1161: Tegan Broadwater | How a White Cop Infiltrated the Crips Part Two

Summary

Summary of "The Jordan Harbinger Show" Episode 1161: Tegan Broadwater | How a White Cop Infiltrated the Crips Part Two

In episode 1161 of The Jordan Harbinger Show, host Jordan Harbinger engages in a profound and gripping conversation with Tegan Broadwater, a former undercover officer who undertook the perilous mission of infiltrating the notorious Crips street gang. This second part delves deeper into Tegan's experiences, uncovering the immense challenges, psychological tolls, and intricate strategies involved in maintaining his cover within one of the most dangerous criminal organizations.

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1. Introduction to Tegan Broadwater’s Undercover Mission

Jordan Harbinger begins by setting the stage for Tegan Broadwater’s second installment, emphasizing the necessity of understanding the foundational aspects covered in Part One for a comprehensive grasp of Tegan’s journey. He states:

“Part two with former undercover cop Tegan Broadwater, who infiltrated the Crip street gang. Obviously, if you haven't heard part one, go back and listen to that Part two, even crazier. More wild stories. We're just getting warmed up.”

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2. Building Authentic Relationships Within the Gang ([04:02] – [07:25])

Tegan explains the delicate process of establishing trust without revealing his true identity or official ties. He emphasizes the importance of blending in by participating in everyday activities rather than overtly business-oriented interactions. Tegan shares:

“I was going down there and specifically asking for someone I knew that was gone so that I had an opportunity... And before you knew it, after 8, 10, 12 months, I'm going down there and they're inviting me down, bringing four pack of magnums and we're sharing malt liquor and playing Madden.”

This approach allowed him to gradually integrate into the gang’s social fabric, fostering genuine connections that were crucial for his undercover operations.

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3. Navigating Financial and Operational Constraints ([19:03] – [21:06])

Operating "off the books" was a strategic necessity due to limited resources. Tegan describes how budget constraints forced him to work independently, increasing both the risk and depth of his undercover activities:

“I needed to do it primarily because time was a key factor... So I went off the books.”

This autonomy enabled him to engage more deeply with gang members, facilitating a more authentic and sustained infiltration.

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4. Critical Incident: Recognizing Himself on TV ([29:34] – [32:24])

One of the most harrowing experiences Tegan recounts is discovering himself on a "Cops" TV episode while still undercover. During a drug deal, he notices a familiar police scene playing in the background:

“I recognize that it's me from several years back... I was on Cops...”

This realization heightened his paranoia, as he feared the gang members could connect his undercover persona to his real identity, jeopardizing both his safety and the integrity of the mission.

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5. Being Labeled a Snitch and Physical Confrontation ([33:12] – [40:58])

As Tegan’s undercover presence deepened, suspicions within the gang grew, leading to him being labeled a snitch. In a tense confrontation, he was physically attacked, forcing him to act swiftly to preserve his cover:

“I started beating the shit out of him... I told him to take the jacket off of me and just walked away.”

This incident marked a critical point in his mission, highlighting the constant threats and need for resilience in maintaining his undercover role.

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6. Case Conclusion: Major Roundup and Arrests ([47:42] – [53:40])

Tegan details the culmination of his undercover work, culminating in a large-scale crackdown involving multiple law enforcement agencies. The operation led to the arrest and sentencing of numerous gang members:

“We had 51 people in the conspiracy... 41 of whom went federal sentencing and 10 went state.”

Despite the operational success, Tegan reflects on the personal toll and mixed emotions surrounding the closure of such an intense mission.

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7. Aftermath: Writing a Book and Charitable Contributions ([54:05] – [56:44])

Following his undercover tenure, Tegan was inspired to document his experiences in a book. Importantly, he chose to donate all profits from the book to organizations that mentor children of incarcerated parents, aiming to break the cycle of gang involvement and provide positive role models:

“We donate all the profits from this book to organizations... that mentor children of incarcerated and murdered parents.”

His philanthropic efforts underscore a commitment to fostering long-term societal change beyond immediate law enforcement actions.

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8. Reflections on the War on Drugs and Future Solutions ([56:44] – [59:25])

In concluding segments, Tegan offers critical reflections on the inefficacies of the War on Drugs, advocating for more individualized and community-focused approaches to combat gang violence and drug-related issues:

“If you can impact one person... that's a legacy. Even if you don't get your name put on a plaque for it... that's how it comes in educating people and acknowledging consequences.”

He emphasizes the importance of mentorship and personal intervention as pivotal in addressing the root causes of gang membership and drug trafficking.

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Notable Quotes with Attribution and Timestamps

• Building Relationships:

  "That's how you build relationships... It's not all business." — Tegan Broadwater ([04:42])

• On Paranoia:

  "I was so paranoid... Because I was just so paranoid." — Tegan Broadwater ([06:00])

• Reflecting on Overwork:

  "You begin to forget who you really are." — Tegan Broadwater ([10:56])

• On Being a Snitch:

  "The worst thing they can do is call you a snitch." — Tegan Broadwater ([34:40])

• Philanthropic Efforts:

  "We donate all the profits from this book to organizations... that mentor children of incarcerated and murdered parents." — Tegan Broadwater ([55:43])

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Conclusion

Episode 1161 of The Jordan Harbinger Show offers an unflinching look into the life of an undercover officer navigating the treacherous waters of gang infiltration. Tegan Broadwater's narrative not only sheds light on the operational aspects of undercover work but also delves deep into the psychological and ethical dilemmas faced by officers in such roles. His transition from law enforcement to author and philanthropist highlights a path of healing and societal contribution, emphasizing the need for long-term solutions to social issues like gang violence and the War on Drugs.

For listeners intrigued by the intersection of law enforcement, psychology, and social reform, this episode provides invaluable insights and poignant reflections from someone who has lived on the frontlines of these complex battles.

Transcript

[Jordan Harbinger]

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[Tegan Broadwater]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Jordan Harbinger]

To Cayman Jack for sponsoring this episode of the Jordan Harbinger Show. Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Show, how do I make this case survive? I've been through the wringer and I've ran giant operations and these punk gang bangers are trying to put a label on me that's going to get me killed in the street. This is the lowest next to a pedophile. You can't put a label on somebody worse than this. Do I want to die? No. Was I willing to lose my job over making this successful? Yes.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turned their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker through long form conversations with a variety of amazing folks from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, performers, even the occasional drug trafficker, former jihadi, gold smuggler or Russian spy. And if you're new to this show or you want to tell your friends about this show, and I appreciate it when you do that, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are collections of our favorite episodes on Topics like persuasion, negotiation, psychology, geopolitics, disinformation, China, North Korea, crime and cults, and more. That'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on the show. Just visit jordanharbinger.com start or search for us in your Spotify app. To get started today, Part two with former undercover cop Tegan Broadwater, who infiltrated the Crip street gang. Obviously, if you haven't heard part one, go back and listen to that Part two, even crazier. More wild stories. We're just getting warmed up. Here we go. Part two with Tegan Broadwater.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

You said you did a lot of stuff off the books. What does that actually mean? Sounds like something you're not supposed to be doing.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, it is something I was not supposed to be doing. It was with the resources that we had. Here's how you would set up a deal. Typically, you would say, all right, this is my target. This is the time I'm trying to go do xyz. And then you get a team of five dudes from the gang in it in suburbans and a bunch of white dudes with backwards baseball caps and beards hanging out in the hood three blocks away with listening devices. You go in, you give the date and time what you're going to do, and you go in and you try to accomplish whatever the part of the mission is make the buy, whatever. It's just so freaking conspicuous and time consuming to get that together. And, hey, these guys are saying, hey, man, B just went to Waco and he's going to be back. Are you interested in doing some business? And it's two in the morning. I'm not going to get eight dudes out of their beds to come show up and do all this conspicuous stuff with a bunch of of white dudes. Because that's the other thing is these dudes parking in these enterprise lease cars all over the hood. They're just like, I think something's up. Because these people also have Lookout.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

There are 13 Ford Fusions in the neighborhood, and usually there's zero. What's going on?

