All right, so check it out. You know how we talk
about all the weird stuff, they sneak into our
food, our air, or even our clothes? Yeah. It
turns out most shirts are basically made of plastic.
You're sweating in chemicals, man. That's why
I switched to Hypronatural. It's wild. They make
their fabric from jade stone and crab shells.
Yeah, you heard me right. Jade and crab shells.
The jade keeps you naturally cool, like literally
drops your skin temp down a few degrees. And
the crab shell fibers? They fight odor and help
your skin stay fresh all day long. So you can
wear it longer, wash it less. and not smell like
a dirty old gym tap. They use a fancy cot, mother
of pearl buttons, and zero junk. No polyester,
no chemical dyes, and none of that synthetic
garbage. It's clean, it's sustainable, and honestly,
it's just cool gear. You can wear it anywhere.
The gym, the range, whatever, and it looks legit.
Go to hypernatural .com and use my code zero
signal at checkout and you'll get yourself 20
% off. And get yourself the cleanest, most comfortable
shirt you've ever worn. That's hypernatural.
Nature engineered for comfort. Welcome back to
Zero Signal. I'm your host, David, and I'm sitting
here with my cohost, Jay. Tonight, we're pulling
back the curtain on a war most people only see
in the headlines or on Netflix shows. We're talking
about drugs, cartels, dark web markets, and the
kind of decisions that get made far above our
pay grade. My guest spent nearly three decades
on the inside. Brian Townsend is a retired supervisory
special agent and resident agent in charge with
the Drug Enforcement Administration. He started
as a street cop in Joplin, Missouri, and then
spent 23 years with the DEA chasing traffickers
in places like Corpus Christi, Little Rock, and
Springfield, where the official mission was simple,
stop the drugs and dismantle the networks. At
Quantico, he wasn't just teaching tactics, he
helped build DEA's Leadership and Development
Training Program, shaping how an agency over
10 ,000 people thinks about power, influence,
and control. Now on the outside, Brian's still
in the fight, just without the badge. He's a
law enforcement training coordinator with the
Mid -States Organized Crime Information Center.
He runs Eagle Six Training, and he founded only
Two Milligrams Incorporated, a 501C3... nonprofit
focused on fentanyl and the opioid crisis that's
tearing through America's communities. He also
serves on the board of Drug Enforcement Association
of Federal Narcotics Agents, and he's been featured
on Fox, CNN, and across media whenever someone
wants to understand what's really going on with
illicit drugs, transnational crime organizations,
cryptocurrency, and dark web marketplaces. This
is the kind of guest who's seen the parts of
the war on drugs that never make it into the
press. The part that, if he didn't have the case
files, might sound like conspiracy theories.
So Brian, that's the official bio. When the cameras
are off, how do you describe who you are and
what's the one thing you want to be remembered?
Just be a decent human being as someone who is
genuine, authentic, cared and try to make a world
a better place. That's really who I am and how
I want to be remembered. That's an amazing thing.
I think we all want to be remembered that way.
And you have a stellar career. So you obviously
have a lot of high level accomplishments coming
from your DEA background. And obviously you're
wearing the shirt today. So only two milligrams,
which is a nonprofit that you're supporting and
all the things. that you're doing and training
and really making this place a better world.
So let's start with Venezuela. When you hear
politicians blame a big chunk of the drug problem
on Venezuela, how much of that matches what you
saw in real cases and how much feels like a convenience
storyline? A lot of it right now is a convenience
storyline. I think it's a lot more complicated
than people think. Drugs, primarily cocaine,
do come from Venezuela and that area of the world.
But there's a lot of players, a lot of bad actors
involved. I think there's something bigger going
on obviously now. We've restricted airspace.
We don't like the president. He's been indicted
in the United States. He's a bad guy. We should
all mutually agree. That's a good thing for him
to be gone. But I don't know what's playing behind
the scenes there, but certainly more than what
we see. The drug boat's being destroyed. I'm
actually happy about that. I have no problem
with that at all. I don't know how much of a
dent it's going to make in our drug supply, especially
when they say fentanyl. Fentanyl doesn't come
from there. It primarily comes from Mexico. Doesn't
mean I'm not unhappy, though. I think we got
to take the war to them if there is a war on
drugs. But yeah, very comfortable. over there
for sure. I've heard that a lot of, at least
the base ingredients are shipped to Mexico from
China. How true is that from your experience?
Absolutely. A hundred percent true. So China
is the number one source country for the chemicals
followed by India. And then there are some other
countries primarily in Europe, but China is number
one by far not giving up that number one spot.
They, they send the chemicals that we sometimes
we'll call them precursor chemicals to make the
fentanyl primarily directly to Mexico. And the
stuff is mass produced. It comes into ports.
cargo ships. From there, it's transported to
various locations around Mexico, especially the
Sinaloa Cartel controlled areas and the CJNG
controlled areas in the western part of Mexico.
It's manufactured in bulk and it's smuggled over
the border like they do other drugs successfully
for decades now. So we do see some labs in Canada
and other parts of the world as well, but China
to Mexico is the primary destination before it
gets to the U .S. So when it gets to Mexico,
what's the typical supply chain there? Do they
mix it in with other drugs, heroin? Are they
just cutting it up and repackaging and shipping
it out or is there some sort of process that
they do over there on the Mexican side? Primarily
just the manufacture of the fentanyl itself.
They've really controlled that, just like they
have methamphetamines. Since the early 2000s,
they have a great pipeline, unfortunately, of
precursor chemicals to manufacture this stuff.
And they make it in bulk and they smuggle it.
And it's usually in powder or pill form when
it's smuggled. Now it does get into our heroin,
it does get into our cocaine, it does get into
our methamphetamine. I could make a pretty good
case. That's primarily done in the United States
by the traffickers. Not that it's not done in
Mexico, but we know a lot of traffickers in the
United States are involved in that as well. Interesting.
Yeah, when I was in law enforcement, when the
fentanyl crisis really started to break, out
or at least when I started seeing it, you saw
a lot of the heroin addicts that overdose because
fentanyl was getting mixed in with the heroin
and what is it a thousand times stronger or something
crazy amount that it's stronger and it's causing
these kids and others to overdose on it, which
is a very sad situation. Yeah. You look at the
overall overdose numbers. I like to call them
drug poisonings because I think you could make
an argument that most of those folks weren't
looking, probably none of them were looking for
fentanyl, especially in the early 2010, 2015
time range. They were looking for heroin. We
saw a spike in heroin and you can go. back further
than that because of the way we changed pain
management in this country in the 1990s. In 1996,
to be specific, with Purdue's release of Oxycontin.
And we just started giving out opioids like they
were candy. And that increased the demand for
street opioids, street heroin. Manufacturers
couldn't make it fast enough. They started cutting
it with fentanyl. And like you said, people were
dying overnight because they had no idea that
fentanyl had polluted our heroin supply. And
like I said, these people weren't looking for
fentanyl, they're looking for heroin. And the
difference between heroin and fentanyl is significant.
And to me, it's not necessarily the potency,
it's the amount. The average lethal dose of heroin
is about 30 milligrams. The average lethal dose
of fentanyl is about two milligrams. In fact,
that's why we call it our non -product is a reminder.
So that's a significant difference. So you think
you're, especially if you've built a tolerance,
you have a bunch of heroin in front of you that
you're about to use and literally only a couple
of granules of salt or sand of fentanyl gets
into it, which is only two milligrams and you're
dead. And that's why I like to call them drug
poisonings and say that these people had no idea
they were getting fentanyl on. And the number
of people dying in this country just exploded,
absolutely exploded overnight. At the height
of it, two years ago, we lost 105 ,000 people.
And dive deep into those numbers, 75 % because
of one drug, fentanyl. Last year, thankfully,
we saw a reduction to 80, 82 ,000. I don't know
the exact number yet. But again, if you dive
deep into those numbers, same thing, about 75
% because of fentanyl. And the only reason we've
seen a reduction is because of drugs like naloxone
or opioid reversing drugs that have made their
way on the street. the name of the device, but
it would basically reverse did the symptoms.
They gave them to every cop that was out on the
street and you would inject somebody if you thought
they overdosed on heroin. Narcan, naloxone. Yeah,
Narcan, that's the word I'm looking for. Yeah,
Narcan. Yeah, that's the brand. So do you think
this new war on drugs, like taking out the Venezuelan
supply most, do you think that's helping reduce
drugs that are reaching this country or is it
just a show of force? No, I think it's helped,
but I really think there needs to be a holistic
approach to what we're doing. I hate the word
war on drugs and not that you said anything wrong.
I say it all the time as well, because when we
hear that, we're waiting for an end. And I don't
know that we'll ever have an end. And the reason
is because we have a demand and this is simple
economics. If there's a demand, there'll be a
supply. Do I think it helps? Yeah, absolutely.
And I think we need to do more of that and step
that up. Go after these large scale traffickers
and transnational criminal organizations. Go
after these traffickers that are killing people
with fentanyl. But at the same time, we need
to increase awareness and education and figure
out, like I said, more of a holistic approach.
We can't, I used to believe this, but we can't
arrest ourself out of this problem. We just can't.
There's always going to to be a demand for drugs.
And until we reduce that demand, we're really
just spinning the wheel in time. Do you think
the solution is what they're doing in some West
coast communities where like it's under control,
it's under an eye, like they're providing the
needles and. And the drugs, is that the solution
or what do you think the solution is? Because
I think once you're addicted to something, it's
really hard to almost control it. It's like a
shark in water. Like you're going towards it
and you're not going to stop until you get it.
But is there an easy solution? We got to figure
out a way to reduce the demand. I think we can
start by reducing stigma or eliminating stigma,
but I'm not a big fan of some of the things they're
doing. I'm all about helping people and figuring
out if there's other solutions or other avenues
we can go down. The problem is I think because
of the stigma of drug use in this country, we're
not really serious about a solution. Politicians
will throw money at the enforcement and then
they'll get on TV and say, hey, we just gave
DEA a little bit more money or Haida or whoever
a little bit more money, but that's not the solution.
