October 27, 2021 • 24 mins
Drugs, cartels, violence, human smuggling — there’s a humanitarian crisis happening at our southern border. But the corporate media isn’t going out there and showing you what’s going on, so the American people don’t see just how bad this situation really is. For this podcast, as a massive migrant caravan containing thousands travels through Mexico to the U.S., Anna has a timely conversation with one of the only people covering the border crisis from the front lines — in some cases, even behind enemy lines. Anna's guest is Jorge Ventura, an investigative journalist who has spent extensive time on the border exposing the havoc that weak borders are wreaking on innocent communities from Texas to California. Jorge has been threatened, had guns pointed at him, and is very aware that his life may be in danger. But he also knows there’s no one else willing to speak the truth and show the raw footage that the American people need to say. From human smuggling to the illegal drug trade, evil people are exploiting our porous southern border to profit and destroy American lives.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Up next, Luna Talks with Anna Paulina Luna part of
the gang which drugs, cartels, violence, human smuggling. There's a
humanitarian crisis happening at our southern border, but the corporate
media isn't going to tell you that or show you
what's going on. Today we hear from one of the
only journalists covering the story from the front lines. This
(00:22):
is Luna Talks with on a Paulina. Hey, everyone, and
welcome back to today's episode of Luna Talks with Me,
your hosts on A Paulina Luna. As you may have remembered,
when I first got into politics, I definitely felt that
there was only a small number of young conservative Hispanic
(00:42):
Americans that we're speaking out, especially on the topic of
illegal immigration, and really working hard to expose what was
happening at our southern border. I can tell you I
actually remember the day that I was able to reach
out and touch base with a young man by the
name of Jorge Ventura. He at the time was an
independent investigative journalist and he was working, i believe at
(01:05):
the time at Univision as a reporter, or he was
at least behind the scenes, and he wanted to help
expose what was happening in our country and how the
media was essentially using this against Hispanic Americans as propaganda.
And in the conversation that I had with him, I
had no idea at that point in time that he
(01:26):
would go forward and become one of the I think
one of the top investigative journalists we currently have in
our country. He's gone as far as covering what's happening
in Mexico with the cartel violence during the elections, you
name it, he had it. He was showing footage. A
lot of this was missing from the mainstream media narrative,
mainly because I think these topics especially they really scare people.
(01:50):
But not so when it came time to cover what
was happening with this migrant caravan that is currently on
its way up to our southern border. We are now
hearing reports that the numbers are increasing to upwards of
sixty thou people. The first person that I thought to
bring on to cover this was Jorge vn Tura. He
also happened to have an experience recently that when I
(02:12):
was reading over some stuff for work, actually sent a
chill down my spine because of the fact that he
is now because of the fact that he's covering all
of this. I think he's put himself really out there,
and I think that his life is being threatened because
of what he's covering. So, without further ado, I want
to introduce you all to joge vn Tura, not just
my friend, but someone who's leading the charge and exposing
(02:33):
what's happening on the border to help wake up the
American people as to the true crisis that we're facing
as a country. Old Kay, thank you so much for
joining us today here on Luna Talks. Some people may
not know this, but I've known you for how long now,
I'd say two to three years, But you you found
me in the beginning beginning, so you will claim that.
(02:55):
You can claim that. So we started off early. I
think at the time it's kind of funny, but there
weren't a lot of people like you or me. I
think Hispanics in general really taking to social media speaking out.
So to your credit, you're already well on your way
to becoming an amazing investigative journalist. But um, we've known
each other for a minute. So when I heard what
happened to you this past couple of weeks, in regards
(03:19):
to you basically being confronted by the cartels. I wanted
to bring you on the show because a lot of
people right now, especially with what you have with the caravan,
they don't understand that this is now not just in Mexico,
this is on our own home turf here in the
United States. Real quickly, what is it that you do
to kind of explain to the listeners. You are an
investigative journalists correct, yeah, correct, investigative journalists and also like
(03:42):
on field correspondence, the really the main thing is just
showing the audience, you know, the biggest stories but from
the front lines and giving them that raw video. So
you've worked with some incredible organizations obviously I know that
you've been on Tucker Carlson. So you're a nobs journalist.
Do you bring it footage and you specifically cover everything
(04:03):
in regards to immigration and basically cartels. Correct, Yeah, we're
looking at that and us also these huge you know,
human smuggling connections, especially the routes. That's one thing that
we've been able to show the audiences that the routes
that these human smugglers used on our southern border. So
how did you even get started with that because that's
a very heavy topic and a lot of people, I
think a lot of journalists really kind of get afraid
(04:25):
when you know, you mentioned cartels or you talk about smuggling,
they kind of shy away from it. So the way
I kind of got involved was, um, you know, I
kind of got got kind of on the scene last
summer during the BLM rights. So you know, I was
one of the front line of reports for the Daily Color.
Then I covered the rights of summer, So that kind
of prepared me for the border as in, like you know,
(04:48):
seeing kind of violence, being in dangerous situations, how to
handle these moments that you can't really teach in a
journalism classroom, very hostile environments. Um, So that kind of
prepared me what we had now. And you know, I
did the rights after the riots. I focused on a
lot of the small businesses that were getting affected during
the lockdowns. I did a lot of things with the
mental health with the children who were you know, locked down,
(05:09):
and kind of on top of all that, the border
just became the number one issue. I remember it was
the month of March. It became actually like the border
crisis even had like CNN and ABC News reporting on it,
so that's how you knew it was pretty big. Even
they couldn't avoid it. So I actually I went to
the to the border for my first time around around then.
And the biggest thing for me, Anna is usually when
(05:30):
you when you read about border news, you know, you're
always reading about the numbers, right, It's always you know,
this month we had this many thousand apprehensions, just numbers
and stats, so you don't actually, you know, you kind
of forget that these actually real people. So when I
got to the border and just seeing the large kind
of family units and caravan of people that were coming
in kind of just really impacted me because it was
the first time that I was seeing it actually happened
(05:51):
in person. It wasn't numbers anymore. You know, instead of
reading about uncompanied miners, I actually got to meet them.
