The Jordan Harbinger Show - 868: Remi Adeleke | The Ex-Royal/Ex-SEAL Who Fights Organ Harvesting

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

Ex-royal/Ex-SEAL Remi Adeleke shares an adventurous life spent between two continents and his efforts to end human trafficking and illegal organ harvesting. What We Discuss with Remi Adeleke: How Remi Adeleke's royal Nigerian family lost everything to the corrupt government when his father passed away. What it was like growing up in the Bronx, where drugs and drive-bys were plentiful. The unlikely movie that catalyzed Remi's decision to pursue a career as a US Navy SEAL. How Remi managed to pass BUD/S training in spite of entering the program before knowing how to swim. The grim realities of human trafficking and illegal organ harvesting — and what Remi is doing to fight back against them. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/868 This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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millionaires, but they come out billionaires with a B. They don't go into politics to serve the people, and that's just a cycle that has been created for decades, so that's what they're used to. Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker through long-form conversations with a variety of amazing folks, from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, and performers, even the occasional arms dealer, former jihadi four-star general or Russian chess grandmaster. And if

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Jordanharbinger.com slash news. By the way, if you use the Stitcher app to listen to this show, they are getting rid of that app. August 29th. It will no longer be useful. So switch to a different app if you use the Stitcher app to listen to this podcast. If you're on Android, I suggest podcast addict. It might not be as pretty, but it works really well. If you're on iOS, Apple, you should use Overcast, in my humble opinion, or Apple podcasts.

But definitely no longer Stitcher, it will not update anymore in the next couple of months. So if you're using the Stitcher app, now is a good time to switch to a new podcast app. And if you have any problems with this, you're kind of boomer in terms of your tech. You don't know what to do. you can always email me Jordan at Jordan Harbinger.com. I will try to point you in the right direction, but the Stitcher app will no longer work for this show. Today, my friend Remy Adelaika,

you might have seen him in Transformers. This guy is just a badass. I don't know what else to say. He grew up partially in Africa, partially in the Bronx, joins the military, ends up a Navy SEAL specializing in human intelligence, and then dives into anti-human trafficking

and anti-organ harvesting. Fascinating conversation that goes across corruption in Nigeria, going from Nigerian royalty to a Bronx kid, perseverance, insight, hard work, and some crazy-ass stories along the way. Enjoy this episode with Remy Adelaike. Let's sort of go chronologically, for lack of a better plan here, because your dad was a chief in Nigeria, which you don't hear very often from somebody who's a Navy SEAL in the United States. You're like, wait a second, you're from Africa? I didn't even know, I guess you can't run for president, but you could be a Navy SEAL.

So you got that goal for you. Yeah. Well, actually, I can't run for president because my mom is American. Uh-huh. And so I was born an American citizen abroad. Well, my dad, he was a visionary. He always looked like 10, 20, 30 years into the future. And so he always wanted the potential to exist for my brother and I to be able to run a politics.

So he ensured that when I was born, I wasn't born with dual citizenship. I was just born in a U.S. American. I was a U.S. citizen abroad. Oh. Yeah. Interesting. So he didn't want anybody to be like, oh, you're actually not as American as you're just a, he didn't want any question. He'd wanted you to only be USA.

Yeah. And due to the corruption in Nigeria, which still persists, he didn't want me to, you know, be relegated. I mean, it was no real benefit from his perspective. There was no real benefit for me to have Nigerian citizenship. Yeah. Because of all of the corruption out there. But, yeah, my dad, he was a, his father was a royal chief. in the Yoruba tribe.

Europe is one of the most prominent tribes in Nigeria. You have Ebo House of a Yorba essentially stands at the top. And he had like eight, nine wives, kept on having girls with his wives. And then finally, my grandmother came along. And she was able to produce an heir, which was my father. So my father naturally entitled and naturally acquired the title of chief being the firstborn son. And then obviously the last name, Addeleke, which Adde means Christ. and Lake A means supreme.

So the crown is supreme or above. And so when I came along, I wasn't the firstborn son, but I did and still do have that Nigerian royal Yoruba lineage, so to speak. Yeah, wow. That's really interesting. I had no idea. I mean, we've heard of the corruption in Nigeria and stuff like that, and it still persists, as you mentioned.

So wait, does this mean you have nine grandmas, or does it not work like that? I have one grandma because my one grandma. But I have, I don't even, you know, that's a really good question. I never thought about it. I don't know if I would consider my step-grandmothers or what, but yeah. Yeah, they were about eight other women, along with my grandmother, that were my, my grandfather's wives. And then you have all these, like, step, I guess not step, but aunts. Like, what step-a-a-a-a-a-a-thing?

I don't even know how that works. Yeah, I think that's what it would be called. And then a lot of cousin, a lot of, I probably would probably be. cousins, correct? I think it would be cousins. It is, but I don't know if it's like, because it's usually we don't have to deal with nine wives over here. So I'm not sure how, I'm not sure the technical aspect of that. But I guess, yeah, cousins, step cousin. I'm not, that's very interesting. That's a humongous family. I mean, that gets enormous really fast. You probably don't even know all those people. No, not at all. I mean, there's people, there's a very famous Nigerian singer named DeVito.

And so we're, we're distant relatives because of that, you know, his, his father. is a younger brother, younger half-brother, to my father. Got it. So, you know, from one of the wives. So, you know, there's a lot of distance between. Yeah. Yeah. So wait a minute.

So then who's the most famous person in your family? It's not, is it really not you even though you've been in Transformers and everything like that? It's some guy named DeVito. It's DeVito. Man. He's like the biggest Afro beats performer on the planet. Oh, really? Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's such an interesting family history. And I want to hear a little bit about how your dad, I mean, he got screwed over in Nigeria.

There's not like another polite way to put it or anything. It was really just exactly what you'd expect from a super corrupt government. It's depressing to read about, right? Because it's so brutal. Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, so interestingly, I will say I did a social media post on July 4th. You know, just, you know, hey, here's a bit of my story. And this is why I'm grateful to be in America because of what happened to my dad and post it for any other reason.

But just to kind of, you know, say happy for it. And it's gone viral at like almost 4 million views on Twitter. And I've been contacted from news outlets in Nigeria because they're like, oh, we know. You know, some of us have heard the story, but we didn't know that you were that guy's son. We never put two and two together. But, yeah, my dad, he in the 19, well, one, he was educated in the West. He went to school in London, got his bachelor's and masters in architecture and engineering. And then he began to accumulate his wealth and success for the most part in the West.

He was one of the first black men on the border of World Trade Center in New York City. He was the first black man on the board of the British Financial Planning Council in Great Britain. And he started a number of businesses from engineering firms to even partly owned the law firm. I mean, he dabbled in absolutely everything. And after a number of years, he decided, hey, I want to take everything that I've learned and all of this wealth that I accumulated and bring it back to Nigeria and establish some businesses in Nigeria because many people don't know this. But Nigeria is very, very rich in resources, you know, from oil to natural gas to gold to cocoa to other minerals. I mean, you name it, Nigeria has. As a matter of fact, now, you know, China is signing packs with a lot of different African countries, Nigeria included in all.

order to be able to mine a lot of the materials that are in the specific regions because Africa and Nigeria especially are very, very rich in resources. So my dad went back to Nigeria. He wanted to establish somewhat of a black Wall Street slash a World Trade Center area in Nigeria, in Lagos specifically, that people not just from around Africa, but people from around the world could come to and do business. Because again, he understood that if we could somehow organize the selling and the trading of our resources in a more structured format in a more structured place, then we will be more successful and will be to kind of get rid of some of this corruption that takes place in Nigeria. And so he went back to Nigeria. He bought a massive

plot of land in Lagos called Marico. And he started to, you know, his development. And long story short, there was a military coup. So the land, he spent eight million pounds for it. It was essentially taken from him. Uh, it's just for inflation. That's a lot of money in the 70s. Uh, and so, military coup essentially throughout that idea for a bit, but then after democracy was reinstalled, he went to court and was fighting the Nigerian government for compensation or for the Marico back. Long story short, the federal government, they, saw that his case was legit and that the land was unjustly taken from him. And so they gave him an offer.

They said, hey, what do you want? Do you want your money back? We're not going to give you Marico back. That's not going to happen. We're not going to give you Mariko, but we'll give you your money back or we'll give him. Because they built on it, right? So they were like, well, wait, now we've got to compensate everybody and untie the knot. You can't do that.

Exactly. Got it. And they had already started to do deals with other people, not just from inside Nigeria, but people from outside of Nigeria as well, other countries. And so there was a lagoon, and still is, but a lagoon off the coast of Lagos, I co-e to be specific. And my dad said, I want the lagoon. Now, at the time, it was more of a swamp.

But now it's a beautiful lagoon. And the judges and people in power said, what are you going to do with a lagoon? Yeah, what are you going to do with the body? Just get this dumbass wants a swamp right here. Give it to him, right? Yeah, exactly. They laughed. And he said, just give it to me.

Again, he was so forward-thinking because in his mind, he figured if I create something where there was never something, where there was never anything, no one could ever come back. No politician, no, you know, government entity. No one could ever come back and say, that belongs to us. We require that now. So he started, he signed a deal, signed a contract. Everything started moving forward. And then finally he hired some Dutch engineers, the Westminster Company. and they came and they started dredging the foreshore and developing what was a part of a body of

order into land. And around this time is when I was born, I was born in 82 and my brother was born in 81. So when we were born, we were born in the midst of this and in the midst of the wealth and the construction. And, you know, my dad having people from all around the world, as a matter of fact, the architect of the World Trade Center in New York City, who my dad was really, really good friends with, he would come to Nigeria to visit my dad because he designed the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center, Twin Towers that were going to be at the center of what was to be called Lagoon City.

