing them in. So I was kind of shocked when we were running into Russians

who were like, like yeah and then the thing is what the russians is um we collected all that our interviews but all them were so fearful that not one would go on camera and like we would obviously we could blow their face protect identity and they were all like no they they called like our family back in like Moscow and like extorted us like 10 grand it was it was really incredible because i you always hear about migrant smuggling and we obviously we interview these folks but that you know and i've been in all over the mexican border towns and and all these a lot of these stories are similar but probably the area that was most prevalent was just how often it happened in renozo like i said i was shocked

you know you usually could arrive in a migrant camp maybe like 40 percent have gone through the where they kidnapped and extorted were in renausa it was nine out of ten like it was more rare if we ran into someone who like was not kidnapped and extorted in this in a scheme that was operating at a rinoza and even before i even entered renaosa like a lot of journalists that i respect who like covered wars and stuff like that that was that was one of the areas where they're like hey man like really really put your head on a swivel like yeah in renaosa mexico yeah those Eastern provinces on the border. Yeah, Nuevo Laredo, Reynoso.

Why are those so much hotter, so much more combative and dangerous than Western Mexico, like Tijuana or even Sinaloa or Sonora? Like, why is the east on the border in Mexico so fucking crazy and dangerous? And as you said, abusive to the migrants like that. So from our reporting and like speaking with the locals and then also like some of our Mexican sources is those areas, the golf cartel just has the Mexican law enforcement, like, on complete payroll. So they could kind of operate the almost like at will.

If you guys remember, like, Matamoros as well as also controlled by the golf cartel, those were like those four like Americans from like South America from South Carolina were kidnapped. I went to Mattomores and covered that story. And all the locals were literally like, oh, the police is exactly like the golf cartel. Like they would not solve this issue. They were so pissed at actually, like, that they like solve. this kidnapping within like a week because they would never solve a Mexican national one. Yeah you remember

that? That was on camera right? It was the black people. They were down from South Carolina to get like a tummy talk or something or so and they on camera in the middle of like the town square are being herded into the back of a truck. In daylight too bro. This was not like kidding and then

so I was originally for that timeline I was originally in Ohio for the train to Roman story so I'm doing the train to Roman story and I fly to Atlanta and then my boss is like, get back on a plane. You're flying in Brownsville, Texas. I'm like, why?

He's like, these four Americans got kidnapped. So I remember I went into that story because I was just reading the headlines. I didn't have time. I'm like, oh, these four Americans are innocent. And when we hit the ground and then we started doing reporting and investigating, we find out that these, like, Americans had, like, huge rap sheets all connected to, like, cocaine trafficking. Matamoros is also a major cocaine trafficking hub for the golf cartel.

But people don't know is like the golf cartel is not really involved in fentanyl. The weight that, like, Sina Loa and these. other cartels are, especially like Haleesco New Generation, they're more focused on cocaine. They don't, you don't really deal with fentanyl Labs in Matamor's, not in Raynosa. It's all more cocaine driven. So when we started to connect, wait a minute, like the rap sheets of these Americans, then we started to find out that this wasn't legit.

Speaking with sources down there and also other locals, they were like, those folks, they didn't even have an appointment for that tummy tuck. A doctor would have came out in public by now. He's like, that's how they operate. So we were already like, like I said, I hit the ground like, oh, yeah, these Americans are innocent, of course. because that was also the media narrative. You turned on every news channel.

And then we were the first to counter that narrative. I actually went on air and I was like, I was like, hey, just to let you guys know, blah, blah, blah, blah. They have a long rap sheet on cocaine, trafficking, drug charges. And I remember like one of the guys who was shot, he was like in a, in the hospital in Brownsville. He like didn't even tell his wife that he was making his Mexico trip. So like the wife was like, I'm only finding out through the news that he's in the hospital.

And now he doesn't want me to visit him. There was so many red flags. So that story wasn't this like. Oh, fascinating. Okay. So they might have been down there like trying to meet up with somebody to, you know, order a shit. Yeah. Connection.

Because also these cartels, like the way they operate is they also don't want to attack Americans on the board. It's so bad for business. So we started to kind of crack that story. And then kind of the other kind of red flag and the other layer of it was we were on the ground. And a source sends me this photo. And I'm like, what is this? he's like the golf the the the golf carto just turned in these guys who supposedly did the murder and none of their body types like matched the suspects from the day of I I to this day I don't

even think the man they turned in did it the real the real people I personally first that's that's that's me I said it a million times on this show in Mexico it's all smoking mirrors they're all they're playing chess they're playing chess like they paid some people to say hey you got to turn yourselves in we'll take care of your families but somebody's got to go down it's not going to be our guys Locals know it. What was fascinating is like when I was on the ground in Matamoros, the locals didn't buy that the Americans were innocent. I was coming in like, yeah, they are.

And they were like, no, no, no, trust me. They're like, once you start working with sources, you're like, oh, wait a minute. Like, there's something deeper here to the story. So you think that the prevalence of corruption is the reason that a place like Maramoros and like the eastern provinces of Mexico are able to operate with this kind of crazy violent impunity when it comes to not just drug trafficking. trafficking, but specifically migrant smuggling and migrant extortion. You think that's the reason is that they got the government so deep in their pocket?

Yeah, see, and I think I think what the cartel didn't, obviously, I don't know this firsthand, but I think for them, they were surprised of just how easy that they could move migrants. So they were, according to some of the context we talked to with like U.S. government, they have an estimate that these guys were making like under the Biden administration up to $14 billion just on migrant smuggling. So you kind of created this other layer where these guys could, could make money in a way that the product never runs out. The migrants never run out.

And what was interesting is on the U.S. side is board patrol would be like, hey, man, like what they're doing right now is like they'll get a group of like 300 migrants in a stash house or whatever. They'll smuggle them in one area. So when they do that, it just overwhelms American resources. So you have to have border patrol there. Sometimes you have to call local law enforcement. And when all that resources are focused on that area, that's when they started to move drugs. even easier. So I think the cartels really figured out the system of like, hey, if they're going to

do the, you know, catch and release policy, we basically have like a way to completely distract them and then, then take them out. So, so. So not only do they get paid off the and smuggling, they also are moving Coke in when they distract. Exactly. And we saw that playbook. Wow. Throughout the border. I mean, it was, it was that they ran that playbook to a T. I remember being in Yuma, Arizona. Same thing. We would find an area and I, I started to know it so I already knew it. hey we're going to go to this area at 2 a.m. They're going to move in like a thousand people. And I'll be with journalists like the first time.

They're like, Cori, come on, man. I'm like, all right, we'll go out there at 2 a.m. They will do is they'll move in 1,000. Then like not too far from us, they'll start running their, what they call the runners, right? The guys backpack. Those guys are likely Mexican nationals who are doing the drugs. And the migrants are a complete distraction.

And they're making money off the migrant. So it was a win-win. And areas like Nuevo Laredo, Raynosa, and Montemores, probably from my perspective, are the areas where they operate with like almost complete impunity. They got control of Tijuana. I mean,

they got control of all these cities, but they're still kind of like that law enforcement battle. Well, Tijuana, there's a lot of Americans moving to Tijuana now. And it was under a microscope during the wars of the early 2000s where it was just bodies were dropping in the middle of the day. So now it's, you've got to be a lot more subtle on the West Coast.

But yeah, the East, man, it is. I just want to share a quick story that I covered of just to kind of show you the control of Noyville Lerreira. So back in 23, we're on the ground in Laredo, so we're on the Mexican side. And then we get, we get contacted by sources about a kidnapping of an American citizen.

And we're like, okay, so we started looking into it. And there was this guy who apparently it's like Friday night. He's at a party on the American side, in Laredo. And he's bragging to a female. And this is all on court documents because we put him from the investigation and all the court papers. So it's like Friday night, he's at a house party. He's like bragging to this female how he stole $50,000 from the golf cartel. So he's bragging, having a good time.

Around 11 p.m.ish, a truck from Nuevo Laredo crosses through the port of entry into the United States. Now, normally the port of entry, whether you're entering from the American or Mexican side, that a vehicle is supposed to be like kind of stopped, they kind of check you real quick, whatever. it goes into the it goes into the United States basically without being stopped and then it enters into Laredo so it's on the American side that pickup truck and then we got

video document from the port of entry so that pickup truck goes to that to that house where that guy was bragging and this is also on my news nation reporter so this is not something that's not true so and we have the court documents he basically gets kidnapped and assaulted of course gets kidnapped gets forced into this truck

the part that kind of like always shocks me to those days that when he was entering again now he's in the truck is going to mexico now into novo laredo it obviously has to go through a port of entry it's going through our law enforcement um there was a moment where the victim tries to get out of the car so you could see him open the door and you can see that the the suspects in the car pulling back in and what's always the biggest red flag is that that vehicle entered through past u.s border patrol and past american law enforcement will file um without without it being stopped

without having to check IDs or anything and it just entered completely untouched even until this day like we really don't know the true story of that individual but I mean he was like he hasn't been heard from again yeah so he's gone and it sounds like somebody's being paid off on the U.S. side

that to me was one of the bigger shocking stories because we're all we're used to the corruption on the Mexican side and stuff kind of like stuff like that happened but to see it on the American side Ed Calderon so this comes a good authority because he's got entrenched connections on both sides of the border. He says that the border patrol is the most corrupt federal agency in the United States.

So there you go. So have you, what are your reports tell you about the prevalence of this? Well, just recently, this happened like 72 hours ago, so this is great for us. But Manuel Perez Jr., El Paso Border Patrol agent, was just arrested for allowing illegal immigrants to enter to that gate. in El Paso. So you would open it, kind of look away. And then now there's an investigation that he was involved in narcotic smoking. So a lot of these borderages, it's easily, I don't know so easy, but it's a good chance that some of these guys are going to be bought off. I mean, everyone has a price. And then manual prize is kind of like the latest example

with that. So right now he's kind of going to, he's going to have court in like a week or two. They're going to plead guilty obviously. Then they're going to get him. But it happens a lot. And I know, I think you might have spoke to him in the past, but like Louis Shapiro is a great, also Mexican journalist. He just exposed El Pasoeroero. Patrol 2 where they had that video where they were literally just pressing the button, it didn't allowing migrants to run into a vehicle. And who knows how long they were on those type of schemes. Ridge wallet, everybody. We know about Ridge wallets by now. We've listened to podcasts. We know that these guys are the future of wallets. Check it out. How sleek is that, right? Long gone to the days

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It's just Thanksgiving every day for these fucking cartels. And they're running that distraction scheme, man. So the amount of drugs I'm helping them move drugs in too. When you say like they make billions, who is they? Because, you know, a lot of this smuggling, like say somebody's coming up

from Venezuela, right? There's probably 20 different groups, I don't know, 20 different groups. There's a lot of different people along the route to from Venezuela through the Darien Gap all the way through Central America and through Mexico

who's conducting all of it? Is it all independent groups until you reach Mexico? And is that when it becomes like more controlled by the cartels who say no, no, no, this is my territory. Like explain a little bit about that process and who's controlling all of it

and where the money is going. So every, obviously, every nationality has a different journey and who we have to pay through. So someone like from Venezuela, is likely getting smuggled or in connections with Train-Nadawa gang members who are working in collaboration with Mexican cartels. Right now, people don't know, but the Venezuelan gang,

train-danawa and Mexican cartels are working in joint when it comes to migrants smuggling to the point now. Mexican cartels allow Trane-Nan-Awa gang members to now operate on Mexican soil. So Mexico City right now has a, it's a growing presence of Trin-Nalwa gang members operating sex trafficking in there, and that's a lot because of the migrant smuggles. So every, every migrant has a kind of like a different journey.