[Tegan Broadwater]

It's that bad in a lot of cases. Now there are some real expert guys. Again, if you're working with the FBI and you've certified your undercover status and you have a team of people from different places that you're going to, that's fine. But I was also working in my own backyard, and I had so little money and so little opportunity to just go in and start flashing money and blowing up stuff that I had to leverage the time that I could spend down there. Sometimes I would go down there specifically asking for someone I knew that was gone so that I had an opportunity.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

To just hang out but not spend any money because the guy was gone. Yeah.

[Tegan Broadwater]

And because I didn't have the money, two, I needed to establish relationships and find out who's who. And so I was going down there and before you knew it, after 8, 10, 12 months, I'm going down there and they're inviting me down, bringing four pack of magnums and we're sharing malt liquor and playing Madden and whatever. And it's all good. But in the beginning, that's the idea, is that's how you build relationships. You know who I am, you've seen me. I'm asking for so and so, not here. And so the rest is, hey, what's up? You want a beer? And just seeing what's going on. So that's a little bit different level of pressure for somebody instead of me saying, well, can you get me something? It's not all business.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

That makes a lot of sense. Also, I think it's funny, you had the budget issues, right? So you have this wad, this big wad of cash. You got 200 on the outside and you're like, I hope he doesn't need any more than that. Because once I rip off this first hundred dollar bill, everything under that is once. It's all about the Washingtons, baby.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. We're taking them to the strip club after this deal.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

That's right.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Little bit of sample and then we're going to go to the strip club.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

We'll have a blast, man. You got word of a cop that sells Crips info on police action. What was your initial reaction to that? Because that's like the sinking feeling in your gut at that point, right?

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, oh, yeah. It scared me to death because I knew the guy and I was a little bit over paranoid anyway because.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, you knew the guy that sold the information.

[Tegan Broadwater]

I knew the guy that.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So you're like, oh, crap, he knows who I am.

[Tegan Broadwater]

He knows who I am. He didn't know what I was doing, that I was down there because when I started this thing, I acted a little over paranoid when I would make a buy and go tag the evidence and have it analyzed. I didn't put it to a long form report and put it in the system which other people could potentially access. There are hard files in the narcotics office and the gang offices where you could go in and somebody could have essentially just followed my whole case by Coming in behind and checking out what reports I'd made. So I would literally just say, here's the report number and further details forthcoming. I would keep my own reports to where I could go back after the fact Because I was just so paranoid. I didn't even think it was going to come to that, to be honest with you. I just thought nobody really knew a lot about what I was doing other than my immediate supervisor. That's all it needed to know. I just felt like I was getting so deep that I don't need a bunch of people talking about anything that I'm doing. There's too much to lose from general chatter. So when I found that out, it scared me to death. I thought, oh, my gosh. First of all, I was so glad that I didn't have a report in the box because these guys couldn't tell him who I was. And it wasn't like he was involved to the extent where he's down there at the houses doing deals. He was working cases also, but he was just avoiding cases that involved any of them.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

He didn't bust those guys.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. I don't even know that he was on the take as much as he had personal relationships, having grown up around them.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, I see. So he might not have even been corrupt. He just didn't want to bust his friends.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, he was corrupt to the extent that he was. Also, when we say we're doing the jump outs and the warrants and all that stuff. Before I came up with the undercover plan, that's the reason why none of those houses had any people or dope or guns.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, because he would call and say, we're going to.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Oh, coming. And then they would just be gone. Fortunately, that's how they handled it, as opposed to, let's arm up and put 20 people in here. But he was just telling them, hey, be gone, whatever. They clean the place out. It looked like, man, these people don't even know what they're doing. But you're swearing. Like, man, I swear.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

This had some stuff in it yesterday that's really crazy. So how do you handle that? At that point, my gut would be try to ask for an introduction so that you can quote, unquote, buy info on police activity. I don't know. But you don't really want to meet him because he'll be like, tegan.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yes, I did not want to meet him, But I was curious about what information that he could provide because I told him I had some places on other side of town that were catching a lot of heat. And if I gave you some addresses, could you get them to him and see what he could find out? That was essentially what I was talking about. Oh, I see.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So you get to use him, slash prove that he's corrupt without actually going face to face.

[Jordan Harbinger]

That's smart.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Ultimately, I wrote it up in a interoffice thing and said, hey, here's the deal. Here's my complaint. This guy's completely crooked and blah, blah, blah. He's going to get somebody killed.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

What happened to him?

[Tegan Broadwater]

Nothing. Nothing happened. He retired. Happy.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Wow, that's really horrible.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, that's terrible. And again, look, I'm low totem pole. I was doing what I was doing, but I send it to this supervisor, who then says, whoa, this is a big deal. Send it to this supervisor, to that supervisor, and then to the. I don't know how far it got before somebody just said, I'm calling BS or whatever. No one even asked me any further questions. I submitted the written document with the complaint on it with all of the details, the legend about dates and times and who said what and everything that I could give, and it came back with jack squat.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

That's crazy.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, I know. I think so, too.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

There's a part of me that wants to go, oh, he must have been in another operation, and it was only at the high level. But that doesn't even make any sense.

[Tegan Broadwater]

No, it doesn't make any sense. They would have explained that to me at some point. Hey, there's stuff you don't know, and just leave this alone. I wasn't told to leave it alone. I would follow up, and they say, I don't know because, again, I'm handing it to you, who has to get it through four levels of command structure.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So it's almost like, oh, I've known Bill for years. He wouldn't do that, Throw this thing in the trash. He plays golf with me on Saturdays. He would never do this.

[Tegan Broadwater]

It could be. I don't know.

[Jordan Harbinger]

That's crazy to me.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

That's really scary. Talk about not having your back.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. He's lucky that I hid all my stuff, because again, he could have figured out who I was. And it stopped me in my tracks before. Not only did I make any progress through the case, but the first time I show up when they're notified that, oh, this guy's actually not t. He's not a source, he's a cop, then who knows how they would have handled that? Because he wasn't going to tell me not to go. I just ratted you out. He's gonna rat me out to them, knowing it was me. And then I'm gonna keep showing up thinking I got my game still, which is. Who knows where that goes?

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah. Oh, my God. That's terrible. Geez. You did say something that I hear from almost every undercover who's ever been on the show, which is you're working, like, 80 hours a week. 60. 80 hours a week. You begin to forget who you really are. How did that show up in your life? Cause some guys, really, they became more of their Persona, methed out biker, except maybe more like hydroxy cut out biker.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

How did it sort of manifest in your life? Because it seems unsustainable. It's like a game or an addiction almost.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. I think it manifests most when, you know, I would come home and my wife would notice that I was stressed. And, you know, I don't want to make it cheesy. Like, I was just constantly in character and I couldn't get out. But when you're living every day amongst those folks, you do develop an accent. Hey, I'm just going to be here for a minute. And then you come back in three hours. And she's like, you've been gone for three hours. You said you're going to be gone for a minute. It's like, well, I mean, a minute, you know, But I think ultimately what it is, and I think in a lot of cases, really what it is, high stress, low sleep. And I think over time, that just starts to take a toll in general in terms of how you treat people, how you treat yourself. I was a big, super workout buff, but I lost tons of weight during this thing because I know I've heard of guys that are working out all crazy while they're. I don't know where I would have found the time to do that. I would sneak in, going to a kid's game in my UC car, drive way out to wherever, but I didn't have time for much else. And then when we could go out and we had something that we wanted to do, I was freaking exhausted. I'd sleep through movies and would be snapping at people because I'm just irritated and tired as hell. And those are the types of things that start to take a toll on a relationship.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

You got to infiltrate a gang that works out every day.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

And they're like, hey, man, you look rough.