I was proud of what I did. I think that's certainly
part of the solution. Again, it has to be more
holistic. We got to look at this from different
angles and we throw a little tiny bit of money
thinking that's it. And we're not, we probably
spend more money fixing potholes than we do helping
people that are really struggling from substance
use disorder addiction. That's real. And this
is, that's something we need. to solve, go back
to the demand I was talking about. You look in
the United States, we make about four, four and
a half percent of the world's population, yet
we consume the majority of drugs. That's a problem.
Like, you've got to figure that out. I'd rather
them, not rather, but in addition to spending
money on the enforcement piece, how about putting
people in our schools and our communities talking
about these dangers? How about more treatment,
especially medicated assistant treatment, MAT?
But back to the original question, when we're
only given a little bit of pot of money, and
then somebody says, we're just going to go buy
needles with it. I don't think that's a solution.
I think that's a band aid at best. And I'm not
a fan of the needles. I'm just not. I know people
are probably going to write in and criticize
me or you all. But yeah, did it slow the AIDS
and other problems? Absolutely. And that's not
a bad thing. I'm actually not a hundred percent
opposed to needles. I tell you what I am opposed
to is field test kits for folks that are using
drugs. And the reason is because they provide
a false sense of accuracy to people. We talked
about how little fentanyl it takes to kill you.
And I can tell you example after example of people,
especially young people who, here's one right
here. I was talking to a family member out in
California who lost her niece to a counterfeit
Adderall pill. girlfriends were having a little
slumber party and they bought a counterfeit Adderall.
Thought it was real. Split it into three pieces.
Three pieces. We're talking a little tiny pill.
And she never woke up after taking this piece.
So what would have, they would have got a, let's
say a tester or something like that and tested
some of the pill. You have to destroy the entire
pill to tell whether or not it's accurate or
not. Now that pill's gone. How about the batch?
Just because that one pill was negative doesn't
mean the other pills in that batch are going
to be negative. It's just, I don't know, when,
when I hear about these organizations just putting
all their apples in the one basket, it's just
frustrating because we have a limited amount
of apples. We need to be smarter and more efficient
about it. When I was in law enforcement, right,
the field test, they were enough to like be able
to make an arrest, but they weren't enough to
like bring into the court and sustain the case
because they aren't always a hundred percent
accurate. And if I remember correctly, maybe
things have changed. It's been a long time since
I've been in law enforcement now, but like for
the case you're describing, there is no field
test. Like, I think we use like meth field tests
to try to bring it to test positive, but I don't
remember there actually ever being a field test
for Adderall or what have you. There are field
tests for fentanyl now. And I'm actually excited
for the. use of those in law enforcement community,
because like you were saying in your application,
it gave you enough to charge them or at least
rest them. And then you'd wait for the lab report
before anything formal came. In fact, I work
with a company out of Ohio that just made a fentanyl
wipe, which is pretty cool. You actually, it's
a, it looks like a Perel wipe. It's like a five
by eight. And once it touches any surface, pill
or anything that has fentanyl, it changes, instantly
changes color. Yeah. I think that's pretty neat.
And there's a lot of products on the market,
the True Narcs, the electric ramen devices. But
my point is. I don't have a problem with law
enforcement using this. I think the application
sense, because we need to know. You're on the
street. You need to know whether or not this
substance is meth, cocaine, marijuana, whatever.
But from a user aspect, I think it's a false
sense of security. When I know of one story where
some young people bought a pill for everyone
and then one extra pill that they tested and
that pill tested negative. So they all thought,
we're good to go. This one's negative. And one
of the children died because his pill wasn't
negative. And that's the dangers of putting all
our eggs into one basket, thinking that these
are going to save people. And I just, I don't
know, I have problems with that. So they're coming
out of a high -class manufacturing facility for
normal pharmaceuticals. Exactly. The last couple
of labs I went into. They're one, both of them
had blenders. One of them had a sifter, literally
a sifter. Where they're just sifting this stuff
together. There's no quality control. So, correct
me if I'm wrong. I'm looking at your bio and
it said you spent 28 years in law enforcement.
23 of those was with DEA. What made you want
to leave the street grind and hop over to DEA?
Was there what you saw in the streets? Was there
a particular incident or was it just a passion?
It was a passion. So, I grew up in Northern Virginia
outside of Washington DC. And I'm not going to
say that I grew up on the streets, but I certainly
didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth
at all. I saw what drugs were doing early on
in my life to people around me and it bothered
me. And I made a decision actually when I was
in high school that I wanted to work in drug
enforcement, but we didn't have the internet.
I had no idea what that meant. And the funny
thing, I was actually, it was at a career fair
at my high school and the DEA was there. I was
just down the street from Quantico, Northern
Virginia, which is unheard of. They don't typically
go to colleges and stuff. And there was two guys
there and they were talking about DEA and no
idea what drug enforcement administration was.
But I was like, wow, this is what I want to do.
And I just was able, I just, I got lucky and
just kept that goal in mind and became a police
officer. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Learned
a lot about myself. Learned that no one ever
takes responsibility. Everyone lies. And there's
a lot of evil people out there who do incredibly
horrible things to other individuals. But I did
that for five years and then was fortunate enough
to get a spot with DEA. That's the dream. A lot
of people shoot for it. It's comparatively, I
think there's only 10 ,000 people or something
in the DEA. So it's a hard spot to get in and
most people retire out once they get locked into
that gig. Yeah, it's just not too bad. Yeah.
Whereabouts in Northern Virginia? I'm actually
located in Northern Virginia. Okay. I was in
Prince William County. Woodbridge, aka Hoodbridge
area. Yeah, that's still, we still call it to
that day. Yeah, that whole area down there and
it's just gotten worse and worse. Yeah, I actually,
I worked in Fairfax County as a law enforcement
officer that I finished my career in Leesburg.
I started a while back at Cincinnati. So I took
a little bit easier route when I came to Northern
Virginia. But yeah, know that area with a partner
with that law enforcement agent out there quite
a bit as well. That's awesome. Getting back to
Venezuela, because I know a lot of people are
just super interested in this topic, but have
you seen it show up in your work? Like cases
leading to Venezuela, prosecutions that you work?
I don't understand it, like how Venezuela really
plays into it. Usually you hear about Mexico,
you hear about Colombia, you hear about some
of the South American countries, but you generally
don't hear a lot about Venezuela. So have you
seen it shown up in your work? Yeah. There are
tons of DEA cases that tie back to Venezuela.
Like I said, their president has been involved
with trafficking for a long time, and Cartel
de Sons. There's so many links to drug trafficking
in that region of the world, specifically cocaine.
Like I said, I think there's something greater
going on than just the drugs right now, politically.
The VA's worked up a plethora of cases in that
region. Me personally, no, I wasn't assigned
down there. Most of our cases in the US, domestic,
if we had an international connection, it was
99 .9 % of the time it was Mexico. And now, even
now, the emphasis is still the big two cartels
in Mexico, the Cartel Alisco, CJ &G, and the
Sinaloa Cartel, so CDS. That's helpful. Thank
you for that. I'll mention this politically,
and maybe I shouldn't, but... President Trump
just pardoned Honduras president, former president
Juan Orlando, and that one puzzles me. And I'm
hired from DEA, so I can tell you this. I don't
know that you'll find an active DEA agent that
can go on record and say this, but I mean...
You're talking, I don't remember the exact amount,
four or 500 tons of cocaine that they could tie
back to this. Tons. We're not talking a couple
of crams. Give this guy a pardon. It's just,
I don't get it. I'm not political. I don't care
how people vote either way. In fact, I try to
be real careful with a nonprofit to toe the middle
line there, but I do have an opinion and I'll
support things that this president's done and
I'll not support things this president has done.
I try to look at it from a clear lens and not
a biased political lens. How do you, I'm all
for destroying the votes. I have no problem with
it. I really don't I know some people do but
then you pardon a guy who look into this guy
He was a major drug trafficker. This wasn't like
the guy at the end of the block This was this
guy's a big deal and a lot of folks lost their
life because of this guy I'm vaguely familiar
with that. Do you know the reason for the pardon?
Was it one given? I haven't been able to read
any news today. I haven't seen anything prior
to today other than the pardon I think there
was another pardon that was took precedent today
some Russian guy I haven't even been able to
look into that one as well, but I don't know
it doesn't seem like there could be a good reason
I just don't know there's a couple pardons that
have puzzled me. Russ Albright, the creator of
the Silk Road dark web. I teach a lot of dark
web stuff. That one really puzzled me. I know
that the libertarians were excited about that,
but this one was a shot in the face to DEA. It
really was. This guy was a major turd. So you
bring up the dark web. In your experience of
your career, how much of a role does the dark
web play in drug trafficking? It's played quite
a bitter role. A lot of folks, not just the dark
web, it's social media itself. A lot of folks,
it's easy to buy dope online. The days of going
to CDA neighborhoods and trying to pick out the
drug deal, that happens certainly, but it's so
easy to go online and to Snapchat, the meta platform,
Facebook, Instagram, and find dope. It really
is. The dark web is the criminal marketplaces.
I don't know if you've ever been on those marketplaces,
but within 30 seconds you're online into those
marketplaces. You can have that dope delivered
directly to your home. And just the volume of
packages being shipped all around the world is
just too overwhelming for law enforcement canines
or FedEx, UPS, the delivery services to actually
stop it. But yeah, it's prevalent and it's interesting.
I teach especially, usually almost always to
law enforcement when I talk dark web. And I've
seen this evolution where the criminal marketplaces
really took off, especially after Silk Road.
That's why I was against the pardon of that idiot.
