September 25, 2025 • 19 mins
How an Undercover FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash, and Dismantled a Colombian Narco EmpireDey Street is proud to publish INSIDE THE CARTEL: How an Undercover FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash, and Dismantled a Colombian Narco-Empire. This groundbreaking memoir offers an unprecedented, pulse-pounding glimpse into the covert world of Colombian drug cartels through the eyes of legendary FBI agent Martin Suarez. Widely regarded among FBI agents as the greatest undercover agent of all time, Suarez holds the record for the longest continuous undercover run - an astonishing 23 years. Now, the details behind his unparalleled achievements are being revealed for the first time. In 2019, after being diagnosed with ALS, Suarez made the decision to finally tell his story - from secret operations and daring air drops at sea to a harrowing showdown with a cartel assassin in his own backyard. With his future uncertain, he partnered with author and esteemed journalist Ian Frisch to craft this gripping, cinematic memoir.Suarez is known for achieving the unimaginable. As the only undercover FBI agent to have infiltrated a Colombian drug cartel, he courageously lived a double life as 'Manny' within the cartel's treacherous corridors, smuggled $1 billion worth of cocaine into the U.S., and laundered over $50 million for the North Coast Cartel. His fearless and strategic operations also led to the exposure of the infamous Black Market Peso Exchange, a financial web that implicates individuals at the highest echelons of power, and thrusted billionaire bankers and high-ranking businessmen into the spotlight. Beyond the high-stakes missions, Martin's story is also a deeply personal one, as he struggled to balance his covert life with being a devoted husband, father, and son-all while the cartel's threats crept dangerously close to home. This book is unlike any other about the criminal underworld and is an essential read for those drawn to true crime stories, the intricacies of undercover operations, and the ongoing battle against international drug trafficking. Told with the pulse-racing action of a Hollywood blockbuster, INSIDE THE CARTEL is a book that should not be missed this fall.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning you too. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Doing fine? Thanks for having us great?
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You know, I'm so glad that we've had this connection.
And the reason why is because sometimes I look at
the cartel and I go, how much of this is propaganda?
Because you know, I mean, we all fell in love
with Tony Montana in scarface and it's like, okay, so
that was a version of it. But did Hollywood get
it right? And is the rest of it propaganda?
Speaker 4 (00:28):
I think as far as a ton in Montana, there's
a lot of Chris, but it's a different drug tured.
The Cubans that were Engage and and the head were
(00:53):
a different breed than the than the Columbian drug Hotel,
although they worked together, but there were formultable foes. The
Cumans working with the time in Montana's Miami.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Now ian when it comes to the cartels, I mean,
the thing is, you were talking about an FBI agent
smuggles cocaine and launder's cash from a Colombian narco empire.
This right here is to me, this is like a
James Bond movie. How were you able to keep it
authentic in the way where where we have basically we
have to remind ourselves, this is a true story. This
actually happened.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Well, I certainly wanted some storytelling flare in there, but
you know, again, when you come back to the facts
of the case, the story kind of writes itself. I mean,
for me, it was really just going through the process
of staying down with Martin and going through these stories
detailed by detail and understanding too. When we first started
writing the book that we wanted to have a truly
narrative account of his most consequential and important case, which
(02:00):
was first being a smuggler and then being a money
launder during the first six years of his career as
an FBI agent. But again, everything in the story really happened,
and I think it seems so cinematic and so unreal
in many respects because the FBI has never publicly acknowledged
Martin's role. You know, they don't come out and tooth
their own horn about this stuff because back then it
(02:22):
was crucial to protect him and the sources and methods
that they employed, So if they had to talk about
in court, they would, but they weren't going on the
news and holding press conferences and describing how this stuff
was done.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So for me. It was truly.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
An honor and a pleasure to sit down with Martin
and say, Okay, now's the time to really tell how
you're able to infiltrate these cartels.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Martin. I take tests every single year, It's like every
three to four months, because I work for a company
that deals with money, and money laundering is always our
biggest fear. I know what people are doing. I know
they're right there in front of me doing it, but
they know how to keep it under the rules. How
are you able to do this or can you even
talk about this?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
The trade, the money in Londo and trade uh Is
supports herself, so there's so silent the way they the
drug traverers from the South America worked, This was a SYSM.
