Podcast Summary: Camp Gagnon

Episode: The DARK World of Cartels: Cannibalism, Cults & Catholicism
Date: October 14, 2025
Host: Mark Gagnon
Guest: Dave Frank (former bodyguard for a Mexican general, firsthand witness to cartel activity)

Episode Overview

This episode of Camp Gagnon plunges into the dark intersection of Mexican cartel violence, occult rituals, and Catholic traditions. Guest Dave Frank draws from years of frontline experience confronting cartels, offering unvarnished insights into how faith, fear, and brutality intertwine among cartel members. Frank exposes the chilling impact of Santa Muerte, Mexico’s "Saint of Death," detailing how her veneration pervades cartel culture — from tattoos and altars to gruesome human sacrifices and ritual cannibalism. The conversation explores the weaponization of religion, the psychological toll on law enforcement, and the ways cartels manipulate faith to enhance their power and spread terror.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Santa Muerte & Cartel Occultism

• Santa Muerte ("Saint Death") is central in cartel culture, often blended with elements of Catholicism, Santería, and Satanism.
• Rituals include brutal torture, human sacrifice, and macabre symbolism to venerate death and seek spiritual power.
• Quote:
  "Santa Muerte is so prevalent in Mexico because it's such a Catholic country...they found this saint and mixed it with Santería and different elements of Satanism, like combined it to create their own patron saint." – Dave Frank [05:07]

2. Extreme Cruelty & Ritual Killings

• Cartels routinely engage in prolonged torture, deliberately extending victims’ suffering.
• Dismemberment, face-peeling, and even cannibalism occur, often as both punishment and ritual.
• Some truly shocking cases: using defibrillators to bring victims back from death just to kill them again.
• Quote:
  "You'll have people in Mexico that will kill somebody and they'll have defibrillators there to try to bring them back to life so they can kill them more than once." – Dave Frank [00:37] / [19:25]

3. Weaponizing Faith and Religion

• Rituals and the cult of Santa Muerte strip away moral inhibitions, pushing members into acts even they might otherwise avoid.
• Many cartel soldiers display tattoos and pendants; altars to Santa Muerte are omnipresent in Mexico.
• Religion is not only a justification but a psychological tool for control and recruitment.
• Quote:
  "With Santa Muerte, they're not at all held to the same type of moral code that we are. In fact, they're kind of encouraged by themselves and their own saint, the Saint of Death. They're glorifying death." – Dave Frank [07:51]

4. Personal Safety and Law Enforcement Realities

• Frank discusses the constant threat facing police and military; carrying a single bullet for suicide is common — a last defense against torture and forced betrayal.
• Quote:
  "I keep around one round. That's to take off my own dome. Because they're going to torture you and cut off your head." – Dave Frank [06:13]

5. Symbolism, Altars, and Spread of Santa Muerte

• Cartel affiliation marked by ubiquitous Santa Muerte tattoos, altars, candles, and rituals in private and public.
• Even in prisons, shrines and symbols are widespread.
• Quote:
  "Everywhere you go, they have Santa Muerte altars, stores for buying, like, the Grim Reaper candles...for different things. Money, health." – Dave Frank [13:55]

6. Cannibalism, Human Sacrifice, and Rituals

• Documented (though rare) cases of cannibalism, such as eating parts of enemies’ hearts or livers to gain spiritual power.
• Altars and cemeteries built in shrines to Santa Muerte, especially in Sinaloa.
• Quote:
  "They will get their enemies and they will take out a body part, typically the heart or a liver, and they'll eat portions of it, try to grow their own power." – Dave Frank [29:31]

7. Catholicism and Religious Syncretism Among Cartel Members

• Most cartel members blend Catholic upbringing with Santa Muerte beliefs.
• Dual practice (Mass attendance and Santa Muerte veneration) is common.
• Quote:
  "If you're Mexico and you came from a Mexican mother, you're definitely Catholic. Without a doubt." – Dave Frank [26:03]

8. Changes in Cartel Culture

• Old leadership (deeply Catholic) has given way to a new generation more openly immersed in Santa Muerte.
• Initiation and adherence to this “death cult” is now near-universal among new cartel members.
• Quote:
  "This newer generation has been a lot more exposed to Santa Muerte, where it's a lot more prevalent the way that video games are prevalent amongst everybody." – Dave Frank [28:10]

9. Ritualistic Messaging and Terror

• Cartels film acts of torture and publicize them to send unmistakable warnings.
• Narco-mantas (large banners) and public displays of murder serve as visual instructions and intimidation.
• Quote:
  "When you hang a body from a bridge or film something...you show it to the entire country and world. Look, this is what we're about. It doesn't matter what language you speak." – Dave Frank [37:47]

10. Criminal Omnipresence and Broader Impact

• Santa Muerte imagery is as common as graffiti in New York; alters found everywhere, including prisons, homes, and roadside shrines.
• Systematic, top-down instruction from cartel leadership mandates these practices.
• Large-scale violence: since 2012, more than half a million people have been murdered or disappeared, much of it ritualized.
• Quote:
  "All of it at the hands, or not all of it, but most of it at the hands of a criminal element that worships a satanic God, that has priests doing satanic rituals. And they're told by their top leaders, this is how we're going to operate." – Dave Frank [43:15]

11. The Psychology and Ethics of Ritualized Crime

• Carving ritual from faith and weaponizing it, cartels have twisted spirituality into an excuse for horror.
• The conversation draws parallels to other weaponizations of faith globally.
• Quote:
  "Once you understand that there's a spiritual and occult element, I think that actually really contextualizes everything." – Interviewer [44:32]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Reluctance to Glorify Death:
  "My general would tell me all the time, 'Frank, quit glorifying death...there's no glory and death. It's just death.'" – Dave Frank [15:41]

• Callousness and Mental Toll:
  "You start seeing dead people and you see them without the soul...And you realize that it's just a pile of bones and meat." – Dave Frank [15:58]

• Cannibalism Confirmation:
  "Definitely in Mexico, I've definitely heard of that happening...for real." – Dave Frank [29:31]

• The Prevalence of Santa Muerte:
  "It's so prevalent. It's like going to the Bronx and not seeing graffiti." – Dave Frank [33:41]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening: Violence & Rituals Overview (00:00–02:18)
• Torture and Ritualistic Killing Methods (02:18–07:43)
• Faith and Moral Inhibitions (07:51–09:08)
• Santa Muerte Symbolism: Tattoos, Altars, Shrines (12:12–15:41)
• The Generational Shift in Cartel Faith (28:10–29:24)
• Cannibalism and Rituals (29:31–30:08)
• Public Displays, Messaging & Terror (37:35–40:16)
• Statistics on Murders & Disappearances (40:28–43:19)
• Faith Warped for Evil Purposes (43:31–44:32)

Concluding Thoughts

This episode exposes the chilling, little-discussed overlap between crime, faith, and occultism in contemporary cartel Mexico. The brutal acts described aren’t just crime — they are the embodiment of a subculture where death is deified, suffering is ritualized, and violence is sanctioned by a twisted spirituality. Dave Frank’s account is a sobering commentary on how ideology can justify almost anything — and how, in the battle for Mexico’s future, the real fight may be as much spiritual and psychological as it is physical or legal.