WEBVTT - Life as a Flying Dragon 0:00:15.411 --> 0:00:15.931 Kushkin. 0:00:21.011 --> 0:00:23.930 This season of The Chinatown Sting has been about the 0:00:24.011 --> 0:00:28.931 rise and fall of one gang, in particular the Flying Dragons. 0:00:30.371 --> 0:00:32.651 I tried over and over it to get the perspective 0:00:32.650 --> 0:00:35.290 of someone who'd actually been in the gang, but no 0:00:35.331 --> 0:00:40.771 one was willing to speak to me until now today. 0:00:41.171 --> 0:00:43.171 An interview with someone who's going to tell us about 0:00:43.171 --> 0:00:45.411 the harsh life he led in the gang, how it 0:00:45.451 --> 0:00:48.330 recruited kids, and how it all came to an end 0:00:48.331 --> 0:00:53.371 for him. I'm Lady Jane Kott, and this is a 0:00:53.411 --> 0:00:55.651 special bonus episode of. 0:00:55.611 --> 0:00:56.611 The Chinatown Sting. 0:00:59.611 --> 0:01:03.171 Cowboy, who now goes by CB, came to the US 0:01:03.211 --> 0:01:06.211 from Hong Kong in nineteen seventy one when he was 0:01:06.251 --> 0:01:10.011 six years old. He joined the Flying Dragons shortly after 0:01:10.090 --> 0:01:13.211 he started high school. That was back when a man 0:01:13.291 --> 0:01:17.371 named Michael Chen aka the Scientist, was the leader of 0:01:17.411 --> 0:01:22.611 the gang. In nineteen eighty three, the Scientist was shot 0:01:23.491 --> 0:01:26.371 and CB managed to stay on in the gang as 0:01:26.371 --> 0:01:31.651 it acquired a new boss, Johnny Ing aka Onion Head. 0:01:36.971 --> 0:01:40.211 We actually heard CB's voice in an earlier episode. He 0:01:40.331 --> 0:01:43.651 was interviewed on the YouTube channel Chinatown Gang Stories. 0:01:44.131 --> 0:01:47.611 Onion was like a different regime. He was like, go 0:01:47.651 --> 0:01:51.131 out make money everyone. It was like the Soviet Union 0:01:51.251 --> 0:01:54.251 they disbanded. You give a freedom, they go, say to yourself, 0:01:54.331 --> 0:01:56.051 what the fuck I will do with it. We don't 0:01:56.051 --> 0:02:00.131 know how to make money except distributing drugs. So that 0:02:00.291 --> 0:02:01.131 was the new era. 0:02:02.571 --> 0:02:06.291 CEB would later serve almost two decades in prison for 0:02:06.411 --> 0:02:10.050 drug charges unrelated to the trial against Johnny, and then 0:02:10.171 --> 0:02:13.611 for racketeering. He was one of many Flying Dragon members 0:02:13.611 --> 0:02:17.210 indicted in nineteen ninety four. He was released in two 0:02:17.251 --> 0:02:20.810 thousand and seven. I met with CB at a tea 0:02:20.851 --> 0:02:24.851 shop on Pell Street, right by the Flying Dragon's old headquarters. 0:02:25.371 --> 0:02:27.851 He was honest about how brutal the gang used to be, 0:02:28.611 --> 0:02:32.571 but not as remorseful as you might expect. I asked 0:02:32.611 --> 0:02:34.650 him why he joined the gang in the first place. 0:02:35.531 --> 0:02:38.011 Well, from my early days I was bullied. 0:02:39.011 --> 0:02:41.011 When I came to the country, I lived in the 0:02:41.050 --> 0:02:45.050 Bronx of all places, so my conditioning started there. Like 0:02:45.611 --> 0:02:49.771 I always said, this was like nineteen seventy one. If 0:02:49.811 --> 0:02:52.490 you look at my school year picture, I went to kindergarten, 0:02:52.491 --> 0:02:55.571 I think first grade, second grade. You see in the 0:02:55.651 --> 0:02:59.611 yearful pictures, you see some brown faces, some black faces. Wife, 0:02:59.691 --> 0:03:02.651 there's only one yellow face, which was mine in the 0:03:02.731 --> 0:03:06.131 whole school and maybe in that whole damn community. I'm 0:03:06.131 --> 0:03:11.251 not kidding, and listen, don't understand. Kids are the meanness 0:03:13.331 --> 0:03:15.691 every day when I went to school, it was an 0:03:15.731 --> 0:03:17.210 exercise in survival. 