October 12, 2022 • 31 mins
In 2016, a rookie NASCAR driver was arrested in one of the biggest police raids in Canadian history. Overnight, Derek White went from an unknown driver to a front page headline.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Campsite, media grace fans, the moment has a ride your
Rights shot. Yeah. It's July and we're in Loudon, New
Hampshire at the Magic Mile. We're going racing baby, who
(00:27):
will hoist the lobster At the end of three hundred
and one laps from New Hampshire Motor Speed WYT. Three
of the country's best drivers have gathered here for the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series five hour Energy three oh one.
On the line is a checkered flag, a quarter million
dollar purse, and NASCAR's only living trophy, a twenty pound
(00:48):
lobster named Loudon. I want to take a look at
our starting grid as the cars about to roll off
of pit Road. On the front row Carl Edwards with
its first Magic Mild full and first and thirteen. He's
next to two times to get Shore Winter and then
way way. In the back, starting in forty second place
(01:08):
is the Jet Black number thirty three Chevy driven by
a man named Derek White. Even though Derek is forty
five years old, he's a rookie here in New Hampshire.
It's his first time ever racing in the NASCAR Cup Series,
his first time running with the big dogs for a
guy that's been racing since he was a teenager. This
is a dream come true. Fans are on there, made
(01:30):
here in New Hampshire. Water speed like great flading is
in the air, getting up and go the green flag.
It's a call Derek an underdog wouldn't be totally accurate
because Derek doesn't stand a snowball's chance and how at
winning this race. He's starting last in a car that's
a few miles per hour off the pace even on
its best days. Behind the idea Timmy close Wi that's
(01:55):
little lay cowards the inside. Can he make it stay?
In the end, he finished in thirty ninth place, ten
laps behind the leader. The TV announcers never mentioned his
name and the cameras only showed his car for a
split second. But that's a damn shame because Derek is
making history here. Derek White is a Mohawk from Canada
(02:16):
and he's the first Indigenous person ever to drive in
the NASCAR Cup Series. Instead of putting up ads for
Oscar Meyer or Viagra on his car, he chose to
paint the Mohawk Warrior flag on his hood. Derek was
a real hero back home, an inspiration for his community.
What he didn't know was that police were watching his
(02:38):
every move. They were wired tapping his phone, tailing his vehicles,
and intercepting all his messages because they believed Derek was
a major figure in a criminal organization made up of
South American drug cartels, Canadian gangsters, and outlaw bikers. Just
(02:58):
a few months after his NASCAR debut, Derek White would
go from being the pride of the community, someone the
entire Mohawk Nation could stand behind, to the person splitting
it apart. M from Campsite Media and Dan Patrick Productions,
This is Running Smoke, the story of a race car
(03:23):
driver taken down in an international police stay and how
we might change the future of Native rights. Episode one.
(03:43):
Welcome to Ghanawage. My name is Roger Gola, and I
grew up in Florida between the Volucia County dirt track
and the day tone of Speedway. If I hadn't been
blessed with severe motion sickness and a voice made for podcasting,
I might have become a race car driver instead of
a journalist. So you can understand why I've been hooked
on Derek's story since it made headlines back in and
(04:06):
what had called the largest grade of its kind in America.
Quebec Provincial Police carried out Operation my Gale aimed at
dismantling what they called a drug, tobacco and money laundering ring.
Seven hundred police officers carried out a bus that netted
more than a hundred thousand pounds of contraband tobacco, eight
hundred pounds of cocaine, and millions in cash. Nearly sixty
(04:27):
people across Canada and the US were arrested on narcotics
smuggling and money laundering charges. It was the biggest bust
in years, and Derek was accused of being a major
figure in the criminal organization. Then I learned that Derek
was taking his case all the way at Canada's Constitutional Court.
This rookie race car driver who was accused of being
(04:49):
a major player in a criminal operation was taking on
the Canadian government for his rights as an Indigenous person,
and it looked like he actually had a case. So
I started looking into Derek's story and put thousands of
miles on my car, tracking down indigenous leaders, undercover investigators,
and contrabands smugglers. And what I learned was that this
(05:10):
story is about much more than race cars and a
drug bust. It's about what it means to be indigenous
in the modern world. I knew that the first step
to telling the story was to find Derek and find
out who he really was. So that's what I did
back in twenty nineteen, shortly after he appealed this case.
I packed my car and spent three days covering the
(05:32):
four miles from Florida to Montreal. When I got there,
it turned out to be a lot easier to find
Derek than you might think. I knew that, aside from racing,
he ran a grocery store in Gottawauge, the Mohawk Territory
where he lived. So I left a message for him
at the Mohawk Market and he met me in the
parking lot about twenty minutes later. How's it going all right?
(05:54):
Oh yeah, we've running around drugging. Yeah, man, he just yeah,
just last night. It's gonna be here for a month.
A month. Derek copped out of a black workman wearing
roughed up boots, some old jeans, and a dusty car
Hart jacket. He looked like any good old boy I'd
(06:15):
seen down at the track in my hometown. I made
my pitch, said I wanted to tell his story. He
crossed his arms and chewed on a toothpick while I talked.
He was just totally unreadable. He didn't seem too happy
I was there. But then Derek saw my Florida plates.
He seemed impressed that I had driven all the way
up just for him. He got back in the van,
(06:36):
popped the door and told me to get in. You
know new your seat bill, and you're with me, so
I'm gonna be a seat bill. I put my seatbelt on. Anyway,
what do you want to go? I wanted to see
Gnawaga through Derek's eye, so I asked him to give
me a tour of the place he called home. Oh,
we could start off at weever, he started off with
(07:00):
my grandmother starting up her own little smoke shop right
in her yard. Boa by air right now and have
a look at it. On the way there, we passed
a micro brewery, the cigar Lounge, golf course, a bunch
of mom and pop restaurants, and of course a Tim Horton's.
(07:21):
This is one of my buddies. He's opening up some
kind of I'm not even sure what it is. A
juice place, or juice or some kind of healthy store.
Donawaga didn't look like the stereotypical reservation I've seen in movies,
some dusty, barren piece of land with tumbleweeds and mobile homes.
Donawaga looked well off. The houses were big, the yards
(07:45):
were tidy, and there seemed to be a new pickup
truck in just about every driveway. If you go by
the the statistics, I think we're one of the wealthiest
reserves in Canada. Where do you think that is? If
you look across, you see the bridge there. Montreal is there.