And so this is what I was born into. I was born into wealth and prestige and also having the Royal Tidal, and people from around the world respected my dad and coming to Nigeria to see what he did. And so we had cars, we had nannies, we had drivers. I mean, we had it all. We even traveled to the world Paris. I have pictures behind me on the table, not this table behind me, but on the desk below. the, on the table below the table behind me. And this pictures all around the world doing all kinds of

good things and, you know, eating and dining with dignitaries and very influential people. As a matter of fact, I remember years later, after my dad died, I found a letter from Ronald Reagan. Wow. That he had written to my father. And I was just like, oh my God. And so, but unfortunately, in 1987, the corruption got really, really, was already out of control, but got more than so out of control with and the politicians who essentially, and not the politician, but the government entities that essentially awarded my dad the lagoon after the land had formed, not after he signed a contract, not when he started dredging the foreshore, not when a land that had been formed and then he started, they waited until after was formed and he started to do construction on the island to say the

Lego state government came in and said the federal government was never supposed to award you this lagoon. Of course. Because of how close it is to Lagos, it is property of Lagos. It's exasperating. It's so, I mean, to say the least, right? Understatement. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And, you know, there were a lot of people close to my dad and people who worked close to my dad that played a role in doing this. As a matter of fact, my dad, our family bodyguard, my dad's personal security guard, is now to this day the manager of what is now called Banana Island. And so the name was changed from Lagoon City to Banana Island. And now that island is a place where the wealthiest Africans and even Nigerians have properties and have estates from mansions to compounds, you name it, it's on the island. And, you know, it was never intended for that. My dad never intended for it to be a Beverly Hills.

He intended for it to be a place where Nigeria could be a shining beacon towards a world as it relates to business. So it sucks to hear. I read that and I was just like, you know, this is why this country is in the place that it is, because someone's like, this guy wants this to be international, get us a bunch of respect. And somebody else is like, yeah, but I kind of want more money for myself. So when I balance those two concerns out, I really fall on the side of me stealing this from you. Sorry, man. Exactly. It sucks.

I feel sorry for the people that live with that corruption because they can't do anything about it. Yeah. It's so frustrating because it's like you can't help a place like that. that because everybody with any shred of power is just not interested. No, not at all. In sharing the wealth, to say the least. I have literally 8,000 messages over the last few days from Nigerians who have found out the story and read the story.

And they're just like, all these politicians lied to us. They said it was theirs. They said that they came up with the idea. They said this and that. And this just proves how evil these people are. And this just proves that they're not for the people. They are for themselves. So I got people from Nigeria who are literally saying, hey, this is not good.

And we are fighting and we're going to stand for you and with you in this. And can you help me get to America? I want to get out of people. P.S. I really need to. I feel bad joking about that because if you live among that corruption, you're not just trying to see Bubba gum shrimp in Times Square. You want to, anybody who has a shred of upward mobility is just trying to escape. It's like it's a sad situation.

Imagine growing up somewhere where you have no opportunity. I guess you don't have to imagine that because after your family lost everything in Nigeria, you moved to the Bronx. But before that, I still want to paint this picture of Nigeria because you have this little anecdote that I think is kind of interesting in the book that most people probably ignore this,

but this guy comes and tries to squeeze through your fence and he's from the electric company. Tell me about this, because this is like a perfect little miniature portrait of everyday life in Nigeria, probably. Yeah, it is a thing. Nigeria every day is for the thief. Yeah, that's so that story encapsulates that point very, very finally.

But yeah, my mom and I and brother, we were outside in the garden, you know, just hanging out, playing around, and mom was listening to music, and this guy squeezes through our compound gate. And, yeah, he approaches my mom and says, madame, if you want your electricity to be not to be, interrupted, you got to give me a gift. You got to give me some money. And, you know, my mom being a New Yorker, a very, like, street New Yorker. I got a gift for you, pal. Yeah, she lays into him. And, you know, good thing was my dad ended up approaching around that, you know, in the midst of that situation and tearing into them. But that's how it is. Every single person in Nigeria, because of the corruption at the top, they feel that that's the only way they can make money even at the

bottom, you know, case and point. When I landed in Nigeria, I went to Nigeria to finish writing my book, transformed. And as soon as I landed in Nigeria, and before I even got to customs, there were customs agents who were telling me, do you have a gift to me? In order for you to get through, you have to give me a gift. Gosh, so ridiculous. And it was, it was disheartening because, you know, here corruption is what was my dad's demise. It wasn't the corruption that he wasn't doing anything corrupt, but it was a corruption that was projected upon him from the country. And as soon as I land, after, you know, over 30 years, I met with that same corruption. You know, you even got pulled over by the police at one point and held up at gunpoint and

unless you give us X amount of dollars, we're not going to let you go by. So, you know, that every day is for the thief. And that's insane. It comes out of Nigeria. So that was that day, that situation where, you know, got squeezed through the gate and was essentially trying to bribe my mom and tell her mom that, hey, extort my mom. And tell me, if you don't give me any money, I'm going to. cut off your electricity. It's crazy. And people will say, well, we have that kind of stuff here in the West.

Okay, we do have problems like that here. But I think most people start off in politics or whatever job with good intention. And some become grifters later. Yes. Although that might be changing by now. But in Nigeria, it sounds like, from your book, it sounds like people go into politics to become grifters because they're like, sweet, I can rob a large number of people if I get this job. That's exactly what it is. I mean, here in the U.S., when somebody is in an impoverished situation, coming from growing up in the Bronx, you know, what are the things that jobs that they look to, selling drugs, sports, or rap for the most part, right? And that's their way out. In Nigeria, where you have the vast majority of people are poor, not because it's a poor country. It's a very

rich country and resources. It generates a lot of money, but because of the politician, when you have the vast number of people who are poor and they see these politicians who go into politics, not wealthy at all, without a sense of their name, but they come out billionaires, not millionaires, but they come out billionaires with a B. What do you think these people want to do? So a lot of people in night, most people who go into politics in Nigeria, they go into politics to get rich. They don't go into politics to serve the people. And that's just a cycle that has been created for decades. So that's what they're used to. There is no, because they can't go into other jobs and rise up like here in the West. You can start out at the bottom, bus your ass,

you know, as a podcast or bust your ass as a janet or whatever the case may be. And, end up with a retirement and end up having a good life. You can't do that in Nigeria, but you could do that in politics. And so that's the trend, and it's sad. So, like, the only shred of upward mobility is a corrupt career path, a career path of graft, basically. Yeah. And then once people get into it and, you know, they get to taste of it.

For example, you know, in the, there was a story. I can't remember what article was published in, but the oil minister, the minister of oil, which was a woman, you know, she so, old barrels of oil to, I can't remember what country it was. I can't remember if it was China or some European country for pennies, literally pennies on the dollar. But she pocketed all that money. So she essentially cut a deal with them.

And again, I'm kind of paraphrasing a trunk in it because I don't remember the exact numbers. Sure. Yeah, yeah. I'll give you this ship of oil for $5 billion when the reality is worth, you know, $20 billion. You just give me $5 billion under the table and the ship will kind of disappear and end up where it needs to be on your end. Crazy.

You know, and so she's been seeking, she fled to the UK. I can't remember. I know the Nigerian government has been trying to get her back, but she fled to the UK and said, oh, she has cancer and she used to get treatment then. And after her treatment, she'll come back. But from where I remember, she never went back to Nigeria. I hope somebody like that actually is sick because they freaking deserve it. If you live a life of crime like that, like I hope you are rotting in a hospital in the UK.

Yeah. I don't believe it, but I hope, you know, like karma. Yeah. So your dad passes away from what sounds like rabies. but you leave it a little vague, and I wonder if you think that, is that what happened or you're not sure? Yeah, no, no, we know exactly what happens.

As a matter of fact, all of this is so fresh in my mind because the book got picked up to be a film with a major studio. It hasn't been announced yet because we can't announce the studio just yet, but this is all that I just finished writing all of this. I turned the screenplay into the studio,

but essentially I go into a little bit more detail in the actual, in the film, but I can kind of give you a bit of a spoiler here. Sure. My dad, he was super stressed out about everything that had been happening, And when he was stressed out, he would go for long walks. And he ended up going for a walk, you know, as he did days before.

And the neighbor's dog, it actually wasn't a Nigerian guy. The guy was Indian. A lot of people don't know this, but Nigeria has a big Indian population as well. His dog attacked him and my dad. And I want to be careful about saying he contracted rabies, but he got bit by dog. So he went to the doctor to go get treated in the case the dog had rabies. And he was poison, essentially. So the medication that he was given in order to treat him on an autopsy report, the medication was bad medication.

That's terrible. His heart died, essentially. That's what killed him. Corruption, man. Because the bad medication was because somebody put something in there that wasn't supposed to be in there or just put no active ingredient in there or whatever. Or poison. Poisonment. And essentially, pretty much he was poison.

The short end of it was. Do you think it was deliberate that they did that? 100%. Oh, I see. Because my dad, you know, he was a very important. very powerful man in Nigeria. And with Marico, after that was taken from him, he fought them for years and eventually they had to relent and give him swamp.

And they knew that my father would not stop fighting them. And they knew that that island would be worth billions of dollars. My dad had already, I mean, put the eight million pounds aside. My dad had already invested. He signed contracts with Marks and Spence. McDonald's, other companies to already start come work on, to be housed on the island. He had signed deals with construction. I mean, he invested millions and millions of more dollars.

