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in recent months Americans across the
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country have been getting a series of
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strange phone calls that have unbeknown
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to them put them in direct contact with
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one of the most dangerous criminal
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Enterprises on the planet the cj& G
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cartel each of these unsuspecting
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Americans have one thing in common they
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own a time share in a resort town in
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Mexico but as the inous criminal group
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who also goes by the name the halisco
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new generation cartel has not only
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expanded its territory outside of the
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halisco state it's also Diversified its
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business operations outside of the world
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of smuggle in fact it now operates an
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elaborate scam targeting Americans that
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is more profitable than drug running and
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there's almost nothing law enforcement
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can do to stop
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it before we get into the scam itself
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first it's important to get some
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background information on the halisco
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new generation cartel also known as the
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cj& the group started as an offshoot of
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the caloa cartel arguably the most
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powerful cartel in Mexico but under the
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leadership of the mysterious eleno whose
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real name is the messio of sigua santes
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they've gone to war with the Sino cartel
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and anyone else else who threatens to
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get in the way operating out of a remote
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compound Elemental uses his hyperm
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militarized private armies to enforce
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their brutal brand of Narco Rule now a
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new and even more dangerous player has
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entered the scene Cel
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deis or CJ G when they come into an area
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they really come in really hard and
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heavy meaning they will go in and start
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on a killing spree Pao Ruiz assistant
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special agent in charge of the Drug
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Enforcement Administration in Arizona
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says the cjng is ruthless in their quest
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for money and power they now control 24
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of Mexico's 32 states with the Firepower
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to back it up but what really sets them
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apart is their ruthless mode of doing
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business so with theel for example
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everybody knows about the hyper violence
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everybody knows about El meno being
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hidden away in his in his hidey-hole in
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in khis cartel for the last 10 years um
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everybody knows about their battles with
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caloa all across Mexico what people did
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know and was what we tried to address in
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the book is they have a unique Moto
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operandi they're a completely unique
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cartel it's never been seen before in
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Mexico that's investigative journalist
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Chris Dolby Chris Dolby is the author of
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cj& g a quick guide to Mexico's
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deadliest cartel and currently the
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director of the world of crime Think
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Tank they don't do business sustainably
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right they draw every drop of blood from
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a rock in the areas they control and and
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that was out there you had reports on
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them exploiting the tequila industry or
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uh or the cattle industry or the
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avocados most famously when you put it
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together you have an economic extortion
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map that's never been seen in Mexico I
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mean they willingly drive people out of
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business and then replace them with
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their with their operatives right
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they're not looking for a sustainable
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status quo like the siloa cartel mostly
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though they started by trafficking and
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selling drugs the cj& launched elaborate
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offshoots in an effort to diversify
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their earnings when you're looking at a
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c
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you can just look at a cartel as a bunch
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of hyped up drug traffickers right
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cartels have different specialities
