WEBVTT - I Got the Need, the Need for Weed: Randy Lanier 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.400 Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:06.120 Zaren Elizabeth, Sarah, how are you. 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:08.280 I'm doing pretty well. Just been in here waiting for you, 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:10.280 all excited to see you, and you walk in with 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:10.920 that big smile. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:12.119 It's so good to see you. 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:15.720 Yeah, you know, I'm hoping things are gonna look up. 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.840 Oh. Same, I'm trying to be positive to positive. 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.560 Yeah, I'm trying to be optimistic and being like I've 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:23.480 been watching a lot of stuff about Vietnam. 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:25.840 Well that helps to be for me. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.800 It provides perspective to go from like sixty like early sixties. 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:31.400 I actually started, like you know, at the end of 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:33.760 World War Two, at the coverage, and then by the 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.760 time you get to sixty eight and everything's just mad revolution, 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:39.160 Like okay, I can kind of see how these things, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.880 you know, break and change. So it was just giving 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.159 me a little like, Okay, we've gotten through crazier. 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:44.920 You know that's true. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:50.680 That's true. Listen aside from you binge watching Vietnam documentaries. 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:52.400 Yes, you know, it's ridiculous. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.160 Oh my god, do I Elizabeth. I saw this and 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.800 I had to tell you about it. There was this 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.960 woman named Marsha Morgan was forty eight years old at 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:05.240 the time, and she did what I have occasionally done 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:07.200 when you look at your window and you see someone 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.200 who's parked in front of your replace, and you're. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:10.800 Like, what the hell are they doing on my parking 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:11.800 spot right on. 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:13.959 The public street, on the public street, but you. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.120 Still look at it as like your parking spaces right 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.680 in front of your place. I admit it makes no sense. 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:21.319 It's not one of my best qualities, but I have 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.760 gotten upset when I'm like, what are they doing parking there? 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:24.640 Right? 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:28.840 So she did something I can totally understand. She went 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.800 out and tried to do something about it. She wasn't violent, 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.520 she wasn't like mad destructive. She just took a bunch 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.880 of toilet paper and she like toilet papered the car 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.880 that was parked in what she conceived of as her space. Now, 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.040 what I've left out was that when she did this, 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.080 she was dressed as a hot dog. She had gotten 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.920 home and decided not to take off her hot dog costume. Instead, 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.640 she just had a couple of drinks, She got tossed, 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.200 and then she decided, I need to go settle up 0:01:58.200 --> 0:01:59.560 with a car out front. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.880 When she was arrested. She was still in the hot 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:03.760 dog costume. 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:05.720 This is a costume for work. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:06.280 I don't know. 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:11.480 I'm assuming maybe I might put on something comfortable. 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.680 I put on her mobile driver costume. 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:16.400 Like if I had to go home in a hot 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.600 dog costume, the first thing I do is take off the. 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.160 Hot dog, one would think, I think. 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.480 Can we also talk about how expensive it is to 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:24.679 toilet paper a car? 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:25.079 Oh? 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:29.679 Yeah, you don't even egg things anymore, exactly. 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:32.280 Know, it's wasting that This was a couple of years ago. 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.320 This was in like, well, it was twenty twenty five. 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:36.560 It wasn't that long ago. 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:37.440 It was one year. 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:39.919 Again, the toilet paper was still expensive. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:41.640 Right, and everything's expensive. 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:43.360 She got a five hundred and fifty dollars fine on 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.560 top of her lost toilet paper. I guess the cops 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.399 weren't impressed with that hot dog costume. Now, I don't 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:50.920 think I should have to tell you this, but this 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.760 did occur in Saint Petersburg, Florida. 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:54.400 Yeah. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:56.680 Also, by the way, when I was reading other stories 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.920 of the news about crime, there's a neighborhood called Madera 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.200 in Florida, which is in the Saint Petersburg area. Oh, man, 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:04.800 did that one come up a lot in the stories? 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.040 Oh yeah, if you go like to read the Smoking Gun, right, 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.280 which happened to be like like just cruising through, so 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.720 it's a little light reading. And it was just Madera 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.679 Madera Madeira. I'd never heard of it before. Now I 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:17.519 know all about it. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:19.120 Apparently it's a rough spot. 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:19.800 Interesting. 