The Colonel Corner Dark Alliance Part 20

auto-scroll word highlight ▶ Rumble @ here

Transcript

0:03 You? I'm great. How are you? Oh, my God. I'm so over the moon. All right. Tell everybody why. Oh, my God. I just got the biggest buck of my life yesterday. And it was such an amazing God thing. Oh, my God. It was a 10 point, right? He was actually a 12. Oh, did he have little ones? I couldn't see the little ones. Yeah, and he has two little crab claw things off the...

0:42 And that's it. Now I have to confess something. I took a first shot that I missed. He was far. I know. That's why I say it was totally a God thing. Well, first of all, he had been there in the morning and I wasn't there. And the fact that he came back in the evening was totally not normal. And I missed the first shot. He was really far off and I was trying to thread the needle between some trees. And he looked.

1:11 In the direction of the sound. And lo and behold. He came closer. And stood there. And he's scraping and rubbing on the tree. And everything. Long enough that I could recock my bow. Get a new arrow in. And everything. That's absolutely ridiculous. That's what I'm saying. It was totally a God thing. It was just amazing. When God's in the middle of it. You can't mess it up. Even when you mess it up.

1:40 Even when you mess it up, right? That's hilarious. I mean, it was just amazing. All right, so more venison jerky. I'm all for it. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Pepper jack, eight summer sausage. Gotta love it. And he was, you know, within hours, one of the things we always do, within hours, you know, we had him strung up, gutted, cleaned, and off to the processor and in the freezer. So he's already ready.

2:10 Before we went to bed last night, he's already there. That's quick. All right. Yeah. No chance. That way it's no chance for the meat to get. Yeah. Nothing. Everything's perfect. That's all. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So excited. That is definitely an exciting experience. Having done that myself, it's and the best thing about it.

2:39 is that it fills your freezer um for months um as far as being able to um harvest your own meat um i'm a big buy local fan and if you can get it yourself even better all right absolutely i'll put um i'll stick one of the pictures just for bragging rights down in the yes definitely indeed yay um all right so we're gonna go ahead and get started

3:08 We're on Chapter 20 of Dark Alliance, and we left off with the total debacle that had occurred on one of the largest busts that could have ever happened in Los Angeles to actually address the influx of cocaine.

3:36 into South Central Los Angeles because involving the federal agents tipped off Daniello Blanton to the entire operation and they were able to basically dispose of, get rid of, and clean all of the intended targets because apparently one of the feds

4:03 gave them the list of the intended targets. So that's where we left off. So in October 1986, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's raids were nothing but an irritant to the Nicaraguans. And I want to stop here for just a second and reiterate this. These are not the network that is being used.

4:34 The dealers on the street are Americans. But these are people that the CIA and the State Department cleared to come into America and then, in many cases, gave them citizenship knowing they were drug dealers. The wholesalers, the actual network, is imported into the United States at the behest of the CIA with the approval.

5:02 of the State Department and the immigration authorities. And they're foreigners that are orchestrating the overall drug importation into the United States. And they're selling it to the dealers in these geographical areas. And we see this over and over again as we research this.

5:29 anti-drug terrorist nexus that the CIA has orchestrated. So Blanton had basically lost a tiny bit of dope that they found in his personal possession at his house. None of the people were arrested. He and Chapita, his wife, were out of jail in a matter of hours, and he laughed about it.

5:56 Ricky Ross would later say, quote, I thought it was some pretty bad shit, but he told me there was nothing to worry about. Nobody had found nothing. Nothing was going to change, unquote. Blanton and Ross continued buying and selling millions of dollars worth of cocaine every week, even as the FBI watched them do it. Former L.A. County Deputy D.A. Susan Bryant Deason.

6:27 now a Superior Court judge, told police in 1996 that she met several times in the weeks following the raids with Sergeant Ed Huffman of the Majors 2 team and federal agents in an effort to keep Blanton investigation alive. Bryant Deason, the supervising attorney on the Blanton case, had been cross-designated as a special assistant U.S. attorney.

6:55 which allowed her to prosecute federal cases as well as state cases. She said the agents were frustrated and wanted to do something but had quote-unquote insufficient evidence. However, they found cocaine. And it wasn't that they had insufficient evidence because they were imprisoning blacks for less possession. That's a bold-faced lie.

7:26 Despite the overall failure of the raids and the departure of the majors, FBI agent Douglas Auckland and DEA agent Tom Shretner kept working. If they couldn't get their respective agencies to help them investigate the Nicaraguan drug ring, they'd find someone who could. In November, the agents approached L.A. U.S. Attorney's Office and persuaded the federal prosecutor.

7:58 Crossin Anderson, to take the case to an entity that had been set up called the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. It was a special Justice Department unit that was put together from agents across law enforcement agencies to go after major drug trafficking organizations.

8:21 The prosecutor agreed to offer the case to the task force, which was very selective about the cases it adopted. I wonder why that is. I'll tell you why it is, but we're going to go on with the story. They had to be big ones so they could control it. November 25th, 1986, Anderson wrote to the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Laguna Niguel.

8:49 asking the IRS to supply agents to help out on the case. As you know, Anderson wrote, this is a narcotics investigation involving FBI, DEA, and Los Angeles Sheriff Department units in Riverside and Whittier, California. It's a sensitive matter since it involves allegations of drug running in support of the Contra movement in Nicaragua.

9:19 would involve the CIA. Sensitive wasn't actually the correct word. It was white hot. The same morning Anderson was dictating his letter to the IRS, President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese were announcing to a group of reporters in Washington that millions of dollars from the sale of missiles to the

9:47 supposedly tyrannical government of Iran, had been illegally diverted to the Contras by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. The Iran-Contra scandal was busting wide open. Now, the strange papers that had been found in Blanton and Lister's houses that summer suggesting drugs for arms deals and unexplained U.S. Treasury deposits to foreign banks took on a new significance.

10:20 Auckland was temporarily assigned to work on Operation Front Door, the FBI's codename for the Iran-Contra probe, in order to look into possible connections between Lister and Oliver North. Auckland interviewed a retired Secret Service agent who told him that Lister had mentioned selling arms to Contra and that he worked for an Iranian. The next day,

10:47 Auckland question Lister's realtor who told of Lister buying a house last summer with two sacks full of cash. When the realtor asked Lister where the money came from, Lister informed him that he ran a quote unquote CIA approved security business and was raising money for the Contras, which was also quote unquote CIA approved.

11:15 When Auckland finally got to Lister, he asked him point blank if he was involved in training of Contras. Lister denied knowing anything about North, clammed up and, quote, requested that an unidentified representative of another agency be present before he answered any questions, unquote. Despite the intriguing leads, the FBI office in Los Angeles declared that there was no connection.

11:45 between Lister and the Iran-Contra scandal and precluded any further investigation, even though they had pages of documentation showing the connection. The next month, the FBI would learn that Lister, quote, had told an unidentified neighbor over drinks that he worked for Lieutenant Colonel North and Richard Secord.

12:11 and had sent armed shipments to the Contras, unquote. That lead wasn't pursued either. While Prosecutor Anderson and FBI agent Auckland were preparing their application for the organized task force, all hell broke loose down in Costa Rica. The secretive CIA and Contra operations going on there were suddenly international news and the little country started crawling with American reporters.

12:39 They found all kinds of evidence linking North, the White House, and the CIA to illegal Contra resupply activities. Ilopango was exposed and Norse operatives hastily abandoned their airplanes, their barracks, and their safe houses and fled the country. The Costa Rican government began arresting Contras and Contra supporters for violating Costa Rican neutrality.

13:09 In December of 1986, Costa Rica's biggest newspaper published an extensive series on Contra connections to drug trafficking there. And one installment focused squarely on Norwin Menendez, describing him as a Contra supporter financier who had holed up in Costa Rica under some type of protection, hiding from American.

13:37 drug agents. Of course, he wasn't hiding from the American drug agents. He was working with them. The story sent the DEA office at the U.S. Embassy into a tizzy. Their top secret informant had just been outed as a major Contra drug trafficker, and not a week had gone by since the Iran-Contra scandal had exploded.