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people within them have different jobs
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and it all contributes to a very
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profitable Enterprise like a
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multinational company right why is
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McDonald's the franchise that is today
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if you look at McDonald's you have to
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study it history the way it expanded the
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economic climate in America and in the
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world that allowed that expansion it's
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the same with the Kalisa cartel the
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Kalisa cartel begins in the hills of MIT
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with a family of avocado Farmers called
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the Valencia the Valencia at the time
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are these very wealthy um they control
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huge tracks of land and they begin to
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diversify in the' 70s with into
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marijuana and then into um Opium poppy
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but they're not interested in being a
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cartel at the time or they haven't
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thought about that they're just selling
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their marijuana they're selling their
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poppy to bigger groups in the north of
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Mexico right they're middlemen so to
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speak they're
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wholesalers progressively over time they
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get more ambitious they get wealthier
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they get the connections to begin
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operating as a cartel to move their own
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drugs into the
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US after the fall of the guadara cartel
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l so luck happens they're on the West
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Coast of Mexico they have control of
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ports Pablo Escobar comes calling and
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says hey I need new partners to help me
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move my cocaine into the US right so
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they're the second generation of Mexico
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traffickers that moves cocaine into the
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US that what does that allow them to do
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to diversify to start setting up us
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operations to start setting up money
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laundering operations that anchors the
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next stage of the cartel where they
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become this National
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player I'll spare you 20 years of Game
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of Thrones back and forth and you know
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power struggles within within Mexico
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that's three chapters of the book but
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they end up subservient to the siloa
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cartel they they end up with they lose
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their their territory muan they're
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forced into exile to the north and they
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go to work for El
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Chapel power struggles within the silo
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cartel El comes to the fourth as this
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very ambitious hyper violent Narco who
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was in California in the ' 80s during
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the meth boom and suddenly he goes well
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hang on a second there's a big hole in
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Mexico for synthetic drugs there's no
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one in Mexico that has our knowledge of
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how to make meth later fenil and that
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has our control of Pacific ports it has
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our knowledge of of drug trafficking
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routes to the US so they become the
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synthetic experts right they're not born
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from this generation of of CG leaders
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doesn't have the connections to to the
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to the marijuana and the Opium they're
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pure synthetic boys they go back into
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marijuana and and and opium of course
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because that's where a lot of the money
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is but they really become the first
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synthetic drug experts right and then
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they seem to see Mexico as Napoleon
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would see a map of Europe they see a a a
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land right for conquest and so they move
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into States almost in a military fashion
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right they'll put up Narco banners in
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half a dozen to AZ
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municipalities identifying by name the
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local criminals that can either get in
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line or get shot and then they they will
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act on that provise and they'll take
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over that um that state that's a way of
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expanding that Mexico had never seen
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before the legacy of that is 80% of all
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cartel murders in the last 10 years were
