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Law Enforcement Talk: True Crime and Trauma Stories
DEA and the Police in the Caribbean, Drugs, Violence
00:40:14
DEA and the Police in the Caribbean, Drugs, Violence. When most people imagine the Caribbean, they think of turquoise waters, white sand beaches, rum cocktails, and vibrant island music. The idea of violent crime, drugs, and federal law enforcement operations rarely comes to mind. But behind the postcard-perfect scenery, the Caribbean plays a major role in the global drug trade, and with it, comes a dangerous underworld of money, guns, and organized crime.
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- [00:02]
John J. Wiley
He's retired from the DEA 32 years the DEA Drug Enforcement Administration. He retired out of Baltimore. He's here to talk about supervising the Caribbean division of the DEA interdicting dangerous drug smugglers in an area from drug submarines to aircraft boats and more. Welcome to the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. In the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show we are joined by special guest talking about their experiences, their realities of investigating crimes, plus those have experienced horrendous trauma. Police, first responders, military and victims of crime share their stories. Hi, I'm John J. Wiley. In addition to being a broadcaster, I'm also a retired police sergeant. Be sure to check out our website letradio.com and also like us on Facebook, search for the law enforcement talk radio show. Here's another location where you can find all kinds of news for free. That's medium.com spelled M E D I U M dot com. Look for the law enforcement talk radio show and podcast profile on the Medium app and follow it. Contact is from the great state of Delaware. We have Jack McFarland on the law Enforcement Talk Ratio, his retired supervising agent from the DEA. And he did 32 years in the DEA, which stands for Drug Enforcement Administration. A lot of people get that one wrong. And yes, if you've been listening for a while, you know, as detailed the DEA out of Baltimore with Helen Raynan, a bunch of other great people. I did about two years and had nothing but a great experience with them. And ausa, as you name it, was a great deal. Jack, first of all, thanks for your service. Secondly, thanks for being a guest on the law enforcement talk radio show. Both very much appreciated.
- [01:52]
Jack McFarland
John, thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate it.
- [01:54]
John J. Wiley
By the way, just there's two websites you can check out. One is dea.gov which Jack will talk about why you might want to consider a career in the dea, the great organization. And if you want to connect with Jack, one of the best places you can do, especially for public Speaking, is his LinkedIn page, LinkedIn.com Just search for Jack McFarland. It's spelled M A C F A R L A N D. Did I get that right?
- [02:17]
Jack McFarland
It's going to be MC Drop the A. MC F A R L A.
- [02:21]
John J. Wiley
Let me repeat that. M C F A R L A N D. You'd think I'd have that down pat, but Irish cops talk to Irish cops. Forget it. You think I'd have that down.
- [02:35]
Jack McFarland
That's quite all right. We all do. We all make mistakes.
- [02:38]
John J. Wiley
We all do. So by the way, you Retired. And you worked in Baltimore. We have something in common there.
- [02:44]
Jack McFarland
Yes sir. Yes, sir. I ran Group 6 in Baltimore for about three years as a supervisory special agent. Can't say enough about good about group six. I had about 16 weapon carriers and we actually had members of the Baltimore PD for four gentlemen there running. But most of the counties we had some county cop, police officers, state, and it was a, as a HIDA group. It was actually a high intensity drug trafficking area. HIDA group. And they were a wonderful, wonderful bunch of people. Yes, they were.
- [03:13]
John J. Wiley
Now that Haida term came into being after I retired, that's how long ago I retired. Wasn't used prominently. We were just called the TA Task Force.
- [03:22]
Jack McFarland
Exactly. Is a nice, nice term. That's like I said, once again, high intensity drug trafficking area. And when it comes down to, you know what the task force is, John, it deals with funding, additional funding for, for drug law enforcement.
- [03:37]
John J. Wiley
So one of the things that when I worked with the DEA task force, one of the great things, and we'll go into a little bit, you is man, you guys had so much equipment we didn't have. And I got to work with the best of the best of the Maryland State Police, Anne Arundel County Police, Baltimore County Police, a lot of Baltimore City Police as well. But we went to Miami, we had surveillance vehicles they wouldn't believe. But the one thing we had more than anything else was the hammer over the bad guys heads. You're gonna need 25 years. You're gonna do every day of that.
- [04:10]
Jack McFarland
Yeah. The crooks are always afraid of when the feds come in. Not that they're afraid of any local, county or state guys as well. Not taking anything away from the personnel that way with the guys and gals in that level. But when the feds come in, they know they're kind of in a serious trick bag because we have some serious sentencing guidelines. Think about that. Like you just mentioned about, you're talking for distribution of a couple keys of cocaine. You're looking at 20, 25 years. So that's, that's some heavy hit to do in a federal pen.