0:03:17.611 --> 0:03:18.291 I'm not kidding. 0:03:18.571 --> 0:03:22.011 I was walking and decide the street with my little backpack. 0:03:22.050 --> 0:03:23.411 I see a bunch of kids that I walked the 0:03:23.411 --> 0:03:27.171 other way, but they always see me every day. It 0:03:27.211 --> 0:03:30.491 was like ing John with me, so I had to 0:03:30.531 --> 0:03:38.291 either fight of like that type of lifestyle conditioning changed 0:03:38.291 --> 0:03:39.771 me in a certain way to begin with, you know 0:03:39.771 --> 0:03:42.771 what I mean. Long story short, fast forward. I'm in 0:03:42.851 --> 0:03:45.451 Queen's Vacational High School. There was a branch or the 0:03:45.491 --> 0:03:49.051 Flying Dragons there, the green section right there. So I 0:03:49.091 --> 0:03:52.691 had a run in with them and they accosted me, 0:03:52.811 --> 0:03:55.371 approached me. Back then, there was a thing with Chinese 0:03:55.451 --> 0:03:57.411 right when you see another Chinese person. 0:03:57.211 --> 0:03:58.171 They bethinking he's a game? 0:03:58.291 --> 0:04:01.051 Might not you approach him and you literally confront him 0:04:01.091 --> 0:04:02.611 and say where are you from? 0:04:02.931 --> 0:04:03.411 To find out? 0:04:03.651 --> 0:04:06.611 Yeah, which you would tell by your attitude and your responses. 0:04:06.651 --> 0:04:08.771 You know what I mean. There's a purpose to that one. 0:04:09.251 --> 0:04:14.211 You could root out enemy gangs too. It's a possible recruitment, 0:04:14.691 --> 0:04:16.091 you know what I mean. And young kids all want 0:04:16.130 --> 0:04:18.650 to belong to something. And the reason why I chose 0:04:18.731 --> 0:04:25.210 the Flying Dragons was they had a moral foundation. What 0:04:25.330 --> 0:04:28.011 they preached to me and the originally was that we're 0:04:28.051 --> 0:04:31.211 here to protect the Chinese community. I mean it sounds 0:04:31.211 --> 0:04:33.771 a little bit hypocritical though, but they said that we're 0:04:33.811 --> 0:04:36.411 not supposed to deal with drugs. We're not supposed to 0:04:36.531 --> 0:04:41.091 hurt civilians, meaning elderly ladies, women, children, We do not 0:04:41.251 --> 0:04:42.051 commit rape. 0:04:42.891 --> 0:04:44.811 These are basic laws that they were told me. And 0:04:44.851 --> 0:04:46.611 I said, whoa, this is. 0:04:46.651 --> 0:04:50.931 Something I could get down with our apartments here, one 0:04:50.931 --> 0:04:54.491 of the cardinal rules was no girls can go up there. 0:04:55.291 --> 0:04:58.491 So our leader at that time, Michael chen Right, it 0:04:58.531 --> 0:04:59.691 was very serious what he did. 0:04:59.971 --> 0:05:02.450 He was a leader before Onion Head. Yes, and he 0:05:02.571 --> 0:05:04.010 was known as the Scientist. 0:05:04.171 --> 0:05:07.451 Yes, he had a lot of rules. He ran this 0:05:07.651 --> 0:05:09.330 with a strict iron. 0:05:10.211 --> 0:05:11.931 So you moved into one of these apartments here on 0:05:11.971 --> 0:05:13.291 Pell Street as a teenager. 0:05:13.531 --> 0:05:13.851 Yes. 0:05:14.011 --> 0:05:17.330 When I first came down here, my bed was four 0:05:17.451 --> 0:05:21.011 chairs put together. Oh wow, yes, you have to go 0:05:21.051 --> 0:05:25.130 to a probation. He tested you to see do you 0:05:25.291 --> 0:05:28.891 have the right stuff to be a full fledged member. 