14:00 If the Costa Rican government, which was becoming increasingly hostile to the Contras, started poking around, it wouldn't take long to discover that the drug kingpin's special relationship with the U.S. embassy would be exposed. Menendez's handler, DEA agent Sandy Gonzalez, frantically cabled the DEA agent's office in Los Angeles, asking for permission for Menendez to travel back to the United States.

14:30 The newspaper, Gonzalez complained, had said Menendez was being investigated by the Costa Rican government and the publicity and the specter of deportation that Menendez was afraid of. He was considering going underground, Gonzalez warned, which meant the DEA would lose what appears to be one of its best sources of information.

14:54 which is ridiculous because they already had all the information they were protecting him. On December 21st, without waiting for DEA approval, Menendez and his new partner, longtime CIA agent Roberto, left Costa Rica and flew to the U.S. Officially, they were on a mission for the Costa Rican DEA. Quote, unquote.

15:20 penetrate Blanton's organization and gather intelligence about its activities under a code name Operation Perico. Now, Menendez set Blanton up in business. They're not investigating Blanton. That's all bullshit. They already know everything about Blanton and everything about Menendez.

15:46 But it appears there were other factors behind the DEA's sudden urge to insert Menendez and the CIA agent into Blanton's organization. That was to avoid the embarrassment of Menendez falling into the hands of Costa Rican police, and more importantly, to gather intelligence on just what the impending federal task force investigation in L.A. could expose.

16:14 if they delve too deeply into Blanton's drug ring. Again, they already know they helped set it up. Soon after the new year, a series of strange meetings took place in Los Angeles between Blanton Menendez, the CIA agent Roberto, and a top FDN, meaning the group that was representing the Contras in the United States, official named Ivan Torres.

16:44 Torres was a brother of Jacinto and Edgar, the two guys that are part of Blanton's drug trafficking network. So there's a third Torres brother. Roberto later reported back to the DEA on those meetings and his debriefing reports must have chilled the CIA and DEA to the bone. This is a quote. Ivan Torres, a Colombian national. Oh, isn't that weird? Colombia again.

17:16 said that his brothers, Edgar and Pacito, were distributing up to 1,000 kilograms of cocaine on a monthly basis in Los Angeles. According to Torres, Menendez, and Blanton, Torres was the head of the West Coast branch of the FDN, meaning the Contras, which was supplying the Contras with weapons.

17:44 Ivan Torres claims to be in contact with the FBI and CIA as a result of his involvement with the Contras. No kidding. He claims to have been trained by the CIA in San Bernardino in an area that represented Nicaraguan terrain so that they could overthrow the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. He said the CIA.

18:16 want to know about drug trafficking, but only for their own purposes and not necessarily to assist law enforcement agencies. The CIA knows all about it because they set it up. Torres told Roberto that CIA representatives are aware of his drug-related activities and that they don't mind. He said that they had gone so far as to encourage cocaine trafficking by members of the Contra because they knew it was a good source of income.

18:48 Some of the income had gone into numbered bank accounts in Europe and Panama. The major's raids, Torres reported proudly, had not interfered with any of their cocaine trafficking to the black neighborhoods in Los Angeles. They had merely caused some management changes. Excuse me.

19:13 Quote, Blanton was keeping a low profile and may have turned over cocaine distribution to a black group in South Los Angeles to the Torres brothers. The DEA report said, describing Blanton's sales to blacks as half his trade. Blanton apparently cleaned up all of his stash houses and dealt through intermediaries.

19:40 As for the informants who snitched them off to the DEA and FBI, Blanton and Torres knew who they were, Roberto reported. The individuals would be killed. Nine months later, one of the men Blanton suspected, Contra FDN member Carlos Roca, was shot five times in the groin and legs while sitting in a hotel room in Guatemala, but survived. Of course, Blanton denied any...

20:11 What is most strange about these meetings between contra traffickers and the CIA agent is the fact that FBI agent Doug Auckland, who was supposedly leading the investigation, was never told of them until afterwards. Under Auckland's nose, the Costa Rican DEA office secretly brought Auckland's prime suspect into the country, sent him inside the drug ring.

20:38 The FBI agent had been investigating and sent him back to Costa Rica, all without letting him know. Auckland was staking out Blanton's auto dealerships at the time of the meeting, and he watched for eight straight days as an unidentified male Latin left Blanton's car lot every morning with FDN official Ivan Torres by his side and drove into L.A.

21:07 Only later was Auckland told who the mystery man was. It was Norwin Menendez. And let me just tell you guys, even back then when we didn't have facial recognition, they had a flipping photograph. There's no way Norwin Menendez, the kingpin, came and went for over a week and the FBI didn't know. Auckland said,

21:38 that he was particularly angry that he didn't get a chance to debrief Menendez and had only last-minute notice that he could speak to the CIA agent, Roberto. The Justice Department IG reported this. Supposedly outraged, Auckland shot a cable off to FBI headquarters and the San Francisco FBI, telling them about Menendez's newfound love for the DEA.

22:06 In San Francisco, FBI agent Gordon Gibler read the cable and was surprised that the DEA had not shared that information with the FBI. A few days later, the San Francisco FBI issued arrest warrants for Roberto and Menendez, you know, now that he's gone, because the FBI suspected them of conducting drug deals in San Francisco. Roberto later recalled,

22:38 that that was all after they knew they were gone. Other DEA offices also began wondering what the hell their Costa Rica comrades were up to. The San Francisco office cabled Costa Rica complaining that it had no idea who was being targeted by Menendez and Roberto or what they were supposedly investigating. An accompanying cable

23:06 was sent to DEA headquarters in Washington, inquiring, quote, whether an indictment of Menendez by the San Francisco FBI will result in a national security problem with other agencies, unquote. In other words, mother may I. It must have caused some concern to someone because once Menendez had completed his mission and was safely back in Costa Rica, the drug lord suddenly had a change of heart.

23:35 He was done. He wasn't cut out to be an informant, he decided. As long as the FBI was trying to indict him, he would never go back to the U.S. and would never testify against anyone, he said. Furious that they had been duped. I don't think they were duped. The FBI decided to even things up. Agent Auckland, Dan Hell, and Gordon Gibler.

24:03 had put together enough evidence to indict Menendez for running a continuing criminal enterprise, a racketeering offense that carries possible life term. That would fix both his ass and the DEA's for good. Norwin's informant days would be over and he'd never step foot in the U.S. again. In February, Auckland and the San Francisco FBI agent Gibbler met with San Francisco U.S. attorney

24:31 The same guy, Joe Rosanello, that did absolutely nothing with the Frogman case that we talked about a while back, and presented him with a list of reasons why Menendez needed to be indicted. Their prosecution memo detailed a long history of drug dealing and noted that there were three informants willing to testify publicly. One of them claimed Menendez was a gun runner and that he worked with the CIA.

25:02 It didn't take a week for Rosanello's office to reject the FBI agent's proposal. Menendez would not be prosecuted. The agents were told so long as Blanton's investigation is still underway in Los Angeles, that wasn't going to happen. Rosanello's office had made a deal with the U.S. attorney in L.A. Once the L.A. case was done, you know, the case that doesn't exist, Menendez would then be required to plead guilty.

25:31 to a cocaine-related charge as part of a cooperation agreement and maybe even do a little time. Until then, the agents were told their case was officially on the inactive list. So just in case you're keeping track, they've not only decided they're not going to prosecute Norwin Menendez, but if they ever have to, they've already got the deal done just so that you keep up. Thanks to recently released Justice Department records.

26:01 It now appears that there was no such cooperation agreement between Menendez and the Justice Department. It was all a lie. That it was an invention to placate the FBI agents after their racketeering case was rejected. The Justice Department investigators could find no record of any deal. And the two federal prosecutors who were reported to have agreed to this scheme, Croson Anderson and Eric Swenson,

26:30 Both denied that it ever existed. If no deal existed, then it means the real reason for not indicting Menendez in January of 1987 was something else entirely. More likely, it was the fear of political blowback from an indictment in the middle of the Iran Contra explosion. The fact that the DEA

26:57 was asking if Menendez's indictment would cause national security problems for other agencies shows just how wise the agency was to the potential ramifications of the case. They knew all along. And given that what else was going on in Washington, the DEA's nervousness was understandable. Iran-Contra was becoming more scandalous every day.

