Jorge Valdes on Being the Biggest Drug Dealer in America During the 70s & 80s (Full Interview)

first year bench. I received a great salary from the government and am making 375 an hour. You know, when the minimum wage was, I think 90 cents, so all of a sudden I made 28,000 and I saw people you know, it's like my world started to change because now, here I am, my circle of influence is different right now. I'm hanging out with people who have money, know influential people, and it was about three months when they started saying, listen, we really want you guys to run all of our operations in the US even though you guys didn't call it your average

drug

cartel. , that's essentially who they were doing business with, well actually, this group was made up of four people, I mean, this group was a group that became known as the million dollar

drug

cartel because it's incredible.

The drug cartel didn't get its name until 1980, this is 1976, we were much earlier, when Pablo Escobar even came to light, we were selling 500 kilos of cocaine in 1977, when literally no one knew what cocaine was. I mean, we were making a hundred million dollars a month, so really out of our league. From the leader of the group Manuel García, who was what I consider my godfather, and from him later in Medellín different groups began to emerge like Pablo Escobar, you saw brothers, you know, I have you and really a couple of guys that no one has ever mentioned. that was probably bigger than them.

We know about Pablo because he became notorious, but in reality, all the money that he said he made and all the billions actually listen if you hear my accusation, you think I made a billion dollars and it's. a bit of a stretch, I mean we made a lot of money, don't get me wrong, okay, so Pablo Escobar wasn't in the picture at this time, no, he didn't even come on the scene in 1980-81, well, eventually it would matter Midian. 95% of the cocaine that comes into the U.S. Well, that's yes, and that's exactly the number that the government accused me of importing, so within three months they started asking me and asking me and asking me and I just need get rid of them, so I came up with this great idea.

Tell them, listen, I don't work for anyone. You want me to be a partner, but you want me to run everything for you in the United States. Well, I want to co-chair, I want 20% and now you have to put my money in, of course, Columbia. It did not produce cocaine at that time, they brought it from Peru and Bolivia and it cost about $23,000 from Quito in 1976, so $23,000 per kilo and we started bringing in one hundred kilos, which is two point three million, so my share of that is like five hundred thousand five hundred thousand. I didn't even know that There was a lot of money in this world, so I made that stupid offer thinking you know, here they go, look at this kid, he's got braces, you know he's just a little kid and they're going to kick me. ass all the way from Colombia to the United States and I remember the day I made that proposal I went to the hotel and I was like this at least because it would really start to bother me with every second you have to do this, you have to do this right I went with him when they came to pick me up in the morning they said well Manuel wants to see you and I said well maybe he forgot to tell me something because we had a shipping company and I had to go to his office and the three of them were there, him and the other three partners, and he said that really We thought a lot and I mean, I was petrified, I thought, man, these people are going to kill me, they are going to insult me ​​so much.

I don't know what but I rented this chapter my life is over and he says we accept and I say well well and now imagine here I am 21 years old suddenly I didn't even see what cocaine looks like. I'm going to be in charge of importing all these kilos of cocaine. How do you bring it? How do you sell it to them? Who do I sell it to? With four or 500 kilos I earned between 1 and 3 million dollars a month and when I started in 1979, well, we started doing that and we grew and grew and grew and we are raising a thousand children.

I was making 100 million dollars a month and in 1979 I decided one of my workers came up to me and said, hey, the Bolivian government wants to make a deal with you and I said, what is that? Well, we can buy it in Bolivia for ten. thousand versus 2023 in Colombia and they are willing to give you one on credit in addition to whatever you buy, so I thought, okay, I'm making three million dollars a month and now I can go ahead and make seven million, maybe two, three times a month and it wasn't about the money, well, I speak when people say what is the most difficult: giving up the money was nothing, it was that power and I ran out, we reached an agreement with Bolivia and when the trip was gone , down I went to Colombia to show the strip to the pilot and I sent my right hand to Bolivia and when everything was said I was going to Nicaragua because I had business with Somoza and he was going to put me on a jet to go to the Dominican Republic, he picked up my ex-wife I'm going to Europe she called me and Jorge told me they betrayed you and I'm like what he said oh the only cocaine they took was the one you paid for so I got on a plane now I just turned 23 I'm getting on a plane I'm going with this guy and now this guy is one of the most powerful men in the world oh he's on the fifth governor right? and he and I told him, listen if you ever fuck with me again I'm going to kill you and he took a good look at me, my right hand that was with me literally peed his pants and the guy looked at me he said man you have the nicest pair of balls great, he is the