Sorry. No, it's all good. And there were a couple
of exit scams on the dark web and a couple of
other things. And what I mean by that is let's
say the three of us got together and developed
our own marketplace and we got it up and going
and we let people buy and sell drugs and murder
for hire and guns and child porn and all the
other disgusting stuff online. And then all of
a sudden we just pull the plug and all that money
that's sitting there, especially all the crypto
that's sitting in the escrow, we run with it
and it's usually millions of dollars, literally
millions of dollars. And it's interesting, the
deeper I dove into that and even started speaking
to folks who were involved in this criminal side,
it really eroded the trust of the dark web. And
there's still a lot of folks that use it. I'm
not going to be naive. and think that it's in
a way with criminal activity. But because of
that, and at the same time, because of the advancements
of technology, encryption, the apps that are
right on our phone, we're seeing an increase
in illegal criminal activity on apps like Telegram.
That's a big one. Discord. We see some stuff
on Discord. A kick. Just some of the apps that
use the encryption and have these little private
message boards, it's incredible. And people find
these message boards and they buy their illegal
contraband all the time. So it's not only the
dark web now, it's just literally right on our.
Right. Now, how much influence does the cartel
have or play in the dark web? Is it limited?
I assume it's maybe someone maybe purchasing
direct from the cartels and then they set up
their own app. Is the cartel heavily in the dark
web or how does that work? Yeah, from my experience,
my perspective, it's going to be more of we're
supplied by someone at a high level and maybe
I don't know how many levels above them would
be quote unquote cartel member. But like I said,
let's say the three of us decide to sell dope
online. We have a good hook, we have a good connect,
but as long as we're getting what we need, then
we can be successful selling dope online. The
cartel itself, sure, I'm sure there's some members
here and there, but from my experience, it's
mainly just, they're just part of the supply
chain. They're just the wholesalers pretty much.
They're not involved in the retail side so much.
Yeah, exactly. You mentioned crypto in one of
your statements. I know, I think maybe it's the
regulations changing in this country, but for
the most part, it's fairly anonymous. In your
career, how often did you run up against trying
to have to deal with that? Towards the end of
it, quite a bit more in our investigations, we
were seeing links to cryptocurrency. In fact,
I remember the last year of my career, we had
a pretty high level drug trafficker who was using
his money to get into coin. mining, where we
actually had a pretty impressive rig, a small
building full of computers. And it was all dope
money. It was all dope proceeds that was funding
this. But yeah, the last few years or more, I
think that's been pretty prevalent in a lot of
really big investigations. It's just another
form of currency that's easy to move. It's the
days of moving duffel bags worth of cash still
happen, but it's a lot easier for me to just
hit a button on a computer. And now you have
a million dollars sitting on your computer that
you can off to your wallet. from there, but yeah,
it's definitely a lot more prevalent. And the
problem is I've really seen the learning curve
for law enforcement behind the learning curve.
When I've seen it myself, investigators will
say, oh, cryptocurrency, and it's just way over
their head, and they're just intimidated by it,
and they don't give it the time they need. And
thankfully, we're starting to catch up. We're
starting to learn what this is and how we can
be successful in investigating it. And that's
one of the things I talk about, especially to
patrol officers and investigators at police departments
and sheriff's offices, is what do you do when
you get these calls? the fraud calls. We can
show you how you can, there's software out there
like Chain Analysis, TRM Labs. There's a bunch
of companies out there who look at this raw data
on the Explorer sites and they figure out where
the money is moving and try to identify it in
exchange and give law enforcement a fighting
chance to seize that money and hopefully recover
it for the victim. But anyway, more and more
cryptocurrency for sure. In your experience as
like Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies,
are they truly untraceable where you can't identify
who actually received it? No, not with Bitcoin.
So Moreno is a privacy coin. That one is virtually
impossible to track. So with Bitcoin, you have
the blockchain and blockchain is really technical,
but the best way, cash is anonymous. So let's
just say that I sell you both a kilo of cocaine
for $40 ,000. Unless you guys cooperate, unless
there's a witness, unless there's a video, there's
no record of this transaction between the cocaine
and the cash. cryptocurrency, or at least Bitcoin
and cryptocurrency that uses blockchain, that's
not entirely true. So we have the transaction
itself is going to be on the blockchain forever.
You can look at every single transaction on Bitcoin
since the Genesis back in 2009. So it doesn't
say that Brian Townsend sold these guys a kilo
of coke. On this day and on this time, $40 ,000
was transferred from this wallet to this wallet.
So from the law enforcement perspective, let's
say now let's tie that into One of us is a, I'm
a victim. I lost $10 ,000 in a scam via cryptocurrency,
via Bitcoin. Now you know who X is. X is me,
because I'm the victim. You can see the transaction
because that's on the blockchain. You can see
that $10 ,000 went from let's say some crypto
ATM to some unknown wallet. So now law enforcement's
job is to figure out what wallet went to, what
exchange it went to, you know, whether money
is still there, whether it's been transferred
again, and then exploit it and use the judicial
system to hopefully, like I said, freeze and
recover that money. I assume it's probably pretty
difficult to identify who the receiving crypto
wallet belongs to unless somehow you get lucky
and catch somebody randomly? Or is there a way
to tie that back to a particular individual?
Yeah. And that's the whole, that's the secret
sauce right there. If you're doing, if you guys
or anyone listening is involved in cryptocurrency
and you use a wallet, a custodial wallet, Coinbase,
Robinhood, Binance, crypto .com, there's a million
of them out there. They're like banks. So if
right now we go to, I don't know, what's a national
bank, like Bank of America or Wells Far - or
something like that. You can't just go in there
and say, oh, my name is Joe Blow. Give me an
account. They're going to want your driver's
license, probably a pint of blood, and you're
for porn. We're going to want some things. Yes,
cryptocurrency exchanges have to follow the same
laws, the PSA, the AML, the money laundering
laws. It's called know your customer, KYC. So
if you right now, you go online and you go to,
I don't know, let's say Coinbase, you develop
an account, you have to prove who you are. You
have to upload your, again, your driver's license,
things like that. So now we have way to trace
that money because like I said that money is
on the blockchain or at least the transactions
on the blockchain. So if we can trace that transaction
to Coinbase to wallet number 123. Then law enforcement
can contact Coinbase and say, okay, we need to
know who the owner of wallet one, two, three
is. And because they have to follow the law,
they're going to have your information. Now,
obviously criminals know that and there's other,
this can get really technical, it hasn't already,
but there's exchanges in North Korea or Russia.
Of course they're not going to follow or be compliant
to U .S. law. So if we contact them in North
Korea and say, hey, we need to know the owner
of wallet one, two, three, they're probably going
to tell us to pound sand. Are you seeing this
as a major part of the drug trade or is this
still like an emerging market and like crypto?
still very new for them and so cash is king.
Cash is king. Absolutely. Because at the end
of the day, let's say I'm a drug trafficker and
all my transactions are in cryptocurrency coin
or whatever. I can't go to the club with Bitcoin.
have to convert that to cash at some point. But
at the end of the day, cash is king, especially
the drug traffickers. So we all know Mexico's
government's heavily infiltrated by the cartels.
Have you seen that pop up in the United States,
particularly on border towns like in Texas, Arizona?
I often wonder because the reach is fairly broad,
especially sharing a southern border with us.
Have you had any busts or heard any stories about
politicians, maybe not necessarily someone in
the Senate or Congress, but maybe local politicians
on the border town? being corrupted, influenced,
controlled by the cartels in any form? Yeah,
we have. I got to be careful here. We've also
had law enforcement as well. Very few. It's not
a major issue within law enforcement, but it
does happen on the United States side. I worked
down in South Texas for seven years. Our office
was in Corpus, but most of our work was in the
McGowan area or Brownsville, that area of the
country. And so I'm familiar with that part of
Mexico, Reynosa. And the golf cartel really controls
that area and they were fighting with the Los
Santos. And we were dealing with that quite a
bit. A lot of corruption on their side of the
border, 100%. No question. That's still a problem.
Yeah, we saw it on this side of the border. Wasn't
as bad, not even close to what it was on the
Mexican side. But yeah, I mean, we definitely
experienced it at times, but it was more for
us. It was more of certain law enforcement officials
that... occasional bad board patrol officer or
agent. It wasn't like a daily occurrence or anything
like that, but it certainly did happen. And we
certainly did see it and we had to mitigate that
and be careful and keep our operations safe,
keep our informants safe. A lot of the times
you hear on news or perhaps though, not very
real. You watch Netflix shows and you see like
FBI interacting with the DEA and they're like
button heads and they're blocking each other.
Is there any reality to that in real life? Yeah,
a little bit, but it's, I don't know that it's
necessarily agency specific. It's person specific.
I had pretty good real life. I think coming from
a local agency, I understood that world and I
think it gave me a little bit of cred when I
would go into a police department or sheriff's
office. It wasn't just all the feds are here.
In fact, there's sometimes when I teach there's
a guy that introduces me and sometimes if it's
law enforcement only he'll say, it's okay guys.
He was a real cop as well. There was a connection
there. But yeah, it happens, but it's usually
people specific. Unfortunately, those stereotypes
exist and we all joke and we call the FBI fan
belt inspectors and whatever. call us on every
afternoon. There's a lot of riving going on.
And I thankfully had amazing relationships with
those agencies. I really did. My first assignment
was in Little Rock, Arkansas. And we just got
along really well with all the other federal
agencies. And my second assignment, like I said,
was in South Texas. And there were a couple agencies
who did not like us. And there was a couple officers
from one particular agency who would actively
undermine any DEA investigation he could. And
if he found out we had a target, he wouldn't
do a knock and talk or he would somehow try to
do a traffic. He literally would undermine our
investigations. And it got to a point where I
actually had to have a meeting with the higher
ups in this agency and say, look, enough of this
is silly. What's our goal here? Putting bad people
in jail. Period. I don't, I'm not a camera hog.
I don't need the credit. I let's put these bad
people in jail. Let's hold them accountable for
the things they do. We can't play these games.