[Jordan Harbinger]

You need to take a nap.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Go in the back. Well, I would have loved to. You know, I didn't even really think about it a lot. I Tried to exercise as much as I could, but having worked out so hard before and there's times where you work on, there's times where you're like, eh, I might call it a workout, I might not.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

I can just imagine like hey, look.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Here, Southeast side Crips, man.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

We value self care. If you're going to be a part of this gang, man, you got to take care of yourself. Yes, brush and floss.

[Tegan Broadwater]

I wore a bunch of baggy clothes anyway, so I didn't even notice that I was losing all the weight I'd work so hard to get, which is no big deal. All that weight anyway, just at my age now causes me to have surgery.

[Jordan Harbinger]

I found it interesting.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

You said the whole gang love loyalty stuff is just all fake, it's just all bullshit and that they don't really care, they just go right back to selling and banging.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, not all of them, but yes, in general. Especially people that don't get long sentences most of the time. These dudes, when you're dealing with a police department or whoever, whatever investigative agency is coming in and doing short term busts, these guys get in and out. The slap on the wrist is a slap on the wrist. And if they think, hey, part of the penance that you pay to be in a gang is that you might have to do a year here and there, that's not a big penance to pay. So when these guys get rounded up and they're doing 25 and 30, that's big penance to pay. And you'd be amazed the things that will come out of people's mouth at that point. And I was surprised at some of the people that didn't because the ones that didn't, I was hoping would, and the guys that did, I was hoping wouldn't and would just eat the years, but you just don't know. But I think the vast majority of people, when they're facing some significant consequence will change their behavior a little bit. Or at the very least, my hope is when you come out and you are 48 that maybe now you'll be a little bit more mature because you're not going to go out and gang bang at 48 and nobody's going to take you seriously anyway. Although people still do. It's pretty amazing to see these old guys out there still talking about their OG and everything else. But my hope is that changes eventually. But again, these are not mature people in general. They grew up, hit the streets early, quit school, and then kept doing what they're doing and then went in prison, learned how to do bad stuff better, and there are a few. And the ones that make it and rehabilitate to whatever degree are really great people, because they're still people who take the sociopath out and they feel like they can learn a life lesson and go forward. Then they're great people when they have that experience. That's somebody I can learn a ton from now, you know, that's actually had that kind of experience, and they can bring that forward, take that lesson forward and teach other people. That's invaluable.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Sure. They can certainly speak for a position of credibility if they go to, I don't know, middle school and like, oh, yeah, you think being in the gang is cool? Here's what my life was like. Yeah. And then I went to prison for 25 years. You want to know what prison's like? And it's like, oh, geez, maybe not. You said you wanted to get to know your informants enough so that you could steer them into a normal vocation. Is that so? You're getting to know these guys, and you're like, hey, have you ever thought about not doing crime for a living? How possible is that?

[Tegan Broadwater]

Informants are a different breed altogether. They're stuck between wanting to be endearing themselves to you for ulterior.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah, they're getting paid.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. And wanting to play the gang game. But they're not really accepted as much as you would think they were, or else they'd be the ones you're chasing.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Sure.

[Tegan Broadwater]

So it's an interesting thing. And you get to know them really well, because essentially, if you're working with an informant, they know who you are already, and you're still going into a dangerous situation, and they already know who you are. So the level of trust that you have to have with somebody at that point is pretty intense. And so you learn a lot more about them than you would somebody else. Because in those instances, you can ask those hard questions. They're going through a questionnaire in order to be certified and blah, blah, blah. You do meet their families, and you ask them a bunch of questions. You're like, man, why are you not showing up on time? Are you freaking using, you bastard? You're going through the stuff. You feel like a big brother or something to them. So, yeah, you wish the best for them. You want them to succeed. It's a long shot with a lot of folks, but I've seen some actually go pretty far, seen others that are dead now. So, I mean, it kind of runs the gambit there, too. You always want the best for people, though.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah, of course, you're making at one point triple the amount of drug buys, whatever. But you're not making that many arrests, building up, trying to find the top guy. Don't you get pressure like, hey, can't.

[Jordan Harbinger]

You arrest some of these guys?

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Isn't there pressure like you're spending a lot of money. I'm not seeing a whole lot of warrants or whatever coming through from you, pal.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, and that's exactly how it works, is they want to see you spending the little narc budget, which is not that big in the first place. And then I work up to the point where I'm dealing with so many people and buying little samples because I'm looking for the big guy. But all these other guys know that tease this big time dude, and they want to sell me something. I'm like, hey, man, give me a hundred, I'll see if I can move what you got, or whatever, just as then I'll do something for you, that kind of thing, once I got to that point. But I'm spending the budget for the week for the whole team. And my sergeant at the time was the only reason why I was able to succeed because I kept him apprised of what I was trying to do. He knew I had targets. He's known me for a long time by then and knew that these other dudes would come in at 10 o' clock, hang around the office, fart around a couple of cases or whatever, go to lunch from 12 to 3, seven deep, and then whatever. And meanwhile, I'm nowhere to be found. So these guys are complaining about me being some kind of loner, and I'm just like, dude, yeah, I'm happy to.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Have you along working with me if you guys want to actually get off your ass.

[Tegan Broadwater]

It was just exciting work for me. I just, I couldn't sit around.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

You actually wanted to be a cop?

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Wanted to get a paycheck. Yeah.

[Tegan Broadwater]

So, yeah, he saw that and understood and allowed that to happen. Essentially covered for me. Yeah. Knowing that I was working, what results I was getting to a reasonable extent, I would meet with him once a week and at least say, you know, this is kind of where I'm getting in close with this guy, blah, blah, blah. There was a lot that I couldn't explain to him, obviously, because if I'm going in off the books when I'm going into work, and essentially nobody knows I'm at work except one of the patrolmen I used to work with just telling him on the midnight shift. Hey, man, I'm fixing to go do this thing. You mind standing by? They don't know the process, but yeah, man, I got you. And I'll just say, hey, stay far enough away, blah, blah, blah, and I'll keep the phone line open. That was my wire, so to speak.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

You just have your phone call going to him and.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So that if anything goes wrong, he can roll up at the lights and.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Sirens, drive through the front door, man. Because these are all like burglar, barred, fortified, Whatever. I said, just come save my ass.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Geez. And he's just hanging out at Tim Hortons waiting for the call.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, basically, yeah. But he's thinking about it as a patrol officer. That's exciting stuff to do too.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

I guess it's better than.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

I mean, he's Carl Winslow in Die Hard. Right. Hanging out outside of.

[Tegan Broadwater]

It's something cool to do. Answer a call or waiting for a call or whatever. Somebody called and said, you know, homicide detective, and you go out hunting something.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

To do, somebody who actually wants to work. No kidding. So you mentioned you did a bunch of stuff off the books. We touched on that.

[Jordan Harbinger]

But why did you need to do that again?

[Tegan Broadwater]

I needed to do it primarily because time was a key factor and essentially there I spent so much time that it was a non starter. There was no team that could stay down there every single day, including weekends and everything else.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So it's expensive. You're just like, oh, I'm going to go do it by myself, even though I'm not supposed to do it.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. And even just the hangouts, every day of the week, I would spend some time there. I would at least drive through and say, what's up? If I'm on a Saturday and I'm doing something with my family, I would still roll through there and give a what's up? They saw me almost every single day for that straight 18 months. People saw my face rolling through there. And that was part of it though. And never just disappeared for periods of time. That's when people start thinking, where have you been? Like, what's going on? And I have to make up some kind of ruse. But I got locked up or wherever else I was supposed to be. And unfortunately I lived in the same city, which was part of the other anomaly in this case is that I'm crapping in my own backyard, essentially. So that made it more difficult. But that's why off the books, I would say, other than a couple of the things that I was involving myself with that would have Been once you go up the chain and say, hey, I want to go, you know, hang out with these dudes and I'm play video games and me talk some smack. I'm gonna try to meet some new people wherever. You do that on a daily basis. Just some of it's prohibitive, you don't have enough manpower. Some of it is just the stuff they wouldn't want you to do just for safety's sake or whatever because again, they want you to be wired. I wanted absolutely not to be wired the time all we had was that primitive crab that just taped all over yourself.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

