The Joe Rogan Experience - #1408 - Ed Calderon

Episode Date: January 8, 2020

Ed Calderon is a security specialist and combatives instructor with over 10 years experience in public safety along the northern border area of Mexico. Follow him online @EdsManifesto http://edsmanifesto.com

Welcome back, Ed. Good to see you again, man. Thank you for having me back. Well, I'm happy you're back, but I'm not happy that there was a motivation to bring you back based on the violence. You know, the violence that is going on between the cartels, and it was the Mormons, and then we were just talking about this other person that got shot because they ran, would you explain that again? They ran a cartel roadblock? Yeah, basically in Tamaulipas, a lot of the cartel groups actually make,

they build their roadblocks on the state and local roads. And according to what I've heard from some of the people that I know there, this family ran one of those roadblocks. They didn't know if it was cops or not, and they apparently decided to run the roadblock, and the cartel guys shot them. What should someone do if they encounter a cartel roadblock? Slow down.

I mean, if anything, I would probably avoid traveling through those areas. That's the number one avoidance. Usually, and I've actually gone through some of those myself. Really? Yeah. And it's all about, they're looking out for rivals moving through their territory. They're looking for government personnel maybe spying on them. And usually they'll just shake you down for some money and they'll let you go on your way.

Unless you have a 4x4 truck'll let you go on your way. Unless you have a 4x4 truck that can use for their own purposes. Oh, they might take your truck? Yeah. Specifically in Tamaulipas, 4x4 trucks are a commodity for them. They use them for their ongoing turf war. Oh, right. Especially someone else's.

They don't mind getting shot up. Yeah. I mean, most of the trucks that you see that are up-armored or they have the rifles on top are usually stolen vehicles. All of them are stolen vehicles. And a lot of them are Americans crossing into Mexico. Some of them are Americans crossing into Mexico and just getting their truck stolen. Jesus Christ. That's a real common thing? It's starting to be pretty common.

I recently saw a case of an apparent abduction in Tamaulipas. You see the video and the cartel guys come out of the car. They grab the owner of a pickup truck. They get him out of the car. They take his cell phone, leave it on the sidewalk because they're aware of all the SOS technology. And they'd take him inside of another car, and they'd take the truck. And you thought, you would think, you know,

it's because he did something or he's involved in something. They let him go a few blocks later and just took the truck. It was all about the truck. Wow. Yeah, it's resources. You know, they're just acquiring resources for the war, basically. Nice of them to let them go. Nice of them to let them go.

It's not always the case, but it's pretty, yeah. I think most people in America are just now waking up to the chaos that's going on down there. I think that the Mormon assassination was a real wake-up call but i think uh people are paying much more attention now i mean we've we talked about this when was the last time you were on it was like five months yeah something like that a lot of the stuff we talked about those five months ago uh kind of that's how things progressed we actually did mention the mormon communities down there which was kind of eerie yeah and uh we talked about the possible designation of cartels as terrorist uh terror groups yeah you you had an interesting take on

that so uh trump was saying that they were going to designate them as terrorist groups and that they were going to have military action against them yeah and then there was some sort of negotiation with the president of mexico what do you think went down there? So, I mean, this is just, you know, from what I see and from how things traditionally happen down there, Mexico currently has a leftist president down there. He's very to the left. So much to the left that he recently gave Eva Morales, the deposed leftist president of Bolivia, asylum in the country. And there's been a lot of pro-left political stuff going on in Mexico, basically.

As soon as the designation threat by the U.S. came down, there was some sort of negotiation, and a lot of things happened after some U.S. officials went down there and talked to the government. Among them, Evo Morales is out. He went to Cuba, apparently, and then went to Argentina, so he's not going to stay in Mexico. Former head of public security under the Calderon administration, which is two administrations past. The president Calderon is the one that started the drug war. He was arrested for cartel involvement and basically for seeing money from the cartels. I saw that.

Yeah. He was going through his immigration process and he was actually asking for full citizenship. And they got him on lying through the authority the immigration authorities he said that he never received money from the cartels and apparently he did a lot of it right so all these things happened after after they walked back the threat of uh of uh designating cartels as a terrorist organization so there has been some action so they must have made some negotiation where Trump had said, listen, we're going to do this. And he said, hold up, let's talk. creating a national police force, right? A national guard is what he calls it,

which had already kind of been done before, but, you know, change the name, change the uniform, change the packaging, and it's a new thing, right? He wanted the army out of the drug war because the casualties were mounting on both sides, and he said it wasn't a military, it shouldn't be a military operation. And he ran on a platform that was called abrazos no Balazos, which means hugs, not bullets, right? Oh, Jesus Christ.

Amnesty for the cartels was basically kind of the main theme of that. So he got into power. The first thing he did, militarized police forces and created a National Guard and tried to dissolve the federal police. police forces and create a National Guard and try to dissolve the federal police. And most of that National Guard force was designated to border patrol duties on the Mexican side. So some of them went to the south of the border, the southern Mexican border, and some of them went to the northern Mexican border, basically, to stem the whole illegal immigration crisis with the caravans. That's what kind of happened.

And it was a kind of a collaboration between the U.S. and the Mexican government. So that was one of the key points of collaboration that they had. And when this whole designation thing went up, that was kind of like a bargaining chip that the Mexican government had with the U.S. And the rest of the things that kind of transpired afterwards, it's pretty interesting how a lot of things happened after that meeting down there and how they walked back the terrorist designation. So the terrorist designation would mean that Trump would have some sort of incentive to invade Mexico.

It would open up the possibility for military – direct military action against – Strikes. Drone strikes. Drone strikes. Without permission of the nation that these strikes were going to take place. Also targeting finances or anything related to cartel activities would be targeted. Yeah. Where do the cartels keep their cash?

Well, it's – right now it's a myriad of things um they diversified long ago so it's not like they're keeping uh buried cash in a in a container container somewhere in the in the jungle like escobar used to do right right they're still finding some some like rotted cash from the 80s um they're putting their money in cryptocurrency uh they're really yeah they're diversifying their uh their their uh investments in actual companies like legit companies so they're cleaning their money that way um real estate hotels uh property on the u.s side so they're also investing on the u.s side of the border as well so you know money's it's it's not you know

it's not under the mattress or, you know, giant stacks of cash in a room somewhere. What kind of banks do business with the cartels? How do they negotiate that? I'm not going to say names, but there's been a few cases of pretty large banks that have been involved in money laundering for the cartels recently, and people can look that up easily. But you would think you would have a designated cartel, you would have cartels designated as terrorists so now there are banks involved in funding terrorism so that would change things that's you know there's a lot of things that would happen you know some some of these consequences

people talk about as designating them as a terrorist and send drones down there things that they kind of don't talk about is that if a terrorist designation does happen, most people seeking asylum in the U.S. from Mexico now have the claim of running from terrorists in Mexico. So now they can claim that as far as asylum seeking people can claim that now. It's a different thing. The main argument that a lot of people say is that cartels can't be considered a terrorist group because they don't have political aspirations. The problem with that theory is that we have a lot of political killings by cartels in Mexico where they shoot the candidate of one side of the political spectrum because it's not good for them. So they influence politics. They also pay off a lot of politicians down there. of the political spectrum because it's not good for them. So they influence politics. They also pay off a lot of politicians down there.

And they also, examples of the New Generation cartel from Guadalajara giving out Christmas gifts or groceries to the poor, basically doing hearts and minds type tactics in the area, are clear political movements, right? Yeah. So, you know. How does it, why does terrorism have to be connected to politics? Well, that's the classical definition of that is, of a terrorist group, that's what they're basing it on.

I think the cartels and narco-terrorism is a thing in and of itself. It's a new phenomenon. It should be, terrorism should be reclassified to include it, I think. You know, most people that live through that type of situation in that type of area in the country facing some of these cartel threats that have fled it, we'll call it what it is. Yeah. Terrorism. Terrorism. They're terrified.

Yeah. I mean, that's literally, I mean, who's more terrifying than the cartels? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Who's more terrifying than the cartels? Yeah. Well.

So what's going on with the Mormons now is are they moving out of there now? Are they going to go back to Utah and just take one wife? That's what it all started out with, right? Yeah. Well, the fundamentalist group and they went down there and kind of proceeded with their customs. I'm in contact with a few of the members of that family. And, you know, I was in contact before, but when I went on here, they kind of like, one of them reached out, like, hey, what's going on?

Help us out. What do we need to do? Yeah. And then, you know, it was like a friendly hello from them, from past interactions, and then this happened. And, you know, I kind of advised a little bit but that's you know that it's a mess a lot of them a lot of them are leaving the communities down there there's a lot of them down there a lot of communities in Sonora Coahuila and you know they're leaving leaving the area it's just too

dangerous yeah it only makes sense. I mean, they just don't have the arms. They don't have the tactics, manpower. And they're also in the middle of one of the most important regions in Mexico right now for a lot of reasons. Main thing, there's two things that are really, really kind of happening in that region. really kind of happening in that region. One, the trafficking of fentanyl and heroin and all these drugs through one of the main drug routes up into the U.S. And there's a few factions fighting over that region. Los Salazar, which are a small cartel faction that has allegiances to Sinaloa Cartel.

And the Linea Cartel, which has historically been in control of Ciudad Juarez. So they're both kind of buying for control of the area. A few hours before the massacre actually took place, there were a bunch of firefights between these two factions in the area. So one of the main theories is that this group of Mormons basically were case of mistaken identity kind of driving into some of the areas where they're being protected by some of these people you know it's one theory right um the other thing that people kind of need to think about is that the largest

mineable uh mineable deposits of lithium on the planet right now are a few hours away from where that massacre took place. Really? Yes. And that is, you know, I'm not conspiracy theorizing here, but it's a pretty important thing in that region. And there's a lot of interest in that space and control for that space. And they're not mining it currently? There's a bunch of projects in play right now. Oh, so they've identified the deposits.

Yeah. You know, people can look up the numbers, but it's the largest mineable deposit of lithium on the planet. Whoa. And there was some sort of deal in the past where a Canadian mining agency was going to have rights to it, and the mining agency was bought by a Chinese company. So again, after that massacre, a lot of of things happened a lot of the negotiations happened that problem that deal was one of the things that got killed after that situation oh no

right so it's it's it's it's an interesting area there's a lot of things happening there that's got to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the cartels in some way right well uh historically any sort of any sort of mining operation usually has industry around it, which is perfect for the cartels. Extortion, protection, rackets, feeding the drug use in the area from the workers. Is there any way that you could see in the future the cartels being extracted from the positions of power that they're in now? I mean, is this something that people in Mexico are going to have to live with forever? And I guess people in the United States as well. Or is this something that can be fixed?

You've talked about before in some of your podcasts, and I listen to them a lot. It's a great podcast. Thank you. Great one you're on, too. Thank you. But you talk about legalization and how that would help. That definitely is part of the solution. And it is.

