April 9, 2025 • 10 mins
Former SWAT and narcotics officer Paul Milone (author of "RAM ONE") offers his perspective on the giant "carfentanil" bust in Omaha this week.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott vorgiez We now welcome back to the program. Someone
who was in law enforcement here in Omaha is a
retired member of the SWAT unit and the author of
the recent book ram One about his time in law enforcement.
Paul Maloney is back here on eleven ten kfab Paul,
good morning, Good morning, Scott. How I'm wonderful, thank you,
(00:21):
especially since we got this. It's great news, but it's
also incredibly sad because you can't help but think about
all the drugs that come flowing through our community that
we don't get. But the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, along
with the United States Postal Service and other investigators, just
(00:41):
busted a big car fentanyl ring. There was twenty four
pounds of car fentanyl seized. It's one of the largest
in the history of the United States. And these were
little fentanyl pills that were made to appear as if
they were prescription drugs like oxy codone, And as as
(01:03):
Sheriff Hansen tells it, just a little bit of any
of these pills could prove to be fatal. So this
could have been hundreds and hundreds of people killed around
this area. Now you weren't involved in this particular bus.
But in your time in law enforcement, you're certainly familiar
with the criminals that bring the stuff into our community
(01:24):
and what it takes to go and get them. Can
you talk with us about what that process is like?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Sure? Absolutely, And I want to plod the Douglas County
Sheriff's Office and the Postal Inspectors for taking this large
amount of dope off the streets, just for little information
for the listeners. In twenty twenty four of their eighty
seven thousand plus overdose deaths on feanyl the United States,
which ofquesse of what two hundred and forty people per
(01:53):
day are dying of a fetanyl overdose.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Let's talk about that for just one second, because it's
not like every single one of these people is like,
I got to have my fentanyl and they're just throwing
it in their system. These are a lot of people
who have no idea that they're ingesting fentanyl.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah. In a lot of cases, the cartel has quote
unquote cut their other drugs with fentanyl to make it
more potent and to make it more profitable. Yeah, So
there are there are many people who are overdosing without
any knowledge that they're actually ingesting feentanyl at the time.
But a good number of those are also people who
(02:35):
have become addicted to pain killers for one reason or another,
whether it's a legal reason or or illegal reasons, and
once they're hooked, it's an extremely hard drug to get.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Now, for those of us who grew up with natty
lyt and ditch weed, we don't have any idea with
fentanyl is And if if this stuff is so dangerous
in killing people, why in the world, If the idea
as a drug dealer is to sell your supply to
the same people over and over again, which is tough
to do when they're dead or afraid of being dad,
why are they even messing with this stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I think it's just pure profit and the thought that
there'll be another addict tomorrow. You know, just a little information. So,
fentanyl in its original analog is fifty times more powerful
than morphine, you know, which is a common anesthetic for surgeons.
Car Fentanyl is ten thousand times more powerful than morphine.
(03:31):
Its initial use was in the zoos for the veterinarians
to do procedures on elephants and rhinoceroses. That's what this
was produced for. It's ten thousand times more powerful than morphine,
and it's a hard drug to simply quote unquote cut
(03:53):
into other drugs without it without it being fatal in itself.
In twenty seventeen, my old partner Chris Perna, did a
huge investigation in Omaha, literally the first of its kind
in Omaha for fetanyl, and it was all car fetanyl.
And in this just for a little edge of education here,
(04:15):
the perpetrator that instance was taking one gram of car
fetanyl and mixing it with three pounds of sugar, you know,
so one gram for fifteen hundred grams, and it was
still too potent, and we had multiple people overdosing and
dying from this concoction even though he had watered it
(04:36):
down that much. It's an extremely dangerous drug. It's highly addictive,
you know. So yeah, there are there were lots of
lives that were saved via this seizure. Unfortunately, they you know,
there's there's more and more loads coming on a regular
basis to Omaha and all the other communities in our country. Thankfully,
(04:57):
the border has been locked up a little bit, so
so the the amount coming in should be lessened. But
I don't see that it's going to come to an
end anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I just think it's unbelievable. I mean, have we completely
run out of rum? Are we out of pino Gregia?