(03:29):
I'm only London's scheme that was virtually untraceable to this
day and unless you have an under cover agent and
the miss made with them daily or weekly, you'll never
know that. Thenander and eight to ten brillion dollars a
(03:55):
year and drug process.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So and where along the journey did you realize this
was not one of those made for television stories in
the way of get in, get out, this operation is over.
You knew that when you went into this project that
oh this is this is going to involve several years
and layers.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Well, when you think about undercover work, there's kind of
two camps. The first is you do some like weekend
long street bust type of thing, where you know, you
put the hoodie on and you go out into the
street and you buy a dimebag and then you say, oh, gotcha,
you're busted. But Martin is of the other camp, where
he had to really become nanny for years at a time.
(04:35):
And in terms of infiltrating the cartels, the directive at
the time from the FBI was to target these high.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Level core groups. So for him it wasn't just about
trying to get in and out.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
It was almost more of an intelligence operation where being
inside of the cartel allowed the FBI to amass crucial
information about how they operated, and if intelligence could be gathered,
the could be enhanced and then hopefully the larger goal
of dismantling these criminal networks could be achieved.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
So for us, when we're writing this book, we.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Want again we wanted some storytelling flair in there, but
we wanted the reader to be able to see the
operation through Martin's eyes in that as he goes deeper
and deeper and deeper, you're getting more and more and
more information, kind of like a tapestry or a big
jigsaw puzzle. Then at the very end it all comes
into focus and you realize what you're really dealing with here.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Now, martin Ian brought up Manny, So I've got to
ask you that question because I'm a man of multiple
personalities as well, because Arrow is not who I am
in real life. That's the radio guy. The guy I
am in real life talks to his dog like a
baby talker. What is it like for you to physically
get in there and become Manny? And do you miss
that personality and that confidence that Manny had?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
I missed the work, although none necessily Manny I had
ten other names like Manny, ten backstop names, so uh,
I had to attend to those also. But that was
(06:13):
uh s the kind of nostalgia for many because not
only did he worker cases, he met some great people
along the way and signerated many people and.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Putting Joe many back back people.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
So when you get that whole picture, you tend to
miss it. It's uh uh creating your backstop and to
infatuate the cartel.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And then be manny is uh.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
It's a matter of a match trick like Ian said,
were you uh, I will to transfer from one h
one nah'll ev to you real persona. So that was
Uhas the most enjoyable part of it is harn nine
(07:19):
years skills.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah. Now, Ian, my father would argue with me forever today.
He would say, this is not a true crime story.
This is a modern day Western, son, get your stuff together.
It's a Western. They play it like the old day sun.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
I mean, look, I wanted just to write the story
in a way that made it the most compelling, and
there is like this kind of cops and robbers Western
element to it, but you're kind of thrust with it
in the tropical nature of the Caribbean drug trade. But
for me, you know, true crime maybe lends itself a
(07:57):
little bit more to kind of cabre murder driven stuff,
whereas Martin certainly has a more swashbuckling cowboysque western asque
nature to it. But for me, and people read the
book now that it's out and they call me and
they're like, eat, this book is so good, Like it's
the best thing you've written. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I mean,
I think I did a good job. But you have
to understand that this story is what Martin's life was.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Like this book, we're gonna be goger thun less.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
The story itself was good, so so much credit has
to be given to Martin to actually, you know, have
the have the cajones to to live this story for
years at a time and do what he did, whether
he saw himself as a cowboy or not.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Please do not move. We'll be right back with Martin
and Ian coming up next. The name of the book
Inside the Cartel Martin Sworez and Ian Frish Martin, did
you write in a journal to to kind of just
put yourself in the moment and to preserve it or
is this something that it's like like like Bruce Li says,
if I put it on page, on any type of page,
(08:58):
it's going to become a weapon into my enemy.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Right, So I did right.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
