- 7 minutes ago
Jacob Diaz began working within Mexican drug trafficking networks at just 18 years old. After surviving a childhood of extreme poverty and being abandoned by his mother, he rose from a homeless teenager to a core operator running logistics and transit lines between Mexico and the United States. For seven years, Diaz managed complex smuggling operations, coordinated stash houses, and routed millions of dollars in cartel cash before a federal conspiracy conviction landed him in prison.
Diaz speaks with Business Insider about the strict logistics of smuggling drugs and cash across the US-Mexico border, the strategic recruitment of drivers, and the realities of distributing cocaine. He details the friction of living a double life, the dangers of navigating Mexico's violent turf wars during the late 2000s, and the deep, lasting psychological toll of his early life.
Following his release from federal prison in 2018, Diaz founded My Credit Builder Pros, a credit counseling and financial literacy business.
To see more:
https://www.instagram.com/mycreditbuilderpros/?hl=en
Diaz speaks with Business Insider about the strict logistics of smuggling drugs and cash across the US-Mexico border, the strategic recruitment of drivers, and the realities of distributing cocaine. He details the friction of living a double life, the dangers of navigating Mexico's violent turf wars during the late 2000s, and the deep, lasting psychological toll of his early life.
Following his release from federal prison in 2018, Diaz founded My Credit Builder Pros, a credit counseling and financial literacy business.
To see more:
https://www.instagram.com/mycreditbuilderpros/?hl=en
Category
🎈
FunTranscript
00:00My name is Jacob Diaz.
00:01I started working for the cartels when I was 18 years old.
00:04I helped smuggle drugs and money
00:05between the United States and Mexico for seven years.
00:08This is how crime works.
00:12The adrenaline rush of getting away with something,
00:15it's like a world of its own.
00:16It blocked out everything else.
00:18You're on high alert because one simple, stupid mistake
00:21could make all the walls crumble.
00:23It wasn't even about the money anymore.
00:24It turned me into an ugly person inside.
00:27It was a downward spiral.
00:34I got in accidentally.
00:37Started at 18 in Ocala, Florida,
00:40which is a super small town in Central Florida.
00:43And not knowing anything, which is very naive,
00:46and eventually worked my way to getting arrested
00:50at the age of 25.
00:51I wore many hats inside the cartel.
00:53I was a translator for a majority of the part.
00:56Because I could translate,
00:58doors opened up to recruiting and facilitating shipments that would come in,
01:03getting houses around the city, stash houses.
01:06As far as bringing back the money for the cartel, I always sent someone else from Ocala to the border
01:13into Mexico.
01:14We would have somebody bring it down to the border and have somebody from the cartel pick it up and
01:19then bring that over across the border for them.
01:22It would typically be around a quarter mil to 300,000 in one shipment.
01:28Once I wasn't able to find someone that can take it back to Mexico, I had a girlfriend at that
01:32time.
01:32I had like a little over 30,000 in cash on me.
01:37And I took her.
01:38I said, hey, come with me to Mexico.
01:40She had no idea what was going on.
01:42At least that's what I thought.
01:43At this point, my confidence level was through the roof.
01:46I felt bulletproof and I made a brave decision to smuggle it through the airport.
01:51Having it strapped to me.
01:53So I went into the Hyatt in Orlando Airport and I stayed at night in there.
01:58And we would go over the procedure of being checked by the TSA.
02:03I would go out and about and watch their schedule when they clocked in and clocked out, the shifts.
02:08And I noticed that the TSA would get mad throughout the day.
02:14And it was very important for you to catch them before they got pissed off from someone.
02:18So as soon as their shift started is when I would make my way to go to the gate.
02:23I put a few thousand dollars in her purse, but I kept the majority on me.
02:29And it was just all one by one wrapped around.
02:32And as soon as I went through the TSA, my heart dropped because the TSA patted me down
02:38and he touched every single stack that was around my waist.
02:43He went like this and touched them.
02:44And I went, my stomach went inside to kind of make it like where he wouldn't be able to feel
02:51it.
02:51But he touched every single one, went down and just told me to go.
02:57And I thought he was setting me up by saying that.
02:59And I stood there, froze.
03:01I was frozen.
03:01I didn't want to move.
03:03And I looked back and then I see her give me the eye like, like, go.
03:08So I was like, oh, I woke up.
03:09And then and I kept I just went forward with it.
03:13I didn't have any instance where money was lost, thank God.
03:17The threat of violence was there was no need to have that because in the back of your mind,
03:24you knew that was the last resort.