I've seen more of a problem with the lack of
de -confliction. than I have with people butting
heads like you see in the movies. That's the
biggest problem I still see to this day. And
it's something I train a lot when I talk to law
enforcement is we have to de -conflict our investigations
from many different reasons. One, from an officer
safety perspective. You guys are working a case
and I'm working a case. Who's to say that there's
no blue on blue at some point? Because that happened
because we didn't want to disclose the information
in our investigation. And now maybe I'm working
one of you and you're an undercover because you
guys didn't de -conflict or because I didn't
de -conflict. But anyway, I can go on. on this
stuff, it drives me nuts. Did you spend a lot
of time undercover or were you undercover? Yeah,
yeah. A lot of time, no, but I certainly did
it. I enjoyed it. A &E did a special called Undercover
Caught on Tape. And I don't know if they still
air this show, but season one, episode six is
Undercover Caught on Tape. It's on A &E. It's
season one, episode six. And if you watch the
last 18 minutes, you'll see my ugly face talking
about an operation you did. A little over 20
years ago, it was actually needed. It was a high
level methamphetamine and marijuana organization.
And I was able to infiltrate the marijuana arm
of the organization. And I met two members of
the cartel. We were able to lure them to a hotel
room outside of Dallas, Texas. And of course
the whole thing's on video. And if you watch
the episode, you'll see it unfold. How long were
you undercover for? Most of, actually all, every
single undercover operation ever worked. It was
literally, I'd go in, meet someone, buy some
dough. Hope. And then boom, I'm done. I would
never live in an apartment and I had fictitious
IDs and things like that, but I didn't, it wasn't
like a biker gang type thing like you see in
the movies, nothing like that. I never, all of
mine were literally go meet this guy, buy dope
from him, have a conversation with him, get a
phone number from him, introduce him, inform
him, whatever. And then boom, I'm out. And this
one was, it wasn't even planned. It was a kind
of a happenstance. It really worked out really
well, but I was able to insert myself into the
organization and convince them that I was a high
level weed dealer. remove my source, who was
who they were originally dealing with. And they
were looking for him because they owed him a
lot of money and they wanted to kill him. And
so I was like, yeah, I'm looking for him too.
Let's remove him from this chain, deal with me
direct, and we won't worry about him anymore.
And they bought it hook, line and sinker. You
ever get scared doing that? Because you looked
way too professional today. You know what? I
didn't have any facial hair. I had, of course
I just got my hair cut, but I always had short
hair, never had facial hair. I don't know that
I ever had any facial hair at all when any of
the other... I remember one time I was working,
we went into a really bad neighborhood and we
were buying methamphetamine and cocaine and stuff.
And I would just, I'd wear baggy pants and a
ball cap. And I would just act like a punk college
kid or a young executive. And I was buying quantity
of dope and it worked. As far as being scared,
I don't want to sound cocky because I'm not,
I'm not Superman, but I really trusted my team
and our operational planning. That's something
we're really good at DEA is we really think about
how things can go wrong, how shit can go bad.
fast and we try to mitigate that. Not to say
that we don't get in shootings and bad things
don't happen, but I just had an amazing team
around me. Surrounded myself with really professional
people and we just planned very well. So I felt
very confident in these situations. Yeah, that's
important. Sometimes in the local law enforcement
has started doing narcotics at the local level.
Sometimes it was just a radio and a gun and you'd
go out. Like we're talking many years ago and
starting to work with the FBI. I don't know if
I ever actually worked with the DEA before or
not, but definitely extensive with the FBI and
their planning is super extensive and they have
tons of resources at their disposal. And you
always feel confident when you went out with
those guys because you had all the tools to play
with. And it was a, it was good. Only thing I
hate it doing with the FBI. And I can tell you,
maybe DA is much like this, but it's search warrants.
Cause as local cops, we go in, we tear up a house.
We just, we're trying to find what we're looking
for. FBI's know you got to put everything back
to where it belonged. And I'm like, no. One of
the first search warrants, federal search warrants
we did with FBI, even the entry was, please let
me come in. My boss was livid because he was
like the most dangerous thing we've ever done
in our life because we're sitting there all tacked,
tacked up, ready to hit the house and they're
literally knocking on the door. And I get it.
We have to knock and announce time was going
and that was the last time we ever did that.
Yeah. They spent so long. Like I would just leave
them at the scene. Like our search warrant was
executed. We were done. They're like trying to
pick up. I'm like, yeah, I got better stuff to
do. I'm out guys. You enjoy. They're pretty thorough
though. I get mad. One time we actually had a
meeting, my last office, and we were like, you
think we're missing stuff because we're going
a little too fast. We got to figure this out
a little bit better. We always had room assignments
and things like that. You take the Northwest
corner and blah, blah, blah. But yeah, the FBI,
of course, they probably had 18 people just dedicated
per task. Yeah. Their crime scene texts were
great too, so we used them sometimes. You're
absolutely right. They are. So tell us a little
bit about your Eagle Six training. What's that
all about? Yeah. So I retired from DEA in 2022
and I started Eagle Six training and it's a training
consulting business. And I do training and consulting,
primarily leadership and not only law enforcement,
but outside of law enforcement as well. I've
always had an interest in training and teaching,
speaking. It's just always been a passion of
mine. I'm always the guy, even early on in my
career, where they would say, Hey, the Rotary
Club needs someone to come talk about DEA for
30 minutes. I'm like, Oh, can I do it? I love
doing that stuff. And I had an assignment at
Quantico, DEA Quantico for about three and a
half years. I was in charge of most student service
training and actually got to start the leadership
and development training unit for DEA at the
Academy. And I'm real proud of that. I'm proud
of the work we did. I had an amazing crew of
folks that worked with me and it just, the fire
was already gone. And then once I was there,
it was, I knew this was going to be my post -DEA
journey. And I left DEA when I could. I love,
I'm still, I'm on the board of directors for
the agents association. of friends there, but
started Eagle Six training and it's been great.
It's training is hard. I can tell you that it's
the numbers are a lot lower than they used to
be. And it's not just me. There's a lot of trainers
who are having the same problem filling rooms
where you used to have 30, 40 guys in a room
from local agencies and how you get 15, 20. But
anyway, that's a whole different wax there. That's
staffing problems there. I was going to say,
why is that? Because I remember back in my law
enforcement days, signing up for in -service
training was like awesome. You get to pick some
good programs, learn some cool stuff. Why is
it down? Staffing. Over the last five or six
years, there's been a backlash at law enforcement.
I think most people love law enforcement, but
most people don't come out and say that. When
somebody does something stupid and makes national
news and then you have protests and whatever
else, there's a lack of people. I'm sure when
you applied for your job, you probably had hundreds
of people looking for that one position. Same
with me. We tested every six months. You could
have zero spots. We still tested and we'd always
have a couple hundred folks out there. Now it's
complete opposite. There's some funny videos
online where you'll see, hey, that application
you put in 10 years ago, we're interested in
you. I've been in prison for the last seven years.
It doesn't matter. on it. That's true. You see
it probably because the local law enforcement
is really in the spotlight when it comes to national
events that kind of make the headlines. Are you
having those recruiting efforts along, like in
the DEA as well? Absolutely. DEA is struggling,
FBI, all the agencies are struggling. They're
still hiring, still running academies, but it's
not. When I applied, oh my goodness, probably
five, 600 applications per hire. That was the
norm for federal agencies and even the local
and state law enforcement, but it's not like
that anymore. It's creeping up in some areas
of the country, but I can tell you I'm trained
in in a couple dozen states now in the last couple
of years, just primarily leadership. And I can
tell you that, because I asked this question,
how are you guys on staffing? And rarely do I
hear we're full staff. So you have agencies that
are down, especially some of these big agencies.
You look at, anyway, some really big agencies
that have 400 or 500 officers and they're down
50 or 60. That's significant. And so now a lot
of states have requirements for whether it's
post or depending on what state you are, you
have to have so many hours a year to continue
your certification or whatever you call it. But
a lot of these departments have gone online or
they've figured out other ways to fulfill those
needs. And that's just really, I think that's
a disservice to our officers. Cause like you
said, not only do you enjoy the service, you
learn from it and you learn from the people sitting
next to you. Think of all the networking and
all the conversations you have when you're at
a conference or you're at training. But yeah,
the big thing is staffing. That's just really
hurt training. Do you think it's affecting the
quality of officers that are on the street today?
Like our agencies lowering their standards of
who they're hiring and do we have less qualified
people? people out there today because of it?
I have seen that and it scares me. And what I
think is going to happen, and I hope I'm wrong.
I really do. I hope in a couple of years, you
guys call me and laugh in my face. I think in
a couple of years, we're going to see some real
bad incidents as these people continue to climb
up in their agencies because they're not qualified.
They're promoting. They're going to recruit the
same type of people that they are. A lot of agencies
have really increased, not increased, they're
allowing certain criminal histories to come in.
I don't know. Every so often I hear a department
say we've actually increased our standards. And
I think kudos to you, good job, but you've got
to find other ways to recruit people, recruit
talented people. Yeah. Cause you're officers
today in 10 years, you're going to be your lieutenants,
your captains, potentially your chiefs of police
running those organizations. I think it's a little
bit scary if you get the wrong people in place.
It is right. I do a lot of leadership training
and some of it's for specifically for lead law
enforcement. And I can't tell you how many young
lieutenants and captains and I'm not saying they're
not qualified or they're incompetent, but come
on now two years and you're a captain. I've seen
that a lot and it just, it's crazy. It really
is. You got to put some time on. You got to know,
you got to figure out how the sausage is made
before you start running the company. Yeah. Like
they say, experience is the best teacher. That's
a little scary if you don't get the experience.
Absolutely. So in your Eagle Six trainings, are
you outside of the leadership part? Are you training
best practices, introducing new technology to
whoever contracts with you or how does that work?
Yeah. I'm really focused on the leadership and
I really keep intentionally, I keep my leadership
instruction very simple. I really truly... believe
that leadership is simple. It's just something
we choose not to do. And I have three concepts
or principles. Leadership is intentional. Just
because you're in a position of authority doesn't
mean you're a leader. Just because someone gave
you a rank, gave you a title, gave you a bigger
office, doesn't mean you're a leader. A leader,
and I don't take that from those people that
are progressing in the agencies. Good for them,
but that doesn't make them leaders. And in society,
we have this organizational leader, city leader,
a team leader. We always use this word really
loosely, and I don't think that's a correct or
fair - assessment of that word. The second concept
I have is that everything that you do is impactful.
