1161: Tegan Broadwater | How a White Cop Infiltrated the Crips Part Two
Undercover work is psychological warfare in designer jeans. Ex-cop Tegan Broadwater explains how authenticity beats acting when lives are on the line. [Pt. 2/2 — Find Pt. 1/2 here!]
Jordan's must reads (including books from this episode): AcceleratEd
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1161
What We Discuss with Tegan Broadwater:
- How Tegan Broadwater went undercover and infiltrated the Crips gang for 18 months, working mostly off-the-books without proper backup or supervision.
- What happened when Tegan discovered a corrupt police officer selling information to gang members and warning them of raids — while superiors ignored his detailed complaint and evidence.
- How budget constraints forced dangerous solo operations rather than proper surveillance teams, using a single patrol officer as backup via an open phone line.
- How Tegan's efforts successfully built a 51-person conspiracy case with FBI partnership, resulting in arrests averaging 19-year sentences and solving nine cold case murders.
- Why a focus on mentoring at-risk youth is society's best chance at breaking cycles of crime — supporting children of incarcerated parents through education, job skills, and positive role models creates lasting change.
- And much more...
And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps!
- Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course!
- Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom!
- Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!
This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors:
- Northwest Registered Agent: northwestregisteredagent.com/jordan
- Oura Ring: 10% off: ouraring.com/jordan
- Cayman Jack: caymanjack.com
- Airbnb: airbnb.com/host
- Land Rover Defender: landroverusa.com
Miss the two-parter we did with Jack Barsky — author of Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America? Start with episode 285: Jack Barsky | Deep Undercover with a KGB Spy in America!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Listen and follow along
Transcript
This episode is sponsored in part by Vital Proteins.
Let's face it, once you hit 30, things start changing, start to feel a little different.
Turns out your body's natural collagen production, key for healthy hair, skin, nails, bones, and joints, drops about one percent per year after 30.
Vital Proteins helps tackle that very issue.
They are the number one collagen peptide brand in the U.S., and their ingredients are backed by science.
Think about that.
Helping you feel and look your best.
It's unflavored, which means you can easily mix it into just about anything personally.
I actually toss it in my coffee.
I know that sounds weird, but it doesn't taste like anything.
It just, just, if it's not simple, it's not happening for me and just goes right in.
They've even got these convenient stick packs for when you're traveling or running around this summer.
Bottom line, if you want to stay active, look good, keep doing the things you love, give vital proteins a shot.
It's an effortless addition to your routine.
And the key is, of course, consistency.
Get 20% off by going to vitalproteins.com.
Enter our promo code Jordan at checkout.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Commercial Insurance.
As a business owner, you take on a a lot of roles.
Marketer, bookkeeper, CEO.
But when it comes to small business insurance, Progressive has you covered.
They offer discounts on commercial auto insurance, customizable coverages that can grow with your business, and reliable protection for whatever comes your way.
Count on Progressive to handle your insurance while you do, well, everything else.
Quote today in as little as seven minutes at progressivecommercial.com.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, coverage provided and serviced by affiliated and third-party insurers.
Discounts and coverage selections not available in all states or situations.
Parents, let's be real.
How many times have you opened your Instagram today, checked your email, doom scrolled?
Now imagine if those apps actually made your life easier, gave you more confidence, more peace of mind, and a little joy.
Good news, Nanit does.
It's not just a baby monitor, it's my parenting sidekick.
With a crystal clear camera, Nanit lets me see, hear, and track my baby's sleep, milestones, and even their breathing, all from my phone, anytime, anywhere.
I get real-time insights so I'm not tiptoeing into their room 10 times a night.
And the average Nanit user, aka me, opens the app over nine times a day.
That's how helpful it is.
It's changed how I parent with confidence, calm, and a deeper understanding of my baby's needs.
And yes, way more sleep.
You're going to love Nanit.
Trust me, parenthood looks different here.
We have a special offer just for our listeners.
Get 20% off your first order with code BABY20.
That's B-A-B-Y20 at Nanit.com Now, N-A-N-I-T, nanit.com.
Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show.
How do I make this case survive?
I've been through the ringer and I've ran giant operations, and these punk gangbangers are trying to put a label on me that's going to get me killed in the street.
This is the lowest next to a pedophile.
You can't put a label on somebody worse than this.
Do I want to die?
No.
Was I willing to lose my job over making this successful?
Yes.
Welcome to the show.
I'm Jordan Harbinger.
On the Jordan Harbinger Show, we decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you.
Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker through long-form conversations with a variety of amazing folks-from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, performers, even the occasional drug trafficker, former jihadi, gold smuggler, or Russian spy.
And if you're new to this show or you want to tell your friends about this show, and I appreciate it when you do that, I suggest our episode starter packs.
These are collections of our favorite episodes on topics like persuasion, negotiation, psychology, geopolitics, disinformation, China, North Korea, crime and cults, and more.
That'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on the show.
Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash start or search for us in your Spotify app to get started.
Today, part two with former undercover cop Tegan Broadwater, who infiltrated the Crip Street Gang.
Obviously, if you haven't heard part one, go back and listen to that.
part two even crazier more wild stories we're just getting warmed up here we go part two with tegan broadwater
you said you did a lot of stuff off the books what does that actually mean sounds like something you're not supposed to be doing yeah it is something i wasn't supposed to be doing it was with the resources that we had Here's how you would set up a deal typically.
You would say, all right, this is my target.
This is the time I'm trying to go do XYZ.
And then you get a team of five dudes from the gang unit in suburbans and a bunch of white dudes with backwards baseball caps and beards hanging out in the hood three blocks away with listening devices.
You go in, you give the date and time, what you're going to do, and you go in and you try to accomplish whatever the part of the mission is, make the buy, whatever.
And it's just so freaking conspicuous and time consuming to get that together.
And hey, these guys are saying, hey, man, B just went to Waco and he's going to be back.
Are you interested in doing some business?
And it's two in the morning.
I'm not going to get eight dudes out of their beds to come show up and do all this conspicuous stuff with a bunch of white dudes because that's the other thing.
These dudes parking in these enterprise-leased cars all over the hood.
They're just like, I think something's up because these people also have lookouts.
There are 13 Ford fusions in the neighborhood and usually there's zero.
What's going on?
It's that bad in a lot of cases.
Now, there are some real expert guys.
Again, if you're working with the FBI and you've certified your undercover status and you have a team of people from different places that you're going, that's fine.
But I was also working in my own backyard and I had so little money and so little opportunity to just go in and start flashing money and blowing up stuff that I had to leverage the time that I could spend down there.
Sometimes I would go down there specifically asking for someone I knew that was gone so that I had an opportunity to just hang out.
But not spend any money because the guy was gone.
Yeah.
And because I didn't have the money.
Two, I needed to establish relationships and find out who's who.
And so I would just go down there.
And before you knew it, after eight, 10, 12 months, I'm going down there and they're inviting me.
I'm bringing four packs of magnums and we're sharing malt liquor and playing Madden and whatever.
And it's all good.
But in the beginning, that's the idea is that's how you build relationships.
You know who I am.
You've seen me.
I'm asking for so-and-so not here.
And so the rest is, hey, what's up?
You want a beer?
And just seeing what's going on.
So that's a little bit different level of pressure for somebody instead of me saying, well, can you get me something?
It's not all business.
That makes a lot of sense.
Also, I I think it's funny you had the budget issues, right?
So you have this wad, this big wad of cash.
You had $200 on the outside.
You're like, I hope he doesn't need any more than that because once I rip off this first $100 bill, everything out of that is once.
It's all about the Washingtons, baby.
