[SPEAKER_02]: Previously on Cocaine Air, it's like a game which is in the water, you have to try to outthink the guy that's trying to outthink you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's really all mental.
[SPEAKER_02]: Before it all happens, you have to put pieces in front of you and be ahead of the curb before you turn that corner.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you know what's on the other side of that fence.
[SPEAKER_02]: And how do I do that?
[SPEAKER_02]: By putting players, putting pieces, putting pawns.
[SPEAKER_02]: And these pawns and these pieces, they don't know me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some buffered by one guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: They never meet me.
[SPEAKER_02]: They know there's a guy out there that's doing something, but they don't know who that guy is.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the event that they get in trouble, they do some ripple back to me.
[SPEAKER_03]: TJ in his mid 20s at this point, quickly becomes an expert in smuggling bales and bales of marijuana.
[SPEAKER_03]: From the Bahamas, into South Florida.
[SPEAKER_02]: but it's just not enough.
[SPEAKER_02]: penny $14 million to complete the sugar milk project.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is gonna take forever.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm doing the math on this thing and I'm like, I got my arms crossed now and I see that I've got, let's say, $300,000 and I got $200,000 a pod and I'm sitting around waiting for more pod.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got more money than I can buy more pod.
[SPEAKER_02]: So how do you solve that situation?
[SPEAKER_02]: We've gotta go with a pod growth.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is a pod growth?
[SPEAKER_02]: Columbia.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't take his people down to Columbia, so how do I get to Columbia?
[SPEAKER_02]: I need an area playing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Jonathan Walton, and this is Cocaine Air, the TJ Dominguez story.
[SPEAKER_03]: Episode 3
[SPEAKER_03]: Let me show you how a man dies.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's 1986 now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Top Gun is the number one movie at the box office.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel the need for me first thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And TJ Dominguez is about to merge onto his own highway to the danger zone, because his marijuana supply in the Bahamas is unreliable and dwindling.
[SPEAKER_03]: So TJ wants to go to the source, where the marijuana grows wild.
[SPEAKER_03]: The South American Country of Columbia.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ever since Spain colonized Colombia in the early 1500s, marijuana has been a staple crop alongside its cousin, hemp, which was grown to make rope and fabric.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, Colombia has been a well-established, pot-central for hundreds of years.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here's just one problem.
[SPEAKER_03]: Getting to Columbia by Boats will take TJ more than a week.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I say, yeah, so I need to buy an airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to buy an airplane to get two motors.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me get the classified.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I got the classified.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the way to happen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just like this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I picked up the newspaper and classified.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I started looking for 20, I don't even know name brands on airplanes, manufacturers.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know none of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've never been in small airplanes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm looking at, I say, oh my God, look at this one.
[SPEAKER_02]: A beach craft, twinges, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: 50 grand.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, $50,000.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sounds like a deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: Where's your plane?
[SPEAKER_02]: Tampa number.
[SPEAKER_02]: I call up the guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: I said, all right, it was a thing called the air bridge back in those days Eastern Airlines.
[SPEAKER_03]: Every hour on the hour, they had an airplane flight to Tampa, in Orlando.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, I'll be there in a couple of hours.
[SPEAKER_02]: My name is TJ, and I'm interested in that airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I jump on an airplane commercial Eastern Airlines.
[SPEAKER_02]: I fly out to a Tampa.
[SPEAKER_02]: to see this beach crab twin.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I get there, I think it was nasty, neither a pain job, but pain was burned on the knee.
[SPEAKER_02]: So not knowing anything about airplanes, I look at this thing and I said, all right, so on, so it needs a big deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a car guy, just a pain job, what's that got to cause?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think, you know, open up the door to the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: got no seats.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's nothing in, there's a shell.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, well, that's actually good because I don't need seats.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I'm going to fill this thing up with bails and marijuana.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, so that's a plus.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just carpet the thing, you know, I'm rationalizing all this stuff in my brain, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I look in the panel, which is what we would call the dash and a car, the panel of the airplane, full of holes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said there's such missing some gauges.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, big deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pet boys, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Go down there get some fuel gauges get this get that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I Tell the guy okay 50 grand, but I'm thinking I'm stealing this airplane, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Stealing the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: God goes so he's a cashman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that still work?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to sting report it.