It is definitely part of the solution, legalizing some drugs. Not all drugs are made the same. Maybe not fentanyl. Yeah. But that would help out some things. There's multiple things that could be done to guide us towards a place where things could stabilize down there. And a lot of it is not going to be able to be done in Mexico. It's going to have to be done up here, right?

Basically, you know, one, you have to take care, the U.S. has to take care of the drug market up here, the illegal drug market. And certain things that have happened, like legalization of marijuana and some places up here have changed the dynamics of what happens down there, some for the better, some for the bad. Some bad things have happened. Talking to my friend John Norris, who was on here as well, comparing notes, seeing how a lot of the drug grows that are up here,

the illegal pot grows that are up here, exactly like the ones that I found in Baja six, seven years ago. And how some of that drug money made from those fields is staying in the U.S. It's not being sent back. So that means you have an active, growing cartel presence in the U.S. that is U.S.-based. So I think one of the problems that people have is perception is that that's a Mexican problem. It's a U.S.-Mexico problem.

You have a border there, but the problem has two root causes, right? Social, economic inequality, and destabilization and corrupt government down there, and a thriving illegal drug market up here. And those two have to be solved just set me in a combined way how many members when you combine all the cartels how many members are we talking about that's that means it's pretty hard to put a number on how i will say this more than a million i will say this they defeated the mexican army in sinaloa. Yeah, that was bananas. Yeah. When they captured El Chapo's son.

Yeah. And then the army gave it back. Yeah. They're like, yeah, you can have him back. Well. Sorry. That whole situation, and it was like, I remember that was happening, I was getting asked questions about it and it was live. It was all of a sudden just popped off, you know.

Basically, supposedly, the official story from the Mexican government is that they send a special police unit to capture him, right? which is completely false, I think, because you don't send 35 agents to capture one of the heads of one of the biggest senile cartel cells. So it's pretty much by chance they spotted this party. People were armed there. They went there. All of a sudden, El Chapo's son is there. So you think they just stumbled into him? I posted a video on my feed of the capture of El Chapo's son.

You can see it, and you can see the surprise and really how the agents are kind of uncomfortable or fearful of what they just stumbled in on. Imagine U.S. agents stumbling on one of the America's Most Wanted individuals up here. They're going to put him on the ground. They're going to handcuff him. In the video, you can see that they point their rifles at him, and he calmly takes out his gun and hands it to somebody inside of the house he was in and walks out and kind of tries to negotiate with the people outside, the federal agents that are trying to arrest him. And you can see that the agents are like, oh, what did we stumble in on? Right? So that happened.

They grabbed them. They reported back to Mexico. They captured him. They started to announce the capture. And his brother, his half-brother, Archibaldo, basically called in all of the reinforcements from all surrounding towns and regions in Sinaloa. And it was flooded with a bunch of armed cartel guys. All of Sinaloa was. Wasn't there a video of the government people and the cartel people talking?

Yeah, it's on my feed. You can see it if you want. It's basically an army unit that was being sent to reinforce security in in kulekan being surrounded by cartel members yeah is this it right here yeah uh that's it um obviously the guys running around with a vest and wearing skinny jeans are some of these you know cartel members um and they just talk it through i mean, they're outnumbered. And also there's talk about there's a specific community out there in Sena Loa where all the Army families members live. And they were apparently being held hostage by cartel guys as a bargaining chip.

So all these guys that we're seeing here, they're dressed in civilian clothes with the vest. Those are all cartel guys. Those are all cartel guys. Those are all cartel guys. Jesus Christ. And they're shaking hands with everybody. Well, you know. Hey, what's up, homie? I mean, again, we go back into the whole, what is the fight they have in them, right?

The Seattle Cartel was basically surrounding some of their communities and holding their family members hostage. So that went out over the radio. So as an Army member going in to fight the cartel, saying, you know what? I'm out of this fight. Yeah. So they raised their hands. And so then they released the hostages. Everybody backs out.

Yeah. I mean, they defeated the Mexican government, basically. Jesus. Anything they went up against. They surrounded the Mexican government, basically. Anything they went up against, you know. They surrounded the city. Usually you'll see classic Mexican cartel activity. They close off the streets going into the city by burning semis and trailers and stuff like that. So you would see all these burning semi-trailers in the region.

So if you want to move in, you can't. And if you want to use your helicopters, the cartels have anti-aircraft capabilities. So they broke out a bunch of people from the prison, just taking advantage of the whole chaos. You could see there's a few other videos where there's armored trucks with 50 cows and Marooses on the back of them, just moving around the city. There's no way, there's armored trucks with 50 cows and marooses on the back of them just moving around the city. There's no way. There's no way you can.

This is a breakout state prison. Took advantage of the whole chaos and just, you know, let's break some of our friends out. It's just pure chaos. Eventually, the government decided to let him go. That's the official story. But according to the people there, there was no government saying let him go. There was like the guys holding him said, you know what?

It's not worth it. Yeah, that's one of the technicals as they call them up here. Yeah, dump trucks, they armor plate the sides and put somebody out. God, imagine being a person living there well that's that's what i'm trying to picture yeah what life is like for the civilians and most of these videos are all done now by civilians so there's a certain normalcy in some of these cases especially in sena law it's part of it's part of the culture there and as far as sides go you know hey the army's coming to save us.

That's not usually what some people in some of these communities think, you know, because the cartels are – those are the guys in charge. So has Sinaloa always been like that? Like how long has it been? Sinaloa has traditionally been a cradle for like the origins of some of the more successful cartel heads, right? Isn't that where Julio Cesar Chavez is from? Yeah. Yeah, he is. Yeah.

And, you know, lots of anybody that's anybody in Sinaloa has some sort of relationship to the cartels because they're part of culture there. Wow. There's just no way of getting around it. Had a surreal experience once when I went there. I did a class out there um and the uh was running down this bumpy road and then all of a sudden just flat beautiful road oh yeah this is the cartel part of the road that they built it's like okay wow so it's like sort of like the mob in vegas and like the 50s and 60s exactly exactly but it's now and their... Way more hardcore. Way more hardcore. Some of their grave...

They have a... Jardines de la Maya is the narco cemetery they have, and it's basically luxury condos. They look like... I mean, I went there, I thought it was a church, and it turned out to be a tomb. Wow. Right, so the opulence and the money there is just overt.

And how they move around, they roll around in vehicles with guns, and nobody does anything because they own the city. What are they planning on doing? Does anybody have any plans, or is it just they're just accepting this? Well, you get a lot of rhetoric about collaboration. Yeah, that's Jardines, Illumaya. All of those are graves.

Some of them have CCTV video inside, air conditioning, alarms. Those are graves. Those are grave sites. And the cartel guys' heads go there on the Day of the Dead, have music, live bands, shoot their rakes into the air. Nobody does anything. Wow. Jesus Christ, this is crazy.

Yeah, I mean, the opulence is amazing. I mean, just seeing it, it's like having several Escobars in one place. You know, it's not, you know, it's like a lot of cartels' heads are from that region, and a lot of their kids grew up in that. The opulence is amazing. Fuck.

Is this going to grow? I think it is. I mean, I don't think it is. It is growing. Again, going back to my friend John Norris and seeing his experiences up here, finding all these illegal drug rows in public lands, it's growing. It's growing over here too. Yeah. Roots.

Yeah. So a thing that a lot of people have to think about, a lot of these cartel guys had their kids up here. So they made their money down there and they sent their wives up here. And a lot of these kids that were born in the late 80s, early 90s, are coming of age up here with that cartel pedigree, and they're U.S. citizens, U.S. passport. So you're going to see some sort of shift. They're coming of age. You get experience. You get a handoff of reins from the older generation to the newer generation, and you're going to see definitely it's definitely growing it seems so crazy to watch because it seems like it's not

discussed nearly enough and it it seems like if it keeps getting stronger like what we saw with el chapo's son being released like what it what's stopping from taking over Mexico entirely? Well, I mean, you would have people arguing that it already has in different ways. So I think another thing that people kind of have to kind of figure out and realize is that there's factions in the Mexican government. So you will see a federal government that apparently is being paid off by a very specific large cartel group. by a very specific large cartel group. And then you'll see state governments that are of different political party influence paying off by other cartel groups. So you'll see military units moving around the town

and the state police blocking their way to get in there because they play for different teams, right? Whoa. You know, there's a lot of talk right now about Felipe Calderon's tenure and how his head of public safety was on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel, which actually came out during El Chapo's trial. So now you're talking about basically a federal police force that was on El Chapo's side. on El Chapo's side. So he had free reigns to grow and do whatever he had to do in that region with the support of the federal government in a way. So technically, who's in control of some regions? And realistically, some regions of Mexico are completely in cartel control.

Now, we discussed this on the last podcast, but let's give people a little just a recap of this just so people can understand your position. When you first started working with the Mexican government with this, it wasn't like it is now. Give everybody just a rundown of how it went down. So I went to work for state government down in Mexico, in Baja specifically. And this was in? This was 2004, right before the start of the official start of the kickoff of the drug war. The kickoff. The kickoff.

But the official start was when Felipe Calderon came into office and said, you know what? Gloves off. We're going to go after the organized crime, right? We're going to send the military onto the streets and they're going to head up spearhead operations against the cartels. You know, Sinaloa cartel was growing. There was a rift between the Sinaloa cartel and Tijuana cartel, fragmentation. Cartel heads were being killed and one cartel turned into three, all this fragmentation. And then, you know, they basically militarized the war on drugs with Calderon, came in, militarized the war on drugs immediately you start seeing that drug uh drug enforcement efforts were being put towards a single or a group of cartel groups but not the but not a major one like senegal cartel so you start seeing how they were basically taking sides they were breaking up

the competition that's what you would gather from making it look like progress yeah and and also el chapo has been built up into this mythical figure like he was the head of the senegal cartel And making it look like progress. or the brains behind the whole operation. When you say seeing the law cartel, it's not one group. It's a federation of several criminal groups, enterprises uniting and working in conjunction to put drugs into the United States. Well, one of the things they do is put drugs into the United States. They do a lot of things, but that's one of the things they do. So, you know, certain people, there's a lot of people out there that theorize that El Mayo Zambada, which is El Chapo's compadre who's still out there, is the actual head of the Sinaloa cartel and has been since the start.

But you see how some of these people become celebrities. And as soon as somebody becomes a celebrity like El Chapo, who escaped from custody a few times, you know, under, you know, pretty interesting situations. I mean, it under pretty interesting situations. Now the government has a celebrity they can go after so they can point at that guy. That guy's a bad guy, right? So you saw a lot of that, a lot of theatrics around him as far as him being the head of

whatever group or operation was. But at the same time you start seeing the DEA and the U.S. government condecorating and putting all these awards on a guy like Luna, who was the guy that got arrested recently, who was head of security down in Mexico. And now all of a sudden, he's not.

