Speaker 1: H everyone then your prison go on. Like they had
Speaker 1: a lot of struggles.
Speaker 2: It's hard not to attack clear in your life, especially
Speaker 2: when you have identity questions or you're not we used
Speaker 2: to be, disassociate yourself with so much of your pass
Speaker 2: and then you know, for me, now I'm here, but
Speaker 2: now I'm a home new set of issues.
Speaker 3: Hey, it's the Descent and I'm Charlie Webster. This is
Speaker 3: Surviving ol chapter The Twins who brought down a Dubord
Speaker 3: Season two.
Speaker 1: M h.
Speaker 4: The Floor Is Twins spent eight months trying to get
Speaker 4: out Chappo on tape while they were running drug for
Speaker 4: him in Mexico. They handed themselves into authorities and then
Speaker 4: spent the next ten years cooperating for the government in prison.
Speaker 3: Then it was two long days on the witness stand.
Speaker 4: Finally El Chapel was sent to prison for life plus
Speaker 4: thirty years.
Speaker 3: Everything the twins had worked award for over a decade
Speaker 3: trying to turn their lives around culminated at this moment,
Speaker 3: and it was finally over. For the first time in
Speaker 3: their lives they could look forward to. They're happily ever
Speaker 3: after and on his life outside of the world of peddling,
Speaker 3: kilos or the bars of a prison cell. But what
Speaker 3: does that actually mean For two people whose introduction to
Speaker 3: the drug life began at seven years old? The cooperation
Speaker 3: was over and at thirty eight, the brothers only had
Speaker 3: two years left until they would finally be free.
Speaker 4: The government no longer needed them, so their protection as
Speaker 4: high profile witnesses was over. After what they had gone
Speaker 4: through over ten years. Another two might see music, But
Speaker 4: there was one challenge. None of us saw it coming.
Speaker 5: COVID.
Speaker 6: Who was the last two years any different?
Speaker 2: Fear miserable because they continue to fight to go home,
Speaker 2: and then COVID hit We're in twenty four hours lockdown.
Speaker 2: We'reusually unlockdown in death aspect, and we'll let your out
Speaker 2: when we think it's safe, and you're like, how could
Speaker 2: they do that? It was kind of like the ridiculous
Speaker 2: to think that we've been on segregated you know, you know,
Speaker 2: it's set apart from the society for safety reasons and that.
Speaker 1: COVID hit right, But we're COVID free.
Speaker 2: We never been around anyone exposed to coviche, So the
Speaker 2: only people that have been exposed to go with are
Speaker 2: the cards and that's the only way to get it in.
Speaker 2: Is that they're going to bring it into us. So
Speaker 2: they get to go home and every day and come back,
Speaker 2: go home, come back. But where you're stuck in the
Speaker 2: cell and you're back captive again.
Speaker 1: You know, you're you're hungry, you know, you're just in
Speaker 1: that stall, you know.
Speaker 2: And I'll write letters to my wife feeling miserable about
Speaker 2: what she was dealing with on her home.
Speaker 1: I can't explain to you what it's like to.
Speaker 2: Do that, like to write letters, writing so many letters.
Speaker 2: And if I didn't get the mail, like didn't write,
Speaker 2: I feel so sick. My anxiety would be so horrible.
Speaker 2: If I didn't hear from her, they could least you
Speaker 2: know that she was okay, the kids were okay. And
Speaker 2: then the worst part is that these pieces of shit
Speaker 2: he old us, like.
Speaker 1: Do you have to write a book every day?
Speaker 2: Like, man, do your fucking job, man, you know, pick
Speaker 2: my fucking mail, put in the mailbax, Like we don't
Speaker 2: want to read it, Like are you serious? We're fucking
Speaker 2: log down in cord, we have no access to the phone,
Speaker 2: we can't call that family. You're gonna fucking talk shit
Speaker 2: about me right in a letter? This is my fucking
Speaker 2: right to write a letter for my children and or
Speaker 2: worried you can't call home and check and learn my
Speaker 2: mom and everyone. I wasn't allowed to see them talk
Speaker 2: like octour for one hour behind like that plastic shower.
Speaker 3: Prisoners nationwide was stopped from seeing any visitors from March
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, when COVID first hit the world. When Pete
Speaker 3: was finally able to have his family visit seven months later,
Speaker 3: it had to be done through a plastic shower curtain,
Speaker 3: and their time together was limited to an hour on
Speaker 3: the other side of the car. COVID had hit Jay's
Speaker 3: prison early on, so Viole applied for compassionate release, hoping
Speaker 3: he would be allowed to serve his final months under
Speaker 3: home confinement. The compassionate release was denied. The twins were
Speaker 3: not eligible for home confinements for safety reasons.