27:25 the chances were increasing that the Contra drug issue was going to be dragged out of the shadows and exposed in neon lights. An item in January 13, 1987, Washington Talk column of the New York Times headlined, quote, drugs and the Contras, unquote, gives an idea of how horrifying it was at that time. Quote, some senators say,

27:55 that an official inquiry on the topic and how much of, if anything, American officials knew about it at the time would create such an uproar that it could derail the main thrust of the Senate inquiry to sort out the Reagan administration's secret arms deals to Iran and diversion of profits to the Contras, unquote. That's in the New York Times article. With the San Francisco FBI now out of the picture,

28:25 It was once again up to the Riverside agents, Auckland and Shretner, though their investigation had been burned, undermined, compromised, and backstabbed at every step. They still thought they had a few options. For instance, they had Menendez's CIA sidekick, Roberto, who had already successfully penetrated the drug ring once.

28:51 If he was supposed to be working for the DEA, they wanted him back on the job. In March 1987, Tom Shretner called DEA agent Gonzalez in Costa Rica and told him to send Roberto back to California to infiltrate the Blanton organization again. But Gonzalez had more bad news about the pair of informants.

29:14 Roberto wouldn't come to California without Menendez, and Menendez wouldn't come back as long as the FBI was looking for him. Gonzalez told Schretner that he was so exasperated with Menendez, he had already gotten rid of him as an informant and would no longer contact him, despite having deemed him productive as a source. In other words, they're hiding him. The agent's investigation sputtered along.

29:43 for several more months. In May, federal prosecutor Crossan Anderson called Gonzalez in Costa Rica and told him to get Mr. CIA to California so he could answer questions. Gonzalez replied that he didn't think Roberto would come, but promised to pass along the message. And by the way, Gonzalez added, he was being transferred to Bolivia and someone else was going to be handling the case from now on. Bolivia.

30:12 as in the other drug source of cocaine. Only after months of pressure from the DEA headquarters did Roberto finally agree to come to LA and meet with Shretner and Auckland. According to Auckland, the operative quickly made it clear that he would not testify. He was still willing to make introductions, but that was it. He was also tight-lipped about anything else he had heard of inside of Blanton's operation and did not appreciate.

30:43 he did not add a lot of information to what they already knew. He did point out that the majors had missed $850,000 in cash that Blanton had hidden in a safe at the bottom of a swimming pool. And he said that the Contra official, Ivan Torres, was bragging that the FBI was keeping him fully informed of all of their moves. A few days later,

31:14 After these debriefings on July 17th, 1987, Croson Anderson pulled the plug on the task force investigation. It had lasted less than seven months and had accomplished nothing except for to provide cover for Menendez and a CIA associate to visit the U.S., create suspicions, and leave.

31:38 Even though the FBI had shelved a promising case against Menendez in San Francisco to ensure his cooperation, the drug lord had proven virtually worthless. Auckland criticized the DEA in his case closing memorandum and later interviews with the Justice Department inspectors. This case may have been viable with the assistance of the DEA, Auckland said. Quote, however.

32:09 Without the assistance, further efforts will not be worthwhile, unquote. Auckland was frustrated with the case, he told the Justice Department. He was glad to get rid of it. He was not getting sufficient help from the FBI in Los Angeles, Miami, or anywhere else. Auckland packed up his files on Blanton, shipped them to the Miami office in a vain hope that an agent there would be able to check up on the drug dealer and their banking.

32:38 But no one bothered. We found no FBI records indicating that the Miami FBI office conducted any further investigation into Blanton, the Justice Department IG said. But once the case was officially shelved, Norrin Menendez miraculously reappeared and even more miraculously.

33:06 The DEA hired him back as an informant and began issuing him visas to the United States. At the height of the American public's outrage over the Iran-Contra scandal, the criminal investigation involving Contra cocaine sales in Los Angeles was dropped by the Justice Department, and a lid of secrecy was clamped on every aspect of it. One that would not come off.

33:37 for another 10 years. In 1996, when Gary Webb began looking into the 1986 raids, the Sheriff Department officials would initially deny that they had ever occurred. Because remember, they purged all the records. If the Blanton investigation produced anything useful for the LA police, it was the knowledge that Freeway Ricky Ross was the man in South Central.

34:08 In order to make a dent in the crack cocaine there, they were going to have to shut him down. But then Ricky Ross was a major dealer and he was affecting South Central Los Angeles. He was supplying most of the dope in the region. We were hearing from informants about murders and dealing cocaine directly with the Colombians and all kinds of bad things happening in L.A. Deputy LAPD Chief Glenn Levent.

34:38 felt that it was abundantly clear that Ross was the vital link between the major drug suppliers and lower level dealers. Now, again, I started off the show saying this. When all avenues are cut off by the federal government to actually deal with the suppliers, we go to the dealers. And we know that right around the same time, the Justice Department and the Congress

35:07 is all colluding together to make all of the Joe Biden drug penalties much stiffer. So if we arrest these guys, we're going to put them away for decades. No one's going to be able to talk to them. And we can still protect the actual distribution network because nobody's going to believe them. In January of 1987, the Sheriff's Department and LAPD

35:39 joined forces creating a Freeway Rick Task Force. It was one of the few times in the history of L.A. law enforcement that a single man was the subject of an entire task force. Ricky Ross is a 7-4 Hoover Crip, this is a quote, whose success amongst black gang members is well known, the task force wrote.

36:07 He has developed a large organization which handles weapon sales, cocaine shipments, and business enterprises, and as a result, has used the cash to buy real estate, commercial, and residential. Now, again, Ricky Ross was not supplying the weapons. Daniel Blanton was, along with Ron Lister and Mr. Weakley, CIA.

36:38 Though Ross had made a concerted effort to keep a low profile, driving around in a Ford station wagon, he had become too successful for his own good. Ross could no longer hide his fortune, and after a while, he no longer cared. I was like the mysterious man that everybody had heard about but nobody knew. Now he began acting like another man that he had seen and admired.

37:08 the godfather, although buying friendships wasn't in his wheelhouse. According to the LAPD captain, he'd become quite a heavyweight. He's sort of a local hero, the same way drug cartel leaders are. He employs people. He spends lots of money in the area. He owns lots of property. One of Ross's lieutenants

37:35 Cornell Ward later tried to explain it to ABC. He was a good bad guy and the whole community saw him that way. Now here's a funny story. So this is an interview with ABC News. This interview is being conducted by Forrest Sawyer. Forrest Sawyer is from Lakeland, Florida, my hometown. As a matter of fact, his family owns land, did own land, like

38:06 Right up the street from me. He built this humongous big mansion looking house on like 40 acres. And it's immaculate. And he would come home for the weekends and fly and do ABC assignments all over the world from Lakeland, Florida. So Forrest Sawyer says, and the whole community saw him that way. And Ward says, exactly.

38:34 Forrest Sawyer says, God, that's hard to believe. Ward said, it's easy. All you have to do is just go through the neighborhood and see. So Forrest Sawyer did. He interviewed people who described Ross as a well-liked person. They told of the crack king buying new hoops and backboards for neighborhood parks.

38:56 Field likes uniforms for local teams. He bought turntables and sound equipment for young rap artists and supplied eggs for Easter egg hunts. He paid for new pews and air conditioning for his mom's church. He sponsored a semi-pro football team and he basically handed out money for anybody that was panhandling. Quote, everybody likes him, man, because he helps. He helps a lot of people. And the brother.

39:26 ain't really done nothing. It's just that he sold dope, unquote. Another veteran probation officer told the LA Times he was more like a Robin Hood type guy. You never heard of him getting high or drinking or beating women or dealing dope to kids. All of that was off limits.