There's going to be a bunch of criminal groups and what they call narco coyotes along the way that are that are making money. But as soon as they hit Mexico, that's directly all to criminals, smugglers, all the different, you know, migrant smuggling groups. You know, they had like, like, La Lina cartel out of Juarez. And sometimes our connection, connected with, like, bigger cartels, like the Sinaloa and Halisco. The one that was kind of the more interesting to me that I kind of more focused on was, the Chinese, the moving of Chinese nationals by the thousands. So that became in our radar back in early 2023 out of the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. So we hit the ground there and speaking with Texas DPS, they're like, hey, Hory, like the past month or two,

we're seeing a thousand percent spike of Chinese nationals entering illegally here. And they're like, we don't know why and everything. And so we started working close with Texas state troopers. And when we found out was that Chinese, Chinese migrants, were paying Mexican cartels. This doesn't count the money that they're paying South American groups and I'll kind of explain that.

Chinese nationals are paying cartels $35,000 per head to be smuggled into the United States illegally. So essentially the Chinese, what we saw was they were getting the VIP treatment. So what I mean by that is you're not going to see Chinese migrants traveling through Mexico, like walking on the side of the road,

staying in stash houses. They're through what's happened, their communication outlets like signal. The cartels kind of break down. This is the flight you take. This is the hotel you take it. And they'll kind of organize their smuggling. So what the Chinese told us is they found a loophole through Ecuador.

So Ecuador does not require travel visa from Chinese nationals. So then what you'll have is you have Chinese nationals land in Ecuador. We're then Ecuadorian gangs. We then coordinate their travel to Neocoli, Colombia. Same thing. So Neocoli Columbia actually had so many Chinese migrants. They actually set up hotels strictly for the Chinese. So then Ecuadorian gangs will then work with Colombian smothers.

They'll get them to Neocoli Colombia. From Neocoli, Colombia, the Colombian smogers will then get into Panama. And that's where they'll have to do the journey to the Daring Gap. But they'll be very, very protected by the narco-Coyotes. Essentially, the communication goes to the narco-coyotes. Like, Chinese nationals don't touch. Like, don't even, don't mess with them. As soon as they cross, I believe they reach, like, Guatemala, Nicaragua for them.

And then they'll take a flight into Mexico. And then from then, they'll fly to Cabo. and the most popular route that we found for Chinese, we didn't know my early reporting in Texas, but first we needed the breakdown of it. The most popular route for Chinese was to get to Kabul, and from Kabul they would take a flight to Tijuana. From Tijuana, criminal smothers would literally meet them at the airport,

and they would guide them an hour out of Tj in an area called Ticate, and they would cross on the American side as Chakuma Hot Springs. So we started running into them. How do they get crossed when they get to Ticate? So essentially they're taking in like vehicles, unmarked cars by smugglers and then they'll be just driven out. The part that we don't know here is, is because there's no Mexican law enforcement in area, so it could be two things.

It could be obviously they're paid off and told to stay away. Other times, too, Mexican law enforcement views these areas way too dangerous for them to even be standing out there. And these areas are controlled by like arm guys, literally like arms smothers and motorcycles. I went to that area because I did an embedded operation. So we saw how like dangerous it is. And it was so dangerous that like for Mexican immigration to be out there, they had to be

accompanied by Mexican. army. So if we weren't with the army, we couldn't even be out there. So just kind of showing you how sketchy. And it's, dude, it's a desert, it's mountainous. It's an area that's like now you're in their backyard. We're in T.J., you're in the law enforcement's backyard. And then what they'll do is they found open gaps on the border. And we have a bunch of our videos. And literally, criminal smothers will get up to the walls and just have the Chinese enter. And then what was interesting is all the Chinese, I don't know if this was ordered by Mexican smothers or this is something that the Chinese already knew what to do. They would,

then destroy their identification on the Mexican side. So when they were encountered by Border Patrol, they didn't have any identification to show them. And it was this kind of remarkable scheme. And I got this through communication. I interviewed Chinese nationals one-on-one, and they broke everything down. And they said, Ecuador is a loophole.

And right there, it just starts to like, wow, like every nationality has like a different thing. Cuban nationals, Nicaragua doesn't require a trial visa from Cuban national. So then Cubans will fly to Nicaragua and then begin the journey from Nicaragua. and according to the Cubans I spoke with, the Cuban government knew

that the Cubans flying to Nicaragua were never returning back to the island. So what they did is, and this is kind of a way of being like kind of criminal smuggling, is that they would charge the Cubans for a one-way flight to Nicaragua $6,000. Knowing who would in Cuba?

The Mexican, the Cuban government. How would they do that? They basically would just had all the airlines ante up the prices. They'd be like, these nationals are not coming back. So look at this one-way ticket. Yeah. In a way, like the way, like the way the Cuban

explained it to me was the Cubans viewed the Biden administration as a way for them to then profit also off the migrant without technically being critical like it's not the Cuban government technically being like you're going to take this route they already knew that these Cubans are not coming back so they did as they is they racked up the prices so Cuban according to Cuban

nationals what they told me person this is several I mean I'd be hundreds of every national I've interviewed hundreds they said anywhere from four grand to six grand they were being charged for a one-way flight they were land in Nicaragua and when they were land in Nicaragua but almost like a joke, the Cuban airline would be like,

enjoy your vacation, guys. We'll see you soon, knowing that they're making their way to the U.S. border. And from there, same thing is, now you have like a Nicaragua smuggling network and their goal is to get them to Chiapas Tapachula, right?

Because as soon as they cross illegally there, now it's all on the cartels. And then the loophole there that we found that was involving Mexican government was, migrants started a right, so for folks who don't know, like Tapachula is like the first Mexican border town that you reach as a migrant.

So as soon as you cross from Guatemala, you know, you're in Tapachula. It's technically because they entered illegally through Mexico, they're not allowed to legally travel through the country to go to the U.S. border. So what the Mexican government did is they issued, you know, I'm doing this, but they issued humanitarian visas to the migrants. So basically the Mexican government found a scheme of saying, hey, they don't have any, like they can't legally travel through Mexico because they're legally in Mexico. So what we're going to do is we're going to issue them a humanitarian visa, which gives them, legal status from like 20 days to a month, knowing that by giving them that legal status, they were going to head to the U.S. border. So in a way, the government kind of played a role to and kind of facilitating the massive

amount of legal immigration that we saw under Biden. So every nationality kind of had like a different scheme. For me, I was always more, always fascinated with the Chinese because they're, you know, they view us as an adversary. Right. They were destroying their documents, which was like fascinating to me, just like to go on the border and see them all burned down. Wow.

And then see that, then like the funny thing is like seeing border patrol agents, like they couldn't communicate with them. So it's like we don't know who they are. We don't know if we could, we could buy the story. And we let them in by the thousands into the United States. And were they led in the asylum way, you think? Okay. So they lined up and they just. And if you're a border patrol guy and you're fucking, you got a thousand of these Chinese dudes, you're like, I just go.

Get out of here. Get out of here. I got bigger problems. And the funny thing is like, you know, when you're on the border is like, you know, you run into Venezuela and these other nationalities. they look like they did a long trick like their clothes are beat up, they need water, whatever.

The Chinese guys were arriving like super clean clothes had like Versace's suitcases. One guys were like in a Gucci jacket like untouched. I always wondered like okay if you count the 35,000 that you pay the cartel

but plus the plane tickets plus other fees plus you're paying people you got to pay the narco coyotes along the route you're spending 50 Gs to get here, why don't they just fly here and just overstay their visas? That's a bit, I mean, we don't know if

like they said, this is not, I don't know if this for a fact, but we don't know if they have some type of criminal intention that also that the government of China was about, because also the government of China allowed this many citizens to leave. We don't know why they wouldn't apply for a visa here in the U.S. and, you know,

that whole process, but I think for them the fastest way, it was the Ecuadorian loophole. And that kind of exposed a lot. And obviously all these narco-coyotes along the way they were making so much money with the Chinese. The Chinese were never like literally assaulted. I've never interviewed a Chinese

and they were like, the cartel kidnapped me and they put me in a staff. Like that was never the story. They were like, these guys are great. They're so nice. They were like, this was great. They told us like it was a travel agency. Travel agency were like, what hotels to stay at? What hotels? Like I said, the common route that we found is that they would get to Cabo. So I'm pretty sure of one of your viewers

listens to go to Kabul right now. I'm sure you'll see a bunch of Chinese nationals. And they'll get to Tijuana. Tijuana has also been like a big hub for the Chinese. If you go to like the Reli District, you'll see it. But like I just entered TJ two weeks ago on foot to the port of entry. And for the first time ever, it's always normal when you go to a port of entry. Then they have obviously the signs in Spanish and English, right, for Americans.

Now they have a whole section for Chinese. So I remember I was with Danny Mullen. I was like, Danny, check this out. Because Danny didn't believe me about the Chinese. I'm like, told you. And then we went into TJ and he was like, dude, I'm like, I told you. They're everywhere. And I think Tijuana, like I was reading.

their local news like they just opened up like more flights from like Beijing to TJ directly. Wow. Yeah. So there's something, there's a coordination there as well. So it sounds like on the West Coast getting across dealing with the cartel is pretty much nice and cozy because the price points are so high to get smuggled. The more money there is, the safer it's going to be. But on the East Coast, like who are the ones getting assaulted and extorted by, you know, cartel to a golfo? I assume those are the migrants that are not paying a high price, right? So Cubans, Venezuelans, migrants from Central American country, South America, those were the migrants that you were hearing more of those stories.

And a lot of the folks from like what we call special interests like Middle East, Asia, they were paying top dollar. Now some of those folks still found themselves in some hairy situations. Like I said, the Russians particularly. I was just kind of shocked that they were getting like assaulted and kind of kidnapped out of Raynosa. So it just kind of, it also kind of go through. through like which smothered around. It's fascinating, fascinating. The other, the other connection that we started to find was, like, what do a lot of these folks end up doing in the U.S., right?