[SPEAKER_02]: No problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: Give the guy 50,000 dollars in cash
[SPEAKER_02]: now the airplanes mine.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I say to the guy, okay man, I need you to give me a pilot to fly me back the fort a lot of the way I came from.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the guy says to me, okay, I could do that, but you can't go back with the plane.
[SPEAKER_02]: You said, what do you can't go back with the plane?
[SPEAKER_02]: I own the plane, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just bought it, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: It was yeah, but it doesn't have the air certificate.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, what's an air certificate, an annual?
[SPEAKER_02]: What's an annual?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, the plan needs to be certified for safety.
[SPEAKER_02]: Every year you have to comply in this airplane as auto airworthiness so it can be transported.
[SPEAKER_02]: The only way we can transport dessert plane is where they very permit, which means we gotta take a special,
[SPEAKER_02]: permission from the FAA to fly this airplane from point A to point B and it can't carry any passenger.
[SPEAKER_02]: You would be a passenger, but I'm the owner.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're still a passenger.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, all right, all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you find me a pilot?
[SPEAKER_02]: Where is the airplane need to go for a lot of the deal?
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you give me a name on where they are?
[SPEAKER_02]: Guys, name is Billy.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, okay, if I'm going to be a Billy's, okay, make sure the plane goes over there for a lot of the four
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so I now get to Billy's before he does because they got a file for a special permission to fly the Dutter plane that won't fly, got to find me a pilot, a jocky at that, you know, the one that this tracing up to jump on an airplane that's not certified.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now I get to Billy's before.
[SPEAKER_02]: Billy's office is from the ground to the ceiling, all glass, looking into runway nine right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Beautiful view of the airport.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm befriending Billy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so Billy says to me, so what kind of airplane did you buy it?
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, I got a great deal on this airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah?
[SPEAKER_02]: I see, I got a beachcraft twin just, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: 50 grand, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was, I stole the airplane, really?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, matter of fact, this should be here shortly.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I'm sitting there talking back and forth.
[SPEAKER_02]: Next thing I know, Billy tells me to be quiet.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's got radios there in the office.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was talking back and forth on day day, maybe.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what you bought.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's my plane!
[SPEAKER_02]: The guy lands!
[SPEAKER_02]: The landmen, the longest run, we didn't have brakes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I had some mechanical issues.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the guy lands safely, taxi's over.
[SPEAKER_02]: Taxes over, right in front of the ramp, right where we're looking at the thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: The guy still can get out of the, and he's like, opening up the cockpit window.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, give me out of here.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you mean get you out of here?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the door long didn't work, so they screwed the door shut.
[SPEAKER_02]: With sheet metal screws.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you can get out of the airplane, like somebody's with a screw gun, take these sheet metal screws out, open the drops of the door.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, oh my God, that's my airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: really goes, come on, let's go down there and look at it.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, we're the log books.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said log books.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are log books?
[SPEAKER_02]: You guys, you don't have log books?
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the history of the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything has ever been done to the airplane, whether it's opening up a window closing and turning a nut is that.
[SPEAKER_02]: has to be written into the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that long books, it's airplanes worthless.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he said, well, I guess we've got no log books.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, okay, and I means we're going to have to go from the ground up and create a set of log books.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to have to take basically the engine apart, compression, and do all of this stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, well, okay, do whatever.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, he says, I need to paint job.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, okay, paint it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now I'm a few hundred thousand dollars into this airplane, but before that happened, really calls me a business.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, what color you want to paint the plane?
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to have to strip it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think all the pain that's there that's burnt, because there was a fire that started.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything had been ceased in the Bahamas, and this guy bought it at an auction for a song on a dance.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I got really ripped off.
[SPEAKER_02]: I overpaid for this thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you guys saw me come in from a mile away.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Billy says, what color do you want to paint it?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, paint it blue.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, sky blue.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm understanding the blending.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, all right, so now we do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now we're putting more money into the plain gauges.
[SPEAKER_02]: This airplane, when I bought it, it had this tape on the wings.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's called 100 mile per hour tape, okay?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I have holes in the wing.
[SPEAKER_01]: This tape is guaranteed not to come off.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a hole in your mouth for hours.