I mean, even dredging to foreshore and creating the island cost millions more. And so he wasn't going to let that go. He was a very vociferous man, and he wasn't going to let that go. And a Nigerian government knew him. As a matter of fact, one of the top generals in Nigeria who's still alive to this day, who benefited from my dad, who my dad did favors for, you know, that guy, we believe, played a role in my father's death. I'm sorry, I'm even making you talk about this because it's so disgusting. It's so gross.

I don't mind talking about because the truth needs to get out there. And I think that in what's happening on social media now, you know, so many Nigerians are reaching out to me and saying, hey, this politician, the current president of Nigeria was the senator of Lagos during this whole situation. Yeah. And all of these Nigerians are reaching out to me and saying the president said that he was the one to discover the island. And now I'm seeing he's lied about so much, but now we're seeing how it's alive because you've shown all of the receipts and you've shown all of the evidence that it was your families. And so they killed my dad.

Yeah. They had to because they knew that my dad being a chief and my dad being connected and my dad was not going to give that up. Yeah. He sounds like a very driven slash very stubborn kind of guy. Like you're not getting one over on chief from the sound of it. Exactly. And so he died three weeks later after he started after it was taken and after he started fighting them in court and bustin ass and showing receipts and doing all the things.

They said, okay, this guy's not going. He's not going anywhere. Do you feel safe going back to Nigeria? Would you go back now? Because it sounds like you got a lot of attention that maybe wouldn't do you any favors if you go back now. Yeah, I'd go back now. Yeah?

I have a half brother who's out there now. He's a lawyer. he's actually the lawyer on the case. He's been on the case since 1987. In fact, that Lego State government offered him $8 million four years ago in compensation. Oh, because is it starting to creep up? Like, he's just making enough noise that they're starting to... Oh, yeah.

Well, good. I mean, there's, well, a few things have happened. One, they offered him $8 million. He turned it down because he said, listen, my dad, he bought Maracle for $8 million. And this was in the 70s. And his compensation was the swamp. And then all the other money he invested in and just adjust for inflation. Yeah.

The value of it now, it's worth billions of dollars. So he turned down the $8 million at the Lago State government. Yeah, inflation and interest, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, and interest. So he turned all of that down. And a few months later was maybe a year later, was the N-S-R-S movement. I don't know if you remember the N-S-R-M-R-Movement that happened.

End-S-R-S? Yeah, E-N-D and then S-A-R-S. It was almost, like the BLM riots. Like ending the disease of SARS, or is this something else? It was a police force. Oh, okay, because you know what SARS is, right? It's a respiratory disease.

I was so confused. So it was a police force. And so there were big riots and protests. And conveniently, some protesters went into the courthouse where the case has been for 30 years, 30 plus years. And they found all of the documents. documents, all of the evidence, everything that it pertains to Banana Island and Lagoon City, my dad's case, and they burnt those files.

Ah. And it was protesters. Right. Nothing else burned down in the courthouse. Sure. But just those files were burnt by protesters. And so my brother was it, my half brother who's a lawyer happened to be in a UK, who was in the UK at the time when all this was going on.

He jumped on a plane, flew. I mean, the guy had brain cancer, you know, you know, had a tumor. He had to wear like a helmet on his head now because they had to take a piece of his skull out. and the doctors have to go in every so often and do some work. And, you know, he flew down there and, you know, confronted the judge and he said, what can we do?

What's his, it? It was the protesters. Yeah. They wanted to fight for what they thought was a just cause. They didn't even take a pen off the judge's desk but they burnt your files only. Such transparent bullshit.

Yeah, yeah. For the listeners listening to this right now, how frustrated are you listening to this story? Imagine living this is your reality every single day and you're trying to get something done. You're trying to open a restaurant or go to college or anything. I know we're going to get Nigerian listeners being like, thank you because no one talks about this.

Because I'm sure that this is just a reality every single day for every single person growing up there. It's so sad. 100%. Yeah, it's a kick in a nut. So Chief Passes away and you move to the Bronx, which is a different kind of neighborhood. I would imagine that you're used to in Africa.

Yeah, it went from riches and wealth to the Bronx. man. And it was, you know, I would say in my early years, my mom, you know, such a strong woman, much credit to my mom. She did a great job of masking the reality of what had happened. You know, she, we didn't have much, but our little apartment that we did have. She always kept it clean. There was some art that she was able to bring from Nigeria that was peppered around the house. So she did the best that she could to mask the reality of what had happened in and also our environment. And she would work multiple jobs. She started out just, just working as a teacher in the South Bronx.

And then she would take jobs at museums and art galleries and even playhouses in order to be able to expose my brother and I to the arts. And then she would educate us on top of sending us to school, public school, because the public education system was really bad. She would homeschool us as well so that that way we could stay on par with the standard, which wasn't the best at the time at the minimum. And so, yeah, it was really, really rough, man. But it wasn't until I was about eight years old that I began to become conscious of our surroundings.

You know, I would go out and see guys handing other people who didn't look too healthy bags of stuff. And I would put two and two together ways. My mom would tell me, oh, those are just giving each other some treats. It's nothing. I was able to run. That's drugs. You know, I would see these people looking like zombies. And my mom would tell me, oh, they're just sick.

No, that's a crackhead. You know what I mean? I would go into these bodegas and see the mafia guys because the Italian mafia was very prevalent at the time in the late 80s or early 90s going with their collars and shake down the Dominican store owners. And I was like, that's not right. I think that guy might be a monster. You know what I mean? And so as I began to really, as I grew up and began to venture out of my mom's apartment, this bubble that she created, that's when I begin to understand the environment that I was in and understand that I'm not in. Kansas anymore and that that rich life that we had, uh, it's, is never going to come back. How old were you at this point in time? Yeah, so I came to the States in 87, so I was five at the time. Five. And then it was around eight when I was beginning to eight, nine years old when I really began to begin to become conscious of my surroundings. You're listening to the Jordan Harbinger

show with our guest, Remy Adelaike. We'll be right back. If you're wondering how I managed to book all these amazing folks for the show, it is always about that networking. Jordan Harbing is where I got that six-minute networking course for you. It's free. It's not cringy. It's not gross. There's a happiness dividend from reconnecting with people. It's not just about getting them to do what you want.

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You'll be in smart company where you belong. You can find the course all for free at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. Now, back to Remy Adelaike. That makes sense. I guess the change in lifestyle would be something you would notice, but not as much at age five, right? I suppose. I mean, you remember things, but you don't. Your mother's change would be dramatic.

Yep. In almost impossible, like, I don't know how I would deal with that if I had to move now to the Bronx or whatever the equivalent is. I think the Bronx is probably, you know, you probably got $4,000 studio apartment in the Bronx now. Yeah, yeah. Back then, it would be very, very tough to adjust. And she was also a single mom with two little kids? Two boys.

Yeah. So we're talking about, like, drugs and drive-bys. And then you see the movie, was it bad boys with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, which is a funny movie, but kind of like, well, that's what inspired you? Tell me about the shift in my sense. Yeah, so the shift in my, you know, I did a lot of bad things. So after I began to realize my environment and I began to unconsciously try to find a father to fill my void. And I looked to the street. So I started out, you know, stealing from my mom the little that she had.

And then that progressed to stealing from stores. That progressed to getting jobs and stealing from jobs. And that progressed to selling drugs. And that progressed to running high-level scams where I was bringing in tens of thousands of dollars a week. And I remember my teens when bad boys came out, I was selling drugs at the time, just, you know, hustling, making money. doing what a lot of other kids did in my environment. And I went and saw bad boys. And interestingly, in the movie,

the drug dealers were the bad guys. And they weren't black. And the good guys were black dudes who I felt like I can identify with. You know, these were guys who looked like me. They seemed to have come from somewhat of the same environment that I came from. But they were heroes.

They were heroes with swagger. And that was the first time in, in my life, well, since I had come to from Nigeria to the Bronx, that, you know, a light went off my head. And I was like, oh, I could, I could be something other than a drug dealer or an athlete or a rapper. Like, I could be a hero. And I could still be who I am. I could still maintain, you know, my, my swag and be a hero at the same time. So that movie really enlightened me. And then a year later, the same director, Michael Bay, directed another movie called The Rock. And, you Of course, having so bad boys and loved that movie.

I'd never forget after I watched Bad Boys. I went and bought a bootleg tape version of it, and I would just watch it over and over and over again. Were they holding the camera in the movie theater? Those are terrible. There's people getting up and walking out to get popcorn in front of the movie and everything. Oh, man. You know, I have to, you know, watching it a million times on cassette, you know,

then a year later or two years later, the Rock came out. And as soon as I heard, hey, Michael Bate, the same guy who brought you back, boys is doing a rock. I was like, I'm going to go see this movie. And I went to go see it. And that was the first time I was exposed to Navy Seals. You know, and growing up in a Bronx in the hood, like no one knows what a Navy SEAL is or special operations or any of this stuff. We're not exposed to it. You know, we're exposed to things that I've already touched on, but we're not exposed to, you know, things like engineering or being a doctor because there's not a lot of engineers, doctors, Navy SEALs that live in the Bronx, you know? And so, you know, when I watched a film and I was just, I saw these

guys coming out of the water and they had these cool guns and they were willing to sacrifice themselves for others and for a greater cause and they were cool. And I was just like, whatever that is, if I ever turn my life around, I'm not saying I will, but if I ever turn my life around, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be a Navy SEAL. And, you know, I filed that away and continued doing what I was doing, continued selling drugs. And then, as I mentioned after, when I was about 18. This was definitely after high school. I began to realize that, you know, this is a huge risk.