And how wired do you need to be when you're just playing John Madden to build rapport? You're just taking unnecessary risk at that point. But of course their protocol is no, you're wired at all time. We have a team ready to help you and you're like, we're going to be here for five hours drinking and playing John Madden. It's a waste of time. So I see the temptation to be like, I'm just going to go do this.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. And it got so much easier too. To where if somebody does call you two in the morning and saying, hey man, this X, Y, Z. And I say I'll be there in a minute and I literally roll up and 25 minutes later, that would be something that would take three hours to get. Guys on call to get their cars, go GE at the office, wire me up, figure out a game plan.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Now time to crip walk your way to some deals and discounts on the fine products and services that support this show. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored in part by Northwest Registered Agents. If you've been thinking about starting a business, or maybe you've already dipped your toes in those waters, let's talk about the smart way to do it. Forget the headaches, the piles of paperwork. I'm talking about Northwest Registered Agent. These guys make it real easy. You can get more when you start your business with them. We're talking your entire business identity set up in 10 clicks in 10 minutes. They've been helping businesses launch and grow for nearly 30 years, so they know what they're doing. If you want to build your business and protect your identity, keeping your personal info actually private, Northwest Registered Agent is what you need. For 39 bucks plus state fees, you can get your business form to custom website, local presence wherever you need it. They're a one stop shop formation, paperwork, custom domains, even trademark registration. Plus you can use their address on your official documents. Keeping your home address out of public view. They even have premium mail forwarding for a physical business address separate from your private info. It's a smarter way to get your business off the ground.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Jordan Harbinger]

This episode is also sponsored by Oura Ring. All right, here's an easy question. How are you feeling today? Now the tougher question. Why are you feeling that way? If you had an OURA ring on your finger, that wouldn't be such a mystery. This thing gives you personalized updates on your sleep, stress activity, heart health recovery, everything. It's a sleek, smart ring, not a bulky gadget. You get incredible data about your body. Not just daily stats, but long term trends that actually matter for living a longer, healthier life. That's why you're seeing these rings everywhere. It looks like a sleek ring, looks like a normal ring, but it gives you serious health tracking benefits. It's accurate, comfortable, durable. The battery lasts like a week. You forget you're even wearing it. Aura isn't just about counting steps or telling you that you're tired, which you.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Might have already know.

[Jordan Harbinger]

It's about understanding the bigger picture. Your recovery, mental health, heart health, stress levels. It's about balance and rest, not just about performance. If you want to unlock the mysteries of your own body and live better, longer, there's really only one thing to do. Go to ouraring.com and give Aura the finger. Learn more at auraring.com Jordan O U R A R-I N G.com Jordan if you're wondering how I managed to book all these authors, thinkers, creators every week, it is because of my network. And funnily enough, I have been teaching this class to three letter agencies because they are using it in their undercover and not so undercover work. And I've set this up in a free course for you. 6minutenetworking.com I don't need your credit card. It's not like a bait and switch type thing. It's a course about improving your relationship building skills in ways that are decidedly non cringy and not weird. It'll make you a better connector in six minutes a day is all it takes. Many, many of the guests on the show subscribe and contribute to this course. So come on and join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. The course again for Free. No shenanigans [e-mail] all right, now back to Tegan Broadwater. So the budget gets exceeded and you.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Go to the feds, but they want to take over the case.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Is that normal?

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, I think it is.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Doesn't make any sense though, because you're the guy who ran the case.

[Jordan Harbinger]

What is their best argument?

[Unnamed Gang Member]

If you can sort of steel man this. What's their best argument for taking this case away from you?

[Tegan Broadwater]

Because they just think, we'll take the case that you brought to us thus far. And if they feel like they could put their own undercover in there and insert them, or just take the case and run it up through the AUSA at that point and take all the credit for the case.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

The U.S. attorney.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yes, because they're federal agencies and obviously the DEA would have people that are fully equipped to try to get an undercover in or whatever. But I already knew. It's like, man, this is ridiculous to try to insert someone else when I'm already in there. What's the point? All you're doing is complicating it, putting more risk on someone else when the case is already rolling forward. It's rolling downhill. Now if I had the funds and the equipment, that's what I was looking for. So that's when the FBI was the obvious thing. And what's interesting is that they have a whole trained undercover program, but they appreciated the fact that this was already being accomplished. And I think it's just common sense. And of course the FBI still gets all the credit for the case. They filed the case federally and all that stuff. So I'm working undercover. So honestly, the last person that gets credit for anything is the undercover, because that's what you do. So you're not there for a glorification. You get done with a case like that and then raise your hand, say I'm undercover. Then you're never working again. So essentially everyone else is taking whatever credit they want. The gang unit and the FBI and the this and this. And they're all do press conferences, but I'm not showing my face.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Sure, yeah. No, it seems like a bad idea. I'm surprised they didn't offer you a job after that because it seems like you did a pretty good job on the case.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, it's not how it works. When you're in a civil service based department, you test for every promotion and you either make it or you don't. That's how it goes. There's good things and bad things about that because It's a competency test. And you cover leadership and different things like that. But it doesn't necessarily mean you have great leaders either. Because if you can take the test better than me now you're the next leader.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Sure. So I'm just surprised the FBI wasn't like, you should apply here, citing your undercover work here.

[Tegan Broadwater]

I was probably too old by then. I don't know what the FBI cutoff is, but I was 35. Ish, 30.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Probably like 36 as pretending to be.

[Tegan Broadwater]

29 or whatever it was. Sure, yeah. I don't know.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah, tell me this story about you going in a dope house and then you end up. You were on TV at the same time. This is such a good story, man.

[Tegan Broadwater]

This is the worst story, actually.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Now, I assume you can laugh at it.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yes, you have to laugh at it. Otherwise I tear up every time. But yeah, I was at a level to where guys were coming to me all the time and I was moving out of the fishbowl because obviously the crypt territory was more than those six square blocks that was just a violent hub. But a lot of the supplies were coming from outside that neighborhood. Still all interconnected and Crip wise, but. So I was really careful about who I was talking to because moving from guy to guy was. I could do dope deals all day long, but if they're not a Crip, I'm not interested in talking to them at all because I'm still working. Even if the FBI has given me money to spend, I have to spend it wisely. I have to still justify out of the money. Especially with the FBI, you have to justify how the money's being spent. So we had this cat that pulls up. I happened to pick up my informant just to get a brief and see what he's been doing. Met this little corner store. We're driving around, having a little sip, and this dude pulls up and flags down. I see the car, it's this gold Lexus. And it keeps driving around like, who's this fool? He pulls up and he's like, t, man, hey, what's going on? I met you once through whatever and explained who he is. And I'm looking over at my informant who knows that this guy needs to be a Crip for me to even. But he's trying to sell me something, man. I got this great stuff and whatever. I'm like, hey, man, it's all good. You don't need nothing, but it's good to meet you, whatever. And then my. I look on my informant gives me the little something like, man, he's a crip. He's probably a low level crip, but again, the level of crip is insignificant to me. I'm creating a conspiracy case of a whole bunch of crips are causing a bunch of violent crime in the city.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So basically this is like a rico organized crime.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, that's the idea, is tying all that together, not the dope. At that point, it was a risk for me to say I'm going to come in and do a low level dove deal because I'm supposed to be this big dude and he wants to sell me the whatever. But at that point I'm also trying to say, well, this is a crip. A lower level crip is still a crip. And a lot of times they're doing a lot of the violent acts themselves anyway. So I said, all right, man, that's cool. Where are you going? He said, just follow me at my house, whatever. And we pull in, pull up the driveway like a normal. It's a little shocking little house with little burger bars on the top. Built in the 50s, Little Hood House, typical thing. Fence out in the front yard and everything else. He gets through the front gate and up the stairs, open the burglar bar, lock everything up back behind us. Have a typical room set up with a little coffee table, couch on one side, giant screen TV on the other side. Practically nothing else in the apartment besides a gun, a scale and some dope.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

PlayStation 4, of course.

