Borderland: Narcosis with Vincent 'Rocco' Vargas

Today’s guests is Danitza “Dee” James.   She was born in Sonora, Mexico, and moved to US at 15. She is a combat veteran, having served in Iraq on two combat tours. Today, she serves as Chief Executive Officer at Repatriate Our Patriots (ROP) a non-profit organization dedicated to aiding in the repatriation of deported veterans and preventing future deportations. You can learn more at https://www.repatriateourpatriots.org/  Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, Vince talks to retired DEA agent, Derek Maltz about the realities of the fentanyl epidemic in the United States. Derek was also the Special Agent in Charge of the DOJ, Special Operations Division (SOD) for almost 10 years before he left the federal government, and previously held the position as the Chief of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, the oldest and largest drug task force in America. Today, he is Executive Director at PenLink, which offers comprehensive solutions tailored for law enforcement, national security and defense sectors. Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Borderland, Vince talks with former Game Warden John Nores about how Mexican drug cartels operate in America's forests and public lands. John served as a Game Warden for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for more than 25 years. He helped develop and lead the Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET), an elite tactical unit targeting cartel drug operations on California’s public lands and created the agency’s sniper capability. John's latest book, Hidden War, 2nd Edition, is out now: http://www.johnnores.com/hidden-war.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Borderland, Vince sits down with the 24th Sheriff of Pinal County in Arizona, Mark Lamb.  He is also a candidate for the United States Senate. Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Vince takes a deep dive into the fast and furious gun-running scandal with guest Pete Forcelli.He is widely known as a whistleblower for the Operation Fast and Furious scandal and wrote the book The Deadly Path: How Operation Fast & Furious and Bad Lawyers Armed Mexican Cartels Pete served for 15 years with the N.Y.P.D prior to joining the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, where he retired as d Deputy Assistant Director. Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest is Matthew Thomas, Chief Deputy of the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona. Throughout his career, he has served in several specialty units—Detention, Patrol, Traffic, Training, the Police Academy, Motors, Narcotics, and Investigations. He is also the author of the book Interceptors: The Untold Fight Against the Mexican Cartels. Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest is investigative journalist and filmmaker Guillermo Galdos. Has spent the last 15 years making documentaries and producing exclusive news stories from Latin and South America - topics including human rights abuses, the drug trade, immigration and exposed police corruption and the human trafficking industry. He has personally experienced and documented the treacherous conditions migrants go through as they attempt to cross the dangerous Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama to eventually make it to the US Southern Border - an over 3,000 mile journey through Central America. You can watch his film "Drowning, kidnap and jaguars - travelling the deadly Darien Gap migrant route to the USA" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzdkmb5Zjas Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's Borderland, Vince dives deeper into the current situation at the Southern Border by talking to two bordertown sheriffs. Both men previously appeared on an episode centered on Operation Lone Star (which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSE2M78_MHU ), but today's episode features previously unreleased portions of these conversations. Thaddeus Cleveland is the Sheriff for Terrell County, Texas. Prior to being elected, Sheriff Cleveland spent just over 26 years in the U.S. Border Patrol. He served as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Advisor to U.S. Army North (ARNORTH) in support of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) assistance to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the Humanitarian Crisis at the Southwest Border with Mexico. He also served six months alongside the Texas Department of Public Safety in Austin, Texas as the Border Patrol Staff Officer at the Texas Homeland Security Border Security Operations Center (BSOC) as the single point of contact between the BSOC, U.S. Border Patrol Sectors and U.S. Border Patrol in Washington, D.C. Leon Wilmot is the Sheriff of Yuma County, Arizona. He has worked in law enforcement since 1985. Some of his professional accomplishments as Chief Deputy include the restructuring of the Southwest Border Alliance drug task force to the newly formed Yuma County Narcotics Task Force. Sheriff Wilmot was also instrumental in overseeing the restructuring of the Yuma County Sheriff’s Posse and is currently working on a Mutual Aid Law Enforcement Agreement between Imperial County California and Yuma County. Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest is Marine Corps veteran Daniel Torres. Born in Tijuana, he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but was deported to Mexico after years of service. There, he lived in The Bunker, the Deported Veteran Support House. After gaining his American citizenship, he has become an advocate for fellow veterans who have been deported. This episode was intended to spotlight his story and his advocacy, but the conversation went in other directions, highlighting the tension that often exists in debates about immigration, the law, and politics. Borderland is an IRONCLAD Original. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Vigil is the former Chief of International Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration. He is also the author of DEAL, Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel, Narco Queen, and The Land of Enchantment CartelHe is responsible for numerous multinational operations, the largest involving 36 countries, and was involved in the real-life story told in Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico involving the murder of his friend Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. Today on Borderland, Vince and Mike discuss his career, going undercover in the early days of the cartel wars, his thoughts on the border crisis, and what it will take bring down the cartels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices