Shawn Ryan Show - #82 Luis Chaparro - Journalist with a $60,000 Bounty Breaks into Ovidio Guzmán's House | Part 1

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Luis Chaparro is a Journalist specializing in narcos, cartels, and immigration. This is his third appearance on SRS where he brings the most up-to-date information on the growing crises south of the border. In part one, Chaparro updates us on the aftershock of a small scale war that thrust Mexico into a state of chaos when authorities captured Ovidio Guzman, son of drug lord El Chapo. In retaliation, hundreds of armed cartel members laid siege to multiple cities, occupying multiple areas, establishing blockades, and engaging in shootouts with authorities. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://lairdsuperfood.com - USE CODE "SRS" https://preparewithshawn.com https://helixsleep.com/srs - USE CODE "HELIXSLEEPPARTNER20" https://shopify.com/shawn Luis Chaparro Links: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/luiskuryaki Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@luischaparro Please leave us a review on Apple & Spotify Podcasts. Vigilance Elite/Shawn Ryan Links: Website | Patreon | TikTok | Instagram | Download Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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sink your teeth in too. So if you're dreaming of a change of scenery, try Buffalo. It's the perfect place to get away. See you in Buffalo.com Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest is no stranger to the show. He is possibly the most knowledgeable investigative reporter when it comes to all things cartel. What they're up to, how they're doing it, and everything in between. In fact, this will be his third appearance on the show. This guy is two years ahead of mainstream media. In fact, his first visit on the show, which was over two years ago, he broke the story that China was aiding cartels in the

fentanyl crisis that we're seeing here in the US today. He talked about how the cartel is sending in chemist to train the cartels and how the Chinese are sending all the supplies and chemicals that they need to make the world's most potent fentanyl. Now two years later, you see this in mainstream media, you see it in presidential campaigns, everybody's talking about it. Hate to break it to you. That's old news. Now he comes back and he tells us that the cartels are

starting to move out of the drug trade and into completely legitimate businesses. That's right. They're growing and they're getting stronger and they're turning legitimate. Big problem, major problem. Ladies and gentlemen, if you get anything out of this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts. Spotify, leave us a review, tell us how we're doing, like, comment, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. And I see you all out there making content using our reels.

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Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, please welcome Luis Chaparo to the Sean Ryan show. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, Luis Chaparo, welcome back. Thanks, man. For the third time in the show,

I really appreciate it. Repeat a fender, third time. I don't think anybody's been on here three times. I don't think anybody's been on here three times. I don't know man. The first one. But man, we you always have cutting edge information on the cartels and what they're up to. And you know, watching the news like we've known each other for what about two years, maybe a little bit over two years. And it's interesting because the stuff that you were talking about on this show two years

ago is just now hitting mainstream media. You were the one, to my knowledge, I've never heard this stuff anywhere else. You were the one that broke the story about how China is sending in the chemists to train cartels how to make the world's deadliest most potent fentanyl. You were the one that broke the story that China is sending in all the supplies to make the world's most potent fentanyl. And just now, I'm starting to see, I mean, I'm interviewing a lot of politicians because that election season's coming up and I'm seeing, I am just now seeing politicians start to talk about this stuff. I'm just now starting to see mainstream media talk about how

China is involved with this whole fentanyl crisis. And I'm sitting here watching this, and I'm like, man, we broke this over two years ago at this point. I mean, it's, it's always a good thing that they're actually talking about it, but I think they have a delay, right? Two years delay. Totally outdated at this point.

Yeah. I mean, we're gonna dive into that because I've been hearing that cartels are starting to, I don't know if moving away from the drug business is the correct term, or sentence, but it sounds like they're trying to legitimize their businesses and kind of move away from the drug business. But so I want to dive into that. But that's a compliment.

I just want to say, I mean, what do you think when you look at the news and you're like, I've been talking about this stuff for two years now, you guys are just picking this up. I mean, it makes me almost seem hopeless, because it's... Yeah, they're like, honestly. I'm so far behind the problem. I'm very used to it right now at this point, because I remember that time I told you

that a lot of people believed that was a conspiracy theory. And they were holding me, holding me up for that. That sounds like conspiracy. A lot of these media outlets wouldn't take those stories. People for calling you a conspiracy theorist. Yeah, well, they, they'll, they'll, you had, hold on, let me, let me make a correction. Last time you came down here, just to prove that you were in the fentanyl labs, you brought

in video footage of cartel chemists wearing vigilance elite hats. So I don't know how anybody, I mean, and AI wasn't even a thing back then. No, I mean, they, they, I guess when I try to pitch some of these stories to mainstream media back then, there was like a bit of like reluctancy, you know, like I was faced with these sons sort of like anti-China general feeling sort of like reluctancy, you know, like I was faced with these sons sort of like anti-China general feeling sort of like racism conspiracy theory. And I was like, dude, I'm not going against Chinese people. I'm just selling you what I've learned from on the ground in Tinaloa. I wasn't really publishing most of those stories back then because of that, because they thought that there was not enough evidence. Like a cartel, sores, or me embedding with them

and stuff that was probably not enough. Eventually, it's getting into the mainstream media. Now everybody wants that story, right? Right now I just like to, and I'm like, there is a lot of new things happening. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I feel kind of that I'm getting used to it. You so, you so feel that the mainstream media, politicians are always behind of what is

happening in the streets. My job is to report this stuff timely and correctly in an ethical way. And if they don't wanna take it, if you wanna pick it up, I mean, it's on them. It's already proven that this is happening. And this is why I'm trusting shows like yours, specifically your show, right? Saying like, this guy opened up his cameras and microphones

to listen to proofs, you know, not to listen to a conspiracy, not to listen to me thinking or overthinking things, send you videos, send you photos, my reporting, and now it's coming up. And I'm glad it's coming up to the news and to the politicians, but now there's a lot of new things happening on the ballot. Yeah, we're gonna get into, if that, I mean, we're gonna get into that, if that, I mean, we're going to get into, if that story's

even relevant at this point. I mean, it sounds like things have developed so, so much that maybe this stuff isn't even relevant. There's another thing at dinner last night, I learned something interesting about you, so I don't want to make light of it. We're laughing about it, but you have a $60,000 bounty on your head. Yeah. Why do you have a $60,000 bounty on your head?

This is the thing. I honestly don't know. I'm not sure who put it out. A source reached out to me, a source within the federal, a federal agency. Here in the US. The federal agency, here in the US, federal agency. He's been my source for several years and he sent me a photo of a post they got a hand off. He didn't share any more details like

whether they find that or how or whatever, probably on the phone or something on any device of one of these guys they arrested recently or something. But on that image, there was my photo, like from socials. One of the oldest photos I have on Instagram or something. And he was asking for help from his guys, from his people, right?

Like, hey guys, here is 60,000 for the head of these that are alive. And I was like, wow, 60 grand, it's, you know, it's good money. I was a bit, you know, blushed, but yeah, I was like, I'm not gonna lie, Louis, so I could use an extra 60G. I'm too good.

I told my wife and she's like, why if we, you know, it's not, it's not bad money. There's the thing, I don't know how real that is. I don't know if it's really the Cinellau curtail, where a faction, at least of the Cinellau curtail, that put that out. I don't know if it's a line troll or whatever.

That was apparently not a share online to make fun or make a joke. That was retrieved from a device on one of these guys. As per my source, that's what that's what I said. Ask him if this was serious, I was like, how serious is this shit? And he's like, do it any, any threat, you should take it as being serious, you know? Because I get a lot of threats all the time. Do you really? Most of the times is it's just like copycats, trolls,

you know, people that they, we call them carto-fan boys, you know, it's people that they don't even know anything, but they just are big fans of their pretending. So they're pretending and they thought they're like, shut the fuck up man, don't ever publish that shit again or work will kill you And then you do a little bit of research and you know, it's like come on yourself in cartel fanboy What is the What's the cartel think a cartel fanboys do they they if somebody's putting a bounty?

Because it sounds like the Sinaloa cartel is actually a big fan of you. Well, Sarno, certain factions, I guess, and at certain points and at certain moments, you know, I do know that they got pretty pissed. You know, of the last time I was there, because I broke in the Sarnoville Chapel's house hours before he was extracted and arrested.

You broke into the son of El Chapo's house. Yeah, dude, and he was absolutely crazy. Of course he did. Of course he did. How did you break into this house? Is it somebody sitting on it? No, so this is the thing. That morning, I remember it was January, this January.

