WEBVTT - The Supply Side 0:00:15.316 --> 0:00:23.076 Pushkin. Hey guys, this is Jake Halbern, host of Deep Cover. 0:00:24.356 --> 0:00:26.836 We're currently working on season two and we'll be sure 0:00:26.836 --> 0:00:28.476 to let you know when it will be coming out. 0:00:28.876 --> 0:00:31.836 But in the meantime, we have our first bonus episode 0:00:31.876 --> 0:00:41.316 for you. The supply side today's bonus episode. It's actually 0:00:41.356 --> 0:00:43.876 a story that I really wanted to include in season one. 0:00:44.516 --> 0:00:46.196 In fact, to tell you the truth, I had this 0:00:46.236 --> 0:00:49.996 big debate with my producer Karen Shakerjee. I kept saying, look, 0:00:50.116 --> 0:00:53.036 we got to include this story. She was like, it's awesome, 0:00:53.116 --> 0:00:56.116 but it's kind of a tangent, like a crazy side trip, 0:00:56.156 --> 0:00:59.916 and it just doesn't fit. Karen, she was right, kind 0:00:59.956 --> 0:01:05.036 of annoyingly, she's almost always right. But fortunately this story 0:01:05.756 --> 0:01:08.876 it's perfect for bonus episode because one thing that we 0:01:09.156 --> 0:01:12.796 really didn't get into during season one was the suppliers, 0:01:13.116 --> 0:01:16.996 the Colombians, the guys who actually harvested all those crops 0:01:16.996 --> 0:01:21.276 of marijuana. If you recall, that's where Ned ultimately wanted 0:01:21.316 --> 0:01:24.476 to go down to Columbia. He had a source named 0:01:24.476 --> 0:01:28.116 Simone who had all kinds of connections down there. These 0:01:28.116 --> 0:01:31.196 are the people that would have supplied the drugs to 0:01:31.356 --> 0:01:34.276 likely rich. There are the people that controlled everything on 0:01:34.276 --> 0:01:37.116 an Earth coast to Columbia. But in the end, and 0:01:37.276 --> 0:01:40.436 spoiler your guys, So if you haven't heard episode nine yet, 0:01:40.836 --> 0:01:45.636 hit pause, because Ned ends up leaving the FBI and 0:01:45.716 --> 0:01:56.316 the suppliers, well, they just kind of slipped away naturally. 0:01:56.516 --> 0:01:58.876 This was one piece of the puzzle that still really 0:01:58.916 --> 0:02:01.876 intrigued me. So in this episode, we're going to do 0:02:01.916 --> 0:02:05.476 a deep dive into the marijuana industry down in Columbia, 0:02:05.596 --> 0:02:08.716 and our guide, interestingly enough, is a guy who once 0:02:08.836 --> 0:02:12.436 helped supply Mike Vogel back in the day. Remember Mike, 0:02:12.756 --> 0:02:14.876 I had it in such a way that I really 0:02:14.916 --> 0:02:18.076 control the marijuana industry in Michigan, Anna Iver and all 0:02:18.116 --> 0:02:21.396 the rest. He was the grocery guy, the distributor with 0:02:21.436 --> 0:02:25.076 the big warehouse. Anyway, I heard about the supplier from 0:02:25.076 --> 0:02:28.196 a customs agent, and I was intrigued. I had this 0:02:28.316 --> 0:02:31.356 one question in particular that I wanted to run by him. 0:02:31.476 --> 0:02:34.716 If you remember from season one, our smugglers had all 0:02:34.836 --> 0:02:39.556 his products stuck down in Columbia, one million pounds of marijuana, 0:02:39.796 --> 0:02:42.836 and so I'm kind of wondering, what does the bullion 0:02:42.876 --> 0:02:50.076 pounds of marijuana look like a fucking mountain that's Tommy Powell. 0:02:50.476 --> 0:02:54.516 My name is either Tommy, tom or Thomas, depending on 0:02:55.276 --> 0:03:00.356 who I'm talking to. Tommy is to my friends, Tomas 0:03:00.436 --> 0:03:03.596 people that don't know me, and Thomas is for the government. 0:03:04.076 --> 0:03:11.036 I'm seventy two, I'm a lifelong vegetarian. I'm in great health, 0:03:12.556 --> 0:03:15.836 and I look forward to another thirty or four years. 