EP 12 - Second Chances

Summary

Podcast Summary: Cocaine Air — EP 12: "Second Chances"

Host: Jonathan Walton
Guests: TJ Dominguez, Fred Schwartz (attorney), Stephen Rubino (PI)
Release Date: August 21, 2025

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Overview:

In this gripping episode, "Second Chances," TJ Dominguez, once the owner of the world’s largest Lamborghini dealership by day and a key cocaine smuggler for Pablo Escobar by night, shares his perspectives on surviving high-speed brushes with death, facing the consequences of his choices, and seeking redemption after prison. Jonathan Walton unpacks TJ’s wild stories — from airborne Lamborghinis and a pet mountain lion to law enforcement takedowns — and centers the conversation on forgiveness, regret, and the struggle to rebuild life after infamy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Airborne Lamborghini Incident

• Recounting a Near-Fatal Joyride:
  • TJ relives how, while racing with an associate, his Lamborghini hit 200 mph and accidentally became airborne on Interstate 95.
    • “I felt that the steering wheel got light. Got very, very light... I tell Jose, I say, we got a problem. He goes, what are you talking about? I don’t feel the wheel... The next thing I know is kaboom.” – TJ Dominguez (01:50-02:05)
  • The car’s “ground effect” made it fly like a racecar, before crashing down and destroying the suspension — yet TJ emerged unscathed.
• Escape Without a Scratch:
  • “I glazed one of the bumpers... Not even a scratch on the car, by the way. Not even a scratch. I do two three, three 60s on 95... and then I managed to drive the car off to the shoulder.” – TJ Dominguez (04:17-04:44)
  • Bystanders couldn’t believe what they were seeing, mistaking the airborne car for a plane.
  • TJ reflects: “I wasn’t supposed to die that day... I survived it without a scratch.” (07:13)

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2. Life With a Pet Mountain Lion

• Introducing TC, the Mountain Lion:
  • TJ recounts owning a mountain lion, “Top Cat” (TC), bringing him to work and even riding around with him in the Lamborghini.
    • “I had him in the car. Sometimes creator actually caused an accident because people are looking... ‘Did I just see a lion?’” (07:41-07:51)
• The Lion Attack:
  • TJ describes a harrowing moment when TC sunk his teeth into his leg during rough play.
    • “He bit me... I could show you my scars that I have on the leg from where he sunk both of his four teeth into my leg.” (08:28-08:33)
  • Despite the injury, TJ realized his mistake was treating TC too much like a pet, so he hired a professional lion tamer.
  • “He was just being who he is and I was being stupid. So I decided I’m gonna hire a lion tamer...” (11:00)
• Iconic Showdown at the Dealership (14:00-17:45):
  • When confronted by aggressive "collectors," TJ brandishes his secret weapon — TC. The intimidating thugs are chased off, believing the lion was sicced on them.

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3. Legal Battles: Finding a Second Chance

• The Attorney’s Perspective:
  • Fred Schwartz shares how being honest became TJ’s unlikely strength, even as a criminal defendant.
    • “He might be a criminal, but he was an honest criminal. If you can accept that as a absolutely.” – Fred Schwartz (18:17-18:34)
  • Previous top-tier lawyers (like F. Lee Bailey) took TJ’s money without results, but Schwartz negotiated a plea deal that spared TJ a life sentence.
    • “If he went to trial and was convicted, he would have gone to jail for the rest of his life.” – Fred Schwartz (20:53)
    • “We had to make a deal whereby Tito not only pled guilty, but pled guilty with the judge wanting to let him out as soon as he could.” (21:01-21:33)
  • Deal required TJ to turn over his assets and advise authorities on smuggling methods.

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4. Law Enforcement Takedown

• Surveillance Stories:
  • PI Stephen Rubino details law enforcement’s months of surveillance on “flamboyant” TJ, including tailing him in his iconic red Lamborghini.
    • “It’s not like these guys were very discreet. They tend to flaunt their wealth. So it makes it a little easier for us...” – Rubino (27:05-27:32)
• Impact on Family:
  • TJ describes his mother's heartbreak after his arrest:
    • “‘Tell me what they’re saying about you is not true.’... it’s a cross I got to live with.” – TJ Dominguez (28:26–28:51)

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5. TJ’s Life After Prison: Redemption & Regret

• Public Speaking and Speaking to Youth:
  • TJ now talks to students and future law enforcement about the realities of crime.
    • “The movies are the movies... but it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. The price that you pay, the people that you hurt along the way... your loved ones... And that is no price. You just... I can’t equate that... The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life was face my own mother...” (30:36–32:11)
• Building a New Life — The Challenge of Second Chances:
  • Even post-prison, wealthier businesspeople remain wary of partnering with him due to his past.
    • “The guy said to me, ‘Wow, I would love to do this deal with you, but I’m really afraid of you.’… The past is always there... It’s a cross I have to live with.” (32:59–34:29)
  • TJ’s reflection on America, his immigrant roots, and the value of a second chance:
    • “We’re all sons of immigrants, unless you’re a native Indian. So what does that make us? A great country of second chances. So living in a country of second chances, I like my second chance.” (34:34–35:20)

