November 16, 2022 • 67 mins
Jay’s meeting with Chapo sparks a new business relationship. The twins find themselves at the table with the world’s biggest drug lords. El Chapo, El Mayo and Arturo Beltran welcome the Flores brothers into the cartel family with open arms.
All episodes are available now.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
The way the card tells run is that you have
the bosses, but then you have people right underneath them.
There's the everyday people. We were blessed for a personality
that chopped my or They really liked us. They liked us,
they looked at us like their sons and treats like family.
But then the underlings was it like the right people?
(00:27):
Those are the people we could sit here like you
and chap it up and say oh this whatever the cases,
they were more ruthless than then the bosses. They're a
little more rufless than the thing. Like I think my
test with the King, yeah it might be a little
more under but there the judges, you go on your
bag and independing on how if they believe you're not,
that's your faith. There's a difference between being part of
(00:52):
it and being in it. We were in it, of
course St. Jackson, and I'm Charlie Webster and this is
(01:14):
surviving old Chapel. That's once you brought down a drug load.
Pete had just been held hostage for over twenty days,
handcuffed in a tiny room, starved and left for dead.
(01:36):
He thought he would never see his twin brother Jay again.
The kidnapping haunts Pete to this day and he still
suffers liver problems because of it. Ja managed to secure
Pete release just in the nick of time before it
was too late for Pete. But what now? They just
met the biggest drug lord in the world, l Chapo.
(01:57):
If it were me, I'd pick it in and leave
it all right there. But to be honest, it's not
that easy to live their life. It becomes your identity
and you start to gets who you are without it.
Sometimes that vulnerability makes you hold on to what you know,
even when it's not good for you. My brother and
(02:18):
I never burned our names of when it came to
like paying people back. That mattered a lot. When ship
hits a fan and you're kidnap, you survived that. What
(02:42):
happened next? Did you think about walking away from this
and stopping this? Was that? Was that enough for you?
I'm gonna find a way out, like because facing that,
facing back down or reality of that life, Like everyone
thinks it's not gonna happened to them. If you believe that,
(03:03):
I mean you're not still not you know, at a
level where with much importance. But eventually everyone in the
life suffers I'm kind of a traumatic experience. That's something
the final way of craft to find a way out
because that's done that I can't live with that much
of here that I had that you were only two
(03:25):
two and look what's happened to me? And thinking about
those regrets, like what would I regret? He started coming
to my mind about what would I regret that I
didn't do? You know, besides what I said about wanting
to be a better man, I wanted to get some
one of my best and putting my eagle to the
side and being vulnerable like you know, getting married, I said.
(03:46):
I wanted to get married like I'm a real in
a church and the chapel somewhere. I want to do
everything correct. I want to at least you know that
my wife knew when I was a faithful husband and
and keeping my bed us and for everyone else thinks,
you know, like the people matter to me. I want
to be better everything, a better brother. I want to be.
(04:09):
It didn't ething change. I think a lot of teams changed.
I got a little more serious about Mabeana and trying
to keep him my beds, putting my eagle to the side,
like my dreamer relationships. It changed a lot of way
of thinking, but it didn't change my business. The scenarios
(04:31):
where we go through something instead of us getting like
every time you sure we're gonna move away, we come
back stronger. It's weird because it happened again. Peter healing
afterwards was like it was payingful to watch. We would
(04:51):
have to keep him in the room but the doors
closed and all the lights off, and we would have
to cover the little cry under the door because the
light would hurt his eyes because he was blindfolded. He
was just so weak. We didn't want my mother not
to see him, and we had to get him help,
(05:20):
medical help and just make sure like okay and stay
still his liver problems. But more than anything, I just
feel like the trauma that he went through feel like
(05:45):
a piece of hidden died. And it breaks my heart
because it just changed him so much. But our life
certainly changed in so many ways after that can happen.
(06:11):
At first we thought it was like we probably felt
like it was a blessing. Believe or not, they get
nothing elevated your business. Now it's like now what to us,
like we were already like scraping the ceiling of what
you actually get capable of? To me, what else could
(06:32):
you do that? Right? Still, no matter what I think,
me and my brothers were still us, like we could
separate the business between who we were as as people.
What do you mean by that? Could you say that
a lot? You say that you could, but you was
(06:53):
still yourselves, You still yourselves, You could separate these things.
Do I feel like when it was business time it
was business time? Like I was like this certain way
and maybe my percentage the way I was. But when
it was like when that wasn't there, I was just normal. H.
(07:16):
I never really consider myself to be a boss, like
not a boss like that, Like I could boss people
around a lot, and I could have been bossy at times,
I guess, but I never considered myself like I always
looked at everybody as equal as friends, equals everyone. Peter
(07:38):
came back and it was like it was just all business.
His mentality was never again. So in a way, it
was almost like the business and focusing on business was
to create that power and protection and safety and actually
(08:00):
protects safety, but it consumed him power and maybe not
ever be in a situation where we couldn't pay something
you couldn't. It was just like again this spiral right
going back into the psycho was just I cant understand
that that makes sense. Everything like he did was just business, business,
(08:27):
business that he wanted to stopic had just consumed him,
like it became his obsession, like it helped him deal
with his trumpma, just like being consumed in his work.
And that's the way he dealt with it. His mentality
(08:49):
was like, they have to do more. They have to grow,
they have to scale their business, they have to be bigger,
they have to be better, they have to be this
almost eight state of perfection. He micro managed everything and
everybody wasn't about the drugs. It was about the business
(09:16):
that I think he felt like it was his and
it's what we're supposed to do. And in his said,
the only way we're going to be okay and be
saved us and not have a problemise that by being
who we were. Now. You know, we went from being
(09:37):
in that position until a couple of weeks later like
now we're at the table with the biggest drugg lords
and they love us. And where that comes to project
and protection and celebrations and a life that no one
(10:00):
could have dreamed though he's in that situation where before
it was like he was that someone's mercy and now
everyone said basically said kissing and I has. Basicly, I'm
not saying that they needed us. I'm just saying at
(10:21):
that point we're valuable and people are like I think
it's hard for them to understand that we are who
we are. We understood who we were, you know you
and both said to me that caught out. Life became
very crazy. And like I said in the beginning, I
(10:42):
think falling into men your idols and do the business
with him, getting the respect was everything. But with that
came a lot of responsibility. I think our life changed
drastically overnight. I know they were like always you know,
her business was always you know, priority, But I think
(11:07):
that it was just a lot and there was just
so many new people around us, and men and night
so much. Who's going to protect us better than the
biggest drug lords in the world. They welcomed using with
(11:27):
open arms. I still remember you know Mile saying, now
no one touches you around. My pression it was like
you belong to damn. It's like, no, we are them
and the mecca of drug lords in present time, the
(11:52):
drug lords that we know about its Chapel mile. At
that time, we were important ted damn. At that time
we had access two more drugs I think than anyone
else because of who we were as in our personalities,
how we carry ourselves, the vulnerable part of us was
(12:16):
able to be able to do business with different bosses
at the same time. And I think there was a
turning point. I think we recognized that just being there,
like they're eating no one else there that's like us,
We're the only ones becoming the biggest cocaine suppliers or
(12:42):
distributors because the distributors for the seeing a little cartel.
After my kidnapping, like I came out a different personnel.
The things were real, and it was like here, Mexico
(13:07):
is like a whole different world than Chicago. Then, like
I looked at him in a whole different light. I
came out like just like knowing exactly what I really
wanted with all my heart. I remember just having those
raw emotions in my heart, like in my inside of myself,
(13:27):
like I wanted just to be good to me, Like
I just wanted to try to be genuinely good to someone,
like I had someone that deserved that my very best.
(13:52):
So we took a walk on the beach. Yeah, so
we're taking a long walks. I'm looking for the sea
turtles and I got on both my knees next, you know,
I like to explain to her how seriously was that.
I wanted to ask her to please be my wife
(14:13):
and to spend there are still her life with me,
you know. And I remember like talking to like, I
don't know how long that is, but whatever it is,
you know, I want to spend it with feutre m h.
And when she was like I really like, of course
I will, you know, Like I was like no, Like
(14:38):
I really wanted to do it. I remember we were
like at their little moment there and you know, on
tho the stars and on the beach, and I felt
like there's no one wrong. Remember us rushing back to
the house and like going and called the wedding planet
(14:59):
and looking at the calendar. At the same time, we
looked at the kind of and we're like, what's a
good time, And then we gave ourselves like a month
and were it was like a month and a couple
of days. So we're like, I think that's the day
that like Saturday, and it was fun to like try
that went together. Getting married for the new beginning FORLS
(15:24):
was like really leaving all the past in the past,
Like whatever happened before they was like behind us, and
that we're, you know, gonna even wanted something better, you know,
and holding no score cards and like just were he
started zero and give it a real chance, give it
a real chance to like, we're a chance to love
each other and to be there and commit to each other.
(15:49):
I couldn't wait for the day. And then here I am,
you're making my own wedding plans, about to go get married,
and there's a knock at the door. And we were
(16:25):
at our home at that time, and everyone was at
the hotel the day of the wedding. The makeup artist
they just left. I was in the room, Peter, of course,
it was any other room, and the employees were in
the house and there's a knock on door, and I remember,
(16:52):
I'm pretty sure the chef opened the door and he
comes to the hay. There's cops here, you know. I
was like what, and it's like, there's cops. He that's
a man. They come in and one of the cops
(17:13):
is like the immigration agent that it worked like for
each way of the sub division of Cominium, like where
the houses were, you know, he took care of the
long work and all that. And he comes in and
I seem my recognize him. He worked as a at
the airport as well. They come in. It's like three
(17:36):
year four of moment with them, and I see the
main agent. They kind of like came in like okay,
we want to talk to you, and he's like, where
were the federal police. He has like a vanilla you know,
file folder and he's like, look, man, oh things a
(18:00):
file for Then I see my wanton fiction. I'm like,
what the heck. I hear Peter, and I hear his
tone and his voice like I can sell, like just
even with the door closed, like his tone and his voice,
and I hear others speaking, but I hear Peter a
(18:20):
little bit more angered in his tone. I picked out
the door and I see, I see Peter there, and
I see the agents, and I see the chef and
I see the fowler and he has Peter and Jay's
wanted photo. I'm like looking and I'm listening and I'm listening,
(18:42):
and the chef seeing me, and he's like get back
in the room, get back in the room. So I
didn't waste no all time. I grabbed like all the phones.