So then I remember hitting, hitting the, I was in the border 2023 in South Texas. I run into Congressman Mike Garcia. And I'm speaking with the Congressman. And I said, he's out of California. He's from my hometown where I am in Palmdale. He's at, he represents that district. So I said, Congressman, like, what is a lawmaker from Southern California doing in South Texas? Like, why? And he goes, Jorge, what's happening in the border is, like, impacting my community? And I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, in the deserts, they call it Anila Valley.

That's literally my hometown. He's like, in the Annala Valley, we have an issue where Mexican cartels are setting up illegal marijuana operations. And they're bringing in the labor workforce from these migrants, but they're doing indenture servants. So a lot of, like, the migrants, like Mexican, Central America is that they were crossing illegally, also undetected, these are technically what would be called Godaway. He says they're putting him in debt. Like these guys can't pay the smuggling fee of like $6,000 or whatever they want to charge him.

He's like, so they have to work on these illegal marijuana operations to pay that debt off. And when he said that, I'm like, this is BS. Like I don't believe it. So the congressman is like, there's actually, hoary, like next month, there's two town halls. One was in Act in California and the other one was in Lancaster. He's like, you should go to these town halls and just let me know what you think. So I said, okay. So I called my boss says, hey, can I go to these?

town halls in Cali yeah no problem so I go to the town halls and I'm like there's no way this is happening like on American soil like the way that he says it is so I go to one in Lancaster jaw hits the floor there was like over 200 farmers these are American farmers in the United States and they were all their stories were similar hey I'm I'm living in the middle of nowhere and acting I love my life I got my horses farmers and then all of a sudden these past few months we're seeing armed Mexican males patrolling the deserts they're now buying property and they're setting up marijuana fields and they're operating like without impunity. And the thing is in those deserts in Southern California, if you call local law enforcement,

it's going to take them like minimum two hours to get to you, minimum. So it's really like a land with no laws out there. And they were all like, hey, like first they kind of were out there and like we're not messing with Americans. You know, they were like setting up their weed farms. But obviously like if you're American out there, like you get curious. So a lot of folks are to hiking the other area. Some folks started to take a pitch like, what's happening in our neighborhood? And that's where things got violent. So the homicide rate in the desert went up. They started to shoot at Americans. Marijuana needs water. So a lot of these Mexican nationals, these cartel guys were tapping into Americans' water systems and then legally draining their water and then bringing

that water back. We interviewed one of the farm, like an American farmer that, like he said, he woke up in the middle of the night and found like these Honduran teenagers stealing his water. And that led him to a marijuana field that was controlled by Mexican. nationals. But when I went to these town halls, like I couldn't believe the stories. Like, it was crazy stuff like water stealing shootings, homicides, and these cartel guys would actively threat Americans that go up to the face and be like, leave or whatever. Some of them have already been shot at. They already knew someone who was killed. And I just couldn't believe it. And they were basically you had all these farmers complaining to LA County Sheriff to do something.

And these migrants are the ones that are basically forced to just live there, live on site, probably in horrible conditions. Horrible. So then I go to the second one in acting. And the one in acting, so many people went to it. They could have fit everyone in the town hall meeting. And then all the stories were the same. And I'm like, there's no way this is operating on American soil.

So then that's when I was at the daily call. I called my boss and said, if you guys allow me, I would like to do an investigative documentary. I could break this whole thing. And then I looked at local news coverage. And it was like very basic. It would be like a local reporter. And they'd be like in a helicopter flying over these.

marijuana fields and they're like, oh, look, it's an illegal marijuana operation. So for us, we're like, we're going to take it to the next level. So we went out there, we started interviewing a bunch of residents and just started collecting all the stories. We interviewed one family where one of their neighbors was killed, like shot in the head, in his red truck, and they left the body out there. The cartel members took pictures of it and basically went around that neighborhood and was like, if you keep patrol in our fields, this is, this is the result that's going to happen to you.

So we started documenting those stories. We then, my buddy Eric out of San Diego came to Palm Dane, like was living with me because we hired him as a drone guy. So what we did is instead of going up in a helicopter in the middle of the day and then we ran these operations at night is we would go up to, these are armed cartel grows in the middle of the desert. I'm talking about like long gun guys, face covered. And the migrants who are forced there are living in like the worst dash houses up to 100 degrees, like no air conditioning, probably no food. and we started flying drones on their operations and then collecting data. We were the first journalist to actually collect

legit info on how these operations operate. So we started tracking the water trucks and how the water trucks will go in the middle of the night, steal a bunch of water from farmers, bring them back to the grow. And so we started documenting it. And I told my buddy, I'm like, hey, I think we should go out there at night

because one of the residents was like, hey, if you come out here at night, because there's nothing out here. He's like, these weed farms glow. He's like, all the lighting. He's like, you guys should come out there. in the middle of the night. So it would be like 11 p.m.

I get him a little Honda Civic. And me and my guy and also my producer, Saganaghani, who worked on documentary, we would go out there, fly him in the middle of the night and just started collecting all this data and great footage of like guys walking around long arms, weed, the water tapping,

all this stuff. The amount of generators they've used in those deserts. That's a huge red flag. And the one that always surprised me was, we were on the county line of L.A. County and San Bernardino County. So for my Cali folks, you guys know, desert desert area we ran into an illegal marijuana operation out there the residents were also great

in this document like they like told us where to go so we ran into an illegal legal legal weed operation that was at least like eight acres big and they were running over 300 greenhouses this is illegally operated and it was massive and then i kind of make a joke to my buddy i was like and i said this when i went to promote the documentary i said the marijuana of operation was so sophisticated and large in the middle of the desert, you would have thought Jeff Bezos and Amazon, we're running it. And the thing is, so we were out there, same thing. We're running the drone and doing our, our, our collecting of the data for this documentary. And we fly the drone back and I'm driving on this dirt road because we're in the middle of nowhere.

Like there's no law enforcement. We're like out in the deserts in the boonies. And we're leaving. And then we look straight ahead and my buddy goes. And because from afar, according to him, it looked like some type of airplane or helicopter. So my buddy goes like, hey man, that little helicopter is flying extremely low. low and I looked him like, huh? And I look back, I'm like, oh no.

He's like, the drone came from the marijuana operation. So the Mexican guy sent a drone and then collected my license plate number, then follow my car out. Wow. And then they have counter surveillance. They have their own drugs. So then they documented that we were there. And we went to another marijuana farm immediately after.

And they kind of, you know, we're out there collecting footage. One of the armed Mexican guys sees us, jumps, in his pickup and chases in the desert. So I'm in this Honda Civic with like my producer who was like a little Indian guy and my drone guy. And we were basically getting chased by this armed cartel grower in the middle of the deserts in L.A. County.

And the only thing I saved it is that as soon as I hit the highway, a lot of commercials actually film out in the deserts because they can have all that space to do crazy stuff. So there was a commercial being filmed. And anytime there's a commercial being filmed, they have cops blocking off the road. So we like immediately beelined it to the cop like did a crazy U-turn and then like, hey, we're sorry. We're getting chased by like a armed girl.

So the cop was like, just stay right here. We could use some cops over here, bro. Wow. So he was like stay here in, you know, kind of long story short is that marijuana operation that the Mexican cartels are running in the deserts were directly also connected to the issue of the border because their labor force was coming from there. Now, we're really quick, John here because I don't want to interrupt, but just want to hit this part. Up to that point, we were only seeing Mexicans, nationals.

And then we did a ride along with San Bernardino County because they started doing raids on these girls. Every raid that we hit with San Bernardino County, all Chinese national controlled. So according to San Bernardino, they're like, hey, L.A. County is going to be 90% Mexican cartel and San Bernardino is now being run by Chinese organized crime. And so the Chinese same thing They saw what the Mexicans were doing And said wait a minute We could bring our own Because when we were at the Chinese national girls

They weren't bringing in like Salvadorians Right They were bringing Chinese nationals So the same thing Chinese nationals were bringing brought in Undocumented forced to work on these girls To pay off their smuggling debt And they were all in the deserts of Southern California

As well rivaling the Mexican cartels Then I started working with John Norris Who was the former He used to work at Cal Fishing Game in Norris Northern Cal, he started busing marijuana gross. We bring in John Norris, and according to like his investigative stuff, he said, hey, there's some agreements where the Mexicans are not going to let the Chinese operate in the marijuana black market industry.

And in exchange, the Mexicans are to get the chemical precursors needed to make fentanyl. And that led us, I know I'm rambling, but there's a lot of connection that I want to hit. Great. Is, and then so we were absolutely shocked. So we dropped the documentary. And I get a call like two months later from a. former law enforcement guy in Northern Cal. So he goes, hey Jorge, saw your doc.

Great job. Yada yada. He said, hey, man, I saw your documentary. You said that, like, L.A. County, San Bernardina, between the two counties, there's 1,400 illegal ops being run by Mexicans and Chinese. He says, I'm in Siscu County. There's 5,000 of them. I'm like, what? He's like, we're having a huge issue with mungs, moving in from Minnesota,

and it wrapped in the same thing. So we go up to another California. And there we didn't see Mexicans. It was mungs and Chinese that were operating the girls. So it kind of correlated with John Norris. told us about this agreement. Same thing. We did another investigative document and put it out. Great. One of the residents that we interviewed in the SoCal deserts, because the thing is what folks don't understand is the violence gets so bad that these folks obviously are pushed out of their

neighborhood. The other scheme is that the Mexican nationals or cartels go up to these Americans and say, hey, you know how things are going. You're, you know, you don't like how this is looking. You know, Sally B and then moved. John Smith moved. Your house right now in the market's worth 150. We'll give you 250 cash now, leave by the first, because they wanted that house. too. So a lot of these Americans were leaving. And then one of the Americans that we interviewed in a documentary was forced to leave and move to Tennessee. So then that resident calls me, goes, Jorge, you're not going to believe it. I'm like, what's up? We're on the way to move to Tennessee, but we stopped in Oklahoma in a small motel. And the guy who owns the motel is a former sheriff.