If you take a position of authority in your organization,
your team, whatever, everything you don't do
is going to have an impact. And we dive deeper
into these things. And then the third thing is
leadership starts with yourself. You have to
look in the mirror. If you're not willing to
look in the mirror and fix yourself, then how
in the hell are you ever going to help anyone
else or help your organization? The analogy I
use there is I travel a lot. I love to fly. And
when you get on the airplane, that flight attendant
always gives you that safety briefing that I
know. most people don't listen to. He or she
will say, if the cabin pressure drops, an oxygen
mask will fall from the ceiling. Put your own
mask on before you help anyone else. And I really
think that's applicable into this leadership
lesson and how I teach is because if you don't
help yourself, don't look in the mirror and figure
out, hey, how can I improve? How can I bring
my A game? Then again, how are you ever going
to be the best you can for the folks entrusted
in your care or the folks that are around you?
So my leadership training is really focused around
those three core principles. It really is. And
I like to do it facilitated conversations with
people. Nothing against PowerPoint. I use it
for other classes. But if you come to one of
my leadership classes, you won't see a PowerPoint
presentation. It is literally us talking. I love
that. I think we all have something to say. We
all like to talk. And when you're in a room with
like -minded individuals and you have the ability
to freely speak, you can really learn from each
other and really increase your perspective. So
I do some other things as well. I do some consulting.
I mentioned that product earlier with the fentanyl
wipes. That was a company. I was consulting with.
They know I've navigated in the law enforcement
world for 30 years. And even though I'm not active,
I still work with law enforcement. I work for
another organization where I train law enforcement.
So they want my perspective. And there's other
companies as well I work with. They want to know,
is this a good product? What do cops think about
this, et cetera, et cetera. And then you transferred
that into your nonprofit. So you want to talk
a little bit about your nonprofit? Yeah, I wear
a lot of hats, right? Busy guy. I am. I started
working for an intelligence center part -time
and I'm a law enforcement training coordinator
for them. And then they convinced me to work
for them full -time and support law enforcement
in nine states in the Midwest. And I was asked
to build drug specific curriculum, obviously
because of my history with DEA. And I built a
opioids class that really focused on fentanyl.
And this was in October of 2022 and it just took
off. It was built specifically at the time for
law enforcement. And then almost immediately
we brought it to... law enforcement, which was
primarily other first responders, firefighters,
EMS, and then some teachers and the recovery
community, educators, politicians in there as
well. And it just took off. It really did. And
I thought, wow, there's something here. And I've
always felt this need to serve people. I know
it sounds Boy Scout -ish, but one of the reasons,
another reason I got into law enforcement is
because I really feel a sense of purpose through
public service. And when I retired, I didn't
have that anymore. And I found that when I was
doing this and I was helping people and the stories
I would hear and the people I was meeting. And
it's just amplified. It's gotten more and more.
I can't tell you how many families I've spoken
to, how many folks I know now who have struggled
with substance use, lost loved ones to substance
use. And it just evolved. It evolved into me
starting a nonprofit organization. I called a
bunch of my retired buddies at DEA and said,
I want to do this. And they're like, you're crazy.
And I said, I need your help. And they said,
sure. So my entire board is retired DEA. We just
brought on it earlier last year. Earlier in the
year, we brought on the executive director who's
not DEA, but she's phenomenal as well. well,
and she really helps expand our message and lead
us into a good strategic direction. But yeah,
that's only to M .G. Our initial goal was to
raise awareness of illicit fentanyl, but we've
evolved to other public safety threats as well.
Fentanyl is not the only thing in our drug supply.
We're seeing more and more drugs, the nidazine,
silazine. Every day you listen to the news or
pick up a, I would say pick up a paper, but I
don't think people do that anymore. There's something
latest and greatest, and you have to stay ahead
of that. So from a drug standpoint, like what's
the greatest danger to our country right now.
We obviously hear a lot about fentanyl, but what's
the other big players that we should be concerned
about? I was just reading about trang the other
day and how that's pretty dangerous in of itself.
I think they call it the zombie drug, but what
are the greatest dangers that we are facing as
a country today? Fentanyl by far, a hundred percent.
I've 30 years in law enforcement, never seen
a drug more impactful than fentanyl. It has changed
drug experimentation, casual drug use, recreational
drug use. which is xylazine. Now we're seeing
more of the nidazines, like the isodote. We're
seeing a lot more synthetics, a lot more man
-made dope. And I always joke, but sometimes
I don't think I'm joking when I say this, is
that I think there's a bunch of idiots out there
who have a contest on who can make the next deadliest
drug. Because fentanyl, quite frankly, it's not
the most dangerous drug out there. The iso, the
nidazines, I just got quoted in Rolling Stone
magazine on this, which was pretty cool. Awesome.
Nice. Yeah, I was pretty excited about that.
But this is a drug that's stronger than fentanyl.
Thankfully, it hasn't flooded the hazard. seen
it quite a bit in our illicit drug market, but
fentanyl is by all accounts, the game changer.
The drug supply is much different than it was
10, 15 years ago, and it's forever changed. One
of the things I look at in the United States,
we have a program that DEA runs called the National
Forensic Laboratory Information System. And we
need an acronym, so it's NFLIS. And what it is,
the DEA works with about 98, 99 % of all the
drug labs in the U .S. So whether you're a city
officer, state officer, or federal officer, most
of the drug labs, when you submit dope, they
all participate in this program. So I like to
look at a couple of things. I like to look at
what's being submitted by law enforcement at
all levels. I like to look at how much is being
submitted. And I like to look at what's in the
drugs being submitted. And a couple of things
that really blew me away is 75 to 80 % of the
heroin out there, if you can find heroin, has
fentanyl in it. The last statistics we have about
41 % of all the cocaine out there now has fentanyl
in it. 17 % of all the methamphetamine out there
now has fentanyl in it. So when I say fentanyl
is the most impactful drug, that's why. It came
in through heroin, but then it got into the meth,
it got into the coke, it got into the counterfeit
pills. It has transformed our drug supply. And
yeah, there's a lot of other drugs out there,
like I said, like Trank and things like that.
And I'm certainly aware of them and certainly
concerned about them, but it's the fentanyl that's
the game changer. Is it because fentanyl is cheap?
Like back in the day, it used to be actually
expensive. Like why is it being cut with everything,
like with cocaine and these other drugs that
you mentioned? Yeah. And along with that question
is why would traffickers cut it in the first
place? If it's going to kill so many people,
I get that a lot. Really, there's three reasons.
One is it's cheap now. You can go on the dark
web and you get a kilo of this stuff. If you
find the right buyer or seller for $4 ,000 or
$5 ,000, it's nuts how cheap this is. You're
talking a couple pounds for just a couple thousand
dollars. And when you talk about only two milligrams,
a couple pounds will go a long way if you're
a drug trafficker. So it's very powerful. So
I have folks who I know, who I've spoken to,
who struggle from fentanyl, and they'll tell
you that it's a more intense experience. know
when they've gotten fentanyl. Sometimes when
they don't even ask, they just know because it
has a different high to it. And finally, that'll
bring them back. So that makes it more addictive.
And if you're a drug trafficker, you have one
thing in mind, period, to bring back repeat customers,
make money, and cheap, powerful, and addictive.
Those are the three big ones. And I know it doesn't
make sense to sell product that kills so many
people, but they're actually getting more customers
right now than they're killing people. So what
we all see in the public is we see these record
high numbers, people dying every day. It's unfortunate.
That's the reality. of what this drug has done,
but they're seeing record profit margins. And
this stuff costs them. The cartels pennies, literally
pennies for them to make this stuff. And their
people are coming back and coming back. And it
all comes back to what we talked about earlier,
the demand. Yeah, the demand. This is a simple
economics problem. There's this greater demand.
And even though people are dying, there's always
going to be traffickers out there. Yeah. In my
experience, it seemed like it was a floodgate.
Because for a long time in law enforcement, you
really never saw fentanyl on the street. But
it's just something that can flip the switch.
And it started showing up in everything. It was
a pretty intense experience to witness that as
it came on. As you said, people started ODing
on this stuff. It was really weird. It just seemed
like it was a floodgate. It wasn't a trickle.
It was definitely a storm in my career. Yeah,
that's how we all feel. And it was really about,
what, 2015, 2016, that we just, boom, it just
hit us. And it just was everywhere. And then
all the information went out. The officer exposure,
which we know now is a myth. So just all kinds
of stuff happening at the same time. Very overwhelming
for law enforcement and for society in general.
No, in your opinion. This gets a little bit conspiratorial.
I know the drug, the cartels have invested financial
interest in keeping repeat customers. But do
you see it as like nonlinear warfare from China
to supply the cartels and then bring it up to
the United States? I do. And you think about
it. Look at, if you look at the demographics
of who's dying at the record numbers, war aged
men. I mean, that 18 to 30 years old, these are
our soldiers. These are our frontline folks that
we send into battle and they are wrecking so
much havoc on this country without a troop on
the ground. And I know, like you're saying, it
does sometimes sound like conspiracy, but that's
the reality. And I think about it quite a bit.
What better way to destroy our country than with
this poison that kills a hundred thousand people
a year. It's especially at that young age. It's
horrible. It really is. Now in your experience,
like these next generation drugs that are falling.
fentanyl. Are they coming from China as well
or are they being manufactured somewhere else?