He was recognized by the U.S. government as being a player for the good guys, and now he's arrested. So you start seeing all these you know different interests different political uh political kind of movements around the drug war and what that turned into and uh you know you know what you don't know what they think right each and each also each u.s administration has changed the way they do things when it comes to the drug war. And it also benefits certain groups down there. So, you know, who knows, realistically. Fuck. Yeah.

It's just, you know, I went to Chichen Itza, I think, in 2000-ish, 2002, maybe, 2003, somewhere around that time. And there was no concern. Yeah, it's a different time. But that's 16, 17 years ago. That's so recent in terms of human history that a region changes so radically, so quickly. Well, there's a lot of things happening. There's a lot of interest.

China has a lot of interest in Mexico. And you go back and you see some things like the whole how some armed groups started popping up in Mexico in the Michoacan area fighting back against the cartels. The whole, there was like a series, like a documentary on them, the Autodefensas, they were called, basically like vigilante groups. And then later on you realize that they were all fighting for basically protecting or working around security for illegal Chinese ore mining in the area. Whoa. Yeah.

It was all about Chinese ore mining, iron ore mining, illegal Chinese ore mining. So the Chinese ore miners, they just made a deal. Yeah. And then, you know, we can get in on it. So let's arm all these guys and we're protecting our communities. But there was a lot of that going on. Not all of them. But there was a lot of shady stuff going on in the region when it comes to that.

Now you see things like the stuff that's going on in Sonora, and there's a lot of lithium there. That's a pretty valuable thing. Sonora is a place that a lot of hunters go. Yeah. Sonora has these big hunting ranches, like it's famous for giant mule deer yeah yeah yeah it's i've been out there hunting myself and it's a it's a beautiful it's a beautiful part of mexico but that seems like a sketchy spot to it's venturing into it's perfect because it's uh it's perfect for them because it's rural so there's nobody around uh but if you were like a

guy from texas wanting to drive your truck down there, do a little hunting. I mean, my recommendation is this. If you have a 4x4, don't take it down there. Take a fucking Yugo. We do have the largest population of American citizens living outside of the country in Mexico for some reason. Really? Yeah. All throughout Mexico?

Yeah, I mean, all throughout Mexico. Well, it's fun down there. Well, a lot of people like Cabo. People love Mexican food. Yeah. There is a certain chaotic freedom in Mexico, which being a child of Mexico and then moving up here and seeing you guys talk about freedom,

not that free. But I get the draw. And some of these communities down there are pretty safe, but some aren't. They're safe until they're not safe. And safe until all of a sudden you're in the middle of some place that's going to be disputed, which I think is something along the lines of what happened to some of these Mormon communities down there. along the lines of what happened to some of these Mormon communities down there. You're in the middle of your community,

and your movements are in the middle of our route. Could you please get out of the way? What's the ceiling on this? If they can continue to grow, I mean, is it possible that we're looking at a country that might be completely run and overrun by criminal organizations and drug sellers some parts of it are already so what i think is going to happen is you'll see escalations uh a clear sign or a clear group that is like a like a sign of things to come is the is the new generation cartel the new Generation Cartel is a cartel that used to be called Los Matacetas.

It was basically an armed enforcing group that the Sinaloa Cartel made to go after their main rivals, the Zetas, which were originally members of Mexican special forces that said, you know what? We're going to be cartel guys now and cartel enforcers now. So they hold sort of history. It was a militarized group that was formed to go after them, right? And their whole kind of play was that we're going to be against extortion, against abducting people, against affecting the community. We're going to enforce the law in our communities,

but we're also going to move drugs through here, right? But that's kind of their thing. So you see this group start kind of growing in the region, and right now it's pretty big. It's rivaling the Sunilal cartel as far as power and reach. But the way they do their things is militarized. It's very militaristic and kind of paramilitary, and it kind of reminds me a little bit of the FARC groups in Colombia.

Hearts and Minds, they go into the communities, community policing in the area. They originally said, you know, we're aware the government wants to fight drugs here in the region. We agree with their fight, but we are also going to fight against these guys that are affecting the community as well and they have like groups of people they have uh they have training camps militaristic training

camps where they recruit people they take them there and they're being trained in guerrilla warfare and shooting and apparently there's some sf guys from the u.s that that advise them so that's that's the next thing the x the the escalation of a simple ragtag group of cartel guys enforcing a region to an actual cohesive paramilitary group now trying to vie for control, not just of the drug routes, but also of the populace and the confidence that the populace has in them.

So it could turn political at some point, right? that the populace has in them. So it could turn political at some point, right? It just seems like it's the genie's out of the bottle. I mean, it is. I mean, it is in a lot of ways. And going after it just as a drug enforcement issue is not, you know. It's so much bigger than that.

Yeah. It's cultural. It's economic. You know. Some of these kids, I posted up some of these cartel soldier kids, 12 years old. Gold-plated guns. Gold-plated guns. They don't have options in their lives. Right. It's that or nothing.

Right. It's either awesome life or extreme poverty. Short, awesome life. Yeah, short, awesome life or extreme poverty. Short, awesome life. Yeah, short, awesome life or extreme poverty. So that's one component to it. Another component is systemic corruption as a society from who knows when. It's always been a thing in Mexico. People that grew up down there, you get stopped at a red light and you're like, can I pay the fine here?

People that are from down there will be aware of this. Yeah, show the paperwork. You slide that thing in there. That's part you know that's part of the culture that's affecting a lot of things as well you know people don't pay attention to the small rules so the big rules don't matter right um and just being next to the largest drug market on the planet you know and having money firearms uh rounds going down and fentanyl that is being fabricated in Mexico now and some of the Chinese fentanyl making its way through into the U.S., kind of filling the voids that some of the drug market has right now.

So they're making fake fentanyl-laced pills that are being put into the U.S. and fentanyl-laced heroin, right? So that's where they're going towards now. That's why you see this epidemic up here. And a lot of things traditionally kind of focused on pot before it was legalized in a lot of arenas up here now is heroin and fentanyl. So it's actually kind of accelerated the production of the more harmful and dangerous drugs. In some ways, yes. I mean, they had to find another, you know, it went pot, meth, and now fentanyl-laced heroin or fentanyl-laced pills.

See, and the problem with the idea of legalization is that if you try to be the person who says, hey, folks, we need to legalize drugs here in America because we've got this problem with the cartels. Politically, that's suicide. Yeah. No one – I mean, even though it's probably right. It is. I think it is. I think it is very right.

It's one of those things that's so counterintuitive that most people are going to go, you're crazy. You're going to make my kids hooked on drugs? Well, I'll say this. I was – I fought in the drug war. I'm literally a drug war veteran. And if I had a white flag, I would hand it over to you. It's a useless fight. I got to destroy pot fields.

Realistically, thinking about all the effort and all the blood, I'm like, it's just pot. Yeah, and it's so quick to grow back. It is a fruitless fight. Fentanyl, heroin, maybe different drugs. Fentanyl in particular. But a lot of that fentanyl is coming from China. It's not a Mexican thing. Oh, yeah. A lot of people that are making or producing fentanyl in places like Mexico are from China,

setting up laboratories in Mexico. So it's a Chinese-Mexican-U.S. problem as well. God damn. What can be done other than the legalization? What can be done? I mean, how does, unless the United States literally goes to war with the Mexican cartels, and you made a face talking about that. I mean, I'd say designation is one of – I think designation should – it's going to happen.

A terrorist designation. It's going to happen. I mean, again, we just saw the murder, the massacre of Mexican – they were dual citizenship, nine people, kids, women. It's not uncommon for that to happen to Mexican nationals. It's pretty uncommon for that to happen to American nationals down there. And that woke up a bunch of people, you know? And now another recent murder of another American national, you know, kid with his parents down there.

You know, people will say, but just don't go down to Mexico. But some of these people, you know, live down there, have family down there, have communities down there. You know, people will say, but just don't go down to Mexico. But some of these people, you know, live down there, have family down there, have communities down there. And it's just ultra-violent. You know, people have to wake up on this side to realize this problem is not going to get any better. This problem is not just a Mexican problem. It's a U.S.-Mexican problem. And, you know, it will get to a point where it's going to be, you know,

I think in my lifetime there's going to be some sort of armed intervention in Mexico at some point. Really? So you anticipate almost like a civil war? I think something's going to happen in Mexico that's going to destabilize it so much that the U.S. won't have another option but to put boots on the ground probably. I think that's where we're headed. The problem – and again, another of the problems is that the government is part of the problem.

So you can go down there and negotiate with this government. But six years later, it's going to be another government. And you got to renegotiate with them. Yeah. And also – With new palm grease. Yeah. And also you palm grease. Yeah. And then you put all your faith in the military,

and the military gets compromised. You put all your faith in the Mexican Marines, and then they get compromised. And now who do you have? Right? So it's systemic. Don't tell that to Trump. He'll use that as an excuse. can't count on them we're going in

i um i mean i wonder where it all goes because it is obviously growing very fast it's obviously huge and incredibly powerful and and it affects i mean i'm i'm up here now, and I could see the effects of it up here. Walking through L.A., seeing all the needles on the ground. Going to Seattle, seeing the same light brown fentanyl-laced heroin that I saw in shantytowns down in Baja. It's like, wow, so this is where it kind of ends up. Yeah. So you see the effects of it throughout. So you realize quickly as somebody from both sides that I am,

you realize that realistically there's kind of no border when it comes to this problem. This problem doesn't respect a border wall. Right. Right. Submarines will go around it. Tunnels will go under it. Drones will fly over it. And it's a problem that just keeps producing an effect. And I think the majority of the United States citizens are completely unaware of the complexity and the depth of the problem. I mean, it is – it's also – I think most people seeing the Iran thing right now, most people know more about that.

Oh, yeah. Going off – going on halfway across the world. Yeah. Than what's going on just a few hours ago. That's what's crazy to me. It's like we're into invading countries that are really barely affecting us. They're like a 17-hour plane flight. Yeah. us they're like a 17 hour plane flight yeah i i think uh i think the uh i don't know again i don't i don't want to be ed adamas and you know predict stuff ed adamas but uh

the the fact that we have a lot of lithium in sonora is going to be a factor for a reason to clean it up it should be be. It should be. It's pretty important. It's a pretty important resource. Yeah, but if they can't hold on to El Chapo's son, how the... That's why I think the U.S. is going to have to put boots on the ground down there. Wow. Now, if you had to make a bet, like if there's a betting line in Vegas, how many days or how many years from now will there be American soldiers deployed to Mexico? I don't know.

I'd say five years maybe. Whoa. In five years. Really? I mean, we are on – we just passed – this past year has been the most violent year in Mexico in recorded history. And it's the first year of administration of this new president who's been trying to – Hugs. Hugs, not bullets.