All the phones were in the room, so I grab
I was fifty phones, and I just started throwing them
(19:04):
out the window. And I propped myself on a vanity chair.
So I had my big dress and I was were
ready to go. We were so ready to wh I
have my shoes on, my big princess ball gown. It
was like multi layered. It was so heavy, like it
was already heavy. I put it on, and I'm just
(19:26):
like running through the room with this heavy dress. I
have my heels on and and I'm just thinking, you
know about I'm thinking, I gotta get rid of the phones,
and I gotta get rid of the ledgers. So I
propped myself on the vanity chair and I was just
throwing all the phones in the bush. We had like
(19:48):
huge bushes on the side of the house. And I'm
just like putting I'm like throwing the ledgers. I'm thinking,
like should I rip the ledgers? What should I do?
And I'm like, no, I can't do at either. And
I'm like throwing everything out the window, and I'm I'm
like mind you. I'm like scared. I know either he
(20:10):
was going to jail today or something bad was going
to happen. The main agent tells me, look, man, these
(20:36):
governments on the way to come and get you. I
didn't understand that. It wasn't like a little later that
most were discussing them that I didn't see that they
had a convoy of trucks out there, like it was
like forty trucks. Like I'm thinking, there's four guys coming in,
like you're out your mind. I didn't see that afterwards
(20:58):
that they already had the house that kind of surround
him and there's there, you know, either blocked me up
or start they're gonna leave with something. He's like, looking, man,
look at I'm telling you right now, you're you're going
back to the United States. The feather coming from the
(21:19):
marshy coming for you. And then he showed me the
phone and it's like an unavailable called the Idea, you know,
and he's like, that's damn calling me. And I'm like, okay,
so what do you want? Why are you telling me this?
What what do you want to do? What do you want?
Just tell me what you want. I'm like, now, we're
kind of like back and forth, like you're here, obviously
(21:39):
you're you know, you're ready to do something. What do
you want? I believe he tells me, you're like a
million and a half dollars. In my head, I'm thinking,
like I don't have a million dollars right And I said,
you know, to this my wedding day, like you obviously
know that I'm stressed, though you know, I'm sad. At
(22:01):
the same time, it's like the worst thing that could
ever happen, like all our families there all this like
and here we're gonna go with this, like and I
remember telling him, look, man, I can't give him and
(22:24):
I have dollars right now, I said, I got some money,
you know, I got a lot of expenses. Take what
I have to give you right now, which was like
three or whatever it was. I said, I could give
you that. I said, and uh, I'm gonna keep the
rest of mine to make my expenses from my wedding.
(22:50):
If you're a patient, I could give you the rest
of the money. And right away he was like I
could see him kind of get a little comfortable. They think, okay,
we're we do have a pain day. Come in regardless.
You look at the marshes are called them, they're called
um you know. And now I was like there are
tones a little more like, well, what do you want
to do it? Yeah, because you're wasting my time and
(23:16):
you can't give me more minutes. I can't that. I'm
not gonna do that. I said, take what I'm offering
you and let me go on enjoy my wedding. Man,
I said, we planned to stay for a long time
and my wife's upset. Don't ruin this day for me.
(23:37):
And he was like within like cooperating. He was like
he's looking at the other agent and he's like, yeah,
we can do that. How long would you need to
get to the money? I'm like, can you let me
enjoy it? Let me get through this weekend and now
we could talk, you know. I said, but what's the
guarantee that you're not going to take me? Like, man,
(23:58):
if I wanted to think you would have been the right.
But he's like, I'll tell you what. I'll take a
phone from you and I guarantee that, and if you
have any trouble, I'm gonna help you. If I know
that they're coming, I'm gonna get rid of them, and
I was like that's fair. I keep thinking I could
(24:21):
I get a waste, you know, like there's no fucking
way of getting away twenty thirty federal police trucks and
remember we live like on the beach and there's hotels
next me. I'm thinking like that I get down the
beach and like get away. And it was like I
really kind of have them there, so I was like,
(24:43):
they don't worry. I'm we're fixing it. Don't worry. It's
just relaxed. My dream I knew dreams, Like I just
got married. I was like shattered, like this, we're just
(25:04):
grabbing the money, just giving something like that, just here's
the money, and them just like smiling with their eyes
at it. You know, like I think it's pretty bad.
It's just kind of like okay, now, ye get the
(25:25):
funk out of here. I was mortified that if something
were to happen when everybody's there, Yeah, I was scared.
Did you think about counseling it? Because what's also crossing
(25:49):
my mind is that you've got everyone in one place,
so they could take you all out. I did, but
I didn't, like I wasn't gonna let that one This
day for me. No more like guy, I feel like
if they wanted to take to take, but I could
tell you again the greeting them that they wanted the money.
(26:10):
This is common in like that's what they do. They're
working for some money there, They're not doing that other
you know, the right thing to do. We did have
a beautiful, a beautiful wedding and you know, a beautiful
celebration just the whole just all the days that everyone
(26:31):
was you know, we're all together and just celebrating each
other and you know, celebrating with our family and our
family like truly happy for us. And then it was
like we had this thing this over our head the
whole time. I remember just like like really like talking
(26:56):
myself through to just let that go and just have
a good time. I thinking about just seeing and walk
down and come around the corner and help you drive.
It boke me And that was emotional, right, And this
is someone who wants to spend the rest of my life.
It's the one that means the world to me. Hi
in such a beautiful moment, like in those moments of
(27:23):
of joy are like truly like magnified because of so
much juggling and bad moments and right I had to
go pick up my phones and cleaner. We're late. Yeah,
when I get the phone and the ledgers, and then
I'm thinking to myself like, thank goodness, I didn't ripped
(27:45):
the ledgers because that was all that they They had
to all their accounting. So it was like one event
like right after another. It was it was a wedding
and not have to move all my family form our town.
And this is crazy, man. And you see the pattern,
(28:10):
like we couldn't even we couldn't celebrate our our marriage,
we couldn't honeymoon. There was just like this ugly pattern
of ups and downs for us. It was clear that
(28:53):
the authorities knew exactly where the Florest family lived, so
to avoid detection and further extortion, the entire family picked
up and moved their lives to a different part of Mexico.
This happened a lot at times. They had to just
drop everything and leave at a moment's notice, with food
in the fridge and clothes left in the dryer. The
(29:16):
only thing they would take is family photos so that
they couldn't be identified. It did help that money wasn't
really an issue for the twins. The kidnapping might have
been hard mentally, but it was a blessing for the business.
Jay's unexpected meeting meant that the twins were now dealing
directly with Chapo himself, But first Pete had to meet
(29:40):
the man that gave the order to kidnap him. What
was the first impression when you met Chapoo at the Starstruck?
I was a ners I phone to me, like, you know,
because you never know part of me. It was like comfortable,
(30:01):
like that wasn't that whoever? I had just been released
from my kidnapping, so it was really like why, I know,
didn't want to kill me. They want to kill me.
They would have killed me. I kind of felt that
I was still like a little bit on edge, and
everything makes you honage when you're there. You know. It's
like they all these guns and stuff for a reason.
(30:24):
I'm a future too, and I'm thinking that man, something
happens here. I'm here, I'm done. So many things can
go wrong, you know, one bad conversation or one bad disagreement.
They said he started wars. They killed thousands of people
for someone not shaking his hand. That's all. And one
(30:51):
of my first ever like main direct vials we ever
did with the people. I'm like, literally, we meet my
and bobad, we meet Chap, we're all sitting down. There's
a bunch of like all both connects there. So I
remember saying that and like chilly, nervous, sonny some mother man,
you might have I say something to you. I just
(31:11):
gotta like you might have I talk to you how quick?
I want to say something to you, like yeah, tell
me Like, look, man, we've been in business for a
long time together, you know, maybe not directly, but to
other people. Unfortunately, events led me to this Pasfring. I
just wanted the chance to do the work directly a
few without no mental man, without nobody putting my life
(31:33):
in danger. He laughs, Like I remember you said, I
want to be responsible for my own life from all life.
So he said, He's like, you know what you've earned it,
you got to comment from now. And you my people
I got. I want everyone to know you, my people.
They messed to their mess with me. You like, you're
(31:53):
gonna get whatever I give. Whatever I sell the tee
look for, I'm gonna give them to the same press
that give them to my main people, right, And just
like that, like I found there's something killos you want
to and we're picking up on the killos like an
hour and a half later. Okay, And remember before we left,
I said, hold on, hold on, I don't think I
could pay for these right now. He lies, like, don't
(32:16):
worry about your words. Good enough. We started relationship. I
remember about like one of the first meetings, like I
heard about you guys, and I didn't want to meet you,
like I was expecting some six foot talk ugly dark antle.
I was scared, like I don't know. We didn't want
to they shoot me. That's I'm by seven, we're both seven.
(32:43):
I'm with Minabada, which is pro abt of people don't know.
It's the head of the Sinattle card Toil along with
the chapel. He's been the boss for the last forty
years and he's never been arrested. He's the man May
is still the head of the Cinelo A cartel. He's
still never been caught. He's currently in hiding and the
(33:05):
reward for his capture was recently tripled to a fifty
million dollar bounty. While Chapo was only ever referred to
as Dad and Daddy, my own Beltran were known as
Aunt or uncle. He and Chapo would often meet with
the twins in Gougla, can and they became like family.
(33:28):
When I traveled, I traveled with a school back big
school bed. We're are my books that we had for
the last three years. My alledgers so like a rook stack,
a regular backpackerone's going to school like students, students. And
our notebooks were like school notebooks. Do you record single
(33:51):
thing you did? Allegers do head of note books and
they were heavy, like you know, it was heavy. Mayo
agree to me with a the nark On handshake? What's
the Northern hand shake? Yeah, and it's not that's a
(34:16):
hand shake that's going to part on the back. Then
another handshake. It has to be like that. You do that,
You do that million times all day. You do this
in roll and listen if there's tad back or you
could do and your side. You're gonna do it to everyone,
every single one, like like how many times you put
(34:37):
on the but is it like two times? Two times
like a little dad. And then it doesn't have to
be the heart of My brother just wants to kind
of put his hands on me. It's a nice gentle. Yeah,
it's like they do it like a bunch of times.