0:05:29.331 --> 0:05:32.411 Actually he also did psychological profile me. A lot of 0:05:32.491 --> 0:05:36.931 us were actually only sons, so we're looking to belong somewhere, 0:05:36.971 --> 0:05:39.411 and a lot of us, my fellow brothers a generation, 0:05:39.851 --> 0:05:40.570 we were all. 0:05:40.411 --> 0:05:42.251 Picked one and bullied. 0:05:42.811 --> 0:05:45.010 He needed people who really wanted to feel like they 0:05:45.091 --> 0:05:45.811 belonged in the gang. 0:05:45.851 --> 0:05:47.611 And we're gonna be like committed to it. 0:05:47.731 --> 0:05:48.971 Yes, because we were bullied. 0:05:49.531 --> 0:05:51.570 We wanted to fight back, but we didn't have the 0:05:51.651 --> 0:05:54.491 power fight back. So he knew how to profile us 0:05:54.531 --> 0:05:58.851 that way, and in retrospect, he built an army of 0:05:58.971 --> 0:06:03.931 freaking ultra violent people because we all had a common 0:06:04.531 --> 0:06:08.651 element of hatred for them. 0:06:08.131 --> 0:06:12.770 Shadows, which were it. Yeah, I was gonna say, not 0:06:12.851 --> 0:06:15.491 too far. Also, can you tell me about the war 0:06:15.531 --> 0:06:16.450 with the ghost shadows? 0:06:16.571 --> 0:06:20.131 But we foll every day almost right. But it's political too. 0:06:20.011 --> 0:06:21.491 Because you guys were both fighting for who was going 0:06:21.571 --> 0:06:24.331 to be the most important you. 0:06:24.291 --> 0:06:28.211 Know what, The line, or should I say, the indoctrination 0:06:28.771 --> 0:06:31.211 fit was that we are. 0:06:31.091 --> 0:06:34.171 The protectors of this community, not them. 0:06:34.731 --> 0:06:37.890 So in respect, we felt like robin hoods and we 0:06:38.011 --> 0:06:41.851 felt that they were the Antichrist, so we had to 0:06:41.891 --> 0:06:45.531 come back them I mean that's how that's once against 0:06:45.571 --> 0:06:47.570 that with teenagers too young, that. 0:06:48.051 --> 0:06:52.011 Was maybe they had the opposite story exactly. 0:06:52.091 --> 0:06:54.451 Maybe they were taught something else to this is what 0:06:54.451 --> 0:06:55.651 we were taught to believe it. 0:06:55.971 --> 0:06:59.051 And what was the relationship between because also on Pell 0:06:59.091 --> 0:07:01.011 Street you had the gambling parlor and then you also 0:07:01.051 --> 0:07:04.651 had the Hip Sang association, right, and what was the 0:07:04.731 --> 0:07:09.091 relationship between you guys in your apartment. 0:07:08.690 --> 0:07:12.891 And the because back then in the days, right, the 0:07:13.011 --> 0:07:16.251 FDS nine Joints was the military arm for the hip 0:07:16.251 --> 0:07:22.251 syns Okay under the Uncle seven regime, Uncle Benny regime, who. 0:07:22.171 --> 0:07:25.731 Was the head of the of the hip saying yes, and. 0:07:25.651 --> 0:07:28.091 He was he was finally looked at us like the 0:07:28.131 --> 0:07:29.091 godfather of China. 0:07:29.731 --> 0:07:29.971 Right. 0:07:31.051 --> 0:07:34.091 What about where were the Uncle Sevin's gambling houses? Where 0:07:34.091 --> 0:07:34.931 were the locations? 0:07:34.971 --> 0:07:38.971 Well, it's of information. Number fifteen's over there and the 0:07:38.971 --> 0:07:40.091 famous number nine right. 0:07:40.091 --> 0:07:40.571 Next to us. 0:07:40.771 --> 0:07:45.611 We had apartment upstairs which was used to monitor street 0:07:45.691 --> 0:07:48.731 activity and act as a protection over there. We had 0:07:48.731 --> 0:07:51.291 an apartment across the street there too and went down 0:07:51.331 --> 0:07:55.251 there too. So all this was a purpose of just sleeping, 0:07:56.211 --> 0:07:59.811 not partying, nothing else. And you also get use it 0:07:59.851 --> 0:08:01.851 as a place where you put the troops. You gotta 0:08:01.851 --> 0:08:05.411 be close by you close by the cloud. Think of 0:08:05.451 --> 0:08:09.051 it as troop barracks. Barracks were the soldiers. 