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6. Legacy, Lessons, and Humor

• Charisma and Persistence:
  • Host Jonathan Walton shares how TJ’s “work ethic and determination are an inspiration,” noting that “every passing moment is another chance to turn it all around.” (35:20)
• On Marriage and Moving Forward:
  • Closing on a lighter note, TJ jokes about his three (or four?) marriages:
    • “Hell, I’ve been married 40 years too... With about four different wives.” – TJ Dominguez (36:11–36:38)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Flying Supercar:
  “I hit the wall with just... I glazed one of the bumpers, a rubber bumper. I didn’t even put a scratch on the car, by the way.” – TJ Dominguez (04:12)
• Mountain Lion Madness:
  “Did I just see a lion?” – TJ (07:49)
• Honest Criminal?:
  “He might be a criminal, but he was an honest criminal.” – Fred Schwartz (18:17)
• Pain of Parental Disappointment:
  “Tell me what they’re saying about you is not true... it’s a cross I got to live with.” – TJ (28:26)
• On Second Chances:
  “So living in a country of second chances, I like my second chance. That’s all I could say. Don’t judge me by what I did before. I’m a better person today. Why? Because I bled.” – TJ (34:34)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Lamborghini Goes Airborne: 01:46–06:16
• Mountain Lion Stories: 07:41–11:07
• Dealership Showdown (Lion vs. Thugs): 12:33–17:58
• Fred Schwartz on TJ’s Character: 18:08–19:45
• The Plea and Asset Forfeiture: 20:49–23:21
• Law Enforcement Surveillance: 25:17–28:13
• Confronting His Mother: 28:26–28:51
• Speaking to Youth, Living with Regret: 29:07–32:51
• Barriers After Prison, On Second Chances: 32:59–35:20
• Humor on Marriages: 36:02–36:38

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Tone & Language

The episode weaves together TJ’s unfiltered, often humorous storytelling with moments of deep vulnerability and hard-earned wisdom. The conversations move quickly from “holy shit” action to raw introspection, with both Jonathan Walton and TJ keeping things candid, engaging and occasionally irreverent.

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For more wild stories and photos from TJ’s life, visit cocainair.com, and don’t miss the video of TJ and TC the mountain lion, linked in the episode.

Transcript

[Jonathan Walton]

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[TJ Dominguez]

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[Jonathan Walton]

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[TJ Dominguez]

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[Jonathan Walton]

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[TJ Dominguez]

So now I'm hitting right at 200 miles per hour.

[Jonathan Walton]

200 miles an hour.

[TJ Dominguez]

Right at that. Yeah, right at that.

[Jonathan Walton]

And then TJ's Lambo suddenly goes airborne.

[TJ Dominguez]

And now I don't know this because I'm driving.

[Jonathan Walton]

You don't feel it?

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah, I felt that the steering wheel got light. Got very, very light.

[Jonathan Walton]

But you're literally like airborne.

[TJ Dominguez]

Well, I don't know that because I'm inside the car looking at the horizon. Two, three in the morning, you know, And I don't know that. So I tell Jose, I say, we got a problem. He goes, what are you talking about? I don't feel the wheel. And he goes, what do you mean you don't feel the wheel? The next thing I know is kaboom. And we hit something hard. Now everybody around me pulls off the road and the guy's screaming to another guy, no, it's not an airplane, it's a car.

[Jonathan Walton]

I'm Jonathan Walton and this is cocaine air. The TJ Dominguez Story Episode 12 Second Chances.

[TJ Dominguez]

If you get too much downdraft on the back wing and I push too hard here, what happens? The nose goes up.

[Jonathan Walton]

The nose goes up.

[TJ Dominguez]

So when the Nose goes up and a Lamborghini basically almost sealed from the bottom. Now you're riding a curtain of air.

[Jonathan Walton]

TJ Is blowing my mind yet again with another crazy adventure. I had no idea Lamborghinis could fly. But it does happen, and sometimes it even makes the evening news showing how.

[TJ Dominguez]

A Lamborghini went flying through the air.

[Jonathan Walton]

And landed on the roof of a.

[TJ Dominguez]

South Florida home called ground effect. So I got ground effect because, I mean, I'm airborne, I'm flying, but I don't have an engine up there. So eventually I'm going to lose speed.

[Jonathan Walton]

And I'm going to come down. You don't have wings.

[TJ Dominguez]

No, of course.

