PHIT PD
PHIT PD hosted by Juan Cephas and Ashley "Smashley" Cummins reveals what it takes to be at your best physically and mentally for your duties as a police officer.
PHIT PD
Gangs, Informants and the Pursuit of Murderers
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode, we sit down with a former California Department of Corrections officer and retired San Diego Police sergeant who spent years working patrol, gangs, and criminal investigations—operating in the environments where intelligence, trust, and timing can make or break a case.
We get into the reality of cultivating informants—how relationships are built, the risks involved, and how critical human intelligence becomes when you’re hunting violent offenders. From working gang networks to tracking down murder suspects, he breaks down what it really takes to move a case from street-level intel to an arrest.
But this conversation doesn’t stop at tactics. He also shares the personal cost of doing this kind of work—the cumulative impact of trauma, the link to PTSD and CTE, and what happens when the job follows you home.
As the author of "When the Music Stops, the Pain Begins" and a presenter on first responder mental health, he brings both operational experience and hard-earned perspective.
This episode is about the pursuit of justice, the informant game, and the weight that comes with chasing killers.
🎯 Whether you're a first responder, military, or someone interested in becoming a law enforcement officer—this conversation will move you, challenge you, and inspire you.
👇 Drop a comment with your favorite takeaway, and remember to subscribe if you want more real conversations like this.
#podcast #resilient ##cops #policeofficer #motivation #lawenforcement #deputy #police #lawenforcementofficer #policechief #policewoman #gangs #prison #mexicanmafia
Contact Information:
phitpd22@gmail.com
I met one of the forensic specialists that responded. She now suffers from PTSD, and she quit her job because of this the bloody scene that she responded to. I was a guy, Juan, that I never believed police officers could suffer from PTSD. I had been suffering for four years, but I I overlooked it. This job is going to change you. It is going to change you. You're going to become cynical. You're going to become very critical. It's going to change the way you walk into a restaurant. It's going to change the way you look at life. Check yourself. Ask yourself, why am I doing it?
unknownNo peace on the streets, no faith in the streets.
SPEAKER_02Welcome, everybody. My name is Juan Cefa from Fit PD, and this is lineup with Fit PD. You know, after nearly 30 years in law enforcement, I retired as a sergeant, and I've seen just about every single angle of this profession. I've also been an instructor at the academy for almost 25 years. And I can tell you with certainty that it if we don't train people properly, that's when pe when things happen and people can get hurt. Lives can change forever. This podcast is about truth, perspective, and pulling back the curtain. Today's guest started his journey in serving others when he was a young man and he started New Life Rehabilitation, where he helped parolees, drug addicts, and other people in need to become a better version of themselves and start a new life. From there, he moved on to become a corrections officer with the California Department of Corrections. He then moved on to San Diego Police Department, where he worked a variety of different assignments, including investigations, where he worked gangs, narcotics, and criminal intelligence. He retired as a sergeant. But he continues to serve. He wrote, he's an author. He wrote when the music stops, the pain surfaces, begins. And what happens is that in this book, he talks about the trauma that first responders experience because of this profession. And he provides a guideline on how to uh maneuver and navigate through those symptoms of a traumatic lifestyle. He also is a presenter, much sought after public speaker, and he's gonna be presenting this week on those topics on CTE as well as PTSD. I want you to help me welcome a friend, a mentor, a leader, and a great person. Retired Sergeant David Contreras. Hey, thank you for being here, brother.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Yes, yes, thank you. Yeah, it's an honor to be here.
SPEAKER_02You know what? Um, I'm so glad that you took a little time from your time here in limited time in San Diego to come see me. I I brother, I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Well, fan, I'm a uh Juan, I'm a big fan. I love watching your show, and on my show on the Grayline, and also on Ash Wednesday, and I also talk to Rosteres Chingones, I always tell everybody that's watching our episodes, I say, and you've seen it, I show the picture of Fit PD, and I always tell them, you know what? If you're a new cop or want to be a cop or a retired cop or an active cop, please subscribe to this channel. This is a channel that is hosted by a true legend within the San Diego Police Department. So I love it to me, like I said, it's an honor to be here.
SPEAKER_02Well, Dave, thank you, because you're uh you're like you've always been like a big brother to me. Yes. You know, and um, you know what? Let's let's move back a little to the the 80s when um you started this uh rehab uh in San Isidro, right there, the Tijuana border. Um, you know what? Very few young people would do something like that. Yeah. You know what, Dave? I mean, that says a lot about your character, but can you just tell us a little bit about how that came about?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, one, I gave my life to the Lord when I was 13 years old. My dad was a pastor, he was a bishop in the Pentecostal Church, Apostolic Church. So I grew up knowing God, knowing of God and having an experience with God. And when I was 18 years old, fresh out of high school, God just after I read a book, a book by the guy, by a gentleman by the name he was a pastor of a church in, I think it was in Pennsylvania somewhere, by the name of David Wilkerson. And David Wilkerson was like me, he grew up in a church, he grew up knowing God, but God placed a burden in his heart to go to New York and to go to the gangs of New York and start preaching the gospel to them. And it was because of him that a lot of gang members, a lot of heroin addicts were changed. And he was my inspiration at 18 years old. Fresh out of high school, I read that book. It was called The Cross and the Switchblade. And I said, if this man could do it out of Pennsylvania and go to New York, I could do it living here in Chula Vista, living in Otai and go to Otai, go to Logan Heights, go all over California and tell people about Jesus. And it was a rehabilitation, it was a Christian rehabilitation program. I started with the the church had a pastor's home, but my dad always had us, we always had our own personal or our own his home. Yes, and the pastor's home was was empty on the church grounds there in San Isidro, 3747 Sunset Lane, still there. And so I told my dad once, I was like I said, God had placed a burden in my heart. I go, Dad, if nobody's using this home, would you allow me to open up a rehabilitation program for gang members, heroin addicts, and people in need? And God placed a burn in his heart. He said yes, and that's how I started. I started with my first guy that went through my program was a guy by the name of Daniel Laro, who was a hardcore tecato. He did time in Tracy. He was in Tracy in the early 70s. He was from Otai, a gang leader. And I started going to Otai, witnessing to him, and I brought him. He was the first man to go to my program, and he later became my assistant director, an ex-gang member from Otai, and later became a pastor, later became a preacher, and God changed his life. So it was him and I that started it, but he was my first client.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Or yeah, what we call him client, first brother that went through my program.
SPEAKER_02Now, there were other people that were uh gang members that came through.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Juan, when I left the program in 1984, I had the house. We added another some other rooms. I had it was probably about five, four and a half bedrooms. I had tiers, three tiers of um bunk beds. Actually, they're triple beds, if you want to call them that. And I had 36 men in that program. When I left in 1984, I had 36 men. These guys now they were no longer from San Diego. I was bringing them from LA, from San Jose. These guys were prison gang members, Mexican mafia, nuestra familia. And back then you couldn't say those words because I mean nobody would talk about them. But my director, assistant director, Daniel Aro, had done time in prison. He would say, Hey man, so and so, you know what, just be real careful because you know what? He's a dropout from the Mexican mafia, dropout nuestra familia. They were all Chicanos, so we didn't have BGF or A B. So, but I mean, these guys, God started doing miracles in their lives. And like I always say, not everybody changed. A lot of guys used us. I would go to court and I would ask the judge to send them to our rehabilitation program instead of sending them to prison. But a lot of men are still serving God today. Daniel Aro, may you rest in peace? He passed away of cirrhosis of the liver because he was a drug addict before coming to the Lord, but he was faithful to God to the very last moment, he was faithful to God. And uh, so that was beautiful, Juan. Uh, for six years I was able to do that. And the thing that was remarkable that whenever I would be talking to these drug addicts, I mean 36 hardcore pinfolds, right? Yeah, and they would look at me, they would go, dude, you're 19 years old, you're 20 years old. Have you ever been a drug addict? No, have you ever drank a beer? And back then I didn't drink a beer, you know. Have you ever used heroin? Have you ever been a gang member? No. How do you understand us? And and how I would always answer and was I would always say, you know, Jesus Christ was never a sinner. Jesus Christ was never a gang member, he was never a heroin addict, but he looked beyond your shell and he looked at your heart. And you know what? And that's what God has placed in my heart to look beyond the shell, the gang member, the killer, the the drug addict, the alcoholic, and look at your heart, and he's the only one that could change you. And that's what helped me pull through those six years.