But I've seen like regularly, like maybe older gentlemen do
it to each other. And what's weird that you do
this so many times? At first I was like giving dad, okay,
(34:58):
all right, something some you know the times we will
be like hey, pallet or the Mexican Yeah, that was
like your typical boom were younger in Mexico. And then
a fist right. Jay learns a very quick lesson and
(35:25):
how important the handshake is to the Cineloma cartel bosses.
When he went to meet Mayo. It means so much
more than just a hug, a handshake and a few
gentle pats on the back. And you know, I'm somewhere
in the mountains of Durrango somewhere, and Mayo had like
dirty forty guys with him. I'm a little bit on
(35:48):
a hill and he's at the bottom of the hill
and there's a street, you know, light stream, you know rocks.
He has a boot in the stream and he has
the only one on top of the rock. You're like, hey,
what they come on? Comes like add and you come down.
Don't worry. You can buy a new clothes. You get dirty.
(36:10):
They always would joke about that. I come and as
I'm coming down, you know, I familiar faces. I don't
want all their names. Shook two or four people's hands,
Marco handshake, and myle he's there, like across the street
and they're all like right here and right there on
(36:33):
each side. Yeah, like kind of listening to him talk.
And there's guys a little bit farther out. I'm like, hey,
what's up whatever, Like you know, greening, Like if you
come into a club and everyone knows you, like, but
we're in the damn mountaintops with a bunch of drug boards, right.
(36:53):
I made the mistake of saying, well, he's important. When
I come to you, everybody stands back. So I listened
to year four and just like twelve more here and
probably and more. I go straight through the stream to
Rocks and I went to greet him, and he'd like,
straight to my to my own. He looks at me,
(37:17):
he doesn't give me a shake. He kind of grabbed
my hand. He says, my friends are not important enough.
I'm like, sir, I thought about it. I'm sorry. I
just wanted to get you first. He said, here, we're
all the same, and I said please, I said, apologizing
this man, It's like, don't worry, don't worry, sent me back,
(37:41):
shake every my hand. They're like, don't worrybody, don't worry,
like it's okay in there. And when he shook everybody's hand,
he took me like probably seven minutes. He just watched me.
Once I got some, he shook my hand. And when
I went to that, when he gave me a good
hug like how are you? You know he's hugged me tight,
like how are you? I'm like, I'm good, sir that
(38:01):
I always served, No sir, yes sir. People like was
your brother Like I'm like, yeah, you know him, and
they'll be like you you know, they'll call him a
kiss as like yeah, you know him, he's for his wife.
There's a time where we were all invited, you know,
during the first meetings that yeah, you guys, aren't you
joined this orgy? And literally when blind gift the women
(38:25):
and I was like, I'm sorry, remember you know I'm married.
He's like instead of laughing, like you're a better man
than I am. I'm married too, like two or three
times and he's just laughed. But I think that no
matter what they respected that point of view. We're not
gonna change your our ways because you know, the man
(38:48):
was there, you know. But even if he offered me
a line of cold were and I don't know drugs, now,
we're gonna skip that part. They respected at the point
wherever we said no, we said no. The okay with
that chap giving me calling me one day, he said,
(39:11):
I really really respect you guys and everything guys doing.
You know, I have my son who I want to
send to you, and I want you to teach him.
You don't show him. I want my son to like
be like you guys, like the businessmen you guys are.
That was like the biggest compliment ever. Like he said,
he wants to be like me, And I'm like, wow, man, yes,
(39:37):
whatever you want. Yeah, he says, So I'm gonna send
them to you. Just do me a favor, help him out,
show him, explain to me, you know, so you understand
the business better, and just do me one favory, just
one favor. I said, yes, sir, he said, whatever you do,
(39:58):
just don't don't burn him up. He uses the word
gemma gemmans burnt burned him a meaning do not let
people know that he's in the drug business, like keep
it quiet, keep it between us. He was a bad businessman.
(40:18):
Everything was for his advantage. I remember even would tell
him like how much one are you going to make
off this? Like he knows who his father is. He
just used it to advantage And I think I used
to tell him all the time. I got so comfortable
where I used to something like that's not the way
you're gonna do business. I felt like it was not
(40:41):
turning back the point in our return. I just remember
I'm always saying it's okay, we're safe now. You don't
have to worry. We're safe now. It's nice to be, like,
are we Jay is a fugitive, so every time we
(41:05):
would fly, but it was always, you know, nerve racking,
even though we had different ideas, different identities. When I
got to Colican for the first time, I remember Jay
saying that someone was there. They're going to pick us up.
And they came in with military and they came to
(41:32):
get us and they got our bags and walked us
to the car and made sure that we were good.
The crazy thing is is that day, like I felt,
I never felt more safe in my life. I thought
(41:52):
that they would be fine, like nothing, he's gonna put
us in harm's way m hm. And I think after
that day that experience, I felt like kind of was
okay with it. That's all they wanted, was oh I
care about it was like safety, stability, and it kind
(42:19):
of just made me feel better thinking we're sitting here
and I just it's hard going back to those times,
just thinking about who we were then and who we
are today. In hindsight, I think don't make sense or
(42:40):
we don't even understand, like how do we make certain decisions?
Because for anyone I think it good or bad. What
time that the bosses were like Itellian j MP that
(43:03):
they couldn't just move around the city on their own,
or me and Viv couldn't just move freely around and
go to the mall or go to the store. I
used to wonder, like, why, you know, why are all
these men outside? Why are they out there all night?
What's going on? Are we safe? And J would be
(43:29):
like that's what they're here for. And I'm like, good,
I don't understand, and he was like, well, you just
don't realize who we are. I think that Jay try
(43:50):
to make everything is the normal. J and Peter at
first they disregarded the bosses, and there was a situation
where I think we would go four wheeling a lot
on the a t v s. And then that day
me and Vin wouldn't go and Jay went. There was
(44:14):
like maybe thirty guys that went up to the to
the mountains. I know that day. I was really scared
because Jay came back and said that they had a
situation while they were four willing and they ran into
another group are men. He said that we just can't
(44:40):
move around the city the way that we move anymore
because I think something that happened to us. It took
about a jest to the rules accustomed to that life.
There's a lot of us that they Oh, I actually
(45:02):
took my son with me. He loved forward and then
you know on the side by side, he just loved it.
And how old is he at the time till two
I didn't know Qusha man that he might be putting
him in a dangerous situation or is it just normal?
(45:23):
I guess I should have known a little bit better.
A bunch of armed men came to meet us, and
not in a nice way. What are you doing here?
And go I'm here? And when we're boarding. He was like,
(45:45):
can you listen? Who are you with? Like who are
these people? Because you're about to die and god, I
made a phone call. He was like, he's went some twins.
(46:07):
I guess the right person happens pick up and he
said he's from the Twins from the state. He was
like yes, and he were like put me on the
phone with her boss and think he wants to talk
to It was. It was a scary situation. He was like, listen,
(46:28):
like we get it. You might not know, but don't
you ever come up here again like that without letting
someone out, we could have killed you. And I would
have killed you right now then it would have been
my ass. He was upset about that. I would have
had problems because you come up you know what, you
(46:49):
didn't realize that you were protected. He was upset. I
didn't think about those things. I'm thinking, I still be
a regular person. But even being a regular person right,
like I'm associated it is with people that don't they
know are part of that life or whatever the case is,
(47:10):
and I don't realize it, you know, because a new
territory for me, right there's so many of those like
learning experiences. What's big over there's traveling groups, right, you know,
our men, and you have to let people know you
have to check in. So if you check in, it's
(47:33):
almost like once you check in, they know that you're
to do with. So they'll give you a check locations
and they'll give you a code. They'll say that you
work for this company. It could be a company could
be like I worked for Coca Cola. Which one I
worked the one in you know, in Mexico City. They'll
tell you a code, and when you tell that coude
(47:54):
to whoever has you, it's the obligation to call back
and check in, like, hey, we have this guy here
that says he works the Coke Color. It could be
like cold Egg, it could be whatever it was at
the time. It switches check with the cos Yeah, yeah, yeah,
they worked through us and then not said that's the
(48:15):
end of that. You didn't check it and you didn't
have you know, we didn't want to put ourselves in
that situation. I would never ever like use it because
I didn't want like law enforcement to know that we
were part of the organization. And I'd rather just try
to like talk my way out of it or just
like you know, bribe him. You know, just on my own.
(48:39):
I still remember one time where it was like a
situation where I wasn't gonna be able to get out
of it. And we were two cars and they pulled
us over, and the coff and he knew me like
he would see me because you know again, same thing
that happens back in the States when I early on
and you have all these cars you don't belong there too.
(49:03):
It was like getting castle like pulled over and they're
looking for, you know, for like you know, you give
him something, some money, you know, payoff. It was one
of the situations like I'm not even gonna like I
see how many cups they are. I know who's with me.
I'm like, I jumped off the car, said like, oh listen,
(49:23):
I work for the for the quota company. They looked
at me, he said which one, and I'm like Maxo
City and he was like his eyes loved like you
do his boss like, no, I need to double check.
(49:50):
And he came back here. Pat said, oh, I apologize.
Where are you going? I'm like, we're going to dinner.
We have whatever, like where's court drop. There are three
main cartels that operate in Mexico and Cinelo is the
largest one. Collectively, more than three million local Mexicans rely
(50:10):
on the cartels to earn a living, including as private
security to those who need it. We decided to go
to cap Pits. We have special seats right in the
front row act a restaurant. So I get up, so
(50:33):
I'm gonna go to restaurant. They can't seen get about
the chair and they literally come down with the rival
and they stopped and I look at him. I'm like,
he said, where are you going to the restaurant, Like,
come on, let's go and take a like let's go,
And they literally went and stood next to me and
(50:55):
these are police. Heart listen, I use the restaurant. I'm
gonna wash my hands. I'm like, they're not helping me
work there. He's like, why not, because you're burning me up.
Like I'll tell me you're He said, no, we gotta
make sure you're good, and they escort me back down
(51:19):
to the role. One capital composed actually owned the seats,
and I guess they'll tell him, you know, my friends
may be there, like if you better keep an eye
and make sure he's okay. Yeah, they're just preclating on
I guess personal bodyguards were only one part of the
(51:41):
way the carts helped provided security. That was another way,
a deadly away headed by a man known as Rambo.