03:26If anything was to happen, it would be that it would be violence.
03:33The only drugs that were brought in was was cocaine.
03:37The drugs where they originally come from, I mean, it could be anywhere, Colombia, Peru.
03:43All I cared about was as if it was ready for to cross the border to pick up,
03:50because we were the first person to touch it once it came over.
03:53My part was it was to arrange the transportation.
03:58I would have to get find the driver if it was going to be a three day deal,
04:01four day deal, one day deal.
04:03I would get him set up for that, pay for his gas, his hotel, everything he needed.
04:09The recruitment process for these drivers, the best way is word of mouth.
04:13You usually get recommended reference like you're going for a job and your resume.
04:18So can I contact your previous employer and like that?
04:22And then it'd be recommended by someone that you know, that's well established,
04:27who isn't doing it anymore.
04:28And they're just passing it on to you.
04:30For me, I think the best people to have is people who don't look the part.
04:34Take, for example, myself, I don't look the part.
04:37I don't even act the part, but I can play the part.
04:41There would be times where it'd be a family, a mother, wife and the kids.
04:45It would be an older man, always someone with always people with clean backgrounds,
04:51clean records.
04:52For one example that we had happen is a family came over from Texas and we just put them into
04:59the Disney resort for the weekend until we was able to send them back to Mexico with the money
05:05that they needed.
05:06So when they came back to Texas, they looked like they went on a vacation, which they really did.
05:11But it's a lot better when you have a bunch of Disney bags all in the vehicle and kids.
05:18And they got these toys from the parks and t-shirts.
05:22And it makes your story a little bit more believable.
05:25So that kind of cover story is very important because they're looking for things for you
05:30to be nervous of.
05:31Because if they ask you, where are you coming from or where are you going?
05:35They don't listen to you as much as they watch you.
05:39They see how you respond to it.
05:42If you're nervous, they see your eyes jittery or all kinds of things they look for
05:47along with your response.
05:48I didn't keep a lot of people in rotation as far as to keep it fresh.
05:52I stuck with the same ones.
05:54A lot of times they like to use dummy trips where someone would get caught,
06:02will attract all the attention so other cars could pass by.
06:06So they might get caught with a small amount, nothing.
06:10But it's just enough to draw attention because you're at the border or close by it.
06:14Even if you have nothing, it could be a hidden compartment, which is illegal to have.
06:18So they got to confiscate your car.
06:19When you do things like that, you can have other people come around
06:23that and that's the shipments that's going to be coming in.
06:27So once they come in, they come across the border to Texas, they go to a safe house
06:31waiting for the person to go pick it up.
06:33Depending on the vehicle, you can fit up to, I mean, as much as you want.
06:38I've seen as much as 50 keys in a Volkswagen Jetta.
06:40Like a Toyota Tacoma, you can fit 20 keys.
06:45You can fit 10 in a dash in the AC and you can fit 10 more underneath the back seat.
06:50You can put another stash about 10, maybe 20 more.
06:52There's a hidden compartment under the back seat.
06:55Like you can have extra gas tanks.
06:57Like you see a lot of trucks with gas, gas nozzles in the back.
07:01Yeah.
07:01A lot of times those are false compartments.
07:03There's no gas in there.
07:04The driver would typically make anywhere between $9,000 to $1,000 to $1,100 per key to everyone
07:09that they brought back and it would be about 20, 30 every trip.
07:13In order to plan the best route, you have to wait for the call from the other side.
07:17Okay.
07:18It's ready for pickup.
07:20Then the route's basically the same.
07:23If you're going out to the border, from Florida, you can stop in Houston or whatever
07:31to stay the night.
07:32But it's better to go straight down and then sleep a few nights down there at the border
07:38to come back up.
07:39You don't want to go there and come back.
07:40Even if you stay for a few more few days, it still looks suspicious because you have a Florida
07:45tag down at the border, but it looks better if you're old retiree, just cruising, beautiful
07:52United States sightseeing.
07:54If you bring a younger group, like college students won't be able to make it down there like that.
07:59What are they doing down there?
08:00They're partying and now they're going to want to ask how much drinks you had.
08:03And then it just keeps going.
08:05Three months before I got arrested, one of the drivers was coming back up from the border
08:12with nothing, but they had to go down there to get a new compartment installed in their truck.
08:18And once they came up, there's two checkpoints on the way up.
08:21So they got caught in one of the checkpoints.