And instead of meeting about the rapes and sexual to
happen to Microwomen, I got to meet them. I got
to you know, we talked about the human smuggling, their
journey and it just became more real and basically ever
since then, I said, you know what, this is gonna
be the number one story. Um, you know, it's my
(06:12):
prediction that come this is going to be the number
one topic when it comes to the presidential debate. Same
thing kind of twenty sixteen where Trump made immigration the
number one issue and he kind of took that on.
So I've been, you know, really just covering it since
Marcia's it just came to our attention and we've just
been giving the audience kind of that raw frontline video
footage that I think they've never really seen before, even
from the corporate media. Yeah, I can tell you that
(06:33):
it's interesting because you're really seeing a shift I think
in the way that news is being reported. It used
to be that people would have breaking news on news channels, right,
and that was kind of the only avenue where people
could get the news. But now the Internet, it's disseminating
quicker than on television. So I see news stories breaking,
for example, on your social media page a day before
(06:53):
I'm seeing it break on Fox News or MSNBC or
CNN real quickly. Because I do want to ask you
about the situation that you just actually experienced. But where
can people go to follow you specifically on your social
media and really get I think a raw perspective on
what's truly happening at the border. So the best two
places right now, all of my work is going to
(07:14):
be on the Daily Color you know, website and YouTube.
But if you want it like from me as it's happening,
kind of breaking new style, Instagram is great. So Instagram
is really easy, just my first and last name, Y
Ventura and TV at the end, so ho even TV.
And then on Twitter it's been to report and right
now we're breaking all the news on Twitter first, so
if you're following us on Twitter, you'll see it there
(07:34):
before it ends up on the instats, before we go
up on Fox or anything like that. So Twitter is
the number one avenue for that. And for those wondering
how to spell hold hits j O R G E.
And then Ventura like the pet detective a spinter a
pet detective and said, okay, so sorry to throw that
in there. Okay, so you get involved in covering what's
happening at the border, you're seeing all this stuff really
(07:57):
take place in regards to the human trafficking and the
drug running. I know that it's interesting. A lot of
people don't realize how much fentanyl is actually poured into
our country and really, I think that even if you
are you know, if you follow hip hop. I was
actually just reading three artists that I actually like listening to.
They all odeed because of fentanyl being laced into their
(08:18):
narcotics that they were using. But the point is is
that it's affecting everyone. It's not just affecting hip hop artists.
It's affecting every single town in America. Every town is
now a border town. I want to ask you about
what happened though when you recently went down. Were you
in Texas or were in California border area? I was
in um Arizona. Okay, So you're in Arizona. Okay, So
(08:39):
you're in Yuma, Arizona and you have something really really
shady happened, which I heard about it and my skin
was pretty much crawling. But I have to break real
quick for commercial breaks, so everyone sits height. We'll be
right back. All right. I'm here again with Jorg Ventura,
investigative journalists covering what's happening at the border. So to
(08:59):
continue that story, you're in you my Arizona. What happens? Yes,
so I mean um Arizona. Just to give some some
context to people. So the reason we're in Yuma. It's
because this area now is becoming kind of with one
of the hardest hit sectors. So just a little bit
of context. In August, agents and humor, they only encounter
like six and ninety four migrants. Fast forward one year later,
(09:21):
those same agents encounter seventeen thousands, So we it's already
a two tho percent increase. It's one of those hots uh,
kind of the hotter sectors now in this whole border crisis.
So we we identified an area and you might where.
They call it the gap so it's literally border wall
and then literally take a gap with no border wall,
so it's it's nicknamed the gap Um. When I asked
Border Patrol, you know why you know why that nickname?
(09:43):
They said if the border construction literally stopped as soon
as the Biden administration came in, so they got nicknamed
the gap Um. It's near an area called the Colorado River,
and right across it is the Mexican town called Los Argodonis.
Now what makes this one human smoking interesting is that
the human smother is are actually you could spot them
out in the broad daylight and they'll walk up to
like the boundary of US and Mexico and they'll take
(10:06):
the payments and they'll smuggle the migrants over so they'll
walk up to the middle of the Colorado River. Now
there's no water in this in this river just for
this for some context, so you so we so we
identified this route. It's a spot that we've been going
to and filming the human smugglers, you know, smuggle migrants
to take payments. We've also identified um a lot of
the busses from Mexicali drive up to Los Ago Donuts
(10:26):
and drop off the migrants. So we've been taking video
footage of that. And on this day we we got
there early in the morning, I think it was around
seven in the morning. And when made this actually a
little bit different was that the human smuggler was only
bringing in one male. So usually we see human smuglers
bringing groups of people, family units, kids. He was only
bringing one male. So when I when I talked to
trapt to this, he said that male is either two things.
(10:48):
Either he is a member of the cartel or that
he was bringing in drugs in his country. I think
it was the drugs because his backpack was huge. So
he's he's taking the payment as he's walking down to
us on this Colorado River. We were taking video of him,
and it kind of slipped my mind of like what
was gonna happen as soon as he saw me, because
I was like, I was kind of just shocked of
him getting paid right there in the broad daylight. So
we're taking video of that. Now as soon as he
(11:09):
he gets close to me, he approaches me, he starts.
He had an aggressive tone. He was asking me in Spanish,
you know who I was? Why was I taking video?
And as he was saying that, he turned around and
put his hand on his gun and he got more aggressive.
So as soon as I saw kind of all that,
you know, I I stopped recording my phone and put
my phone down, and then he started yelling at me,
started yelling at me at Spanish when he was very
(11:30):
aggressive with it, you know, a hand on the gun,
he said. He was telling me to put my phone
on the floor, and and I'm assuming, you know, he
wants to do this so he could obviously steal my
phone and then like that, we don't have no video evidence.
So right there, you know, my mind kind of blanked.
I've never really been in this moment in my life.
And I said you know what, I'm taking my chances.