That morning, I started getting a lot of messages on my phone. I usually put my phone on silent mode, only a couple of secure apps I use to communicate with sources, those are always on. So I started like getting a bunch of like, this is like five in the morning. And I read it and I said, like, hey, there's a lot of things going on in Kuliekan right now. Kuliacan is crazy. There's a lot of like narco blockades. So they were like setting up trucks and vehicles to block roads around Kuliacan and saying they're on fire. And I was getting all those reports. And I was like, yeah, they're probably doing an operation against someone big.

Never thought that we're going against one full chap of sauce, you know. Until one of these messages said apparently the the operation is in Khesus Maria. And I knew that Khesus Maria is the town where Ovidio Khesus Maria was hiding. He has a ranch, beautiful house, state of the art property in these very poor, impoverished ranch outside Kuljakán, like 40 minutes drive outside,

the main seating in Tinaloa. So when I read Khesus Maria, I was like, Ranch outside Gullacán like 40 minutes drive outside the main seating in Tinaloa So When I read Jesus Maria, I was like shit thereafter him. This is happening. They're gonna get him woke up first with it Put it on my Instagram. I think this is happening and start recording on my on my on my cell phone like a guys I'm hearing reports that this is happening pitch flies on my cell phone, like, hey guys, I'm here with reports that this is happening. Pitched voice. Hey guys, I think this is happening.

I probably should be getting my ass there. I'm gonna pay for my whole trips, but I wanna pitch this story to you, because I like publishing that story there for them. That said, yes, let's put together a legal team, a security thing going. But by the time they did that, I was already you know, booking my book three different flights because I know they have people in the airport, so they will know if I'm humming, they will see the list of names of people declining. So I

booked three different flights in and out, brown flights, three different hotels on three different nights. The security team from from vice asked me not to be more than not to spend more than 10 hours on the ground and be out the same day. So I was I was thinking of that right. I was like, I'm just going to gather. I didn't reach out to any source beforehand because I was like, no, do it. If they know that I'm there while they're still, you know, that was very recent.

That was happening that morning. By 10 in the morning, I was already having the confirm information that a video was arrested and he was taking into a hangar in Mexico City. But people were still fighting by 10 in the morning in Tinaloa. My, I left home, my flight left at like noon. So, so when I landed, it was still going on, you know,

the, the, the, the, the, the, in five was still going on. When I landed in Mexico City, and then I flew the next day, early morning to Tuku-Liakan. I arrived in the first flight, like five, six in the morning. And as I arrived there, I reached out to my sources. I was like, I did, I have a strong source in the Sinolac Hotel in Kuliekan, and I told him I did, I'm Kuliekan, I'm in your town,

and I probably need a couple of, you know, hands, extra hands to help me out getting there too, because it was Maria. And he said, what the crazy one here man, you're gonna get you and me killed because shit it's just hitting the fan. I had previously had a ban by the Cinalo Cartel from going to Cinaloa because of my story I did inside weed, let's call them laboratories where they're manufacturing weed products and stuff and setting up dispensaries in Sinhala.

So they already asked me, don't ever come back to Sinhala. And there I was again a couple of weeks later, this just happened like three weeks later after I was banned from Sinhala. So I called this guy and he's like, dude, you shouldn't even be here, man. And I was like, I know, dude, but I don't have anything anyone else to call. And it's like just stay there where you are. I'm gonna pick you up in a different car. Pick me up, took me to a hotel, I called a photographer, a local photographer. So like I do, do you want to join with me and eat photos and video and I'm doing this shit. I understand if you feel sketched out but I'm doing it. And it's like, let's do it, man.

Go with you. Brave dude. And we went up to Kaisu's Maria, of course, all the way up to Kaisu's Maria. There were still like burnt trucks, burnt buses, like hand grenades all over. It was a whoresone up there. And as we got to Cousin Maria, there was a checkpoint from from the Cinalococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococ Yes, all of this stuff, it's on my, in my child, I did it like a short documentary, like I recorded everything as I arrived into the city, as I drop off all the way there. So we went in and we started approaching Ovidia with man's house.

And as we approached, I watched this woman and a bunch of suited guys. And my photographer said, oh, it's the Fiscalia, the general attorney's office, so we're good. There's government. And I'm like, okay, so we're safe. Trump talked to the car with my camera and hand, and then this woman starts saying, no, no, no, no, no, and then this dude's chomped at me. And then he's like, oh shit, this is not government and turns out it was

Obedia was mom former wife of El Chapo who's also has she also has a five million dollars bounty by the US government for being involved in the synagogue hotel So she immediately starts to sell me like no, no, just get the way And I'm not recording. I don't have my camera on. I just want to talk to you and probably go inside a video house. And she's like, now just get away from here. And these dudes tell me, tell me like, just get away. If you want to interview neighbors, that's fine by us. Don't come over to these property. My good. So I went, did a bunch of interviews around with the neighbors. They absolutely loved the video, loved the Guzman's. All people, you know, all sick people saying that'll be the deal.

And the Guzman's family has always helped them out with medicines, with money, with whatever they need it, right? But again, if you look at their homes, very, very poor people, you know, really poor people man without anything without a car without you know like old washing machines, not food under fridges, absolutely poor. I've one expected this guy to live in a neighborhood like that. It was one of his one of his properties outside the city, you know, where he was hiding. The thing was, he was hiding there because he couldn't celebrate Christmas

or New Year's Eve with his family because he knew he was being sold out after. So he waited until all that went through a couple of days into January and then he brought over his daughters, his wife and a couple of friends to have a family party on that property. So when they got him, he was asleep.

He got a bit drunk the last night, stayed up until late. So these guys just, let's do it right now while he's asleep. So I interviewed the neighbors and I noticed that his family and the attorneys left the property. And I was like, this is probably a good time, is the hour and hour, you know, I need to go in. I need to see what happened inside his house, how he was leaving. I need to just go inside his house. I told the photographer, I'm going in.

And he's like, dude, if you spend more than five minutes in there, we're leaving. We're taking off. We're leaving you there. There's people around circling the Gadi's Henshin. And we're just making it look as if we're taking photos from outside. But even from outside, bullets everywhere, unexploded grenades. It was blood everywhere.

Wow. So I found a hole on the wall, on the wire hand on the wall, and I literally jumped over the hole inside his house and started recording. I had my phone in a GoPro. And I started recording everything inside. And inside was washone, washone, like heavy, like 50 calls all over blood, all over man. I was like stepping in 50 calls all over, blood all over, man. I was like stepping in sticky blood all over.

No kidding. Yeah dude, like you have footage of this. Footage of that shit, man. Can we put it in? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'll tell you the footage. It's crazy stuff. And then I went into his daughter's room, room,

completely soaked in blood. I don't know, I don't think it was from them. It was from his henchmen that tried to hide inside the house where there was still fighting the government. But yeah, man, it was very contrasting because you will have a setting of a family party, right? Wine bottles, expensive wine bottles, dinner, table plates, what we call a nasimiento in Spanish, which is baby cheeses and the whole, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, like a nativity scene.

Yeah, exactly, yes, exactly. They had that in the party of the backyard. But at the same time, everything was like riddled with bullet holes and blood and unexploded grenades, 50 calls. And he's close at, he had a bunch of Rolex boxes open. The Mexican military stole everything he owned, man, everything. Expensive shoes, expensive shirts, tennis shoes, the Rolex, Huffle watches he had there, jewelry. It was all empty.

And they asked in neighbors and they're like, we watch how the Mexican government was putting everything on Pilo's leaves and taking out a lot. They took everything. So, so I record the whole thing and I was as I was coming out, I remember finding a hole. This, it was a tunnel disguised as a, as a water system, you know, particularly boss, it was a tunnel. And then I asked my guy like, hey, can I go out now?

And he's like, no, no, no, no, just like stay there. You can hear on the video, I shot my, in heart was racing, man, because these guys were right outside when I was trying to get out. And I could hear the motorcycle circling government or cartel. The cartel guys.

And I was like, if they find me inside this place, they're not gonna shoot me, they're not gonna kill me. They're gonna call the authorities, they're gonna put me in jail, and they're gonna torture me for several years in a scene alone. Oh, yeah. So I was like, stay hidden for a couple of minutes

until this guy told me, it's now, man, you need to get out. Now we're leaving. The unthinkable is happening. No more surprises. It's all out in the open. Our so-called trusted institutions tell you, don't worry, everything's gonna be fine. But you know better, and you won't allow yourself to be blindsided again.

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and two free pillows for our listeners. Go to helix sleep.com slash SRS and use the code helix partner 20. This is their best offer yet and it's not gonna last long. With helix, better sleep starts now. So I went again through the hole. I was so nervous that I fell back on my phone my back. I was like,

then I handed over the camera, I said like, dude, just leave. I'll get out. I managed to go out. I immediately switched the footage, the card to SIM cards and everything. And as we were getting out, we got stopped by the check point of these guys.