Speaker 1: The last few months were seen longer than then. Some
Speaker 1: of the time I was like there, and you know,
Speaker 1: with COVID, it's just kind of like made some everything
Speaker 1: a little bit harder, and any other situation, I would
Speaker 1: have been home already. Like because of my situation, I
Speaker 1: wasn't like privilege to some of the opportunities that regular
Speaker 1: inmates had like a happy house or home confinement or
Speaker 1: anything like that. So any other time would have been
Speaker 1: home already worked.
Speaker 7: But we filed for compassionate release just because in the
Speaker 7: prison he was at, COVID was already there and there
Speaker 7: was already like inmates and staff that had it.
Speaker 1: And this was you know, early on, right, you don't
Speaker 1: know nothing about COVID.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was scary.
Speaker 3: Around the same time, Jay started to feel sick, but
Speaker 3: none of the prison gods believed him. They thought he
Speaker 3: was faking his illness because his compassionate release had been denied.
Speaker 1: It was hard, It was I was so thankful for
Speaker 1: not being sick, for being healthy most of my time
Speaker 1: in prison.
Speaker 7: It was probably one of the hardest times of just
Speaker 7: not knowing, especially the whole time that he was in prison.
Speaker 5: It's like we were there every weekend, and.
Speaker 7: Then when COVID hit, we couldn't see him for the
Speaker 7: last year, and he ended up getting sick during that time.
Speaker 1: You know, for me to get to that point and
Speaker 1: then being sick, especially during COVID, just made everyth even harder.
Speaker 7: They must have thought that because it was around the
Speaker 7: same time that we filed for compassion release that he
Speaker 7: was like almost making it up until like his whole
Speaker 7: face like blew up and his throat, like his airwaves
Speaker 7: ended up closing on him, so he was almost incompatitated
Speaker 7: by the time they took him out of the prison.
Speaker 7: That's how the infection got so bad, and then that's
Speaker 7: how he ended up getting acceptis.
Speaker 6: I can imagine that must have been so horrific for you.
Speaker 6: What was it like for you being in a settle
Speaker 6: and struggling to breathe and not being held.
Speaker 1: I think just being like helpless in the cell. I
Speaker 1: just like it got to a point where I couldn't
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm shaking, Like I can't even tell you,
Speaker 1: like what that last week was like, because you're in pain,
Speaker 1: and I'm just lost.
Speaker 7: Jay called me one day he couldn't like even speak
Speaker 7: because his face and his like everything was so swollen,
Speaker 7: like even when he was speaking, like he I couldn't
Speaker 7: really understand him.
Speaker 5: And I got into this whole rant that.
Speaker 7: He needs to sign out of the program just so
Speaker 7: that way they can take him to a regular prison,
Speaker 7: so that way he had the right to go to
Speaker 7: a hospital.
Speaker 1: You know, I was in panet, desperate and I was
Speaker 1: training everything, and I guess it was getting to a
Speaker 1: point where I was like not well, and you know,
Speaker 1: they mean people around me are just trying to take
Speaker 1: care of me. And I just don't even recall. I
Speaker 1: just know that an officer doing his rounds and night
Speaker 1: saw me and I was unrecognizable at this point. I
Speaker 1: was like he saw me, and he saw me, and
Speaker 1: were your face and that he saw me, He's like, hey,
Speaker 1: like oh my something that you know. I just couldn't
Speaker 1: even like I was taking an oxygen. I don't recall.
Speaker 1: I do know that they carried me out myself. They
Speaker 1: put me in an ambulance, and I remember the doctors
Speaker 1: being really upset, like this doesn't happen in a day,
Speaker 1: you know, just because like what, why why wasn't he
Speaker 1: here sooner? This doesn't happen a day or two days.
Speaker 1: It's been going on for a long period of time.
Speaker 1: This is not acceptable, you know. I'm just like at
Speaker 1: this point, just like listen, fix me, you know, do
Speaker 1: whatever you have to do.
Speaker 7: Transfer him to another hospital for intensive care. Yeah, another hospital, And.
Speaker 1: I guess they just they got lost the first few
Speaker 1: days that those hospital. But is just not being able
Speaker 1: to talk to my family or know from them. You
Speaker 1: can't communicate so and they can't be there.
Speaker 7: They didn't like even know what was going on with him,
Speaker 7: like if he was okay, if he was you know, alive.
Speaker 7: We just knew that it was really really bad because
Speaker 7: like in a prison like that, when it comes to
Speaker 7: like security purposes, they don't take you out to the
Speaker 7: hospital unless.
Speaker 5: You're like almost dying.
Speaker 7: So for me to know that, because Jay has to
Speaker 7: be moved with marshals and it's like this big, it
Speaker 7: takes a lot of work to move him to a hospital.
Speaker 5: So it was devastating.