08:23And I know the way he is, if he was to get pulled over, he snaps back at any law
08:32enforcement
08:33or any kind of any authority, he doesn't give a about them.
08:37So when they put his truck through the x-ray, they confiscated his truck
08:42because it had a hidden compartment in it.
08:45And then he called me at that time.
08:48He called me.
08:49He's on the phone with me, yelling, screaming.
08:51You know, now he's f***ing up thinking, you know, now I'm never going to have to see,
08:55now I'll never see him again.
08:56Now I'm never going to hear from him again.
08:57You know, because I don't know what's going to happen to him.
09:00I broke one of my phones and I told him, I said, break, you know, just break your phone
09:05and we'll worry about it later.
09:07But that was the last time I saw him.
09:09To my knowledge, he's never done any time and he's never been caught.
09:12Luckily, there was never any shipments gone missing.
09:21Once the drugs make it into Florida, they will get distributed according to street dealers
09:26that distribute throughout Central Florida, North Florida, some South Florida too.
09:32Again, these are people that are good, that have good references, very well trusted when
09:37it comes to the business aspect.
09:38How many can you move?
09:39How fast?
09:41And at what price?
09:42Once everybody comes together on those three things, then you have a match.
09:45On average, it would be about 20, 30 keys at a time, including losses,
09:51or if you had to like give discounts, I'll say like 4,000 off each one.
09:55It'd be easily 20, 30 to 50,000 a week, just on average.
10:03I usually went ahead and did the collections myself.
10:06Every single trip I took, I was always nervous.
10:08I didn't stop on a stop sign long enough.
10:10I ran through a yellow light or anything the officer didn't like.
10:13He could just find a reason to pull somebody over.
10:15And it wouldn't be so much as I'm delivering the product.
10:18It would be I'm bringing the cash.
10:20I would always have the cash on me.
10:24You don't stay in the same house as you stash your stuff at, obviously, because if the door
10:28gets kicked in, you're the one they're going to point your finger to.
10:31So you would hire someone to stay in that house, and that would be their only job,
10:35which is to stay there.
10:36All they do is live there and make it look like someone lives there.
10:38Cut the yard, have toys in the yard, even if there's no kids.
10:42And that would be their only job, and they'd get paid every week a few hundred dollars,
10:47live rent-free, and just do whatever they want.
10:50But they couldn't bring anybody over.
10:53It'd be like six to nine months you'd have to do that.
11:01So growing up in Ocala, Florida, I grew up on dirt roads.
11:05Growing up, I never gave up on being able to obtain these kind of things that were material,
11:12but I just wanted to have something.
11:15Right around the time where I was graduating is when I met a guy that was involved in drug trafficking.
11:23I wasn't going to go to college.
11:25I wasn't going to do any of the stuff that I thought was right.
11:28I was homeless.
11:30So he took me under his wing.
11:32These two kids in the neighborhood, apparently they told him, which is their uncle,
11:39they told him that they had someone who can drive.
11:43Now, mind you, I was still in foster care, and once I was introduced to him,
11:47you know, he took me out, basically wine and dine me just to get to know me.
11:51He said, hey, how long are you going to stay here?
11:53And I said, once you turn 18, they kick you out.
11:55Do you want to stay with me?
11:57You don't have to do anything.
11:58You don't have to do what I do.
12:01I'll pay for your school.
12:03I'll pay for you to go to college, all that good stuff.
12:05I guess he saw my potential into doing something good for myself and just wanted to push that,
12:11be a father figure.
12:13It didn't help that his other side was doing something illegal.
12:30Once I finally moved in, what we would do on a daily basis is just go to the movies,
12:35go shopping, just, you know, just be out and about.
12:38I didn't question.
12:39I didn't know it was big, small, whatever.
12:42I just knew that he always had money and he always gave me money.
12:45I didn't think anything of it.
12:46And one day coming back from the movies on the way back to the house, he goes, hey,
12:51I need you to stop at someone's house for me real quick and I'm going and come back out.
12:55Once we got there, about two minutes later, he came out with a Walmart bag tucked under his arm
13:05and came in a car.
13:07I didn't look.
13:08I didn't care.
13:10I was just, okay, whatever.
13:11So we got back to the house.
13:12He went in the room, closed the door.
13:14About a few minutes later, he calls me and said, hey, can you help me?
13:18And I'm thinking, you know, help with laundry or move a bed or, you know,
13:22something you need two people for.
13:23No, I need you to help me count money.
13:25And I'm like, help you count money?