And they just literally asked me like, everything good. And I'm like, I'll get it. And he's like, you're done. And I'm like, I'll done. They're like, okay, you say, I know, like, thanks. And if we went, they put a guy to follow us until probably they were expecting us to go outside the town and then he'll just get back. And we're way out. I was still kind of shaking with adrenaline and you know, I was still like, shit man. I can't believe I have this footage.

I can't believe I have this story and these guys are still following us. And I need to catch one. Two of my flights were already left. So I had one left by 5 by 5pm, and it was already like three years on shit like that. And we're driving out, and then the fucking car breaks, like in the middle of a nowhere highway with this fucking management following us.

And I was like, my life, dude. I was like, when happened, and then this dude was like like I don't know many over heated So I went to a corner store got some water and gate rates and poor gate rates on the radio It's like you just need to get out of here man. Yeah, so for your car We managed to leave Lost my flight so I so I had to go into one of the hotels I had booked Went to that hotel, turned out the attorneys and Ovidis Mom were saying that hotel that night.

So I was like, I still had like someone long hair. I put out a hoodie over, went into my room, bus caught my fucking head off, and left everything ready to go. You know what? I was just literally just waiting for my next flight the next morning. How did you know that the, who's attorney and who?

He's my mother and his mom. Yeah, because I watched them on the restaurant. As you enter the hotel, there's a lobby and there's a restaurant and there were sitting at that restaurant, you know, so I watched them as like, oh, they're here. So I just literally went for the elevator, put a hoodie on. I remember recording on my phone like, oh, shit, these guys are here. It's, I mean, I'm just getting ready to leave tomorrow.

I can't wait, you know, then this morning I left like five in the morning, stay a couple of hours in the airport. The two longest hours of my life. Of the cool, like an airport, like a neat sleep. And I left. So those two things made these guys, or at least one faction of these guys, not happy about my work, right?

When I posted this shit, when viral, when everywhere, and they were like, this motherfucking OP-DOS house, they would call to everything. Which, if I'm being honest, I'll think like, dude, you probably can prove a case. You got stolen by the Mexican government. They shot at your whole place, not giving any fuck

about your daughter's being here and your wife, you know. Mm-hmm. You'll probably use that. Yeah. But I know they got mad at me because of that shit. I mean, does that bother you? Well, just when you have an insider of the federal government on the US side saying, hey, I just want you to know you got a $60,000 bounty on your head,

we just recovered this off of the device. What I mean, it worries me, man. No, absolutely, it worries me because of my family for their safety and for my own as well. I want to leave until, you know, I die from age and see my kid grow old and shit. It worries me, but at the same time, it's like, what am I gonna do, man? What am I gonna do? Like, if they ask me to stop doing what I do forever, and they tell me, you know what, you need to stop forever. And I have an offer for reasons to believe that is true. I'll probably think about it.

But up until today, I've never been asked to stop. I just been asked to nothing. Just get empty threats, you know? Yeah. Probably because there are a few years because they're, you know, coked up, they're drunk, and they're impulsive people. Most of these guys, this is the another thing that kind of like gets me into thinking that the understand that these threats are real, but at the same time, there is a lot of things

playing out, right? When you ask me about how these cartel guys feel about cartel fanboys, they absolutely fucking hate them, because they bring a lot of heat to them. What we think would happen if I reach out to both governments and say, and make a presser, and bring in NGOs,

protection journalists and shit, and say like the scene of law of cartel put a 60,000 grand bounty on my head, and I need protection, and I need help from you guys. And I need, you know, I start making a whole a mess and a big thing out of it you know pitching stories about that to every

other media outlet. This is just gonna bring more heat to them and I know for fact they don't want that. So they will go after the guy who probably without permission put up a heat on my head. They'll probably go after that guy. Dude, just leave him alone, just stop that shit now. We don't need the heat right now, especially when we already have both of our governments after us, right? Because of the fentanyl on that shit. And what happened to Obedio? So they just want to be clear from all that shit. And I don't mean to cost any more trouble for what I have, right?

So yeah, I know that this, another time real quick, before we move on, I just you broke into Obedio's house. Obedio's house. I just want everybody to know who exactly that is. Yeah, absolutely. Ovidios, man, is the youngest son of Ochapo. He's one of the three leaders of what we call those chapitos, which is the main faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. This dude is a thing of video is about 32, 33 years old now. And he was arrested in 2019 in Kuliacan.

And it whole hell broke loose in Kuliacan, on what we call Kuliacanaso. Hundreds and hundreds of henchmen went out the city, started filing the government. They grabbed the families of the military members involved. There is a military base in Kuljakan. They grabbed the families, locked them up on their houses, on the military base, and set a lot of explosives around, and then with gasoline and shit. And they threatened the government. So if you don't release a video, we're going to kill all these families.

They opened a hole on the main state prison in Kulakkan to let a lot of a lot of insinilokertel members in jail out armed all the first and as him just shoot around the city everywhere and everyone. So imagine a city of less than probably less than 300,000 people, absolutely taken by probably a hundred thousand, you know, armed people around. It was, it was a mess. So the Mexican government had to release a video from their, from their custody. And that, that was embarrassing for the government, of course. And that was empowering for the, for the Sinaloa Cartel, the Chappitos faction at least. Yeah. So Videos Man was in the center of

that stuff of that attention. And then he was freed, he lived free for two more years, probably four more years, that happened in 2019. And he was arrested early in January this year. He was just extradited last month to the US. And he's currently in Chicago, MCC, probably facing life. Wow. And you broke into his house. And I broke into his house.

Man, that's crazy. I gotta be honest, you know, here on some of the stuff you did for your trade craft, I'm impressed. You weren't doing that stuff the first time I talked to you. I mean, you booked three different flights, you booked three different hotels, hooked the sim card out of the camera, I mean, most people aren't that heads up.

Yeah, no dude, I've been trying to step up in terms of taking care of myself and not being so reckless. I mean, it is reckless enough to literally go and do that shit. But I was like, nah, I can't beat that. You know, I need to. And that's the other thing. I want to keep covering this kind of like beat cartels and creaming conversations, probably just going to do like big stories and

stop doing a bunch of little small stories that kind of get me in trouble. You know. So, so yeah, that was, that was probably related to that. That was probably, that thread was probably related to that. Probably, I think, probably I don't want to say it is related to that. Or, again, a fun boy who got angry because I broke into his fan dude, whatever video. Yeah, you know what I mean? Talking to you last night, it seemed, I mean, angry because I broke into his fan dude, whatever video. Yeah, you know, I mean, talking to you last night, it seemed, I mean,

I asked you this question last night at dinner and I'm, you know, and you told me about that. And I was like, man, last time we spoke, it sounded like everybody within the Sonolo cartel is, I mean, it sounds like they love you, you know, and, uh, and I even, I'm not going to lie. Like, I get a little nervous, you know, I've been trying to get you back on her for a while. And I'm like, Louise, what's going on? Why aren't you coming back? I see it going on these other podcasts. Come on. And then I got where I was like, maybe we went a little too in depth the last time and he got in trouble. But now you know for a fact that they actually love your show too. They're watching your show. They like your show.

They know your guests and your show in general. I think these guys, I don't know, they love me, they hate me. I guess maybe it's a little above. What I've been told by one of the higher ups in this in a rocker tell is something very straightforward, which makes sense. He's like, dude, you talk a lot of bullshit, but you seldom tell a lie. What we respect is a journalist

who probably comes after us and tries to expose what we're doing in our operation at the shit. That's fine. That's your game. This is our game. You're not the first one. You know, the authorities, the governments are after us. So we know how to take care of us. But if you tell lies and you're getting paid by telling lies, that's going to get you killed. That is going to get you hated by us.

They know that I don't tell lies not purposely at least, you know. I know that he called me out on a couple of things, you know. He was like, when you said this and when you said that, that's absolutely not true. But he could tell that that was not true not because I wanted to put out a lie. I had just wrong information as every other journalist, right? Probably bad sourcing, and that was it. But it's never my intention to intentionally put up lies for the sake of whatever, money, cloud, whatever. It's trying to be responsible as of my information, confirmed, different sources.

If I can go there, be there, see it for myself. You're essentially, we'd spoken about this. I mean, you're, you're a part of their publicity. They, they, they specifically, the Santa Rock Hotel, they really, they're really big in, on that, they're really big on, on, you know, putting their name out and saying like, we're, we're huge. As long as you don't get us in trouble by publishing specifics, right? Yeah.