0:03:19.516 --> 0:03:23.396 Tommy was a self identified smuggler and salesman for about 0:03:23.436 --> 0:03:26.476 a decade. He started in the early seventies. He was 0:03:26.516 --> 0:03:29.356 this American ex pat used to live and work down 0:03:29.356 --> 0:03:33.836 in Columbia inspecting marijuana crops. He's responsible for bringing in 0:03:33.916 --> 0:03:37.836 over three hundred thousand pounds of marijuana himself. Not just that, 0:03:38.236 --> 0:03:41.796 he estimates he helped supply a bunch of other smugglers 0:03:41.876 --> 0:03:44.076 who brought in somewhere in the range of two to 0:03:44.196 --> 0:03:47.956 three million pounds. But Tommy was the guy. He would 0:03:47.996 --> 0:03:51.356 be on the ground in Colombia and would often find 0:03:51.436 --> 0:03:56.396 himself in some pretty dicey situations. He's lived a crazy life, 0:03:56.836 --> 0:03:58.916 even by the standards of the character. As you got 0:03:58.916 --> 0:04:05.276 to know in season one, Jake, I can't describe the 0:04:05.356 --> 0:04:09.276 walk into the mountains. I mean, so treacherous, so treacherous. 0:04:09.476 --> 0:04:15.116 There was this one section. It's probably a hundred yards 0:04:15.516 --> 0:04:21.796 where there's a walk it's probably about three feet wide, 0:04:22.396 --> 0:04:26.956 and it's over this cliff and the drop is probably 0:04:26.996 --> 0:04:30.116 a thousand feet or five hundred feet or something. Some 0:04:30.516 --> 0:04:34.516 seriously scary if you look over the edge when you're walking, 0:04:34.676 --> 0:04:39.076 you really don't want to do that. So how does Tommy, 0:04:39.396 --> 0:04:42.236 a dude from Michigan end up living down in Columbia 0:04:42.356 --> 0:04:47.876 inspecting marijuana crops? Turns out it's kind of a wild story. Initially, 0:04:47.956 --> 0:04:50.396 he was a dealer in ann Arbor around the same 0:04:50.436 --> 0:04:54.316 time Mike Vogel was getting started. Mike Vogel I'm familiar with. 0:04:55.156 --> 0:04:58.156 He used to sell my reefer in Detroit before he 0:04:58.196 --> 0:05:01.636 got involved with those other criminals. At the time, Tommy 0:05:01.676 --> 0:05:04.236 says he was smuggling his reefer, as he calls it 0:05:04.436 --> 0:05:08.876 in from Mexico, but the product wasn't so great, nothing 0:05:08.916 --> 0:05:11.996 to rag about. Eventually, Tommy gets in trouble with the 0:05:12.076 --> 0:05:16.076 law when a drug sniffing dog named Bomber finds a 0:05:16.116 --> 0:05:19.036 foot locker of weed at the airport. Police played at 0:05:19.076 --> 0:05:21.636 sly and followed the foot locker as it was picked 0:05:21.716 --> 0:05:24.476 up and then taken to a house. The cops eventually 0:05:24.516 --> 0:05:27.436 barged in and made arrests Tommy. He was at the 0:05:27.476 --> 0:05:31.116 house he got arrested. We found news articles documenting all this. 0:05:31.196 --> 0:05:34.796 By the way, bottom line, this is bad news for Tommy. 0:05:35.236 --> 0:05:37.956 But Tommy says that his case was thrown out because 0:05:37.956 --> 0:05:40.756 the judge ruled it was an illegal search and seizure. 0:05:41.156 --> 0:05:45.436 Bomber apparently was not authorized to sniff that foot locker. Still, 0:05:45.836 --> 0:05:48.516 it was a close call, and so Tommy decides to 0:05:48.556 --> 0:05:52.636 go clean for a while. Anyhow, so I said, ah, 0:05:52.756 --> 0:05:57.596 I'm retiring. So I decided to go to Gainesville and 0:05:57.956 --> 0:06:00.556 visit my brother Billy. And at that time, water beds 0:06:00.556 --> 0:06:03.796 were real popular, and so I filled up my van 0:06:03.916 --> 0:06:08.076 with like about fifty water beds and that drove down 0:06:08.076 --> 0:06:10.316 to Gainesville and start selling them out of the back 0:06:10.356 --> 0:06:13.996 of my van. And so I was so successful at it. 0:06:14.076 --> 0:06:16.516 I mean I was doing good. I was selling thousands 0:06:16.516 --> 0:06:19.916 of them. But as you've probably gathered, he gets drawn 0:06:20.116 --> 0:06:25.356 back into the marijuana business. He meets a guy who 0:06:25.396 --> 0:06:29.596 offers some some new product imported from Jamaica. This, by 0:06:29.636 --> 0:06:32.756 the way, is the early nineteen seventies, and the export 0:06:32.836 --> 0:06:36.996 market for Jamaican weed is expanding. In the US, the branding, 0:06:37.236 --> 0:06:41.116 for lack of a better word, was good. Bob Marley 0:06:41.236 --> 0:06:44.636 was becoming a household name. Tommy says the Jamaican buds 0:06:44.716 --> 0:06:47.716 were a real upgrade from the Mexican stuff that he'd 0:06:47.716 --> 0:06:52.636 been peddling. So I started taking his Jamaicans up to 0:06:52.716 --> 0:06:56.356 ann Arbor and I probably sold Jesus Coming Guy alone 0:06:56.676 --> 0:06:59.836 twenty thousand and thirty thousand pounds maybe of his reefer. 