Fuld transskription af Ep 19: Leon Ives - Counterintelligence, Cartels, and Child Safety Insights

00:06:21.565 --> 00:06:38.826 So our job was to do an investigation of the attack, be it a FIBIB or any other type of attack, and work with the commander advising them of how to catch the groups that were operating in their AO. 00:06:38.826 --> 00:06:41.954 So I did that for several years. 00:06:41.954 --> 00:06:59.723 Then I realized I was getting older, so I started teaching overseas for the State Department in their anti-terrorist program and did that for several years and it was during all that time I decided to write this book. 00:06:59.744 --> 00:07:10.367 I learned a lot living in Iraq and Afghanistan about children that were kidnapped for reasons I don't even want to discuss and it was pretty horrible. 00:07:10.367 --> 00:07:15.752 And I think when I came home I realized we had the same situation right here in our country. 00:07:15.752 --> 00:07:19.851 I guess it's just one of those things you don't really see or think about. 00:07:19.851 --> 00:07:23.021 So I decided to write that book. 00:07:23.021 --> 00:07:49.043 So it addresses missing persons, primarily children, and I learned that when you try to get the police involved that can be somewhat difficult. 00:07:49.043 --> 00:08:02.040 So I wanted to give parents a way to recognize when their children are missing and what they can do to find that child far faster than law enforcement can do it. 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:04.127 So that book would do that. 00:08:05.228 --> 00:08:06.833 It also gets into kidnapping. 00:08:06.833 --> 00:08:08.365 It gets into pedophilia. 00:08:08.365 --> 00:08:21.314 It gets into everything you can imagine that women and children are the victims of, to include very violent behavior, sexual behavior. 00:08:21.314 --> 00:08:26.408 I discuss rape, date rape. 00:08:26.408 --> 00:08:35.393 I discuss the issues that are going on right in our high schools where children are being involved in sex against their will. 00:08:35.393 --> 00:08:51.746 Then when they go off to college, as we can probably remember a little bit, there's a lot of issues with women being taken advantage of and over time that's starting to include boys and men. 00:08:51.746 --> 00:08:58.683 They're the victims almost as much as women, but not to that level. 00:08:58.683 --> 00:09:08.255 So this book just teaches you how to prevent all these crimes from being committed and, if they should happen, it tells you how to deal with it. 00:09:08.255 --> 00:09:18.610 So I also get into professional counseling and things like that in the book, so it will require some thorough reading. 00:09:18.610 --> 00:09:28.032 It will require some effort for people, but I think finding your child is something that we would all want. 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:31.450 We'll get into that in detail, because I think that's important. 00:09:31.450 --> 00:09:37.245 Let me just ask you when you joined the Army where are you from, what area of the country? 00:09:37.245 --> 00:09:43.652 And you know when did you know you wanted to

be in the military and law enforcement? 00:09:43.652 --> 00:09:44.634 How old were you? 00:09:46.341 --> 00:09:52.341 Well, my dad was in the Marine Corps so we traveled around a lot but we ended up in Albany, georgia. 00:09:52.341 --> 00:09:55.812 So that's where I primarily went to school for junior and high school. 00:09:55.812 --> 00:10:05.434 And my father was a cop at one time and I think that's when the seed was planted and I realized that's something I wanted to do. 00:10:05.434 --> 00:10:28.163 So I kind of left home a little bit earlier I think I had two months before graduating from high school and I was anxious to get out of home and get into the Army and get to work and I always thought parachuting would be very interesting and I knew a lot about the 82nd Airborne from World War II. 00:10:28.163 --> 00:10:31.110 So it was just something that was in my blood. 00:10:31.110 --> 00:10:41.908 And you know, I could say I went through 10 years active duty and 13 years in the reserves and never had a day of regret not one. 00:10:43.529 --> 00:10:45.511 That's, that's commendable. 00:10:45.511 --> 00:10:51.140 The you know and I you know how I feel about it. 00:10:51.140 --> 00:10:54.248 Any veteran or anything like that, how old are you? 00:10:54.248 --> 00:10:56.732 I mean, what year did you go in what year? 00:10:58.201 --> 00:11:00.365 I went in in March of 1973. 00:11:01.145 --> 00:11:08.227 Okay, so that was, was that was post Vietnam, right, or was it? 00:11:08.946 --> 00:11:19.846 no, vietnam didn't until 74 okay so the 82nd had just returned from there, so of course we weren't deploying it again. 00:11:19.905 --> 00:11:30.591 So I did get the Vietnam veteran status, although I never went over there, okay that's what I was asking and that's to be proud of and thank you for your service. 00:11:30.591 --> 00:11:34.530 With that time there was a lot of people. 00:11:34.530 --> 00:11:56.412 I came in, or I was about to go in in 1974 with that, but I got a baseball scholarship and I took that instead and it didn't work out too well because I couldn't hit, but that's another story for another day. 00:11:56.412 --> 00:12:13.071 Let me ask you this so when you went to work at the Pentagon, that was probably a change from the military police and you explained why you went into the intelligence field. 00:12:13.071 --> 00:12:17.770 What attracted you to Customs versus the other agencies? 00:12:17.770 --> 00:12:21.961 Was there a reason or did you know somebody that was an agent in Washington? 00:12:22.542 --> 00:12:22.902 Yes, I did. 00:12:22.902 --> 00:12:24.982 Did you know somebody that was an agent in Washington? 00:12:24.982 --> 00:12:25.243 Yes, I did so. 00:12:25.243 --> 00:12:35.508 I knew many of the agents that we would meet with at Fort Myers, virginia, and I did know someone in customs, so it worked to my benefit. 00:12:35.508 --> 00:12:59.740 As you remember, we had the treasury exam, which was a monster of a test, but fortunately for veterans, you didn't have to take that test, and later on the federal government came up with a system to hire veterans off the regular best qualified list, so it was all just pure luck with timing. 00:12:59.740 --> 00:13:02.822 I'm glad I did go with Customs. 00:13:02.822 --> 00:13:22.130 I worked extensively with DEA and FBI, more so in Miami than I did in the Washington DC area, and there's just no finer group of investigators than you will find in Customs, and you well know. 00:13:23.932 --> 00:13:42.904 Yeah, I came in off the—I transferred from the Marshal Service in DC to Miami and I often joke that my ex-wife was hired and I was sitting outside for my interview and they just said you're like baseball, you're a player to be named later. 