You know, I stopped selling drugs down in the Bronx and I migrated up to Poughkeeps in New York because there were less drug dealers up there. And then I was able to get in with a company called MCI WorldCom. And when I got there, I met a guy. Yeah, the phone company. Yeah. And I called it a different name in the book. but yeah that's probably a good idea maybe she should say so i got a job with wcd yeah there you go there

a guy there was he was a hustler you know former drug dealer as well and he was like hey dude here's how you can hustle and make money and so what he would do was he would get people's personal information data birth social address full name and he would activate um he could activate three phones on one line of credit. And then he would sell those phones to drug dealers for anywhere between $300 and $900. And the phone, for the first 30 days, it was no bill. After 30 days, the person who uses credit was used, received the bill. And then that person had 60 days to pay the bill.

And then if it wasn't paid in 60 days, then 30 days later, which was 90 days later, was 90 days in total, the phone would cut off. So drug dealers like the phones because they could have a free unlimited plan phone for 90 days and then it would cut off and they would get a new one so it would be hard for cops and people to trace them and track them down and so that guy put me on to it and I was like hey I'm in and so I started doing that a guy I went to high school with his girlfriend worked at a MA at a hospice clinic and so she would uh she would uh you know give me and him both give him the information sheets of information with people who were about to die and I would take that and I would

I would activate phones. Again, this is not something I'm proud of. No, no. This is the bad Nigerian side of me. Right. But, you know, this is the good side of me in the sense that, you know, I took my dad's ingenuity and I applied it in the, applied it, but I applied it the wrong way. And that's how I ended up making a lot of money, more money than I ever made selling drugs. And, you know, with that money, I, you know, would, I essentially would launder that money. I'm reaching because this CD right here, I'm dropping right here. Yeah. I laundered that money into a record company called Eight Wonder Entertainment. So, you know, I signed artists and paid for studio time and did all of these different things as it relates to running a record company.

And I was able to do it and grow the company because of this illegal money. And my goal was to get out. I had an exit plan similar to how Jay Z and Dame Dash were selling drugs and their plan was to make it in the music business and not sell drugs anymore. My plan was to do the cell phone thing, accumulate all of this money to build the business. and then at some point sign a label deal with Def Jam or MCA, or one of the major record companies. And so, yeah, that's essentially what I was doing. So I'm guessing the rap career took a little bit of a right turn

because you ended up in the Navy. Your mom had it hard with you, man. You're like, a punk kid, sell drugs, and then it's like, just kidding, I'm going to be a rapper. And then it's like, nah, I'm going to go join the military during a time where the country is maybe going to go to war. Yeah, yeah. What happened was I got involved in a deal with a drug dealer

sold him a bunch of phones that were supposed to laugh. for like the 90 day period they cut off in two weeks he in return had flipped those phones so if i sold him a phone for 500 he sold the 4 000 so he was in hot water with a bunch of guys and so he essentially came to my apartment and threatened my life uh and that was a huge wake-up call for me i gave him his money back and then that's when i decided i'm not going to do this anymore and then fast forward six months later well before that i pursued got a meeting with def jam tried to sell a sell a label deal to a death jam, Kevin Lyle specifically. I never forget meeting with him and had some other meetings and none of them panned out, didn't end up getting a label deal. All the

money ran out that I had saved and so I was dry. Fast forward to June of 2002, that's when I really, but that's when the change came. I kind of was, you know, in my mom's apartment doing nothing with my life and I just felt something tell me you need to get out of here. You need to join a military. And, you know, I battled with that idea for a few minutes because I hated the military. I hated the police. I associated anybody in a uniform as the police. I didn't like authority. I like my clothes baggy and my hats backwards.

I still wear my hats back. Still wear the hat backwards. Yeah. And so I didn't want to do it. But after looking around the room that I had grew up in, I finally realized, hey, what else do I have? I have nothing. My brother was at Syracuse University studying engineering at the time. I wasn't going to college.

and that's when I decided to go join a Navy. And this was nine months after 9-11, actually. And so I get to the Navy recruiter's office and met this amazing Navy recruiter by the name of Tiana and Aideen Reyes. And in my mind, when I went and sore, I'm like, oh, I'm going to get me a new girl because she's fine.

She's Puerto Rican. And in her mind, she was like, I'm going to get this fool into the Navy. And so she had me take a practice as Vap test. That's like the SAT for the Navy, or for the military, right? Yep. So it pretty much tests your aptitude in different areas.

And I scored high enough to get into the Navy, but I didn't score high enough to get in the seal training. And so the next thing she did after that was she ran my background and she discovered I had two warrants out of my arrest. I had a warrant in New Jersey and I had a warrant in New York. And, you know, as soon as she said that, I got off and ran towards the door and she screamed at me and told me to stop. For what? And she said, asked me if I had a suit. I said, no, she asked me if I had a collar shirt and some nice pants. I said, I'm sure I could find something.

And she said, come back tomorrow? I said, for what? So you could turn me in? And she just snapped at me and said, just come back tomorrow. And, you know, growing up in a Bronx, I had to learn how to read people. And that served me well when I got into human intelligence and the seal teams. And I didn't know exactly what she was going to do for me. But based off what I read and her reaction and the way she had been with me the last hour or so,

I realized that whatever was going to be, it was going to be good. So I came back the next day and she was in her dress uniform. And she took me to both judges, took me to the judge in New Jersey, judge in New York, advocate on my behalf said, hey, this kid's made mistakes, but he has potential. He wants to join a military act of war, but he can't warrant in a criminal record. And so both judges, they were impressed with the idea that I was raising my hand in the middle of a war. And they said, all right, well, expunge his record.

So both judges unanimously expunged my record. I just had to pay court fines and court fees. And then she went a step further and fudge the paperwork to sneak me into the Navy. And that was how it all happened. And, you know, unfortunately, she died two years later. But I'm so grateful to her decision, for her decision, because if it wasn't for her, I would be dead or in prison. Wow. She risked her whole career, though, because she was obviously not supposed to do that.

Not at all. Not at all. In fact, I get contacted by kids from all across the country. at least on a monthly basis who say, hey, Remy, I read your book, heard your story, and I can't get into the Navy. I had this little misdemeanor. I made this mistake or whatever to get.

And no military recruiter won't touch me. And I tell them about your story and I say, I'm not going to jail for you. You know, and so, yes, it's, and they asked me what to do. And I say, hey, you just got to find a recruiter who's willing to take that risk. And she did.

That seems like a large oversight. Now I get why they don't want actual criminals to join the military. But I also think it's a huge mistake to write off a kid who has done something that is not really bad. Like, if you get busted for selling weed in high school, that torpedoes your chance in the military. That really, in my opinion, should not be the case. I get it if you have three violent assaults or a sexual assault or something like that. I understand that.

But even then juvenile stuff, I don't know, man. It just seems like you're taking a lot of people's last chance to really get their shit together and being like, nah, we're not going to do that. I'm really on the fence there. I'm sure there's a reason for the policy, but it seems like a lot of human potential is being wasted. I agree with you 100%. I want to, at some point, when I get a little bit more juice behind my name, I'd like to be able to go to Congress and advocate for some type of change

because there are so many kids like myself. I mean, I'm proof of concept. I'm proof that it works. There's a lot of kids who just need that second chance. And if they could get that second chance, their whole lives will be turned around. And in fact, right now, there is a recruiting crisis across every branch of service. It's a national security issue.

And I talked to a buddy of mine who's one of the head. He's a master chief at one of the recruiting commands. And he's like, dude, it's bad. I mean, the army is down 25 percent. Navy is down across the board. If we went to war right now, we would get crushed. And they are generals and admirals who are shaking in their boots. And so this is a prime opportunity to look at cases.

Look at kids who, you know, yeah, they made them. Like you said, nothing violent, nothing crazy, not rate, nothing, but something that, you know, simple cases and say, hey, we're gonna give you an opportunity. I'd like to advocate for that in some way, because something has to change on both ends. Kids need to be able to get an opportunity who made mistakes, and the military needs bodies.

We're gonna be crushed as a nation, so I agree. It's a pretty good match, right? And you see a lot of people, I know a lot of people who are really just kind of pieces of shit and join the military and are really upstanding guys and gals now, for that matter. Yep. And I'm thinking, like, whoever's doing all that yelling, it's getting through to a lot of people. Oh, for sure.

And I know for me, you know, when I was in, I realized that I was the case study. And I knew that if I filed up in any way, if I was disrespectful to a D.I. Or if I screamed at somebody or if I fought someone did something stupid, then I would be messing it up for everybody. I would not only be screwing Tiant. But I would be screwing so many other kids and then, you know, who later in life who want to join a military and they've made the same mistake. So a big part of why I chose and I strove so hard to do the right thing every single day and strive to get to that, you know, special operations is because I wanted to prove the system wrong. I wanted to prove to the system that, hey, there are people who need a second chance and deserve a second chance and who will take advantage of it in a good way.

Yeah. Man, I love that. Tiana, the recruiter, who you just couldn't let her. down. I think that's amazing. And you're Aunt Oki who walked to the bank and didn't want to walk alone because she didn't want to carry all that money on her. You're blessed, man. You have a lot of good people around you. A hundred percent. And speaking to Aunt Oakey, she died four months ago. I'm sorry to hear that. She would have been 105 in September. Wow, who lived a full life. Needless to say. Full amazing life. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's good genetics. Yeah.

Tell me about Buds, the Navy SEAL training for people who don't know because my impression of Navy SEALs is usually like white people from upper middle class backgrounds. Not that nobody else can do it, but it just seems like that's what you get with those. No, you're spot on. It is what you get. I mean, you get a lot of guys who come from, you know, interestingly, this is the one thing I found. They come from wealthy families. Get a lot of guys who are going to Ivy League schools.

