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Ex-Cop REVEALS Intense Combat With Cartel Members - Camp Gagnon | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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Ex-Cop REVEALS Intense Combat With Cartel Members

Camp Gagnon

Tue Sep 23 2025

Summary

Camp Gagnon Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Ex-Cop REVEALS Intense Combat With Cartel Members
Host: Mark Gagnon
Guest: Dave Frank (Ex-cop, former bodyguard to a Mexican general)
Release Date: September 23, 2025

Overview

This episode of Camp Gagnon dives deep into the rarely-told frontline experiences of Dave Frank, an American who became a bodyguard for a high-ranking Mexican general. Driven by a personal mission to combat drug cartels after his own childhood exposure, Dave shares the realities of cartel warfare, police corruption, and the intensive operations he was part of in Mexico’s contested territories. His unique perspective bridges American and Mexican experiences, adding context to current debates on drug policy and border security.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dave Frank’s Unlikely Path to Mexico

Background: Dave was an aerospace manager in LA who, after company outsourcing, took a contract in Mexico to train factory workers (03:04). He also pursued work with Mexican law enforcement due to a personal vendetta against cartels that had negatively impacted his youth (07:44).
Personal Motivation: “I was looking to confront people that were giving drugs to kids, which is something that happened to me when I was a child. So I decided to go down there and do something about it.” – Dave Frank (08:12)

2. Transition from Factory Manager to Cartel Combat

After finishing the factory contract, Dave audaciously lobbied Mexico’s Attorney General and other officials for a law enforcement position. He leveraged training in martial arts (notably judo, jiu-jitsu, and Dog Brothers stick-fighting) as his entrance test for becoming a bodyguard (12:06).
Notable Story: To secure the protection job, Dave had to physically fight and subdue three of the general’s men as a demonstration (13:47, 14:51).
- “Tapping one out with the chokehold real quick while I'm getting kicked by the other two... put another one in an arm bar... and then I got up and fought the other one and won.” – Dave Frank (14:51)

3. Combat Training & Blank Slate Asset

Mexico’s state-level units are highly trained—contrary to perceptions of corruption or incompetence—especially special units interacting daily with cartel activity (18:03).
Why Dave was valuable: As a foreigner, he had “no connections to Mexico whatsoever” (17:58), reducing risk of family blackmail or cartel compromise (24:03).
- “Everyone there is ex military and we work. If we have VIP guests, we're going to take care of them. …We're very trustworthy.” (27:50)
He endured intense basic training involving language barriers, physical challenges, and intentional hazing to weed out weak recruits (20:42).

4. Frontline Operations: The Day-to-Day Reality

Vehicles and Patrols: Dave described the patrol strategy—riding in the back of armored trucks, with roles like sniper or perimeter guard, operating exactly as depicted in films like Sicario (26:01).
Combat Encounters and Casualties: Cartel ambushes were a constant risk, often happening at everyday places—gas stations, during basic refueling, or on convoy runs (19:59).
Intensity: “I can't count how many headless people I've seen. Like, they just leave heads in the coolers.” (15:00)
Notable Quote: “When you put on a uniform in Mexico, it's like getting married. Because at any point in time going forward, any cartel that could be out there watching this, they can just take issue with you and decide that… we're just gonna go get that guy and that's it…" (52:21)

5. Notable Incidents and Firefights

Dalai Lama Security Detail (28:44–30:54):
- While providing security for the Dalai Lama’s visit, cartel bodies were hung publicly as a threat to the government. “...my wife is inside interviewing the Dalai Lama, and I'm outside with a belt-fed machine gun, a Negev NG7, guarding the most peaceful man on the earth… surreal.” (29:32)
Intense Cartel Gunfights:
- Recalls a two-hour firefight after cartel assassins murdered municipal police. “We're looking for these cartel assassins in the middle of the night, man.” (51:33)
- Describes being struck by a bullet on his body armor, and the adrenaline-fueled confusion and reactions during firefights (59:48, 60:06).
  - “It spun me around to the side and happened so fast that I didn't even have time to really notice what had happened.” (59:50)

6. Cartels, Corruption & Complexity

Cartel Dynamics: Zacatecas, where he was stationed, was fought over by the Gulf Cartel, Zetas (ex-Mexican special forces), and Sinaloa. Removal of cartel leaders like El Chapo creates brutal power vacuums (36:33 - 38:47).
Corruption: Municipal police, due to their local allegiances and inability to rotate out, are often the most compromised and dangerous, sometimes even acting as cartel proxies (46:06).
Special Forces Influence: The Zetas’ brutality is credited to their military discipline, and external forces (e.g., Guatemalan Kaibiles) were hired for their lack of national allegiances and ruthlessness (39:31–41:10).