SPEAKER_02They believed you because there was a truth. There was a truth, speaking from my heart. Right. Speaking from my heart. Yes, yeah. That's uh it's amazing that uh you were able to reach that population.
SPEAKER_00It was it was amazing, Juan. It was.
SPEAKER_02And uh unbeknownst to you, uh everything that you were learning then, because they're they're not only benefiting from you, but you are learning from them as well.
SPEAKER_00Oh Juan, you cannot imagine how much I learned at 18 years old, never being a gangster, all of a sudden dealing with these guys, the games that they play, the mindset, even the vocabulary, chukulukos, or elele loco, you know what I mean? Yeah, all the words that I learned from those guys, just like I was teaching them, I was learning from them. And then at in 1984, 85, when I got hired with the Department of Corrections, I left the program in 84. 85, dude, I was a hundred miles ahead of a lot of people in my academy because I was there. Yeah, I knew how to talk to people. You know what I mean? I always spoke with respect. But if they crossed the line, we dealt with it and they knew that. But dude, I knew how to listen and I knew how to read the yard just because of 18 years old, I was able to basically live with these guys because I ran the program and I'd spend the night there when they were kicking heroin. So I knew that environment. So prison wasn't new to me, it was just uh another level of where I needed to be, and it helped me throughout my career.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I can only imagine. I mean, you know, that kind of uh experience is invaluable. It is, it's invaluable. I mean, you can't duplicate it and you can't package it, but it would be beneficial for everybody in law enforcement to somehow be exposed to that kind of lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know what? One they are. That's why the sheriffs are so um they're they're very good at what they do because the first two years or three years, they start off in the jail, and that jail's working the jails and working me, Department of Corrections. Not everybody in the Department of Corrections, correctional office had the opportunity like myself at 18 to be around these individuals. But just being able to work for the Department of Corrections, the county jail, those deputy, they're once 10, 20 steps ahead of a guy that no disrespect to the military, no disrespect to college, but your schooling comes from the Department of Corrections from the county jails from New Life and so forth. It's invaluable experience.
SPEAKER_02You learn how to talk to that population.
SPEAKER_00Oh, without a doubt, and listen and observe. Yes.
SPEAKER_02That's how you work CIs, that's how you uh get information. I mean That's right. You you you can't muscle it. No, you can't muscle it.
SPEAKER_00You can't fake it.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00You can't fake it. It's either you either have it or you don't. And if those that are faking it, that are trying to recruit say CIs, dude. I'll tell you, well, we'll get into that. That that was my specialty throughout my career, working in formats. That was my specialty.
SPEAKER_02Well, I know. Yeah, I know I saw it, I witnessed it. I witnessed it. As a patrol officer. That's right. As a patrol officer. Uh now, Dave, when you get to corrections, um this is in 1985. Yes. And um, where did you end up uh working?
SPEAKER_00They uh when I was going through the Department of Corrections, uh, I was scheduled to go to uh Tehachapi State Prison. That's where I was scheduled to go. So I was married at the time to my first wife. We had two kids. I had her, she was in San Diego. I was going through the academy, she was going to Bakersfield to look for a house for us.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00Three weeks before, two weeks before I graduated, I was supposed to go to Tehachapi. She was calling me, telling me, okay, I think I found a house in Bakersfield. All of a sudden, they tell me at the academy, there's no uh we're not opening to hatchapi because we're not ready to open. So now we have we have a two or one opening for you. And at the time, I was doing doing my OJT on the job training at Tracy State Prison. Okay, and because I was there, they offered me Tracy. And I had been there for three or four days working, K-Wing, working different uh uh places at Tracy, but it was all of us in the academy, right? So they offered me that. So I come back and they say, Listen, we could give you Tracy, and I'm going, Tracy, man, uh we don't know anybody there. That's and they go, Well, there's also another joint that we could offer you, which is San Luis Obispo. Okay, it's a that's uh California men's colony, right? Dude, it's by the ocean, yeah. I didn't even know what Tracy was at, other than going on the bus there, right? Right, and I go, you know what, San Luis? I call my wife at the time, Liz, and I go, Hey, listen, they're offering me Tracy. What is Tracy or they want to be San Luis Obispo? Where's that? By the ocean, by the ocean, by the ocean. So I ended up choosing San Luis Obispo. But if I could go back in time, I wish I would have gone to Tracy. I wish I would have gone to Folsom, and I wish I would have gone to St. Quentin, but I can't go back in time. Those prisons were rocking and rolling. I've always loved to rock and roll. So, but I chose San Luis Obispo. It was a PC joint protective custody institution. Yeah, but I learned a lot there. And I went there and I got a chance to interview, to debrief a lot of prison gang members that were dropouts. Okay. So I got a chance to talk to these guys. So everything that I was learning at 18 to 24 with these guys who were my program, because we never talked about prison gangs, but I knew you couldn't talk about it. Now at 25, I'm with guys that I would hear names of. You know what I mean? Right. Uh uh, Roland Tamalant, uh Talamantes, Tiny Contreras, and I could go on and on. So there, dude, it was where God wanted me to be. And it was a beautiful, it was a learning experience that I will never forget.
SPEAKER_02Now, Dave, what are some of those um lessons that you learned there? I mean, what um what information were you exposed to?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, Juan, I think one of the gifts that I say it's a gift from God, but it's a gift from life experience. If you want to, I mean it's a gift from God, but it's also life experiences, is talking to people, number one, listening to people and recruiting informants, cultivating, cultivating, cultivating informants. And Juan, I'll tell you, um, I grew up in an era, I was born in Tijuana, and when I was nine months old, we moved here to Chula Vista, and I was raised in Chula Vista. But in my culture, whenever you would see a homosexual, no disrespect to homosexuals, but you see a homosexual, you were afraid of them. They were the devil, they were like the worst of the worst. All of a sudden, I'm working the pinta over there at CMC, and it's full of homosexuals. So I I'm there walking the yard, hey baby boy, and I'm like, oh my God, right? Dude, I'm telling you, one of the first things that I did, I because I'm good at talking to people, good at cultivating information, they became my best informants. I'm talking, I'm I'm telling you, by the time maybe the first three months, four months, I would come home, you know, out of breath, you know, el Diablo or whatever. But dude, after six months, I would walk in the yard, I'm walking the yard. Hey, baby doll, you look better than my wife today. You know what I mean? Next thing you know, Holmes, all these homosexuals were giving me knives, were giving me heroin, were giving me pruno, were giving me information who was going to get hit or whatever. They became my best informants. And then later on, I started developing, but that was the expertise. I had to learn how to get rid of my biases, and just like I look at the heroin at it, don't look at the outside, look at the heart. Right. Over here, don't look at the outside, look at my mission. And my mission was to cultivate informants to give me information to save lives. And that that was one of the biggest lessons I think that I learned.
SPEAKER_02That's uh again, invaluable. It is invaluable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, was that the only uh prison that you worked in?