- [04:41]
John J. Wiley
Another thing too was, and this was long after the DA Task force is done, I was back in uniform. I've been promoted to sergeant and actually was working this before the promotion. I had to work and I saw a car belonging to the suspect. And one of the, the DEA task force investigation I did is being operated by a female. We pulled that car over and, and said get out of the car. It's seized and they're like you can't do that. You're city police. Oh, guess what? We can and we did.
- [05:11]
Jack McFarland
Yeah, that's. That's one of the hammers we always had, you know, season, season, some beautiful rides and taking some nice properties. And if I may be so bald. When I was a street agent in Philadelphia, I had a 325. I325 is BMW convertible was my government car.
- [05:28]
John J. Wiley
Yeah. And I don't want to go into the cars we had. We had one of the. And I don't know if they did this. This vehicle was still around. Maryland State Police had one, they seized it was a blue Porsche and everybody would drive that thing. And they drove the. They looked great, but they didn't run great because they got the wheels drove on off of them.
- [05:48]
Jack McFarland
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure we wanted to take that for a test. Right. Every time someone wanted to go undercover, they wanted to take the Porsche out.
- [05:54]
John J. Wiley
So when you started your career 32 years ago, you started with Philadelphia.
- [05:59]
Jack McFarland
I actually, believe it or not, I was a former school teacher and football coach. Then I got involved in looking at the federal law enforcement. DEA and FBI applied to and DEA came a calling. And this is back when Reagan was president. And you know, Ronald Reagan was very, very into DEA at the time, of course, was a George W. Bush. And then eventually my first assignment out of the DEA Academy, which is in Quantico, I went to the Allentown resident office. That was my office of hire, John.
- [06:30]
John J. Wiley
That was Allentown, Pennsylvania. We don't think of that as a drug den, but it looks to be deceiving.
- [06:37]
Jack McFarland
Well, you got the Lehigh Valley up there, you got Allentown, Bethlehem in Easton, and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, which runs across I78, which has a straight shot in New York City. So they were really funding the Lehigh Valley. And Lehigh Valley is very beautiful, actually. I come from just a little northwest of there. I'm a coal cracker. And so I got involved with dea, stayed there for about a year and then went down to. My assignment from the academy was the Philadelphia Divisional office. And you talk about an operation there. We had a large size operation, but as you well know and thank you for your service. My brother John, really appreciate what you've done in Baltimore. In Philadelphia, it was a fourth or fifth largest city in the nation and it's a huge, huge demographic. It is a large spread out city, always can use more bodies.
- [07:24]
John J. Wiley
Definitely gonna ask you a personal question. You were a teacher and a football coach before you went into dea. And I understand the Transition. But back in the day, I wonder if this had anything to do with the whole Miami Vice and the way they portray the dea.
- [07:43]
Jack McFarland
Oh, very good. I always, I was, I was a fan of Miami Vice, there's no doubt about it.
- [07:48]
John J. Wiley
Did you wear your stuff pulled up like everybody else seemed to do back in the day?
- [07:52]
Jack McFarland
You know, I, I guess I was kind of fashionable back in the day, you know, and it worked. You know, it worked. It's my undercover Persona was. I was this, you know, young college kid rolling. Rolling around the streets of Philly and a Beamer and. And it worked. And it was, it was quite interesting. Yeah, it was quite as I did. I did like Miami Vice. The new. The older Vice versus the newer vice, if that makes a difference.
- [08:16]
John J. Wiley
No, it does make a difference. And part of the reason why is because. And Hollywood, not just Miami Vice, by the way, Check it out. It's not as good as it used to be. I think we're. We're much more impressed back then than we are now. But they always tend to portray the DEA as kind of shady.
- [08:33]
Jack McFarland
Yeah, the Cowboys, let's call them. You've heard the term, I'm sure, John. Cowboys. I know the agents that came on in the 70s and 80s and into the 90s always said, oh, the cowboys. You guys are a bunch of cowboys, really. But we're not. Not alta boys, but we're not cowboys either, so.
- [08:48]
John J. Wiley
Well, that was a term that, that was thrown around quite a bit in Baltimore. And sometimes I was referred to as a cowboy and sometimes I was not. There was. It's a relative. There are some other guys that put wild compared to me.
- [09:01]
Jack McFarland
Oh, I'm absolutely. And that's unfortunately some of those wild side individuals. They had some. I can put this in a nice way. Some questions to answer now and then, so.