0:07:00.276 --> 0:07:03.236 So while I'm selling it, I'm getting this Oh shit, 0:07:03.356 --> 0:07:06.836 this stuff is not good. It's good. It's better than 0:07:06.876 --> 0:07:10.636 that Mexican ship, but it's good. So I put it 0:07:10.636 --> 0:07:12.196 in my mind. I says, man, I'm going to go 0:07:12.276 --> 0:07:14.596 to Columbian and see if I can get from better 0:07:14.596 --> 0:07:16.996 reefer out of there. And the reason that he says 0:07:17.036 --> 0:07:19.836 this is because at some point he gets a chance 0:07:19.876 --> 0:07:25.596 to smoke some of that Columbian weed. I think I 0:07:25.756 --> 0:07:29.316 was at a Partian and Arbor and there were some 0:07:29.396 --> 0:07:33.076 hipsters there and they had some Columbian Maryluana and we 0:07:33.196 --> 0:07:35.636 smoked it, and I smoked, and I go home, Shit, man, 0:07:35.756 --> 0:07:38.636 we've got to get this stuff. You know. It was 0:07:38.716 --> 0:07:41.396 that much better. It was two times three times better. 0:07:41.396 --> 0:07:45.436 It looked better you know, and it was definitely had 0:07:45.436 --> 0:07:49.316 a higher THC content for sure. Then one day two 0:07:49.356 --> 0:07:52.716 of Tommy's friends, Ronnie and Dave, propose a kind of 0:07:52.876 --> 0:07:55.516 spur of the moment trip. They said, hey, let's go 0:07:55.636 --> 0:07:58.916 to Columbia. I says, yeah, man, let's go to Columbia, 0:07:58.956 --> 0:08:01.236 go up the north coast and see if we can 0:08:01.236 --> 0:08:03.956 find something out up there. You know. I Jamaican ships 0:08:03.996 --> 0:08:08.716 getting boring. So we got on a plane Abianca flight 0:08:09.116 --> 0:08:15.316 out of Miami, and Ronnie comes up like ten minutes 0:08:15.396 --> 0:08:17.396 after the flight's going and says, hey, man, you want 0:08:17.396 --> 0:08:21.676 to take a hit of ascid? Oh my lord. So 0:08:21.716 --> 0:08:23.556 I says, yeah, man, I'll take a hit of Assis. 0:08:23.716 --> 0:08:28.996 Landed in Bogata and proceeded to go directly to the 0:08:29.036 --> 0:08:34.916 closest house of ill repute and got an aunt of 0:08:34.996 --> 0:08:39.756 cocaine and like five bottles of old par Scotch and 0:08:39.916 --> 0:08:42.076 sat in there and drank in there and did other 0:08:42.436 --> 0:08:48.516 nfarious things, and I crawled out the front door. Tommy 0:08:48.556 --> 0:08:51.956 says that by this point, Ronnie and Dave, there's two 0:08:51.956 --> 0:08:55.316 buddies that he'd flown down with. They were in rough shape. 0:08:55.836 --> 0:08:57.716 They were so freaked out they didn't want to stay. 0:08:58.556 --> 0:09:01.516 So I don't want to stay either, because I'd be 0:09:01.556 --> 0:09:04.916 all alone then and I didn't know anybody, you know. 0:09:05.796 --> 0:09:08.316 So we hopped back on a cane and flew back 0:09:08.396 --> 0:09:11.876 to my Ammy. When you went to Columbia that first time, 0:09:11.916 --> 0:09:16.796 did you actually make contact with any marijuana fellers, No, 0:09:17.236 --> 0:09:21.796 just with the ladies of the night. A few months later, 0:09:21.916 --> 0:09:24.956 Tommy gives it another go, and he has a bold plan. 0:09:25.196 --> 0:09:27.876 He wants to set up a twenty thousand pounds shipment 0:09:27.956 --> 0:09:30.916 of weed. He heads back down to Columbia this time, 0:09:31.036 --> 0:09:35.116 skips the whole acid trip brothel visit, and actually manages 0:09:35.156 --> 0:09:39.516 to get an introduction to a reputable supplier, a very cool, 0:09:39.916 --> 0:09:43.276 nice Columbian guy, the nicest value want to run into 0:09:43.596 --> 0:09:48.796 in the world. And his nickname but we nicknamed him uncle, 0:09:49.716 --> 0:09:53.516 and his name was gamo Avola. He's going up in 0:09:53.556 --> 0:09:57.276 the mountains talk to the farmers, getting