A Sitdown With The Real Walter White: How An Honest Citizen Became A Synthetic Drug Kingpin

The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell

Johnny Mitchell

True Crime

4.3 • 562 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 137 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Johnny sits down with Pete Polis — a former Long Island baseball standout who went from MLB prospect… to becoming one of the largest dealers in Washington state history. Pete’s story sounds like something ripped straight out of Breaking Bad. After a promising baseball career with stints in the Blue Jays and Yankees organizations, a series of self-sabotaging choices pushed him out of the sport he loved. Settling into small-town life in Washington, Pete lived straight — raising kids, running a furniture store, and even building a massive food bank that fed hundreds of thousands. Then one conversation in his garage changed everything. What started with OxyContin and fentanyl patches evolved into full-scale trafficking. Pete quickly found himself moving hundreds of pounds of meth and heroin weekly, working directly with suppliers tied to the Sinaloa cartel. He watched the early waves of America’s fentanyl crisis from the inside — and unknowingly helped introduce the drug that would devastate the region. After a federal takedown and serious prison time, Pete is now fully legit, running sober-living homes and helping addicts rebuild their lives. This is a wild, emotional, and brutally honest look at how fast a normal life can turn criminal — and how redemption is still possible. Need help staying sober? Check out Pete's sober-living homes. https://www.seasonshousing.org/ This Episode Is #Sponsored By The Following: Mando! Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code MITCHELL at https://shopmando.com ! #mandopod Ridge! Take advantage of Ridge’s Biggest Sale of the Year and GET UP TO 47% Off by going to https://www.Ridge.com/CONNECT #ridgepod Join The Patreon For Bonus Content! https://www.patreon.com/theconnectshow 00:00 Pete's Early Life & Baseball Dreams 07:45 Growing Up Around Crime & Sports 13:00 Minor League Baseball: Challenges and Setbacks 23:00 Early Baseball Problems & Canada 26:03 Start Smelling Good With MANDO 28:16 Fight, Ejection & Minor League Life 32:45 Success in Sales, Setbacks, and the Road to Tri Cities 44:30 Falling Into Drug Circles and New Temptations 46:57 Get Up To 47% OFF At Ridge 48:43 First Steps Into Opioid Dealing 55:50 Prescription Pills and Fentanyl Patches 01:03:00 Cartel Connections & Expanding Operations 01:11:00 The Furniture Store Double Life 01:20:00 Rising Paranoia and Deeper Into the Game 01:31:30 Fentanyl Changes Everything: Addiction and Fallout 01:40:50 Addiction, Violence, and the Law Closing In 01:47:30 Getting Caught: Law Enforcement and Sentencing 02:03:00 Withdrawal, Consequences, and Reflection 02:09:30 Building a New Life After Prison 02:13:50 Seasons Housing and Redemption 02:15:30 Conclusion and Bonus Content Announcement Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	And I say they're like family to me. I mean it. I went to the weddings. I hung out with them for years.
0:05.5	And you think these were guys working with the Sinaloa cartel? Oh, yeah. I'm sure of it. Something dark happened when that fentanyl came. It just changed everything. The drive and looks at me and says, you're a cop. And he has me a foil, a pill. I said, smoke this. I'm not smoking that.
0:19.3	He goes, you smoke that, you're not getting it,
0:20.8	and you're not leaving the truck.
0:21.7	So I smoked the whole pill.
0:23.0	Every time you have a come up, you always have a come down. I turned to my body, I said, dude, I think I'm going to get arrested. Today's guest is Pete Polis, a former professional baseball player from Long Island, who went on to become the largest fentanyl dealer in the history of the state of Washington. Back in 2013, Pete's baseball
0:39.0	career was over, and he was living a square life, managing a furniture store in Pasco, Washington,
0:44.5	when a chance meeting with a Mexican national changed his life forever. He started off selling
0:49.5	small amounts of cocaine and oxycotton, but soon Pete was working directly with the Sinaloa cartel, smuggling back hundreds of pounds of cocaine and oxycotton, but soon, Pete was working directly with the Sinaloa
0:55.0	cartel, smuggling back hundreds of pounds of meth and heroin every week from Phoenix, Arizona.
1:01.0	Pete was also on the ground floor of the American fentanyl epidemic, and he virtually introduced this
1:06.5	poison to the central Washington region and made millions of dollars for his bosses back in
1:11.6	Sinaloa. Of course, Pete eventually got busted and did a stretch in the feds, but nowadays,
1:16.5	he's fully legit and running sober living homes for addicts in the Tri-City area. And for more
1:21.7	crazy stories with Pete, go check out the bonus episode over at patreon.com slash the Connect show.
1:28.4	Pete's story feels like an episode of Breaking Bad, a suburban square who fell into the life of
1:33.4	major organized crime.
1:35.3	It's wild.
1:36.3	You're absolutely going to love it.
1:37.8	Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Pete Polis right here on The Connect with Johnny Mitchell.
1:46.0	Dude, you live in a tiny little central Washington town.
1:50.0	Yeah.
	...

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