“It’s all STAGED!” - Top Cartel Journalist EXPOSES El Mencho’s Assassination | Kat Szulc • 392

So, you're just getting back from Elenro's compound? >> Yes, I was there for 3 days. >> How the do you get onto Eleno's compound right after? I mean, he was like the most wanted guy in the world. >> Yeah, he was. >> How'd you get in there? >> Well, it actually wasn't that complicated, so I got a lot of questions about this, but there was a lot of press there. Um, it was wide open. So, basically, there's this compound of cabins in Tapalpa Halisco, which is a really common tourist destination. It's actually super nice there. When I got there, I got there like a day and a half after the operation. >> Mhm. >> And it was super calm, really nice place. Like, I felt like I was on vacation. It was super safe. Really nice. Um, >> looks beautiful. >> It is. It's a PBLO Mexico. It's like a >> How's it look when there are dead bodies all over the street? >> There were not. And that place doesn't actually have that. They do not have crime like that. Um, and the only really thing that was that stood out was like there was like a few oakos that were burned to the ground cuz like of the of the chaos that ensued following the operation, they were burning cars and businesses. >> But aside from that, it really wasn't that bad. We just had to go to like smaller local stores to get waters and whatever. Um, but a lot of press was there and this allegedly wasn't actually the place where he was captured or he was killed, right? Because there's this compound with cabins. They're vacation rentals >> and in front of it there's this um basically like foresty area. It's kind of in within forest I guess. And allegedly he escaped from this cabin compound through the forest to a country club which is right next door where he had a really big luxurious house and it's in um it's like a gated country club and that's where he was found and then shot at. Um like according to the official records of his death, he had multiple gunshot wounds like in his abdomen and um that's how he was killed. And during the operation, I think 25 National Guard members of Mexico's National Guard were killed. >> Whoa. >> And then Yeah, that was a big hit obviously. >> Yeah. >> Um and then there was I think around I have a lot of numbers to remember here, so I'm kind of just ballparking it. Yeah. But I think around 12 uh of Elno's guys were also murdered during this operation. And so I I'm under the impression from being there at the cabins that his guys were staying at these cabins and then I don't know if I guess during the operation he was there and then took off through the forest to the country club. So obviously having gone there is very different than just looking at pictures of it because well first of all to get into this I'm going to call this area where the cabins are just the compound for the rest of this >> episode. >> Um to get there it's one narrowish road that goes from the highway. So, you're you're along the highway. I actually should have shared you a really good map that I have, but it's um along the highway. You take a turn to this long narrow road that takes you all the way up to this compound of cabins. Along that road, there's maybe like four or five really luxury homes there. And then you get to the cabins. When we got there, there was no National Guard. There were no police, nothing. It was just us. >> Empty. >> Yeah. It was literally me and my cameraman. And >> they took out Mexico's Bin Laden and the place is completely ghost town two days later. >> Yeah. No like police tape, nothing. That I don't know what that is. You looking at? >> Oh, that's the town. Yeah, that's the city center. >> Oh, this is like some of the stuff you said where cars are burnt. >> Yeah, they burned a lot of cars. But >> Cat, can we back up from >> Sorry. Yeah, you're going to have to help me out with this just cuz so much happened being there. I'm like still processing it. >> Yeah, there's a lot of people right now listening going, "What the like she's on the site of this thing, but what's going on? Who is this guy?" You've been here three times before this episode. We have discussed Elmento and CJNG in >> and I called it on that one. >> You did call it on that last one. >> I was shook. I forgot that I said that and then I saw the clip and I was like actually my dad sent it to me and he's like what the who are you working for? >> I was like I I you know cuz you kind of put you put all the pieces together. You you know I have so much information and this is I live and breathe this. So then you get to a point where you can make a pretty informed hypothesis I guess. >> Yeah. I kind of wonder when people are going to stop giving you when you report a story and say it's all made up and you have no idea what the you're talking about because it's now been several times where you've reported a really big one and people are like she's full of she has no idea what she's talking about and a week later it's like ah wait a minute >> is she msad >> oh what I wasn't going to go there but >> no but I get that a lot huh >> I can't tell you >> no oh my god now your viewers are going to literally think do I have to answer that seriously Really? >> Do you know what show you're on right now? >> I know. It's like everyone's going to be like, "Oh my god, >> yeah, we take this very seriously around here." >> Oh my god. You need to stop because since I got back from Ukraine, my whole is filled with Russian >> Ukraine tracking down Eleno. It's It's all It's all adding up. But I will say in particularly in episode 336 when you broke the >> I mean I I don't even know what to call that baby trafficking story of CJ of CJNG. That was the one that pe I mean I got so many people reaching out like you're an idiot. How could you ever have her on about this? I'm like I got all the Oh yeah. People didn't believe you. I'm like I got all I said did a whole Exactly. I said I got all the receipts on this before we did it. I called you the second you reported that and I was like, "Are you sure about this? How do you know? You told me." And then a week later they arrest Lad. Can we pull that up? Defi >> from CG. >> Oh, I was in that house >> from CJNG. But like they literally arrested the lady who was running this. The United States government helped with that. And the entire racket was exactly what you said and effectively what they were doing. It's absolutely disgusting. But CJNG started this new racket. Deep's got it up right here. That's the psychotic who was running it. Martha Alicia Menendez or Menddees Agalar known as La Diabla. But what they were doing is they were abducting young pregnant women, vulnerable women from lower socioeconomic environments, bringing them to trap houses, forcing them to have C-sections, leaving their dead bodies on the side of the road, packaging up the babies alive and maybe sometimes dead for organ harvesting, I don't know, but at least alive and would take them across the US border and traffic them for thousands and thousands of dollars. >> Yeah. Yeah. And it was between CGNG and Linia, which is still not designated a foreign terrorist organization. >> Wait, why not? What's Can you explain Linia to people? >> Yeah, it's the basically like Huarez cartel. It's it's the cartel that runs Chihuahua, you know, that border state. >> So, why aren't they a terror group? >> I don't know. That FTO designation list, I thought it would expand shortly after they first published it last year, and it hasn't. Interesting. >> And there's a lot that are missing on it, but >> Okay. >> I don't know how that works. Well, let's do a recap for people that haven't listened to you explain some of this before and we'll go into more detail this time because we've never given it the full kind of treatment here, but everyone is seeing on the news CJNG. These guys look crazy. They're seeing it in their social media feeds. Can you go through the history of them and who they are, where they operate, and some of the insane types of operations they do? I mean, these guys dress in full-blown special forces military gear. >> Yeah, they do. And it's crazy. So funny because everyone who was monitoring this situation kept reposting that old ass video of like, "You think that these are Mexican military? They're not. It's CJ." It's like, "Yeah, we know." Like, "Shut up." Oh my god. It gets to a point where it's like, "Get with the times, people." Um, but basically, okay, so CGNG, the leader of CJNG, Eleno, um, he was from Mitakan, obviously a green gold state. We've talked about the avocado trafficking before. You know, that monopoly that organized crime has on agriculture in Mexico. He uh actually illegally migrated to the US. Um he was then deported for like drugrelated charges. He also like took the blame for like this murder that his brother did. And there was like a bunch of lore of his life in the US. At a certain point, he gets deported, goes back to Mexico, becomes a police officer. He uh eventually gets married to kind of the brains behind this all to Rosalinda Valencia and she is from the Notorious Valencia family who started the Millennial Cartel back in 1950s to '7s >> in the ' 50s. >> Oh yeah, they're like the OGs. >> I was going to say that's way back. >> Yeah, they're the OGs. Um and they became the Millennial Cartel. They actually started with the agriculture stuff. uh the the the uh they're from Mukan the avocado trafficking and stuff using those roots to then traffic like coke uh opium weed. >> Right. >> Right. >> And then >> so they're like the Kennedys of Mexico kind of. >> They literally are they're they are so extremely powerful. Um and then she has like almost 20 siblings and they're known as Losquinis. Like they are >> the I would probably say the richest family in Mexico. >> Los Queenies. Mhm. Um, >> what does that mean? Translated. >> I don't know. That's just >> Oh, it's just like a slang. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I don't think it has like a direct translation. I don't know. My Spanish is good, but like sometimes there's I'm like, I don't know. I'm not Mexican, so >> we'll pull up Duolingo or something. >> I don't think Dolingo will teach you that. >> Whatever. >> Anyways, um, they end up, it's like a blood alliance, right? Because Eleno starting his CG&G. He gets with, and there was already nexus between Mencho's family and Los Queenis in a way. Um, they get together. Los Queenis, the Valencia family ends up funding CGNG and Mencho. Yeah. And so essentially they're like the financial um stronghold whereas CGNG is like that violent powerhouse trafficking that kind of paramilitary stronghold, right? And which is why CG&G manages to become the most expansionist, powerful, and violent cartel across Mexico and have essentially power over almost every single Mexican state because between the finances, between the brains, um the historical power, the these guys can obviously pop off, right? They had I mean we knew this but after documents were published of what was found in Eleno's country club house where he was killed um there's like lists of all of the politicians and all of the police that were on the payroll. Yeah. So they have like okay this police force like the police of Tuito the police of tomata and and how much they're making and then the the state police and then certain people in the federal police and they referred to the federal police as Los Negros and then people saw that yeah cuz you guys areing American and you guys saw that and you're go oh my god CG is racist and it's >> that's not where I was going. And I just want to know why they referred to >> because federal police drive black police cars and so that's how they would just negro. >> No, literally people were like, "Oh my god, the racist." It's like, "Bro, this is Spanish." Okay, that pissed me off so bad. >> Well, at least they kept a nice documented list for the Mexican IRS so they could review it later and properly go through the balance sheet. I mean, that's Listen, I don't like cartels, but I do like my cartels to be organized financially. Well, it's called organized crime for a reason because >> but organized financially, you know, >> right? Because apparently in order to be an Arco, you have to know how to use Excel. >> You know that moment when you're running out the door and need a shirt that looks polished, but you don't have time to iron it? Well, that's exactly why I wear Mizen and Maine because their products are fast, sharp, and ready the second you grab them. Misin makes classic men's wear with performance fabrics, so it's effortless to look sharp and feel great. They actually invented the performance fabric dress shirt over 10 years ago and since then they've perfected it with modern fabrics. Mismain shirts and pants look refined yet they're stretchy, lightweight, moisture wicking, wrinkler resistant and completely machine washable. No ironing or dry cleaning necessary. And when you put their clothes on, you'll feel the difference instantly. It's a professional style that's actually comfortable whether you're in the office, on the road, or even on the golf course. And another thing I really like about Misin is that it's a veteranled organization. So they offer a yearround military discount and proudly give back to other veteran organizations. Right now Misin is offering our listeners 20% off your first order at misinmade.com using promo code julian 20 at checkout. That link is in my description below. That's mizen spelled m i zen and maine m a i n.com. Promo code julian 20 for 20% off. One more time for the road. Misinamine.com. Promo code julian 20. Also, if you'd like to shop in person, you can find misin select states, but please use the link to support our show. Wait, this they were doing this digitally. >> Yeah. >> No, when you said that, I thought you meant like they were actually writing it down. >> No, no, no, no. It's like Excel spreadsheets printed out. Yeah, I know. >> Um, so >> should cut an ad about that. The cartels use it. If it works for Elro, it'll work for you. >> Anything to get our mind off the Epstein files. Don't worry about Bill Gates. >> People keep saying that and it's pissing me off cuz you know what? Like multiple things can exist at once. >> That's true. >> It's just Bill Gates is kind of >> he's in some uh llay or whatever. for sakes. >> I knew you were going to eventually bring this up because this is like been your beat lately >> and I'm like this is so out of my spectrum of coverage honestly. I mean I guess >> yeah we're going to stay on cartels today. >> Okay, good. >> I'm just saying that as a side comment cuz I don't like Bill Gates. That's all. >> Fair enough. >> Um I don't really think anyone should but whatever. Um, so basically, yeah, so CG&G becomes this has this stronghold and they have a ton of politicians on their payroll, obviously law enforcement, uh, National Guard, military, and really for them, like obviously it's a lot of money, but then certain police and certain Sakarios like Hitman and stuff, if if these spreadsheets are real, which I think that they are, um, they're not making a lot of money like >> a Sakari IO is making 4,000 pesos a month. That's like in USD, what is that? Like $200. >> It's not a lot. I don't know what the translation is, but it's not a lot. >> Well, it's like what? Uh uh >> DEF can check it either way. >> I think like 20 pesos to a dollar. >> I would think they'd be making more than that. I mean, >> yeah, you're putting your life on the line and killing for that much. It's crazy, but obviously this has to do >> Yeah. $226 US is a peso. You were right there. >> So for 4,000 pesos. >> Yeah. So, it's just it really goes to show how CG&G managed to really infiltrate um culture and society as a whole, right? There's so much music. I've talked about this before. I get a lot of hate about this about how they really became like a propaganda machine. And you know, like narcoidos, like narco music and movies and media has always existed, but CG&G managed to do it in such a way where they build a built a brand. Okay. And like Elmeno, he loved uh fights and he was known as El Seor de los Gayos, the the uh man of the roosters. Yeah, >> I mean probably. Yeah, >> pause. >> Sorry. >> It's okay. >> I couldn't directly translate. >> I'm proud of myself. I'm keeping a straight face. >> I cannot. I'm sorry. >> All right, we'll bleep it out and then we'll cut this part right there. >> Okay, >> we'll do a bleep and cut it to me and we'll just have like a pause laugh. >> Okay. And I also knew this was going to be a problem because I've been speaking Spanish the whole time and I was >> That's okay. All right. >> All right. Yeah. So, what were you saying? Hold on. What were you saying before that? >> He had a whole brand surrounding him. >> All right. So, you finished laughing. So his brand honestly brought more notoriety and was like convincing for a lot of people. When I was over there, I actually went and met with someone who sings and writes really popular narcoordidos. He wouldn't give me an interview, but his songs are very much in support of CGNG and like they have a great beat and like the lyrics are super catchy. And he actually told me he was like, "You know what I don't like is how sometimes I get messages or meet people who are like, "Bro, your music made me want join CG&G." And like >> he doesn't like that. >> No. He said, "Bro, that's not how it's supposed to be. This is fiction. Like this is not supposed to be convincing you." But this is the problem, right? A lot of this music, it's it's like I've talked about this before. It's like gangster rap. Like especially in the '9s where it really did like hype people up to join the gang life and stuff like that. Anyways, the point is CG&G managed to build like this whole brand. Like if they were to have sold merch, it would have been amazing. No, for real. It would have. How is that funny? >> What? >> It was funny to me indeed. >> Clearly, I don't know why. >> Imagine just walking here with like >> Yeah. No, I I don't I I've heard a lot about we've talked about it with other people too about like the music influences and stuff and it's interesting when you tie it to like gangster rap in America, but I think I was talking with Ed Calderon about this to me when you're actually saying the names which they do in gangster rap sometimes too by the way when you're actually saying the names of the gang and like in this case the cartels and totally glorifying it when in fact also let's be real the cartels are what run the country. >> Yeah. You know, like gangs in America aren't good, but they don't run the country. You know, what do you think's going to happen? There's not a lot of opportunity. A lot of people are going to be like, "Well, that sounds good to me." >> Yeah, it seems luxurious. It's like they're talking about how you get to shoot a scar and have Rolex and G Wagon or whatever. Like, it's really glorified. Anyways, um yeah, so they built this massive empire. >> How big like sizewise? Like where's everywhere where they're out there? >> They're the fifth largest employer in Mexico. >> Okay. Geographically though, do they spread into other regions that technically aren't theirs? Yes. Like crazy. >> Yeah. And we saw honestly the perfect example of this and cuz I had been talking about how they were the most expansive cartel and I felt like they just had power everywhere because they're also masters of absorption. So they would like go and align themselves with regional mafias or like fragmented cartels and then they would just absorb that region. But the perfect example of this was how when uh the Sinaloa cartel fractured after they captured Elmo and the Chapitos and Laisa were going at it against each other, CJNG formed an alliance with Los Chapito's faction of the Sinaloa cartel and was like providing them with arms and stuff. Obviously, that was in a bid to then eventually absorb Sinoloa. And I think that they were getting close to that. I mean, I'm that's like kind of a dangerous thing to say, but to be honest, I think that they were starting to really push their way into Sinaloa and that would have been crazy because they would have had um absolute control over all of the Mexican states. >> So, that didn't end up happening though. Well, it will probably eventually end up happening because this is one thing that has stood out to me is the fact that after, you know, the fall of Elemento, there has not been any really infighting um in the CGNG, which just doesn't really make sense because there were super there are super powerful second in command, third in command of CGNG that I was under the impression that after a few days, these guys would want to splinter off and start their own thing and a lot of them have their own really loyal following. So when Elmeno was killed, everyone was like, "Who's going to be the leader?" And I had I was between El Cerot, which is Element's stepson, >> um, and Hinso Valencia, his wife, you know, part of the the queenies. Yeah. Um, it was between him, uh, it was between Hardinero, the guy who's basically heading the alliance between CG&G and Los Chaptos, and it was between Yur. And everyone who was monitoring the situation for the first time was like, "It's Yogurt." And I honestly think some people were just saying that cuz they thought the name was interesting. Yeah, that's Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez. >> Where was Nate Doo on this? Who did he think it was? >> I think he thought it was as well. I Or I don't actually remember, but we talked about it. Um, and uh, this guy, Elres, he's he's an American citizen. He was born in >> He's an American citizen. >> Yeah, he was born in the States. >> Yeah. >> And then what happened? He went back. >> Yeah. Because that's what you do, right? You go to the States, you learn. It's like, who else did that? Um, Assad, right? No, Assad went to the UK. >> You talking about Syria? Yeah. Yeah. He went to the UK. >> That happens a lot over there. Like where someone from the Middle East from a power family will go get schooled in the UK and then go back. >> I haven't heard. I mean, I'm sure obviously it happens. I haven't heard a ton of that where like >> Well, Mento was in the States, >> but he wasn't born here. >> No, he wasn't. >> Right. >> But >> but he came here to do some Trafocante stuff, >> right? >> Yep. >> That's normal. I mean, but I I mean, it's not good, but like that's what they do. They set up all their I mean, we're the we're the buyers of