So the former sheriff's like, hey, what brings you out to Oklahoma? And they like, oh, this issue of cartels and marijuana and SoCal, you're like, well, you know that that issue is here, but strictly with Chinese and they're like, what? So then we went to Oklahoma and did another investigation. Same thing. Chinese nationals moved now to Oklahoma. We didn't see any Mexican girls in our time there. Same thing. Illegal marijuana grows. Some of them were legal and they were getting them through lawyers on fraudulent and stuff. But they were all operating. Same thing. Smuggling Chinese nationals. One of them got really violent and it made the national news where the one of the Chinese workers felt like that he was due money and wasn't paid and he committed a quadruple homicide. He ended

of being arrested in like Florida. So it just kind of exposes interconnection of marijuana, black market, the border. So a lot of these Chinese being smuggled across the southern border, it's a very plausible that they're going to work at these illegal marijuana grows. New Mexico now has an issue. So if one of your viewers

Googles it, New Mexico has an issue with the Chinese illegal grows. Same thing. Smuggled through the border. Illegal gathering water illegally. And then it all leads to violence, either on Americans or to each other. And there's just kind of weird. There's this weird kind of game between

Mexicans and Chinese, how the Mexicans have allowed like this issue of black market marijuana has always been an issue in California but then exploded. And the Mexicans, I mean, from my reporting, I mean, from being there, obviously I don't know this for a fact, but it just seems like they're allowing

the Chinese to like have open game at this black market that the Mexicans dominated for years. Something deeper behind it. Yeah, so Mexicans are getting, they're getting something, so they're getting a chemical precursors. And so it was, it just was fascinating to watch this whole thing around because up to that point, all of my reporting on this has just been strictly on the border. And then now I got to see it for the first time these criminal operations, how they operate now here in the U.S. And a lot of these illegal girls are not just connected marijuana. It's fentanyl trafficking and stuff too. But the marijuana stuff was shocking because you just need a big labor force that was getting moved in. And the water theft is a big issue. Like folks in California know, like we are on a water. There's no water. There's no water. Just to see how I just to see how it just. ruined communities and like innocent

that breaks your heart, innocent American farmers getting their livelihoods destroyed by these guys. So insane just to watch all this kind of unravel. In on Americans, like I said, all this started with a conversation with a congressman that I thought that he was lying or like just exaggerating and Mike Garcia was right on it.

So huge credit to him. We would have never done these documentaries. It's hard not to respect these cartels just a little bit. Because they're just, they're relentless. They have a can-do attitude. And they're got balls like nobody else.

And the cash flow is insane. Right. Right. So, but now today, just in a month and a half, we're in a different era. 90% of crossings or illegal crossings have been, have stopped. The question is, what does that do? Dope's still got to move. Merchandise still has to get moved.

And migrants still got to get across, right? Like, that's the economy. So what, how is this going to affect? How is this crackdown? Can it be sustained, first of all? Like, how long can you stay in this like state of war? I think that's the bigger question now, right? Is can these be sustained?

The thing that I've learned by, and I'm pretty sure you've probably seen it to John being in Mexico is cartels and smothers are always going to doubt to every situation. Always, always, always. So whether Trump is in or not, they're always going to find a fine away. So right now, this is, I can show you this either now, I can show you after the show you after the show. But so in San Diego particularly, I was just there. So illegal crossings are down. You're seeing like, oh, no movement.

In this resident cause, he was like, Jorge, these guys adapted already. I'm like, what do you mean? And his name is Corey Gutero out in like that Jukuma Hot Springs compo area. He goes, I set up a game camera by my home and arms smothers are now moving in migrants in a new open gap away from the Marines. because for folks who don't know, as soon as Trump came in, he's like, deploy the military and stuff. So San Diego saw like 500 Marines. So like when the White House posts clips, it looks sexy, right?

You got Marines building out razor wire. They're building out barriers. They're flying like Osprey helicopters. Right. I think ad posted a video too. Like they're flying by like Tijuana border. Yeah. It looks like, oh, man, they got this thing shut down.

It's over. Eden, this resident who lives out in compost about like 60 miles out of San Diego, has a couple of game cameras set up by his home. And what the smothers are doing now is instead of smuggling them right there where the Marines are, they're now moving them way in the outskirts about like an hour and a half, two hours out. And there's still like the thing is it's going to be impossible to cover the full southern border wall. It's just not feasible. You can't line up soldiers on 3,500 miles of southern border.

Texas is trying to do it. It's impossible. And so now in his game camera, this like resident is capturing every day. These smothers move in these groups of migrants. And these folks are coming in undetected. and it's unsure if they're even being counted as Godoward. So I'm already seeing them adapt. So while how are they, they're just walking them across, running them across, putting them in cars and driving fast across the line.

Like how are they actually getting moved across the line? So what they'll do is, and they'll with vehicles, obviously, they'll travel way out there. But then they're literally just like, it sounds super simple, but it is like they're just walking them up because there's there's open. It's no, there's no border wall. And so they're literally just like coming in and in the photos. you can see like an arm guy kind of guiding the groups in. And it's just been happening every single day. So the resident, what he did is like, I went to go and interviewed him.

And then we checked out that spot. And he's like, Jorge, the game cameras are hooked up on an app called like spy point. He's like, I'll let you sign into it. So he lets me sign into it. And like up to this, even this morning, man, I'm getting like constant alerts of like spy point, spy point. So he's are, the, the smell's already adapting. They're always going to find a new gap. We're just not like those crossings, you won't see him in the numbers.

So I think that's where and I did it. And I did a reporting on it where I was kind of critical. I said, look, the Trump administration and now is deploying hundreds, if not like, there's certainly now thousands of troops. You have Marines, Osprey helicopters, and this is still going on. Like these guys are still flying away despite the military presence and all that. I'm like, I'm like, I don't know. Like, I get it.

Like for camera, it looks sexy to be by a synesthesia port of entry and you're sending up razor wire. But that area is already heavily guarded. And so the residence complaining was like, dude, we have 500 Marines. You can't place a couple on this hot. spot in at least a turk um so we're already seeing them adapt now it's going to be a long game right can the trump administration hold up doesn't have their resources to um we're already seeing some struggles when it comes to the ice arrest where like they're running out of beds like some of them already getting released back into the public if you remember like the first week or two they were

like publishing the ice arrest now like they're not even publishing the arrest anymore so it seems like there's some struggle to sustain this operation which i thought that would be update us with that, yeah, are they, they said at the beginning of the ice rays that was just people with criminal records, um, has that moved on to like, uh, you know, employers, right? Because the big thing, the big thing that Trump campaigned on was like, hey, it's actually corporations and companies that are knowingly hiring illegal migrants to work. And yeah, no shit, because they can't find anybody else to work. Like that's, there's all, there's bigger questions around migration, but have they been raiding just criminals and deporting them or are they actually deporting people working for

you know big slaughterhouses and big you know industrial plants and places where where migrants get work this is going to make because I just talked to some recent deportees so I kind of explain so what's going on so I spoke with a few ice sources on this what they said to me is it said Jorge with the if we target just high profile criminals you know like that's what they kind of campaigned on he says we'll never hit the ice numbers that Trump wants. So now ISIS is basically pressured when they do these operations. They're calling them targeted enforcement. We'll target like, for instance, like in Colorado, they'll target like the TDA turn that out of all guys. He's like, but because of the pressure from the administration, we're now

doing what they call collateral arrest. So if they go into somewhere, they might be looking for like this high profile train internet Iowa guy. But like if there's like a Venezuelan mom there who's undocumented, they're now going to arrest her too. So now it's following under collateral to reach those numbers. I just was in Mexico. and I went to one of the first new shelters under President Scheinbaum there where they're sending Mexican deportees. So we were just outside of it. Then we ran into two guys.

And they both had similar stories. They were both working. One was in Bakersfield and one was in Salinas, kind of in the fields. They weren't arrested at the fields, but when they got home, ICE came and arrested both of them. Both of them claimed, and I don't know this for sure, but they both said they didn't have any criminal record, but that they were taken in, he didn't instantly. So they were deported to the Tijuana, and then now they arrived in Mexico, and now they're under the Mexico Embraces U program.

So now, like, they're getting money from the Mexican government. They'll be then transported to their hometown. But it was interesting because that these guys are not high profile guys. They're not gang members. They're not trained that Iowa guys, not Mexican mafia guys, regular farm workers. But they fell under that collateral arrest now. So we are seeing folks who are just undocumented. Maybe they're going through legal proceedings.

Now they're also getting arrested too because ICE now has that pressure of like, we have to reach these we gotta get the numbers these numbers that are like almost gonna be impossible to well but i think that's most people right like probably eight out of 10 migrants coming across are not part of trend or iowa they're not exactly they don't have criminal records they're just committing a crime because they're coming through illegally so how is ice i wonder how they're identifying where to raid like are they just looking at like as you say big you know farms in california that are obviously known to employ illegal migrants i wonder how like they're picking their spots to try to raid.

So it seems like right now they're going for those areas that like obviously have high illegal immigration. This is what I, we're still speaking with sources. It seems like a lot of them, because many of these gang members did enter the U.S. Also there was a system, this we could talk about it too,

is a lot of them did enter legally through the CBP1 app. So the Biden administration at least just CBP1, just really quick for the viewers who don't know is basically it's an application that allowed migrants to have an asylum appointment, but it was really just for them to go to a port of entry and they'll be interleagly then paroled. So what it looks like is that ICE is using that application and using all that data

and tracking a lot of these Venezuelans and other gang members and then hitting those cities and then at the same time they're doing collateral arrest. So we just saw like Aurora got hit pretty bad, Denver. But the thing is the other issue that they're running into is like a lot of those folks in FBI, DA and ICE are leaking that information to reporters. So now like for instance, like ICE did this whole thing. We're like, we're hitting Aurora and we have over a hundred train that our gang members targeted. Then they hit Aurora.

And then like in the whole day, they only arrested one gang member because, because their operation got leaked. There's going to be an operation in like L.A. at the end of this month. The only reason we know is because it got leaked to the L.A. times. And, and I mean, I'm assuming that like the people who are gang members are probably going to get out of the city by then. So gang members watch the news and say, and they see the leaks and then they bounce. Yeah. So I know there's a lot. That's a big issue.

Like there's a lot of leaks. So a lot of these operations are like falling heavily short on their goals. How are, well, but it seems like what you're, so what you arrest 100 people. Eight million, 10 million maybe came in. Like what is, it's not, it's a drop in the bucket, you know, like. That's what, I mean, personally, like everyone has their own viewpoints. But, but I kept telling folks who like I work in the news with and so because people always want to ask my opinion as a reporter. And I just say, look, to be honest, it seems like, obviously for a campaign slogan, it sounds great.

mass deportation operation, especially because the American public opinion has shifted now, where that's acceptable. But it's like, it's almost going to be impossible. You can't deport $8 million, the amount of money and resources, but it's just not feasible. And then for, I mean, you could, I thought that they were really going to target the high profile criminals and then work the way down, but they're already in the mode where like, we're not making enough arrest on criminals. We have to do collateral arrest.

So there are already running to, like, a big issue. and I just spoke with a Mexican source in Tijuana yesterday. And he's like, hey, like, the Mexican government thought that they were going to be like completely overwhelmed with deportees in their shelters. Like, they're fine. Like, they're not. Really?

Yeah, he's like, he's like, we're getting the same amount near or right there with Biden. We're like, we're getting like 100 to 200 Mexican nationals every day. That's like, that's kind of the same under Biden. That thing has like changed that. So it's a resource and manpower. Quarres hasn't even been overwhelmed their shelters either. I mean, they have just not seen him. So I just think it's going to be extremely difficult.