00:13:43.004 --> 00:13:47.946 so you know, you're going to be in, but yeah, it was. 00:13:47.946 --> 00:13:50.052 It was a great experience in that. 00:13:50.052 --> 00:14:09.443 So when you came here, you were here on a TDY originally and then you went over to the Vice Presidential Florida Joint Task Group, which I was part of too presidential Florida joint task group, which I was part of too. 00:14:09.443 --> 00:14:11.668 Most of the people don't realize that it started out with Operation Florida. 00:14:11.668 --> 00:14:20.706 Two of the ATF agents were killed in the early 80s with that and it was a really really, really good group to work in. 00:14:20.706 --> 00:14:26.216 There was a lot of camaraderie and I came in in the 90s for that. 00:14:26.216 --> 00:14:35.740 Can you describe your experience in the task force, what it was like and the amount of control deliveries that occurred? 00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:40.692 And I mean it was like triage, you know, deciding what cases you're going to work. 00:14:41.580 --> 00:15:00.614 Yeah, I started off in an airport group so our job was to respond to the Miami International Airport when the customs inspectors made a seizure and after going through one of those you said it was like a triage and it was we had to process the evidence. 00:15:00.614 --> 00:15:06.941 All the witnesses put everything together, get it ready for a trial evidence. 00:15:06.941 --> 00:15:08.823 All the witnesses put everything together, get it ready for a trial. 00:15:08.823 --> 00:15:30.567 But I had heard someone talk about a controlled delivery and I started looking into that and I found out that, talking a person sitting in handcuffs with 20 keys of coke on his lap, it was pretty easy to convince him to cooperate instead of going to jail for 20 years or longer, yeah, or longer, or much longer. 00:15:30.567 --> 00:15:35.291 So I started doing controlled deliveries and got pretty good at them. 00:15:35.291 --> 00:15:43.980 I can say 50% of the airport seizures I responded to turned into a controlled delivery. 00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:48.720 Airport seizures I responded to turned into a controlled delivery. 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:58.013 The best one I had and enjoyed immensely, was

three people that had smuggled in coke and they admitted it to doing it on numerous occasions. 00:15:58.013 --> 00:15:59.038 I can't remember the exact amount. 00:15:59.038 --> 00:16:07.855 We were up to 40, 50, 60 pounds, but they were smuggling cocaine in for the Hell's Angels in Montreal, canada. 00:16:07.855 --> 00:16:21.888 So, of course, having the luxury of working with DEA at the Florida Joint Task Group, we got country clearance a lot faster than normal with the DEA up in Montreal. 00:16:21.888 --> 00:16:48.557 So we flew up there with one of the defendants and along with all the coke so it's kind of nice to fly in first class with about 20 keys of coke in your overhead and met with the RCMP and the Montreal police, and the organization they were looking at had a group in Montreal oh, my gosh, toronto. 00:16:48.557 --> 00:16:53.402 So the Toronto cops were called so they kind of got involved in it. 00:16:53.402 --> 00:16:59.943 So, short story, the dope was delivered by the defendant. 00:16:59.943 --> 00:17:12.640 The RCMP and the Montreal cops did the raid on the Hells Angels clubhouse and arrested a whole group of them and most all of them pled out, except for two individuals. 00:17:14.171 --> 00:17:17.140 So that case lasted well over a year. 00:17:17.140 --> 00:17:21.721 So the defendant was locked up in Pennsylvania. 00:17:21.721 --> 00:17:33.651 So every time I would go up to Montreal for a trial or anything, I would have to stop in Pennsylvania and pull him out of prison and go up there, and then I handed him off to the police. 00:17:33.651 --> 00:17:49.679 So I had the opportunity to testify in a Canadian court, which was kind of interesting calling a judge his majesty, but the case was very, very successful. 00:17:49.679 --> 00:18:05.019 Not only did they end up indicting probably a dozen or two, yeah, I'd say almost two dozen people, but they also ended up getting some of the Montreal police who had been working with the Hells Angels. 00:18:05.019 --> 00:18:09.240 Wow yeah, so that was a bit of a shocker. 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:14.761 So then they kind of moved me over to Toronto to work that in. 00:18:14.761 --> 00:18:35.760 So we started an undercover case up in Toronto and again for about a year or two I would constantly travel up to Toronto to work with their undercover group investigating the Columbians, and I think I did some drinking a few times that night. 00:18:36.722 --> 00:18:39.656 Really With the RCMP. 00:18:39.656 --> 00:18:41.761 I'm shocked, can you imagine? 00:18:44.075 --> 00:18:44.817 So it was a great. 00:18:44.817 --> 00:18:49.890 Two years I've been working with Montreal and working with the Canadians in Toronto. 00:18:49.890 --> 00:18:53.981 It was just a fabulous case, highly successful. 00:18:53.981 --> 00:19:07.438 It was a classic example of what customs agents could do, because we weren't too satisfied with just taking the seizure at the airport and writing down that stat. 00:19:07.438 --> 00:19:11.415 We wanted to take it further, and that's what we usually did. 00:19:14.141 --> 00:19:26.442 That's amazing and, as we found, things start small but they mushroom out, you know, and they develop into bigger conspiracy cases and that. 00:19:26.442 --> 00:19:30.461 So you were there and then where did you go? 00:19:30.461 --> 00:19:33.539 Where did you go at group after that did you go to? 00:19:35.010 --> 00:19:38.881 That's when I went to the Sac Miami to work with Greenback, the money laundering group. 00:19:39.161 --> 00:19:43.961 Okay, and that was Dave Warren's group right at the time. 00:19:44.069 --> 00:19:45.395 Yes, it was Dave Warren. 00:19:45.395 --> 00:19:46.713 There were two groups, yeah. 00:19:47.778 --> 00:19:51.932 Okay, and why don't you explain to the viewers what Greenback did? 00:19:51.932 --> 00:19:58.700 Because you know the origins go way back, even before the money laundering statutes in 86. 00:19:58.700 --> 00:20:15.894 It goes back to IRS and Treasury agents working together, separate from the US Attorney's Office, which was located downtown, and explain what that was and what your role was as an agent in Greenback. 00:20:17.537 --> 00:20:26.698 Okay, well, we were actually co-located with the US Attorney's Office and IRS had a group working right around the corner from us. 00:20:26.698 --> 00:20:41.364 But, based on the Bank Secrecy Act, we have all these currency reporting laws and I'm sure people are hearing a little bit about them today with the Suspicious Activities Report. 00:20:41.364 --> 00:20:49.463 But anytime you make a cash deposit or withdrawal of over $10,000, the banks had to fill out a form. 00:20:49.463 --> 00:21:03.779 So the drug cartels were stuck with people that had duffel bags full of drug money and I mean literally millions of dollars of drug money and they would have to try to get it into the bank. 00:21:03.779 --> 00:21:13.000 So we had undercover accounts where we could deposit that money and send it down to the bad guys in Columbia. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:20.140 So they thought we were professional money launderers and we were of a sort. 00:21:20.140 --> 00:21:33.558 But they would turn the money over to us and we would, in turn, watch the person that was handling the money and he would typically lead us to the person who was the owner of that money. 00:21:33.558 --> 00:21:54.809 So there again, as opposed to just making seizures of currency for millions and millions of dollars what some people refer to as a rip and run we wanted to start building cases against the Colombians in South America, to start building cases against the Colombians in South America. 00:21:54.809 --> 00:22:08.480 So we found a way to deal with the money handlers and get them to cooperate with us on the same premise as I was telling you about the drug couriers, rather than to go to jail again for 20, 40 years. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:10.396 They were willing to take the risk. 00:22:10.396 --> 00:22:13.397 So

we would build up cases. 00:22:13.397 --> 00:22:19.525 Some of them were successful, without saying too much. 00:22:19.605 --> 00:22:33.061 As you know, we had certain undercover agents in the SAC Miami who met with probably some of the biggest drug cartel members that have ever existed in South Florida and you got to give kudos to those people. 00:22:33.061 --> 00:22:44.039 We had situations where the bad guys would call us up and want us to meet them in the Bahamas or Aruba or anywhere else. 00:22:44.039 --> 00:23:02.306 That's where customs shined when they asked to meet with us in an undercover role, excuse me, we could get country clearance in a matter of hours, whereas, as you recall, dea and FBI would need two or three days to do that. 00:23:02.306 --> 00:23:18.981 We never had that issue and it kind of upset some of the other agents because we wouldn't postpone them, because that's why the bad guys wanted to meet us and set short notice is they knew federal agents couldn't do that. 00:23:18.981 --> 00:23:32.182 So we had a very high reputation for traveling all over the world in undercover roles, meeting with these people, and we were just very quick about it. 00:23:33.611 --> 00:23:57.477 I remember one case I had a cop from London come to me and they wanted to meet some people from the NRA and I asked them why they weren't going to the FBI and they said well, we were told to come to customs because you guys could do it quickly. 00:23:57.477 --> 00:23:59.280 And I said how quickly? 00:23:59.280 --> 00:24:01.894 And he says we need to meet them tomorrow. 00:24:01.894 --> 00:24:05.847 And I says so what do you need from us? 00:24:05.847 --> 00:24:08.413 And he says well, we need a million dollar flash roll. 00:24:08.413 --> 00:24:32.836 So of course I went down to Bill Rosenblatt, told him what was going on and we called the feds and we went first thing in the morning, picked up a million dollars in a briefcase and gave it to the cops from London Scotland Yard and they went and met with the IRA guy and showed them the money that they had and everything worked out. 00:24:32.836 --> 00:24:41.480 I don't know of any other agency that could get their hands on that kind of money to do a flash roll in 24 hours. 00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:44.617 I met maybe you met him, I didn't. 00:24:46.531 --> 00:24:51.038 Let me ask you this for the viewers you mentioned the term Smurf. 00:24:51.038 --> 00:24:53.366 Could you explain what a Smurf is, because you know they'll think it? 00:24:53.366 --> 00:24:57.420 This for the viewers you mentioned the term smurf Could you explain what a smurf is, because you know they'll think it's a cartoon character, some people. 00:24:57.420 --> 00:25:02.722 But what was a smurf to somebody involved with money laundering investigations? 00:25:04.550 --> 00:25:13.568 So the person in Miami who was a financier, he was the man who collected the drug money from wherever it was being sold. 00:25:13.568 --> 00:25:15.032 It could be

right there in Miami. 00:25:15.032 --> 00:25:18.299 A lot of times it was up in New York and other states. 00:25:18.299 --> 00:25:29.232 All that money would eventually come back to the financier in Miami and his job was to get that money back to the Colombians in South America. 00:25:29.232 --> 00:25:32.780 So you've heard of bulk money smuggling. 00:25:32.780 --> 00:25:39.859 So sometimes they would just pack it in containers of a billion dollars and ship it to Colombia. 00:25:39.859 --> 00:25:45.618 But those were prone to be intercepted so they prefer to use bank accounts. 00:25:45.618 --> 00:25:49.260 But it was kind of impossible to open hundreds of bank accounts. 00:25:49.260 --> 00:25:51.758 So they would hire a smurf. 00:25:51.758 --> 00:26:05.041 So that would typically be of any age it could be from 18 to 80, a man or a woman and they would give them a percentage of the drug proceeds. 00:26:05.041 --> 00:26:17.075 And those people would have to go open up multiple bank accounts all over the city and if they deposited over $10,000, then the currency report would be made. 00:26:17.075 --> 00:26:19.621 So they would structure that money. 00:26:19.621 --> 00:26:34.742 So they would go to the 10 bank accounts they own and make $9,000 deposits and they would have to do that all day and eventually the money was so huge that that even became a problem to move. 00:26:34.742 --> 00:26:38.038 So that's where Operation Greenback came in. 00:26:38.038 --> 00:26:56.441 We were able to move that money to the Colombians and it not only helped us identify the financiers in Miami but it helped the Colombians identify the people in their area Pablo Escobar, rodriguez brothers, all of them. 00:26:56.441 --> 00:27:10.041 So we had vetted Colombians that worked with us, that worked with our agents at the embassies in Colombia, and it was a very good operation. 00:27:10.041 --> 00:27:12.979 I guess it lasted 10, 15 years. 00:27:14.711 --> 00:27:19.577 But for us the Smurfs were the key to everything, because that was just like the drug courier. 00:27:19.577 --> 00:27:28.400 Even though they were just operating with money, it was drug money, so they faced the same penalties as any drug dealer did. 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:51.436 So rather than go to jail they would work with us and oftentimes we would stage a takedown where we would take that Smurf down and seize the money from him and then just the Smurf would just have to report back to his financier what happened. 00:27:51.436 --> 00:27:52.440 And it was fine. 00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:56.000 They didn't get punished for it if the cops made a seizure. 00:27:56.910 --> 00:28:11.065 But I do remember once, down by our office, we were following a money courier, a Smurf, and we followed him back to an apartment near what was the famous golf course in Miami. 00:28:11.065 --> 00:28:14.756 Durrell Durrell, yeah, durrell Durrell, yeah, yeah, durrell Country Club. 00:28:14.756 --> 00:28:21.420 And when we knocked on his