their product >> in this country. That makes sense. But this guy was Was he born in like LA or something? >> He was born in Yeah. Southern California or Orange County. >> Okay. And then when did he go back to Mexico? When he's like 18 or >> uh I actually don't know. That's a good question. >> Yeah, let's look that up. That'd be interesting. >> Born in Santa Ana. >> Santa Ana. Yeah. California in ' 84. Yeah. He has he has dual citizenship. >> Interesting. >> I don't know when he went back. I don't actually know if it's known. >> El Palone, LR3, LJP, Tricky Tres, and 03. He's got some pretty hard nicknames. >> Yeah, he's known as L3 for the most part. El >> 03. That's pretty hard. >> That's pretty hard. Okay, so that Oh, that's that looks like the US Department of State indictment against him. The third one. Def >> I think he has a $5 million bounty. >> Yeah, there it is. Okay, so this is him. Let's go down. Let's see what what the government said about Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez is one of the alleged leaders of the cartel de Heliscoco Nova Henasionist. Assessed to be the most violent drug trafficking organization currently operating in Mexico with the highest cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine trafficking capacity. Valencia Gonzalez's mother, Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia, as you pointed out, is married to CJNG leader Nessio Ruben Oscar. >> Not anymore. They've been divorced since like 2018. >> Okay. Eleno, making him Valencia Gonzalez's stepfather. Elmeno is also a designated target with a $10 million bounty on his head. Okay. So he's charged with all the regular stuff, trafficking, conspiracy, murder, all that. Okay. All right. So this was one of them. And then who were the other two again that they were wondering about? >> Elhardinero. He's also from Mitakan. >> That's the El Chapitos guy. >> Yeah. Running the alliance. And the thing about El Hardinto is he actually has like within CG&G his own very loyal following. So I have a Well, I don't know. But if anyone's going to splinter off and try to start their own thing, I think it could be Haro. What does that look like if he tries to do that? >> A lot of infighting, fight for uh power, trafficking routes. Um there's going to be a lot of CGNG retaliation against him, but I don't know if that's going to happen. >> He looks like a neck statue. >> Stop. You always judge their appearances when I come on this podcast. >> I'm just saying. Look at the guy. >> And I literally would get killed for something as simple as that. Like >> I'm saying it, not you. So I'll get killed for it. Yeah, I don't agree with that. >> Okay. You don't on the record, you don't agree with that. He does look like a garden, but anyway. All right. So, Hardeno is another one. And then who's the third again? >> Elour. >> Elio. >> Yeah. Um, >> and what's his story? >> So, he basically Oh, and there's also Elapo the frog. Um, and so basically all these guys are sort of running really lucrative areas within Mexico. Um, and it's so because CG&G has such a widespread stronghold, they have to put people in charge of certain regions, right? And so like, um, yeah, there you go. And he's trending. You know, there's not a lot known about Yogur the same way that we know about El Sappo or, um, Elardinero. And Elour kind of like recently surfaced to public eye type of thing. Um, but he's really high up there in those top five. Um, and then Elsapo, I'm pretty sure he runs a lot of uh Sakatas. It's like with Los Metros, you know, like another group. So, everyone has their role and everyone has their loyal following and is very powerful within their own rights. So, what I thought was interesting was after Alen was killed, the fact that there wasn't like this bid for power and infighting didn't happen immediately. Instead, what we saw happen was one day of chaos. >> Yeah, it looked >> against the Mexican federal government. They were killing national guards. Um, El Tuli, one of the guys within CJNG was and he was up there with Meno, uh, told everyone you get 20,000 pesos for every National Guard member that you kill. Then I think like maybe like a day later he was shot down by a minigun from a helicopter in one of the CG strongh stronghold regions in Halisco. >> Wait, the guy who put out the bounty was killed. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. Serves him right >> like right after. And it was actually quite interesting that he like this didn't make as much news because he was a very powerful guy and very violent. But he wasn't one of the main three people were thinking would be a successor when he was Elmeno's right hand. >> No. No. >> Why not? >> I don't know. He was more of a financial operator. And I think, you know, I honestly do think though that possibly him >> um being like, "Okay, everyone gets 20,000 pesos for taking out the National Guard." And he was the one who told everyone, "Fucking let's go against the Mexican government. All hell breaks loose." He sent those orders. I think that could have been him kind of trying to push for that power, but he was taken out basically immediately after he put those orders out. And of course, the Mexican government would go hard for that because their National Guard members were dying. I mean, I posted a video on Instagram of >> Oh, it looked awful. >> them laying on the side of the road by the National Guard vehicle all shot up. >> I mean, I'm used to cuz we covered a lot in here with people like you to come in and and explain it and show us stuff. I'm used to seeing some pretty crazy imagery out of Mexico when the cartels get pissed off or there's some type of war, but that was like, >> yeah, >> you know, I mean, I'm glad it stopped after a day or whatever, but you're looking at that during the first day where it's happening and you're like, what the Like, this is this is like the end times right here. I mean, I don't know what you're you've seen a lot of but >> it looked really bad and I honestly thought I was like, "Fuck, if this goes on, a lot of people are going to die and a lot of people are going to get caught up um in the firefights, but it only happened it only lasted a day." Um, >> now what? Let's go back to Mencho for a second cuz we've been talking about all the guys that would follow him him up. >> Mhm. >> You talked about obviously he married into the royal family in Mexico. >> Yeah. He came back here after cutting his teeth, helping with the trafficking operations in America. But CJNG had this really fast rise. >> They did. >> They came out, >> especially for a pretty new cartel. Like it's a 2010 cartel or 2009. So >> now is he the founder of it or was he >> he's considered the founder of it? Yeah. But what I But if he didn't have the Valencia family, Los Queenies backing them, I don't think it wouldn't have happened, especially not the way that it did. And this is another thing is like Rosalinda, she's free. She's out. Like she was in Mexican custody um for I think it's it was money laundering and when she was arrested they found like I think $12 million in her house. And this was another thing that was weird to me. When Elmen was captured or killed, um they said that they found in the house 17 million pesos and like 900 and something thousand USD, which to me just didn't make sense because >> you would have way more money than that >> like >> at your disposal. >> And I talked to a colleague I talked to uh Yoan Go about this. He covers this too. And he was like, "Well, you know, it's possible that uh they didn't like need that much like onhand cash." And we just agreed to disagree cuz I was like, "I don't think that he would have under $10 million in cash at his disposal." You know, >> that is compound. I would think it's even way more than that, too. How big that is. >> Me, too. And like hidden and stuff like that. I'm under the impression that it's possible that a lot of money got pocketed during the operation. And we've seen that happen a lot before where there's like, >> you know, empty Rolex boxes, >> right? >> Um and >> you're brave enough to go in there. You got to you got to take your prize of it. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. Um I mean, even Yeah. >> You know the feeling. Hours of deep conversation, wild theories, and hard questions. Then it's midnight and your brain's still in overdrive. That's when having the right mattress makes all the difference. Because mental recovery needs physical recovery. And if your bed isn't helping you sleep, it's slowing you down. Ghost Bed gets it. Their mattresses are built with cooling and comfort in mind so you can actually rest. Whether you run hot when you sleep year round or just want a bed that won't trap heat like others do, Ghost Bed has you covered. 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She I guess she was on like house arrest, but she's kind of nowhere to be found. And there's obviously a lot of nexus between her, her family, and the Mexican federal government. Uh she a lot of she's been sanctioned by OFAC. A lot of her businesses have, but there's still a lot of businesses that have not that she runs that have not been sanctioned by OFAC. And her um daughter with Meno, Lisha, she was actually pictured at the funeral yesterday. Her she was living in >> the daughter was >> Yeah, she she's the youngest daughter. She was living in, I think, San Bernardino in like a $5 million house that was paid for in cash with her husband. And her husband was actually just arrested last year, I think was when I posted that. Last year or the year before. And >> cartel guy. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. And he had faked his death. So when he was arrested, people were like, "Oh, he was alive." Right. Um, and like Elro had previously faked his death so many times. And then there was also that rhetoric about like elementarymental like his liver is failing and he has crazy dialysis which I I do believe that he had like cerosis and like um wait is that liver failure? Yeah. Yeah, it's liver failure, right? I think so. >> Yeah, it is. >> Um but I also didn't really believe it was maybe to the full extent that was being put out to the public to try to try to give this perception that he's weak and >> um like the old mafia don kind of PR thing. Yeah, I got you. And so anyways, there's obviously clearly a lot of nexus between CGNG, the Queenies, and the US. And um I lost my train of thought and I was going to say something very important. >> Well, we were talking about the compound didn't have a lot of money in it. People were taking their cut and everything. And then the wife had the money laundering charges, but she was let go. >> But the daughter's living in a $5 million mansion with a cartel guy who's dead, but not dead. >> Yeah. and then he gets arrested and she's back in Mexico. Um, she was pictured at the funeral yesterday. I I it didn't look like her to me, but it is what it is. We're also the same age, which is like crazy to me. >> Um, but anyways, yeah, ask me something. >> Yeah, you forgot where that was. No problem. Well, I'm sure we'll come back over it here because what I wanted to get at with Elena, this is why I was asking you about it with like the genesis. So he's like the founder, if you will, >> and they rise up quickly. He's able to build out obviously a machine here of people. Would you say >> I mean I think this is kind of what you're saying. I just want to make sure I understand. Literally because he was married to Valencia and had the backing of all that money and that name brand, he was essentially allowed to start his own cartel. Meaning the Chapitos or some of the other cartels at the time in the region weren't looking at some new cartel starting and saying, "We're going to stop this before it starts." They backed off because of who he was with. >> It's quite possible. Okay. >> But uh the Sinaloa cartel and CGNG always had they were enemies. And so that's why it was weird. Well, not weird, but it was really shocking when they kind of made that alliance with the Chapitos faction of of the Sinaloa cartel. >> They were not friends. They were adversaries. Um, but because of the amount of money and power that Meno held, um, they were able to gain so much manpower and access that at that point it was like, well, these cartels are essentially coexisting >> right now. That's like in very simple language, >> right? But they're when they start up, they're bringing in guys who have been in the cartels their whole life, maybe just associated with other ones, and now essentially they're starting this. It's like an expansion franchise in the NBA. So, they have people that are experienced, meaning >> right from the jump, they already had networks all carved out in the United States. It's like they're starting day one, the business has a storefront. >> Exactly. because you're talking about um marrying into a family that was basically heading the millennial cartel which had nexus with Pablo Escobar's the Medí cartel. So, and they were trafficking at one point I think they were trafficking >> like $30 million worth of cocaine every month, something like that. >> I mean, you can fact check me on that, but there was it it was just absurd. So, yeah, there was it was it ran very deep. the connection and um the access. >> So, at what point did Meno >> cuz when he starts CG uh CGNG CJ NG I always up. I think >> I always say CJNG, but everyone hears CGNG. I think it's just the way that I speak and everyone people are like, "You're a dumbass. You don't even know it's CJNG." But >> no, I have like the dyslexia with it every time I have to like think about which one's the J and which one's the G cuz it's similar. So, I'm right there with you. But >> no, but I'm not getting it wrong. I say >> I'm sure you're getting it right, but the commenters are going to say otherwise. Yeah. Who the cares? But he at some point though, they get a big enough name that they piss off the United States government, they piss off everyone, even though they're buying off the Mexican government at the time, that he goes into hiding effectively. But at the beginning, he wasn't necessarily in hiding. I >> He always kept a low profile. He he really did always keep a low profile. Um, this was a guy who was not like El Chapo in the sense where he was trying to live it large and wanted the fame and the notoriety. I mean, there was like a level of, you know, wanting to be highly respected and he was kind of like this mythological creature, but um, he he kept it very low-key. I mean, he was like a a a typical Mexican like guy from like the Rancho. Like >> he like I said, he liked the fights. He was like this uh he would drink, you know, he was also like a family man in terms of he took care of the family very much and a lot of Narco songs that refer to him talk about how at the end of the day he was like with the family, >> right? >> So yeah. Um yeah, he he he was I think that's why he was able to go undetected for so long. It was also came as a surprise to me when like this whole thing went down because he was super lowkey. Um, >> how long do you think they knew where he was? Cuz he was the whole thing was that no one knows where the guy is if you were guessing how long the government knew. A couple years maybe. >> I I don't know. I mean, okay. So the way we're told is that uh the US collected all of the intelligence on this and then Mexico was the one who did the boots on the ground oper and Mexico was the one who did the boots on the ground operation. Now what I find odd about this well there's a lot of things I find odd about this. >> Well, let's just start at the top. What's the first thing? Um, okay. I'm gonna go through like a couple hypothetical kind of situations with this and because I was there and I saw all the and I was like this is like >> insulting my intelligence. Um, so I could see so the US has been giving since Trump's administration has been giving Mexico a list every couple of months of guys that they need gone. Okay, >> we win them gone. You could literally, right? You can hear it. Yeah. And Mexico sometimes would fulfill this list, sometimes not. And I think that also CGNG was at a point where they were becoming so powerful that the US believed that unless they applied the kingpin strategy, there was nothing else that they could do to put a dent in this cartel. And as a review for people out there, the kingpin strategy is >> when you take out the kingpin >> and that's it. That's just go right for the head. >> Yeah, you just go right for the head of it. Um, which I am a big proponent of hating the kingpin strategy. It's completely ineffective and it ends up it's like a hydra. Like you chop off the head and two worse ones grow back. >> You should have told them before I ran. It seems to be what we do around the world. >> It is. US loves the kingpin strategy and I'm really just not sure why. I think it's just cuz it's like the easy get perhaps. >> It's a headline. >> It is. It is. And it it makes the US, especially for ill-informed people, it makes the administration look in incredibly powerful like we took him out. >> Yep. >> Um and it's like okay, but um it's it doesn't work. And it also typically will cause a lot of infighting like what we saw what happened in Sinaloa when they got Chapo and then they got Mayo and it was like so many innocent people's lives were absolutely ruined or they were killed. Um so Kingpin strategy just provokes more violence, more power and almost like more of a will to um be like we're going to double down and we're going to make this stronger. >> Hey guys, if you haven't already subscribed, please hit that subscribe button. It's a huge huge help. Thank you. Yeah, the the more I watch things in when you study history and then watch modern history as it happens around the world, the more I watch how things turn out with something like the kingpin strategy, which is the way a lot of governments have thought throughout time, the more I'm like, it's a really uncomfortable thing to say, but sometimes you have to deal with the devil, you know, because it will be it's like if I could have 40% of what I want and be pissed off about the 60 I don't. I'd rather be in that situation than have 5% of what I want and be pissed off about the 95. And there's just something about the human ego and I understand this that's like that's unacceptable to me. Yep. >> And then that's how a decision gets made and then you get these vacuums which again this you laid this out last time we talked literally and we're watching it unfold right now in real time. >> Yeah. Um, and so I think that it got to a point where the US probably told Mexico, you know what, we got to take out this kingpin. CJNG is way too powerful. We've sanctioned them to the tits and it's not working. You guys are trying to get like lower level guys within the organization and it's not working. So, we're going to take them out and if you guys don't do it, we're going to pull a unilateral operation and get our boots on the ground in Mexico more than there already are. And >> more than there already are. >> Yeah. and we're going to go and do it and we're going to take credit because Mexico cannot handle this crisis. So, we're going to go in and we're going to make you guys embarrassed. And it's also important to keep in mind that President Claudia Shinbomb of Mexico is a big proponent of Mex a sovereign Mexico and no US intervention. So, if the US gathered all of this intelligence, here's Eleno. We know this. Why? because his girlfriend who is allegedly this like Mexican Aerys is going to visit him and through a second a third a secondary person who knows her and where she's going and who she's going with. We've tracked exactly where he's at and okay Friday night she goes to visit him. Saturday she leaves. Two helicopters are flying around that compound for a couple hours. >> Whose helicopters? >> Mexicos. >> Okay. Sunday, Menos captured and killed and dies in transportation. I don't believe that. I don't believe he died. >> That was the story. >> Yeah, that was the story. Now, >> wait. So, wait. They had they literally put their helicopters in eyesight right there above the compound flying around. >> Everyone I spoke to in the town and mo like only one guy was willing to go on the record because they're so scared to speak out about this. Fair enough. That was the same thing that happened when I worked in Sinaloa. Um, everyone heard and saw them. everyone >> and he didn't leave. >> No, he stayed. >> That's okay. I see. Keep going. Okay, >> I'm clocking. >> Um, and so anyways, this is the story, right? And then he he there's a shootout. They pull him into the helicopter along with I think it was like three other of his guys. Um, also the plane that they transported them in is like very small. I forget what it's called. >> They pulled his body. They pulled him into the helicopter. Well, apparently he like they brought him in cuz he was still alive at this point. >> So they all right. So they land the helicopter. It's not like they're dropping down a ladder or something. >> I don't know if it was a helicopter plane. I think it was and I have the name of it the aircraft on the tip of my tongue. But anyways, it's a small aircraft essentially. >> They get it on the ground. They bring him in. >> Yeah. And then three of his guys, I think, and um they all die in transport. >> That might have been up. And so that's essentially the story of how Elena was captured and killed >> a day after seeing these helicopters that everyone could see >> like a few hours. Yeah. Cuz it was like it happened on Saturday and then I think it was like Sunday early morning like so late Saturday night, Sunday early morning. And you said that, let's go back into the mission though and the specifics because you said this earlier. >> 25 >> Mexican military guys, National Guard guys died and 12 that we know of >> of his men >> of his men died. Does that include the three in the aircraft? >> I think so. >> Okay. So, what did how did they what is the story at least of how they assaulted the compound? Do we have any are there is there any drone footage of of the compound that we could look at that might help? >> Oh, and I have some. I could have brought. Sorry. >> That's all right. We'll see if we can pull it up, but go ahead. >> Um, anyways, so that's the road actually right there to drive in to that compound. I actually saw the remnants of those vehicles. >> Oh, you know what, Cat? I forgot to do this earlier. This would be