Abrazos, no balazos. This instead of that. It's been his first year. And, hey, give him a chance. He's doing whatever he needs to do. It's only the most violent year in history. Cut the guy a break. Exactly.

That's what they say. But then I go down there and i have a lot of a lot of my friends that are still down there people that have trained uh still down there and i hear from them directly like i have some uh young kids that are in the hand armaria which is like a federal police force that patrols all of mexico and some of the federal federal police guys they tell me like ed we're they they said or you sign the new contract to be guardian as or no and lower your pay and all your all of the stuff that all your benefits will be gone or you just stay on here in limbo and just stay at the base and a lot of them are staying

at the base so it's nothing nothing's nothing's nothing's being Well, I imagine that if it seems overwhelming and it seems helpless and it seems like the cartels are just taking over and they're making a shitload of money and you're not making any money. I mean, that is the real crazy thing about it, right? Asking people in this sort of already compromised situation and environment, asking them to work for a small amount of money to go after people that are making a tremendous amount of money. Yeah. And you're going to be at war with these people. And these people, they're basically your neighbors. Yeah. And also, you go there with a federal uniform as part of the federal government. You go into a community where the federal government doesn't do anything for them right the church is made by the cartels cartel made the road

christmas was brought brought to you by the cartels you know um they they are the good guys so these guys come in here like who are these guys like what are they doing here we're not gonna so that's you know it's it's it's it is it's it's a mess it's a mess. It's a mess. Wow. But could boots on the ground actually fix anything? I mean I'm not a military expert. But there has to be some sort of outside force that is completely uncompromised by cartel money and influence. How long before they compromise those people?

Well, when you put the Marines on the border, a few of them got picked up on smuggling people from the border. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Who knows? And it's also a different war field because a lot of our war fighters and law enforcement have some sort of blood ties to Mexico. Of course. Well, not only that, I was just watching some video where there was this guy who is a U.S. veteran, been deployed overseas, fought for this country, and his mom was getting deported.

And he said he felt betrayed. Like, here he is in America. His mother brought him over here, had him over here. He's a U.S. citizen. And they're deporting his mom. As if his mom was a danger or a problem. There's a community of Army, Marine, and several veterans that are deported veterans that live in a place like Tijuana. That's fucking crazy.

That is fucking crazy. You fight for the country, man. You get a DUI in here. But how nuts is that? It is pretty nuts. It's fucking crazy uh that is fucking crazy you fight for the country man you get a doi in here but how nuts is that it is pretty nuts it's fucking ridiculous you fight for this country you you literally risk your life and there's assholes out there that haven't done a goddamn thing been mooching off the system forever and they're citizens and you're not yeah i mean my perspective in my life life path you know, when I came up here, I want to earn it, right? I don't know. I came up here motivated. I want to do a difference, work. And apparently, you know, I've had some, you know, static in my endeavors.

My kid was born in the U.S. and parented her mom's American, right? When I went to the hospital to pay for the insurance part of it, they laughed at me and said, you shouldn't pay any of this. You're Mexican. You just can claim benefits, right? That was in California. So I was like, oh, but I can afford it. There's ways around this.

And that's when I knew there's America and there's California America. California America is different? Yeah, California America is very different. It's a subtle blend? I mean, there's ways around stuff. There's free stuff. Get it. Get it.

Get at it. It's weird. yeah again i travel across the country just get to experience different parts of the u.s you know i spent new year's in kentucky and that's pretty interesting oh it's i mean i like it you know maybe it's like a it's like a white mexico is it yeah how so uh people were shooting guns into the air on New Year's Eve. That's pretty Mexican. They do that in Texas, too. Oh, well, again, I don't know. It's not good.

Some lady got shot. Oh, it's completely irresponsible. She was standing in her driveway, a grandma with her family, and the bullet fell out of the sky and hit her in the chest. Yeah, when New Year's would come, we would park underneath the bridges in Baja to not get, you know park underneath the bridges in Baja to not get – firearms are illegal in Mexico. And then – You see tracer rounds just going off in the sky.

Oh, my God. You're like, tracer rounds. Okay. You know? Again, Mexico is a weird place. That's why I call it the upside down. Again, Mexico is a weird place. That's why I call it the upside down.

There's a chaotic freedom to Mexico, which I get. I mean, I love Mexico as a country, as a culture. I don't like the government, though. The government is just at all levels. It's just not a good – Well, it seems like it's always been that way. I'm reading this book about Kit Carson and the Old West and when the United States conquered parts of California and took over parts of California and the West from Mexico. And it was crazy back then.

Yeah, yeah. And they were talking about the chaos in the Mexican government and the Mexican military back then in the 1800s. Yeah, yeah. in the Mexican military back then in the 1800s. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so people kind of figure it, realize if you want to be an officer in the Mexican army, you have to go through war college, and there's different ways to go about it. But there's a lot of hereditary stuff going on.

Hereditary. Yeah. Like, hey, my dad was your general? Okay. There's a lot of that going on. Also, the army down there has a monopoly over selling guns. There's only one gun store in all of Mexico, and it's run by the army. What?

Yep. One gun store in all of Mexico, and it's run by the army, and you have to fly to Mexico City to get a license and to procure a firearm legally. So if you live in the Yucatan, you have to fly to Mexico City to get a gun. Which basically makes the only options buying a gun on the black market or flying over there and expending all this money. So now it's a class. So only people that can afford the plane ticket to do this process are the ones that can have guns. So that's class. The class is involved in there as well.

What kind of rights do you have with guns versus the United States Second Amendment? Is it somewhere? So the Mexican Constitution allows for guns for self-defense. But a lot of amendments and a lot of corrupt governments down there said, maybe it's not a good idea to have this here. So progressively throughout recent Mexican history, it's become more and more strict. Certain rounds aren't allowed. Certain calibers aren't allowed.

And just plainly, the sale of firearms in all of Mexico is just relegated to a single gun store in Mexico City. So you can't carry them without a permit. And to get a permit, you have to know somebody that knows the presidente or a general or something. Well, what about all those gentlemen we saw in that video just walking in front of those government agents with guns? Why didn't they arrest them? They should have. Seems like. Law breakers.

The only people that respect those laws are law-abiding citizens. There was a case in Veracruz of an old man, a former Army guy, older gentleman. His son tried to get abducted, something like that. He had this old Mauser rifle, and he shot dead one of the guys that was chasing him, was trying to abduct him. He was arrested for the firearm possession. And Mauser is what Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly used on JFK. Yeah.

That's an old-ass gun. Well, there's a lot of weird old-ass stuff down there. I mean, as far as the stuff that gets handed over or just the weird exotic firearms down there, a lot of people call Mexico the U.S.'s garage. And like garages, you just find weird stuff down there from World War II era pistols and explosives to new stuff. Like there's a friend of mine that works for the government down there, told me that they found a bunch of parts for a minigun

in a house somewhere down there. What's a minigun? It's basically a – remember that Terminator 2 movie? Yeah. That thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty hard to get. Yeah, one of those.

Apparently there's one out there somewhere on on a vehicle of some sort oh jesus it's basically a obliterate everything well we talked about the ed holder fast and furious deal last time that you were here and that to me still is one of the most bizarre cases in in the history of an undercover operation that doesn't make any sense at all. Yeah. They sold guns, like literally sold working guns. To a specific cartel down there. To try to, so they could track them,

or I don't remember what kind of bullshit argument that was. But the interesting part, or if you want to go into the questions, that they benefited a single cartel, a single cartel. That's the thing. Most of the guns went to that. If you had a guess, if you were a conspiracy theorist, like put on your tinfoil hat, what do you think that was all about? They were probably, as a nation, you were probably wanting to only worry about a single threat as far as cartels and not a lot of cartels. So they empowered one cartel.

Yeah. Really? I mean, that was coming off the Patriot Act era, Bush era thing. I remember vividly people putting Geiger counters in some of the drug tunnels that we would find. So they were worried about nukes getting put into drug tunnels at some point during that whole post-9-11 era. So it would make sense that if you are worried about national security,

you would want to not worry about a lot of cartels, maybe focus on one, support one, and just keep us in the know. Do you think this was a covert operation in the sense that the Sinaloa cartel was not aware that they were doing this to empower them to eliminate the competition, to strengthen one group because they just knew it was inevitable that someone takes control? There's a lot of people that are now coming out after the whole, there's a lot of things that were said at the Chapo trial that would lead somebody to believe that there

was some sort of official support from the U.S. government to the Sinaloa cartel as far as them having deals with this cartel specifically to keep them in the know about things happening down there, supporting them to be in a position so they can keep control over their region and basically as an information group so they can have a clear eye and ear in a chaotic area like Mexico on the bad guy side. That's what I gather from it. Jesus Christ. But that kind of, it's almost like they feel like it's helpless like they have to do something like that that they have to do that because there's no way to fix it so what you got to do

is kind of try to manage it or move it in certain directions well there's there's there's all like every now and then i post some stuff up about that uh type of situation and everybody goes to well the cia has been running drugs into the uS. for years and using planes and stuff like that. There are instances of CIA involvement in different stuff down in Mexico that are pretty obvious now from the 80s and the 90s as far as supporting certain groups or just trying to keep tabs on these people. But I think we're coming to a point in our history where a lot of these people are dead, a lot of these people are in jail,

a lot of these people got book deals, and a lot of these people are talking. And, I mean, it's interesting seeing some of the stuff that is coming out now that in my time when I was active would have gotten you in a hole probably somewhere if you talked about it. would have gotten you in a hole probably somewhere if you talked about it. So there was definitely – I mean my mind was blown when I was seeing El Chapo on Netflix because a lot of stuff that was going on in that show is fictionalized stuff that I went through myself. So I was like, this is on Netflix now. How accurate was it?

Some pretty good accurate parts. So there's a character in that show called... We're talking about Narcos, and we're talking about the Mexican version of Narcos, right? Because it was Colombian first. Yeah, there's a... Narcos is pretty good. There's an El Chapo series on Netflix as well.

Oh, there is? Yeah. It's in Spanish. It's pretty popular, but it's pretty accurate. There's a guy in the show... Does it have subtitles? It does. Oh. it's pretty popular but it's pretty accurate there's a guy in the show does it have subtitles it does there's a guy in the show

Conrado Sol is his name which people were trying to figure out who that was it's basically a government guy that had a deal

with El Chapo and they both kind of escalated in power it turns out it was Luna right so this show was showing him

the character El Sol which depicts Luna as a corrupt politician that was working security, working both sides. And all of a sudden, recently, a few weeks back, they arrested the guy. Wow. So the show was kind of predicted. Do you think that the show had anything to do with him being arrested? I mean, it probably put the idea in the zeitgeist of people to ask questions.

Yeah. That's weird that shows actually do do that, like surviving R. Kelly. That's what got him arrested. I mean, everybody knew he was peeing on people. And, like, fucking 20 years ago, he was peeing on little kids. Yeah, and now it gives people people like – it's interesting. You see fictionalized forms of stuff that happened down there. The Narcos show as well is another thing.