door, you know he consented to let us come in and search the house. 00:28:21.420 --> 00:28:31.321 And we walked upstairs and every bedroom was full of cardboard boxes and by the time we finished counting, it was over $25 million in that one house. 00:28:31.321 --> 00:28:43.690 And by the time we finished counting, it was over $25 million in that one house and that was the responsibility of just that one person to try to get rid of that money. 00:28:47.673 --> 00:28:50.688 So those were the SMURs, and they were the ones that helped us make our cases. 00:29:00.432 --> 00:29:03.717 And in this undercover operation, what kind of fees did you charge the Colombians to do this? 00:29:03.717 --> 00:29:06.960 How was that worked out? 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:10.002 The undercover operation was self-sufficient. 00:29:10.002 --> 00:29:17.038 It was an undercover case certified as an OSADEP, an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. 00:29:17.038 --> 00:29:23.954 So the proceeds that we were making and the money that we were seizing came back to the group. 00:29:23.954 --> 00:29:31.939 So that enabled us to rent our cars and enabled us to have the latest technology that you know. 00:29:31.939 --> 00:29:36.736 Law enforcement was always way behind trying to get the funds. 00:29:36.736 --> 00:29:41.163 So it was a considerable amount of money. 00:29:41.163 --> 00:29:46.153 And even the SMURs you had to look at them. 00:29:46.153 --> 00:29:57.058 They may get anywhere from one to two 2%, but when you're talking about handling a million dollars a week or a million dollars a month, 1% is pretty high. 00:30:01.573 --> 00:30:04.137 So when you were there, you went. 00:30:04.137 --> 00:30:06.644 From what group did you go after that? 00:30:06.644 --> 00:30:10.560 Did you stay in there before you went to Maine, or what? 00:30:10.769 --> 00:30:15.520 Yeah, I stayed in the financial group until I got that promotion to Maine. 00:30:15.520 --> 00:30:16.262 Okay. 00:30:17.371 --> 00:30:19.259 Let me just ask an obvious question. 00:30:19.259 --> 00:30:24.602 You're in South Florida, you know, and you're going back. 00:30:24.602 --> 00:30:26.115 You're going to the cold weather. 00:30:26.115 --> 00:30:27.757 Did that bother you a little bit? 00:30:27.757 --> 00:30:42.431 And I realize it was very competitive in South Florida and we have mutual friends that that did the same thing to get the promotion and it was an earlier in my career with the marshal service. 00:30:42.431 --> 00:30:52.226 I did that, I moved around and then finally, after what 15 years, 12? 00:30:52.226 --> 00:30:59.136 I wore them down and you know that I was the poster child of management, but I'll leave that alone. 00:30:59.136 --> 00:31:04.481 But you know that's a big change. 00:31:04.481 --> 00:31:09.661 Did you think that out or what when they offered it to you? 00:31:09.661 --> 00:31:10.682 How did it come about? 00:31:12.211 --> 00:31:15.752 Yeah, so I lived on each end of i-95. 00:31:15.752 --> 00:31:20.144 I was in miami at one end and I ended up in i-95 on the other. 00:31:20.203 --> 00:31:21.026 I thought about that. 00:31:21.587 --> 00:31:25.175 So I got a phone call from, uh, some people you remember. 00:31:25.175 --> 00:31:29.051 Uh, I don't know we're supposed to say names on this podcast. 00:31:29.071 --> 00:31:34.119 Well, there's certain names that I'd like to say, but I'm not going to. 00:31:34.140 --> 00:31:39.773 So, matt, adrie and Robin Avers, you remember both of them. 00:31:39.773 --> 00:31:57.217 And they said well, you know, as a result of 9-1-1, and I'm sorry, I did leave out one point in between when I went to work at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center as an instructor and as an instructor at FLETC in Glencoe, georgia, my expertise was money laundering. 00:31:57.217 --> 00:32:12.278 So I rewrote all the courses that involved money laundering and financial investigations to include the two-week advanced course we had AFI Asset Forfeiture Investigations. 00:32:12.278 --> 00:32:15.625 So I did do that, I forgot. 00:32:15.625 --> 00:32:22.546 And so, anyhow, matt called me up and he said listen, we had 911. 00:32:22.567 --> 00:32:27.116 We're opening new offices all along the northern border and the southern border. 00:32:27.116 --> 00:32:31.574 And he says I know you talk about retiring in a couple of years. 00:32:31.574 --> 00:32:34.561 And I said, yes, I'm definitely going to retire. 00:32:34.561 --> 00:32:40.482 And he said well, wouldn't you like to retire as a GS-14 as opposed to a GS-13? 00:32:40.482 --> 00:32:55.383 And I think when I said, give me a couple of days to think about it, I think it's because I had to go find a calculator and when I did the calculations, I did want to retire as a GS-14. 00:32:55.383 --> 00:32:55.971 How do I? 00:32:56.010 --> 00:32:57.496 get to 14, step eight. 00:32:57.496 --> 00:32:59.161 That was the calculation. 00:32:59.963 --> 00:33:00.886 And it was that easy. 00:33:00.886 --> 00:33:01.849 It was that easy. 00:33:01.849 --> 00:33:07.096 You remember how competitive it was in South Florida getting a 14th and at the SAC office. 00:33:07.096 --> 00:33:11.701 So I went up there and opened up a brand new office. 00:33:11.701 --> 00:33:15.634 I mean, we didn't even have a building, we just had to do all that. 00:33:15.634 --> 00:33:18.057 And that worked out real well. 00:33:18.817 --> 00:33:37.241 And at that time, as you may remember, a lot of the customs agents along the border were what I call dog catchers catchers their job was to catch the illegal aliens and get them before an immigration judge and get them out of the country. 00:33:37.241 --> 00:33:39.147 Yeah, that's right, that can't be done, can it? 00:33:39.147 --> 00:33:41.614 And you know we would have them out of the country in what? 00:33:41.614 --> 00:33:42.656 48 hours. 00:33:42.656 --> 00:33:45.282 They would be shipped back somewhere. 00:33:46.509 --> 00:33:50.737 But you know, my heart was in drug

