YouSaid · the spoken record

Ed Calderon

lines on the record: 313
first: 2022-12-12
most recent: 2022-12-12
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“As his spells and his work kept getting bigger and bigger and more and more complicated, the ingredients he needed for these ingangas or these spells, these cauldrons that he would fill with certain elements grew in complexity. Finally, he said he needed the brain of a highly educated American of some sort, which led to his eventual downfall. He was basically responsible for abducting and murdering a young American who was a university college student, I think.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was exposed and learned through his family ties about some of the Afro Caribian spiritualities that are now also exploding as far as influences across the world, Latin America and the US. When I talk about that, I mean Santeria, Palo Mayomebe, basically some old spiritual practices coming out of Africa that utilize things like Ngangas, which are basically spiritual vessels that have to be loaded with human remains in some cases He was basically a spiritual practitioner that certain cartel groups would hire for them to curse the other side, to in view them with invisibility, to be able to transport their drugs or protection spells and stuff like that. He was very successful at it, apparently, or at least that is the experience of the people paying for some of these practices.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is a guy that comes up in a period, I think he's at that initial period of cartels. This is before my time. And I've talked to some of the people that were there for some of that.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's right next door Is here too. Again, I found an altar in Connecticut, which is pretty fascinating. There's one in Arizona. Again, it's one of the fastest growing spiritual practices, not only in the U.S., but across there's... Somebody from Russia reached out. There's an altar out there, and there's a group of people praying to Santamoarte. And I've been posting and writing a lot about it recently just from my own experience and some of the stuff that I gathered for myself. And all the way out there. Those people are fascinated by some of those aspects.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What do you mean? Well, on the list of saints you pray to, he's the last one because when you pray to Judas, you might get the other Judas on the line. That's the last one you pray to. That's why he's like the lost cause of Saint. I remember, like, And how we try and bribe or like maneuver our way, even in spirituality, it's spiritual practices.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and, you know, having my daughter who's eight view it as a benevolent thing, you know, she's a kid and she sees a skeleton that represents death and it's like. I think in a way Mexicans have taken some of those aspects, be it Day of the Dead, some of these practices related to some occultism aspects around Saint Judas, San Judas is the patron saint of lost causes. And it's one of the most venerated saints in Mexico. Jesus is probably the fourth or 50 you pray to, which is pretty funny, ridiculous. The reason why, and this is something I heard from somebody that was actually, we found him with a gun on his gun. He had a St. Judas effigy. And he said, why San Judas? Borque San Julas? And he's like, well, he's the last saint you prayed to.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Keeps getting destroyed by ultra Christian groups or Catholic groups and it keeps getting rebuilt. Personally, for me, as a I don't believe that there's a reaper skeleton in the sky protecting me But I do believe in the aspect of an ending and how it's important to, you know, the ending is important in all things. And death should be present in life. And if it's not, then you're delusional about things.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would say that to the statue of Asanta, you know. Another thing people it's not a cartel specific saint, though, it's like everybody, like at all levels, from the lady that sells tortillas to the cops, to the military. There's some people in the military that venerate it. There's a very specific symbol of how this is a weird relationship specifically in Santa Marta in Mexico. There's a shrine outside of Tijuana right across the La Presa. It's like a water reservoir right out Tijuana. And there was a big Santa Muerte altar there like on the roadside. And my former boss, Lisa Ola, ordered that thing destroyed. So he ordered a truck to destroy it. It was a famous thing. And it was rebuilt the next night. And I know for a fact that some of the people that rebuilt that were some of the same guys that were destroying it.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There was some of that, yeah, there was a saying, I think he probably took it from a movie or something like that, but I don't know where they got it, may I earn your need and be your wrath”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think closeness to death and having a relationship to death in the form of a symbolic representation of it like Santa Marta or a Nikon like that. Makes it not as scary, I guess, or not only that, but it's also something that the other side, the enemy, the cartels groups, they would venerate it as well. So when they would see it on you, it was almost debilitating to them. They were like, oh, are you guys cops? Are you guys, why are you wearing that So it was an aspect of that to it. A memento moi type thing where you remember death type thing.