Locations, faces, specific names, last names, got kind of stuff. We chide on, I don't care. That's not my job. I mean, I've been asked a lot of times that if it is my responsibility to share this information without portedis, right, to end up with them, to end them and stuff. As I do, I'm not a cop. I'm not in the business of justice. I'm not in the business of justice. I'm not in the business of arresting people, of sentencing people. I'm not a police. That's not my job. My end of things is telling stories, shedding light. The responsibility of the authorities is, okay, we have this information. We're going to act against, right? My part of this business is I'll turn on the light on a dark room.

I'm not gonna take anything. I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I'm just gonna turn on the light on this dark room. So everybody knows what's in that room and everybody knows what to do with that information, right? It's an up for me to tell you or anyone what to do with that info. It's up to me to find you or anyone want to do with that info. It's up to me to find info that is made to be hidden, right? Yeah, we do a damn good job of it. Really appreciate it, man.

Well, we got a lot to talk about, but you know, everybody always gets a gift. Oh, yes. So, uh, different gift this time. So, what happened to the mental health? Oh don't worry, we still have the daily birth. I love the gone the best. No, I partnered with layered superfood.

So you know, you watch a lot of my military type episodes. We are very big on mental health. And so there's a bunch of things in there that will keep your mind sharp, because part of your mental health keeps you. Keep a good mental health, it's keeping your brain sharp. So those are performance mushrooms, put that in with your coffee.

Those are a daily greens supplement. This is how they stop you're taking to keep your mind, you know, all in check, right? There should be some coffee in there, those are more of the greens. Oh yes. There should be some coffee in there. Those are more of the greens. Oh, yes. There should be some coffee in there that's functional mushroom coffee,

that's functional mushroom creamer. Oh, good. This stuff tastes good. It's the cleanest ingredients you can get. This is cool stuff. Yeah, we parted with them. My wife has been putting me in the superfoods, you know, like to get me more and more into it. And it's not that I've been in me in the superfoods, you know, like, to get me more and more into it.

And it's not that I've been in Berlokton, it's just that I forgot, because she has all sort of, like, different things. Yeah. But dude, this is great, great stuff. That's to mix it up and work now. I really appreciate it, man. I think this is definitely gonna help a lot.

My dog. To be on the right mindset with all these. I'll send you some more. Wow. There's plenty of stuff going around. This is cool stuff man. I really, really appreciate you and layered superfoods.

Great stuff. Thanks a lot. All right, let's get into the good stuff Luis. So, look, I got a bunch of stuff to talk about here. An outline by, I'm just gonna let you kick it off, man. I mean, it's been about a year since we've met face to face. And so, what have you been into? You always have the latest and greatest stuff.

I've been all around, man. And as I was saying, I'm trying to do more big stories instead of a bunch of little stories. And I think, well, I guess my last trip, my most recent trip was to Michoacán, Central Mexico, great place, great state, great food. It's an amazing place all over But that's where the self-defense groups were born in 2013 10 years ago What self-defense group 10 years ago people and farmers just had it with

Carthels right they were like dude. We just had it We haven't enough money because they are avocado and lime exporters, so they're making some really good good money. And cartels were basically extorting them, kidnapping them to get a piece of that money back in 2013. So these dude, Ipollito mora, dude, I respect absolutely man, I have the utmost respect for Ipollito. It was just recently killed and that broke my heart. I had an interview set up with him and he was burned outside his house, his body, when he was still alive. He was burned alive. Yeah, that was gruesome shit. And avocado farmer. Yeah, and the first who told people, let's arm ourselves and go against this

And the first who told people, let's arm ourselves and go against these f**ks. We can own this shit too. And he managed to do that in 2013. He bought a lot of f**ks and he said like, if cartels can get a good dealer, you know, to traffic weapons for them, we can do that too. So they brought a lot of weapons from the US into Mithrokan. Armed themselves are all these weapons, all these weapons coming from the US, most of it, yeah, like probably 9% of it. And it's just from local gun stores. They just send a shopper and that sounds like

hence the car. Yeah, they're just sending somebody up and they're like, yeah, give me 200 AR 15s, give me 150 AK 47s, make sure we got plenty of magazines and ammunition grab some cool optics and We're gonna need a lot of pistols to that that's later how it works like you send out at least To your source or contacting the US he goes shopping around in different gun shows gun shops Everywhere takes photos send you the photos. think this is the kind of like, that stuff you're looking at for, they're like, yes. Do the revenue you're making out of like,

traffic and guns, it's more than three times, it's original price in the US. No kidding. So, so pistol that cost $1,000 or you get it for three grams. We can easily cash. So, these guys are making a big buck, you know. Especially when there is war between curtail and government or between rival gangs and stuff, you need a lot of weapons, a lot of ammo and all these stuff is coming from the US.

So it's big money for a lot of people. And the border going south, it's pretty much open, right? There is no checkpoints, there is no barriers, there is nothing. I think the border is pretty much open right there's no checkpoint. There's no Beary years or something. I think the border's pretty much open This is probably even more air goes the way again. I have buddy First pretty much yeah, you're right absolutely both ways Yeah, dude, yeah, I think it's probably holding you more coming northbound the lines, the long lines, the actual, you know. Yeah, dude.

So, so yeah, these guys order a bunch of guns, a bunch of heavy weapons, ammo and shit. Train a lot of people and they literally close the whole farming sites, their cities. They kind of like started setting up barricades. And one morning they decided to go out in arms and start killing a lot of hotel members, arresting them, turning them over to the authorities, engaging in fight and after a couple of months. They were out. They pushed, they pushed, they successfully pushed the cartel out. Instead like that for a couple of years,

until again, cartels got smarter, right? What they did is cartels pushed or lobbied, lobbied one, talking like money to the Mexican federal government back then, to start going against these guys, calling them terrorists, calling them guerrillas, calling them illegal operations, right? Arms severely and that can be, but cartels, oh yeah, no they're fine, you know? And so they went after these guys.

These guys had their own fights with the Mexican government. So they looked probably bad on the public eye because they were now fighting the Mexican government. So the Mexican government came out with the truth. So they were like, all right, we're gonna let JTMI's you. You need a batch, you need a proper shirt, like some sort of rural civilian force, but we need you to be registered as a self-defense member.

So they were like, let's do that then. So they started to register their arms themselves and kind of like going more on the official side of a civilian armed group, but like backed up by the Mexican government. And a lot of these secarios and narcos and cartel members, they were like handing money to the government, saying like, hey man, can I have a batch as well? So I can carry my gun and shit. The first one was one and then 10 and then 100 and then 200 and then 1000 and then basically the government

legitimized a whole cartel. You know, whoa. So they they became self defense groups, but they were cartel. They were the Viagra's cartel. They were the Familia Michoacana cartel. They were all sorts of different cartels wearing shirts and registered arms as self defense members. So Iboito was like,

shit, this is not self-defense. This is all cartels, I'm going up. So he stood up himself for several years as a solo vigilante going against cartels. Neaming them, putting out in social media, like these guys are cartel, that guy is offering here These guys has a laboratory here calling off already saying, hey man, I found a

Adam Femme laboratory here come over rate this this place They want to listen so so he was all alone all by himself and Couple of months ago He got killed as he was coming back from his farm back home. I went to his house and he was building a barricade on his rooftop. It was unfinished because they took it from... Yeah, I think he fell. He knew that at some point he was going to have to barricade himself on his house and

start fighting these guys from his own, you know, trench. But I say was driving back home, he got ambushed and they killed him. And before he was dead, they put his body out and set him on fire in front of everyone to see. There's footage. I also had that video on my on my YouTube. there's footage of his body just in flames. Wow. When people looking around confused and shit. That was basically sent out a message, right? That you're not gonna stand against us.

I mean, we still, you're not gonna bring again because the rumors were he was putting again another new group of self-defense, you know, of good people to fight back against the cartel again. Wow. But that hope died with him. So nobody else is doing this, this is right across the country in Mexico. No, I spoke with his brother. And he was absolutely terrified.

He was all alone just that his brother, he's brother, he's called Guadalupe. Brave fucking man, honest man, with big balls. And he's like, dude, if the government is not gonna get rid of the Viagra skirtel, I'm gonna have to go and fight them myself and face probably the same faith as my brother. He leaves in a town that is surrounded, to round that you can go out of his house

and right in front, you will have henchmen sitting on the inside wall just waiting for him to go out. He can't leave his house, he can't leave his room because it's gonna get popped. So he's living there by himself alone in the middle of that in chaos. So this is a great man. There is a small community called Tensi Taro,

which is the world capital of the avocado. That's where all the avocados in the US and probably the world are coming out of. Or most of, huge avocado farms, a lot of money. They still have self-defense group with barricades before you enter the town. Armed people, armed civilians. I interview one of them and he's like,

dude, I'm a teacher, you know, I'm a teacher at an elementary school. But on my free time, I come and guard post on this barricade with my AK and shit, you know, waiting for these kinds to try to take over or town. That's the last, so the people are really starting to try to take matters into their own hands.

