Meth, Child Abuse, and a Gun to the Head: Inside a DEA Veteran’s Most Haunting Cases | Ep. 255 | Pt. 1

Mike Drop

Mike Ritland

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Documentary, Politics, News

4.9 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2025

⏱️ 95 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Get ready for an unflinching dive into the world of drug enforcement on this episode of the Mike Ritland Podcast, featuring Wes Tabor—a 35-year law enforcement veteran who spent over two decades with the DEA, operating across the United States, Central America, and South America. With stints embedded alongside the CIA and authorship credits for his eye-opening book Infiltrate America (plus the upcoming Beyond Blurry Lines set for next summer), Wes doesn't hold back as he recounts the brutal realities of his career. Mike and Wes dismantle pop culture myths about DEA agents—no, it's not all black fatigues and window-storming raids. Instead, Wes paints a picture of tedious investigations that turn spy-like overseas, while admitting the agency often fails at public messaging, leaving misconceptions about their focus (hint: they weren't chasing small-time weed dealers, but multi-ton shipments of cocaine and heroin from cartels in Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico). He pulls no punches on DEA leadership, calling out bureaucratic inertia, "latte commandos," and a culture that stifles real change, drawing parallels to issues plaguing the FBI, ATF, and even the military. Tune in for a masterclass in resilience from a guy who's seen it all—and isn't afraid to call it like it is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was probably the worst case I'd ever seen.
0:04.0	We had one guy where he was selling methamphetamine to these women,
0:09.0	and the women were allowing their children to be abused by this guy,
0:13.0	and they would film it, and the mother would participate.
0:18.0	We would do surveillance.
0:20.0	Sometimes we would do 15, 16, 17 hours a day. Sometimes we do 24 hours
0:23.6	surveillance for four or five days. And then when it came time to finally culminate the case
0:29.6	and arrest this guy, he ran, we chased him, he fought us, and I remember I pulled my gun out
0:35.6	and I put it to his head and I actually I just wanted
0:39.3	to kill this guy.
0:40.3	I really thought about because I had watched the video, I had seen some of the evidence.
0:45.3	It was just like I kind of lost it, right?
0:48.3	I'm just like, oh man, I just wanted to kill this guy.
0:52.3	Was that ever something that you struggled with?
0:55.1	Happens all the time.
0:56.7	In fact, I'll tell you the story. So.
1:05.2	Ladies and gentlemen, as always, it's both an honor and a pleasure to welcome my next guest to the podcast.
1:10.4	He spent 35 years in law enforcement, including over two decades with the DEA across the United States, Central and South America.
1:19.0	He was embedded for a bit with the CIA while he was in the DEA.
1:23.3	He's the author of Infiltrate America, the book to my right here.
1:26.6	He's got a forthcoming book coming up next summer called Beyond Blurry Lines. Beyond Blurry Lines, which we'll talk about a fair bit. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage. We're not going to call him a narque, but some people will. Wes Tabor. Thanks for having me, Mike. Before we get into the lightning round, I am curious just like from that kind of the public's perception of what DEA guys are, which is like with special operations and a lot of things, most people's perception is based off of what they see in movies and TV shows.
1:57.6	Sure.
	...

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