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would drive me over to the church, and I thought I was going to the cathedral. And then we made a left turn, and it wasn't the cathedral. It was the market next to the cathedral in Tijuana. And in the little corner, there was a big Santa Muarte Reaper effigy. And then I knew why I had to bring a bottle of tequila. I was like, why am I bringing a bottle tequila to the church? It was for her, for death, La Muerte. Was partly hazing. And also, they did believe that they were basically imbued with the being agents of death in a way. So it was like a cultural thing as well, something that they wore on them. Not only protection, but it's also like a samurai would wear this death iconography on them or how. Maori would do Hakka dances to some of these guys in their kind of warrior culture that they were growing up with or trying to imbue on us.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Cata Roja for my mother because she was hardcore and the Catalight for my brother. He was more of an endurance drink And it's also for me Relationship to death down there is different. So there's an icon in Mexico. It's actually one of the fastest growing alternative spiritual practices in Mexico. Not only in Mexico, but here in the US. I've been to Santa Muerta temples across the country. I found one in Connecticut out of all places. How I grew up with it, or I saw it, is my family was all in Guadalubanas. We were Catholic and we venerated the virgin of Guadalupe specifically, the icon of the Virgin of Guadalupe. But every now and then there were winks and nods to a skeletal saint in family practices. And even when I went to work, the older guys that I was working with would tell me like, hey, we got to go ask for protection.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is a celebration, yeah. My eight year old put two beers on an altar, one for my mom, one for my brother. She bought Snickers Bar for my mom and a bag of pops for my brother, flower petals and marigolds and pictures of them on an altar at the time.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it's proof that that works. You see that was you can find one of those scapularios anywhere in Mexico that was the most highly sold one. So you see them utilizing some of these aspects in their own belief system as a symbol or as iconography for some of the things they do. Then you go into some of the other aspects of it that are out there like Santa Muarte, which is actually a faith that I grew up in. Mexico has a weird relationship to death. We have parties at the cemetery on Day of the Dead, and I just went through one recently. This is November the 2nd. So we celebrate our dead and we celebrate death in a way that I don't think a lot of cultures out there do.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“themselves with the local populace or the population around them. There are icons of power and sometimes of almost a symbol of rebellion. You see El Chapo's son when he was arrested had a Santonio da Tocha on his chest, which is a holy kid of a tocha, a Spanish legend during the Moorish conquest. They said that a statue of that saint would go around and feed some of the hungry. That was a legend. And he's a saint of the persecuted. So the fact that when he was arrested, you see him with that wearing that and then he was liberated is a miracle in and of itself.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Them where he was, and to give the money, the reward money to the townspeople, so we did that. He was hung from a tree, and the order was not to bury him, just to let his body rot, and his body rot rot rotted away until it fell onto the ground bones. And each of the townspeople would go over and put a rock on top of his corpse until it became a pile of rocks. And then he started granting miracles. So again, this whole aspect of these criminals become insaints. And also a middle finger from the downward local populace to the church in a way because he's not a recognized saint, but he has an altar and people venerate that. Then you have cartels that have a spiritual practice or spirituality behind what they do, which is part of their culture, but is also like a tool they use to”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But in her, she conceals cultural elements from the past. She has a black sash across her stomach, which means she's pregnant, something common in the Aztec culture, in the Mehica culture. She's standing on a cherub that has eagle wings, that is a war god. That's the symbol of the war god down there. She has stars on her, which is a veil of certain stars that are related to some of the spiritual practices from before. Basically, they hid these things in that setting. How you skip forward. Hundreds of years, and you start seeing things like Malverde, who was a bandit that lived in Sinaloa way back in the day. He would rob rich farmers that would go through the countryside. Time he was almost caught and he was shot and injured, and he was wanted by the government. So he told one of his friends to”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And when the conquest happened, a lot of people say, the Spanish came and conquested the Aztec Empire, the enemies of the Aztec, they allied themselves with the Spanish and they took them now. That's what happened. And then the rest was famine and sickness. What killed most of them They realize that it was going to be hard to suppress some of the spiritual practices in Mexico. So they decided to meld them with Catholic iconography. So you see this cult to Natsin, which is like a fertility variant of a mother goddess in Nastic culture. And they turn her into La Vikinde de Guadalupe, which is the icon that a lot of Mexicans venerate as the Lavitican, the virgin.