Yeah. Because the government is a complete failed state. The government is, it's sided with the cartels. They've been trying to disarm these guys and not the cartels. Forever. I mean, the last time you were here, you were saying that the government was actually becoming

more profitable for the cartel than the actual drug business. Yes, exactly. Yeah, exactly. So now it sounds like they've completely infiltrated it's done. Yeah, yeah. I mean, or the facto gupperman, it's criminal organizations, different cartels and different trajectories. So it's like we have different governors, depending, depending on which

region of the country you are, and they rule, they rule. Politicians, they, they're just like the representatives, you know, representatives of the law. They're not really in charge, man, not all in Mexico, not all. That's for you. And you know, with, not really in charge, man, not a rally in Mexico, not a rally. That's where it is. Man, you know, with that, it's sad, but it's also, it's, I mean, good on the people, you know, from finally saying, hey, this is enough, we're tired of this. And if you are going to handle it, then we're going to handle it. And I hope that's, you know, they say courage spreads. It's contagious.

And so hopefully that starts to spread a little bit. Yeah. There's two directions we could go right now. One, we could go into the drone stuff or we could go into kind of the new direction of the cartel, which we're going to get both. Let's dive into the drones, because I think it's related. That's him reaching.

Let me lead into it then. So you were talking about this guy, the avocado farmer, who built this barricade in his house to fight off the cartel. My first thought was that's great. I love his mindset. You've been talking about your social media about these drones drones last night dinner. You were talking about these drones and

You know, ISIS started making these drones quite a while ago and basically what they're doing is putting explosives on them Just regular everyday drones, you know stuff. You can go by A hobby store. Yeah, you, attach an explosive on them. And basically it's a, it becomes a IED. Yeah, exactly. Improvised explosive device. And so, does this guy know that, I mean, before he died, he's building this barricade, all they have to do

is just fly a drone over there and it's done. Yeah, I mean, they got to him before he got to that, but his brother, Wadalupe, he got a share of, one of those drones like probably a month ago. He was someone started sounding the bells of a local church, apparently calling people out. Apparently it was gonna start a rice-hopping arms again. So while Alubeh went out and he was talking to people and I guess people was like coming together and then the

F***ing curtshell just dropped an explosive trauma in the middle of that place. Heard a couple of them, while Alubeh was fine, but that's, that was not happening before when, Iboito his brother raised up in arms, right? The cartels didn't still have the technology to have explosive drones, but now they do. And that's how they're controlling that whole region by exploding drones all over. They know you can operate that from a distance. You have

cameras on it and then they use plastic plastic explosives like Tovex. They also use a mix of color is the I don't know, days and that. They send me the exact makes they use and they put a lot of like snorkel, you know, sure, no, it's not Rappas, yeah, that work. Yeah, basically a lot of like nails and bolts. He's a metal soup to make more more damage You know, so that's that's that's what they they're doing right now when I was there my guy in in Michoacán He's a local journalist there in Michoacán, his local journal is there, and he was taking me to places, and we went to look for a priest at a local church

to talk to him, because he's part of like, he's an activist himself. So his people told us like he's not here, he's in the main town, but probably come in the next two hours, he shall be here. And I was, we were leaving, they dropped the explosive drone at the same place we were.

Like literally, what, two minutes after we left? Oh, wow. We could hear the explosion at the very corner, we were parked. These guys was like, we need to move. We stayed another shitty hotel in the middle of nowhere. And that night, they, one of my sources inside one of these hotels sent me a video

of how they were torturing the chief of police of that town. He was like, you wanna know who's really in charge? Have a look at this shit. 12 in the night sent me that video out and he showed me how they were torturing the chief of police of the town. And he's like, we rule these townmen. So if you want to talk to someone, it's us.

And on the video, they pop it. You can see his things and then... Killed it. It's crazy, man. That place is crazy because it's different, cartels, like probably five or six different powerful criminal organizations fighting against each other, breaking truths between each other and then breaking that

truth and fighting again and stuff. And you have the cartel chalisco. The chalisco cartel, the new generation. Huge. So the cartels using these drones now, or is this one specific? I think all of them are probably using it more, but the guys that are really on top of that game, it's the C-Ch-A-N-G. Jalisco Gartel.

Those are the guys owning that game. They have these, it's called operaciones, droneros operaciones especiales, like special drone operators, specials, like special drone operators. They have their own batch, their own, you know, like symbol and thing, which is basically a drone with a school in the center and the CJ and key letters, and then drone operators on the lower part, which drone operators. So they're putting together a special unit to operate drones, you know, and to keep seeing new trends, new drones, acquiring new tools, getting explosives, training more guys in the use of drones for

build gelants, but also for, for, like us, IEDs basically. Yeah. I mean, are they, when it comes to these drones, I mean, are they antipersonal, are they antivirical? Can they take out a building, or can they do, I mean, can they, how advanced are they with their explosives? For the most part.

It's very simple to make an explosive that's antipersonal,'s going to take humans out. It's a little tougher when you're looking to take vehicles out. Obviously, buildings, you're talking about packing a lot more explosives. Yeah. What are the capabilities of these two? For the most part, I'll say, probably 70, 80% is what you will call fireworks, right? It's just like anti-personal.

Handmade explosives out of like a different mix of things, you know? Whatever they can get. Yes. But a good percentage of that shit is actual explosive stuff, real dangerous stuff like like Tovex or C4.

They're getting actual legitimate explosives. They're not even making their own. Or is this coming from the US? The C4 is coming from the US and Tauvix, which is like the Mexican version of Oc4, or that's kind of like what I understand. It's getting from Mexico. I know that they still don't have like, or too much knowledge, like large amounts of that, because we haven't seen that

in a in a white spread use for the most parties that like make shift explosive things with the drones. But in some cases they've installed mines with toe bicks or c4 that have exploded the armor vehicles official vehicles of the of vehicles of the Mexican military. If they're, I mean, if they're getting C4 from the US, I mean, where were they getting it? I have no clue. People inside the military. I have no clue, but I have a source inside the Mexican military.

And he was, he was, I was having an argument with them because it was like, they're not getting C4. And I'm like, dude, they, I know for a fact, I went there. I saw it. And they told me and they, I, I, I send you a video. I don't think that C4, what, what, what I send you that video, where they're putting up the, uh, the drones and the explosives. But on the same, on the same setting and the same place, they had toebecks and C4, not large amounts. But I was on this guy, I was in myself,

and he was like, we don't have any intel as of they're getting C4, that's extremely hard to get. And then like probably a month after, in a small place in Chihuahua, called Palomas, border town. The Mexican authorities, the Mexican customs, seized a somewhat large amount of C sea for staking from the US towards Mexico on an American citizen.

That was from Americans to the South. So and I send the news article to these guys like, dude, you see what I'm talking about? They are getting their hands on sea for. And he's like, oh shit, yes, you're right. You're absolutely right. Wow. What are they using these for? I mean, who are they targeting?

Are they using this for cartel wars? Are they using it on civilians? They're usually, they're using it for both. For, I've only seen they using these heavy stuff against armored vehicles from government and from cartel. What they call their monsters, is makeshift armor, rhino type vehicles that they make. And they're absolutely armored to the engine,

doors, everything, and it's all makeshift. And they're extremely hard to take out, because so they even armoured the tires and stuff. But that's what they're using these explosives for, because only one of these vehicles pass over a load of C4, and they detonate that shit. That'll damage the armor vehicle. And they've used it against the official armor military vehicles. And it's working.

And it's working. Yes. Do you have any video that I think there is, I don't think there's video, but I think there are photos published online. I'll look for them and send it right over. Are they using this on US border patrol at all? No, for the most part, on the border,

what they're using drones for, it's for vigilance of the movement of the border patrol and US authorities. They do have specific bases to watch over the US movements. Also, I wrote a story, another thing I was recently into is they have what they call a scone-sea camera, they call it. But it's basically beachulants basis. They establish in different border towns where they set up different video cameras all

over the city. They ask permission from alady in a house, hey, can we put just these security cameras, you were safe and whatever, which is gonna install it here. So they have a lot of those, a lot of like irings on different places that they can keep watching over. They have a regular ring camera type stuff. Regular stuff, the stuff that they get from Amazon.