13:29And he dumped out the Walmart bag and I just seen piles of cash,
13:33the most cash I've ever seen in my life, probably like 60, 70,000.
13:37Once I saw the money, I wasn't quick to say it was all drugs because I'd never seen drugs.
13:42There was never drugs in the house, never.
13:44Maybe a week later is when I put two and two together.
13:48There was a guy that came in from out of state to pick up that money.
13:53By the same time, he left kilos of coke.
13:58So it was four of us at that time.
14:00And I was a little kid.
14:02Everybody's, you know, older, 30s, 40s, whatever.
14:06So in the beginning, I was just a driver.
14:08I was exposed to the operations, logistics, how to talk on the phone.
14:14Once I became familiar with a lot of the roles,
14:16the other two guys that he was working with started to diminish.
14:20They weren't no longer needed because I started taking their jobs.
14:24When he told me to do something, it was like, yeah,
14:26I was waiting all day for you to say that and let's go.
14:2913-hour shifts, driving a lot, doing a lot.
14:34That was most definitely something that wanted a better life in myself.
14:38It also helped me distract myself from the realities of life, almost like a drug.
14:44I would know I wasn't getting all the money at that time.
14:47But I was benefiting from the money.
14:50The way I looked at him as a father figure, and he looked at me as a son.
14:54I didn't think about him doing any harm to me because he always kept me.
14:59He tried to keep me away from it.
15:00I was the one that pursued it.
15:02I was going against what he was wanting for me.
15:05At the time, just being young and ambitious, you're fearless of a lot of things.
15:10You're naive to a lot of things.
15:11It could be good or bad.
15:19My first time going to Mexico was just solely based on what I wanted to do as a child.
15:23Just wanted to get to know that country.
15:26Being Mexican is what I always wanted to do.
15:29My first time going, I drove from Ocala to the border and into Mexico.
15:35That was my first time going.
15:36Part of that first trip I did, I was able to meet my mentor, the father figure's family.
15:43They all welcomed me.
15:44With the hospitality, it was overwhelming.
15:48It was overwhelming.
15:48I never experienced as much love in my life from complete strangers, but who knew so much
15:57about me without even meeting me.
15:59Part of the reason of going back and forth to Mexico was basically for pleasure, for my leisure,
16:06just to have fun, go out with friends I had down there and just the lifestyle that I had down
16:13there.
16:13But it soon turned into me moving down there.
16:17I ended up living there for seven years.
16:19The areas I would frequent was Acapulco, Cuernavaca, Mexico City.
16:23Mexican culture is different.
16:24I was being treated like a king.
16:28I had everything on a silver platter.
16:30Everywhere I went, I was on a red carpet.
16:32I was dating very important people.
16:35I was in circles with very powerful people.
16:38In the United States, the whole time, I couldn't go out.
16:41I couldn't do anything.
16:42I couldn't drive a nice car or whatever I wanted to do.
16:45I couldn't show signs of money.
16:48The clubbing lifestyle in Mexico is one of the best experiences I've ever had.
16:52It was the one moment that I didn't think about the things that I've done,
16:56almost like an escape.
16:58It was a very, I guess, a bad escape because I did it six days out of the week for
17:04months on then,
17:06sunup to sundown.
17:07I set an age that I was going to stop so I could settle down, get married, have kids,
17:12just go and live, I guess, a normal life, a clean life.
17:17And that day never came.
17:24During that time is when it was probably one of Mexico's worst times when it came to drug wars,
17:302007, 2010.
17:32That time period was some of the most bloodiest times Mexico's ever seen.
17:36And it was a lot of up-and-coming cartels that branched off from the main cartels and wanted to
17:41come up with their own.
17:42A lot of it was turf wars.
17:44A lot of it was wanting people to take over the other territory.
18:01Being exposed to the violence in Mexico was very real.
18:05It's very different from seeing on TV and hearing about it from other people.
18:09I remember the first time I experienced it was going down the street and I seen a body hung
18:14with a note on their chest.
18:18Those kind of things were very normal there.
18:21I seen it on more than one occasion.
18:23There would be banners and signs across bridges from rivals telling the other side to get out or
18:30you're going to have to pay the consequences.
18:34Knowing that no matter how big and powerful you were, there's always someone bigger than you.
18:38Seeing people who I thought would never have anything happen to them, get something done.
18:45Even me, myself, I never thought I was going to be arrested.
18:48It was a time in Acapulco where it was announced on the radio, and this is how wide open it
18:56is.