SPEAKER_00No, and then from right there, I opened Donovan. I this we activated Donovan.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00As a matter of fact, when you see the movie American Me, when you see uh Edward Olympus, they all walk in and then they there's one sergeant yelling, everybody strip out, put your hands top of your head. Oh, yeah, interlock your fingers, uh brush your teeth. I mean, brush your your your hair, put your ears back, spread your cheeks. I was that guy. I wasn't a sergeant, but I, when Donovan first opened, the first bus that came in came to, I believe it was facility three, and it was a build, I'm not sure if they think it was building six, where uh the shoe program is at Donovan. And that was R. And I literally, the first bus that came in in the history of Donovan, I took that bus down, I took him in that building, I yelled, everybody turn around, spread your cheeks, whoa, whoa, whoa. We go from there. And dude, so I was able to work there uh for two years, a year and a half, two years. And uh I was in RR receiving a release, and um I was there, and uh all the inmates that would come in, they would go through me, not me, but I say my squad.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00I was able to identify a lot of the gang members, I was able to debrief a lot of the gang members. I was able to uh just, I mean, I'd see them come in and I'd see them walk out. At the last three months of my career, I got transferred. Actually, last two months of my career, I got transferred to the central kitchen. Um, that's a long story, but the last two months, it was uh a payback. I mean, it was it was personal with uh with the warden at the time because I was leaving the department and he took it personal. But I'm not gonna mention that, I'm not gonna get into that. But the last two months I went to the central kitchen, but my whole time there, I basically with a great group of sergeant, one sergeant, Blackie Ramirez, shout out to him. His son's also a correctional officer, great sergeant, and our squad, which was I think it was like six guys, dude. We basically ran Donovan through R, and I got a chance to also work a lot of homicides. There was one homicide, the Ayala homicide. I don't know if you remember Ronnie and Hector Ayala, they had the two Ayala, the brothers. Well, one of the biggest informants in that case, I was able to cultivate them and recruit them working RR. Because, like I said, Juan, that's a gift that I've always had through life experience and through God.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00How to cultivate informants. And, you know, that wasn't the only, but that was one of many informants that was able to solve or assist in a lot of homicide investigations.
SPEAKER_02Wow. And um, you know, working homicide investigations, it really takes some skill, communication skill. Yes. So what you're talking about, I want to re-emphasize because some of our listeners are interested in becoming a police officer, or maybe they're in the academy, and they don't really truly understand the power of communication.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's 98%. The power of communication is 98%. Like I always tell everybody, the pin is mightier than the sword. Without a doubt.
SPEAKER_02100%. Yeah. 100%. Now, Dave, at some point you end up deciding that you want to leave uh corrections and you want to move on to working in the streets. Yes. And you end up uh getting hired by San Diego Police. Yes. Now you get this is uh the late 80s.
SPEAKER_00Actually, no, it's uh yeah, late 80s. Yes, eighty eight. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02All right, so you get down to um San Diego PD, late 88. That's when um Ron Davis was killed in the line of duty.
SPEAKER_00Probably about a year, two years later. I knew Ron very well. He did some work on my squad. Oh, Ron was a very good friend. Yeah, rest in peace.
SPEAKER_02Rest in peace, absolutely. And and also right at because we had a lot of uh in the 80s, we had a lot of officers killed in the line of duty.
SPEAKER_00Yes, we did Jerry Hartless. Jerry Hartless.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And so uh you get there, and what's the atmosphere like uh on the department?
SPEAKER_00You know what? I was blessed to go to Logan Heights during that time. Um, and I say this humbly, I was blessed to go to Central Division. And Central Division had Logan Heights and had downtown San Diego. I was blessed. God has been with me throughout my career, Juan. Even though, and I'll say this right now because at the end, I want to say I want to I want to end it with something where I'm at today. When I left New Life, I left God, I left the church. When I started with Partner Correction, I wasn't the same man that was praying for people, laying hands on people. I wasn't. I I never stopped believing, I never, I never um blaspheme against God, but I just became an agnostic for whatever reason, life circumstances. So I wasn't living for God, you know what I mean? Yeah, and but I can't say that God never left me. Yes, I left the church, I left him, but he never left me. His cloud, his sunlight was always over me. And the reason why I say that, I got blessed to go to a squad in Logan Heights, which had the was full of gunslingers. And when I say gunslingers, they're not killers, these guys were proactive, these guys were the best of the best. And I got a chance to work with, and I'll say This probably one of the best sergeants the San Diego Police Department has ever had, has ever had in the history of the police department. It might change tomorrow, but I'll tell you while I was there for 26 years, his name is Van Cruz. Van Cruz was my partner for four years. We were partners, and he later on became that sergeant that I just mentioned.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00But I got a chance to work with him, with Mark Tallman, uh Bob Cristano, uh, Mike Galavan, Mike Brogdon, and I could go on and on. This was my squad. So the first two years that we were together, we worked for Sal Salvatierra, and then later on, Carlos Chacon took over and some other sergeants. But dude, during those two years, I'll tell you one, and I could say this. My father used to say, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. And those 26 years with us, 27, 27 with the San Diego Police Department, and the four that I spent with the Department of Corrections, three and a half, four years, I never worked one day in my life. I never worked one day. And you know what? And it all started, you know, right there on that squad. I loved going to work. I enjoyed, you look at me, I'm I light up. Yeah. Because I go back to that moment, and from that moment on, I loved every part of my life in law enforcement, corrections and and uh uh as a police officer.
SPEAKER_02Now, Dave, as you're loving this uh new profession, yes, uh, this new position uh in uh patrol, and you're working in uh Logan Heights. What are what are some of the cases that you remember that uh are most memorable?
SPEAKER_00Juan, I I could tell you cases, but I could tell you me and Van Cruz, we probably broke the record back then. We made six felony arrests and one shift. And one 10 hour shift, six felony, I'm not exaggerating, six felony arrests. Um, and I'm talking about answering radio calls, taking four or five, nine burglary reports, taking auto theft reports, whatever we got at the same time we were out there. I mean, I was in that squad where I would literally before going to work, well, let me tell you, before when I went on that squad, me and Van, we would go or we went to the it's called the Value Village store, which was secondhand store. Yeah, like and we bought these huge trench coats and these gangster hats. So what we would do when we would be working graveyard, we would literally, okay, the radio was slow from two, three or from one o'clock in the morning till three in the morning. There's no radio call. So people would go and I don't know if they slept, my squad never slept. So we would put these gangster trench coats on, and we would get go into the trash can, and we would get a bottle of tequila or whatever, and we we'd be we'd be walking the barrios, we'd be walking the alleys of Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, Lomas, and we'd be walking down there acting like drunks, you know, yeah. Thank God Logan didn't want to go fire up and shoot somebody from Shelton. Yes, a drunk or from Sherman because they would have thought we were, you know, because we were dressed like gangsters. Yeah, gangsters, yeah. So, dude, uh, I mean, I just just tell you stories after stories like that. I might one of my first, I was I I had been on maybe six months. I was still on probation.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00One of those times I put the trench coat on, and there were houses where they were selling heroin there in Sherman Heights. I went to a house, I knock on the door. Dude, I didn't know how to write a search. That was my first search warrant. I knock on the door six months. Yeah, six months up. Okay, and I got a COC to prove it. I got it officer like I believe you, I believe you. I was the first one. I knock on the door, and uh the inside the drug dealers, they're all from Mexico, they're a pollos. Yeah, yeah. Uh, and and they're inside the house and they go, ¿Qué quieres? And I go, quiero negra, you know, which means I want to our heroin.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then, you know, 20. And then, you know, I put my $20 bill. But what I learned from Bob Cristano and Van Cruz and Mark Tallman was put your social security number on it. So when we hit the house with the search warrant, we can know it's your money, and then you know, we'll take a picture of it or maybe copies of it and so forth. Show the judge, right? So I put my social security on there. I give him the $20 bill. He gets, dude, I have a police uniform. I have a police radio. Under that trench coat. Under the trench coat. He gives me my heroin. I get it. Gracias. And I'm gone, right? Dude, we go to headquarters. This is at one one in the morning. One in the morning. We don't even tell my sergeant. And uh when we go to uh headquarters, I start, they they're teaching me how to write uh search, telephonic search warrant. Dude, I didn't know nothing about, but they taught me how to write the telephonic search warrant. I swear to the judge, we go back probably by four o'clock, to me, like two or three hours, because they were helping me. Yeah, I wasn't smart enough. They taught me how to do it, right? So we go serve the search warrant at four in the morning. Now we have to tell the sergeant because we have to go serve the search warrant. Dude, we hit the house, I get my $20 bill, and we got, I think, probably like 50, 80, 80 to 60 to 80 bundles of heroin, another 60 bundles of uh cocaine, white. Dude, that was at six months old. I mean, at six months on on probation. On probation. So that was that's why I'm telling you, I learned so much with this squad. And I think to me, working patrol during that time, I could tell you about shootings. We saw a lot of shootings, we saw a lot of uh tragedies, we saw the lot of crimes, but those were the detectives, sure. I mean, there were certain uh, but to me it was more dope going after paroles at large, 3056 PC, 11,550s to get in the car, get in the get in the pockets, 11,350, 11351. I mean, I could go on and on. To me, I was more of a dope cop. I was more also, I was also very good. And Van and I, my squad, was very good at cultivating informants, and we cultivated a lot of informants. Now I was no longer with the hookers because I was more with the gangs. With the gangs, with Gaya Treinta, with Sherman, with Loma's. Dude, I had informants, and I was I I wasn't even off probation. I was already cultivating informants. Give me information. Their mothers were, their sisters were. I've always been very good at that, at cultivating informants. And I think when you asked me what are my fondest memories, I think that working narcotics, uh, working parolees, working gangs, even as a patrol officer, cultivating informants. And when there was a shooting, our informants would tell us, or a big robbery, hey, it was so-and-so, and it was pato from uh from Lomas, it was a gallo from uh from uh Sherman. You know what I mean? Yeah, we had it before robbery came, and we would tell them, you know what, it was so-and-so, and then they would solve the crime. Or we would go arrest them. But I there were many uh occasions like that.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know what? Um, I feel like those days are um that kind of activity is a lot less today.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Juan, I retired in 20 uh 2015. I I retired out of narcotics, and before that I was in intelligence for close to five years. So uh I haven't seen patrol since probably 2019 was the last time I saw patrol. No, I'm seeing I'm sorry, 2009.