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Off, Mexico is one of the most Catholic countries on the planet, if not the most Catholic country on the planet. Not only that, it is a country that has a root in a spirituality through its ethnic culture in other parts of the world got most of that taken away and or suppressed or killed or taken away. When the Spanish came to Mexico, they were a product of a recently liberated group of people. They just got done being invaded by the Moors, basically. And they brought with them the image of La Vican de Guadalupe. Virgin of Guadalupe, and Hernan Cortes' vision of that version of that was a lady holding a crystal scepter. Baby Jesus and standing on a crescent moon, that's what he brought with him to the Americas.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Say this a lot. You know, when I travel out there, I'm never alone. There's couches out there waiting for me. There's homes that I can go and stay at and friends that I have out there that I have never even met. But that's been about me not only wearing some of those mistakes and past failures on my sleeve, but also turning them into lessons for people and just telling people the fact that, you know, I know how to do all this weird stuff, you know, and I show people how to do it. But here's a bunch of weird memes that are very humorous about my culture and about being through going through therapy. And this is me doing something goofy. And this is me being an idiot in front of all you guys as well. You know, this is me being the fool. I think that is another aspect of it.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can't pick pocket a naked man. That's right. If you know how to be naked, and again, I'm not there. I think I'm working towards that just by hoping through shit and showing people, not telling them, show me don't tell me is another valuable lesson that I got long ago. I travel across the country and I not only get to show people what I know how to do, but I give examples of it through things that I do out there.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really, you have to try that much if you believe in yourself and who you are, if you know yourself. I think that is at the core of it. If you know yourself enough to be able to kind of communicate that to people around you.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do that through, I mean, I'm saying I'm verbalizing your behavior, just walking somewhere. Let's say you're going to interview somebody very dangerous down there and you walk into a room without worry. Is a presentation to you? That's a pretty interesting introduction You're not a threat because you don't consider yourself a threat and you're walking in there with the confidence that you don't consider yourself a threat, which is an interesting way of going about it. My life experiences has been different. I was in program that way from an early age and it's hard for me to go into that line. Although more and more as I get older and as I learn more about the world and I've failed a few more times, I can understand more cognizant of the fact that”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have nothing to hide. I consider that a true believer, and yeah, that is a unique person when you meet them and they are out there. There are people that will fucking walk into places. This is who I am. I don't give a fuck. This is why I am if you don't trust me. Well, shoot me. Fuck it. This is my honesty. And if you don't trust me, well, look at all these people that I've interacted with in the past and you can ask them about it or you can see my effects on other people. That's going to be my presentation card.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We went on a three day bender, didn't take a shower, smelled like shit, no deorder it. You know, you smell like a homeless person. You look like a homeless person. And you approach somebody asking for the time and they smell you before they see you. And you are not there. You're not a human. You don't exist. So that was a pretty valuable lesson that I got there.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some of these aspects are actually pretty useful. I learned most of my trade craft and skill craft from panhandlers and street performers. And when I had some training related to social engineering, those were the people that I learned from. I remember we were doing surveillance and there was a guy there that showed us how to do surveillance on the street. And he said, if you can find a way for somebody to smell you before they see you. Become invisible. And I was like, that's if you can find a way of somebody smelling you before they see you become invisible. I didn't understand what that meant.