18:56It was announced on the radio to say, it was a message from the cartel to say you cannot go
19:00outside
19:00your house past nine o'clock at night if you have a red, white, or black vehicle.
19:05Because then they're going to look at you as the other side and then they're going to shoot at you,
19:11kill you.
19:11And even though that message was being sent, I would still go out in a black vehicle by myself.
19:17That's how, I guess, ignorant I was.
19:24Just not, I felt like nothing was ever going to happen to me.
19:28When I would witness this violence, I would pacify myself with alcohol, money,
19:35and living, getting that rush from that lifestyle where I could distract myself saying that it only
19:43happens to people who deserve it. That's what I told myself. I said, there's a reason why he died.
19:48They don't go after innocent people. And as long as you're not doing anything wrong,
19:51then you don't have to worry about. And that was the core belief.
20:00In 2008, I had a traffic stop. I went for a beer run to go get beer before two o
20:07'clock hit,
20:07because that's when they stopped selling alcohol in Florida. I was a sheriff.
20:12You could barely see him. That's how far he was. And I didn't know he was a sheriff until the
20:16lights hit. I knew it was for me because I was the only car on the road. And it was
20:20a little over
20:21two in the morning. Now, mind you, the whole time I had about 300,000 in cash on me that
20:25I needed to
20:26get away from. And this wasn't my money. This was cartel money. And so I was with a buddy of
20:31mine.
20:32I'm known for running from the cops. I never stopped for a cop. So he goes, he looked at me,
20:37he goes, don't do it. And I looked at him and I said, it's too late. So as soon as
20:44I put it into
20:45park, it unlocks. And it was a sound of the horses when you open up for the gate. That's what
20:51it
20:51reminded me of. The doors open and I just ran. I ran and all I could hear was keys in
20:56the background.
20:57And I could slowly hear them getting further and further away. And that's when I looked back and I
21:03didn't even see anybody. Luckily, I found a patch of woods and I was able to throw the backpack as
21:09far as I could. And I went the other way, opposite way. I went into a yard. There was an
21:14equal line
21:15van in the driveway. I laid down under it flat, freezing cold. And I could hear the helicopters
21:22coming closer. And then I hear a canine coming closer. And I was so close to the canine that I
21:28could
21:28hear the canine breathing. And luckily, the canine kept going. And once I stopped hearing
21:35the sirens and the helicopter and all that, I got up, just walked. And I walk down the street.
21:41About 10 minutes later, a cop car comes up and he asked me, he goes, hey, are you the guy
21:45we're
21:46looking for? And by that time, it was okay for me to turn myself in because the car was in
21:52my name,
21:53my passport was in the car. So I turned myself in. And I was able to get just four months
22:01for running from the cops and a general suspended license. The cartel knew exactly what happened
22:07with my situation. And I was able to relay a message saying that the money is in a safe place,
22:16which I had no idea it was. It was just me saying what I had to say, needed to say,
22:20in order for everybody to be cool. And once I was able to get out, I was able to get
22:24the cash back.
22:25The backpack was still there, covered in mildew. A few days before I was released from the county
22:30jail, I got on the county phone and ordered me a one-way ticket back to Mexico. So that way,
22:36when I got out, I was able to just go to the airport and just go to Mexico. And I
22:40had that money sent
22:42by car. A lot of the things that were happening at that time did play a part, a major part
22:47in me
22:48feeling invisible just by me every single time getting away with something that I believe no
22:53one would ever get away with. No one would want to run from the cops on foot with a bunch
22:58of money
22:59and a helicopter and escape canines. Why would you want to put yourself through all that?
23:04But I did. I would do that because I wouldn't stop.
23:13Prior of me getting arrested, one of the dealers got arrested. His brother was in jail. The other
23:20brother wasn't. I went ahead and started collecting, trying to collect money from one of the brothers,
23:27one of the dealers. Let's try to get as much money from him as we could, knowing that we're not
23:33going
23:33to get all of it, but as much as we could to leave, to move. Every time I went to
23:37go see him, it was
23:38always give me a few days, give me a few days. There was always something to buy time. And I
23:43told him,
23:43I said, hey, if I don't get this money, I'm not coming back. I'm going to send the people who
23:50it
23:50belongs to. And they're not going to come to you the way I come to you. And they know where
23:55your kids
23:55go to school at. They know where everybody works, where everybody lives at. He just turned white.