7. Mass Graves, Kidnappings, and Migrant Tragedies

Mass Graves Explained: Used to dispose of rival cartel victims, migrants who witnessed the wrong thing, or those killed for various debts and disputes, the cartels often handled their own dead clandestinely rather than leaving evidence (71:53).
Migrant Exploitation: Migrants face kidnapping, forced labor, or outright murder by cartels; women often endure sexual violence during the journey (43:03).

8. The Drug War: Futility and Alternatives

Cartel Revenue Streams: Principal revenue from cocaine and heroin with billions in earnings, advanced technology like submarines, and even infiltration of U.S. agencies (75:23–77:13).
U.S. Involvement and Policy Critique: Dave questions the effectiveness of proposed U.S. military action in Mexico, highlighting historic corruption, long-term consequences of intervention, and the deep entanglement of both nations in perpetuating the drug trade (77:01–79:04).
Legalization as Solution: Dave strongly advocates drug legalization, arguing it would cripple cartel finances, reduce violence, and redirect resources to societal good. “You could legalize drugs right now… If you wanted to legalize legalized drugs, you could end the drug war tomorrow, but they won't do it.” (82:22, 85:28)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the Cost of Law Enforcement:
- “...it's your sons and your daughters and yourself that's going to have to confront this level of violence. Because don't think that it's just going to be troops sent to some other border. It's going to be a war that's fought here, too. And that worries me.” – Dave Frank (79:04)
On Fighting for the Job:
- “In order to get the job, you had to fight three of his guys.” – Mark Gagnon (13:47)
- “It looks like tapping one out with a chokehold real quick while I'm getting kicked by the other two…” – Dave Frank (14:51)
On Training & Motivation:
- “On a scale of 1 to 10 of motivation, it was at 12 because I told capitan that you can take me into the desert, you can shoot me, you can bury me. I'm not going to quit.” – Dave Frank (24:07)
On Legalization:
- “If you legalized drugs and made it a legal product the same way they've done with alcohol, you would have to get rid of your addiction to the defense industry.” – Dave Frank (82:22)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |-----------------------------|----------------------| | Dave’s life mission & intro | 00:00–03:00 | | Corporate job → Mexico | 03:04–07:44 | | Martial arts & getting hired| 12:06–15:00 | | Combat training & blank slate| 17:58–24:07 | | Daily life as security | 26:01–28:44 | | The Dalai Lama incident | 28:44–30:54 | | On police corruption | 45:12–48:09 | | Firefight story | 48:16–53:39 | | Being shot at/ambushed | 59:48–64:38 | | Mass graves explained | 71:43–74:00 | | Drug war futility/legalization | 77:01–86:11 |

Conclusion & Look Ahead

The episode ends with Dave cautioning about the unintended consequences of U.S. intervention in Mexico and advocating a paradigm shift in drug policy—legalization. He also signals a future episode diving into the occult (Santa Muerte) elements influencing cartel behavior.

Recommended For:
Anyone curious about the raw realities of Mexican cartel warfare, the internal logic of criminal organizations, and nuanced takes on drug policy and US-Mexico relations.

For further content, upcoming topics on Santa Muerte and cartel occult practices are teased for future episodes.

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Transcript

Dave Frank (0:00)

You want my last name, you got my last name. I'm not hiding anything. And when you put on a uniform in Mexico, they can just take issue with you and decide that we're just gonna go get that guy and that's it. That's a deal that we make.

Mark Gagnon (0:12)

This is Dave Frank. And he made it his life mission to take on the cartels who sold him drugs as a kid. That mission took him to Mexico where he became a bodyguard for a high ranking Mexican general. So in order to get the job, you had to fight three of his guys.

Dave Frank (0:26)

Yeah.

Mark Gagnon (0:27)

What does that look like?