Primarily China. You look at the nidazines. That's
been on the news, like I said, on the Rolling
Stone thing I did. China. India certainly is
trying to increase their position. And there
are some other bad actors as well, but China
by far is the... And that's why every time Xi
talks to Trump or Biden or whoever the US president
is, I'm just so skeptical of it. They come back
and they're like, oh, they're going to sign this
and sign this. Come on. Whatever he signs is
garbage. Let's just face it. You can trust it
as far as you can throw. Now, do you in the next
five, 10, 15 years, do you see these next gen
drugs replacing fentanyl? Or do you think fentanyl
is the worst of it? I don't know that it'll replace
it, but I think we're going to continue to see
it. Some people feel like fentanyl is crack in
the eighties and the different escalation of
drugs historically, where you see more of it
in the news and things like that. I don't know
that fentanyl is going to go anywhere because
it is so cheap for them to manufacture and it
is so powerful and addictive. I think we'll continue
to see other drugs. As crazy as this sounds,
I think the drug traffickers re - that they do
look at car fentanyl for instance car fentanyl
is way more powerful than fentanyl and every
so often you'll hear about car fentanyl out there
and I used to follow this all the time I still
have access to a lot of sensitive bulletins from
different law enforcement agencies and HIDAs
and things like that and every time I would see
a hey whoop whoop car fentanyl has made it in
this geographical area of the United States I
used to make phone calls to folks I knew whether
it was DEA or local narcs I'm telling you every
single time within a few days it would take care
of itself nothing that law enforcement did and
I'm not making fun of law enforcement all really
good people but the traffickers I always say
that there's this crazy algorithm yes a lot of
people die from fentanyl but they're making a
lot more money fentanyl is like when a hundred
and 18 people die on a Tuesday night. That's
not good for business. So they police it themselves.
So I do think there'll be more and more of these
synthetics and drugs coming on the market, but
I think they have to be careful that they don't
overdo it. From our perspective, people are like,
how do they overdo it with fentanyl? They're
really not. From our perspective, they are because
a lot of people are dying, but they're making
more money. And as long as that money outpaces
the death, then they don't care. And they have
to balance that. I know that sounds weird, but
that's the reality of what they do. And they
adapt really well. They don't have laws. They
don't have morals. They don't have values. They're
good at what they do and they've been doing it
for decades. Yeah. They don't want to kill off
their customer base too fast. Not too fast. Not
too fast. Just a little bit. Are there like today,
are there big players in the market? Obviously
somebody's feet in the machine, somebody's sitting
at the top of the totem pole. Who are those people
today or do you know? CJ and G Cartel Jalisco,
El Mencho is the, he's the top of the food chain.
You find, we find him, we're $15 million richer.
He is at one time it would have been El Chapo
in the Sinaloa Cartel. Of course, El Chapo is
in federal prison now and two of his kids, in
fact, one of them, I think just pled guilty yesterday
or day before. But there's a lot of infighting
going on now between El. Mayo, which was El Chapo's
right -hand man within the Sinaloa Cartel. And
his people, who were loyal to him, believe that
El Chapo's kids cooperated with the U .S. government.
And there's all types of things going on behind
the scenes with these organizations. But because
of that, they're in -fighting. And the CJ &G,
the Cartel Jalisco, has really exploited that,
as they should if they're a rival organization.
Because we're talking, these two organizations,
just for people who wouldn't know, or who don't
know who they are, we're talking like Bloods
and Crips. We're talking Coke and Pepsi. We're
talking the Cowboys and the Redskins, and we're
talking arch rivals within the cartel world.
And now because of everything going on with the
Sinaloa cartel, I think you easily make an argument
that CJ &G has really taken the number one spot.
But both of them are still dangerous organizations.
They both operate in, I don't know, last Intel
report I looked at, probably 40, 42, 43 countries.
They just have a huge footprint. They're very
good at what they do. And when it comes to fentanyl,
those are the two major players. Are there other
players? Are there other cartels? Absolutely.
All the cartels are poly drugged and poly criminal
activity for that matter. Any way to make money,
they will. But when it comes to the major players
in the fentanyl trade, it's those two organizations.
And like I said, CJ &G, they're taking over.
What does their basic supply chain look like?
Are they going to China, buying the precursors,
or they're manufacturing over there, shipping
it to Mexico, and then somehow smuggling it into
the country? What does that supply chain look
like for these big guys? Yeah, China, number
one. And again, India and some other countries
as well. But China, by far, number one. The chemicals
literally on cargo. ships any way they can right
into Mexico. The ports of Mexico are controlled
by so much corruption. They're controlled by
the cartels. They're transported into various
areas around Mexico, especially the Western portion
of the country and mass produced. And I think
I said this earlier, they're very good at smuggling
drugs into the U .S. They've been doing it for
decades. And now as opposed to just heroin and
coke and weed and everything else, now you have
another drug. It's fentanyl. And so, yeah, they
really control that process. That's part of what
we have to do in law enforcement. is to try to
plug holes along that process. Now you mentioned
methamphetamine. I always thought meth was cooked
up by some hillbilly in the trailer in the middle
of the woods. Like how long has the cartel been
supplying meth? It's an interesting story with
meth and that really plays into how successful,
it was the playbook and let me back up a little
bit. So it was the hillbillies back in the 90s,
early 2000s. It was the, we called them one pot
labs, mom and pop labs, and they just plagued,
they took over the United States with these little
labs. So we responded by outlawing certain, or
making it harder to get certain chemicals like
aphedrine. So to this day, if you go to, if you
want the good Sudafed, not the crappy stuff,
but the really good stuff, you got to go to the
pharmacist. You don't have to have a script,
but you have to give them the driver's license.
You have to sign the little thing and you get
the good Sudafed. When we did that meth lab production
in the United States dropped significantly. We're
talking, I was a police officer in Missouri and
Southwest Missouri. And we probably did, I don't
know, 10 a week. And we went down to 10 a year.
instantly. And now you talk to local law enforcement,
state law enforcement, or even DEA, you do two
or three meth labs a year, if that. So that happens
in the U .S. The cartels love that because these
hillbillies were taking over the meth trade.
So they're like, okay, this is perfect. So they
pick up the telephone, they call China, India,
other places, but primarily China, and say, hey,
this is aphedrine and all these other chemicals
to make methamphetamine. Can we buy these? And
they're like, yeah, absolutely. And that's where
it all started. So they started to get all these
chemicals bulk exported into meth. And again,
right into the port, they transport them out.
And then they, that's when we started hearing
the superlabs and the really strong methamphetamine.
The cartels absolutely took it over, took it
over to give you a perspective. I was down in
the border from 2000. nine to 2016, so not terribly
long ago. And we were paying in our undercover
operations or even our informant operations,
we were paying about $22 ,000, $23 ,000 a pound
for meth. Right now on the border, you can get
meth for about $700 a pound. A scringo. So in
the US, maybe you're in St. Louis or Detroit
or New York or something like that, and you're
going to pay a little bit more, maybe not New
York, but you're going to pay a little bit more
because you had to go further north with it.
But that's what they did. They saturated the
country with methamphetamine. They literally
took over the production. They took over the
entire supply chain of it. When fentanyl became
a necessity because they need something to cut
heroin with, they did, they literally, when they
picked up the phone and says, hey, those chemicals
I was getting for methamphetamine, I'm also going
to need the chemicals to make this fentanyl stuff.
And then absolutely. So the same... transportation
methods, the same cargo ships. Literally it was
the playbook was written and they just, it was
natural for them to control and take over the
production of fentanyl. And that's exactly what
they've done. I always wonder why the drug problem
is so bad in the United States. I lived internationally.
I lived in China for a few years and you don't
see a lot of it. Like most people are blind by
the roles. You don't see a lot of drug addicts
or homeless people on the streets. Like you just,
if it's there, it's very hidden. I wonder like
where we've gone wrong as a country and why is
there so much demand? in the United States. I
think there's a lot of untreated mental illness,
trauma, and a lot of issues that we just put
band -aids on or we stigmatize and we don't allow
people to get help. And we know that a lot, not
all, but a lot of people who, especially at young
age, will turn to drugs and alcohol because they're
coping with some real stuff in their life. And
again, not everyone who uses drugs has been molested
or seen some trauma, but it happens quite a bit.
They're dealing with something real and the way
to deal with it is to numb the pain, if you will.
through drugs or alcohol. And I think historically,
we just haven't really, haven't had an honest
national conversation about this and really treated
mental illness and all these issues and gave
it the attention and the resources that they
deserve. And then I also think when you look
at, look at my own life and I look at the projection
of drugs, I remember when I was a kid, Nancy
Reagan, just say no. And the commercials out
there, this is your brain on drugs. You see some
eggs spying on a, like we were scared into this.
And then you saw this slow evolution of people
saying, maybe drugs aren't so bad. Maybe if we
provide needles and provide safe spaces. So we
had this turn of how we dealt with this from
a national perspective. And at the same time,
we weren't talking about mental illness. We weren't
talking about trauma. We weren't talking about
these other things. We just turned the corner
on how we were going to deal with the drug problem
itself. And to the point where there's a lot
of people now who think it needs to be legalized,
not because they're, you know... libertarian
and believe in self, just, but because they just
think that this is a problem that we shouldn't
even be addressing. I'm probably rambling, I
could go on forever on this. It's frustrating.
It also seems normalized too, especially with
marijuana. how the stream is pushing psychedelics.
They make it seem cool and trendy and why don't
you hop on this, it'll make you feel better.
So I even argue that our culture today has mainlined
it into, especially with the youth, which is
unfortunate. And those marijuana, especially
gateway drug to some of this other stuff. Yeah,
you're right. I mean, they have, our culture
has extended. That's kind of that progression
I saw from the just say no to, okay, if you're
going to use it, here's a clean needle. Mentioned
marijuana, that's another drug that's changed
so much over the marijuana that when we were
teenagers is much different than the marijuana
of the day. And people don't realize, especially
a lot of parents, I can't tell you how many,
just tons of parents are like, I smoked marijuana
when I was a kid, what's the harm? I can't be
a hypocrite and tell my kids they can't smoke
weed. Let me tell you that the weed you smoked
when you were a kid, not even in the same ballpark,
you're talking, if you were a parent in the 1990s,
you're talking, I don't know, three to 5 % THC
levels. Weed that our kids are smoking nowadays
is 30 % or higher. And if they're using vapes,
the concentrates are 95 plus percent. It's in...