- [09:12]
John J. Wiley
And ruined a lot of careers. We're talking with Jack McFarland. He's retired from DEA, did 32 years and left the Group 6 in Baltimore and retired. When we return, we're gonna talk about overseeing the Caribbean division of the DEA and interdictions. All that stuff that we hear about. It did occur. Check out dea.gov and also if you want to connect with Jack about especially about public speaking, go to LinkedIn.com and just search for Jack McFarland. That's MC FAR land. This is law enforcement talk radio show. And take a short break. We'll be right back. Are you a fan of true crime shows? How about true crime with a twist? People that actually investigated crimes, what they did, what they experienced or trauma survivors often crime based but not always impact on them and what they did to build their lives afterwards. All for free Just go to our website letradio.com It's Ellis Lincoln E's and Edward teasing Tom radio.com L E T radio.com youm find it all there for free.
- [10:19]
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- [11:28]
John J. Wiley
Return of conversation with Jack McFarland. Contact is from Delaware. He by the way he's in a sleepy little town, beach town in Delaware. I love that area. When I was in Baltimore police department going to Ocean Hun as we talked back then.
- [11:42]
Jack McFarland
Yes, yes, the Ocean Hun. You can tell you when you're from Maryland when people say go on the ocean and you're like right away, oh Maryland, you're going to go on Ocean city.
- [11:51]
John J. Wiley
He did 32 years the DEA was supervising agent with DEA Group 6 in Baltimore. A part of his career was in the Caribbean. How long were you in the Caribbean Jack?
- [12:02]
Jack McFarland
A little under four years, John. We did serve down there for about four years after I left Quantico. I was, I was a, I was a specializing tactical instructor, physical training instructor in Quantico. Did a tour of duty there for five years and I got promoted. So my first supervisory position was offshore or overseas as some like to call it. Now if I may be so may just put this out to you. You know one thing, if your listeners, if your listeners or your audience gets one thing out of today, I want them to get this, is this out of it. The Caribbean as an international trans shipment point. That's what the Caribbean is about. That is the number one thing in the international trans shipment point. And what I mean by that is you have from the Freeport, Bahamas all the way west of the Cayman Islands all the way down to the ABCs Aruba, Bonaire and Curtosao. We have offices throughout the area, throughout the area of responsibility. We actually have over 13 offices, believe it or not. And it's a hybrid division. What I mean by hybrid division. You'll have territorial offices, offices in Puerto Rico and offices in St. Thomas and St. Clair. I was the resident agent in charge in St. Croix, but the foreign offices anywhere from Freeport, Kingston, Jamaica, the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, all the way down to the Port of Spain, tornadobago, the tts, we have offices and what we do is we have to work with our counterparts in those particular regions. Now if I may give a football terminology, John, if I could do that so much. If you picture this, you picture South America, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Suriname, you know, I'm giving you an education, I'm giving you an education on geography in that part of the world. In the Southern cone, excuse me, in the Andean region of South America, that is where the defensive line is when you move up to the seven centime countries and the Caribbean, Caribbean to the east, centam countries, Central America, countries to the west. That's where your linebackers are sitting. That's where I was sitting in linebackers. Once it hits the States, John, the Baltimores, the Miami's, the Philadelphia, you know, New Orleans, the Houstons, that's where the defensive backs are. And once it gets to the defensive backs, you know the game of football, you know, I'm sure you're, I guess from being Baltimore, you're a Ravens fan, I'm an Eagle fan. But. Go Eagles. But other than that, I mean, it's one of those things where now it gets greater and greater chance for it to get onto the streets and out to the general public, the gp. So in regard to that, you have to really focus, you have to coordinate your efforts. And in the Caribbean you had not just the United States, not just the Americans, but you had the Dutch and the French and the Brits. And they were our counterparts, they were our allies down there. Because you have to remember in the Caribbean, the Caribbean to live in is very expensive. Health care, so, so food, housing, even electricity. Heck, John, I mean, rum, we used to, we used to, you know, rum was cheaper than water. We used to drink rum instead of water. We used to brush our teeth with rum instead of water. I'm just joking. But it's true. It's absolutely, absolutely true. And it's only. The rock I was on was 28 long, 28 miles long, 7 miles wide, 50,000 population, and there was upwards of 100 murders a year on that particular island. I know people I'M not scaring people for tourism. I saw the other side of the.
- [15:18]
John J. Wiley
Rock and most people will never see that side. But it doesn't mean it does not occur.