Sounds great as a campaign. slogan. Same as 2016 when it's like build the wall. Like that slogan's great. I try to tell, I try to tell these excitable motherfuckers that just love a populace strong man. That's what Trump is. Populists come to power when things get really bad in a country and they pick easy things to blame like migrants, like drugs, like cartels. When the biggest issue, the biggest issue is the Fed and, you know, the corporate bailouts of 2008 and the fact. that nobody can afford houses and the the lobbyists in Washington. I'm from that 2008 family, bro.

I saw my dad lose his house. Oh, yeah. Trying to tell these stupid motherfuckers. It sounds great, bro. It sounds great as a camper. Even build the wall, bro. Build the wall sounds great.

And then it never materialized. Isn't the wall there already? I did a podcast next to a big ass wall. You know what I mean? It was huge. The wall was there. And then Luis Chaparro, who we did the interview with, this was in Juarez. He was like, oh, yeah, there goes a cut in the fence right there.

They just walk through. So look, you obviously need to have deterrence. You need to have people there. If you had an open border, which in certain ways, the Biden administration was a semi-open border, right? If it was completely open, everybody would come. Everybody from around the world would come from these places that had just been ruined by like, you know, a lot of it has to do with America. And America's foreign policies over decades, right?

But it's tough, right? Because with drugs, you could just be like, well, what's the solution to the war on drugs? You can't stop drugs. We'll just make drugs legal and put all the resources into stopping people from doing fentanyl, right? That's how you kill the cartels is you just kill off their demand. But how do you do that with migrants? How do you do that in an economy that they add like a trillion dollars, a year to the GDP.

And we already have a fucking ass GDP. Like we have way more debt. We spend more than we bring in by like a lot. So if you didn't have any migrants, you'd have a trillion dollars less that you're bringing in to already fucked up economy. So I don't know, man. I don't know.

It's going to be interesting. Now what's happened to the price. Prices have gone up for smuggling, I assume. Yes. What do you hear about that? So according to like the migrants that we spoke with, like before it was like not crazy expensive, maybe like two grand to cross.

That has, every nationality is also different. So some of them have jumped to like four or six, some are to 10 and 12. A lot of the folks, like in Middle East and Asia were paying like around that 15 grand price point. Venezuelans kind of around four to six. But the thing is for cartels,

it's it was amazing because like for them they're looking at it. It's like we have this product that never runs out, that the demand is high. Yeah. that serves as a distraction tool. So for them, it was like a win-win on almost every aspect. This has been the best four years of lives. They were loving by.

And now we're going to, you know, we're still doing some reporting on this, so we'll have to wait. But it does seem like now the smelling prices are going to jump because there's still thousands of migrants in Mexico who were like, we were on the way. Yeah. Some will return home. Some will like settle in Mexico. But the majority is not going to be satisfied with that.

And they're going to be desperate. So we're already seeing a little bit of it where the desperation is going to lead them to turn to smallers. And instead of now entering with the whole like, okay, I'm on American soil, going to Border Patrol, is now those guys are going to be like, no, no, no, we want to be completely undetected. So the price is going to go up because then there has to be a coordination on the American side of like, does a van pick you up? Right. How do we get past like a checkpoint? Where before it was, let me just touch American soil.

Right. And I'm satisfied with that. And it's a lot more dangerous too. Yeah, and I just met a Hardurian woman in South Carolina who entered that way where she used a criminal smuggler. Same thing. Came in undetected, had a vehicle pick her up, and then she got to South Carolina. And the only reason I make contact with her is because I and a state trooper were on the ground in December when she sent her daughter by herself with a criminal smuggler. So we were on the ground and then we get an alert of like, hey, there's a four-year-old girl all by herself.

And we're like, wait, what? And this was also an ego pass. So we go, and then there's a little girl all by our self. Basically what happened is a smother's what they do with the kids is they'll bring them over. And as soon as the smother reaches American soil, he doesn't even care. He'll literally place the child there. Doesn't care if that child's ever found. They could die of starvation.

Obviously, all the elements could be hot, cold. They don't care. As long as that child's American soil, they're like, our job is done. And if it gets to the parent, that's going to be on them now. So there's many times where Border Patrol doesn't find these kids. But then there's instances where obviously they do. So this time there was a Texas state trooper, finds a four-year-old girl.

We get the alert, so we get down there. And the little girl is like shivering. And then she has, all she has is a note. And the note says Mama Patty and a phone number. So I get the note, you know, obviously take a picture. And I'm like, hmm, this is interesting. Like this little girl was said by a smother by herself. And then I just Googled the area code.

The area code had South Carolina. And I'm like, this is interesting. So I called a number. And the mom answers instantly. And I was like, hey, I'm a reporter for News Nation here on the border. I'm like, you do know your daughter is in, we're just found in Maverick County, Texas by herself? And she was bawling. And what she explained to me was that she put her daughter, who's four years old, in the hands of criminal smothers from Honduras all through Mexico, and they had to switch hands.

And according to her, the smothers in Mexico were actually calling her every day and giving her updates. And like, they would let her face time her daughter. and according to her, like they were moving different stash houses. And one of the stash houses, she said that she spoke to her daughter. And then after that, the smother didn't answer the phone for more than a week. So it basically went dark. Yeah. And then according to, she, she said that, like, she basically thought that the cartel there just kidnapped her daughter.

It wasn't until I gave her a call to be like, we literally found your daughter here. So that was kind of insane to see. And then she sent me the photos from some of their FaceTimes. And what I can see in the photos is that she's clearly in a stash house, but what was more like eerie was that there was other kids in the stash house. So that whatever smuggling group that was moving in was moving in other children. And then one of the children looked like they were under a year, like 10 months old baby. And that was that was really, really eerie. And the mom was like he stopped answering.

He's like, I basically thought the cartel basically just kept my daughter for for my crossing. There's been there was accusations of like sex trafficking. Did you see any of that or like trafficking of children for, you know, the illegal, obviously illegal black market, you know, sex trade in America? Did you, have you heard about any of that? The cartels being involved in any of that? So from what we got on the ground, this is, it could be connected to cartels. What we saw is that these criminal smothers were moving in kids at a high rate. So the first time this got on my radar was back in 2020.

in an area called Roma, Texas, and people could look at my reporting on this time. So we got an alert that there was criminal smugglers. I believe the other side is like Manuel Al-Alan or something. Super dangerous hot zone. I'm talking about like you could hear gun fights every day. I was just there like a month ago where they shot at Border Patrol. We were in front in Texas,

and they shot at Border Patrol, and then Border Patrol had to fire back. It was kind of a crazy, crazy scene. But in Roma, Texas, what we found, is that there was criminal smugglers moving in kids in the middle of the night on those on these wraps so we we hit the ground there and it's exactly what was explained what we saw play out so in we have all this video footage too is um they would basically bring in these kids in the middle of the night through rafts uh to reach american soil and those these kids didn't have any parents and what i

noticed in this particular smuggling route that i didn't see yet and others is that um the kids all had colored wristbands and some of them were were different color. So when I spoke with like a law enforcement source on this, he says, oh, that's how the cartel could tell, like, who owes them, which debt and like how much to collect. And he's in, basically, like, the wristband is like their gateway to be crossed in the middle of the Rio Grande. So we started running into these children. A lot of them were coming in from, like, Central America. Literally, they don't know what's going on. They're like super young. And they all had those color wristbands. And at that time, the government, the U.S. government was already

losing track of one of every three unaccompanied minor who enters the US. So what I mean by that is when an unaccompanied minor comes into the United States, the government has to basically do a whole thing of like who's their sponsor in the US, they have to do background checks and that whole ordeal. Under the Biden administration, uh, they suspended with the DNA testing. So like an adult, let's say like Johnny, you walk in across the legal and you had like a little girl with you. You're supposed to DNA test you to see if you're the father that was suspended under the Biden administration. don't know why. I don't know the reason, but it was. So then Border Patrol lost that tool. The other thing is so many kids, unincolving minors were reaching American soil that when it came to

the background info, human health and services, that department was completely overwhelmed. So they couldn't actually run proper background checks. So when it came, so when they released the child to the sponsor, when they do the follow-up call, they couldn't reach them anymore. So at that time, it was already one out of three unencumptomy children who were getting lost in the system. in the United States. And I remember I was speaking to two brothers and a sister. And they were like 10, eight and like the youngest one was like five. And as I'm interviewing them, it like hit me right through them.

I'm like, they don't even know that like one of them is going to get lost in the system here, whether it's sex trafficking or labor trafficking. From what I saw was more common for these kids to get lost in labor trafficking. So some of these companies started hiring them in like in their factories. And actually like big credit to New York Times. They did a great investigation piece where like they found a lot of these kids working in like lay factories. Doritos, you know, young in these factors and they were completely off the books.

Like I said, they were... Are you talking like teenagers or younger than that? Teenagers and younger. That would be labor trafficking and basically working in these companies. So like a New York Times reporter went to these factors and like waited for these children outside and like got everything on on record. How could Doritos think they could get away with that? That's what I don't understand.

Like these are major companies. So that was like started to unravel. And like this area of Roma was particularly interesting because. of the control that the narco coyotes had there where they were literally like in the middle of the night, moving kids in. And it was shocking because Border Patrol under Biden, there really wasn't any enforcement.

So it was a crazy scene because on the Mexican side, you're seeing this raft come, literally kids on this raft, color wristbands, smothers coming up and then drop off these kids. And basically Border Patrol, all they could really do is like wait there with a flashlight and allow them to reach American soil

and they would just run that playbook. And so a lot of these kids, like I said, get released. You can't do up any follow-up calls. I was in Yuma, Arizona, and I started to see this trend with children is that the children that would get either dropped off and smuggled, they would at least try to have the contact of the sponsor on them. So I remember when I was in Yuma where we ran into a pregnant woman who found a 10-year-old. According to her, the 10-year-old was on the border, completely knocked out. it's also common for these smothers to give the children like sleeping sedatives

so then when they reach American soil they can't make they can't make contact with law enforcement so like border patrols like hey are you okay have you been abused the kids like literally do like almost dead like so they completely knock them out with like those type of sleeping drugs really really common

and a lot of these as a fortune to say but a lot of the women or the female children younger girls would be sexually assaulted and raped on the border and that was that's when that term rape trees started to come out where like they literally hang up the draws on the trees and then they like abandoned the children. And they're like I said, given sleeping sedatives

so they couldn't make contact. And my first encounter with a child with sleep insidatives was in Yuma, Arizona, her run into this migrant woman who was like carrying this little boy who was like seven years old. According to her, the little boy was completely naked when she found them. Couldn't find an adult like near him. So obviously she panicked and like was like, well, I'm going to just cross him with me and have U.S. law enforcement help me. So she picked them up. She had like a couple clothes on with her. So like she put on like some of the female clothes she had on him.