Incredible. So we're seeing what we're seeing
an increase in depression, psychosis, anxiety,
all the things that we were told that this was
going to solve. We're seeing an increase in and
it's just, it's a hot topic. I'm sure I'm going
to get an email. My son's got glaucoma and this
is the only thing that can make me feel. Right.
It's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous.
This is a change drug. It really is. It's not
the same every, when I was in high school, you'd
have to smoke 15, 20 joints to what the equivalent
of marijuana dates. I would welcome anyone to
just look at the THC levels. Isn't there a brand
now called Not Your Dad's Weed? It's in drinks.
It's in faves. It's everywhere. It's everywhere.
You can't find the Mids, the Reggie's. Good luck.
Yeah. Really hard. And that's why some people
will tell you, especially older folks who, let's
say you smoked weed when you were in high school
and now you're older, they'll just take one puff
or even a half a puff. You know what I mean?
They'll do the whole Bill Clinton thing though.
Didn't inhale. They can't handle it because it's
just too strong. It's much different. Yeah. I'm
in a state that just recently legalized marijuana
for recreational use. I'm in Maryland now and
it seems like a lot of bad news. Do you have
thoughts on that? You think it should be legal
and controlled by the government and sold or
how do you kind of see that path forward? No,
I actually did a video on this. I think it's
a bad, I live in Missouri and we legalized it
my last year at DEA and I was opposed to it.
Not from the law enforcement perspective, but
because of what we were just talking about, the
THC levels. We're seeing more and more problems.
You look at, I mean, every time All the hideous
around the United States, every time they release
the reports on the marijuana impact, I like to
read them and I'm blown away by them. I would
just welcome, I mean, look at the early states
like Colorado, poison control calls, traffic
accidents involving marijuana up, our visits
up. Number one treatment, patient, especially
for young people, marijuana related use. It's
not, not meth, not cocaine. Not that those things
don't happen, but every single bad metric can
be tied back to legalization when you compare
those states to the state. that have not yet
legalized it. That was my problem from a public
safety perspective. But again, it got political
and unfortunately people will pick a hill and
die on it because of that. I'm not for it. I
don't think regulate. Look at the states that
have regulated it. Do you realize that the cartels
operate in all those states? They love it. They
absolutely love it. The Chinese nat criminal,
transnational criminal organizations, they control,
absolutely dominate the legal marijuana market,
dominate it. They exploit the laws. They use
strawman as they'll use us to be the owner on
paper. They're destroying the environment on
these illegal grows because they won't get permits
for them, or if they do, they'll exploit it.
They'll say, we're going to grow this, and then
they'll end up growing eight times as big. Over,
especially over the last four years, they brought
a lot of illegal Chinese nationals into the United
States to work these labs. They literally handcuff
them to the walls and make them slaves. They
turn them into indentured servants to work these
labs. It's incredible what's happened behind
the scenes. All we say is, let's save drugs,
legalize it, tax it. We spend more money right
now in all those states and Maryland, I don't
know when you guys legalize it, but you're going
to see the same thing. Mark my words. You're
going to spend more money on the related social
and healthcare costs than you do any tax revenue
that it's generates. We're already seeing that
in Missouri. It's only been legalized for two
years now, three years now. It's Colorado's seen
the same thing, but I'd love to see a reverse
and states go back, but it's too late. The cat's
out of the bag. Yeah. I'm not a big fan of it,
but mainly because it's not just even stuff you
smoke that you can stash away. Kids can't figure
out. to really smoke it, but they're gummy bears
and cookies and like anything you could think
of that has the high levels of THC, which are
very toxic with if little ones get into it and
they just think it's a gummy bear and they want
to eat candy. I'm going to real quick on that.
You know what pisses me off about that too is
look at the packaging. Next time you're at one
of those near one of those stores, when I walk
in and look at the packaging, like it infuriates
me because they're mirroring Cheetos bags or
Twizzler or Starp. They literally look like the
real thing. If you're an adult and you want to
use this stuff, I always tell people this and
they always laugh when I say it. but use it,
I don't care. If you're an adult, whatever, but
put it in a brown paper bag or something like
that. Don't put it in a bag that says Cheetos
instead of Cheeto. Wow. Yeah, I know you're right.
It's absurd. And that goes to the people that
are marketing this stuff and they'll be like,
it's legal. Yeah, it is legal to market like
that, but I think it's unethical. And I don't
know how you sleep at night when you do that
percent. So one of my last questions right for
you is what about the legal loophole? So you're
seeing a lot of the, I think it's called Delta
9 that they're able to sell legally, but you're
seeing a lot of this. I just started seeing like
mushrooms and stuff where they're like selling
micro dose of the mushrooms when people can buy
and they call it for therapeutic effects. Are
you seeing the same kind of issues that you're
seeing with the legal? legalization field, like
you would see in Maryland or what have you. Yeah.
The whole issue is, and I don't know where we
stand on this right now, because let me back
up a little bit, like Delta eight and stuff.
The farm bill made it really difficult for legalization
or for non legalization. And then fast forward
to this last, the government shut down the temporary
stimulus bill or whatever they passed. They slipped
it in a measure to close that little loophole
on the Delta eight. So I don't know where we
stand on that. I have no idea. It's so confusing
right now. So I guess the real answer is to be
continued on. at it, we're seeing more people
that are trying to exploit these laws and they're
playing whack -a -mole or they're changing the
chemical structure a little bit of the drugs.
So they're not illegal, you know what I mean?
And then we, it's whack -a -mole and then we,
the government's come in and say, okay, no, this
is now illegal. And then they change the structure
again, or they find a new strand or whatever,
but really confusing right now. There's a lot
going on, a lot of, just a lot of problems with
it. Yes. So my last question, if you were the
man up top, the president, how would you attack
this problem? I'd throw a lot more money is not.
the solution for everything. We see that with
look at education. We just threw billions of
dollars and we still have piss poor education
in a lot of states. But I do think going back
to my original thoughts on the war on drugs,
if you will, there needs to be a holistic approach
and we need to look at the treatment part. We
need to wean people off. the drugs, like with
heroin, it was with the methadone clinics, but
now we're seeing the suboxone and the other drugs.
But it has to be in contest with or in connection
with treatment, like the cognitive behavior.
Why is this person using drugs? We can wean you
off all day long from a physical, to make your
brain not want the drug. But if you're dealing
with some real crap in your life, we've got to
deal with that as well. We got to make sure that,
okay, now you're clean, quote unquote, but you
still are dealing with some demons that we need
to help you with as well. So I think that's One
of the things that I would do is I would certainly
increase our resources and our ability to do
that and help people do that. And not just people
who can afford it, getting in front of people
and making people aware. It's what I do with
only two MG, especially with young people. I
think that's critical. And I think we need to
do more of that. I think I can tell you from
my own perspective, most parents won't have these
conversations, unfortunately, or they won't come
to these presentations because they don't want
people to think that their family has a problem.
That's the biggest reason I've had for not for
parents. coming, because if we're caught there,
someone's going to think that something's going
on in our house, which is absurd. But anyway,
I would certainly increase the resources, the
tools and resources for that as well. And the
enforcement part, I think we're certainly doing
what we can, going after money, going after these
supply chains, these distribution networks. We
need to ramp that up as well, especially at the
highest level. We have the cartels. They're really
on the offensive right now, more so than they've
been maybe ever. We need to keep our foot on
that neck and just take it off. And I suspect
that the Those cartels will fragment into other
organizations. There's always going to be a need.
You kill one snake, six more pop up. But we need
to continue to disrupt and dismantle these organizations
and make it difficult for them to operate. And
at the same time, get the people help that they
need to prevent that demand for the drugs. Brian,
where can people find you and reach out to Eagle
Six or only two milligrams that they want? Training
or resources? Yeah, only two MG is ONLY2, just
the number two, and then MG .com. And I do three
presentations right now. Right now it's only
myself. I've had one other instructor who's done
some local stuff, which is awesome. Eventually
we want to scale this and have a, I have a ton
of retired law enforcement folks who want to
work and want to get into schools and want to
get into communities and spread this message.
Problem is we just can't afford it. This is a
very difficult space to fundraise in, really
is. People just don't care. We'll digress here
a little bit, but a little side note. I said,
what if we, what if someone dies on the street
who's struggling with drugs, has an addiction?
And what if that person had a pet? Let's say
a dog. What if we took ownership of that dog
and rehomed it? We would probably raise millions
of dollars. If there's no dog involved, people
don't care. They just don't. There's a stigma
to it. So anyway, back to only 2MG. Because of
that, I'm primarily the only instructor. I do
three presentations. I do what I call my flagship.
It's a four -hour presentation. I know it sounds
like a long time, but I really dive deep into
fentanyl, everything about fentanyl. Done it
125, 130 times. I don't know, 30, 40 states right
now. I have some of the organizations I work
with, some of the businesses I work with who
are interested in the drugs, but they're more
interested in the leadership. I developed a one
-hour lunch and learn for them because they're
like, look, Brian, I don't have four hours to
give you these C -suite executives and stuff
like that. I'm like, can you give me one hour?
And the cool thing about that is actually had
some of these folks come to the four hour because
they're so overwhelmed by the information. And
then I have one that I'm really proud of them
all, but this is one I really enjoy doing. It's
a one -hour presentation I call Shattering Dreams.
And I do it for young people. I've done a lot
of high schools and a lot of colleges. And I
hope to do more and more of those, especially
in 2026. And that's when I reached the young
people. It's one hour is perfect if they'll give
me an hour. Sometimes schools were like, nah,
you got 20 minutes, buddy. And I'll take 20 minutes
if I can get that. I'll take two minutes if I
can get two minutes. But one hour is my sweet
spot for that. Contact information's on there.
We don't charge. If the organization can afford
it, then great. Make a donation because that'll
help us. One of the things that I wanted to do
early on, I'm proud of. of is I didn't want money
to be a barrier. I don't do this for money. I'm
probably the only person in this space. In fact,
I think I'm the only person with a nonprofit
who hasn't lost a direct family member to fentanyl.