trafficking and money laundering. 00:33:50.737 --> 00:34:04.380 So, lo and behold, we had a very young agent and he was actually my student at FLETC when I was an instructor there and thank God he was assigned to me. 00:34:04.380 --> 00:34:19.541 So he arrested someone and we were able to flip this marijuana dealer that operated between the New England states and Canada, because they had much better product than we did. 00:34:19.541 --> 00:34:29.981 And he flipped and we ended up working that case and by the end of two years we brought in something like 20, 30 defendants. 00:34:29.981 --> 00:34:37.873 Years we brought in something like 20, 30 defendants. 00:34:37.893 --> 00:34:41.764 So, needless to say, matt and Robin were very happy about that, but that's all we did the last three years I was there. 00:34:41.764 --> 00:34:44.273 We worked the drug cases and money laundering cases. 00:34:44.273 --> 00:34:54.440 Of course we also worked the terrorist cases, but we didn't have the FBI Joint Task Force up in that area. 00:34:54.440 --> 00:34:56.590 More or less it was down in southern Maine. 00:34:56.590 --> 00:35:10.282 So if we got any type of indication about terrorists through our counterparts over in Canada, we would typically call the FBI and they would come up and snatch the person away from us. 00:35:10.282 --> 00:35:12.614 And they would come up and snatch the person away from us. 00:35:12.614 --> 00:35:13.496 But it was all good. 00:35:13.916 --> 00:35:27.903 It was all good Again, just like I said about the Army there's not one day I regret about my 23 years in the Customs Service. 00:35:27.903 --> 00:35:35.516 So when you did you retired out of there and then how did you get involved over in the Middle East? 00:35:35.516 --> 00:35:39.550 On what you did over there and if it's the extent you can describe what you did, yeah. 00:35:39.771 --> 00:35:56.311 So one of the other retired, I think he was a customs inspector and went over there as a law enforcement, professional enforcement professional. 00:35:56.311 --> 00:36:09.902 So the Army CID came up with the concept when these guys keep hitting us with explosives or snipers or mortars, whatever they do, cid just did not have the number of investigators to go back and try to find out who these terrorists were, who they were working for. 00:36:09.902 --> 00:36:13.670 The basic thing we would do with any criminal element. 00:36:13.750 --> 00:36:16.780 Can you tell the viewers what CID stands for? 00:36:17.590 --> 00:36:18.956 Yes, that's Army CID. 00:36:18.956 --> 00:36:29.983 They were the criminal investigators for the Army Very incredible group of soldiers as far as investigations. 00:36:29.983 --> 00:36:34.157 So we kind of supplemented them. 00:36:34.157 --> 00:36:44.164 So we would have the left, the law enforcement personnel, assigned to different battalions and brigades and divisions. 00:36:44.164 --> 00:36:46.592 I was always the left ones. 00:36:46.592 --> 00:37:02.978 I was usually assigned to a battalion so anytime there was an attack against our soldiers then we would respond to those attacks along with the Army and of course they provided all the protection that we needed when we went out behind the wire. 00:37:05.471 --> 00:37:12.344 And there have been a number of books written by the LEPs, I'll be quite honest with you, written by the LEPs. 00:37:12.344 --> 00:37:14.010 I'll be quite honest with you. 00:37:14.010 --> 00:37:23.418 When I looked into the income part of being a LEP for the Department of Defense and the Department of the Army and the Marines, it was incredible. 00:37:23.418 --> 00:37:32.378 So I figured I could take the risk of spending 12 to 14 months somewhere in Iraq with that type of salary. 00:37:32.378 --> 00:37:41.039 But more so than the salary, it was the commitment that you had, the camaraderie you developed. 00:37:42.130 --> 00:37:46.601 I had an advantage being a retired NCO from the Army. 00:37:46.601 --> 00:37:53.197 I felt I was treated a little bit better than a lot of the other LEPs were. 00:37:53.197 --> 00:37:58.478 We were totally embedded, we wore the uniform just like they did. 00:37:58.478 --> 00:38:01.259 We carried a rifle, pistol. 00:38:01.259 --> 00:38:07.103 We had all the same gear seven duffel bags full of equipment that we never used. 00:38:07.103 --> 00:38:09.135 Just put them under our beds. 00:38:09.135 --> 00:38:19.094 So I did the contracting, like I said, about four tours, and I really loved every minute of it. 00:38:19.094 --> 00:38:28.001 It was hard, it was a hard way of life, but it was very fulfilling and we had fantastic results. 00:38:28.762 --> 00:38:30.186 How old were you when you went over there? 00:38:33.253 --> 00:38:36.021 I was probably in my early 50s. 00:38:36.021 --> 00:38:44.143 So I was probably in my late 50s by the time I decided I couldn't do it anymore. 00:38:49.097 --> 00:38:50.061 That's still amazing. 00:38:50.061 --> 00:39:12.956 So when you were over there, you mentioned that you came up with the idea for the book and I I want to explore that with everybody because you know it's it's really good and this is something that I think families should have. 00:39:12.956 --> 00:39:24.483 I mean, I, you know, I don't want to get religious because I don't have politics and religion on the show, but I think that this could be placed nearby with the Bible in your house. 00:39:24.483 --> 00:39:50.262 So if something bad happens, or to prevent it, like with children or with spouses or other elderly family members, can you come up with the concept and just give us what you covered in the book Not the entire book, because I know you want people to buy this book, but just to give an idea of what areas you explored in it. 00:39:50.262 --> 00:39:50.583 Leon. 00:39:52.791 --> 00:39:54.233 Well, you know I went on. 00:39:54.233 --> 00:39:59.623 The principle that I learned in the Army at a very early age is planning. 00:39:59.623 --> 00:40:09.342

People are reactive and when you're reactive to everything that happens in your life, the odds are you're going to react in the wrong way initially. 00:40:09.342 --> 00:40:12.514 And heaven help us. 00:40:12.514 --> 00:40:18.844 When a child goes missing, you don't have 24 or 48 hours to figure out what you did wrong. 00:40:18.844 --> 00:40:23.639 So planning is key in that book. 00:40:23.639 --> 00:40:33.851 I mean, I could tell you everything in that book and you would still need the book, because the book's got all the tools that I developed for the parents to put together. 00:40:33.851 --> 00:40:44.480 And it doesn't have to be a parent, it can be a man or a woman who's going off to college and they don't want to be that missing person. 00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:52.101 So the book has unique tools I developed to help the police find a missing loved one. 00:40:52.101 --> 00:40:56.780 So I talk about knowledge. 00:40:56.780 --> 00:41:18.313 So when I talk about all the different criminals that are out there and what they do and how they do it, I don't try to scare the reader, but I just want to make them aware, because if I can make them aware of what is happening, they'll start watching TV, they'll start reading newspapers and I'll start putting two and two together. 00:41:19.514 --> 00:41:22.121 I do have some unique stories in there. 00:41:22.121 --> 00:41:37.898 One is a was a kidnapper that lived up in Cleveland Ohio, I believe it was, and over a period of years he had kidnapped four young women and had held him in their basement. 00:41:37.898 --> 00:41:41.490 In his basement for two, three years. 00:41:41.490 --> 00:41:44.739 Two of them, I believe, got pregnant. 