Yeah, we're taking him to the strip club after this deal.
That's right.
A little bit of sample, and then we're going to go to the strip club and we'll have a blast.
Oh, man.
You got word of a cop that sells Crips info on police action.
What was your initial reaction to that?
Because that's like the sinking feeling in your gut at that point, right?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
It scared me to death.
Because I knew the guy and I was a little bit over-paranoid anyway.
Oh, you knew the guy that sold the information.
I knew the guy that.
So you're like, oh, crap, he knows who I am.
He knows who I am.
He didn't know what I was doing that I was down there because when I started this thing, I acted a little over paranoid.
Uh-huh.
When I would make a buy and go tag the evidence and have it analyzed, I didn't put it to a long form report and put it in the system, which other people could potentially access.
The hard files in the narcotics office and the gang offices where you could go in and somebody could have essentially just followed my whole case by coming in behind and checking out what reports I'd made.
So I would literally just say, here's the report number and further details forthcoming.
I would keep my own reports to where I could go back after the fact because I was just so paranoid.
I didn't even think it was going to come to that, to be honest with you.
I just thought.
Nobody really knew a lot about what I was doing other than my immediate supervisor.
That's all it needed to know.
I just felt like I was getting so deep that I don't need a bunch of people talking about anything that I'm doing.
There's too much to lose from general chatter.
So when I found that out, it scared me to death.
I thought, oh my gosh.
First of all, I was so glad that I didn't have a report in the box because these guys couldn't tell him who I was.
And it wasn't like he was involved to the extent where he's down there at the houses doing deals.
He was working cases also, but he was just avoiding cases that involved any of them.
He didn't bust those guys.
Yeah.
I don't even know that he was on the take as much as he had personal relationships having grown up around them.
Oh, I see.
So he might not have even been corrupt.
He just didn't want to bust his friends.
Yeah, he was corrupt to the extent that he was also, when we say we're doing the jump outs and the warrants and all that stuff before I came up with the undercover plan, that's the reason why.
None of those houses had any people or dope or guns.
Oh, because he would call and say, we're going to raise.
Oh,
this is coming.
And then they would just be gone.
Fortunately, that's how they handled it, as opposed to let's arm up and put 20 people in here.
But he was just telling them, hey, be gone.
Whatever.
They cleaned the place out.
It'd look like, man, these people don't even know what they're doing, but you're swearing.
Like, man, I swear this had some stuff in it yesterday.
That's really crazy.
So how do you handle that at that point?
My gut would be
try to ask for an introduction so that you can, quote unquote, buy info on police activity.
I don't know.
But you don't really want to meet him because he'll be like, Deegan?
Yes.
I did not want to meet him, but I was curious about what information that he could provide because I told him I had some places on the other side of town that were catching a lot of heat.
And if I gave you some addresses, could you get them to him and see what he could find out?
That was essentially what I was trying to do.
Oh, I see.
So you get to use him/slash prove that he's corrupt without actually going face to face.
That's more.
Yeah.
Ultimately, I wrote it up an inter-office thing and said, hey, here's the deal.
Here's my complaint.
This guy's completely crooked and blah, blah, blah.
He's going to get somebody killed.
What happened to him?
Nothing.
Nothing happened.
He retired happy.
Wow.
That's really horrible.
yeah it's terrible and again look i'm a low totem pole i was doing what i was doing but i i send it to this supervisor who then says whoa this is a big deal send it to this supervisor to that supervisor and then to the i don't know how far it got before somebody just said i'm calling bs or whatever no one even asked me any further questions i submitted the written document with the complaint on it with all of the details the legend about dates and times and who said what and everything that i could give and it came back with jack Squat.
That's crazy.
Yeah, I think so too.
There's a part of me that wants to go, oh, he must have been in another operation and it was only at the high level, but that doesn't even make any sense.
No, it doesn't make any sense.
They would have explained that to me at some point.
Hey, there's stuff you don't know and just leave this alone.
I wasn't told to leave it alone.
I would follow up and they say, I don't know.
Cause again, I'm handing it to you who has to get it through.
four levels of command structure.
So it's almost like, oh, I've known Bill for years.
He wouldn't do that.
I have to throw this thing in the trash.
He plays golf with me on Saturdays.
He would never do this.
It could be.
I don't know.
That's crazy to me.
That's really scary.
Talk about not having your back.
Yeah.
He's lucky that I hid all my stuff because, again, he could have figured out who I was and it stopped me in my tracks before not only did I make any progress through the case, but the first time I show up when they're notified that, oh, what this guy's actually not T, he's not a sorry.
He's a cop.
Then who knows how they would have handled that?
Because he wasn't going to tell me not to go.
I just ratted you out.
He's going to rat me out to them knowing it was me.
And then I'm going to keep showing up thinking I got my game still, which is who knows where that goes.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
That's terrible.
Jeez.
You did say something that I hear from almost every undercover who's ever been on the show, which is.
You're working like 80 hours a week, 60, 80 hours a week.
You begin to forget who you really are.
How did that show up in your life?
Because some guys really, they became more of their persona, methed out biker, except maybe more like hydroxy cut out biker.
Yeah.
How did it sort of manifest in your life?
Because it seems unsustainable.
It's like a game or an addiction almost.
Yeah.
I think it manifests most when, you know, I would come home and my wife would notice that I was stressed.
And, you know, I don't want to make it cheesy, like I was just constantly in character and I couldn't get out.
But when you're living every day amongst those folks, you do develop an accent.
Hey, I'm just going to be here for a minute.
And then you come back in three hours and she's like you've been gone for three hours you said you're going to be gone for a minute well i mean a minute you know but i think ultimately what it is and i think in a lot of cases really what it is high stress low sleep and i think over time that just starts to take a toll in general in terms of how you treat people how you treat yourself i was a big super workout buff but i lost tons of weight during this thing because i know i've heard of guys that are working out a lot crazy while they're i don't know where i would have found the time to do that i would sneak in go into a kids game on my UC car, drive way out to wherever, but I didn't have time for much else.
And then when we could go out and we had something that we wanted to do, I was freaking exhausted.
I'd sleep through movies and would be snapping at people because I'm just irritated and tired as hell.
And those are the types of things that start to take a toll on your relationship.
You got to infiltrate a gang that works out every day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they're like, hey, man, you look rough.
You need to take a nap.
Go in the back.
Well, I would have loved to.
You know, I didn't even really think about it a lot.
I tried to exercise as much as I could.
But having worked out so hard before, and there's times where you work out, and there's times where you're like, eh, I might call it a workout.
I might not.
I can just imagine, like, hey, look here, it's Southeast Side Crips, man.
We value self-care.
If you're going to be a part of this gang, man, you got to take care of yourself.
Yes.
Brush and floss.
I wore a bunch of baggy clothes anyway, so I didn't even notice that I was losing all the weight.
I'd worked so hard to get, which is no big deal.
All that weight anyway, just at my age now, causes me to have surgery.
I found found it interesting you said the whole gang love loyalty stuff is just all fake it's just all bullshit and that they don't really care they just go right back to selling and banging yeah not all of them but yes in general especially people that don't get long sentences most of the time these dudes when you're dealing with a police department or whoever whatever investigative agency is coming in and doing short-term busts these guys get in and out the slap on the wrist is a slap on the wrist and if they think hey part of the penance that you pay to be in a gang is that you might have to do a year here and there, that's not a big penance to pay.
So when these guys got rounded up and they're doing 25 and 30, that's a big penance to pay.
And you'd be amazed at the things that will come out of people's mouth at that point.