You see fictionalized things of how some of these powerful cartel groups kind of originated themselves in fiction. And now that is in the public kind of domain as far as collective knowledge. So people start asking questions. And some of these things apparently people in power also ask questions as well. Jesus Christ. It's just

it's so strange how popular it's become you know and it's such a popular focal point of fiction as well. And fashion. Yeah.

El Chapo's picture with Champagne. Yeah yeah the shirt was like fire everybody wanted that shirt you know that uh conor mcgregor like wore something to mimic it when on purpose when he's in the press conference for jafel dos anjos did you know that yeah i heard something he stood in the same stance like look at him at him. Look at him. I mean, he's doing it on purpose. Yeah, that's El Chapo. It's like a subtle nod to El Chapo. Yeah.

I mean, El Chapo has achieved legendary status. For sure. Now, his kid that was freed by the cartel down there, he was wearing a escapulario, which is like a – I don't know if you can see it in there. It's an interesting piece of a cultural thing from Mexico. What is going on in this video that we're watching here? So he just handed his personal gun over to one of his bodyguards that was not even... These guys don't even care about him.

It's the head camera thing, and they're putting everybody out there. Personally, I would put everybody in zip ties and on the ground personally. So these guys all have guns drawn and there's people inside with guns drawn at them. And they realize who they have now. So they're like, should we forcefully put him in cuffs? Should we not? So how do you know that they're realizing this right?

Is it because of the language? All of these people? I've went through a lot of the same training that they went through and i did a lot of this type of stuff and all of them would have been in zip ties on the ground look at this girl went reached out and grabbed their guns and put their guns down there's there's fear in these people they realize that they messed up oh jesus right so that's what what people question. And are they streaming this video live on their headcams? They have a headcam and they're streaming it. Well, it's not.

They have it, recording it, and it gets sent back to the command post. So when he was moving around, he had one of these on. This is a scapulario, it's called. It's like a religious Catholic iconography thing. What is yours? What is it? This is a Santapulario, it's called. It's like a religious Catholic iconography thing. What is yours? What is it? This is a Santa Muerte one, right? It's like a holy death effigy.

So he had that on. He had his was a Santo Niño de Tocha, which is like a Catholic Christ baby saint they have. As soon as that picture of him went online, they were sold out all throughout Sinaloa. Everybody was wearing – they have to work. They work. Those work. Because he got them free. Got them free.

There he is. There he is. That's the scapulario. Santo Nino de la Torcha. Handsome guy. Yeah. That's also an interesting cultural thing. the occult part of it where that San Antonio,

that Tocha Shrine, right now it's probably the most popular shrines in Mexico or that one because they work. And then you go to the Holy Death Shrines down there as well and you see how both sides, both Mexican government forces

and the cartel, they both venerate kind of the same saints. So again, that's a weird kind of thing. They share that faith. What is that picture of his truck down there, Jamie? You have some wacky truck? No? It's just a regular truck?

That's his? Yeah. That's one of his armor. Oh, it's riddled with bullets. He gave out cars on Christmas. Like he did this party party to townspeople. How many cars did he give out? I have no idea.

A lot of them. There's pictures of El Chapo's son gives out cars on Christmas and there's a bunch of cars there. Again, who are you going to go

towards him or the government? You give me a car, you don't give me anything. Yeah, like you said, hearts and minds they're really yeah minds and and and uh you know uh they they they pay for college education so there's a whole generation of lawyers a whole generation of doctors they pay for immigration uh procedures so hey you want to you know yeah i'll pay for your immigration, but, you know, I'm going to call in some favors later on.

Okay? Wow. So that's, you know, that's how you grow. It's full-on mafia shit. Yeah, I mean, they learned. One day I'll come to you. I'll Capone, you know, Scarface, you know, all these things are kind of

venerated by them that's kind of their cultural backing, they have pop cultural backing they kind of look to the mob era guys as influence or inspiration, you see insane paintings of the Godfather

or Scarface in some of these safe houses where these people are and you're like, okay or you see cartel-influenced series for Netflix. Like there's one called La Reina del Sur, which is about a female cartel head. And the lady that stars in that show was the one that took Sean Penn down there to meet El Chapo because El Chapo was a fan of that show. Really? That's how it got going?

When they finally caught up to him, he had the whole series on DVDs at his safe house, which is pretty – he humanized them a little bit. Oh, my God. That whole scene with Sean Penn going down there and writing a story for Rolling Stone was uber bizarre. Yeah. Well, if they get the terrorist designation, he basically went down there to meet with a terrorist. What happens to him then? Is it retroactive? I don't know.

I don't know. But he helped get him arrested in a sense, right? That whole commotion put eyes on the movements of El Chapo by the Mexican government. Why would El Chapo agree to do something like that? He was a fan of the show. That seems so crazy, though. Doesn't it seem crazy that he was willing to take that kind of a risk? Take a photo with Sean Penn and that actress?

What's her name again? Cate del Castillo. Yeah, right there. Chapo's probably banging that, right? If I had to guess. There's rumors. There's rumors of a meeting that's about it. I don't know anything else.

If I had to guess, I would say yes. But it's just the whole thing. Look at Sean Penn smiling. Hey, here's my friend the murderer. But it's just the whole thing. Look at Sean Penn smiling. Hey, here's my friend the murderer. Well, I mean, I get the – I mean, I've heard some of the stuff Sean Penn said about Chavez and Venezuela and stuff like that. How he's pro-Chavez and stuff like that.

And I have people, friends of mine that live in Venezuela under that regime. So he's a pretty kooky guy. He has some pretty interesting ideas about he can't possibly be that informed i don't know i mean how you you really have to have boots on the ground to understand what the fuck you're talking about i mean you have to be there for you know if you want to know what's going on in venezuela there's so many different stories my friend abby martin's been down there multiple times and she gives me a story that's so different than anything that you're getting in mainstream news. And she goes there.

She goes there and talks to people. Yeah. Spends time. There's a resistance group that is based in the U.S. that works down there. And they put up videos all the time of people picking up garbage and trying to recycle garbage to feed themselves in some places. Instagram immediately takes all those downs, right? Really? Yeah.

Why does Instagram take those down? I have a lot of that going on as well. When I post something completely news-related about something and then get shadow banned or things just go down, depending on what I post up like weird things um posted up uh a uh a Venezuelan people throwing rocks at this armored vehicle and one of them I think one of them got run over and that got taken down I didn't show the the part where he got run over but just the people protesting how would that get taken down It got flagged as support for a hate group or something like that. Support for a hate group by showing the news?

Yeah, or showing a picture of cartels. And again, I don't post anything graphic on my feed because I don't want to get banned, but I'm still shadow banned. Well, you showed that one, by the way, Ed Manifesto. That's how you find it, Ed Manifesto. That's how you find it. Ed Manifesto. That's Ed's page. You posted that one where you saw a guy getting abducted by fake cops. Yeah.

Yeah. And that one get pulled? Yeah. It did. Yeah. All of the recent Sinaloa video ones were all pulled off the Instagram account. That's why I had to re-upload them all. I just don't understand their logic.

I mean, look, I can understand them saying, caution, some of these images and videos are sensitive, you know, like with some bloody things and things along those lines. Something changed in the algorithms a year back. Like when I was on your, the first time I was on your show, I got, obviously I saw a spike thank you by the way uh but all of the uh pro second amendment uh pages and uh

people like there's a guy crispy who was a veteran you know he also he got a lot all of a sudden all of us start seeing a lot of us are flagged yeah his stuff got taken down yeah he got i think he got a there was a photo of him with donald trump that got taken down yeah yeah i think he got a there was a photo of him with donald trump that got taken down yeah i like or i think it was donald trump jr yeah like what the fuck is wrong with you people yeah just because you don't align with someone politically you can't take down photos and you can't pretend that he's posing with hitler or something like yeah the fuck is wrong with you it's it's uh it's the people can report things anonymously i think and yes and if you hurt my feelings there you go so if there's enough people

that flag your video and say this is hurtful or this is they don't even look into it they just pull it down yeah so who do you think is doing do you think this mexican government is doing that do you think it's the cartels that are doing that to your page? No, I think it's mostly Americans that have sensibilities that are completely beyond my comprehension. That see a gun in a picture and they're afraid of the gun. And it's terrorism. They're supporting terrorism. Hey, group, let's report that picture or video. Well, I can understand how some of what you're reporting on, truthful as it may be, would be disturbing to be able to find out that truth.

But you've got to let people do that. I mean, what does Instagram want to do? Do they want to put parameters on what kind of truth you're allowed to distribute? So just for people to get some context, I do work for two magazine companies, and I do do articles. So in that regard, I do provide news in certain ways. But when I post something on my page, it's a personal view of something. I purposefully don't go into graphic material because I don't want to get flagged.

there's always people with a certain affinity to when they see a gun in a post or when they see an animal being butchered for something like in a picture or when they see hunting related stuff or when they see some sort of I remember posting up a picture of the Make Tijuana Great Again hats

that they were making down there. Red hats that said Make Tijuana Great Again when the caravans went into TJ and people started protesting the caravans in TJ. That got flagged. What? That is so crazy. Oh.

Yeah. If you want to confuse, if you want to make people angry and confused, just wear one of those hats through the airport. Yeah, well, a lady got maced in the face for wearing one that said, make Bitcoin great again. Yeah. Some guy maced her in the face for wearing one that said, make Bitcoin great again. Yeah. Some guy maced her in the face. Yeah. Knocked her hat off. I saw somebody walk in an airport with a make hentai great again hat.

Make anything great again. You can't do it. It's too close. Yeah, it's too close. I mean, you know, the hat, you know, red hat. I've never seen anything more divisive in this country. I mean, other than like a swastika or something like overtly disgusting. I started my immigration process when he got elected. Oh, no.

It's been a trip. How does that work? Like if you are a Mexican-born citizen and you want to become a United States citizen, obviously it's very difficult. So married to an American, have an American kid, that's how I went through the process myself. And I got a green card. The thing is that when he got elected, everybody said, you know what? Maybe our time to get a green card is going to be less and less, so let's all try and get one so what would take normally six months took two years oh wow so in those two years you can't leave the country so if you what happens to people that are illegal that's what's

fucked up about it right it's like there's people that came over here illegally 20 30 years ago and they've done no crimes they've been an integral part of society, they've had great lives, but they can't pay taxes, they can't vote, they have to live undercover. It's fucked. It's stupid.

And they do provide, they pay taxes through other methods. Well, through sales tax, buying things. But they're not paying taxes. But if you made them citizens, you would make money. Yeah. Well, it's not a popular view.