- [15:23]
Jack McFarland
No, and one sad point is, you're absolutely right. But one sad point is the violence got so bad in St. Croix that the cruise ships stopped coming there. Now you say, well, Jesus, you know, that's not my world. But then again, no, it matters to the people and economies of those particular little islands. So when we were over there, the coordination was key from the standpoint of dealing with and working with the personnel from the foreign countries, also the island personnel. But, you know, corruption. Oh, my goodness, corruption with the locals and the foreign counterparts. And it was. It got to be a. How can I put this? It was rough. It was a rough type of enforcement. But you know what? We did it. The experience was amazing. The people I had in st. Croix, about 19 personnel in my office, they were wonderful. You'll get a kick out of this. We had a 42 foot, go fast boat assigned to our office. 42 foot, go fast boat, bang. Go out there and run the waters, you know. So like you said about resources, having resources, you know, you talked about fixed wings. We had King Airs, we had helicopters. Because you're all in that region, it was nothing for to be in St. Croix in the morning and you're flying over to the Don Rep for a meeting in the afternoon. Or I used to have to go over to. Because of the Dutch and the French and the British and my counterpart, St. Thomas Charlie, we'd have to go over to the Martins and have meetings over with the Dutch, the Brett, the Brits and the French. And they used to always say to us, used to always say to us, and here come the Americans, and here come the Americans, here come the cowboys. Here comes the cowboys. Because. Why is that? Because a lot of times our greatest ally was Mick. He was in charge of the British. And the Brits over in Tortola really had the same mentality. We did not taking away from the French or the Dutch, but sometimes they're a little blase, blase. And that means, you know, a little like one day here, one day there, we'll figure it out. Because we used to drop, of course, one tens in it with the Coast Guard. We would drop. The Navy would come in, the Brits would bring the ships in as well. And it was quite active. It was very, very, quite active. It really, really was. And if I may be, I just keep talking, I know I'm saying a little Bit maybe talking too fast for you. I'm trying to get it in.
- [17:39]
John J. Wiley
Is that maybe that's a filly in you coming out.
- [17:43]
Jack McFarland
Ah, picture this. So here you are now that. Now there's a freighter coming off the water, say in Venezuela. Now, that freighter is going to stay in the inside of the Caribbean Sea. It's not going to bump out to the Atlantic Ocean yet. So if you're looking at a map, it stays in the sea. Why is that? Because it's calmer in the sea. Then it bumps up and goes up. Now, two options. Option one, when he gets up into our neck of the woods, the northern part of, like, if you picture, like the Caribbean, it's kind of like an elbow sort of. You know, you come up into that elbow area, they can break for either Africa, the continent of Africa, or Lisbon, Portugal, to Europe, or they'll continue up the chain. They'll go to the Turks Caicos, they'll go to the Bahamas, and then they start finding a home. It's going to be either in South Florida, it's going to be either Jacksonville, could be Charleston, wherever they can. They go all up to Boston and inside that is the cargo. It's going to be the dope. So. So what happens then is if you got a ship involved, which we did in Philadelphia back in the day, we actually had to take a shipment of cocaine, about a thousand keys, up to Montreal, Canada. So we had. We knew where it was. It was in lumber. We busted it open, got all the dope, and we had a controlled delivery. Now picture this giant. I'm sure you've done controlled deliveries in your career. We went from Philadelphia all the way to Montreal, Canada, with the RCMP and dropped this off and worked the case with them. It was magnificent. It was magnificent. But people don't really understand that. They think, oh, well, how does it get in here? Well, that's true. They can. They can mule it in, you know, go to BWI airport. A couple people out of Puerto Rico are carrying some dope because they got paid a couple grand, right?
- [19:30]
John J. Wiley
And on that note, we're going to take a short break because there's many, many different ways of smuggling in. We're talking with Jack McFarland. Jack is retired DEA supervisor, supervising agent. He retired at Group 6 in Baltimore. Did 32 years total. We're talking about the Caribbean division. He was there for four years. We return to our conversation. We're going to talk about smuggling and addiction of dangerous dealers. What a lot of people don't think about from drugs Submarines to aircraft and boats. Go to dea.gov and find out why this might be a career for you. And if you want to hook up with Jack, just check them out on LinkedIn LinkedIn.com search for Jack McFarland. This is Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back. If you want to be a guest on the Law Enforcement Talk rate of show, simply contact us. It couldn't be easier. You can send us a message on Facebook, look for and like the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show page or email jayetradio.com that's J A Y E T radio.com return our conversation with Jack McFarland on the law Enforcement Talk Radio show content is from the ocean hun in Delaware, just north of Maryland. I say that because my Baltimore roots are showing. He's a retired DEA supervising agent, did 32 years, which is a long time. I believe from prior conversation. You retired because he had to.