[Tegan Broadwater]

And somewhere there's a bible and porn.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Somewhere a bible and porn?

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yes. Those have to be present in order for you to solidify a proper dope.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

That's ridiculous.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Is, percentage wise, pretty amazing.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

That's really ridiculous.

[Tegan Broadwater]

And so we just start chatting, just familiarizing whatever he's talking about, whatever his stuff was. The TV happens to be on. And this is back in 2006. 07ish. So again, you'll realize there's four channels on TV for the most part at that time. It's not like everybody had 2,600 choices. And when they have TV in the county jail, it's running one of those channels all the time. Cops happen to be one of the most popular. Everybody watches.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Cops is on in the trap house.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Cops happens to be on in the trap house. I don't even notice the cops on the trap house until I'm standing up. Those two are sitting down. My informant sits down, and this other fool sits down. We're just jaw jabbing about stuff or whatever. And I hear a voice behind me, you Talk about the feeling of dread that comes over. You get that adrenaline SNS dump. And my auto exclusion happens, and I'm seeing in tunnel vision and my heart rate's racing, and I recognize that it's me from several years back. At that time. I did an episode in 1999 that was on replay. Fort Worth did a crapload of episodes. They all used to be on reruns all the time. I didn't even volunteer to go. My sergeant made me go on this day when I was on the Cops episode. But there's a giant S TV behind me with my big white Nordic mug on there in a police uniform, driving a police car, arresting this fool on the freeway. And these guys are facing me. So behind me, I'm thinking, I got this giant backdrop. Lord only knows. And I've told you about all the things that I've prepared for.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Sure.

[Tegan Broadwater]

These people pull guns. I got this. I think I'm tactically sound. As long as I have somebody else to worry about, I'm gonna. This. If they ask me this, I'm thinking all these things so that I can just focus solely on whatever important scenario is placed in front of me instead of thinking of all these ancillary things. And this son of a bitch just confused the hell out of me.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

You're just on TV in a police uniform behind you while you're dealing with these Crips.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yes.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Telling drugs in a trap house. That must have felt like an eternity until that Arby's commercial or whatever comes out.

[Tegan Broadwater]

It may have been Arby's. I think I would love Arby's. I don't know what it was, because I would subconsciously just think, oh, I love Arby's.

[Jordan Harbinger]

It's Cops.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So it's either that or $2.99 a yada yo mine. And you're like, oh, thank God. Denny's commercials.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Hey, can we turn off this tv?

[Tegan Broadwater]

It's really distracting at that point. It could have left it on. I don't know what I said. This was the most difficult part to actually put into the book because I don't know what I said. Everything else, I had notes and memorialized little things on napkins that I'd wad up like snot rags if there was something significant, or write the story when I got home. And my report that I never filed. But this, I was just like. I have no earthly idea what I said. And I was scared to death. And I know I talked, which they tell me now is a part of a training protocol. You keep Talking through these stressful situations. I don't know what I said, but I was talking just thinking, I am so freaking screwed right now. And honestly, I was as paranoid about having a violent confrontation as I was about this thing ending before I got to the head of the snake. I mean, I was a little bit overly psycho about what. I was willing to keep this case going because I had put in so much time and effort and there was nobody else working with me, obviously, outside the scenes. I had an agent assigned to the case. But I was in there alone, doing all these hours and putting in all this time. I was going to be damned if I had to cut it short because a freaking TV show came on. But I was certain this is not going to end well. And I don't have the key to the Burkla bar door. This is going to be bad.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, man.

[Tegan Broadwater]

So I just. The most anticlimactic part about it is that I just filibustered. I call it a filibuster. I just talked about whatever it is. I'm going to keep talking until this is over. And thank goodness it's over. And then I'm hauling through the deal. And I probably look like a complete amateur doing this dope deal. But they couldn't have been on point at that time, got the deal done, was hauling ass, man. I just remembered I got something else. And we go out the door, my informant jumps in the passenger seat, and I'm just looking at him and he's, what is up with you? He was all looking at me confused, too. He had no freaking.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, he didn't notice.

[Tegan Broadwater]

No. Obviously nobody noticed.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Or that would have come around. But at that point, once I left with my life and my sanity, I thought, that's not good. This is in my mind now. Now I'm super paranoid. If that thing's still showing to the extent that we could be in a trap. And this is literally what they're watching.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Like, who else is watching Cops at this exact moment that I also work with right now.

[Tegan Broadwater]

How many times are they rolling? I mean, I don't know how many times. This comes on all the time. Because it's Fort Worth. I don't know. It's the middle of the night. Half these folks are up. Am I going to walk into the next house? And they'd be like, saw you on tv.

[Jordan Harbinger]

You look familiar.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, but there's something beautiful, I think, about guys in uniform. I used to know people that I'd work with, and then I would see them out of uniform. And just not recognize them. And I think civilians think even more like that if they know who a police officer is, they just have a particular kind of look and you put them in street clothes and they just. They don't recognize them the same way. I think that was fortunate in this case that it would just think there was a separation. Not to mention the high and tight, barely any hair look when I.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Right, right, sure.

[Tegan Broadwater]

I damn sure could have grown out any hair I wanted and I didn't.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

You get labeled as a snitch eventually. How did that happen and what do you do about that?

[Tegan Broadwater]

This was the difficult part and this is why. Had I gone through training, I would have figured out that this is really against the rules. Not that I didn't know it was against the rules, but look, I'm trying to be a big time guy. And obviously if I've been working with cartel guys and had this big operation going, I can't be out here dealing with these little punk gang bangers and then somebody call me out. The worst thing they can do is call you a snitch. Even better than if you're deemed a cop. You just run the risk of getting some kind of violent repercussions. But almost certainly you would if you're a snitch because there's a lot less repercussions for you. If they find a snitch in a ditch versus finding a cop in the ditch, there's going to be a hunting party coming out.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah.

[Tegan Broadwater]

So I think I was so well known by then that they just thought it was a snitch. Nobody really thought about a cop. And the reason why it happened was it was the same little gangster hopping that I did where I was talking to this one dude and in typical doper gang banger fashion, he was giving me what I needed. And so he thought he was doing me righteous, but would show up late all the time because intermediate level doper or whatever show up. And so I leveraged that as, hey man, I don't play like this. I need people to be on time. I'm running a business. I don't know what you think you're doing. Whatever. And I just had to play it off because again, I have a case on you already. For me to just keep buying is just wasting a bunch of money. Sure, I need to be spending somewhere else because I need to put other crips on this conspiracy case. So I end up going up the street, literally around the corner from where this cat is. When he doesn't show up on Time I just take off, I go around the corner and I start talking to somebody else around there. By this time, it's not even hard for me to go talk to other people because everybody at least has heard of me. So I at least can stop by and have a conversation. I don't even remember at the time. I know I ended up getting something from them, but I don't even remember if I was actually buying anything significant. It was probably just. I'm just going to go over here and feel these guys out because I at least have that excuse in my mind, like, man, you didn't show up on time. I can't be sitting around in the curb. We got cops all over the place. You're going to find some white dude in a Mercedes. Hello. And apparently he drove by and saw me. And that's when he started saying, man, this is a snitch. Because he's thinking in his mind, I've been selling this guy righteous, and now all of a sudden, he's over here. What is he even doing over here? There's no reason to be going to one of my fellow guys. And so he puts this jacket on me, is what they call. They give you the jacket. It's a label as a snitch. And my informant is calling me in a panic because he knows the risk that he runs if he made an introduction to this guy four months ago. And then all of a sudden it comes out that I'm some kind of snitch. He's going to be the first guy they drag in and try to figure out what's going on, too. So he calls me in a panic in the middle of the night. One of those guys he's infamous for just calling him, like. And he'll say, team has. It's really important. It's an emergency T calling. And they'd be like, hey, man, you got any money for a beer, man? Can you meet me at the. Whatever.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, geez. Yeah.