Why in the world would you possibly mess around with
something that could that just a little bit of it
could kill a charging rhino And you're like, I got
to have that. But that's you know, these are these
(05:26):
are decisions made by people not in their right minds.
We're talking here with Paul Maloney on news radio eleven
ten kfab In your experience working law enforcement here in Omaha,
would a big shipment of this particular type of fentanyl
would that be coming here to Omaha to stay in Omaha?
Are we a bunch of addicts here or is this
(05:47):
more of a hub that goes out across the interstates
to other places.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, so I've been in I worked in narcotics in
eighteen years, and when I first started working in their contacts,
Omaha was kind of a drop off or at least
a stopover zone, so more drugs were going Some would
drop off and Oma and go on the Chicago per se.
But probably since about two thousand and five or six,
Oma became a destination point. So my assumption is that
(06:14):
all of that sentinel was going to stay here. You know,
maybe small amounts might be sent off by other dealers
to surrounding communities, but that was a destination thod for Omaha.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Now this stuff being shipped through the mail made to
look like prescription oxy codone. I wouldn't get the impression
that I could just start shipping prescription or any kind
of drugs through the mail. Is this is this common
to people try and get away with this kind of
thing by just mailing it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, on a regular basis. You know, there's tactics that
the dealers use to try to avoid prosecution if in
one caught. But yeah, shipping illegal things for the mail
is a standard practice, and Jill is also a standard
practice for law enforcement to work with the postal inspectors
who are who are great investigators.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Any idea how they're able to determine what's in these packages?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You know, they're able to come up with patterns of
packages going from point A to point B and a
name not necessarily matching up. And then sometimes the size, weight,
and the feel of a package with other indicators can
give them enough reason to have a dog do a
sniff and indicate on the package, and then a search
(07:30):
worm's written and they open the package and sometimes they'll
do a controlled delivery to then attempt to arrest the perpetrators,
or sometimes the case ends there upon the seizure. It
just depends on what the investigators have going.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Is this something where it's a guy named Dave, you know,
selling it to you know, some people he knows, or
is this one of these drug cartels that would be
doing something like.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
This, that's cartel all the way. Yeah, a guy named
Dave doesn't have the doesn't have the funds where we're
all to order that much car fentanyl. So's a that's
a cartel drug drug investigation right there.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
And even I mean sense it goes through the mail.
It's not like we pulled a car over and arrested
the driver and said, tell me where your dealer is.
I mean, it's probably really really difficult to determine where
this stuff came from and get the people responsible.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
You know, sometimes they do. And there's been some great
investigations that I was able to be part of to
where you're able to make a delivery and then also
track it back to a source in another state and
coordinate with local and federal law enforcement in that area.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
But really they put a return address on it, you know,
from himI Scarface Escalante, and they put it in the
top left hand corner of the package.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Not necessarily but due to investigative measures. And maybe people
back here who get arrested and say, listen, my dealer's
name is Joe Blow and here's where it comes from.
So there are a lot of things that tie up
to make it a successful prosecution. But you know, that's
that's the tireless job of law enforcement that all across
this country. That that's what they do. That's their job
(09:11):
to try to protect the citizens with with cases like.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
This, and you've done it for so many years of
your life, and a lot of these stories are very
entertainingly and in some cases heartbreakingly published in your book
ram One, that name from your time on the SWAT
Unit when you were the guy with the battering ram
as the first one through the door. Paul, Where can
people pick up that book?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Amazon is the easiest place to pick it up, just
under that title.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Ram One by Paul Maloney m I L O N E.