[SPEAKER_02]: Plans will holes all over.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I got all this money pumped into this thing, and the time is going by.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm still waiting.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I hired a pilot to teach me how to fly.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now I came fly this airplane that I own.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Billy says to me, I've got another airplane that's ready to fly air commander.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could use that if you want to buy that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll show you that in the meantime that you're working on this other airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said to Billy, okay, fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I need an instructor.
[SPEAKER_02]: to teach me how to fly.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, oh, I know a guy that's looking for a job.
[SPEAKER_02]: Floating struck there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, okay, so he's a name is Jack.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, okay, give me the address.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I jumped on my Ferrari, and I dryed over two jacks out.
[SPEAKER_02]: A beautiful home, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I pull up as I shoot and shoot a cool, I get on a Volkswagen and I saw the guys got a really nice out.
[SPEAKER_02]: See, this is my Ferrari.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to want a lot of money from me to pay him for teaching me how to fly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I walk up to the front of the door.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nice home, maybe like a four-five bedroom home.
[SPEAKER_02]: I ring the doorbell.
[SPEAKER_02]: A little lady opens up the door.
[SPEAKER_02]: She says to me, can I help you son?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said yes, ma'am.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking for Jack Bracken, maybe your son.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you want with Jack?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, oh, ma'am, I'm looking to have him teach me how to fly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to learn how to fly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I understand his instructor.
[SPEAKER_02]: So she was, oh, you want to give him a job?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like in pain, I see, yeah, I see idea, she goes, oh, I come with me, she closes the door, I'm thinking I'm going in the house, no, no, she closes the door, come with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now we start walking around the outside of the perimeter of the house, you guys, I go winding around the house.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were way in the back, she's renting on a little efficiency, on a little shed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, Jack is living in this little shed.
[SPEAKER_02]: You should open up the door, Jagger, somebody wants to pay real money, you know, you're buying on the rent three months.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at this lady, I don't know Jesus.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Jack opens up the door.
[SPEAKER_02]: he goes uh we want to give me a job.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said yeah I should go jack like he's gonna pay you like real money.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said uh I want to learn how to fly jacks to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have a plane.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm gonna teach you I said well I got an airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, so you got an airplane?
[SPEAKER_02]: I say, yeah, you could teach me with my head.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's, what kind of airplane you guys?
[SPEAKER_02]: I got an air commander.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, all right, so I turn around and say the lady, you know she threw me a month, so she gives me a figure.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, okay, here's three for now and three for the future.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Jack turns around, he says something, come on boss, let's go, let's go look at your airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how I got a Jack involved in my life.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now I'm learning how to fly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing takeoffs from landing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm flying, I'm getting stick time.
[SPEAKER_02]: My airplane, we now name the other airplane, the hanger queen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why the hanger queen?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because she was like a prima donna, ballerina, more money, more money.
[SPEAKER_02]: She never did anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: just sit there, soak up more more money.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I got this air command is really cool going back and forward, back and forward that I'm doing these drills, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: But I don't know anybody in Colombia, but I need a connection in Colombia.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, as luck would happen, I got another buddy in mine that got an albatross, which is like a multimillion dollar airplane, a seaplane that lands in the water.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's airplane got popped by the feds and it landed in the Bahamas so he calls me up
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, yeah, what's going on?
[SPEAKER_02]: Guys, there was Tico.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he says, listen man, I got an airplane that was ceased in the Bahamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: They didn't bring it to you in the United States, but it had a little man wanting to do it all, they dumped it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they didn't catch airplane with wheat, but it's still being held in the Bahamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know you got a great contact solar there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you get me that airplane out of there?
[SPEAKER_02]: And what do you want for it?
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you want to do that job?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, okay, I tell what I'll do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll go down there, I'll get your airplane out of there, and what I'm gonna charge you, what I want is a connection in Columbia.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because what do you mean a connection?
[SPEAKER_02]: I want a mayor to want a connection.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what you can do from me.
[SPEAKER_02]: That would be my pay.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you pay me with a mayor to want a connection.
[SPEAKER_02]: Plus, whatever expenses I incur for getting your airplane out of there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever that is, you pay for that, give me a contact down there, and we're square.
[SPEAKER_03]: So TJ gets on a plane, flies to the Bahamas, quickly figures out who the director of the airport is, and sets up a meeting with them.