During the operations, I only wrote to have my reports
to the Bureau for evidence. But afterwards I I.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Just kept some.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Public knowledge of court documents available on the internet, and
that job by memory for each operation had court records,
my witness testimony and diamonds, all kinds of things that
(09:47):
were available to me to in terms of notes per se.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
I will add too, just on this point that a
lot of what Martin did back in the day was
highly classified and very very secret, And so after you
retire as an FBI agent Martin retired in twenty eleven,
you're not really allowed to keep all that stuff at
your house, like unless unless it came out in public
in a court of law. You're not really allowed to
keep property owned by the FBI. So when we started
(10:15):
writing this book, we were actually in constant discussion with
the FBI and for them to be able to do
a review of the book to make sure we weren't
revealing sources and methods and tradecraft that was still being
utilized by the FBI today.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Thankfully, they allowed.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Us to share almost all of the details that we
wanted to share about how Martin did what he did
all those years ago, which was such a blessing.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
All right, Martin, let's talk author to author here, because Okay,
what is worse having to sit there and wait for
the FBI to give you their approval or to sit
there with your editor going, oh my god, you got
to take out what now, Please help me here, man,
what's more difficult facing the editor or the or the
the FBI. You know, making sure you're keeping it on
the clean.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yep was the most difficult. But understood the taken. And
I was the one that said that I woke. I
created with my partner's colleagues. Uh, the backstop been that
and now I enjoyed and they use the twenty three
(11:23):
years so that back Stappen had to be protected. I
don't mention bagstop been by a name, but I'm on
the watch how we do it?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And uh you know.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So now, Ian, how many times did you sit across
from Martin and go, hold on, wait a second, wait
a second, you did what this ding you what? And
you sat there in shock and he and he explained
it over and over again, and you're going you gotta
be kidning, dude. You're like an American hero here. You're
doing things that the average person would have turned and
walked away from them.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
It happened on a daily basis. So Martin and I.
I would travel to Florida, where Martin lives, and he
and I would sit in a room for five six
days in a row, and we would go through all
the stories, and every day I'm sitting there and I'm like, so,
let me just get this straight. And I have to
repeat what Martin just told me, because the way Martin speaks,
he's very humble and almost matter of fact, and I
(12:22):
had to really kind of like put it into perspective
so I understood. I'm like, so, you're in a boat
in the middle of the ocean, it's two in the morning,
you can't see anything, and a cartel plane is flying
overhead and dropping bales of cocaine the size of refrigerators
into the ocean. Then you have to go pick them
up without damaging them and bring them back to Miami.
(12:42):
And Martin's like yeah, I'm like, okay, I just want
to make sure that what you're telling me is like,
this is how I'm receiving it. But again, there's no
frame of reference for this story. I mean, you think
about Donnie Brasco infiltrating the Mafia. That story was told
so long ago that when you hear about people doing
similar things now you have frame of reference. But because
Martin was the first and the only FBI agent to
(13:04):
infiltrate the Columbian drug cartel, as I'm hearing these details,
I have the reference for how crazy this stuff really is.
So for me, it was really about trying to kind
of create a baseline within our own conversation so I
can say, Okay, this is how I'm understanding it, and
this is how we can translate to the reader.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Martin. I got to tell you something here. Until this book,
I didn't know that there was such a thing as
a black market peso exchange. And the reason why that
got my attention if you knew how many people a
week after week come into my store and they exchange
everything over to pesos. I mean it's in the thousands, dude,
And now I have to sit there and think, what
are you up to do? I need to get my
(13:42):
friend Martin In here to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Is so the best way to uncover any thing is
to go in silent, just like the Monday in lund
them silent and pro it's a heart of the u
H the engine if you may. They're Columbia and drug traffic,
(14:09):
and that they moved billions of dollars a year.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
So.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Uh, the undercovered niggas all I could tell you that
I believe worse the best. So if I go and
talk to them. It won't be as productive if I
if they didn't know I was the interview and them.