[Jonathan Walton]

So you went in the air for how long, do you think?

[TJ Dominguez]

I don't know. I tell you what I do know, and this is. I don't give a darn who believes it. Doesn't believe it. Ground effect is a fact. You see it on race cars that go up. You see it on powerboats.

[Jonathan Walton]

Ground effect.

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah, it's called ground effect. And so I go airborne. I come back down. I lose control of the car.

[Jonathan Walton]

When you hit the ground?

[TJ Dominguez]

When I hit the ground, I lose total control of the car. When people tell you, do this, do that, no.

[Jonathan Walton]

Well, you're doing two air miles per hour.

[TJ Dominguez]

You're now going on a joyride. Okay? You're there for the ride. This thing's got his own mind. You don't step on the brake, though. What you try to do is you try to turn the car into the turn with the wheels. But the car is not responding. I'm not getting any response at all from the car. So I hit the wall with just. I glazed one of the bumpers, a rubber bumper. I didn't even put a scratch on the car, by the way. Not even a scratch. I do two three, three 60s on 95. Boom, boom, boom. And then I managed to drive the car off to the shoulder. Now everybody around me pulls off the road. Cars that were coming in, they pull off the side of the road and run over the median. The center had, like, a little wall there, divider. They. And the guy screaming to another guy, no, it's not an airplane. It's a car. And I'm hearing these people screaming this stuff. And I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? He said, dude, man, I've been to a bunch of races. You were way up there. I'm like, what are you talking. You were in the air, man. I saw the hole underneath of the car. You came down. You were like a Plane. I'm hearing this stuff from these people. I don't know this, but I look at my car and I try to move it. The car won't move. Engine turns, everything is cool. I got two puddles of gasoline on the floor because what happens now? I ripped out the A frame when it came down. Yeah. And you know, like, for example, the wheels are round, right? A wheel car is round. Yeah. Well, they went like a half a moon. They crushed the wheels. Crushed the wheels. It ripped the A frame out of the car. So it punctured the gas tanks and it's fuel all over the goddarn place. And the wheels. So I can't move this car cannot. It could be dragged, but it won't roll because I got square flat on the bottom. And I'm not talking the tires. I'm talking about the actual rim.

[Fred Schwartz]

The rim, the rim.

[TJ Dominguez]

It's like a half a moon. So the car done look good because not even a scratch on the car, but that was that.

[Jonathan Walton]

So this is another incident of you cheating death.

[TJ Dominguez]

Oh, yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

Like that would kill anyone.

[TJ Dominguez]

Well, how about.

[Jonathan Walton]

How did you not crash into the wall or whatever. A car's hit you?

[TJ Dominguez]

Two things here. I don't come straight down. I glide down. But I glide down. The car is right around 3,800 pounds. The Lamborghini. Right in that neighborhood, give or take. You know, So I crusher. It came back on the rear wheels, which another thing that really would have really. You know, it would have been terminal if the car. The nose of the car kept going up. The car would have flipped over and it would have landed on the. On. On the roof.

[Jonathan Walton]

Yeah.

[TJ Dominguez]

And then I'd be there.

[Jonathan Walton]

And those are delicate. Those aren't strong. You know, they crush that normal.

[TJ Dominguez]

That's very. You see it with the speedboat. You see it with cars. They actually flip backwards.

[Jonathan Walton]

Yeah.

[TJ Dominguez]

And they go airborne. I don't have a roll cage in that car.

[Jonathan Walton]

Right.

[TJ Dominguez]

Very small compartment inside. So, you know. Yeah. It would have been fatal for sure. So. Yeah, from that point of view, absolutely.

[Jonathan Walton]

I she death again.

[TJ Dominguez]

I wasn't supposed to die that day. I wasn't supposed to, and I did. And I survived it without a scratch. I came out of there and then the police came. Right. Stay true.

[Jonathan Walton]

But TJ has definitely been scratched in other ways. By his giant pet mountain lion, for starters. Yeah. He had a mountain lion named Top Cat. TC for short. And TJ Took TC everywhere.

[TJ Dominguez]

I had him in the car. Sometimes creator actually caused an accident because people are looking at the lamborghini and then they look in the car and they go, oh, my God, a Lamborghini. Did I just see a lion?

[Jonathan Walton]

You drive around with a mountain lion.

[TJ Dominguez]

In the car, and he was really afraid of all the noise, by the way. He was all over the car sometimes really a pain in the butt because he's, like, all over me. Stop it. You know, I'm trying to shift gears.

[Jonathan Walton]

So you would do, like, a take your mountain lion to work day.

[TJ Dominguez]

I had a Class 1 license. They call it a Class 1 license, which is big cats. You gotta be licensed, you know.

[Jonathan Walton]

You got him as a little kitten.