24:01I could see the life leave him. His spirit left his body. And that's when the investigation started
24:06because the whole time I was unaware that he was wearing a wire and he had a camera. There was
24:13unmarked cars far away. It was an investigation that was very short, few weeks. And it was basically
24:19all they needed to get a conspiracy charge. Shortly after that is when they kicked in my door. They
24:25pulled out the assault rifles and they asked me what my name was. I said, my name is Jacob Diaz.
24:32And they go, oh, we have a warrant for your arrest. I said, for what? They said, for truck trafficking.
24:37I only had one charge. I was charged with a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute
24:43five or more kilos of cocaine. I was offered a plea deal. Of course, you had to tell on everybody.
24:49My attorney told me if I was to cooperate, that I would get five years. And I told them I
24:55can't do
24:55that. And then they wanted to give me an offer. They wanted me to sign to 16 years.
25:01Like it was nothing. In my mind, I said, if I can do 16, I can do 17. If I
25:07can do 17,
25:07I can do 18. I just kept going up from there. And I said, let's just go to trial. And
25:12I ended up beating
25:13them out of that 16 years. I ended up getting sentenced at 10. I was able to get that 10
25:18-year
25:18sentence basically from the judge looking at what they call a PS. It's called a PSR,
25:23pre-sentencing report. They base your sentence, everything from your childhood,
25:27how you were brought up in your past. If you're a troublemaker, everything, everything, everything.
25:31At sentencing, my judge, my judge started crying because she said that I didn't deserve
25:38the 10 years because of my childhood. She said that I was destined for a prison. She couldn't go
25:45under the 10-year mandatory minimum because I didn't cooperate. It took me a minute to process
25:51that I'm going to be doing 10 years in federal prison.
25:59Once I finally arrived to federal prison, I was under the impression that just like you see in the
26:04movies, especially based off the way I look, I don't look tough and I don't look mean or intimidating.
26:11So I knew eventually I was going to run into someone who thought the same thing and I had to
26:15prove them
26:16wrong. That day did come and that's how I got into a fight with someone. They said I was a
26:24rat. I don't
26:25like to be violent. I'm not like that anymore. But while I was in prison, I had to continue that
26:31role
26:32because of the way I look, people take advantage of you. Every prison I would go to, they would
26:36transfer me and I had to restart. And I hated transferring because I had to keep going and
26:39like, oh, I got to fight somebody else again. Once I got into my first fight, I was transferred
26:44from Pensacola. They transferred me nine months. It took nine months to get from one prison to another
26:51prison. And they do that on purpose. It's called diesel therapy. They try to break you. They put,
26:57because in part of the whole point of prison is you want to be comfortable. So where you can do
27:02your
27:02time and your time goes by fast in your head, it's smoothly. So if you can't get comfortable
27:07and you, you can't, your time sucks, you're just always in the air. They would take me from Atlanta
27:13transit to Oklahoma transit to Louisiana transit and just bounce around and finally ended up in Ohio
27:20at Elkton. And that's where I did, uh, ended up doing the first three years, three and a half
27:26years. I told myself I was never going to get into another fight again. Did you? Yes, I did.
27:31I got into another fight on the soccer field. Somebody headbutted me and then
27:35almost started a race war. I was able to move back to Florida after that, after that fight because,
27:40um, no one, no, I didn't get wrote, written up for it. So no one found out about it. And
27:46it stayed off the,
27:47uh, my record. I ended up being transferred in 2015, 2015, late 2015, and then I'm going to Coleman
27:56Lowe for the drug program, the RDAP. And that's where I was able to complete it. After being in
28:01prison for, for about five years, I kind of accepted the fact that I was in prison. So, uh, I
28:07settled,
28:07settled down and matured and started getting into, uh, things where I can reinvent myself. Just wanted to
28:15focus on things I didn't like about myself that I can change. And since I can change them,
28:20then I could be like a, like a 2.0, like a better version of myself.
28:28I was eventually released in September, 2018 from prison, was sent to the halfway house,
28:35did a halfway house for one year and, uh, five years of supervised release. Transitioning from
28:42one lifestyle to another lifestyle is, is super difficult. For one is if I hear keys,
28:48I automatically think there's a correctional officer nearby. I like to have my back up against the wall.