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think a lot of us miss the fact that we are capable of taking control of our own narrative and what we communicate to people around us. I can show up here drinking a monster energy drink, dumping it on the ground, scratching, you know what, and just sit down and just be a rude motherfucker. That's not who I am, but I can do that. And you will believe me if I am good at it. Some of us don't know this aspect because it's something we consider predatory or something that is wrong or negative or bad.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not be an issue. Well, if you're asked, like, were you with? I'm with the news organization, or am I with a Christian a group here? You are with a Christian aid group, it's probably a good idea to learn some of the Bible, right? If you want a quick way of having somebody out there try and stop talking to you, you can start talking about Jesus in the middle of a little cartel territory when they approach you and you take out the Bible. That'll quickly de-escalate sort of contact.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Could equate to how if you run into some issues. Also, it would give you a good idea how many rounds those hold so you can run at the right moment.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, it's not about fitting in, it's about coming up with a narrative for yourself. What that book is talking, that's a quote from the book called The Shoninki, which is like an actual legit ninja manual from the 1500s or something like that. And they're not talking about blending in. They're talking about creating a narrative or a lie through your appearance and your behavior and your knowledge base. That's what they're talking about. So I would say first, if you're going to go to a place like that, first off, learn what is common there, what type of common restraints might be placed on you, what criminal groups work out there, what type of guns they have. Not only what type of guns they have, How to tie the sword, how they wear their short swords.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's a pretty big basis and aspect of what the work I do when I'm showing some of these things. There's a tendency to people to say, hey, I'm afraid to go to Mexico. What do I need to know? Like, well, if you're afraid to go to Mexico, go to Mexico. I mean, I was in Detroit. I was pretty afraid when I was in Detroit and some parts of Detroit and the southside Chicago. But I don't want to be dictated where I can go and where I can't go because of safety. I want to take responsibility for that myself and figure out ways of being more capable and an asset to the people around me and myself. That comes through experience, and people don't want to risk getting a shoulder injury, rolling a jiu-jitsu, or don't want to risk getting a bloody nose in boxing, but that is the way.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I got that book of five rings before I went into training. I took that with me through training. The whole aspect of, you know, go to places frightening to the common brand of men, you know, be put in jail and extricate yourself with your own wisdom. I think he was speaking about experiencing, you know, the whole warrior's journey, the hero's journey of going out there and actually risking.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I have some stuff on my Patreon specifically. I have a Patreon where I share a lot of the online material. Basically a bunch of, this is my notebook. I have a bunch of stuff that I just met somebody in Philadelphia that showed me a pretty unique way of utilizing a box cutter as a weapon. So I wrote some of that down. I filmed some of it. And it's not for any other reason. I'm not trying to create dangerous people out there. It's like, hey, look at this. This is something that's out there, right? So a lot of that information, some of those notes and stuff like that I keep on my Patreon. I used to share it openly on Facebook and Instagram, but that has not been possible anymore.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's practice, and it's also exposure to just this is a possibility, this is how you could hide it again, the whole smuggling aspect comes from a criminal mindset type setting. So how things are hidden, where they're hidden. And when I talk about concealing objects of this nature, it usually comes from smuggling, you know, the fact that I have something in a notebook comes from heroin smuggling. If you're not looking at the school of criminality, you're missing out on a big part of the equation.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lighter if you can burn the core, melt the core open, or if you can leverage that open, that's a pretty easy thing to open. Or a bobby pin you could reach all the way in the back and open the latch. Yeah, it is common. This is one of my favorite things for rope. Something I usually carry in some places. It's another gift for you if you want. ceramic razor blade. Is it capable of cutting? Small, you can put it behind a label. I've seen some students put the Levi's label on there and just sew it back on. It is non-magnetic, non-ferrous, so in and out of that type of situation. You can get in it. And it's something you can have with you everywhere. This is a pretty fancy one, or you can just grab a simple razor blade. Actually, learning how to use or leverage a razor blade between your palms and know how to go up and down with it.