And then they have these center of intelligence, where they have a bunch of cameras, a bunch of screens, and they're getting information through WhatsApp and handing over information, either for rivals or Mexican officials, US authorities around the border, if they want to place a hit, they're like, hey, these guys driving a black SUV

with these plates, and they'll just start watching the cameras all around town and say, okay, these guys driving that way, so you can get that guy on the next straight up. And so it's like a proper established intelligence center. Like, wow, if you get M1. I have a bunch of photos. I'll send you photos of these places like a proper established intelligence center. Wow. If you didn't, one, I have a bunch of photos. I'll send you photos of these places

from inside these places. Oh, man. Yeah, it's crazy because they're, these guys are more sophisticated than on the government. Yeah, man, they're getting to that level. I mean, I know that they're still at law, so that limits their power.

But as they keep going off the ladder in corruption and getting more permission and more access to government stuff, they're getting more sophisticated and more established. How are they, what are the range of these drones? Do you have any idea? I have no clue.

I think it really varies because these are all commercial drones they get from Amazon. They are for the most part are DGI drones. What's the most weight that you've seen one hold? They had these maverick Maverick camera remember the the exact model of that, but it was somewhat big maverick drone It was it was meant to carry a DSLR camera Okay, so you know with with with extra batteries and probably a microphone. So that's that's probably the most okay

Yeah, so maybe probably a microphone. So that's probably the most. Okay. So maybe a couple pounds. Yes. And remember, they were loading that one up with a box, with a plastic box with a bunch of stuff in. Yeah. Well, how are they detonating the explosives by impact? So they just impact the drone against the house or a person vehicle. When I first started this whole podcasting thing, an online store was about impact the throne against the house or a person vehicle. When I first started this whole podcasting thing an online store was about as far from my mind as you can get.

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With a with a with a with a with a charge. So basically to detonate C4 You could set C4 on fire. It's not going to do anything but burn you could throw C4 to house. It's not going to do anything. Oh, yeah Kickball with it. It's not going to do anything but if you if you prime it with a blasting cap, that when that blasting cap explodes, then it detonates the C4. So it has to be.

I have no clue, man. I mean, I know that for the most part, the makeshift drones, with the makeshift explosive, I was telling you, with, yeah. That's basically by impact. They, yeah. But all the other stuff, like when they hit the renewals and that kind of stuff, I have no clue how they're detonating that stuff.

I would be interesting to find out. It's a relatively, I would think, it would be a relatively easy defense against the drones. I mean, you can get these commercial jammers, and jam the frequency that the drone runs off of. I mean, and you can get these for relatively cheap. You can just, you can Google it. I mean, they're illegal, but you can buy them. They'll ship into it from China. The Mexican government has been afraid of using those jammers

because they know that drones have Explosive charge on them. So they don't want to drone probably they will have probably have to coordinate Where it's gonna fall or something? Yeah, I mean the caveat to that would be you know Your cell phone everything every signal is gonna be jammed. Yeah, I mean, so you're out there, but that would be... Because if it falls, it's going to... Yeah, I mean, if they could figure out the frequency that the drone is running off of, which should, I mean, it's probably in the user manual. You know what I mean? You probably just Google it or look it up and see if it's...

So you take over the control of the drone and not necessarily just drop it? Well, it would drop. It will drop. That's what it if you can get the bubble big enough to where it's jamming This it's not gonna drop on you. Mm-hmm, but probably on a that because the fear What they told me when I interview these these state police in Michokan They do have these weird looking guns that are apparently signal jammers. And asking like, why they're not using that stuff? And they're like, if we should have thrown down, it's gonna fall probably on a house,

when that's a billion, and it's gonna cost, you know? Well guess what, it's gonna fall somewhere. Somewhere. So what if the car tell makes it fall or whether the jam tell makes it fall or whether the jammer makes it fall, but yeah, we'll be in I mean, they're actually developing, they have them. I've been actually talking with the owner of one of these companies. They're making energy weapons that they don't take ammunition.

They don't take anything, but they'll disable a drum like that. You could watch 50 of them all fall out of the sky at the same time. There's no sound nothing. It's just That's pretty much interesting and that's probably helpful in Mexico. They're getting They're getting begun on technology all types of technology, you know moving into some other stuff. Let's talk about It's interesting how their weapons continue to develop and how resourceful they are is fascinating to me. But you know what else is fascinating is I've been breeding that some of these cartels, I don't know of moving away the right sense. I kind of mentioned this earlier, I think, but it seems like they're kind of, they're

definitely expanding out of the drug market. And it sounds like that's not even the majority of their income at this point in time. Now, I mean, I know there's a lot of human trafficking happening, gun smuggling, drugs, but it sounds like the cartels are becoming so sophisticated and becoming so powerful that they're actually taking over legitimate business and commerce. Do you want to start on that? Yes, sure. I think the main reason for a criminal organization to exist is money, right? It's revenue.

They want to have more money and more power. And wherever they have a sense that there is money in which ever industry that is legal or illegal, they're gonna try to bank on it. At some point, drugs were the most profitable revenue, right? Because there were legal, hard to get, scars, and there was a huge demand in the US. Right now, the price of cocaine is plummeting.

It's probably at its lowest in history. You can get a break of cocaine for 16 grand, right? Like, it's already in the US, which is absolutely ridiculous amount of a price. There's still more. What was it? Even a low price will be 30, 35, 40. A low price will be 30,000. So that's like a fire sale with cocaine, right?

Yeah, like everybody's like, everybody in the US is getting a hold of a couple of breaks of cocaine and then trying to split, you know, that over and get some revenue. They're still making money out of drugs. But the thing is, that's sort of like a established revenue stream now, right? They manage to have that that streamline of revenue established.

No issue, no problem. They can even sort of like calculate how much more they're going to make over a year of shaping different kinds of drugs and stuff. So that's basically settled for them, for their business. What they're seeing there is an opportunity is in natural resources and human smuggling. And of course, the political power, capitalization of political power, political positions. That's where they're now not moving away from drugs, but probably saying, you know what? We have established drug routes, we have established revenue, we have established providers and clients.

Now that that's established and it's getting to a established level of money and it's not even that high anymore, there's no word left to even expand in the drug market. Exactly. We basically own it and that's it because they find new clients, right? Like you were up and then Africa, but it has a cap, you know? And then they move from that to other revenue streams. One of them being mining. First, they started embedding with my international

mining companies to bring security. Even if those mining companies I've reached out to, they say they have no clue. They don't do that kind of like deals with cartels and they disguise everything as going with private security companies. Well, guess what private security companies they are, right? They are cartels. So they pay these private security companies. First to lobby with Mexican security forces to assure that their operation in certain region

it's gonna be secure, right? They're like, oh, we're too afraid of fingertails and we wanna explode this mind of, I don't know, lithium, gold, silver, whatever, but we wanna know we're safe. They're smart enough and they do have people doing research enough to know that that region is highly controlled by the cartel. So they will just see it and negotiate through different security companies, right. That means that the security company says, okay, usually we charge,

let's call it $1,000 for a deal like that. But now we're going to charge $3,000, 3 times more, because we're going to split that with a cartel, and then you'll be safe. So the cartel basically owns a security around most of these mining companies on different natural resources, right? That was first the beginning. resources, right? That was first the beginning. Then, curtail started like stepping a step ahead, putting a step ahead and saying like, oh, you know what? It looks like we have rumors that here could be a lot of new silver unexploded yet. Why don't we establish right there and hold that place for a while. So when a mining company comes, it's like, hey, wanna explore that place?

We're already here, man. Yeah, you're gonna have to give us the good money to keep you safe, to get rid of all these people, and we're good. And that's been going on and on in different places. So when we see cartels fighting, like in places like Zacatecas, Buévla, all that stuff. The government tells us, oh, they're fighting a drug route. It's like, dude, that it's not even a drug route. There is no port,

there is no main highway that leads to the US, whatever, not the only one. That's not a production site, but what you have is a lot of silver like in Taka Teca's. So these guys want to own that place because they know there's gonna be a new project coming in town and that's big money for them, big money. That's all they're fighting for. In Chiapas, Cartel Calisco versus Inaloa Cartel fighting hard, killing a lot of innocent people, making a mess, making parades. You'll see parades of cartels going, and the people will be like, I say, if it's please, from the other cartel, whatever. Chapas, the major and main human trafficking border and human smuggling border right now.

There is. In all of the Americas, that's where the bottleneck is. That's in U-U-S border. The U-S basically moved its border to southern Mexico. That they negotiated that with the Mexican government. Just put up a bunch of military in your southern borders of Dayton reach or southern border, right? Which is, it's not working, but still,

they're paying Mexico to do that. And when Mexico is trying to do that, what does it look like down there? Do they say that? Do they say that? I mean, is there any, is there a line? There's a river and there's a bridge and there's these little small booth of security. There's a bunch of military. It's a little joke.