- [21:02]
Jack McFarland
Yeah, that's exactly right. Yes, John. I actually, when I left, when I was after about three years involved for Group 6, I went over to headquarters because once again, you have to do you have to go over the hq. You're kind of, you're kind of brought in headquarters. And I was brought into the Inspection division. And the Inspections division, of course, as we know, has two different entities. Two, one being the federal side, which is the internal affairs side, and the inspectional side, which is the side that I was on, the misdemeanor side, where you go in and you inspect the offices and making sure they're doing the right things. And you do that worldwide. And I'll tell you right now, one of the greatest things that I was able to achieve was that I got to see not only a lot of United States of America, but also the world because of Uncle Sam.
- [21:44]
John J. Wiley
That's a great thing. Something tells me you'd still be doing this line of work if you were allowed to by law, with the horse.
- [21:51]
Jack McFarland
You know, John, I really, I really would be. I officially retired at 57 because you're, you know, if you're DEA, FBI, if you're a weapon carrier for Uncle Sam, you're out at 57. So I had to go. I went out my last position. I was in the Mexico, Central America, Canada section. I was overseeing the Canada offices, great offices up there in Ottawa and Vancouver. We ended up shutting down our Montreal office. Good people up there. But you know, once, once the HR comes to tap it on the shoulder about a year before your retirement, you Got to fill the packet out and then you're gone. And I, I had to go. And I'm going to be as. I'm six years out now. Six years out. So, yeah, I'm, I miss it. I mean, people, some of my buddies will say they don't miss it. I miss it. I just missed the hunt. I missed the hunt.
- [22:35]
John J. Wiley
That's the part I miss. I, I, and always say this, you know, I miss a lot of the clowns I worked with. I don't miss the circus. I don't miss city hall, I don't miss the politicians. I don't miss all that. But the people I worked with were phenomenal.
- [22:49]
Jack McFarland
Absolutely. Isn't it amazing? I mean, most people don't realize what we. Yourself included myself and people that I know what we were up against. They, they might see you, see you as a person sitting on the beach reading a book, and they're like, oh, what was up with that guy? Why is he always on the beach? Or whatever. Or he's, you're in the gym pumping iron and it's like, what's up with that guy? What did he do? It's like he's kind of a don't judge a book by its cover kind of deal. Don't judge a book by its cover.
- [23:12]
John J. Wiley
My wife and I were talking about, I call her the boss. We were talking the other day. And it's funny because I hurt and retired very young. I was 32, 33 when I got retired. And I was so used to the mayhem, the trauma, the crime, the violence. I knew my job, I knew what to do. But things got really scary when it got quiet, when I didn't know what to do to myself. And I really missed that line of work because that was, and I hate to say it on the radio, that was a big part of my identity.
- [23:41]
Jack McFarland
Yes, yes, yes. May I ask you a question, personal? What was the mass, the injury?
- [23:47]
John J. Wiley
I got hurt when Guy tried to shoot me with my service revolver while still my hand. And we fired off all six rounds and he's shooting my head. And both of us survived, but I wound up having two steel plates, put my hand and total fusion and retired because I'm right handed and I've got very limited use of that hand.
- [24:04]
Jack McFarland
Wow, John, you're a warrior brother man. You're an old wheel gun guy.
- [24:08]
John J. Wiley
I'm an old wheel. And by the way, he was distributing crack cocaine. So that's what our conversation. He was in a stolen Toyota van, but it was all about the drugs and he had prior things and he didn't want to go back to prison. That was the main thing. What a lot of people don't seem to get, and I'm going to ask this as a form of question is they say, and they say it's sarcastic. The war on drugs called the problems. I said, number one, there wasn't a war on drugs. You know how there you could tell because there'd be bodies, a bad guy stacked up left and right.
- [24:38]
Jack McFarland
Yes. Yeah, that's an interesting terminology. Yeah, very interesting terminology. Of course, Nancy C. Reagan put that out there and of course Ronald Reagan and I thought he was a great president. But yeah, I just. You're right about the war on drugs. And I'll tell you one thing, you mentioned the words crack cocaine.
- [24:54]
John J. Wiley
Oh, well, that changed dramatically in Baltimore when crack came through.
- [24:58]
Jack McFarland
Wow, what a wicked drug. What a wicked drug, man. And that was one of the things that we were assigned to. I was assigned to Group 3 in Philadelphia, bunch of warriors up there. And we were assigned coke, crack and grass marijuana. And we went after it in a heavy way of crack cocaine. Matter of fact, the person at the vehicle that I end up seizing delivered 32, excuse me, 341 ounce baggies, which equates to 2.2 pounds or 1 kilo of crack cocaine. And let's just say he got about 25 plus for that delivery.