biggest

idiot. seen in my life you know next time you say I will kill you like that but we became great friends and I left I had to go to some oatmeal Nicaragua I couldn't get there on a commercial flight and I got on the plane we landed in Colombia everything was fine my godfather was having a heart attack he's like what are you doing are you crazy how can you get on the plane do you know how much you can do with all our money literally at that time now I had accounts in Switzerland Grand Cayman Liechtenstein I knew all the finance ministers of all these countries, we had a very intrigued scheming network, so he says if something happens to you, we're done and I say, don't worry, nothing will happen to me, well, half an hour.

Later we crashed in the jungles of Panama and when we crashed the police came and you know, this is what happens because I look back on my life and when you create a god complex, right? You think it's not going to happen to you. nothing because you're walking around. In life and it happens to celebrity, it happens to athletes and everyone tells you how great you are no matter what you do and you think there's nothing, there's nothing you can do that can go wrong and what should be done at that time it is paid because I had to look for cash in my briefcase that I travel with, I paid the sergeant there in a small town on the outskirts of Costa Rica and I told him: listen, I have cocaine inside the plane, he doesn't he could see it because the plane landed like a cliff died.

You have to get a ladder to get out, we literally jumped like three meters to get down. I said nothing. I said look. Can you take our passports and stamp them legally? I'll have someone come tomorrow to see if we can fix the plane and then we'll leave, he said, sure, I gave him 100 dollars, he was happier than we left. I made a call, we had paid over a million dollars to lick the president of Costa Rica this time, so we knew. that we had a tremendous connection, it was about 25 miles and the guy in charge of the pilot told me George, take the flare gun and blow this son of a bitch up and I'm like a year of yours, going crazy, mine It's seven million dollars. there now certainly a lot now is a lot of money 76 79 it was a lot of money so he said, "I've never exploded, we'll take it to Costa Rica, we'll figure it out from there the next morning." We went to pick up our passports, you know, I already had a driver who came from Costa Rica and lo and behold, I saw a DEA agent, a United States consul, I mean, it was like the room was filled with people and I know, man, who hit the fan.

I'm like this was the moment we broke up, so they took us into a room and everyone, but they had all the cocaine on this table, took all these pictures. I tell the Consul General of Panama, he said, look, I need to call my lawyer. says lawyer, said your man from Panama, that is, around here, Napoleonic law, you are guilty until you prove your innocence, they can hold you for a year without a phone call. I am right. I knew that sooner or later someone important would come to see. I mean, he was very, very fluent in the world, I mean, we're buying precedents during this time, we know we're spending a million dollars on corruption every month, so sure enough, two days later lawyer Euro comes in and I looked at him. .

He said look don't waste your time on mine everything I want those two things how much to get my cocaine back how much to get out of here he's like no reg delete all your cocaine 250,000 for you to get out I said do a I'll give you my numbers and use this code and use this number and your money we are here tomorrow we show up today Mrs. Connie said the money is here we are going to take you to a city in Panama they are going to beat you up a bit in front of the DEA just to make you look good and stick to your story that you were looking, you were actually selling weapons to the Sandinistas and I say well, so we did it and they took us to a small office, they put us on these benches.

They went over the wall and then they brought this little Panamanian boy who couldn't weigh more than 100 pounds soaking wet five four naked they threw him on the floor and they took a broomstick and they stuck it up Hannam's anus and literally the blood splattered everywhere where They looked at me he says I only had 40 pounds of marijuana and there are two pilots now we are larger than life six four six five they broke up and started telling him that not only was he not dealing with everything but he was the

biggest

drug

dealer

in the world at that moment he said, but I just bribed the Attorney General to disarm them and take me and this guy Harold to a dungeon and then they went and tortured us for 25 days naked with cattle prods in the testicles, beat us senseless . we faint we come back to life and they hit us again two three by eight tell them but you know what's interesting is that I told them this is one of the things that bothers me the most people say why do you get so angry with people it's a lie I said because there is something in my head that the truth matters and something in my head that says that I stayed in the flow of a damn Panamanian prison

being

tortured where every time I went to the bathroom for five years I passed blood because I was not willing to break. my word to break my honor even though I was convinced that most of the people I was covering for would betray me one day and they did, but that was something like me telling my children that I didn't do it for them, I did it because I live my life a certain way I don't care what I do people can say George is loud, he's obnoxious, he belittles him, but no one is going to say that your father is not a man and I really die and then I give up my life. honor because, oh.