The Carter has different people who do different things, and
his job was cugarios. His job was to kill and
(52:01):
he was the wine in charge of the team of Hitman.
He was actually a prison guard to help Chip escape
the first time, and he was the most vicious, craziest
personal I think. I remember at the same time, he
was really nice to us. We'll call him Ramble. I mean,
(52:33):
I guess you couldn't stand where we can. Rambo. Yeah,
I've seen the films and huh, value should be so mad.
She used to be like, I can't believe. Oh, he
turned my stomach just because he was just so ruthless.
He loved me and my brother. I gave him his
(52:53):
first house as a gift for him and his family,
and we would do stuff like that. He would cry
and like literally cry your chess. I remember Jay inviting
him to my son's birthday party and I just was like,
(53:15):
what is he doing here? And he ended up bringing
his family and I would just get so spoked, like
my stomach with her. And when I would see him
like jams. Sorry, Like I just cannot understand how he
can sit here with his family after knowing like all
(53:35):
the stuff that he did. It just was so bothersome
to me. If you sat there and you watched him,
you would never know. And I think that was a
scary part. What did he look like? He looked like
a Mexican version working class sergeant slaughter. Do you know
(53:56):
who that is? He's bald, you know, like in school bog,
you know, with the hair here, big mustache, yeah, mustache,
kind of tall, right, like a medium build, you know.
I get a call one day, my phone's ringing in
its rambles and I'm like, yeah, hello. He's like, hey,
(54:21):
I need each other? Do you know a guy named no?
If I go, I'm like, yeah, I do. Why he said, oh,
you're sure this is so good that you know him?
Because he just approached me. You know my name? Did
you call me? And I asked them, how did you know?
He said, the twin described you. It has to be you.
(54:43):
He's your friend. When he's a really good friend of mine.
I'm not sure what your situation. Oh that's all I
need to know. That's all I need to know. Don't
worry about it. We'll make sure he's he's okay, and
here he wants to tart you. I remember him calling
her thank you so much, like thank you, I really
appreciate that. He calls me. The next day he said, Yo,
(55:08):
Ramble is it's crazyeal. I'm like, I wonder what he did,
so Ramble can see me. Two days later, he said,
we went up there and he's crying, you know, he's
slapping the guy around with his gun, you know, like,
and I'm just like, we're here to take care of business.
(55:29):
And he said he has him and five other guys
you know, tied up, and I don't go to play games,
you know, And I took up my gun and I
just he said, blood everywhere, slatter whatever. He said, let's
go anybody they wanna be sucking around, like I'm going
(55:51):
to funk around And I'm like, you did what And
he will say this coming like as if it wasn't
not here, and I had a big deal. The twins
were some of the only people who would be able
to stop a killing from going ahead. They often had
(56:13):
to use that power to save their friends. As for Loupe,
j and Pete later found out that he and his
sons were kidnapped one New Year's Eve. Loupe had to
then sign over all their properties to Chapo. In exchange.
The cartel let his sons go. Loope, though was killed
(56:33):
under Chapeo's order. With the protection of the cartel, p
(57:00):
and Jay were able to safely grow their business, continuing
to do deals and make even more money. We're working
on a business deal. We're actually standing suit of Federan
from China to Mexico. And we had the people on
our associates that were out of town come in and
(57:22):
it was kind of taking a long and they were
getting a little bit like you know, impatient boarding. Our
relationship with with him was to sit down and actually
like chit chat right talk ideas, you know, dinner. This
law was gonna like I think we're looking to profit
maybe eighty million. Of course we're paying special attention to them,
(57:48):
I guess it being the city closed in, you know,
like we didn't like to travel because it was at
that time it was hot. What they considered the government
was like plaint checkpoints, so we avoid was like going
to the street for anything. We locked ourselves and at home,
which we were okay with, but they were not okay
with So we have a place and can cool and
(58:12):
it's okay, let's go to can Come. You know, we
could just go chill over there. We cover the plane
to get ready. We have actually a jetted and this
usually transports money for emergencies from anywhere in Mexico and
we'll send it back to Chicago just in case, like
(58:33):
we needed like money to make a payment, like really fast.
For whatever reason, they said it was a good idea
fast to go private, because you know, you just stand
out right. So I say, okay, we'll just jump on
a commercial plane. We'll go separate. I'm gonna learn this.
And now I didn't like telling people what we were
(58:53):
doing because then people knew, like, oh, you're gonna travel
by chance. Top with his his cousin and said, hey, I
need you guys, anyone of used to come take care
of some business whatever, and we're about to leave your
family too. Can't call you like what I told you, guys.
(59:19):
You can have just travel. You need to call and
check in. There's a big old military operation going there.
If you guys go to the airport, do it and
I coming back. They know the business, they know how
to maneuver we're learning it. We're learning it. We're like, wow,
(59:41):
we didn't know we were going to just fly into
a trapped We're like, okay, thanks. So we decided to
change our plans. They decided to shift their get away
from Concoon to the luxurious private resort island of Pontameter,
the same place where Pete and Viv got my it.
(01:00:01):
They hadn't visited for two years. We had left that
city because the Mexican government had found out that we
were there, and we already had paid up right to
the Mexican government. Yes, we used to pay vibes to
the Mexican government. Yes we would pay brides for our business,
but but not for us. And the problem is that
they found out who we were and they tried to
(01:00:23):
extort us. And we didn't want to get the organization
about because I knew it it wasn't gonna end well.
So instead we just cut off ties. We left the
home we we owned there. We just left. We just
picked up and left and left everything there. We actually
(01:00:44):
just let our personal belongings, it's just you know, whatever,
cloth make sure we didn't even know a picture behind
them left to the house. Our workers packed up a
couple of bags and that was it. And the houses
under someone's name were just like, hey, don't even look
into it. You know it's going to get seen or
something something. They're gonna come up her because now they
know because I suppose you couldn't You couldn't ever sell
(01:01:04):
a house because if you did well was the government
knows that you own the property, that these goods canna
come from it. They're gonna follow trail where you know,
where the money went who sold it. So we end
up believing that our beach house I was right on
the beaches. It was a little getaway. You know. We
(01:01:28):
had left their two thousand five, so now we're two seven.
All right, let's go to the beach. We're gonna go
back to that same area. It's okay, we won't come on,
it's not a big deal. There's a bunch of us,
a bunch of my workers, probably twenty five of us,
(01:01:50):
and a couple of our associates and their families. We
decided to go to the beach and we had a
We were rented as a really big villa right on
the beach. It was expensive. It was like a probably
four fight down. Other than a day or SOMETI I'm
not sure. Did they have to be right? You were
hanging on the pool and stuff. Our friends are associate
(01:02:11):
decided that they were lonely. They want entertainment. I was
so tired that day. I was tired and I said
my brother, I said, I'm not going out. I'm tired.
I'm gonna go ahead and just lay it down. I
ain't the falling sleep that wakes me up. Hey, you
(01:02:36):
know Peter saying for me to wake you up, and
he's saying that they want, you know, they want to
go to the strip club. And I'm like, a come
to go have fun? Like, why don't you want to
go to the strip club? I said, I'm tired. It's like,
oh I want to go. I'm like, okay, then go
with them. You know, I'm mistake here. I'm already like sleeping.
(01:02:57):
And she was like, oh, you you know, I just
don't want to go because we're it's you know, us
scoring and whatever. The kids. I don't know. So that
kind of made me all right, let's go like one
thirty two, got up, you got dressed, got ready, and
usually we would take someone with us, you know, let's
(01:03:19):
they sit out tip And since it was late, everyone's
already kind of tired. We're like, it's okay, it's late.
We're gonna go. We're thinking they're gonna pick up a
couple of girls and it's gonna be easy. I have
a couple of guys with me and it's our friends,
four of them, mean Peter. When we get to strip club,
(01:03:44):
the security notices where you guys been, we just kind
of like kind of just burst off, like whatever, what
isn't they recognized, Yeah, and from being there before, yeah,
from we were actually we're lived there, so they so
you you know, yeah, you make a lot of noise,
you know, just your presence there. They start seeing you.
(01:04:05):
You you look different. We're going to strictly get us
a table, and they were the drinks. Um we're sitting
at a table, you know, of course, so they start,
you know, asking for girls and stuff. I noticed that
there was a guy at the bar. He kept kind
(01:04:25):
of looking over here, the hand just looking over a
churned to my brother and said, hey, he tells me, hey,
did you see dude? He doesn't stop looking And I know,
and I'm like, could it be that they're looking at valid?
Maybe because there's the only women there practice other than
the girls that worked there. We're like probably, but and
(01:04:50):
he gave me a bad bite, like a really bad one,
and he kept looking. I'm more keeping eyed him than
anything else I tell about. And she's like, that's so
weird he is because I was like, to look at him,
he's gonna stare. He's gonta stare. And she asked me,
(01:05:11):
do you want to leave? And I didn't want to
be that first. I guessed that was just like okay,
and I was like, nah, it's fine. He gets up
collage thirty minutes later for him was like walks passed
this way, but he actually came kind of really close by,
and he's like it takes a look at us, like
(01:05:31):
up and down. You know, I can't follow him. I'm
thinking he's going to rest froom. You know what. He
I lose his sight. He had like this little khaki
hat and why I completed him. He walks out, He's gone,
not a big deal. Maybe twenty five thirty minutes passed.
(01:05:57):
You know, I'm using track of time there because we're
in struggle. You know, I don't drink or anything dead hampstore.
I'm just you know, having a good time. Where people
who are there in if you know when's just here
at the banks, like a lot of banks screen where
we could even like react the head country, stay tuned.
(01:06:28):
I'll Surviving El Chapel, It's once who brought Down a
Drug Board Surviving l Chapo The Twins Who brought Down
a Drug Law is hosted by Curtis fifty cent Jackson
and me Charlie Webster. Our producers are myself alongside Jackson mcclennan.
Research and editorial support is from Casey Hurts. Edit and
(01:06:50):
sound design by Newco Palella. Original score by Ryan Thomson.
Executive produced by Curtis fifty cent Jackson and myself Charlie Webster.