- [25:30]
John J. Wiley
The other thing I was going to get at is and people and really nowadays I really strive for peace and quiet. When I go to the gym, I'm the guy who doesn't talk to anybody. I work out, I listen to my music, I do the deep breathing, all that stuff. But with that drugs, I know this side of it, a lot of people don't. I really am. I really don't care. If someone wants to do that, go right ahead. That's your choice. However, the violence that goes along with that, so many murders, so many people maimed maliciously, you've solved.
- [26:05]
Jack McFarland
And you know the answer to that. Before you answer your own question, you know the answer to that is because it comes down to almighty dollar, comes down to the buck, that's what. And that's. That's even still to this day. You know, I mean, I hate to. I know we're getting off on a tangent here, but I'll bring it back over to the Caribbean, let's just say in the Caribbean, for any reasons, you know, a lot of these guys are always looking. The new term anymore is, you know, for the last couple, you know, side hustle, side Hustle, you know, it's like one, one day these crooks are, you know, doing dope, next day they're doing human trafficking gangsters like they used to be.
- [26:34]
John J. Wiley
They're. They're side hustlers.
- [26:36]
Jack McFarland
Oh, they're heights. They're side hustlers. They're not even honorable anymore. They'll. They'll wipe you to wipe each other out. And there was a thing, there was a struggle stretched down in the VI. Excuse me, in the Virgin Islands and the US Virgin. Excuse me, the BVIs and the US Virgin Islands up against one, our gang on. It was a gang on St. Croix and there was a gang on Tortola over the bvi. They were warring, they were trying to, they were trying to get a hold of the different grounds and they were whacking, they were, they were smoking each other. I'm talking just, you know, back in the day, it was the handgun. Oh, no, no. We're talking AK47s blowing down range. And that's terrible because when I was over there as the boss, the resident agent in charge in St. Croix, you know, we had one of our task force officers. Okay, you were one of the task force officers. Thank you for your service again with us. But with a task force, an assassination attempt on him and they ended up shooting his father instead. Get this one. 60 rounds. 223s inside his vehicle. They put into him, into his right into the vehicle. He got hit three times. A 60 year old male at the time, he survived, his father survived. But I'll tell you right now, that island changed for like six months. We brought everybody in, all the alphabets came in to take out this organization. But like I said, Iranian island assassination. So I was always concerned about not only my agent personnel, but my support personnel, the families, Hector, the one in particular, where we used to live up on the north shore, right up the north shore in St. Croix condo community. It was really, really pretty. But the intersection right there, I get a phone call from one of my guys who's on the street and says, boss, where's your wife right now? I said, she's over the gym. He says, tell her do not come home because at the intersection you need to take the right to go to our property. There was a gun battle. There was two dead bodies lying right there.
- [28:20]
John J. Wiley
It's crazy. I remember when I was detailed at DEA and I came home early and we were living in Charles Village in Baltimore at the time. We were renting a second floor of the house and my fiance at the time, so there's two guys that are associated with a group that I'm investigating on my front porch. On the front porch of the house. And then of course I had a police radio. I called the police, sent back up. They didn't see me. But their excuses, well, there's apartment for rent. There's nothing for rent there. That was something you had to be aware of all the time. Are people following you? That was another one you had to be aware of. I'm sure you had that indoctrinated in you.
- [29:01]
Jack McFarland
We, we had, we definitely try not to, you know, change your routes if you can. You know, I gotta be honest, I am a creature of rhythm, creature of habit.
- [29:09]
John J. Wiley
Same here.
- [29:10]
Jack McFarland
I, you know, when I had the job. And why is that? Because I don't have to think about what I do. I just do it. Just go and get in the car and do whatever from, from, you know, even working out time. You working out, doing this, doing that, making it simple in life. But you're absolutely right, you'd hit the nail on the head when you're in the line of work especially. Let's go talk Caribbean. Caribbean was basically third world, okay? Third world under the American flag. And it was very violent and sometimes life was cheap over there.
- [29:40]
John J. Wiley
We're going to return that conversation about the Caribbean in a few moments. We're Talking with Jack McFarlane on the Law enforcement talk radio show. Has retired from DEA to 32 years. In return, we're going to talk a little bit about Caribbean division, which is assigned to. He retired. He spent many years in the Baltimore area, which we have in common. If you're considering your career change, check out dea.gov dea.gov and if you want to hook up with Jack about public speaking in particular, check them out on LinkedIn. Look@LinkedIn.com search for Jack McFarland. This is Law Enforcement Talk. Rate of show. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back. Of all the radio stations in the United States, there are no other shows like the law enforcement talk radio show. And on Facebook there's only one official page. Do a search on Facebook for the law enforcement talk radio show and be sure to like the law enforcement talk radio show Facebook page. Return of conversation. The law enforcement talk radio show with Jack McFarland. Contact us from Delaware, the ocean of Delaware. And I say it very fondly, have great memories of that area. He's retired from dea. He was an agent that did a lot of supervision and did 32 years in there and part of that career was spent in the Caribbean before we were. By the way, if you want to hook up with him about doing some public speaking, check them out on LinkedIn.com just search for Jack McFarland, McFarlane land or and be looking for career change. Check out dea.gov One of the things that blows my mind and I'm going to ask is a four question. So we know that a lot of the cocaine comes from South America. We know that a lot of other drugs come from Europe, Afghanistan, other ones. The Caribbean is a transportation area where not much is produced there but a lot of drug activity, a lot of pirates. And all that stuff still goes on today, doesn't it?