It's a stupid view. Yeah. It's stupid that we have these people and they're permanent illegals. Yeah. And they will be here until they die illegally. And we know they're here. Like, how about work with what you've got? Look, you've already – you're doing your best to stop the border traffic great fantastic but listen

let's just forget about the past these people are here they're here and they're a part of our community like how you how are you going to deny them citizenship to the day they die and they're still here well legal immigration just like I went through, is hard enough. You got to find some American lady. That shit's difficult. I got lucky. I did. But it was a hard process.

It's a difficult process. And you speak fluent English. Yes, that's another thing. I saw people in the line with me that did not speak a lick of English. Yes, that's another thing. I saw people in the line with me that did not speak a lick of English, but they were from a country that had a quota. Great. They're fine. Like Holland or some shit. From a country that has a quota, so they're great, but you're not.

It's hard for Canadians, man. I have friends from Canada that come over here and try to become citizens. It's a fucking grind. Yeah. And don't get me wrong. I love this country. I'm new here, and I like what I see. I don't like where it's going in some places.

What don't you like? I don't like the – I mean, I left my country because I couldn't defend myself from the bad people out there. The Second Amendment things. Second Amendment. It's a beautiful thing. You have no idea how beautiful that thing is until you don't have an option to have it. That's one thing.

I like the opportunities this country provides. I've had a lot of opportunities I would never get anywhere else. I like that you can actually work, and the work you put in matters here. I like how it's segmented and different. You go to Tennessee and you meet people out there and they're great people. You know, there's some, you know, people have preconceived notions of what some part of the countries are, but I've loved it. And then you go to California and you meet people that are on the same boat as I was

and they forgot completely what Mexico is and they're completely bad. Americanized. Americanized and they're completely against you as a new person here. Really? Yeah. So you find that Americanized Mexicans or second, third generation Mexicans? The worst enemy of a Mexican is another Mexican. That's a classic.

What? That's a classic Mexican saying, and it's true. That's a classic Mexican saying? Really? Most of the negativity I got from being on your show the first time was from Latinos, specifically Mexican Latinos. What was the negativity? What was their criticism? When I talked about how Mexicans protested the caravans going through Tijuana and wrecking their city. That was viewed as an extreme to the right or conservative viewpoint apparently yeah but that was a fact but yeah the apparently facts don't matter oh that's so silly

but that's people that's that's a good that's a good example of people that are not there yeah they're talking about it you're not saying you didn't make a value judgment saying that those people coming through were protested by mexicans and needed to go back to wherever fucking rice paddy they come from. You didn't say any of that. So this is what I saw when I talked about it. It's like experience. I was in TJ for a while when that was happening. Byron Karabank goes through.

Obviously, a lot of those guys were gang members. A lot of them were. Not all of them. A lot of them were. Covered in tattoos. It was pretty hot outside. Wearing all the important hoodies. Cameras came by. The females and the children were being put in front parading in front of the media. To anybody that was there, you could see the circus that was going on. And then a lot of the encampments, they would litter the encampments with needles on the outside.

One of them was next to a school that had to be closed down. A niece of mine had a kid in there, and the school had to be closed down because it was next to one of these encampments. They would protest and close down lanes. Most people that live in TJ, some of them are Americans, and they commute, so that's affecting their livelihood. People that work on tourism in TJ, livelihood went down. So the fact that these people came and disrupted all that whole thing, and then you would see these Californian

hippie American guys come down there and do puppet shows for these people and hand over donations in the form of canned food, blankets, and stuff like that, and then you would see these guys go to the back door and sell all that stuff in the back and just get money for whatever they were going to use the money for. We would laugh at it, but also it's pretty disheartening.

Having that point of view online, because I started posting some of this stuff online for people, this is what's happening. And that was like, no, no, no, you're going against the narrative. The narrative, yeah. The narrative and the people that are talking about you going against the narrative have really no idea. They don't care about the truth. That's what's crazy. The absolutist thing. So if you're against this caravan going through Tijuana and affecting your – you're probably a Trump supporter.

That's – and I'm like – So simple. I can't even vote up here yet. I have to be a full citizen to vote so that it doesn't even factor in. God damn. It's so crazy. What else about America bothers you? I think there's definitely this tendency in America that I see the youth in America. I have a weird mental comparison of seeing my nephews down there playing soccer, going out and getting into trouble, going to cockfights, which is probably pretty dangerous, but they go to cockfights, stuff like that.

And I see kids up here on their tablet. Playing games, video games. Getting offended by something. Down there, you can still punch somebody in the face if they get into your face in school. You're allowed to do that in school? I mean, there's going to be some issues, but it's fine. There's still that. Up here, it's gone.

All that's gone. You're going to get into some issues. You're probably going to get kicked out of school or something. You see this weird— The pussification of American children. Say spaces. Don't say that that's politically incorrect pussification what's a good word for it what's the play come up with a politically correct word for that that has just as much kick and i'll use that i don't know they can't it doesn't exist it it's the pussification. Yeah. And when I came up here, like the first year I was up here, I saw the California gun laws change.

Like I got to see the weird California compliant rifles come to the range and you have to push a button to release the magazine. Yeah. Make it more difficult to reload. Yeah. So strange. yeah and make it more difficult to reload yeah so strange well i mean if if if uh i've never seen a california compliant gun in the hands of a criminal myself right so why why are the good like the good citizens following the law yeah the idea that you're just going to handicap law-abiding citizens and that's going to somehow or another save lives in mass shootings

and here's the other thing about you and i'm waiting for this to happen but it's just not happening they're never addressing people using psychotropic drugs they're not they don't address that all those school shooters all those mass shooters are all on drugs yeah they're all on some kind of psych drugs and there's there's no mention of it whatsoever. Like what is the action of these things? It's all about the guns. And the guns are a huge issue. I mean the fact that these people who are fucked up, yeah, that they have access and they can get access to these guns and they can wind up shooting people.

Yes, that is one issue. Security is another issue. There's another issue and that is one issue. Security is another issue. There's another issue, and that's mental health. And that, to me, is the biggest one. Because without the mental health issue, you don't get mass shooters. And that's an interesting thing when I get people in conversations about the violence in Mexico and perspective. Mexico cartel guys go into a town and shoot up a bunch of people, and it's pretty horrible. But on the Mexican side, we only had one school shooting.

A notable one. And it was a mentally ill kid. He took a gun to school. And as Mexicans, we look at what happens in the U.S. in schools and we're horrified by it. That's completely horrific. Isn't that amazing? Again, being

on both sides, I'm just trying to figure things. What about pharmaceuticals being prescribed to children in Mexico? Is it similar? Not at all. I mean, we're still behind in some instances as far as, you know, I didn't know about PTSD until I came up here or TBI, right? Really? Yeah.

I didn't know anything about that. When did you learn about TBI? When I started talking about it. We should say what that is. Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries for people, especially kids. I learned about it from talking to most of my Marine friends that were coming back from. They're like, Ed, what you're describing, what you're feeling sounds like TBI. Really?

Yeah. You should get yourself checked out. And then you go down there and it's like, oh, things would happen and people would get, you know, get a few days off, take a few shots of tequila. You're fine. Get back at it. Well, that's the old school mentality. I mean, that's what they had to deal with in World War II and Vietnam. Yeah.

Yeah. old school mentality i mean that's what they had to deal with in world war ii and vietnam and yeah yeah but you've got i mean when it comes to that but mental health down in mexico there's like it's not it's not anywhere as far as medicating it kids being diagnosed with things like autism autism is a thing that i only recently kind of heard about 15 years ago in mexico in mexico and what about um anti-psychotic drugs and all these different drugs that you're seeing that these a lot of these school shooters are taking in mexico it's not a thing uh you know people think that it's pretty permissive in mexico they can get any drug if you pay somebody off the thing is that a lot of these uh psychiatric level they're they're not they're not available down there or people there you can go to and they're like what do you want no this is not available here so it's not a part of the culture

it's not in america no no yeah in america it's such a huge part of the culture that people want that people are constantly wanting to take something to take the edge off or take something so they could feel better or take something just to alter their state, and the doctor will prescribe it to them. And then the pharmaceutical drug companies are just raking in the cash from it, so it just becomes a part of reality. Yeah. There was a few people way back when I first started.

Things were pretty lax when I got in. You would get urine tested for cocaine and whatever. But some people would go to Oaxaca and go on mushroom trips. you know, you would get, you know, urine tested for cocaine and whatever. But some people would go to Oaxaca and go on mushroom trips, like some of the veteran guys that were going through whatever. There's a place in Oaxaca and Veracruz where they go up into the hills and get some of those, they call them veladas, which is like basically going into midnight, and they would smoke these mushrooms and take them.

And they would come back, apparently fix some of them. That was like the story. It was pretty good for them to work their things out. Well, John Hopkins, they're doing studies on psilocybin, and there's been studies done on psilocybin with troops with PTSD. And they've found that it does help them. MDMA is another one that MAPS is doing all these studies with MDMA and troops coming back with PTSD.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of that stuff has been around for a long time down there. Yeah. Like, remember the Beatles and members of the Doors went down there to Maria Savina and her. Well, they found out about, it was a Life Magazine article from the 1950s that was one of the first really mainstream. Jamie, see if you can find who wrote that.

It was a Life article in the 50s. I'm trying to remember the guy's name. Wasserman? Wasserman. I feel like it's Wasserman, who was one of the very first guys to sort of mainstream psilocybin mushrooms. And it was because of Mexican tribal cultures. Maria Savina was like the figurehead of that movement. She was a lady that would do these mushroom trips for people

that would come up in the hillside where she would take her own. Who was it? Gordon Wasson. Ah, it was close. I knew it was something like that. Gordon Wasson. That's right. Yeah, so this was Seeking the Magic Mushroom, and I believe this was, what year was this, Jamie?

I think it's in the 50s. Yeah, I typed it in 1957. Yeah, okay. Maria Sabina left a whole legacy of that in Mexico, and she had a lot of people that learned from her, and a lot of these people are all over Mexico doing healing and spiritual work. Well, that's the other thing about mexico mexico has some uh you have some freedom like my friend ed ed clay he had a uh ibogaine uh retreat down there where people would go to get off of pills yeah because it's one of the iboga is one of the best ways to get off of particularly opiates. Yeah.

Enforcement is hard in a country like Mexico, so you're not going to have people trying to go inspect things in some of these parts. So that's why there's a lot of places like that. Still to this day, you can go to places like Oaxaca, where technically taking mushrooms is illegal, but they grow on the hillsides. Didn't they kind of like decriminalize a lot of different things down there? For personal use. So the quantities now matter more than they used to.

So sometimes you would get caught with a certain quantity of something, and that means you're selling it. How many grams of mushrooms can you have? I would have to look it up. Everybody has a different opinion on what personal use is. I remember the first time I saw a box of them and I'm like, what the hell are these?

Later on, I figured out what they were. They're a thing. They're a thing in Mexico. They're a big thing in Mexico. There's a lot of people growing them. They're a big thing to anyone who finds out about them. Once you eat them, they become a big thing. Yeah, yeah, apparently.