This is the main artery to cross and you have
(08:07):
to come through Guna August. So whatever we sell on
the reserve, people are gonna bite because we're always our
prices are always better than the old site, so we
have a lot of traffic control. The reason prices are
better in Gnawaga than in Montreal comes down to one
simple fact. Gnawaga is a sovereign nation, separate from Canada.
(08:29):
They have their own flag, their own laws, and their
own government. When you cross the bridge from Montreal to
go to Gnawaga, there might not be a customs agent
or a passport check, but you're essentially leaving the country
of Canada and stepping foot onto the independent Mohawk territory
of Ganawauke. And one thing you'll notice right away when
you cross into Gnawaga is that sales tax is not
(08:52):
coited here, so tax free shops line the main roads.
And you've got all smoke shops all the all down here.
That's one, two, three, four, five in a row. That aret.
It's impossible to miss the smoke shops in Cottawaug. There's
(09:12):
ubiquitous as beer bellies at a NASCAR race. You can't
go more than a few hundred feet without running into one.
There's Mixed Smoky's with the Golden Arches. Then there's Best
Butts on the yellow best Buy logo. There's Smoke King,
Crazy Horse, Burning Leaf, Redman's, and so anymore. These smoke
shops range from the size of a tool shed to
a full sized truck stop, and inside you can get
(09:35):
any cigarette you can imagine, plus a bunch of local
brands you've never heard of. They come in boxes of twenty,
cartons of ten boxes and cases of fifty cartons. You
can even buy them in ziplock bags of two hundred
On average, almost half the price of a pack of
cigarettes that you might buy in New York or Quebec
is just tax. That's not material cost, that's not the
(09:58):
cigarette company's mark up. It's just tax. But here in
Gnawage you won't find those pesky tax stamps on any
cigarette packs. And what's the price difference between buying the
carton on the other side of the bridge we're over here, Well,
you got the cartons on the outside, uh, the name
(10:18):
brand's demur or Explorer and stuff like that. The goal
for about a hundred and twenty dollars per carton two
hundred cigarettes, and you can buy two hundred cigarettes in
a bag for twenty bucks, so you're saving hundred dollars
per two hundred cigarettes. You can see how cigarettes sold
(10:40):
on a tax free reservation would be pretty good business.
And it's one that Derek's been involved in since he
was a kid. Derek pulled off the main road and
pointed through a window at a gas station with a
turquoise blue awning over two pumps. Off to one side,
there was a car wash that said O c R
Gas Bar. It was a logo I'd seen plastered over
(11:01):
a lot of Derek's race cars. The gas station looked
like any Shell or Snocco you've ever seen, except for
the fact that it was attached to a house with
a two car garage. This is what Derek wanted to
show me, his grandmother's place where he got to start.
My grandmother opened up her first, uh first and only
basically cigarette store was right in this little car poard
(11:22):
here where you see this car. That was a small
little store. She was a school bus driver for the kids,
so she would do her run in the morning, like
seven o'clock in the morning. When she would drop the
kids off, she would get in her money carlo and
she would drive down the cornwall. She had enough money
for half a case of smokes, and then she would
(11:44):
drive it all the way back herself, put in her store,
try to sell it off, and the next day she
would turn the profit over and that and then she'd
have enough to buy a whole case, and then so
on and so on like that. That's where she started.
Over this road here, like I said, was the main
artery to get to Montreal, so there was traffic all
(12:07):
the way down this road. So this little store was
pretty that busy. You know. Ever since he dropped out
of high school, Derek had worked odd jobs on and
off the reservation. He tried his hand at high rise construction,
concrete pouring, even had a stint shipping vehicles internationally. Eventually,
he decided to follow his grandmother's example. Tobacco and gas
(12:28):
in Gonawaga. You couldn't go wrong when we opened this place.
I went to borrow the money at the bank and
they wouldn't lend it to me because they wouldn't They said,
there's not enough community members in the reserve for another
gas station. So she kind of they kind of thought
that it wouldn't work. But I showed them I borrowed
the money off my ground larder at the time to
(12:49):
open this station. And she she asked me, she goes,
were you gonna put it? I told her, so, I'm
gonna put it right in your yard. I had no
other land, So I mean, this is what started in everything.
From that little gas station in his grandma's front yard,
Derek built an empire. I have three gas stations. I
have the Mowawk Market, the only grocery store under reserve.
(13:12):
I got a car wash, the only car washing under reserve.
I also got a construction company um back hole was
dump trucks and in the same area and my property
there I have a garage, a small garage that I
do tires and oil changes for locals and non locals. Also,
Derek had an entrepreneurial savvy that I found remarkable. He
(13:35):
was constantly WHEELI in dealing, looking for the next opportunity.
His brain was wired for it, and it served him well.
Derek had gone from constantly looking for work and getting
turned away from banks to calling the shots. You speaking
of French a little bit. I can understand a little bit,
but not much. The people I deal would all speak English. Song.
(13:59):
If they've all by business, they'll talk English. Derek's success
was built on the foundation that Mohawks don't pay sales tax.
It was a fundamental fact of life on the territory.
But on the outside that exemption can be a bit
more contentious. Coming up after the break, they see we're
(14:20):
making money, boom, they want to tax us. You know, like,
just leave us alone, just bother your own people on
the outside and let them collect the taxes from them,
and just leave us alone. Going on, We'll be right back.
(14:41):
You're listening to running Smoke media. When I met Derek
in He was out on bail in the middle of
one of Ghanawag's most watched court battles. He was facing
off against the Canadian government. He was hemorrhaging money to
legal fees, couldn't leave Quebec without permission and had to
check in at a police station on a regular base.
As he was simply trying to spend time with his
(15:02):
wife and his two sons, run his businesses and keep
a low profile, he had no reason to talk to
a journalist. But as I started to learn, there's more
to it, Derek had his walls up for a reason.
Folks in Gonawaga were tired of having their story told
by outsiders and having it told wrong. I think the
thing that people are wary about is they get burned
(15:25):
by the French media. Would just come in, uh, you know,
spent a couple of seconds here, get a bullshit story,
and then and then view of their narrative and their
skewed view of us, said, they're ignorant view of let's
you know, kind of pointing at all of us as criminals.
Steve Bonspiel is the editor and publisher of The Eastern
Door newspaper, one of the bigger papers serving Mohawk territories
(15:46):
across Canada. Steve's Mohawk himself and has reported on these
communities for nearly twenty years. It'll be actually nineteen years
in January. Could you mean just like the barest overview
of what Gottawaga is, like, how would you describe this community?