Paul Maloney ram One. The book is available now. Paul
always appreciate you having your perspective here with us on
the radio. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
All right, Scott, thank you, Take care
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Good boy Mornings nine to eleven on News Radio eleven
ten KFAB and
Scott vorgiez We now welcome back to the program. Someone
who was in law enforcement here in Omaha is a
retired member of the SWAT unit and the author of
the recent book ram One about his time in law enforcement.
Paul Maloney is back here on eleven ten kfab Paul,
good morning, Good morning, Scott. How I'm wonderful, thank you,
(00:21):
especially since we got this. It's great news, but it's
also incredibly sad because you can't help but think about
all the drugs that come flowing through our community that
we don't get. But the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, along
with the United States Postal Service and other investigators, just
(00:41):
busted a big car fentanyl ring. There was twenty four
pounds of car fentanyl seized. It's one of the largest
in the history of the United States. And these were
little fentanyl pills that were made to appear as if
they were prescription drugs like oxy codone, And as as
(01:03):
Sheriff Hansen tells it, just a little bit of any
of these pills could prove to be fatal. So this
could have been hundreds and hundreds of people killed around
this area. Now you weren't involved in this particular bus.
But in your time in law enforcement, you're certainly familiar
with the criminals that bring the stuff into our community
(01:24):
and what it takes to go and get them. Can
you talk with us about what that process is like?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Sure? Absolutely, And I want to plod the Douglas County
Sheriff's Office and the Postal Inspectors for taking this large
amount of dope off the streets, just for little information
for the listeners. In twenty twenty four of their eighty
seven thousand plus overdose deaths on feanyl the United States,
which ofquesse of what two hundred and forty people per
(01:53):
day are dying of a fetanyl overdose.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Let's talk about that for just one second, because it's
not like every single one of these people is like,
I got to have my fentanyl and they're just throwing
it in their system. These are a lot of people
who have no idea that they're ingesting fentanyl.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah. In a lot of cases, the cartel has quote
unquote cut their other drugs with fentanyl to make it
more potent and to make it more profitable. Yeah, So
there are there are many people who are overdosing without
any knowledge that they're actually ingesting feentanyl at the time.
But a good number of those are also people who
(02:35):
have become addicted to pain killers for one reason or another,
whether it's a legal reason or or illegal reasons, and
once they're hooked, it's an extremely hard drug to get.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Now, for those of us who grew up with natty
lyt and ditch weed, we don't have any idea with
fentanyl is And if if this stuff is so dangerous
in killing people, why in the world, If the idea
as a drug dealer is to sell your supply to
the same people over and over again, which is tough
to do when they're dead or afraid of being dad,
why are they even messing with this stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I think it's just pure profit and the thought that
there'll be another addict tomorrow. You know, just a little information. So,
fentanyl in its original analog is fifty times more powerful
than morphine, you know, which is a common anesthetic for surgeons.
Car Fentanyl is ten thousand times more powerful than morphine.
(03:31):
Its initial use was in the zoos for the veterinarians
to do procedures on elephants and rhinoceroses. That's what this
was produced for. It's ten thousand times more powerful than morphine,
and it's a hard drug to simply quote unquote cut
(03:53):
into other drugs without it without it being fatal in itself.
In twenty seventeen, my old partner Chris Perna, did a
huge investigation in Omaha, literally the first of its kind
in Omaha for fetanyl, and it was all car fetanyl.
And in this just for a little edge of education here,
(04:15):
the perpetrator that instance was taking one gram of car
fetanyl and mixing it with three pounds of sugar, you know,
so one gram for fifteen hundred grams, and it was
still too potent, and we had multiple people overdosing and
dying from this concoction even though he had watered it
(04:36):
down that much. It's an extremely dangerous drug. It's highly addictive,
you know. So yeah, there are there were lots of
lives that were saved via this seizure. Unfortunately, they you know,
there's there's more and more loads coming on a regular
basis to Omaha and all the other communities in our country. Thankfully,
(04:57):
the border has been locked up a little bit, so
so the the amount coming in should be lessened. But
I don't see that it's going to come to an
end anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I just think it's unbelievable. I mean, have we completely
run out of rum? Are we out of pino Gregia?