I'm just running back to the border wall, and if
he shoots, he shoots, because he was he was starting
to shoot me, said hey, I'm gonna shoot you put
(11:50):
that phone on the floor, and I just said, you
know what, if he shoots, he shoots. So I just
started running and I just didn't turn back. I ran
back to the border wall, and you know, I think
it only lasted thirty seconds, but it felt like it
lasted a lifetime. And uh, you know, I've never really
never been in that moment in my life. What we
did is we did a screen grab of the video
so that that's how you see that that viral photo
(12:10):
of him with the hand in his gun. We put
it on on Twitter and when you know, crazy viral.
We got contacted by Border Patrol and they told us
that they had a whole, basically a whole meeting in
briefing around that encounter, and they're basically gonna gonna send
their investigative units. So the very next day that we
were there, they sent there what they called border Tack,
which is a technical unit of Border Patrol. So that's
actually the Border Patrol that's actually armed with weapons. So
(12:32):
they were, according to them, investigating that route and they're
looking for that individual. So he was basically coming into
the United States from Mexico with a gun, yes, and
he was smuggling, uh, just a single male that was
most likely bringing drugs into this country. I mean, his
backpack was huge. And border patrol says that not right,
(12:52):
there is a huge red flag because these guys are
usually bringing in family units there, bringing in kids. So
the fact that he was doing that and that he
was doing it armed, they were saying, hey, this is
probably was a member of the cartel. Wow. So like
you hear that story for everyone listening, I think that,
I mean, this is no joke. It's gone significantly worse.
And now we're hearing you know, I was talking to
one of my buddies. He said that by the time
(13:14):
does roll around, I am a percent with you. I
do believe that this is going to be a huge,
huge topic, not just I think for I think the
mid terms, but by the time rolls around, there is
going to be into the millions of people that will
have entered illegally at the southern border. And just like
you pointed out, and obviously you have footage of it
(13:35):
bringing over god knows what and honestly bring you over farms,
threatening American citizens, which is not something that you would
ever expect to hear, especially from a journalist m who's basically,
you know, an American journal is trying to share that
sort of the American people. What do you think the
effect will be with these migrant caravans that we have
coming over currently, because I know that they're saying that
(13:55):
the next caravan is supposed to be I think they're
calling it the mother of all caravans. There's activists. Have
you seen the video of the activist whose I think
he's connected to the Open Border Society Foundation. He's out
there he's saying, we're going to basically, we're prepared for war. Yeah,
it's it's honestly crazy stuff. And the thing and is,
when I got to the border in March, it was
already bad, and you know, you know, I was asking myself,
(14:17):
I'm like, you know, there's no way this situation could
even get any worse, And it just kept getting worse
every single month, and we saw it last month, I mean,
on on, you know, in that late September we saw
fifteen thousand Haitians all really just kind of crashed that
little town of the real Texas. We're already kind of
seeing the impacts. One of the biggest things right now
is crime is going up, the drug intake is coming up,
(14:38):
is coming up, and fedal is coming up. But the
the drug intake is is the huge red flag. I
was speaking to a bord Petro Agan. He says that
between last year and this year that they've already seen
a huge increase between six percent increase and fetting all
that's coming in. I was even talking to a police
chief down in Arizona who told me that in his
little small town they usually have you know, one feeding
a death a year. Now they're actually up to twelve
(14:59):
and that number to only get worse. And just a
human smuggling one border portray Ajan told me that these
human spellers are making up to fourteen million dollars a
day just off smuggling humans. That's not even counting the
drugs are bringing into the country million, fourteen million dollars
a day just off human smuggling. We're not even counting
the drug part of this trade. So the you know,
(15:21):
the cartels and human smuggling groups, they love the megant crisis.
They're exploiting these people that are very vulnerable, that are
gonna get human trafficking and human smuggling. One of them.
The scarier kind of reports came out by Axios actually
in September. They said that one out of three unaccompanied
children that get released into the United States, the government
actually loses track of And the situation got so bad
with that that the Department of Justice d o J
(15:44):
is now investigating the government to see whether we are
releasing unaccompanied children to labor traffickers in the United States.
I mean, this is just kind of compiling, compiling, so
you know, a lot of you know, a lot of
folks asked me, and I would say that this is
actually a humanitarian crisis on our southern border right now.
I'm so glad that you bring that up, because I
feel like the mainstream news will only show you a
certain angle, but they're not talking about the actual implications
(16:06):
that this is. There are human rights abuses taking place
at the border. And it's interesting because the Hispanic demographic
it's not quite white, it's not quite black, it's this
in between, and so the media can't necessarily categorize it
as black versus white. But if they're going to talk
about what's happening with you know, this country, and how
the left constantly tries to portray there as being an
(16:27):
issue with race, why do they not talk about the
literal slavery taking place at the southern border unless they
realize if they expose that to the American people, that
we would wake up and we would want border security.
And so I'm glad that you brought that up, because
it is absolutely human rights abuses at the border every
single day. It is a humanitarian crisis. Anyone that pushes
(16:48):
for open borders is an idiot because if you saw
what you saw, or if you read the reports access
would put out all of that stuff. I mean, it
just goes to show how much we have to really,
I think fix from a legislative perspective, and how bad
policy and bad representation in DC is affecting people on
both sides of the border. I want to ask you
(17:08):
one last question, and it's in regards to what is
going on in California with now obviously this open border situation,
and in regards to illegal drug operations. But I have
to break now for our last commercial breaks, so we'll
be right back. All right, I'm here to Ventura investigative journalist. Okay,
(17:28):
tell us about what's happening in California with the marijuana
grow operations. I know we've spoken about it briefly, but
I want to hear in detail because I think that
a lot of people don't realize. You know, California is
one of those states that prides itself on being for
legal marijuana, and yet you have some of the shadiest,
worst hardened cartel's going there to actually produce for them. Yeah.
(17:51):
So this is actually one of the more i would say,
crazier underreported stories of the whole year. And I actually
stumbled on the story just being at the border and
you know, I was covering the migrant crisis and Republican
Congressman Mike Rca actually came and visited the southern border,
and you know, he represents District twenty five in California,
and at that time, you know, Congressman micrc was the
(18:13):
only represented from California. I think he's still probably is
still the representative, the only represent from California to visit
the southern border. And I just asked him, I said, hey, Congressman,
I'm really curious of you know, why you're at the
southern border. So far it's only been congressman and senators
from Texas. And he said, he briefly just said, you
know who, hey, we actually have a huge human smuggling
Mexican cartel problem connected to the border that's taking over
(18:33):
our district. And I was like, can you can you elaborate?