0:08:09.811 --> 0:08:11.451 How did you get your nickname? 0:08:11.811 --> 0:08:12.171 Cowboy? 0:08:12.931 --> 0:08:15.931 Let's just say I was a little bit like like 0:08:16.051 --> 0:08:20.131 like the image goal, a little bit rampunctious and reckless 0:08:20.691 --> 0:08:23.371 when I was young, as I was small, I was 0:08:23.411 --> 0:08:26.451 the youngest of the crowd, young or small. But it's 0:08:26.451 --> 0:08:28.131 just it because I was picked on so much. 0:08:28.891 --> 0:08:31.131 I fight. Some people come out and put machetes on me. 0:08:31.971 --> 0:08:34.731 Every day was violence, you know when we were young. 0:08:35.251 --> 0:08:38.131 You know how we were trained to fight? Street fighting. 0:08:38.731 --> 0:08:39.290 I don't know even know. 0:08:39.331 --> 0:08:42.651 Back in the days, there was a lot of vagabonds, 0:08:43.491 --> 0:08:45.611 bums how you are called on the streets of Bowie. 0:08:45.731 --> 0:08:48.690 They lay all over the streets, all over. It's not 0:08:48.771 --> 0:08:49.050 like this. 0:08:49.970 --> 0:08:54.691 So our elders will tell us it sounds cruel to 0:08:54.771 --> 0:08:57.251 practice on them, but. 0:08:57.170 --> 0:08:59.130 We will kick them out. We're tell them to get 0:08:59.131 --> 0:09:00.811 off the street. 0:09:01.050 --> 0:09:02.930 We thought we're doing the service because they're lying front 0:09:02.970 --> 0:09:05.651 of the business stores and everything, and we're here to protect 0:09:05.690 --> 0:09:07.491 the neighborhood, clean up the airs, and we'll tell them 0:09:07.530 --> 0:09:11.810 to move if they don't move then, you know, obviously 0:09:11.851 --> 0:09:14.891 we would have to force him to move. And that's 0:09:14.930 --> 0:09:18.330 how weaking our training from to fight in the streets. 0:09:18.771 --> 0:09:19.530 Drop over a hat. 0:09:20.011 --> 0:09:20.251 Wow. 0:09:20.251 --> 0:09:23.490 Otherwise, the normal lay person, you tell me right now 0:09:23.530 --> 0:09:25.651 to fight or hit somebody, you can't if you never 0:09:25.731 --> 0:09:30.011 hit a person. It's a little threshold that you don't 0:09:30.011 --> 0:09:32.251 know how to pass unless you did it already. To 0:09:32.371 --> 0:09:34.971 be violent or another human being is something else, you. 0:09:35.050 --> 0:09:35.490 Know what I mean. 0:09:36.090 --> 0:09:38.091 It's not something i'm gonna say I'm proud of, but 0:09:38.090 --> 0:09:41.290 it's something that was conditioned, conditioned for us to be 0:09:41.731 --> 0:09:43.810 just like soldiers. 0:09:47.330 --> 0:09:51.050 In nineteen eighty three, the body of Michael Chen, also 0:09:51.090 --> 0:09:54.651 known as the Scientist, was found inside an office belonging 0:09:54.651 --> 0:09:58.171 to the hip, saying that community Association on Pell Street 0:09:58.930 --> 0:10:02.210 he had been shot to death. His murder was never solved, 0:10:02.891 --> 0:10:05.131 and the man who took over the gang after him 0:10:05.410 --> 0:10:07.371 would be a very different sort of leader. 0:10:11.210 --> 0:10:12.050 We'll be right back. 0:10:22.891 --> 0:10:25.450 I'm back with CEB, a former member of the Flying 0:10:25.530 --> 0:10:30.131 Dragons gang in Manhattan's Chinatown in nineteen eighty three, after 0:10:30.170 --> 0:10:34.250 spending his early teenage years under the Scientists leadership, CB 0:10:34.891 --> 0:10:38.290 now eighteen, had to adjust to life under a new leader, 0:10:38.970 --> 0:10:41.491 Johnny Yang on your head. 0:10:41.731 --> 0:10:46.250 It was basically it wasn't so strict. It wasn't that 0:10:46.371 --> 0:10:49.410 many rules that you had to follow. Under Michael there 0:10:49.491 --> 0:10:52.451 was so much code of conduct. Hm, you have to 0:10:52.450 --> 0:10:54.691 carry yourself a certain way. You can't do this, can't 0:10:54.731 --> 0:10:56.771 do that. No, But on the onion is more or 0:10:56.851 --> 0:10:59.850 less like like we'll make money. 