00:41:44.739 --> 00:41:54.722 He even had family members that would come over to his house and eat in the kitchen upstairs while his captives were downstairs in the basement chained to beds. 00:41:54.722 --> 00:42:04.601 So I tell these kinds of stories just to make the person aware that there is no limit for these psychopaths. 00:42:04.601 --> 00:42:06.237 There's absolutely no limit. 00:42:08.851 --> 00:42:13.382 Your podcast is about justice then and justice now. 00:42:13.382 --> 00:42:25.422 So one of the hardest things I had to write about in that book and it really, really pained me was when you called the police and you were dependent upon them. 00:42:25.422 --> 00:42:32.117 The results were not always as you expected, and that's a horrible thing to say. 00:42:32.117 --> 00:42:36.275 So I addressed the criminal justice system. 00:42:36.275 --> 00:42:42.733 I addressed the family courts, which are also not your friend at all times. 00:42:42.733 --> 00:42:51.994 I addressed the social services workers that will come to your house one day and they may not be your friend either. 00:42:53.456 --> 00:43:13.713 So when a child has gone missing, depending on the police that handle that case, they can either help you find that child or help you destroy your entire family, and I can't

imagine a parent who is a true victim having to go through that second assault by the people they're trusting. 00:43:13.713 --> 00:43:21.117 So what I want to train you to do in that book is have every tool you need. 00:43:21.117 --> 00:43:37.775 So when that officer shows up on your doorstep, you'll hand them part of what I call an IPP an Individual Protection Packet and in that biographical form it answers 60 questions that the police should be asking you about your child. 00:43:37.775 --> 00:43:45.684 And you've already got this sheet filled out and it's ready to go, so you can just hand it to them. 00:43:45.684 --> 00:43:48.735 Who do your children hang out with? 00:43:48.735 --> 00:43:50.599 What vehicles do they drive? 00:43:50.599 --> 00:43:51.782 Who are their enemies? 00:43:51.782 --> 00:43:53.413 Who have they had problems with? 00:43:53.413 --> 00:43:56.219 Where do they go? 00:43:56.219 --> 00:43:57.583 What parks do they visit? 00:43:57.583 --> 00:44:00.619 That sheet will have all the answers. 00:44:00.619 --> 00:44:05.161 So, as a parent, you'll have to sit with your child and fill it out. 00:44:05.161 --> 00:44:06.614 It's not going to be an easy thing. 00:44:06.614 --> 00:44:12.210 We know children are 100% obedient, but you have that as one of your tools. 00:44:12.210 --> 00:44:13.351 That is one of your tools. 00:44:13.351 --> 00:44:40.672 The other thing I'll have is a complete packet on each child to include DNA sample, fingerprints, teeth impressions, various photographs, from facials to side views, to full length views, front and back, a short videotape that you can give to the media. 00:44:40.672 --> 00:44:59.242 If I'm looking at a picture on the screen of a missing person, if the media can show a 10-second video of that child, it'll have a bigger impression on the people watching the news, because not only do they get to see them, they get to hear them and they get to see some of their mannerisms. 00:44:59.242 --> 00:45:05.989 So this tells you how to be fully prepared for one of those incidents. 00:45:06.472 --> 00:45:13.300 I also talk about how to protect yourself from sexual assaults, physical assaults. 00:45:13.300 --> 00:45:16.777 Are you familiar with Krav Maga? 00:45:16.777 --> 00:45:20.159 Having been in the mixed martial arts business, I'm sure you are. 00:45:20.159 --> 00:45:24.701 Krav Maga is the Israeli self-defense fighting technique. 00:45:24.701 --> 00:45:41.764 Any child, any woman, any man, even if he's 60, can go to a half dozen of those classes and become proficient enough to destroy somebody in the first three or four seconds and then run. 00:45:41.764 --> 00:45:43.594 And that's what I always tell. 00:45:43.594 --> 00:45:49.699 I tell people that's my biggest advice when you're in a bad situation, scream, yell and run. 00:45:49.699 --> 00:45:51.717 I mean that's the first technique. 00:45:51.717 --> 00:45:53.496 The problem of God teaches that too. 00:45:53.496 --> 00:46:03.902 But, as you know, there's certain strikes that you can do, and unlike a karate class where a kid has to go for five years to get his black belt. 00:46:04.550 --> 00:46:12.543 In Krav Maga, you can learn self-defense techniques in a matter of weeks, if not months, depending on your pace. 00:46:12.543 --> 00:46:19.322 So there are ways to hurt somebody very, very quickly and get away from them. 00:46:19.322 --> 00:46:34.679 I also give them links to go watch some videotapes of children that are actually being abducted and walking along the streets and grocery stores. 00:46:34.679 --> 00:46:40.677 I, where the film caught the man, just walk up and pick the child up and run with him. 00:46:40.677 --> 00:46:45.001 Well, the vast majority of your kids won't fight back. 00:46:45.001 --> 00:46:46.795 I mean, they don't know to fight back. 00:46:46.795 --> 00:46:48.876 They have no clue what's happening to them. 00:46:48.876 --> 00:46:50.260 It's totally alien. 00:46:50.260 --> 00:46:59.278 So I want parents to learn how to teach their kids to immediately defend themselves and the various ways you can do it. 00:47:00.690 --> 00:47:05.742 I talk about the different security devices that we have available to us. 00:47:06.791 --> 00:47:15.802 For me, it's floodlights outside your house, having an alarm system in your house that's being monitored with an emergency phone. 00:47:16.230 --> 00:47:28.333 So there's so much advice in that 500 pages that you will need to keep a journal and you need to write down what you're interested in and how you want to accomplish that. 00:47:28.333 --> 00:47:58.704 And I also encourage parents to sit down with their young children and talk to them about these things and there's a missing persons group called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington DC and it's semi-funded by the government, and we've had legacy customs agents work with them and they have all types of material and tools that you can share that are age appropriate. 00:47:58.704 --> 00:48:08.099 So what you share with your five-year-old and what you share with your 15-year-old are going to be separate things, so they have all those products there you need as well. 00:48:08.099 --> 00:48:21.677 So it's a matter of the parents sitting down and coming up with this plan and these individual protection packets and all the other tools and just being prepared so when it happens you can find them. 00:48:21.677 --> 00:48:29.440 I've heard cops even today say you know, the most critical time to find a missing person is the first 48 hours. 00:48:29.440 --> 00:48:31.130 Well, that's not true. 00:48:32.775 --> 00:48:33.617 It's immediately. 00:48:34.038 --> 00:48:39.851 You must find them in the next hour because you know the way things are here in the states. 00:48:39.851 --> 00:48:41.056 I meant they'll. 00:48:41.056 --> 00:48:46.291 They'll take a child and drive them across state lines and you'll never see that child again. 00:48:46.291 --> 00:48:49.739 And