So when we encountered the little boy, he could not make any contact. When I wake up, and then on his left arm was a sharpie and had a phone number and a name. And then we contacted Border Patrol. Border Patrol came. It then helped out the child. But at the end of day, like what's sad is like we don't know his end story. My most recent like I was telling you was like the four-year-old girl that we found in Maverick County. that one was one of the few times where I made contact with the sponsor

and then I actually traveled to South Carolina and then met the mom. That's like one of the few instances where like she was really the parent, but it's super common for these kids to get released to sponsors who have not been properly vetted. There's been already investigative reports where like some of these sponsors accepted multiple unaccompanied children. So you could only imagine what's going on there. From our marijuana reporting, we found that some of the like teenage girls were then smuggled to these marijuana. of farms, particularly by the Chinese.

We didn't see this too many with the Mexicans, particularly with the Chinese, and then these girls were used, basically held captive and then forced to have sex with the workers there. That was also uncovered with Oklahoma law enforcement. So it's really sad to say, man, but there's like thousands, if not hundreds of these thousands of children

who are literally lost into the system. The U.S. government can't do a follow-up calls. Majority of these kids don't make it to their court cases, so we don't know what their backstory and where they are here in the U.S. It's a complete disaster. It's horrible, man. It's a complete disaster. It's heartbreaking when you see it in person because it hits you at a different tone.

And then you really realize like this is truly a humanitarian crisis. The sad ones are when the smothers and make the kids go through the real grotto by themselves. So you have like a little kid traveling through the currents. It's it's a complete. There's really another word to say disaster. One of the moments that always kind of sticks out to me was I went to the local cemetery in Eagle Pass with the sheriff there. and we were talking about the drownings of the migrants. And so we look at the crosses and they were getting so many drownings.

They couldn't afford crosses. They actually had to put them in PVC pipes as kind of the crosses, like makeshift crosses. And then so they'll have like the rows and you're reading like John Doe, Jane Doe, John Doe, Jane Doe. And the sheriff walks me to the other side. He's like, let me show you something. And they had a whole section for the children. And then there it was sad. And I'm reading like Baby John Doe, baby, you know, Jane Doe.

and then he was like, I can't even identify these children, man. He's like, we don't have their resources. And like I said, they had to call the state of Texas to bring a freezer trailer to store the bodies. It's like mass graves almost. Masked graves. This reminds me of like the Wild West when people would take wagon trains to try to make it to Oregon in California. Just people dying constantly just on the side of the trail. You know what I mean?

I've interviewed migrant women, man. They're like, like while they were held in stash houses and held captive, they had to like come. sit there and watch like their teenage daughter or sometimes younger, like be sexually abused by these guys, by these smugglers. The rape tree situation, many of these women, like when they're traveling,

have to, like, they literally have, like, condoms on them because they could literally be sexually assaulted or raped, like at almost any second in Mexico. That, a lot of of these migrants,

like the most dangerous part is Mexico because you're dealing with two different factions where you have the smuggler cartel angle. Yeah. Then you have the corrupt law enforcement that also extorts some of these migrants and they also abuse these migrants as well. Right.

So it sounds like the scariest place, the worst place to be is a migrant in Mexico that isn't paying top dollar. Because the cartels are not going to let you abuse their Chinese migrants. No. Right? You'll get killed. It doesn't matter if you're a cop. You're a fed. You're going to get whacked if you fuck with them.

But it's really the chaos of the low, the poorest migrants where there's the least control by the cartels on the East Coast. where anything can happen. What about the, what is Mexico doing now as of like right now? You know, they're making a big show of like sending their military to the border. Do you have any updates on that? Like,

is that doing anything? Is that having any effect or is that all bullshit? So basically in the start of last year, December, 2003 was a game changer because that broke the record on the most illegal crossings. I believe it hit around 260,000. We were in,

just in the month of December. Just in the month of December. Then we were in Eagle Pass. which was, I believe, Eagle Pass, forget the exact number, but they had like over like maybe $15,000 there. And there was one day where we saw $5,000 personally on the ground. The following month, so it's January 2024, Biden is under extreme pressure now from his own party to crack down.

So then Biden introduced his executive orders. So now, like, if you illegally cross, it's like they're not going to do the catch and release. There was a secret meeting between Biden officials that went to Mexico and then spoke with, at that time, it was Obador's officials. And they basically agree, like, he's like, hey, man, you need to, like, basically get a crackdown on here for me because it's really looking bad. And I think probably the Democrats are probably getting an internal polling.

Like, hey, we are losing this immigration story so big. It could possibly swing the election to Trump. So then Mexico, what they did is they launched what they called Operation Carousel. So under Operation Carousel, they stopped allowing migrants. Like, if you notice, like, from there, like when caravans took off from Tapachula, They would instantly break them up into smaller groups. Now, those groups were still make it to the U.S. border. But the visual of like thousands marching, like Mexico got a crackdown on that and started

being stronger on enforcement. So they started running those operations. And it started to like, we actually did interview migrants or like, hey, like we were caught by Mexicans and like we were sent back to Tapachula. Somewhere like we're not even going to try again. Like they really cracked. Like they got really serious. Now that kind of led into obviously.

So now you have Trump. And now you have the American side. were like their executive orders come in. Then Trump does the thing where he's now pressuring President Scheinbaum to deploy the troops or they were going to do the terror. So then Shinebaum now is under pressure to

where she has now 10,000 troops on the border. You know, it's still too early to tell like the exact impact that they're having. But I would say like you could definitely feel that Mexico is filling that that heat of like we at least have to show that we're doing something. So by the numbers like right now things are down. I still think we're in the wait and see process of it

because we have to see if it could be sustained if cartels how they're going to adapt and then also like the messaging with migrants like, hey, we're getting so desperate we're just going to move it anyway. Like we have to see, but it's clear that Mexico fills the heat, Operation Carousel launch, they got the 10,000 troops.

They opened up a bunch of shelters on the border so they have that Mexico embraces you program. So we'll see how Mexico's, you know, how serious they are these kind of next ones going forward. That would give us a better picture in the story. Ed sent me a video of Mexican Marines or Guadilla Nacional. They were looking for tunnels with like pickaxes in the middle of the fucking, in the middle of the desert.

You're like, this is like theater. So, you know. I mean, when we, when we saw under Biden, too,

is like when there would be those moments where Mexico felt the pressure. Like, they would just deploy troops to make it visible. Yeah. And like they were like leaving a day or like the spot that were like, migrants were actually being smuggled. Like they wouldn't be there particularly. Um,

so that's really interesting. It seems like those. the strategy has to be, unfortunately, make it as difficult as possible for somebody from Venezuela, from Cuba, wherever, to come up because, you know, what else are you supposed to do? Like, you can't, you can never stop immigration fully,

just like drugs. So I think the administration man is like hammering down on the messaging part. Right. Like, I think it was like two days ago, DHA secretary, Christian Nome just released like the video of her talking where she's like, if you cross illegally, we're doing,

we're going to send you back in like, oh, and if you're already illegally, care you better return now. Now like the White House is like putting out there like, you know, when like the migrants are like boarding the military flights. They're trying to make it seem scary. Like this is what's going to happen. I think that's why they kind of added the

optics of Catanamo Bay. They have that issue too where like now they're trying to fly them to like this like military base in Cuban. Just have the optics of like there's consequences now. So messaging is part of it. But think about it reaches migrants. If they need if Doritos

Frito Lay, like a national established brands need children, like illegally trafficked children to work in their factories, that means they have nobody to work. So until AI and robots can start bagging your chips and picking your vegetables and working in your slaughterhouses, which hopefully will be soon, because you see we need it for the economy. Yeah, all they can do is messaging because everybody else

got to stay. They got to work. Most people, right? And it's interesting too, man, because all this comes down to, you know, the message and everything at a time we're like, at least that I could remember, probably the most pressure that the U.S. government has ever placed on Mexicans. It also like then crack down on cartels themselves. So you have like the cartel angle, the migrant angle. I think it was just literally this morning. I was on the way here to do the show with you. Where now it's official that like Trump designated. the Sino-Loa cartel, Halisco, train that I was like officially

now terrorist organizations. According to CNN yesterday, the CIA is now flying the those Reaper drones into Mexico collecting data. We had already a couple of spy planes going. I didn't even, I was kind of shocked by that because I didn't think U.S. government

was going to go that far. But it seems like they're really anti-in that pressure and probably like, at least that I can remember the most aggressive that they've gotten on this issue. I guess, you know, if they, ended the war in Ukraine if they withdrew a bunch of their military forces like Trump was talking about cutting the Pentagon budget and half I guess if they he can really

end most foreign wars or foreign interventions that America's part of that costs us you know trillions of dollars a year I guess he could sustain like a low level warfare on the border for a while not forever but for a while I mean we were in Afghanistan for 20 years and it was like low level combat all of the time I suppose it's, I suppose it's possible to keep like at least, at least not have the border gushing. Just have it be like a trickle of migrants, you know? The drugs, dude, you put them in a FedEx package. They'll be there the next day.

That's never going to stop. People are retarded if they think drugs are going to stop, like, at all. You know nothing about drug trafficking. And what people don't know is that like, because people always tell me like, Are they using like migrants to bring them in? I'm like, they're never going to use a migrant. Like they're so inexperienced.

The migrant is a distraction too. They're not going to be like put in a backpack and they trust a migrant from Venezuela or whatever. It's still moving in all through ports of entry with American citizens. A lot of cartels, what they do on purpose is they have their children be born in the U.S. So they can use a dual, do a nationality.

And then they've been dubbed nicknamed Narco Juniors. I'm from Palmado, California. So like literally 10 minutes from my house, El Chapo had his twin daughters born in that Palmdale Hospital. So showing you how like there's always, they're always going to want their kids to be born. It's, that's never going to stop because it's all still through the port of entry. The majority, you're always going to have obviously runners come in. But it's always going to be American citizens, dual national still bringing in the drugs. The thing that I'm going to be fascinated about, I think to watch these next six months a year is will the United States connect?

conduct another covert mission in Mexico when it comes to cartels. Because it seems like they now know when it comes on this issue, we are completely leaving the Mexican officials out of it, which almost no administration really operated like that. The El Mio story was like a movie. The fact that they like ran this complete covert mission. Also, I just, I mean, as a journalist, I appreciate how Mexican officials were honest about it

because they were like on their Monday press conference. Like, we found out about this two days later because the U.S. Embassy calls it and basically like we just ran this operation on L. Bio. Right. It's wild. Well, there's, but there's no more dominoes. There's no more kingpins. He was the last domino.