28:53I don't like my back exposed to people. Waking up, um, in cold sweats, waking up in nightmares or screaming,
29:01uh, uh, still do that. Things that a lot of, you can't tell people and that's what hurts because you
29:09have no one to relate to. It is isolating, especially when you have a felony and you for the first
29:16time
29:16get a nine to five. First time having a job is when I got out and I didn't know how
29:22to conduct myself
29:25professionally in the, in a work, in a workplace. I do feel a struggle still to this day after being
29:30released. There's moments where you want to give up, that you don't care. I just cut off a lot of
29:38access from people. I just kind of stay to myself. After I was released from prison,
29:44I was able to start my business, My Credit Builder Pros. The reason why, uh, helping people
29:49with credit is very important to me is because it all boils down to financial literacy. For me, it was,
29:56um, knowing that if my mom had those resources, she probably wouldn't have put us in those
30:02predicaments like being, going through extreme poverty. I believe that if more families and more
30:07communities have access to that, it will reduce a lot of the, uh, kids getting into mischief or,
30:15you know, because they can have, now they can go out and have activities and our parents can put them
30:20into, uh, other things that could get them out of trouble, like sports or just any, any kind of
30:25activity to keep the kid busy or video games or whatever. I didn't have any of that stuff. I know
30:30if I, if I, if I did, then I, it would, it probably wouldn't have came out the same way
30:34that I did,
30:35but it's, it's, it's important to me to, to help communities, uh, build their credit,
30:42because that's, to me, it's the, it's the root. I reflect on my, my past with working with the cartels
30:49and the underworld and all that stuff as a learning lesson, a stepping stone. I don't beat myself up
30:55over it. I, I forgive the kid that did it. Well, I didn't have emotions and now I do when
31:07that's all you know is it's hard, it's hard to, to not, to not be that way. Cause you know,
31:16it's what kept you safe. Of course, having all that money and stuff is fun, but I mean,
31:24if you don't know who you are and you don't deal with your, your issues and your problems,
31:31I always say like, I forgive, I forgive that, that child, he didn't, he didn't want that.
31:46anyone on the desk. But I, I'm, I'm just happy to, to do it my way and without anybody taking
31:58credit for it.
31:59Being able to grow from, from when you have
32:05your back up against the wall, like everything's against you from, like from birth.
32:16I was born in, born in Redding, Pennsylvania. I moved down to Florida when I was six with two of
32:22my brothers, my sister and my mom growing up in a single mother, single parent home. I can't imagine
32:28how tough it would be on the parent. We're trying to raise four kids, you know, going to school. I'd
32:34see
32:35kids with, you know, nice clothes and my shoes and I had holes in my shoes. My mother couldn't afford
32:40it.
32:40When I was in middle school, one of the things I would do as a, as a hustle to get
32:44money was
32:46I would go to the, the gas station on the corner and I would steal boxes of juicy fruit or
32:53I would
32:54steal a whole box of those and go to school and sell them for a dollar a piece, come back
32:58and give it
32:58to my mom. Around the time that my mother left, I was, I was the only, I was the only
33:03kid in the
33:03house. My mother would go out on the weekends. My mother wasn't a drinker. She didn't do any drugs.
33:09One Sunday, I'm expecting for her to come back because I see all her friends came back that she
33:14left with on Friday and I'm waiting. So I go to school the next day. I come back, she still
33:23hasn't
33:23showed up. So I go to her friends and I say, Hey, do you know where my mother's at? And
33:29they're like,
33:29no, she stayed with some guy and she's down some city or whatever they went to that weekend. And I
33:37was like, okay, I'll continue to go into school. And then it was about a time where we had to
33:41pay rent.
33:42So the landlord came, she told me to leave. So that's when I really became homeless. I didn't have
33:48anywhere to go or nothing. I would sneak into my friend's, my friend's bedroom window without
33:55their parents knowing. And I would sleep, uh, either on the side of their bed, hidden or under
34:01their bed. And I would leave, uh, whenever they got and got to wake up for school the next day.
34:06My day
34:07would be hanging out in the streets, hustling. And at night I would do stuff to be a kid. How
34:15I was
34:15introduced to selling weed was being around people who sold weed and they didn't teach me how to do
34:21it. I watched and I didn't think anything about, uh, I was going to be taken advantage of. None of
34:26that came to my mind. All I saw was money. A good week for me would be if I didn't
34:31need any food anymore
34:32and I was able to buy a pair of shoes or clothes. So a few hundred bucks a week, you
34:38know, 13, 14 years
34:38old, 15, you know, it's not bad. I was able to, uh, run into one of the, um, social workers
34:46for the
34:47state of Florida. It's called DCF, Department of Children and Families. He eventually found me.