What do you mean? He says, we have this huge,
alarming kind of illegal marijuana operation crisis happening back in
California District twenty five. Is that you gotta come check
it out. So um up in North l A County,
you know l A County is this huge l A County.
So we're not you know, it's not always the Hollywood
in the cities, but out in that North l A
(18:53):
County it's very it's a you know, desert rural community.
You know, a lot of the uh you know, you
find just a lot of families out there because they
like to get away from the city, don't like to
be in the mannace of l A. And it's it's
been a safe community, you know overall out there in
Palm down Ella Valley. And what we discovered is we
spent a full two months investigating these illegal drug operations
and I was just shocked of what what we we found.
(19:16):
So for folks who don't know, um. So in two
thousand and sixteen, Prop sixty four past in California. So
Prop sixty four legalized cannabis statewide in California. The big
issue though, that it made a legal cultivation from a
felony down to a misr meter. So for the drug cartels,
at first they got hit by this law because now
they're marijuana business. It's now legal. People, you know, you
(19:38):
don't need to kind of underground as much anymore. But
this actually operates, This kind of opened up this huge
um kind of black market where now they don't even
have to go through the legal process, the bureaucracy, the
red tapes UH to legalize the marijuana. And what I
mean by this is now these card tells. What they
did is they found the spot of Annella Valley, which
is like I said, rural desert area, and they start
up this illegal drug operations. What they'll do is they'll
(20:00):
start up in illegal marijuana operation and they'll smuggle migrants
from the southern border down to down to that area.
Note that Lake county and force these migrants to work
these illegal marijuana grows. Essentially, what we're seeing is real
life slavery on American soil. We will another term is
the dentured servants, So these migrants are forced to work
these illegal marijuana grows and these cartels up to what
(20:20):
what we found out is there's over five hundred illegal
operations and the cartels that are battling for all. This
is the Mexican cartels, the Chinese mafia and Armenian crime
organizations that have really just ranged rapid and this is
changing the communities up in PALMDA and La Valley. Now
they're the homicide rate is going up. The cartels are
actually having gunfire out there, battles between themselves. There's actually
(20:42):
no police in these areas out there in those world communities,
so these folks are are all by themselves. And in California,
the water is a huge problem. The you know, California
as a state is in a huge drought. The problem
is that these illegal marijuana operations they're taking up to
three to nine point six million dollars are uh I said,
a should say three to nine point six million water
(21:04):
gallons per day when they when they operate these illegal
girls because they obviously don't want any the city to
find out, so they're not they're not getting this water legally,
so they're getting this water by tapping into aqua ducks,
illegal wells, and just stealing actually just folks water out
there in the desert. They're also chilling. They're also changing
the real estate market as well because they're just buying
all the properties and actually pushing these people out there.
(21:25):
It's honestly just fascinating to see that's happening on American soils.
So a producer and I spent a full, you know,
two months out there running a full investigation, kind of
spying on these cartels, um kind of tracking their day
to day night activity and just you know what we
found what was alarming. The county next story. We also
spent uh some time in the county next store, which
is San Bernardino. San Bernino has over one thousand illegal
(21:47):
marijuana grows, so just between San Bernardino and l A Peen. Yeah,
so it's it's, like I said, it's a huge red
flag because it's like you know, when you kind of
hear the stories and and you're you're down there and
you see it in person, you can't believe that it's
how opening on American soil. But the cartels are here,
they're taking over there, even more empowered than ever. And
really one of the more interesting things and is you
(22:08):
know that California just had a recollection, and whether it
was Newsom or the Republican governors that were running this
is actually not even on the radar. I didn't I
didn't hear one governor talk about taking on these cartels
and taking on this kind of this illegal marijuana business
that's just wrecking habbage on these American towns out there
in North La County. When you explain it like that, though,
it almost seems like, you know, you had Rudy Giuliani
(22:30):
going after the five families in New York City, and
then all of a sudden, it's like almost like California
is now being split into replicating what happened in New
York City. I mean, there's always been a history of
organized crime in the United States, but when it's this
flagrant just out there in the public, you have to
be worried that, you know, because you are one of
the only journalists going out there and doing so. I
(22:52):
think aside from Sarah Carter. Um, sometimes do you get
nervous that you know you might be in danger because
of what you're reporting on because the news won't do
their job, um all the time. And it's been it's
been on the back of my mind, especially after you know,
that recent encounter with the arm human smuggler, it's been
more it's been more on my back of the mind.
And UM, you know it's it's risky, but you know,
(23:13):
we feel that this is the type of work that
people have to see. Um. You know, people don't believe
this stuff until they see the footage, and you know,
it's a it's a risk that we're willing to take. Um,
it's just one of those things that you just kind
of have to accept it. Well, I appreciate God bless
you for doing what you're doing. And I actually had
James O'Keefe on this podcast a few episodes ago and
he said, don't be afraid, just do it because when
(23:34):
we stop speaking the truth, they went, and it's true,
you're literally speaking the truth. Um. You do have a
documentary coming up, Can you give us some more information
about that so that people can get ready to tune
in for that because you said, you're working on a
documentary for this right and it's releasing in the fall. Yeah.
So we just got done filming um our whole investigative
piece on all these drug cartels in the deserts in California.
(23:54):
I think people are gonna find it really fascinating what
they see. So the documentary comes out November first. Where
you could find it is you go on Daily Caller
dot com. It's going to redirect you to the website
we're hosting the documentary, or you could just you know,
follow me on my Instagram at John to A TV
or on Twitter Insure report. We'll have all those details,
but it's coming out in November one, And just want
to say, you know, thank you Anna for letting me
(24:16):
come on and kind of share our reporting with the
audience and just kind of them get in the reality
of what's happened on at our southern border right now.
Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it,
and we will be continuing to cover what you're doing
because it's frankly fascinating. So thank you so much for
joining us. Thank you. Before we go, I want to
thank you Jetera again for such a great interview and
I want to thank you guys so much for listening.