helpful. Can we pull up Can you give DEF the name of the town again? So, we can pull up the so people can kind of get an idea. Let's do a topography map of it. So, people Yeah. just like get bearings on where the location is, how remote it might be. >> It's a pain in the ass to get up there. >> It's up in the foothills, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, all right. So, what we're when we're looking at the Where is it, De? >> Right. >> Right there. So, we're Yeah, we're seeing the separation between like the mountains and the valley right there. >> Okay. And then can you zoom all the way out, De so we can get an idea just for people at home? So, >> uh, >> you know, southwestern Mexico. >> Okay. >> Um, and so >> the mission, we're talking about the mission and what they reportedly did. >> So, this is what we're told that essentially the military came through the forested area in front of all of these cabins that are on like this hilly region. Okay, keep in mind when I went there, okay, and we're told that Elemento ran from those cabins through the for through a forest behind into the country club. I was huffing and puffing going from house to house. Okay. And like I work out and I'm 25. This guy's 59 years old apparently. >> Failure. >> Yeah. On dialysis. But apparently he's booking it through there in the videos. And you know, everyone will see the video of my whole tour of this area. I'm literally like I get to the top and I'm like, "Guys, give me a second." Like I taste blood because you're literally going like it is a mountainous region and so it's these winding roads between these cabins. So anyways, there's a forested area which now is all burned down to the ground. It's all char because fire broke out from grenades and the shootout. Um and so it and uh firefighters couldn't get there. So it's just all basically black and charred. And so apparently from this main highway road, uh, which by the way, you can see every single car driving on this main highway road from the cabin compound. It's very strategic location. Uh, the military came through the forest. All of the guys from the cabins start freaking out. They come down in the forest. There's this massive firefight. A bunch of people die. And to be fair, like I did see blood. I did see uh remnants of grenades and bullets um shell casings like yeah >> it looked normalish. >> It looked like like there was a firefight for sure. >> Meaning not you weren't looking at it going this looks staged. It it looks like people were actually dying there. >> It looked like Yeah. Something happened. Did it look like the the remnants of an operation to capture Aleno? No. >> Why do you say no? Cuz like I'm almost wondering like what would I expect it to look like? You know what I mean? >> I was expecting to see way more bullets and shell casings and >> blood >> blood. But I mean there was a fire so it's and everything is burned. So it's hard to say what would be still lasting there. Um at one point like the I found this one bullet and I go to pick it up and my cameraman's like stop. Like it could be active and it's like some of the fire is still smoldering. Well, I don't know now, but when I was there, like it's still smoldering. So, you're walking through and it's like smoking underneath you. Um, but anyways, then apparently forces push through. They come up to the cabins and Elmentoo allegedly takes off from the cabins through forest behind these cabins to get into the country club, which is where his main house was. Um but >> like is are you talking about like an actual golf course country club kind of deal? >> Yeah, literally. Um and then in the forest where he tries to escape through is where he's shot at and they capture him. >> All right. One part I was thinking about here and I might be overthinking this cuz I've just seen too much cartel in the in the past. >> Guys lived out in the foothills for a long time. Like you said, he's got health problems as well. He's been the most powerful cartel person in Mexico for a while now. He's got this whole compound set up with all his soldiers there. He's got the second place where it's the country club where he's got a main residence that he can get to and it's foothills so you can dig through How the hell did he not have some sort of tunnel dug or something like that? Some sort of escape valve, if you will. >> I don't know. And I was actually trying to look for like that cuz I went into every single house here and >> everything was wide open. Actually, all the lights were on in all of the houses. Um >> Well, it was dark out when the firefight started. >> Yeah, they had to see, right? >> So, um I I don't know. Um >> that's inside right there. >> Yeah. And I do have to say that some of these houses that had uh like broken windows or shell casings in them that did not smell like gunpowder, but I don't know. I got there 2 days after, I guess. Um, they were not being inhabited. Like people weren't living there. Okay? And I'll tell you why. Cuz uh I mean you can tell like the the curtains were like just covered in dust, but not like dust of like there was a firefight, but just like you know when you go to like it's a like some place where no one's lived for a while and it's like a canvas curtain and then all the white dust like is on you that literally I have that in on the video. >> Can we pull up Cat's Instagram? She put up she >> I don't know if I have that like cuz I have it in video the long form episode that's going >> but you at least put like some of the >> Okay. So okay wait go back to that website you were on >> no that of the So you were showing a house. Go to a house that you showed >> right there. >> That one. So if this house okay is where I shot this video you guys are about to see. >> So what this is in the compound this is one of the homes. allegedly where some of his men were saying. So, this video, yes, is in there. >> Okay, let's get some volume on this bad boy. See what we got. Go ahead. >> Hideout houses. And you can see these. >> Yeah. So, these are 50 caliber shells, but there's absolutely no damage in this house >> at all. Um, I don't know. It just looks kind of weird to me. like, oh, they were defending themselves and there was a massive shooting. >> No bullet holes in >> you. All the windows were intact. >> There's more casings over there. >> There's casings. There's there's not a single bullet hole. There's not a zero >> shattered window. >> And four of us spent hours trying to find something. >> We're in one of the hideout and you can see the >> This wasn't just like, oh, I just took a glance. Okay. I was like we were looking to disprove, you know, that there's no >> no bullet holes in a place filled with bullet cases. >> Go back to the photo of that house. >> So, you see that little garage right there, bottom left, >> there's a white Jeep parked in there with the keys in there. By the way, I turned on the car. >> There's on that driveway, there's a ton of uh 50 cal casings. That car is there is not not a dent in that car. Not a dent. >> And then the front license plate of the car is removed. And so then at first glance you're like, "Oh, that's a narco vehicle." And one of the guys I was with was like, "Look, there's no license plate." I go, "No, look in the top left of the windshield. There's a license plate right there." All right, let's let's play this out. So to review, he lives up in the foothills. There's helicopters reported by everyone who lives in the area the day before. or two helicopters circling that night or in the midm morning the next morning suddenly Mexican military comes up through the hills in in the forest if you will >> alarms obviously go off or you know they're signaled such that his men come down from the cabins and there's allegedly this firefight with bullets and grenades right there down in the forest slash on the road to get up into the compound try to get Seros El Mencho out of his place into >> the into the country club across >> and you can see from this photo, do you see that hill? Like how it's slanted like that? >> It's all like steep hills to walk through there. So yeah, so Soros Elementary was running through that. >> By the way, actually here's a good question while I go through this. Where is the >> smoke? Is his compound up to the right here? >> It'll be to the left. >> To the left. Now the smoke, what is that? >> That's part of the fire. So obviously they came. So, it's alleged that he ran through a path in that foresty area to get to the country club house. >> Okay. So, they allege that when he was running on that path, they shot him and the men around him and then the Mexican military during this firefight of which they lost 25 people, they were able to get him onto an aircraft and on that aircraft, his three men that they brought on there with him and him died. >> Yes. >> Okay. You go into this house though littered with 50 cal shell casings, but there's no bullet holes. >> There's no bullet holes. There's no damage to the car down below. >> All of those windows. I checked the wooden doors. And you know, people were saying to me, they're like, "It's cuz you don't understand how houses are made in Mexico. You know, they're not using shitty materials. Not to withstand a 50 cal. >> It's No, what's it? No, it's all good. What's it a metal house? >> No, it's not. >> Yeah, exactly. So, >> so anyways, that being said, >> that being said, in front of these cabins, so between where the cabins start and where the forest ends, there's this big kind of open kind of like a parking lot. Okay, there there was all of these personal belongings littered everywhere, clothes, food remnants. There was like a little barbecue, a bunch of food stuff, like everything was just littered there. There's a truck, a pickup truck parked there and a little motorcycle. That pickup truck and that motorcycle had no bullet holes on them. There was they were in perfect condition. >> And you videoed this for your long form? >> I did. We can actually go to that video. I have it on my Instagram. But then on that truck, there's this little smear of blood. >> Which one? Which video? Okay. >> That one. >> That one. All right. >> You can see the truck behind me. >> Some volume. >> Cool. So, this is >> to the location in the Balpa Halisco where Aleno was captured a few days ago. Uh, this is literally the house he was staying at. I'm outside of it right now. >> It wasn't. >> This seems to be an area right in front of the house where his boss, his lookouts were looking out. They were camping out here to keep an eye out. There's um towels and food remnants, sheets, and then there's a truck here and a motorcycle. And you can see uh there's actually blood on this truck. So behind me right there is the forest area. >> It looks like the military came through kind of like this way. All of this forest in front of me is burned. Even some of it's still smoldering. Uh but I'm seeing bullet shell casings everywhere. Obviously the blood and then remnants that really hit the fan here. One thing I'm seeing >> this is me in that house we >> you know there I've seen some blood here and there. Um a lot of 50 cal showcasing somewhere else. >> Is there any? There's some right here. You see the Jeep behind me? >> You guys can see there. And over here, um, there's a vehicle behind me. It doesn't have front plates, but the plates are still right up there. It's also not a It's not an armored car by any means, not bulletproof. Uh, there's absolutely no damage to this house. But there are 50 caliber shell casings everywhere, and yet all of the walls, the windows, the vehicles are completely intact. I just arrived to the location in >> All right. So, this is what I'm getting at. That's the story we've been told. You're clearly finding things that do not line up at all. I >> And I'm not trying to be like conspiracy. It just looks weird. >> It's inarguable. There's a bunch of bullet casings with no holes, no blood, and the house looks like >> So, who were they shooting at? So, what? They had the front door open and they were just boom, kill, boom, kill, right? >> What do you have a sharp shooter in that house? >> So, what do you think happened? >> I don't know. But let me go pee first and then I'll give you my theories. >> All right, we'll be right back. When Thief and I were in Europe a couple months ago, we did a lot of walking. Ain't that right, Thief? >> Oh, yeah. >> And no matter how much we did, I was comfortable every day in my Rag and Bone Infused denim jeans. All I had to do was throw those suckers on in the morning and I felt good, look good, and was good for the rest of the day and night. Rag and Bone Infused offers a range of fits tailored for any style or occasion from slim and straight to athletic and relaxed. Infused denim is a wardrobe staple that pairs perfectly with any outfit in whatever fit you prefer. When you throw them on for the first time, they feel like they've been broken in forever. 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For a limited time, our listeners are going to get 20% off their entire order using code julian at ragmid-bone.com. That's 20% off at ragmid-bone.com with promo code Julian. That link is in my description below. Hit that down there. When Rag and Bone ask you where you heard about them, please support our show and tell them I sent you. All right, so back to it. What? Again, this is pure speculation. You were able to at least see the scene, though. You've been there. you know, things are out of line. I agree with what you found. It's out of line. So, it looks weird, right? Whatever the story is, we know it's not what they're telling us. So, >> just a guess. If you had to piece it together, what do you think might have actually happened here? >> Okay, I'm going to run through various ideas that of what could have possibly happened and certain theories. And I'm not saying, you know, like I 100% believe any of them. Um, and I'm also not like discrediting any of them. This is just certain possibilities. Okay. So, first and that could be very realistic is that yes, this operation went down exactly the way the Mexican government is telling us and they captured and killed him. Um, but then they also wanted it to look more powerful and interesting than it really was. And so, they scattered some 50 cal bullets and made it look like, you know, they went through this war to get him. uh which is why they then left this area wide open for the press to just walk on and completely contaminate it and do whatever we wanted to there. That's a possibility. Um a second possibility is that he that the nothing happened at this area that I was at and it maybe all went down at the country club. Um, and >> so why would they stage this area? What's the difference between a gun >> so that the press could go in there and show people that the Mexican military did this huge operation um without actually going to the real crime scene? >> So, they didn't let people to the country club. >> No. So, oh, let me give you some context about that. >> So, I tried to go to the country club twice. So Reuters was able to get into that main house on the country club, and I'm pretty sure they were the only outlet that was able to get in there. >> That's sketchy. >> When I got to uh the country club entrance, there are basically uh like casetas like uh what do you call that? like um every time I come your come on your podcast I feel like Hillary Baldwin like >> I'm serious. It's so embarrassing. >> I didn't see that coming. That was really good. >> Um, but there's like the little uh you know like the boxes with the person in it and you like you talk to them and you're like, "Hey, like uh can you It has like the arm like >> you know when you go through like a paid toll highway >> and you have to like hand the money to the woman in like the little box and then the arm lifts up. >> So they have that. What do you call that in English? >> That that was fine. I don't even know what you call that drawbridge. I have no idea. Anyways, like the little so that they have >> all right >> deep. But >> he's just talking over here, >> but you're not paying to get into this country. Anyways, I got you. >> So, it's basically like the security. What are you guys >> I'm not. It's all him. >> He's just like, he's on one today. >> Anyway, the hilaria Baldwin really got him for some reason. >> That was good. Let's get Alec Baldwin on the podcast. I keep forgetting that one. I feel like that'd be fun. >> Yeah. I want to know what happened. >> Oh my god, that was a very sad story. It was very sad. >> Anyways, um so they have a few of those boxes with like security and then the arms so you can't just drive right in. >> When I pull up to it on the first day, uh there's no one in any of those boxes and all the arms are down and you basically have to press on the intercom and someone will talk to you to let you in. But and there were no police, no military there, but there were two at least two very visible cartel lookouts that were right in front. Yeah. And so, uh, one of the guys that I was with, cuz I had hired some people to come with me. I know like everyone always gives me for doing stuff alone. I did not do this assignment alone. >> Thank God. >> Um, it just there was no way. Uh, >> by the way, quick little side path. Sorry to get you off, but when you go to do something like this, even if you hire a few people, aren't you worried that like if you go there and >> Oh, I know that the people aren't like by any means a security blanket. It's just in in terms of like the gathering and the workflow just makes it easier cuz I'm not doing everything alone and all and it also just makes me more anxious being alone. >> So, yeah. And I was doing it alone a lot, but now I um I you know, to gather all of this content, I need to have a team. >> Yeah. So, you see the two cartel lookout guys. >> Yeah. And like one of the guys I'm with kind of starts panicking and I'm like, "Don't worry, they're not going to do anything to us. Let's just drive up." And I drove for a lot of this trip and you'll see that in the content, which is like not ideal for filming, but I, you know, like woman on top. If I'm not doing it, like someone's going to do it wrong type of thing, right? So, I'm like, "We can just drive up." We drive up and the cartel look good don't say or do anything but intercom is like no we have no press is allowed in it's an order from the government you can't come in okay we leave um go to the cabins uh the next day I'm like let's try again and the people I'm with are like there's no way >> when did the Reuters guys get in there was it the day >> the day before. >> Were you able to talk to anyone from their team who got in there? >> No. >> Interesting. Okay. Yeah. >> Um and so basically the next day I take out cash and I'm like let's go in. Um it's Mexico. >> It's Mex in Mexico. >> You know it's funny cuz when I first started in journalism they're like never pay never give gifts. It goes against like journalistic standard practices. And I'm like well I don't think that really applies to covering cartels. Okay. >> I think I agree with you. >> Yeah. There's certain area where it's like I'm not interviewing the mayor of small town Virginia here. Okay. >> You got to give him a taste, you know? >> So, we go back and there's a bunch of military blocking it off >> the next day. >> Yeah. So, >> when you say a bunch of military, we talking like 20, 30 guys? >> No, no, no. But there was some elements of military and it was just it was a no-go zone and those guys are really stern on that and they don't like to be filmed and it's like a whole thing. So I was like, you know what, let's not even try. Let's go. I also like I like I didn't have enough cash to pay all of them off. I'm being facitious, guys. But um so yeah, so anyways um uh we leave and there was just no way for us to get into that country club. Now another thing that could have happened, another theory is that Eleno has already been dead. And I interviewed a lot of people who this is what they believe in Mexico. Um, Elro has been dead for a while. Um, El Cerot has been in Elmeno's position for a while. Uh, which is also probably why infighting didn't break out. Um, and in order to please the United States government so that they chill with their lists of people that they want, uh, CG&G came to an agreement with the Mexican government and said, "Look, you can get the US off your back. um everyone will stay on our payroll. You let us continue operating as normal, but you guys can say that you took out Menchel. Um but at the same time, what evidence or proof was given to the US government then if that was already the case to believe that he was killed? Maybe he already died at the compound and CGNG and the Mexican government came to an agreement that hey, he's dying. So as soon as he dies, you guys can take credit and take his body. We This is the first time really ever that we haven't seen a picture of the body. Uh it was closed casket which I mean if it was >> golden casket. >> Yeah. Isn't it just like him Michael Jackson and like an Egyptian like king that have had that? >> Yeah. I was like can we pull that up? Defment's casket. >> Oh gold casket. And also did you see the bouquet of roses in the shape of a rooster cuz he was the the senor of the roosters. >> Right. He went out fighting. All right. Do we have it? Yeah. There it is. Look at what a waste. You're burying gold. >> Listen, aside from a waste, I think for a lot of uh Mexican families and people who were victims of extreme violence by the cartels, this is just an additional slap in the face. You know, you have this really ostentatious funeral service, super luxurious. Um, >> and there's so many missing and murdered people that were obviously at the hands of the cartel. And >> yes. >> Yeah. No, it's I agree. It's a that's exactly it's it's worse than a slap in the face. >> Yeah. >> But also, I mean, >> can the Mexican government even do anything about that? Cuz he's dead. His family's technically allowed to do what they want. >> When I was in Tapalpa, it was during this time where there was this back and forth between, this is going to sound crazy, back and forth between CJNG and the Mexican government because they wanted his body repatriated to the family. And so CG&G requested formally to the Mexican government like I think through a lawyer. I'm not even joking. I know. avagadoo's got to go in there and give me the body. >> So there was like this um letter sent and I'm pretty sure the president said that it was fake. Uh Mexican president said it was fake, but see uh Mench's family requested his body. They said that if they don't get the body by X date and time that all hell was going to break loose. Mexico didn't give the body, but nothing really happened. Um, and then eventually they did allegedly give the body back. I think the reason I mean the reasoning here was obviously they didn't want to give the body because they didn't want like a shrine to be built for him at uh the cemetery. You know, you've seen those photos and videos of the massive. >> So basically a mansion for a tombstone. >> Yes. Um, and you know, people will go there and like it's glorified, so they'll pay their respects and they'll do whatever the hell. Um, but anyways, so that's another theory is that he was already dead or he was dying and there was this agreement to get the US off the back, but there had to obviously have been some sort of evidence for the US to be satisfied with this operation. >> Now, okay, there's a lot going on there. >> I know on the surface that makes sense. That's a very interesting theory and at first that makes sense and I think it would make the most sense that he wasn't dead for a while. It would make the most sense that they waited until he literally drew his last breath and they're like, "All right, let's go." >> Yeah. So that at least they would have a body, >> right? And so and a fresh body, if you will. >> Couple issues just I'm trying to poke holes in this to see what else there could be on the table if we're missing something. >> That he faked his death. that >> I wasn't even going to go there yet, but let's let's let's put a bookmark in that because that's possible. >> Okay. >> The fact that there was so much bloodshed that affected right down to civilians the next day, you would think something like that would have been a great first something like this where the Mexican government is going to the most dangerous cartel and saying, "Hey, all right. We're going to make a little deal. You guys are going to be allowed to operate. We're going to give a pound of flesh when your guy dies to the US. Trump's going to be happy and then, you know, you go your way, we go our way." The fact that they would make that deal and a part of that deal would say, "Yeah, you know, there's going to be a lot of violence the next day, too, and you're going to kill a lot of civilians, but just make sure you cut it after day." That seems like a bridge too far. That's actually unnecessary. >> Really? How else would you sell it? Also, I'm pretty sure one civilian died. The rest of them were National Guard. Um, >> so that was all everything we were seeing was just National Guard, even though they were shooting up all these public places. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Only one civilian died. >> Yeah, >> that's actually somewhat impressive. Is that That's true. >> Yeah. Can we check that? That's crazy. >> Um, and then also, >> so they're sacrificing their own military guy. Like, yeah, we know you're going to have to come back at us and hit us. >> I mean, you know, maybe it went too far. Maybe that wasn't part of, you know, this is all hypothetical. Can we just say that? Cuz I don't want people to be like, she sounds like Candace Owens talking about Charlie Kirk. >> Um, >> so, >> okay. Based on reports following the death of Halisco New Generation cartel leader Elmeno, at least 73 people died in resulting violence and military, which was lower than I thought. While the total death toll exceeded 70, the majority of these fatalities were identified as cartel members and security forces. Initial reports from authorities and news outlets mentioned at least one confirmed civilian death. You're right. And that's another thing like 73 bodies is a lot, by the way. I don't want to minimize that. It seemed a lot worse with the imagery we were seeing and hearing about place the airport being shut down, sheltering in place. Kind of the point. >> Yeah. Oh my god. >> Right. I see what you're saying. Get a good angle. Send it to the US. I got you. >> Okay. >> And I think that I'm going to get so cancelled for this, but I mean, >> it's all right. The president is so like really standing down on we are a so Mexico is a sovereign nation. >> Shine bomb. >> Yeah. That yeah we'll do whatever it takes so that US doesn't launch a unilateral operation. >> Yeah. This this gets into other recent events too. There's kind of some overlap here. So maybe we should bring this in. You had a Delta Force mission to extract the leader of a sovereign country on January 2nd because of drugs. Okay. Venezuela moves drugs. We know that. Compared to Mexico, they move three baggies in a eightball. >> Yeah. >> All right. Like it's not even it's nothing. >> It's a drop. >> But we've declared terror organizations to our neighboring country that's even closer than Venezuela. And we haven't invaded there to, you know, go boom boom boom on all these guys. >> Exactly. >> It feels like, you know, maybe I got a little tinful hat on here, but it feels like there's some sort of tacid agreement to the PR campaign that that is meaning a tacid agreement between Shine Bomb and Trump where it's like we're going to say all this We're going to declare them terrorist organizations, whatever. you help us out, you know, maybe give us a pound of flesh once in a while so we can market it to the public, but like we're not going to come in there. We're not going to actually do like what we did in Afghanistan or something like that. >> And I also think because logistically like the proximity obviously of US to Mexico, if there were US boots on the ground, it obviously increases the chance that there's going to be some sort of retaliation against Americans. This was one thing that was really pissing me off. I'm not going to lie. And I was seeing how people in Portoarta, people, you know, on vacation, Americans and Canadians, who were like, I'm in the middle of a war zone. And it's like, shut up and drink your pina colada. They're not going to kill you. Like, be so for real right now. Like, are you with the cartel? Are you with the Mexican government? You probably couldn't even name the secretary of national security of Mexico. Nobody gives a about you, John. Literally. And they're all like on Instagram like, "Oh my god." It's like shut up. >> Um, >> yeah. So, anyways, that and then President Shinbomb's response was also just like really weird to me because as all of this was going on, like the chaos >> she every morning she does her um morning press conference and um this was probably like her most viewed one ever. I'm I'm pretty sure. >> Um and she just gets up there and she's like, "Everyone remain calm. like we have control. No need to panic. It'll all be okay. And he's gone. Like if I was Shin Bomb and I you like I seriously stand by this. I would have went up there and been like Mencho died like a dog. You know, like Alba Daddy. I would have been like Mencho died like a dog. This is the future of a sovereign and liberated Mexico. We This is war against the cartels. And we want all of you who hate the cartels, all of you who have missing and murdered family members, all of you who have been victims of these people banned together. We're taking them on. And we have the support of the United States government. This is going to be the new beginning, the end of drug cartels. If I could see it her way for one second, she'd be dead before she got off the stage if she did that. They'd be like, "Okay, time for her to go." Like, that's the that's the shitty thing. They have such inroads to every They are the ultimate parasite. >> I know. >> They have inroads. I mean, you've done some amazing interviews with guys where it's so clear like you're talking with like the governor of the region. It's like, well, he's on the payroll, >> dude. They're like, they don't even hide it. >> They don't even hide it. So, actually though, >> actually, you want to This is crazy. >> Oh, please. >> Um, when I was in I'm not going to say exactly where. I don't want to get in trouble. But one of the regions that I was in when I was reporting on this, uh, I went out one night just like kind of touring the town in the middle of the night to see what was going on. And, um, there was a local politician and he was uh, soliciting a hooker. >> That's it. >> Yeah, >> that was news. >> Take that out. Fine. >> No, it was fine. It was good. We don't take those things out. There's a funny joke. >> A politician getting a hooker. >> I know. It's common. >> Revolutionary. >> Okay. Sorry. >> I'm gonna get so much hate for that. Now, >> can can you get the uh on on uh on Twitter, Dave, there's a video of Claudia Shinbomb talking about the human rights of the cartel. >> Okay. But to be fair, in her defense, unlike her predecessor, Amllo, >> I think that's a deep feeling. >> Who he was always saying like, "Abraas no balasos, hugs, not bullets." She's never explicitly said, "Abraas no." >> Okay. All right. So, if necessary, we'll mobilize. We don't want taxes on reminiscent. No, no, no. I'm sorry. Not that one. But I think that's the right press conference. Do shine bomb. Oh, wait. Wait. What does that one say? Oh, no. She's talking about electoral reform. >> Okay, here it is. >> Yes. Yes. Here we go. >> Yeah. Where she's talking about going >> She got mad that this was getting shared after the Elro thing cuz she said things change and this was in the past. >> Oh, this was before. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This wasn't following. Everyone was sharing it like it was following. This was >> You know what? Let's not do that. If this was before and she's changed her tune on that then >> Yeah. This was before and >> she was basically what she was saying was, you know, we don't want to go to war. It wasn't hugs not bullets, but it was a similar kind of take. >> Yeah. It was like they have rights too. You can't just go after them. >> And actually, if I could steal man that for a second, >> it's just a little weird to talk about it in Mexico because it's like, oh, suddenly we care about individual rights, right? Yeah, >> but what she's saying is because they are technically citizens of Mexico, they deserve a fair trial. The argument against that is they own the courts. They own the go they they own the cops. They own the government. There's no such thing as a fair like you have to the US declared them terror groups. Easy for us to do because it's not our country, right? You may need to do something like that internally and put language in such a declaration that does not set precedent such that you can do it to lesser people in the future. Meaning people that aren't cartel just because you don't like them. Like criminals you want to go after you just anytime you see a criminal eventually you could be like he's a terrorist therefore they have no rights. I understand the precedent, but like when you have such a strong long demonstrated history of these groups wreaking havoc across your country and on every environment and community that they're around, you might need to do something a little different than like, hey, you know, let's just let the courts handle it. Um, another way where her policy contradicts itself is that when she's saying the human rights stuff, um, and going by, you know, legalities over the course of the last year, there have been, I think like four, maybe five at this point, um, expulsions of Mexican fugitives to the United States. and it was not done under the extradition treaty which was the policy outlined so that when these fugitives like for example when El Chapo was extradited to the US he cannot face the death penalty under the policy of the extradition treaty whereas over the last couple year over the last year when these the same thing happened these fugitives were expelled from Mexico to the US to face Mexican um justice system it was not done under the extradition treaty so they were at risk, I guess, of facing the death penalty. >> How's that legal? >> Uh they're they're internationally wanted fugitives and so they committed crimes against Americans. So America has the right to request for them to face court, an American court. Um and so the paperwork was done in order to send them to the US, but it was not they were not extradited. They were expelled and and transferred to the US. None of them got the death penalty. Not even Ko Kintterero, who was responsible for the death of DH and Kiki Kamarena. >> Um, but a lot of people believed, oh, he's going to get, you know, he's going to get the death penalty. >> Oh, that's what I was thinking of earlier. One of the five guys you showed me, the last guy, the younger looking one with the long hair. Yeah. >> Literally looks like the dude who played Carol Cano. Oh, really? In Narcos. I was looking at that. I'm like, I feel like we already got the actor for Narco season 3. >> I think Naros Narco season 3 is going to be crazy. >> Yeah. listen that that you know like the Netflix execs and the narcos production team was watching this and it was like the scene in the office where they're like EVERYONE REMAIN CALM IT'S happening let's do it >> oh for sure >> but they should it would be different if they're doing something as it's unfolding >> right so they do a season that's covering like all this that just happened and then like shit's continue I mean I'm not rooting for violence and everything but obviously like it's kind of chaos a little bit and there may be more chaos to come probably hope there's not probably will be hope there's not too but then like season 2 can be like yo they're writing it while they're watching the news like oh >> yeah cuz it's not like back in the day where they were like talking about Amado Kario and stuff like that where you know that's already done but it's happening in real time now. All right. So, our possible theory is that he was dying or already dead and this was a pound of flesh for, you know, some underground, you know, handshake agreement to be like, you do your thing, we do ours, everyone's happy, let's move on. What about the other theory you brought up, which is that he faked his own death. Is there anything to that? >> The thing is, I think really what's to that is that he's done it so many times before. His son-in-law did it. Um he's been known to fake his own death. Uh and that's part of him being the type of guy who lays under, you know, lays under the radar. Chapo never faked his death that I know of. Um and so and sometimes it was very believable. Um we've seen people literally go on the record and be like like years ago and be like, "Yeah, he's he's he's dead. I think he's dead." Um, I was actually up until probably just maybe 8 months ago was still getting me messages of people being like, "Do you think he's dead or alive?" >> When you say people, like sources in the cartel? >> No. No. Random people, but people in the cartel. Yeah. No. >> Well, I know I cuz I know sometimes you do talk to people. doesn't mean they're in the room with him or anything, but like I'd be curious to know if there were rumors among actual Sakario or guys like that who might have been saying even from other factions like from the Chapito or something like, "Yo, I think he might be dead." That'd be pretty interesting. >> So, the rumors that I've heard from certain sources within the cartels and especially in this region were that he was dying. H >> I feel like that person in those movies where it's like, you know, you're like all strung out and you have all the pictures on the wall with like um >> threads connecting it. >> It's like the Charlie from Always Sunny meme. >> Yeah. >> Where he's like, >> "Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's what I feel like." But I'm I don't want it to sound like I'm crazy. It's just that after being there and considering the context of everything I know surrounding this, it's weird. And the fact that that chaos broke out, you know, it only happened for one day. I know. And it it it's obviously not great. And but when I saw this news, when it broke, I was like, "Oh, So many people are going to die and so many people are going to lose their livelihoods. Like it's going to be like what happened in Sinaloa." >> And then it stopped >> and there was nothing >> right now. What was that stop cuz you were flying in like when it was stopping, I guess. What was that stoppage like? like they had shut down a lot of As you laid out earlier, it was pretty much just cartel and military guys killing each other. It wasn't as much civilians, but people were still spooked in these areas. When it stopped, did was it like cockroaches just scattering off the street and then everyone's like, "Oh, we're back to normal now." >> Yeah. Like there was no more burning buses in the middle of the the streets and narco blockades. And so it was difficult for me because like obviously on the day the chaos chaos broke out I couldn't get from Mexico City to Guadalara to Halisco because there were narco blockades all across the highways and the airports were closed in Halisco. So I was reaching out to people and I had people like thank you to some of the subscribers that were like I have a small aircraft I can try to get you in. Um, but it was just I didn't know what to expect from the situation. And then all of a sudden everything opened up like normal. I got there and all I saw was remnants of the burned buses all along the highways, but there were no more burning buses. There were no more narco blockades. I mean, sure, there were punteros, cartel lookouts everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Um, >> do they and do they know do a lot of them know who you are? I would hope not. I mean, because I report in English, I feel like that I have a little bit of um uh what's the word? Like >> anonymity. >> Yeah, I guess. Um >> I don't know though cuz you now you broken some serious stories. You know, you've been on Sean Ryan show. Like I don't know if I would >> I do know that I am tracked in Mexico >> by by them. >> God knows who. >> What do you mean tracked? there. A lot of people know where I'm at, know what flights I'm taking. Um, and but I don't know if like down to the very bottom of like a cartel lookout who's really not making that much money and is like on their motorcycle just the person who's like alerting if you know there's some sort of military action or whatever. I don't think those guys recognize me. Um, and they saw me cuz like I was driving through and I'm going up the windy roads to like cartel strongholds to see what it's like and they're like looking at you in the car. >> They're like, "She's back." >> No, I just they're, "Oh, pretty girl." Like, that's it. Like, what what is she doing here? You know? >> Um, I don't think I think if I did stuff in Spanish and like more frequently, then yeah, then it would be a problem. But I'm always like with like American outlets and stuff. >> I just thought of something. >> What? >> From a couple minutes ago. I don't know why I just thought of this with what you were saying. So, just to go back for a minute, you said there's three options. It's either he's dead and it just didn't go down as they said. >> Mhm. >> He's dead, but he was really dying and it was just a deal made with the government or he faked his death. >> What about the fourth door? >> What if it was a quiet overthrow? You mentioned that in the ex literally Excel spreadsheets you could see the sakarios are basically paid in like you know they're being given like a box of Trojans that's it >> you know so what if what if enough people quietly got together and said you know one of the three guys we were talking about we'll get behind you let's give this guy up quietly to the government and act like we didn't by the way >> I don't know I don't know And it would have had to have the agreement with um the Valencia family, Los Queenies. >> It would have had to have that. >> Yeah, it would have had to have that. But I mean, you never know. Maybe cuz what's set what we're told is that he was tracked through this woman that he was seeing. >> Yeah. Was Was she actually like an Only Fans model or something? >> No. Oh my god. >> That was like fake news, right? >> No, dude. That was stressing me out because >> all the images were AI, >> but people were fully going viral for posting random Mexican only fan girls and they were like going on live crying being like, I don't know him. Like I wasn't him and that's dude, they were putting targets on those girls backs. >> Like that was very dangerous. >> Um and I I was talking with someone about that. They're like, "Well, who cares?" And I was like, "Well, how could you not? What if someone did that to me?" Oh, it's nuts. >> What if someone was like, "Oh, well, actually Katarina Schultz was going in." That would >> Yeah. >> Oh my god. Absolutely not. >> That's crazy. >> So, no, it wasn't. From what we can tell, it was actually a very age appropriate woman who um was seeing him and she came from a very rich family. I mean, Menchel clearly had something where he could just date really rich women, >> but that's again, that's based on the story they're telling us. Oh, yeah. We tracked them here or there. >> And that's coming from the US side on the intelligence op. >> Wait, explain that. >> Cuz the US gathered all of the intelligence and handed it to Mexico on a silver platter and said, "All right, now go get them." >> Yeah, that's something I I agree with you. Something's even without talking about the scene itself, which we know something's off there. Something's really >> Well, so I'm always like when I go into these things, like I'm a very critical person. You know this, right? So, it's like that's why I'm a journalist. Ask all the questions. What doesn't add up? Whatever. >> And I try to be really logical and rational about these things and not to get, you know, in over my head. >> Um, and you've noticed that because even when I talk on your podcast, like sometimes if I do say something that may sound crazy to some people, it typically ends up being right because I do try to rationalize. With this, you know, I was trying to do that whatever. And I went in honestly under the impression that yeah, the operation happened and he was killed. Um but and but I still had these questions in the back of my mind and we weren't getting any answers and I thought it was weird that we never saw the body. Um I thought it was weird that there was no infighting. And then I got there and I'm like something doesn't add up like at all. It is