[SPEAKER_03]: And TJ does not show up empty-handed.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I go into his office, I got this briefcase, a couple hundred grand in the briefcase, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're all in hundreds.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm sitting there and I tell the gays, what can I do for you?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, well, you know the habit transfer over there, he says, yeah, what about it?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I'm here to see if we could work out something that I could get to play now.
[SPEAKER_02]: How to hear?
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, well, you know that airplane came hot with DEA chasing it and we're holding it.
[SPEAKER_02]: but we didn't put a hold on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the fit to put the hold on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I understand that, but what will it take for me to get that airplane out of here?
[SPEAKER_02]: He says to me, I can't let that airplane go.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, hey, can I come around the side?
[SPEAKER_02]: Did the side of your desk for a minute?
[SPEAKER_02]: So he says, why?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, you just want to show you something.
[SPEAKER_02]: Would you please, he goes, all right, so I take my chair, and move it around the side of the desk.
[SPEAKER_02]: He needs to get this drawer here, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I see to him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Would you mind if I open up that drawer?
[SPEAKER_02]: He's what he went open up my drawer for.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, because I think you would be really interested in what I'm going to show you.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so I put my briefcase on my lap.
[SPEAKER_02]: I turn sideways, so he's got a good view of what's inside this briefcase.
[SPEAKER_02]: I go click, click.
[SPEAKER_02]: I open up the briefcase.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got nothing but hundreds lined up like little soldiers inside my briefcase.
[SPEAKER_02]: and I said, stacks, boom, I throw one in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I pick up another stack of hundreds, boom, I throw it in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pick up another stack, I throw it in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said in case you're interested, each stack is 10,000.
[SPEAKER_02]: I put her in the fourth, and the fourth is what is that you want done?
[SPEAKER_02]: You still want to take the airplane?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what is going to take to a, it's just a little man.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't approve you to take the airplane because I'm not authorized for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I tell you what I could do.
[SPEAKER_02]: As you go ahead, I'm listening.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, I could look the other way where you take the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, you've looked you the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, that'll work for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, what do you use now that another issue I've got?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna need to work on an engine on the airplane order to get it off the ground.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, I'll tell you what I'll do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm moving out of the way a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, okay, I'm gonna give you a couple more steps so you can look a little longer, okay?
[SPEAKER_02]: And move it a little further down the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I give them another couple of steps who's like $60,000.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've dropped into the drawing and I'll move it off to the side.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, okay fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now I'm working on this airplane got the airplane moved to the side and bringing in mechanics, starters, and we got this radial engine going.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like 70 something thousand dollars eighty grand into this fixing the airplane and it's a bit about a month or so.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got a phone call from Tico.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey man, what's going on with the airplane?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm working on it, you know?
[SPEAKER_02]: And he said, yeah man, how long is it going to take us?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know, I'm glad you called because I'm just getting ready to call you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I said because I want to read up, you know, my investment, you know, want to get caught up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I said, yeah, I'm like 80,000 dollars in the whole year.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I like to get recuperated my investment.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, well, come on by here and talk to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, all right, it's like go with it to his house.
[SPEAKER_02]: When I enter, it's like, you've got this Colombian guy that's dressed in like a little tennis shorts and the guys, like a rope, Prima Donna looking, you've got the gold roller, the press tend to annoying.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what he is.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Tico says to me, this is my partner from Columbia.
[SPEAKER_02]: I saw a nice to meet you blah, blah, blah, blah What's going on with the airplane T?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, oh God darn man, I'm the way everything I can You didn't tell me how bad this thing needed work.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've had to replace this part this other part.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm waiting 80 grand into the whole so he says
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, um, you're gonna be able to get it up the ground.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, yeah, I'm gonna get it up the ground, but I'm gonna need my $80,000.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the Colombian guy says to me, can we see the airplane?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, absolutely, but I want my money before we go any further.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I gotta go, it's okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna give you your 80 grand.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they give me 80 grand.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, how could can you go?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna go exactly right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I'll have, I'm gonna drive back up the Ford Laudado.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was in Miami.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna fly back here in my airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to pick you up at Miami International Airport.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll be ready to go in 30 minutes, or 40 minutes be there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to drive up and fly back and pick you up.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going straight to the Bahamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, exactly what I told them is exactly what we need.