H If you'd like to know more about this story,
head over to lions Gate Sound dot com. Curtis fifty
cent Jackson presents a lions Gate Sound and G unit
audio production exclusively for iHeart Podcasts
The way the card tells run is that you have
the bosses, but then you have people right underneath them.
There's the everyday people. We were blessed for a personality
that chopped my or They really liked us. They liked us,
they looked at us like their sons and treats like family.
But then the underlings was it like the right people?
(00:27):
Those are the people we could sit here like you
and chap it up and say oh this whatever the cases,
they were more ruthless than then the bosses. They're a
little more rufless than the thing. Like I think my
test with the King, yeah it might be a little
more under but there the judges, you go on your
bag and independing on how if they believe you're not,
that's your faith. There's a difference between being part of
(00:52):
it and being in it. We were in it, of
course St. Jackson, and I'm Charlie Webster and this is
(01:14):
surviving old Chapel. That's once you brought down a drug load.
Pete had just been held hostage for over twenty days,
handcuffed in a tiny room, starved and left for dead.
(01:36):
He thought he would never see his twin brother Jay again.
The kidnapping haunts Pete to this day and he still
suffers liver problems because of it. Ja managed to secure
Pete release just in the nick of time before it
was too late for Pete. But what now? They just
met the biggest drug lord in the world, l Chapo.
(01:57):
If it were me, I'd pick it in and leave
it all right there. But to be honest, it's not
that easy to live their life. It becomes your identity
and you start to gets who you are without it.
Sometimes that vulnerability makes you hold on to what you know,
even when it's not good for you. My brother and
(02:18):
I never burned our names of when it came to
like paying people back. That mattered a lot. When ship
hits a fan and you're kidnap, you survived that. What
(02:42):
happened next? Did you think about walking away from this
and stopping this? Was that? Was that enough for you?
I'm gonna find a way out, like because facing that,
facing back down or reality of that life, Like everyone
thinks it's not gonna happened to them. If you believe that,
(03:03):
I mean you're not still not you know, at a
level where with much importance. But eventually everyone in the
life suffers I'm kind of a traumatic experience. That's something
the final way of craft to find a way out
because that's done that I can't live with that much
of here that I had that you were only two
(03:25):
two and look what's happened to me? And thinking about
those regrets, like what would I regret? He started coming
to my mind about what would I regret that I
didn't do? You know, besides what I said about wanting
to be a better man, I wanted to get some
one of my best and putting my eagle to the
side and being vulnerable like you know, getting married, I said.
(03:46):
I wanted to get married like I'm a real in
a church and the chapel somewhere. I want to do
everything correct. I want to at least you know that
my wife knew when I was a faithful husband and
and keeping my bed us and for everyone else thinks,
you know, like the people matter to me. I want
to be better everything, a better brother. I want to be.
(04:09):
It didn't ething change. I think a lot of teams changed.
I got a little more serious about Mabeana and trying
to keep him my beds, putting my eagle to the side,
like my dreamer relationships. It changed a lot of way
of thinking, but it didn't change my business. The scenarios
(04:31):
where we go through something instead of us getting like
every time you sure we're gonna move away, we come
back stronger. It's weird because it happened again. Peter healing
afterwards was like it was payingful to watch. We would
(04:51):
have to keep him in the room but the doors
closed and all the lights off, and we would have
to cover the little cry under the door because the
light would hurt his eyes because he was blindfolded. He
was just so weak. We didn't want my mother not
to see him, and we had to get him help,
(05:20):
medical help and just make sure like okay and stay
still his liver problems. But more than anything, I just
feel like the trauma that he went through feel like
(05:45):
a piece of hidden died. And it breaks my heart
because it just changed him so much. But our life
certainly changed in so many ways after that can happen.
(06:11):
At first we thought it was like we probably felt
like it was a blessing. Believe or not, they get
nothing elevated your business. Now it's like now what to us,
like we were already like scraping the ceiling of what
you actually get capable of? To me, what else could
(06:32):
you do that? Right? Still, no matter what I think,
me and my brothers were still us, like we could
separate the business between who we were as as people.
What do you mean by that? Could you say that
a lot? You say that you could, but you was
(06:53):
still yourselves, You still yourselves, You could separate these things.
Do I feel like when it was business time it
was business time? Like I was like this certain way
and maybe my percentage the way I was. But when
it was like when that wasn't there, I was just normal. H.
(07:16):
I never really consider myself to be a boss, like
not a boss like that, Like I could boss people
around a lot, and I could have been bossy at times,
I guess, but I never considered myself like I always
looked at everybody as equal as friends, equals everyone. Peter
(07:38):
came back and it was like it was just all business.
His mentality was never again. So in a way, it
was almost like the business and focusing on business was
to create that power and protection and safety and actually
(08:00):
protects safety, but it consumed him power and maybe not
ever be in a situation where we couldn't pay something
you couldn't. It was just like again this spiral right
going back into the psycho was just I cant understand
that that makes sense. Everything like he did was just business, business,
(08:27):
business that he wanted to stopic had just consumed him,
like it became his obsession, like it helped him deal
with his trumpma, just like being consumed in his work.
And that's the way he dealt with it. His mentality
(08:49):
was like, they have to do more. They have to grow,
they have to scale their business, they have to be bigger,
they have to be better, they have to be this
almost eight state of perfection. He micro managed everything and
everybody wasn't about the drugs. It was about the business
(09:16):
that I think he felt like it was his and
it's what we're supposed to do. And in his said,
the only way we're going to be okay and be
saved us and not have a problemise that by being
who we were. Now. You know, we went from being
(09:37):
in that position until a couple of weeks later like
now we're at the table with the biggest drugg lords
and they love us. And where that comes to project
and protection and celebrations and a life that no one
(10:00):
could have dreamed though he's in that situation where before
it was like he was that someone's mercy and now
everyone said basically said kissing and I has. Basicly, I'm
not saying that they needed us. I'm just saying at
(10:21):
that point we're valuable and people are like I think
it's hard for them to understand that we are who
we are. We understood who we were, you know you
and both said to me that caught out. Life became
very crazy. And like I said in the beginning, I
(10:42):
think falling into men your idols and do the business
with him, getting the respect was everything. But with that
came a lot of responsibility. I think our life changed
drastically overnight. I know they were like always you know,
her business was always you know, priority, But I think
(11:07):
that it was just a lot and there was just
so many new people around us, and men and night
so much. Who's going to protect us better than the
biggest drug lords in the world. They welcomed using with
(11:27):
open arms. I still remember you know Mile saying, now
no one touches you around. My pression it was like
you belong to damn. It's like, no, we are them
and the mecca of drug lords in present time, the
(11:52):
drug lords that we know about its Chapel mile. At
that time, we were important ted damn. At that time
we had access two more drugs I think than anyone
else because of who we were as in our personalities,
how we carry ourselves, the vulnerable part of us was
(12:16):
able to be able to do business with different bosses
at the same time. And I think there was a
turning point. I think we recognized that just being there,
like they're eating no one else there that's like us,
We're the only ones becoming the biggest cocaine suppliers or
(12:42):
distributors because the distributors for the seeing a little cartel.
After my kidnapping, like I came out a different personnel.
The things were real, and it was like here, Mexico
(13:07):
is like a whole different world than Chicago. Then, like
I looked at him in a whole different light. I
came out like just like knowing exactly what I really
wanted with all my heart. I remember just having those
raw emotions in my heart, like in my inside of myself,
(13:27):
like I wanted just to be good to me, Like
I just wanted to try to be genuinely good to someone,
like I had someone that deserved that my very best.
(13:52):
So we took a walk on the beach. Yeah, so
we're taking a long walks. I'm looking for the sea
turtles and I got on both my knees next, you know,
I like to explain to her how seriously was that.
I wanted to ask her to please be my wife
(14:13):
and to spend there are still her life with me,
you know. And I remember like talking to like, I
don't know how long that is, but whatever it is,
you know, I want to spend it with feutre m h.
And when she was like I really like, of course
I will, you know, Like I was like no, Like
(14:38):
I really wanted to do it. I remember we were
like at their little moment there and you know, on
tho the stars and on the beach, and I felt
like there's no one wrong. Remember us rushing back to
the house and like going and called the wedding planet
(14:59):
and looking at the calendar. At the same time, we
looked at the kind of and we're like, what's a
good time, And then we gave ourselves like a month
and were it was like a month and a couple
of days. So we're like, I think that's the day
that like Saturday, and it was fun to like try
that went together. Getting married for the new beginning FORLS
(15:24):
was like really leaving all the past in the past,
Like whatever happened before they was like behind us, and
that we're, you know, gonna even wanted something better, you know,
and holding no score cards and like just were he
started zero and give it a real chance, give it
a real chance to like, we're a chance to love
each other and to be there and commit to each other.
(15:49):
I couldn't wait for the day. And then here I am,
you're making my own wedding plans, about to go get married,
and there's a knock at the door. And we were
(16:25):
at our home at that time, and everyone was at
the hotel the day of the wedding. The makeup artist
they just left. I was in the room, Peter, of course,
it was any other room, and the employees were in
the house and there's a knock on door, and I remember,
(16:52):
I'm pretty sure the chef opened the door and he
comes to the hay. There's cops here, you know. I
was like what, and it's like, there's cops. He that's
a man. They come in and one of the cops
(17:13):
is like the immigration agent that it worked like for
each way of the sub division of Cominium, like where
the houses were, you know, he took care of the
long work and all that. And he comes in and
I seem my recognize him. He worked as a at
the airport as well. They come in. It's like three
(17:36):
year four of moment with them, and I see the
main agent. They kind of like came in like okay,
we want to talk to you, and he's like, where
were the federal police. He has like a vanilla you know,
file folder and he's like, look, man, oh things a
(18:00):
file for Then I see my wanton fiction. I'm like,
what the heck. I hear Peter, and I hear his
tone and his voice like I can sell, like just
even with the door closed, like his tone and his voice,
and I hear others speaking, but I hear Peter a
(18:20):
little bit more angered in his tone. I picked out
the door and I see, I see Peter there, and
I see the agents, and I see the chef and
I see the fowler and he has Peter and Jay's
wanted photo. I'm like looking and I'm listening and I'm listening,
(18:42):
and the chef seeing me, and he's like get back
in the room, get back in the room. So I
didn't waste no all time. I grabbed like all the phones.