0:11:00.491 --> 0:11:02.050 But here's the problem. 0:11:02.651 --> 0:11:05.450 Well, young, all we knew as kids going up was 0:11:05.771 --> 0:11:10.810 rules and engaging in street violence. So it's only natural. 0:11:10.930 --> 0:11:14.011 The next thing that fell upon us was this dribbled 0:11:14.090 --> 0:11:17.930 drugs on a different level. Of course, we had the balls, 0:11:18.410 --> 0:11:21.050 you know what I mean. We spoke English, so it 0:11:21.170 --> 0:11:22.211 was a natural choice. 0:11:23.330 --> 0:11:25.810 Why do you think Johnny like, why was that his approach? 0:11:25.891 --> 0:11:30.251 Why wasn't he stretched like like the scientist is. 0:11:31.930 --> 0:11:33.610 Different. He's not as. 0:11:35.170 --> 0:11:38.891 Controlling, you know what I mean, as controlling as Michael 0:11:39.011 --> 0:11:41.611 Chen was. So I guess there's something that fell on 0:11:41.690 --> 0:11:44.771 his lap too. I'm sure there's other people that want 0:11:44.810 --> 0:11:47.530 to step up for that position, but then there will 0:11:47.570 --> 0:11:51.371 be opposition. Here's one person with enough street creds. You 0:11:51.611 --> 0:11:55.091 have enough street creds and time in for people to 0:11:55.170 --> 0:11:57.170 respect you. You know what I mean, so for you 0:11:57.210 --> 0:12:00.731 to take that role, then people will fall in line, right. 0:12:00.810 --> 0:12:02.530 And out of everyone we've talked to you on this series, 0:12:02.570 --> 0:12:05.371 I think you probably know Onion the best. Like, how 0:12:05.410 --> 0:12:07.090 would you describe what he was like? 0:12:07.410 --> 0:12:09.771 What's he like? Person? 0:12:09.851 --> 0:12:14.091 You need to understand something in the streets. We all 0:12:14.410 --> 0:12:19.410 have a persona. Nobody breaks out a character, okay, and 0:12:19.450 --> 0:12:21.251 nobody really gets to know each other. 0:12:21.210 --> 0:12:22.651 That well, that's interesting. 0:12:22.891 --> 0:12:27.851 And I guess my nicknames Okay, they're not just for show. 0:12:28.090 --> 0:12:29.050 There's a purpose to it. 0:12:29.330 --> 0:12:31.851 I know my Elderns for like freaking years and I 0:12:31.891 --> 0:12:32.891 don't know his real name. 0:12:34.011 --> 0:12:35.011 There's a reason for that. 0:12:35.330 --> 0:12:38.050 If I don't know your name, I can never be 0:12:38.210 --> 0:12:41.931 informing on you. There's a purpose to it, right, So 0:12:42.251 --> 0:12:45.731 that's why everybody got these colorful nicknames, right. That was 0:12:45.771 --> 0:12:48.610 given sometimes because based on your personality or whatever to be, 0:12:48.611 --> 0:12:50.410 you will give a nickname and it sticks to you 0:12:50.450 --> 0:12:53.010 and that's what you'll refer to. Everything is on a 0:12:53.170 --> 0:12:56.131 need to know basis, and we don't know where each 0:12:56.131 --> 0:12:56.690 other lives. 0:12:57.251 --> 0:12:59.170 But what was his persona? Just that he was like 0:12:59.651 --> 0:13:00.570 a business. 0:13:00.170 --> 0:13:05.810 Guy, is much much more business like than Michael. It 0:13:05.891 --> 0:13:08.210 wasn't it didn't put up the airs as. 0:13:08.170 --> 0:13:10.050 Much like that was more casual. 