[SPEAKER_02]: We landed the Bahamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm flying the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: We jack over here and kept in Jack's teaching me to fly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm still learning.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not licensed or anything, but I got a lot of airtime now flying and landing and taking off of them on the face and stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: And at the same time drinking beer is crazy days, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So we landed in the Bahamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the guy sees that I'm doing everything I said I was going to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is the airplane itself to the side and a little corner there.
[SPEAKER_02]: A little cockroach going right there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Got my guys working on the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said you see the guy goes in and on the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: I see everything you're doing.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says you don't target.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go get a beer.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, all right, so now we go to the little do drop and little beach club in.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I got my feet up on the railing, we're both looking at the horizon.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're not looking at each other.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says to me, looking straight forward, drinking a hike again, without looking at me.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're both looking at the horizon.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says to me, him and that airplane that we flew in over here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that your airplane and that he turns to looks at me?
[SPEAKER_02]: At that point, I turned and looked at him and I said, yeah, you don't want about that airplane?
[SPEAKER_02]: That would thus fly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he says, you want to put it to work as a man, and he said, thought you never has.
[SPEAKER_03]: So this guy that TJ is talking to is going to be instrumental in TJ's marijuana business because he's got all the right connections in Columbia,
[SPEAKER_03]: And he really likes TJ, and he really believes in him.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, how quickly you get going.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, how quickly can I get going?
[SPEAKER_02]: Just hang on here for one minute.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll be right back.
[SPEAKER_02]: I run into the room.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I go capped in Jack, that's how you used the like to be called.
[SPEAKER_02]: If he said Jack, he wouldn't answer.
[SPEAKER_02]: It had to be a capped in front of the Jack, capped in Jack.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, what's going on, T?
[SPEAKER_02]: Listen man, let me ask you something.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I do for a living?
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's yeah, you're a builder.
[SPEAKER_02]: I see, yeah, that's trying to a builder.
[SPEAKER_02]: I see, you know what else I do for a living?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you got the radios and the beepers and stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, yes, yes, I said to him.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know what else he says.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, man, why are you asking me all these questions?
[SPEAKER_02]: I see because I'm a swungler, Jack.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, what?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I bring in a lot of marijuana, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why are you telling me all of this, Jack says to me?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, because it's a simple Jack.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got an offer, the flight of Columbia,
[SPEAKER_02]: and I'm not ready to fly that trip alone.
[SPEAKER_02]: I need somebody to fly with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: You wanna make $50,000, I'll pay $50,000 to fly down there to Columbia and pick up a little mirror one.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why don't wanna go to jail?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, you're not gonna go to jail.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there how are we gonna get rid of the weed?
[SPEAKER_02]: I say simple, Jack, we're gonna fly over the ocean.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got a couple of speedbows waiting down and open up the dough and you'll throw this shit out the door.
[SPEAKER_02]: Love the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: There ain't no landing the airplane.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's total safety, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he goes, you're gonna be there with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I'll be there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would miss this thing for the world.
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you kidding me?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, we'll start packing Jack, we're out of here.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I run back to the Colombian guy, he says, I'm ready to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go.
[SPEAKER_02]: I packed up in Jack and I went down to Colombia.
[SPEAKER_02]: They pick up some marijuana.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, in a very short time, TJ's flights to Columbia start paying off big time.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's bringing in tons of marijuana every month, but he's not actually flying all that marijuana into South Florida.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's flying it over the Bahamas, well off the coast of the Bahamas, and then dropping it in the ocean.
[SPEAKER_03]: So his boats standing by can fish it out and sneak it into South Florida.
[SPEAKER_03]: By this point, TJ has a revolving portfolio of waterfront homes up and down the Florida coast that would receive these tons of marijuana every other day.
[SPEAKER_03]: But as streamlined as this process is, things don't always go according to plan.
[SPEAKER_03]: And tragedy is literally lurking around every corner.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm on a speedboat, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had lost three or four trips, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Meaning what?
[SPEAKER_02]: I lost two boat to hit waves, disintegrated blow up.
[SPEAKER_02]: People died, they died the boat went under.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's no secret, drug smuggling is probably the most dangerous profession in the world.