[TJ Dominguez]

Oh, yeah. I got him as a cub. He was two weeks old. He opened up his eyes with me.

[Jonathan Walton]

We have pictures of this on cocainair.com in the gallery.

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

And top cat as a cub. And then he's giant on top of you sitting like.

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

How is he not eating your head?

[TJ Dominguez]

Well, I could show you my scars that I have on the leg from where he sunk both of his four teeth into my leg.

[Jonathan Walton]

Why did he. He bit you? I'm posting a video now on my Instagram at queen of the con of TJ playing with his giant mountain lion, TC. Once you see this video, you'll understand why TC bit him, and you'll wonder why TC didn't just tear him apart and eat him. Because TJ plays really, really rough with TC. At one point, he's forcing TC's mouth open with his bare hands to reveal TC's giant teeth. TJ literally shows no fear. So how did he bite your leg and why?

[TJ Dominguez]

Later on, I'll show you my scars. Okay. So you'll see in the video, I was always messing with him.

[Jonathan Walton]

He just plays rough.

[TJ Dominguez]

He's a mountain lion. At the end of the day, he's. He's doing what comes natural to him. They bite each other in the wild. They just got thicker skin.

[Jonathan Walton]

Yeah.

[TJ Dominguez]

I don't think he meant to harm me. Yeah. When he bit me, because he bit me and let go. He didn't bite and rip. You're gonna see me horsing around saying, let me see those big teeth, and I'm forcing his mouth open.

[Jonathan Walton]

Oh, my God.

[TJ Dominguez]

That's on the video? Yeah. You're gonna see that again.

[Jonathan Walton]

I have that video up on my Instagram, Queen of the Con, and I'm putting it up on cocaine air.com as well. It kind of looks like TJ is rehearsing for a circus act as a lion tamer, and it was during a romp session like this. One that TC sinks his giant teeth into TJ's leg. And then. Let's go. Blood starts gushing out from the wound, and TJ stumbles away, shocked. And then he grabs his gun in case TC tries to bite him again.

[TJ Dominguez]

Now I'm bleeding and I'm bleeding and I'm bleeding. So I said, shit, I'm gonna have to go to a hospital. I'll deal with this later, you know, So I put the gun down, I jump in the car, wrap thing around my leg. I'm bleeding. I got holes in my leg like that. So I jump in the car. Boom. I go to the hospital. Emergency. I get this thing treated. What bit you? Mountain lion. Well, you know, we can't stitch it up because their teeth have a lot of germs and blah, blah. Going to have to give you this, like, you know, like the catch, CR fever, all that kind of crazy stuff. I'm not a doctor, so they're giving me antibiotics and all the kind of shots that they're giving me. All right, that's cool. By the time that I got out of the the hospital, I had already calmed down and. And then I realized one thing. He was just being who he is and I was being stupid. So I decided I'm gonna hire a lion tamer, you know, So I go out, guy did a lot of stuff for Hollywood, and I hired this guy that trains big cats again.

[Jonathan Walton]

It's a miracle you're alive. Like, he could have just eaten you alive, dude. You're like roughhousing with a mountain lion. But TJ learned a lot from the lion tamer he hired about the proper and safe way to interact with tc. And they got along great after that. Really great. TJ would bring TC to work with him to his Lamborghini dealership and keep him in an enclosure in the back office. Which came in handy because one day some goons show up to threaten tj.

[Claire]

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[Jonathan Walton]

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[Claire]

That's not how we tell the story.

[Jonathan Walton]

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[TJ Dominguez]

History in the making.

[Claire]

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[Jonathan Walton]

Long story short, a guy named Orlando who owed TJ $200,000 was refusing to pay him. So TJ took possession of his Porsche Gambala worth $200,000, and he planned to sell it and get his money. But all of a sudden, a guy.

[TJ Dominguez]

Walks in with two guys painted on suits, arms that look like legs, right? And they stand behind the guy like this, stands in the middle of my car dealership, and he goes, who the hell is this guy? Tito with a nasty voice. So I jump up and I said, I'm Tito. What's the problem here? Why are you yelling? And why are you asking for me? And the guy goes, I own this car. I'm here to pick up the car. I said, you own that car? And I say, and I said, who are you guys? My name is Rick. I said, so who are you, Rick? He said, I'm Orlando's partner. I said, you're Orlando partner? And who are these two guys? Are these two guys here to intimidate me? I said, because I don't intimidate. No, this is my driver and my assistant. So I said, so it's your driver and you're the assistant? And you, who are you again? You're Rick, right? Orlando's partner, and you say you're here to pick up this car. Well, let me ask you something, Rick. What kind of partnership is this? Hang on a second. Rick, I want you to meet my cat. I'm talking to him just like this. Your cat? Yeah, my cat. I'm really close to my cat. I met your driver, met your assistant. I want you to meet the rest of my family. I want you to meet my cat. So Patrick, who's my personal valet, whose father was a gentleman's gentleman in England, who I adopted him as my personal valet.

