The Hidden Third – “Undercover Cop” with Brit Elmore

Date: March 18, 2026
Host: Mariana van Zeller
Guest: Brit Elmore, former undercover officer

Episode Overview

In this gripping episode of The Hidden Third, host Mariana van Zeller sits down with Brit Elmore, a veteran undercover cop who spent 25 years infiltrating the criminal underworld of the Bay Area. From buying drugs in the infamous Tenderloin district to running large-scale sting operations and living undercover in jails, Brit offers a frank, sometimes shocking insider look at America’s war on drugs, the complexity behind crime, and the human stories of both perpetrators and police. The conversation dives deep into the systemic issues driving the drug epidemic, immigration, law enforcement frustrations, and the nuances of criminal investigations. With both candor and compassion, Brit and Mariana explore why these underground economies endure—and the societal failures that help sustain them.

Brit Elmore’s Early Years and Path to Policing

• Origins in the Bay Area: Brit grew up outside San Francisco in a blue-collar, mixed-race family, with no prior law enforcement background.

  “Mom is Mexican. My dad's from Alabama. White guy. Blue-eyed guy… hard workers.” – Elmore [01:12]

• School and Work: Dropped out after 9th grade, worked various manual jobs before getting his GED in pursuit of a police or fire job for better benefits.

  “I went to school till 9th grade and I dropped out… My dad’s like, that's fine. Just got to work full time.” – Elmore [01:45]
  “A buddy of mine… said, ‘Dude, you got to get a job in the fire department or the police department. You got to get one or the other. Benefits, good money.’” – Elmore [02:53]

• Entry into Law Enforcement: Began as a correctional officer at San Mateo Sheriff’s Office, overseeing high-risk inmates.

  “My first day there… there was a bunch of young black kids… they’re like, ‘We're going to fucking kill you, man.’...but it was just a joke. They were just kids.” – Elmore [04:05]

Seeing Humanity Behind Bars

• Empathy from Corrections Work: Working among inmates, many with harsh upbringings, Brit developed empathy—seeing the person behind the crime.

  “It was very eye-opening. They never got a free shot... they never got a chance to really try to do something.” – Elmore [05:08]
  “When I do undercover, I kind of relate to people... it’s kind of hard for someone in uniform to relate to what that person’s going through.” – Elmore [05:57]

• On Contraband and Corrections Culture:

  “A lot of correctional officers that come in there, you deal with them every day, so you might as well get along with them.” – Elmore [06:25]

Transition to Street Policing and Undercover Work

First Foray:

• Joined San Francisco PD, quickly moved from uniform to plainclothes, then to narcotics.

  “I only did like six months in a uniform. And then they needed to fill a spot for Plain Clothes… which was really fun.” – Elmore [13:54]

Undercover in the Tenderloin:

• Described undercover drug buys (“Spitters”), arrest cycles, and evolving tactics:

  “We’d dress up kind of homeless and just buy crack all day in the Tenderloin. We’d grab 20, 30 guys and… it would just keep coming.” – Elmore [16:51, 18:03]

  “The Hondurans would wrap up the crack in these little pieces of plastic and hold them in their mouth…if the cop pulls up...they swallow it or puke it up later.” – Elmore [18:23]
  “If you don’t accept it in your mouth, then you’re not a crack addict, you’re a cop.” – Elmore [19:55]

The Drug War, Its Limits, and Criminal Justice System Frustrations

The Arrest Cycle and Systemic Breakdown

“You arrest somebody with crack or fentanyl selling to an officer, and they’ll laugh at you. ‘I’ll be out before you get off work.’” – Elmore [23:43]

“With the no bail and everything…They get 6, 7, 8, 9 cases within the last three months and nothing gets done with it.” – Elmore [23:57]

Public Health or Law Enforcement?

“You can’t arrest your way out of it.” – Elmore [26:18]
“Putting them in jail is a time of clarity… When a user said, ‘No, I'm not going to program, put me in jail’… 5, 10 days in jail, a lot would say, ‘I want a program.’” – Elmore [27:42]
“The problem just keeps getting worse… it’s a public health crisis and that's how we should be treating this.” – Mariana [25:31]

Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, and Drug Enforcement

• Who’s Selling Drugs?:

  “Hondurans are the only ones right now that were sharp enough to figure out how to handle fentanyl and not get sick or overdose…there’s a valley in Honduras, all they think about is, when I’m old enough to come to America and sell drugs…” – Elmore [30:47, 31:18]

  “My worst day here is my best day in Honduras.” – Honduran dealer, quoting Elmore [34:49]

• Systemic Frustrations with Sanctuary Policies:

  “If you deport me, I’ll be right back here because I’m halfway through building my ranch and I’m going to make my money and then you can send me back for free.” – Elmore quoting a dealer [32:59]

  “If they would let us go into the jails and take these guys on fentanyl cases, weapons charges…I honestly believe [ICE agents] wouldn’t be out here running around.” – Elmore [35:54, 43:07]

  “You sold to an officer, you’re getting charged for sales...they think they’re helping, but they're really not.” – Elmore on court practices avoiding federal triggers [41:46]

• Deportation Priorities & Stories:

  “Let’s find the worst of the worst. The people actually harming Americans and deport them. Not the people going to their court proceedings...” – Mariana [39:24]