[SPEAKER_03]: And having a bad day at work as a drug smuggler means people die.
[SPEAKER_02]: I felt so bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: I felt like, oh my god, I have sin.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I've done something terrible.
[SPEAKER_03]: But TJ is too far in now to even consider stopping.
[SPEAKER_03]: Besides, accidents happen in every profession, and that certainly wasn't the last one for TJ.
[SPEAKER_02]: Another one we put the stuff in the wrong boat when I was in the airplane that was really crazy I'm down here and go ahead drop the eggs on hit me Okay, we fly by we see two speedboat.
[SPEAKER_02]: We put down you know ton of man 1 we dropped 2,000 pounds of a we on the wrong boat But I'm responsible for those man, I wanted to go on being in Columbia You know, so those two boats got like a manna from heavens all of a sudden.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah
[SPEAKER_02]: Crazy day, you know, no GPS again.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and when you're out there in the middle of the ocean three hundred miles away from the shore and you're doing a hundred and eighty knots on an airplane And it's dusk because we're doing the air drugs right before the sun totally goes down You don't want to do it in the daytime and you don't want you can obviously do it at night because you're not gonna be able to see anything So we got a time they just perfect on the last bail we usually put a glow stick on the last bail.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a last one going out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Follow it
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was determined.
[SPEAKER_02]: I always take two boats with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I learned that from experience.
[SPEAKER_02]: One is a shadow boat.
[SPEAKER_02]: It follows the lead boat wherever the lead boat that's got the drugs on board.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wherever he goes, the other one goes.
[SPEAKER_02]: We usually talk with FM transmitting radios heads back and forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: The 925 would like you to read.
[SPEAKER_02]: In this particular incident I wanted to drive the lead boat which is the one with the drugs At this point my guys are arguing with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, you're the guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're the head if you go down everything shuts down You're gonna be in the shadow boat, you know, and arguing back and forth and I'm on the boat with Ton of marijuana Well, they finally talk me off the boat.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I get on the shadow boat Make a long story short.
[SPEAKER_02]: We got separated with bad weather
[SPEAKER_02]: And I could hear the engines roaring, but I couldn't see them.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was nighttime.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're doing this kind of stuff at 2 o'clock in the morning when we coming in.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they hit a rock formations in the flats in the Bahama.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we're under and they all died.
[SPEAKER_02]: and I had been on that boat arguing for 30 minutes when we were fueling 400, 500 gallons of fuel for the boat for the run in sight to the state.
[SPEAKER_02]: So again, destiny took a hand.
[SPEAKER_02]: You got to get off the boat, you got to get off the boat.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't want to get off the boat.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got off the boat in less than an hour later.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're running side by side.
[SPEAKER_02]: We get separated, he hits a rock, both of my guys died.
[SPEAKER_03]: Could've been you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Should've been me.
[SPEAKER_03]: At this point, TJ has cheated death at least a hundred times, and he's making millions of dollars now.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he starts parlaying all that cash into legitimate businesses, businesses that he's really passionate about.
[SPEAKER_03]: How when and why did you open a Lamborghini dealership?
[SPEAKER_03]: How'd that come about?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I've always had a love for cars.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a car guy at heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not about the money.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's about the love of sports cars.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whether it's an MG, a triumph, you know, it's got to be a two-seater.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I love two-seater cars open top, you know.
[SPEAKER_02]: And my favorite car of all times, all my whole life today, even, is the X-K-E Jaguar.
[SPEAKER_02]: It came on in 1961, and in the last run was 1974, two-seater, very, very low to the ground.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I had a whole bunch of cars, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Having had a whole bunch of cars, and I've got tickets to 170 miles per hour.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my God.
[UNKNOWN]: Oh my God.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my God.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can those days.
[SPEAKER_02]: You didn't really go to jail if you were not an ass.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, if you didn't bat my, you know, if you didn't, my off to the policemen.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to yell at you, tell you, it's not the odd amount and all this kind of stuff, but he's not going to take you and now you're automatically taking it to jail.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that great lawyer has paid off certain individuals for these tickets to go away, and they did, they really, really did.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now, at one point before this, I didn't, my license was like to appoint that huge insurance company, we're not insuring me because I got a few of these crazy tickets, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm having a hard time getting insurance.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I sit there and I said, how can I get around this?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, if I become a car dealer, there's a couple of upsides to this.