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either committed by or done to the khis
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cartel that's an astonishing statistic
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in a country where there's so many
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criminal groups they're connected to 80%
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of the cartel bence in the last 10 years
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as the cg& expanded its territory it
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also expanded its business model moving
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from trafficking drugs to elaborate
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criminal Enterprises that involve
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everything from theft and extortion to
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human
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trafficking and if the cartel recruited
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new business partners who didn't want to
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participate in their crime they took
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violent action to ensure the next
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recruits wouldn't make the same decision
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border Trent chief Victor manadas
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witnessed their expansion and violent
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tactics firsthand as power shifted from
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Cena cartel to the CJ since then the
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Dynamics for the Mexican cels have
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changed quite a bit and that so when you
00:07:45
look at the cineol cartel you know often
00:07:48
known uh um as one of the meanest most
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violent little bit not as much though as
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the halisco new generation cartel
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they're almost in every state in they're
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ruthless but they changed the business
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model it used to be narcotics but
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they're almost like uh I know McDonald's
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is not going to appreciate what I'm
00:08:07
going to say right now but but it's like
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McDonald's the corporation franchising a
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McDonald's
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store so local business hey I want to be
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a McDonald's owner so I'm gonna get a
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franchise McDonald's and out of
00:08:21
McDonald's I get their branding I get
00:08:23
the commercials I get The Branding I get
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some well that's what they've done they
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got into Commodities you know they they
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get now they're in the oil they're in
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avocados they're in uh time shares uh um
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they're they're in all sorts of things
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and they're also into
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extortion yeah on and so what they do
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normally is they move into an area the
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place I've been looking at a lot has
00:08:47
been W wat one of
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the um and so they went there was a
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group called was a gang Santa Rosa gang
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and the Santa Rosa gang was was was
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punching holes into the Mexican
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government oil pipeline
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pumping you know ciphering the oil gas
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that comes through and they sell it in
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the black market or selling it to gas
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stations and say you're going to buy
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from us as suppos selling so they're
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making that money and so they were doing
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extortion so so the new H School cartel
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came in and said hey we like your
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business model um why don't you work for
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us under our brand they went to the boss
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and the in the boss no we're happy okay
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so they put a bullet in his head and
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then they went to the deputy and said
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hey we're going to give you the the same
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offer he just saw what happened he goes
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hey you know what that sounds like a
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good offer on there we will work for you
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on that and so they got The Branding
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from the halisco cartel they got the
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protection they've got weapons they got
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resources they needed and so the
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business models changed
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it as the cj& expanded its operations
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and Regional influence it moved into
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resort areas where the primary revenue
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wasn't generated from drugs but from
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Western mainly wealthy American tourists
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in those areas members of local criminal
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groups would steal or illegally sell
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databases of information about Americans
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who had purchased time shares in the
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area for those unaware a time share is
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essentially a piece of property on a
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resort that many people collectively own
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they each pay a fee every year in
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exchange for being able to use the