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And number three, which is the advanced level, is learn how to construct all of these things yourself, which is, I think that is the best thing you can show somebody. For handcuffs, I just use a standard pair of handcuffs and then we deconstruct other very specialized handcuffs that might be out there. And you show them, if you're going to travel somewhere, learn what restraints are commonly in the available in the environment. Somebody going to sub-Saharan Africa. Carrying a plastic handcuff key that's going to be useless out there because there's not going to be standard handcuffs out there that would be Open with that type of key. Out there, you're probably going to be tied up with a chain and a padlock of some sort, maybe a 40mm Chinese padlock with a plastic core that you can open with a...”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You learn how to put yourself in not a compromised position. If somebody asks you for your hand, your hands so they could be cuffed, you don't do this, or you put yourself in a cable grip behind your back, which is a pretty strong grip and it's hard to spread those hands apart. It's also something that people go into automatically when they're in fear. So all of these things are advantageous for you. You learn not only people get restrained, but you see videos of them because I show a bunch of abduction that's actually happening live. Again, the best thing is avoidance, but specifically when you work around restraints is number one, learn how some of these restraints work. Number two is learning how some of the ready-made tools to get out of the restraints look like function.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You could try and reach back, or you can basically put yourself in a non-compromised position and feed the most of your palm meat into the handc Have more space to work with so you can spin your hand. We call it a passive resistance. Again, you go through a process within where you deconstruct how people are handcuffed, handcuff keys and how to modify handcuff key to be able to use on yourself. And all of these things they're constructing as we go. So they basically, hey, what's a grinding surface? Well, there's concrete outside. So they grind an angle on the key so you can get a key not to go straight into the keyway, but you can get it into the key weight and angle, for example. It's something that is out there as far as a method. You can't spin a key behind your back because it's small. It's designed to be used by somebody else opening those handcuffs on you. So you put an arm on it so you can leverage our arm so you can spin it behind your back.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that's their first lesson there. If you have a handcuff key, handcuff keys are the most used tool to open up handcuffs in custody situations. Both criminals escaping from the police to people escaping from criminals. Just a standard hidden handcuff key. So I show them how to modify that handcuff key so it's more optimal to use on yourself with just basic garbage that you can find, piece of wire, a zip type piece, basically how to put a leverage arm on the handcuff key so you can actually spin it in the keyway behind your back or in front of you.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, what I do is I take a pair of Smith and Weston handcuffs. I put them in the middle of three people in a class. I spread them out. And I have them place them on each other in a just playing manner. I have Hank, I have Hank of Keith there, and I have a pair of bowl cutters there in case somebody gets stuck, does something stupid. So they play with each other as far as putting them on randomly. I show them how to put them on appropriately. And then I show them a handcuff key and a handcuff key will open up handcuffs. Interestingly enough. But the thing about a handcuff key is it's not made to be used by the person that is in those handcuffs.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Restraints are temporary. You either free yourselves from the restraints. Somebody else takes them off, or you die and your body rots your way around. Those are the options. And I like that first option myself. The second option is pretty cool if you can convince somebody to do that for you. But that first option is an interesting one. You have to deconstruct restraints. Not all restraints are made the same. You can train to get out of handcuffs here in the US and focus on a pair of Smith and Weston handcuffs, which are kind of the most common brand of handcuffs here. But if you find yourself in detention somewhere in Russia, the handcuffs out there are completely different. You know, the key way is different. The mechanism is different. But some of the same ways of bypassing those mechanisms are...”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, it's not specifically a system. It's usually what happens is they'll buy a set of handcuffs and they will mess around with them in a playing feature. So one thing I do in a class is first off I'm honest about the fact that some all restraints are temporary, even marriage.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Best at it, or not the military, the Nazier program people, they hurt criminals. I learned how to get out of handcuffs from a 15 year old who was in charge of meth sales in La Vanilla Revolution Tijuana.