All the phones were in the room, so I grab
I was fifty phones, and I just started throwing them
(19:04):
out the window. And I propped myself on a vanity chair.
So I had my big dress and I was were
ready to go. We were so ready to wh I
have my shoes on, my big princess ball gown. It
was like multi layered. It was so heavy, like it
was already heavy. I put it on, and I'm just
(19:26):
like running through the room with this heavy dress. I
have my heels on and and I'm just thinking, you
know about I'm thinking, I gotta get rid of the phones,
and I gotta get rid of the ledgers. So I
propped myself on the vanity chair and I was just
throwing all the phones in the bush. We had like
(19:48):
huge bushes on the side of the house. And I'm
just like putting I'm like throwing the ledgers. I'm thinking,
like should I rip the ledgers? What should I do?
And I'm like, no, I can't do at either. And
I'm like throwing everything out the window, and I'm I'm
like mind you. I'm like scared. I know either he
(20:10):
was going to jail today or something bad was going
to happen. The main agent tells me, look, man, these
(20:36):
governments on the way to come and get you. I
didn't understand that. It wasn't like a little later that
most were discussing them that I didn't see that they
had a convoy of trucks out there, like it was
like forty trucks. Like I'm thinking, there's four guys coming in,
like you're out your mind. I didn't see that afterwards
(20:58):
that they already had the house that kind of surround
him and there's there, you know, either blocked me up
or start they're gonna leave with something. He's like, looking, man,
look at I'm telling you right now, you're you're going
back to the United States. The feather coming from the
(21:19):
marshy coming for you. And then he showed me the
phone and it's like an unavailable called the Idea, you know,
and he's like, that's damn calling me. And I'm like, okay,
so what do you want? Why are you telling me this?
What what do you want to do? What do you want?
Just tell me what you want. I'm like, now, we're
kind of like back and forth, like you're here, obviously
(21:39):
you're you know, you're ready to do something. What do
you want? I believe he tells me, you're like a
million and a half dollars. In my head, I'm thinking,
like I don't have a million dollars right And I said,
you know, to this my wedding day, like you obviously
know that I'm stressed, though you know, I'm sad. At
(22:01):
the same time, it's like the worst thing that could
ever happen, like all our families there all this like
and here we're gonna go with this, like and I
remember telling him, look, man, I can't give him and
(22:24):
I have dollars right now, I said, I got some money,
you know, I got a lot of expenses. Take what
I have to give you right now, which was like
three or whatever it was. I said, I could give
you that. I said, and uh, I'm gonna keep the
rest of mine to make my expenses from my wedding.
(22:50):
If you're a patient, I could give you the rest
of the money. And right away he was like I
could see him kind of get a little comfortable. They think, okay,
we're we do have a pain day. Come in regardless.
You look at the marshes are called them, they're called
um you know. And now I was like there are
tones a little more like, well, what do you want
to do it? Yeah, because you're wasting my time and
(23:16):
you can't give me more minutes. I can't that. I'm
not gonna do that. I said, take what I'm offering
you and let me go on enjoy my wedding. Man,
I said, we planned to stay for a long time
and my wife's upset. Don't ruin this day for me.
(23:37):
And he was like within like cooperating. He was like
he's looking at the other agent and he's like, yeah,
we can do that. How long would you need to
get to the money? I'm like, can you let me
enjoy it? Let me get through this weekend and now
we could talk, you know. I said, but what's the
guarantee that you're not going to take me? Like, man,
(23:58):
if I wanted to think you would have been the right.
But he's like, I'll tell you what. I'll take a
phone from you and I guarantee that, and if you
have any trouble, I'm gonna help you. If I know
that they're coming, I'm gonna get rid of them, and
I was like that's fair. I keep thinking I could
(24:21):
I get a waste, you know, like there's no fucking
way of getting away twenty thirty federal police trucks and
remember we live like on the beach and there's hotels
next me. I'm thinking like that I get down the
beach and like get away. And it was like I
really kind of have them there, so I was like,
(24:43):
they don't worry. I'm we're fixing it. Don't worry. It's
just relaxed. My dream I knew dreams, Like I just
got married. I was like shattered, like this, we're just
(25:04):
grabbing the money, just giving something like that, just here's
the money, and them just like smiling with their eyes
at it. You know, like I think it's pretty bad.
It's just kind of like okay, now, ye get the
(25:25):
funk out of here. I was mortified that if something
were to happen when everybody's there, Yeah, I was scared.
Did you think about counseling it? Because what's also crossing
(25:49):
my mind is that you've got everyone in one place,
so they could take you all out. I did, but
I didn't, like I wasn't gonna let that one This
day for me. No more like guy, I feel like
if they wanted to take to take, but I could
tell you again the greeting them that they wanted the money.
(26:10):
This is common in like that's what they do. They're
working for some money there, They're not doing that other
you know, the right thing to do. We did have
a beautiful, a beautiful wedding and you know, a beautiful
celebration just the whole just all the days that everyone
(26:31):
was you know, we're all together and just celebrating each
other and you know, celebrating with our family and our
family like truly happy for us. And then it was
like we had this thing this over our head the
whole time. I remember just like like really like talking
(26:56):
myself through to just let that go and just have
a good time. I thinking about just seeing and walk
down and come around the corner and help you drive.
It boke me And that was emotional, right, And this
is someone who wants to spend the rest of my life.
It's the one that means the world to me. Hi
in such a beautiful moment, like in those moments of
(27:23):
of joy are like truly like magnified because of so
much juggling and bad moments and right I had to
go pick up my phones and cleaner. We're late. Yeah,
when I get the phone and the ledgers, and then
I'm thinking to myself like, thank goodness, I didn't ripped
(27:45):
the ledgers because that was all that they They had
to all their accounting. So it was like one event
like right after another. It was it was a wedding
and not have to move all my family form our town.
And this is crazy, man. And you see the pattern,
(28:10):
like we couldn't even we couldn't celebrate our our marriage,
we couldn't honeymoon. There was just like this ugly pattern
of ups and downs for us. It was clear that
(28:53):
the authorities knew exactly where the Florest family lived, so
to avoid detection and further extortion, the entire family picked
up and moved their lives to a different part of Mexico.
This happened a lot at times. They had to just
drop everything and leave at a moment's notice, with food
in the fridge and clothes left in the dryer. The
(29:16):
only thing they would take is family photos so that
they couldn't be identified. It did help that money wasn't
really an issue for the twins. The kidnapping might have
been hard mentally, but it was a blessing for the business.
Jay's unexpected meeting meant that the twins were now dealing
directly with Chapo himself, But first Pete had to meet
(29:40):
the man that gave the order to kidnap him. What
was the first impression when you met Chapoo at the Starstruck?
I was a ners I phone to me, like, you know,
because you never know part of me. It was like comfortable,
(30:01):
like that wasn't that whoever? I had just been released
from my kidnapping, so it was really like why, I know,
didn't want to kill me. They want to kill me.
They would have killed me. I kind of felt that
I was still like a little bit on edge, and
everything makes you honage when you're there. You know. It's
like they all these guns and stuff for a reason.
(30:24):
I'm a future too, and I'm thinking that man, something
happens here. I'm here, I'm done. So many things can
go wrong, you know, one bad conversation or one bad disagreement.
They said he started wars. They killed thousands of people
for someone not shaking his hand. That's all. And one
(30:51):
of my first ever like main direct vials we ever
did with the people. I'm like, literally, we meet my
and bobad, we meet Chap, we're all sitting down. There's
a bunch of like all both connects there. So I
remember saying that and like chilly, nervous, sonny some mother man,
you might have I say something to you. I just
(31:11):
gotta like you might have I talk to you how quick?
I want to say something to you, like yeah, tell
me Like, look, man, we've been in business for a
long time together, you know, maybe not directly, but to
other people. Unfortunately, events led me to this Pasfring. I
just wanted the chance to do the work directly a
few without no mental man, without nobody putting my life
(31:33):
in danger. He laughs, Like I remember you said, I
want to be responsible for my own life from all life.
So he said, He's like, you know what you've earned it,
you got to comment from now. And you my people
I got. I want everyone to know you, my people.
They messed to their mess with me. You like, you're
(31:53):
gonna get whatever I give. Whatever I sell the tee
look for, I'm gonna give them to the same press
that give them to my main people, right, And just
like that, like I found there's something killos you want
to and we're picking up on the killos like an
hour and a half later. Okay, And remember before we left,
I said, hold on, hold on, I don't think I
could pay for these right now. He lies, like, don't
(32:16):
worry about your words. Good enough. We started relationship. I
remember about like one of the first meetings, like I
heard about you guys, and I didn't want to meet you,
like I was expecting some six foot talk ugly dark antle.
I was scared, like I don't know. We didn't want
to they shoot me. That's I'm by seven, we're both seven.
(32:43):
I'm with Minabada, which is pro abt of people don't know.
It's the head of the Sinattle card Toil along with
the chapel. He's been the boss for the last forty
years and he's never been arrested. He's the man May
is still the head of the Cinelo A cartel. He's
still never been caught. He's currently in hiding and the
(33:05):
reward for his capture was recently tripled to a fifty
million dollar bounty. While Chapo was only ever referred to
as Dad and Daddy, my own Beltran were known as
Aunt or uncle. He and Chapo would often meet with
the twins in Gougla, can and they became like family.
(33:28):
When I traveled, I traveled with a school back big
school bed. We're are my books that we had for
the last three years. My alledgers so like a rook stack,
a regular backpackerone's going to school like students, students. And
our notebooks were like school notebooks. Do you record single
(33:51):
thing you did? Allegers do head of note books and
they were heavy, like you know, it was heavy. Mayo
agree to me with a the nark On handshake? What's
the Northern hand shake? Yeah, and it's not that's a
(34:16):
hand shake that's going to part on the back. Then
another handshake. It has to be like that. You do that,
You do that million times all day. You do this
in roll and listen if there's tad back or you
could do and your side. You're gonna do it to everyone,
every single one, like like how many times you put
(34:37):
on the but is it like two times? Two times
like a little dad. And then it doesn't have to
be the heart of My brother just wants to kind
of put his hands on me. It's a nice gentle. Yeah,
it's like they do it like a bunch of times.