So what they speculate is that the only people left to snitch on because all these guys, what they do is they get caught, they snitch or they preemptively rat, right? They, you know, Mayo turned in choppo, chop, chop, chopto turned in Arturo Beltra and Lava back in the day. So it's all a chess match, right? So Mayo is the last piece to fall. Who's he going to tell on? the politicians, the Mexican elite, the people he's been paying off for generations. So he's making a deal right now in New York City. Did you know that? He's cooperating. So that's who he's telling on.

He's cooperating with the people that allow all of that, which is Mexico City. It's Mexico's elite that allow the drug trafficking, they allow the human smuggling, all the corruption, they allow it. So that's what they speculate is that that was the first arrest. arresting him, going after him, that was the first move to like take down some of these people in the Mexican political elite. That's, and the thing is, for me, as a journalist, I was like, you know what? I'm like, the Trump administration really wouldn't go into Mexican soil and conduct an operation. I remember I said that, like, on a podcast like about like three months ago, now my opinion has

completely changed. You think they could? Now I think. Well, there I read yesterday. They're so aggressive. I've never seen an administration this aggressive. Like, obviously, every American administration is like, we don't like cartels, but like, you know, Mexican government isn't going to like work with them.

I think really for the first time, they're like, we are going to conduct co-ver missions. Defense Secretary P.S.F. when it came to, like, bombing them, he was like, all options are on the table. He's like, I don't want to get ahead of the president. All options are on a table. I'm, I think now it is more likely that they will conduct some type of covert mission. Well, they're already training. They just came out yesterday with the article. They're already, they already sent U.S. special forces in to train Mexican special forces.

on how to take these guys down. So that, where I kind of push back because a lot of influencers took that headline and were like, U.S. forces are training them to fight cartels. I was like, that's completely normal. It's probably like 10 special berets that we got. But it's just interesting now the timing

and now this report of the CIA. The thing is when the CNN and all these Washington Post, when they started reporting on the CIA drones, the thing that comes back to me is like, that story is planted by the CIA. someone purposely leaks that to a journalist like, hey, we're running this drone operation on cartels on Mexico. Here you go, Washington Post.

Here you go, CNN. So the reporters, you know, there's a, for me, it's like, why also is the reason that CIA wants this out there? Well, why is it? What's the goal? I don't know. You know, like, that's where things are getting interesting. Yeah.

Because a lot of, like, conservatives got mad at CNN. They're like, oh, they put this out in print for our enemies. It's like that doesn't work like that with the CIA. It's like they purposely leaked that to reporters. What's the reason why they want? I don't know. Do they want Mexico's government? attention or whatever, I don't know.

But now, like I said, my opinion on the COVID mission has completely changed. I think, honest Trump administration will see some type of, I mean, I don't know how it will look. I don't know, like, I know people like to think everything is like a movie like Sicario. It's like, that's not how this is going to operate. But I think we're getting closer to some type of some type of operation because they're doing CIA drones. They already did some of these spy planes that were like off the coast of bioccur. Baja, California, then Sinaloa.

This military training is not there to fight cartels, but it's coming at, like, such an interesting moment that was approved by President Scheinbaum. And then you have the defense secretary saying, all options are on the table. Like, I think we're itching to something closer that, you know, obviously we don't know what it'll look like, but I think it's highly likely now.

I think it could have something to do with, it's got to go deeper than drugs and migrants. It has to do with the economy. I think. I think it has to do with the tariffs. I think it has to do with the fact that Mexico has so much investment from China, our competitor. They want to build like the new Panama Canal, but it's like Panama Canal times like a thousand. It's going to run through, it would run through the lower, the southern states, Chiapas and all those war zones right now. That's a good point. They're going to run like a transcontinental port highway from their.

are connecting the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. Think about that. Think about how much, how cheap, how much cheaper and faster you could move goods coming from the east. Bro, it would make Mexico like as rich as the U.S. almost. It would pour billions of dollars in the economy. So, yeah, dude, the U.S. is, this is posturing. This is my opinion.

The U.S. is weak right now, dude. It's, it's, we're stretched everywhere. We're going through a change in the, in a system. and you're going to see a lot of economic hardship in the U.S. And yeah, I think I don't believe the posturing. And I think if you actually bombed, like who you're going to bomb like thousands of fentanyl cooks in Celoa. Yeah, it's right.

And you're going to kill so many innocent people. That's where I'm at too. It's like, like we are not some like, you know, really omnipotent force that has the power to like just strike the right targets. I mean, look at the buffoonery. Look at us trying to get out of Afghanistan. I mean. Yeah.

The empire's over. So I don't know. There's no more kingpins to go after. I think it's, I think we're at the beginning of a 50 year, yeah, called 40 or 50 years of demilitarizing. No more war on drugs.

No more global hegemony. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, I mean, it's possible we could do some crazy shit like bomb them, like bomb Mexico. It'd be like bombing Canada.

Think about that. The Fentanyol coming out of Canada. Are you going to blow up? Are you going to blow up Surrey, BC, where all the Chinese live up there, you know? And it's different, too, for Americans, because it's like, it's easy, like, for the U.S. military to be like, oh, we're going to bomb Afghanistan. Because we don't know anyone from there. Right. We're not, like, they're not our neighbors.

We don't see it. Like, right now, dude, we're, you know, we're basically fighting Israel or to bomb Gaza. Right. We don't see it. Right. It's a completely different element with a neighbor like Mexico, especially when you have so many Mexican-American, I mean, we're in Texas, you know, so it's all Mexican-American. Somebody, somebody here's going to be like, wait, they blew up my cousin. So, that's going to be.

extremely interesting. I just I guess I just been shocked of just how like up front the U.S. government has been maybe. Yeah. But I think I think that's you got to come in waving a you got to bark loud. And that's going to deter at least some people, you know, like the cartels

are fucking hiding right now. The bosses are. The bosses have gone underground completely and they may never reemerge. Like you'll never see another all we heard when we were down in Kulia Khan, nobody wants to be choppel anymore. Oh wow. you get your head cut off.

So it has an effect for sure, but the demand for cheap labor in the U.S. is always going to be there. And the demand for drugs is insatiable. So until you cut that off, all you can do is like have as strong a deterrence as possible just through talking shit the way Trump does and then try to enforce it, you know?

The best you can. The best you can because it's, Yeah, unless you literally want to make hot war against your neighbor. And think about that. Cutting the border off, how much shit comes in from Mexico every day? Like literally hundreds of thousands of trucks coming every day with like legal goods. Like, how are you supposed to cut that off? We would fuck our economy up so bad.

The price of everything would like double. There's nothing we could do. Yeah. The Canadian connection too. We just did a report because we got a memo from the, the Canada Service Border Agency, where they found a new lane where they were saying that Mexican nationals were basically the cartel off the coast of Gulf of California, were then illegally poaching.

And then it's fascinating for me because I didn't know about this. So I was learning all about this. But there's this endangered species fish called Totoaba that the bladder is worth like $80,000 in the black market in Asia. I guess like for the Chinese in Asia, like they've used. that bladder for like cosmetics and medicines and and other things. And they say that they're finding an issue where chemical precursors from China are making it through the port of Vancouver and the Totoabas being smuggled with other fish that are like

legally legal fish through that port of Vancouver. And that that's one of the now heavy hit ports when it comes to those chemical precursors in this new like Totoabba fish that I guess like the Chinese have a demand for. So if one and then like I said, I was speaking to one official, he said one kilogram of this Tootawa fish, if it's worth 80 grand to the Chinese, you can only imagine the amount of precursors making it back to Mexico. And this is all through that Gulf of California. So it's just fascinating to watch all these intertwined and the deals.

Like I said, I was with John Norris and he's like, hey, man, there's like a thing with the marijuana. And on the ground, it's like Oklahoma's all Chinese dominated in New Mexico. I'm like, why are the Mexicans letting the Chinese have at this market that they dominated? And now we have like, oh, there's, I'm always fascinated by all this stuff. So there, so probably the Sina Loa cartels, it's right there on the Sina Loa border, the Gulf of California, the Sea of Cortez. So they illegally fish this rare fish out, the Tootwaba. Which is endangered species.

Yeah. And then they trade it for fentanyl or for precursors in Vancouver, Canada. Do the Port of Vancouver. Because basically the Canadian officials came out and were like, we don't have the infrastructure to stop this because he's like, a lot of this Totoaba is getting moved with like regular fish. where like salmon and stuff. It's like it's just hard for us to detect. So they're saying, according to them, like I said, they're saying so much of that chemical precursor,

some of it is staying at that port of Vancouver, like staying in Canada. He said, but the majority is making it through Mexico. Even the Chinese are getting this bladder that to them, I mean, I don't understand this stuff, but to them,

it's worth 80 grand on the, in the black market. So, this stuff with the Mexican-Chinese connection is, oh, it has been so fascinating. I was recently in Tijuana and they made like this huge, announcement like, oh, we're, we have more

flights now to China and like they're making it easier. I believe now, like, the Chinese probably don't even need to go through the whole, like, Ecuador loophole if they want to come illegally. They could probably just fly directly to Mexico. Fly to TJ or fly to Mexico City. Yeah. And then, you probably know this too, man. Zona Norton, TJ's, oh, Chinese. And I speak to the, because I'm always, I'm always interested speaking to like the sex worker girls and they're like, yeah,

they're like, they're all over the place. They're, and then, good for them. Yeah. Easier work. This is the other weird part, too. So I was speaking to one of them about, because I was fascinated about the Chinese clientele. I'm like, dude, Tijuana is basically like Beijing. And then she was like, I'm going to tell you something like one-on-one. I was like, okay.

And then she's like, a lot of the Chinese, when we take him up to the room to have, you know, obviously sex, he says for them to get turned on, they watch child porn on their phone. I said, what? And they said, it's common for Chinese men that, like, they bring a Mexican sex worker upstairs for them to kind of get going,

they look at that. And then I don't know, like I said, all, you know, the inner, the inner stories on this stuff, but like, for Mexican nationals, um,

that's alarming. That's like not normal. They operate like, like that is not a normal thing. No. Where you, you know, for these guys,

yeah, it is. So for like, a lot of girls told me about, like, they've been very spooked out. Like, for them,

that's like, she's like, it's normal for a guy that like, come into a room. He needs to watch, you know, some porn to, to get turned on.

And he's like, but, um, he's like, some of our Chinese clients watch child more. And I was like, damn. I'm like, I wonder what kind of phones those guys are operating and the stuff that they're. Fucking. Yeah. Wild. Yeah. Because at least when you're dealing with people that come from the Western Hemisphere, there is like a shared value system.

Yeah. Even though life's a little cheaper, obviously in Mexico and quite a bit cheaper in Venezuela because of just the years of poverty and all that shit. But there is like a line. There's not a line. Yeah. But the East dude is a completely different culture. It's just a different way of life. It's a different, you know.