0:13:10.371 --> 0:13:12.250 You could catch them just sneakers and jeans and a 0:13:12.330 --> 0:13:14.091 T shirt, very unassuming. 0:13:14.210 --> 0:13:17.731 It's so funny because if you read like the newspapers, 0:13:17.771 --> 0:13:18.290 they're all. 0:13:18.170 --> 0:13:21.011 Like Johnny who was always wearing expensive suits. 0:13:20.690 --> 0:13:23.371 Like not very unassuming. Yeah, you see him walk on 0:13:23.410 --> 0:13:24.651 the street. What's character. 0:13:24.771 --> 0:13:28.011 He is more interested in making money doing business as 0:13:28.011 --> 0:13:32.730 opposed to trying to control territory, get into war and 0:13:32.731 --> 0:13:35.931 all that stuff. All that stuff was just pass for us. 0:13:36.050 --> 0:13:39.251 That plus a lot of us became what's the word 0:13:40.050 --> 0:13:43.131 I look for. It's almost a little bit like post 0:13:43.131 --> 0:13:47.051 traumatic syndrome. By the time Onion took over, a lot 0:13:47.090 --> 0:13:50.410 of us been through many years of ultra violence. 0:13:51.930 --> 0:13:55.090 Johnny came, you guys all had some PTSD. You were like, 0:13:55.170 --> 0:13:57.451 let's make them everybody. 0:13:57.530 --> 0:13:59.731 A lot of us, A lot of us they didn't 0:13:59.771 --> 0:14:02.611 want to engage in the violence anymore. And also we're 0:14:02.651 --> 0:14:05.290 growing up. By the time Johnny came in, we were 0:14:05.330 --> 0:14:08.930 now in our late teens eighteen nineteen, so we realized 0:14:08.930 --> 0:14:11.611 one thing, ship we need money. 0:14:11.810 --> 0:14:15.251 Right, how to make the money in the drugs? 0:14:15.491 --> 0:14:17.851 But were you aware of the risks of like this 0:14:17.970 --> 0:14:21.090 was during the War on drugs. There's the mandatory minimums, Like, 0:14:21.131 --> 0:14:22.811 were you considering were you thinking about that? 0:14:22.891 --> 0:14:26.451 Of course not? 0:14:26.891 --> 0:14:28.490 You were going to say, of course we were thinking 0:14:28.491 --> 0:14:34.051 about th think about the mindset where gangsters real full 0:14:34.051 --> 0:14:36.851 time not weekend warriors gain that's the life we leave 0:14:37.291 --> 0:14:39.291 lived by this sor died by this type of thing. 0:14:39.571 --> 0:14:43.291 So it's part of it's all part of the experience. 0:14:44.171 --> 0:14:45.931 If you're going to be scared about that stuff, you 0:14:46.011 --> 0:14:47.651 can't be a gangster. 0:14:47.771 --> 0:14:48.651 Right, you know what I mean? 0:14:48.851 --> 0:14:50.571 Were you thinking about the risks you were putting on 0:14:50.611 --> 0:14:51.091 other people? 0:14:51.131 --> 0:14:53.571 Like when you're asking the woman and the madrong parlors 0:14:53.651 --> 0:14:55.491 to like accept those packages of heroin? 0:14:55.531 --> 0:14:56.411 What could happen to them? 0:14:56.691 --> 0:14:57.250 No, like the. 0:14:57.251 --> 0:15:02.811 Moms Nope, nope, Because why here here's the thing. Nobody's 0:15:02.811 --> 0:15:07.811 forced to do anything. Really, whoever volunteers I mean terms 0:15:07.851 --> 0:15:10.651 of trade, would receive BA just they did it for money, 0:15:12.171 --> 0:15:15.091 all right, Maybe maybe you have to pick certain people 0:15:15.090 --> 0:15:17.091 that was down on their luck or whatever, but still 0:15:18.411 --> 0:15:21.971 it was through their own consent. I mean, honest, I 0:15:22.011 --> 0:15:25.210 myself received the package before. That's my first thing. 0:15:25.731 --> 0:15:26.651 That's how you started. 0:15:26.931 --> 0:15:31.451 Yet in that drug trade thing, I was paid twenty 0:15:31.491 --> 0:15:32.251 thousand dollars. 