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property during a predetermined window
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of time the only problem is many time
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share owners don't end up using their
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property very often and will later want
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to sell them to offload fees associated
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with owning them however the time share
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business especially since the pandemic
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has created a tough market for people
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wanting to sell their properties that's
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where the cj& came in so so I'm going to
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go back in history a little bit uh prior
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to
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2010 for a number of years there were
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uh kind of Soul operators that had their
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own call centers and there they had
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information um um either stolen or
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leaked or you know they bought these
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databases from from hotels that had time
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shares in um the city of Puerto AA
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that's Steve fiser on a recent episode
00:11:16
of change agents in Ironclad original
00:11:18
he's an investigative reporter based in
00:11:20
Mexico City who covers organized crime
00:11:22
in Mexico for Outlets including the New
00:11:24
York Times USA Today Washington Post and
00:11:28
LA Times then it and it became an
00:11:30
extraordinary business but everyone kind
00:11:32
of on their own and stuff and they had
00:11:33
these call centers and they were
00:11:34
scamming individuals in the United
00:11:36
States who own time shares in Puerto AA
00:11:39
in 2010 there was one particular
00:11:41
individual who had a call
00:11:43
center um and this is according to you
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know information provided to me by the
00:11:49
US government and he he was within the
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halisco cartel and he said he came to
00:11:55
someone um within a position of power in
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the halisco cartel said you guys we can
00:12:00
make you can make so much money on this
00:12:04
scam and they they bought the idea and
00:12:08
basically went around to all these uh
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call centers and either threatened the
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the people working at those call centers
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they would have to work for them or just
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simply took them out and took over the
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call centers and what the halisa cartel
00:12:22
did with the teaching uh you know being
00:12:25
taught by this individual who had
00:12:27
brought them the idea in the first place
00:12:29
was like train individuals
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to um scam Americans primarily senior
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citizens in the United
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States and they got they brought in
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people who have and I've listened to
00:12:44
audio of these people they who who who
00:12:47
speak almost perfect English um and and
00:12:51
they just they have them set up a
00:12:53
network of shell companies and uh you
00:12:56
know essentially llc's through which
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they say you know we are this business
00:13:01
you can look us up we have this they
00:13:03
have a Sleek website you can see here
00:13:05
that we are this we're a real estate
00:13:07
broker and what they tell
00:13:09
these uh the people on the phone the
00:13:12
people they're trying to scam often
00:13:14
people over 60 um for the reasons that
00:13:17
you mentioned uh they they consider them
00:13:20
a more vulnerable and more um
00:13:24
lucrative option um they say look you
00:13:28
have a time shft share I see you have a
00:13:30
time share here in Puerto I see that you
00:13:32
paid $50,000 for it um and I'm a real
00:13:37
estate broker and I uh have someone who
00:13:41
would love to buy it from you for
00:13:44
$75,000 and that sounds amazing because
00:13:46
it's really difficult to get rid of your
00:13:48
time share once you bought it using the
00:13:50
stolen databases of the time share
00:13:52
owners information the cartel run call
00:13:55
centers would contact elderly Americans
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and make them an incredibly generous
00:13:59
offer for their property the only catch
00:14:02
the caller would explain is the American
00:14:04
time share owner would first need to pay
00:14:06
a series of international fees and
00:14:08
logistical costs to unlock the money but
00:14:10
the scam expands beyond the phone calls
00:14:13
The Americans on the other end of the
00:14:14
calls even sent paperwork that all
00:14:16
looked very official they have this
00:14:18
really great website that shows what
00:14:20
they do and who they are and in fact
00:14:22
they have very very good legal documents
00:14:25
that they send them and say look here's
00:14:27
the legal doc here's the agreement
00:14:28
here's the contract you know all of the
00:14:31
everything signed it just everything is
00:14:33
in order it looks in order I mean some
00:14:35
of these people I've spoke to who were
00:14:37
scammed even brought them brought them
00:14:38
to their accountants and said does this
00:14:40
look okay and they're like yeah looks
00:14:41
legit let's go for it wow you know
00:14:43
congratulations once they've convinced
00:14:45
the American time share owners that they
00:14:46
were representatives from legitimate
00:14:48
buyers the elaborate extended fraud
00:14:51
would begin I mean this is like
00:14:53
extraordinary the levels the layers of
00:14:57
fraud um that they they engage in and
00:15:01
so they say and the person they say look
00:15:04
$75,000 right but first it's it's this
00:15:08
whole thing in Mexico there's this
00:15:10
federal tax that you have to pay before
00:15:12
you know you're you're you're in the
00:15:14
United States there's like crossb tax
00:15:16
it's like a whole like you know
00:15:18
equivalent IRS kind of tax that's
00:15:21
required it's a specific law I can send
00:15:23
you the article within the you know tax
00:15:26
law that shows all of this and stuff and
00:15:29
they're like oh yeah sure and they're
00:15:30
like it's going to be about
00:15:32
$3,000 um and you know here's here's a
00:15:36
document that shows this law this is
00:15:38
from the tax agency I have it now
00:15:40
because of course you signed this
00:15:42
contract um so please just send $3,000
00:15:45
and we'll send you your uh $755,000 and
00:15:48
in fact once it's all said and done and
00:15:51
once the owner that wants to buy this
00:15:54
has actually bought the property you
00:15:55
will be refunded everything that uh
00:15:58