(14:36):
Like Ian said, it is a matcher's trick that the
perps don't know that there are the protagonists. How did
you say and forget?
Speaker 6 (14:54):
What do you mean, Martin, the h the matcher's trick
that is okay, So undercover work is performing a magic
trick for a spectator who does not know they're on
a stage.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Oh my god, that is what Martin did so well.
He was able to.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Create an alternate reality for members of the cartels to
the point where they convinced themselves that there was no
way that Martin was ever to blame for the fact
that every load that they brought to the United States
with him was seized.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
By law enforcement.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Martin was so good at the psychological element of going undercover,
which how I described in the book was akin to
doing a magic trick for someone who didn't realize that
they were on the stage with the magician.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
All right, Ian, interviewer to interviewer here, okay, Because I
mean when you get the opportunity to step inside someone's path,
I mean it's like, did you ever have to look
at him and say, are you answering me as Manny
or are you answering me right now as Martin. Did
you ever find yourself in a situation like that is?
I mean, we're talking about two different personalities and two
different answers.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Well, I don't think it was necessarily Martin versus Manny.
I think it was Martin as the surface level person
that Martin has trained himself to be publicly and with
the people he knows, and then there was Martin underneath that,
the person who wanted to be vulnerable, who wanted to
really tell the truth about.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
How he felt about certain things.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
And I always was pushing to talk to the Martin
underneath because that's where the most heartfelt portions of the
book really came out. So for me, I would sometimes
ask Martin to tell stories two, three, four times.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, because every time.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
You ask, the details get a little bit more intimate,
they get a little bit deeper, and then we finally
get to the point where we saw the true nature
of what he went through as a man, as a
human being all those years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Well, Martin, what was that like for you? Because was
there ever a time while he was interviewing you that
you actually went I don't know if I can go
there because of me. I mean it was it was
getting inside the caverns and in your soul.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Right and it won't They're pretty deep. But uh I
uh I uh always.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Abided by the rules that in that if I did
all come to a huge embarrassment and elimination of the project,
so uh yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Uh I would uh I.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
You know many and more many people said you must
be psychotic because you have to these personalities. And I
just told him that the PI survived me as being
the sane person, not insane.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So oh that I have.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
To do U tag Elijah settlement, a battery of them
twice a year every six months. And I found that
I will find the good thing. And that's all I
made it.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Wow, the name of the book. Inside the cartel, we
are barely scratching the surface, which means you got to
get the book. You got to get the book. And Ian,
where can people go to find out more about Martin
and everything that you guys are doing, because it's got
to be beyond this book because he's teaching people how
to do this.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
So it is a remarkable story and I'm so proud
to have been a part of it, but you can
buy inside the cartel wherever books are sold. I can
go anywhere from your local indie shop all the way
up to Amazon and everything in between. But it's it's
available now, and it is It is such a wild
ride and we are so happy to have it out
in the world.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Well you too, You've got to come back to this
show anytime in the future. The door is always going
to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Thank you so much, and thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Be brilliant, you two, you too.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Take care
Good morning you too. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Doing fine? Thanks for having us great?
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You know, I'm so glad that we've had this connection.
And the reason why is because sometimes I look at
the cartel and I go, how much of this is propaganda?
Because you know, I mean, we all fell in love
with Tony Montana in scarface and it's like, okay, so
that was a version of it. But did Hollywood get
it right? And is the rest of it propaganda?
Speaker 4 (00:28):
I think as far as a ton in Montana, there's
a lot of Chris, but it's a different drug tured.
The Cubans that were Engage and and the head were
(00:53):
a different breed than the than the Columbian drug Hotel,
although they worked together, but there were formultable foes. The
Cumans working with the time in Montana's Miami.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Now ian when it comes to the cartels, I mean,
the thing is, you were talking about an FBI agent
smuggles cocaine and launder's cash from a Colombian narco empire.