- [31:42]
Jack McFarland
Yes it does. You know, think about this. In 1493 when Christopher Columbus came and discovered St. Croix and we honor him every October. He was a pirate. The man was a pirate. It's modern day piracy, diner, drugs, guns and human trafficking come through there every day. And you're absolutely right in reference to the trafficking of moving packages, the transportation, the shipments, the movements until it gets into the distribution stage when they leave location in South America and they move up into the Central Americas. Every mile that they move north, dope north, money south, that those packages get more and more expensive. So you're figuring out like wow, I mean there's, there's money to be made. And a lot of times John, you know this is that everything's walled off. Everyone doesn't want to know who's doing what. They got to protect one another because if the cell gets knocked off, they didn't know the other cell. And we had an investigation where we ended up becoming a reverse undercover. We became the bad guys and quite, it was quite successful thinking outside the box. Absolutely thinking outside the box. But the, you know, it's one of those things dealing with that part of the region. But let's not forget now I've not have any, I really can't speak about the, the 7 centimeter countries or the Mexico's, but the Mexico's, it all shifted. And you know, when Escobar got whacked, you know, it used to be always South Florida. Well then all of a sudden from that border from Brownsville, Texas all over to San Ysidro, California which is 2200 mile border, it shifted and that's where they're running it through hard. But still, still the cocaine corridor, the Caribbean. Caribbean is still open for business, there's no doubt about it. Absolutely.
- [33:21]
John J. Wiley
It's a wild time I had on the show a long time ago. I had the Guys, the DEA guys that captured Escobar in Colombia.
- [33:31]
Jack McFarland
Yeah, they were great.
- [33:33]
John J. Wiley
We also had many other Sherry Oz, a bunch of other ones. But one of the people that I really relate to the most was a woman named June Hawkins. And June was a sergeant in the Miami Dade Police Department back in the cocaine cowboy days in the homicide division. And she was featured in the movie Griselda. You would never know that to meet her in public, but people like that, they give a lot to try to stem the flow of this stuff.
- [34:01]
Jack McFarland
Wow. Yes, I watched that show. That was quite fascinating, if I may. I'm not trying to put any plugged out to any guy, but if any of your audience, your listeners ever watched the move with Tom Cruise called American Made, I found it quite. Quite interesting, Quite funny. It's really interesting. How did all the. All the alphabets were getting played by this guy. And it's true. And it was quite interesting movie. So if those who want to listen to watch it, do it, because that's what they do now. They were doing aircraft as, you know, aircraft boat, submarine body, carrying all kind of concert shipments. That's the way it's getting. It's getting up and down. And there's a stand. They'll take a loss because if they get one through three or four getting through, I don't have all information in front of me. And so. So they take that loss. It's like a, you know, I don't know a store today, one candy bar got stolen, but I sold four for today. Okay, great. You know, significant little bit of a loss. But down there, that part of the region, that part of the world, it's a business. It is absolutely a business.
- [35:03]
John J. Wiley
It seemed like back to my day, I'm sound like an old geezer, that they didn't have the violence that's associated with it at the point of origin of these drugs. But the closer you got to the United States, the more violence that occurred. Was that true for you?
- [35:19]
Jack McFarland
Well, the most, believe it or not, the most violence. You know, I was in two shootings in my career. One in Allentown, one in Philly. I had.
- [35:30]
John J. Wiley
They were both stateside. And you were in the Caribbean.
- [35:34]
Jack McFarland
Isn't that funny? They were both states. That's a good point. In the Caribbean. The four years of the boss down there, John. My agents did not discharge their weapons. Only, and I hate to say this, when a dog would try to attack, but we corrected that issue. We ended up correcting that issue. By how? By getting fire extinguishers and hitting the Dogs with the fire extinguishers.