But I've seen like regularly, like maybe older gentlemen do
it to each other. And what's weird that you do
this so many times? At first I was like giving dad, okay,
(34:58):
all right, something some you know the times we will
be like hey, pallet or the Mexican Yeah, that was
like your typical boom were younger in Mexico. And then
a fist right. Jay learns a very quick lesson and
(35:25):
how important the handshake is to the Cineloma cartel bosses.
When he went to meet Mayo. It means so much
more than just a hug, a handshake and a few
gentle pats on the back. And you know, I'm somewhere
in the mountains of Durrango somewhere, and Mayo had like
dirty forty guys with him. I'm a little bit on
(35:48):
a hill and he's at the bottom of the hill
and there's a street, you know, light stream, you know rocks.
He has a boot in the stream and he has
the only one on top of the rock. You're like, hey,
what they come on? Comes like add and you come down.
Don't worry. You can buy a new clothes. You get dirty.
(36:10):
They always would joke about that. I come and as
I'm coming down, you know, I familiar faces. I don't
want all their names. Shook two or four people's hands,
Marco handshake, and myle he's there, like across the street
and they're all like right here and right there on
(36:33):
each side. Yeah, like kind of listening to him talk.
And there's guys a little bit farther out. I'm like, hey,
what's up whatever, Like you know, greening, Like if you
come into a club and everyone knows you, like, but
we're in the damn mountaintops with a bunch of drug boards, right.
(36:53):
I made the mistake of saying, well, he's important. When
I come to you, everybody stands back. So I listened
to year four and just like twelve more here and
probably and more. I go straight through the stream to
Rocks and I went to greet him, and he'd like,
straight to my to my own. He looks at me,
(37:17):
he doesn't give me a shake. He kind of grabbed
my hand. He says, my friends are not important enough.
I'm like, sir, I thought about it. I'm sorry. I
just wanted to get you first. He said, here, we're
all the same, and I said please, I said, apologizing
this man, It's like, don't worry, don't worry, sent me back,
(37:41):
shake every my hand. They're like, don't worrybody, don't worry,
like it's okay in there. And when he shook everybody's hand,
he took me like probably seven minutes. He just watched me.
Once I got some, he shook my hand. And when
I went to that, when he gave me a good
hug like how are you? You know he's hugged me tight,
like how are you? I'm like, I'm good, sir that
(38:01):
I always served, No sir, yes sir. People like was
your brother Like I'm like, yeah, you know him, and
they'll be like you you know, they'll call him a
kiss as like yeah, you know him, he's for his wife.
There's a time where we were all invited, you know,
during the first meetings that yeah, you guys, aren't you
joined this orgy? And literally when blind gift the women
(38:25):
and I was like, I'm sorry, remember you know I'm married.
He's like instead of laughing, like you're a better man
than I am. I'm married too, like two or three
times and he's just laughed. But I think that no
matter what they respected that point of view. We're not
gonna change your our ways because you know, the man
(38:48):
was there, you know. But even if he offered me
a line of cold were and I don't know drugs, now,
we're gonna skip that part. They respected at the point
wherever we said no, we said no. The okay with
that chap giving me calling me one day, he said,
(39:11):
I really really respect you guys and everything guys doing.
You know, I have my son who I want to
send to you, and I want you to teach him.
You don't show him. I want my son to like
be like you guys, like the businessmen you guys are.
That was like the biggest compliment ever. Like he said,
he wants to be like me, And I'm like, wow, man, yes,
(39:37):
whatever you want. Yeah, he says, So I'm gonna send
them to you. Just do me a favor, help him out,
show him, explain to me, you know, so you understand
the business better, and just do me one favory, just
one favor. I said, yes, sir, he said, whatever you do,
(39:58):
just don't don't burn him up. He uses the word
gemma gemmans burnt burned him a meaning do not let
people know that he's in the drug business, like keep
it quiet, keep it between us. He was a bad businessman.
(40:18):
Everything was for his advantage. I remember even would tell
him like how much one are you going to make
off this? Like he knows who his father is. He
just used it to advantage And I think I used
to tell him all the time. I got so comfortable
where I used to something like that's not the way
you're gonna do business. I felt like it was not
(40:41):
turning back the point in our return. I just remember
I'm always saying it's okay, we're safe now. You don't
have to worry. We're safe now. It's nice to be, like,
are we Jay is a fugitive, so every time we
(41:05):
would fly, but it was always, you know, nerve racking,
even though we had different ideas, different identities. When I
got to Colican for the first time, I remember Jay
saying that someone was there. They're going to pick us up.
And they came in with military and they came to
(41:32):
get us and they got our bags and walked us
to the car and made sure that we were good.
The crazy thing is is that day, like I felt,
I never felt more safe in my life. I thought
(41:52):
that they would be fine, like nothing, he's gonna put
us in harm's way m hm. And I think after
that day that experience, I felt like kind of was
okay with it. That's all they wanted, was oh I
care about it was like safety, stability, and it kind
(42:19):
of just made me feel better thinking we're sitting here
and I just it's hard going back to those times,
just thinking about who we were then and who we
are today. In hindsight, I think don't make sense or
(42:40):
we don't even understand, like how do we make certain decisions?
Because for anyone I think it good or bad. What
time that the bosses were like Itellian j MP that
(43:03):
they couldn't just move around the city on their own,
or me and Viv couldn't just move freely around and
go to the mall or go to the store. I
used to wonder, like, why, you know, why are all
these men outside? Why are they out there all night?
What's going on? Are we safe? And J would be
(43:29):
like that's what they're here for. And I'm like, good,
I don't understand, and he was like, well, you just
don't realize who we are. I think that Jay try
(43:50):
to make everything is the normal. J and Peter at
first they disregarded the bosses, and there was a situation
where I think we would go four wheeling a lot
on the a t v s. And then that day
me and Vin wouldn't go and Jay went. There was
(44:14):
like maybe thirty guys that went up to the to
the mountains. I know that day. I was really scared
because Jay came back and said that they had a
situation while they were four willing and they ran into
another group are men. He said that we just can't
(44:40):
move around the city the way that we move anymore
because I think something that happened to us. It took
about a jest to the rules accustomed to that life.
There's a lot of us that they Oh, I actually
(45:02):
took my son with me. He loved forward and then
you know on the side by side, he just loved it.
And how old is he at the time till two
I didn't know Qusha man that he might be putting
him in a dangerous situation or is it just normal?
(45:23):
I guess I should have known a little bit better.
A bunch of armed men came to meet us, and
not in a nice way. What are you doing here?
And go I'm here? And when we're boarding. He was like,
(45:45):
can you listen? Who are you with? Like who are
these people? Because you're about to die and god, I
made a phone call. He was like, he's went some twins.
(46:07):
I guess the right person happens pick up and he
said he's from the Twins from the state. He was
like yes, and he were like put me on the
phone with her boss and think he wants to talk
to It was. It was a scary situation. He was like, listen,
(46:28):
like we get it. You might not know, but don't
you ever come up here again like that without letting
someone out, we could have killed you. And I would
have killed you right now then it would have been
my ass. He was upset about that. I would have
had problems because you come up you know what, you
(46:49):
didn't realize that you were protected. He was upset. I
didn't think about those things. I'm thinking, I still be
a regular person. But even being a regular person right,
like I'm associated it is with people that don't they
know are part of that life or whatever the case is,
(47:10):
and I don't realize it, you know, because a new
territory for me, right there's so many of those like
learning experiences. What's big over there's traveling groups, right, you know,
our men, and you have to let people know you
have to check in. So if you check in, it's
(47:33):
almost like once you check in, they know that you're
to do with. So they'll give you a check locations
and they'll give you a code. They'll say that you
work for this company. It could be a company could
be like I worked for Coca Cola. Which one I
worked the one in you know, in Mexico City. They'll
tell you a code, and when you tell that coude
(47:54):
to whoever has you, it's the obligation to call back
and check in, like, hey, we have this guy here
that says he works the Coke Color. It could be
like cold Egg, it could be whatever it was at
the time. It switches check with the cos Yeah, yeah, yeah,
they worked through us and then not said that's the
(48:15):
end of that. You didn't check it and you didn't
have you know, we didn't want to put ourselves in
that situation. I would never ever like use it because
I didn't want like law enforcement to know that we
were part of the organization. And I'd rather just try
to like talk my way out of it or just
like you know, bribe him. You know, just on my own.
(48:39):
I still remember one time where it was like a
situation where I wasn't gonna be able to get out
of it. And we were two cars and they pulled
us over, and the coff and he knew me like
he would see me because you know again, same thing
that happens back in the States when I early on
and you have all these cars you don't belong there too.
(49:03):
It was like getting castle like pulled over and they're
looking for, you know, for like you know, you give
him something, some money, you know, payoff. It was one
of the situations like I'm not even gonna like I
see how many cups they are. I know who's with me.
I'm like, I jumped off the car, said like, oh listen,
(49:23):
I work for the for the quota company. They looked
at me, he said which one, and I'm like Maxo
City and he was like his eyes loved like you
do his boss like, no, I need to double check.
(49:50):
And he came back here. Pat said, oh, I apologize.
Where are you going? I'm like, we're going to dinner.
We have whatever, like where's court drop. There are three
main cartels that operate in Mexico and Cinelo is the
largest one. Collectively, more than three million local Mexicans rely
(50:10):
on the cartels to earn a living, including as private
security to those who need it. We decided to go
to cap Pits. We have special seats right in the
front row act a restaurant. So I get up, so
(50:33):
I'm gonna go to restaurant. They can't seen get about
the chair and they literally come down with the rival
and they stopped and I look at him. I'm like,
he said, where are you going to the restaurant, Like,
come on, let's go and take a like let's go,
And they literally went and stood next to me and
(50:55):
these are police. Heart listen, I use the restaurant. I'm
gonna wash my hands. I'm like, they're not helping me
work there. He's like, why not, because you're burning me up.
Like I'll tell me you're He said, no, we gotta
make sure you're good, and they escort me back down
(51:19):
to the role. One capital composed actually owned the seats,
and I guess they'll tell him, you know, my friends
may be there, like if you better keep an eye
and make sure he's okay. Yeah, they're just preclating on
I guess personal bodyguards were only one part of the
(51:41):
way the carts helped provided security. That was another way,
a deadly away headed by a man known as Rambo.