Many people are here? Like what's that? What's it like? Well,
you know, it's funny because even just the question of
how many people are here is is open to interpretation
(16:09):
because I think right now there's people on the Cahaga
of Gonawaga Registry, apparently there's eight thousand people that actually
live here, and apparently on the Federal registry there's ten thousand.
So um, your guess is as good as mine. It
seems like every part of your existence here is open
to your interpretation. And it's just like this gray area. Well,
(16:32):
I guess that's the kind of you know, the intro
to this. You're you're right, I mean, it's it's unfortunately,
there's so many things that have been left like that,
you know, And and the the ones doing the interpreting
is not us, you know, it's usually the outside governments
and non native people. One major stereotype that Gonawaga deals
with is this idea that Indigenous communities are lawless places
(16:56):
that are totally run by organized crime, that their sovereign
t is really just a cover for illicit activity and
provides a safe haven for the criminal underworld. I think
it's a narrative that fits the running narrative of Mohawks
are outside the law, you know, are are doing things
in a gray area because they don't understand their rights.
(17:17):
You know, they don't understand why we have quote unquote
special rights. It's also the reason Steve says that Gonawaga
faces so much scrutiny from law enforcement. I mean, you
know it's sad to say, but you know, any kind
of police operations, it's it's just so normal to us.
They're they're always looking for ways to get in the community.
(17:38):
They're always working, looking for ways to nail people. So
we're we're always vulnerable. They're always watching us. When I
tell people like our phones are bugged, people say, oh,
he is, you know, he's crazy, he's conspiracy there. No,
it's just reality. Just in the last few years, there's
been several stories of folks in Gonawaga being busted and
(18:00):
high profile police operations that involve wire taps and undercover officers,
like the case of Floyd Latch, a former pro hockey
player who's taken down for selling wine illegally, or Wendy Mayo,
a grandmother who's arrested in a sixteen person cigarette smuggling operation.
And there's the case of Canandio Ross, who was accused
of working with the Italian mafia to finance tobacco operations.
(18:23):
By and large, these are cases related to gnawage's tax exemptions,
and depending on which side of the border you're on,
those exemptions are often seen in radically different perspectives. What
Mohawks se is tax free trade outsiders see his tax evasion.
What Mohawks the is sovereignty outsiders see as a free
(18:43):
pass for criminality. As a businessman, Derek knows that double standard. Well,
every time we try to do something, the government always
has something to say or do they try to throw
They threw a wrench in our spokes. Basically we get
something going and then right off the butt they see
we're making money, boom, they want to tax us. So
(19:05):
that's what we're kind of fighting for it, you know,
like just leave us alone. Just just bother your own
people on the outside and let them collect the taxes
from them and just leave us alone. So when Derek
chose to put the mohawk flag on the hood of
his car in that NASCAR race back, it was more
than just a sticker to cover up a blank body pedal.
(19:25):
It was a bold statement in an attempt to redefine
Gnawaga for the outside world. Um. Proud of who we
are and where we were from. We're not We're not Canadians,
were not Americans, were North American natives. Yeah, I live
in Quebec, but I'm not a Quebecer. Um born and
(19:48):
raised in Gunnawaga, and we are native people. We're we
are our own people. Were are doing our best to cover,
you know, every race he was doing, and it's something
you have to give the people. You have to give
them something to look forward to, you know, and and
(20:09):
make them understand you may just be some kid from
the rest, but you don't always have to be, you know.
So you have to fight against that narrative, to fight
against that view. And that's what he did. Racing made
Derek an inspiration for his community and offered an alternative
for the harmful stereotypes that have played Native communities for generations.
(20:30):
But racing would also eventually lead Derek into a gigantic
web of organized crime, making him a target for the
d e A Homeland Security and Canadian police that's coming
up after the break. Derek's garage is right next to
(20:56):
his house and almost exactly the same size. Inside pack
like sardines, are race cars, vintage vehicles, and power sports toys.
It's a site that would make any season podcaster forget
to ask every single question. He driven all the way
to Canada to ask. Gorgeous, Oh my god, you got
an eight seventy one blow around it. It's like horsepower
(21:19):
nine seventy Chevy pickup. There's a seventy five buick that
that one's ready to go to. That one's ready to
race tomorrow if you want it though. That are drag
car back there, a sleeper four door Bonnville, got old
ash folk car, Nova, got a drag car Malibu. What's
(21:41):
the car in here that you've had the longest? Here?
All right? I go through so many cars, you know,
I don't even Derek led me up the stairs to
his man cave, a beautifully appointed room covered in oak paneling,
sports memorabilia and a polar bear rug on the floor. Oh,
this is where we hang out and watch racing. Or okay,
we've got a full bars, they say, invite some people
(22:04):
over there. They say, it's one of the nicest bars,
even in Montreal. Well, I just wanted to ask you
a couple of questions when we had a quiet place.
I wanted to understand how a guy like Derek ends
up being accused of being the leader of a criminal organization.
As it turned out, it actually started with a trip
to Disney World. So were you into Nascar as a
(22:25):
kid too? No, you know what, it's it's kind of
funny that, Uh, I never really liked Nascar. I was
more like, uh in the drag racing and uh doing
the burnouts, the smoke and the loud noise and you know,
and after a while I kind of got boring a
(22:45):
little bit. And then we were in Florida and Orlando
with my son Jeremy, and they wanted to go to
the the team park and there's a track right outside
Universal Studios and I hear him ripping, you know, like
revving like like constantly. So holy shoo, what the hell
is that going on over there. So what Derek was
(23:07):
hearing was the Walt Disney World Speedway, basically a go
cart track for adults, but you get to race real
deal race cars. I dropped them off at the gate.
They went into the studio Universal Studios, and I just
took the car and I went follow the sound and
I come out. There's a big tractor. I think it's
a five eight mile track. So I pulled up there.
(23:30):
I went inside and I said, Uh, who are these
do guys driving? Are they tested? No? You could rent this?
What I said, where do I sign up? So I
walked in there and I never drove a NASCAR before,
I mean like a stock car before, and signed the waiver,
put the race foot on, the helmet on, and they
threw me in the car. I was like, oh. I
got in there and we went around the track. You
(23:53):
do one, one or two laps slow you and you
got to stay behind the pace car and stuff like that.