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:21.440 A lot of people like hitting each other with a 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:26.120 slice of pizza, you know, throwing nachos at your dress. Yeah, well, 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:27.880 one person like stole a taco. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:30.480 It was a lot of foods, a lot of food based. 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.800 And then also meth and alcohol based crimes, that's all. 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:36.320 Sometimes it's like I got drunk and I threw the 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:37.080 pizza at my mother. 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.960 I like it. Okay, So there you go, ridiculous, right. 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.520 You know what else is ridiculous? Get them Smugglers Blues. 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:11.160 This is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:16.400 and cons. It's always always ninety nine percent murder free 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.800 and one hundred percent ridiculous. 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.080 Oh you damn right, I am so right, always right 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:24.320 zerin sore Rain. 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.760 You love a good tale of adventure on the high seas. 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:33.599 I love a good tail of adventure in you love pirates, 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:35.400 a huge van of pirates. 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.000 If I could have a job occupation of choice, pirate. 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.200 You love vikings, basically a pirate of the ancients. 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.840 Yes, and you love tales of dirt bags with feathered hair, 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.000 loading up boats with pounds of weed and running their 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.520 goods to the land of apple pie, baseball in sync, 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.960 garbage disposals, red solo cups, and medical bankruptcy. 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.440 Yes, I do love sixties and seventies in particular, and 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.280 up to the eighties. Drug smuggling in the Florida Ky 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:07.120 get to the USA. 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.160 Yeah, drug smugglers. Okay, so they make amazing ridiculous. 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:12.359 Criminals, totally, just amazing. 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:14.599 And it's in part because of the way they spend 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.000 their ill gotten gains, Like they do a ridiculous job, 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:19.640 they buy ridiculous things. 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:21.760 Yes, it's just a circle of ridiculous and. 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.480 Maybe because they dip into their own supply. I mean, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.560 it's an explanation, you possibly red it. So I've got 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.120 this guy for you today. A lot of the parts 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.480 of his story sound a little familiar because we've heard 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.640 them in other stories. Okay, here, like they're the tropes, 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.440 these required elements, the basics of seventies and eighties drug smuggling. 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:41.920 Oh yeah, let's be real. 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:42.880 It never gets old. 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.240 No go fast boat, low flying planes exactly. 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:53.560 So today Randy Lanier, Oh, he's an all timer, mister Burnette. Yes, 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:55.120 I fess then you've heard of him. 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.360 My friend Derek actually recommended I look into his story. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.120 I'm glad you got this well, I've stole it out 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.680 from under you. He was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. Nineteen 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.680 fifty four was the year his dad was a draftsman. 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.080 His mom was a caretaker at a mental hospital. It 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:17.279 is hard working folks. He was close to his grandparents 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:19.920 and he loved countrying it up at their place on 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.960 the James River. The Gold Country boy. Yeah. When he 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.760 was fourteen, he and his family moved to Hollywood, Florida, 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.000 which is not too far from Fort Lauderdale. The vibe 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:35.080 in the late sixties was mellow, like long haired beach hippies, 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:42.520 cool music, yeah, you know, cooltoons, drugs. So Randy he 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:44.040 started working construction. 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:45.320 Okay, I respect. 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:47.680 He was like a typical teen for the time and 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:50.000 the place. He had a ponytail. He wanted to make 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:50.560 a little. 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.400 Cash, swing a hammer, the ponytail. 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.560 Well, the ponytail got him a reputation that basically manifested 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.440 what was to come. Because he had the ponytail shows up. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.600 Guys on the crew thought that he'd be able to 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.919 hook him up with pot, because well that's the thing 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:11.560 not to even sell, but like, do you know where 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:12.960 you could find him? And I thought, I bet you 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.440 could relate to that because you had long dreadlocks when 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:16.560 you were working constructions. 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.160 Yes, And they always expected me to have pot on me, Like, oh, 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:21.600 we're gonna go take a break. See you want to 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:22.320 come with us? Yeah? 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:23.840 Or know where you could get it? Oh? 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:25.080 Yeah, I definitely hook him up. 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.880 Yeah, So I think you were probably able to accommodate 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.800 the requests. Maybe so this kid though he's just a 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:34.920 kid with a ponytail. But you know, if people ask, 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.640 you're like, well all right, let's make this happen. So 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:39.160 Randy started selling pot. 