0:15:32.811 --> 0:15:33.490 That's a lot of. 0:15:33.451 --> 0:15:35.571 Money, yeah, especially in nineteen eighties. 0:15:35.731 --> 0:15:38.571 Yes, but it was a due or die job, meaning 0:15:38.651 --> 0:15:40.891 all you have to do was sit there and wait 0:15:40.891 --> 0:15:44.010 for the package to come. If the package passion comes in, 0:15:44.251 --> 0:15:44.771 you get it. 0:15:44.771 --> 0:15:45.251 It's clean. 0:15:45.531 --> 0:15:48.451 But it was intercepted. It was a sting operation. You're 0:15:48.491 --> 0:15:50.211 done right, you know what I mean. So it was 0:15:50.210 --> 0:15:52.011 a due or die thing. I did it once only 0:15:52.051 --> 0:15:54.451 because I knew it was due or die and nevertheand 0:15:54.451 --> 0:15:59.331 that I started to move up the chain of distribution 0:15:59.811 --> 0:16:02.491 instead of just being the meal of accepting, which is 0:16:02.491 --> 0:16:06.291 really started to find customers to distribute the product itself. 0:16:07.131 --> 0:16:07.931 How easy was. 0:16:07.931 --> 0:16:10.691 It to bring the drugs into the country, like to 0:16:10.691 --> 0:16:12.491 get the connections in Hong Kong, and. 0:16:12.691 --> 0:16:14.610 Back then it was pretty easy. It said. 0:16:14.651 --> 0:16:18.571 Technology was different, you know back then to send the 0:16:18.611 --> 0:16:22.490 package I we see was just wrapped around with toys 0:16:23.371 --> 0:16:26.811 in the middle. Part of it was the actual product yourself. 0:16:27.251 --> 0:16:30.211 Because a seven hundred grand brick is like a size 0:16:30.210 --> 0:16:35.611 of like a like a dictionary, like a thick dictionary. 0:16:35.251 --> 0:16:36.411 Big thick. 0:16:36.491 --> 0:16:38.171 But yeah, that's quite big. 0:16:38.291 --> 0:16:42.131 Yeah, ten of them put together, Valo like a million dollars. 0:16:42.131 --> 0:16:44.971 It's about only this bay. It brings me to a store. 0:16:44.970 --> 0:16:47.771 When I was in China one time, right, somebody sharing me, 0:16:47.771 --> 0:16:51.171 and how to conceal these packages was to smear the 0:16:51.330 --> 0:16:56.491 inside of it with tiger shit figer feces. Yeah, I said, 0:16:56.531 --> 0:16:59.931 what you know why? This is what he said to me. 0:16:59.970 --> 0:17:01.891 I don't know if it worked or not, but he said, 0:17:02.210 --> 0:17:05.171 dogs have an intrinsic natural fear. 0:17:06.051 --> 0:17:09.330 Oh my god, so dog, yes, it's. 0:17:09.651 --> 0:17:12.731 Going to it, they'll move away from it. Back then, 0:17:12.771 --> 0:17:14.011 that the fact, then the legend. 0:17:14.291 --> 0:17:16.931 Back then, the only thing to have with dogs and radar, 0:17:17.131 --> 0:17:19.931 I mean X ray, not like nowadays, to get it 0:17:19.931 --> 0:17:21.771 where they see him. You're figuring Adams, you know what 0:17:21.771 --> 0:17:24.771 I mean. But I remember because I was in China 0:17:24.811 --> 0:17:26.251 and I asked some people. I said, listen, can you 0:17:26.251 --> 0:17:27.971 go do a zoo and find me some tiger? 0:17:29.051 --> 0:17:32.051 Actually did you do it? Uh? 0:17:32.291 --> 0:17:32.531 Yeah? 0:17:32.731 --> 0:17:34.531 Later on, when I started to try to move into 0:17:34.571 --> 0:17:38.571 importation myself, right, I actually found people in China. China, 0:17:38.611 --> 0:17:41.090 you understand, it's the death penalty to mess with drugs. 0:17:41.131 --> 0:17:43.611 Back then, we're still communists, you know me. So we 0:17:43.691 --> 0:17:45.051 took a lot of boards to do it. So I 0:17:45.091 --> 0:17:47.051 had to find people go to zoo. They give me 0:17:47.091 --> 0:17:50.051 some tiger feeces itself. 