Speaker 7: Not being able to know what was going on and
Speaker 7: speaking to the attorneys and trying to find out if
Speaker 7: my husband was okay, because I'm like, just tell me
Speaker 7: that he's not in a coma, tell me he's you
Speaker 7: know stable, tell me something, and they couldn't.
Speaker 5: And I want to.
Speaker 7: Direct access to his doctors. I needed some type of
Speaker 7: line of communication just to know he was okay. I
Speaker 7: didn't know need to know what has what he was at.
Speaker 7: I just needed to know that, you know, he was breathing.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 7: He spent fifty six days in the hospital. He had
Speaker 7: three surgeries. I think Yeah, it was hard. Like you know,
Speaker 7: you're alone, right, you're in the shoe like people you
Speaker 7: spend time in the shoe and then like solitaries like
Speaker 7: that's solitude is is hard, but being sick and kind
Speaker 7: of helpless, helpless being in the hospital where you have
Speaker 7: no one to like care for your nurture, you.
Speaker 5: Your shackle to a bad Yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Have a shackle. Like that's hard. I do remember like
Speaker 1: once I started like feeling like a little bit better,
Speaker 1: like I was being in I was in pain. I
Speaker 1: had too going down like in my throat and so
Speaker 1: I couldn't speak, and I remember that's when you really
Speaker 1: feel that lone. It's like it's you know, I was
Speaker 1: to have all these like thoughts about wow, like when
Speaker 1: you're like not conscious or when you're in those situations,
Speaker 1: that's when you look for that nurturing mom right as
Speaker 1: a baby, like I remember just having those feeling like
Speaker 1: like wow, this is why marriage and family is so important.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to have someone, you're supposed to have each other.
Speaker 1: And I think that it's just kind of like to
Speaker 1: me was like again just a reminder right of what
Speaker 1: it's like to be alone, you know, and when you
Speaker 1: when you're in those situations, you wonder like this is
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna die alone, Like this is what's gonna
Speaker 1: be like, so kind of going back to those times.
Speaker 1: So just going through all that and not having my family,
Speaker 1: not having being able to talk to them, that was
Speaker 1: very hard cause I'm a very like I dependent on
Speaker 1: my family, dependent on my wife. I'm a social person,
Speaker 1: and just not being able to talk and just be
Speaker 1: inter paining, just kind of just keeping it to yourself,
Speaker 1: which a lot of people might think, well, a lot
Speaker 1: of people keep thesearch of I just thanks to my
Speaker 1: wife and thanks for me having a twin brother, I
Speaker 1: never had to keep something to myself that was foreign
Speaker 1: to me that I'm kind of suffering alone in a way.
Speaker 3: Jay got an infection which led to sepsis. Because he
Speaker 3: was left without treatment for so long, he spent fifty
Speaker 3: six days in hospital before he was eventually transferred back
Speaker 3: to prison, but he didn't stay there for long. By
Speaker 3: the time he got back, he only had a few
Speaker 3: weeks left until he was released. The twins were able
Speaker 3: to get two years and two months taken off their
Speaker 3: sentence for good behavior, which is the maximum a federal
Speaker 3: inmate can earn off their sentence for staying out of trouble.
Speaker 3: It was around fifteen percent. Because they received the same sentence,
Speaker 3: they were released on the same day. When they first
Speaker 3: went to prison, they spent eight months in the Shoe.
Speaker 3: Now twelve years later they would go to the Shoe
Speaker 3: for the last time. Because of COVID, prisoners had to
Speaker 3: spend two weeks quarantined in the Shoe before they left.
Speaker 3: On November fifth, twenty twenty, it was time to go home.
Speaker 3: Jay was first out.
Speaker 1: What was it like for you when you came out
Speaker 1: of prison? What was that day? What happened on that day?
Speaker 1: I think it was so real. That was that was
Speaker 1: like for sure, Like I couldn't even course, I didn't sleep,
Speaker 1: And as soon as the doors opened, everybody came to
Speaker 1: my you know, they have been saying goodbye, and you know,
Speaker 1: people came just give me letters and and I still
Speaker 1: couldn't believe. It was emotional, believe or not. I left
Speaker 1: a lot of good people behind that. I think that
Speaker 1: you had a a lot of relationships, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And I think, yeah, absolutely, I think that I guess
Speaker 1: I think I used to just having me right as
Speaker 1: a positive, like let me come to you for advice
Speaker 1: or you know, and just were just like be there
Speaker 1: for them, and and I did worry about somewhere like them,
Speaker 1: what are they gonna do without me? And you know,
Speaker 1: I made a really good friend and I was with
Speaker 1: him for ten years. He was my selling and I
Speaker 1: knew he needed me and he was there for me too,
Speaker 1: Like I remember, I used to go through them hard
Speaker 1: times and I went through a hard situation with my
Speaker 1: family and like we're in the cell and he just
Speaker 1: came and hug me, and I remember like just being
Speaker 1: an emotional and he was like one of those tough
Speaker 1: men like, oh, I'm not gonna cry and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna And then when it was time for me to go,
Speaker 1: like that day, he was like he cried. He was like,
Speaker 1: what am I gonna do without you? And it's weird
Speaker 1: because this individual is famous for how many brothers he has.