39:51 The police believe that cutting Ricky Ross down to size would not only be a propaganda victory for law enforcement, but would send a message up and down the gang members chain of command that things were changed. The cops estimated that they would need 60 days to infiltrate and conclude enforcement efforts to bring Ross's empire to a total conclusion.

40:19 The Sheriff's Department assigned five narcotics detectives and the LAPD contributed four, all of whom were selected because of their talents and narcotics expertise. Because Major One had been sniffing around Ross since 1986, its supervisor, Sergeant Robert Sobel, was put in charge of the task force.

40:44 In keeping with Sobel's personal motto, march or die, all five task force detectives were put on full-time cash overtime so they could keep up 24-hour surveillance of everything. For task force detective Steve Pollack, who had been working the streets of South Central the entire time, knowing Ricky Ross was a personal mission, he hated him. Quote,

41:12 What he did, he poisoned tens of thousands of people. He overdosed them. He killed them. There is a lot of crack babies out there because of him, unquote. And he made a pointed effort to point out that the crack was now spreading throughout the United States. Freeway Ricky started feeling the heat soon. When the task force was finally formed, we just dedicated seven days a week on him. And we would dog him.

41:44 until he couldn't take it anymore. On January 21st, Pollock and his men hit the freeway motor in like a tornado. The entire motel, all rooms were searched. The task force reported that in room five, currency and paperwork were seized in Ricky Ross's name. 31 grams of rock cocaine, a sophisticated 800 handheld repeater radio was discovered.

42:12 Investigations disclosed Ricky Ross had purchased six of these radios at about $10,000 apiece. They raided Ross's mother's house. They found a stolen 9mm Uzi two-point-blank bulletproof vest. The search on Annie Ross's house sent Rick into a tirade. He called during the raid.

42:41 and was yelling at Pollack on the phone. Going after my mom? That's a kind of shit, he said. As the weeks went on, it got worse. Three task force detectives searched Ollie Newell, that's his partner's apartment, and gave Newell a vicious beating. They even put a plastic bag over his head. They found $30,000.

43:08 They raided rental properties, broke furniture, kicked holes in walls, knocked the windows out, and every one of the renters were mad at Ricky. Ross's attorney, Alan Fenster, filed a formal complaint with the department saying that the beatings, thefts, property destruction, and false arrests had gone too far.

43:36 Sobel and his men fired back with a search warrant for Finster's financial records, accusing him of money laundering and supporting cocaine trafficking. Finster's complaints were perfunctually investigated by the sheriff's internal affairs branch and nothing was done. So there's a lot more in this chapter about them methodically going through Ricky Ross's associates.

44:05 And every single one of them was done this way. So the L.A. Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department physically beat all of these people up and destroyed every place they went. You can judge whether that's right or wrong, but there was so much venom.

44:36 projected by the police force during this investigation. I'm going to save you all of the details of going through all of it, but basically it just iterates every site that they hit, they did those same types of things. So moving past that, and getting back to

45:05 the gist of what we're talking about. Daniel Blanton's reassurance to Ross that nothing would change, the Nicaraguan had already made up his mind to get out of Los Angeles. The raids on his home and other locations, his bonus cover, and his best customers were now being attacked. After the raids, Blanton's wife, Chapita, had begun to show signs of a nervous breakdown. When I went to Miami to visit my family, my wife was sick from nerves. They were,

45:35 There was business considerations as well. Blanton's attorney, Bradley Brunin, said Blanton's used car dealership had been extremely successful and had widespread patronage from the Latin community. But the raids had destroyed it. So he was going to go back to Miami. He sends his wife and Orlando Morella, his money launderer in Miami.

46:06 was tying up loose ends and transferring cash for him so he could buy a house. So he's fine, you know, because he's protected by the CIA and FBI and DEA. But all hell's breaking loose in Los Angeles. Blanton would testify later, I was prepared to change my life, but that didn't mean letting a perfectly good cocaine ring go to waste. There was still quite a bit of money in it.

46:35 And I wasn't necessarily going to leave it. In other words, despite the fact that the LAPD, L.A. Sheriff's Department, FBI, DEA, CIA, DIA, and IRS was now fully aware of Blanton's cocaine reign, the only thing that changed was the man at the top. And even that, not much of a difference. Blanton's successor were two of Norwin Menendez's coke-dealing colleagues.

47:04 Roger Sandino Martinez and Jose Gonzalez. Roger Sandino was one of the guys from the old days, the old Contra connection, Blanton's lawyer said. He was the original gangster Contra. He was a veteran drug trafficker who seemed to enjoy the same kind of protection as Blanton.

47:29 DEA records show that Zendino was arrested in October 1980 in Hialeah, Florida, in possession of 50,000 Quaalude tablets. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. Despite his conviction and the fact that he was in the U.S. illegally at the time of his arrest, he was never deported. He continued dealing drugs.

47:56 In 1984, he set up an import-export business, hello, in Miami with the help of Coral Gable's attorney and who had also handled several of Blanton's real estate purchases. He also was in business with the Major General Gestapo Medina and businessman Donald Berrios, both.

48:26 of Nicaragua prior to the Sandinistas. Sandino was busted again in April 86, this time as part of one of the biggest cocaine cases on the Atlantic coast. DEA agents in Norfolk, Virginia charged him and 14 other people, including the son-in-law of Bolivian cocaine kingpin Roberto Suarez Gomez.

48:51 with conspiracy to import 700 pounds of cocaine worth $158 million. The dope wasn't theirs, however. It belonged to the DEA, which brought it into the United States from Bolivia to use as bait in a reverse sting, a scheme in which the police pose as cocaine sellers in order to seize money from drug buyers.

49:19 In this case, they seized $1.3 million from Sandino and his associates. Nothing like stealing money from the drug dealers. The DEA has censored many of its records dealing with Roger Sandino, saying there was privacy reasons so his role in the Bolivian drug operations was never fully vetted. What is clear is that he was never brought to trial, though.

49:46 Though he was arrested, Sandino somehow managed to wiggle out of custody, like so many of them do, and the DEA issued a fugitive warrant for his capture. When Los Angeles detective Tom Gordon ran across Sandino's name in the drug database several months later, there was no mention in his file of the Virginia indictment at all. It had been expunged.

50:13 Months after fleeing Virginia, Sandino showed up in Los Angeles just in time to take over Danielle Blanton's business, another known government-protected drug dealer. After Blanton moved, Ross said, he would call him in Miami time to time, and Roger Sandino's partner, Jose Gonzalez, would handle the pickup and deliveries. Blanton confirmed that he continued working.

50:45 with the Nicaraguan operation in Los Angeles well after he moved to Miami. By then, Ross said the cocaine business was losing some of its allure. His friends and mentor, Danielle Blanton, was 3,000 miles away. He owned about $5 million worth of real estate and still had so much money he couldn't spend. For the first time, Ross said he was having second thoughts about staying in the business. At first,

51:15 This is a quote. At first, I had never saw anybody addicted to cocaine. It took a while before before it started to affect anybody that we dealt with. I mean, nobody at first. It was like everybody was using cocaine, drove big cars and, you know, stayed in big houses. And then it started to change and we started to see the effects that it was having. Unquote. So Ross's girlfriend and the mother of his children.

51:44 had gotten addicted to cocaine. It was now personally affecting him. By early 1987, the LA crack market had become so saturated and so much gang activity was accompanying it that they were going outside of Los Angeles, all over the country, establishing Crips and Blood gangs in order to handle the trafficking.

52:12 By 86 and 87, Ross said a good chunk of his business consisted of exporting drugs to higher priced areas like Fresno, St. Louis, Texas, Alabama. Police in St. Louis said cocaine prices there went into a free fall once the Bloods and Crips came into the market. The L.A. market was getting a lot tougher. Ross was no longer the only crack dealer.

52:42 He was looking elsewhere to relocate because the heat was getting so hot. So that's basically that chapter. And we're going to pick up with the next chapter on Monday. Any comments? Oh, my God. They're just rinse, wash, repeat, right? Yeah. They just the more I mean, but.

