Camp Gagnon Podcast Summary
Episode: Ex Cop Spills CRAZIEST Las Vegas Crime Secrets!
Date: December 30, 2025
Host: Mark Gagnon
Guest: Tony Hernandez (former NYC transit cop, Las Vegas entrepreneur)
Episode Overview
In this gripping Camp Gagnon episode, Mark Gagnon and guest Tony Hernandez explore the hidden criminal underbelly of Las Vegas. Hernandez, a former New York City transit cop with a family history adjacent to organized crime, recounts his first-hand experiences navigating the scams, smuggling rings, and illicit industries that thrive beyond the Vegas Strip’s neon lights. The conversation pulls back the curtain on everything from high-end prostitution and human trafficking to organized gambling corruption, providing a vivid, street-level portrait of Sin City's real dangers and vices.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. From NYPD to Vegas: Tony’s Perspective
- Tony's Background:
- Grew up around New York’s mob culture (father owned a restaurant with mob clientele).
- Worked as an NYPD transit cop, specialized in crime detection.
- Moved to Vegas post-retirement, attracted by its hustle but soon targeted by criminal scams himself.
- Mark: “Beyond the strip, there’s another city entirely. And Tony Hernandez knows this world better than most.” (00:18)
2. The Turo Car Rental Hustle & Associated Scams
- Turo as a Crime Vector:
- Turo is a peer-to-peer car rental app—“Airbnb for cars.”
- Tony attempted to create passive income via Turo rentals, but encountered elaborate scams instead.
- Scam 1: Theft & Vandalism
- Renter keeps luxury car, refuses return, trashes interior.
- Turo support is largely unhelpful (“Do you have a tracker? Go self-repo it yourself.” — 08:22).
- Scam 2: Parts Swaps
- Car is returned with tires and parts swapped out, significant internal damage.
- Tony: “The tires are gone. They're totally different tires. They're stripped... The lady returned the car at night so I wouldn’t see this shit.” (10:35)
- Turo declines his claim for lack of photo evidence (“Who the fuck takes a picture of the axle?” — 11:10).
- Scam 3: Organized Smuggling
- GPS reveals a rental car driven over the border into Mexico.
- Tony discovers multiple passports/social security cards left in the car, not matching the renter.
- ICE contact confirms: “These patterns are very similar with human smuggling. What a lot of these smugglers will do is they'll rent well-to-do cars, everything above board...” (22:43)
- Smuggling: Cartel uses clean, US-registered luxury cars to transport illegal migrants—sometimes children and families—across the border, presented as legitimate tourists.
3. Prostitution, Smuggling, and Trafficking: The Vegas Underbelly
-
Massage Parlors & Human Smuggling:
- Tony: “You put two and two together...this is a fucking front for a prostitution house. That’s all it is.” (36:00)
- Many “spas” on Spring Mountain (Chinatown) are covert brothels, with trafficked women held in debt bondage.
- Smuggling organizations promise legitimate jobs (cleaning, spas), confiscate passports/phones, enforce 24/7 brothel work under threat (e.g., harm to family back home).
- Mark: “So the cartel rented your car to smuggle people across the country...using fucking Abuelita Guadalupe.” (27:12)
- Physical and psychological coercion, including chilling intimidation tactics (see Memorable Moments).
- Half of Vegas’s prostitution is attributed to human trafficking; “...the ones that are in the parlors, 99% of them...I don't think they would take them if they could come and go.” (51:51)
-
Local Exploitation & Violence:
- Some women coerced via photos of their children, others held under constant threat.
- Example: Russian gangsters send a woman a photo of her child leaving school as a wordless warning.
- Tony: “The envelope was her kid coming out of school. What is that, a message or is that a message?” (41:53)
4. The High-End Escort/“Companion” Scene
- Luxury Prostitution & Arm Candy:
- Escorts/porn stars flown in for events (e.g., AVN Awards, EDC Festival, high-stakes weekends).
- Tony describes shuttling celebrity escorts and porn stars, hearing about offers for extreme fetishes and massive sums (“He offered her 20 grand to get shit on, and she said no.” — 55:10).
- OnlyFans and digital sex work noted as a major new avenue. Content acts as a ‘feeder’ for in-person arrangements via DMs and agencies. (56:25)
5. Illegal Gambling, Casino Corruption, and Organized Crime
- Casino House Edge:
- Tony: “I think all of them are 100% crooked. I don't think that there is a legitimate game in the casino.” (77:57)
- Card shuffling machines and potential AI manipulation suspected of biasing outcomes.
- Underground Gambling Rings & Mob Operations:
- Mob-run casino games preferred by some high-stakes gamblers for guaranteed payouts (“If they don’t pay, nobody plays. They’re more likely to pay you than the casino.” — 71:20).