SPEAKER_022009.
SPEAKER_00Actually, no. Um 19, yeah, in uh 2000 was the last time I saw patrol. I went from there to investigations.
SPEAKER_02Well, definitely things have changed. Things have changed, actually. Things have changed, but you know what? That's what happens with time. Yes, things change. Um did you have you you know you were working in Logan Heights, so we have uh Logan 30, 13, 33rd, uh Red Steps. Uh any run-ins with um people like David Barone or any of those characters.
SPEAKER_00It's funny you say that. Uh, when you're working a patrol division, they you have your beats. And Van and I, we always begged for our beat to be Calle 30.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Dude, you asked me today if I know anybody from Red Steps, dude. I don't know anybody from Red Steps. Even though Red Steps is the other big gang in San Diego, it was 30. And I got a chance to work a lot in Lomas. I did a lot of work in Lomas, Grant uh Golden Hill, which is now known as Golden Hill. And I got a lot of a lot of work in Sherman. Those were my three gang sets. And dude, yes, I got a chance to, I got a had an opportunity to know everybody, every gang member. I wasn't like Felix Aguirre. I mean, Felix Aguirre is a legend. The police department of correct, the San Diego Police Department, you ask him, do you know Pato? He'll tell you Pato's name, date of birth, moniker, and where he lives. Dude, I didn't, I wasn't that guy, but I was that guy when I would see them and they would see me, we knew exactly who we were, and we'd basically pick up where we had left off. I was I knew everybody in those three gang sets. Like I said, red steps, not one person, because I never never worked that area, but uh 30, Sherman, and Lomas, dude, I knew everybody at that time, and they knew us too.
SPEAKER_02Well, so then your experience in uh new life and your experience in corrections now on the streets of uh Invaluable you're cultivating all the informants that you need. Yes, um Which is funny because as a patrol officer, um you notice that there's some detectives that struggle with that skill set.
SPEAKER_00Well, not only detectives want patrol officers, isn't it? Oh, there's a lot of PD personnel that's what's that that struggle with that. Yes, they struggle with it. Yeah, and they never become uh they're never effective. Because number one, to me, Juan, it wasn't a job, it wasn't a career, it was a passion. And you know what? I could tell you guys like Doug Collier, guys like Van Cruz, guys like Mark Tallman, Bob Cristano, and I could go on and on, Mike Galaban, and I could go on. I mean, there's so many others that I had the opportunity to work with that you, you were that guy. You know what I mean? Louis Valenzuela, and I could go on, but I I'm not gonna bore you with names, but I'm just telling you, we were it wasn't a job for us, right? It wasn't, it was a passion. We sincerely believed, and only believed, we demonstrated that we were saving lives every night. We continued saving lives, whether it was through an informant, whether it was responding to a radio call, whether it was given CPR, our job was to save lives, and it wasn't a job. So a lot of these guys that you're mentioning that had a hard time, dude, and I'm not judging them, God bless them. Yeah, but I'm telling you to them, it was just a job. And when they did develop an informant, they lost them right away. One, even today, to today, after I've been retired for um uh close to 10 years, well, going on 11 years, I've been retired. I still have informants calling me. I still have informants that saved Julio Cesar Chavez's life. When I was a private investigator in Mexico, it was because of three informants that Oscar and I had developed throughout our career, and this is after I had been retired for two years that were giving us information to save Julio César Chavez's life. That's another story. But what I'm trying to tell you is these experiences that I had with my informants, they weren't just, I didn't look at them as weak, punks, rats, etc. Dude, I looked at them as with respect. And I got to the point with the majority of my informants, we take them coffee or whatever. I knew exactly how they liked their coffee with milk and two splendas. I knew exactly if they wanted it black, I knew everything because you know what? To me, it was a passion.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know what, and I don't want to jump ahead, but uh, I guess I'm I'm going to. Okay. Um it was obvious to me that what you're saying is absolutely true because I remember there was an incident where you were involved in the use of force with another officer and the suspect um ended up breaking his leg.
SPEAKER_00Oh, he rabbited from us. Yeah. Yeah. I remember I remember exactly. Sonny C little Freddie. Yeah, I remember that case. Yeah, very I mean because the pup.
SPEAKER_02Because that guy ends up turning into a confidential informant for you. Yes, he did. Despite the fact that he broke his leg, and many people would try to blame the police. But he owned it, and then because of the respect that you gave him, he ends up being your uh informant.
SPEAKER_00Yes, he did, and we were working patrol at the time. This is back in 1995. And I'm telling you one, we booked him also for possession, possession of heroin, and uh he rabbited from us, and we were going over the fence, and we landed and we heard the pop. And even after that, we treated him with dignity and with respect. Dude, he he got out on that charge and he became he gave me pounds of heroin. He gave me pounds of cocaine, pounds of meth, because you know what? It's how we treated him. Yeah, Freddie. I'm not gonna mention his last name in case he's still alive, maybe during time somewhere. We don't know. But Freddie, I'll never forget Freddie. It's funny that you mentioned that. I will never forget Freddie. And uh it was Louis Valenzuela that was with me.
SPEAKER_02That's right. Yeah. Now with uh Freddie, I I just thought it was amazing that this person turns into a confidential informant. Um and it taught me a lot. This this whole lesson of uh you only had like two years on, right? I have maybe three. Three years once I remember that. I yeah, you know, you you you don't you don't unless you see stuff like that, you really don't learn. Yeah, you you don't read it in a book. No, you they don't teach it in the academy. Yeah. You just have to experience it. Yeah. So it was great to see. Yeah. Um, you know, there were uh other cases in uh San Isidro, um, because you know, some people say, well, you know, Southern Division is really slow. Oh no. It's a sleepy town. There's nothing going on.
SPEAKER_00Gangsters down there, it was rocking and rolling. Yes.
SPEAKER_02And this was in the mid-90s. Yeah. Um, so there was a lot of stuff going on. I mean, hundreds of people crossing the border without documents.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02On the freeway. And 10851s.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Several every single night. Every night pursuits. Um, you know, any other cases that stand out working in uh San Isidro?