I have no or no control over the rich or the poor, you know, sick, real, dead, I mean, living in this time more than ever, but I have absolute control of one thing in life, my word and I was not willing to break. that world, so for 30 days we are tortured in a way you can never imagine, there is no food, only wavy water, no toilets or anything, just a dirty and smelly floor in this dungeon and finally my fear because people always He said that you have never feared anything. I said no, I said the only thing I ever feared in my life was just one time I felt like I was losing my mind because I was a prisoner who crossed me and spent the whole day licking the bar and I was like, God, you have to do it. .

I mean I didn't believe in God I said you have to kill me but I'm not going to lose my mind so my defense was I started cursing at the office I said listen turn to Noreaga then he senses and kills me I'm going to get out of here he knows I have the power I'm going to rape his wife, rape his daughter right in front of him, I'm going to cut him into pieces and then kill him, well I knew I was going to do something with him, he'll come and just kill me and sure enough, today more Later he appears and when he appears he starts laughing and says: why are you angry with me?

Two things I didn't tell you, number one and number two, you paid the wrong guy and I'm like how much is it only 252, damn, can't you come up with a different price? It was four guys with 250, kind to God, because 250 is a standard price, so I told him the same thing. I told him, look, take this number and call and you had the money in a day or two and sure enough, then he clearly said look, I'm sending you to Costa Rica, I bought tickets to Costa Rica, show them to us and they took us to Well, first of all , they put us in this. against this war and with pulses of fire hydrants they begin to wash us because the indistinct blood on us was horrible and I don't know what is more the torture or the washing but we are waiting for the airport to go to Costa Rica and Interpol came with 30 agents and we were on a plane to Miami and I arrived in Miami and they accused me of heading the largest vodkas in the world.

They gave me seven million dollars bail and I just turned 23 and I had no idea. Why did they come up with that? Because no one knew anything about me. It took me years to discover that my lawyer had betrayed me, but until then it was like because one of the things in my life that Allah never hurt, except the government. It's just that I run this like a business that I don't run like most drug

dealer

s, where it's a big party to them and they're out there with fanfare and literally,they continued and under the RICO statute the criminal enterprise continues it doesn't matter if you stopped 20 years ago you know if the people you deal with continued in that enterprise you are just as guilty as they are and the guy was a friend of mine that I met in prison, Vicky Lynn and there were 165 people charged, he was the last guy and he ended up getting a life sentence so I could have pressured him I could have gotten the license well, you did your four years, they took you out of 99.5, four and a half in total, you did ten years in prison, which was a quarter of your life at that point once you understand it get out of 1995 you were completely done with the drug business I ended up in '87 that's why I jumped out of that okay these are doubles you want to change your life change your environment the first thing you should do Do it because if you go back to the place where you lived with you, all your friends are DC, that's to make you come back, you know, like people think that Brazilians grow so tall because people don't change in prison, that's the problem.

I'll tell you my perfect example. I will be 100% on this. Forget about our prison and I couldn't feed my family no matter what I did because no one was going to hire me. I had this label of a twice-convicted drug dealer and no one would hire me. and I couldn't wait to feed my father, what do you think he was going to do? I was going to go back to Miami and do what I know how to do. Doing drugs and that's what happened. People change in prison. They want to start a new one. life they don't want to go through their life but society doesn't give them a chance why because mass incarceration is nothing more than an inventory of their bodies so I thank God that I decided to study so I became a fanatic so I give it to you 4.0 and then when I was accepted to do a PhD when I graduated, I was one of five Hispanics in the entire country, so all the universities recruited me to teach at a big salary.

I have already been teaching at Wheaton College, where I am still. associate professor but my father died and when my father died I really condemned myself my father I write a week before my wedding and I miss him I'm crying tremendously and I'm like I'm fighting, give me something, why am I missing out? he so much then I realized you know what he did he gave me a lot he gave me his presence he was with me help me walk through life and I adored my father he was my hero my body used to laugh my father would come to my house and to us We love watching movies together and he would say: Hello son, what time is it?