whatever you can 0:09:57.396 --> 0:09:59.876 from and he's bringing a spank, samples and stuff like that. 0:10:00.676 --> 0:10:04.276 So it's the stuff's awesome. So yeah, yeah, we'll take 0:10:04.276 --> 0:10:07.556 twenty thousand, he says. Here, okay, I could do twenty thousand, 0:10:08.116 --> 0:10:12.236 I says, well, when it comes down the loaden night, 0:10:12.316 --> 0:10:17.436 he only had sixteen thousands, but that's how the Colombian 0:10:17.556 --> 0:10:22.756 market started. Tommy says he was the guy, like the pioneer, 0:10:22.916 --> 0:10:26.316 who first smuggled really big loads of Colombian weed to 0:10:26.436 --> 0:10:29.636 the United States. It's a bold claim and one that 0:10:29.716 --> 0:10:33.996 I couldn't totally verify, but the timing of it is right. 0:10:34.516 --> 0:10:38.036 Starting in the mid nineteen seventies, weed from Mexico kind 0:10:38.036 --> 0:10:42.116 of lost its popularity, in part because Mexican authorities began 0:10:42.236 --> 0:10:46.676 using a herbicide known as paraquat to poison marijuana crops 0:10:46.716 --> 0:10:51.836 down there. According to declassified CIA documents, American consumers began 0:10:51.956 --> 0:10:56.716 to quote prefer the better manicured and reputedly more potent 0:10:56.956 --> 0:11:01.436 Colombian marijuana end quote. Tommy says he was the guy 0:11:01.516 --> 0:11:04.596 who first brought in large quantities of this more potent 0:11:04.676 --> 0:11:09.676 stuff starting in nineteen seventy two. It's a really big success. 0:11:09.716 --> 0:11:12.356 He buys the weed for six dollars a pound and 0:11:12.476 --> 0:11:15.876 sells it for two hundred and forty pound back in Michigan, 0:11:16.196 --> 0:11:19.236 and it's really good stuff. He keeps making trips down 0:11:19.276 --> 0:11:22.356 there each year. I tried to always get my loads 0:11:22.396 --> 0:11:25.276 together and make sure they're ready by December or I 0:11:25.316 --> 0:11:27.676 had a trip together by December, because that's when they 0:11:27.676 --> 0:11:30.556 did the harvest, and that's when they had the best marijuana. 0:11:31.076 --> 0:11:34.156 Anybody that else goes to Columbian, you know, they all 0:11:34.156 --> 0:11:36.436 went down there and they would take anything they'd stashed 0:11:36.476 --> 0:11:39.396 that reefer in warehouses, you know, and it'd be like 0:11:39.476 --> 0:11:42.876 eight ten months old, you know, and just be trash weed, 0:11:43.476 --> 0:11:46.076 you know. And then they also packed it in bricks, 0:11:46.156 --> 0:11:49.076 these big fifty pound bricks where they use they use 0:11:49.156 --> 0:11:52.556 a press pressing machine and pressed it all up down tight, 0:11:53.236 --> 0:11:55.276 you know, and screwed up all the buds, you know. 0:11:55.756 --> 0:11:58.156 So I started, I demanded that none of mine to 0:11:58.196 --> 0:12:00.676 be pressed like that. I wanted mind to be in pillows. 0:12:00.676 --> 0:12:05.956 We call them, nice fluffy pillows of high quality weed. 0:12:06.596 --> 0:12:13.476 That was the key. Tommy ended up making a lot 0:12:13.556 --> 0:12:16.276 of money, so much money in fact, that he decides 0:12:16.316 --> 0:12:19.076 to hide some of it in the ground. He puts 0:12:19.316 --> 0:12:22.956 three hundred and eighty three eight hundred and forty dollars 0:12:22.996 --> 0:12:25.436 in a suitcase and buried it on some lamb that 0:12:25.476 --> 0:12:28.956 he owned in Michigan. Sometime later, this hunter comes along, 0:12:29.316 --> 0:12:32.676 finds it, and being a good Samaritan, the hunter hands 0:12:32.716 --> 0:12:35.636 it over to the state police. Tommy then tried to 0:12:35.636 --> 0:12:39.116 get the suitcase and the money back. He actually shows 0:12:39.196 --> 0:12:42.396 up with a receipt for the suitcase, proving that hey, 0:12:42.476 --> 0:12:45.876 I purchased this particular handback. He even gave a sworn 0:12:45.956 --> 0:12:49.276 statement saying the money was hit, but he took the 0:12:49.316 --> 0:12:51.836 fifth when it came to explaining how he got it 0:12:52.596 --> 0:12:55.796 no dice. The police wouldn't hand it over the suitcase. 