SPEAKER_00You know, Juan, uh, there's several cases. I mean, one do I mean one of the things that Lou Louis, you yourself and Patty Clayton and I, yeah, we used to do. We used to go to all the local hotels there in San Isidro, also in the Nestor area, Imperial Beach, and we used to go and run the roster. This is when we're working graveyard, where everybody else is sleeping, not knowing what to do. Other cops, I'm saying other cops, right? Over there, I can't say they were sleeping because there were several that were sleeping. There were several that were lazy. We were out rocking and rolling, looking at the rosters, running people for wants and warrants, and there was and also looking for gangsters. And I remember there was one room, there was some gangsters in there, some Chicanos. They were, where were they from? They were from LA. And um, so I go over there, I knock on the door, and I basically I'm trying to get them. I don't have enough for a warrant, but I'm trying to get consent to go in. And I remember that night, these dudes open up, and dude, you could smell marijuana coming from the room. So that was our PC. So we basically detained the individuals. As we're detained individuals, one guy has a gun and he's trying to hide the gun. So we tackle him, we get the gun. Um we got the frozen, the scene frozen. We go and I think we got a search warrant. We got a telephonic because we didn't have enough to go and search. I think we got a telephonic, or they gave us one of them, the guy whose name was under. I think he gave us written consent. Okay. Because we go, hey, listen, we're gonna get a warrant. You're gonna have to wait till five in the morning. We get it signed. Fuck, just search. Sign it here. He gave us, we found it was several rings, but one stood out. It was, I mean, huge diamond. And and Louis, that's one thing Louis Venezuela is very good at. He was very good at the computer. He sees that ring and it was a huge diamond. He goes and he runs the ring, he runs uh, and it just comes out. Uh, somehow or another, we find out within hours that these guys had just pulled a huge robbery up in La Jolla. And that ring, it was uh it was a woman coming out of uh a gym, if I remember correctly, and they came at her, they beat her, and they put a gun to her head, and they took a ring, and they took her wallet, and we found her wallet. I think that's how we found it, because we found her wallet, we found several purses, and that's how we were able. Dude, that right there was a huge case. We closed like I think it was like 11 cases that night. We closed them because uh they were a crew out of LA gangsters out of the avenues, one of the gangsters up there, and we were able to close. That was one of many, dude. Every night, and I say this humbly, every night we were getting into things like that. And I mean, not to that that's a case that I remember, but dude, every night we were putting people in jail for robberies, uh, series, rapes. I mean, it was it was rockin' and rolling, Sanny Cedo.
SPEAKER_02A lot of stuff going on.
SPEAKER_00A lot of stuff going up so the because of the proximity to the border.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, the proximity to the border, and there were also a lot of drugs.
SPEAKER_00Yes, a whole a lot of drugs.
SPEAKER_02And I remember um going to a house and being overwhelmed with the the amount of marijuana and other drugs that were in the house.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I remember that.
SPEAKER_02Yes, uh I mean I don't I don't even you you got this information and um it it's just um overwhelming to walk into a house and this you could just smell it all over the place and there's just tons of marijuana.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I remember that. I remember that case. And you know what? Uh like I said, you know what, Juan, one of the things that helped me, and you have that gift. Because I when I left, I I've I saw your career from a distance. We didn't get a chance to ever work it together again, but from a distance, I would always hear you have that gift, you had have not had, have that gift to talk to people. That's why you're doing what you're doing today, because you know how to listen, you know how to, and and it was also not a job to you. It wasn't a career, it was a passion. And and I can say this, and when my father, even though when I left the program, the program continued, it's still there today, New Life Apostolic Outreach at San Isidro. My father was still the pastor, one of the men robbed my dad. In the I was already gone. And I remember I think I was working in the chief's office. I was special assistant, liaison to the Latino community. And when I heard about it, I was gonna go down there, but I know, I know me, it was gonna be personal. And you were working as an acting detective, and I called you, I go, Juan, do me a favor, can you please go investigate this? I'll call your sergeant. And I called your sergeant, I remember who it was, and he gave you you you took the case and you solved that case. And that wasn't an easy case because you had to go in, a bunch of drug addicts, you had to go in because it was a rehabilitation program, and you took care of my father. My father always, to the day I'm sure that he remembered, you know, that your investigation, that you were caring, you treated him with dignity, respect, which I knew you would, he was my father. But still, you've you have that gift, you know, that many want to have, but they don't. But there's you have it.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, you know, um Do you remember that case? I remember that case. And I remember your dad. I mean uh when I met your dad and your mom, just wonderful people, man. Just wonderful people. And how you know, I was gonna treat them like I would treat anybody else, but you know, when somebody is uh such a great person, of course you're gonna go that extra mile. Yeah. Um now, Dave, you're um working in uh patrol, and at some point you move to specialized units. Yes. And you I uh did you end up going to uh gangs?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I went to GST.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I had been at Southern for about a year and a half in 2016. Yeah, the end of 2016, I got transferred over to GST. Finally got a chance to go work. Even though we had worked Logan Heights, we had worked Sherman, we knew everybody there, but it wasn't the gang unit. Right. So finally I get a chance to go to the gang suppression team, which the gang suppression team, for those that are watching the show, it's like whenever you hear of the LAPD crash unit, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's the uniform unit. And dude, I'll tell you, those were the funnest years of my life. I was there for four years, yeah, because in 2019 I got promoted. So about three and a half, four years, I was in the gang suppression team, but uh uh Diddlow uh was Jack Diddle. Jack Diddle was Manny Smith, he's probably one of the best sergeants I ever worked for, was my sergeant. I love Manny Smith, great man. Um, and I always said, you know, I want to be like Manny Smith, but dude, my shoes were too small to put under that man. And that man was the best sergeant I ever worked for. He was my sergeant, and I worked for him. Juan, I mean, you you worked GST. You worked those. I those were the funniest years of my career. And in 2019, I got promoted to sergeant. I did uh two a year and a half, and then I got transferred over to the chief's office, and I was special assistant to the chief of police, and I was a liaison to the Latino community, and then within a year I talked to Beherano because uh we started seeing everything that's happening in the Middle East with the uh Arab communities, right? The Israel. So I actually formed the first um um unit that we had a group of Arab Americans and Jewish Americans that were basically community members that were meeting with our chief of police once a month. And I would hold these meetings in one location, and I'm talking about rabbis, I'm talking about imams, I'm talking about community leaders, business leaders. I mean, these people, I put them together, and then what happened was it started growing. So I ended up calling uh Goldberg. He's a captain. Goldberg.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00He's Jewish. So he took over the Jewish American and he blew that up. And then I called Tony El Assis, which I believe was Lebanese.
SPEAKER_02Lebanese.
SPEAKER_00Lebanese. He was a motor officer. I brought him out of motors and I brought Goldberg out of patrol. And they basically, I mean, they ran, they made those units. I mean, they they expanded. These guys, they were made for that. And I stayed with the Latino community. So I was there for four years.
SPEAKER_02For four years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. To work for two chiefs, Beherano and also Lansdowne.
SPEAKER_02And Lansdowne. Now, um, any other special um projects that you worked while you were working for the Chiefs Office?
SPEAKER_00I did some man with Rudy Thai, and then Rudy Tai became my partner. He was a liaison to the Asian and uh Pacific Islander community. Dude, we tore it up. When Rudy Tai came in, we started working with the Latino community, especially with the Latino community at the time, because there was a lot of fear. Uh Latinos being a lot of complaints were coming to Turtle Affairs because they were being stopped by patrol officers, motor officers. So I basically came up with Rudy Thai. We came up with a flyer called No Conoce, which stands for Knowing Your Rights. And we basically printed out, I think there was like 14 things that the Latino community needed to know. You know, number one, be respectful. Number two, if they ask you for a driver's license. And then we were also pushing, I think it was called Matríula Consular, which with the matrícula consular, I'm not sure it's called in Spanish, Matricua Consular, which is a special ID that the uh this is given to undocumented persons, illegal aliens, that the consulate would give them, and then they could get their driver's license with them, or their ID with a matricula consular. So it was basically we worked a lot and we had sponsors, Coca-Cola's one of our sponsors, and we ended up making, I believe, 20,000 flyers with Coca-Cola's money. It wasn't even department. And I would go to all the commands and have the officers hand them out to the community. And I would go to CBP at the border when cars would be coming by, we'd give them one know your rights. These are your rights when you come to the United States. Be respectful and so forth, but also what their rights were. Sure. You know what I mean? And dude, that was one of the biggest projects. And another huge project that I was able to do, I put together, I wrote different curriculums. One of them was a domestic violence curriculum where I went into like different schools in Logan Heights in Mid-City where I knew it was Hispanic population, and I would teach the community, the women, to basically the laws on domestic violence and also on gangs, if their kids were being recruited into gangs. So those projects, um, they were very successful, very successful. We saved a lot of lives, and hopefully prevent a lot of kids for becoming gang members.