You get a lot of enlisted guys who graduated from Ivy League schools and then decided they wanted to go in enlisted instead of going to an officer. I mean, I was in a class with a Rhodes Scholar. That's crazy. You get guys who are lawyers or engineers or like computer programmers making hundreds of thousand dollars a year. And then one day they decided, dude, you know what? I think I want to be a Navy SEAL.

And so you get, you know, like you literally, you know, I was in buds with some, I did some crazy stories, but you literally get the cream of the crop. And as you mentioned, the majority of them are white. There's not that many African Americans. I think the community is less than one percent African American. I was around the 50th, not D-50th, but around a. the 50 of African-American seal in the history of the SEAL team since 1962. And so when I showed up the buds, yeah, man, I couldn't get away with nothing, man.

Yeah. I couldn't get away with anything because I stuck out like a sore thawes. Yeah. Big black dude and like in the sea of white dudes. And literally. And it's tough in and of itself. I mean, it sucks. It's considered toughest military training known to man, you know?

People have died in Seal Training. Yeah. People have been permanently crippled. I mean, a guy died in my class right in front of me on a condition. run and it's brutal. How did he die? In the book, it was, it sounds like a heart attack or something. Is that what happened?

Yeah, it was a hard attack. We were on a soft sand conditioning run, which was about eight miles. Those runs are horrible. And towards the end of the mile, when you get to about the seven mile mark, the instructors warn you. They say if you're not up with the pack, you're going to be in a goon squad. And goon squad is essentially a section of the class that just gets hammered on a beach. I mean, up and down the berm, you know, push-ups to the surf and back.

I mean, we call it a beat-down session, but it's a hand, they literally throw everything at you. And so we were in the Goon Squad, but we didn't make the cut. And the instructors were just putting us to the rain. There were guys quitting left and right. And this particular guy, Rob Vetter, actually yesterday was his birthday, his heart gave out. His heart gave out. And he dropped right in front of me, me being a corpsman, which is a medic in the Navy before I was a Corman before I went to Buds. You know, I saw what was happening. I started CPR with some other guys

until the lead Buds instructor came up. And I want to say they worked on him for a while. And then finally they were able to get a pulse, got him to the hospital on Coronado Island. But at that point, I mean, he had been out for such a long time that he was on a ventilator. He was a vegetable for the most part. And then a few days later, his family decided, you know, there's no brain activity. So they decided to pull the plug. How does that affect your mind when you're doing the same thing as that guy? And he just died from it right in front of you, basically. I want to say that it didn't affect me in any way because I would say,

once you make the decision to join the Navy, especially when you're pursuing a combat role in the military, whether it's Navy Army and Marine Corps, you're essentially, in my opinion, you're giving up any fear of death. Once you make the decision, hey, I want to go to Buds, I want to funnel this down and get even more dangerous. you've already, you have to cast that fear away because the reality is in every, in a lot of things you do in training, you can die.

I mean, a lot of seals actually, a lot of seals die in training. Once they get through not just Buds, but once they get to a SEAL team and they're doing, you know, IADs or they're doing CQC. And it was a guy Ghana, you know, he's doing CQC training. Brand new guy just graduated from Buds, got to a SEAL team and went to a kill house to do CQC training and there was a fracture in the wall. So when one team entered one room and they were shooting at a target, a bullet went through that wall right into his heart,

killed him, right? Oh my God. You get guys who die on skydiving training and all kinds of stuff. So once you make the decision that, hey, I'm going to go into that program, if you have not given up the fear of death, you ain't going to make it. So for me, when that happened, I was just,

hey, it's part of the job. You know what I mean? He was close to me and I talked to him at London. your breakfast at times because we were in the same boat crew, at the same time, I understood the risk. That is a mindset. It's hard for, I think, a lot of us to wrap our head around. Because for me, I feel like it would either be so demoralizing or so terrifying that I would probably want to quit, which doesn't surprise anybody listening to the show because me and Navy SEAL do not belong in the same sentence. But that's, you know, there's a reason I'm not a Navy SEAL that you are.

But I will say, it's a little weird that you joined SEAL training and you couldn't swim. That's unusual. Yeah, I think, you know, I've been a massacist since the early age, I would say. Yeah, it was, that wasn't fun. I was, but I wanted it, you know, and I tell people all the time when you have a, when you have a dream, it's called a dream for a reason because you're going to have some obstacles on your journey towards attaining that. And either you could throw your hands up and say, I can't do it, or you could do the extra, extra hard work in order to overcome it.

And it was brutal. I mean, before I even got to Buds, you know, I was, I was, I remember. I remember jumping in the shallow in and trying to figure it out. And it sucked. And there were some times where I was just like, ah, am I going to be able to do this? But I just kept on showing up, rain, sleep, snow, cold, hot, whatever it was. I ran to that pool and tried to figure it out.

But I wanted it. I wanted to be part of the best. And everything that I read, everything that I saw, seals were the tip of the sphere. They were the best. I know there's other special operations units, but they were the best. And, you know, my mom beat into me the importance of whatever you do, do it right the first time and go for the top. And so, though I was totally disqualified, you know, because there's not a lot of pools in the Bronx and a lot of fire hydrants, but not a lot of pools. That was brutal.

This is the regular training. And then there's hell weak, which is like they don't even let you sleep. You're talking about weird diseases people get from suppressed immune systems. Yeah. That could kill you, too, I would imagine, getting two hours of sleep and then running, I don't know, 50 miles or whatever in some sand. I almost died in Hell Week. I got pneumonia, cyp, and rabdo where essentially my muscle tissue started eating itself because

my immune system was suppressed. I wasn't getting as many calories and I was just broken down. But yeah, Hell Week is horrible. I mean, six days, starts on Sunday, ends on Friday. You get two hours of sleep on Wednesday, two hours of sleep on Thursday. But by the time you've gotten to Wednesday and Thursday, your brain is just so wired. most guys can't even fall asleep in those two hours. And then also you're hydrophobic.

You become hydrophobic because they keep you wet and cold and tired. Every single moment you're wet and cold. So when you put on your dry clothes and you get in that rack, if you're lucky enough to get into the rack, you know, with dry clothes on, you can't go to sleep because you know that you're going to be woken up at any moment to get wet and sandy again and be cold and sandy. So you can't even sleep. So it's very, very brutal.

But it's a necessary process. process because essentially what they're looking for is they're looking for that guy who has been stripped of everything, been stripped of sleep, been stripped of food, been stripped, been, it's tired, is beaten down, a zombie pretty near death, but still willing to keep fighting and keep moving. And it's necessary because, and I remember being in training, not just in hell week and in training in general and hearing instructors. And you think this sucks.

I've been on ops that suck worse than this. I just remember being a butt-student saying bullshit. Yeah, no way. There's no way you've been on. Until I actually went on and up. Oh, really? That was a kick in the freaking nuts. And we're getting shot at.

And we had to crawl through a swamp to get to another end. And it's supposed to be a quick direct action mission. We're just going and get the guy and go out. But it turns into a 14-hour chase in the sun at night. And you're beat down. And it's like you can't quit. And when you're in that situation, you're able to fall back on I went through Hell Week. Oh, interesting.

And if I made it through Hell Week, that I could do that. So it's absolutely necessary. I mean, think about what happened with the guys on Operation Red Wings, you know, and Marcus Luttrell and Long Survivor. You know, like, you know, four guys against a large number of guys, whipped guns, outgun, outnumbered, right? But those guys kept fighting for each other and didn't quit, didn't give up on each other. and three of them died, one of them survived. But that one guy, Lachos, survived when it has survived,

if those three guys didn't go through the same training that he went through and then it didn't get pushed way past their perceived limits so they knew what they could do. And so it's a brutal process, but it's a necessary process. And that's why the attrition rate is as high as it is. I mean, the class that I eventually graduated with started out with 270 guys, only 29 of us graduated. And that's the way it is every class.

You'll get 10% that'll graduate. You'll get 20%. You'll get, you know, 15 guys. It was a class that just went through Hell Week a few months ago. And the class started with 250 guys. Only 14 guys made it through Hell Week. They haven't even gotten a dive phase and third phase yet. These are guys that just came, got spit out of Hell Week, you know?

So it's a necessary process. How long are you sore after Hell Week? That's what I want to know. I'm like three weeks. I'm still sore to this day. And that was over decades ago. But no, it's the A, so you have a week. after how we call Walk Week,

where you kind of get a chance to recover and just walk everywhere instead of run everywhere. And then after that, you're right back in it. But yeah, you're sore for a while. This is the Jordan Harbinger Show with our guest, Remy Adelaike. We'll be right back.

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You can also search for a sponsor using the AI chatbot on the website as well, Jordan Harbinger.com slash AI. Don't forget, we've also got our fundraiser at give directly.com slash Jordan. Thank you so much for supporting those who support the show. Now for the rest of my conversation with Remy Adelaike. You got really sick. I know you ended up getting med rolled and I thought, oh, good, they put you back where you get

a chance to rest and you go back, but they make you start over again, which is just cruel, terrible. Day one, man. Yeah, day one. It was so funny because the instructors, they didn't know that I was sick. Because you get a lot of guys who want to quit, but they don't want to quit. And so they, you know, they fall on medical reasons and they fake injury or they fake being sick. So when I was sick, I was spitting up blood and I had all this stuff going on.

The instructors, you know, they didn't see that. I was spitting up blood. You know, they just heard me saying, hey, I spit up blood. And they thought I was faking. So when I was like passing out, they thought I was, you know, I just. didn't want to quit, which I didn't want to quit, but they thought that I was, you know, I wanted to quit, but didn't want to quit. What's it called malingering?