This right here is to me, this is like a
James Bond movie. How were you able to keep it
authentic in the way where where we have basically we
have to remind ourselves, this is a true story. This
actually happened.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Well, I certainly wanted some storytelling flare in there, but
you know, again, when you come back to the facts
of the case, the story kind of writes itself. I mean,
for me, it was really just going through the process
of staying down with Martin and going through these stories
detailed by detail and understanding too. When we first started
writing the book that we wanted to have a truly
narrative account of his most consequential and important case, which
(02:00):
was first being a smuggler and then being a money
launder during the first six years of his career as
an FBI agent. But again, everything in the story really happened,
and I think it seems so cinematic and so unreal
in many respects because the FBI has never publicly acknowledged
Martin's role. You know, they don't come out and tooth
their own horn about this stuff because back then it
(02:22):
was crucial to protect him and the sources and methods
that they employed, So if they had to talk about
in court, they would, but they weren't going on the
news and holding press conferences and describing how this stuff
was done.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So for me. It was truly.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
An honor and a pleasure to sit down with Martin
and say, Okay, now's the time to really tell how
you're able to infiltrate these cartels.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Martin. I take tests every single year, It's like every
three to four months, because I work for a company
that deals with money, and money laundering is always our
biggest fear. I know what people are doing. I know
they're right there in front of me doing it, but
they know how to keep it under the rules. How
are you able to do this or can you even
talk about this?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
The trade, the money in Londo and trade uh Is
supports herself, so there's so silent the way they the
drug traverers from the South America worked, This was a SYSM.
(03:29):
I'm only London's scheme that was virtually untraceable to this
day and unless you have an under cover agent and
the miss made with them daily or weekly, you'll never
know that. Thenander and eight to ten brillion dollars a
(03:55):
year and drug process.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So and where along the journey did you realize this
was not one of those made for television stories in
the way of get in, get out, this operation is over.
You knew that when you went into this project that
oh this is this is going to involve several years
and layers.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Well, when you think about undercover work, there's kind of
two camps. The first is you do some like weekend
long street bust type of thing, where you know, you
put the hoodie on and you go out into the
street and you buy a dimebag and then you say, oh, gotcha,
you're busted. But Martin is of the other camp, where
he had to really become nanny for years at a time.
(04:35):
And in terms of infiltrating the cartels, the directive at
the time from the FBI was to target these high.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Level core groups. So for him it wasn't just about
trying to get in and out.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
It was almost more of an intelligence operation where being
inside of the cartel allowed the FBI to amass crucial
information about how they operated, and if intelligence could be gathered,
the could be enhanced and then hopefully the larger goal
of dismantling these criminal networks could be achieved.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
So for us, when we're writing this book, we.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Want again we wanted some storytelling flair in there, but
we wanted the reader to be able to see the
operation through Martin's eyes in that as he goes deeper
and deeper and deeper, you're getting more and more and
more information, kind of like a tapestry or a big
jigsaw puzzle. Then at the very end it all comes
into focus and you realize what you're really dealing with here.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Now, martin Ian brought up Manny, So I've got to
ask you that question because I'm a man of multiple
personalities as well, because Arrow is not who I am
in real life. That's the radio guy. The guy I
am in real life talks to his dog like a
baby talker. What is it like for you to physically
get in there and become Manny? And do you miss
that personality and that confidence that Manny had?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
I missed the work, although none necessily Manny I had
ten other names like Manny, ten backstop names, so uh,
I had to attend to those also. But that was
(06:13):
uh s the kind of nostalgia for many because not
only did he worker cases, he met some great people
along the way and signerated many people and.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Putting Joe many back back people.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
So when you get that whole picture, you tend to
miss it. It's uh uh creating your backstop and to
infatuate the cartel.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And then be manny is uh.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
It's a matter of a match trick like Ian said,
were you uh, I will to transfer from one h
one nah'll ev to you real persona. So that was
Uhas the most enjoyable part of it is harn nine
(07:19):
years skills.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah. Now, Ian, my father would argue with me forever today.
He would say, this is not a true crime story.
This is a modern day Western, son, get your stuff together.