[Tegan Broadwater]

So I'm ignoring late in the night. And so when I finally picked up, he said, man, there's a word out on the street. The manager snitched. They gave me the jacket, and blah, blah, blah. And it's coming from this guy. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. He explains whatever the deal is. He doesn't know why or anything like that, but words get into him. And so he's freaking out because he's got a high penance to pay at this point.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Sure.

[Tegan Broadwater]

And so in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, when I'd say off the books, so very far removed from working with anybody who's covering me almost ever at this point. And I'm probably easily over a year in and been out there so often that I'm just figuring out how do I make this case survive? Do I want to die? No. Was I willing to lose my job over making this successful? Yes. And that's an interesting thought in retrospect, but I thought, okay, if T is who he is and I purport myself to be some kind of big time dude and I've been through the ringer and I've ran giant operations and these punk gang bangers are trying to put a label on me that's going to get me killed in the street. This is the lowest next to a pedophile. You can't put a label on somebody worse than this. What would T actually do? So I flipped back over, I had my plan and I set my alarm for 6 o' clock in the morning. I got up and got myself all psyched. Knew this dude does his drop. He had a little portico over the side of garage and he had the. At the bottom there was a little missing piece of concrete and that's where the larger stash would go. He'd make his drop every morning. And so I pulled up and waited for him to show up on time, which of course he did not. But I was there when he got there and when he got up there, I just got outta my car, made a straight beeline for him. He's like, hey man, what's up? And I just started beating the shit out of him. This is what you do now? Obviously I had plenty of training, I wasn't trying to kill the dude. But this is the least of what I would do. There's a lot worse that I could have done. But obviously I'm not trying to do anything other than convince him that this jacket needs to be taken off me because people are going to die if I just ignore it, people are going to die, starting with my informant. And that's what a gangster would do. We got into it and I ended up rolling around the grass down the hill, and then ended up with a good knee into his rib cage and he was having a hard time catching his breath and I told him to take the jacket off of me and just walked away. And I. That's the last I heard of it.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Really?

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, last I heard of it. And I don't think it was atypical. I think it probably gave me a little more street cred. But I also don't Think he just got up and went around and told everybody, just got his ass kicked. I don't think it was made into a bigger to do because what would you say? I said he was a snitch and he just kicked my ass? I don't think so.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

I'm curious, did you just say, I think I was mistaken about that. My bad.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, that I don't know because I left it up to him. Obviously, if he's the one talking about it, this is how I'm going to handle it. I'm not going to go around and justify myself because I feel like I'd already had and I thought that's the way I'm going to handle it. And then hopefully that word gets out and that's how it went down. That's exactly what happened. It just got squashed. But again, the concern comes back into my mind when somebody says, I only find out in retrospect that it was because he's seeing me other places. I'm starting to think, oh my God, is this frickin Cops episode coming on everywhere? And all these people are figuring it out. It's still making me just ten times more paranoid. And now I had done that and obviously would not be permissible under any circumstance.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah, of course.

[Tegan Broadwater]

And so I thought, well, I'm really sticking myself out there. But I felt like I really had a purpose. I know. Interestingly too, in retrospect, saving that neighborhood was already accomplished. Saving a larger part of the entire portion of that neighborhood and further into the city based on the same violent, corrupt Crips that were there. It changed my perspective on kind of what I was doing. But I was in it really deep and I just, I don't know how logical I was in my age. Now I'm so much more logical and sure predictable in how I perform because some things are just so not worth it. I already know I got so much more to lose. But the younger you go back and figure out, man, I got this to gain. I'm willing to do all these other things. And you're like, man, are you sure? You've weighed all these consequences.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

No kidding.

[Tegan Broadwater]

But yeah, that was one of the more extraordinary parts of that case.

[Jordan Harbinger]

You know, it's a good use of your off the books drug money, the fine products and services that support this show. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored in part by.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Cayman Jack, America's number one margarita.

[Jordan Harbinger]

We had a little backyard hang recently.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Just a bunch of us friends catching up, snacks on the table, music playing, you know the kind of thing a few lawn games that somehow get way too competitive. You know how it goes. Eventually, everyone hit that moment of looking.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Around like, okay, so who brought out the good stuff?

[Unnamed Gang Member]

That's when we broke out the Cayman Jack.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Cracking one open, it was like flipping a switch.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Instant Margarita state of mind. It's got that perfect laid back beach bar flavor, but without any of the effort.

[Jordan Harbinger]

No squeezing limes, no sticky blender cleanup.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Just real blue agave nectar and lime juice ready to go right out of the bottle. People were really into it. Like, really into it. Someone even was like, oh, is this bottled?

[Jordan Harbinger]

You serious?

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah, that's how good it is.

[Jordan Harbinger]

So if you're hosting a crew or you just want to feel like you're on vacation for a minute, Crack into your margarita state of mind with Cayman Jack.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Crack into your margarita state of mind. Pick up Cayman Jack at your local store or visit caymanjack.com to find it near you. Please drink responsibly. Premium with natural flavors. American Vintage Beverage Company, Chicago, Illinois.

[Jordan Harbinger]

This episode is sponsored in part by Airbnb. Just got back from my fourth trip to Taiwan and it was a blast. As soon as we landed, Jen and I hand the kids off to the.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Grandparents like a hot potato, head straight to a local cafe to get some work done.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Because we do work on vacation. Anyway, we're sitting there typing away, feeling very international power couple special cafe energy.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Laptops out, coffee flowing, and we're packing up to leave.

[Jordan Harbinger]

And the guy goes, excuse me, are you Jen and Jordan Harbinger?

[Unnamed Gang Member]

And listen, I'm not gonna lie, that felt pretty darn cool. Minor celebrity moment unlocked.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Shout out to Daniel T. It was awesome meeting you. We had a great chat. Honestly, it's one of my favorite parts of traveling. Meeting sharp, interesting people who somehow still.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Recognize us, even disheveled after 13 hours on a plane. And while we're out there living our.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Best D list celebrity spotted life abroad, it hit me. Our home could have been making money the whole time. If you got a place sitting empty while you're traveling, you could be picking up some extra cash by hosting on Airbnb. Find out [e-mail] Host this episode is sponsored in part by the Defender. You ever meet somebody and instantly know they've been places that calm and chaos? I've driven through a storm and found sunrise kind of energy. That's the Defender in vehicle form. It's not just a car, it's a statement. A nod to the ones who don't.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Wait around for life to hand them.

[Jordan Harbinger]

An adventure, they go and get it. And whether you're a seasoned trailblazer or just figuring out how to swap city limits for tree lines, the Defender is built to back you up. It's capable of great things, just like you. It's a celebration of grit, curiosity, and pushing past the usual. So if you've been waiting for a sign to finally take that trip, forge.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

That new path, or just see what.

[Jordan Harbinger]

You'Re made of, this is it. The Defender's ready when you are. To learn more, visit destinationdefenderusa.com if you like this episode of the show, I invite you to do what other smart and considerate listeners do. Take a moment and support our amazing sponsors. They make this show possible after all. All the deals, discount codes and ways to support the podcast are searchable and Clickable over at jordanharbinger.com deals if you can't find something, you're not sure if something exists or if it's not working, just email me jordanordanharbinger.com we are happy to surface that code for you, help you get stuff from the sponsors. It is that important that you support those who support the show. Now for the rest of my conversation with Tegan Broadwater.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