[Jonathan Walton]

So you had a valet?

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah, sure. You'll meet him.

[Jonathan Walton]

A gentleman's gentleman.

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah, that's right. That's the guy that if. If I gotta go and stand in a line, he goes and stands in the line.

[Jonathan Walton]

My only reference for that is a Frasier episode, but that was a plot point. Frasier had a valet.

[Stephen Rubino]

Oh, yes, sir.

[Jonathan Walton]

A gentleman's gentleman.

[Stephen Rubino]

Even my father's father was a gentleman's gentleman.

[Fred Schwartz]

That's a good one, Ferguson. Thank you, sir. It's one of my staples.

[Jonathan Walton]

It's like an assistant, but personal. Everything he does, whatever he does another you for you.

[TJ Dominguez]

The only thing he doesn't do is share my women or chew my food. Right?

[Jonathan Walton]

But he goes and gets top cap.

[TJ Dominguez]

Anything. So I say to Patrick, Patrick, bring me T.C. in here. And I said, yeah, right in here. Bring him in here.

[Jonathan Walton]

And where was tc?

[TJ Dominguez]

TC was in a cage in the back. Way, way, way. It's like five acres, so you wouldn't even see him. So now I'm stalling the conversation, waiting for TC to come in the building. So. So I say to Rick, so, Rick, explain to me the situation with this partnership. Are you guys like 75, 25, 50. 50.

[Jonathan Walton]

You're just vamping.

[TJ Dominguez]

Exactly. I'm just biting dime. Right? So ICTC coming in the door way over there. I said, so what are you, like 50? 50. And I said, because I'll tell you what I'm gonna do if you're 50, 50 partners. Orlando owes me a lot of money. That means that you owe me half. So if you brought me 100,000, I'm gonna let you take the FN4 tires. Oh, and by the way, turn around. That's TC. Patrick, turn them loose. Now. TC's running rampant through the dealership. Oh, my God. These guys go like this. And they just see this giant cat going at them. They peeled out. They look like flash their shoes on the ground.

[Jonathan Walton]

But TC had no ill intent. He was just running towards you. Me. But they thought he's coming.

[TJ Dominguez]

They were going to get eaten up. Listen, Jonathan, they got wedged on the door. I'm sure all three guys got wedged.

[Jonathan Walton]

On the door trying to go out together.

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah, it was like, listen, save yourself three Stooges episode.

[Stephen Rubino]

Episode.

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah. Whoever's back there is gonna get eaten up. I'm not gonna be that guy. So they're fighting to get out the door.

[Jonathan Walton]

And TC just ran over to you?

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah, put his paws on me, started licking me and stuff, you know? I love you too, you know. Let's go find out what happened to my buddies. So I wrapped this green cord around my arm. I don't want him to break loose. If he breaks loose and hurt somebody, it's on me. By the time I got out in the parking lot, they were inside the car with the windows rolled up. Right. You're effing crazy. Yelling at me from inside the Car. He said something kind of nasty. This ain't gonna be over. This is not over. So I'm gonna break the way. I'm gonna punch the glass and I'm gonna take TC and throw him inside there. That's what my intention was. Let them have fun, you know, let's see what's gonna happen. I'm not afraid of these guys. I'm not worried about these guys. So as I'm gonna hit the window like this, the guy go. And they peel out, right? So now they're gone. So not long after that, I get a phone call. Orlando, man, you're a crazy nut, man, you're just crazy. You're nut. He said, I just got a call from my partner. And I said, yeah, they left in a hurry. He said, yeah, you know, he said, you seek your lion to eat him. I said, seek my line to eat him. It's dc. I wanted to introduce him to dc. What's the goddarn problem here, Orlando? I'm keeping the car. Car's mine. And that was the end of that.

[Jonathan Walton]

TJ's life back in the 1980s is like a never ending action adventure movie. And I would swear he's making everything up, only he's not.

[Fred Schwartz]

I don't believe he's ever lied to me.

[Jonathan Walton]

That's TJ's criminal defense attorney, Fred Schwartz, who to this day has yet to catch TJ in a lie.

[Fred Schwartz]

Anything he told me turned out to be true. And we were able to use the fact that everybody who knew him knew he was an honest person might be a criminal, but he was an honest criminal. If you can accept that as a absolutely.

[Jonathan Walton]

And that has been my experience as well, because so many people approach me, you know, because the podcast is kind of crazy, right? And so many people approach me and tell me there's no way that all that's true. But it checks out with the court records, with news reports at the time. It checks out. I've read the indictment. Everything he's saying checks out. So I've had the same experience. I've never felt he was lying to me about anything. He's an honest, an honest guy.