It's a Western. They play it like the old day sun.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
I mean, look, I wanted just to write the story
in a way that made it the most compelling, and
there is like this kind of cops and robbers Western
element to it, but you're kind of thrust with it
in the tropical nature of the Caribbean drug trade. But
for me, you know, true crime maybe lends itself a
(07:57):
little bit more to kind of cabre murder driven stuff,
whereas Martin certainly has a more swashbuckling cowboysque western asque
nature to it. But for me, and people read the
book now that it's out and they call me and
they're like, eat, this book is so good, Like it's
the best thing you've written. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I mean,
I think I did a good job. But you have
to understand that this story is what Martin's life was.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Like this book, we're gonna be goger thun less.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
The story itself was good, so so much credit has
to be given to Martin to actually, you know, have
the have the cajones to to live this story for
years at a time and do what he did, whether
he saw himself as a cowboy or not.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Please do not move. We'll be right back with Martin
and Ian coming up next. The name of the book
Inside the Cartel Martin Sworez and Ian Frish Martin, did
you write in a journal to to kind of just
put yourself in the moment and to preserve it or
is this something that it's like like like Bruce Li says,
if I put it on page, on any type of page,
(08:58):
it's going to become a weapon into my enemy.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Right, So I did right.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
During the operations, I only wrote to have my reports
to the Bureau for evidence. But afterwards I I.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Just kept some.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Public knowledge of court documents available on the internet, and
that job by memory for each operation had court records,
my witness testimony and diamonds, all kinds of things that
(09:47):
were available to me to in terms of notes per se.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
I will add too, just on this point that a
lot of what Martin did back in the day was
highly classified and very very secret, And so after you
retire as an FBI agent Martin retired in twenty eleven,
you're not really allowed to keep all that stuff at
your house, like unless unless it came out in public
in a court of law. You're not really allowed to
keep property owned by the FBI. So when we started
(10:15):
writing this book, we were actually in constant discussion with
the FBI and for them to be able to do
a review of the book to make sure we weren't
revealing sources and methods and tradecraft that was still being
utilized by the FBI today.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Thankfully, they allowed.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Us to share almost all of the details that we
wanted to share about how Martin did what he did
all those years ago, which was such a blessing.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
All right, Martin, let's talk author to author here, because Okay,
what is worse having to sit there and wait for
the FBI to give you their approval or to sit
there with your editor going, oh my god, you got
to take out what now, Please help me here, man,
what's more difficult facing the editor or the or the
the FBI. You know, making sure you're keeping it on
the clean.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yep was the most difficult. But understood the taken. And
I was the one that said that I woke. I
created with my partner's colleagues. Uh, the backstop been that
and now I enjoyed and they use the twenty three
(11:23):
years so that back Stappen had to be protected. I
don't mention bagstop been by a name, but I'm on
the watch how we do it?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And uh you know.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So now, Ian, how many times did you sit across
from Martin and go, hold on, wait a second, wait
a second, you did what this ding you what? And
you sat there in shock and he and he explained
it over and over again, and you're going you gotta
be kidning, dude. You're like an American hero here. You're
doing things that the average person would have turned and
walked away from them.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
It happened on a daily basis. So Martin and I.
I would travel to Florida, where Martin lives, and he
and I would sit in a room for five six
days in a row, and we would go through all
the stories, and every day I'm sitting there and I'm like, so,
let me just get this straight. And I have to
repeat what Martin just told me, because the way Martin speaks,
he's very humble and almost matter of fact, and I
(12:22):
had to really kind of like put it into perspective
so I understood. I'm like, so, you're in a boat
in the middle of the ocean, it's two in the morning,
you can't see anything, and a cartel plane is flying
overhead and dropping bales of cocaine the size of refrigerators
into the ocean. Then you have to go pick them
up without damaging them and bring them back to Miami.
(12:42):
And Martin's like yeah, I'm like, okay, I just want
to make sure that what you're telling me is like,
this is how I'm receiving it. But again, there's no
frame of reference for this story. I mean, you think
about Donnie Brasco infiltrating the Mafia. That story was told
so long ago that when you hear about people doing
similar things now you have frame of reference. But because
Martin was the first and the only FBI agent to
(13:04):
infiltrate the Columbian drug cartel, as I'm hearing these details,
I have the reference for how crazy this stuff really is.