53:18 Again, it colors in like a big painting that just keeps adding depth to what we already know. Well, to me, the real interesting aspect of this book, since we've looked at these operations all over the world, we know all about Taiwan's role in heroin. This is really the first in-depth.

53:44 Look, so we know the CIA was involved. We know that the DEA, who has offices all over the world, had to be involved. As a matter of fact, we found out in Thailand, if you guys recall, like two and a half years ago, we covered the fact that Colonel Paul Helliwell, who originally set up the heroin network for the CIA in Southeast Asia, being ran out of Taiwan.

54:11 His phone number that he gave out, his office was co-located with the DEA. And when you called him, the DEA actually, the secretary answered the phone. That's how integrated this is. And we've known that. There's no other way it could be because everybody can't be that freaking stupid or ignorant is probably the better word.

54:36 So they've had to have known all of this. All of the agencies has to know all of this information. This is our first in-depth look at just how much they knew while it was actually going on and the extent that they went to to not do anything about it. That's the mind numbing thing to me about this book. Absolutely. I mean, well.

55:11 Go ahead, Stella. Well, I was going to say they knew about it and how much money it costs for them to turn the other cheek so that that way they could ignore what was going on is everything was being sold out from underneath. These people are not they have no conscience. They have no heart. They're literally demons. This is disgusting. They're they're watching as the cocaine.

55:35 spreads throughout the United States. People become addicted. People die from overdoses. And they are behind all of it. They have the power any day of the week to stop it. And that goes all the way up to the president. And they've literally done nothing about any of it.

56:00 They enhanced it. They gave the safeguards and policies to let the other people go so that that way more people would get addicted. And that's what I'm saying. These people have no conscience or no heart. I mean, holy crap. You know, it's just all this money that was used that we paid our tax dollars on for all this crap. And it came back to hurt us and everything in between. I'm just sorry. I'm just flabbergasted. Exactly. I love your name. Why are you so mad? Go ahead.

56:31 Hi, I want to run something by you, Colonel, and I want to get your hot take on it. The idea that Donald Trump calling on the CIA to sit there and get involved with the drug trafficking in Venezuela seems more like an exposure.

56:58 plot than an actual reality when it comes to the idea of do you really think the CIA is not involved in it already? Exactly what I took it as as well. Great observation. Not because I had it, but because it's accurate. I think everything about Venezuela is an exposure operation of exposing everybody that has been involved.

57:29 Donald Trump ran on not going into foreign countries and overthrowing foreign governments. Exactly. But I believe that in many ways, it's a test for the and I don't mean this in the way it sounds just kind of I don't think he's testing us. But if.

57:57 People are principled. You are going to push back equally hard on Donald Trump's rhetoric of overthrowing a foreign government if you've learned a freaking single thing about how our government has operated. So if we have a principled stance, he shouldn't be doing it either. And everybody should be pushing back against it. The thought.

58:27 That the exact same network that the CIA set up to traffic drugs into the United States, that they would now be tasked with disassembling it. But let me go one further. I will also want to point out the military. They just announced that the U.S. South Com commander resigned. Every aspect of the drugs being set up.

58:55 in South America come under the tutelage of the South Com commander. So when the CIA went into Columbia, you know, in the late 70s and early 80s and set up the Crystal Triangle, they bring in the primarily the special forces guys, but there's other people that are involved in the logistical tale of this in order to, and we went into the Columbia.

59:23 one in the most depth recently, they brought in the U.S. military to train what the U.S. military was told was going to be people to attack the narco networks. That's not what they were going to be used for. Now, obviously,

59:46 The regular military doesn't know that because the regular military will go to Colombia and then they'll go to, you know, Kenya and then they'll go to Afghanistan. So they don't have any continuity across geographical regions. That is not true with the senior military people. You could not be the four star commander at South Com and be engaged in.

1:00:12 senior level conversations with the Colombian military and you have an entire staff of experts on the civilian side of all of the history of Colombia and not know that you're dealing with narco terrorists. So there's absolutely no excuse for the senior leadership that ran South Com to perpetually be in that job. As a matter of fact, Richardson, the four star female that was in there,

1:00:40 before this guy was in there, is on video saying that we are down there to exploit these countries for U.S. corporations. So they know exactly what they're there for. Yeah, okay. So this whole thing is pretty much him exposing what the CIA is doing and what they have been doing. That's my assessment.

1:01:06 Obviously, I don't have any inside information, but that's my assessment. That totally threw me off. That totally threw me off when I was sitting there going, well, I'm going to get the CIA involved in Venezuela and the drug traffic. I'm like, you've got to already know that they've been involved this whole time. I mean, that's like nothing new. It's like a parent making you clean up your own mess.

1:01:33 Yeah, it is. And that's why it made me laugh. I'm like, what are they going to do, pack up and leave so that it's all done? Yeah. One more thing, too. Smartmatic. Don't forget Smartmatic, the voting machines, 2016, 2020. Smartmatic, Venezuela ties. Yeah. That's a whole different story.

1:01:57 Well, the CIA, you know, and now we're hearing about Gina Haskell. So I think that they're all tied in together to open our eyes to it. Where else would you house things that you're going to use to weaponize elections than in a place that everybody already thinks is an enemy? That's what I keep saying. It's like the perfect bad story.

1:02:26 And it goes back to the part of this book in the earlier chapters that we were reading about how Barry Seale landed his plane throughout a bale of cocaine, took a picture in Nicaragua. And then everybody in the CIA controlled media ran with the story that it's Nicaragua, not Colombia.

1:02:47 not Costa Rica, not El Salvador, that is trafficking all of the drugs. We got this one picture of a bale of cocaine on the tarmac in Nicaragua. And everybody just ran with the story that we've got to change the regime in Nicaragua because they're the bad guys, i.e. Iran-Contra. And all of it was a lie. It was a staged photo. The entire thing was a lie. What better place to put

1:03:16 all of your shit than in Venezuela and then you paint them as a bad guy. And like I told you guys yesterday, I am definitely going to do Venezuela for our next big deep dive. But I'm actually shocked at the amount of...

1:03:40 CIA activity inside of Venezuela, which we're told is a dictatorship and the guy controls everything. Well, I don't know how you can have so many active CIA operations going on in Venezuela if he is truly a dictator and controls everything. It seems like an oxymoron to me, but yeah.

1:04:04 I feel like it's the CIA that runs that country and not him. He's just a front guy. Now, I wouldn't say that. I'm not going to go that far. Maduro is definitely in charge of Nicaragua. But there is a lot more freedom in Venezuela than we've been led to believe. Okay. He is definitely in charge of the country.

1:04:28 But that chick that was down there, what's her name? The one that just won the Nobel Peace Prize. She's supposedly the opposition. A true dictator has no opposition. They kill them. That's true. Yeah. So that's true. I think we're being lied to about a lot of things. Stellar, go ahead.

1:04:52 No, I was just going to say it's like one thing after another. And then I found it very interesting how the press corps from the Pentagon all walked out because they wouldn't sign that paper stating the leaks or whatever and doing a false narrative spin because we all know that the media is controlled by the CIA. So I do see some things that are getting kind of cleaned out, if that makes any sense.

1:05:16 You know, and there's a lot of stuff with Venezuela. You did hit on some of it in the past, you know, when you were talking about Chavez and, you know, and some. Yeah. But if you would do a deep dive on that, that would be very, very interesting. And it's going to is I know my I know all of you guys that regularly attend our four o'clock show.

1:05:45 Have very open minds. And you're going to require. An open mind. When we go through this. Deep dive into Venezuela. Because there's a lot of pieces of it. That's. It makes sense. After you've gone through the entire thing. But there's some real rough roads. To hoe. Because a large part. Of the.

1:06:12 research that I want to focus on happened during, I'm going to go through the history, but it happened during Trump's first administration. And it involves John Bolton, which is why I think it's so relevant to what's going on right now, because it involves Mike Pompeo and that entire group of neocons.