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:39.680 There you go. 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.840 He was readying himself for another summer of construction site 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.880 drug deals, and then his dad was like, you gotta 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:51.240 cut your hair. No way, man, as Crosby steals Nash 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.680 and Young saying, almost cut my hair. It happened just 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.280 the other day. It was getting kind of long. I 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.520 could have said it was in my way, but I didn't, 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.480 And I wonder why I feel like letting my freak 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.240 flag fly. Yeah, so he wanted to let his freak 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.160 flag fly, and how thank you. 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:10.120 So you know what he did. 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:10.920 He got out of town. 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.040 Oh, He's like, forget the scissors, give me the cartones. 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.480 So he hitchhiked to Canada. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:18.280 From Hollywood, Florida. 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.680 Yeah, with a bag of pot, four hits of acid, 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.120 and five dollars. Okay, you know, just like that sweet 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:29.680 heroin Cherub David Crosby saying in the same song, when 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.600 I finally get myself together, I'm going to get down 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.319 in some of that sweet summer weather. I'm going to 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.319 find a space inside to laugh, separate the wheat from 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.800 the chev Yeah. So it was a great summer. And 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.680 when he got backed on, he decided to ride the high. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.559 So he dropped out of school. It became a full 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.640 time weed dealer. Okay, he did all the like late sixties, 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.000 early seventies weed dealer stuff. 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:55.120 So like. 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.200 According to Rolling Stone Magazine, he quote at one point 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.760 packed the air vents of a Folkswagen Beetle with marijuana 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.760 and headed off to Aspen to meditate with a guru. 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.199 Yes, except for the air cooled engine part. 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:10.320 That's a little problem, a little problem there. 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.000 So by the time he was nineteen, he'd earned enough 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:16.880 as a local dealer to buy a twenty seven foot 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:18.600 Magnum sport powerboat. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:19.440 Damn Son. 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.679 He was making cash, you know, and there's nothing like 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.320 a young weed dealer with a gofest like what could 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:26.760 go wrong? 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:28.520 Sarin, He've stepped up in class. 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.599 As Randy tells it. Quote, about six months later, a 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:33.800 buddy asked me if I was interested to go and 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.160 go into the Bahamas and put some grass on my boat. 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.360 It seemed like an adventure, So I did it. 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:41.679 Oh man, I love when people used to call it cras. 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:43.959 I was just going to say, I that is my 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.840 favorite of all the weed terms. I think so because 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:52.720 it's so like, it's so time specific. M Yeah. Anyway, Uh, 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.319 they skanoodled on down to the Bahamas. They loaded seven 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.280 hundred and fifty pounds of that stickyicking into the boat. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.280 Then they cruise back up to Fort Lauderdale super easy. 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.599 And it made him five grand. So five grand in 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.320 nineteen seventy three is just over thirty seven thousand dollars today. 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:12.560 That's not bad for basically a day and a half 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:13.079 FLT work. 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.960 Yeah, exactly, so, Randy, he did some math in his head. 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:16.880 B boo babu. 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:17.600 Beat that. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.959 One boat can land him five k No problem? What 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.839 about two? Well, heck, what about three? He bought two 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.160 more speed boats to go first, and he had it made. 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.679 He married his high school sweetheart. Like things are on 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.199 the uptick, it was just all so easy. You know, 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:38.520 you slip down to the island, you pick up the cargo, 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:39.520 head back to Florida. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.000 He doesn't want to go to Nassau. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.000 Slide into the canals under cover of darkness. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:45.840 Them on the Florida coast. 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.400 Well, this is so many inlets, Randy said, quote it 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.040 was a smuggler's paradise. It was like the pirate days, 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:54.280 Like you want a time machine to. 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:54.679 Go back to. 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.719 Then I would be satisfied with the late seventies. I 0:10:57.960 --> 0:10:59.360 actually literally be fine with that. 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.760 And so like South Florida, weed dealers started hiring him 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.439 and he'd make the pickups and they'd cut him in 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.640 for thirty percent of the load. So fast forward a 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.960 couple of years and The Rolling Stone wrote quote Lanier 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.920 had three stash houses humming in the Bucolic horse country 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.319 west of Fort Lauderdale and was earning hundreds of thousands 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:19.800 of dollars. 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:22.440 So he had to have some. 