[SPEAKER_02]: One, I won't pay taxes because I'm a dealer.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I buy a $300,000 a car, $500,000 a car, I'm buying under the corporation.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I don't have to pay taxes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I own it, but I pay no sales tax because I'm buying it to resell.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thing is, I'm not going to resell it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a keeper.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that's one benefit.
[SPEAKER_02]: The other benefit was I can get a blanketing assurance under the dealership.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now I've got five tags and I'm gonna run through the corporation.
[SPEAKER_02]: Another benefit to all of this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can have my own mechanics.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, is that I actually got into fist fights?
[SPEAKER_02]: with mechanics that have abuse my car and they've put scratch on my car and I am I'm it's not road rage but I treat my car like an extension off of me you know so
[SPEAKER_02]: Just finding an honest mechanic is a hard thing to do back in the day, you know, even to today, you know, they're going to tell you, oh yeah, you need a new starter, come back in two hours.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to tell your starter, lower it down, repain it, put it back up there and try.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I found a use when you got a deal on it, yeah, the deal is, are you sold your own starter back again, you know?
[SPEAKER_02]: So having been around people like that, it was nice having my own mechanic.
[SPEAKER_03]: So TJ goes ahead and gets a car dealership license under a new corporation, essentially so he can ensure his cars.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because at that point, TJ had racked up so many insane speeding tickets for doing 150 in a 55.
[SPEAKER_03]: That car insurance companies refused to cover him.
[SPEAKER_03]: then one night, around this time, TJ's driving by a South Florida Ferrari dealership, and he sees a lavender colored Ferrari on the lot, and he wants it, bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: Make a long story short, I go in the next day and I set to the salesmen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that an original color?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that a red paint?
[SPEAKER_02]: In Gaggo, you know, that's an original color, especially order for a client.
[SPEAKER_02]: You didn't have the money, so he never took delivery of the car.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, okay, I'm gonna buy it.
[SPEAKER_02]: and that was funny because I was with another guy that was my buyer of marijuana and he's you're gonna really like a tee and I say I really really like it.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes you know what?
[SPEAKER_02]: Stay next to the car so I go stay next to the car and he says to me you don't want to tee.
[SPEAKER_02]: You look so good next to that car.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna buy it for you for a gift.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, John, you're going to buy me this for Ari as it give, and then he goes, yeah, yeah, me.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, got your name written all over it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, you know, that's really a nice gesture.
[SPEAKER_02]: Meanwhile, the salesman is looking at this, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Things were crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, you know what John?
[SPEAKER_02]: You see that black bench over there, that it's 560.
[SPEAKER_02]: in 560 was to catch me out with the main one, like 600.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, you know, Jun, that looks a lot like you.
[SPEAKER_02]: The costan will there and see if you really fit that image.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what, Jun?
[SPEAKER_02]: At least then I could do it by you, that car.
[SPEAKER_02]: Tito, you're going to give me this car?
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's all use it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I could do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to give me a Ferrari and you go, well, that's really nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's go get some lunch.
[SPEAKER_02]: Salesman says to me, well sir, this Ferrari with a special color won't be here if you take too long.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said get your hand out of my pocket.
[SPEAKER_02]: If it's meant to be, it will be here, but don't hustle me for the pausic.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not that kind of guy, okay?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll be back.
[SPEAKER_02]: What I was trying to figure out, how the hell are we going to pay for this thing with cash?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because the dealer, you know, back in those days, anything where 10,000, a lot of them get reported to the IRS.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know the owner of the dealership.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm gonna go have a couple of beers and talk to John here about spending 300,000, 400,000 dollars in cash and giving it to the owner of the dealership.
[SPEAKER_02]: So John is like, you sure he's gonna, we're not gonna get in trouble here?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I know the guy, know the guy really well, you sure he's gonna take this cash, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, this doesn't go back over there and let me do the talk and he's get the money put the money in a couple of free cases.
[SPEAKER_02]: I go to see the owner of the dealership.
[SPEAKER_02]: and I said, Mr. X.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, dude, what's going on?