(24:37):
Please leave us a review and rate us five stars
on Apple Podcasts. To your more of my episodes and
get my weekly newsletter, please head to Gangridge through six
dot com slash Ana. You can also find me on Twitter, Parlor, Facebook,
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you to producer Drew Steale, writer Aaron Kligman, and executive
producers Debbie Myers and Speaker New Gingridge part of the
Gingridge through sixty network
Up next, Luna Talks with Anna Paulina Luna part of
the gang which drugs, cartels, violence, human smuggling. There's a
humanitarian crisis happening at our southern border, but the corporate
media isn't going to tell you that or show you
what's going on. Today we hear from one of the
only journalists covering the story from the front lines. This
(00:22):
is Luna Talks with on a Paulina. Hey, everyone, and
welcome back to today's episode of Luna Talks with Me,
your hosts on A Paulina Luna. As you may have remembered,
when I first got into politics, I definitely felt that
there was only a small number of young conservative Hispanic
(00:42):
Americans that we're speaking out, especially on the topic of
illegal immigration, and really working hard to expose what was
happening at our southern border. I can tell you I
actually remember the day that I was able to reach
out and touch base with a young man by the
name of Jorge Ventura. He at the time was an
independent investigative journalist and he was working, i believe at
(01:05):
the time at Univision as a reporter, or he was
at least behind the scenes, and he wanted to help
expose what was happening in our country and how the
media was essentially using this against Hispanic Americans as propaganda.
And in the conversation that I had with him, I
had no idea at that point in time that he
(01:26):
would go forward and become one of the I think
one of the top investigative journalists we currently have in
our country. He's gone as far as covering what's happening
in Mexico with the cartel violence during the elections, you
name it, he had it. He was showing footage. A
lot of this was missing from the mainstream media narrative,
mainly because I think these topics especially they really scare people.
(01:50):
But not so when it came time to cover what
was happening with this migrant caravan that is currently on
its way up to our southern border. We are now
hearing reports that the numbers are increasing to upwards of
sixty thou people. The first person that I thought to
bring on to cover this was Jorge vn Tura. He
also happened to have an experience recently that when I
(02:12):
was reading over some stuff for work, actually sent a
chill down my spine because of the fact that he
is now because of the fact that he's covering all
of this. I think he's put himself really out there,
and I think that his life is being threatened because
of what he's covering. So, without further ado, I want
to introduce you all to joge vn Tura, not just
my friend, but someone who's leading the charge and exposing
(02:33):
what's happening on the border to help wake up the
American people as to the true crisis that we're facing
as a country. Old Kay, thank you so much for
joining us today here on Luna Talks. Some people may
not know this, but I've known you for how long now,
I'd say two to three years, But you you found
me in the beginning beginning, so you will claim that.
(02:55):
You can claim that. So we started off early. I
think at the time it's kind of funny, but there
weren't a lot of people like you or me. I
think Hispanics in general really taking to social media speaking out.
So to your credit, you're already well on your way
to becoming an amazing investigative journalist. But um, we've known
each other for a minute. So when I heard what
happened to you this past couple of weeks, in regards
(03:19):
to you basically being confronted by the cartels. I wanted
to bring you on the show because a lot of
people right now, especially with what you have with the caravan,
they don't understand that this is now not just in Mexico,
this is on our own home turf here in the
United States. Real quickly, what is it that you do
to kind of explain to the listeners. You are an
investigative journalists correct, yeah, correct, investigative journalists and also like
(03:42):
on field correspondence, the really the main thing is just
showing the audience, you know, the biggest stories but from
the front lines and giving them that raw video. So
you've worked with some incredible organizations obviously I know that
you've been on Tucker Carlson. So you're a nobs journalist.
Do you bring it footage and you specifically cover everything
(04:03):
in regards to immigration and basically cartels. Correct, Yeah, we're
looking at that and us also these huge you know,
human smuggling connections, especially the routes. That's one thing that
we've been able to show the audiences that the routes
that these human smugglers used on our southern border. So
how did you even get started with that because that's
a very heavy topic and a lot of people, I
think a lot of journalists really kind of get afraid
(04:25):
when you know, you mentioned cartels or you talk about smuggling,
they kind of shy away from it. So the way
I kind of got involved was, um, you know, I
kind of got got kind of on the scene last
summer during the BLM rights. So you know, I was
one of the front line of reports for the Daily Color.
Then I covered the rights of summer, So that kind
of prepared me for the border as in, like you know,
(04:48):
seeing kind of violence, being in dangerous situations, how to
handle these moments that you can't really teach in a
journalism classroom, very hostile environments. Um, So that kind of
prepared me what we had now. And you know, I
did the rights after the riots. I focused on a
lot of the small businesses that were getting affected during
the lockdowns. I did a lot of things with the
mental health with the children who were you know, locked down,
(05:09):
and kind of on top of all that, the border
just became the number one issue. I remember it was
the month of March. It became actually like the border
crisis even had like CNN and ABC News reporting on it,
so that's how you knew it was pretty big. Even
they couldn't avoid it. So I actually I went to
the to the border for my first time around around then.
And the biggest thing for me, Anna is usually when
(05:30):
you when you read about border news, you know, you're
always reading about the numbers, right, It's always you know,
this month we had this many thousand apprehensions, just numbers
and stats, so you don't actually, you know, you kind
of forget that these actually real people. So when I
got to the border and just seeing the large kind
of family units and caravan of people that were coming
in kind of just really impacted me because it was
the first time that I was seeing it actually happened
(05:51):
in person. It wasn't numbers anymore. You know, instead of
reading about uncompanied miners, I actually got to meet them.
And instead of meeting about the rapes and sexual to
happen to Microwomen, I got to meet them. I got
to you know, we talked about the human smuggling, their
journey and it just became more real and basically ever
since then, I said, you know what, this is gonna
be the number one story. Um, you know, it's my
(06:12):
prediction that come this is going to be the number
one topic when it comes to the presidential debate. Same
thing kind of twenty sixteen where Trump made immigration the
number one issue and he kind of took that on.