Dave Frank (0:28)

Tapping one out with the chokehold real quick while I'm getting kicked by the other two. And then put another one in an arm bar and gonna snap it. He quit. And then I got up and fought the other one and one.

Mark Gagnon (0:37)

And that win earned him a uniform and a front row seat to the best and the worst that humanity has to offer. And he's actually lived to tell the tale. I mean, everything you need to know from what it's actually like to battle the cartels, the operations that they went on. If you are interested in how the cartel actually works and what it actually looks like to be on the front lines battling with Mexico's most dangerous men, this episode is for you. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and welcome to camp.

Dave Frank (1:09)

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Mark Gagnon (1:32)

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Dave Frank (1:38)

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Dave Frank (15:02)

And I win because I have nothing left, man. I can't lose. And what I was going to say is, like, in the Dog Brothers, I've had my butt kicked plenty. I've had my clock cleaned. That bone's broken from it. I've been litting up. I've gotten hit in the head, whatever. I don't have anything to run to, so I have to make this work. And they're like. And I didn't know when you're at work in Mexico, you don't know. There's a lot of really brave and valiant Mexican police and agents, and they really get sold short because people just view them as all corrupt and they're not. There are a lot of. Oh, man, I want to cry, dude. There's a lot of people that really put everything on the line to try to make the world a better place. And they do it at the risk of themselves and their families and their children, because you're just gonna get. You're gonna. They're gonna hack you up and stuff like that. It's like, for real, man. There's like, there was some lady that was Driving in a taxi with her kids, and she was an accountant or whatever, and they just took all three of them out of the car and just one o' clock in the afternoon just shot him right, right in the middle of the street, you know. Yeah. And, you know, there's like all this stuff with going on politically in this, in this country right now. I'm not going to get into it because there's valid points on every side of that spectrum. And it's not just two sides. There's a lot of sides to it. And everyone's got a legitimate gripe, you know, people that want a better life, people like, hey, I got a right to my own country, my own government, et cetera. But when you watch this happen in Mexico, part of it just dehumanizes you because you're so used to, like, I can't count how many headless people I've seen. Like, they just leave heads in the coolers. So I don't want to really get off topic, but I go there and I've got nothing. I've got nothing to lose. And so, yeah, I'm not gonna lose this fight and I win it. And so my generals I compressed. And the thing that I had more than anything wasn't even my capabilities. I'm great at shooting. I grew up, I knew how to shoot before I even knew how to read. I've got two dads. I'm just going to get into it. One of my fathers, my biological father is a post op transsexual that was a tunnel rat in Vietnam. So very hardcore, very crazy. Came back to the United States, became very rich, very wealthy, had his own company, but decided he was going to live life as a woman. And I really don't like saying that, but I grew up fighting my whole life because of this. I was known as. I'm not gonna put my last name out there, but it sounds like a word having to do with being homosexual. And so.

Dave Frank (28:44)

Dalai Lama has his own security details just the way. The same way that the Secret Service would accompany President Trump or President Obama. I've run into State Department employees coming to Mexico before when there's going to be a VIP detail. Every one of these people has their own security detail attached to them. So there's needs to be weapon clearances and stuff like that. Because obviously you're not just allowed to fly in and out of countries with your own weapons unless you're on some type of diplomatic passport, which clearly the Dalai Lama would have. But even then, it's who's doing what, when and where and how we're going to coordinate that with where we're going. Different perimeters that we need to set up and clear ahead of time. And it's funny because the day that the Dalai Lama showed up, one of the cartels there had hung two bodies in front of the. They call it ciudad administrative in front of the Capitol. Right in front of the steps to the building is like kind of a just a signal to the government, like, hey, we're still running things here. This is what we have to say about the Dalai Lama and people coming. And we want you to capitulate on whatever their demands are. And this is not just a Dalai Lama, but it's very surreal. My wife is a high level reporter or was for a Mexican major news channel nationally and she was interviewing the Dalai Lama. And the feeling of her being in there interviewing the Dalai Lama and I'm sitting outside with a belt fed machine gun, a Negev NG7 machine gun outside, guarding the most peaceful man on the earth was just so surreal that you can hardly even understand it. But the necessity of that, because just at 4:45 that morning we were cutting down two bodies and now they're doing a meet and greet. And I mean, just think about that. If the president of this country was going to Atlanta, Georgia or whatever to go do some type of, I don't know, event with the governor and they had just got done hanging two bodies right in front of the, the state.