And I was surprised at some of the people that didn't, because the ones that didn't, I was hoping would.
And the guys that did, I was hoping wouldn't and would just eat the years.
But you just don't know.
But I think the vast majority of people, when they're facing some significant consequence, will change their behavior a little bit.
Or at the very least, my hope is when you come out and you are 48, that maybe now you'll be a little bit more mature because you're not going to go out and gangbang at 48 and no one's going to take you seriously anyway.
Although people still do, it's pretty amazing to see these old guys out there still talking about their OG and everything else.
But my hope is that changes eventually.
But again, these are not mature people in general.
They grew up, hit the streets early, quit school, and then kept doing what they're doing and then went in prison, learned how to do bad stuff better.
And there are a few and the ones that make it and rehabilitate to whatever degree are really great people because they're still people who take the sociopath out and they feel like they can learn a life lesson and go forward.
And they're great people when they have that experience.
That's somebody I can learn a ton from now.
you know, that's actually had that kind of experience and they can bring that forward, take that lesson forward and teach other people.
And that's invaluable.
Sure.
They can certainly speak for a position of credibility if they go to, I don't know, middle school and they're like, oh, yeah, you think being in the gang is cool?
Here's what my life was like.
Yeah.
And then I went to prison for 25 years.
You want to know what prison's like?
And it's like, oh, geez, maybe not.
You said you wanted to get to know your informants enough so that you could steer them into a normal vocation.
Is that so you're getting to know these guys and you're like, hey, have you ever thought about not doing crime for a living?
How possible is that?
Informants are a different breed altogether.
They're stuck between wanting to be endearing themselves to you for alter your moments.
Yeah, they're getting paid, yeah.
And wanting to play the gang game, but they're not really accepted as much as you would think they were, or else they'd be the ones you're chasing.
Sure.
So it's an interesting thing.
And you get to know them really well because essentially, if you're working with an informant, they know who you are already and you're still going into a dangerous situation and they already know who you are.
So the level of trust that you have to have with somebody at that point is pretty intense.
And so you learn a lot more about them than you would somebody else, because in those instances, you can ask those hard questions.
They're going through a questionnaire in order to be certified and blah, blah, blah.
You do meet their families and you ask a bunch of questions.
You're like, man, why are you not showing up on time?
Are you freaking using, you bastard?
You're going through the stuff.
You feel like a big brother or something to them.
So yeah, you wish the best for them.
You want them to succeed.
It's a long shot with a lot of folks, but I've seen some
actually go pretty far.
Seen others that that are dead now.
So, I mean, it kind of runs the gambit there, too.
You always want the best for people, though.
Yeah, of course.
You're making, at one point, triple the amount of drug buys, whatever, but you're not making that many arrests building up, trying to find the top guy.
Don't you get pressure like, hey, can't you arrest some of these guys?
Isn't there pressure?
Like, you're spending a lot of money.
I'm not seeing a whole lot of warrants or whatever coming through from you, pal.
Yeah, and that's exactly how it works, is they want to see you spending the little NARC budget, which is not that big in the first place.
And then I work up to the point where I'm dealing with so many people and buying little samples because I'm looking for the big guy, but all these other guys know that T's this big-time dude and they want to sell me something.
I'm like, hey, man, give me 100.
I'll see if I can move what you got or whatever, just as then I'll do something for you, that kind of thing.
Once I got to that point, but I'm spending the budget for the week for the whole team.
And my sergeant at the time was the only reason why I was able to succeed because I kept him apprised of what I was trying to do.
He knew I had targets.
He's known me for a long time by then and knew that these these other dudes would come in at 10 o'clock, hang around the office, fart around a couple of cases or whatever, go to lunch from 12 to 3,
7 deep, and then whatever.
And meanwhile, I'm nowhere to be found.
So these guys are complaining about me being some kind of loner.
And I'm just like, dude.
Yeah.
I'm happy to have you along working with me if you want to actually get off your ass.
It was just exciting work for me.
I just, I couldn't sit around.
You actually wanted to be a cop.
The other guys wanted to get a paycheck.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
He saw that and understood and allowed that to happen essentially covered for me.
Yeah.
Knowing that I was working, what results I was getting to a reasonable extent.
I would meet with him once a week and at least say, you know, this is kind of where I'm getting in close with this guy, blah, blah, blah.
There was a lot that I couldn't explain to him, obviously, because if I'm going in off the books, when I'm going into work and essentially nobody knows I'm at work except one of the patrolmen I used to work with, just telling him on the midnight shift, hey, man, I'm fixing to go do this thing.
You mind standing by.
They don't know the process, but yeah, man, I got you.
And I'll just say, hey, stay far enough away, blah, blah, blah.
And I'll keep the phone line open.
That was my wire, so to speak.
You just have your phone call going to him.
And so that if anything goes wrong, he can roll up at the license siren.
Just drive through the front door, man, because these are all like burglar barred, fortified, whatever.
I said, just come save my ass.
Jeez, and he's just hanging out at Tim Horton's waiting for the call.
Yeah, geez.
Basically, yeah.
But he's thinking about it as a patrol officer, that's exciting stuff to do, too.
I guess it's better than, yeah, I mean, he's Carl Winslow and diehard, right?
Hanging outside of
the homie.
Plans for a call or waiting for a call or whatever.
Somebody called and say, you know, homicide detective, and you go out hunting.
Something to do.
Sure.
Somebody who actually wants to work.
No kidding.
So you mentioned you did a bunch of stuff off the books.
We touched on that, but why did you need to do that again?
I needed to do it primarily because time was a key factor.
And essentially, I was spent so much time that it was a non-starter.
There was no team that could stay down there every single day, including weekends and everything else.
So it's expensive.
So you're just like, oh, I'm going going to go do it by myself, even though I'm not supposed to do it.
Yeah.
And even just the hangouts, every day of the week, I would spend some time there.
I would at least drive through and say, what's up?
If I'm on a Saturday and I'm doing something with my family, I would still roll through there and give a what's up.
They saw me almost every single day for that straight 18 months.
People saw my face rolling through there.
And that was part of it, though.
I never just disappeared for periods of time.
That's when people start thinking, where have you been?
Like, what's going on?
And then I have to make up some kind of ruse, but I got locked up or wherever else I was supposed to be.
And unfortunately, I lived in the same city, which was part of the other anomaly in this case is that I'm crapping in my own backyard, essentially.
So that made it more difficult.
But that's why off the books, I would say,
other than a couple of the things that I was involving myself with that would have been
once you go up the chain and say, hey, I want to go.
you know, hang out with these dudes and I'm play video games and we talk to some smack.
I'm going to try to meet some new people, wherever, you do that on a daily basis.
Just some of it's prohibitive.
You don't have enough manpower.
Some of it is just stuff they wouldn't want you to do just for safety's sake or whatever.
Because again, they want you to be wired.
I wanted absolutely not to be wired.
The time all we had was that primitive crap that just taped all over yourself.
And how wired do you need to be when you're just playing John Madden to build rapport?
You're just taking unnecessary risk at that point.
But of course, their protocol is, no, you're wired at all time.
We have a team ready to help you.
And you're like, we're going to be here for five hours drinking and playing John Madden.
It's a waste of time.
So I see the temptation to be like, I'm just going to go do this.
Yeah.
And it got so much easier too to where if somebody does call you at two in the morning and saying, hey, man, this XYZ, and I say, I'll be there in a minute.
And I literally roll up and 25 minutes later, that would be something that would take three hours to get guys on call to get their cars, go gear up, meet at the office, wire me up, figure out a game plan.
Now, time to crip walk your way to some deals and discounts on the fine products and services that support this show.