So I've been, you know, really just covering it since
Marcia's it just came to our attention and we've just
been giving the audience kind of that raw frontline video
footage that I think they've never really seen before, even
from the corporate media. Yeah, I can tell you that
(06:33):
it's interesting because you're really seeing a shift I think
in the way that news is being reported. It used
to be that people would have breaking news on news channels, right,
and that was kind of the only avenue where people
could get the news. But now the Internet, it's disseminating
quicker than on television. So I see news stories breaking,
for example, on your social media page a day before
(06:53):
I'm seeing it break on Fox News or MSNBC or
CNN real quickly. Because I do want to ask you
about the situation that you just actually experienced. But where
can people go to follow you specifically on your social
media and really get I think a raw perspective on
what's truly happening at the border. So the best two
places right now, all of my work is going to
(07:14):
be on the Daily Color you know, website and YouTube.
But if you want it like from me as it's happening,
kind of breaking new style, Instagram is great. So Instagram
is really easy, just my first and last name, Y
Ventura and TV at the end, so ho even TV.
And then on Twitter it's been to report and right
now we're breaking all the news on Twitter first, so
if you're following us on Twitter, you'll see it there
(07:34):
before it ends up on the instats, before we go
up on Fox or anything like that. So Twitter is
the number one avenue for that. And for those wondering
how to spell hold hits j O R G E.
And then Ventura like the pet detective a spinter a
pet detective and said, okay, so sorry to throw that
in there. Okay, so you get involved in covering what's
happening at the border, you're seeing all this stuff really
(07:57):
take place in regards to the human trafficking and the
drug running. I know that it's interesting. A lot of
people don't realize how much fentanyl is actually poured into
our country and really, I think that even if you
are you know, if you follow hip hop. I was
actually just reading three artists that I actually like listening to.
They all odeed because of fentanyl being laced into their
(08:18):
narcotics that they were using. But the point is is
that it's affecting everyone. It's not just affecting hip hop artists.
It's affecting every single town in America. Every town is
now a border town. I want to ask you about
what happened though when you recently went down. Were you
in Texas or were in California border area? I was
in um Arizona. Okay, So you're in Arizona. Okay, So
(08:39):
you're in Yuma, Arizona and you have something really really
shady happened, which I heard about it and my skin
was pretty much crawling. But I have to break real
quick for commercial breaks, so everyone sits height. We'll be
right back. All right. I'm here again with Jorg Ventura,
investigative journalists covering what's happening at the border. So to
(08:59):
continue that story, you're in you my Arizona. What happens? Yes,
so I mean um Arizona. Just to give some some
context to people. So the reason we're in Yuma. It's
because this area now is becoming kind of with one
of the hardest hit sectors. So just a little bit
of context. In August, agents and humor, they only encounter
like six and ninety four migrants. Fast forward one year later,
(09:21):
those same agents encounter seventeen thousands, So we it's already
a two tho percent increase. It's one of those hots uh,
kind of the hotter sectors now in this whole border crisis.
So we we identified an area and you might where.
They call it the gap so it's literally border wall
and then literally take a gap with no border wall,
so it's it's nicknamed the gap Um. When I asked
Border Patrol, you know why you know why that nickname?
(09:43):
They said if the border construction literally stopped as soon
as the Biden administration came in, so they got nicknamed
the gap Um. It's near an area called the Colorado River,
and right across it is the Mexican town called Los Argodonis.
Now what makes this one human smoking interesting is that
the human smother is are actually you could spot them
out in the broad daylight and they'll walk up to
like the boundary of US and Mexico and they'll take
(10:06):
the payments and they'll smuggle the migrants over so they'll
walk up to the middle of the Colorado River. Now
there's no water in this in this river just for
this for some context, so you so we so we
identified this route. It's a spot that we've been going
to and filming the human smugglers, you know, smuggle migrants
to take payments. We've also identified um a lot of
the busses from Mexicali drive up to Los Ago Donuts
(10:26):
and drop off the migrants. So we've been taking video
footage of that. And on this day we we got
there early in the morning, I think it was around
seven in the morning. And when made this actually a
little bit different was that the human smuggler was only
bringing in one male. So usually we see human smuglers
bringing groups of people, family units, kids. He was only
bringing one male. So when I when I talked to
trapt to this, he said that male is either two things.
(10:48):
Either he is a member of the cartel or that
he was bringing in drugs in his country. I think
it was the drugs because his backpack was huge. So
he's he's taking the payment as he's walking down to
us on this Colorado River. We were taking video of him,
and it kind of slipped my mind of like what
was gonna happen as soon as he saw me, because
I was like, I was kind of just shocked of
him getting paid right there in the broad daylight. So
we're taking video of that. Now as soon as he
(11:09):
he gets close to me, he approaches me, he starts.
He had an aggressive tone. He was asking me in Spanish,
you know who I was? Why was I taking video?
And as he was saying that, he turned around and
put his hand on his gun and he got more aggressive.
So as soon as I saw kind of all that,
you know, I I stopped recording my phone and put
my phone down, and then he started yelling at me,
started yelling at me at Spanish when he was very
(11:30):
aggressive with it, you know, a hand on the gun,
he said. He was telling me to put my phone
on the floor, and and I'm assuming, you know, he
wants to do this so he could obviously steal my
phone and then like that, we don't have no video evidence.
So right there, you know, my mind kind of blanked.
I've never really been in this moment in my life.
And I said you know what, I'm taking my chances.
I'm just running back to the border wall, and if
he shoots, he shoots, because he was he was starting
to shoot me, said hey, I'm gonna shoot you put
(11:50):
that phone on the floor, and I just said, you
know what, if he shoots, he shoots. So I just
started running and I just didn't turn back. I ran
back to the border wall, and you know, I think
it only lasted thirty seconds, but it felt like it
lasted a lifetime. And uh, you know, I've never really
never been in that moment in my life. What we
did is we did a screen grab of the video
so that that's how you see that that viral photo
(12:10):
of him with the hand in his gun. We put
it on on Twitter and when you know, crazy viral.