Speaker 1: And I remember he said, I need to tell you something,
Speaker 1: like I never had the relationship with my own brothers
Speaker 1: that I've had with you at and I'm really gonna
Speaker 1: like I'm really gonna miss you, and I'm happy that
Speaker 1: you're going home. Man, you deserve it. It was emotional
Speaker 1: you think about it. He was in my life every
Speaker 1: day for ten years. That was as long as my run.
Speaker 1: So all those people that meant to meet something in
Speaker 1: the street that I knew for within those ten years
Speaker 1: or sometimes less, that I felt close to. You just
Speaker 1: could imagine what it was like for me to be
Speaker 1: with just you know, with him for ten years. And
Speaker 1: he did have a day to come home at that time.
Speaker 1: It was four years, and you know there's people either
Speaker 1: that were not coming home soon or not coming home
Speaker 1: at all. So it didn't kind of weigh. I mean
Speaker 1: it's like bittersly, like you know, I waited for this
Speaker 1: day for so long. I'm more worried about them, like
Speaker 1: you're overdoing it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: He would like say that, like nah, I said, you
Speaker 1: guys aren'ta be all right? You know, I just kind
Speaker 1: of give him a those speech because I'm right hugged
Speaker 1: them and did you give him a little speech? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What did you say? I thank them for everything because
Speaker 1: I think that you depend. That's your family, and I'm
Speaker 1: a family man. We have our own little group where
Speaker 1: it's like that you kind of live with every day
Speaker 1: that you depend. You formed this bond and I had
Speaker 1: begged the staff. They're like, please come get me early.
Speaker 1: You know, like, don't take your time. You know you're
Speaker 1: gonna go home with you. We're gonna be here at eight.
Speaker 1: And they said, your wife is not gonna be on time.
Speaker 1: We're not doing that. I said, listen, yes she is,
Speaker 1: I said, listen. I waited a long time for this, please,
Speaker 1: And they came from me early. They came probably a
Speaker 1: little bit before six am, and they let me say
Speaker 1: goodbite everybody, and just walking down the hallway, I just couldn't.
Speaker 1: That was emotional for sure, like goose toumps all on
Speaker 1: my body. Just even when it was time for me
Speaker 1: to sign off paperwork, I was like, wow, this is
Speaker 1: really gonna happen, and uh, I'll never forget. Like after
Speaker 1: I signed the paperwork, they're like, go ahead, call your wife,
Speaker 1: see if she's here. I was like, excuse me, they
Speaker 1: call your wife. Pick up the phone and call your wife.
Speaker 1: I said I could pick up the phone. He said,
Speaker 1: technically you're not in prison anymore. And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, pick up the phone. No answer, no answer,
Speaker 1: no answer. I don't remember a lot of phone I'm
Speaker 1: I'm like calling like hold on, no answer, no one
Speaker 1: is answering my phone. I'm like, no, this ain't happening.
Speaker 1: And finally I called. She answered, I'll never forget. She
Speaker 1: was like, well, Peter, in an hour, I said, what
Speaker 1: I like, listen. I was so hurt.
Speaker 2: It hurt me.
Speaker 1: I was sitting there like and because of my situation,
Speaker 1: they just didn't want to like They're not just gonna
Speaker 1: put me out the door. They want to make sure
Speaker 1: that I leave the premises safely. And I was so
Speaker 1: embarrassed to you manager, she said, Now, she said, I
Speaker 1: told you. I was like, oh my god, and thinking
Speaker 1: like this is not happening to me. And I was
Speaker 1: like wow, just sitting there and they're like, you want
Speaker 1: to use the phone, go ahead and just call your
Speaker 1: wife back, make sure she gets hurt. And I was
Speaker 1: like oh okay, and called her back. I said I
Speaker 1: could talk to you like on the phone, like wow,
Speaker 1: I don't have to use like you know, the operators
Speaker 1: don't have to tell me I'm being recorded. It was
Speaker 1: like wow, I'm That was the first secum for like
Speaker 1: being free that I felt, which was amazing. And yeah,
Speaker 1: she got there a little bit like an hour and
Speaker 1: towns later.
Speaker 7: And I felt so bad because there's like a whole
Speaker 7: entourage and everyone has to wait in order to like
Speaker 7: release Jay, to make sure that you know he's safe,
Speaker 7: our family is safe.