And but then after two three laps, I was like, Wow, Okay,
I could get used to this. I saw a little
picture plaque from his first day at the track. It's
a photo of him almost twenty years ago, wearing a
red and blue fire suit and sunglasses. That's what we
(24:13):
started it right there. Two thousand and six. Yeah, that's me.
I got in for the four laps, and then I
went again and then again and again, and I was
just so holy ship. I'm still really just more hung
up on the mustache and the goatee. Oh yeah. Derek
made it sound easy, just getting behind the stock car
and turning a few laps, But racing is incredibly physical.
(24:37):
NASCAR drivers will pull more g s than an astronaut
on launch, and they can lose up to ten pounds
in a race. They're sitting inside of a car that
will get up to a hundred sixty degrees, and even
though the cars don't have windows, they're moving so fast
that the air just glides over the opening. The only
air conditioning drivers have is their helmet. It's an incredibly
grueling experience. But as soon as Derek left race track,
(25:00):
he knew he'd found his calling and he was ready
to go all in. So Derek started asking around to
see if anyone would sell him a race car. He
went all the way down to just before the border
of Michigan, somewhere somewhere way out in Ontario, and we
(25:21):
the guy was closing down his sudden lost interest in it,
and he was selling two cars with all the tools
and everything. So I went down there and I bought everything.
That's where it started. Racing works like any other sport.
You work your way through the leagues until you make
it to the big time. First you work your local
tracks Frogtown, Santa Stash and other short ovels around Montreal.
(25:45):
Then once you've got enough experience and enough money, you
break into the lower regional and national leagues. Derek started
out in the Penties Canada Racing Series and you can
hear how much he loved it in this old interview
he did with the Aboriginal People's TV Network. It's the adrenaline,
you know, it flows sort of veins, the blood dis
(26:05):
gets pumping, and once you get behind that wheel, it's
a whole different world. In orders, you don't think about
anything else. You just want to get on that track
in that car that's ahead of you. You want to
just get in front of that car. And there's another
car ahead of that car. You want to get in
front of that one. Derek should promise right away, and
in ten he won Rookie of the Year, not long
(26:28):
after that, he graduated to the NASCAR Truck and Exfinity Series.
The last two runs before the big time, Derek was
on his way. He was brokering sponsorship deals and buying faster,
better built race cars. Now, racing is expensive. There's not
many people that can afford to buy a race car,
or staff a team or build a garage. So it's
(26:48):
not uncommon for people who can afford that stuff to
rent it out to people who just want to race
here and there weekend Warriors, which is how Derek met
a French Canadian racer named Paul John was interested in
striking a deal with the racing. I met a guy
that wanted to come and race, and and I had
(27:08):
cars for rent. So basically, this individual came see me
and he said, uh, I want to rent your car.
This is fine. I said, you got to bring some money,
no problem. Derek's deal was simple, you want to raise
one of my cars, pay me thirty thou dollars and
you've got it for the weekend. For the first couple
of races, things went well. Paul Jean brought Derek the cash,
(27:30):
put on a fire suit and hopped in the car.
Everything was paid up and then he got into maybe
two or three different races, and uh, he was kind
of behind in his payments. To me, said listen, I said,
you're behind in payments. I said, I can't put you
in the car. I said, I have somebody else that's
ready to pay. No, no, no, don't worry. So he offered,
(27:53):
he goes, my friend has tobaccle. Really, I said, he goes,
you interested? I said, well, if it's landed on my door,
bring it. So that's where it. Uh, basically that's where
it started. He brought he brought some in and then
uh start paying off his bills, and he kept on racing,
(28:13):
and it just kept on going like that. For Derek,
tobacco was as good as cash. He'd grown up in
the business. He knew it. Well, can you focus on
other mohawk territories who could take raw tobacco and turn
it into cigarettes and they'd pay a pretty penny for
a steady supply in Derek's size. There wasn't anything illegal
about it. Sure, Kennedy usually levied heavy taxes on tobacco,
(28:37):
and there was even a special police force in Quebec
dedicated to intercepting untaxed tobacco shipments, but that wasn't Derek's problem.
Tobacco was something Mohawks had smoked for thousands of years,
and buying it and selling it was there right as
native people. He brought in tobacco and and asked him
where it came from or who he got it from.
Or do you regret ever making a deal with him? Yeah?
(29:01):
I do. I should have never got I shouldn't have
never bought anything off those people. I mean, I only
deal with my own people. I don't deal with the outside.
It's just that it's hard when you deal with somebody
you don't know who the heck they're dealing. That's exactly
how it is. All this bullshit happened. You know. If
I would have known that, believe it, would have stayed
(29:22):
ten miles away from all this crap. You know. And
when did you find out the Hell's Angels were involved
in all this? The day we got arrested, coming up
on this season of Running Smoke. You know, our elders
told us, they warned us, don't do this. These people
(29:43):
are doing international money longer, and we thought we could
control it. We were wrong. Bikers showed up and killed
him right on his front porch. You know, the right people,
you can get anything into going a log. I mean,
look at the NASCAR. I mean it was it was
built off bootlegging, you know, with the Moonshiners and all that.
(30:04):
When I was smuggling, it was like almost a free
for all. I loved it. We were met with two
Madus fifty caliber machine guns on the roof of that casino.
I had no choice. I had to pay them whatever
they wanted. If you did a comparison between the wealthiest
Native person the wealthiest white person, that's not even close.
He's not Robin Hood. They're doing it for the fucking money, period,
(30:28):
end of story. We have helicopters over my house. They're
just hovering there. They're watching. I guess we could say
it was a trapdoor that bag I walk down. Someone
had to do it, and I said, you know what,
it's time someone fight discovernment and see what happens. They
know that if this case goes in any way our way,
(30:48):
they got a whole new story to be right. And
I'm willing. I'm ready to go to jail. I don't
care if we lose. It's going to affect the Mohawk Nation. Yea.
Running Smoke is a production of camp Side Media, Dan
Patrick Productions and Workhouse Media. Written and reported by me
(31:09):
Roger Gola. Our producers are Leah Papes, Laine Gerbig and
Julie Dennischet. Our editors are Michelle Lands and Emily Martinez.