We got contacted by Border Patrol and they told us
that they had a whole, basically a whole meeting in
briefing around that encounter, and they're basically gonna gonna send
their investigative units. So the very next day that we
were there, they sent there what they called border Tack,
which is a technical unit of Border Patrol. So that's
actually the Border Patrol that's actually armed with weapons. So
(12:32):
they were, according to them, investigating that route and they're
looking for that individual. So he was basically coming into
the United States from Mexico with a gun, yes, and
he was smuggling, uh, just a single male that was
most likely bringing drugs into this country. I mean, his
backpack was huge. And border patrol says that not right,
(12:52):
there is a huge red flag because these guys are
usually bringing in family units there, bringing in kids. So
the fact that he was doing that and that he
was doing it armed, they were saying, hey, this is
probably was a member of the cartel. Wow. So like
you hear that story for everyone listening, I think that,
I mean, this is no joke. It's gone significantly worse.
And now we're hearing you know, I was talking to
one of my buddies. He said that by the time
(13:14):
does roll around, I am a percent with you. I
do believe that this is going to be a huge,
huge topic, not just I think for I think the
mid terms, but by the time rolls around, there is
going to be into the millions of people that will
have entered illegally at the southern border. And just like
you pointed out, and obviously you have footage of it
(13:35):
bringing over god knows what and honestly bring you over farms,
threatening American citizens, which is not something that you would
ever expect to hear, especially from a journalist m who's basically,
you know, an American journal is trying to share that
sort of the American people. What do you think the
effect will be with these migrant caravans that we have
coming over currently, because I know that they're saying that
(13:55):
the next caravan is supposed to be I think they're
calling it the mother of all caravans. There's activists. Have
you seen the video of the activist whose I think
he's connected to the Open Border Society Foundation. He's out
there he's saying, we're going to basically, we're prepared for war. Yeah,
it's it's honestly crazy stuff. And the thing and is,
when I got to the border in March, it was
already bad, and you know, you know, I was asking myself,
(14:17):
I'm like, you know, there's no way this situation could
even get any worse, And it just kept getting worse
every single month, and we saw it last month, I mean,
on on, you know, in that late September we saw
fifteen thousand Haitians all really just kind of crashed that
little town of the real Texas. We're already kind of
seeing the impacts. One of the biggest things right now
is crime is going up, the drug intake is coming up,
(14:38):
is coming up, and fedal is coming up. But the
the drug intake is is the huge red flag. I
was speaking to a bord Petro Agan. He says that
between last year and this year that they've already seen
a huge increase between six percent increase and fetting all
that's coming in. I was even talking to a police
chief down in Arizona who told me that in his
little small town they usually have you know, one feeding
a death a year. Now they're actually up to twelve
(14:59):
and that number to only get worse. And just a
human smuggling one border portray Ajan told me that these
human spellers are making up to fourteen million dollars a
day just off smuggling humans. That's not even counting the
drugs are bringing into the country million, fourteen million dollars
a day just off human smuggling. We're not even counting
the drug part of this trade. So the you know,
(15:21):
the cartels and human smuggling groups, they love the megant crisis.
They're exploiting these people that are very vulnerable, that are
gonna get human trafficking and human smuggling. One of them.
The scarier kind of reports came out by Axios actually
in September. They said that one out of three unaccompanied
children that get released into the United States, the government
actually loses track of And the situation got so bad
with that that the Department of Justice d o J
(15:44):
is now investigating the government to see whether we are
releasing unaccompanied children to labor traffickers in the United States.
I mean, this is just kind of compiling, compiling, so
you know, a lot of you know, a lot of
folks asked me, and I would say that this is
actually a humanitarian crisis on our southern border right now.
I'm so glad that you bring that up, because I
feel like the mainstream news will only show you a
certain angle, but they're not talking about the actual implications
(16:06):
that this is. There are human rights abuses taking place
at the border. And it's interesting because the Hispanic demographic
it's not quite white, it's not quite black, it's this
in between, and so the media can't necessarily categorize it
as black versus white. But if they're going to talk
about what's happening with you know, this country, and how
the left constantly tries to portray there as being an
(16:27):
issue with race, why do they not talk about the
literal slavery taking place at the southern border unless they
realize if they expose that to the American people, that
we would wake up and we would want border security.
And so I'm glad that you brought that up, because
it is absolutely human rights abuses at the border every
single day. It is a humanitarian crisis. Anyone that pushes
(16:48):
for open borders is an idiot because if you saw
what you saw, or if you read the reports access
would put out all of that stuff. I mean, it
just goes to show how much we have to really,
I think fix from a legislative perspective, and how bad
policy and bad representation in DC is affecting people on
both sides of the border. I want to ask you
(17:08):
one last question, and it's in regards to what is
going on in California with now obviously this open border situation,
and in regards to illegal drug operations. But I have
to break now for our last commercial breaks, so we'll
be right back. All right, I'm here to Ventura investigative journalist. Okay,
(17:28):
tell us about what's happening in California with the marijuana
grow operations. I know we've spoken about it briefly, but
I want to hear in detail because I think that
a lot of people don't realize. You know, California is
one of those states that prides itself on being for
legal marijuana, and yet you have some of the shadiest,
worst hardened cartel's going there to actually produce for them. Yeah.
(17:51):
So this is actually one of the more i would say,
crazier underreported stories of the whole year. And I actually
stumbled on the story just being at the border and
you know, I was covering the migrant crisis and Republican
Congressman Mike Rca actually came and visited the southern border,
and you know, he represents District twenty five in California,
and at that time, you know, Congressman micrc was the
(18:13):
only represented from California. I think he's still probably is
still the representative, the only represent from California to visit
the southern border. And I just asked him, I said, hey, Congressman,
I'm really curious of you know, why you're at the
southern border. So far it's only been congressman and senators
from Texas. And he said, he briefly just said, you
know who, hey, we actually have a huge human smuggling
Mexican cartel problem connected to the border that's taking over
(18:33):
our district. And I was like, can you can you elaborate?
What do you mean? He says, we have this huge,
alarming kind of illegal marijuana operation crisis happening back in
California District twenty five. Is that you gotta come check
it out. So um up in North l A County,
you know l A County is this huge l A County.