0:12:55.876 --> 0:12:59.516 Though it made big news, newspapers and Detroit wrote about it. 0:12:59.676 --> 0:13:02.156 It was even mentioned on an episode of Sixty Minutes. 0:13:06.036 --> 0:13:09.316 None of his notoriety was especially good for tom in 0:13:09.356 --> 0:13:11.636 the long run. He says it really put him on 0:13:11.676 --> 0:13:15.276 the authority's radar. Not long after this, he was indicted 0:13:15.316 --> 0:13:19.956 by the FEDS, So naturally, Tummy sends to run for it, 0:13:20.036 --> 0:13:23.556 become a fugitive. He flies to Europe, spend some time 0:13:23.596 --> 0:13:26.316 and some money there, and then he bounces around a 0:13:26.316 --> 0:13:29.516 bit to Morocco, the Canary Islands, down to the Bahamas 0:13:29.796 --> 0:13:33.876 before deciding where he'll land next. That so hell, and 0:13:34.076 --> 0:13:35.556 might as well get it over worth. I'm just going 0:13:35.596 --> 0:13:37.556 to Columbia. They're not going to extradite me out of there. 0:13:37.636 --> 0:13:39.236 There are never going to get me out of there, 0:13:39.316 --> 0:13:43.956 you know, I get the world's baddest ass bodyguards. Yeah, 0:13:44.316 --> 0:13:47.076 so that's kind of how I ended up in Columbia. 0:13:47.396 --> 0:13:53.236 I wanted to be safe, well, relatively safe. There was 0:13:53.276 --> 0:13:55.196 always the danger that he'd fall off one of those 0:13:55.236 --> 0:13:58.876 cliffs or worse. More on this when we come back 0:13:58.916 --> 0:14:20.436 after the break. So Tommy was under indictment in the 0:14:20.476 --> 0:14:23.436 United States, spend some time on the lamb, and then 0:14:23.596 --> 0:14:27.156 moves down to Columbia. He deepens his connections there, makes 0:14:27.196 --> 0:14:29.956 more trips out to the countryside to inspect the weed 0:14:30.036 --> 0:14:33.036 that he wants to buy. Now, typically he didn't do 0:14:33.076 --> 0:14:37.556 this in the fields, but at these makeshift marijuana warehouses 0:14:37.756 --> 0:14:40.076 that were set up right at the base of the mountains. 0:14:40.676 --> 0:14:44.036 And all the while, Tommy says that he maintained his 0:14:44.156 --> 0:14:50.476 distribution network back in Michigan. I controlled the boats from 0:14:50.516 --> 0:14:55.236 the onloading spots, the trucks, and the market and ann arbor. 0:14:55.836 --> 0:14:58.756 You know, already at that point you're telling me that 0:14:58.836 --> 0:15:02.316 you weren't just working supply side. You were actually like 0:15:03.236 --> 0:15:07.676 complete system. Like you were there at the College of 0:15:08.716 --> 0:15:14.476 Vertically Integrated vertically Integrated Marijuana Business. I always did it 0:15:14.556 --> 0:15:17.196 all myself. It's interesting because like with Lee Rich and 0:15:17.316 --> 0:15:22.156 his group, they basically always just subcontracted out to supply. 0:15:22.316 --> 0:15:25.596 They had dance supply partners. If I'm understanding you correctly, 0:15:25.676 --> 0:15:31.276 you're saying that like you manage the supply side yourself personally. Yep. 0:15:31.436 --> 0:15:34.276 I would go on like three days a week and 0:15:34.596 --> 0:15:38.836 go inspect marijuana. And I would inspect marijuana for other 0:15:38.916 --> 0:15:45.116 people too, you know, because some of these smugglers quote 0:15:45.236 --> 0:15:49.636 non quote, they they didn't know how to get it, 0:15:49.676 --> 0:15:51.916 where to get it, who to get it from, and 0:15:51.996 --> 0:15:53.516 how it was going to be safe, and how much 0:15:53.516 --> 0:15:55.116 they were going to pay and all that shit. I 0:15:55.116 --> 0:15:58.716 would take care of all that, especially for my friends. Wait, 0:15:58.796 --> 0:16:00.996 so were you like, were you like a consultant? When 0:16:00.996 --> 0:16:02.916 you say you're doing this for other people? Are you 0:16:03.036 --> 0:16:05.836 are you charging them? Oh? Yeah, I would charge him. 0:16:05.876 --> 0:16:08.036 Might get hard of the load. You're like the guy, 0:16:08.116 --> 0:16:10.836 like you're the equivalent of like the Costco guy who 0:16:10.836 --> 0:16:13.756 like comes in to check out the coffee beans or 0:16:13.876 --> 0:16:16.276 like the grapes or something to make sure that they're 0:16:16.356 --> 0:16:21.596 up to Costco standard. Yeah, it's on one of these 0:16:21.676 --> 0:16:25.356 quality inspection trips. The tummy visits what he calls a 0:16:25.476 --> 0:16:30.716 quote mountain of marijuana out in the Guahira Desert. And 0:16:30.876 --> 0:16:33.716 that's how he knew how to answer my question, what 0:16:33.796 --> 0:16:36.636 does a million pounds of marijuana look like? It was 0:16:36.916 --> 0:16:39.356 it was up in the water here and I was 0:16:39.396 --> 0:16:41.556 looking for a load of sixty thousand I think in 0:16:41.796 --> 0:16:44.396 uh and say, oh, well, we're going to take you 0:16:44.436 --> 0:16:46.236 to this low here and you can pick out whatever 0:16:46.276 --> 0:16:49.476 you want. Well, it was get late in the day 0:16:49.596 --> 0:16:52.636 and we decided to we didn't want to drive in 0:16:52.676 --> 0:16:54.796 the water here and at night. Just something you really 0:16:54.836 --> 0:16:58.116 don't want to do. And because you got M nineteen 0:16:58.276 --> 0:17:02.316 and H and h F a dose F two, you know, 0:17:02.556 --> 0:17:07.516 it's just the FBI and Colombian and the dogs, is 0:17:07.796 --> 0:17:11.356 uh the CI A wait wait, can you just go 0:17:11.436 --> 0:17:15.676 back and explain this again? Do you help me visualize 0:17:15.756 --> 0:17:21.276 a million pounds of marijuana? Like, what does it look like? Well, 0:17:21.916 --> 0:17:25.316 when you're driving up to it, it's like a like 0:17:25.356 --> 0:17:28.316 a big mound or you know, And it was all 0:17:28.956 --> 0:17:33.316 piled up into like a peak. And that's where we 0:17:33.316 --> 0:17:36.996 went and built our little fort spend the night in. Yeah, 0:17:37.156 --> 0:17:40.796 thirty feet thirty five somewhere in there. Wow, that's like 0:17:40.836 --> 0:17:45.436 a three story tall building that was totally amazing. Wait, 0:17:45.476 --> 0:17:48.476 so so you're telling me you climbed up on top 0:17:48.476 --> 0:17:50.876 of this mountain marijuana. You built a fourth out of 0:17:50.876 --> 0:17:56.036 the marijuana. Yeah, we'll put up little you know, put 0:17:56.076 --> 0:18:00.636 up little walls and stuff, you know, and you know 0:18:00.676 --> 0:18:03.196 they're like bricks or like building blox. Hell, it's like 0:18:03.276 --> 0:18:06.396 a you know, a rector set or something, you know, 0:18:06.596 --> 0:18:09.716 I mean, what are those what's that where they have 0:18:09.716 --> 0:18:13.156 all the plastic blocks and they build castles and shipped 0:18:13.156 --> 0:18:20.156 out of them here in Florida the Danish company Legos. Yeah, Legos. Yeah, 0:18:20.196 --> 0:18:22.796 it was like a lego. It was a meritorial lego. 0:18:25.116 --> 0:18:28.516 It's while he's building his lego for it that he 0:18:28.556 --> 0:18:32.116 gets a sense for exactly what kind of weed this is. So, 0:18:32.356 --> 0:18:34.036 but we went up to the top of the mountain 0:18:34.116 --> 0:18:37.756 and started digging out all the bales. You know, these 0:18:37.796 --> 0:18:41.396 are all like these were hard pressed bales. You know. 0:18:42.436 --> 0:18:44.996 We I never did the hard pressed bales because well 0:18:44.996 --> 0:18:46.476 I did them in the beginning because I didn't know 0:18:46.516 --> 0:18:49.356 any better. I was spent the whole next day going 0:18:49.396 --> 0:18:51.916 through the whole damned lot of the ship and there 0:18:51.956 --> 0:18:53.996 was nothing in there. There was any good. You know, 0:18:54.756 --> 0:18:57.796 it was dry and dusty. It's out in the middle 0:18:57.836 --> 0:19:02.396 of the Wahara Desert. Man, it's probably one hundred degrees 0:19:02.476 --> 0:19:06.876 and it was dry and just dusty, and some of 0:19:06.876 --> 0:19:10.116 it was moldy. And you know, it's just the stuff 0:19:10.156 --> 0:19:13.716 that anam smuggler would go ahead and entertain putting on 0:19:13.836 --> 0:19:18.516 her boats. So, yeah, the mountain of marijuana was made 