Sound designed and original music by Mark McAdam. Additional sound
and mixing by Ewen Lyon from Ewan. Additional reporting by
Susie McCarthy. Our executive producers or Dan Patrick, Josh Dean
of camp Side Media, Paul Anderson, Nick Vanella, and Andrew
(31:31):
Greenwood for Workhouse Media. Fact checking by Mary Mathis, artwork
by Polly Adams and additional thanks to Greg Horn, Johnny Kaufman,
Sierra Franco, Elizabeth van Brocklin, and Sean Flynn
Campsite, media grace fans, the moment has a ride your
Rights shot. Yeah. It's July and we're in Loudon, New
Hampshire at the Magic Mile. We're going racing baby, who
(00:27):
will hoist the lobster At the end of three hundred
and one laps from New Hampshire Motor Speed WYT. Three
of the country's best drivers have gathered here for the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series five hour Energy three oh one.
On the line is a checkered flag, a quarter million
dollar purse, and NASCAR's only living trophy, a twenty pound
(00:48):
lobster named Loudon. I want to take a look at
our starting grid as the cars about to roll off
of pit Road. On the front row Carl Edwards with
its first Magic Mild full and first and thirteen. He's
next to two times to get Shore Winter and then
way way. In the back, starting in forty second place
(01:08):
is the Jet Black number thirty three Chevy driven by
a man named Derek White. Even though Derek is forty
five years old, he's a rookie here in New Hampshire.
It's his first time ever racing in the NASCAR Cup Series,
his first time running with the big dogs for a
guy that's been racing since he was a teenager. This
is a dream come true. Fans are on there, made
(01:30):
here in New Hampshire. Water speed like great flading is
in the air, getting up and go the green flag.
It's a call Derek an underdog wouldn't be totally accurate
because Derek doesn't stand a snowball's chance and how at
winning this race. He's starting last in a car that's
a few miles per hour off the pace even on
its best days. Behind the idea Timmy close Wi that's
(01:55):
little lay cowards the inside. Can he make it stay?
In the end, he finished in thirty ninth place, ten
laps behind the leader. The TV announcers never mentioned his
name and the cameras only showed his car for a
split second. But that's a damn shame because Derek is
making history here. Derek White is a Mohawk from Canada
(02:16):
and he's the first Indigenous person ever to drive in
the NASCAR Cup Series. Instead of putting up ads for
Oscar Meyer or Viagra on his car, he chose to
paint the Mohawk Warrior flag on his hood. Derek was
a real hero back home, an inspiration for his community.
What he didn't know was that police were watching his
(02:38):
every move. They were wired tapping his phone, tailing his vehicles,
and intercepting all his messages because they believed Derek was
a major figure in a criminal organization made up of
South American drug cartels, Canadian gangsters, and outlaw bikers. Just
(02:58):
a few months after his NASCAR debut, Derek White would
go from being the pride of the community, someone the
entire Mohawk Nation could stand behind, to the person splitting
it apart. M from Campsite Media and Dan Patrick Productions,
This is Running Smoke, the story of a race car
(03:23):
driver taken down in an international police stay and how
we might change the future of Native rights. Episode one.
(03:43):
Welcome to Ghanawage. My name is Roger Gola, and I
grew up in Florida between the Volucia County dirt track
and the day tone of Speedway. If I hadn't been
blessed with severe motion sickness and a voice made for podcasting,
I might have become a race car driver instead of
a journalist. So you can understand why I've been hooked
on Derek's story since it made headlines back in and
(04:06):
what had called the largest grade of its kind in America.
Quebec Provincial Police carried out Operation my Gale aimed at
dismantling what they called a drug, tobacco and money laundering ring.
Seven hundred police officers carried out a bus that netted
more than a hundred thousand pounds of contraband tobacco, eight
hundred pounds of cocaine, and millions in cash. Nearly sixty
(04:27):
people across Canada and the US were arrested on narcotics
smuggling and money laundering charges. It was the biggest bust
in years, and Derek was accused of being a major
figure in the criminal organization. Then I learned that Derek
was taking his case all the way at Canada's Constitutional Court.
This rookie race car driver who was accused of being
(04:49):
a major player in a criminal operation was taking on
the Canadian government for his rights as an Indigenous person,
and it looked like he actually had a case. So
I started looking into Derek's story and put thousands of
miles on my car, tracking down indigenous leaders, undercover investigators,
and contrabands smugglers. And what I learned was that this
(05:10):
story is about much more than race cars and a
drug bust. It's about what it means to be indigenous
in the modern world. I knew that the first step
to telling the story was to find Derek and find
out who he really was. So that's what I did
back in twenty nineteen, shortly after he appealed this case.
I packed my car and spent three days covering the
(05:32):
four miles from Florida to Montreal. When I got there,
it turned out to be a lot easier to find
Derek than you might think. I knew that, aside from racing,
he ran a grocery store in Gottawauge, the Mohawk Territory
where he lived. So I left a message for him
at the Mohawk Market and he met me in the
parking lot about twenty minutes later. How's it going all right?
(05:54):
Oh yeah, we've running around drugging. Yeah, man, he just yeah,
just last night. It's gonna be here for a month.
A month. Derek copped out of a black workman wearing
roughed up boots, some old jeans, and a dusty car
Hart jacket. He looked like any good old boy I'd
(06:15):
seen down at the track in my hometown. I made
my pitch, said I wanted to tell his story. He
crossed his arms and chewed on a toothpick while I talked.
He was just totally unreadable. He didn't seem too happy
I was there. But then Derek saw my Florida plates.
He seemed impressed that I had driven all the way
up just for him. He got back in the van,
(06:36):
popped the door and told me to get in. You
know new your seat bill, and you're with me, so
I'm gonna be a seat bill. I put my seatbelt on. Anyway,
what do you want to go? I wanted to see
Gnawaga through Derek's eye, so I asked him to give
me a tour of the place he called home. Oh,
we could start off at weever, he started off with
(07:00):
my grandmother starting up her own little smoke shop right
in her yard. Boa by air right now and have
a look at it. On the way there, we passed
a micro brewery, the cigar Lounge, golf course, a bunch
of mom and pop restaurants, and of course a Tim Horton's.
(07:21):
This is one of my buddies. He's opening up some
kind of I'm not even sure what it is. A
juice place, or juice or some kind of healthy store.
Donawaga didn't look like the stereotypical reservation I've seen in movies,
some dusty, barren piece of land with tumbleweeds and mobile homes.
Donawaga looked well off. The houses were big, the yards
(07:45):
were tidy, and there seemed to be a new pickup
truck in just about every driveway. If you go by
the the statistics, I think we're one of the wealthiest
reserves in Canada. Where do you think that is? If
you look across, you see the bridge there. Montreal is there.