so weird. And the first person I talked to when I got to Tapalpa was like, "Yeah, we all were kind of freaking out. Something was weird because on Saturday of all the pl like the two planes flying above." >> Yeah. >> It's also and this is where cuz I do all different types of content in here, right? And I'm always looking at all these different places whereas like you right now are very focused on that area of the world and cartels and stuff and you're doing your job covering what is a major story. But I am I've always been obsessed with news cycles and how they're used for political purposes, >> dude. And this news cycle has been just demented. >> So these the with these Epstein file things that happened, the latest drop is the one that happened on January 30th, and that was the boogeyman one that people will not let go righteously so because it's some of the worst I've ever seen. And this is such a problem for the whole government. huge problem, huge distraction. They're freaking out about it. And in a span of three days, we saw the reports coming out, including on this podcast from John Kiryaku, straight from the White House, which he turned out to be right about. He's about 3 days ahead, but we saw reports coming out that they're going to start the war with Iran, which is not our war. We saw the night before that, that Thursday, the 19th, Trump come out and announce that he wants the Pentagon to redact the UFO files. They're literally giving us aliens like to try to get our mind off this stuff. And then we see El Mencho taken out on Sunday with US intelligence. And I'm like to me, if that is how it went down, even if it's not how it went down on the actual final like boom boom boom shooting that happened, it's like they knew where he was forever and they had that in the back pocket and they're like, "Yo, when we really need to change the story. Oh, cartels. Look, violence. Crazy. Look at the pictures." you know, get people's minds off it, to distract from other things. And I cannot help but think this is one small pebble in that skip on the on on the top of of of the water to just try to get people to watch that instead of look over here and see what's really going wrong. >> I don't know. I don't know if I agree with that. I think that a lot of things can happen at once. And >> yeah, >> it's pretty interesting that three major things would happen. I've been getting a lot of comments like what what you're saying right now, but I I think that >> there's just a lot going on. I mean, >> it could be. It could be. >> I also like in terms of the Epstein thing, I think it's just enough that they just have been releasing it in small doses, micro doing the public, and everyone kind of just at certain point gets really desensitized to stuff like that and it gets brushed under the rug no matter what. I don't even think they need to drop some big thing in order for the public to just not really get >> I would disagree after this last one. And again, I'm more in it, but like >> you are more in it than me. >> This last one, >> these documents are some of the worst I've ever seen in my life. And it the volume of p righteously so, public outrage after this latest drop on January 30th went up by a scale of 20x. People are going to hate me for this, but like that's um I can't look at that stuff. I like, you know, I saw like bits and pieces and then there was like one thing that I was like, "Okay, anytime I see something with related to these files, I'm I I can't >> What was that?" >> It was like a It was just really violent and just really bad. I That type of stuff really bugs me. And I think I've said this on your podcast before like I would rather be murdered than and like there's so much like and kids and stuff. I >> I and I hate to be that person. Like I've always been like I'm not ignorant, you know, and even if it's painful, you have to look at it. You have to be informed, >> but some of it is so vile. Like I >> I just can't, Julian. Like >> no, I I understand. And that also says a lot that you're like, I can't with this. Like that bad >> You see awful >> like first person. >> First person >> in like in front of me. >> Yeah. But I I >> And you're making my point for me. Like this is how visceral that latest one is and people I mean it's just I've said this but it's such a red line for me. Like I mean it was a red line already before this but now that you have some proof or at least hardcore smoke around the fire at the very least needing some more evidence to some of the most monstrous There's something about Sorry, I'm choking on water right now. >> I can see that. But this news cycle has been crazy. I mean, like what January alone felt like I lived like 30 years because I went from Colombia, Venezuela to Ukraine to the northern border to Mexico. Like I was just like a hooker's panties. Like I was just everywhere. And it was the following the news cycle. And then now people are like, "Are you going to Iran?" And I'm like, "Guys, I there's there's a line." And you know what? I haven't slept. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Like there's only >> I think you can stay away from Iran >> and I don't Yeah, there's >> I don't think you do well there. >> Why? Cuz I'm a woman. >> Also, you're not American. You're Canadian, but you know what I mean? You're coming from this part of the world. And it's >> and there's rockets going in there, right? >> In a lot of the parts of like the world, they don't know the difference between Canadian and American. And so impossible basically to identify yourself. >> Exactly. But let's I I I want to talk about some of the things you've been doing, which is pretty wild. But before we get there, I want to make sure we get through the whole CJNG stuff. So, we got our theories on what it could be. You're there is a power vacuum right now, but based on what we're thinking, it could just be for show and they already have someone who's very clearly in charge. Have we seen since the violence died down between the military and the CJNG fa factions the day after? Have we had major reports of serious violence from within the cartel world? >> Yeah. But adversarial cartels, not from within CJNG. >> So they're not shooting at each other. >> No. >> That tells me they've had it figured out. >> Exactly. >> Okay. >> And you don't figure that out one night to the next. >> No, you don't. >> Come on. Now, did El Meno, is there evidence that Elmentoo >> handpicked? Who was it going to be? >> We do know that. >> Yeah. >> And which do we know who he handpicked? >> It's El Cerot, the stepson. Okay. And I'm sure that that was also upon the recommendation of his ex-wife, Rosalinda, >> right? So, no one's going to with that choice. You got the Kennedy, the Mexican Kennedy's behind it. You got the guy who founded the whole dead behind it. That's where the money is. He's been on both sides of the border. >> Okay. He's a very strategic choice for sure. >> Now, what is the deal with the Chapitos and CGNG? C. God damn it. >> You said it right. Right. You did. You said CGNG. >> All right. Whatever. You get the point. The what what is what is the deal in the wake of Elenro between those two? >> Oh, that alliance stays alive. It's >> so they're not hitting each other. >> Okay. From what I've seen so far over the course of this week, nothing has really changed. Yeah, it's an inside job. >> It just doesn't it doesn't add up. Like I know cartels, like this what I study. >> Yeah. >> Um and the fact that the leader is taken out, we should see three different guys vying for power. There should be a war in Sakatas. There should be a war in Verarac Cruz. There should be a warrants in Alo. Well, there already is, but you know what I mean. There should be Mitraan and Halisco right now. Should and Kolya should just be balls to the wall. No. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's a setup. But when I was in Kol Lima, there was like um the day I got there, uh there was a narco banner put up and there's obviously some sort of infighting going on in there between like but I'm pretty sure it's it doesn't have to do with the CJNG. It has >> Where was this? >> In Kya, which is the neighboring state with Halisco. Um there was an ARCO banner put up and they were naming it named all of the politicians who are on the payroll. And that's a tactic of infighting because one group is funding those politicians. So the other group will name them to call out that group, right? >> And they use them as like a it's like a proxy, right? >> Yeah. They know that that's not our guys. Leave them out to burn. >> Yeah. >> I got you. >> Um but it's certainly there's there isn't anything right now that's indicating, oh my god, CJ is up in flames. I mean, you remember I came here right after I was reporting in Soloa after Alio was gone. It was a war zone. show. >> Yeah. >> I I literally got off the airport and we're driving and it's just bodies >> and bodies and military just boom voom. Like at night, no one's going out. There's a curfew. No kids can't go to school a lot of the days. Every night I'm being alerted of shootouts and narco blockades and we're going to cover it and then in the morning it's just like bodies upon bodies. That's infighting. >> Yes. And we're not seeing any of that right now. >> No. >> Yeah, >> man. I had one of the best like brunches of my life in Talpa. I was literally sitting on the patio smoking and eating my freaking chilakilles and just I felt like I was on vacation and Guadalara is fine. Not fine, okay? Like I don't want to >> I know what I mean though. like considering the context and I want people to keep that in mind cuz some of the listeners are not very critical sometimes where it's like when I say oh it's all fine and dandy >> it doesn't necessarily mean oh you know you're in Maui but it just considering the context of the environment right >> yes >> you you hate when I um insult your >> No I think I I think you're funny like unintentionally sometimes but that's pretty good >> so you but when you first went down there like when you were first coming on the show back in 265 >> you you had gone down there to cover Sinaloa and again you're covering it like in the wake of like you said having that whole very still by the way actually before I asked this do we have updates on that >> yeah it was it was set up by the Chapitos they betrayed him sold him out to the US he was they set him up he was kidnapped and brought into the US >> was he CIA >> I don't know I don't >> Is it quite possible though >> I don't know you ask me this about every single kingpin. It's so hard for me to say. >> He's a He's such a prime target though for that. >> But aren't they all? >> They are. But he operated so quietly and so simply through all the ups and downs with El Chapo and everything and was really like the dude. And El Chapo is like kind of more the public figure, if you will, for so long. And he goes so far back. >> I think he went the longest without being captured, right? Yeah. >> Another actually Glad you brought this up. I did read someone's um kind of like opinion piece about how they think that the Chapitos actually sold out Mencho because since the alliance they were privy to more information about him and because you know all the Chapitos essentially are in the US at this point except for Ivan Archival who by the way crazy that Ivan has outlasted everyone. Okay. outlasted wedding, outlasted meno, outlasted Maduro, like Ivan crazy >> because Ivan has been like number one target and he's like always just in alone and there have been so many failed operations where oh we almost got him but there was like this hidden tunnel and it's like every like it's literally happened like I think like three times now which is crazy. >> Yeah, that's I just think it's crazy but like what the But um I don't know uh about what CIA or is it? >> Yeah, with Alio. I just it the whole thing with him is very >> You've always asked me this. I don't know. And I don't I don't want to like make an opinion cuz I'm not >> Of course. No, I don't want you to do that. >> I think people actually appreciate that I don't do that. >> Yes, they do. Don't make up. >> No, I won't. I never do. And if I'm wrong, I admit it. I actually I was wrong about something this year or um I said >> I'll make you guys a bet. I don't think Ryan wedding is ever gonna see a cell. That was one thing. >> We're gonna come to that story. Hold that thought because there was >> That's another one that's like kind of interesting how that would >> I know all the ins and outs of that story. >> Okay, we're going to get >> I'm not entirely sure what I can say publicly about that. >> Okay, we'll go through. >> But if people had known or were able to know what I know. Yeah, whatever. >> I got you. But like there's that guy I've told you about before who I got connected to a while ago through a cartel dude who's like definitely still in CIA but like one of those 50-year guys who made his bones the first 20ome years of his career. He got into CIA as a knock in Mexico where they embedded him with the cartels with the >> Felix Ariano brothers. Is that right? >> Ariano Felix. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so I, you know, he's very cy. I've been we've like he wants to do the podcast and we've been talking about it for like a year and a half, but he's always going to some third world country to overthrow government. Like his company just shows up there. It's like him and like >> but he's willing to do this with his face. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> No way. I call >> He's not in CIA anymore. He's But he >> I feel like you never actually leave the CIA. >> That's what I agree. Unless you're like John Kuryaku and they like throw you in prison, like I don't think you leave. And like it's just funny because he's got a he's got a company. Shout out Brian, he's got a company with like three other ex spooky people from CIA and all these other places. And in the words of Luis Na'vi is like they show up in some third world country and 6 months later the whole government's overthrown. Who would have thought it, right? Well, no, it wasn't even Venezuela. It's usually like Africa or like countries you never heard of or whatever. >> Africa is not a country, >> but you know what I mean. I meant the countries in Africa. >> Do you know that a lot of your viewers love when I do that to you? >> I know that. But you know that guy I now I'd really be burning to get them on because we know CIA has used cartels for their own whatever forever and like they it's the ultimate like deal with the devil. Yep. Yeah, >> very interesting. But back to we we'll come to Ryan wedding because I do want to go through all that. That was crazy. But with Sinaloa, because that was the initial you were you were doing all those stories when you first got down there and you've mentioned them today because you mentioned the Chapitos alliance with one faction of CJNG and everything. What is what's outside of that? Like what's the status of them from a power perspective in Mexico at this point given that Elmo and El Chapo are now gone? Honestly, I don't want to talk about who I think is winning that war because I I >> um I got a death threat about that. >> Oh, no. Yeah. All right. Let's not do that then. >> I know. And I because I had talked about it and I was super open about it. Um >> why' you What kinds of people gave you definition? >> Someone within that within the faction that I said was not doing well. >> And so they hit you up personally and said >> it was it was real. And I talked about this on a podcast like a few days ago or something. um they asked me if you know death threats and I was like I can identify when it's just like you know this empty threat of someone trying to scare me versus when it's something that I actually need to pay attention to and unfortunately I know that it impacts >> hopefully not the integrity of my job but it's certainly the content of what I can say but also like it's my life right >> and so there was um I did like receive a message um and multiple people actually flagged it to me that there was B like chatter about this um and that it some people were just unhappy that I was saying that like basically what I thought was happening within this infighting. So I just rather not give an >> Yeah, definitely. >> Yeah. No, no, no. And and I'm actually happy to hear you talk like that cuz in the past I feel like you would have been like, you know what, it. But like you you got to I think when you're doing a job like yours, first of all, there's not many people who do it. Secondly, like the stories you do get are insane and like >> but that's why because I've always kind of been fearless about it, but >> there's a line. >> Well, when the threat literally is like substantial. I mean, yeah, it sucks because I don't want to be scared out of saying the truth, but I just don't even think that this is worth it. I think anyone who's a critical thinker could look at the the >> the bigger that civil war, let's call it, and could form their own opinion. Um, so yeah, but I I don't really just want to talk about that. Exactly. >> Yeah. No, we we won't. And >> especially if I have to go back to Sinnolo at some point. Like >> that's what I'm saying. You have to make like And there could be people out there who are just they want to complain about anything and there there's always going to be people like that. But you have to make like tradeoff decisions sometimes where it's like, all right, I want to do 100% right. I want to get every thing. I want to be able to say whatever I want. If I do that, I'm dead. So, would I rather be able to do 80% of what I want and continue to do the job and do it extremely effectively and for many years and actually help save lives and maybe change the trajectory of stuff and shut up about the other 20% so that I can do that and live. Yeah, that's what you got to do. >> Yeah. And but it it was hard for me to accept that. You would you know that because you know me. So it was like it but it got to a point where I was like yeah that was the kind of the pay like the I had to accept that essentially >> and and it's it is the right decision so we'll stay off that. That's no problem. But there's still chaos basically, right? Like there's still >> it's still ongoing constantly and I'm constantly being shown videos of someone in the Misa faction or someone in the Chapitos faction being murdered or like the literal gunfights within like the forest regions. Um, >> how much of it is dragging on to civilians? I think right now, I mean, no, it it it comes to a head every now and then where there's like a really public shootout and you have like kids that just got out of school, running for their lives, like taking shelter in some woman's home and, you know, it happens. But because also everyone's desensitized and because this has been going on for a while now, uh it doesn't, you know, make the headlines as much. It certainly doesn't make the headlines in here. I mean, in Mexico, I see it all the time, but um everyone's very desensitized. >> Yeah. And we talked about this. Um the desensitization of all that population is is at an extreme. >> I mean I I I get it though. They've been living with it for decades. >> So long. It's generation. >> Runs their country. Yeah. We have Karolina here and she was her family's still there. >> Yeah. >> And that was last June when you were here. And it's like, you know, we just take for granted how many of us, obviously, we have some gang vi violence problems in this country. And there's some places where people do live with with some things like that. You go outside, you got to duck from bullets, and that's horrible. But at the scale that it is in Mexico >> because in Mexico, it's a like narco. >> It's everywhere. >> Government and economy. >> Yep. >> So, how do you even separate that? >> You don't. Is there I >> don't ask me for a solution right now. >> No, no, not no not a solution. I >> like my least favorite question because you think if I had the answer like >> we'd be talking. No, >> no, >> no. You'd be meeting with more important people. But like have you seen any slight improvement at all in the corruption department? >> No. >> Yeah, it's still >> absolutely not. >> Every bit as bad as it was. >> Yeah. probably if not even like worse now with this weird conspiracy I have about Eleno. >> I don't think it's a weird conspiracy at all. You found you found a stage scene. >> You know what I when I was there so on the first day I went to the cabins. >> Um I went in like, "Oh my god, okay, we're going to be here. We're going to get this coverage and I'm going to show people what this is like." And at one point I think my cameraman got it on camera. I was like pissed because I when I saw like the shell casings and like just the way the scene looked, there's definitely like one scene of me where I'm just like let's leave. Like what the are we doing here? >> This is like this is such And I started getting mad like the way sometimes you get mad on your podcast. Like I kind of crashed out. >> And my cameraman like at the team I was with, they were like, "It's okay. We think the same thing." And then I spoke with some reporters that were also there who are with like a legacy media outlet and I was like, "Do you guys think I'm crazy?" And they were like, "No, we're thinking the same thing." >> Yeah. >> I'm shocked they let you guys in there. >> There was no one to let us in. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like you just walk right up and you're able to go in. I'm shocked that given that it's so clearly staged, they didn't just create a perimeter and make some excuse and I don't know, bulldoze the place. one of the windows in one of the houses and >> they shoot it out. >> I know in one of the the houses um the one that I think was like uh vacant there's like sliding windows. Okay. And so in this house, do you know that like I don't I don't know how to explain this properly. So like in sliding windows or sliding window doors, you ever seen people who will like cut a piece of wood or like a piece of tube to put it in that space where it slides so that if someone tries to break in Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this house had that and on the inside, sorry, on the inside is like the glass sliding doors and on the outside is like a bug net, right? Um well in this house there is like the window is broken. Like a piece of the window on the sliding door is broken and the glass is inside the house and like the the the rupture pushes inside, but the net on the other side of the door is completely intact. And then there's like one like bullet, but it's not like a bullet that was shot on the floor. It's like it fell out of the clip. I have a picture. >> Yeah. Yeah. Can you show me that? This is just like like put a little more effort in it, guys. >> Bro, I know. >> You know what I mean? Like if you're going to do a cover up, like a good cover up creates evidence. >> They couldn't even take the time. >> Like, blow out a few windows with some bullets. How hard is it? No one's going to know. >> Put a body in there. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Get Get Epstein's fake body. Put it in there. >> Here you go. This is This is great. And then you can slide. Okay. So, you can't see the net in that photo, but there's a net on the other side, and you see the glasses like inside, and then you see the bullet that fell out of the clip on the floor. >> Oh, yeah. And it's like aimed perfectly facing outside, too. >> Okay. But I'm not taking that. >> Just the aim. Don't take that into consideration because so many people has have been in this houses and stuff. >> So, they could have moved it. >> Yeah. So, like at one point, one of the guys I was with was like, "Look at that shell. It's on like this rubber mat and it didn't melt it." And I'm like, "Okay, guys, like, let's not be stupid here because shit's like been moving around. There's been so many people in here." >> And this is where the glass is broken. That's a closeup of it. I'll put that up, Steve. Can you see it in focus? >> So, that's where it's broken on the side of the wood. >> No, no, no. >> Where the wood would have gone to >> No, the wood is on the ground. >> I know, but where the wood would have gone. Like, see how the wood is right there and that's where it's broken on that side. >> No, the wood isn't from that. I'm talking about here. >> Yeah. >> There's a tube. Yes. >> In there. That wood is from a broken door over here. >> Oh, so that's not even the thing you're talking about. >> And you can see this piece of glass is actually facing me. Like it looks like it got broken from the outside. Oh, when I zoom in, you can see there's net here and the net is in perfect I'm not even talking in the mic. I'm sorry. You're good. You're good. >> The net is in perfect condition. >> So, it looks like it was broken from the outside, but it I don't know. Like, >> but I'm also not a CIA investigator. CSI. I mean, >> right? That's a little Freudian slip right there >> cuz we're talking about it. >> Uhhuh. >> Don't try to push some narrative. >> They got a z They got a zebra on the wall. >> Oh, there was a lot of um uh zebra taxidererm zebra. >> That's wild. You couldn't take that with you as a souvenir. >> So, you want to know what's crazy? You know how many DMs I got of people telling me they'd pay me like x amount of money to bring them like shell casings and stuff like that? >> It would have been so profitable. Now, what am I looking at? What am I looking at here? >> Uh, a Jesus statue with the window broken in the back. >> But what's in the background? Like a Trojan horse statue. >> Yeah. >> Is that a hillside behind there? >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> No, there's more houses behind the Trojan statue. >> Yeah. >> What is this? What is the syringe >> medication? >> Oh, it's for insulin. I see that. Okay. Pictures of Jesus and Mary. They were very holy people. >> Did I tell you about the watermelon? >> No. Okay. So, I'll show it to you. >> I love watermelon. >> Okay. So, Oh, this is like a great map of like that's what I want to show. >> Oh, can we see that? Let's hold that. >> So, the green area are the cabins. >> All right. Green area right there. We got it, Dave. >> The green area is the green area. >> Focus now. >> Tell me when. >> There we go. >> We got it. >> The green area is the cabins. The red area is the um forest area in front where the military apparently came through. The pink area is that road, the side road that leads up from the highway. And then the blue area is the um is the country club. Blue area is country club. >> What? That's a big ass country club. >> I top left is where the part where he was at where he apparently went through tried to get tooth from the forest. >> Was he a golfer? Like was he just like out there like you know doing run the cartel business? I don't actually know if there was like golf there. I couldn't get in. >> Okay. Yeah. I'm not seeing holes and sand traps. >> Why do they call it a country club? >> Because it's a country club. >> Yeah. But usually like I I usually hear like golfers. They're >> in Mexico. There's there's country clubs and like people go swimming there and eat there and it's for like a lot of rich people to like have an escape from like >> the shitty town that they live in. >> So it doesn't have to have a golf course. >> One of my friends in Mex in um estate it kind of has that. >> Okay. Um, I wanted to show you the watermelon. >> Yeah. What's going on there? >> Okay. So, they said that like they went in and like all these guys were living there and that obviously there was like this huge conflict and so everyone kind of stopped what they were doing and there was like food and everything left out. And this I mean I would assume obviously watermelon was cut like right like before the oper like it was obviously not that long before this whole thing went h okay >> they brought the catering in first I >> like this watermelon is over a week old outside. >> Oh yeah it's >> but this is this is 2 days after the operation. So what did these guys just leave the watermelon out there for 2 weeks? No way. or no one was there. >> They abandoned it a long time ago. >> Yeah. No, that's molded as >> Yeah. I I asked Chachi PT what that molding looks like and my chemist friend and she's like that's over 10 days old. >> Yeah. No, I I can actually cuz I've left a watermelon in the back of the fridge. >> Like like in a fridge that's like 34 or 35 degrees or something like that before >> by accident and it doesn't look this bad. And also after weeks >> that those cabins, they're built to be really cool. So even though like outside it was really warm when you're in the sun, in those cabins it's it's very cool. What are you looking at? >> Is that the Wi-Fi? >> I think that's a phone number. But >> and two digits at a time. >> Yeah. >> Cabana numero. >> I think it's for the administration for that for those. >> Oh. Oh, it could be like an extension. And then you took a picture of like barcode up there. >> Oh, because I wanted to know if the Jeep was stolen, which it was from the States. >> Yeah, sounds about right. Who are the guys on the horses? Is that the cartel lookouts? >> No, no, no. Those are just guys that I thought looked cool on the donkeys. I don't even think those are horses, Julian. >> They look like mules. >> Wait, I can't I It was far away. Yeah, they're not horses. They are mules. You're right. They're small. Poor mule, man. That guy's like two twin. Hey, you need to stop sliding in there cuz I don't know what the is in there. >> Jesus Christ. >> Okay. All right. >> Um, and >> so the whole point is it's sketchy. Period. >> Uh, very sketchy. And then at one point, this one was interesting to me. So, like out front there was um like a little barbecue and it was like obviously filled with ash. And so, dude, I'm like, what was in here? Because this was also right at the borderline between the parking lot and the forest where apparently the oper operatives came up. So, I just like literally started digging through the ash. Like, when I got there, I was just like, I want to see everything, right? Which is why I to have pictures of the router even. And look what I found in the ash in that barbecue >> in the ash. >> That little photo. And then slide again. And there's another one. >> Is this cartel guy's girls? >> That's what I thought. But then someone else told me, I bet you if you put those pictures into a missing person, >> they're missing. Oh my god. >> But I don't know. I'm in the process of trying to figure that out. And don't show those pictures. And I'm not going to It's two women, just so you guys know. It's like They look like passport photos. >> It's like what you It's like Yeah. >> Little passport photos. They're not they're not like when I let me describe it right. They look like square cutouts of what would be a picture but it's a selfie but it's a selfie shot that you would see on Instagram profile picture. Yes. >> And they're like >> Whoa. That's Oh, that's a chill up my spine. >> But why would those photos just like I don't know. I don't know. I >> Cuz they were targets for something. >> I'm driving myself crazy with this. >> That's nuts. cuz I thought, "Oh, maybe you know what? Whoever these cartel lookouts were um tried to like ditch some stuff that could like identify them, >> but it was in the ash in the barbecue, but like these photos aren't burnt." Um >> that's really weird. And then also I so I was like maybe they're like the girlfriends of them but then I was like or maybe these were like targets you know like human trafficking or girls that they would bring to the compound to and we know that about CG&G is like at their um like at the Rancho Seir you know that extermination camp 50 60 km we talked about that >> um that you know they were bringing a lot of girls there um for sex services and so those could be those girls. So, I am going to I have to figure out how to do it in like an ethical way. Um, but try to, you know, get in touch with those collective groups of people who search for missing people in Mexico and see if maybe those girls are them. I had someone try to like find who they were like social media pages and we couldn't find anything. >> Yeah. I I wonder also as well because it's the same running that was running the kidnapping pregnant women too. >> Yeah. But also important to keep in mind that at this place like there was a ton I found a ton of um bottles of lube and Viagra. Um so if it was like just men there I mean unless they were gay but there's the photos of women >> kidnapping women bringing them back. Yeah. That's crazy man. >> And like Go ahead. >> You look at the pictures of those girls like they're not from like high socioeconomic backgrounds. No. >> You know it's like a it's a >> Yeah. a looks like could be a victim of >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Do we have, by the way, I forgot to ask you this earlier. Ever since they arrested La Diablo to take down that ring, do we have evidence that things like that with, you know, trafficking babies and stuff is still continuing? >> Uh, no. It seems like it that was like that extortion ring that was operating it and a few other young women like even some minors have been arrested for also working with her. >> Oh god. >> Yeah. They were the ones responsible for a lot of like the >> So they would lure them. Oh, that's horrible. Death penalty. That's horrible. What about, you know, since Trump came in, obviously the border is tighter, so that was part of the reason they're finding new rackets to make money. How how is the border right now as it pertains to like >> even just CG&J getting in or CJNG getting in drugs to America? Are they just getting creative with different ways to do it or is their volume severely impacted? >> It's not severely impacted. It's about the same. Um numbers spiked again in November, >> but that's also just that doesn't really mean anything in my opinion. Like that that that just happens. Um >> it just happens. >> Yeah. Like seizure numbers spiked. But I never really trust seizure numbers. And I did like a whole Substack article on this because just because like they caught more or they caught less doesn't mean that the volume that's actually being trafficked is any different. You know what I mean? So to me like when I look at seizure numbers like I rarely report on it because I just don't think that it has any really like substantial ground to say like oh my god they're trafficking so much more just cuz you know maybe for that month a bunch more re a bunch of more operations were deployed by BP or something like that. >> And also you could look at it the other way if you wanted to but I think it has the same problem as what you just pointed out in this direction. And that is it's like oh well that means they're getting more of it and they're catching more of it. But it's also like like you said, what's the real volume that they're even going after each month and what's getting through that they don't know about valid. All right, real quick. No, I got to go to the bathroom, but let's come back and talk to Ryan Wedding because that was crazy. I'll be right back. >> All right, we're back. So, since you and I last talked, Ryan Wedding, as you alluded to earlier, was caught as I'm I'm going to have you do a review of just like who he is for some people who may be unfamiliar or need to be refamiliarized with it. But you did say that you didn't think he would get caught. >> I didn't. >> But he apparent there were, you know, there were there was a lot of like misin like did he >> surrender himself or was he actually caught, how it went down, what the agreement was. So let's start with who he was and then what happened here. >> So Ryan Wedding uh was a Canadian Olympic athlete uh who then became a bouncer. He's actually from the same city as me. He's from Vanc Well, he's from Thunder Bay, Ontario, but then grew up um just outside of Vancouver. >> Apple don't fall too far from the tree. >> And he comes from off. Um >> Hey, you're covering it. He's doing it. Y and the yang. >> I know. We honestly aren't that different. >> That's right. >> Um >> you're gonna go around that corner. I don't know if I want to do anything. and he's from actually a really prominent family in Canada. They had a ski resort. Um his dad is an engineer. Uh and then they moved to BC to Kquitlam, which is like a suburb right outside of Vancouver, which is where he went to school. He was in like gifted programs, super smart kid growing up. Obviously skied really well cuz he went to the Olympics. He went to Salt Salt Lake I think 2002. That's right. uh don't think he placed um and then ended up working as a bouncer at a nightclub in Vancouver where he made a lot of contacts with Hell's Angels criminals. You know how that goes. It's like textbook. >> That is textbook. >> Um starts trafficking, goes to Southern California for like kind of one of the bigger drops of the beginning of his career, gets caught, goes to jail or you know, drug trafficker university. >> That's right. >> Um makes amazing connections. starts gets connected with the Colombians, the Americans. This is also the time when marijuana is still illegal and British Columbia where he was living has some of the best marijuana in the world, BC Bud. So, he gets makes all the contacts, starts doing this trafficking. Fast forward. I mean, I could go on and on, right? Uh or he Yeah. So then he goes to Mexico, aligns himself very well with the Chapitos of the >> like the late 2000s kind of deal at this point. >> Uh-huh. Uh aligns himself really well with the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel. >> Now why did they bring him into the inner sanctum, this gringo from Canada, obviously like you said, he has access to, you know, BC bud, but they got a lot of bud. See, I have a lot to say about this because obviously I had been like studying wedding very thoroughly >> and I think okay for the cultural aspect and the trust >> uh actually let's start with his intellect. He was very smart. I think that he was very good at making contacts with the Chinese Colombians and Mexicans um and then the Hell's Angels. And so he was able to really prove that he could up profit um trafficking under the radar, moving a lot of product, basically the textbook way to move up the ranks in the drug trafficking world. Aside from that, I think in a sense um like he was kind of like me in a way where he knew how to just assimilate into the culture. >> Uh he got along with these people. uh he knew how to chat with them. He married a Mexican woman. Um they had kids together. He was also very violent and had a really big ego, which can take you a long way obviously in this world. Um and he knew how to take people out that he was worried about. And so the Chapitos really trusted him because he made a lot of money. He had or has a very high IQ. And this is someone that they knew could connect them with the right people and keep uh operations running and and make it even more lucrative than they already had. He was a good nexus for North America, >> right? >> Um >> at what point did he start becoming like a >> a top dog? >> Not even just that, we there's like 40 or 50 murders that are allegedly attributed to him and that's I think it's a lot more. Yeah. >> Yeah. Right. At what point did he cross that Rubicon and start becoming a dude ordering people's heads off? >> I think pretty early on. >> Yeah, I think it was pretty early on in his career where he wanted people to know not to cross him, not to with him. Um, and I think that it got to a point where even the Chinese were scared of him. And the Chinese do business very differently than the Mexicans. They're very low-key and they're very money oriented and ideological oriented. I Yeah. oriented. >> Ideologically. >> Um, and so I think when he put out a hit on a Chinese person was when there was some sort of, you know, realization that, okay, he is not to be crossed. >> Who was the Chinese guy that he put a hit on? Oh, we're not saying. >> No. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Is it someone >> It's someone where that I I got from a source. >> Got it. >> That's, you know, um in that same world. >> Mhm. >> That I cannot Okay. >> D out. >> All right. Did the guy die? Did he put the hit on him and and the guy died? >> Yeah. I was murdered. >> Right. So the hit happened meaning >> was it someone I don't know if you can say this if you can't no problem is it someone directly >> connected >> uh >> like Chinese government >> I don't know I that I actually don't know >> okay >> um but there was supposed to be some business that was done and it just didn't work out >> right >> anyways um wedding you know he has his family but he also has a lot of nexus in Colombia uh he starts working with this one woman who's basically a madame who uh helps him run business and take out hits. He starts dating uh this girl Daniela. She was I think actually working for the madame as a prostitute. They get together. He almost uses Dianiela like as a honeypot in a lot of circumstances >> to you know be friends with so and so's girlfriend so that we can get close to them and see where they really stand or take out a hit on them. Um, Dianiela has really bad OPSE. I mean, a Colombian BBL baddy probably isn't going to have great opse. Okay. No hate, but honestly, just >> No, it's a fair point. >> Yeah. So, >> she looked good, though. >> She did. She's a baddie. Um, >> a lot of those in Columbia. >> Batty behind bars. >> That waste of talent. >> That'd be a great series. If anyone wants to pick that up, I >> behind bars. Actually, I might watch that. >> I think a lot of people >> was pretty good. D, let's work on it. >> Hey, that's my idea. >> Baddy behind. >> Yeah, something. We'll come up with it. >> Yeah, >> that's my idea, >> Listen, you just said it on the Julian Dory podcast, so we now own the IP, but please continue >> for the love of God. Whatever. Anyways, so Ryan Wedding becomes a big target for the United States and to my knowledge, the United States had actually been tracking him for a while and knew where he was. But for the Mexicans, he wasn't a top priority and there needed to be obviously cooperation in order for them to get him. Why did the Mexicans not have a top priority on a gringo who had come across the border of their place? I would think that would be their guy be like, "Oh, easy, >> great fall guy, right?" Yeah. >> Yeah. I don't know what it was, but uh I I I think that also Ryan had a lot of really powerful people on his payroll. >> And so that kind of kept the attention off of him or people were like wary of going after him. And he was known to be very violent. Now, here's the thing. Um, his last like residence was literally in a very high-end gated community in Mexico City. >> Out in the open effectively. >> Yeah. And that's one thing we know about wedding. He had a very big ego. I'd also like to clarify that that whole Instagram page that came out about him. >> No, it was AI. It's not real. >> And everyone was like, >> fell for that. Everyone f the Mexican president fell for it. >> She did, >> bro. In her morning press conference, she said, "Of course he gave himself up. He posted a picture of himself in front of the embassy." >> Oh. >> And then tried to blame it on Meta for not putting an AI sticker on it. >> God, that was so obviously AI, >> bro. >> It was like, "Hello, my name is Ryan." I mean, I could see them writing it in Pakistan. Oh my god, it was so brutal. And then I got a ton of hate cuz I was like, if any of you believe that this is real, I mean the one photo he was wearing like a hublau and it's upside down and I'm like my guy wedding would never be caught dead in a hublau. He's a Rolex guy. People were like, "Shut up." >> What was And they do put out a hilarious tweet about that. I forget what he said. >> Him and I were going back and forth that whole time. >> He was like, "I have He said, "I have something to sell you." But it was funny as He's like, "If you think this is real, I wish I had it, but I can't remember it." >> He's so funny and he gets so much >> Oh, it's awesome. >> And when him and I collaborate, people are like, "Why would you have him on?" >> He's hilarious. >> He's so funny. Like, how can I not? >> He's the funniest and the nicest guy ever. I love Jeff. >> He's super nice. Yeah. >> Great dude. He know. And really, like, you know, no one's perfect with stuff. He covers a lot of different things, >> but he's not an idiot. >> But Jeff knows his way around a lot of man. >> For sure. I'm impressed with his cartel knowledge on stuff. But anyway, you were saying so he becomes at some point there in the 2010s, he's like a topish dog kind of deal. And he got on to the FBI 10 most wanted in the last few years, right? >> Yeah. And I had been talking about it and everyone's like, "Nobody knows this guy." And I'm