We'll be right back.
Hi, I'm William Googe, a Vuri Collaborate and professional ultra runner from the UK.
I love to tackle endurance runs around the world, including a 55-day, 3064-mile run across the US.
So I know a thing or two about performance wear.
My go-to daily short is the core short from View.
It's perfect for my daily run in the gym, strength training, or even when I'm taking a day off, relaxing, doing some stretching, and recovering the best way I can.
Check them out by visiting viewery.com slash William.
That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash William, where new customers can receive 20% off their first order, plus enjoy free shipping in the U.S.
on orders over $75 and free returns.
Excluding supply, visit the website for full terms and conditions.
You're tuned into auto intelligence live from Auto Trader, where data, tools, and your preferences sync to make your car shopping smooth.
They're searching inventory.
Oh, yeah.
They find what you need.
They're gonna find it.
Can make a budget for your wallet to help you succeed.
Pricing's precise and true.
So true.
It's smarter car shopping.
Just for you.
Oh, it's just for you.
Find your next ride at autotrader.com, powered by auto intelligence.
People love dogs on account of how nice, soft, and fluffy they are.
But did you know there's a credit card called Care Credit?
And it's like a dog in every single way.
Okay, it's nothing like a dog.
But you can use it to pay for things like vet care for your dog or dental and vision care for yourself at over 270,000 locations nationwide.
Care Credit offers flexible financing for health and wellness for pets and people, which actually makes it better than a dog because dogs don't even have flexible financing.
Take that dog.
Visit CareCredit.com to apply and find a location near you, subject to credit approval.
If you're wondering how I managed to book all these authors, thinkers, creators every week, it is because of my network.
And funnily enough, I have been teaching this class to three-letter agencies because they are using it in their undercover and not so undercover work.
And I've set this up in a free course for you, sixminutenetworking.com.
I don't need your credit card.
It's not like a bait and switch type thing.
It's a course about improving your relationship building skills in ways that are decidedly non-cringy and not weird.
It'll make you a better connector.
And six minutes a day is all it takes.
Many, many of the guests on the show subscribe and contribute to this course.
So come on and join us.
You'll be in smart company where you belong.
The course, again, for free, no shenanigans, over at sixminutenetworking.com.
All right, now back to Teague and Broadwater.
So the budget gets exceeded and you go to the feds, but they want to take over the case.
Is that normal?
Yeah, I think it is.
Doesn't make any sense, though, because you're the guy who ran the case.
What is their best argument if you can sort of steel man this?
What's their best argument for taking this case away from you?
Because they just think we'll take the case that you've brought to us thus far.
And if they feel like they could put their own undercover in there and insert them, or just take the case and run it up through the AUSA at that point and take all the credit for the case.
The U.S.
Attorney.
Yes, because they're federal agencies.
And obviously, the DEA would have people that are.
fully equipped to try to get an undercover in or whatever.
But I already knew.
It's like, man, this is ridiculous to try to insert someone else when I'm already in there.
What's the point?
All you're doing is complicating it, putting more risk on someone else when the case is already rolling forward.
It's rolling downhill now.
If I had the funds and the equipment, that's what I was looking for.
So that's when the FBI was the obvious thing.
And what's interesting is that they have a whole trained undercover program, but they appreciated the fact that this was already being accomplished.
And I think it's just common sense.
And of course, the FBI still gets all the credit for the case.
They filed filed the case federally and all that stuff.
So I'm working undercover.
So honestly, the last person that gets credit for anything is the undercover because that's what you do.
So you're not there for a glorification.
You get done with a case like that and then raise your hand and say, I'm undercover.
Then you're never working again.
So essentially, everyone else is taking whatever credit they want, the gang unit and the FBI and this and this.
And they're all do press conferences.
But I'm not showing my face.
Sure.
Yeah.
No, it seems like a bad idea.
I'm surprised they didn't offer you a job after that because it seems like you did a pretty good job job on the case.
Yeah, that's not how it works.
When you're in a civil service-based department, you test for every promotion and you either make it or you don't.
That's how it goes.
There's good things and bad things about that because it's a competency test and you cover leadership and different things like that.
But that doesn't necessarily mean you have great leaders either.
Because if you can take the test better than me, now you're the next leader.
Sure.
So I'm just surprised the FBI wasn't like, you should apply here.
citing your undercover work here.
I was probably too old by then.
I don't know what the FBI cutoff is, but I was 35-ish, 30.
It's probably like 36.
And I was pretending to be 29 or whatever it was.
Sure.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Tell me this story about you going in a dope house and then you end up, you were on TV at the same time.
This is such a good story, man.
This is the worst story, actually.
Now I assume you can laugh at it.
Yes, you have to laugh at it because otherwise I tear up every time.
But yeah, I was at a level to where guys were coming to me all the time and I was moving out of the fishbowl because obviously the crypt territory was was more than those six square blocks.
That was just a violent hub.
But a lot of the supplies were coming from outside that neighborhood, still all interconnected and crip-wise.
But so I was really careful about who I was talking to because moving from guy to guy was I could do dope deals all day long.
But if they're not a crip, I'm not interested in talking to them at all because I'm still working.
Even if the FBI has given me money to spend, I have to spend it wisely.
I have to still justify how the money, especially with the FBI, you have to justify how the money's being spent.
So we had this cat that pulls up.
I happened to pick up my informant just to get a brief and see what he's been doing.
Met this little corner store.
We're driving around, having a little sip, and this dude pulls up and flags us down.
I see the car.
It's this gold Lexus and it keeps driving around like, who's this fool?
He pulls up and he's like, T, man, hey, what's going on?
I met you once through whatever, and explained who he is.
And I'm looking over at my informant who knows that this guy needs to be a crip for me to even, but he's trying to sell me something, man.
I got this great stuff and whatever.
I'm like, hey, man, it's all good.
You don't need nothing, but it's good to meet you, whatever.
And then my, I look around my informant, he gives me the little, like, hey, man, he's a crip.
He's probably a low-level crip.
But again, the level of crip is insignificant to me.
I'm creating a conspiracy case of a whole bunch of crips that are causing a bunch of violent crime in the city.
So you're basically, this is like a Rico organized crime.
Yeah, that's the idea is tying all that together, not the dope.
At that point, it was a risk for me to say, I'm going to come in and do a low-level dope deal because I'm supposed to be this big dude when he wants to sell me the whatever but at that point i'm also trying to say well this is a crip a lower level crip is still a crip and a lot of times they're doing a lot of the violent acts themselves anyway so i said all right man that's cool where are you going he said just follow me he said my house whatever and we pull in pull up the driveway like a normal it's a little shocking little house with little burglar bars on the top built in the 50s little hood house typical thing fence out in the front yard and everything else he goes through the front gate and up the stairs open the burglar bar lock everything up back behind us.
Have a typical room set up with a little coffee table, couch on one side, giant screen TV on the other side, practically nothing else in the apartment besides a gun, a scale, and some dope.
Of course.
And somewhere there's a Bible and porn somewhere.
A Bible and porn?
Yes.
Those have to be present in order for you to solidify a purple dope.
That's ridiculous.
Percentage-wise, pretty amazing.
That's really ridiculous.
And so we just start chatting, just familiarizing whatever he's talking about, whatever his stuff was.
The TV happens to be on.
And this is back in 2006,
7-ish.
So you're going to realize there's four channels on TV for the most part at that time.
It's not like everybody had 2,600 choices.
And when they have TV in the county jail, it's running one of those channels all the time.
Cops happen to be one of the most popular.
Everybody watches.
Cops is on in the trap house.