SPEAKER_02Speaking of that, um, when we worked in San Isidro, uh, we did a um intervention program at one of the middle schools, and there were some interesting people that ended up joining that group. Yes. There was a young man, last name of Garcia, whose dad was a pastor.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And that kid, all he was looking for was attention, and he ended up getting out of the gang.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_02Okay, I don't know if you remember that. Yeah, but I remember the photo that we took with uh the one gangster that came in to talk to him. Yeah, that was blind. Yeah, yes, yes, for Moltai. For Moltai, yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then uh Hank Olais, captain of the city.
SPEAKER_02Hank Olayas was there also, yes. Yes, yeah. And um there were some other people in the group also that um young kids.
SPEAKER_00Young kids, yeah, young kids. They were the worst of the worst.
SPEAKER_02The worst of the worst. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00We were patrol officers at the time, and I remember you and I saying, Well, how can we make a difference? So we went to talk to the school principal, um, Virginia, I think Virginia. Virginia, yeah. Yeah, she's the school principal at Marvista Junior High School, and we told her, Hey, listen, we're patrol officers, we're not working grave air, we're working uh uh midshift. Right. We like give us your five worst kids. And uh Juan and I are gonna come in on Wednesday nights and we're gonna talk to them about prevention, intervention, and detection. And I remember it was like a 13-week program. Yeah. Well, we were on patrol, right? They graduated from the program, and then we had a graduation where their parents came in, and then we brought this gangster who had lost his eyesight during a uh home invasion, and he spoke to them. I forgot I forgot about that. What's the name of that program, by the way? I forgot the name of it. I remember we had a neck room then back then. We had something, but see, Juan, even back then, we had the passion to nobody told us how to do that, nobody taught us how to do that. It came from the heart. And when you're in this job and it's with the heart, dude, you make things happen.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Yeah. Now you you moved to uh criminal investigation.
SPEAKER_00Actually, no, from right there I went to internal affairs. Oh, you went uh I went straight to the chief's office to internal affairs. And that was my first investigative job as a detective sergeant. I became a detective sergeant, and I was there for two years.
SPEAKER_02And during those two years, um, any uh interesting uh cases that you one I had a couple of very interesting cases.
SPEAKER_00Um I was able to exonerate officers that were um falsely accused. Yeah. And I was able also to um investigate officers that were committing crimes and that were not only committing crimes, but were in violation of policy. So I had an opportunity to not only investigate criminals as a patrol officer, but also investigate police officers that the majority of my cases were violations of policy. Yeah, you know what I mean? But I had uh, I believe four in my two year stay there that were criminal cases where one officer was robbing illegal aliens on duty and also robbing gang members, and um and I had others that uh that were criminal cases.
SPEAKER_02Yes. You know, just one person like that robbing undocumented uh immigrants or um gang members, those stories those people are gonna share forever. That they were being uh targeted by the police. And it just tarnishes the badge because there's so many other cops that are doing the right thing. You know what I mean? 99.9% are doing the right thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um now from there you moved on to I went to gangs.
SPEAKER_00To gangs. You went from right there straight to gangs, and I was a detective sergeant in gangs, and I was in charge of a team. I believe I had uh five or six detectives. Dude, I got a chance to work with some of the best detectives, man. A guy by the name of Nestor Hernandez, Steve Reddell, Art Lovio, uh, John Bailey, and I could go on and on. I mean, this uh Bernando Ramirez, dude. I got a chance to work with some legends. And we did some legendary things. We we put away a lot of gangsters. When there was a robbery or there was a shooting, uh, there was a drive-by shooting, dude. If we didn't have the case solved within 48 hours, it we would get the I not mean my detectives, yeah, because I inherited them and I got a chance to work with these legends. And I'm sorry I'm mentioning names, dude, but these guys were all legends. You know what I mean? Yeah, and and I know there's so many others. I went to narcotics, wait till narcotics. I God has always put me in a place to work with the right people. But you know what my secret is, one, and those that are watching the show that are sergeants today or that want to be sergeants, always surround yourself with people that are better than you. Always surround yourself with people that their strength is your weakness. You know what I mean? Yes, and and and admit your weaknesses, and whatever your weakness is, find a person that will strengthen your weakness. And that's why I think I was so successful throughout my career, because especially as a sergeant, because I looked for people that had the strength where I had a weakness.
SPEAKER_02You know, I think uh not only at work, but everywhere in your life, yes, that same formula will work.
SPEAKER_00It does.
SPEAKER_02Yes, absolutely. Um, now in narcotics, uh how what was your experience like in narcotics?
SPEAKER_00Well, from right there, I went to CIU. I go I was recruited to go to criminal intelligence. Okay. And uh when I went to criminal intelligence, I was working for the best lieutenant and one of my best friends, Andy Mills, who's now the chief of police in Palm Springs. Yes, dude, he recruited me to go to um to criminal intelligence from gangs. We had been very successful in gangs. I mean, we were working some big, big cases, great cases. He saw what I could do, not me, my team. And I could do forget the I, it's us what we could do. He recruited me to go to uh uh intelligence. And I told him, Andy, I love where I'm at. Gangs, he goes, I'll tell you what, I'll bring you over here, I'll give you the Hells Angels, I'll give you the Mexican mafia prison gangs, and I'll give you the Russian mafia, but I also want you to be my Mexico liaison. Dude, I had no desire to work in Mexico during that time. I had an enemy, a viable enemy, Bato from Logan Heights, who basically put a hit on me that he was going to kill, and you know, you hear that throughout your career. I'm gonna kill you. Yeah, take a number. You know what I mean? But this dude, you knew he had the the potential of killing you. He had uh got out of uh San Quin prison, they deported him to Mexico. So he he had he was now working for the Arellano cartel, so he had the potential to hurt kill me in Mexico. So I always knew. So for five years, when I had that threat, I never crossed the border for five years. So now, five years later, this lieutenant, my lieutenant, is asking me to go work Mexico. I go, dude, I'm not gonna go work down there, man. It's suicide for me because I couldn't carry a gun in Mexico at the time, right? Right. Later on, I did, but I could at the time. So he's telling me that, and I go, you know what? I love working Russian mafia. I love working, I'm at all working prison gangs. I would love work house angels. I could work my informants.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I go, but no, I won't. And Juan, like I always told you, you know what? God has his hands and everything. Within two weeks, all of a sudden, he calls me back in the office. He goes, read this. And he had a Mexican newspaper, I guess, that the prior sergeant had given him, where they showed Pato Quiñones' picture. He had just got arrested for kidnapping cases. So when this is literally two weeks, two weeks when I look at it and he goes, Now what? You still afraid? He goes, You still afraid? And I go, nah, dude. I go, let's rock and roll. So guess what? So I go over there thinking, ah, I'm gonna work NF, right? I'm gonna work Hell's Angels, Russian Mafia in Mexico. Dude, once I got to Mexico, the doors opened up. My gift that God has given me and it's life experience of working informants just went to a different level. I thought in prison with the homosexuals, it was at a level. Right. I thought working patrol was at a level. I thought working gangs was at a level. Dude, working in Mexico, it went to a huge, I mean, it skyrocketed. The sky was the limit. I was able to work politicians, I was ready to work chiefs of police, I was able to work businessmen, multi-million dollar businessmen, you know what I mean, involving companies. Dude, it just went to another level. So I went finally said, hey, I'm sorry, give prison gangs, give hells angels, give uh bikers and um Russian mafia to something else. I'm here 110%. And I'll tell you, while I was there, we literally brought back 18 homicide suspects in the five years, four and a half years that I was there that were wanted in the America for murder, we brought them back. And a lot of them we weren't chasing, we were just there at the right time. I could tell you I could tell you stories. I could write a movie of how we were at the right time, and one guy was wanted by uh Long Beach PD, another guy was wanted by Green Bay for a triple homicide. We recovered DNA. I mean, there was so many things because they're all hiding in Rosarito, they're all hiding in Tijuana. And me working the prisons, knowing the tattoos, they were detained by a patrol officer, and I'm driving by. They go, Hey, Contreras, you know tattoos. Yeah, this is one example. I stop and they go, Can you read these? And I go, Hey, have you ever done any time? No, never done any time, dude. I'm reading tattoos. He's wanted over here for a murder in in Green Bay. You know what I mean? He had prison tattoos. So all that life experience just magnified at a thousand percent level working Mexico.