They say, Joe. People are literally walking across the river with merchandise even. They go in Guatemala, bite cheap stuff, you know, like clothes or toys for their kids, whatever. It sounds like it is so bad and we're gonna get to this with the lobbying of the government from the cartels and the cartels embedding within the government. I mean, you were talking about this the last time. So essentially, it is, it's so foolish. I mean, so the US, the government has embedded so much in the Mexican government that the US, this is actually the exact same thing as the US,

paying the cartel to... They're paying the cartel to police their own. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, I mean, it's absurd. It's, yeah. Remember the last time I told you that I knew that a cell from Cinaloa Cartel was moving down to Chiapas because they were moved specifically to stop the influx of migrants, right?

Who's paying for that? Who lobbied that shit? That was the US government. That was the US government through the Mexican government towards a cartel. So it's basically this, US government says to Mexico, Hey, man, loud enough so the cartels here, I need you to secure your Southern border. I'll give you something and exchange, but I need you to secure that border, right? Mexican government says yes, but it's going to cost you this much. They're like,

we'll fund you all the money you need. Hand the money over. Probably Mexican government keeps 20%, 80% goes for the cartel. So like, I guys, go and do your thing and this huddle border. Yeah. Cartel gets it. The Mexican government is the cartel. Exactly. And the cartel gets to this huddle border and at the beginning start doing their job. Like, nobody's gonna cross if we don't know. And then they start taking more money. I mean, he's like,

if the Mexican government ready paid, why don't we get some extra cash from these guys? Awesome. So they're like, yeah, come on over, just pay us. They be coming more and more and more powerful. And the US government is like, Mexico, what the fuck? You're letting everybody through?

Where's the money we gave you? So the cartel hats. So that's what happened. Like these guys are trying to monopolize every other aspect of our regular lives. Like in Michoacán, the Avocado's every super volcicin dude. It's bad stuff for Michoacán. Every super volcic season, the amount of avocado

that it's consuming the US, spikes the shit out of prices in Mexico and cartels are, let's go for those avocados, let's put a cap on the production of avocados, even if they go to shit, even if they go to waste, even if they get rotten in a warehouse, we don't give a shed man. They're controlling the supply. We're controlling the supply,

so they control the price. Same thing with lemon. They just recently, like last month, they kill a bunch of farmers, let poor lemon farmers that decided, you know what, you, I have my own lemon crease, I'm gonna sell that shit, I need that for my family. They're like, I told you, no more peaking up lemons

because we need the prices to spike. So they're gonna control the supply, make lemons and avocados very rare to inflate the per. This is what the debirz family did to the diamonds. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what they're doing. That's exactly what they're doing with everything, with everything.

They started doing that with avocados and lemons and You go to a to a corner store here in the US is like what the fuck is avocado is extremely expensive now It's it's not because of supply and demand and the market with everything cartels taking over the production or the peaking up of of of their fruits Wow, and it's and it's crazy and then I was also in Chihuahua, northern Mexico, the state where Ciudad Juarez is, just right across the whole past.

It's a huge state. And I was deep into the mountains and what we call the Sierra de Chihuahua, which is the little of the mountains of Chihuahua. A region controlled absolutely by the Sinaloa Cartel, by a faction anyways of it, to learn how they're manipulating water. Water did. I was there during a draft,

one of the worst that ever hid Northern Mexico. Water was absolute scars. The government was selling us, you need to take control of the water usage because we're out of water. And also, the rivers that flow from the mountains down to the Rio Grande, down to the rivers that divide both countries, Mexico and the US have an agreement of sharing waters, right? Rio Grande is born in the Colorado mountains. Okay. Then it goes into Mexico and then back into the US and then back into Mexico up in Coahuila

and then back into the US in Texas and like that. So they have an agreement. You let that water flow and I'll give you 20% back and then up ahead you give me 20% back of that water that cross into your turf and that's an agreement, right? Where at a point where the US and Mexico relationship is very fractured because of water? The US is saying Mexico owes us like five years of water they haven't paid. And Mexico is like,

we are on a draft, we don't have enough water to pay you back and we need that water for our locals. Cortez learned about this shit. They said, like, oh, so water is cars now. So water is money now. So we want to control every river creek, lake, and this region, at least in the region we own. And they start doing that in in Chihuahua, in the Sierra Chihuahua. And how they start doing that is literally putting lookouts, cicadios and henchmen around those creeks where the creeks were born or where the rivers were born.

There's a look in for natural springs. National springs, natural springs, yes. There is a huge lake called Lagoda Arareco, beautiful lake in the middle of the mountains of the hills in Chihuahua. The last time I was there, I mean, it was probably only full to the third part of it, absolutely empty. And when I asked locals that no one wants to say what exactly was happening to the Arareco River, right, to the Arareco Lake. That lake doesn't have an exit, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't have a stream of,

the water is going to through that river, through that whatever. Water stays there, it's a natural lake that feels every time it rains. So the locals have this joke and they were telling me like, I think it has a hole on the right bottom of the lake and that's where the water is going because every morning we see the lake it's more empty. You go to sleep one night and the next morning it's more empty. And I was like they're trying to tell me something they They can't say, right? So I started working with Ian with locals and with biologists and people around. And they showed me how the cartel us by night goes with every night goes that quick to

that lake. With these water pipes and start extracting a lot of water from it. And then they sell that water to hotels, stores, Airbnb's for tourists. You go to a hotel the middle of a draft, of a draft, and you can open the faucet and live it open for hours. And you're not going to run out of water. But if you're in a local house, you're immediately going to be out of water like probably within an hour of leaving the faucet open and All these guys are sourcing from the cartel and the cartels are making sheet tons of money So they are now controlling is this they're controlling the water supplies?

Water supplies. Yeah, is this spreading? It I don't I don't have I still have no information about all their states I did my reporting specifically in Chihuahua because it was going through the worst draft in history in Mexico. That was where water became more and more cars. I think it's happening also in Nuevo Leon. They also boarded with Texas in Monterey, La Rea, Nuevo La Rea, and all those places, East of Mexico.

It's the northern east of Mexico. Because also water is absolutely scarce right there. So they're banking on that. They're banking on jellyfish in Sonora. Jellyfish. Jellyfish is just like, that's very new. That's a very new revenue stream they just popped up. In Sonora, in the Mar de Cortes, which is the Pacific side of Mexico, there is a massive

population of jellyfish. We don't use jellyfish for anything, so it's basically a plague in Mexico. But in China, apparently, they hydrated and covered or curated with salt. It's an exquisite plague. It's something expensive. They eat it. It's a delicacy.

Yeah, exactly. They pay cheetahs for a gelophage, dehydrated and curated with salt. Cinalocurt, well, that's been happening before the Senior local cartel, local Fisherman, have their season, they'll grab a bunch of jellyfish and sell that out to the Vietnam and it's a Vietnam and another Thailand government, yes, both of them.

They're selling that to those governments and then they are selling it to the Chinese government and making a buck out of it. Great season for local fishermen, the jellyfish season. When the curtail and learn how much money they were making, it was something like ten million dollars a season or something like that, the revenue from that. They were like, all right, so you're not going to sell anymore directly to these companies, you're going to sell to us, and we're going to sell to the companies. We're going to export this shit. Many fishermen decided like, you know what, no, I don't think that's good idea, man. I mean,

we're going to be left out of this business and we're gonna just be left with, you know, just a couple of bucks around. So they didn't listen. They killed two, three Fisherman, and then they started burning the trucks where they were transporting the yellow fish and killing some of the drivers to make a point. It's like, okay, you keep selling directly to these guys,

and I'm gonna keep killing you guys. So now they own that business. Now the Fisherman had to ask for permission first to go out and sell and get jellyfish. And then they have to report exactly how many jellyfish they gather, and they sell that to them for, you know, super cheap price, local price.

And now the cartel is handling with Vietnam and Thailand companies to export that shit out to China. So, so they're literally getting in the middle of of a lot of heavy revenue business, you know, businesses. Wow. You mentioned something about lift and Uber as well. Yes, that's another thing. There is a nap. If you don't mind, let me let me let me tell you which which app is this. I don't know. The only thing that's that's that's fine. We're fine. We say the brand. I'm gonna get in trouble. Jump to you. I mean, I'm not gonna get in trouble, but I don't know if you want to call out the brand. They probably don't even know. probably don't even know. But let me see. Well, there is one of these ride applications like over and left, specifically in Kuljakan in the main city, capital city in Sinaloa.