The Carter has different people who do different things, and
his job was cugarios. His job was to kill and
(52:01):
he was the wine in charge of the team of Hitman.
He was actually a prison guard to help Chip escape
the first time, and he was the most vicious, craziest
personal I think. I remember at the same time, he
was really nice to us. We'll call him Ramble. I mean,
(52:33):
I guess you couldn't stand where we can. Rambo. Yeah,
I've seen the films and huh, value should be so mad.
She used to be like, I can't believe. Oh, he
turned my stomach just because he was just so ruthless.
He loved me and my brother. I gave him his
(52:53):
first house as a gift for him and his family,
and we would do stuff like that. He would cry
and like literally cry your chess. I remember Jay inviting
him to my son's birthday party and I just was like,
(53:15):
what is he doing here? And he ended up bringing
his family and I would just get so spoked, like
my stomach with her. And when I would see him
like jams. Sorry, Like I just cannot understand how he
can sit here with his family after knowing like all
(53:35):
the stuff that he did. It just was so bothersome
to me. If you sat there and you watched him,
you would never know. And I think that was a
scary part. What did he look like? He looked like
a Mexican version working class sergeant slaughter. Do you know
(53:56):
who that is? He's bald, you know, like in school bog,
you know, with the hair here, big mustache, yeah, mustache,
kind of tall, right, like a medium build, you know.
I get a call one day, my phone's ringing in
its rambles and I'm like, yeah, hello. He's like, hey,
(54:21):
I need each other? Do you know a guy named no?
If I go, I'm like, yeah, I do. Why he said, oh,
you're sure this is so good that you know him?
Because he just approached me. You know my name? Did
you call me? And I asked them, how did you know?
He said, the twin described you. It has to be you.
(54:43):
He's your friend. When he's a really good friend of mine.
I'm not sure what your situation. Oh that's all I
need to know. That's all I need to know. Don't
worry about it. We'll make sure he's he's okay, and
here he wants to tart you. I remember him calling
her thank you so much, like thank you, I really
appreciate that. He calls me. The next day he said, Yo,
(55:08):
Ramble is it's crazyeal. I'm like, I wonder what he did,
so Ramble can see me. Two days later, he said,
we went up there and he's crying, you know, he's
slapping the guy around with his gun, you know, like,
and I'm just like, we're here to take care of business.
(55:29):
And he said he has him and five other guys
you know, tied up, and I don't go to play games,
you know, And I took up my gun and I
just he said, blood everywhere, slatter whatever. He said, let's
go anybody they wanna be sucking around, like I'm going
(55:51):
to funk around And I'm like, you did what And
he will say this coming like as if it wasn't
not here, and I had a big deal. The twins
were some of the only people who would be able
to stop a killing from going ahead. They often had
(56:13):
to use that power to save their friends. As for Loupe,
j and Pete later found out that he and his
sons were kidnapped one New Year's Eve. Loupe had to
then sign over all their properties to Chapo. In exchange.
The cartel let his sons go. Loope, though was killed
(56:33):
under Chapeo's order. With the protection of the cartel, p
(57:00):
and Jay were able to safely grow their business, continuing
to do deals and make even more money. We're working
on a business deal. We're actually standing suit of Federan
from China to Mexico. And we had the people on
our associates that were out of town come in and
(57:22):
it was kind of taking a long and they were
getting a little bit like you know, impatient boarding. Our
relationship with with him was to sit down and actually
like chit chat right talk ideas, you know, dinner. This
law was gonna like I think we're looking to profit
maybe eighty million. Of course we're paying special attention to them,
(57:48):
I guess it being the city closed in, you know,
like we didn't like to travel because it was at
that time it was hot. What they considered the government
was like plaint checkpoints, so we avoid was like going
to the street for anything. We locked ourselves and at home,
which we were okay with, but they were not okay
with So we have a place and can cool and
(58:12):
it's okay, let's go to can Come. You know, we
could just go chill over there. We cover the plane
to get ready. We have actually a jetted and this
usually transports money for emergencies from anywhere in Mexico and
we'll send it back to Chicago just in case, like
(58:33):
we needed like money to make a payment, like really fast.
For whatever reason, they said it was a good idea
fast to go private, because you know, you just stand
out right. So I say, okay, we'll just jump on
a commercial plane. We'll go separate. I'm gonna learn this.
And now I didn't like telling people what we were
(58:53):
doing because then people knew, like, oh, you're gonna travel
by chance. Top with his his cousin and said, hey, I
need you guys, anyone of used to come take care
of some business whatever, and we're about to leave your
family too. Can't call you like what I told you, guys.
(59:19):
You can have just travel. You need to call and
check in. There's a big old military operation going there.
If you guys go to the airport, do it and
I coming back. They know the business, they know how
to maneuver we're learning it. We're learning it. We're like, wow,
(59:41):
we didn't know we were going to just fly into
a trapped We're like, okay, thanks. So we decided to
change our plans. They decided to shift their get away
from Concoon to the luxurious private resort island of Pontameter,
the same place where Pete and Viv got my it.
(01:00:01):
They hadn't visited for two years. We had left that
city because the Mexican government had found out that we
were there, and we already had paid up right to
the Mexican government. Yes, we used to pay vibes to
the Mexican government. Yes we would pay brides for our business,
but but not for us. And the problem is that
they found out who we were and they tried to
(01:00:23):
extort us. And we didn't want to get the organization
about because I knew it it wasn't gonna end well.
So instead we just cut off ties. We left the
home we we owned there. We just left. We just
picked up and left and left everything there. We actually
(01:00:44):
just let our personal belongings, it's just you know, whatever,
cloth make sure we didn't even know a picture behind
them left to the house. Our workers packed up a
couple of bags and that was it. And the houses
under someone's name were just like, hey, don't even look
into it. You know it's going to get seen or
something something. They're gonna come up her because now they
know because I suppose you couldn't You couldn't ever sell
(01:01:04):
a house because if you did well was the government
knows that you own the property, that these goods canna
come from it. They're gonna follow trail where you know,
where the money went who sold it. So we end
up believing that our beach house I was right on
the beaches. It was a little getaway. You know. We
(01:01:28):
had left their two thousand five, so now we're two seven.
All right, let's go to the beach. We're gonna go
back to that same area. It's okay, we won't come on,
it's not a big deal. There's a bunch of us,
a bunch of my workers, probably twenty five of us,
(01:01:50):
and a couple of our associates and their families. We
decided to go to the beach and we had a
We were rented as a really big villa right on
the beach. It was expensive. It was like a probably
four fight down. Other than a day or SOMETI I'm
not sure. Did they have to be right? You were
hanging on the pool and stuff. Our friends are associate
(01:02:11):
decided that they were lonely. They want entertainment. I was
so tired that day. I was tired and I said
my brother, I said, I'm not going out. I'm tired.
I'm gonna go ahead and just lay it down. I
ain't the falling sleep that wakes me up. Hey, you
(01:02:36):
know Peter saying for me to wake you up, and
he's saying that they want, you know, they want to
go to the strip club. And I'm like, a come
to go have fun? Like, why don't you want to
go to the strip club? I said, I'm tired. It's like,
oh I want to go. I'm like, okay, then go
with them. You know, I'm mistake here. I'm already like sleeping.
(01:02:57):
And she was like, oh, you you know, I just
don't want to go because we're it's you know, us
scoring and whatever. The kids. I don't know. So that
kind of made me all right, let's go like one
thirty two, got up, you got dressed, got ready, and
usually we would take someone with us, you know, let's
(01:03:19):
they sit out tip And since it was late, everyone's
already kind of tired. We're like, it's okay, it's late.
We're gonna go. We're thinking they're gonna pick up a
couple of girls and it's gonna be easy. I have
a couple of guys with me and it's our friends,
four of them, mean Peter. When we get to strip club,
(01:03:44):
the security notices where you guys been, we just kind
of like kind of just burst off, like whatever, what
isn't they recognized, Yeah, and from being there before, yeah,
from we were actually we're lived there, so they so
you you know, yeah, you make a lot of noise,
you know, just your presence there. They start seeing you.
(01:04:05):
You you look different. We're going to strictly get us
a table, and they were the drinks. Um we're sitting
at a table, you know, of course, so they start,
you know, asking for girls and stuff. I noticed that
there was a guy at the bar. He kept kind
(01:04:25):
of looking over here, the hand just looking over a
churned to my brother and said, hey, he tells me, hey,
did you see dude? He doesn't stop looking And I know,
and I'm like, could it be that they're looking at valid?
Maybe because there's the only women there practice other than
the girls that worked there. We're like probably, but and
(01:04:50):
he gave me a bad bite, like a really bad one,
and he kept looking. I'm more keeping eyed him than
anything else I tell about. And she's like, that's so
weird he is because I was like, to look at him,
he's gonna stare. He's gonta stare. And she asked me,
(01:05:11):
do you want to leave? And I didn't want to
be that first. I guessed that was just like okay,
and I was like, nah, it's fine. He gets up
collage thirty minutes later for him was like walks passed
this way, but he actually came kind of really close by,
and he's like it takes a look at us, like
(01:05:31):
up and down. You know, I can't follow him. I'm
thinking he's going to rest froom. You know what. He
I lose his sight. He had like this little khaki
hat and why I completed him. He walks out, He's gone,
not a big deal. Maybe twenty five thirty minutes passed.
(01:05:57):
You know, I'm using track of time there because we're
in struggle. You know, I don't drink or anything dead hampstore.
I'm just you know, having a good time. Where people
who are there in if you know when's just here
at the banks, like a lot of banks screen where
we could even like react the head country, stay tuned.
(01:06:28):
I'll Surviving El Chapel, It's once who brought Down a
Drug Board Surviving l Chapo The Twins Who brought Down
a Drug Law is hosted by Curtis fifty cent Jackson
and me Charlie Webster. Our producers are myself alongside Jackson mcclennan.
Research and editorial support is from Casey Hurts. Edit and
(01:06:50):
sound design by Newco Palella. Original score by Ryan Thomson.
Executive produced by Curtis fifty cent Jackson and myself Charlie Webster.
H If you'd like to know more about this story,
head over to lions Gate Sound dot com. Curtis fifty
cent Jackson presents a lions Gate Sound and G unit
audio production exclusively for iHeart Podcasts
Hosts And Creators
Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson
Charlie Webster
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.