Were you just saying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so they were laying into me. And finally, after I went down hard and ended up in the ICU, they were like, holy crap. Like, dude, like you almost, you almost died, bro.

Like, we're sorry. I remember when I told you I was spitting up blood, that was a good indicator. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I remember the instructors came into my room and they was just like, hey, you crushed it, glad you didn't quit. And I'm expecting to say, you're not going to have to start from day one, first phase. You're just going to have to start from day one at hell wake up. They said, but you're going to have to start from day one.

And I was like, oh, my God, I've got to go through all of this again. But hey, you know what? I wanted it. I wanted it. And when you want something in life, I tell people all the time, you know, whether you want to be actor, podcaster, writer, director. director, you know, doctor, whatever the case is, you got to have a deep rooted emotional reason as to why you want to do it. Because that deep rooted emotional reason is going to anchor you when the winds and storms and setbacks of life come. And if you don't have a deep rooted emotional reason

as to why you want to do something, when those waves and the wind comes, it's going to blow you right away. And I had a deep root of emotional reason as to why I wanted to be a frogman. And so when, you know, I almost died in hell week, you know, and had to start all over. I was anchored in that. when I got kicked out of sealed training after getting a diet phase and, you know, had to start all over again. Like, you know, I was anchored. Like, I was just anchored because like my dad, and that's why I say, I said early on in podcast, they had to kill my dad because my dad wasn't going to stop.

And I inherited that, that aspect of him along with and many other things. I inherited that from my dad. And there was no way I was going to stop. The only thing that could have stopped me was death. And it came from the fact that I was anchored, you know. And so that's what ended up getting me through. Do you think having your dad passed so early in your life may be caused a strong desire to be affirmed or approved of by other people?

Because that, obviously, that drive comes from somewhere. And it's not like you were not a Division I athlete before seal training or whatever. 100%. I think every boy needs a man, a father to affirm him. because if not, he's going to seek affirmation from others. And every girl needs a father to affirm her so that, again, same, same. She doesn't seek out a toxic relationship in a man to affirm her. And in the absence of my father, I didn't.

And that's why I sold drugs. That's why I did that. I mean, at the end of the day, when I look at the root of it, in retrospect, the reason why I did those things was because I wanted that affirmation from my peers. I wanted what I couldn't get from my father. I wanted that patent. Yo, you're the man. Oh, look at all those girls.

You're sleeping. Oh, look at all this money. Look at the car. All these things. I wanted that affirmation. And then, you know, I think that that also played a huge role in me wanting to get through seal training because I, part of it. I had my deep root emotion reason why. But I would say my selfish reason was I wanted to be affirmed.

I wanted people, whether it was my friends I grew up with or whether it was my mom or whoever, my brother, to say, you're the man. Good job. Well done. son. Well done, son. And so that did play a role and it worked for the good. But as I went on and after I made it through seal training, it went south and worked for the bad as well. There's a lot more to seal training and things like that, I'm sure, but, or I know because I read the book, but you become a human intelligence specialist. Tell me about that because that's a

pretty rare specialty, isn't it? Or it's not something most people want? It's something that I never knew about. It's not something that was talked about much, but it is a very, very unique specialization in the community, not just in the SEAL teams, but in special operations in general. And in order to get into the school, it's pretty hard, but a lot of SEALs don't even want to go to the course because it revolves around a lot of writing. Not only do you have to go out and have meetings with sources or assets, agency guys call them assets. We in our community, we call in sources and the policing community they call informants, but not only do you have to go have meetings with these people and learn how to run these

people so that they can do stuff that you need to be done and collect intelligence for you, you also have to write detailed reports. And you have to write reports in a way where a CIA agent, an NSA agent, or even another seal, a human guy can pick up that report 10 years later or read it as though those events happen that day. So it revolves around a lot, not just writing, but visual writing. And there's a course that you go to. It's a basically, it's an entry-level course and then after that entry level course, then you operate forbidden. After you operate in that capacity, then you get the opportunity to go to some more advanced courses.

And so human stands for human intelligence. And essentially, all it is is you're somewhat of a spy, really. I mean, you're running sources and you're collecting intelligence and you're building intelligence packages. And when I went overseas, I tell people all the time, I got to live the best of both worlds because there's this misconception as it relates to the military. and then special operations as well, that you just get told to go after that bad guy

or you just get told to go do this mission and then you run off and just mindlessly do it. And that's not the way it works. You can't go on an operation without intelligence. And it can't just be one piece of intelligence. It has to be vetted against another piece of intelligence, which has to be vetted against another piece of intelligence which has to be vetted.

And then once it's been fully vetted, then you can go into operation. And so there were times overseas where, you know, we had, that ISR drone footage of something that a bad guy had done or had planned, but we couldn't just go after that bad guy. I had to then task some sources to go get some more on-ground information, whether it was through taking pictures or whether it was through talking to other people.

And then I would then take that information added to a package. And then maybe we get what's called, you know, in the civilian sector, we call it a wiretap, but we tap that person's phone and now we have that person confessing and then put all that together into a package, send that up a chain of command, and then we're able to go on a direct action mission. So I handled the intelligence side of things, but then I also suited up. And there were times when I suited up when I had to bring a source with me, because, you know, he or she knew what that target looked like or knew the specific house or the specific door we

need to gain entry through. And so we, that source had to go with me and we had to go do the opt. I mean, they weren't kicking down the door, but they were in the back of the train. And we went and kicked down the door. And once we got to where we got. If we needed that person to verify, you know, who was who, then they would come in and obviously we'd keep the masks and keep them protected and verify that. But it's a whole world of intelligence that's very, very fascinating, very cool.

And I say that not only did my mom having my brother not right as kids prepare me for that job, but growing up in the streets of the Bronx prepared me for that job. I was going to ask about that. If you think your instincts being growing up in that area of New York at that time, that's as close as you get to dealing with terrorists, I guess, in the Middle East. as you can get in the United States. 100%. Because, you know, growing up in the streets and the province,

you have to, especially when you're selling drugs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're selling drugs and selling illegal phones. You got to be able to read. Is this person an undercover cop? Is this person, you know, going to snitch? Like, what's going on? You got to be, is this person going to kill me?

You know, so you, so I was able to say, it's so interesting because I remember being in the entry-level course, the first, the basic course for the human program. And I remember being in the classroom and our instructors were former CIA guys. They were former like Green Berets guys who did this type of work for decades. And I remember them that they would teach you stuff. I was like, oh, I know what that is. I just didn't know that that was the title for what I.

I did that in the Bronx. You know what I mean? So it was like all of these things translated really, really well. And it prepared me. And I remember the cool thing too was because less than 1% of seals are African-American, you know, and when you get to the human side of thing, that number dwindles even more because now not only you see you didn't want to seal but you're doing what to seal in a human intelligence you know it's a fraction of a fraction of a fraction

I would meet with sources and I'd be the first black person that they've ever they ever saw in their entire life you know or had a conversation with they must be like oh will Smith was yeah the stupid stereotype like the economic that would happen well I would I would again I would utilize that I wouldn't utilize that because I didn't, I learned when I remember doing my first deployment, I learned that, you know, a lot of people in not just the Middle East, but other parts of the world, they love American movies and they love African American comedians. Yeah. And so I remember going into my first meeting and the guy saw me smiling as I walked in.

He was like, Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy. And so I just used that. So when I would go into my meeting sometimes in order to kind of break the ice or if a source was scared or didn't want to talk to me that they were. whatever, I would go in, I would just, what's up, what's up, what's up? And they were looking, they would just start to laugh, and they would look at the interpreter, they'd be like, ah, I like this guy, I like this guy. And that would break the ice, and then we would go to work and do what we needed to do. So it all worked to my benefit. And that's why, again, you know, going back to what we touched on earlier with the recruiting crisis and also giving more people opportunities, especially people who come from

the background I come from, it only benefits, benefits the military. It benefits because, you know, diversity is, you know, proper diversity is important, especially when you're trying to go into other countries and build common ground or have somebody like myself. You know, these guys, they were so, I already had a foot in the door when I went to go talk to them because they were just intrigued by the fact that, oh, this is a black guy. And then I felt like I was able to identify with them because, yeah, it's not the Bronx per se, but they're living in a very volatile, environment. They're living in an environment where at any moment they can be killed or they can die. And, you know, it's the same thing in the Bronx. So there was that natural, you know,

identifying factor that we had and we could kind of, it was almost like a look. There was a certain look in their eye that I could see. And we bros, right? And it is a certain look at eye. They're like, you know, that's funny. What a unique way to connect. Because I can imagine if some dude was on the Harvard crew team and he's a Navy SEAL and he's inhuman, and he's got to talk to this guy. He's not jumping into an Eddie Murphy bit to connect with that guy in an authentic way. I just imagine you being like, Ahmed, what have you done for me lately? You remember that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. With their purple leather suit on. And I remember being in a meeting. I remember when I first got in country on my first deployment. I remember, like, watching and listening in on a meeting because we did like somewhat of a turn, we called it like a turnover up. And I just remember the guy at the previous, it was like no real. It wasn't that he was doing a bad job.

He was doing a good job. He was getting the information, but it wasn't as smooth as it could have been because it's just white guy from Harvard. It's like, he used to tell me what the bad guys are. You know what I mean? Yeah. Versus, you know, which is not a bad thing because the job was still being done. But the background that I had really played a role in making the job a bit easier.

That makes a hell of a lot of sense, actually. Those guys, those sources must be scared out of their mind when they have to go with you on a mission. Oh, my God. Yes, yes. They're not in your unit and you're like, follow us. And they're like, okay, but we're going to go into this neighborhood and everyone's going to be shooting at us. And I just have to sit behind you and hope I don't get killed.