[SPEAKER_02]: How are you?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I listen, and you see us two cards over there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to buy them, but I want to buy them in cash.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got to be a problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the positives, payments, only about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, okay, you're the money.
[SPEAKER_02]: and I said to the owner, and the general manager heard it, don't title the car in the main.
[SPEAKER_02]: Put it on the corporation.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got a dealer license.
[SPEAKER_02]: What you do?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So as I'm walking out, the general manager that he had there comes up there and goes, hey man, I said, yeah, I need a new up main.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, how would you, you're going to dealer license?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, yeah, I got a dealer license.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, how would you want to have your own car place?
[SPEAKER_02]: And he says, what do you mean?
[SPEAKER_02]: So he says, you know, I can run it for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not real happy here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at all the benefits.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will take care of all your cars.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have a place to park it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have a place to keep it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll make sure that they're all spotless.
[SPEAKER_02]: Get a transportation equipment.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll move your cars around.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have your own mechanic.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I say keep talking.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm liking everything I'm hearing, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So the more he talks, I say, okay, fine, come by my office.
[SPEAKER_02]: My investment company is in the regional investment.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll sit down and we'll talk.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll get into this car business.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it'll be on you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'll call you up and I want to drive the red one.
[SPEAKER_02]: You drop it off and on the blue one.
[SPEAKER_02]: you make sure that all this happening, I will make sure that everything is on your points for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I buy a little building over here, now is the size of a shoe box.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I'm in the car business now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Use car business.
[SPEAKER_02]: I put up Lamborghini's Ferrari.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now I'm hearing from Lamborghini and Ferrari lawyers that I can't advertise.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not a franchise.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they're telling me to take that sign down.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, why don't I need, I am selling these cards but you're not a franchise.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can now, you got to have that word of this is used for pre-owned.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right now, I just had a big old sign for Ari Lamborghini.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's against the law to do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm hearing from their lawyers.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is really pissing me off, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not gonna say that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they said to my general manager.
[SPEAKER_02]: Find out what train-chise is out there for sale.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if it's not for sale, I'll make it for sale.
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell me what train-chise, I want something like Ferrari or Lamborghini.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that name came up and then I made it for sale.
[SPEAKER_02]: $5 million later, I became the Lamborghini franchise the guy to go to.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how I got into the car business.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't get into it because of money.
[SPEAKER_02]: Money I'm making.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was just a passion for the cars
[SPEAKER_03]: So, as the months go by, TJ's leading kind of a double life, especially when it comes to business.
[SPEAKER_03]: By day, he's selling Lamborghini's to rich people.
[SPEAKER_03]: But by night, he's smuggling tons of marijuana from Colombia into South Florida.
[SPEAKER_03]: Things seem to be going really well.
[SPEAKER_03]: When all of a sudden the proverbial shit hits the fan, TJ gets kidnapped and brought to a deserted farmhouse.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a guy standing over him now with a loaded gun pointing at TJ's head.
[SPEAKER_03]: He cocks it back and is about to fire.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would be shitting my pants right about now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Crying and begging for my life.
[SPEAKER_03]: But TJ is just cut from different cloth entirely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's what I said to him, go ahead, kill me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said I'm ready to die.
[SPEAKER_02]: Listen man, you gotta torture me and shoot me also go to the end.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, shoot me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like I'm out with this torturing bullshit.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm tired of this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Shoot me.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll show you how man died To see some incredible photographs documenting TJ's life go to cocaineair.com
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you're enjoying Cocaine Air, please hit that share button and text it to your friends and family right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you feel comfortable, leave us a five-star review.
[SPEAKER_03]: Reviews really help other listeners find us.
[SPEAKER_03]: Cocaine Air was created, written, and executive produced by me, Jonathan Walton, for Jonathan Walton Media.
[SPEAKER_03]: Executive producers, Evan Goldstein, and the inimitable T.J. Dominguez.
[SPEAKER_03]: audioengineering by me, Jonathan Walton.
[SPEAKER_03]: All sound design and editing was done by the super talented Puneath Shanoi from Podcast Pundits.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the Cocaine Air cover art is by Bobby Animation.
[SPEAKER_03]: We've got a lot of fascinating untold stories like Cocaine Air coming down the pike at Jonathan Walton Media, so subscribe and keep an air out.