This is the main artery to cross and you have
(08:07):
to come through Guna August. So whatever we sell on
the reserve, people are gonna bite because we're always our
prices are always better than the old site, so we
have a lot of traffic control. The reason prices are
better in Gnawaga than in Montreal comes down to one
simple fact. Gnawaga is a sovereign nation, separate from Canada.
(08:29):
They have their own flag, their own laws, and their
own government. When you cross the bridge from Montreal to
go to Gnawaga, there might not be a customs agent
or a passport check, but you're essentially leaving the country
of Canada and stepping foot onto the independent Mohawk territory
of Ganawauke. And one thing you'll notice right away when
you cross into Gnawaga is that sales tax is not
(08:52):
coited here, so tax free shops line the main roads.
And you've got all smoke shops all the all down here.
That's one, two, three, four, five in a row. That aret.
It's impossible to miss the smoke shops in Cottawaug. There's
(09:12):
ubiquitous as beer bellies at a NASCAR race. You can't
go more than a few hundred feet without running into one.
There's Mixed Smoky's with the Golden Arches. Then there's Best
Butts on the yellow best Buy logo. There's Smoke King,
Crazy Horse, Burning Leaf, Redman's, and so anymore. These smoke
shops range from the size of a tool shed to
a full sized truck stop, and inside you can get
(09:35):
any cigarette you can imagine, plus a bunch of local
brands you've never heard of. They come in boxes of twenty,
cartons of ten boxes and cases of fifty cartons. You
can even buy them in ziplock bags of two hundred
On average, almost half the price of a pack of
cigarettes that you might buy in New York or Quebec
is just tax. That's not material cost, that's not the
(09:58):
cigarette company's mark up. It's just tax. But here in
Gnawage you won't find those pesky tax stamps on any
cigarette packs. And what's the price difference between buying the
carton on the other side of the bridge we're over here, Well,
you got the cartons on the outside, uh, the name
(10:18):
brand's demur or Explorer and stuff like that. The goal
for about a hundred and twenty dollars per carton two
hundred cigarettes, and you can buy two hundred cigarettes in
a bag for twenty bucks, so you're saving hundred dollars
per two hundred cigarettes. You can see how cigarettes sold
(10:40):
on a tax free reservation would be pretty good business.
And it's one that Derek's been involved in since he
was a kid. Derek pulled off the main road and
pointed through a window at a gas station with a
turquoise blue awning over two pumps. Off to one side,
there was a car wash that said O c R
Gas Bar. It was a logo I'd seen plastered over
(11:01):
a lot of Derek's race cars. The gas station looked
like any Shell or Snocco you've ever seen, except for
the fact that it was attached to a house with
a two car garage. This is what Derek wanted to
show me, his grandmother's place where he got to start.
My grandmother opened up her first, uh first and only
basically cigarette store was right in this little car poard
(11:22):
here where you see this car. That was a small
little store. She was a school bus driver for the kids,
so she would do her run in the morning, like
seven o'clock in the morning. When she would drop the
kids off, she would get in her money carlo and
she would drive down the cornwall. She had enough money
for half a case of smokes, and then she would
(11:44):
drive it all the way back herself, put in her store,
try to sell it off, and the next day she
would turn the profit over and that and then she'd
have enough to buy a whole case, and then so
on and so on like that. That's where she started.
Over this road here, like I said, was the main
artery to get to Montreal, so there was traffic all
(12:07):
the way down this road. So this little store was
pretty that busy. You know. Ever since he dropped out
of high school, Derek had worked odd jobs on and
off the reservation. He tried his hand at high rise construction,
concrete pouring, even had a stint shipping vehicles internationally. Eventually,
he decided to follow his grandmother's example. Tobacco and gas
(12:28):
in Gonawaga. You couldn't go wrong when we opened this place.
I went to borrow the money at the bank and
they wouldn't lend it to me because they wouldn't They said,
there's not enough community members in the reserve for another
gas station. So she kind of they kind of thought
that it wouldn't work. But I showed them I borrowed
the money off my ground larder at the time to
(12:49):
open this station. And she she asked me, she goes,
were you gonna put it? I told her, so, I'm
gonna put it right in your yard. I had no
other land, So I mean, this is what started in everything.
From that little gas station in his grandma's front yard,
Derek built an empire. I have three gas stations. I
have the Mowawk Market, the only grocery store under reserve.
(13:12):
I got a car wash, the only car washing under reserve.
I also got a construction company um back hole was
dump trucks and in the same area and my property
there I have a garage, a small garage that I
do tires and oil changes for locals and non locals. Also,
Derek had an entrepreneurial savvy that I found remarkable. He
(13:35):
was constantly WHEELI in dealing, looking for the next opportunity.
His brain was wired for it, and it served him well.
Derek had gone from constantly looking for work and getting
turned away from banks to calling the shots. You speaking
of French a little bit. I can understand a little bit,
but not much. The people I deal would all speak English. Song.
(13:59):
If they've all by business, they'll talk English. Derek's success
was built on the foundation that Mohawks don't pay sales tax.
It was a fundamental fact of life on the territory.
But on the outside that exemption can be a bit
more contentious. Coming up after the break, they see we're
(14:20):
making money, boom, they want to tax us. You know, like,
just leave us alone, just bother your own people on
the outside and let them collect the taxes from them,
and just leave us alone. Going on, We'll be right back.
(14:41):
You're listening to running Smoke media. When I met Derek
in He was out on bail in the middle of
one of Ghanawag's most watched court battles. He was facing
off against the Canadian government. He was hemorrhaging money to
legal fees, couldn't leave Quebec without permission and had to
check in at a police station on a regular base.
As he was simply trying to spend time with his
(15:02):
wife and his two sons, run his businesses and keep
a low profile, he had no reason to talk to
a journalist. But as I started to learn, there's more
to it, Derek had his walls up for a reason.
Folks in Gonawaga were tired of having their story told
by outsiders and having it told wrong. I think the
thing that people are wary about is they get burned
(15:25):
by the French media. Would just come in, uh, you know,
spent a couple of seconds here, get a bullshit story,
and then and then view of their narrative and their
skewed view of us, said, they're ignorant view of let's
you know, kind of pointing at all of us as criminals.
Steve Bonspiel is the editor and publisher of The Eastern
Door newspaper, one of the bigger papers serving Mohawk territories
(15:46):
across Canada. Steve's Mohawk himself and has reported on these
communities for nearly twenty years. It'll be actually nineteen years
in January. Could you mean just like the barest overview
of what Gottawaga is, like, how would you describe this community?