This sucks. Yeah, well, before we even would get on the app, so what would happen was I would go into a, I would, you know, when I would do my meetings, I wasn't wearing uniforms and kidding. And I would just have on a collard shirt, slacks, pants, you know, and, you know, I'd have a sig on my, you know, side, you know, that they couldn't. I didn't see, was concealed. So I was in normal clothes. So they would see me. And that's how all my sources knew me. Because that was the only capacity they would see me in.

And so, you know, they would see me like this. And then I was like, all right, talk them and they're going on the app. And they was like, ah, and they were scared about it. And then they was like, okay, okay. I would finally convince him. They would do it. And I was like, all, be right back. Just give me about 15 minutes.

And I would go to my trailer because we all had on our trailers, we're on, you know, rooms and space. And I'd get on my kit. I'd get on my uniform. I'm like, you know, my ballistic vests with my ammo and grenades and all of that. And I get my M4 with the suppressor, the silence, so on, and every, all this stuff. And I had my scheme ass and helmet and night vision goggles and I would go back in. That's what reality was setting.

They were like, oh, my God. Like, who are you? You didn't know who I was. I mean, call for duty now. It's like, hey, it's me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, oh, this is real. Things have gotten real, real.

And the fear would set in right away, but, you know, I would kind of, you know, coach them and talk it through. And then, yeah, when we would get out there, they would pissing themselves. I bet, man, because you're carrying that body armor, that stuff's heavy. Yeah. Do they get the same armor with the same plate? Are you just giving like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I would give them, I want to give them weapons.

Right, obviously. Kitten ammo. But, yeah, we take care of and make sure they have one. And also make sure that they're completely concealed from head to toe. So they couldn't be identified in any way. But if you have to run, all of you guys are, like, able to sprint on sand for eight miles. and this guy is just some dude. He's never going to keep up with you guys.

Yeah, we figure it out. Yeah, you figure it out all right, I'm sure. You've been in movies like Transformers, of course, directed by Michael Bay, directed The Rock. Now you're doing a lot of your own film stuff. That's actually how I found you because you were doing some human trafficking, organ stuff.

We've done shows about organ harvesting on this show with David Kilgore, who was a Canadian human rights lawyer, episode 497. And he talked about, that happening in China, like Chinese prisoners of conscience and things like that. I didn't realize this was something that was even more widespread. Tell us about what you're doing now besides kicking Dr. Drew's ass on a reality TV show about Navy Sailor.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm making films. I got a, I did the short film, The Unexpected, which is on YouTube now. And I'll get into how I kind of got into that side of it. And then that film, that short got picked up. Since we spoke, it got picked up to be a feature film. So we already got to fully financed.

We got a major star we signed on and played one of the roles. We got another major star. We got that so it's going to be a bigger film, which is good because now we're going to get the word out to a wider audience. But yeah, when I got out in 2016, I still felt that passion and need to serve in some way. And so I would have, I would connect with nonprofits and that would have nonprofits reach out to me. And the one type of nonprofit that continued to reach out to me was human trafficking

nonprofits. I would have various human trafficking now. And I didn't know what human trafficking was. was. I wasn't familiar with the term. And long story short, I would go do a job or help out with a nonprofit or help raise money. And then one day I got approached by another human trafficking nonprofit that actually employed former SEALs and former agency guys to go to other countries to rescue kids trapped in sex trafficking, but specifically kids who are being purchased by Americans. Americans would go down to some of these Western, from these countries like

Dominican Republic, Haiti, you know, other places. And they would go have paid for sex with these young, you know, 12, 10, 11-year-old girls and boys. And so I remember this one particular nonprofit sent me a video, documentary video, short documentary clip of what they did. And I watched him and I was just like, my blood was boiling. My wife's a doctor. And, you know, she was working in community medicine at the time. So she had seen a lot of stuff.

And she told me she's after she watched the clip, she said, Remy, you go do whatever you got to do, like go help those kids. And so I went overseas. And that's when I got exposed to it more. And then that's when I was actually working in the film and TV industry at the time as well. I was about to work on Sixth Underground at this point for Netflix. And yeah, when I got down there, my eyes were just like open fully. And I just remember being appalled.

And I remember going into these, I was in this particular village in a DR where the parents would sell their daughters to traffickers in the North. Dominican Republic for people who don't know what the DR is. Yeah. And I just remember being. disgusted and our guide. And our job in this particular mission was to educate the parents. So we were there to say, I should tell a parent, hey, here's what's happening. Here's what these traffickers are doing to your daughters.

And, you know, so, you know, kind of telling you that you need to stop doing this. What did they think was happening, though? Like, if somebody wants to buy your kid, what do you think they're doing with your kid? They knew it was for sex trafficking. But, you know, it's one thing to, they didn't visually see. It was just like, out of sight. Okay, yeah, go take my daughter to the north. Oh, man.

To go party or a strip or whatever the case may be, and people are going to pay, but they didn't really know that it was going to be actual sex. Oh, my gosh. We went down there and I'm being in this village. And like I said, I was appalled. And our guide saw, because it was really tough for me. I mean, being a human guy, like, you know,

I learned how to calm down and talk to people to get information. But, you know, being a father, I wasn't a father for the majority of my career as a seal. So now going down there and being a father, it was hard for me to stomach and talk to some of these people. And our God pulled me aside and he's like, he took me into this chapel that was no bigger than the size of two toilet stalls. And he was just like, at the end of the chapel was a dead six-month-old baby. Oh my God. The baby had died because the mother's breast milk ran out. And so she got some formula and mixed the formula with the local water from the slump. And that's where ultimately killed the baby. So he wasn't showing me this to help make me justify what was

happening, but he wanted to help give me some level of understanding because he saw that it was hard for me to communicate with these people without the full understanding, without some level of empathy, which I know that sounds weird. And so, yeah, that helped me. And then, you know, we continue doing the job and, you know, doing rescue stuff. And then when I got back from that trip, my phone had had all these messages from Michael Bay's producing partner my case. And he was like, Remi, where have you been? Your phones been going straight to voicemail? What's going on?

And I said, dude, I've been down to DR. I was like out of it. I was like, dude, like, it was horrific. And he's like, oh, okay. He was like, oh, Michael Bay wants you to work on his next movie, Six Underground. He needs you to fly out to L.A. to start training the actors, like, now. And I was like, all right, cool. But after I got off the phone, it was like these two worlds collided, right?

This world of human trafficking that I was, that I had just been working in. And then this world of film and TV. And that's when a light went off my head. And I was like, how about I combine these two worlds? Because I can go down to South America or other parts of the world and rescue 10, 20 kids. But it's such a global issue that there's going to be 20 million more kids, not 20 million. Yeah, you're pissing into the wind. Exactly, exactly.

And I felt like, you know, knowing how film and TV affected me is a kid and changed the trajectory of my life and, you know, talking to other seals and other people who do specific jobs, change the trajectory of their life, I figured that I could have a bigger impact on this fight against human. trafficking, specifically organ harvesting, because so many people talk about human trafficking. When they hear the term human trafficking, they just think about sex trafficking. But human trafficking is a blanket term under human trafficking. You have sex trafficking. You have organ harvesting.

You have forced marriage. You have forced labor. But you also have stuff like, you know, blood trafficking. You also have stuff like, you know, I interviewed this guy around the time when the film released, a short film release, and he had been trafficked from Venezuela to Colombia to to Mexico with a promise from the cartel that they would move into the U.S. And essentially what the cartel has been doing is they've been sending out e-paflits and messages not just throughout South America, but to other parts of the world saying,

hey, come to this particular part of Mexico. If you can get here, we'll get you in the U.S. And these people are coming to this particular part of Mexico, and they're getting abducted. Oh, man. And they're getting traffic. And the girls are being used. The women are being used for sex trafficking. The men are being used for labor trafficking.

And then the kids are being used as mules for drug trafficking. for drug trafficking. They're being used because they could fit through the tunnels that go from Mexico into the U.S. These really small tunnels that adults can't fit through. They can go through. And so, you know, there's all these different forms of human trafficking. But I chose to focus on organ harvesting.

And that's when I created the film. And the more I, you know, having worked in the human trafficking side of things and then, like, researching and doing all the stuff, the more I begin to learn how big and vast organ harvesting is. I mean, Egypt is considered the organ harvesting capital of the world. Really? Why? Because there's a lot of migrants that come from Africa and other parts of the Middle East and they try to use Egypt as a way to get into Europe and get to more civilized places, so to speak. And so a lot of kind of like what's happening in Mexico, a lot of these migrants and these poor people are getting stuck in Egypt and they're getting told, hey, if you sell a kidney or if you do this, we'll get you into Italy and we'll get you into France or we'll get you, we'll move you into these. other countries. And the poverty level is so, I mean, poverty is so out of control in Egypt, especially Cairo, Egypt that you're having a lot, you have these organized crime that's going

on. As a matter of fact, there was a, you can look it up. I'm sure you could find it, but you Google it, but there was an international organ harvesting ring that was based in Egypt that got busted, I want to say in 2015 or 2016. And the majority of the people that were part of that ring were doctors and nurses. And there was also a computer science engineering. that was running a website and using the website to get people to find donors and to also find, you know, people who are in need of kidneys. And so it's not just in Egypt, an Indian, it's massive. And there's a story that came out recently down in Costa Rica of a doctor who was brokering kidney deals.