[Fred Schwartz]

Anybody who meets him likes him.

[Jonathan Walton]

Ain't that the truth?

[Fred Schwartz]

And as I said, he's honest. He tells the truth sometimes to his detriment. And in my experience, every time he's told me something like you, and I've checked it out because I have to, I can't go to a court and say something without knowing that I verified or did my best to verify It. It came out to be the truth. So I've listened to your podcast and I hear interesting stories and I have friends who I've forwarded your podcast to, and they say, come on, this is all garbage. I say, no. Every single thing in that podcast that he said is true.

[Jonathan Walton]

TJ had to kiss a lot of frogs until he found Fred Schwartz. Every lawyer he had hired before, like F. Lee Bailey, would essentially scam him, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees while promising TJ the moon, but then not really doing anything to help TJ's case.

[Fred Schwartz]

I learned early when I started doing criminal defense work that if you tell a client what they want to hear or you tell them what great things you're going to do for them, and then you don't achieve that, you've made an enemy. And some of these people you don't want as an enemy. So what I would do was to tell them, I don't know if I can accomplish what you want. It's not going to be easy. Even if it was going to be relevantly easy, I would make it more difficult than it probably would make it sound.

[Jonathan Walton]

More difficult.

[Fred Schwartz]

Yeah. So that if I was successful, then I was a hero. If I wasn't successful, then I predicted it and I didn't over promise.

[Jonathan Walton]

By the time TJ found Fred Schwartz, things were bad.

[Fred Schwartz]

If he went to trial and was convicted, he would have gone to jail for the rest of his life.

[Jonathan Walton]

And that guilty plea was crucial.

[Fred Schwartz]

Well, but you couldn't just take a guilty plea because the government didn't like him. One of the agents who was working on his case had gone to high school with him and really didn't like him because Tito was a very popular kid in high school, drove a Corvette, karate master, et cetera. And this guy was going to put Tito in jail for as long as he could. So if you just took a plea of guilty, maybe he wouldn't get life. He might have gotten 50 years. So we had to make a deal whereby Tito not only pled guilty, but pled guilty with the judge wanting to let him out as soon as he could.

[Claire]

Let's explore the events that shaped the Middle Ages.

[Jonathan Walton]

Honestly, Claire, I didn't finish the research, but I did switch to T Mobile with their new family freedom offer.

[Claire]

That's not how we tell the story.

[Jonathan Walton]

Well, I'm writing a new chapter by leaving AT&T and creating a turning point with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to $3200 and gave us four new phones on the history in the.

[Claire]

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[Jonathan Walton]

So Fred Schwartz works out or deal with prosecutors whereby TJ agrees to turn over all his money, all his planes and boats, all his real estate, his Lamborghini dealership, his cell phone company, his housing development. And TJ agrees to teach the Feds how he was able to smuggle all that cocaine under their noses for years without getting caught. And TJ avoids a decades long prison sentence because Fred Schwartz knows exactly what prosecutors want from tj. I mean, he used to be one of them.

[Fred Schwartz]

I started out as an assistant district attorney, first in Brooklyn and then in Queens. I specialized in organized crime cases. I left the Queen's DA's office in 1978. I was hired by the organized crime section of the U.S. justice Department Department. I was first an attorney, then deputy Chief, then acting chief of the Federal Organized Crime Strike Force.

[Jonathan Walton]

And how did you switch over to becoming a criminal defense attorney?

[Fred Schwartz]

Well, it's all because of women. I got divorced and I had to support myself and my own house and also my wife and ex wife and kids. And at that time, as a relatively high level federal prosecutor, I was making all of $53,000 a year and.

[Jonathan Walton]

I.

[Fred Schwartz]

Just couldn't afford what I was doing. So I like to tell people I traded my white hat for a gray one and I started representing people who were charged with criminal activities. Of course, all my clients were innocent, except Mr. Dominguez here pled guilty. He did?

[Jonathan Walton]

Yeah. Being a criminal defense attorney is infinitely more profitable than being a prosecutor.

[Fred Schwartz]

The first year I went into private practice, I was making four times what I made as a federal prosecutor.

[TJ Dominguez]

Wow.

[Fred Schwartz]

White collar criminals, organized crime related criminals, importers of pharmaceutical and herbal products from South America, all tend to have money to spend on attorneys.

[Jonathan Walton]

Yup. TJ had a lot of money all right. And he lived a lavish lifestyle, which made it easier to target him once law enforcement had him in their sights.

[Stephen Rubino]

So we would do surveillances of him, the businesses, other players in his organization set up on Houses that we thought.

[TJ Dominguez]

Maybe were going to be, you know.

[Stephen Rubino]

Used as drop houses or, you know, stash houses and stuff like that.