Many people are here? Like what's that? What's it like? Well,
you know, it's funny because even just the question of
how many people are here is is open to interpretation
(16:09):
because I think right now there's people on the Cahaga
of Gonawaga Registry, apparently there's eight thousand people that actually
live here, and apparently on the Federal registry there's ten thousand.
So um, your guess is as good as mine. It
seems like every part of your existence here is open
to your interpretation. And it's just like this gray area. Well,
(16:32):
I guess that's the kind of you know, the intro
to this. You're you're right, I mean, it's it's unfortunately,
there's so many things that have been left like that,
you know, And and the the ones doing the interpreting
is not us, you know, it's usually the outside governments
and non native people. One major stereotype that Gonawaga deals
with is this idea that Indigenous communities are lawless places
(16:56):
that are totally run by organized crime, that their sovereign
t is really just a cover for illicit activity and
provides a safe haven for the criminal underworld. I think
it's a narrative that fits the running narrative of Mohawks
are outside the law, you know, are are doing things
in a gray area because they don't understand their rights.
(17:17):
You know, they don't understand why we have quote unquote
special rights. It's also the reason Steve says that Gonawaga
faces so much scrutiny from law enforcement. I mean, you
know it's sad to say, but you know, any kind
of police operations, it's it's just so normal to us.
They're they're always looking for ways to get in the community.
(17:38):
They're always working, looking for ways to nail people. So
we're we're always vulnerable. They're always watching us. When I
tell people like our phones are bugged, people say, oh,
he is, you know, he's crazy, he's conspiracy there. No,
it's just reality. Just in the last few years, there's
been several stories of folks in Gonawaga being busted and
(18:00):
high profile police operations that involve wire taps and undercover officers,
like the case of Floyd Latch, a former pro hockey
player who's taken down for selling wine illegally, or Wendy Mayo,
a grandmother who's arrested in a sixteen person cigarette smuggling operation.
And there's the case of Canandio Ross, who was accused
of working with the Italian mafia to finance tobacco operations.
(18:23):
By and large, these are cases related to gnawage's tax exemptions,
and depending on which side of the border you're on,
those exemptions are often seen in radically different perspectives. What
Mohawks se is tax free trade outsiders see his tax evasion.
What Mohawks the is sovereignty outsiders see as a free
(18:43):
pass for criminality. As a businessman, Derek knows that double standard. Well,
every time we try to do something, the government always
has something to say or do they try to throw
They threw a wrench in our spokes. Basically we get
something going and then right off the butt they see
we're making money, boom, they want to tax us. So
(19:05):
that's what we're kind of fighting for it, you know,
like just leave us alone. Just just bother your own
people on the outside and let them collect the taxes
from them and just leave us alone. So when Derek
chose to put the mohawk flag on the hood of
his car in that NASCAR race back, it was more
than just a sticker to cover up a blank body pedal.
(19:25):
It was a bold statement in an attempt to redefine
Gnawaga for the outside world. Um. Proud of who we
are and where we were from. We're not We're not Canadians,
were not Americans, were North American natives. Yeah, I live
in Quebec, but I'm not a Quebecer. Um born and
(19:48):
raised in Gunnawaga, and we are native people. We're we
are our own people. Were are doing our best to cover,
you know, every race he was doing, and it's something
you have to give the people. You have to give
them something to look forward to, you know, and and
(20:09):
make them understand you may just be some kid from
the rest, but you don't always have to be, you know.
So you have to fight against that narrative, to fight
against that view. And that's what he did. Racing made
Derek an inspiration for his community and offered an alternative
for the harmful stereotypes that have played Native communities for generations.
(20:30):
But racing would also eventually lead Derek into a gigantic
web of organized crime, making him a target for the
d e A Homeland Security and Canadian police that's coming
up after the break. Derek's garage is right next to
(20:56):
his house and almost exactly the same size. Inside pack
like sardines, are race cars, vintage vehicles, and power sports toys.
It's a site that would make any season podcaster forget
to ask every single question. He driven all the way
to Canada to ask. Gorgeous, Oh my god, you got
an eight seventy one blow around it. It's like horsepower
(21:19):
nine seventy Chevy pickup. There's a seventy five buick that
that one's ready to go to. That one's ready to
race tomorrow if you want it though. That are drag
car back there, a sleeper four door Bonnville, got old
ash folk car, Nova, got a drag car Malibu. What's
(21:41):
the car in here that you've had the longest? Here?
All right? I go through so many cars, you know,
I don't even Derek led me up the stairs to
his man cave, a beautifully appointed room covered in oak paneling,
sports memorabilia and a polar bear rug on the floor. Oh,
this is where we hang out and watch racing. Or okay,
we've got a full bars, they say, invite some people
(22:04):
over there. They say, it's one of the nicest bars,
even in Montreal. Well, I just wanted to ask you
a couple of questions when we had a quiet place.
I wanted to understand how a guy like Derek ends
up being accused of being the leader of a criminal organization.
As it turned out, it actually started with a trip
to Disney World. So were you into Nascar as a
(22:25):
kid too? No, you know what, it's it's kind of
funny that, Uh, I never really liked Nascar. I was
more like, uh in the drag racing and uh doing
the burnouts, the smoke and the loud noise and you know,
and after a while I kind of got boring a
(22:45):
little bit. And then we were in Florida and Orlando
with my son Jeremy, and they wanted to go to
the the team park and there's a track right outside
Universal Studios and I hear him ripping, you know, like
revving like like constantly. So holy shoo, what the hell
is that going on over there. So what Derek was
(23:07):
hearing was the Walt Disney World Speedway, basically a go
cart track for adults, but you get to race real
deal race cars. I dropped them off at the gate.
They went into the studio Universal Studios, and I just
took the car and I went follow the sound and
I come out. There's a big tractor. I think it's
a five eight mile track. So I pulled up there.
(23:30):
I went inside and I said, Uh, who are these
do guys driving? Are they tested? No? You could rent this?
What I said, where do I sign up? So I
walked in there and I never drove a NASCAR before,
I mean like a stock car before, and signed the waiver,
put the race foot on, the helmet on, and they
threw me in the car. I was like, oh. I
got in there and we went around the track. You
(23:53):
do one, one or two laps slow you and you
got to stay behind the pace car and stuff like that.
And but then after two three laps, I was like, Wow, Okay,
I could get used to this. I saw a little
picture plaque from his first day at the track. It's
a photo of him almost twenty years ago, wearing a
red and blue fire suit and sunglasses. That's what we
(24:13):
started it right there. Two thousand and six. Yeah, that's me.