Speaker 1: It's a process which you think it's like arm guard.
Speaker 1: It's like taking you. Yeah, and they waited, and you know,
Speaker 1: now she just has everyone waiting.
Speaker 7: I felt really embarrassed, but when I got out of
Speaker 7: the car, everyone was like, Okay, I get it. I
Speaker 7: broke my foot the night before. I was trying to
Speaker 7: like run around the house and make everything perfect.
Speaker 5: That's like what I do.
Speaker 7: I want to like lay everything out and make sure everything.
Speaker 1: You know what I would tell her, you're so worried
Speaker 1: about everything else that you just focus on what's important.
Speaker 7: I just wanted to make sure, like what, no matter
Speaker 7: I charged Jay's toothbrush, I wanted to make sure.
Speaker 5: He had his like everything he could possibly be, like
Speaker 5: his slippers.
Speaker 7: Like I was like, my mind just goes to the
Speaker 7: most simplest things of what he's going to need, and
Speaker 7: I just wanted to make everything perfect for him, and no.
Speaker 1: Matter what it was special. I ended up.
Speaker 7: Just running outside and putting up all of the Christmas lights.
Speaker 5: It was just barely November. I had the landscapers out there, just.
Speaker 7: Trying to make everything so nice for him, and I
Speaker 7: ended up tripping over one of the cables outside and
Speaker 7: I completely broke my foot.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: What is going on? And it was it was hard,
Speaker 1: but you know, it didn't take away like once I
Speaker 1: was there and once I felt like like I still
Speaker 1: couln't believe I felt free, like no shackles, no, And
Speaker 1: of course it was a more so all my kids
Speaker 1: were there and we just stood there just crying in.
Speaker 5: Tears, crying. It was so sorrey.
Speaker 1: You got to go, like be there, you have to go.
Speaker 1: So I had to jump in the car and it
Speaker 1: was like I still remember my son, you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of quiet looking at me. He was happy at
Speaker 1: a smile on his face, and he can hug me,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I told you I was always going
Speaker 1: to be there.
Speaker 6: That's your youngest who had never actually lived with you,
Speaker 6: he'd only ever known you in prison, and.
Speaker 7: He could not even like comprehend that his dad one
Speaker 7: day was going to be able to walk out that door.
Speaker 7: Like he didn't even He's like, there's no way, are
Speaker 7: you sure? He never thought that he would be released
Speaker 7: from prison.
Speaker 1: It twere. I was lost of words, Like I was
Speaker 1: just like this feeling of fulfillment just hard to describe.
Speaker 1: And and they're just it was really emotional and just
Speaker 1: me wanting to like touch them and just you know,
Speaker 1: hug yeah, hugging.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know, I had advantage of being home alossom
Speaker 1: than my brother because of the time different. I would
Speaker 1: turn with my kids and eventually we touched my two
Speaker 1: nieces and so I was like, hey, oh my god,
Speaker 1: like and they're crying, and they were on FaceTime.
Speaker 5: They were so excited, they were so anxious, which.
Speaker 1: Is I'm still getting used to the like I was facetiming.
Speaker 1: He could actually see them, and you know, like that
Speaker 1: was different.
Speaker 5: Dan was like, this is so weird.
Speaker 1: This is so different, Like this is a weird, and
Speaker 1: I like, this could have made my business so much easier.
Speaker 3: Don't forget that. Jay and Pete went to prison in
Speaker 3: two thousand and eight, two years before FaceTime existed. Jay
Speaker 3: had never seen FaceTime. In fact, when they went to prison,
Speaker 3: the original iPhone had.
Speaker 1: Only been out for years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the twins started that business back in the days
Speaker 3: of the Nokia thirty two to ten. Jay settled in
Speaker 3: at home across the country. Heat was preparing to leave.
Speaker 2: I can I can even imagine, like the thing was
Speaker 2: really coming. I had like a little homemade little calend
Speaker 2: that I kept on me. This is a little legal
Speaker 2: paper like that. I just wrote my own own lines
Speaker 2: on the days, and.
Speaker 1: I crossed my mind. So when the day came, what happened?
Speaker 1: I sleep. I don't think anyone could leave.
Speaker 2: I was like I had my room clean, I cleaned
Speaker 2: my cell toil, everything folded and everything to grab my
Speaker 2: own blankets and folding my mattress and left everything like
Speaker 2: WHI should be.
Speaker 1: And I think that every.
Speaker 2: Person who's done a long time has that little thought
Speaker 2: like is this really gonna.
Speaker 1: Happen for me?
Speaker 2: I remember that, like, yeah, it was coming to you
Speaker 2: got your wife can't beard the I think they were
Speaker 2: gonna take some re court whatever to live beer.
Speaker 1: At nine, I was like nine, you know, I'm mad.