Why in the world would you possibly mess around with
something that could that just a little bit of it
could kill a charging rhino And you're like, I got
to have that. But that's you know, these are these
(05:26):
are decisions made by people not in their right minds.
We're talking here with Paul Maloney on news radio eleven
ten kfab In your experience working law enforcement here in Omaha,
would a big shipment of this particular type of fentanyl
would that be coming here to Omaha to stay in Omaha?
Are we a bunch of addicts here or is this
(05:47):
more of a hub that goes out across the interstates
to other places.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, so I've been in I worked in narcotics in
eighteen years, and when I first started working in their contacts,
Omaha was kind of a drop off or at least
a stopover zone, so more drugs were going Some would
drop off and Oma and go on the Chicago per se.
But probably since about two thousand and five or six,
Oma became a destination point. So my assumption is that
(06:14):
all of that sentinel was going to stay here. You know,
maybe small amounts might be sent off by other dealers
to surrounding communities, but that was a destination thod for Omaha.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Now this stuff being shipped through the mail made to
look like prescription oxy codone. I wouldn't get the impression
that I could just start shipping prescription or any kind
of drugs through the mail. Is this is this common
to people try and get away with this kind of
thing by just mailing it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, on a regular basis. You know, there's tactics that
the dealers use to try to avoid prosecution if in
one caught. But yeah, shipping illegal things for the mail
is a standard practice, and Jill is also a standard
practice for law enforcement to work with the postal inspectors
who are who are great investigators.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Any idea how they're able to determine what's in these packages?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You know, they're able to come up with patterns of
packages going from point A to point B and a
name not necessarily matching up. And then sometimes the size, weight,
and the feel of a package with other indicators can
give them enough reason to have a dog do a
sniff and indicate on the package, and then a search
(07:30):
worm's written and they open the package and sometimes they'll
do a controlled delivery to then attempt to arrest the perpetrators,
or sometimes the case ends there upon the seizure. It
just depends on what the investigators have going.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Is this something where it's a guy named Dave, you know,
selling it to you know, some people he knows, or
is this one of these drug cartels that would be
doing something like.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
This, that's cartel all the way. Yeah, a guy named
Dave doesn't have the doesn't have the funds where we're
all to order that much car fentanyl. So's a that's
a cartel drug drug investigation right there.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
And even I mean sense it goes through the mail.
It's not like we pulled a car over and arrested
the driver and said, tell me where your dealer is.
I mean, it's probably really really difficult to determine where
this stuff came from and get the people responsible.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
You know, sometimes they do. And there's been some great
investigations that I was able to be part of to
where you're able to make a delivery and then also
track it back to a source in another state and
coordinate with local and federal law enforcement in that area.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
But really they put a return address on it, you know,
from himI Scarface Escalante, and they put it in the
top left hand corner of the package.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Not necessarily but due to investigative measures. And maybe people
back here who get arrested and say, listen, my dealer's
name is Joe Blow and here's where it comes from.
So there are a lot of things that tie up
to make it a successful prosecution. But you know, that's
that's the tireless job of law enforcement that all across
this country. That that's what they do. That's their job
(09:11):
to try to protect the citizens with with cases like.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
This, and you've done it for so many years of
your life, and a lot of these stories are very
entertainingly and in some cases heartbreakingly published in your book
ram One, that name from your time on the SWAT
Unit when you were the guy with the battering ram
as the first one through the door. Paul, Where can
people pick up that book?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Amazon is the easiest place to pick it up, just
under that title.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Ram One by Paul Maloney m I L O N E.
Paul Maloney ram One. The book is available now. Paul
always appreciate you having your perspective here with us on
the radio. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
All right, Scott, thank you, Take care
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Good boy Mornings nine to eleven on News Radio eleven
ten KFAB and
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