And I say it's almost 10 o'clock and he says, "You're busy tomorrow, say yes, I'm busy tomorrow." Okay, he'd say, son, I guess. I need to go to bed, do you know what I did? I lay down on my body, boys, deceased man, precedence, bow before you and your father, sending your bed like a little child. I said yes, because that's the respect I have for my father, they said yes. You feel like your dad said I'm scared enough to hit you and kill myself or something. I fear disappointing the man I love the most, so

being

good at bad doesn't make any difference in my life, so when I go out and I miss my father.

I realized that yeah, I'm going to be this big because there's no internet now, so no, one, my whole deal, no one, you don't know about me. I'm going to get my Ph.D. I'm going to teach and I'll have a ton of pretty girls begging me for something great in life. That is what I want. to do and no one will know who George is, well, and suddenly I realized that I had three children for primary school who lived in Georgia and I thought my children would remember me as someone who sends a check every month. time, so I told my wife, I told her I'm quitting and I'm moving to Georgia.

I'm going to be a

full

-time father and she said to me: what are you going to do? I told him no. I know I will figure it out and we did and I started a small business in the basement of our house and grew it into a multi-million dollar international national company and then in 2012 I decided I was done. I like it if I keep the definition of when enough is enough, only greed would drive them and I want to be there for the last two children. I had six. My first four children spend most of their lives.

I was in prison, so I retired and that's what I did. Any real blow to your life or attempt on your life is worth it, no, so here's the interesting thing: when I got out of prison a year later, the million drug cartel went to war with the Cali cartel and the million drug cartel were eliminated. I was at my dad's house and I got a call from this lawyer who's coming to see me and I've been out of prison for a year. It was the summer he was visiting my parents and he came to see me and told me.

I'm representing this or that boss of the Cali cartel, hey, I want to tell you something, you never have to worry about your life, we know how you got up and then you don't say anything, look at the phone where we are. We landed and refueled in Colombia from Bolivia that phone belonged to a young man who was one of the highest ranking members of the Cali cartel and could have taken him down if he had ever said his name but they knew because they went to Panama. and they caught the guy who tortured me and I think you didn't do this to honor me, you did this because I'm 23 years old, you wonder what the hell I said, say what we do, we know those people are animals. and my godfather told me look my nephew went to Peru to do a drug deal and I had to spend $25,000 to eventually get it and they sent it to me in a box cut into four pieces so we thought you were going to talk so I created that reputation, you know When you think about the tons of cocaine that you helped distribute in the United States, you know, at the time you started doing cocaine, it was a rich man's drug, no one thought it was addictive, it was a party drug, no. big deal, you look at 2020, you look at 2020, the chaos that all that cocaine has created, like for example, I never tried cocaine because when I was 23 my best friend overdosed and died from cocaine and I remember having gone to that funeral. and say: I'm not going to try this, this stuff is too dangerous, cocaine eventually became crack and it just destroyed black and brown communities, many ended up creating crack, babies ended up where children sold crack to their own mothers, people murdered for that, lost people. their lives and lost their freedom when you think about the massive devastation you created just to make money as a born again Christian, how do you really deal with that these days?

I can't correlate it. No matter what I do, I've done everything I've ever used, I've preached a lot and I work a lot with young people and people say that. I'll give you an example. I did this big event and this girl comes to me and says. doctor about this, could you pray for my baby and like it? I look at this baby and say, yeah, can you tell me something? and she says yes. My baby was born in the bathroom of a crack house and didn't die because the toilet didn't flush, so don't think that breaks me.

I live with it for the rest of my life and no wonder I saw, and even though I live a great life now that I've passed, I overdosed on my son and I had his. My mother called me on December 25th. He was dead and by the grace of God he was saved. So we do things in life and I tell people. I don't justify anything I do to compensate. I don't do what I do to make up for the wrong I did and although I didn't think I was wronging anyone and it turned out that what he did was the only consolation for me, if there was any, and I paid, I paid, well, no I paid enough honestly.

I should have died, but the only worry was that when I saw what happened, that cocaine was no longer for the rich and famous, I went out on my own and there is no other case where someone stops making that money time and that power, but Yes, I live with it my whole life and I've seen horrible things and I've been through help and you know I don't cry about it because you know I deserve it. Seeing people think you know God. I do it wrong. You have to forgive me, yes, but the thing is that I think I see God in three dimensions.