Speaker 2: That my brother's gonna be out earlier cause he's you know,
Speaker 2: he was in at different times on and they called
Speaker 2: me to the office that I could your wife be
Speaker 2: here any earlier? I was like, yes, she can't, And
Speaker 2: then she was an answerment caller. What m.
Speaker 1: Anyways?
Speaker 2: But like walking out on a beautiful sunnay day and
Speaker 2: early and not feeling good. I was down like twenty pounds.
Speaker 2: I was downtime one thirty. I had a osama up,
Speaker 2: been lot and beard. You know, we weren't allowed to
Speaker 2: get haircut to. My hair was articulately long, and I
Speaker 2: remember like pulling the cart out like I had a
Speaker 2: couple of boxes.
Speaker 1: With my belonging. I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 2: The joy for uh to see my family then, cause
Speaker 2: she liked me made it like I can't tell you
Speaker 2: what it was, might cancer, you know, no, yeah, well
Speaker 2: she looked more beautiful than ever.
Speaker 1: That's a I couldn't like. I wanted to leave, like
Speaker 1: let it go and find me.
Speaker 2: I closing the door, and I was like, I ain't
Speaker 2: jump to the back, see cause my sister wasn't the front,
Speaker 2: and the kids their own shit just.
Speaker 1: Looking at me. Ag. I didn't want to say. I
Speaker 1: was speechless, like really speechless. That says a lot for
Speaker 1: someone like me who talks a lot. It must have
Speaker 1: been so surreal.
Speaker 2: It was so not really like to think that I
Speaker 2: would be free in America. I would be free in
Speaker 2: the USA, and like back in the States and.
Speaker 6: Free cause the last time you were free in America
Speaker 6: was when you were like twenty two, twenty three, right,
Speaker 6: I was twenty two.
Speaker 1: Se you've not really.
Speaker 6: Been free in America in your adulthood.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted to say, I can't tell you what
Speaker 2: it felt like, like I wanted to hold my kids,
Speaker 2: hold everyone.
Speaker 1: And I remember my kids being around like that, like
Speaker 1: you're really here, like you're not in khakis. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: really here.
Speaker 2: I could see in their eyes that there like a
Speaker 2: million questions, like it's just like what's next for us?
Speaker 2: Like I remember just something, just just don't knok back, man,
Speaker 2: Let's look forward to our future. And I say that
Speaker 2: we could forget that past. But it's just change of
Speaker 2: view a little bit because it was such a.
Speaker 1: Long time.
Speaker 5: And I didn't want them to literally look behind.
Speaker 1: That's twelve years. It's a long time.
Speaker 2: My kids never seen me outside that present to that day, never.
Speaker 1: See me I eat like a normal food.
Speaker 2: They never really got to see how I smell, see
Speaker 2: me in my without my shirt on, and there were
Speaker 2: like normal kids to see their father or like do
Speaker 2: something for them. My wife just know that what she
Speaker 2: felt to see you, to see him with their father
Speaker 2: what it meant to her, you know.
Speaker 1: M hmm.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I see Peter.
Speaker 10: He's coming out and he has is like a cart
Speaker 10: with the prison guards. So he has a cart like
Speaker 10: a book cart, and he has like boxes, and we
Speaker 10: were just just looking at him. My god, oh my god.
Speaker 10: But it was like almost silence in the car, silence,
Speaker 10: like just watching him. He opened the drunk and he
Speaker 10: puts his things in there, and then he gets in
Speaker 10: the car and it was really surreal to see him,
Speaker 10: like just see his presence, just be in his presence,
Speaker 10: and the kids were there and he got in the
Speaker 10: backseat and the kids were just he was just holding
Speaker 10: the kids he didn't know, like touching their hair, and
Speaker 10: I don't know. They were crying and the happy and
Speaker 10: they were just overjoyed, like just to see just to
Speaker 10: finally have them mirror. I was nervous, and I mean,
Speaker 10: I haven't been this close to him in twelve years,
Speaker 10: almost thirteen years.
Speaker 1: It was really it was really difficult for me.
Speaker 10: When he hugged me, I almost felt like I was trembling,
Speaker 10: like my body was a little trembling, a little nervous.
Speaker 10: I kind of avoided him, like I was like, oh,
Speaker 10: I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 5: I want to wash the dishes.
Speaker 10: And I was like, but after a while, you know,
Speaker 10: the kids wanted to have a movie night. So we
Speaker 10: lay blankets on the floor and we put a movie
Speaker 10: on and they were just everyone was just so happy
Speaker 10: and and still they couldn't take their eyes off of him.
Speaker 1: Come on, get to the funny part.
Speaker 5: Oh, so you know they're young.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're old enough they're going to do something.
Speaker 1: It's funny.
Speaker 10: Yeah, they're really well where they're you know, they're really
Speaker 10: market and they're.