And they use them in rituals and all sorts of weird rituals down there as a doorway type element. Like there's a ritual where they do it where they bury you alive in a shallow grave. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, it's basically an isolation chamber, a really poor man's isolation chamber. They bury you alive in the shallow grave with a rope with a bell on it, and they give you a bunch of mushrooms so you can think about things in there. And if you freak out, you ring that bell and you get pulled out. And they dig you out?

Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. How are you breathing down there? Do you got a tube or something? That's a shallow grave. It's just basically about that much dirt. There's a hole where the rope goes through, so you're kind of fine.

But it's part of the death cult down there. They do that to kind of initiate people into it. But it's mushrooms. They take mushrooms. There's a bunch of weird stuff that goes down down there as far as the use of psychotropics like mushrooms and other things to put people in that mindset of accepting a very specific deity or truth out there. Yeah. So let's get back to what's fucked up about America. I always like talking to people that have come here from somewhere else and just sort of look at it with a fresh eye. Because obviously I've been here my whole life.

I'm used to it. Yeah. And I'm third generation. Oh, you are? Yeah. Okay. So my parents were second generation. My grandparents came over here.

So it's all, I'm ingrained. Yeah. I'm in the system. I don't know. I'm blind. What else is fucked up about this place? I mean, I don't know. I mean, when I travel around, I get to see different parts of America.

And all of them, you know, there's certain places I've been called, ah, you're one of the good Mexicans, Ed. You're one of the good ones. I won't say what those parts of the country are, but I've gotten some of that, you know? Well, the United States is almost like europe where like there's all these different countries except they all speak the same language yeah you know like europe has france and then they have germany and you go over there there's this one then there's sweden and then it's all in this fucking big landmass yeah but the united states's landmass isiguous, and they all speak the same language.

But if you want to tell me that Montana is the same as Florida, you're out of your fucking mind. Well, I take those comments in stride. That you're one of the good Mexicans? I mean, being kind of racial like that and just messing with each other, Mexicans do that all the time. So I take it in stride. It's fascinating to me that people are second generation Mexicans up here. Take more offense to something like that. Uh,

then, then I would, somebody say, you're one of the good Mexicans. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever.

You know, it's, it's, it's, to me, it's like a thing I, I take it. Well,

the easier things get, the more people get quickly offended. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a fact. Hard times produce. Hard men.

Hard men produce soft times. Soft times produce weak men. Yeah. So when I come up here, I see some softness in a lot of the society and a lot of feelings get hurt. Having to watch what I say as far as, you know. Joking around? Yeah. I always tell this to people.

First off, I'm from Mexico. I come from a Mexican education system. It's a third world country. So please take everything I say with that in mind. Right. And then I go into whatever I'm going to say. And like when you do, like when you teach class, when I have a class where I have a, like, I recently did a conference with a bunch of bodyguards and security professionals that work internationally. I had to start with that one just to not offend anybody. That's hilarious. You're teaching security guards and bodyguards. And you have to worry about being offended. Every now and then you get somebody, you know what?

You said something. Oh, Christ, you fucking babies. Yeah. So never read the comment section. offended every now and then you get somebody you know what you said something oh christ you fucking babies yeah so never read the comment section never uh never stay behind and talk to people especially if they they look like they're they want to speak to the manager you know oh did you get that when you teach classes every now and then i guess what do they say to you uh you know i think i think your point of view is is askew because you work for the government down there and you weren't part of the, like, the poor class. I'm like, I wasn't part of the poor class. If you work for, like, where I work from, we're pretty poor.

Pretty poor, right? It's not like, you know, I was middle class. I was pretty poor. Or they try to tell me the realities of where I'm from. Oh, that must be hilarious. Oh, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Ed, you're just fear-mongering about Mexico.

I go down to Rosarito all the time with my family. It's fine. Well, Rosarito's fine. Go down to Tamaulipas where the shooting happened and tell me the same thing. You know, it's perspective. They really say that to you? I can't imagine someone talking particularly talking to someone like you yeah who's got like real world experience there's there's people out there that kind of

i believe you yeah i mean i do people are so fucking dumb i do believe you yeah common section yeah don't don't go in there man but it is really true that it's the the people that live the softest easiest lives that are most offended and the people that have experienced like real hardship and seen real violence that are a little more hesitant to comment on things like that. That is possible. Yeah. That is real. And that's one of the things that I really think is good about your page. And it really makes me angry that Instagram censors it is that you're giving real world perspective.

You're showing real video of a lot of this stuff and you put it up with with also your educated experience on what these people are actually involved in yeah and and it's i'm not involved in any news agency and a lot of this like most of those videos came in through direct messenger to my phone from people that are out there hey this is happening is happening here. Like, okay. Can you talk about it? Okay, I'll talk about it. Like when the Mormon thing happened,

the people that reached out to me to talk about it were part of the family. It was pretty surreal. And it wasn't national news when I posted it up, right? So some of the first social media posts about it that I could – I was trying to look for it and it wasn't anywhere. So I talked about it and that evening it went national news. But most of it is directly from having connections and people out there that still talk to me. So I always keep my ear open to that type of stuff, specifically from that region, because that's my thing. That's where I came from.

Well, there's not a lot of mainstream news that's dedicated to this crisis, dedicated to what's going on. It takes a big event like that to sort of break through all the noise and become a signal that reaches us over here. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, again, things happen somewhere else, and now all the attention. Most people aren't focused on Iran now. So the whole what happened down there. Yeah, it's, you know, again, and things happen somewhere else and now all the attention. Most people aren't focused on Iran now. Yeah. So the whole what happened down there. Yeah, it's just fucking crazy.

There's a giant problem right next door. You could walk to it, literally. I mean, if you live in San Diego, it's a 15-minute drive. Yeah. Like, it's right there. To me, I love San Diego and I love going down there. But every time I go down there, I'm like, you guys could walk to Mexico. This is so crazy.

Especially La Jolla. Yeah. La Jolla, which is one of the most richest parts of the country. Fucking unbelievably beautiful. Yeah. Stunning views, gorgeous mansions. Everybody's driving a Mercedes. You're 15 minutes away from Tijuana.

Yeah. And if we have heavy rains in Tijuana, all of our sewage is going to go right through there. Really? Yeah. Is that what happens? A lot of the sewage, like recently we had a major rain in Tijuana. All of the sewage goes across the border

to a Tijuana estuary. There's a processing facility the U.S. has on this side, but it can't manage all of that. And they have to close all the beaches in the area. Oh, wow. Which is, again, it's fascinating this side but it can't manage all that and they have to close all the beaches in the area oh wow which is again it's fascinating how to see how they affect there's a there's a border wall there but there really isn't a border there's no border wall you get in a boat you row over there it takes three minutes or you can parkour okay i recently posted up a bunch of videos of people parkouring over that wall i saw it yeah look Yeah. Look, I admire ingenuity.

I admire people that find solutions to problems. Watching that guy scale that goddamn wall like Batman. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah, they're coming up with weird ways. Like I saw some people using powdered titanium to melt the bars on one of the slats. Powdered titanium? Again, I had to research it.

Basically, powdered titanium burns at a very high rate when you start it. It's kind of hard to put it out. So they made this hole in this wall with some sort of powdered titanium mix. That's like that shit. What was that shit that they were talking about with 9-11 where all the conspiracy theorists thought that it melted steel? God damn it. Pyrene?

Pyrite. Is that it? A word just popped in my head. I don't know if that's the one. I feel like that's the stuff they blow shit up with. Right now they sell these things they call breach pens. For tactical applications there's these sticks that

you start and you can burn chains open and stuff like that with them. Really? Yeah. So it's basically a ghetto version of that is what they're using in some of these places. I mean, the wall as they're making it, and speaking to some of the Border Patrol agents that I know, it does its job as far as slowing people down. So there's not an overflow of people coming through. Yeah, it's not like, yeah! What would happen if it was that?

Bonsai? Yeah, what would happen if there was no border? Everybody's like, Mexico's the United States. The United States is Mexico. Have a good time. Yeah, it would be chaotic, of course. For how long, though? Ten years?

I don't know. I mean, once everybody got in. Yeah, that would be chaotic of course how long though 10 years i don't know how long i mean once everybody got in yeah that would be bad other people would go there yeah i mean if what if united states and mexico came to a deal and they said listen yeah we'll call wasn't there a thing that they were going to do there was a north american agreement there was like they were trying to do that with the united states and set up a single currency. Yes, yes. A lot of conspiracy theories around the Amero. Yes, there was something like that. They were going to do it with Canada.

We were all going to become one nation. I could see it with Canada, yeah. But maybe not Mexico. Well, look, we could all spread all the good around. Yeah. And then also, look, Mexico's got some awesome spots. Wouldn't it be great if U.S. industry moved in there? And lithium.

Yes, and lithium. and lithium maybe that's gonna help well Colombia did a great job in eradicating all the problems with narcotics I think it is really well not all of them because they still have a guerrilla guerrilla group down there that recently kind of

the FARC that went amnesty and then they got active again but there's still there's still a lot of cocaine being produced there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But it's nothing like when Escobar. No, no. What did they do?

Well, they were facing just a few criminal groups, large ones, and Mexico is facing a lot of them. That's interesting. And they have the U.S. right next door that is pumping money into the issue directly. They don't have to fly in. No. Yeah, it's not a long plane flight. It's a short walk.

Also, Mexico is a pretty big country. I think people kind of miss that also. It's a pretty big country. It's a pretty big country. Do you remember when there was a CIA drug plane that had, like, several tons of cocaine on it, and it crashed because the Mexican government wouldn't let them land and refuel? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all sorts of conspiracy theories are well that was a real cia drug plane that had been to guantanamo bay at least twice yeah like it was documented yeah and they for whatever reason i mean we're flying back with a lot of coke look at that

look at all that coke i imagine i imagine government groups everywhere have a cowboys yeah yeah you have cowboys when people try to say the cia brings in drugs no no people who work for the cia realize they can make a shitload of money if they bring in drugs and they they pass that money around and they work it out. But the CIA itself does not bring in drugs. Yeah. Customs and Border Protection agents and just Homeland Security as an agency has the most corruption charges as far as all law enforcement agencies. Do they really? Yeah.

Federal charges for corruption because they are on the border and have a lot of money on the border. Of course. That's why, right? It totally makes sense. And, you know, I mean, maybe it was the CIA guy that said, you know, I can make some money through here. Well, I mean, that was the whole Barry Seals thing, that Tom Cruise movie. Was it called Made in America, I think?

Yeah, Made in America. That was about bringing in drugs with cowboys that work for the CIA. Yeah. I mean, when I was working down there in Mexico and I got to see different agencies that we would work with, all of a sudden we're like, hey, can you guys just go like look over there or just look over there? Like what's going on? And you would see like some sort of – Okay.