[Jonathan Walton]

That's Stephen Rubino. He's a private investigator now with his own investigation and security company called Finest Consultants. But back in the crazy cocaine days of the 1980s, I was a detective.

[Stephen Rubino]

With the Broward Chair of SOVVS. I worked in the Organized Crime division in the General Narcotics Unit.

[Jonathan Walton]

And Steven Rubino's job for months back in 1987 and 1988 was keeping tabs on TJ.

[Stephen Rubino]

So I didn't actually meet him face to face, but obviously he was a target of federal agencies and my. My agency, which was the Broward Sheriff's Office.

[Jonathan Walton]

So were you one of the guys in one of these tinted window cars following tj, like, taking pictures, taking a video?

[Stephen Rubino]

Yes, I was. I was involved in few of those, but less. Less on him than on some of his other people or stash houses or the business, to see who comes and goes, you know, things like that. And, you know, we would use all different kinds of vehicles. Vans, work vans, RVs, even, sometimes, you know, and regular cars. And depending on who it was or when it was, you know, we might have two to four or five tail vehicles, you know, following somebody. Because in urban areas, it's not like you see on tv, to do a surveillance is pretty tricky. Sometimes even we have a plane in the air. So the more basically the merrier when it comes to surveillance.

[Jonathan Walton]

And I imagine if TJ's driving around in his red Lamborghini, it's that much easier to keep him in your sights when you're tailing him.

[Stephen Rubino]

Of course, yes. It's not like these. Not like these guys were very discreet. They tend to flaunt their. Their wealth. So it makes it a little easier for us. Yeah, in that. In that instance, you know, you're not. He's not driving a Toyota and Celica, you know, which. There's thousands of them, you know, running around, which makes it harder to do a surveillance, but, you know, yeah, they're. They're a bit flamboyant.

[Jonathan Walton]

You kept up with the Lamborghini?

[Stephen Rubino]

Yeah, there was a. There was several of the survival. So, yeah, you know, I remember seeing him at the business because we would sit on the business, like I told you earlier, to see who came and went, and he obviously would come and go.

[Jonathan Walton]

And when you're watching him, you're watching him at this Lamborghini dealership. Where are you situated?

[Stephen Rubino]

There's another car dealership across the street. At the time. So he would hide in there. And then there's other businesses around there that we could blend into.

[Jonathan Walton]

And what are you doing? Are you, like, taking pictures or just looking, observing?

[TJ Dominguez]

There are.

[Stephen Rubino]

There are guys that are taking pictures, particularly of people coming and going. Video, even pictures of their vehicles in their tags so we can identify them, that kind of stuff. Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

And then In April of 1988, when T.J. was charged and arrested for drug smuggling, his family was devastated. They had no idea, especially his mother.

[TJ Dominguez]

When my mom walked into prison, she looked at me and she said, son, I'm only going to ask you one thing. And I didn't even know how to do eye contact with my mom at that time. And she said, tell me what they're saying about you is not true. You know, I'll never forget those words. You know, tell me what they're saying about you is not true. You know, I just. I heard them. And for that, it's a cross I got to live with.

[Jonathan Walton]

Since getting out of prison, TJ's turned over a new leaf. He gives talks now at schools and colleges explaining to kids why all that glitters is not gold and how a couple of bad decisions when you're young can lead to prison and a lifetime of regret.

[TJ Dominguez]

I actually spoke at the University of Miami to the auditorium. Probably 400 people there. Our future lawyers or future judges, future FBI agents, criminology class. And it was funny because they had a judge, they had a prosecutor, they had an agent. I guess you gotta bring in your token criminal. That would be me. I didn't really want to be going in there like that, but I went in there like that. So they were asking me some tough questions. I even said to a couple of the guys, I was up there for over an hour, and I say, hey, hey, guys, are we trying to re indict me here?

[Jonathan Walton]

Were they attacking you?