Speaker 9: Like, you left us.
Speaker 1: You didn't even finish the movie.
Speaker 10: But they're understand you know, they're understanding, and they're funny.
Speaker 10: They're really funny kids. Yeah, really mature for their age.
Speaker 1: Because it's weird that they made it so awkward for us.
Speaker 10: And then my sister in law was there and she
Speaker 10: was like, leave your mom and dad alone.
Speaker 3: Yes, they're talking about the S word sex. The last
Speaker 3: time Pete and viv were intimate in that way was
Speaker 3: black when they were cooperating in the government offices in Chicago.
Speaker 3: Remember the three bees, the first bee, the baby. Whilst
Speaker 3: I was talking to Pete, he called his youngest daughter
Speaker 3: to chat about the day he came home from prison.
Speaker 1: Hello, how are you?
Speaker 5: How good are you? I'm good, thank you.
Speaker 1: I was telling Charlie about the day I came home.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I was telling you how you We were
Speaker 2: just staring at using the whole time, and Mom was
Speaker 2: avoiding me.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I think that we were all like so like shocked.
Speaker 8: It was like, oh my gosh, he's out of prison.
Speaker 8: And it's funny because like I remember every little like
Speaker 8: every little sentence he said that day. Well, when he
Speaker 8: first got in a car, like he didn't say anything,
Speaker 8: but he told me specifically, like he put me in
Speaker 8: the link. He was from my ear, don't look back,
Speaker 8: just keep your eyes on like on the road. And
Speaker 8: then when he got home, he was just like mesmerized,
Speaker 8: like by the house, you know, having a home. So
Speaker 8: then like when he he went into the room and
Speaker 8: he was like he laid on the bedding and then
Speaker 8: like just like tour in the house. And remember he
Speaker 8: finally ate no good warm meal because of COVID he
Speaker 8: couldn't have warm meals, so like he was focusing on
Speaker 8: his food and we didn't really eat. We were just
Speaker 8: like looking at him.
Speaker 1: Whole time, just like was that eating funny.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, you were eating You're you're eating good. I think, yeah.
Speaker 8: I just really be like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 8: my friends mual. So my sister and I really really excited,
Speaker 8: like we had like a whole night turned out or
Speaker 8: really watch watch of like our favorite movies or whatever
Speaker 8: really series. And you know, my sister got already and
Speaker 8: I was like, Dad like, mom, lets let's go. And
Speaker 8: so my sister and I were waiting on the cash
Speaker 8: for them for like five hours. I was like, oh, Okay,
Speaker 8: let's just gonna end. I'm tired. He's like, yeah, it's
Speaker 8: a pretty cool.
Speaker 3: After spending so much time with the Flora's family, I
Speaker 3: felt like I'd gotten to know them pretty well. We'd
Speaker 3: spoken about so much and delved into their deepest emotions together.
Speaker 3: Some of the things we got into and have shared
Speaker 3: on this podcast they've never talked about before. By this point,
Speaker 3: I got to know the children quite well too. I
Speaker 3: was struck why the fact that despite everything, they were
Speaker 3: also close, and the way the kids were with their
Speaker 3: fathers and vice versa. You'd never really have known that
Speaker 3: they've been in prison the majority of their children's lives.
Speaker 7: I would take the children and go see Peter at
Speaker 7: least twice a year over the years, just so that
Speaker 7: way he was always a part of our children's lives
Speaker 7: and vice versa when it comes to Peter's children, because
Speaker 7: I think Jay and Peter had this connection to where
Speaker 7: they almost feel like these are all of their kids,
Speaker 7: all of their children together, one family. And when I
Speaker 7: would see Peter, it was like almost shocking to me
Speaker 7: because I'd sit there and watch him with Viv and
Speaker 7: watch him with the kids, and I felt like I
Speaker 7: was almost looking in from a lens.
Speaker 5: Which was so.
Speaker 7: Weird because I was just seeing me and Jay and
Speaker 7: the way that Jay would interact with me, and the
Speaker 7: way he would interact with our children, and it was
Speaker 7: everything when it comes to body gestures, when it comes
Speaker 7: to body language, when it comes to body and movement,
Speaker 7: when it comes to conversations, when it came to everything.
Speaker 7: And I used to come back and tell Jay like,
Speaker 7: oh my god, this is so crazy. I feel like
Speaker 7: I'm looking at our family like watching from a camera,
Speaker 7: and it was just like unreal to see.
Speaker 3: Over the twelve years that Pete and Jay were in prison,
Speaker 3: the family, including the kids, spent nearly every weekend visiting them.
Speaker 3: With the exception of COVID, and that's only because they
Speaker 3: weren't physically allowed to visit and of course a few
Speaker 3: months in a safe.