Undercover Operations: Risk, Relationships, and Notable Moments

• How He Gained Trust:

  “I never got pushy… I want them to come to me… I would hold my prices straight... If you told me to sell me something for $3,000, I paid $3,000.” – Elmore [58:52]
  “They trusted me so much. They drove my wife crazy. I had a burner phone that rang all night.” – Elmore [59:37]

• Major Operation: Operation Cold Day

  “They built a warehouse inside a warehouse…ATF, DEA, SFPD… we ended up with 125 arrests in an 18-month period.” – Elmore [61:10, 65:29]

• Memorable/Close Calls:

  “He calls up and goes, ‘Hey, dude, he's gonna rob you.’…I was like, it, I want to see him do it, you know?… I pulled my gun out and I had it against the seat... If he tried, I would just lit him up.” – Elmore [73:47]

• Feelings About Targets:

  “If I’m buying dope or guns from somebody who’s not a dope or gun seller… I don’t want to do it… there’s really real gun sellers and real dope sellers. Those are the ones I want.” – Elmore [82:31]

Drug Trends and Criminal Innovators

• Meth and Fentanyl:

  “I would buy 10, 20 pounds of crystal at a time…Superlabs were pumping out like £500 a day.” – Elmore [55:12]
  “People can function on meth. So you weren't just seeing these zombies, like fentanyl zombies or crack addicts…” – Elmore [56:13]

• Fentanyl's Danger & Xylazine:

  “Tenderloin, eight by eight blocks. I’d say two to three people a day still die there from fentanyl overdose per day. They Narcan all day long. They Narcan people two, three times. The same person.” – Elmore [29:59]
  “Xylazine…fentanyl stops the respiratory system…Xylazine does it to the heart. Narcan does nothing for the heart.” – Elmore [92:24]

• Criminal Ingenuity:

  “All the things that people figure out they can get away with… Like, it's a big thing to move dope…40 foot containers of snow globes...with liquid meth in it.” – Elmore [88:49]
  “If they used their intelligence for something else, they would be so successful.” – Elmore [89:03]

• On Cartel Evolution:

  “Mencho from the CJNG [Jalisco cartel] used to get arrested in San Francisco all the time selling dope on the corner… now he’s the man.” – Elmore [89:31]

The Challenge of Public Perception & Law Enforcement Today

• Respect and Frustration:

  “Every time you try to pull somebody over, it’s a car chase… if you just comply, nobody would get hurt… There’s a growing lack of respect for law enforcement…” – Elmore [48:54, 49:53]

• On Police Image and Solutions:

  “I just think we need a lot of leaders with common sense that don’t pick sides and know what’s the right thing to do… Too much politics and two sides locked down and won’t listen.” – Elmore [95:15]

• Root of the Crisis – Mental Health and Addiction:

  “They need to not self medicate because that’s what they’re doing. You have to figure out why someone's addicted, what caused that.” – Elmore [98:00]

Undercover in Jail and the Psychology of Confessions

• Playing the Part:

  “They booked me into jail and put me in a cell with someone… They’ll confess to me.” – Elmore [77:55, 78:27] “It's just...I relate to them and they let their guard down… I feel kind of weird because I did it, acted, got them to open up… then boom, he was a cop.” – Elmore [81:42]

Notable Quotes and Moments

• “My worst day here is my best day in Honduras.” – Honduran dealer to Brit [34:49]
• “You can't arrest your way out of it.” – Brit Elmore [26:18]
• “They Narcan people two, three times. The same person.” – Brit Elmore [29:59]
• “If they used their intelligence for something else, they would be so successful.” – Brit Elmore [89:03]
• “Mencho…used to get arrested in San Francisco all the time…now he's the man.” – Brit Elmore [89:31]

Key Timestamps

• Brit’s Backstory & Early Law Enforcement: [01:06] – [04:31]
• Jail Empathy & Sociological Insights: [04:31] – [07:49]
• Transition to Undercover/Plainclothes Work: [13:07] – [15:13]
• Tenderloin Crack Buys & “Spitter” Tactics: [16:49] – [19:51]
• Drug Enforcement Frustrations & Public Health Debate: [22:06] – [27:42]
• Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, and ICE: [30:45] – [43:07]
• Sting Operations, Trust, and Close Calls: [54:43] – [74:28]
• Meth, Fentanyl, Xylazine Trends: [54:56] – [92:24]
• Undercover Jail Stints & Confessions: [77:53] – [82:17]
• Criminal Ingenuity & Cartel Evolution: [88:49] – [90:51]
• Law Enforcement Image, Mental Health, and Solutions: [95:15] – [98:21]

Closing Notes

The episode wraps with Brit reflecting on the limitations of law enforcement alone to solve systemic social problems, the need for nonpartisan leadership, and the importance of addressing root causes of crime like mental illness and addiction. Mariana and Brit find common ground in their nuanced views, and Brit presents Mariana with a “derby jacket,” a piece of San Francisco street culture, as a token of appreciation—an emblematic gesture underscoring the complexity and humanity at the heart of the stories he’s spent a lifetime inside.

For listeners: This episode is an eye-opening, unfiltered look at the realities of policing, the underground economy, and the limits of “tough on crime” policies. It also offers a deeply human view—of both perpetrators and protectors—rarely heard in the public narrative.