Cops happens to be on in the trap house.
I don't even notice the cops on the trap house until I'm standing up.
Those two are sitting down.
My informant sits down and this other fool sits down.
We're just jaw-jabbing about stuff or whatever.
And I hear a voice behind me.
You talk about the feeling of dread that comes over.
You get that adrenaline SNS dump and my auto exclusion happens and I'm seeing in tunnel vision and my heart rate's racing.
And I recognize that it's me from several years back.
At that time, I did an episode in 1999 that was on replay.
Fort Worth did a crap load of episodes.
They used to be on reruns all the time.
I didn't even volunteer to go.
My sergeant made me go on this day when I was on the cops episode.
But there's a giant-esque TV behind me with my big white Nordic mug on there in a police uniform driving a police car arresting this fool on the freeway.
And these guys are facing me.
So behind me, I'm thinking, I got this giant backdrop.
Lord only knows.
And I've told you about all the things that I've prepared for.
Sure.
These people pull guns.
I got this.
I think I'm tactically sound as long as I have somebody else worry about it.
I'm going to this.
If they ask me this, I'm thinking all these things so that I can just focus solely on whatever important scenario is placed in front of me instead of thinking of all these ancillary things.
And this son of a bitch just confused the hell out of me.
You're just on TV in a police uniform behind you while you're dealing with these crips.
Yes.
Telling drugs in the trap house.
That must have felt like...
an eternity until that Arby's commercial or whatever comes out.
It may have been Arby's.
I think I would love Arby's.
I don't know what it it was because I would subconsciously just think, oh, I love Arby's.
It's copso.
It's either that or $2.99 are yada, yo, man.
And you're like, oh, thank God, Denny's commercials.
Hey, can we turn off this TV?
It's really distracting.
At that point, I could have left it on.
I don't know what I said.
It was the most difficult part to actually put into the book because I don't know what I said.
Everything else, I had notes and memorialized little things on napkins that I'd bought up like snot rags if there was something significant or write the story when I got home and my report that I never filed.
But this, I was just like, I have no earthly idea what I said.
And I was scared to death.
And I know I talked, which they tell me now is a part of a training protocol.
You keep talking through these stressful situations.
I don't know what I said, but I was talking just thinking, I am so freaking screwed right now.
And honestly, I was as paranoid about
having a violent confrontation as I was about this thing ending before I got to the head of the snake.
I mean, I was a little bit overly psycho about what I was willing to keep this case going because I had put in so much time and effort and there was nobody else working with me.
Obviously outside the scenes, I had an agent assigned to the case, but I was in there alone doing all these hours and putting in all this time.
I was going to be damned if I had to cut it short because a freaking TV show came on, but I was certain this is not going to end well.
And I don't have the key to the Berkeley bar door.
This is going to be bad.
Oh, man.
So I just.
The most anticlimactic part about it is that I just filibustered.
I call it a filibuster.
I just talked about whatever it is.
I'm going to keep talking until this is over and thank goodness it's over.
And then I'm hauling through the deal.
And I probably look like a complete amateur doing this dope deal, but they couldn't have been on point at that time.
Got the deal done, was hauling ass.
Man, I just remembered I got something else.
And we go out the door.
My informant jumps in the pastor seat.
I'm just looking at him.
He's, what is up with you?
He was all looking at me confused, too.
He had no freaking note.
Oh, he didn't notice.
No, obviously, nobody noticed.
Yeah.
Or that would have come around.
But at that point, once I left with my life and my sanity, I thought, that's not good that this is in my mind now.
Now I'm super paranoid.
If that thing's still showing to the extent that we could be in a trap and this is literally what they're watching.
Who else is watching cops at this exact moment that I also work with right now?
How many times are they rolling?
I mean, I don't know how many times this comes on all the time because it's Fort Worth.
I don't know, it's the middle of the night.
Half these folks are up.
Am I going to walk into the next house and they'd be like, saw you on TV?
You look familiar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But there's something beautiful, I think, about guys in uniform.
I used to know people that I'd work with and then I would see them out of uniform and just not recognize them.
And I think civilians think even more like that.
If they know who a police officer is, they just have a particular kind of look and you put them in street clothes and they just, they don't recognize them the same way.
And I think that was fortunate in this case that it would just, I think there was a separation, not to mention the high end tight, barely any hair look when I
could have, I damn sure could have grown out any hair I wanted and I didn't.
You get labeled as a snitch eventually.
How did that happen?
And what do you do about that?
Well, this was the difficult part.
And this is why, had I gone through training, I would have figured out that this is really against the rules.
Not that I didn't know it was against the rules, but look, I'm trying to be a big-time guy.
And obviously, if I've been working with cartel guys and had this big operation going, I can't be out here dealing with these little punk gangbangers.
And then somebody call me out.
The worst thing they can do is call you a snitch, even better than if you're deemed a cop.
You just run the risk of getting some kind of violent repercussions, but almost certainly you would if you're a snitch because there's a lot less repercussions for you if they find a snitch in a ditch versus finding a cop in the ditch.
There's going to be a hunting party coming out.
Yeah.
So I think I was so well known by then that they just thought it was a snitch.
Nobody really thought about a cop.
And the reason why it happened was it was the same little gangster hopping that I did where I was talking to this one dude and in typical doper, gangbanger fashion, he was giving me what I needed.
And so he thought he was doing me righteous, but would show up late all the time because my intermediate level doper or whatever show up.
And so I leverage that as, hey, man, I don't play like this.
I need people to be on time.
I'm running a business.
I don't know what you think you're doing, whatever.
And I just had to play it off because, again, I have a case on you already.
For me to just keep buying is just wasting a bunch of money.
Sure.
I need to be spending somewhere else because I need to put other crips on this conspiracy case.
So I end up going up the street, literally around the corner from where this cat is.
When he doesn't show up on time, I just take off.
I go around the corner and I start talking to somebody else around there.
By this time, it's not even hard for me to go talk to other people because everybody at least has heard of me.
So I at least can stop by and have a conversation.
I don't even remember at the time.
I know I ended up getting something from them, but I don't even remember if I was actually buying anything significant.
It was probably just, I'm just going to go over here and feel these guys out because I at least have that excuse in my mind.
Like, man, you didn't show up on time.
I can't be sitting around in the curb.
We got cops all over the place.
You're going to find some white dude in a Mercedes.
Hello.
And apparently he drove by and saw me.
And that's when he started saying, man, this dude's a snitch because he's thinking in his mind, I've been selling this guy righteous.
And now all of a sudden he's over here.
What is he even doing over here?
He has no reason to be going to one of my fellow guys.
And so he puts this jacket on me is what they call.
They give you the jacket.
It's a label as a snitch.
And my informant is calling me in a panic because he knows the risk that he runs.
If he made an introduction to this guy four months ago, and then all of a sudden it comes out that I'm some kind of snitch.
He's going to be the first guy they drag in and try to figure out what's going on too.
So he calls me in a panic panic in the middle of the night.
One of those guys, he's infamous for just calling.
I'm like, and he'll say, T-Man, it's really important.
It's an emergency.
T call me.
And they'd be like, hey, man, you got any money for a beer, man?
Can you meet me at the whatever?
Oh, geez.
Yeah.
And so I'm ignoring because like late in the night.
And so when I finally picked up, he said, man,
there's a word out on the street that manager snitched.
They gave you the jacket and blah, blah, blah.
And it's coming from this guy.
Yeah.
Blah, blah, blah.
He explains whatever the deal is.
He doesn't know why or anything like that, but words getting to him.
And so he's freaking out because he's got a high penance to pay at this point.