34:52I was like 16 at this time. He said, we've been looking for you for a few years and we
34:56have your
34:57younger brother, which my younger brother was at a group home. I turned myself into foster care
35:03around like sophomore year. However, I didn't like school. I didn't like school. I was never
35:09the kid that had straight A's. I just want to graduate. I just want that piece of paper
35:14just to say I did it. And because I thought I was going to see my mom once and whenever
35:18I was able,
35:19like in the future, I thought I was going to see her and I could show her that, that I
35:23did it.
35:23I was really going to do it for her. Not for me. I didn't care about school as much. So
35:28once I
35:28graduated and I realized that my mother wasn't in the stands and, uh, she wasn't there, a switch
35:36happened at that moment. I guess you could say I turned into a man. I just stopped being a kid
35:42and
35:44became very, uh, dark. It was shortly after that is when I became heavily involved in
35:54drugs on, on, on, on accident. Today, I don't, I don't have a good relationship with my mom. Six months
36:00before I got arrested in 2011, um, I was with my older brother and, uh, I didn't like the way
36:09he was
36:09living his life. He was abusing alcohol. He just had his second child. I didn't want him to go down
36:16that
36:16path of self-destruction. Just, I said, what is it going to take for you to stop drinking? And he
36:23told me, I just want my kids to have a grandma. I said, you know what? So if I find
36:29her, you're
36:30going to stop drinking? He says, yeah. I said, okay. And in a few days I found her
36:37and she was working at a KFC for the past 10 years in the next county over.
36:43And I heard me even more. I offered to take her out to dinner. I said, Hey,
36:48I'm going to take you out Friday. I'm going to go out to eat. And once I took her out,
36:54I said, let me ask you a question. And I already know the answer to this. So don't lie.
37:01And I said, why? I said, why did you leave us? Why did you leave me? And she goes,
37:08I felt like you didn't, like y'all didn't love me. And I said, I said to her, I said,
37:14you know, I said, that's the best answer you can come up with after all these years.
37:18I treated her like a stranger from then on out. I just went according to business,
37:25got her something to eat and then dropped her back off. There was no
37:31talking after texting, nothing. It was purely business. So my relationship with
37:39the guys and my father, like my father figure, my mentor is a lot better today than it was.
37:47I respect his time. I respect his advice, the way he's there for me, like nobody else is. So
37:58it's a lot better. I talk to him every day.
38:08The difference between drug trafficking back then when I did it to now, I don't understand it today.
38:14It's more wide open. It's social media involved. People post what drugs they're selling
38:22in our stories so everybody can see them. It's completely the complete opposite of
38:28what I know. The people who tell on people get more respect. And when you don't tell, they say you're
38:35stupid. So I've been called stupid. I've been called dumb for not cooperating. Law enforcement is still
38:43the same because they don't do the work. You know, those are the work. People get caught. They do all
38:47the police work. The police don't know nothing until you talk. So where do they get their sources from?
38:55Confidential informants. They would never know. I sold drugs until the dealer got busted. They feed off
39:03catching little guys to get to the big guy. That's how it works since the beginning of time. They know
39:08who's going to sell the drugs. People of color. Guess who has the higher sentencing. Drug charges. Like my
39:18drug charge was 10 to life for a nonviolent crime. I didn't get caught with one gram. Very little
39:22white collar criminals. And if they got white collar crimes, they got no sentence. Three, five years,
39:27they go home. Drug charges, 20 years. 15. For a little piece of crack, I seen somebody with a 15
39:35-year sentence.
39:36Coke is still going to be around. It's just now that you have more synthetic drugs that you can bring
39:45in
39:45cheaper, less overhead, like fentanyl or meth. You know, people are always going to get the cheapest.
39:56They want the most bang for their buck. No, I don't even know why he's around. That's bad for business
40:02because it's doing nothing but killing people. And how are you going to kill the people who's giving
40:06you money? So like, what are you doing? You see more people getting on drugs than off drugs.
40:13And when they get off drugs, it's only for a short amount of time they get back on it.
40:16So it's a never ending cycle. It's a vicious cycle. People are not scared to have repercussions and
40:23consequences. They think because they're on the internet that nothing's going to happen to them.
40:29You got influencers now in Mexico dying just because they're making fun of cartels.
40:35And you know, and they're just kids doing bull , but that's just, that's just where it goes.
40:41People put on a front to be tough and they're not. Everything's cool until this hits the fan.
40:48And I'm not going to tell you it's going to hit the fan. It will hit the fan one way
40:52or another.
41:11So it's just the same record of them .
41:12Let's go.
41:12Let's go.
41:12Let's go.
Comments