236: Part 2: DEA Agent Stationed Across from Juarez During Cartel Wars Tells All

Game of Crimes

True Crime

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Retired DEA agent J. Todd Scott takes us inside his most intense assignment — serving as Assistant Special Agent in Charge in El Paso, Texas, during some of the bloodiest years of cartel violence in Juarez, Mexico. From 21st-century drug trafficking operations to old-school smuggling straight out of the Wild West, Todd saw it all unfold from the front lines of America's border crisis.

Todd reveals what it's really like working drug enforcement in a border city where cartel wars are happening right across the bridge, how he transitioned from DEA headquarters in Washington D.C. to the chaos of the southwest border, and why his time leading complex operations in Phoenix became the career highlight of nearly 30 years in federal law enforcement.

This is real border security — told by the man who lived it.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Yeah, as a target-rich environment, we had a lot of the Sakario.
0:04.2	At that time, guys were desperate to get out of Mexico.
0:07.8	There was a lot of inter-cartel killings that were going on.
0:11.0	It was just a bloodbath down there all the way around.
0:13.2	So we were able to cultivate sources and we were able to work with people who very high levels because they were desperate to save themselves.
0:20.3	I had touched on the border before in Tucson,
0:23.1	and so I was not unfamiliar with the dynamics, but Juarez at that time was about as border as you could get.
0:30.5	And all the big cartel players were moving through there, killing each other there. And it was a really, really steep lesson in cartels and how they
0:39.1	functioned really at their worst, best and worst, I guess. I'm Steve Murphy, DEA Special Agent
0:44.3	Retired and now host of the Game of Crimes podcast. If you've seen the Netflix series Narcos,
0:50.2	then you know my story. I now bring you stories of heroism and bravery from our law enforcement and military heroes
0:57.3	and occasionally from the criminals that they faced.
1:01.0	Welcome to Game of Crimes.
1:20.1	Thank you. Hey, crew, thanks y'all from coming back to part two of this week's episode of Game of Crimes with Murph on the morning.
1:29.8	Our guest this week is Jay Todd Scott. It's got three first names there. So I may call him by any of those names, but we're trying to call him Todd while if, you know, this old man can remember.
1:37.8	But if you listen to yesterday's episode, we are at the point where he is in, he's a group supervisor in Tucson, Arizona.
1:39.8	We talked about some of his activities there.
1:46.6	And in DEA, if you take the management track, you have to go do a stint in headquarters that can last anywhere from 18 months to a lifetime you might not be there three years but it seems like a lifetime
1:51.6	depending on the job you have so it's time for you to go to Washington did that Todd and welcome back
1:56.8	by the way brother I appreciate that thank you yeah thanks for having me back. Yeah, I, you know, had done my, my tour out in Tucson, and, you know, as you indicated, it's kind of a mandatory pull. Your name kind of comes up on a list, and it's your time to go to headquarters. And then, you know, the fight is kind of where you go and, you know, where you land in headquarters. And there's something to be said for
2:19.2	a lot of the sections. They all have something to offer. But I was fortunate to get pulled into our
2:27.5	office of Congressional and Public Affairs. And, you know, I didn't know anything about either of that,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Game of Crimes, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Game of Crimes and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.