SPEAKER_02Now, you also um not only helped other states retrieve uh homicide suspects, but you also worked a big case here in San Diego with a domestic violence uh yes.
SPEAKER_00As a matter of fact, that was my two took two years of my life. That was probably one of the cases that I probably put in the most work, but the most rewarding. It was a Diane Gonzalez case.
SPEAKER_02Diane Gonzalez.
SPEAKER_00She was murdered. I don't quote me on this. I believe it was 2009 or 2010 at um San Diego City College.
SPEAKER_02At City College, yeah.
SPEAKER_00She was bludgeoned to death by her husband, who was associated, not a Logan Heights gang member, but associated with Logan Heights gang. I met one of the forensic specialists that responded. She now suffers from PTSD and she quit her job because of this the blood, bloody scene that she responded to. I mean, he cut her breast. I mean, it was just blood everywhere inside the restroom at San Diego at City. City College. It was probably one of the worst scenes. And I talked to one of the lieutenants that responded. He goes, David, he goes, This is the most the worst, bloodiest scene that I have ever seen in my 30-year career. One of the lieutenants who later retired. And uh I talked to officers that responded who still suffer from PTSD because of that. It took two years of my life. On that one right there, Juan, once again, how we solved it, it was Oscar Armenta that solved it through informants.
SPEAKER_02Informants.
SPEAKER_00It was an informant that gave us that case. And yes, we were able to go in Tijuana. Dude, that was a movie. That was a movie. But we ended up catching them. And when we attempted with the Tijuana Police Department, after we had taken him into custody in a bar, in a um dirty, filthy, raggedy bar in La Revolution, full of prostitutes.
SPEAKER_02In La Sona Roja.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but it was right there, right before you go in La Coahuila, right before you go in there, a dirty, filthy bathroom. When we ended up taking him into custody, Tijuana PD had to use their force to take him into custody. As we're walking out with him, we never told anybody we were going to do this because every time we did, we had it, he had informants in the police department in Tijuana, not here in Tijuana. So that night, it was at one o'clock in the morning. We take him into custody. I handcuff him, handcuff him, I pick him up. He's bleeding from his head. Like as he pulled a knife on one of the Tijuana officers. So he's bleeding from his head as we're walking out. The bar is full of whores, full of prostitutes, full of Tijuana cartel members with cowboy hats, women dancing naked. It was a bordell.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00We're walking out, he's yelling, Sequestro, Sequestro, which means kidnapping, kidnapping. As we're walking out, blood everywhere. They call 911. Well, they call Tijuana's version of 911. By the time we're walking down some stairs in La Revolution at three in the morning, Tijuana PV had responded with AR-15s, had set up uh a uh a V. As we're walking out, they're all pointing their guns at us because they thought that we were kidnapping this man. And we're all American cops. Dude, I'm in I'm dressed like this, a t-shirt and jeans and boots, and I'm holding them, and he's yelling, Sacuestro, you know, they're kidnapping me. And he had murdered his wife. So as we're walking down, blood everywhere, the cops are suelo, cabrones, you know, down, down, right? And as we're walking down, Lares, who's who later became the chief of police, he was the liaison in Mexico. Okay, he I go, Lares, I'm yelling at him, Jesus, oh Lares, help us. Lares goes out and he goes, Soy yo, el Capitán Lares, or el uh comandante Lares. And they go, he goes, Manos abajo, somos nosotros. Because like I said, we couldn't tell anybody because we didn't trust them. Yeah, but we trusted the mix Lares, who later became the chief of police, and he actually we we all would have been shot that night because he was yelling secuestro. And uh, but it took me two years to catch that guy. And I'll tell you, that was a very rewarding. But you know, uh I'll I'll share this story. I know we're running probably running out of time, but yeah, no, we're good, we're good. I think your your your listeners find this very interesting. During that time, I had a place in Fort Lauderdale, and uh my wife and I, maybe once every three or four months, would take a weekend off, literally a weekend off, and we would go stay. It was by the beach, and uh it was uh a condo. It was 17 stories high, 11 stories high. And after that weekend, it took a lot out of me because I mean we were up at 24-7. We we must have hit. We looked at we put in over 300 hours in the two two-year period just on that investigation. Plus, we got other investigations going on in Mexico, but that one took a lot of my time. So about a week later, we're in in the elevator, and we get in the elevator. We had just arrived from San Diego. We walk in the elevator, I'm going up. I was on the 14th floor at the third uh 14th floor, and I hit it, and there's this woman next to me, and she was Irish. Okay, this American lady, I mean, blonde hair. And she looks at me and she looks at me, she goes, Thank you. And I looked at her and way, both Wavy and I, we had it was an all-nighter. We took, you know, the red eye. Yeah. And we look at her, we go, you're welcome. She goes, she wants me to tell you thank you. And I looked at her and I go, Okay. She goes, she wants me to tell you thank you. I go, tell her, I said, You're welcome. You know, and I was getting on my nerves a little bit like, okay, there's nobody else in there, just us three. And she wants you to take her mom, white roses. I think it was white or yellow. It was either one of the two. It's been such a long time. And I remember looking at her and she goes, she's right here. I go, who's right here? She goes, the young lady. She's right here. I go, what does she look like? Dude, she described Diane Gonzalez to a tea. And I go, she goes, she wants me to tell you that to take her mom flowers. Her mom will know that they're from her. And thank you. She wants a thank you. And I just walked out thinking, dude, I wasn't even thinking. I was so tired. Yeah. I walked out and wavy, my wife was the one that told me, you know what she's talking about. I go, I don't know. She's I'm nut. She goes, she's talking about Diane Gonzalez. I go, what do you mean? She goes, she just described her. I go, I know she was describing a Hispanic girl, but she's Irish. I couldn't understand her language, right? Her she goes, she described her to a T day because Wavy had seen the pictures that came out in the media. And it's just it was it was unique, surreal, surreal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because yeah, we got a lot of accolades from the department and so forth. Well, one day you're here, next day you're a zero, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But to hear it, whether it's true or not, I really don't care. All I know that to me it was confirming, you know, like, wow, we did the right thing. Those two years were not in vain.
SPEAKER_02Two years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, two years.
SPEAKER_02That's dedication. It was stay with it.
SPEAKER_00And you know what? Oscar Armenta was my right hand man, uh Alejandro Lares. We had two depth, two uh US Marshals that were with us, Jesus. Uh Jesus and also Frankie, uh Frankie Sanchez, who now I think he's a chief or something. But him and Jesus and uh Oscar, dude, those guys, they put as much or more time than I did because you know what? It wasn't a career, Juan, and it wasn't a job, it was passion to do the right thing. And we were it took us two years. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now, Dave, um looking back at your time in law enforcement and your service to others, um what do you what do you uh tell someone who is interested in a law enforcement career?