You pull this clever move where you switch up an order at the last minute and it leads to a big supplier. Tell me how that worked.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, one of the same typical deals where I'm cruising around with this cat who we're supposed to get this deal done. He's picking it up from a cook, and this guy's name was D. And we go in his house and he's actually cooking all this stuff up. So that's why I knew that this guy had gotten all of his stuff from this particular cook. So I have an order, I don't remember quarter key, something moderate. I didn't have an extraordinary budget like a lot of people think about with federal money. Even when I had money, it wasn't extraordinary. But we set this deal up and when he gets there, it's crack. It's like a hard, like, dude, you know me, I can't do the crack, man. I need the powder, man. He's man, I thought you said crack. We were just at the cookhouse and blah, blah, man, can you help me out any other way? He's man, Let me try to think. So I'm actually rolling around with him. This is one of those paranoid dudes that tells you to meet him somewhere and then five other places after he moves. Then we finally do the deal. But now I'M riding him around with me. So we're driving around in my ride. He takes me to this place and goes in and picks up something else. The guy says he can get it, but to park and wait. And we go back to the place where we were supposed to meet, where they're having this house party. And so we're just hanging out at that point because we're waiting to do a deal. But I'm essentially put in a situation where, hey, this is like, the greatest networking event ever. I'm in the middle of the hood at a house party. A bunch of Crips playing poker inside. There's dudes in the backyard cooking. There's people hanging out in the front. As overt as you can imagine a house party being with a bunch of criminals at it. And while I'm still waiting, actually, I'm trying to remember if it was right after the deal, the guy showed up and we did the deal, or if it was right before. So this blue SUV pulls up. They call it a blue Jeep. No matter what it is, if it's a Jeep or if it's a Durango. Everyone in the hood calls it a Jeep, but it was. I think it was a Durango. Blue Durango pulls up, and everybody starts flocking over to it. Now, my kingpin. I'd known who the kingpin was since before the case started. I had run ins with him, just doing warrants and stuff. He never got busted for anything. So I knew he was the guy. I didn't know how big he actually was in real life. And he had been laying low. He split town, and there was a lot of heat from the feds or whatever. I don't remember who he said he caught heat from. I was thinking it was not heat for me because I haven't been at your doorstep, but I wish I had been. So he apparently was back in town. This window lowers down, and I see from his nose up, he's out poking his head out the back of his own car. Like somebody's driving around and all these people are gathering around. It's like the freaking King has showed up into the town. And I'm thinking, man, this is unbelievable. I walk over, and of course, I'm with these two dudes that I'm doing deals with. One guy's linking me with a new guy, and we're getting what I need. It's a natural symbiotic situation. Walk over with the crowd or whatever, and I see him. I know exactly who is I. I only can guess that he might know maybe who I am, But I've seen him and talked to him with a balaclava years before, but he wouldn't recognize me otherwise. And I just remember catching some eye contact as he's talking to people and kind of high five and whatever. And I kind of looked over him. I gave him the what's up? He gives me a. Like a what's up? And it wasn't curious or suspicious or anything. He just gave me a what's up? And I thought, that's cool. Normally I'm. Who's the snowman here in the middle of the crew? Who is this dude? So I thought it was cool that I got the little wuss up. And that was my first inkling that, man, this connection, this is like a manifestation in real life of these people all lead to this. And we're all standing here right now. This is ultimately what the goal is, to get all these people out of here.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

And this is the kingpin that was running the whole show.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So how do you eventually get all these guys indicted and arrested? Does it happen kind of all at once? It seems like it has to. Otherwise everybody goes to ground. Right?

[Tegan Broadwater]

You hope it happens all at once. That's the plan, anyway. There was the FBI agent, Assistant U.S. attorney, and several people from the FBI field office in Dallas were working tirelessly and overnight to help write all these search and arrest warrants for all these target locations. We had 51 people in the conspiracy at the very end, 41 of whom went federal sentencing and 10 went state. So we're writing warrants all over the city for these people to do all at once. And so they're having this big to do in a gymnasium full of 7, 8, 9 agencies. We've got ATF and FBI. We've got Fort Worth SWAT, we've got gang unit. All these people are all gathers 200 plus officers in this gymnasium talking about what we're going to do the next morning at 6am to me, I'm just. My mind's blowing because.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Are you nervous? Are you excited?

[Tegan Broadwater]

I'm both. And honestly, it was surreal because by then I'd been doing it for so long. Just the fact that it was actually going to culminate in anything that meant it was done was weird for me. It was just something where I felt like my behavior, I was willing to just keep doing crazier and crazier stuff to just keep this thing building. So it was surreal that it was even ending at all. And normally too, you do a case and then you crack the door down. That's the fun part. And everybody else is doing this for me. And I'm working from the end of the FBI. And I'm following their lead too, because I'm just assigned to the FBI as a tfo. I'm not actually an FBI agent, so I'm following all the protocols that they have to go through.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

What's a tfo? Just like a lead.

[Tegan Broadwater]

A task force officer, a municipal or a sheriff department, or somebody that assigned to the FBI. They get credentials and work in the office. So it was surreal for me there too, because it was just enough old school. We walk in the room the next morning at 6am they got this long table with big red telephones, old school dial in, hard line telephones lined up and down. I think the FBI honestly, many agencies had all these passe technological things when they worked in their office at WordPerfect. I think by then Word Perfect had been defunct almost for a decade. They still used it, but it's hard to actually pull up a file. You steal something from there, put it on a thumb drive and try to pull it up. Most computers at that time there essentially is naturally encrypted, you know, behind the times. But all these big boards, all the targets are listed and whatever's going on, I was a nervous wreck knowing all this stuff was supposed to go down. So they launch everybody. They give a green light over the radio at 6am and all these tactical teams are hitting all these different locations at six o' clock in the morning all over the city. We only got 17 of the people in the first day.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, wow.

[Tegan Broadwater]

So there was a bunch more people over the next couple of weeks that we were working on rounding up. And that was the most nerve wracking. I bet.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

I bet. Oh, we didn't get so and so. Oh, no. So now he knows. Where is he?

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, okay.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Three weeks later, we found him. He was hiding out in somebody's house.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. In your backyard.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah.

[Tegan Broadwater]

With a sniper rifle. Jeez. So yeah, it took a couple of weeks. Most of them got rounded up within the following week. Ish. Because it was still an aggressive thing. When that roundup came out, there was a lot of attention brought to the case, news conferences and everything else. There was a lot of patrolmen and everything else that were also actively interested in finding some of these guys. So we got lots of help.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah. Wow.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. It was a nerve wracking time though.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Geez.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Happy. Sad too, for the guys that you get to know and that you really like. And knowing that that's the end of that is also kind of nerve wracking too.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

So what was the result then? A lot of these guys got some decent time.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah. The lowest was. I think we had seven went to trial. All the rest of them pled and shared information. Of the ones that went to trial, I testified on behalf of several of them. Also in terms of behalf of their character, because they were people that I thought deserved to be in the conspiracy. Once these arrests are made, I have no control over what sentences they get. Or you've got a federal judge that's tough on crime guy and you lose control. The only thing that I could do is try to convince them to cooperate and give them my word. And I didn't do this for everyone, but given my word, I'll testify on behalf of you and your character. Most people didn't believe me, and I kind of didn't blame them, even though it was traumatic for me, because I'm thinking in my mind, like, no, dude, we really did have a connection. I really like you, but you've also known me for two years as T. And now I'm telling you I was lying the whole time. So I also understand why you don't believe me. But it was traumatic for me when they would just give you the bird and move on because you just really had these high hopes for the guys that you thought had a chance. You really wanted to get the lowest sentences. And since I didn't get to pick, that's the only thing I could do. Once I testified for one person and just said, man, I think they have a lot of social redeeming value. They've made a lot of mistakes. They are tied in with this. But I think I would be even comfortable as the undercover with them getting out with a lighter sentence, whatever that needs to be. I'm just. I would testify on their behalf, and once I did that, a few others perked up and decided to cooperate, and I ended up doing that. So the lowest sentence was two years, and the average sentence was 19 years.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, wow.

[Tegan Broadwater]

So you add a ton of dope into this situation, and it turned into what people consider it, a dope case. But again, it's not a dope case. These are violent criminals selling guns, doing drive by everything else. And you debrief all these fools and they're sharing who murdered so and so at the stop and shop, whatever. We had nine cold case murders that got reinvestigated. So that's really who these folks are. And the last three are getting out biden's actually his last hurrah. Let the last three guys out. One of which is actually a pen pal of mine. I've been trying to get out for years, me and another attorney of trying to get. Because I think he got really screwed on his sentence. I see the other two are those kind of folks that you want someone to let you know when they get out. So, yeah, just watch yourself.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Sure.