So for me, it was really about trying to kind
of create a baseline within our own conversation so I
can say, Okay, this is how I'm understanding it, and
this is how we can translate to the reader.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Martin. I got to tell you something here. Until this book,
I didn't know that there was such a thing as
a black market peso exchange. And the reason why that
got my attention if you knew how many people a
week after week come into my store and they exchange
everything over to pesos. I mean it's in the thousands, dude,
And now I have to sit there and think, what
are you up to do? I need to get my
(13:42):
friend Martin In here to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Is so the best way to uncover any thing is
to go in silent, just like the Monday in lund
them silent and pro it's a heart of the u
H the engine if you may. They're Columbia and drug traffic,
(14:09):
and that they moved billions of dollars a year.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
So.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Uh, the undercovered niggas all I could tell you that
I believe worse the best. So if I go and
talk to them. It won't be as productive if I
if they didn't know I was the interview and them.
(14:36):
Like Ian said, it is a matcher's trick that the
perps don't know that there are the protagonists. How did
you say and forget?
Speaker 6 (14:54):
What do you mean, Martin, the h the matcher's trick
that is okay, So undercover work is performing a magic
trick for a spectator who does not know they're on
a stage.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Oh my god, that is what Martin did so well.
He was able to.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Create an alternate reality for members of the cartels to
the point where they convinced themselves that there was no
way that Martin was ever to blame for the fact
that every load that they brought to the United States
with him was seized.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
By law enforcement.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Martin was so good at the psychological element of going undercover,
which how I described in the book was akin to
doing a magic trick for someone who didn't realize that
they were on the stage with the magician.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
All right, Ian, interviewer to interviewer here, okay, Because I
mean when you get the opportunity to step inside someone's path,
I mean it's like, did you ever have to look
at him and say, are you answering me as Manny
or are you answering me right now as Martin. Did
you ever find yourself in a situation like that is?
I mean, we're talking about two different personalities and two
different answers.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Well, I don't think it was necessarily Martin versus Manny.
I think it was Martin as the surface level person
that Martin has trained himself to be publicly and with
the people he knows, and then there was Martin underneath that,
the person who wanted to be vulnerable, who wanted to
really tell the truth about.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
How he felt about certain things.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
And I always was pushing to talk to the Martin
underneath because that's where the most heartfelt portions of the
book really came out. So for me, I would sometimes
ask Martin to tell stories two, three, four times.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, because every time.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
You ask, the details get a little bit more intimate,
they get a little bit deeper, and then we finally
get to the point where we saw the true nature
of what he went through as a man, as a
human being all those years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Well, Martin, what was that like for you? Because was
there ever a time while he was interviewing you that
you actually went I don't know if I can go
there because of me. I mean it was it was
getting inside the caverns and in your soul.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Right and it won't They're pretty deep. But uh I
uh I uh always.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Abided by the rules that in that if I did
all come to a huge embarrassment and elimination of the project,
so uh yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Uh I would uh I.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
You know many and more many people said you must
be psychotic because you have to these personalities. And I
just told him that the PI survived me as being
the sane person, not insane.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So oh that I have.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
To do U tag Elijah settlement, a battery of them
twice a year every six months. And I found that
I will find the good thing. And that's all I
made it.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Wow, the name of the book. Inside the cartel, we
are barely scratching the surface, which means you got to
get the book. You got to get the book. And Ian,
where can people go to find out more about Martin
and everything that you guys are doing, because it's got
to be beyond this book because he's teaching people how
to do this.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
So it is a remarkable story and I'm so proud
to have been a part of it, but you can
buy inside the cartel wherever books are sold. I can
go anywhere from your local indie shop all the way
up to Amazon and everything in between. But it's it's
available now, and it is It is such a wild
ride and we are so happy to have it out
in the world.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Well you too, You've got to come back to this
show anytime in the future. The door is always going
to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Thank you so much, and thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Be brilliant, you two, you too.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Take care
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