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah. No, they were not attacking me. They were asking me tough questions. And they were asking me also questions that had to do with emotions. And how do you feel about the things that you did to society? Do you have any remorse? And how did you get away with this? I answered every one of them. And I remember this. The bell rung, and nobody was moving. And the professor of the class said, you guys are going to be late for the class. And they came up, they lined up to shake my hand. And then later on, the professor of the class says to me, I asked the class afterwards who they found more interesting and who they connected more with. The judge, the agent, the prosecutor Unanimously, everybody said Tito Dominguez. The one thing that I will definitely make time for is to go to schools, to speak to children, to tell them, okay, listen, the movies are the movies and there's a lot of truth in the movies. And yeah, it was great swinging off chandeliers, being a pirate of the Caribbean and all and all of that, but it's not all that. It's cracked up to be the price that you pay, the people that you hurt along the way. And I'm not talking about the people that are doing drugs, okay? That's their choice. So that doesn't concern me. I'm sorry to say that, but it's the truth. I'm talking about your loved ones. The people that you disappoint, the people that brought you into this world. The mother that made your bed and fed you. And now you. You disappoint her. And that is no price. You just. I can't equate that to any. The pain that you feel. You know, Solitary was bad. The hardest thing I've ever done in my life was face my own mother when she looked at me and she said, tell me what they're saying about you is not true. You know, there's just more to freedom. And, and, and it all has to do with the love that you have for your family. And you don't want to cause them harm or embarrassment. So it goes beyond losing your freedom. It's a cross that you have to bear. And if I could sit there and share some of these experiences with children and letting them know that, listen, guys, if you put the same effort that you're going to put into, into selling in a street corner cocaine or marijuana, if you put the same effort into going out and getting yourself a hundred dollar car, cleaning the wheels, polishing the glass, and putting a for sale sign, $50 more than what you bought it for. Put the car on a street corner that's got a lot of traffic, put a phone number on there, you'll sell it. Somebody will buy it. The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, you know, and these are realistic goals. And then reinvest and reinvest and stick to your plan. When everything else fails, stick to the plan. You'll outwear everybody where they'll just get so God darn tired of you that they'll buy it.

[Jonathan Walton]

TJ is deep in that process now. And for every three steps he takes forward because of his past, he gets pushed back a step.

[TJ Dominguez]

And I've said in front of a lot of wealthy People. A lot of wealthy people, righteous people. People that you'd say, wow, you know so and so. Yeah, I do know so and so. But this so and so brings me to somebody else who's also very wealthy. A billionaire, to be more precise. And that billionaire brings me in front of somebody else, right? And this is one comment that kind of blew me away. The guy said to me, wow, I would love to do this deal with you, but I'm really afraid of you. And I said, why would you be afraid of me, man? I'm probably the best partner you'll ever have, because I'm not going to do anything wrong. I'm not going to break the law, you know? And the guy goes, yeah, no, I get that. He says, and there's no doubt in my mind that you know how to make money, because a lot of people are in the drug business, but nobody made the money that you made. But if you and I have a difference, what am I going to do? I want to be afraid that you would maybe not see things my way. And if you get pissed off at me, I'd be worried about that. So I said, well, that's a fair, fair view. And, you know, one that I've got no answer for other than if we have a difference of opinion, like the thing that we can settle as siblings. But that entered into the. Into the factor again. The past is always there. You know, it's something that I. It's a cross I have to live with. And I like to eventually get to a point in my life where I could take that cross and hold it up high and be proud of that cross and say, we live in America, the greatest country in the world.

[Jonathan Walton]

Tears fill TJ's eyes as he's talking.

[TJ Dominguez]

We're all sons of immigrants, unless you're a native Indian. So what does that make us? A great country of second chances. So living in a country of second chances, I like my second chance. That's all I could say. Don't judge me by what I did before. I'm a better person today. Why? Because I bled. And I know what it's like to bleed. So how you gonna judge me? Judge me by the fact that I'm building myself up from nothing. Like the Phoenix. I don't know how else to see.

[Jonathan Walton]

Getting to know TJ Dominguez over the past three years has been a profound experience for me. His work ethic and determination are an inspiration. His charisma and his passion for life is infectious. TJ is living proof that it doesn't matter how long or how far you've gone the wrong way in life and done the wrong thing, every passing moment is another chance to turn it all around. And if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Especially on the marriage front, because you were married twice, three or four times. You were married three or four times. So is it three or is it four?

[TJ Dominguez]

Marriage didn't count because it didn't get filed. They didn't process the paper. So that marriage was like nullified. It didn't really work.

[Jonathan Walton]

Okay, so.

[TJ Dominguez]

But yeah, three or four times here.

[Jonathan Walton]

The or four is that one.

[TJ Dominguez]

Yeah. And I'll get married again. And you know, when I get the righteous people out there telling me, oh, hell, I've been married 40 years. Wow, 40 years. Wonderful. I've been married 40 years too. Oh, you've been married 40 years? I say, yeah. With about four different wives.

[Jonathan Walton]

To see some incredible photographs documenting TJ's life, go to cocainair.com and if you're enjoying Cocaine Air, please hit that share button button and text it to your friends and family right now. And if you feel comfortable, leave us a 5 star review reviews really help other listeners find us. Cocaine Air was created, written and executive produced by me, Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Media Executive producers Evan Goldstein and the inimitable TJ Dominguez. Audio engineering by me, Jonathan Jonathan Walton. Sound design and editing for this episode was done by Mike Smith and the Cocaine Air cover art is by Bobby Animation. We've got a lot of fascinating untold stories like Cocaine Air coming down the pike at Jonathan Walton Media. So subscribe and keep an ear out.