[Tegan Broadwater]

But again, the only reason I can even think that even happened, because it happened without any instigating from me. We're working from behind the scenes and trying to put together a case to get my guy out. And all of a sudden he called, said, man, I just. He's getting out in July. Is that again, they think this is a dope case. These are nonviolent, whatever this is, drugs and blah, blah, blah. Well, that's not the case. There's so much more context in this situation.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

I know we're closing here, but before I forget, one of the reasons I wanted to do this episode with you was because you are donating some of the money from this book. Tell me about that, where that's going.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yeah, I was encouraged to write a book after this. And I had no interest in writing a book at all till somebody brought me to one particular organization that got me turned on to this whole thing where we calculated all the kids that were left behind after this roundup. So you have 51 people off the street, one female, 50 dudes. And you try to think of, all right now, how many fatherless kids are there going to be on the street in that same poor neighborhood being raised by aunts and grandmothers in that same place who are going to take the next opportunity. And then you got to get some dude in 18 years to go in and take them all to jail. I'm just thinking this is salvaging that neighborhood in a certain way. But it's not a long term solution. The arrest is not a long term solution. You're getting the violent people away so that this neighborhood could potentially thrive. But what are we doing for that neighborhood to thrive? And this organization is an after school organization that mentors children of incarcerated and murdered parents. They teach them they have to come in and report their conduct grade every single day. They talk about their test scores. They get mentored in art class, in their homework stuff. They do music, they do athletics. They have little after school, Dallas Maverick guy will come out and do some kind of thing at the basketball court or whatever. It's a fantastic program. They essentially teach these kids table manners. And how to apply for jobs.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Oh, wow. Yeah.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Smart, but takes her ceiling from this level and makes it sky high, which we take for granted. Our parents have always taught me, you can do anything you want.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Sure.

[Tegan Broadwater]

If you just do this. This is the path and whatever.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

It's like Chris Rockbit. You ever remember that Chris Rock bit where he's like, you tell a white kid he can do whatever you want, he turns around and says, I know that. Right?

[Tegan Broadwater]

That's exactly right. Yeah, it is, right. I think it's funny because it's ironic because these kids, again, that was their dad. That's what they knew. Their dads grew up in that same environment, got into the bad stuff. I will concede most of these guys were not actually great fathers at all.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah, I was going to say like absentee father. But your father before was staying up all night killing people.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Yes.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah. Not a pillar of the.

[Tegan Broadwater]

Still illustrates the problem, ultimately, which is why, okay, I thought that that's a purpose to write the book. And so we donate all the profits actually from this book to organizations that we've donated to, that organization in particular, as well as others that are the same objective. This is mentoring children of incarcerated parents so that the cycle has some potential for fixing itself. You're teaching them ways in which they can succeed in other ways besides grabbing a gang member and latching on in sixth grade or whatever that is.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Yeah. Wow, that's really awesome. And I hope that it's successful. I mean, it sounds like it is so far, but, man, how do we get out of this mess? It seems like a huge chunk of the next generation doesn't have functional parents, doesn't have role models, and we can't really arrest our way out of this dope problem. It sort of reminds me of that scene in the movie Blow where they're interrogating the guy and they're like, what do you think of doing selling drugs? And he's, you can't arrest your way out of this problem. There's all these drugs that go across the border. It's all about demand. There's always a market for it.

[Tegan Broadwater]

What do we do about this politics and graft and everything else? Yeah, I don't think in terms of drugs, obviously. I think the war on drugs, I think everyone would agree that doesn't work. Has been how many decades now that's been in play. You're putting a lot of lives at risk for us to continue spinning the wheel so that it doesn't get worse, which is the only real progress I think we make when you're fighting the dope is you're just putting people in harm's way. You have law enforcement doing all this different stuff just to make sure it doesn't get worse. Because if you quit fighting, it will get worse. Fighting it is not beating it either. Yeah. So I don't know exactly a solution. I think if I did, I'd be speaking all over the world, giving them the magic key. But I do think too many people pass on making an impact because they think it's this giant undertaking. And if you can impact one person that is of age, that can be enlightened by some kind of wisdom or encouragement or whatever, I think that's really the key. Is it if more people would think a small difference adds up in total. I think that's really where it comes in educating people and acknowledging consequences. Most of the people in the dope game are not accountable people, and they get pissed off when they get caught. But if you actually understand consequences and value other things that you can do, you'll make better choices in general. And it's not that we can do that in mass with one kind of turnkey thing. But I think people that have a struggling kid or something that may listen to you even if you tell them the exact same stuff their dad tells them and they don't listen, a lot of times it could be as simple as that, just saving that one dude because he's going to then have a testimony about how he managed to get away from some of that stuff and then that spreads other people are doing that. So I really think it's just an individual thing where most of us get old and you realize, wow, I was trying to do all this stuff to make myself successful. And once I get to a certain age, I realize it's all about making other people people successful. That's when life really becomes real. It's so much better. But not everybody sees things like that. Until you can help a single person out and appreciate what that does, that's a legacy, even if you don't get your name put on a plaque for it. So I think we could solve some of those problems.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Tegan Broadwater. Thanks so much, man, for coming in. We went way over. I appreciate you hanging in there.

[Tegan Broadwater]

I'm honored to be here, man. Thank you for letting me come on.

[Jordan Harbinger]

If you're looking for another episode of the Jordan Harbinger show to check out, here's a trailer of our interview with Jack Barski, former Katie KGB spy who posed as an American in a Truer than life version of a Hollywood movie. This is one of our most popular episodes of the show. Jack not only dodged the FBI for decades, but also defected from the Soviet Union, secretly becoming a real American. We'll learn how spies were recruited and trained during the Cold War and what skills Jack used to assimilate seamlessly into American culture.

[Jack Barski]

I was untouchable. I was above the law. I was always bypassing customs and passport control. So a young person, it really feels good because I never liked rules.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

How did you flip to eventually becoming full American? I know they tried to call you home.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Can you take us through that?

[Jack Barski]

They called me back as an emergency departure. They've done this in the past to call back an agent. And as soon as they step on Soviet soil, they are jailed or even executed. I was stalling the Soviets and then one day they send one of their resident agents and he said to me, you got to come home or else you're dead. It was a threat. I decided I would defy them and tell them that I'm not returning. I will not betray any secrets. And please give the money on my account to my German family.

[Unnamed Gang Member]

Wow. Tell us how you got caught because this story is just not complete until you, like you said, had to face your past.

[Jack Barski]

I was stopped on the other side of a toll gate. It was a state trooper. Just like to check your license and registration and could you step out of the car? I stepped out of the car, still not having a clue what was going on. Out of the corner of my eye, somebody approaching me from the back. The fellow introduced himself. He says, joe Riley, FBI. And he showed me this badge. We would like to talk with you. The first question I asked, am I under arrest? And the answer was no. Then I said, what took you so long?

[Jordan Harbinger]

For more from Jack Barski including how Jack was finally caught by the FBI and what happened after that. Check out episode 285 of the Jordan Harbinger show. All things Tegan Broadwater will be in the show. [e-mail] advertisers, deals, discount codes, ways to support the show. [e-mail] deals Please consider supporting those who support the show. Our newsletter, by the way, great companion to the show. Specific practical 2 minute read maximum every Wednesday. Ish jordanharbinger.com News is where you can find it. And don't forget about six minute networking as well. That's free over at sixminutenetworking.com I'm ordanharbinger on Twitter and instagram you can also connect with me on LinkedIn. And this show, well, it's created in association with podcast one. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Tata Sidlowskis, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we rise by lifting others. The fee for this show is you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. The greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about. If you know somebody who's interested in this kind of undercover work, drug trafficking, police work, etc. Definitely share this episode with them. In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn, and we'll see you next time.