Essentially, he was when people in Israel needed a new kidney and they couldn't wait on a waiting list too long because they were going to die, he would find poor people in a, in Costa Rica and kind of like bargain with them and then play on the fact that they were poor and essentially get them to sell their kidneys. So it's a very, very vast topic. And like I said, you know, the reason why I wanted to make this unexpected short film. And I didn't make this short film with the intent of, hey, this is going to be a big feature film. I made it, it says two could be continued at the end. But I was, my goal was to do another short film. But, you know, I made the film in order to be able to expose more people to this atrocity of all

harvesting and also warn Americans who are going to these other countries like Dominican Republic, like Haiti. They go into some nefarious cases, cutting deals with people that they shouldn't be cutting deals with in order to get organs. And I kind of get it because a lot of, you know, it's like 4,000 Americans die each year waiting on the kidney waiting list. Yeah, I know people die on the waiting list. And I was going to say, like, it's a complex issue because I kind of understand why people

buy organs. but I also wonder, do they know where they came from? Because if I bought one to save my own life, I definitely wouldn't want to know that somebody was tricked, kidnapped, and then murdered for that organ, potentially murdered for that. A lot of people don't know.

A lot of people don't know. When they get into these deals, then a lot of people don't know where these organs come from. They just know that they're a match. Yeah. It was a story that came out actually a couple months ago, this girl who she fell in love on this dating app and went to,

I can't remember what part of South America. I think she was actually, I think she was American. And this men's school student, you know, chopped her up, took her organs and was going to sell him. And the people who were going to buy him didn't know where those organs came from. That was a TikTok romance scam, wasn't it? Or he sold the organs on TikTok and that's how he got caught. I vaguely remember this.

Yeah, it was something like that. It was something like that. Yeah, it was something like that on TikTok. Yeah. Oh, man. And that's where a lot of these traffickers are using social. media. Yeah.

They're using social media. They're using Instagram. They're using hashtag. They're searching hashtags for people who are, you know, I mean, that's why people, we have to be careful what we put on social media because if somebody's sick and like, oh, you know, my kidney problems and still bother me. But here I am in dialysis clinic. And then all of a sudden that person gets a message in their DMs, hey, I think I

know somebody, they get a message from someone who seems upstanding and normal. I think I know someone that they can get you a kidney. that can get you bumped up on a donor list. Oh, you really do? Okay, next message. You know, they couldn't get you bumped up on the donor list, but, you know, if you pay X, Y, X amount of dollars, that person said that they know a clinic down in T.J.

Or a clinic down in wherever the case may be that, that does everything up front and right, and they have organs waiting for you. All right, I'm about to die. I'll do it. So it's very organized. A lot of it is happening on social media. Social media is a driving fact.

As a matter of fact, there was a report that came out, I want to say, like, three weeks ago, or four weeks ago, as a relates to Facebook and Instagram, that's, you know, not intentionally, but they're responsible for a lot of these trafficking operations that are happening with these nefarious figures. It's crazy. And I know that desperation in willful blindness and it's just, it's a potent mixture, right? When you're desperate, you're dying.

Yep. You don't care what it costs. And also someone's willing to lie to you about the source of the organ. Because they're not going to say, we're going to kidnap some poor guy and just, steal his organs. They're going to be like, no, there's all these organs going to waste from these people. They die in car crashes and they're just too far away. But for an extra 25 grand, we can make sure that they're medevac to a clean hospital and we'll get the organ. And you're like, cool, I don't want to ask any more questions because even if I have a suspicion, this is my lifeline.

So it's complicated because I get it, right, but it's so horrible. There was a story. I think you shared this to me, or maybe it was Dr. Drew, maybe this is how we got in touch. But these girls went to the DR for cheap surgery and she ended up getting her kidney stolen during the surgery. Do you know about this? Yeah, I sent you that. I think I was. You did send me that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She went down for, it was for like plastic surgery. I think it was for BBL or something like that. Yeah, yeah. She wanted a bigger blood basically and people were laughing about that, but I was like, hey, not funny. She got it. Oh, no, no, no, it actually was a tummy tuck. Oh, yes. You're right. She went in for tummy tuck. You're right. It was a tummy tuck. And so, you know, she goes out on anesthesia and

and, you know, and wakes up. Tummy tuck surgery was done. She liked the results. A few days later, she gets back to, I think, Houston. I think she was from Houston. And she just is not feeling well. And, you know, it's just, you know, it's not holding down foods properly.

She's feeling fatigue, feeling lightheaded, and she's suspecting it from the surgery. But, you know, another month goes by. She's like, oh, this can't be the surgery. Because my stomach feels fine. And then she goes to the doctor and, you know, doctor says, long story short, there's most of the story, you have one kidney. Did you give a kidney?

Oh, my God. No. You have one kidney. And the doctor in the DR took her one kidney. That's terrifying. And sold it. I tell people all the time as it relates to this organ harvesting thing. People think that the, I know I did, but the perception of these traffickers is that they're these scragly, evil-looking, uneducated, you know, on a corner.

type people and the reality is the majority of people involved on the organ harvesting side of thing are highly educated learned people because they're doctors. Yeah. They're nurses. That was a doctor that performed her tummy tuck. He was educated. He knew what he was doing. And then he took her kidney.

And then he sold her kidney. Yeah. You know? Oh my God. So it's crazy, man. That stuff is so disturbing. So, all right. I know it's been a minute and you probably got to go to the beach with their kids and I don't

blame me. I got to do the same thing. Yeah. So you're rescuing children, you're exposing human trafficking, we'll link to the short film in the show notes, if we can do that. I'm not sure if it's public. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yes.

You're exposing organ trafficking. Do you feel like the hero you set out to be in the Bronx? No, I don't think I ever will. I don't think, for me, I won't attain that status until my kids have grown up and become upstanding citizens. I think just a part of my life is to be a blessing to other people, is to fight the good fight. It's part of my DNA. I think it comes from my dad. The reason why he wanted to create Lagoon City was not so that he could be rich and wealthy. He wanted to create

a place where people from all around the world could come and do business in Africa. He wanted to generate an economy for Africa. So everybody up and down the food chain in Nigeria can benefit from it. And that was his legacy. And I think that that's a part of who I am. It's just part of my life to serve and to give and to fight. So I don't think there's anything heroic. about that. But for me to reach that status of being a hero is to have invested in my kids and for them to be great people. Once they become adults and become great people, whatever it is that they do in life and they're a great part of society, then I can't claim that title. But until then, I can't. That's my personal standard.

Remy out of Lake A go spend time with your kids. Thank you for doing the show. This is really, really interesting, man. Thank you so much. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you. God bless you, man. You're about to hear a preview of the Jordan Harbinger Show with Ishmael Beah, who at the age of 13, was forced to become a child soldier. To hear about life in a war zone where he fought for three years before being rescued by UNICEF, check out episode 622 of the Jordan Harbinger Show. I started when I was 13. The first day that we went to war, I think it was the most terrifying thing that ever happened to me, just on the way there, knowing what we were going to do, but it hasn't yet happened. Having this feeling that I was descending into some kind of darkness,

into some place that was going to chip away from who I had been, that I would no longer get back truly. And then there was an ambush, and then we started exchanging fire, and people who looked like us were shooting at us. And there was a kid that when we were training had looked up to me. He was next to me. And there was an explosion, and his body flew, and he was scared. There was blood all over my face and everything.

And I just lost it. I realized at that moment that, listen, If I don't shoot, I'm going to end up like everybody else who's been killed next to me. And I started shooting. Shooting to kill, and whatever could get you as high as possible. So you feel like you're kind of in a long nightmare, you took it. That becomes a new reason to fight. You didn't want to come down from the high.

But there's also, because you're on the high, you also get addicted to the violence itself. So you constantly keep yourself moving, being high, engaging in more violence, until you're removed from it. Which is where sometimes people are shocked when soldiers come back from fighting and they're traumatized, sometimes they shoot themselves, they become violent. When you go and take out another life and dehumanize it, in reverse you dehumanize yourself, your own spirit, your own being, and it takes a lot of undoing. I was once a kid who loved hip-hop, run DMC, LL Kool-J, learned Shakespeare, wanted to be an economist.

And then I became a soldier and I started doing things that I didn't think I would ever be able to be in a position to do, but I did them. To hear about life in a war zone where he fought for three years before being rescued by UNICEF, check out episode 622 of the Jordan Harbinger Show. Proud to be this dude's friend, man. He's an awesome guy. Really a good dude with a good heart. And what a story.

More on organ trafficking, by the way, we've done here on the show with David Kilgore. Episode 497, Blast from the past. We really go into the organ harvesting thing. Kind of gross. That one focuses on China, but this is apparently now a glibly. global problem. Yuck. All things, Remy Adelaike will be in the show notes at Jordan Harbinger.com or ask our AI chatbot. Transcripts in the show notes as well. Advertisers, deals, discount codes, ways to support the show, all at Jordanharbinger.com slash deals. I've said it once,

but I'll say it again. Please consider supporting those who support the show. And if you're not a consumerist type, go support our fundraiser at give directly.com slash Jordan. Once again, a reminder that the Stitcher app will no longer work for any podcasts as of August 29th, 2023. So if you're using the Stitcher app, time to switch. If you're on Android, podcast addict is a good one, CastBox. And if you're on iOS, I suggest Overcast or Apple Podcasts. The Stitcher app is going away, folks. Newsletter at Jordan Harbinger.com slash news.

Would love your feedback. A lot of great feedback so far. Highlights and takeaways from those popular episodes of the show going all the way back. Six-minute networking also on the website at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on Twitter and Instagram or connect with me on LinkedIn. This show has created an association with Podcast One. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogart, Milio Campo, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we've rise by lifting others. The fee for this show is you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. The greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show

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