And so in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, when I'd say off the books, so very far removed from working with anybody who's covering me almost ever at this point.
And I'm probably easily over a year in and been out there so often that I'm just figuring out how do I make this case survive?
Do I want to die?
No.
Was I willing to lose my job over making this successful?
Yes.
And that's an interesting thought in retrospect.
but i thought okay if t is who he is and i purport myself to be some kind of big-time dude and i've been through the ringer and i've ran giant operations and these punk gangbangers are trying to put a label on me that's going to get me killed in the street this is the lowest next to a pedophile you can't put a label on somebody worse than this what would t actually do
so i flipped back over.
I had my plan and I set my alarm for six o'clock in the morning.
I got up and got myself all psyched.
I knew this dude does his drop.
He had a little porticochet over the side of the garage and he had the, at the bottom, there was a little missing piece of concrete and that's where the larger stash would go.
He'd make his drop every morning.
And so I pulled up and waited for him to show up on time, which of course he did not, but I was there when he got there.
And when he got up there, I just got out of my car and made a straight B-line for him.
He's like, hey, man, what's up?
And I just started beating the shit out of him.
This is what you do.
Now, obviously, I had plenty of training.
I wasn't trying to kill the dude, but this is the least of what I would do.
There's a lot worse that I could have done, but obviously I'm not trying to do anything other than convince him that this jacket needs to be taken off me because people are going to die if I just ignore it.
People are going to die, starting with my informant.
And that's what a gangster would do.
We got into it and I ended up rolling around in the grass down the hill and then ended up with a good knee into his rib cage.
And he was having a hard time catching his breath.
And I told him to take the jacket off of me and just walked away.
And that's the last I heard of it.
Really?
Yeah.
That's the last I heard of it.
And I don't think it was atypical.
I think it probably gave me a little more street cred, but I also don't think he just got up and went around and told everybody just got his ass kicked.
I don't think it was made into a bigger to-do because what would you say?
I said he was a snitch and he just kicked my ass.
I don't think so.
I'm curious.
Did you just say, I think I was mistaken about that?
My bad.
Yeah, that I don't know because I left it up to him.
Obviously, if he's the one talking about it, this is how I'm going to handle it.
I'm not going to go around and justify myself because I feel like I already had.
And I thought, that's the way I'm going to handle it.
And then hopefully that word gets out.
And that's how it went down.
That's exactly what happened.
It just got squashed.
But again, the concern comes back into my mind when somebody says, I only find out in retrospect that it was because he's seeing me at these other places.
I'm starting to think, oh my God, is this freaking cops episode coming on everywhere?
And all these people are figuring it out.
It's still making me just 10 times more paranoid.
And now I'd done that and obviously would not be permissible under any circumstance.
Yeah, of course.
And so I thought, well, I'm really sticking myself out there.
But I felt like I really had a purpose.
I know, interestingly, too, in retrospect, saving that neighborhood was already accomplished.
Saving a larger part of the entire portion of that neighborhood and further into the city based on the same violent, corrupt crips that were there.
It changed my perspective on kind of what I was doing.
But I was in it really deep.
And I just, I don't know how logical I was.
In my age now, I'm so much more logical and predictable in how I perform because some things are just so not worth it.
And I already know I got so much more to lose.
But the younger you go back and figure out, man, I got this to gain.
I'm willing to do all these other things.
And you're like, man, are you sure you've weighed all these consequences?
No kidding.
But yeah, that was one of the more extraordinary parts of that case.
You know, it's a good use of your off-the-books drug money.
The fine products and services that support this show.
We'll be right back.
Looking for a cruise experience that's truly different?
Virgin Voyages offers all-in-voyage pricing with over $1,000 in value included.
From Wi-Fi to dining at more than 20 restaurants, it's all covered.
As an adults-only cruise line, every experience, from wellness to nightlife, is thoughtfully curated.
It's no wonder Virgin Voyages has been voted world's best by Travel and Leisure for three consecutive years and by Condé NAS traveler readers.
This winter, discover seven-night Caribbean escapes from Miami.
Choose between Grand Cayman and Jamaica or Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
Plus experience the exclusive beach club in Bemini, Bahamas.
And in 2025, even more adventures await as Virgin Voyages expands to new destinations including Aruba, St.
Lucia, and Curacao.
Whether relaxing in a private terrace hammock or enjoying world-class entertainment, there's never a dull moment on a Virgin Voyages sail.
Learn more at virginvoyages.com or contact your travel advisor.
Every Monday and Wednesday night, it's true crime on TV1.
Love, betrayal, murder, fatal attraction, all new, every Monday night at nine.
Then Wednesday night at nine.
Loyal, ride or die, fad girls.
It's love to die for with all new episodes of For My Man.
Twisted Love, Twisted Endings, Desire, Deception, Betrayal.
True Crime with with fatal attraction and for my man every Monday and Wednesday night on TV1.
At Great Wolf Lodge, there's adventure for the whole family.
You and your pack can splash away in the indoor water park where it's always 84 degrees.
There's a massive wave pool, a lazy river, and tons of water slides for your pack to enjoy together.
And the fun doesn't stop there.
Get ready to explore and play at adventure-packed attractions like Magi Quest, a live-action game that takes place throughout the lodge to the Northern Lights Arcade.
There's also a bunch of great dining options and complimentary daily events like nightly dance parties, all under one roof.
And the best part, with 23 lodges across the country, you're always only a short drive away from adventure.
So bring your pack together at a lodge near you.
Book your stay today at greatwolf.com and strengthen the pack.
If you like this episode of the show, I invite you to do what other smart and considerate listeners do.
Take a moment and support our amazing sponsors.
They make this show possible after all.
All the deals, discount codes, and ways to support the podcast are searchable and clickable over at jordanharbinger.com/slash deals.
If you can't find something, you're not sure if something exists or if it's not working, just email me, jordan at jordanharbinger.com.
We are happy to surface that code for you, help you get stuff from the sponsors.
It is that important that you support those who support the show.
Now for the rest of my conversation with Tegan Broadwater.
You pull this clever move where you switch up an order at the last minute and it leads to a big supplier.
Tell me how that worked.
Yeah, one of the same typical deals where I'm cruising around with this cat who we're supposed to get this deal done.
He's picking it up from a cook and this guy's name was Dee.
We go in his house and he's actually cooking all the stuff up.
So that's why I knew that this guy had gotten all of his stuff from this particular cook.
So I have an order.
I don't remember quarter key, something moderate.
I didn't have an extraordinary budget like a lot of people think about with federal money.
Even when I had money, it wasn't extraordinary.
But we set this deal up.
And when he gets there, it's crack.
It's like a heart.
I'm like, dude, you know me.
I can't do the crack, man.
I need the powder, man.
And he's, man, I thought you said crack.
We were just at the cookhouse and my boss, man.
Can you help me out any other way?
He's like, man, let me try to think.
So I'm actually rolling around with him.
This is one of those paranoid dudes that tells you to meet him somewhere.
And then five other places after he moves, then we finally do the deal.
But now I'm riding him around with with me.
So we're driving around in my ride.
He takes me to this place and goes in and picks up something else.
The guy says he can get it, but to park and wait.
And we go back to the place where we were supposed to meet where they're having this house party.
And so we're just hanging out at that point because we're waiting to do a deal, but I'm essentially put in a situation where, hey, this is like the greatest networking event ever.
I'm in the middle of the hood at a house party, a bunch of cribs playing poker inside.
There's dudes in the backyard cooking.
There's people hanging out in the front, as overt as you can imagine a house party being with a bunch of criminals at it.
And while I'm still waiting, actually, I'm trying to remember if it was right after the deal, the guy showed up and we did the deal, or if it was right before.
So this blue SUV pulls up.
They call it a blue Jeep, no matter what it is.
If it's a Jeep or if it's a Durango, everyone in the hood calls it a Jeep.
But it was, I think it was a Durango, a blue Durango, pulls up and everybody starts flocking over to it.
Now, my kingpin, I'd known who the kingpin was since before the case started.
I had
run-ins with him just doing warrants and stuff.
He never got busted for anything.
So I knew he was the guy.
I didn't know how big he actually was in real life.
And he had been laying low.
He split town and there was a lot of heat from the feds or whatever.
I don't remember who he said he caught heat from.
I was thinking, it's not heat from me because I haven't been at your doorstep, but I wish I had been.
So he apparently was back in town.
This window lowers down and I see from his nose up, he's out poking his head out the back of his own car like somebody's driving around.
And all these people are gathering around.
It's like the freaking king has showed up into the town.
And I'm thinking, man, this is unbelievable.
I walk over and, of course, I'm with these two dudes that I'm doing deals with.
One guy's linking me with a new guy and we're getting what I need.
It's a natural symbiotic situation.
walk over with the crowd or whatever and I see him.
I know exactly who he is.
I only can guess that he might know maybe who I I am, but I've seen him and talked to him with a balaclava years before, but he wouldn't recognize me otherwise.
And I just remember catching some eye contact as he's talking to people kind of high-five and whatever.
And I kind of looked over.
I'm about to give him the what's up.
And he gives me a, like a what's up.
And it wasn't curious or suspicious or anything.
He just gave me a what's up.
And I thought, that's cool.
Normally I'm, who's the snowman here in the middle of the crew?
Who is this dude?
So I thought that was cool that I got the little what's up.
And that was my first inkling that, man, this connection, this is like a manifestation in real life of these people all lead to this.
And we're all standing here right now.
This is ultimately what the goal is to get all these people out of here.
And this is the kingpin who's running the whole show.
Yeah.
So how do you eventually get all these guys indicted and arrested?
Does it happen kind of all at once?
It seems like it has to.
Otherwise, everybody goes to ground, right?
You hope it happens all at once.
That's the plan anyway.
There was the FBI agent, assistant U.S.
attorney, and several people from the FBI field office in Dallas were working tirelessly and overnight to help write all these search and arrest warrants for all these target locations.
We had 51 people in the conspiracy at the very end, 41 of whom went federal sentencing and 10 went state.
So we're writing warrants all over the city for these people to do all at once.
And so they're having this big to-do in a gymnasium full of seven, eight, nine agencies.
We've got ATF and FBI.
We've got Fort Worth SWAT.
We've got gang unit.
All these people are all gathered as 200 plus officers in this gymnasium talking about what we're going to do the next morning at 6 a.m.
To me, I'm just, my mind's blowing.
Are you nervous?
Are you excited?
I'm both.
And honestly, it was surreal because by then I'd been doing it for so long, just the fact that it was actually going to culminate in anything that meant it was done was weird for me.
It was just something where I felt like My behavior, I was willing to just keep doing crazier and crazier stuff to just keep this thing building so it was surreal that it was even ending at all and normally too you do a case and then you crack the door down that's the fun part and everybody else is doing this for me and i'm working from the end of the fbi and i'm following their lead too because i'm just assigned to the fbi as a tfo i'm not actually an fbi agent so i'm following all the protocols that they have to go through it's a tfo just like a leader a task force officer a municipal or a sheriff department or somebody that's assigned to the fbi they get credentials and work in the office so it was surreal for me there, too, because it was just enough old school.
We walk in the room the next morning at 6 a.m.
They got this long table with big red telephones, old school dial-in hardline telephones lined up and down.
I think the FBI, honestly, many agencies, had all these passe technological things when they worked in their office at WordPerfect.
I think by then WordPerfect had been defunct almost for a decade.
They still used it, but it's hard to actually pull up a file.
You steal steal something from there, put it on a thumb drive and try to pull it up.
Most computers at that time, there essentially is naturally encrypted, you know, behind the times.
But all these big boards, all the targets are listed and whatever's going on.
I was a nervous wreck knowing all this stuff was supposed to go down.
So they launch everybody.
They give a green light over the radio at 6 a.m.
And all these tactical teams are hitting all these different locations at 6 o'clock in the morning all over the city.
We only got 17 of the people in the first day.
Oh, wow.
So there was a bunch more people over the next next couple of weeks that we were working on rounding up.
And that was the most nerve-wracking part.
I bet.
I bet.
Oh, we didn't get so-and-so.
Oh, no.
So now he knows.
Yeah.
Where is he?
Oh, okay.
Three weeks later, we found him.
He was hiding out in somebody's house.
Yeah, in your backyard.
Yeah.
With a sniper rifle.
Jeez.
So, yeah, it took a couple of weeks.
Most of them got rounded up within the following week-ish because it was still an aggressive thing.
And when that roundup came out, there was a lot of attention brought to the case, news conferences and everything else.
There was a lot of of patrolmen and everything else that were also actively interested in finding some of these guys.
So we got lots of help.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, it was a nerve-wracking time, though.
Jeez.
Happy sad, too, for the guys that you get to know and that you really like.
And knowing that that's the end of that is also kind of nerve-wracking, too.
So what was the result then?
A lot of these guys got some decent time.
Yeah.
The lowest was, I think we had seven went to trial.
All the rest of them pled and shared information.
Of the ones that went to trial, I testified on behalf of several of them also in terms of behalf of their character, because they were people that I thought deserved to be in the conspiracy.
Once these arrests are made, I have no control over what sentences they get or you've got a federal judge.
It's tough on crime guy and you lose control.
The only thing that I could do is try to convince them to cooperate and give them my word.
And I didn't do this for everyone, but give them my word.
I'll testify on behalf of you and your character.
Most people didn't believe me and I kind of didn't blame them, even though it was traumatic for me because I'm thinking in my mind, like, no, dude, we really did have a connection.
I really like you, but you've also known me for two years as T, and now I'm telling you I was lying the whole time.
So I also understand why you don't believe me.
But it was traumatic for me when they would just give you the bird and move on because you just really had these high hopes for the guys that you thought had a chance.
You really wanted to get the lowest sentences.
And since I didn't get the pick, that's the only thing I could do.
Once I testified for one person and just said, man, I think they have a lot of social redeeming value.
They've made a lot of mistakes.
They are tied in with this, but I think I would be even comfortable as the undercover with them getting out with a lighter sentence, whatever that needs to be.
I'm just, I would testify on their behalf.
And once I did that, a few others perked up and decided to cooperate.
And I ended up doing that.
So the lowest sentence was two years and the average sentence was 19 years.
Oh, wow.
So you add a ton of dope into this situation and it turned into what people considered a dope case.
But again, it's not a dope case.
These are violent criminals selling guns, doing drive-bys, everything else.
And you debrief all these fools and they're sharing who murdered so-and-so at the stopper shop, whatever.
We had nine cold case murders that got reinvestigated.
So that's really who these folks are.
And the last three are getting out.
Biden's actually his last hurrah.
let the last three guys out one of which is actually a pen pal of mine i've been trying to get out for years me and another attorney are trying to get because I think he got really screwed on his sentence.
I see.
The other two are those kind of folks that you want someone to let you know when they get out.
So you just watch yourself.
Sure.
But again, the only reason I can even think that even happened, because it happened without any instigating from me, we're working from behind the scenes and trying to put together a case to get my guy out.