So we're not you know, it's not always the Hollywood
in the cities, but out in that North l A
(18:53):
County it's very it's a you know, desert rural community.
You know, a lot of the uh you know, you
find just a lot of families out there because they
like to get away from the city, don't like to
be in the mannace of l A. And it's it's
been a safe community, you know overall out there in
Palm down Ella Valley. And what we discovered is we
spent a full two months investigating these illegal drug operations
and I was just shocked of what what we we found.
(19:16):
So for folks who don't know, um. So in two
thousand and sixteen, Prop sixty four past in California. So
Prop sixty four legalized cannabis statewide in California. The big
issue though, that it made a legal cultivation from a
felony down to a misr meter. So for the drug cartels,
at first they got hit by this law because now
they're marijuana business. It's now legal. People, you know, you
(19:38):
don't need to kind of underground as much anymore. But
this actually operates, This kind of opened up this huge
um kind of black market where now they don't even
have to go through the legal process, the bureaucracy, the
red tapes UH to legalize the marijuana. And what I
mean by this is now these card tells. What they
did is they found the spot of Annella Valley, which
is like I said, rural desert area, and they start
up this illegal drug operations. What they'll do is they'll
(20:00):
start up in illegal marijuana operation and they'll smuggle migrants
from the southern border down to down to that area.
Note that Lake county and force these migrants to work
these illegal marijuana grows. Essentially, what we're seeing is real
life slavery on American soil. We will another term is
the dentured servants, So these migrants are forced to work
these illegal marijuana grows and these cartels up to what
(20:20):
what we found out is there's over five hundred illegal
operations and the cartels that are battling for all. This
is the Mexican cartels, the Chinese mafia and Armenian crime
organizations that have really just ranged rapid and this is
changing the communities up in PALMDA and La Valley. Now
they're the homicide rate is going up. The cartels are
actually having gunfire out there, battles between themselves. There's actually
(20:42):
no police in these areas out there in those world communities,
so these folks are are all by themselves. And in California,
the water is a huge problem. The you know, California
as a state is in a huge drought. The problem
is that these illegal marijuana operations they're taking up to
three to nine point six million dollars are uh I said,
a should say three to nine point six million water
(21:04):
gallons per day when they when they operate these illegal
girls because they obviously don't want any the city to
find out, so they're not they're not getting this water legally,
so they're getting this water by tapping into aqua ducks,
illegal wells, and just stealing actually just folks water out
there in the desert. They're also chilling. They're also changing
the real estate market as well because they're just buying
all the properties and actually pushing these people out there.
(21:25):
It's honestly just fascinating to see that's happening on American soils.
So a producer and I spent a full, you know,
two months out there running a full investigation, kind of
spying on these cartels, um kind of tracking their day
to day night activity and just you know what we
found what was alarming. The county next story. We also
spent uh some time in the county next store, which
is San Bernardino. San Bernino has over one thousand illegal
(21:47):
marijuana grows, so just between San Bernardino and l A Peen. Yeah,
so it's it's, like I said, it's a huge red
flag because it's like you know, when you kind of
hear the stories and and you're you're down there and
you see it in person, you can't believe that it's
how opening on American soil. But the cartels are here,
they're taking over there, even more empowered than ever. And
really one of the more interesting things and is you
(22:08):
know that California just had a recollection, and whether it
was Newsom or the Republican governors that were running this
is actually not even on the radar. I didn't I
didn't hear one governor talk about taking on these cartels
and taking on this kind of this illegal marijuana business
that's just wrecking habbage on these American towns out there
in North La County. When you explain it like that, though,
it almost seems like, you know, you had Rudy Giuliani
(22:30):
going after the five families in New York City, and
then all of a sudden, it's like almost like California
is now being split into replicating what happened in New
York City. I mean, there's always been a history of
organized crime in the United States, but when it's this
flagrant just out there in the public, you have to
be worried that, you know, because you are one of
the only journalists going out there and doing so. I
(22:52):
think aside from Sarah Carter. Um, sometimes do you get
nervous that you know you might be in danger because
of what you're reporting on because the news won't do
their job, um all the time. And it's been it's
been on the back of my mind, especially after you know,
that recent encounter with the arm human smuggler, it's been
more it's been more on my back of the mind.
And UM, you know it's it's risky, but you know,
(23:13):
we feel that this is the type of work that
people have to see. Um. You know, people don't believe
this stuff until they see the footage, and you know,
it's a it's a risk that we're willing to take. Um,
it's just one of those things that you just kind
of have to accept it. Well, I appreciate God bless
you for doing what you're doing. And I actually had
James O'Keefe on this podcast a few episodes ago and
he said, don't be afraid, just do it because when
(23:34):
we stop speaking the truth, they went, and it's true,
you're literally speaking the truth. Um. You do have a
documentary coming up, Can you give us some more information
about that so that people can get ready to tune
in for that because you said, you're working on a
documentary for this right and it's releasing in the fall. Yeah.
So we just got done filming um our whole investigative
piece on all these drug cartels in the deserts in California.
(23:54):
I think people are gonna find it really fascinating what
they see. So the documentary comes out November first. Where
you could find it is you go on Daily Caller
dot com. It's going to redirect you to the website
we're hosting the documentary, or you could just you know,
follow me on my Instagram at John to A TV
or on Twitter Insure report. We'll have all those details,
but it's coming out in November one, And just want
to say, you know, thank you Anna for letting me
(24:16):
come on and kind of share our reporting with the
audience and just kind of them get in the reality
of what's happened on at our southern border right now.
Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it,
and we will be continuing to cover what you're doing
because it's frankly fascinating. So thank you so much for
joining us. Thank you. Before we go, I want to
thank you Jetera again for such a great interview and
I want to thank you guys so much for listening.
(24:37):
Please leave us a review and rate us five stars
on Apple Podcasts. To your more of my episodes and
get my weekly newsletter, please head to Gangridge through six
dot com slash Ana. You can also find me on Twitter, Parlor, Facebook,
Instagram and gettor at Real Onna Paulina and especial. Thank
you to producer Drew Steale, writer Aaron Kligman, and executive
producers Debbie Myers and Speaker New Gingridge part of the
Gingridge through sixty network
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