Mark Gagnon (31:03)

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Dave Frank (48:37)

Okay. My wife thought I was cheating on her one night because of the threat based. There are members that work for the cartel that even are dressed in the same uniform you are. So every night when I would leave base, well, not every light night, but every two nights when I'd leave base, I would call my wife and I would tell her, hey, I'M on my way home, and it's seven minutes from base to my house to our apartment. And so I would call her and be like, hey, I'm on my way home. I'm getting a taxi. And a lot of times the taxis are working for the cartel, so you don't know. And because it's late at night and because it's base, a lot of people don't like being around base because we're bad news, too. So when you're trying to get a taxi, they don't want to come over. So we'll get a taxi. I'll call my wife. I'm on my way home. And right when I was going to get the taxi, I called her and told I was on my way home. And we get this call that they're killing municipal police and Martinez Dominguez. So we're like, boom. And I'm already, like, just putting my shirt on. We're getting our weapons, we're back in the truck, and we're going to confront a convoy, a cartel that had just taken out some municipal police, and we're gonna go catch him. And so we get there and there's this arroyo, which is like a creek, and we're in, like, complete darkness. And they just shot a municipal cop in the head. And so he's dead. And so we're going through, and there's these people running through the creek at night. And we get one of the guys, he takes around through the. Through the face right here, the.223, and it blows out the back of his head, and it dropped him so hard so fast that he. He was carrying an AR15 in his right hand. He had a black backpack in his left hand. And the shot hit him so hard so fast that he fell over and it bent his right knee back. And he didn't even to let go of his weapon or the backpack, and it just stopped him. But we're looking for his friend in the middle of the night. And I turned on my phone, which you wouldn't usually do. And so we're like in. I don't know if you can imagine it, but we're along a creek at the end. We're along a creek in the middle of the night. It's like 12:30 or 1 o'. Clock. Because we're looking for these guys, and they just killed some cops. And we got one of them, like I was just telling you, the guy that. That we got with the backpack, and we're looking for the other ones. And so his buddies are out there and we're looking for him. And usually when we're on operation, we wouldn't have our cell phones turned on because obviously it's going to give away your position. My wife thought I was supposed to be home in seven minutes. I'm looking for these cartel guys and Mexican chicks. A lot of times they're like. They're like mother hens. They're like, on you, like, where are you at?

Dave Frank (62:27)

Yeah. I have not had that happen. It hit laterally and I spun around and we were jumping down because, I mean, you're so adrenaline ridden by the time that happens. And you look and you're like, man, am I okay? You feel okay? Nothing. Okay, good. Let's go. And when we're training, we don't really. We don't really get a chance to. I've heard Sean. Sean Ryan, yeah, of course. Talk about some of his training with Blackwater, and their training's very good. We've never trained that way to where they'll do bag training. They'll put you in a chair. And our CQB training was kind of like that. It was similar where you would get into a room, you would breach a door, you'd go into a room, and you have to clear a house or whatever their training, they would put a bag over your head and take it off and you have to engage, whatever. Our training wasn't like that. So we didn't have people, like shouting at us, having to react to it. We would have to just go through and clear different rooms. So there's not really a way to prepare you for what it's like when you finally do get into a firefight with the cartel, which is going to happen. And in Socatecas, you can look it up. There's several firefights, there's several mass graves. There's people operating in that area frequently. And you never know when it's going to happen. And because there's bosses, the opera is mixed, and there's pictures. I can give you where I'm standing right next to a member of the Mexican army. You're going to react to this stuff collectively to go out and get whoever it is. And you don't know what cartel allegiance there are. You don't know. It's just constantly. So when I got Hit that night, we got off the truck, we're deployed, we're clearing buildings. Because in Mexico, no matter where you're at, they've got a lot of things called fincas, which are semi constructed properties or houses that you have to go through. And these people will start building out these colonies by. They call them ejidos, like farming communities. They'll start building out all these farming communities. So you have to go from one to the other to the other.

