Joe Rogan | What Americans Don't Understand About Mexico's Cartel Problem w/Ed Calderon

Yeah, just like when you're over here and you look at it, do you see it any differently from looking at it, looking at the situation over there and how crazy Mexico is from America? Like how ignorant Americans are to how bad it really is. Yeah, I mean, so I've been up here for four years now as a resident, right? And I came up here at the weirdest time probably in US history as far as, you know, when I was going through my immigration process, Trump got elected. So it was pretty interesting, you know. And, you know, being pulled to both sides of the political spectrum, you know, and seeing how people would talk about Mexico in ways that were like, you're realistic or, you know, just weird things that you would hear. It's like, that's not how it is, you know, that's not how it happens. What's a big misconception? That it's a Mexico problem only and that the influence and the cartels are here in the US too. You know, they're all there everywhere. You know, it's not the border, the border thing is like, that's the border, but they're on both sides. You know, there's definitely cartel here in the US. So then most Americans thinking of it as a foreign problem. It's foreign if you live far from the border, maybe, you know. But, you know, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. That's one thing that I will see, like, and also that it's a problem that Mexico should fix itself. You know, that's a lot. They also hear that now they should fix their own shit. Yeah. But their own, you know, the problems down there, you know, stem from firearms and money coming from up here and the big drug market. And, you know, the money going into some corrupt hands down there at times and then basically them burning the manual every six years and just starting anew on their fight and the cars. Does anybody else say this other than you? Like, does anybody say that politically over there? There's a few people. There's a few people. I was actually in charge of the governor of Baja security detail towards for two years to almost three years. I was put there because he was a very good friend of Felipe Calderon. He was his compadre and he was very high level. And there was a lot of threats in his life. And again, he was heading up the tip of the spear for the counter cartel operations in the whole of Mexico. And he implemented a plan in T.J. that was then replicated throughout the country. And he would be very vocal in his counter cartel rhetoric and how we could do better and how we should all work together. He developed these groups called boom groups, basically army, municipal police, state police, all of them working together in these operations groups and just going out there. And it's the jurisdiction of everybody here to do whatever we need to do. And he was pretty instrumental. His name was Osunami Yan. And he's out of politics now. And he had a lot of threats on his life. And it was pretty interesting working with him. He's one of those people think that all politicians corrupt out there. It's not true. There's some good ones. He was one definitely I worked directly with him. And I could tell you that he was one of those good ones. And Lieutenant Colonel Lee Zola, who's now running for Marip De Juana. He's one of those vocal guys. There's a reason why he's been tried to kill him nine times. You know, he's saying something, you know, he's he represents something. There are good people down there willing to fight. It's just that there's a lot of more bad people who want to kill. You must have seen some horrific shit over the course of your career. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Bodies, the brutality, torture, all that, all that type of stuff down there. Again, I tell people working down there is the closest thing to the Wild West you have currently. It's basically people. And when the people say third world country, there's a lot of cosmopolitan places just across the border that aren't necessarily alien to American eyes. Right. Yeah. Now imagine all this, you know, crazy things happening down there. Like there was a famous firefight in Tijuana, the cupola, which is basically there was a big cartel stronghold inside of this castle type thing. You know, it had a big giant dome on top of it. The cupola shootout. And when you when that happened, basically a bunch of everybody responded to this thing. It was next to a school and kids were being evacuated from and it was pretty horrific. A lot of the people on the inside, they had a lot of people abducted on the inside and they had they basically executed all of them. And some of the people on the inside with the cartel guys would put zip ties on themselves and, you know, kneel down the ground so they would you would think it was them. And you saw a uniform police officer inside of there shooting outside to a uniform police officer. So you would see how the crazy corruption and, you know, L.A. shootout happens. Bank robbery. Two guys with AK 47. North Hollywood. That one militarized the whole policing in the United States. That type of thing happens in T in Mexico, in Mexico every day. And nothing happens. Nothing changes. You know, that's that's that's crazy part. You know how how how that just is part of the normal now down there. Nothing changes. No. No adjustments. No adjustments. No evolution. You know, these guys used to roll around dressed as cops with clone vehicles. And now they roll around in taxi cabs and are more discreet and how they move. These guys used to use drug mules and drug tunnels. Now they use unmanned drones and other means to cross their drugs. So they're always kind of evolving and adjusting. And the government is trying to smash it with a hammer for the past 10, 15, 20 years. Just whack them all. Whack them all.