Speaker 5: House leading up to their sentencing.
Speaker 3: That are fathers that aren't in prison that see their
Speaker 3: children less. All that being said, I could tell how
Speaker 3: much of an impact what they've been through had on
Speaker 3: the children. Because the twins were moved around the country
Speaker 3: so much, their families also had to move to be
Speaker 3: with them. This meant the kids were constantly changing schools.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like they were able to have close friends anyway.
Speaker 3: The kids had to hide their own identities. They were
Speaker 3: never allowed to talk about their family, where they were from,
Speaker 3: or reveal anything about their backgrounds. Their kids had to
Speaker 3: be as hypervigilant as their parents. Even now that Jay
Speaker 3: and Peter are out of prison, the children are still
Speaker 3: hypervigilant about their own identities being revealed and wake up
Speaker 3: every morning wondering if their fathers are going to get
Speaker 3: taken away from them again. I sat down with all
Speaker 3: the children to understand what it was like for them.
Speaker 3: This is Pete's daughter again, who you just heard on
Speaker 3: the phone.
Speaker 11: It was like every single holiday, a birthday, that's all
Speaker 11: I wanted. It's friend death, come home. My dad would
Speaker 11: always like he always try to be honest with us.
Speaker 11: I remember when we were like I was I think.
Speaker 9: Four years old.
Speaker 11: I was school and I had a friend and I
Speaker 11: told her that my dad.
Speaker 9: Was in a cage.
Speaker 11: I was like really curious about everything because as much
Speaker 11: as like my dad tried to explain everything to us
Speaker 11: and what he did, I still couldn't understand it. So
Speaker 11: I remember like googling stuff and me just like reading it.
Speaker 11: It just all came together, you know, about his whole life.
Speaker 11: I think I was like scared to like no, because
Speaker 11: you know, I did one thousand and one hundred and
Speaker 11: fifty two days with.
Speaker 6: Him, fifty two days.
Speaker 9: Yes, when he told me, I think I like started
Speaker 9: to think more.
Speaker 11: And I was like, you know, why would you like
Speaker 11: do that you didn't think about us.
Speaker 9: I think I became more like I was so upset.
Speaker 11: And then having to go home, and then going home
Speaker 11: to have to like put on this like.
Speaker 9: Costume, you know where your home life is.
Speaker 11: Like no one knew anything about my home life, like
Speaker 11: at school, like no one that knew always just.
Speaker 9: My mom and my brother in at all.
Speaker 11: So it was just like having to do with keeping
Speaker 11: that secret from like everybody.
Speaker 3: It's not just their fathers that the kids are worried about,
Speaker 3: it's their mothers too. Within six months of Pete and
Speaker 3: Jay getting out of prison, SWAT teams surrounded each of
Speaker 3: their houses in the early hours of the morning, and
Speaker 3: I WestEd Val and viv on money laundering charges.
Speaker 5: My Van and I did a me and Viviana. I
Speaker 5: felt like.
Speaker 1: We knew what was coming.
Speaker 7: We told our children that the Feds would come one
Speaker 7: day and they'd come into the house and they would
Speaker 7: possibly take us and arrest us and put us in prison.
Speaker 5: That was the hardest thing I think we ever had
Speaker 5: to deal.
Speaker 3: The kids were all home when their mothers were arrested.
Speaker 3: We'll get to how it all unfolded in the next episode.
Speaker 11: I remember just like waking up in the morning, my
Speaker 11: dad feel like try to get up, and then they
Speaker 11: put in their haircuffs and they went in the car
Speaker 11: and then I just remember so I was like kind
Speaker 11: of like I didn't comprehend it yet. I was just
Speaker 11: I think I was like I was in shock because
Speaker 11: I didn't think that it would happen. And I remember
Speaker 11: my dad was like breaking down, and so my mom
Speaker 11: told me before she left, just like stay strong. I
Speaker 11: got up and I was like, I woke my brother up,
Speaker 11: and I just told them, and then I walked out
Speaker 11: of the room and I just started cleaning and cooking china,
Speaker 11: trying to make everything as normal as possible.
Speaker 3: Surviving l Chapo. The Twins Who Brought Down a Drug
Speaker 3: Lord Season two is hosted by Curtis fifty cent Jackson
Speaker 3: and me Charlie Webster, produced by myself and Jackson mcclennan,
Speaker 3: Assistant producer and research support by Casey Hurtz. Edit and
Speaker 3: sound designed by Nico Kalella. Theme music and original score
Speaker 3: by Ryan Sorenson. It's executive produced by Curtis fifty cent
Speaker 3: Jackson and Me Charlie Webster. Curtis fifty cent Jackson presents
Speaker 3: a Lionsgate Sound and G Unit audio production exclusively for
Speaker 3: iHeart Podcasts.