SPEAKER_00You know one, check yourself. Ask yourself, why am I doing it? Um if you're doing it because you always dreamed about it, and your uncle, your dad, your relative was a cop, it's good. But if you're doing it, and people always say to save lives, if you're really doing it to make a difference, because it's hard being a cop, it's not easy. You're gonna miss a lot of birthdays, you're gonna miss maybe even your son or your child's birth. You're gonna miss so many things in life. And not only that, the friends that you have today, make sure you look around. The friends that you have today, after two years, are no longer gonna be your friends, they're gonna be associates. Are you willing to give that up? Not only that, but your wife, your significant other that you have today in two years may not be there anymore. Are you willing to give that up? Because you know what? Uh, your this job also learn, know this. This job is going to change you. It is going to change you. You're going to become cynical, you're going to become very critical. It's going to change the way you walk into a restaurant. It's going to change the way you look at life. It's going to change the way you're driving a car and you literally park, not Next to it, to the side, and you're always looking. It's going to change. If you're willing to make that change, but at the same time to never work a day in your life because you love what you do, then do it. If you're not, you know what? Find something that you will love as much where you could say, I love what I did. I never worked a day in my life. So search within yourself and see if there's something better where 30 years from now, like me, could say, I never worked a day in my life.
SPEAKER_02That's great advice. Yeah. But you know, in uh that advice, you're talking about um the sacrifice. Yes. That you many of us are don't even know, but we ultimately give that sacrifice.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And uh you're in San Diego for a conference. Yes. And I think uh, you know, this is a lead into that. Okay, into that topic. Yeah. Because, you know, a lot of us we don't even know the price we're really paying for doing this job because it comes with a lot of trauma. Yes. And so can you tell us a little bit about the work that you're doing today?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I'm here, I'm gonna be speaking. Uh I have a two-hour presentation that I give to law enforcement. And I'm also gonna start now, hopefully going into a lot of the churches, a lot of community places. Um, this one is for the International Narcotics uh interdiction association. They're expecting, I believe, 1,500 to 2,000 detectives to attend this conference. And I'm gonna be teaching there uh this week on Wednesday and on Thursday, two-hour segments on police officers suffering from PTSD and also police suicides. And I have uh a woman who, a mother who lost her son, who was a CHP officer to suicide. She also is gonna be giving that testimony. So that's what I dedicate myself to today, Juan. I dedicate myself to training police officers, community members, gang members in the community suffering from PTSD, which is very true and real, and from suffering from suicide attempts, depression, and so forth. I was a guy, Juan, that I never believed police officers could suffer from from uh PTSD. I believed that the only ones that would suffer were what they call trigger pullers, were combat veterans and not just combat veterans that were in the war. I I always thought that it was they were the only ones that suffered. But after I retired, and I mean, um four years later, after I received the phone call from one of my detectives who was basically saying, Sarge, I am, I don't know what to do with my life. I can't sleep. This is how I feel, and basically broke down everything that somebody suffering from PTSD is going through. He had just retired two weeks, a legend with San Diego PD. And he's telling me, I miss kicking ass. I miss the department two weeks. And four years later, everything he's telling me depression, isolation, I had been suffering for four years, but I I overlooked it. So I had to move from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale thinking that a new environment's gonna change. I still couldn't sleep. I still had nightmares, I still had triggers, I still, and that's when I started doing research. And not only research, I started interviewing a lot of cops, a lot of military people, and I started realizing that police officers, we suffer trauma. We suffer from PTSD. But like I said, before 2019, I always thought that it was only we weren't affected. Now I make it my mission in life. I have three podcasts. Two of my podcasts, I dedicated to talking about PTSD, depression, suicide, and bringing legends on my show. But that's my dedication in life today. I've written one book. I'm getting ready to write another book on suicides. But this next book, this one, the first one was made for police officers. My next one is made for teachers and students suffering from PTSD. And I mean, first responders suffering to uh critical incidents like shootings, school shootings. That my whole book's gonna be it's part two of my book. So I'm looking at right now I train law enforcement community members with this new book. I plan to start a training, two-hour, three-hour training for teachers and students. Nobody's talking about them suffering from PTSD. Right. Those are traumatic events, teachers. And I think because of believe it or not, the show Pit, I don't know if you ever got a chance to look at that. I I know of it. After watching that show, I am going to start interviewing nurses. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I'm gonna go to Sharp Hospital. Benny Cruz is working here, and I'm gonna go talk to some of the nurses because I am also going to cover my new book nurses, doctors that work in emergencies, or the doctors that suffer from PTSD. Dude, this is PTSD. People always talk about, you know, uh fentanyl being an epidemic. Dude, PTSD is an epidemic. And it's after you either experience or or experience a traumatic event that it could happen. A normal citizen in America today, in their lifetime, they will see three to six traumatic events that might change your life. And one of them is could be 9-11. They watched it on television when the force came down. Dude, we as cops, patrol officers, on a daily basis, we literally 600, not daily, on a at the end of your career, you've already experienced close to 600 traumatic events if you're working patrol on a daily basis. So, with that said, could you imagine all those years of seeing, experience, smelling, touching blood, touching rapes, investigating uh homicides, suicides. After all those years as a cop, there comes a time when, because we as cops, we have learned to compartmentalize everything we see.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00And there comes a time that, and especially it happened to me after retirement that everything we compartmentalize starts leaking in the heart. And next thing you know, that's when all of a sudden you start getting triggers. All of a sudden, you start remembering the suicide. You start remembering what smells the blood uh what uh how blood smells, even how it tastes, because it goes to your taste, but it's those things that we basically compartmentalize for 25 years as a cop, they start leaking. And that's where a lot of us today suffer, and that's what I teach.
SPEAKER_02Well, again, you're serving those who are serving right now. Yes, and it's much needed, much needed, Dave. Um anything else that you would like our listeners to uh walk away with today.
SPEAKER_00You know, Juan, I could tell you that uh five years ago I rededicated my life to the Lord. I'm not perfect at all. Uh, I come far from being perfect, but for 36 years of my law enforcement career, and when I say 36 years, I'm also talking about my PI work. I lived by the grace of God, I am alive today. And it was my mother and my father's prayers, it was my sister's prayers. There were so many people that were praying for me that I made it through that career of 36 years. Throughout those years, I basically um never stopped believing. But five years ago, I had another encounter, an experience, not encounter, an experience where I felt God's grace, forgive me. And I'll tell you uh all I could say today is that's my motivation today. And when I teach, I I don't talk about religion, I don't talk about my experience unless people ask. But that is what changed me. That is what changed my way of thinking. If I wouldn't have accepted God's grace, I still would have been. Because when I retired, I was very bitter, I was very angry. I was, I was, you know, and if it wasn't for that experience that I had, I'll tell you today, I would be a different man. And by God's grace, uh, he's changed it. Like I said, I'm far from perfect. But if your listeners are watching the show, I'll tell you, just seek, seek, seek, seek. You might call it a higher power, you might, whatever you want to call it. I choose to call him Jesus. But whatever it may be, seek a higher power. I seek, I choose to cover, and you know what? I'll tell you, just reach out and you will receive grace.
SPEAKER_02100%. Yeah. Dave. Yeah. Thanks for being here, brother. I appreciate you, man. Thank you. If you are struggling, please uh reach out to somebody, talk to somebody, 988 copline. If you need uh confidential uh counseling, copline provides peace officers that will uh that are experienced and trained in talking to you and helping you through rough times. We're gonna end the episode with a prayer from our brother in law enforcement and our brother in Christ, Greg Adminson. Thanks for watching.
SPEAKER_01We come before you with gratitude for the brave men and women who have answered the sacred call to protect and serve. You said in Romans 13, verse 4, that the one in authority is God's servant for your good. Lord, we thank you for every officer who stands the line. We thank you for every officer who runs toward the sound of danger when others run away. We thank you, God, for every officer who brings order out of chaos, and who seeks justice with compassion. Father, as warriors in a fallen world, we draw our strength from you. Your word declares in Psalm 144, verse 1, Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for every battle. Train our hands, Lord, not only for the battles of the street, but for the battles within. Give us courage when fear whispers, give us patience when tempers rise. Grant us wisdom when decisions must be made in an instant. Lord, we ask for your divine protection over every officer in the field. Surround them with your angels as a shield, as you promised in Psalm 91, and let your peace guard their heart and mind in Christ Jesus. When they grow weary, remind them that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles. Almighty God, you are our strength, you are our shield, you are our ever-present help in times of trouble. Father, when the day's work is done, bring them home safely. Restore their spirit, renew their joy, and remind them that they do not fight this battle alone. For you go before them, you go beside them, you are with them. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our commander and king. Amen.