Dave Frank (79:05)

Because I've been completely in a Mexican uniform, operating in a Mexican country for a Mexican government. Now I'm here in the United States having carried weapons for the government of Mexico, knowing that I'm talking directly to my Mexico, my American government, because I'm an American, at the end of the day, knowing that I've operated over there and the American government doesn't know what time, what team I'm playing for. And I'm doing this because I made an agreement to try to do the right thing, to make sure that drugs don't wind up in the hands of children. And I want to make sure that I do the right thing to my own fellow Americans. And I am deeply patriotic to this country. I'm also deeply patriotic to the Mexican country because I've born under this flag and I also wore the Mexican flag, trying to do the right thing to make sure that children don't suffer the way I had to suffer the way that my brothers and sisters suffered with drugs. So if I'm talking to the American public and even the Mexican El pueblo de Mexico, I want you guys to know that before we get into some drug war like we just got in, the war with Afghanistan that lasted 20 years, cost several trillion dollars, and in the end, we wound up giving the same opponents $7 billion in weapons that were left with them, with the way that the American military withdrew from Afghanistan. And now these same people are in the same problem that they had initially or worse, because now there's a lot of people that have cooperated with the government that lost, that we know and that we think thoroughly about the same war that we're going to start right here on our. On. On our border. And that's kind of what I want people to be cognizant of, that it's your sons and your daughters and yourself that's going to have to confront this level of violence. Because don't think that it's just going to be troops sent to some other border. It's going to be a war that's fought here, too. And that worries me. What does that look like? As far as martial law goes, Is this something that we really want to get into? In Mexico, they have a thing called zonas de tolerancia, or tolerance zones, to where they are allowed to have their basically topless bars. And prostitution goes on there, and there's probably drug use that goes on there. And we basically steer clear of these zones. This market exists because Americans want it. They consume all of these products, all of those dollars that are generated to buy these subs and buy all the weapons, buy all the technical and tactical know how. It's all funded by people that are purchasing these products. Which means that they want it, Mark. I mean, yeah.

Dave Frank (82:22)

Legalized drugs. Legalized drugs, flat out. But you guys won't ever do it. And I hate to say it because I've got a whole envelope full of paychecks where I was paid 600amonth. The Mexican government paid 600,000 pesos to train me in basic training. And right now, how many millions and millions or billions of dollars are we spending? In fact, I read in law school the Affordable Care act by Obama and there was several, several thousands of shotguns and other things that were going to the irs. How many billions of dollars and trillions of dollars even the Department of Defense can't even account for in its own audits Every year they've failed like eight audits in a row. There's that amount of money going into Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and all these other big defense companies. You could legalize drugs right now. You could, yes. People are going to die. It's sad. And I am very sympathetic to the people that are dying from fentanyl. But if you legalize drugs and made it a legal product the same way they've done with alcohol, you would have to get rid of your addiction to the defense industry. All the millions that are going to the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, ice, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, all of this goes away. And if they directed that money and put it into the economy. I'm going to tell you something. One night we were at that Via De coast gunfight and I used to carry 10, 20 round magazines plus one of my weapons. So it's 220 rounds of 7.62 by 51 millimeter, 308ammo. And I thought, wow, that's a lot of power. And the next day I got back to base, and I felt like, this big because I thought, you're an idiot, because you could dispatch 220 of your enemies, but the very next day, there would be 300 people waiting to take their spot, which is the reality of the drug war in Mexico. And not even all of those people would be like some poor immigrant. They'd be people that go years looking for a job in Mexico. And I found that out when my general retired. I went everywhere looking for a job. Like, hey, how'd you wind up in law school in Mexico? It took forever to try to find a job. And I got a job working for a law office making $35 a week. And you have people that don't have the benefit of an education or had a government job that lost it because a new regime comes in, they lose their job. And where are they going to go? They don't have any other place to go but the illegal drug market. So if you took all the money that you guys are spending on paying for all these agents, paying for people to be killed, because in the end of the day, that's the product. The product that it produces is dead bodies, mass graves, drug addiction. And it's something that we're just stuffing the money into government agents and soldiers and all of this. And they're okay spending that, but they won't spend it to help better somebody's life through education or business opportunities. So if you wanted to legalize legalized drugs, you could end the drug war tomorrow, but they won't do it.