- [35:57]
John J. Wiley
Oh, Baltimore with attack trained dogs. And by the way, and not the stray off. I'm a big dog person. I have rottweilers. We've had them for 30 years. Best breed of dog we ever had. However, when the 1% motorcycle clubs got involved in the drug game back in the 60s and 70s, somewhere in the 70s and 80s, they started getting these attack trained dogs protecting their stash. And a lot of them were not allowed to bark. They had surgeries, they couldn't bark. And it was a real problem with officers getting hurt.
- [36:30]
Jack McFarland
Mm, I got you. I understand. I'm totally with you. And we, we were. Every time we discharge a firearm, there's a, there's a shooting. Instant team investigation. And it is a mammoth amount of paperwork. So I said to my. We got. We have to figure something out. When I was assigned to Quantico, we learned this technique. We got fire extinguishers like those big, big mouth fire extinguishers.
- [36:51]
John J. Wiley
The big CO2.
- [36:53]
Jack McFarland
Yeah. When you hit them with those, the dog john, it takes away their oxygen and scares the living heck out of them things.
- [37:00]
John J. Wiley
What's funny, and I don'. Mean this in a ha ha way, but ironic is the, the, the more progressive we become as a society and as government, the thing you think there'd be less need for DEA and other groups, but that need seems to be getting worse.
- [37:16]
Jack McFarland
Yes, I, I personally would love to see DEA grow in size. I really truly would. I think just like with the other alphabets out there, I think, you know, with, with weapons. And we, we, we live in the greatest country in the world. For those that never been outside the United States of America, go take a. Go take and time countries and see what these people live with. Even in the Far east, you're like, oh my God, go. People just don't get out there and see it and it just hurts my. I can say it hurts my head sometimes. Like go see what's out in the world and you'll come running back. The United States of America. I'm not trying to be a political hero, but I'm just saying it's amazing. And that was one thing that Uncle Sam allowed me to do and allowed me to see and deal with it. And everyone loves the yank sort of. Or stand up and stand up and take the charge.
- [38:06]
John J. Wiley
So yeah, despite what Hollywood tell you, that's absolutely truth. I need to shift gears. So what are you doing now, Jack?
- [38:17]
Jack McFarland
Basically, you know, as the old saying is living, living the dream. There was a From an, from a TV show, Living the dream. The beach here. We're very fortunate that in the winter, I can't stand cold weather in the winter for several months for about four, four, four and a half months. We go down to Florida, we go into the west coast on the opposite of you, right across from you, basically we hang out there for that. Get up, stay healthy, stay fit, just enjoying life. I mean if something comes across my pay, I come across my desk like doing a nice podcast this. And by the way, congratulations on you being nominated number one law enforcement in the, in the, in the nation for 2025 for a million podcasts. Very, very cool. Done. Done several. I'd like to keep doing more if I get an opportunity, opportunities to go out and speak on motivation, teamwork, leadership, passion, you know, I'm available, I'll come out and do it. But I just, just been trying to stay healthy. Trying to stay healthy and living life and loving. Giving back. Actually, we give back every year, my senior football player buddies, every first week of October, first Saturday of October, we go and we give a gift to the team up in Pennsylvania. I went to a Catholic school, I'm sure. Were you a Catholic school? I was from 1 through 12, man. So we got to give back because these Catholic schools don't have a lot and we give gifts. And this year's gift, if I may be so quick on this, John, if you don't mind, our gift for this year is a 20. They have a locker room called a blue room and we're going to buy them a 55 inch color TV with a drink refrigerator, a PlayStation with an extra controller and some football games. Boom. I hope I didn't.
- [39:54]
John J. Wiley
That's great.
- [39:55]
Jack McFarland
Say the wrong thing, Jack.
- [39:58]
John J. Wiley
First of all, I want to thank you for your service and it's very much appreciated. I know what that involves. A lot of people don't. I'm glad you were able to spend some time talking about that. And thanks for being guests on the law enforcement talk radio show. Both very much appreciate it.
- [40:12]
Jack McFarland
Thank you very much, John. I really appreciate it. And back at you. Back at you, sir.
- [40:15]
John J. Wiley
If you're on the Clubhouse Drop in audio chat and be sure to look for me and follow me. My name's John the letter J Wiley W I L E Y. You also search for that's John J. Wiley W I L e y at LetRadio show on the Clubhouse Drop in audio chat app. I'd like to thank our guests for coming on the law enforcement talk radio show. The law enforcement Talk Radio show is a nationally syndicated weekly radio show broadcast on numerous AM&FM radio stations across the country. We're always adding more affiliate stations. If you enjoyed the podcast version of the show, which is always free, please do me a favor and tell a friend or two or three. I'll be back in just a few days with another episode of Law Enforcement Talk Radio show and Podcast. Until then, this is John J. Wiley. See ya.