210: Part 1: Wes Tabor – Real DEA war stories, domestic and foreign

Game of Crimes

True Crime

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A pivotal moment redirected Wes Tabor's life toward law enforcement—and eventually the DEA. Wes shares thrilling and dangerous stories from his time in Guatemala and Venezuela, taking viewers deep inside major drug cartel takedowns, high-stakes operations, and the relentless fight against international narcotics trafficking. Wes also describes an car accident which left him paralyzed, and how he fought to recover from this potential career-ending tragedy.

This episode is packed with true crime intrigue, heroic real-life action, and powerful lessons about resilience, duty, and survival. Wes also opens up about the emotional toll of the job, the importance of mental health, and why seeking help can save lives.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And we told the Marines, we're like, guys, stay the hell out of, you don't go in this room.
0:04.4	If you break the seal on that, you're going to, you're going to be on the evidence list
0:07.6	and potential lists. So I remember the gunny was like, we're not freaking going in there. We don't care. We're not freaking going in there. Because, you know, because the Marines, people don't understand. and Marines in an embassy could go anywhere they want.
0:20.2	Anywhere.
0:21.0	Without permission, for them to say, we're not going in there.
0:24.2	I showed them like open the door when we were processing I said this is all freaking money and jewelry and all this other stuff and he's like no I don't know he gave the order we're not touching it you're going in. I know some of these kids were like dying.
0:38.2	Just not to take it, obviously, but they wanted to see it.
0:41.7	Just to see it.
0:41.7	Yeah.
0:41.8	They just wanted to see it.
0:42.8	So finally, they're ready to take this money down there.
0:46.3	We did seven, eight pickups or whatever it was.
0:48.2	It was 20 million cash.
0:54.0	You know, Hey, everybody.
1:03.1	Welcome back to this week's episode of Game of Crimes with Murph in the morning.
1:07.3	It's an honor to have you come back every week.
1:09.4	You folks, you keep me motivated, you keep me going, and I know I can do any of this without you. So thank you very much for have you come back every week you folks you keep me motivated you keep me going
1:11.4	and i know i can do any of this without you so thank you very much for continuing to come back
1:15.0	feel free to tell your family friends and your enemies to come over and check us out as well
1:19.1	so just like every week i got another great guest here this young man here on the screen we've
1:24.4	known each other oh what three minutes now no actually we've been known each other, oh, what, three minutes now?
1:28.3	No, actually, we've been known each other for a number of years here.
	...

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