1:06:39 That was in the Trump administration. Now, you can have all kinds of opinions as to why that is, but I do think that that was an exposure operation as well, because when you allow those people in government positions to do that, just like with John Bolton, you give them access and they hang themselves with it.

1:07:07 There could be no other subject more timely for us, given all of our background of the last three years and learning how all of these operations run, than to go through that as soon as we get done with Dark Alliance. I'm so looking forward to that.

1:07:27 Me too. Doesn't like the South America thing seem like, okay, so like it has similar ties to like the Middle East too, you know, again, oil and resources, but, you know, and then you had mentioned, you know, we'd study or you had studied and we learned from your research about Asia and how all these different steps are to come back to the U.S. And so how the past, recent past is now here to bite people.

1:07:56 But I do feel that it's an exposure thing because Bolton's as dirty as they could be. And he has those ties with the Middle East as well. And yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I agree with you 100 percent. Go ahead, Renee. Yes, exactly. Hi, everybody. I'm going to piggyback on what you were talking about with Bolton, because the other day when Trump announced, you know, getting the CIA involved, I watched, you know, we all look at the comments and responses of people.

1:08:25 And Rick Scott of Florida was like, yeah, yeah, go get him. Go get Maduro. Get the CIA involved. I'm like, who is this guy? Because I don't really know Rick Scott that much. And of course, he's had a lot of donors from ExxonMobil, Chevron. He has a lot of a stock portfolio in these big petroleum companies. And then you start to be like, oh, let's see what other cats have the same.

1:08:55 The same pattern. And then I looked into John Bolton, and his background is a little different, but he was involved in the American Enterprise Institute. And this institute is like an American neocon think tank that has connections to the Brookings Institute.

1:09:19 And they are partly funded by all these big petroleum companies, ExxonMobil, blah, blah, blah, Chevron. So he is definitely part of this whole system of destabilizing Venezuela and trying to get the greedy fingers in there and hoping to overthrow Maduro. And he's got it all set up.

1:09:43 So, like, if Maduro falls, they're all ready to go in there and take outside of that area. What is it called? Esquiba or something. That whole zone that's right on the border of Guyana. Yeah. Yeah, where there's big conflict because there's offshore drilling. And these oil companies already are in there. They're ready to go. And Bolton is all a part of that. So, yeah, it's fascinating. It seems like a total exposure.

1:10:12 but also on a multi-prong level because the Caribbean and this whole region has been like the Skull and Bones East India Trade Company, Pirates of the World, and Black Money Operations. It's their wet dream, this whole area, of extorting Central and South America. And that's how they do it. This is their zone for the grifters. And Trump is like...

1:10:40 From multi-angles going in there, and it's going to be glorious, I think. I'm really excited now because most of the people who live in Central and South America are poor. They just hear the propaganda. They don't know any of this history, and we are privileged. Thank you again, Colonel Bridget, everybody, for educating us and bringing this to light of us understanding and having the knowledge now.

1:11:10 and seeing the patterns and being privileged to have a whole different insight that we can share with people and enlighten them to all the dirty deeds that have been going down. Let me push back a little bit on what you said about the people in these other countries don't know. I don't agree with that at all.

1:11:34 The people in the other countries know exactly what the United States has been doing. They know exactly what the CIA has been doing because they've done it to almost every country there. As a matter of fact, when Chavez originally nationalized the oil industry there and we started the sanctions against them, we didn't just sanction Venezuela.

1:12:02 We went to every single country around Venezuela that they had large trading working relationships with and pressured them not to even talk to Chavez. Those people in those countries know exactly what the strong arm of the U.S. government apparatus does to people. I mean, because when we did our...

1:12:31 research into Latin America and the Caribbean, almost every single one of the countries has been overthrown by us. So they're very familiar with what we do. That's the only thing about what you said that I'd push back a little bit on. The only people that really didn't know any of this is us. Go ahead, Renee. Yeah, I get your point. And I'm sure there's a level perhaps of better educated, informed people who do.

1:13:02 Since my family, my in-laws are Brazilian, and if I try and drop some of this sometimes, they think the CIA is bad and stuff, but they don't know the level of how...

1:13:16 They're elites and they don't know the extent. They don't know the extent, like even Delma and Lula, how they were manipulated in the labor parties and the unions. And they don't understand the whole police. Like there's levels I'll try and drop and I've shared with them because it's such a delicate subject. And they get very offended and overwhelmed and can't.

1:13:45 compute. And even like, because of, especially in Brazil, they've been so exploited with other natural resources as well, especially the farming industry. And that's the region my husband's family is.

1:13:59 So I have to go in in such a delicate way of like, do you know this family that is behind, who's been behind the whole sugar and the biofuel? Like I have to start on square one and then baby step them through it. And then they're like, oh my gosh, wow. And they never.

1:14:19 We're able to put it together, but you helped us. They think, okay, yes, America bad, CIA bad, but they don't know anything beyond that. And so to bless them with the little details and then they start looking themselves is the gift that keeps on giving. So thank you for that. Absolutely. Ed Chalon, go ahead. Oh, thank you very much. I know a lot of you have heard me before. I'm new to this space, so thanks for letting me speak.

1:14:51 I just want to say, based upon what I've heard, I come from this very differently. I come from a different background and perspective. I posted some pictures and images in the pill that might tell you a little bit about that difference of perspective. Ultimately, I think that there is a secret collection program going on.

1:15:14 UAP subject matter, and we've been forcing ourselves on foreign countries for that reason. The whole slavery around the CIA issue and the myth has been propagated because of colonialism in general, and so there has been a historic recalcitrance against the scientific technological class, the professional class, and that

1:15:43 battle rages on in the Trump era where Trumpers have missing teeth and you ask them how come they didn't go to the endodontist and their reply is, what do my teeth have to do with Donald Trump? So they don't even know that a specialist exists, let alone that the scientific method is inherent in

1:16:06 our politics as a nation. We've learned how to get along better than being a country with open Jim Crow statutes. We've had civil protests for years.

1:16:19 about racial issues. We've resolved via policy and litigation a lot of these questions, but I have a real thing for the disclosure era. They've been lying to us for a lot of years, and it's time for us to use the evidence of UAP against the Donald Trump administration and corner him on the subject. What does that have to do with what we're talking about today? Well,

1:16:46 The notion of divine enslavement is having to do with an agenda here on Earth involving the overriding cabal of military strongmen across the planet, which is aspiring to be a part of. He's not. He is a puppet of Vladimir Putin. He is Putin's bitch. All right. That's enough of that. Go ahead, all along. Hi, Colonel.

1:17:23 Yeah, I just wanted to make a couple just one brief comment and then another one about Venezuela and Mexico. OK, firstly, I mean, this is more based on my own personal experience of and it could be, you know, it's definitely not like a large enough sample size to to really generalize to broadly about. But I mean, I OK, so my wife's my ex-wife's.

1:17:55 cousin is an iranian okay he was born here but his father was an iranian jew okay and it's like for you know for all we would go out there to long island where you know the cousin is a is a real estate guy who um i don't know he seems to may or may not use some forms of long island in new jersey persuasion which with the capital p

1:18:23 I could be wrong about that. But the point is that this guy's dad was going back and forth from, you know, New York to Long Island, I mean, to Iran, like almost every friggin week. And it just seemed I was never able to communicate directly to the guy because he doesn't think this was not that good. Or perhaps I was just led to believe so. But I mean, for a guy, I mean, for an.

1:18:51 I guess Zionist Jew who was purportedly, you know, like at the wit's end with in conflict with the Iranians. This guy sure had a sure, you know, some easy travel in and out of Iran almost biweekly. It was just plain weird. And I couldn't really understand. Now, I have to say that this was not, you know, this was about probably last I saw it about three years ago. But it went on, you know, for a good while. And it's like.

1:19:21 Sometimes you just really have to wonder, you know, these get to your point earlier and maybe we'll see this again regarding Venezuela. Sometimes, you know, there can be sort of modus vivendi going on beneath or with these purported antagonisms. And you just wonder if sometimes these antagonisms might be overstated sometimes or and then later they become more real. Sometimes. Yeah, right. For what it's worth.