I see God. I'm neon Tippett, so he can see that he knows everything, but I also see that God is merciful, but God is just. So what is justice if Jorge Valdez gets away with everything they didn't get away with? So, damn, just the fact that I'm alive, it might be God's mercy, but justice is that you punish wrong and reward justice rightly, so I live with that - the day I die and that's what What I tell people is that sometimes we do things we think we're not hurting anyone we think we're doing something innocent I mean we used to joke about that we used to say with the Kennedys of the 20th century, you know they like everything, we're dealing cocaine, but The truth is that yes, I live with that pain every day of my life and there is no way to make sense of it.

There is nothing I can do. nothing I can I can die 20 lives saying I can serve 20 life sentences I can die 20 times not to make up for the wrong I did right, so can I make sense of it? I can't, I thank God that I have gotten a different opportunity in life and that I have the opportunity to do something good and make a difference in people's lives. You know, we ship millions of books. I have sent one hundred thousand books to prisons to try to prevent the prisoners from becoming Jorge Reyes. I work with young people. trying to help them raise awareness, that listen, you think that these decisions that you are making today have consequences for each of our decisions and yes, I suffer consequences, not enough, I mean, but then how do you draw the line?

What do you say it's enough for? What I did is impossible for me to say so I can do it all in the past because I cannot be defined' my president my future cannot be defined by my past true I am what I did what I did and there is nothing I can do to erase that God knows God knows that if I could, God knows if I could go to Panama a hundred times and it would be the worst experience a human being could dream of, I would do it all over again to try to get that passport, there is none.

I can live punishing myself every day the only thing I can do is good, what can I do now with the gift that God has given me the second chance to make a difference? Well, Jorge Valdez, it's an incredible story and it's an incredible story. life, you know it, you talked in your book about what you were like, you started as the American dream and became the nightmare of the United States. I think you take responsibility for what you did, what you did, you don't try to make excuses for it. and I think in the latter part of your years you're trying to make up for the mistakes you made and the other day that's all we could do.

One of the things I do a lot is deal with people's mentality. true, because it's about the mentality you have, how you look at the world, even during this pandemic, you know people, they like it, why you are not afraid, you know why you look the way you look, I said because We don't give ourselves account of all the pain that there is in this world, this mass incarceration. I fight a lot for that to raise awareness so that they listen, this is a mafia. We were locking up people who are not criminals. We are locking up people who have mental health problems. that the United States ignored that it was not worried right now about this health pandemic, people are dying from the virus.

I think the consequences of mental health issues that we're going to address with the fear that the mainstream media has put on people the impact of suicides, well they say 891, so one of the things that I'm doing to address to get away from your screen, I finally came up with the idea to make this journal, you know how to help people change their minds, you know, talk about things that you know how you look at the world, you know through what lenses you look at the world. I call it the North Central Minded Journal. Properly look at the world through the lens of fear, you know.

I tell people to listen. I don't listen to the news anymore. Don't tell me how many people have died, there is nothing I can do about the people that have died, there is nothing I can do about the people that have died because of what I have done, so tell me about what I have to do as a citizen and then I can. I'm not afraid. What can I do to improve my life? What can I do to put myself in a position where if something like this happened that I think was going to happen for a long time?

I'm protecting my family. I am protecting. Myself and I am protecting those I can and how I can help those who are in desperate need right now. You know, we said we have to worry about lives and not the economy, or do it. You know, that's wonderful when you're a rich journalist and making a lot of money, I mean, you can, you can be home for three years and it will shock you. I was in a three-by-eight cell for ten years, so this distance thing is nothing. How about a mom who can feed the baby? just think about those people and we are very reactive and when we react, we overreact, we are not proactive.

We take a look at the 70 thousand kids that are dying and we drive around screaming that from the top of my lungs, no one gives a damn, we gotta do that, man, we gotta stop the stupid war on drugs, that's it a joke and let's help people create clinics that deal with mental health. Mental health is a very, very big problem in America that we just ignore. and it will come,It will just bite us in the face, but you know you do the best you can by praying and then one day you die. I'm 64 now, so I never thought I'd be over 40, so I'm blessed, yeah.

I mean aging is a gift, it's really something that a lot of people don't get to experience, unfortunately we lost a lot of 20 year olds, you know, especially in hip-hop, you lose a lot of 20 year olds. and 30 and so on, but Jorge Valdez, I appreciate you sharing and you know you're just trying to do the best you can to get through this difficult time and it sounds like you're doing everything you can to make up for your previous mistakes so I wish you the best . Best of all, I appreciate you coming to Vlad TV to tell him about your bad smell.

Someone could have been a great pleasure. I would love to come back. I have a wonderful saying. Take care until next time. Ah, peace.