0:19:18.516 --> 0:19:23.276 of really shitty weed. And Tommy, he didn't do shitty weed. 0:19:23.676 --> 0:19:28.036 He did pillows of the nice fluffy stuff. Tommy has 0:19:28.076 --> 0:19:31.716 a whole process worked out. Once he'd okay a batch, 0:19:32.236 --> 0:19:34.196 he had to move it down from the mountains where 0:19:34.196 --> 0:19:36.356 it was grown and get it loaded up on ships 0:19:36.396 --> 0:19:41.436 bound for America. And this there's no easy task. Even 0:19:41.476 --> 0:19:45.636 the CIA recognize this. In one declassified report from nineteen 0:19:45.636 --> 0:19:50.556 eighty two, it says, quote, the complicated logistics of smuggling 0:19:50.596 --> 0:19:55.116 Colombian marijuana, which calls for massive quantities to be hauled 0:19:55.156 --> 0:19:59.276 over long distances for large amounts of capital, attracted a 0:19:59.476 --> 0:20:05.236 new class of smuggling organizations structured along corporate lines. Yep, 0:20:05.676 --> 0:20:09.276 that's Tommy. And to tackle those logistics, at least at 0:20:09.276 --> 0:20:14.676 the start of the process, he used mules and or donkeys. Yeah, 0:20:14.676 --> 0:20:17.196 a lot it takes a lot. I mean, okay, look 0:20:17.196 --> 0:20:20.516 at like take a donkey's or more sure footed, and 0:20:20.916 --> 0:20:23.636 they can't carry as much as a mule. So donkey 0:20:23.716 --> 0:20:29.396 could probably carry two hundred pounds maybe two fifty, you know, 0:20:30.156 --> 0:20:34.076 and then a mule another matter, the mule could probably 0:20:34.116 --> 0:20:37.396 carry four hundred. Wow. So it was the mule preparable 0:20:37.436 --> 0:20:42.756 for the donkey. The donkeys were more sure footed. Mules, well, 0:20:42.796 --> 0:20:46.636 sometimes they slipped. And Tommy saw this for himself on 0:20:46.636 --> 0:20:50.236 one very harrowing part of the trail they were traversing 0:20:50.236 --> 0:20:53.636 it at night. He had all his heinekens, all our heinekens. 0:20:53.636 --> 0:20:55.916 He had like six cases of heinekens on that mule. 0:20:56.476 --> 0:20:59.356 And what happened. There's a washout area where the water 0:20:59.436 --> 0:21:01.716 runs down the mountain and it carved a little bee, 0:21:01.716 --> 0:21:05.956 and I was watching it, and the mule stepped in 0:21:06.076 --> 0:21:09.076 that bee and went over the mountain with the heineken. 0:21:09.716 --> 0:21:12.316 So you did you actually see your mule with all 0:21:12.316 --> 0:21:15.636 the hind hims go over the edge. Yea. At the 0:21:15.716 --> 0:21:19.476 end of this ledge, there's there's a little waterfall, you know, 0:21:19.596 --> 0:21:23.276 like a shower built into the side of the cliff 0:21:23.316 --> 0:21:25.076 at the end, and then there's a pool of water 0:21:25.436 --> 0:21:28.716 where there's like a it's like a big jakuzi, I 0:21:28.756 --> 0:21:32.156 mean probably ten fifteen feet across and three or four 0:21:32.236 --> 0:21:35.636 feet deep. And I was sitting in there and drinking 0:21:35.676 --> 0:21:41.036 some toniac and watching the mule, and then he stepped off. 0:21:41.036 --> 0:21:43.036 And I'm telling you what, you never heard anything like 0:21:43.116 --> 0:21:45.676 that in your life. I could never. I mean it 0:21:45.716 --> 0:21:49.036 was the cross between a horse, K mean and a 0:21:49.076 --> 0:21:52.596 donkey bay. I mean, it was terrible sound. And he 0:21:52.716 --> 0:21:54.236 hit the rocks and that was the end of him. 0:21:55.036 --> 0:21:57.676 Once it was down from the mountains, Tommy and his 0:21:57.756 --> 0:22:00.956 associates had to move the stuff to the coast in trucks. 