1:19:51 I mean, because, again, that's not obviously not a sample size. This is my personal experience with an enthusiastic Iranian Jew. OK, then just something that's more sort of structural, I guess, might be in discussing. I think I mentioned before that something is always kind of intrigued me as, you know, the relationship between Mexico oil.

1:20:17 And when it was nationalized in 1937 by Cardenas. And also because I know my understanding is that the British guy, Pearson, and that may or may not be the guy of the Pearson Press who started The Economist and The Financial Times. Both of those were sort of Pearson Press types. But the British had major oil interests in Mexico. But of course.

1:20:45 Nelson Rockefeller was also very like trying to throw his muscle around in Mexico regarding their oil. And then all of a sudden it seemed like Cardenas nationalized the oil. And I mean, it seemed a little weird that that just suddenly happened. I mean, I know. And, you know, what did the Rockefellers just say? Cool, man. Because at the same time, the Venezuela.

1:21:15 The Rockefeller's interest in Venezuelan oil just, you know, just leapt at just about the same time when Mexican oil was nationalized. So I'm just wondering about, you know, as we go back and get into the Venezuelan situation, about if there is a relationship between, you know, the global oil markets, sort of relationship between Mexican oil nationalization and the sudden uptick of Venezuela and the U.S.

1:21:44 Especially Rockefeller oil interest just going hog wild in Venezuela, which I'm pretty sure happened in 1937. Yeah, that is something that we're going to look at. It is very interesting. And that's why we took that time to kind of explore the oil pipeline.

1:22:15 I don't even remember the name of the book. I don't think I have it in here. I think it's out in my cottage. But to explain the dynamics and the interconnectivity of all of this. And you're going to see how the international oil market was manipulated by the United States in order to affect.

1:22:44 things in Venezuela. And I don't know if you guys know, and we're going to go into this, but especially the British, they would have never held on as long as they did in World War II without Venezuela. Venezuela provided 80% of the oil to the UK as far as energy goes.

1:23:13 They could not have survived without Venezuela. And you just you go back and you learn so much of things that are never pointed out to you in history, because in most cases, they're trying to craft a narrative to control what it is and how you view other countries. And I just think it's really important for us to go back and relearn real history. And obviously, oil is a big part of that.

1:23:43 Anybody else have anything? I think it was Oil, Drugs, and War. Oil, Drugs, and War. Thank you very much. That's the book. Bridget's so good. And anything she doesn't remember, I remember. Exactly. Messing brain wavelengths. Yep. Yep. That's what happens when you talk to somebody daily for the last three years. Right.

1:24:15 Oh, my God. Everything is so much more in context. And I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful we took this journey. Yeah, me too. You know, the context. I can't imagine living through today without the context. Right. Absolutely. Exactly. Because, yeah, it would have just everything would have totally. You know, once you learn the real history and everything is in context.

1:24:44 all of a sudden it makes sense. All the stuff that didn't make sense before makes sense. Yeah. It allows you to actually, it's like the difference between being on a surfboard, riding a wave and being crashed by the wave. We're now all on the surfboard. Right. A lot of people still in the water. Absolutely. Absolutely. Great analogy. Yeah. Okay. Well,

1:25:13 I'm going to jump off here and grab something to eat. You guys have a wonderful weekend. We've got another huge car show to go to tomorrow. My hometown does one every year that closes the entire downtown area. And there's probably like, I don't know, two or three thousand cars down there. So I'll try to take some pictures because this car show, unlike the Biloxi cruise in the coast.

1:25:43 They put all of the light cars together. So they'll have, last year they had like 12 DeLoreans. I didn't even know there was 12 DeLoreans within a commuting distance in Central Florida. But they put all of the muscle cars together. They put all of the Ford Mustangs together. They put all of the Corvettes together. So it's a lot easier to get some really cool pictures.

1:26:07 And then they have whatever that thing is called that's like the red carpet area with the red ropes around the like half million dollar cars. And there are some people around here with those kind of cars because Publix headquarters is here. And there are some people with a lot of money. I'm not one of them. But it is fun to go. Like last year, they had a like 1940 RV. It looked like a space capsule.

1:26:35 turned on its side, like a helium balloon kind of looking thing that you could go walk in and see what it looked like. So they have some really cool stuff. Oh, wow. Do you have any pictures of that? I think I do from the out. Oh, post those. Yeah. It was really a cool thing. So anyway, I'll post some pictures tomorrow of that.

1:27:04 And you guys have a nice weekend. I will see you again on Monday at four o'clock. Take care. Side note, please repost the space and everybody on Rumble, please hit the thumbs up for the algorithm. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. We're on normal schedule next week, right? Just confirming. Normal schedule next week. Oh, pray. God is good. Thank you. Take care, everybody.

Entities here

Los Angeles30 Norwin Menendez27 Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross26 United States20 Daniel Blanton19 Venezuela19 Forces Democráticas Nacionales16 Costa Rica15 Roberto Liberto15 Doug Auckland14 Ivan Torres9 Los Angeles Police Department9 Iran-Contra affair9 Miami8 Donald Trump8 U.S. Department of Justice8 Roger Sandino Martinez7 San Francisco7 Crossin Anderson7 Nicaragua7 L.A. Sheriff's Department7 Colombia7 Iran6 John Bolton6 Oliver North5 Sandalio Sandy Gonzalez5 Tom Shretner5 Steve Pollack4 Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force4 Nicolás Maduro4 Washington, D.C.4 Cornell Ward3 Crips3 Forrest Sawyer3 Gordon Gibler3 Joe Rosanello3 U.S. Southern Command3 Florida3 Mexico3 Bolivia3

Claims made here

Ronald Reagan ordered_assassination_of Forces Democráticas Nacionales book_quoted ▶ 9:19

“would involve the CIA. Sensitive wasn't actually the correct word. It was white hot. The same morning Anderson was dictating his letter to the IRS, President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese we…”

Oliver North supplied_arms_to Forces Democráticas Nacionales book_quoted ▶ 9:19

Norwin Menendez trafficked Daniel Blanton book_quoted ▶ 15:20

“penetrate Blanton's organization and gather intelligence about its activities under a code name Operation Perico. Now, Menendez set Blanton up in business. They're not investigating Blanton. That's al…”

Ivan Torres supplied_arms_to Forces Democráticas Nacionales book_quoted ▶ 17:16

“said that his brothers, Edgar and Pacito, were distributing up to 1,000 kilograms of cocaine on a monthly basis in Los Angeles. According to Torres, Menendez, and Blanton, Torres was the head of the W…”

Daniel Blanton member_of Forces Democráticas Nacionales book_quoted ▶ 17:16

Daniel Blanton trafficked Forces Democráticas Nacionales book_quoted ▶ 18:48

“Some of the income had gone into numbered bank accounts in Europe and Panama. The major's raids, Torres reported proudly, had not interfered with any of their cocaine trafficking to the black neighbor…”

Daniel Blanton laundered_money_for Forces Democráticas Nacionales book_quoted ▶ 18:48

Doug Auckland spied_on Daniel Blanton book_quoted ▶ 20:38

“The FBI agent had been investigating and sent him back to Costa Rica, all without letting him know. Auckland was staking out Blanton's auto dealerships at the time of the meeting, and he watched for e…”

Gordon Gibler spied_on Norwin Menendez book_quoted ▶ 22:06

“In San Francisco, FBI agent Gordon Gibler read the cable and was surprised that the DEA had not shared that information with the FBI. A few days later, the San Francisco FBI issued arrest warrants for…”

Norwin Menendez member_of Forces Democráticas Nacionales book_quoted ▶ 24:31

“The same guy, Joe Rosanello, that did absolutely nothing with the Frogman case that we talked about a while back, and presented him with a list of reasons why Menendez needed to be indicted. Their pro…”

Joe Rosanello pardoned Norwin Menendez book_quoted ▶ 25:02

“It didn't take a week for Rosanello's office to reject the FBI agent's proposal. Menendez would not be prosecuted. The agents were told so long as Blanton's investigation is still underway in Los Ange…”