like, "Well, you're about to. >> They do now." >> And now they do. And everyone was like flipping out about it. And I was like, "I told you guys." >> Yeah. >> Sorry. Now that's my age showing. I told you. >> Right. Now, does Cash Patel pay you in cash or a check in the mail? >> It's like a massage transfer through his girlfriend. >> Oh, >> what is that? Why was that like the worst thing I've said? >> That was funny. We might get sued now. That was It was a joke. >> Oh, cuz she does sue people for that. >> It is a joke. She would never be involved in such endeavors, >> but she is. >> Damn it, Cat. >> People down. I'm I'm trying to trying to help you out. >> I'm also a girl who likes medium ugly guys, but sister, >> okay, >> let's be for >> That's a bridge, too. >> Just saying. One eye is going one way, the other guy's going another. That's all I'm saying. >> I can't believe that was the most out of pocket thing that you thought I said cuz But she actually does take legal action. Huh? >> She does. Who' she sue? >> I think C be No, she sued She sued a podcaster. >> Candace Owens. Was that it? No, >> she Oh, who's the guy? One of >> France sued Candace Owens. >> Who who do who' she sue? Uh, specifically Kyle Sarapin. I don't know who that is. Elijah Schaefer. I don't think I know who that is either. >> And Samuel Parker. >> Samuel Parker. >> I thought that was a meme account. Samuel Parker. Isn't that like the fat meme? >> No, he's a former Utah Senate Republican party primary. >> I'm thinking of someone different. Okay. >> Podcaster. Yeah. Yeah. So, oh that's we're we're just making jokes here, >> bro. If I sued everyone for who came at me saying some like this >> that you can't that's that's >> grow a backbone. Get a hobby. Okay. Like literally less embarrassing if you download Candy Crush and play it for 4 hours a day. >> Come on. >> If I was her, I would have leaned into it, >> but then you can't. >> That one you might not be able to lean into, but like just let it go. Like it's not a big deal. >> It's so much. >> But you're not marrying the guy for love. >> And also like you know Oh my god. See, you're on the same page with me. >> I mean, >> come on. >> Look at him >> and like listen to him. bro. >> The videos of him with the hockey team, >> dude. Him doing that presser after Ryan wedding being like, "Yeah, we got him." And you can't even hear him cuz he decided to do it on tarmac. I'm like, "Just shut up." Oh my god. And the way he tried to make it seem like like he caught him red-handed. >> He's got to be in front of every camera. Anytime they do something, it's about >> Bro, everyone in the FBI must have been like, "Shut up." >> Yeah. And like when you The FBI was so broken to be very clear when he got in there. There were so many problems in there. It's not to say every agent's bad or anything, but there were so many rogue cells in there, but like you know, with him running it. I get it if there's people who have been there a long time, even if I don't like them, who are like, "Come on, man." >> Like, it's just it it we're watching incompetency >> in public at at at every turn. So, with this one, like you said, he comes out, >> wasn't he like on the plane with him or something, like coming down with >> They literally rode the plane back together. And I can almost guarantee you he was like, "Bro, like I know you're a criminal, but like mad respects, bro. Bro, like that Daytona. Oh my god. My authorized dealer just like put me on a wait list. >> Can we get a selfie? >> 100% he did 100%. >> Oh my god. >> You think he didn't take a selfie with wedding? >> Oh, I'll see you in Valah, brother. >> Oh my god. Oh, that's so good. >> Bro, you're >> I'm going to miss him when he's gone cuz it is a lot of fun to make fun of him. That part I'm going to miss. >> It's entertainment. >> He's not even a moving target. He's just still, but you don't know where to aim cuz this guy's looking at the fractals and that one's, you know, it's like, whoa, wait a minute. It gets you all disoriented and Like when they put you in those like fake drunk goggles, you're like, what? Where is he? >> Yeah. I almost feel like they probably just captured him so Cash could have a little like shindig with him. >> That's right. So, what happened though? Like, what do we know and what are we unsure of that led up to this? >> I'm I'm actually sure about exactly what happened. >> Let's put it on the record, Katarina Schultz. So um he was basically strong armed by the US government into surrendering himself. >> And how did they do that? >> Um there was something close like personal to him that they used against him. I can't say it. Um and he uh said okay and and gave himself up. >> Did he have any kind of agreement with them for certain punishments that would be offered? >> I don't know, but I'm under the impression that yes. >> So maybe he's like, "All right, I can do 20 years. I'll tell you what you want." >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, and so some people were saying like, "Oh, the Chapitos betrayed him, gave him up. That did not happen." Uh, people were saying, "Oh, no, he didn't surrender himself. They actually went in and grabbed him." But no, it was he he did surrender. Um, and obviously like Cash Patel was in Mexico City when it happened. Uh, they tried to say like he was going for something else. When the does Cash Patel ever go to Mexico City? What are you laughing at? >> No, I No, it's a good It's a good point. I I don't know why Cash Patel would be in Mexico. >> She vacations in Tel Aviv. >> Yeah, you're not letting up. >> I can't help it. >> I appreciate it. >> Oh, cuz then I do. You don't have to do it, right? >> No, I we've done it and it's just funny to hear someone else do it. >> I mean, come on. >> I always have to say like, don't sue me. It's It's just a joke. But >> you can sue me. I don't give a >> I know you don't. >> I live in Mexico. What are you going to do? >> Yeah. Come get you. >> Extract me. >> That's right. I mean, maybe >> be a great story. >> Maybe that would help your brand. >> Yeah. Msad just distracted me from Mexico. And it it was Msad in the shape of Cash Patel. >> In the shape of Cash Patel. >> Yeah. >> How Hindu of you. >> Okay. All right. >> Is he even Hindu? >> I don't know. This has gone too far. It's not a personal cash. You're funny. I'll just never forget him going on Shawn Ryan show and saying, "If I were put in charge of the FBI, I would turn the Jay Edgar Hoover building into a museum day one." >> It's like, "No, you won't." >> Did he go on Sean before or after me? >> Before. >> Yeah. Yeah. He went on before he got into the administration and everything. >> When I went on Sean, he makes you sign a wall and I if I had seen Cash's name, I just would have put in in brackets like Msad lover. brought the spunk today. >> I appreciate it. >> Well, I also know that like especially I mean, you know, I I it was it's mostly this operation, the wedding operation that where I was like, "Shut up, Cash." Like, I know a lot of people, especially a lot of girls that I know were like, "Fuck Cash after the whole um hockey room thing." Oh, it's the cr that was the cringiest. I don't know if I've ever had in in the at least in the past year more secondhand embarrassment for a public figure than watching that video. That was like watching the kid whose parents locked him up and made him play like one of his six instruments to get into college for 18 years and then he gets there and he's like, "All right, guys. Let's go hard." >> It was Oh my god. >> Yeah. And I know like a lot of my girlfriends were like, "Uh, ew, like now I hate him." And I'm like, >> it took that ladies, >> where you been? >> You ever heard of a guy named Ryan Wedding? >> Yeah. >> You You see him walk off the plane with cash and that FBI agent next to Yeah, it Anyways, >> so yeah, uh Ryan did surrender. Um and >> that caught everyone off guard though, obviously. >> Yeah, I thought I um I thought they were going to kill him. Yeah. I didn't think that they were gonna um arrest him. I thought they were gonna kill him. And I actually have reason to believe that that that was >> Yeah, but if he shows up to surrender outside of a police station, they can't just blow him away. >> No, they weren't going to do it like that. They if he surrendered, they were going to get him. But I thought that they were going to just throw him out of the plane on the way to America. No, I I thought that maybe, you know, hypothetically he would be maybe >> No, you know what? I'm not going to say it. >> Okay, >> you'll blue balls. That's all right. >> Yeah, sorry. I can't >> I understand. >> Especially cuz with the wedding stuff, I've had so many like uh sources that I've been talking to that are just like super close to it, >> right? >> That I just don't want to lose any of that. >> Where is he right now? >> In uh California. Do we have like a upcoming court date where we're going to >> Should be. >> Yeah. Let's pull that up. >> Yeah. >> And it's federal court, right? >> Uhhuh. >> So there's no cameras in there. >> No. >> I hate that. >> Me, too. >> They got to change that. It's crazy. >> That's court in Canada, too. He first appeared in the United States federal court on Monday, January 26, 2026, and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Appeared in court again on February 11th, and his trial is scheduled Whoa, that's a fast trial. Trials beginning March 24th. >> Yeah, >> they just arrested him. This is like an international criminal drug conspiracy. And the trial started. That's a trial. >> Yeah, speedy trial, baby. That took the words out of my mouth, thief. very constitutional. Nothing's happening there. That's weird. >> 12 years. >> Yeah. Yeah. And also like Diddy was got all kinds of because he was moving up his trial and pushing it for it to happen early and it happened 10 months after he was arrested and that was all here. >> This was right away. >> Yeah. >> What are we missing, Katarina Schultz? >> I don't know. I'm I'm curious to see if he's going to dime people out. I know that he was pissed off that his ex- right-hand man, Andrew Clark, who's also in jail, um dimed him out, like gave a lot of information on him. He sang like a canary. >> Um I don't know if he will. His lawyer, Columbbo, said that he's not talking. He's not talking, but I think >> his lawyer is not actually named Columbbo. >> It is. It's And he's a very famous lawyer. >> Come on. >> His He's He's like a mob boss lawyer. >> Really knows him. With a name like Columb, Of course Jeff knows him. With a name like Columbbo, come on. >> Peter. >> Yeah. What's Ryan Weddings lawyer's name? >> Anthony Columbbo, whose grandfather, Joe Columbo, was a long Wow. You can't make that up. This is Joe Columbo's grandson representing him in court. Your honor, my guy is innocent. Okay. He never did a goddamn thing. Nothing. And he's not saying to the prosecutors. Oh my god, that's awesome. >> Mhm. >> I thought that was a joke. >> No, >> I thought it was >> Yeah, that's him. Oh Okay, so we're monitoring the situation. >> That's all we're doing. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Has there been any >> But I did want to clarify like his capture because like everyone so many people are like, "No, they they he did not surrender." He did. >> He did. He did, >> but the pictures were fake, obviously. >> Uh, yeah, that Instagram. So, >> what has been on the ground with his business operations? Have we seen any reverberations from that? >> Um, I don't know, but a lot of people around him have been caught, right? He had this lawyer in Canada who was basically sending him voice recordings of meetings with his adversaries to tell to he was this Canadian lawyer was advising Ryan Wedding on who to take out and he's been arrested. He was extradited to the US. Actually, >> can we pull that up? The lawyer was diamond out people to get hit. >> He was recording meeting with Ryan's adversaries and then sending Ryan the recordings be like, "Yeah, you got to kill this guy." >> Yo, that's a Canadian salt Goodman right there. >> Oh, yeah. No, literally, >> we need that show. >> Yeah, I know. >> He's got like corny ass commercials. Gets off from the camera, calls him up, be like, "Yo, whack that guy." >> No, literally that's what was happening. I think he's already extradited to the US. >> Sometimes real life is just even better than the movies. >> No, it really is. I say that all the time. >> You can't even make this up. >> Reality is way more shocking than fiction. No wrong. >> Well, that's definitely not >> his girl. Business ain't a booming then, pal. I mean, come on. She's a corpse. Oh my god. Whoa. >> Whoa. Listen, that's me, not you. Don't worry about it. I'll make you. >> No, it's just so funny that parrot a car. Come on. Why did you say it? >> What is so funny about that? >> That's not what I was expecting. >> Yeah, he's an Indian guy. >> DEEPAC SOMEWHERE TYLER OLIVERA is going. Look, see, told you. All right. Deepac Paradakar, a Bmpton based lawyer often referred to as the cocaine lawyer. We have our show name. Let's work on the script. thief was arrested in November 2025 for his alleged role in a drug trafficking and murder conspiracy. >> Oh my god. >> Oh my god. >> Led by former Canadian Olympian Ryan Wedding. We take murder very seriously here though. In all seriousness, people that he >> he was see advising murder. The US Department of the Treasury and Department of Justice accused Parrot Carar of violating legal ethics by allowing wedding and his associates to eavesdrop on privilege communication and assisting in a plot to kill a federal witness. Whoa, that's dark. >> That's dark as Yeah. Paradikar is alleged to have to have advised Wedding to murder a federal witness, telling him quote, "If you kill the witness, the case will be dismissed. Whoa. >> That's actually dark as >> And he was, look, he used his Instagram username username used to be cocaine lawyer. >> Cocaine lawyer. I'm telling you, Instagram is just not good for some people, >> dude. Okay, >> posting. Paradikar had previously been reprimanded by the Law Society of Ontario in 2017 for posting a photo on Instagram with the caption cocaine lawyer. 2.5 kilos of cocaine charges dropped. Straight word, homie. >> It's great. Okay, I think I got a V. But despite the severe alleg, >> it's Canada. I told we've talked about this. Despite the severe allegations that I just read, Parrot Carr was granted bail in Canada in December 2025 while while facing extradition to the United States. You're never going to see. >> So, do you remember the time when I the first time I came on your podcast and I said the best way to explain the legal justice system is if I I tell my girlfriends and I was joking, but I tell my girlfriends, "If your boyfriend cheats on you, just kill him. Like, you're not going to do any time. Like, you'll be fine, right?" This is a perfect example of that. Like you can commit any crime in Canada and get away with it. >> That's >> Which is why the US wants him extradited because in Canada he's a free man. When I was in Ukraine >> I was just >> everyone was like obviously it was Soviet Union, right? And I'm Polish so like we have like the red sphere >> and um everyone in Ukraine was like oh Canada socialist country. >> in Ukraine. >> Yes. >> They're like scared. Yeah. of Canada. >> Yeah, >> it's a lot more pressing things than me scared. >> I was like, yeah, they're like, "Oh >> that's a ser like they're all like >> They're all so concerned." And they're like, "You soon communism like you have lots of Chinese there. Scary." >> I'm like, "Oh my god." I mean, they're not >> I mean, they have a point. >> They're not wrong. >> They're not wrong >> like at all. >> But still, the fact that they're that worried about something halfway >> and they have Russians just obliterating them. I know. I know. >> All right. So, what how did you What was the story you did in Ukraine? And what were what did you say? >> Oh, Colombian mercenaries that are going there to fight are being recruited by the cartels. Yeah, >> they're being All right, hold on. That was a loaded statement. >> The Mexican cartels are recruiting Colombians. I mean, you know, >> that have fought in Ukraine. >> They're good at that. >> To go to the front lines in in Mexico to fight adversary cartels. >> All right. That's not where I thought this was going. >> Oh, what did you think I was doing? >> I thought it was the other way around. I thought you were saying the Mexican cartels were recruiting Colombian hitmen to send over to Ukraine to be on the front line. The Colombian hitmen are being pulled into Ukraine to fight on the front line with them. I assume with like Western government tax dollars. >> So Colombia has the largest number of foreign mercenaries in the world. So you go you see any war in Africa or the Middle anywhere. Um and that's it's like a ideological thing but it's also a money thing. So basically there's a lot of Colombian mercenaries fighting in both Russia and Ukraine. And uh they go there because they get paid. They learn uh drone tactics, frontline warfare, you name it. Now, because of this, the cartels will then contact these Colombians who fought in Ukraine because they know that they're like soldiers at this point, bring them to Mexico and pay them to work for the cartels along the front lines in in like shootouts and basically like battles. >> Wow. Now, SBU, Ukrainian intelligence, launched an investigation in this because what was also happening at a certain point, I think the investigation was launched last summer, what was also happening was um private military companies were getting paid by the cartels to bring Colombians to Ukraine to infiltrate their training services so that they would get trained up and then go from there to Mexico. Because when you go to Ukraine as a foreign mercenary, you have to serve, I think the minimum is 6 months. Once your six months are done, you can get out of there. >> Yes. >> How did you get hooked up with this story? >> Because I saw that the SBU report >> and you just went out there. >> Yeah. >> Who'd you contact? Like just one of the guys on one of the mercenaries. >> Uh yeah, I contacted mercenaries and then I had like a local journalist who didn't know this was happening >> and then they said, "Come on out." >> Uh yeah. Well, so then and I went to a prisoner of war camp where a lot of um Latin American mercenaries that were fighting alongside Russians were captured. >> Can you pull up the picture from Cat's Instagram? >> Oh, I got I think I saw this. >> I had to blur their faces cuz it breaks the Geneva Convention. >> It break What do you mean? You see the one right there in the >> It goes against No, no, those are >> That's the next one. >> Yeah, >> they're all blurred. >> Yeah, >> this one. >> What was the one we were just looking at? That was the one I was talking about. The one in the snow. >> Oh, this is the prisoner of war camp. The other one is was training. >> So, this is a Ukrainian prisoner of war camp where they're holding Russian soldiers who happen to be Latin American mercenaries. >> Yeah. There was also African guys there. Um, >> go back to the other one. Do you >> It was like very international. >> Okay. And then the one before that, >> uh, there's Latin American guys here, too. You see some of them actually have the Colombian flag. I don't know if you can see it in that photo, but there this is where they're being trained to then go to the front lines. >> Okay. So, you're at the training camp. I was going to say, what was it like there? Were you like afraid? Did you see fighting in the distance or? >> So, a lot of people, if you've seen this photo, in the previous photo, a lot of people were like, "This is AI." And they're not wrong. I actually had to use um like a AI blurring tool for their faces and for the skyline. So, you can see the trees in the back are like mangled. Um but it's actually Ukrainian law that press cannot or even like if you're on TikTok or whatever, you cannot post anything that can identify military infrastructure in Ukraine. >> Oh, wow. So yeah. Um, and people were like, "This is fake." And like it's not fake. It's just that I literally could be in big for this. >> Yeah. >> Um, so I had to abide by their standards, which is fair enough. I mean, you know, it's a war zone. It's a country protecting itself from invasion. Um, I think following this assignment was actually scarier than actually being there because, um, then I had a lot of Russian people somehow get my phone number, email, um, reaching out to me being like, "We want you to tell us how Ukraine is arming the cartels." Which is not the story because >> what is the story? >> The story is that the cartels are exploiting a war that already has very little resources. And so the Ukrainians are very much against this, right? having people who are using uh their warfare experience in Ukraine to then go and arm criminal organization. But of course, Russian propaganda is trying to take the story that I'm pursuing and use it against Ukraine. And I really don't want that to happen. Uh but sometimes with like this, you just can't help it. I'll actually show you something that's really freaky. >> It's amazing how much like like this is what I mean. It's Russia and Ukraine fighting, right? But there's money coming from all over the world from east and west proxies fighting both sides. There's help, army help coming from said places without necessarily it being their own countrymen in some cases. And then you have this underbelly business of the money that's being funded into it being used to ship in mercenary soldiers from wherever the to fight in the middle. I mean, it's crazy. >> Yeah. Cra. And it's been going on for over four years. >> It is. Um, and this year was particularly bad because it's the coldest winter in Ukraine in the last 15 years. And it's the first year in the war where Russia has attacked all the power plants. So, we had no heat or water. >> Wait a second. They attacked all the power plants. >> Yeah. >> Was that a cyber attack or was that >> No, no, no. They bombed them. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And so I would literally sleep in that jacket. Um, >> how long were you there? >> Like 3 weeks. Um, >> how did you get in? I took a 18 hour train from Baraba to Kiev, from Poland to Kiev. >> And there wasn't any on the train in we had to sit for like 3 hours, which is why it ended up being so long because Russia was bombing the railways. >> Jesus Christ. >> And keep in mind, I'm in this ass Soviet train, literally Soviet from the Soviet Union where it's three tight bunk beds in one little carriage. >> No meal service. >> Hm. >> No meal service. >> No. No, but thankfully on the train in I was actually with this older Ukrainian couple and she brought everything to make sandwiches and we couldn't even communicate. For some reason, I was under the impression that I could just work like communicate in Polish with them and they're like, "No, we speak Ukrainian." I'm like, "Sorry." >> Um, but okay, I wanted to show you this and this stressed me out. I'm not going to lie. >> Um, so let me show the camera. >> Can you I'll do it. >> Okay. So, this was my Instagram following demographic for like ever. >> Can you see it, Dave? >> Yeah. >> You have LA, New York. So, basically almost 90% of my following is American. Now, pass me this. >> Can I see it real quick? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Oh, the screen went dark. Why' you Okay. Now, this is what my Instagram demographic looks like now of profile views. >> Oh, boy. Yeah, you're on the flowchart. >> Uh, Moscow, St. Petersburg. >> Putin's like, "This this girl's got to go. >> She's a problem." >> Like, actually, >> don't go back there. >> I'm not. >> I'm serious. Don't go back there. >> I'm not. Yeah, >> that's wild. >> Um, >> I can't ever go there either. So basically I knew that I was already blacklisted from Russia like for since the beginning of the war because I was actually working in legacy media at the beginning of the war like in a Canadian newsroom >> and was putting out reports on it. Um and obviously like anyone who spoke against the Russian invasion um was basically blacklisted from going to Ukraine especially if you're a journalist >> right >> now or sorry to Russia. So now though because I was there and then also I interviewed prisoners of war who told me so Russia is offering foreign mercenaries a lot more money than Ukraine offers them. But these mercenaries who are going to Russia never actually get paid. They're being used as human shields uh by the Russians. I've been sent videos literally from Telegram of Russians who have like African mercenaries and they're like obviously being very racist and being like this guy is meat. Like we just use him to and the obviously these guys don't know what they're saying. They don't speak Russian, >> right? >> Um it's nuts. >> Yeah. And so the cartels are exploiting this because now maybe I can show you a video actually of this guy who's gotten some popularity. He's a Colombian guy who was fighting the war in Russia or in Ukraine and now he's on the front lines with CGNG. >> Imagine Colombia's climate and you got to go to Ukraine >> in the middle of urban warfare and forest warfare in the dead of winter. that. >> Survive the Ukraine and then it's like, "All right, go do it in Columbia." >> Yeah. And then you get merked the second you get home. What are what are you giving me cat again? >> This guy. So here this guy was fighting in Ukraine as a foreign mercenary and has now been recruited by the cartels and is in Mitwakan shooting up. >> Wow. Yeah. I'm not going to show this video on there. >> Is it violent? >> Wow. >> And he says it in the video. He's like from Ukraine to Mexico. That's nuts. >> Yeah, >> I knew nothing about this. So, this documentary documentary is out now, right? >> No, not yet. It's coming out, I think, this month. It's just it's a pain in the ass to edit because I was given so much access, but I have to blur so much stuff. >> You're doing the editing? >> No, absolutely not. >> So, it's a pain in someone else's ass. >> It is, but I have to check everything because the editor obviously didn't go with us >> and I I have to really make sure. Otherwise, I will never be able to go to the country again and I'll probably face legal action. >> Yeah, I don't know if I'd go back if I were you. Like I said, I I feel like that's a oneandder. >> So, I asked my I had hired someone to be a fixer and translator and he spoke both Ukrainian and Russian because he was born in Soviet Union in a place where you had to learn Russian. And um I said, you know, how bad would it be if I try to get into Russia? And he goes, you'll have a one-way ticket to Moscow and you're done. Because also what Russia is doing is there's obviously these prisoner of war transfers, right? And so if they take someone like me, I'm a high value target >> to then be able to get a bunch of prisoners, political and prisoners of war. >> Yes. >> Back into Russia and they use me as an exchange. >> Yep. >> And I really don't want that. >> Yeah. I don't want that either. I think that's >> they stay away. >> Yeah. It was u it was very sad to be I mean okay to be fair too there are a lot of foreign mercenaries there who are good soldiers who are there because they believe that the the Russian invasion is bad and they they want to help Ukrainians. Um and Ukraine is like the Latin American country of Europe honestly. The cultures are very similar the mindset they're very resilient people. And so a lot of um the Latin American mercenaries that go there really identify with them and get really close to them. So they're not all like this, but this was enough of a problem for SBU, essentially Ukraine CIA, to open up an investigation into it. Um it was also very hard for me to interview political figures about this because their concern of course was Russia's going to use this against us >> and um I already see it happening. I mean, my email has been bombarded with Russian propaganda news outlets being like, "Can we have you on to talk about how Ukraine is arming the cartels?" And it's like, well, that's not what's happening, right? The angle matters here. And what's happening is cartels are exploiting a war. I mean, in Ukraine, obviously there's no airports, right? So, we have to drive around everywhere, take a train. The roads are absolutely destroyed. They're like Mexican roads. And why? because all of the resources are going to the war effort, right? >> Not to, you know, regular >> uh repairments of an city infrastructure. >> Jesus Christ, what a mess. >> It really >> every time I think this thing can't be a bigger mess. And by the way, we were talking about it yesterday on a podcast, but you got >> the casualties are up at an estimated 1.8 million at this point. The deaths are somewhere between 500,000 and a million. It's like >> I interviewed one woman whose son died and she said we're not going to have any men left in our country. >> Oh my god. >> And I felt horrible for her. And then you know there's this also other narrative coming from Americans too. Um and I I saw I was told about something that happened. Uh an unnamed which I should just say it but I had a sort of prominent American journalist wanted an interview with a Ukrainian politician. And when the Ukrainian politician was like, "I can't, whatever," he kind of grabbed him and said, "Well, I pay for your war. You owe me an interview." And it was it's someone you would never guess. >> That's kind of wild. >> Yeah, there's a lot of that. Um >> I mean, it's it's got it's got it's got to stop though. There has you have to have >> especially the whole West is funding it. So they they call the shots, not Ukrainians, not not the Ukraine government because there is no war without the West funding it. And they got to be >> Oh, Ukraine would be Russia right now. >> Yeah. You got to be the bigger man here. You don't have to like Putin at all, but like you can't just keep trying to make a point with people's lives because you hate Putin that much. Like make some sort of compromise here and end this People are dying. >> Yeah, but the peace treaty is not a peace treaty whatsoever. what the the >> Trump's proposed peace treaty to end the war. It's or the agreement I'm pretty sure it's called the peace treaty. It's literally just to let Putin take over that everyone in Ukraine has to speak Russian and then Putin will never stop. Putin wants >> only it's only the Soviet Union. >> He's talking about the Donbass region where most of them already do speak Russian, >> but they're not Russian. >> But a lot of them do identify as Russian, >> but a lot of them don't. And a lot of people I met who speak Russian from that region refused to speak Russian. Refuse. When I made my fixer, when we went to that P camp and I wanted to interview um this one of the prisoners who spoke Russian, I was like, "Oh, I want to interview him." And my fixer was like, "But I think he speaks Russian." And I said, "But you speak Russian." And he's like, "Okay, fuck." >> They reject it. And I understand it. And a lot of people who are not from or have ties to Eastern Europe will not fully understand it. But Soviet Union was horrible and everyone rejects it. My bupcha, my grandma who lived in Soviet Union was like this is the worst possible outcome for anyone, >> right? >> She renounced her Polish passport just because she was so afraid that the Soviet Union would come back and she's been living in Canada for like a long time. Probably like 50 years at this point. No, I I I get it. And and the argument here is not it's not like, oh, is is is Putin not that bad or whatever. Like Putin Putin is is is what he is. He's a dictator. You can go look at his record. He kills his political opponents. Always has. >> But he's not a dummy. He's not a dummy. >> He's not He's not a dummy. >> But the same goes for like Ryan wedding or Mencho or whoever we're talking about at the cartels. But just because you're smart, >> it's totally different though. It's I >> It is totally different. But a a high IQ person, it they can still be an evil person. >> There has to be a way here though because at the end of the day, and I always cite this, Russia's GDP is the size of Italy. Okay? So there is a limit to no matter what power he wants, there's a limit to what they can do. It is different than like when Hitler was going across Europe with the fastest growing GDP, the best military in the world, the best technology. It's a different kind of thing. And that's a tough pill for people to swallow. But like my number one thing is let's stop people dying. And if there's a way to do that, some cooler heads got to prevail. And yeah, it's got to be better than whatever's been proposed to this point. That seems like they're not trying hard enough >> anyone anyone to get it across. Obviously the last administration just want to go on forever. >> A lot of Ukrainian people I spoke to would honestly rather die fighting for the sovereignty than succumb to Russia. Yeah, but I think there's ways to do it without succumbing to Russia. And unfortunately, what that is going to require is some sort of NATO compromise as well. And they don't want to hear that. And I understand why they don't want to hear that. But if they do that and then Putin decides to break something 2, three years from now, they will have the full right to as NATO to go in there and wreck them. And it'll be interesting how it changes now because Russia was backed by or has been backed by Iran for a lot of it. Like Iran supplied the Shahed drones to Russia which Ukraine doesn't have anything comparable to that. >> Um and now what we're seeing I don't know how what that's going to look like to be honest. >> Neither. Anyways, the point is the cartels have transnational nexus between every possible >> hostile environment, political economy you could ever imagine. >> And you know what sucks, but unfortunately it's like making the case for it. We wonder why spy agencies instead of trying to stop the cartels use them as a vehicle. This is why >> this is a perfect example of that. >> You don't think there's some sources and of course there are. >> Come on. >> There's a million of them. You probably talked to five >> probably. >> You know what I mean? >> I mean some people I spoke to it was this one guy. He's a Brazilian guy. Uh he worked in tech in Brazil and then he said he allegedly got a fake job offer to go work in St. Petersburg and then they ended up throwing him on the front lines to fly drones. Um, but it was very obvious to me that he was lying, that he had insane drone capacities and he wanted to go over there to make money and fly drones. He ended up getting captured by Ukrainian forces. >> Jesus Christ. >> Um, >> what about the the guys you were talking to in the prisoner camp from like a human rights perspective? What were your observations? >> Well, it seemed as though they were very much following the Geneva Convention, but it was also very controlled what we were shown. Uh, >> so we were given a tour, but then also like at one point, um, there were the Geneva Convention was like printed out and laminated on the wall, but it was like all in English. >> You're talking to the guy and like Ben Stiller from Happy Gilmore is behind him like >> And then at one point, so yeah. Okay. So they were we were shown and told, you know, they're given three meals a day. They're showered. Um, we actually were given bread to eat that the prisoners made. Uh, >> oh, this sounds like a Yeah, >> it Yeah, it was like interesting to say the least. Um, and then at one point, we have this on camera and I'm not, you know, I I I hope that Ukraine, you know, can beat this invasion. Like, I just want to make that clear. I do not support Russia at all. But we went to be shown like the recreational room where like they watch TV or whatever and it's like this little room probably like around this size and it's like lined with chairs and they had all the prisoners sitting down looking at a black TV that wasn't plugged in and like silence please stop because because I walk in and my cameraman is behind me and I'm like what is this? And like at the same time, our translator is translating from like the guards and the head of the prison. And they're like, "This is where they watch." And then I'm like, "But they're not watching TV." And like and I'm processing it as I'm watching it. >> And then the guard like freaks out and is like, "You at least turn on the TV. You guys make me look like a idiot." Like starts yelling and my translator is like telling he was super good, right? >> And I burst out laughing. >> Oh no. >> I felt so bad. But it just it looked so bad. Yeah. >> And I'm like, "Come on, guys. Like, get it together. >> Turn the propaganda up." >> Like, it just looked really bad. Um, but I mean, but I also interviewed a lot of Okay, so this is where it gets complicated because journalistic standards and ethics in terms of interviewing prisoners of war is very complicated. And so this was certainly the most complicated assignment I've ever done in my life because technically when you're interviewing prisoners of war, uh, it can be done, it's typically done under duress. They don't have a choice. And as the journalist, you may not know that because the guards are telling them you're going to talk to them or you're not like eating for a week, right? And you have to tell them positive things. And so when I was talking to the prisoners of war oneonone, they brought me one guy into this office that we were interviewing them and there were two guards in there. So it was me, my cameraman, my fixer/transator and two guards and he's like the prisoner is very nervous and he sits down. He's Colombian. And um I started speaking to him in Spanish and he's like, "I don't I don't know like if I want to talk to you." And I was like, "Okay, I understand that." And the guard as we're talking in Spanish, you can hear her doing the Google translate on her phone, like you know when you hit the microphone button. >> And he's like looking at them and I just turn and my translator. I'm like, "You got to tell the guards to get the out." Yeah. And um someone from the Ministry of Defense came with us because we needed federal like permission to be there. Um but at this point the guy from the Ministry of Defense kind of knew how I how I am. It's like this girl's got elephant bulbs. >> And the female guard looks at me and I'm like, she's translating like and I'm not going to talk to him with them in here >> cuz it's probably already that he doesn't have a choice to talk to me, but I want to see if I can somehow connect with him >> and but I don't want any intimidation because I'm not here to do that, right? >> And so then the Ministry of Defense guy actually was like had my back and he's like, "Okay, like we'll all leave." So he gets them out and I'm sitting with this Colombian guy and I'm like, "So how do they treat you here?" Which is also a question you're actually technically not supposed to ask. But you know, there were so there's so many rules when I was reading about it in the moment, too. Like you want to know things. You don't know if you're getting right information. Um, and so I don't, it was very complicated and I I know that I didn't operate perfectly when reporting on this situation, but I tried my best. Tough environment. >> It is. It really is. And so that made it very complicated. At one point, we go into a library where there was this um this guy who was kind of operating the library. He's a prisoner of war. And I go, "Can you to my translator, can you ask him if he wants to talk to me?" He was like a very tall, handsome guy who apparently was from Ukraine and went to fight in Russia. So I thought that was weird. Um, and then he was like, "No, in Russian, speaking Russian, and the guards are all like staring at him, and so then they all walk out first, and I'm kind of slowly walking out, and I look at him, and he whispers to me in English." He spoke English the whole time. So there were just a lot of weird things that happened on this assignment. So and then I went from that assignment straight to Eleno's crib where like it just was all weird again >> traveling the world doing your thing. >> Yeah. But it's not like really you know some of my girlfriends are like they get to go to Milan and like parents >> like I'm at the Eiffel Tower. >> I'm going to war. >> So hi I'm in a Russian prisoner of war. I'm in the place where Aleno was killed. the life you chosen, Cat Schultz, but you're doing a good job. It's a pretty wild scoop you got >> with the Meno compound and stuff. So, we'll be monitoring that story. People can follow you on Instagram. We have that link below as well as X. >> All the all the videos of what we've just talked about will be on my podcast on Borderline Dispatches. >> Excellent. We'll have that link down below as well. Thank you as always for coming in to cover this. >> Yeah. Thanks. >> All right, everybody else, you know what it is. Give it a thought. back to me. Peace. Thank you guys for watching the episode. If you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button and smash that like button on the video. They're both a huge, huge help. And if you would like to follow me on Instagram and X, those links are in my description below.

SPONSORS: 1) MIZZEN & MAIN:mRight now, Mizzen & Main is offering our listeners 20% off your first purchase at https://mizzenandmain.com , promo code JULIAN20 2) GHOSTBED: my listeners and first-time customers get an extra 10% off—on top of already reduced prices. Just go to https://GhostBed.com/julian and use code JULIAN at checkout. 3) RAG & BONE: Upgrade your denim game with rag & bone! Get 20% off sitewide with code JULIAN at https://www.rag-bone.com #ragandbonepod JOIN PATREON FOR EARLY UNCENSORED EPISODE RELEASES: https://www.patreon.com/JulianDorey CLIPPERS DISCORD: https://discord.gg/8QmWEKJ3BT ***DISCLAIMER: This video is for EDUCATIONAL purposes only. At no point do we show real-world imagery of any of the content described. WATCH KAT'S PREVIOUS EPISODES: EPISODE #264: https://youtu.be/I6JUJCxKnDU EPISODE #313: https://youtu.be/WvX9-G5IYh0 EPISODE #336: https://youtu.be/E54bS9kFczQ (***TIMESTAMPS in Description Below) ~ Katarina Szulc is a Mexico-based freelance journalist focused on reporting on Cartel Activity. KATARINA's LINKS: Substack: https://katarinaszulc.substack.com/?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web&r=3h3gxb X: https://x.com/katarinaszulc?lang=en YT: https://www.youtube.com/@katarinaszulc/featured IG: https://www.instagram.com/katarinaszulc?igsh=eHViMnZnNWExNmk4 FOLLOW JULIAN DOREY IG: https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey/ X: https://x.com/juliandorey LISTEN to Julian Dorey Podcast Spotify ▶ https://open.spotify.com/show/5skaSpDzq94Kh16so3c0uz Apple ▶ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trendifier-with-julian-dorey/id1531416289 JULIAN YT CHANNELS - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Clips YT: https://www.youtube.com/@juliandoreyclips - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Daily YT: https://www.youtube.com/@JulianDoreyDaily - SUBSCRIBE to Best of JDP: https://www.youtube.com/@bestofJDP ****TIMESTAMPS**** 00:00 - Intro 00:37 – El Mencho Compound, Tapalpa Jalisco, National Guard Raid, La Diabla Scandal 09:04 – CJNG History, Rise of El Mencho, Los Cuinis Funding 19:18 – Cartel Expansion Strategy, Regional Alliances, El Tuli Killing 31:35 – Rosalinda Release, Cuinis Government Nexus, Cartel Families 40:02 – Compound Aftermath, Kingpin Strategy Failure, Suspicious Operation 49:32 – No Escape Route, Strange Evidence, Bullet Casings Mystery 01:00:43 – What Happened to Mencho?, Death Theories, Closed Casket 01:13:54 – Mexico–US Backdoor Deal?, Sheinbaum Policy Debate 01:26:02 – Mencho Death Rumors, Cartel Surveillance, Kat Tracked 01:34:53 – Media Narrative, Epstein Files Mention, CJNG Succession 01:42:45 – El Mayo Situation, Chapitos Allegations 01:54:50 – Compound Oddities, Missing Women Photos, Trafficking Evidence 02:08:12 – Border Trafficking, Drug Flow, Ryan Wedding Arrest 02:17:47 – Ryan Wedding Case, Government Pressure, Kash Patel Criticism 02:27:47 – Cocaine Lawyer, Cartel Networks, Colombia Fighters 02:38:46 – Ukraine War Cartel Nexus, Latin American Fighters 02:50:47 – Cartels & Global Conflict, POW Interviews, Ukraine War 02:59:04 – Kat's Work OTHER JDP EPISODES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: - Episode 148 - Shawn Ryan: https://youtu.be/ib4atmvMqlk?si=iw3Rc5MUkBhiUpoe - Episode 229 - Jorge Ventura: https://youtu.be/Lut9cR18FAc - Episode 243 - Rocco Vargas: https://youtu.be/PAUU6ajzDjs CREDITS: - Host, Editor & Producer: Julian Dorey - COO, Producer & Editor: Alessi Allaman - https://www.youtube.com/@UCyLKzv5fKxGmVQg3cMJJzyQ - In-Studio Producer: Joey Deef - https://www.instagram.com/joeydeef/ Julian Dorey Podcast Episode 392 - Katarina Szulc Music by Artlist.io