I got in for the four laps, and then I
went again and then again and again, and I was
just so holy ship. I'm still really just more hung
up on the mustache and the goatee. Oh yeah. Derek
made it sound easy, just getting behind the stock car
and turning a few laps, But racing is incredibly physical.
(24:37):
NASCAR drivers will pull more g s than an astronaut
on launch, and they can lose up to ten pounds
in a race. They're sitting inside of a car that
will get up to a hundred sixty degrees, and even
though the cars don't have windows, they're moving so fast
that the air just glides over the opening. The only
air conditioning drivers have is their helmet. It's an incredibly
grueling experience. But as soon as Derek left race track,
(25:00):
he knew he'd found his calling and he was ready
to go all in. So Derek started asking around to
see if anyone would sell him a race car. He
went all the way down to just before the border
of Michigan, somewhere somewhere way out in Ontario, and we
(25:21):
the guy was closing down his sudden lost interest in it,
and he was selling two cars with all the tools
and everything. So I went down there and I bought everything.
That's where it started. Racing works like any other sport.
You work your way through the leagues until you make
it to the big time. First you work your local
tracks Frogtown, Santa Stash and other short ovels around Montreal.
(25:45):
Then once you've got enough experience and enough money, you
break into the lower regional and national leagues. Derek started
out in the Penties Canada Racing Series and you can
hear how much he loved it in this old interview
he did with the Aboriginal People's TV Network. It's the adrenaline,
you know, it flows sort of veins, the blood dis
(26:05):
gets pumping, and once you get behind that wheel, it's
a whole different world. In orders, you don't think about
anything else. You just want to get on that track
in that car that's ahead of you. You want to
just get in front of that car. And there's another
car ahead of that car. You want to get in
front of that one. Derek should promise right away, and
in ten he won Rookie of the Year, not long
(26:28):
after that, he graduated to the NASCAR Truck and Exfinity Series.
The last two runs before the big time, Derek was
on his way. He was brokering sponsorship deals and buying faster,
better built race cars. Now, racing is expensive. There's not
many people that can afford to buy a race car,
or staff a team or build a garage. So it's
(26:48):
not uncommon for people who can afford that stuff to
rent it out to people who just want to race
here and there weekend Warriors, which is how Derek met
a French Canadian racer named Paul John was interested in
striking a deal with the racing. I met a guy
that wanted to come and race, and and I had
(27:08):
cars for rent. So basically, this individual came see me
and he said, uh, I want to rent your car.
This is fine. I said, you got to bring some money,
no problem. Derek's deal was simple, you want to raise
one of my cars, pay me thirty thou dollars and
you've got it for the weekend. For the first couple
of races, things went well. Paul Jean brought Derek the cash,
(27:30):
put on a fire suit and hopped in the car.
Everything was paid up and then he got into maybe
two or three different races, and uh, he was kind
of behind in his payments. To me, said listen, I said,
you're behind in payments. I said, I can't put you
in the car. I said, I have somebody else that's
ready to pay. No, no, no, don't worry. So he offered,
(27:53):
he goes, my friend has tobaccle. Really, I said, he goes,
you interested? I said, well, if it's landed on my door,
bring it. So that's where it. Uh, basically that's where
it started. He brought he brought some in and then
uh start paying off his bills, and he kept on racing,
(28:13):
and it just kept on going like that. For Derek,
tobacco was as good as cash. He'd grown up in
the business. He knew it. Well, can you focus on
other mohawk territories who could take raw tobacco and turn
it into cigarettes and they'd pay a pretty penny for
a steady supply in Derek's size. There wasn't anything illegal
about it. Sure, Kennedy usually levied heavy taxes on tobacco,
(28:37):
and there was even a special police force in Quebec
dedicated to intercepting untaxed tobacco shipments, but that wasn't Derek's problem.
Tobacco was something Mohawks had smoked for thousands of years,
and buying it and selling it was there right as
native people. He brought in tobacco and and asked him
where it came from or who he got it from.
Or do you regret ever making a deal with him? Yeah?
(29:01):
I do. I should have never got I shouldn't have
never bought anything off those people. I mean, I only
deal with my own people. I don't deal with the outside.
It's just that it's hard when you deal with somebody
you don't know who the heck they're dealing. That's exactly
how it is. All this bullshit happened. You know. If
I would have known that, believe it, would have stayed
(29:22):
ten miles away from all this crap. You know. And
when did you find out the Hell's Angels were involved
in all this? The day we got arrested, coming up
on this season of Running Smoke. You know, our elders
told us, they warned us, don't do this. These people
(29:43):
are doing international money longer, and we thought we could
control it. We were wrong. Bikers showed up and killed
him right on his front porch. You know, the right people,
you can get anything into going a log. I mean,
look at the NASCAR. I mean it was it was
built off bootlegging, you know, with the Moonshiners and all that.
(30:04):
When I was smuggling, it was like almost a free
for all. I loved it. We were met with two
Madus fifty caliber machine guns on the roof of that casino.
I had no choice. I had to pay them whatever
they wanted. If you did a comparison between the wealthiest
Native person the wealthiest white person, that's not even close.
He's not Robin Hood. They're doing it for the fucking money, period,
(30:28):
end of story. We have helicopters over my house. They're
just hovering there. They're watching. I guess we could say
it was a trapdoor that bag I walk down. Someone
had to do it, and I said, you know what,
it's time someone fight discovernment and see what happens. They
know that if this case goes in any way our way,
(30:48):
they got a whole new story to be right. And
I'm willing. I'm ready to go to jail. I don't
care if we lose. It's going to affect the Mohawk Nation. Yea.
Running Smoke is a production of camp Side Media, Dan
Patrick Productions and Workhouse Media. Written and reported by me
(31:09):
Roger Gola. Our producers are Leah Papes, Laine Gerbig and
Julie Dennischet. Our editors are Michelle Lands and Emily Martinez.
Sound designed and original music by Mark McAdam. Additional sound
and mixing by Ewen Lyon from Ewan. Additional reporting by
Susie McCarthy. Our executive producers or Dan Patrick, Josh Dean
of camp Side Media, Paul Anderson, Nick Vanella, and Andrew
(31:31):
Greenwood for Workhouse Media. Fact checking by Mary Mathis, artwork
by Polly Adams and additional thanks to Greg Horn, Johnny Kaufman,
Sierra Franco, Elizabeth van Brocklin, and Sean Flynn
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