0:22:01.636 --> 0:22:04.436 There were always some military checkpoints, but they knew the 0:22:04.516 --> 0:22:07.996 right guys to pay off. Tommy's an entire business model, 0:22:08.036 --> 0:22:11.196 by the way, matches up almost exactly with the intel 0:22:11.276 --> 0:22:14.236 that the CIA gathered at the time. It's almost as 0:22:14.276 --> 0:22:18.956 if the CIA's report was describing Tommy's operations. The report 0:22:18.996 --> 0:22:22.076 mentioned convoys of up to two hundred mules and the 0:22:22.116 --> 0:22:25.916 fact that smugglers typically placed bribes for each shipment. The 0:22:25.996 --> 0:22:28.876 last stage of the process, according to the CIA report, 0:22:29.556 --> 0:22:32.436 was loading the weed into canoes bringing it out to 0:22:32.516 --> 0:22:36.316 supply boats. Tommy did this in Ta Ganga, a little 0:22:36.316 --> 0:22:40.556 fishing village located on the Caribbean coast of Columbia. Tommy 0:22:40.556 --> 0:22:42.916 says that the harbor was run by the native tribes 0:22:43.156 --> 0:22:44.876 and that the chief was a good friend of his. 0:22:45.516 --> 0:22:48.716 These locals helped him load the weed onto smuggling ships 0:22:48.876 --> 0:22:52.596 that pulled into the harbor, and they would use these dugouts. So, 0:22:52.676 --> 0:22:56.316 you know, they pick up tree and the biggest tree 0:22:56.356 --> 0:22:59.196 they can find, they chop it down and they carve 0:22:59.236 --> 0:23:04.156 out a nice boat, make it into a boat. And 0:23:04.316 --> 0:23:07.196 they had one dug out there. I swear to god, 0:23:07.236 --> 0:23:08.716 it was the biggest thing I ever saw. I was like, 0:23:09.556 --> 0:23:11.436 I don't know, but it was from a big tree 0:23:11.556 --> 0:23:15.836 from Stowe. Gotta be one piece. And that's thing. How 0:23:15.956 --> 0:23:21.316 five thousand pounds. That's basically a canoe that can hold 0:23:21.356 --> 0:23:24.756 five thousand pounds of marijuana. Yeah, it was a one 0:23:24.796 --> 0:23:29.916 of a kind. And that was Tommy's business model, finding 0:23:29.956 --> 0:23:32.996 the fluffy pillows of weed, moving it by donkey, then 0:23:33.036 --> 0:23:36.916 by truck, and then a giant dugout canoe floating into 0:23:36.956 --> 0:23:40.076 shrimp boags, smuggling it back to the US and selling 0:23:40.156 --> 0:23:44.396 it in Michigan. It all worked really well, but Eventually, 0:23:44.756 --> 0:23:48.276 Tommy says, the business warmed down. He got ripped off 0:23:48.316 --> 0:23:51.876 on one load. He decided, know what time to retire 0:23:52.396 --> 0:23:55.436 and really retire. This time he met a Swedish woman 0:23:55.516 --> 0:23:58.716 on the beach into Ganga and she got pregnant. He 0:23:58.836 --> 0:24:02.236 decided he wanted to follow her home to Sweden, but 0:24:02.956 --> 0:24:05.396 first he needed to make sure that he couldn't be 0:24:05.516 --> 0:24:08.556 extradited from there. I remember, he said, the days before 0:24:08.596 --> 0:24:11.796 the internet. So you sides, he needs to go to 0:24:12.276 --> 0:24:19.916 well a law library, a really good law library, the 0:24:20.076 --> 0:24:25.436 International Law Library at Harvard University. You went up to Cambridge, 0:24:25.476 --> 0:24:29.556 mass for this, Yeah, I went there specifically for that. 0:24:29.876 --> 0:24:33.756 I had a good time too. I love sitting on 0:24:33.876 --> 0:24:36.436 that bridge watching all them guys rolling their boats and 0:24:36.556 --> 0:24:39.836 shit like that. But what I did is I had 0:24:39.876 --> 0:24:41.876 some ideas. I had a forger at that time, and 0:24:42.556 --> 0:24:45.396 he's a really good forger, ande he forged some paperwork 0:24:45.476 --> 0:24:49.196 for me. You know that I was a visiting professor 0:24:49.316 --> 0:24:52.116 from the University of Florida, so I could have access 0:24:52.196 --> 0:24:54.796 to the library, and every day I'd go into the 0:24:54.956 --> 0:24:58.716 university and study the Extradition Treaty, a case law with 0:24:59.396 --> 0:25:02.476 Sweden and the United States and I figured out that 0:25:02.836 --> 0:25:07.516 according to the law of reciprocity, that there's no way 0:25:07.596 --> 0:25:10.236 they could get me for a conspira or for the 0:25:10.356 --> 0:25:13.316 one I was really worried about. The one that had 0:25:13.396 --> 0:25:16.796 me with life with no parole plus seventy years was 0:25:16.996 --> 0:25:21.276 continuous criminal enterprise. While continuous criminal enterprise is based on 0:25:21.436 --> 0:25:25.516 predicate defenses. This didn't match any Swedish laws whatsoever. It 0:25:25.676 --> 0:25:28.996