Chris Feistl & Dave Mitchell (former DEA agents)

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Armchair Umbrella

Tv & Film, Music, Comedy

4.6 • 68.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 133 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris Feistl and David Mitchell (After Escobar: Taking Down the Notorious Cali Godfathers and the Biggest Drug Cartel in History) are former DEA agents. Chris and David join the Armchair Expert to discuss the Miami Vice dream of being stationed in 1980s Florida as a DEA agent, the mechanics of providing transport for drug cartels, and how they became involved in the pursuit of the Cali cartel in Colombia. Chris, David, and Dax talk about the true magnitude of Pablo Escobar as the world’s first narcoterrorist, how Cali cartel’s approach to power differed from Medellín’s, and why those at such a high level in cartels can’t quit while they’re ahead. Chris and David explain breaking the rules by working unilaterally to get the job done, operating under the assumption that everything and everyone was corrupt, and the real-life raid to capture the head of Cali that inspired Narcos Season 3.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad free right now.
0:06.5	Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:10.0	Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.
0:13.9	Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert experts on expert.
0:17.2	I'm Buck Rogers and I'm joined by Gene Lightyear.
0:19.5	And we're in the cartel.
0:21.5	But don't tell anyone.
0:23.5	Keep it a secret.
0:24.4	Today we have two incredible DEA agents, Chris Feisel and Dave Mitchell.
0:31.0	And they were sent to Columbia to bring down the largest cocaine cartel after Pablo Escobar.
0:40.6	This is such a good episode.
0:42.5	If you enjoyed the Scott Payne episode, you're going to love this.
0:46.1	This is very in keeping with that.
0:48.1	They've lived a crazy blood.
0:51.3	Some terrifying moments.
0:53.1	Oh, yeah.
0:54.0	Yeah, Dave and Chris have the most harrowing stories of penetrating and bringing down this cartel.
1:00.4	It's really, really interesting.
1:02.0	They have a super interesting book out right now called After Escobar, taking down the notorious Kelly Godfathers and the biggest drug cartel in history.
1:13.3	And if you liked narcos...
1:15.2	Well, one of the seasons of Narcos
1:17.1	is based on this.
	...

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