smuggling a child out of the country is very, very simple. 00:48:49.739 --> 00:48:55.157 It's just a reverse operation of the uh southwest border. 00:48:55.157 --> 00:49:01.996 So parents need to be able to find those kids within the first few hours. 00:49:01.996 --> 00:49:09.275 I mean, that's the most critical time and the police will spend the first two hours just interviewing you. 00:49:09.275 --> 00:49:11.536 So I have it all put together. 00:49:11.536 --> 00:49:20.878 You just hand a thumb drive to the cop and he's got everything he could ever possibly dream of to start his investigation or her. 00:49:21.490 --> 00:49:26.242 I think this is so valuable to everybody here. 00:49:26.242 --> 00:50:02.284 As you know, either children or grandchildren and you know I don't think a lot of people, even the cops, have thought of this plan and what to do, just in case but yeah, I mean anybody that's ever filed a police report you're, you're in your house for, like on a break-in, simple break-in, for at least an hour and a half, you know, and just getting the basic information as sitting there with a notepadad and writing it down and transcribing and getting things out on the radio. 00:50:02.284 --> 00:50:09.780 You know, be on lookout or whatever for this or an ambler alert or something like that. 00:50:09.780 --> 00:50:21.097 You can get this out immediately with your philosophy and your practice on what to do with this, leon, but I think it's great. 00:50:21.097 --> 00:50:23.536 And how do they get go ahead? 00:50:23.536 --> 00:50:23.978 I'm sorry. 00:50:25.552 --> 00:50:26.135 No, you're good. 00:50:26.135 --> 00:50:26.577 I'm sorry. 00:50:26.577 --> 00:50:30.059 Yeah, and that's one of the things I would address individually. 00:50:30.059 --> 00:50:32.298 I would talk about physical security. 00:50:32.298 --> 00:50:38.003 I would talk about the concept of personal security, cyber security. 00:50:38.003 --> 00:50:46.204 Children love to play with people on these electronic devices and they have no idea who's sitting on the other end. 00:50:47.771 --> 00:50:54.896 I teach people as being a private investigator for several years on my own, once I retired. 00:50:54.896 --> 00:50:58.269 I teach people how to become their own private investigator. 00:50:58.269 --> 00:51:00.173 They don't need me. 00:51:00.173 --> 00:51:09.291 It's not hard to find out who is in your orbit and find certain information about them. 00:51:09.291 --> 00:51:17.304 I talk about blind dating, dating apps but you brought up the breaking in your house. 00:51:17.344 --> 00:51:25.262 So I do address, you know, the home invasions and someone breaks into the house and you're in there. 00:51:25.262 --> 00:51:25.543 That's. 00:51:25.543 --> 00:51:26.913 That's one situation. 00:51:26.913 --> 00:51:29.378 Hopefully, people can be prepared to deal with that. 00:51:29.378 --> 00:51:31.070 If not, I teach them out. 00:51:31.070 --> 00:51:40.744 But what do you do when it's a home invasion

that has multiple violent people breaking into your home and coming in from different doors? 00:51:40.744 --> 00:51:43.958 So I cover all of that as well. 00:51:43.958 --> 00:51:48.541 There's one section when I talk about firearms. 00:51:48.541 --> 00:52:05.059 So the first thing I write in that chapter I says if you are opposed to firearms, just skip this chapter, don't even read it, because of course, you've got to keep certain people at bay, but there's a lot in there that you. 00:52:05.059 --> 00:52:10.829 I don't know if you read that part about the firearm, but it teaches you about firearm safety. 00:52:10.829 --> 00:52:19.880 It teaches you how to use a firearm, how to become proficient with a firearm, how to protect the kids from that firearm. 00:52:19.880 --> 00:52:24.239 So I don't think there's anything in that book I didn't cover. 00:52:24.920 --> 00:52:25.463 No, no. 00:52:25.463 --> 00:52:36.056 And just on a separate topic, with firearms, they recently changed the qualifications from our old agency from quarterly with pretty strict. 00:52:36.056 --> 00:52:39.958 I mean it was pretty strict, I mean it was very good to once a year. 00:52:39.958 --> 00:52:46.842 Now it's what I call saving bullets and getting cops killed. 00:52:46.842 --> 00:52:47.992 That's what it is. 00:52:47.992 --> 00:52:59.318 Okay, it's saving some bean counter at headquarters figuring out, oh, we can save money, but we're going to get agents killed. 00:52:59.318 --> 00:53:09.782 You know, because the more you go to the range, the better it is, whether you know protecting your family or afterwards. 00:53:09.782 --> 00:53:29.023 And you know I won't get into the Second Amendment, which is pretty clear, but the fact is you want to protect your family as long as you have, as you pointed out, the safety of the firearm, that it stays in your hands as the adult in that house. 00:53:29.023 --> 00:53:33.438 Okay, I'm done with my sermon so I'll go back to you. 00:53:34.592 --> 00:53:36.630 But it is very, very important. 00:53:36.630 --> 00:53:46.690 You know, I think of it like this, and I talk about this in the book Imagine if you played golf or you played tennis and that's your sport of choice. 00:53:46.690 --> 00:53:54.090 Well, are you going to go out and play golf and tennis once a year and expect to be proficient? 00:53:54.090 --> 00:53:59.958 Are you going to go out there and really, really train the first year that you're learning that sport? 00:53:59.958 --> 00:54:02.998 So firearms are no different. 00:54:02.998 --> 00:54:17.317 You know, I teach people how to shoot without using their iron sights or using any sights, so it's very easy to shoot somebody within 10, 20 feet and you don't even have to aim the gun. 00:54:17.317 --> 00:54:21.001 So that's something people need to learn. 00:54:21.021 --> 00:54:25.438 Yeah, and you hold the gun straight ahead. 00:54:25.438 --> 00:54:28.119 You don't do the gangster sideways. 00:54:28.239 --> 00:54:36.217 Yeah, I always see that in the movies and you get the bad guy like that, which really doesn't happen. 00:54:38.713 --> 00:54:40.199 What are you looking for in the future? 00:54:40.199 --> 00:54:48.599 You know as far as what you're personally going to do and I know you love this job. 00:54:48.599 --> 00:54:57.139 You stayed with it a long time and you still do, and I'm the same way, you know, with this. 00:54:57.139 --> 00:55:10.641 You know there's people we know that went off the job and never heard from again, for two reasons One, they were incompetent and two, they were just assholes. 00:55:10.641 --> 00:55:25.277 As I write in my book, or Pete Throne's book, the butt snorkelers, which is a term for South Florida and I, you know I love that term. 00:55:25.277 --> 00:55:30.000 When I came down I think I helped invent it with a few other guys. 00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:39.324 But what do you see in law enforcement and that in the future? 