you're uh that you are so that's how it
00:16:01
begins with these smaller
00:16:03
numbers
00:16:05
and they over time it's like they're
00:16:08
like well look there's there's this new
00:16:10
thing there's this new tax and then
00:16:12
they're like oh we just sent the check
00:16:14
by a FedEx
00:16:15
like and if you think about it right a
00:16:18
check in Mexico is probably not going to
00:16:20
be cashable in the United States but
00:16:23
still we send a check and it's it's held
00:16:26
up at the border because it's more than
00:16:27
$10,000
00:16:29
which you can't bring more than $10,000
00:16:31
in passion in the United States so
00:16:32
there's just this fee to allow them and
00:16:34
they go on and on and it's like a drip
00:16:37
scam drip defrauding of uh American
00:16:41
Senior Citizens and in my story for USA
00:16:44
Today um you know I write about a man
00:16:47
that I met who over a period of 12 years
00:16:51
and more specifically spent the most in
00:16:54
the last three years he was defrauded of
00:16:56
$1.8 million
00:17:05
even once the American victims realized
00:17:06
that they were getting scammed the
00:17:08
cartel time shareer centers still found
00:17:10
ways of defrauding them of even more
00:17:12
money here's Steve fiser again
00:17:15
discussing what happened to an American
00:17:16
financial planner and time share owner
00:17:19
once he caught on to the ruse officials
00:17:21
are warning of a widespread cyber
00:17:23
security attack frustrations and delays
00:17:25
have continued as countless are still
00:17:27
without power
00:17:29
Market volatility is at its highest
00:17:31
since the pandemic there are a number of
00:17:33
reports across the state
00:17:35
unidentified there is
00:17:51
down what happened with him was it
00:17:54
started out to be one thing and here's
00:17:56
where this cartel is even more
00:17:57
sophisticated once he caught on to this
00:18:01
scam he was like oh you guys are
00:18:02
scamming me they just dropped off for a
00:18:05
few months and then someone called him
00:18:07
and said hey we're from the victims
00:18:09
defense Institute of Mexico which is a
00:18:12
it's a it's a legitimate organization we
00:18:15
just rated a call
00:18:17
center um and got found your information
00:18:20
and saw that you've been defrauded of an
00:18:21
enormous amount of money you're and we
00:18:24
have a lawyer who is prepared to bring
00:18:27
your case to the Supreme Court
00:18:29
but not only that we
00:18:32
um other people other your name has been
00:18:36
used to defraud other individuals so you
00:18:39
are do all the money that those other
00:18:42
individual that your name was used to
00:18:44
defraud and it's to the amount it ended
00:18:47
up being of $6 million but here's the
00:18:50
thing we're just going to need some fees
00:18:52
because there's these fees for the you
00:18:53
know for the Attorney General's office
00:18:55
there's a fee for the unit of financial
00:18:58
investigations again totally exists
00:19:00
there's all these documents and his his
00:19:03
case goes to the Supreme Court for at
00:19:06
least 2 years it's in the Supreme Court
00:19:08
during which he's like paying lawyers
00:19:11
and paying all these fees cuz now you
00:19:14
know back way back when he was out you
00:19:16
know he was going to get paid like
00:19:18
$75,000 now he's about to recover all of
00:19:21
the hundreds of thousand he had already
00:19:23
spent and make 6 $6 million oh that
00:19:26
meaning you know get $6 million that's
00:19:29
how they pivot when they identify that
00:19:32
you realize you've been scammed
00:19:36
right and he spoke he kept record he
00:19:39
spoke to more than 150 different
00:19:42
individuals many of them who purportedly
00:19:44
were from the Mexican Government over a
00:19:47
period of 12 Years um and he's had he he
00:19:52
built close deep relationships with some
00:19:55
of them they knew intimate details about
00:19:58
his life what he didn't know is that it
00:20:00
was a halisco cartel scamming him of
00:20:02
again more than a million almost $2
00:20:05
million um and this organization is now
00:20:08
expanding so they started out in Porto
00:20:12
you know and had some call centers in
00:20:15
the city of guadalahara um but they now
00:20:17
have more and this is from the US
00:20:19
government they now have more than two
00:20:21
dozen call centers um across the country
00:20:25
and they're going into Cancun and taking
00:20:27
over the market the time Market in
00:20:29
Cancun and the US government told me
00:20:32
they are now making so much money to
00:20:34
your point it's hundreds of millions a
00:20:35
year and that's a super conservative
00:20:38
number they're now making so much money
00:20:41
that the return on investment is greater
00:20:45
than uh drug trafficking itself for the
00:20:47
halisco cartel one of the Premier drug
00:20:50
trafficking cartels in the world
00:20:53
scamming senior citizens in the United
00:20:55
States is now more lucrative than drug
00:20:57
trafficking
00:21:04
and as the cg& eyes further expansion
00:21:07
they're employing the same violent
00:21:09
methods that got them where they are
00:21:10
today many time share workers don't seem
00:21:13
to have much of a choice when it comes
00:21:14
to whether or not they will be involved
00:21:16
in the scam Steve tells the disturbing
00:21:19
story of eight employees who tried to
00:21:21
refuse to do cartel work uh like many
00:21:24
things in Mexico it's hard to know
00:21:26
exactly what happened um but it seems
00:21:29
that there may have been an internal
00:21:31
Revolt um and they they may have tried
00:21:34
one of the one of the theories is that
00:21:36
they may have tried to leave their jobs
00:21:39
and get out and um that that theory uh
00:21:43
basically uh suggests that you know
00:21:46
their bosses made an example of them uh
00:21:50
in a way that the halisco cartel knows
00:21:52
how to do very well authorities now
00:21:54
believe the cj& is operating on both
00:21:57
sides of the Southern border
00:21:59
though most of their members are still
00:22:00
based in Mexico however with these phone
00:22:03
scams they found ways into Americans
00:22:05
actual homes and the threat they pose to
00:22:08
Americans continues to grow the scary
00:22:10
thing about this is that the halisco
00:22:13
cartel has now found its way into the
00:22:16
living rooms of the United of America's
00:22:19
most vulnerable population and it's hard
00:22:22
to overstate that not only are they in
00:22:24
their living rooms they have their
00:22:26
social security numbers they have
00:22:28
everything to identify them they can go
00:22:30
pay them visits if they want if
00:22:31
threatened to have them arrested and
00:22:33
sent and extradited to Mexico for not
00:22:35
paying Mexican tax like there's so much
00:22:38
they know which how many homes they have
00:22:40
they might know their entire wealth
00:22:42
there is so much that the halisco cartel
00:22:46
now knows about American Senior
00:22:48
Citizens it's
00:22:52
terrifying these scams in the reporting
00:22:54
of journalists like stepen Chris serve
00:22:57
as a reminder that though drug
00:22:58
trafficking poses a direct threat to the
00:23:00
Borderlands of Mexico and the United
00:23:02
States when it comes to the reach you
00:23:04
can never be overly
00:23:09
[Music]
00:23:13
Vigilant my name is Vince Vargas thank
00:23:16
you for watching reasonable fear a
00:23:17
Borderland Special Series in Ironclad
00:23:20
original be sure to check at this is
00:23:23
Ironclad on YouTube for more from this
00:23:25
series or subscribe wherever you get
00:23:27
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