We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are creed. As a member of Congress, I get to have a lot of really interesting people in the office. Experts on what they're talking about. This is the podcast for insights into the issues. China, bioterrorism, Medicare for all, in-depth discussions, breaking it down into simple terms. We hold- We hold these truths. We hold these truths.

With Dan Crenshaw.

All right.

Welcome back, everybody.

Today we have a great guest.

Vonda Brown.

She's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a leading expert on organized crime, illicit

economies, cartels, and security policy.

I spent years studying the Mexican cartels, fentanyl trafficking, criminal governance corruption,

and the way transnational criminal organizations evolve.

So we're going to talk about the Mexican cartels mostly today, but of course curious about

your other studies as well.

Their use of drones, use of AI, the fentanyl crisis, all these emerging technologies and

tactics that they're using and, you know, and what we actually do about it. So welcome.

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be on the show with you. Yeah, appreciate you being here.

So actually, before we get into the Cardell, I'm curious how you got into this.

What's your background and how did this become your area of study?

Well, when I was doing my undergrad years, this was late 1990s, I was really focusing on two

issues, nuclear weapons or end the relationship between what was then called low-intensity conflict

and illicit economies. And both topics were, to some extent, odd because this is the late

1990s, and the Cold War has ended, the US national security policy, the world is moving toward

other issues.

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