And then all of a sudden he calls and said, man, I just, he's getting out in July.
is that again, they think this is a dope case.
These are nonviolent whatever versus drugs and blah, blah, blah.
Well, that's not the case.
There's so much more context in this situation.
I know we're closing here, but before I forget, one of the reasons I wanted to do this episode with you was because you are donating some of the money from this book.
Tell me about that, where that's going.
Yeah, I was encouraged to write a book after this, and I had no interest in writing a book at all till somebody brought me to one particular organization that got me turned on to this whole thing where we calculate all the kids that were left behind after this roundup.
So you have 51 people off the street, one female, 50 dudes, and you try to think of, all right, now how many fatherless kids are there going to be on the street in that same poor neighborhood being raised by aunts and grandmothers in that same place who are going to take the next opportunity.
And then you got to get some dude in 18 years to go in and take them all to jail.
I'm just thinking, this is salvaging that neighborhood in a certain way, but it's not a long-term solution.
The arrest is not a long-term solution.
You're getting the violent people away so that this neighborhood could potentially thrive, but what are we doing for that neighborhood to thrive?
And this organization is an after-school organization that mentors children of incarcerated and murdered parents.
They teach them, they have to come in and report their conduct grade every single day.
They talk about their test scores.
They get mentored in art class, in their homework stuff.
They do music.
They do athletics.
They have little after-school Dallas Maverick guy who will come out and do some kind of thing at the basketball court or whatever.
It's a fantastic program.
They essentially teach these kids table manners and how to apply for jobs.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Smart.
But it takes her ceiling from this level and makes it sky high, which we take for granted.
Our parents have always taught me, you can do anything you want.
Sure.
If you just do this, this is the path and whatever.
It's that Chris Rockbit.
You ever remember that Chris Rockbit where he's like, you tell a white kid he can do whatever he wants.
He turns around and says, I
know that.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
It is right.
I think it's funny because it's ironic because these kids, again, that was their dad.
That's what they knew.
Their dads grew up in in that same environment, got into the bad stuff.
I will concede, most of these guys were not actually great fathers at all.
Yeah, I was going to say, like, absentee father, but your father before was staying up all night, killing people.
Yes.
Yeah.
Not a pillar of that.
It still illustrates the problem, ultimately, which is why, okay, I thought that's a purpose to write the book.
And so we donate all the profits actually from this book to organizations that we've donated to that organization in particular, as well as others that are the same objective, as is mentoring children of incarcerated parents, so that the cycle has some potential for fixing itself.
You're teaching them ways in which they can succeed in other ways besides grabbing a gang member and latching on in sixth grade or whatever that is.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's really awesome.
And I hope that it's successful.
I mean, it sounds like it is so far.
But man, how do we get out of this mess?
It seems like a huge chunk of the next generation.
doesn't have functional parents, doesn't have role models, and we can't really arrest our way out of this dope problem.
It sort of reminds me of that scene in the movie Blow where they're interrogating the guy and they're like, what do you think of doing selling drugs?
And he's like, you can't arrest your way out of this problem.
There's all these drugs that go across the border.
It's all about demand.
There's always a market for it.
What do we do about this?
Politics and graft and everything else.
Yeah.
I don't think in terms of drugs, obviously, I think the war on drugs, I think everyone would agree that doesn't work.
There's been how many decades now that's been in play.
You're putting a lot of lives at risk for us to continue spinning the wheel so that it doesn't get worse, which is the only real progress I think we make when you're fighting the dope, is you're just putting people in harm's way.
You have law enforcement doing all this different stuff just to make sure it doesn't get worse.
Because if you quit fighting it, it will get worse.
Fighting it is not beating it either.
So I don't know exactly a solution.
I think if I did, I'd be speaking all over the world, giving them the magic key.
But I do think.
Too many people pass on making an impact because they think it's this giant undertaking.
And if you can impact one person that is of age that can be enlightened by some kind of wisdom or encouragement or whatever, I think that's really the key.
If more people would think a small difference adds up in total, I think that's really where it comes in.
Educating people and acknowledging consequences.
Most of the people in the dope game are not accountable people and they get pissed off when they get caught.
But if you actually understand consequences and value other things that you can do, you'll make better choices in general.
And it's not that we can do that en masse with one kind of turnkey thing, but I think people that have a struggling kid or something that may listen to you, even if you tell them the exact same stuff their dad tells them and they don't listen, a lot of times it could be as simple as that, just saving that one dude, because he's going to then have a testimony about how he managed to get away from some of that stuff.
And then that spreads.
Other people are doing that.
So I really think it's just an individual thing where most of us get old and you realize, wow, I was trying to do all this stuff to make myself successful.
And once I get to a certain age, I realize it's all about making other people successful.
That's when life really becomes real.
It's so much better.
But not everybody sees things like that until you can help a single person out and appreciate what that does.
That's a legacy, even if you don't get your name put on a plaque for it.
So I think we could solve some of those problems.
Deegan Broadwater, thanks so much, man, for coming in.
We went way over.
I appreciate you hanging in there.
I'm honored to be here, man.
Thank you for letting me come on.
If you're looking for another episode of the Jordan Harbinger Show to check out, here's a trailer of our interview with Jack Barski, former KGB spy, who posed as an American in a truer-than-life version of a Hollywood movie.
This is one of our most popular episodes of the show.
Jack not only dodged the FBI for decades, but also defected from the Soviet Union, secretly becoming a real American.
We'll learn how spies were recruited and trained during the Cold War and what skills Jack used to assimilate seamlessly into American culture.
I was untouchable.
I was above the law.
I was always bypassing customs and passport controls.
So a young person, it really feels good because I never liked rules.
How did you flip to eventually becoming full American?
I know they tried to call you home.
Can you take us through that?
They called me back as an emergency departure.
They've done this in the past, to call back an agent, and as soon as they step on Soviet soil, they are jailed or even executed.
I was stalling the Soviets and then one day they send one of their resident agents and he said to me, you got to come home or else you're dead.
It was a threat.
I decided I would defy them and tell them that I'm not returning.
I will not betray any secrets and please give the money on my account to my German family.
Wow.
Tell us how you got caught because the story is just not complete until you, like you said, had to face your past.
I was stopped on the other side of a toll gate.
It was was a state trooper.
Just like to check your license and registration and could you step out of the car?
I stepped out of the car still not having a clue what was going on.
Out of the corner of my eye, somebody approaching me from the back.
The fellow introduced himself.
He says, Joe Riley, FBI, and he showed me this badge.
We would like to talk with you.
The first question I asked, am I under arrest?
And the answer was no.
Then I said,
what took you so long?
For more from Jack Barski, including how Jack was finally caught by the FBI and what happened after that, check out episode 285 of the Jordan Harbinger Show.
All things Tegan Broadwater will be in the show notes at jordanharbinger.com, advertisers, deals, discount codes, ways to support the show, all at jordanharbinger.com slash deals.
Please consider supporting those who support the show.
Our newsletter, by the way, great companion to the show.
Specific, practical, two-minute read, maximum.
Every Wednesday-ish, jordanharbinger.com slash news is where you can find it.
And don't forget about six-minute networking as well.
That's free over at sixminetenetworking.com.
I'm at JordanHarbinger on Twitter and Instagram.
You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.
And this show, well, it's created an association with Podcast One.
My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Tadas Sedlauskis, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi.
Remember, we rise by lifting others.
The fee for this show is you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting.
The greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about.
If you know somebody who's interested in this kind of undercover work, drug trafficking, police work, etc., definitely share this episode with them.
In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn.
And we'll see you next time.