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.199 Cover for all of this, Like, how do you explain this? 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:30.559 He started a business, So nineteen seventies Fort Lauderdale, Like, 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:36.079 what's a happening? Successful business for that time and place. Well, No, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:38.599 if you had said jet ski rental, you would be 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:42.960 today's winner, I miss, I mean, come on, it's right there, 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.040 right there, Burnette. So you know, a man has to 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.280 have hobbies. Of course, Randy, like you liked to go 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:54.280 fast boats, jet skis. And it was in nineteen seventy 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.319 eight that he went to a Miami car show in 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.280 nineteen seventy eight Miami Car all the Way wild. Oh yeah, 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.079 So there he saw a car club booth and he 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:09.080 like chatted with them all, Hey, kiky, what's up, checked 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.880 out a brochure, and then signed up for a racing class. 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.480 Oh smart, like bomb Bonderette style. 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:15.920 Yeah. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.400 Randy later said, quote, I didn't have a clue. I 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:25.880 just drove, yes man, and drove did Zaren So he 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:28.920 worked the grassroots circuit for a while just like gunning 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.120 and funning. Then came the nineteen eighty to twenty four 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:34.760 Hours of Daytona race. 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.600 Oh yeah, and driving on the sand real things. Yeah. 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.719 A friend of his worked for Janet Guthrie and she 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.760 was one of the first women to compete in professional racing. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.240 And his buddy was like, hey, you want to hear 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:51.679 some hot gossip. Randy's like, yeah, it's like Janet sick. 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.040 He's like, really six sick, you know, she just has 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.240 like an upset stomach. Oh, And He's like that doesn't 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.240 qualify as hot gossip. He's like, you should spend some 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.000 time around the track. This is about as good as 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.800 I can get. So they were looking for someone to 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.040 take her place at twenty four Hours of Daytona, and 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.920 Randy was like, look, no further, I'm your guy. So, 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.679 according to Rolling Stone quote, climbing into the Ferrari five twelve, 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:21.000 Lanier drove several practice laps fast enough to impress the team. 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:23.960 He and two other drivers kept the car in third 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:28.679 place for eighteen hours before Lanier destroyed the Ferrari's gearbox. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:33.920 Oh so he was shining on the track apparently, and 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.439 he was also shining back at the office, not the 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.360 jet ski rental office, but the drug smuggling office. No, yeah, 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.360 that one. And so he had expanded and he had 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.160 a business partner, fellow by the name of Ben Kramer 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.600 Ben Cream. They went to high school together and they 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.719 had similar interests. See Ben had just gotten out of 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.640 prison for selling weed. So they were sympathico. 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.719 Yes, And with Ben, Randy. 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.400 Could really like upscale, upsize his efforts. 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:02.240 Well, yeah, I mean he's graduated from the Iron Bar 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:03.559 University exactly. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.600 So faster boats, bigger boats, more boats. 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.000 I'm talking sixty five foot wooden trawller. 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:12.080 Oh wow. 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:14.600 And then like big fishing boats, then. 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:16.160 A whole fleet of tug boats. 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:17.319 Wow. Yeah. 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:18.120 He just went nuts. 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:19.720 So he's like, they're going to look past those. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:24.680 Yeah. So then he gets bigger contracts he got we're 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:26.080 talking Colombia. 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:26.760 Yeah. 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:28.800 So they weren't middlemen anymore. 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:33.000 They went to the source was smuggling more. 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:36.880 Money for them. So Randy bought a Norwegian fishing trawler 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.120 called Ursa Major, and he took it down to Colombia 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.200 and he came back with fifteen thousand pounds of Colombian gold. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.160 Can I tell you about this particular stream tons of Colombian. 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:53.800 Colombian gold is a legendary pure sativa cannabis stream yes 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:58.200 originating from the Santa Martin Mountains in Colombia. Renowned for 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.400 its energetic uplifting a and high THHC levels around eighteen 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.640 to twenty percent. It is popular for daytime, used to 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:11.400 combat stress and depression. Featuring a distinct skunky lime forward around. 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.320 It is relatively easy to grow tall plant. 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.200 I bet it would drive Cheech and Chong absolutely sideways 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:19.360 with like desire. 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.400 I just cracks me up. When people talk about weed, 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:23.840 they talk about wine. 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:25.880 Yeah, with a tear water with lemon. 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:27.160 It makes sense. 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.360 The es and this are fantastic. So their top note 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:32.880 is something of an alfalfa. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.280 Well, you go from like wine moms to weed moms. 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:35.800 That's true. 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.360 That's the whole thing. So there's Randy with his boat 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:44.920 just like crammed with Colombian gold marijuana. He pulled off 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.600 the coast of Florida and his crew motored up in 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:51.040 a bunch of big zodiac rafts. They filled the zodiacs 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:52.920 with fifty pound bales he. 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.800 Just wrapped, okay, and then the zodiacs made. 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.160 Their way to a beach where like a strobe light 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.200 was flickering wow to signal. 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.040 Them this is like the old like rum runners approached. 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.080 Yes, yes, your boy, the real McCoy right, So. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.560 They would like they would run the boats up onto 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.880 the beach because there's zodiacs just flat right there. And 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.680 then there was a human chain of unloaders who ran 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.080 the bales from the boats to a bunch of vans 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.920 waiting in a parking lot, and then the vans would 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.800 drive to one of Randy's stash houses. Randy sold it 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:28.440 all the next day. His take four point five million dollars. 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.360 It was like fifteen million today one night. Yes, So 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:36.680 Randy and his wife Pam, they're living it up, like 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.680 they got this new five bedroom house with a private lake, 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.600 got a couple of rotwilers patrolling rock whilers, patrolling the grounds. 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:46.800 So she fully knows what he does for a living. 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:51.000 Oh yeah, a Porsche Benzo. It's not bad for the 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:53.480 owner of a chain of jet ski rental shops. Yeah, 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.280 you know, but hey, it's for Lauderdale. Things were big, 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:58.920 but they were about to get bigger. 0:16:59.320 --> 0:16:59.920 I love bigger. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.760 Let's take a break. When we come back, I'll tell 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:28.440 you about Randy's next seriously audacious plan Randy Lanier. No, 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.040 you're Zaron Brunette, but I want to tell you about Randy. 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:37.960 You today, you'll be Randy weed smuggler extraordinary. So here 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:39.920 we are in nineteen eighty two. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:41.920 What a time, What a year. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.760 Randy had a bunch of weed distributors, and one of 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:51.720 them introduced Randy and his partner Kramer, to Tip O'Neill, 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:54.920 who then became a tugboat captain for them. 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:57.200 It's in the Miami area. 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:58.399 I'll just keep running with it. 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:00.760 We get to and then the estate if tip O'Neil 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.720 can come after me anyway, So he introduces Ben and 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:08.160 Randy to this other smuggler, George Brock. Now Brock had 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:12.280 a vision. See he knew this other guy, Eugene Fisher. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:18.680 Fisher owned a shipyard. He also owned an ocean going barge. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.280 Oh he put on there like the flat decked time, 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.240 big as a football field. So Brock he did some calculations. 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.240 Beboo babo beat weed in this. 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.239 Yeah, he was like a barge could hold more than 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.840 one hundred tons of marijuana. And that's like more than 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.800 two hundred thousand pounds of weed totally. So according to 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:45.480 rolling Stone quote. The scheme was simple, but ingenius. Welders 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:49.560 sealed the bales under steel plates. The secret compartments were 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.639 then filled with seawater so that a curious customs official 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.159 would find only Brian. In early nineteen eighty three, the 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.520 barge sailed up New York's East River and docked at 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.919 the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Damn side living low, like pulling 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.760 two hundred thousand pounds, it's like winds up being a 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.280 little bit less than that of weed up into. 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.240 Brooklyn, right into New York's harbor. 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.800 This is insane. So they get to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.280 Randy's guys used welding torches to cut through the ballast 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:24.760 tanks inside one hundred and thirty thousand pounds of Columbian gold. 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:27.480 That's all, by the way, a lot of work to 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.359 cut through with welders torches. Yeah, it's like the place 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.639 you would get caught after all that work when you 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.560 get welding down there. 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.720 Yeah, So the tanks are opened, another crew comes moves 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.440 the bales of weed into tractor trailers like big rigs. 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.080 Yeah totally, And so now Randy is rich, rich, oh 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:45.840 big time. 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.320 Doing the math from the ursa minor job. That run 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.159 had to be worth thirty nine million, which is one 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:55.760 hundred and twenty four million today. But you figure he's 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:57.400 got to cut all these other folks in a blue 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:58.560 blah profit. 0:19:58.680 --> 0:19:59.920 But that's a big time job. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.120 So that money immediately began burning a hole in his pocket. Yeah, 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.040