I do this because, as I said earlier, it gives
me a sense of purpose. It helps me and it helps
other people. And I truly believe that you got
to be a person of action. If you really want
to make the world better, you got to go out there
and you got to get off your sofa and just do
it. You got to put your mouth where your mind
is or your words are. That makes sense? Yes,
sir. It's a great mission. That's a great mission.
Yeah. So I don't have a money tree. I wish I
did, but I do self -fund a lot of what I do,
or I use Eagle Six training. I pretty much wipe
all my Eagle Six training profits out so I can
travel. Because if someone calls me and says,
we really want you to come out and do a presentation.
I'm not going to say I'm so much money. If you
can't afford it, then no, that's not the conversation.
I do not want money to be a barrier. I've said
that from day one and I still hold strong to
that. I will find a way. If an organization,
school, whoever wants me to come out, I will
find a way to fund it. Whether I pay for it myself
or whether I find a client. Anyway, that's what
I do from Eagle six training is same thing. Eagle
six, just the number training .com. If you're
interested in training or leadership or more
consulting, happy to work with you as well. Awesome.
But we really appreciate Brian spending a good
time with you today. It's been a fantastic conversation.
And I think we learned a lot right between myself
and my brother and our audience. I think we learned
a lot of information today, but we really appreciate
you joining us here on our show. Thank you guys.
I appreciate the opportunity and look forward
to. Re -watching it. Heck yeah, brother. Keep
up the good work, man. This is some good stuff.
This is amazing. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah,
man, that was a good interview. He's got a lot
of information. I thought it was pretty interesting
hearing everything he had to say. Yeah, I know.
I was super excited to talk to Brian. It fits
with my background coming from law enforcement.
Obviously not super fancy in the DEA like he
was, but I thought he really provided some good
insight on what that drug trafficking scene looks
like today and the threats that are facing our
country. And I think it's important information,
as he was kind of talking about, right? It's
important information for our youth to hear about
the kind of the value impact that he brings with
his speeches and why it's important to stay away
from these drugs. why, even though if they legalize
marijuana or they continue to legalize other
drugs in this country, it still doesn't mean
it's safe to do. And there's a whole lot of bad
things. Like some people are like, well, they
legalize marijuana, so it's okay if I go purchase
a little bit and smoke weed. As you hear from
Brian saying, you're supporting the cartels and
you're doing a lot of bad stuff, even if you're
doing that. I don't know. I think it's a reaffirming
message and it's important to hear. Yeah. I found
it really interesting that China is so heavily
financially involved in the legalized drug market
in the US. I didn't know that. And I think that's
scary, man, this one country providing and shipping
the fentanyl to Mexico, the components to make
meth, and now they're involved in essentially
the legalized drug use through marijuana in this
country. It's just, man, it seems like all fingers
point back to one place. Yeah. I've heard about
the precursors coming from China for a long time,
but they, I think, single -handedly uplift and
support some of these really bad drugs that are
coming into our country like fentanyl and meth
and being able to purchase those products. And
there's really a no holds bar. China will sell
you anything for bottom line. But I really enjoyed
that question you asked because it's essentially
a proxy war that we're seeing. The country is
not going to step in and regulate against their
enemies when they're selling precursors to drugs
that are being manufactured and distributed in
the United States that are killing 100 ,000 plus
people every year. Like, why would they step
in? But it's essentially a proxy that we're facing
and I think it needs more attention. I'm not
sure how much it gets because at the end of the
day, money is the bottom line. How many pockets
are lying as voting yay or nay against some of
these initiatives? Yeah, I always won. We always
talk about the almighty dollar and how many politicians
are being paid off to pass legislation, not to
intervene, just to kind of let stuff to keep.
flowing through the United States of America,
man. Like we have, we're super high tech. We
have all kinds of surveillance. We know where
all the ships are coming and going. Nothing's
a mystery. And it's almost, this is the conspiratorial
side of me coming out, but it's almost like it's
being allowed to happen. Guys like Brian fighting
the drug war. And as we know, the federal government
determines how many agents and what their budgets
are. And he's, sometimes I think these guys are
fighting with one hand tied behind their back.
Oh, a hundred percent. It's nonstop. The ground
level people are really doing the right things.
Like when you talk about people. like Brian,
who were DEA agents. And they're out there to
do the good work, make a difference. You can
see how his career really transformed. Like he
retired, but he's still out in the public eye
trying to pass on the good message. At the end
of the day, a lot of these federal law enforcements,
the heads of them are essentially elected officials.
So they are carrying a political message down.
You see a lot of that with Cash Patel. He was
just an attorney that runs the FBI now. Not saying
he's a bad or a good guy or indifferent about
him, but they come in with administrations. And
when Trump leaves office, whoever the next president
may be, will bring in their own person to run
these organizations. And they ultimately dictate
the policy of what's going to happen. I think
it's all connected between these super PACs that
we see and this global economy at scale, whether
it be for goodness or badness that happened.
Yeah. I sometimes I just don't understand. You
brought up Venezuela. They say it's because of
the drug war. I don't buy it. I don't, I, again,
I'm limited in my knowledge of cartels and where
they operate, how big they are. But it seems
like the major issues in Mexico, it seems like
it's just a easy excuse is an easy ploy. to invade
an oil rich country. Yeah. That's what I was
trying to get to because obviously Brian's the
expert and neither am I, but it's hard to understand
why we're bombing ships. I get it. It's helping
some. It's probably a good thing. Like it's stopping
drugs from coming into this country, but there's
got to be an ulterior motive because when Brian
was talking about the big players, it's all in
Mexico. And historically, back in the day when
I was in law enforcement, you hear a lot more
about South and Central American countries. Venezuela
was rarely in the conversation. So is it a player
in the game? Yes. Is it a huge player? the game.
I'm still not so convinced that it is. And I
wonder what comes down to that. Is there an ulterior
motive to paint Venezuela as this big bad guy
in this scenario when even if you take out Venezuela
and you remove the president from office, which
they should, he's a horrible human being, and
you put what they call the rightful president
in who just won the Nobel peace prize and she
takes over. Is it going to be super impactful
to the drugs that are making way into this country?
My guess is probably not. I'm not the right person
to be answering that question, but I really don't
think it's going to make much of a difference.
It's just a route and it's just a destination,
but ultimately it's, they're just going to bring
it in from somewhere else. Like they're going
to, and obviously they're manufacturing the bulk
of it into Mexico. So I don't know how much of
a difference it actually would make, even if
we achieve the ultimate end game there. Yeah,
man, I just think it's another battlefront in
this global war. You have Ukraine, Russia. I
know Venezuela is part of the BRICS, you know,
along with Russia, China, Brazil, and it's resource
heavy. I think a lot of wars we fight are were
banker wars and corporate war wars. So we're
fighting for our currency. We want to get our
access on oil that's relatively local compared
to somewhere like the Mideast that opens the
door for big corporations to go down there and
set up drilling rigs and refineries. And again,
I think just a lot of what Iraq was about, I
think it has to do with resources. I think the
drug scapegoat is a easy sell to act like you're
really doing something about the drug war when
reality is just the ploy in order to say, look
over here. when in reality you're looking at
something completely different. But fantastic
episode. I think everybody, if you're looking
for somebody to speak on the fentanyl crisis
here in the country and the problems facing our
country connected to illicit drugs, reach out
to Brian, reach out to his nonprofit, to MG.
Obviously doing a lot of good work. Give them
donations, man. This is good work. And I thought
it was almost a little bit funny when he says
people don't want to show up to these seminars
because they're afraid if somebody spots us in
the audience that they're going to think somebody
in my family has an issue. And I laugh about
that. If you go to church here, are you possessed?
No, you're just trying to learn about the topic.
Like you're trying to gain more information.
So don't let that stop you from showing up to
one of his presentations. Obviously a very smart
man, very well versed in this topic and he can
help you. As fathers, as strong fathers that
we are. It's important to have all of the information
that you can to arm yourself because you don't
know what hurdles your children are going to
face in the future. And the more details you
have to combat this very scary problem that's
facing our country, the better off yourself is
going to be. And the better off your children
are going to be because you take an opportunity
to learn this information and from a true like
gold source about it. So yeah, take them up on
it, man, email them, send some donations as a
way. They're doing really good work. Yeah, I
agree. Yeah. Donate, donate. He's doing it out
of the kindness of his heart, off his own dime.
And for me personally, man, maybe they don't,
I don't know, but I feel like every school, every
college should have some sort of fentanyl awareness,
man. Like he said, you can get Adderall pills,
die. Any sort of illicit drug that's in a powder
or a pill form can be contaminated, man. It's
not worth your life. It's definitely not worth
your life. Yeah. Especially these college students
out there experiment. They're going through their
drug experimentation phase. Like it's not worth
it for what? Feel silly for 10 minutes. Two milligrams.
I've seen plenty of videos where cops are going
in someone's house and they're they're on the
ground convulsing because somehow they inhaled
some fentanyl. It doesn't take much to take your
life. Yeah. It's also just disgusting stuff and
highly addictive. And sometimes all it takes
is one exposure before you're an addict and you're
chasing your next high. And it's not because
it's good. It's just because it's addictive.
Yeah, man. Scary world. What do you want to close
with tonight? Jesus love you. We love you. Brother,
I love you. Brian, you're awesome. Keep up the
good work. It was a pleasure talking to you.
Yeah, man. Yeah. Keep up the good work. Keep
up the grind. I think you're making marketable
change. And we'll do everything in our power
to tell our... listeners to come out your way
and listen to some of your conferences and get
involved with your organization. But as always
Jay, I love you. Been a fantastic spending the
past couple of hours with you as we deep dive
a really interesting topic that, you know, is,
is connected to real life struggles that many
people face and, and awesome being able to talk
to you guys in the audience. Reach out if you
want to be a guest on our show, if you're an
expert like Brian, or if somebody you can just
add value to the conversation, please reach out
at zero signal truth at gmail .com and hit us
up and let's have a good con. conversation. Until
next time, we are Zero Signal.