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They are God and that any hope of you releasing those restraints or getting out of that situation is hopeless. From a cartel group picking you up in the middle of a dirt road somewhere in Cancun to ex-boyfriend showing up at your house and tying you up till you agree to get back with him. That's the same thing. And some of the restraints that are being utilized come from different places. I mean, I remember an instructor I had way back when told me that the proliferation of zip ties as a restraint in criminal abductions came up after the movie heat came out because everybody wanted to be Robert Deniro zip-tying people in the bank robbery at the end of the movie. Criminals saw that and it became like a thing.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That tie them up and beat the shit out of them. And the restraints that utilize are zip ties and handcuffs sometimes or duct tape or their own clothing, things of this nature. Basically what somebody's looking for when they tie anybody up is to convince you that they are in control.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Financially and also this if they get hurt, they're hurt for a purpose, which is to make their family pay up faster or more. Some of the abduction groups that I've seen out there, professional ones in Mexico basically make it a living to target people that have abduction insurance or that work for companies that have good abduction insurance. So it's almost like an ATM for them. It's like, ah, here again. So there's some of that going on, some not so much, some abductions are express. I mean, I'll grab you with a gun point, take you to an ATM, you empty it out, and then you're on your way. That's an express kidnapping. That might not be worth you doing anything insane, you know. You just go with the motions. But some people do get picked up. I have trained people with prior experiences of abductions in Mexico and here in the United States, people that have spent some time in captivity with loved ones here, like ex-boyfriends or boyfriends.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So in Mexico, you have abductions happening where cartels who hold control over a specific place or zone are having a hard time with financial situations as far as maybe they're not making enough money to pay everybody off. So they let them freelance basically in a lot of ways some of these criminal groups freelance or some of these groups actually professionalize and to abduct businessmen, abduct the sons of businessmen or people that have money to ask for ransoms for them, basically. And they've taken captivity and abduction to an art form in places like Mexico and has a history all over the world, but specifically my experience with it was going to cartel safe houses that turn into holding places. You would see homemade prison cells and stuff like that. And people.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It happens in different ways in different parts of the world. I mean, I just sent off a group of people that train some of the Ukrainians and some of the stuff that they were showing them was some of the counter custody stuff that I showed them a friend of mine named Vince went out there and was showing them some of the aspects of how to utilize things like Kevlar Cordage and how to infuse it in their uniform. So if they get zip tied to cut them open, it's a war setting. It talks about being captive in a war zone. But the information or the methodology actually comes from Mexico. That methodology, as far as how I learned it”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, they made flyers for it. They did the social media page on a campaign. They did this email chain. So when they went there, people were expecting them. So they normalized the behavior through social media and they were walking around bull cutters in the middle of them all cutting these things off. A beautiful That's a beautiful solution to a complex problem of that nature. And again, the weaponizing part of it, anything, all knowledge can be weaponized. And if you focus on getting in a street fight with somebody with your fist or a knife, you're missing out on the whole complexity of violence and the way that it's now being utilized.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so we have this exercise in a public space where there's a bunch of padlocks in the environment. And we paint them pink so people know our padlocks and we're not breaking into anybody else's padlocks if we get approached and asked about it. But I asked the students like, so you have to gather all these padlocks from this public space, you know? So how would you do it? So a lot of them are trying to pick them. They're like very suspiciously picking them and stuff like that that you get caught. And it's a whole situation. But the smart ones will basically develop a social media campaign related to the bad locks, right? A beautiful example of this. And this actually happened here in Texas. I did a class out in Dallas. We put the padlocks all over this public mall. And the students basically came up with a breast cancer awareness campaign online that they made fake.”
2022-12-12 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #346 – Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source