- Recent scandals: NBA players and coaches implicated in fixed games and illegal poker, often detected via unusual betting patterns and even special marked glasses to see opponents’ cards (79:21).
- Insider Info and Betting
- Tony shares an incident of betting against a famous boxer after driving him and witnessing his drunken disarray weeks before a fight (“I went straight to the casino after I dropped him off and bet on the other guy...It was almost a guaranteed fucking win.” — 69:16)
- Discussion on “financial domination” and high rollers hiring hot women to gamble away their money for humiliation/pleasure (61:17).
6. The Invisible Elite & Untouchable Rich
- Elite Parties:
- “Some of these gated communities in Vegas cost 300,000 a year HOA. That kind of level of power, I think you're kind of immune to a lot of shit.” (82:44)
- Tony has driven both celebrities and known prostitutes to secluded mansion parties, all policed by private security, “Eyes Wide Shut” vibes.
- “The rich are always untouchable... Who’s going to police them? They ARE the elite.” (83:50)
- Law Enforcement’s Limited Reach:
- Police focus on controlling visible street crime, leaving wealthy neighborhoods self-managed.
- Crime in rich enclaves occurs behind closed doors—no oversight and little potential for prosecution.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
Human Smuggling Tactics
- “These patterns are very similar with human smuggling. What a lot of these smugglers will do is they'll rent well-to-do cars... You come from Nevada? Yeah, we were in Vegas, now we're going to Mexico. Whatever excuse they use...it's a lot easier to get someone in, in a fucking nice luxury vehicle.”
— Tony Hernandez (22:43)
On Coercion & Trafficking
- “If they don't do what they say they're going to do...the cartel, whoever smuggled them here, will say, 'Well, we’re gonna kill your whole fucking family back in Colombia.'”
— Tony Hernandez (37:48)
Mob Intimidation
- “They sent her an envelope, and the envelope was her kid coming out of school.”
— Tony Hernandez (41:53)
On Vegas Prostitution Scene
- “Every prostitute you see on Boulder Highway—99% of them are trafficked. If they're working in a parlor, they have to have total control on them because you're running an illegal establishment. It's masqueraded as a massage parlor.”
— Tony Hernandez (51:51)
Vegas Casino Insight
- “I think all of them are 100% crooked. I don't think that there is a legitimate game in the casino, you know...how do you know that that computer is not shuffling the cards in a certain way to make the dealer always win?”
— Tony Hernandez (77:57, 78:07)
On the Elite in Vegas
- “You can have someone like myself, who shuttles six younger girls up to a mansion in the hills for a party...it’s almost Eyes Wide Shut kind of shit. It’s like all these rich people, and nobody’s there to police them. Who’s going to police them? They are the fucking police. They are the elite.”
— Tony Hernandez (83:50)
Timestamps for Important Segments
| Time | Topic | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:18 | Introduction to Tony’s law enforcement and Vegas background | | 04:03 | Exposing the Turo rental scam culture | | 10:34 | Car parts swap scam explanation | | 19:48 | Human smuggling via Turo: the Mercedes crosses into Mexico | | 22:43 | Confirmation from ICE—patterns of smuggling, mechanics of cartel operations | | 36:01 | Massage parlors, organized prostitution, and how smuggling debt bondage works | | 41:53 | The dark side of coercion and intimidation—envelope with a photo of the victim’s child | | 51:51 | Analysis: who’s trafficked, how prostitution is split in Vegas | | 61:17 | “Financial domination”—high-rollers, prostitutes, and luxury escort anecdotes | | 69:16 | Insider betting, corruption in sports and casinos | | 77:57 | Tony’s take: “All casinos are crooked” | | 79:21 | Marked cards, glasses scams in illegal poker | | 82:44 | Gated communities, immunity of the elite, “Eyes Wide Shut” parties | | 83:50 | “Who’s going to police them? They are the police. They are the elite.” |
Tone, Language & Vibe
The conversation is raw, candid, and seasoned throughout with streetwise humor, banter, and personal asides reflecting both Tony’s cop intuition and his deep insider’s frustration with law enforcement limitations and the normalization of crime. There’s a blend of dark humor, disbelief, and sobering reflection—especially when discussing victimization, intimidation, or the impunity of wealth and organized crime.
For New Listeners
If you want a no-bullshit look behind the Vegas curtain, this episode lays out—in sometimes jaw-dropping detail—how criminal networks really operate beneath the glamour of America’s flashiest “fun city.” From apps like Turo to the city’s massage parlors, from private casinos to secretive mansion parties, nearly every system and indulgence is exploited by those working the gray and black markets. As Tony puts it, “Vegas is the hustle city,” but not everyone hustling is playing by the rules—and not every victim even knows the rules exist.