I can't find the word. But this is an international brand as well. The next stop competitor to lift and over. And they established business in Cuyacán in Cinaloa and in several different parts of Mexico as well. But in Cuyacán, there was an order by, allegedly, those chapitos, the sons of El Chapo Guzman of the Cinalocartel, for everyone to stop working for over and left and to start working with that company exclusively.

So there was a time where, very recently, where you will see the local news in Cinelocke, there was a lot of Uber and Lyft drivers getting killed. And everybody started wondering why, I asked what are my sources, what's happening, and it's all like there is an order for every Uber driver Lyft driver to stop working there and start working with these companies specifically. I still don't know why he couldn't really get me an answer. It's like, that

was the order. And I was like, do they have money on that company? Do they pay something or what's what's it? Is it their company? I don't think it's a company because it's an international company. You know, this is, I think it's a US-based company or yeah, it's it's like over and left interesting Yeah, yeah, I'll find an end of the company and what when did that start happening? Probably like two months ago. So they're they're gonna involved in legitimate transportation. Yeah Water water the water supply yeah and legitimate transportation. Yeah. Water. Water.

The water supply. Yeah. The food supply. Humans muggling. Humans muggling. Drugs. Fishing. Well, yeah, food supply.

I'm supply. Mm-hmm. I mean, they have their hands on everything, man. And again, what their strategy is, when they feel there is an opportunity to be, to be making money out of an industry, they'll dive in. They'll dive in. They're probably, who's engineering these ideas?

That's the thing, it's weird, because when I was talking to these higher up in the center of the hotel, one of the guys thought that it's in the leadership with the center of the hotel, there are smart people, they went to schools in Europe, in Canada, in the US.

This is highly-educated people. So this is a serious business people. Yes, and they know, and they have friends with money that probably give them ideas, you know? I mean, they're probably, I'm probably, I mean, if they're hiring these kind of people, they're doing straight market assessment, you know. This is what the avocado industry brings in every year. We need to take a piece of this

or the whole thing. This is what the water treatment plants and the water supply businesses are making. I think if you think about like an investment house, they have two things. They have analysts that kind of look at the trends and they have people on the ground pitching in know, pitching in, you know, a day saying like, Hey, man, I just learned that water is going to be scarce in this state for the rest of the year, you know, because there's a draft and there's not enough water and Mexico needs to pay water to the US, that kind of stuff. And I think our hotel has both.

They have like analysts saying like, how much and I was a market of different things moving and people on the ground saying, hey, there's no water in Chihuahua. Are you where are they webbing out and anything else? That's as far as I'm aware now. These these past couple of years, I've been reporting on all sorts of different stuff they're doing, traveling from Chihuahua to Michoacán

to Chiapas, yeah, to Sinhaloa to different places. And it's wild, man. Yeah, I mean, how do you even begin to combat this when they are ill-legitimately legitimizing themselves and to, and to, and to, and to, just everyday regular business? I mean, it's a crime this? I mean, they're forcing these businesses to comply with them, but once they're complying, I mean, the crime just goes into the past and, I mean, how would it be?

It seems like it would be impossible to break it up. Yes, I mean, we're definitely past that point now because I think there was still there was still a time where where a business owner, a politician could have closed the door for that, you know, and say, you know what? I don't care if I'm going to make three times more money, it's dirty money, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to comply with you. I'm gonna make three times more money. It's dirty money. I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna comply with you. I'm not gonna do it.

There were not still that powerful back then. There were still like cartels. I don't even call them cartels anymore. They're either criminal enterprises or sell the paramilitary armies. Yeah. They're everything but drunk cartels. I think that's a term that it's absolutely outdated. We shouldn They're everything, what, Dr. Cortez. I think that's a term that it's absolutely outdated.

We shouldn't be calling Dr. Cortez, because they're not Dr. Cortez. I mean, what does this mean for Mexico? What does it look like? 10 years from now. It's looking bad, it's looking sad. Like imagine on your daily basis you're a regular man living in Mexico, middle class.

You say, you know what? I probably can put together some money, some savings to make a business. Depends on where you are, you're gonna get extorted or kidnapped immediately to get you to rip you off of what you're building. If you pass through that, you're gonna learn that you're gonna have to make decisions and say like, if I'm going to make a

business in Mexico, if it's, I don't know, whatever you're doing, you're setting up ladders for whatever or building houses. If you're making enough money, someone's going to come after you. Someone's going to say, Hey, man, why don't you we part her and you're you start laundering money for us and I'll keep you protection. And you say, no, man, I'm not interested. I'm doing my money. And then they start extorting you

or kidnapping your family. And they're like, hey, what about now? And you'll be like, I rather close my business or comply and make a plug out of it. But now you're a part of it. I mean, it's just getting to the point where even if somebody wants to start a legitimate business, it's all, I mean, you can't get into the avocado business,

you can't get into the lemon business, you can't get into the jellyfish business, you can't get in the transportation business, you cannot get into the water business. You can't dabble on the drug business, can't, yeah. I mean, it's just, what does that make for the economy if economy of our country, you know, that's kind of what I'm getting at. I mean, you know, what's left power? They'll probably go after the power. They're on their own control that exactly medicine, the medical industry. They're on that. I mean, it's

it's they're on everything. They're on everything. It's a f***ing plate. I mean, the thing is, they're going to start shrinking the middle class so much that there will be no developed economic development in Mexico for a good while. Yeah. And it's probably we're probably facing that. I'm not I mean, I'm of course very ignorant or how the financial markets move or whatever. But do you think of it? If the if the middle class is absolutely shranked and all you have left, it's probably a knobber class and then a lower, lower class.

Right? And the curtail is kind of like monopolizing and going in between both. Then a lot of the money you need for that country, for that middle class to leave, it's going to come through illegal sources. Right. These study by science, this new research by the science magazine said that Mexico, that the curtels are the fifth largest employers in Mexico, right below the Mexican government. Wow. Fifth largest employer in Mexico. So if the Mexican government will go after a cartel activity and

stop all the money moving from related to any criminal organization, we will become like poor immediately, man. We will become like one of the most poor countries in America, you know, in the continent, probably in the world, man. Cause these money is getting to everywhere. Mexico is a highly cash-based country. You use a lot of cash. There's a lot of different stores, corner stores, different places that they don't want to pay taxes

because they're gonna get left without anything so they use cash. Perfect for money laundering, but also, where is this cash getting from? You don't go to an ATM and withdraw money all the time. There's cash moving around the city, you know? You can pay with cash and it's dirty money. It's curtail money, but that's the money that it's backing up Mexico right now. And so I guess Mexico needs to find a way to legitimize all that dirty money, all that, you know, money made with dirty hands, put it into a legal, basically, laundry or money for these guys and then stop the revenue and

not putting up more, I don't know, man, shops or whatever. Do you have any ideas on how to even begin to combat something like that? I think a good start, it's again, but the Mexican government, recommend actually we have an issue, we have a problem. But putting a blind eye, it's not helping. Say everywhere. I mean, where would they even start though?

I guess if you start saying, openly saying, we have a war, a non-declare war, in Mexico that we're losing. You can get resources, you can get people, you can get smart people jumping in, you know? Making education policies, health policies, financial plans, how to get out of it, how can fight these guys?

Not only just going after them and shooting them, you know? But actually, how do we hurt these guys? How do we take the money and the power out of these guys, not only just going after them and shooting them, you know. Yeah. But actually, how do we hurt these guys? How do we take the money and the power out of these guys? One strategy that has worked in the past is divide and conquer. And you make a bunch of little cartels, and then you go fight them. But that's, you're only going to fight the arm branches of the cartels, right? What about the financial branch?

So you're talking about proper using propaganda. Propaganda. Against the cartels. You need to switch and change the way you're smart. You're smart, dude. Yeah, dude. Like, that's how they are getting into everywhere, right? By propaganda.

So we would have to, so you turn it into a siop. Yeah. I think that's the only way to go out of this point, you know, of that. That's a very interesting conversation. Let's take a break. Let's. We'll come back. We'll pick up right there. For sure.

Next on the Sean Ryan show. We embedded with a girl, with a woman. She's the mother of five kids. She lost her show and Ryan show. We embedded with a girl with a woman. She's the mother of five kids. She lost her job during the pandemic. And a friend of her at a bar came up like, I know a couple of guys that will give you a car, a nice car, and they'll give you five grand every time you cross.

The cartel guys that were stashing her car, they told me the first five, six times, we send her across without anything. She thought she had anything, but we're doing that to test her first, and also to get the custom officers used to her crossing every other day, once a week, every weekend. So we did that several rounds.

And then, after the sixth, we loaded the gas tank pack with fentanyl pills. you