Project Hail Mary is an extraordinary cinematic experience. You're a great scientist, Dr. Grace. The world is counting on you. Starring Ryan Gosling. So I met an alien. Two worlds, one impossible mission. We're going to save the stars. Project Hail Mary. Amaze, amaze, amaze. Seat first March 14th and 15th in Cinemas Everywhere, March 19th. What's up, everybody? Today's guest is a young man named Fernando Pente. Fernando is a musician, an artist, used to be a graffiti writer, and he was also a human smuggler for the Tijuana cartel. I'll see which cop is just letting people in like this, and it was your job to follow me. After that, I was just jumping the trolley, right a few stations. There was somebody pick them up. They would get him. That was it. I got my 500 bucks. This guy grew up in San Diego and Tijuana. He was one of those guys with dual citizenship that would go back and forth. I was roaming those streets really young. I saw this. I saw people fighting with macha. He remembers the

cartel wars that were going on back in the mid-2000s between the Tijuana cartel and the Sina Loa

cartel. And unfortunately, he got sucked into it, like many young Mexican men of his generation.

People are always looking for Sicarios and stuff like that. So I was getting offers from that type of stuff.

But he survived, he thrived, and now he is a music producer for the narco Corridos that is taking off in Mexico.

So I just started getting the mix with music and I was like, I'm going to stick to this and see where this takes me.

He gives a fascinating insight into what's going on in Tijuana right now, the three cartel

factions, Alisco, Sinaloa, and Tijuana that are battling it out for that city.

These four blocks are Tijuana.

The next five, six blocks are Sinaloa.

And the other blocks over there, they're from Halisco.

That's the actual stuff right now.

He also told us about the way that he transformed his life

and how the music of Narco Corridos is, you know,

changing the community for the better.

You gave more from the music than the news

because the songs actually have to be authorized.

This was an amazing story and you can also go hear some stuff that we can't tell you on the free episode, of course,

at patreon.com slash the Connect show with Fernando.

He's given us the real inside scoop about who's really running the cartel in Tijuana right now.

Without further ado, I give you Fernando Plentes, everybody. You can only see that right here on the connect with Johnny Mitchell. You go two blocks away from where all the lights are. There's people fighting with machetes. There's kids playing in the middle of the street. Next to the guys finding the machetes. The kids are the sons and daughters of the lady that owns a little retail store, but she also prostitutes herself.

That's in the middle of a jungle. Let me put it to you like this. That's when I see the lights behind me start to flash. And I didn't even think. I just hit it. I was driving like my life depended on. Then I parked the car, popped out, closed the door, and I started running. And he pulls out a burner, shank. It's like six inches. And he passes it to me.

...