0:17:50.091 --> 0:17:50.291 Yeah. 0:17:50.411 --> 0:17:52.731 Did that message make it safely to New York? 0:17:52.971 --> 0:17:54.531 No? Not you to Puerto Rico. 0:17:55.411 --> 0:17:58.451 It wasn't a destination that was on the radar. And 0:17:58.491 --> 0:18:01.811 then I have my under links from Puerto Rico bring 0:18:01.811 --> 0:18:04.011 it back into the States. Yeah, you know what I mean, 0:18:04.011 --> 0:18:06.211 because that was easy coming into the state. 0:18:06.851 --> 0:18:12.291 Did you ever go to the Johnny's State in Pennsylvania. 0:18:11.451 --> 0:18:12.330 The shooting place? Now? 0:18:12.371 --> 0:18:15.251 Yeah, you never went? Oh you know I went to it. 0:18:15.411 --> 0:18:15.971 You went to it? 0:18:16.091 --> 0:18:16.291 Yeah? 0:18:16.411 --> 0:18:21.451 Really? Yeah, when you mean later on, not when he 0:18:21.571 --> 0:18:21.931 was around. 0:18:22.291 --> 0:18:23.971 My good friend Onion had invited me. 0:18:24.091 --> 0:18:26.890 No, I went, like for reporting the podcast, it's now 0:18:26.931 --> 0:18:29.731 a shooting range officially, How can we never made it 0:18:29.771 --> 0:18:30.251 to Johnny? 0:18:30.531 --> 0:18:33.971 Well, under Johnny's regime, I was also doing other stuff, 0:18:34.691 --> 0:18:37.051 you know what I mean. I partner up with other 0:18:37.131 --> 0:18:42.491 members to distribute stuff, some of it his product, not 0:18:42.531 --> 0:18:44.971 necessarily or his products, you know what I mean. So, 0:18:45.131 --> 0:18:49.011 like I said, under Johnny's regime, he being a businessman, 0:18:49.571 --> 0:18:52.331 and while we all still one flag. 0:18:53.251 --> 0:18:54.650 But you're kind of doing a different thing. 0:18:54.771 --> 0:18:56.731 Yeah, so you didn't you didn't get an invite to 0:18:56.771 --> 0:18:57.691 the shooting. 0:18:57.931 --> 0:18:59.451 I mean, no, I'll be honest. 0:18:59.491 --> 0:19:05.491 You to share a story, right, Uh, Johnny was Obviously 0:19:06.131 --> 0:19:08.611 there's certain things that need to be done, like sometimes 0:19:08.811 --> 0:19:11.411 people need to bring money back to Hong Kong, right, 0:19:11.811 --> 0:19:13.731 and you would get paid an X amount of money, 0:19:14.211 --> 0:19:15.891 strap money on your body. 0:19:15.611 --> 0:19:16.411 To bring it back. Way. 0:19:17.251 --> 0:19:20.731 I turned down that offer, I see, because I said 0:19:20.731 --> 0:19:21.451 to myself this. 0:19:22.211 --> 0:19:22.851 I still remember. 0:19:23.731 --> 0:19:25.771 I said, when I go back, I'm gonna go back 0:19:25.771 --> 0:19:28.130 on my own court, you know what I mean. I'm 0:19:28.131 --> 0:19:31.331 gonna go back, not as a worker, but under my 0:19:31.451 --> 0:19:34.731 own choice. And I did later on, Well, I call 0:19:34.771 --> 0:19:38.291 it court ambition, call it what you like, you know 0:19:38.291 --> 0:19:40.171 what I mean. I'm going back as my own man. 0:19:40.211 --> 0:19:44.091 He didn't want to go back smuggling money for another. 0:19:43.771 --> 0:19:46.371 Guy exactly, something like that exactly. 0:19:49.691 --> 0:19:52.211 But the law would soon catch up with CB and 0:19:52.331 --> 0:20:08.411 with the Flying Dragons. That's after the break in nineteen 0:20:08.491 --> 0:20:10.891 ninety one, see, he was arrested for playing a role 0:20:10.891 --> 0:20:14.771 in a drug conspiracy, one that didn't involve Johnny. He 0:20:14.931 --> 0:20:18.331 was in the mcc that jail on your Chinatown awaiting 0:20:18.331 --> 0:20:22.571 his trial, and then he saw a familiar face, someone 0:20:22.651 --> 0:20:25.451 who he hadn't seen for a while one. 0:20:25.371 --> 0:20:28.011