Sandalio Sandy Gonzalez reassigned Bolivia book_quoted ▶ 29:43

“for several more months. In May, federal prosecutor Crossan Anderson called Gonzalez in Costa Rica and told him to get Mr. CIA to California so he could answer questions. Gonzalez replied that he didn…”

Crossin Anderson removed_from_power Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force book_quoted ▶ 31:14

“After these debriefings on July 17th, 1987, Croson Anderson pulled the plug on the task force investigation. It had lasted less than seven months and had accomplished nothing except for to provide cov…”

U.S. Department of Justice covered_up Daniel Blanton documented ▶ 32:38

“But no one bothered. We found no FBI records indicating that the Miami FBI office conducted any further investigation into Blanton, the Justice Department IG said. But once the case was officially she…”

U.S. Department of Justice covered_up Iran-Contra affair documented ▶ 33:06

“The DEA hired him back as an informant and began issuing him visas to the United States. At the height of the American public's outrage over the Iran-Contra scandal, the criminal investigation involvi…”

Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross trafficked Daniel Blanton documented ▶ 33:37

“for another 10 years. In 1996, when Gary Webb began looking into the 1986 raids, the Sheriff Department officials would initially deny that they had ever occurred. Because remember, they purged all th…”

Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross trafficked Colombia documented ▶ 34:08

“In order to make a dent in the crack cocaine there, they were going to have to shut him down. But then Ricky Ross was a major dealer and he was affecting South Central Los Angeles. He was supplying mo…”

Glenn Levent member_of Los Angeles Police Department documented ▶ 34:08

Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross member_of Crips documented ▶ 35:39

“joined forces creating a Freeway Rick Task Force. It was one of the few times in the history of L.A. law enforcement that a single man was the subject of an entire task force. Ricky Ross is a 7-4 Hoov…”

Daniel Blanton supplied_arms_to Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross host_asserted ▶ 36:07

“He has developed a large organization which handles weapon sales, cocaine shipments, and business enterprises, and as a result, has used the cash to buy real estate, commercial, and residential. Now, …”

Ron Lister supplied_arms_to Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross host_asserted ▶ 36:07

Scott Weakley supplied_arms_to Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross host_asserted ▶ 36:07

Cornell Ward member_of Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross documented ▶ 37:35

“Cornell Ward later tried to explain it to ABC. He was a good bad guy and the whole community saw him that way. Now here's a funny story. So this is an interview with ABC News. This interview is being …”

Forrest Sawyer member_of ABC News documented ▶ 37:35

Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross funded Los Angeles documented ▶ 38:56

“Field likes uniforms for local teams. He bought turntables and sound equipment for young rap artists and supplied eggs for Easter egg hunts. He paid for new pews and air conditioning for his mom's chu…”

Steve Pollack carried_out_attack Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross documented ▶ 41:44

“until he couldn't take it anymore. On January 21st, Pollock and his men hit the freeway motor in like a tornado. The entire motel, all rooms were searched. The task force reported that in room five, c…”

Alan Finster member_of Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross documented ▶ 43:08

“They raided rental properties, broke furniture, kicked holes in walls, knocked the windows out, and every one of the renters were mad at Ricky. Ross's attorney, Alan Fenster, filed a formal complaint …”

Robert Sobel ordered_assassination_of Alan Finster documented ▶ 43:36

“Sobel and his men fired back with a search warrant for Finster's financial records, accusing him of money laundering and supporting cocaine trafficking. Finster's complaints were perfunctually investi…”

L.A. Sheriff's Department covered_up Alan Finster documented ▶ 43:36

Roger Sandino Martinez member_of Norwin Menendez documented ▶ 46:35

“And I wasn't necessarily going to leave it. In other words, despite the fact that the LAPD, L.A. Sheriff's Department, FBI, DEA, CIA, DIA, and IRS was now fully aware of Blanton's cocaine reign, the o…”

José González succeeded Daniel Blanton documented ▶ 46:35

Roger Sandino Martinez succeeded Daniel Blanton documented ▶ 46:35

Roger Sandino Martinez trafficked Nicaragua documented ▶ 47:04

“Roger Sandino Martinez and Jose Gonzalez. Roger Sandino was one of the guys from the old days, the old Contra connection, Blanton's lawyer said. He was the original gangster Contra. He was a veteran d…”

Roger Sandino Martinez trafficked Bolivia documented ▶ 48:26

“of Nicaragua prior to the Sandinistas. Sandino was busted again in April 86, this time as part of one of the biggest cocaine cases on the Atlantic coast. DEA agents in Norfolk, Virginia charged him an…”

Daniel Blanton trafficked Nicaragua documented ▶ 50:13

“Months after fleeing Virginia, Sandino showed up in Los Angeles just in time to take over Danielle Blanton's business, another known government-protected drug dealer. After Blanton moved, Ross said, h…”

Roger Sandino Martinez succeeded Daniel Blanton documented ▶ 50:13

Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross trafficked Alabama documented ▶ 52:12

“By 86 and 87, Ross said a good chunk of his business consisted of exporting drugs to higher priced areas like Fresno, St. Louis, Texas, Alabama. Police in St. Louis said cocaine prices there went into…”

Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross trafficked Fresno documented ▶ 52:12

Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross trafficked St. Louis documented ▶ 52:12

Floyd "Freeway" Rick Ross trafficked Texas documented ▶ 52:12

U.S. Southern Command trained Colombia host_asserted ▶ 58:55

“in South America come under the tutelage of the South Com commander. So when the CIA went into Columbia, you know, in the late 70s and early 80s and set up the Crystal Triangle, they bring in the prim…”

Rick Scott funded ExxonMobil caller_asserted ▶ 1:08:25

“And Rick Scott of Florida was like, yeah, yeah, go get him. Go get Maduro. Get the CIA involved. I'm like, who is this guy? Because I don't really know Rick Scott that much. And of course, he's had a …”

Rick Scott funded Chevron Corporation caller_asserted ▶ 1:08:25

John Bolton member_of African American Institute host_asserted ▶ 1:08:55

“The same pattern. And then I looked into John Bolton, and his background is a little different, but he was involved in the American Enterprise Institute. And this institute is like an American neocon …”

African American Institute funded Chevron Corporation host_asserted ▶ 1:09:19

“And they are partly funded by all these big petroleum companies, ExxonMobil, blah, blah, blah, Chevron. So he is definitely part of this whole system of destabilizing Venezuela and trying to get the g…”

John Bolton targeted_for_regime_change Nicolás Maduro host_asserted ▶ 1:09:19

African American Institute funded ExxonMobil host_asserted ▶ 1:09:19

United States targeted_for_regime_change Hugo Chavez host_asserted ▶ 1:11:34

“The people in the other countries know exactly what the United States has been doing. They know exactly what the CIA has been doing because they've done it to almost every country there. As a matter o…”

United States targeted_for_regime_change Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 1:12:31

“research into Latin America and the Caribbean, almost every single one of the countries has been overthrown by us. So they're very familiar with what we do. That's the only thing about what you said t…”

Lázaro Cárdenas overthrew Mexico caller_asserted ▶ 1:20:17

“And when it was nationalized in 1937 by Cardenas. And also because I know my understanding is that the British guy, Pearson, and that may or may not be the guy of the Pearson Press who started The Eco…”

Nelson Rockefeller targeted_for_regime_change Mexico caller_asserted ▶ 1:20:45

“Nelson Rockefeller was also very like trying to throw his muscle around in Mexico regarding their oil. And then all of a sudden it seemed like Cardenas nationalized the oil. And I mean, it seemed a li…”

United States funded Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 1:22:15

“I don't even remember the name of the book. I don't think I have it in here. I think it's out in my cottage. But to explain the dynamics and the interconnectivity of all of this. And you're going to s…”

Venezuela supplied_arms_to United Kingdom host_asserted ▶ 1:22:44

“things in Venezuela. And I don't know if you guys know, and we're going to go into this, but especially the British, they would have never held on as long as they did in World War II without Venezuela…”