I mean, both are you're different species. You couldn't even bring that up on an American phone, man. The minute you bring it up, like, boom, law enforcement is cracking on your door. Well, look, it was fascinating. But you know what? I say that, but the number one market for consuming child porn is the U.S. Yeah. So it's like, it's, that is a dark problem.

So I don't even want to It's a whole other rabbit term. But okay, so what about the tunnels? I wanted to ask you this before you get out of here. Are there are there tunnels that they're still utilizing for migrants? The cartels. So migrants are there. They've used a tunnels of smugglers, but like it's kind of like a small number that are being moved.

Isn't it like a crazy high number? But I know like I was recently in the tunnels in El Paso. We did like a thing with border patrol agents there, just kind of seen how they do those, those operations. First of all, it's a whole other world when you're in those tunnels. I mean, you have no air, all the elements and smell. It's insane. Then the Border Patrol agents who are even specialized to be in those tunnels is like a such a small number of guys that could even do that operation. So like if a regular Border Patrol agent catches smuggling, he can't even go in there. He has to contact this specialized unit that like deals with how to operate this confined spaces.

So it's already like a crazy scenario. So according to them that I spoke with, the La Lina cartel normally moves like about like a thousand migrants per month through this system which was which was fascinating so it's not like you know it's not like a large number

that are being moved like masses and masses um do they use them yes is that the high price people get the tunnel because that seems like the safest way to get across is just to go on the road

who are looking to pay higher than are also looking to the not turn themselves in um so you could run into different nationalities there you know you can run into like a Salvador who's not looking to caught, Guatemala.

It's more of those types. You're not going to be running into like the Venice swellings because they just want to reach American soil for the asylum. Yeah. Obviously everything's kind of changing now. So we'll see how the tunnel system adapt. So that was kind of fascinating. But he's like, he's like, they'll move kids through here.

Yeah. We've done rescue operations. So it's like I said, it's not a lot. But there's still a thousand bodies and even like it's still, man. Like there'll be a group of five migrants that are moving in there. And if they get abandoned by the smuggler, I mean, dude, it's completely dark in there. I mean, for us, yeah, we have headlights and equipment.

But for these migrants, they don't. I think they save the good tunnels for drugs. Yeah. Like the shit that Chapo used to build, like, they had air systems down there. They're not running migrants do that at all. No, they're not running migrants. They're saving that for the dope. Yeah.

So you say it's the La Linea cartel in Juarez. Yeah. Operation. And then on the east in Matamoros, it's a cartel de Guel de Guelco, the ghost cartel. You have that, but majority is, yeah, no, Montemores, Terranosa is like heavily up to also Novo Laredo. heavy a gall cartel. That's,

that's an area where you see more where they operate without that impunity. So like, you go to Raynosa, I mean, I wouldn't go to the cops for anything.

Why do you think it's easier to flip cops? I mean, obviously we talked about like TJ is getting gentrified with Americans, so they have to kind of clean their image up a little bit.

Like, why do you think it's so corruption, so embedded in the eastern states of Mexico? Do they just have more money? See, that's why I'm also fascinated. Like,

I don't have like a clear answer. you know, but it's just to me, it's, it's, it's, there's, it could probably be a money aspect that the, the, the threat level, um, you know, every, every area has a geographical, like, advantage. The issue with Tijuana is that you just have so many Americans there. So it kind of plays this element of like, they, they kind of don't control it the way these other areas. But like I said, that one example where like that American guy got kidnapped on an American side and the way that they were able to enter the port of entry there was, was fascinating.

The amount of probably cocaine, they're probably moving through like Montemoro, is probably such a high number. I just, I'm actually glad that I can tell you this too. I also just like about two weeks ago, I got leaked through sources, Border Patrol of a memo that went out to Border Patrol agents. This was out of Matamororo,

so across them is Brownsville. So this is most likely a lot of cartel, but that memo went out to the RGV sector. And it basically was warning agents that there was an organized group. They didn't name up, but likely the Gulf Cartel, that they were planning to orchestrate a shooting

where they were shooting at American Laws Force enforcement or board patrol agents. but that they would try to make it appear as it was a Mexican government. So the Border Patrol agents picked up on that intelligence. They had to send out a whole memo. I got that leak to me. When I read it, I was like, hold on.

Like, I can't public this right away. I have to at least confirm this to like two or three other sources. So we did that. And it came from what they called Bortak. So it's like a tactical unit within Border Patrol. So they got intelligence that likely the Gulf Cartel was planning some type of hit, which I said from my perspective, just they completely do. not operate like that, like striking American law enforcement, but that they were,

they were going to try to make it seem like the Mexican government was involved. So that could be maybe a thing where like, because Shyamom had to send troops on Matamorah's. So maybe they make it seem like the troops fired at them. And then it creates this other story. Then my action. Yeah. And then News Nation also we like before that, before that leak, we got a, we got a leak before that. This one went really viral. It really shocked the American public that they were now given the green light to use those weaponized drones. on American law enforcement. So they got, that leak also went out.

That was more to like all of Border Patrol. But this one that I got was particularly warning the ones in the RGV sector, which was, which Montemortes sits in front of Brownsville. But what was also interesting out of RGV is that when we were on the ground, we were in front in Texas. That's the same place like a week before where cartel guys actually shot at Border Patrol trades. It's just like no one was hit.

So that was kind of interesting. And then if you guys look like on Google right now, Matamores or Tamulipas, they have like that new warning, even to their Mexican nationals are like, hey, don't, if you see this stuff, don't touch it. And it basically is like explosive weaponized drones. So the tensions are rising. Like that's like for sure. That's like they operate like spies or like armies. Like, hey, we're going to dress guys up as Mexican Marines and shoot at the U.S. Border Patrol.

The pressure in some way to, you know, for them to be like, we totally don't care. It's not true, I would say. Of course they care. Yeah. The rational actors. It was interesting to like actually get the memo and be like, wow, border patrols been alerted. So like, yeah, you go on the border now.

Guys are like, I mean, they always have, but they're really like being cautious now. Especially after the shooting in Fronten. I was actually driving to McAllen. And then the shooting occurred on Twitter. We beeline to Fronton. And then they were running a whole investigation and, you know, that stuff.

So the drone, the drone thing is, is fascinating to those drone bombs. Yeah. How are they? I know they're deploying them in like Mietwa Khan. Yeah. The Cartel Nuevo, Halisco, the new generation cartel out of Halisco. They're using them on military in the southern states. It's crazy.

Yeah, I think Luisa Paro did a good job. Like, he had a report last year. Like, I guess like a former U.S. military guy, like, was, like, training him how to fly the drones and stuff. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, yeah. Like, they have, like, the cartels have, like, their own drone unit, which was fascinating. And then, like I said, it's, I reported it on the border this. the past four years and we never got memos like the ones that we're getting now and the warning. So the tension is rising.

Something is building up and you have a CIA aspect now flying the spy drones. I definitely think this is the last generation of that kind of shit in Mexico. Because I just think they're modernizing and there's just so much money that's going to come in. They're moving all the factories away from China and they're going to put them in Mexico. I think this is like their last gags. Asp, like cartel warfare like that. You know what I mean? There will always be drug trafficking in Mexico, but they'll be like criminals.

Like now they operate like their own autonomous armies, right? There are criminals, but like we can't do shit about it because they have everybody paid off. They have drones. They control the fucking mountains. I think that's the act of like desperate, you know, kind of desperate groups that are that are on their heels, so to speak. It's fascinating. man i i'm yeah i'm it's just from a journalist perspective it's like it's like it's like so much to take in um like like i said like the moda morse incident with those americans kidnapped was like

it's just so intriguing to me the way that they operated and like that that that happened uh you feel like if that situation happened now under trump that they would be almost that they said in u.s military so i i don't know how things these are going to play out whether we have like a actual confrontation between the two groups on the border right how that would look um i mean just recently it was like a go in that Jakuba hot springs area where that California resident who was like leaking me these photos of like the new hotspot for crossings. They had like the American hiker with a Canadian were like shot by a cartel member and like he had to be airlifted. So it's like something is brewing. I just don't know, you know, we don't know what it's going to look like. Those 10,000

Mexican, they're Guadilla Seville. I don't even think they're the they're the Marines. So they're like the really worthless guys. I don't know if you knew that. Yeah. The National Guard is like, dude, they're they get paid nothing and they do nothing. but do you know where they're posted up most of those 10,000 people? Like where are they scattered? So they spread across the border, obviously. But I got to read the stats to get the exact. But the most troops that I saw was in Baja California.

So TJ I didn't Takata, in that outskirts area. We'll see if they slow down there. Right. But that's there that they got the most troops. It also does feel like 10,000. It's not a lot out there. It's a lot, dude. That's a big desert.

It's so, yeah, I think people forget just how vast that. the border is and then just the amount of open space. Yeah. So we'll see. It's just getting fascinating, man. Just watching. Because previous administrations, they would just, they wouldn't even talk to Mexico like this. Right.

And now you're having this almost every shine bomb press conference. She's like going at Trump and then Trump's going back. And there was funny. It was like when he was signing the executive orders, he was like, you know, Trump in his like style. He's like, he's like, I love Claudia. She's like a wonderful woman. He's like, but I can have fented on the country. He's just, such a Trump's Trump quote.

It's like style that he talks. I mean, look, he's, he's always got a point. No matter how wild and crazy he talks. Like, there's a point to it, you know? But just not all of it's realistic. So people need to like calm down, you know? They just, yeah, that's, people just need to understand that a lot of it is just rhetoric. But, you know, but clearly this is a big fucking problem.

Like you don't want cartels with mass. pot grows in your backyard with fucking Chinese indentured servants. Like that's bad, you know. So man, we're going to make more content, bro. You are one of the best people in this space right now. So I want people to go check your workout. Plug your shit, man. Yeah, so best two spots, guys.

You can always just go Google and put like News Nation, Jorge Ventura. All the reporting pops up there. X, I'm Jorge Ventura TV, both on Instagram and X. X is like where you guys want the breaking news. the second it happens, we go there for like our full complete stories, Instagram is great. Also sharing

always like new stories too of what I think is like interesting on the ins of stories. So I think a lot of people would like the content. Super Gonzo style. Not anything that you'll probably see in kind of the traditional corporate media stuff. No, dude. No, you work for a news agency but you operate like a YouTuber, which is sick. Which is sick. Like the best of both worlds I guess.

100%. No, I mean it, man. It's a pleasure to have you here today. Come back on. Or we're going to go down to that border and see what the fuck is going on. Let's get you on a marijuana right along, bro. Dude, I want to go there. We could go down there in a month and a half and things could be way different. That's how fast is changing. So go follow him.

Like, you're going to be addicted. When you follow his Instagram and his Twitter, you're going to be like glued in. So thank you very much. Jorge Ventura. We will see you guys next time. Thank you so much.