00:55:41.190 --> 00:55:45.677 You know I told you I was revising the book and you paid me a nice compliment. 00:55:45.677 --> 00:55:50.230 You said I don't know how you can make it any better, but I'm going to try to make it better. 00:55:50.230 --> 00:56:00.050 I'm going to try to update some of the modern technology that parents have access to now that didn't even exist when I wrote that book. 00:56:00.050 --> 00:56:02.635 So that's the second revision. 00:56:02.635 --> 00:56:03.978 This will be the third revision. 00:56:03.978 --> 00:56:06.889 After that I'll quit with the book. 00:56:06.889 --> 00:56:22.556 A huge mistake I made and I did not market the book like I should have, and there's plenty of marketing plans out there that you can just Google and pull up and it tells you exactly what to do. 00:56:22.556 --> 00:56:24.001 I never did that. 00:56:24.001 --> 00:56:29.157 I just let the book run by word of mouth and it does good. 00:56:29.157 --> 00:56:33.472 If you go to Amazon, you can just Google my name, leon Ives. 00:56:33.472 --> 00:56:39.135 You don't have to Google that extremely long title and it'll take you right to the book. 00:56:39.135 --> 00:56:43.661 And it's got about 20 reviews that are all five stars. 00:56:43.661 --> 00:56:48.481 It's got people who wrote reviews for it inside the book. 00:56:48.481 --> 00:56:56.844 So anybody who goes in and just opens the book up and looks at it is going to know that's what they need. 00:56:56.844 --> 00:57:17.101 That's what they're going to want in their house, like you said, and I recommend getting the hard copy, not the Kindle copy, because the hard copy I give you spaces to write down notes that you need to know that's unique to your children and yourself, and keep that book somewhere in the house where there's easy access to it. 00:57:17.101 --> 00:57:25.882 So I will market the book this time, but pretty much that's it. 00:57:26.001 --> 00:57:26.983 I love to travel. 00:57:26.983 --> 00:57:27.485 You know. 00:57:27.485 --> 00:57:40.715 I spent a month in

Italy and then I went and spent three weeks in Greece and I'm getting ready to go to Ireland and I'll probably stop in Scotland and Wales and UK. 00:57:40.715 --> 00:57:44.443 I'm going to Liverpool to find out if the Beatles are still there or not. 00:57:44.443 --> 00:57:49.237 So I want to spend a lot more time traveling the world. 00:57:49.237 --> 00:57:54.434 I've been to 43 countries in my life and it's just amazing. 00:57:54.434 --> 00:58:04.878 And I think the most beautiful thing I found about being in all these countries was when they say everybody hates America. 00:58:04.878 --> 00:58:06.981 It's just the opposite. 00:58:07.603 --> 00:58:09.914 They love you Everywhere I go. 00:58:09.914 --> 00:58:16.735 Sometimes I'll reach out and hold my hand and after about 10 minutes I'll have to kind of pull it away from them. 00:58:16.735 --> 00:58:17.978 People love Americans. 00:58:17.978 --> 00:58:19.483 They respect Americans. 00:58:19.483 --> 00:58:35.085 When I was in Iraq I was helping to train some of their soldiers, especially the ones that gave personal security details, and whenever I would walk through the it was their compound I lived on. 00:58:35.085 --> 00:58:37.175 It wasn't an American compound, it was theirs. 00:58:37.175 --> 00:58:48.101 When I'd walk through there, some of the young soldiers would come up and hold my hand and just sit there and talk about their family and talk about their lives and what they wish for the future. 00:58:48.101 --> 00:58:57.114 But I could say 90% of everybody I met over there just loved Americans. 00:58:57.114 --> 00:58:58.599 So it's not true. 00:58:58.599 --> 00:59:06.382 We're not despised as people want to paint that picture for their own agenda. 00:59:06.802 --> 00:59:09.313 I got one last question have you been to Ireland before? 00:59:10.637 --> 00:59:11.320 No, never. 00:59:11.320 --> 00:59:14.230 So I'm going to both the Republic and Northern Ireland. 00:59:14.489 --> 00:59:17.514 You need to call me going to both the Republic and Northern Ireland. 00:59:17.514 --> 00:59:18.315 You need to call me. 00:59:18.315 --> 00:59:23.240 I've done a few pub crawls in Belfast and down in Dublin and all that. 00:59:23.240 --> 00:59:30.552 So that's the mother country for me, but you'll like it. 00:59:30.552 --> 00:59:32.195 I actually I'll fill you in. 00:59:32.195 --> 00:59:54.719 But Belfast is very, very interesting, very the history behind it and, um, you know the rest of ireland I I've been a couple times, um, quite frequently the people are nice but, like I said, don't get in a beer challenge with anybody over there because they're professionals. 00:59:54.719 --> 00:59:57.643 They're professionals, they really are. 00:59:57.643 --> 01:00:02.275 The natives used to be first time I went first time I went. 01:00:02.496 --> 01:00:05.601 I got in a cab and this guy goes. 01:00:05.601 --> 01:00:09.050 He hears me talking and, uh, he goes. 01:00:09.050 --> 01:00:23.744 I was with the guard and I go that's the police over there and and I hired him as a driver and he was a good driver and, like I said, he knew all the places to go. 01:00:23.744 --> 01:00:33.070 So we'll chit-chat on that, but I wanted to thank you very much for coming on. 01:00:33.070 --> 01:00:34.853 I think this is great. 01:00:34.853 --> 01:00:38.682 We have all the extremes of everybody on here. 01:00:38.682 --> 01:00:55.179 We have former inmates, we have agents, we have police officers that are shot and killed people, we have inmates that tried to escape and drug dealers that got life, and it's just a real good blend. 01:00:55.469 --> 01:01:09.476 I said, as I said in the beginning, jeff has been wonderful with this and that and we want to make this basically real life with real people involved. 01:01:09.476 --> 01:01:29.960 This isn't the major news networks with talking heads or head of agencies for six months, or people that have never been to the months, or people that have never been to the border, or people that have never done anything offering their opinions, because in my opinion which I take lightly sometimes it doesn't mean shit. 01:01:29.960 --> 01:01:34.893 You can't comment on something that you don't know about or experienced. 01:01:34.893 --> 01:01:44.438 Okay, it's like me cop talking about a medical operation or something like that that I I know absolutely nothing about. 01:01:44.438 --> 01:01:54.539 So that's that's what we're doing, and uh, conveying it to the viewer, and uh oh, that's great, it's uh, it's real life from people that have lived it. 01:01:54.800 --> 01:01:55.902 Yes, exactly. 01:01:55.902 --> 01:02:02.456 So take care of my friend, we'll be talking, and thanks for coming on today, leon. 01:02:03.137 --> 01:02:03.418 Thank you. 01:02:03.418 --> 01:02:05.202 All right, buddy, thank you, and thank you too, jeff. 01:02:07.914 --> 01:02:08.757 I'll go wake him up. 01:02:09.891 --> 01:02:12.501 It's happy hour, see you later Bye Leon. 01:02:12.501 --> 01:02:13.726 All right, buddy, bye-bye.