Let's go. You don't know what's going on. Plane lands. Plane takes off. Pl know but plain lands plane takes off nobody saw nothing you know money exchanges and just you know that's in europe just an agent you know just in the background well that's the thing that's so scary about what's going on with the cartels is that the quantity of money is so extraordinary now yeah it's almost like they can do anything yeah i mean uh they have their own cell phone networks in some places. What? Yeah.

What's it called? It'd be good if I knew. What kind of coverage do they have? They got a good plan? Pretty good coverage in their areas. I mean, they dismantled some cell phone networks in the past. Also, like, whole cities with hidden cameras that are cartel controlled to see what goes in and out of the towns. Wow.

So it's sophisticated. Oh, yeah. So Mexican government is working with uniformed agents patrolling in pickup trucks in the back. And these guys are living in 2025 and using drones to surveil the patrols in the area. And they're using their own cell phone network so they don't have to worry about government tapping into their communications. They're utilizing encrypted phone technology that is available now commercially throughout the world to get around some of these things.

And they're constantly evolving in how they work. I remember the first time I was working in Baja and all the cartel guys would move around in suburbans dressed like federal agents. And they would look exactly like the legit federal agents. Or they were federal agents with the cartel guys. So you would- Oh my God. So they'd be together.

Yeah. And then we started working with the military and the military didn would oh my god so they'd be together yeah and then we started working with the military and the military didn't give a shit who you were so it would stop everybody shoot everybody and the guys immediately saying oh now we're using taxi cabs to move around and different types of cars and we're gonna paint the the the vans like uh taxi vans or we're gonna move around in ambulances. So they changed their tactics. So we were always after these convoys of suburbans, and now they're doing something else.

So that's how they evolved. You're trying to go after them with a hammer, and these guys are mosquitoes. Does it make you want to move to Canada? No, no. No, not at all. That's the furthest you can get away from all the chaos. You know. It must be going on up there as well, right? They may also have a – So I interviewed a smuggler, a coyote, for one of the articles I wrote.

And he asked him directly, like, what do you think about the border wall and the immigration policies of this current administration? He says, oh, it's good for business. It makes it seem like it's harder to put people in the United States. So, I mean, that wall is pretty hard. Like, how do you do it? I fly them to Canada and they walk down. Well, we talked about it before that the border of the United States is a wall to Mexico. The border from the United States to Canada is a giant clearing that's 100 yards wide.

It's real clear. You can see it. It's almost like they make it easy. Hey, just go right here. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people that want to get into the U.S. You hear numbers from $8,000 to $15,000, depending on who you are, what you're trying to do,

how you're trying to get up here, as far as being smuggled up. And he's like, Mexican passport. Get a Mexican passport if you're Mexican. Get you a Mexican passport. We'll put $2,000 in an account somewhere. So if they want to verify if you're just financially solvent, they will check that and just fly to Canada and just walk down.

And that's what we do. Well, Canada's super liberal now too. That Justin Trudeau guy, super liberal. Yeah, a lot of their business as far as smuggling people, that's how they do it right now instead of going through the desert. There is a lot of that going on now too. There's a lot of people from Africa, African migrants coming into Mexico, a lot of people in the Middle East as well, which is worrying for some people,

coming in through Mexico trying to make their way up. But it's pretty hard for these people now because there's a lot of security now on both sides of the border. Mexican Guardia Nacional and on this side of the border. Mexican Guardia Nacional and on this side of the border, things are kind of more stringent. A lot of the people that claim asylum, like a lot of the Maya Carabin members

come into the U.S., claim asylum, and say, okay, there's your number to wait, but you're going to wait in Mexico, so they get sent back. Even if they're not from Mexico, they have to wait in Mexico, which is pretty interesting. Yeah.

There's a lot of these immigrant waiting encampments in places like Texas and even in Tijuana there's places where people get cross asylum okay here's your number you have to wait in Mexico they get sent back yeah

man are you hopeful? Do you think this is going to work out okay? When you mean this okay? This is what we're all talking about. Yeah. Is this going to become better, a better situation in the future? Or is it going to get more and more crazy?

Is the United States going to become like Mexico? I think on a global scale, we're going to need each other before too long. You guys are going to need Mexico, and Mexico's going to need you. There's going to be some sort of situation where we're going to have to come together, probably. You mean like a global war? I don't know. Could be. Oh, Jesus, Ed. Why are you freaking me out?

There's a lot of Chinese influences in industry in Mexico. Yes. me out there's a lot of chinese influences in industry in mexico yes as soon as trump said we're gonna when when trump was going into into office he said we're gonna bring jobs back you know this whole thing so a lot of uh factories american factories and businesses moved out of mexico and then the chinese moved in in a second well that's what's dumb about short-sightedness right yeah well not understanding 4 understanding three-dimensional chess. There's a lot of moving pieces. Yeah, and people can say whatever they want about the United States.

American companies in Mexico are pretty good companies, and they're pretty good with their workers, and their ethics are pretty good. A lot better than China. A lot better than China. It's a different game. A lot better than China. It's a different game. Again, you see these influences going into Mexico because they realize that Mexico is a valuable place for them to have influence in.

Well, especially with what you're talking about with lithium. With battery technology and green technology becoming in the forefront of American culture right now. I mean, everybody wants electric cars. All these manufacturers, Ford, Mercedes, they're all coming out with electric cars. Porsche is going to electric car now. Yeah. I mean, that's a big deal. Yeah. They need those batteries.

Yeah. Lithium. That's the next oil type situation is going to be lithium. And that's right next door. All right. So I think, again, I think as a second largest consumer of American products in the world is Mexico, second largest. So economies are intertwined. They have a lot of Americans living down there. There's a lot of blood ties to within the country. Of course, Americans don't want America to be Mexico. And of course, a lot of Mex want mexico to be more like america that's what would fix things increasing the

opportunities and and making mexico a better place yeah we need to make some make mexico great again shirts and yeah and get getting fights at the airport. I mean, really, if we're connected to Mexico, if Mexico was like Canada, where, you know, like, Canada is fucking wonderful. You go over there, there's amazing cities, it's great, it's safe, it's clean. If we can make Mexico like that,

then we'd have, you know, it would be better for everybody, including Mexico, including the United States, everybody. Post 9-11 at the border, it would be better for everybody, including Mexico, including the United States, everybody. Post 9-11 at the border, you could see how businesses started failing in San Diego because it became harder to cross the border. Interesting. There's a symbiotic relationship with some of these border towns. Specifically, California is very dependent on some border towns in Mexico.

Yeah. Have you ever seen that documentary, A Day Without Mexicans? Yeah. Shut this whole fucking place down, man. There's nothing going on without Mexicans here. Yeah. That's why anti-Mexican racism is some of the dumbest racism in all of the United States, but particularly for California.

Yeah. It's so stupid. I, you know, I got to see how, like in places like Fallbrook, California, where the avocado capital of the world, cutting down all the avocado trees. Because there's a drought and there's nobody to pick them. Really? Yeah, there's less. No one to pick them? There's less people coming up and it's harder to maintain.

They hire illegals. Holy shit. These farms need to organize start working on border control it's like the whole i don't know man i i'm i'm one of those people that believes in borders but i also believe if you're a hard working person who wants to do better you should have have an opportunity. And I don't think a lot of people, particularly poor people that aren't very well educated, there's not an opportunity. There's no reason for them to be over here. So if they applied for United States citizenship, well, why do you want to come here? Well, I want to come here for opportunity. Well, what do you have to offer? I'm a hard worker. Well, there's a lot of hard workers. I mean, that's really the attitude. And I think we all just got, I mean, me, I got lucky.

I got lucky my grandparents came here. I got lucky. That's all it is. It's just luck. And to deny that and to deny these other people this opportunity, there's just got to be a way to filter out bad people. Maybe as technology gets better and we can recognize bad people better. Yeah. I mean, I went through a bunch of questioning. Look at my background. people yeah maybe as technology gets better we can recognize bad people better yeah i mean i went

through a bunch of questioning look at my background i got a lot of questions for what i used to do right i got a looks and it's fine you know and i you know i was like i didn't you know i didn't do anything wrong so like i'm here it's fine but uh you know there's a lot of people like again the luna garcia luna was here on a green card and he got uh nabbed when he went to process his full citizenship so he was here for a long time wow he should have just stuck with the green card i would have kept quiet probably that's why he's in jail right he lied to an immigration agent that's one of the charges he has on him. Oh, wow. Right? So it's pretty interesting that people like him have spent a long time up here,

things like open secrets. Yeah, I mean, again, not all Mexicans are good guys. Not all humans are good. Yeah, I know. Yeah. So hardworking people come up here. I've got some of the people that I've met out here that are kind of on the same boat as I am, fresh in the country, you know, doing manual labor, construction, working. Kentucky, I met a bunch of guys that were working on the Kentucky Derby or the horse stalls around them, all Mexicans.

You can smell, you know, the tortillas. The good food is usually you can smell you know you can you know where they are dude there's a place if you're hungry there's a place i don't tell anybody the name because i don't want to fuck it up okay there's a place down the street from here that like every time you go in there mexican soap opera's playing nobody speaks english the food's off the charts that's how i know lengua tacos oh yeah lengua quesadillas. Yeah, make organ meat great again.

Yes. That's another thing. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. More organ meat. Don't throw away the tongue. No. Don't throw away the tongue.

The tripe. Yeah, tripe. Yeah. Dude, I love liver. I eat heart and liver. That's another thing, weird thing. I see all the stuff you throw away from the animals. I know.

They've never had menudo. Oh, that's sad. This place up here has never had menudo. Oh, that's sad. This place up here has menudo. Yes. Oh, it's off the charts. Best hangover food, menudo. Menudo. Right.

How does that work? There's like a science behind that. You know, organ meat. I don't know. There's a lot of nutrients in it, basically. Right. A lot of nutrients get stored in organ meat. And it's a soup, so you get the rehydration from that.

Yeah. And it's like a common thing in Mexico about liver specifically. I grew up on a pig farm, and my mom would have this rule, if you killed it, you have to eat it. So I killed a rattlesnake once, and I was peeling it, and the liver of the rattlesnake was like a treat that she would give us, right? Really? Yeah.

Raw? Raw. Woo! That's hardcore. Well, my mom was pretty hardcore. My God. Sounds so. But listen, man, thanks for coming here and dropping knowledge.

We really appreciate you. And again, Ed Manifesto is your Instagram page. Yeah, Ed Manifesto. Please, everybody, sign up. Go follow him. Check it out. Get yourself educated. Find out what's going on and tell Instagram to go fuck themselves. What, everybody, sign up. Go follow him. Check it out. Get yourself educated. Find out what's going on and tell Instagram to go fuck themselves.

What they're doing is rude. That's it. Yeah. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you, man. Thank you. Bye, everybody. Bye, everybody.

Oh. Pfft. Uggggh.